Huayu: Tianxian Qianmeng

The caller was a foreigner, and Ling Yuan stammered as he spoke to the caller's English.

It wasn't because of excitement or exhilaration, but rather because my spoken English was inherently not fluent.

Actually, his written English was alright; he easily passed the CET-6 (College English Test Band 6) in his sophomore year of college in his previous life. It was just that his spoken English was a bit poor; many of his pronunciations were not standard, and his grammar was too... "meticulous".

However, communication is not a problem.

Well, English is the other person's native language. If they don't understand, then it's their problem.

Ling Yuan didn't care about anything else; he just focused on dealing damage.

He simply lacks a language environment and practical application. If he spent a month or two abroad, he would probably become fluent immediately.

Unsurprisingly, the other person understood Ling Yuan's expression and responded from time to time. However, when Ling Yuan couldn't understand what the other person was saying, the other person deliberately slowed down their speech.

Since the other party had set a price, Ling Yuan naturally had to make a counter-offer.

They were asking for the moon, no questions asked, and demanded a whopping $500 million!

Ling Yuan told the other party that this was the first film in a series of IPs, and it had already grossed 42 million yuan in the domestic market. The North American market was so big, many times larger than the domestic market, that it was sure to break 100 million yuan. The $5 million buyout was not expensive.

I thought the other party would refuse, or at least try to negotiate, but instead, they only hesitated for a moment before immediately agreeing: "$500 million, deal!"

Ling Yuan: "..."

Oh my god. Did I underestimate it?

I just spoke such a long string of broken English, my brain was working at lightning speed to think of words and grammar, and I was sweating profusely, and this is how I ended up agreeing?

Okay, 5 million it is. Anyway, Ling Yuan is quite satisfied.

The current exchange rate is 8.277, so five million US dollars is equivalent to 4138.5 million RMB. The buyout price is roughly the same as the domestic box office revenue. However, the domestic box office revenue still needs to be shared with cinemas and distribution companies.

Of course, he didn't forget to specify that the $500 million was only for the first film. He still holds the rights to subsequent films.

The other party arranged a time and place to meet with him to discuss more details and sign a contract.

Ling Yuan hung up the phone, then rode a bicycle to the new company.

While riding along, he was thinking about picking up a car when he had some free time. Gas is only 3 yuan a liter now, driving is super cheap. What's the point of riding a bicycle when you're a boss?

Before the Beijing license plate lottery begins, buy several cars and register them under the company name to offset value-added tax and corporate income tax. This is called legitimate tax avoidance, no, it should be called "tax planning," "tax optimization," or "legal tax reduction." It has absolutely nothing to do with tax evasion.

Signing Wang Luodan and others under their names was also a way to legally avoid taxes. Especially for Wang Luodan, whose income is currently high, having the accounts processed through her own company would allow her to receive more.

After graduation, if they want to go their separate ways, then so be it. We've been classmates, so let's part on good terms.

Xinghan Pictures rented an office building near the school, with seven or eight rooms. Apart from the finance staff and the person in charge having their own offices, the other employees worked at workstations in the lobby, each with a computer.

In 2003, LCD screens had already become popular. His company was newly established that year, and all the computers they bought were new, with LCD screens everywhere.

"Hello, Mr. Ling!"

"Brother Yuan's here?"

Congratulations to Director Ling on the film's great success!

As soon as I entered, the dozen or so employees who were typing away on their keyboards, running around with stacks of documents, or huddled together discussing the script all stood up abruptly, their faces filled with excitement and admiration.

The air was filled with the aroma of coffee and the smell of freshly printed ink.

"Everyone busy?" Ling Yuan grinned, naturally raising his hand to press down. "Sit down, sit down! Don't be so formal."

"Also, I have some good news to share: the overseas distribution rights for the first film in the 'Paranormal Activity' series have just been sold to Miramax Films for $500 million!"

As soon as these words were spoken, wow! The office instantly erupted in chaos.

Gasps of astonishment, gasps of surprise, and excited slapping of the table filled the air. Everyone was thrilled.

If the company makes money, it means that everyone has a bright future; at the very least, it won't go bankrupt after just a few days.

$500 million! In this day and age, that's an astronomical figure for a startup!

The eyes of several young employees were wide open.

"This is just the beginning!" Ling Yuan pressed his advantage, raising his voice a few decibels. "Shadow of the Ghosts is a series! We're going to turn it into a super IP, with sequels, sequels, sequels, and sequels! Besides film and television, we also own the rights to novels, animation, and game adaptations! Follow Xinghan, work hard, and I, Ling Yuan, guarantee that bread will be plentiful, milk will be plentiful, and even a Manchu Han Imperial Feast... will be plentiful!"

After drawing up this tempting and grand plan, Ling Yuan waved his hand and, amidst shouts of "Mr. Ling is awesome!", slipped into his private office.

The furnishings are simple: a large executive desk, a bookcase, a brand-new IBM ThinkPad laptop, and a potted snake plant.

Sitting in the soft, spacious boss's chair, Ling Yuan turned on his computer.

A short while later, a young and pretty girl knocked on the door and brought in a freshly brewed cup of coffee with lots of ice.

"Thanks."

The girl smiled slightly and walked out.

Ling Yuan opened the document and began writing a novel outline while sipping coffee.

Now that he has people under him, he no longer writes by hand. He is only responsible for providing outlines and ideas, indicating the general direction of the plot, while the employees fill in the details.

The people he recruited were almost all graduates of prestigious universities majoring in Chinese language and literature or English, and they were all quite good writers. To be honest, some of them were much better writers than him.

If employees have good ideas or topics, they can bring them up, and he will give them his full support and give them extra bonuses.

Of course, all the copyrights belong to the company, or rather, to him. He is the sole shareholder of this company.

After taking a sip of his fragrant iced coffee, Ling Yuan thought for a moment, opened his browser, searched for the official website of Random House, found their contact information, and then sent an email.

Random House, Inc. is a general publishing house owned by the German Bertelsmann Group. Founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Kloppf, it is headquartered in New York City, USA, and its main business is book publishing.

In his email, Ling Yuan stated his purpose, introducing himself as the author of the Chinese novel *Ling Dong: The Ghostly Records*, and the screenwriter, director, and copyright holder of the film of the same name. The film was released in mainland China in July of this year, achieving a box office success of 42 million RMB (this information is verifiable). The Chinese version of the original novel has already sold over 300,000 copies this year, and is expected to reach 500,000 copies by the end of the year.

"I deeply admire your company's outstanding reputation in the global publishing industry. I would like to inquire whether your company is interested in discussing the North American English-language publishing rights for the first and second volumes of *The Haunted Book*. My contact information and company details are attached. I look forward to your reply!"

At 10 p.m., Ling Yuan was still working overtime at the company. He had just eaten an apple when a crisp new email notification sounded.

Ling Yuan opened the email and saw that it was a reply from Random House.