The New Year’s bell brings not only joy, but also a more bleak winter.
It snows all year round in Jiangcheng and there is no heating. Along the Lingjiang River, the winter is particularly wet and cold.
In early January, on a quiet night, a heavy snow came suddenly and covered the entire city.
The soft snow absorbs the sound, making the whole city quiet and silent. It is very suitable to make a fire in the house to keep warm, take a book or play a movie, watch the snow outside the window, and fall asleep peacefully.
Early in the morning, Lu Ban opened the window and saw the world covered in snow outside. He took a breath of the New Year's air.
“It’s so cold.”
He closed the windows and turned up the heat on the air conditioner another degree.
Picking up a book that explains the relationship between psychology and dreams, Lu Ban was originally planning to immerse himself in the ocean of knowledge and spend his free time in the next few days, but his cell phone soon rang.
I took a look at the caller ID and saw it was Song Yunyan's secretary Li Zijian.
"Isn't today a day off?"
Lu Ban answered the phone and asked a question at the beginning.
"You are really good at talking."
Li Zijian responded and continued talking about business.
"It's like this. Aren't you working on this worldview plan? Mr. Song said he introduced some investors who are interested in this plan and want to talk to you."
"Investors?"
Lu Ban thought about it.
"Are you looking for me for dinner?"
He used simple terms.
“…You can understand it that way.”
Li Zijian was a little speechless.
"But I'm not short of money..."
Lu Ban said immediately.
Counting the revenue from the online broadcast of "Hyakunin Isshu" and the income during the film festival, Lu Ban is now worth at least tens of millions. "The Wailing" was released nationwide, and the single-day box office exceeded 100 million. His share of the profit has not yet been settled, but it is inevitable. With this wave of revenue, Lu Ban can actually buy a few houses and live off the interest and rent until his next life.
So he is indeed not short of money.
Generally, entrepreneurial teams will fall into the situation of insufficient funds. After all, they lack money for early-stage investment and publicity and development. At this time, many teams will introduce financing, and many investors actually do not lack money and do not mind taking a gamble on their investments.
This situation may sometimes lead to the entrepreneurial team being taken over by capital and reaping the benefits, or it may lead to disagreements due to internal reasons and eventually fall apart.
But Lu Ban was different. He made money from the beginning, and he didn’t have any entrepreneurial team. He was alone. He could work when he wanted to, and just do nothing when he didn’t want to. It was very fun.
Therefore, there is no need for Lu Ban to introduce investment, he can even invest in others.
"Well... Actually, it's like this. Ms. Song has been developing in Jiangcheng over the years and has received help from many people. They saw that you are doing well and wanted to get in touch with you. It's not convenient for Ms. Song to refuse, so... How about you give her some face?"
Li Zijian explained.
Simply put, after some of Song Yunyan's business friends learned that the primary investor behind Lu Ban was Jiangcheng Industry, they wanted to get a piece of the pie. Song Yunyan certainly couldn't refuse directly and hurt the relationship, so she could only let Lu Ban deal with it.
"That's fine too."
Lu Ban is not an unreasonable person. Song Yunyan has helped him so much, he will definitely not embarrass her.
"There's one more thing. You're already a well-known figure, so you should be careful about your words and actions. If you have a girlfriend or are in a relationship, that's fine, but don't attack your fans, don't have a messy private life, and don't take drugs..."
Li Zijian tried to persuade him again earnestly.
"?"
Lu Ban found it unbelievable. How could such a positive person do such a thing?
"Brother Li, don't misunderstand me. I'm not that kind of person."
"Hey, I know, but that girl who often comes to your house seems to be a little anchor? Also, did you go to the movies with other girls on New Year's Eve and come home very late?"
Li Zijian questioned.
“…These paparazzi are so disgusting.”
Lu Ban felt speechless.
He and Qin Tiantian are just friends. Lu Ban has no interest in junior high school students. As for Feng Yu, Lu Ban can't even avoid him now, let alone anything further.
Lu Ban’s biggest wish now is world peace, as for everything else, just put it aside.
It's just that these guys who pry into other people's privacy are disgusting and troublesome.
Lu Ban came to the windowsill and looked at the snow scene outside. With the help of [True Vision], he quickly discovered that in the opposite building, there were several cameras in the windows taking pictures of him. They were probably reporters from different media.
No one knew when these reporters were here. Considering what happened to Qin Tiantian and Feng Yu, it was estimated that reporters began to come here one after another after the performance of "One Hundred People's Song".
"Okay, Brother Li, you can arrange the meeting with those people when the time comes. I have nothing to do anyway, so there's no problem chatting with them."
Lu Ban agreed to the meeting with those investors, put down his phone, and looked across at the other side again.
His eyes searched for the window and soon spotted a paparazzi filming.
Through the camera, Lu Ban looked into the other person's eyes.
"We have to find a way to cure these guys."
Lu Ban thought about it and decisively pulled half of the curtains closed.
…
“…Is this an illusion?”
In the residential building opposite Lu Ban, entertainment reporter Sun Cheng rubbed his eyes.
He just clearly saw Lu Ban seemed to be looking at him, but the distance was so far that the camera had to use a telephoto lens. How could an ordinary person like Lu Ban see him?
"It's been so many days, and I don't think I've managed to film anything. Why is Lu Ban such a recluse?"
Sun Cheng couldn't help but mutter to himself.
He rented a house here just to film some gossip about Lu Ban's daily life, such as the girl named Qin Tiantian. A colleague had previously photographed the two of them eating out. Sun Cheng felt that she and Lu Ban must have some relationship, so he had been staking out her position for some time, but could not find any clues at all.
Lu Ban is just like an ordinary citizen. He gets up at eight in the morning and then either reads or studies or uses the computer. He eats takeout at noon or goes downstairs to have a dozen-yuan Shaxian chicken rice. After lunch, he reads and studies again in the afternoon. It seems that he is wandering in the ocean of knowledge all day long, which makes Sun Cheng feel ashamed.
"No, he doesn't go out to socialize with people, to collect materials?"
Many people in the entertainment industry that Sun Cheng knows either go out every day to socialize, attend parties, or attend business events, or stay away from home all year round to fly around the world to collect material. However, it seems that Lu Ban just sits at home every day and does nothing. How did he make his movies?