Chapter 173: Losing Friends

After many years, Zhang Querong and Chen Boyang, who were invited as guests to record the first episode of "Beauty Chef" in the classic variety show's rerun, couldn't help laughing when they watched the clips of famous scenes from dark history played back on the big screen.

Tan Yunlun, who was standing next to him, had a look of frustration on his face: "Why did I agree to be on this show again?"

"Probably a review of a 'classic'." Su Yun sighed, "Of course, the classic in quotation marks."

The former rookie king of dark cuisine becomes a big boss, and then returns to the stage as a guest to be influenced by the new generation of dark cuisine... It feels quite interesting just thinking about it.

However, seeing them being marked by time but more charming and attractive than when they were young, those who like them will always express endless emotion and slight sadness after experiencing the changes of time.

Then, smile knowingly and recall the youthful days of the past.

This summer, Su Yun made her presence felt among Hong Kong audiences with a movie and a variety show.

It is said that in late August, which coincides with the 14th day of the seventh lunar month, the theaters in Jiahe will also show a supernatural zombie movie that Su Yun proposed to shoot that year - such an operation is obviously using this movie to take advantage of the popularity of Su Yun's strong return.

If it exploded, that would be good, after all, it was the legacy that Su Yun left behind at Jiahe; if it didn't explode, it was also because Su Yun had an accident at the time and was unable to really put in the effort to complete the project, and we can only sigh with regret.

Upon hearing the news, Su Yun nodded calmly: Although she is no longer in Jiahe, Jiahe will still shoot the supernatural zombie movie according to her previous plan, and use Lin Jingying, who she had chosen at the time, as the protagonist. It is a bit sad and emotional to think about it.

However, for her, whether the movie will be a hit or not is not a matter of life-and-death hatred like the film companies with vested interests in it. Instead, she takes it lightly - she is focusing on the long-term plan of merging the film and television industry in Hong Kong in the future, rather than working wholeheartedly for a certain company. As long as it does not hinder her current development, Su Yun is even happy to see it happen.

As for those who need to worry about this, let them worry about it.

Compared to Su Yun's indifferent attitude, Fang Mona was much more concerned about the change in Jiahe Film's direction. In addition to helping Zhao Rifu deal with the film company's affairs from time to time, she also specially arranged for Zhao Liming to go to Warner's headquarters in New York to renegotiate Zhao's film cooperation business in overseas markets.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Fang Mona also hoped that Su Yun would go along with her, because she had dealt with Warner before and was a newly signed special production consultant. In addition, she also had a certain foundation in the North American market. In short, it would be beneficial for Su Yun to go along with her.

Su Yun nodded: "I understand, but is it in time?"

Of course, she knew the general purpose of Fang Mona asking her to follow Zhao Qiming to the Warner headquarters: she had followed Zou Yunhua to run overseas business since she was a child, and knew a lot about the situation of Warner and Jiahe. Zhao's Film Company only started to change its previous family business model and introduce foreign aid this year to save its precarious financial statements, so the way of cooperation with Warner would naturally have to change accordingly.

If Su Yun follows the crown prince Zhao Liming to discuss business, on the one hand, she can provide business assistance based on Jiahe's previous management methods, and on the other hand, it will allow her to move further into the core level of Zhao's Film Company and reach deeper business levels, rather than just being a pseudo-senior staff member wandering around.

There was no reason for Su Yun not to agree to this win-win proposal, but she had already agreed with Fang Mona to be a judge for Miss Hong Kong, so she was a little worried about the conflict in her schedule.

Fang Mona picked up the small calendar on the table and marked a few things: "No problem, this negotiation is just the first round of business negotiation. The follow-up content will need to be carried out many times. These will be handled by Qiming and Zhao's lawyers, so you just need to fly back to record in the days before the finals. I will help you with other things here."

Since the arrangements were so detailed, Su Yun readily agreed: it was a good opportunity for her to go to New York to visit friends she hadn't seen for a long time.

Obviously, Fang Mona knew that Su Yun liked to visit local friends wherever she went, so she casually mentioned, "By the way, I remember that you have a few friends who have worked with you on movies and TV series. Are they also in New York now?"

Su Yun had an expression of knowing what was going on: "Yes, Zhuang Long and I have worked together several times, and Bowen is also there, but they have been working in the theater company at Broadway for the past few years to enhance their own performances, so I may not be able to invite them out."

"It's nice to come out and make a cameo appearance occasionally to change the mood and environment." Fang Mona hinted that these two male artists are very popular in the Japanese market, and Zhuang Long is not only from a Hong Kong opera troupe, but also rarely meets the aesthetic standards of the North American market.

If Su Yun plans to go overseas, young actors like Zhang Querong and Chen Baiyang can obviously only act with her in Hong Kong movies. When her movies go overseas, the male artists she acts with will need to be older, with better acting skills and experience.

Thanks to the fact that Su Yun has been a "far-sighted" person since childhood, she had identified several good candidates early on.

"I'll try my best." Su Yun said: It's hard to say for Zhuang Long, who is relatively free, but it was her funding and help that got Bourne into the troupe, so it's a big favor, and we're all young people who play music, so we can get along well.

At first, she invited him to Japan to film a TV series as a supporting role with few lines. Bourne did not refuse and adjusted his schedule with the troupe and went there. What a good brother!

"I hope you can bring back some good news then." Fang Mona looked at Su Yun meaningfully, then picked up the phone on the table and gave Zhao Qiming a few instructions, asking him to prepare to go to New York.

On this side, after Su Yun explained the situation to her family, she hurriedly packed her luggage and followed Zhao Liming and his team of lawyers onto the plane, flying all the way to New York.

She didn't need to contribute much in the negotiation of the business. She just gave some advice based on Jiahe's previous independent producer management model. The rest was handled by the legal team.

There was a member of Warner who had seen Su Yun and Zou Yunhua come together to discuss business before. When he saw Su Yun changed her "boss", he was shocked at first, and then congratulated her, saying that Zhao's company was very well-funded and was a good ship...

Yes, that's right. Although many people think that Zhao and TBB are a group of misers whose wealth is hard to describe, when it really becomes rich, even Warner, whose people are so rich that they are known as "Kaizer Hua", can't help but sigh in amazement.

The only company that dares to continue throwing money into several big-budget science fiction films, even though it has been rejected by the mother, is the Zhao family in Hong Kong.

For example, the filming cost of "Blade Runner" which is going to be released soon is as high as 28 million US dollars. Not only is the film content completely uncommercial and non-entertaining, but the filming cost is also comparable to that of a standard A-level commercial blockbuster, which is twice as high as the cost of "ET"!

Moreover, the script was changed several times before the filming even started, the director and the leading actors had a huge argument on the set, and the original author Philip even publicly criticized the screenwriter of the film... No matter how you look at it, it's a huge pit that is full of signs of failure.

However, for a film project like this that few people were optimistic about and had to be boasted about all over the world just to attract investment, Zhao Rifu of the Zhao family supported half of the investment, a full 150 million Hong Kong dollars - this number, according to the current average shooting cost of Hong Kong films, is almost enough to shoot a year's worth of Hong Kong films.

Just like this type of negotiation, Su Yun used to come here with Zou Yunhua empty-handed, and if they had any legal issues they had to consult a nearby lawyer, which looked shabby and pitiful for a small start-up company. But this time, Zhao's company was so rich that they directly sent a person in charge and a team of lawyers. How much of a salary increase did they get?

As for the coffee served to Su Yun, its quality was several times better than when she came here before...

Speechless at Warner's behavior of taking advantage of others, Su Yun waited for a few days to make sure that there was no need for her assistance, then she flipped through the phone book recorded in the system in the hotel and started calling one by one.

"Hello? Marian? Is Tom home?" Su Yun had left Tom behind last time because of something urgent, so the first thing she did when she came here this time was to call Tom's house.

"Ah? Mary? Tom...Tom went camping with his friends and may not be back for a few days!" Upon hearing that Su Yun wanted to visit their home, Marian quickly found a reason to refuse: Tom had gone to New York since he made up his mind to be an actor, and there is no news about him now. It is likely that he has not found a good job, so she doesn't know which restaurant in New York he is working part-time to make a living while waiting for an opportunity!

Such a miserable and stupid brother cannot be seen by Su Yun for the time being.

"Oh, is that so? Let's talk about it next time." Su Yun was a little disappointed after hearing Marian's answer, but she soon felt relieved. After asking Marian to say hello to the rest of Tom's family, she hung up the phone.

The subsequent calls to Zhuang Long and Bourne went smoothly. They checked their schedules and both said they were free tomorrow night.

So, Su Yun directly invited them to dinner tomorrow night.

After hanging up the phone, Zhuang Long looked at the group photo on the bedside table with some nostalgia: it was a photo taken when they were filming "Memoirs of a Geisha" in Japan, and they took advantage of their free time at night to watch the night cherry blossoms. Both of them climbed up a tree, so the photo was taken on the tree.

The little girl has grown up now, but unfortunately I have been too busy in recent years and have no time to visit her.

Not only did they have this chance to meet, but Su Yun also said on the phone that Hong Kong really wanted him to come back to film when he had time.

He had been away from his hometown for too long and usually didn't feel anything, but today when he heard the familiar accent, it suddenly brought back countless memories and complex thoughts.

Compared to Zhuang Long's deep emotion, Bourne, who hung up the phone, was a little nervous and surprised.

After finishing work the next day, Bourne did not stay to help with chores to kill time. Instead, he told a familiar staff member that he had an appointment in the evening, and then hurried back to the rented house to wash and dress.

But what neither of them expected was that Su Yun's dinner invitation was for more than one person...

Alain Delon, who had just sent his female companion away and wanted to have a quiet dinner alone, inadvertently looked downstairs from the window and saw Su Yun talking to two young men at the door of the restaurant.

He also knew the two young men: one was Zhuang Long, who was known as the oriental version of him, and the other was Bourne, who was discovered by the great director Visconti together with him.

They all look a bit like him - very good, Su Yun has good taste!

He even has the guts to date two girls at once—even better, Su Yun’s courage is just like when he was young!

Although his relationship with Su Yun was the result of fighting and mutual dislike, the extremely narcissistic Zha Lan was still quite relieved when he saw this scene: she was indeed the "good" child he had taught in the play!

Quietly watching Su Yun lead the two handsome young men into the private room, Zha Lan pressed the small bell on the table.

Soon, Tom, who heard the call, walked in with a polite smile: "Mr. Delong, how can I help you?"

"A friend of mine is in room 233 not far away. Please send a bottle of red wine there for me and put it on my bill." Seeing the commotion, Zha Lan smiled with great relief, thinking that nothing serious would happen.