Chapter 199: Handsome Harvester
Because in English, the word "million" goes directly to "billion", so the "million" used in the original novel "Brewster's Millions" is actually a general adjective, just like when Su Yun adapted the novel into a script, she changed it to "billion", which looks more luxurious but has the same general meaning.
It just so happens that she has recently become a billionaire - although most of her wealth is non-cash assets that are difficult to liquidate and can only be estimated through conversion, but is there any rich person in the world who really only counts cash?
Isn't it just adding a little here and a little there, even throwing in negative assets like properties, and then bragging to others about how much you are worth?
It was also for this reason that Su Yun's sudden wealth did not attract too much covetousness.
Now she is under the protection of the Zhao family, which means she is in the same boat with the Zhao family and other families that are on good terms with the Zhao family. The big societies are wary of the cooperative businesses that are closely related to these families both openly and secretly, and will not easily touch their "partners" unless they really have a falling out.
The only ones we need to be wary of are those small or medium-sized gangs that are not big enough, or those individual people who think they have no chance of survival and are willing to do anything for money. Most of the cases of rich kids being kidnapped are caused by them.
While Su Yun was thinking about this, she also considered asking someone to help hire some honest and reliable bodyguards to guard her family: although her master Lu Shaolong is no longer in the martial arts world, his influence is still there. Perhaps she could ask her master to help find some martial artists who have retired from the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts School or martial arts gym. It would be best if she could find a few senior and junior sisters who have practiced martial arts before.
After roughly confirming the style and characteristics of the new play's soundtrack with Lu Guting, Su Yun then took the two leading male actors, Zhuang Long and Bo En, to participate in various variety shows to promote the new play.
As a producer and director, and since Zhuang Long and Bowen had not been back to Hong Kong for many years, and one of them was new to Hong Kong, and she was the only woman among them, Su Yun thought it was okay for her to sit in the middle and take care of the two people beside her during the interview...
Holding a copy of the latest one, the cover clearly read "Wealth and wealth, better to see in the New Year!" "Mary Sue embraces high-profile children" gossip magazine, Su Yun sighed deeply: she has always underestimated the imagination and creativity of Hong Kong media.
I thought the title on the cover was outrageous enough, but when I opened the cover, I didn’t expect that the nickname they “carefully designed” for her was even more outrageous: the two full pages were like the tone of the storytellers under the overpass telling the old stories, starting with Zhou Yuanfa in "The Perfect Match" and ending with Zhuang Long and Bo En in the new drama in the future. After teasing all the domestic and foreign male stars that Su Yun had worked with since she was a child, they cleverly summarized her latest nickname "Handsome Harvester" through the above summary...
When Zhuang Long and the Mei sisters saw the title and nickname, they almost laughed themselves to death on the sofa.
Wang Jiaju and Wang Jiaxiang were the two brothers who were loyal enough to hold back the urge to laugh. They twisted their faces and comforted Su Yun while making a fist gesture: "Ignore these gossip magazines. They are all made up to increase sales!"
"I understand. This is not the first day I've known them." Su Yun sighed again, and then she pulled herself together again, explaining the meaning of the magazine to the confused Bourne, "It's probably because we were a little close during this period, so those reporters wrote and reported our scandals..."
Afraid that Byrne, who looked like a gentle, kind and sunny little angel but was actually a rebellious rock teenager, would get angry or think too much after learning about the media's random reports, Su Yun tried her best to use the Spring and Autumn style of writing to reduce the severity of the incident to the most acceptable level.
"Oh, I see." Bourne nodded, then looked away a little, "I... don't mind."
Well, to be honest, even she, who wanted to care about being ridiculed and the main person involved, could do nothing about the Hong Kong media, which has a particularly rich imagination and creativity.
The only thing she could do was to turn her grief and anger into strength and just laugh it off. After all, if she got angry about this, wouldn't she be the one who suffered the loss in the end?
So, after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in 1981, Su Yun bid farewell to her relatives and friends in Hong Kong and flew to New York with Zhuang Long and Bowen.
Zhao Group has many properties in New York's Chinatown. Su Yun had already completed the borrowing report when she was in Hong Kong, so as soon as she got off the plane, staff from Zhao Group's overseas branch came to pick her up.
This Chinatown is the largest Chinatown in New York and is located close to Broadway. Therefore, the house that Zhuang Long rented is also located in this Chinatown, while Bourne lives a little further outside.
"The rent where I live is getting more and more expensive. The environment here is nice. I plan to move here in the future." Before getting in the car, Bourne looked thoughtfully at the red ocean in Chinatown that had not yet completely faded.
He used to live nearby but never paid much attention to it. Sometimes he would talk to the young neighbors in the rental house and think that Chinatown was noisy and chaotic. Unexpectedly, after a trip to Hong Kong this year, he suddenly fell in love with this lively festival full of the atmosphere of worldly life.
I don't know whether I fell in love with the scenery or... the person who was related to the scenery.
Zhuang Long glanced at Bourne's back meaningfully, then looked at Su Yun who was pulling a suitcase and buying oranges from a granny at a roadside fruit stall. He smiled softly but said nothing.
After each of them rested for a night, Su Yun knocked on Zhuang Long's door early the next morning.
"It's not necessary to go so early, is it?" Zhuang Long came out half asleep and half awake to open the door. After pulling Su Yun into the room, he immediately slammed the door shut, keeping the winter chill out.
In the warm winter environment of Hong Kong, Su Yun always likes to sleep in and often looks like she has difficulty getting up. Why does she get up earlier than him when she comes to New York where the temperature is lower and it is more difficult to get up early?
"As the saying goes, there's no gain without pain!" Su Yun muttered to him, and then urged, "Hurry up, brush your teeth, wash your face, and change your clothes. We are going to look for Glenn Close!"
In "Brewster's Billions", which was adapted into a movie script, there is a female protagonist who is a financial manager.
Considering that Zhuang Long and Bowen's current levels could not support the highest budget given to them by Zhao, Su Yun planned to find a female lead actress with enough weight to join the crew to support the show.
After counting everything, there were only a few actresses with box office appeal in the 1980s: Sally Field, the only Oscar "double champion" in the 1980s, was definitely not invited; Jane Fonda, who had a friendship with Su Yun, had just bought the script of "On Golden Pond", which will sweep the Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress next year, and was busy filming it. When Su Yun had a long-distance phone call with her before, she wanted to invite Su Yun to help with post-production after the filming was completed - the warm dusk color tone of "The Fault in Our Stars" is still amazing today.
Thinking that Jane Fonda spent a huge amount of money to buy the film rights in order to improve her long-standing bad relationship with her father Henry Fonda, and also invited a legendary actress like Katharine Hepburn to co-star in the film, Su Yun carefully studied the year-end schedule, and after confirming that she could squeeze out some time, she gave her a positive reply.
Going further down the list, there's Sigourney Weaver, who established the image of a female warrior in the "Alien" series, and Meryl Streep, with whom Su Yun had always worked well.
Unfortunately, both the former declined the invitation due to their image not being suitable and the latter due to schedule conflicts; so in the end, only Glenn Close, who was the typical representative of the image of a serpentine woman, was left.
Logically speaking, Su Yun prefers Meryl the most: firstly, they have worked together before, and secondly, her current screen image is mostly positioned as a tough and decent housewife, which is very consistent with the financial manager in the movie.
However, the actress with the image of a serpentine woman makes the audience worry that she may rebel at any time, but in the end it turns out that she has been a good person all along. This plot is not without dramatic tension.
In addition, Glenn Close has also been performing in dramas on Broadway and Off-Broadway recently, so Zhuang Longyu finally got in touch with her after using his connections.
But perhaps Su Yun's luck was damaged by the fact that she "harvested" too many handsome men this year. Glenn Close did get in touch, and she was quite interested in the content of the script - but unfortunately, she had already signed a play and a comedy movie off-Broadway, and could not squeeze out time to shoot Su Yun's new movie.
"What are you going to do next?" On the way back, Zhuang Long thought about it again and again, and finally couldn't help but ask.
"Ovitz, please come and help me after he finishes his current work. After all, this is my first time directing a movie of this level." After CAA became bigger, Ovitz had more and more things to be responsible for, and he had less and less time to spend with Su Yun.
Thinking back to the time when she first started her business, Su Yun missed her former exclusive agent even more: "Otherwise, we can only find a new person with better value for money, and then think of other ways to increase publicity."
"I'm sorry." Zhuang Long whispered.
"This has nothing to do with you. Schedule conflicts are common. Some people will miss out because of this, and some people will take advantage of it. In the end, their luck will soar..." Su Yun patted him, "It's always harder at the beginning, but we must not lose heart, otherwise our luck will really slip away!"
"Okay." Zhuang Long smiled, "I will definitely try my best."
"That's right! During this period of time, you and Bourne should work harder to figure out your roles. In the end, it will still depend mainly on you two protagonists!" After saying goodbye to Zhuang Long at the street corner, Su Yun went back to the room and started making a phone call.
After all, they are good partners. As soon as Ovitz heard Su Yun's call, he immediately accepted her request, but said that he could not handle the work at hand for the time being and estimated that he would not be able to come until tomorrow.
After Su Yun thanked him, he went into the system's small dark room to train his various attributes. Finally, he took a shower and began to fiddle with the phone while lying on the sofa.
Thinking that Tom has been hanging out in New York recently, Su Yun called Tom's family to get his rental address in New York, and then prepared to go over quietly to give him a surprise.
Following the address, Su Yun went up to the third floor of the old apartment building. After checking the house number and confirming it was correct, he pressed the doorbell.
The door was soon opened from the inside, and a pair of lake-blue eyes and brilliant golden long hair suddenly appeared in front of Su Yun: "Who are you?"
With small and delicate facial features and a pointed chin, she looks like a typical blonde sweetheart when she smiles. Perhaps because she just came out of the shower, her face has a slightly tipsy red hue, which is set off by the white towel on her shoulders that she uses to wipe her hair, making her look even sweeter and fresher...
Su Yun took a step back, looked at the house number, and then looked at the blonde sweetheart in front of her.
The address was correct, but why did the person who opened the door become a girl, with the same blue-green eyes and the same blonde hair?
"Who's outside..." Just as Su Yun was wondering, Tom, with short half-dry hair, bare upper body and only wearing a pair of jeans, came out with a turned off hair dryer.
"M-Mary?!"
The next second after seeing the face of the visitor outside the door clearly, he rushed over, pushed away the equally puzzled blond sweetheart, grabbed Su Yun's shoulders and spoke incoherently like a arrested husband: "Mary, it's not what you see... No, no, no! It's not what you think!"
Su Yun was shaken by Tom's sudden explosion of energy. When she could no longer resist Tom's endless chatter and couldn't get to the point, she finally raised her hand, pressed his forehead and shouted, "Calm down and listen to my explanation... Bah, I'm waiting for your explanation very calmly now!"