Chapter 442: Becoming the Gravedigger for News Corporation

"Brother Linghu, where is this? Who lives here?"

After holding it in all night, Gulinazha finally asked.

A year ago, she certainly wouldn't have dared, but times were different now; the trio had traveled far and wide together for so long that the poker-faced brother had gained a bit of the clown's approachability, and the boss had transformed from a high-and-mighty deity into a human with seven emotions and six desires. The Uyghur girl was naturally curious and active by nature, so her courage had naturally grown.

What was there to be afraid of asking? How many women the boss had, and what he was like on a daily basis—we’re pretty clear on that, right?

However, the poker-faced man in the driver's seat had no intention of responding to her, merely glancing at her through the rearview mirror.

Gulinazha was a bit unsure for a moment whether he knew or didn't know. But she leaned toward the former; after all, he had been with the boss much longer than she had, and his mouth was tight enough to keep anything airtight—he really was a living sealed jar.

She stopped asking and swept her gaze toward the underground parking garage she hadn't had time to look at closely last night.

To be honest, this place really wasn't much—dilapidated, damp, and exuding an indescribable sense of cheapness. It wasn't even as good as the newly opened residential complex Michelle had gone to see last week.

How could the boss's lover live in a place like this?

Ah... could it be to deliberately hide from prying eyes?

Yes, yes, that must be it. Who would have thought that the famous Chen Nuo would actually choose such a dump to rendezvous with a beauty? It was just like in a spy movie—cunning, too cunning.

"Daydreaming again?"

The car door was suddenly pulled open, and a man wearing a mask and a baseball cap sat inside and spoke.

Gulinazha hurriedly regained her focus and smiled sweetly: "No, no. Good morning, Boss. Did you rest well last night?"

"Not very well. Linghu, let's go."

The car slowly started moving.

Chen Nuo wasn't lying; he really hadn't rested long last night, and his eyes felt a bit gritty. Once in the car, he closed his eyes to rest his mind and asked, "We're going abroad again in a few days. Have you picked out a house during this time? Where are you and Michelle planning to buy? If you're going to buy, you need to act quickly."

"Uh, I looked at two. One is in Wangjing, and the other is over in Beiyuan. I'm still hesitating..."

Before Gulinazha could finish, Chen Nuo interrupted her: "Definitely buy the one in Wangjing. When buying property, it's all about location, understand?"

"Uh..." Gulinazha also felt that made sense.

The one in Wangjing was a Poly development, a small unit of only 66 square meters, but the layout was quite good—one bedroom and one living room. The key was that the transportation was convenient, the property management was good, and the developer was reliable. The problem was—cough.

Chen Nuo opened his eyes, looked at her, and immediately understood, asking: "Short on money?"

Gulinazha smiled embarrassedly and nodded.

Chen Nuo's lips moved; it was clear he wanted to say something, but in the end, he kept his mouth shut.

Seeing Mr. Han again, Chen Nuo found that the man in his sixties had lost all his former spirit. Lying in the hospital bed, he looked a whole head older.

Chen Nuo felt a sense of sorrow as well.

Honestly, who could have expected this?

Eating and chatting together the night before, and then a stroke the next day?

The so-called entrusting of orphans had almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The silver lining in the misfortune was that there were people at home, and they weren't far from the hospital. The ambulance arrived quickly, and he was sent to the hospital in time. After a consultation by experts, it was preliminarily determined to be a mild stroke, with no large-scale vascular blockage and no serious complications formed. As long as he underwent systematic recuperation and conditioning for about three to six months, most of his bodily functions could recover.

However, having said that, a full recovery to his original state was unlikely; there would be some sequelae to a greater or lesser extent. Currently, it seemed to be his face.

Just as they were chatting, the door to the special care ward opened, and a tall nurse wearing a mask pushed a cart in, saying: "Family of Mr. Han Sanping... ah!"

The nurse cried out upon seeing Chen Nuo's face and stopped right at the doorway. It took two seconds before she continued: "Um... I'm here to check Mr. Han's blood pressure and change his IV drip." Her voice turned soft and sweet in an instant.

Chen Nuo nodded slightly, stepped aside to make room, and even moved the table next to the bed a little to clear space for the nurse to work.

Afterward, he looked around and, feeling he couldn't be of much help, said to Mr. Han's wife: "Then I'll be going first. Auntie Liu, Sister Han, if there's anything you need help with later, just let me know... Mr. Han, rest well."

Han Sanping on the hospital bed moved his eyelids and tried to squeeze out a smile, but because of the slight paralysis on the left side of his face, the smile looked a bit distorted.

He would have left just like that, but right before heading out, he ran into Deputy Director Zhang Pingmin from the Radio and Television Bureau who had also come to visit. He was then dragged into a quiet corner of the hospital for nearly half an hour of conversation before he could get away.

"So... Mr. Han actually got a blessing in disguise?"

Back at the company, when Qi Yuntian heard the news he had just received from Deputy Director Zhang, his eyes widened in surprise for a moment.

Chen Nuo understood perfectly, because he had felt the same way when he first heard it.

He had originally thought that after this incident, Mr. Han's fake medical retirement would definitely turn into a real one.

But as they talked, judging by the implication in Director Zhang's words, the higher-ups were actually planning to retain Mr. Han's position and arrange for a deputy to take over the work for a period of time. Once Mr. Han was discharged, he would continue to head China Film.

This really shocked Chen Nuo; he was completely baffled and didn't know how such a change could have occurred.

"Could it be that one of Mr. Han's big backers exerted some influence? Using this opportunity to play the sympathy card?" Qi Yuntian rubbed his head and said with a bewildered look.

Chen Nuo shrugged: "Who knows? Probably. For us, it's a good thing too. After all, right? If someone truly incorruptible were to take over, we'd really be a bit unaccustomed to it. By the way, have you arranged for someone to pick them up at the airport this afternoon? Luo Rui said there are over a dozen people in their group, so we need to send a larger vehicle."

Qi Yuntian nodded: "I know, it's already arranged; I sent two vehicles. Now that the company has money, I plan to fully upgrade the nanny vans our artists use and assign one or two more assistants to each person."

Chen Nuo nodded: "That's fine."

For the past two years, the company had been living a frugal life.

Even for Fan Bingbing, the vehicle she used for travel was just an old 2007 Alphard. As for people like Liu Yifei, Zhao Liying, Zhang Xinyu, and Ning Hao, apart from Liu Yifei who also used an Alphard, the others even used Buick GL8s or Honda Odysseys when going out. To be fair, it wasn't a big deal before, but now that many film and television companies were either going public or receiving capital injections, the artists' travel styles were becoming increasingly grand, making this seem a bit shabby.

It was fine when there was no money, but now, the Huanyin account alone had $150 million in cash from *Inception* that hadn't been touched, plus the 160 million RMB dividend from *No Man's Land*, and after he received the dividend, he also paid the company over $20 million in copyright fees for *No Man's Land*, along with the artist commissions from management contracts.

All in all, Huanyin Company now had about 220 million RMB in liquid funds in its RMB account, and about $170 million in its overseas USD account as a reserve.

Hardware configurations like cars and assistants really should keep up.

After agreeing, Chen Nuo asked casually: "Did you order that Bentley Mulsanne?"

Qi Yuntian laughed: "Hehe, I did, I just wired the deposit before coming to work."

Chen Nuo smiled and said: "Lend it to me to drive for a few days when it arrives."

"Hahahaha..."

Seeing Qi Yuntian laughing so happily, Chen Nuo felt joyful as well.

Qi Yuntian had always loved cars. He still had vivid memories of the excitement Qi Da showed when they first started out in Shanghai, borrowing Chen Kexin's G-Wagon to get around. Later, when his father bought him a BMW 740Li, Qi Yuntian would always fight to drive, tirelessly picking him up and dropping him off in Jingcheng.

After this dividend, Qi Da could finally be considered to have achieved preliminary financial freedom, so buying a small luxury car for a few million to splurge was naturally a matter of course. It was just that he still felt the pinch of the money and couldn't bear to buy something better, so he just bought a Mulsanne.

As for Chen Nuo himself, his material desires weren't actually strong, and to be honest, he was quite envious of Qi Yuntian's simple happiness. It made him think of his own private jet that would be delivered next year—the waiting time was truly unbearable.

After chatting for a while, Chen Nuo pulled back his thoughts and turned to business.

"How many employees does our company have in total now?"

Qi Yuntian thought for a moment and said: "Altogether, it's about 60-something people, right?"

"I heard from Li Jing that she discussed with you that we're expanding again next year?"

"Yeah, the recruitment plan was set at the beginning of the year; we need to hire about forty more. The publicity department, production department, artist management center, legal department, and business cooperation department are all short of people."

"Next year, besides *Wolf Warrior*, we plan to independently invest in one or two theatrical films, plus one TV series. Zhao Liying is just one step away from being an A-lister, and Li Jing and the others are currently talking to Yu Zheng's studio to see if we can collaborate on the next drama. Also, Zhang Xinyu—I think we can push her a bit more to see if there are any scripts suitable for her and make another run at the film path. My mom said her face is actually quite suitable for film, it's just that her foundation is too poor and she hasn't undergone professional training. I sent her to Zhang Songwen to study for a few months, and currently, Zhang Songwen reports that she's performing quite well. I just want to see if she's salvageable."

"As for Fan Bingbing and Liu Yifei... the company is preparing to tailor-make projects for them. We are currently selecting scripts with them to see whether to shoot a movie or a TV series next, or which big directors to collaborate with. We've already received quite a few scripts and are looking for suitable ones."

Chen Nuo rarely discussed business with Fan Bingbing and Liu Yifei in private, so he really didn't know their thoughts on this and couldn't help but ask: "What are their intentions now?"

"Fan Bingbing's side says as long as it makes money, she's fine with it, but it has to be close to home and she can't go too far—you understand the reason. In short, I feel that apart from money, she seems to have no other desires now. As for Liu Yifei... she still wants to chase awards."

Chen Nuo thought for a while and said: "What do you think?"

Qi Yuntian said: "I think we can er..."

Chen Nuo interrupted: "Don't be evasive, tell the truth."

Qi Yuntian said helplessly: "I am telling the truth. What do you think? You say."

Chen Nuo said: "I don't usually manage these company matters, and I think you shouldn't worry about my relationship with them; just do what needs to be done. Like what you just said, the demands of those two women, in my view, are just nonsense. If you ask me, it should be the other way around."

"The other way around... Fan Bingbing goes to chase awards? Liu Yifei goes to make money?" "Yes."

"Uh..."

There was a silence in the office. Qi Yuntian nodded, gave a thumbs up, and said: "Makes sense, Brother Nuo is indeed insightful."

Chen Nuo waved his hand: "Insightful my foot. This is called objective reality. However, don't say I said it when the time comes... just say it's a company arrangement."

"Hahaha, understood."

Qi Yuntian laughed, and Chen Nuo laughed along with him for a while before continuing: "Your meaning is, after the recruitment next year, our company will have about a hundred people in total?"

"That's right, maybe slightly more."

Chen Nuo calculated silently for a moment and said: "Then the number of people should be fine. It's like this, there's a matter I want to discuss with you. I want to set up a housing fund within the company..."

Chen Nuo said, inspired by what he had learned from Gulinazha earlier.

Based on his understanding of the Chinese real estate market, 2011 could be considered the last window of opportunity to buy property in the core areas of Jingcheng, such as Xicheng and Haidian.

After this year, buying a house in Jingcheng would become increasingly distant for ordinary people, until it was out of reach—don't even think about it.

Since he knew this, Chen Nuo wanted to do something.

Of course, he wasn't a saint, just a normal person with a bit of rebirth perspective, a bit lecherous, a bit selfish, a bit utilitarian, and also a bit of compassion. So, he thought, within his capabilities, within reach of his hands, he would give his brothers a hand.

"When we distributed dividends, we reserved a total of $150 million, of which $100 million was the production budget we set aside for *Eagle Catches Chicken*. But looking at it now, this part shouldn't be needed."

"My preliminary idea is that if our employees have plans to buy a house in the near future and are short on the down payment, we can lend them some money."

"For the specific implementation plan, you can discuss it with Li Jing and listen to the opinions of our company's legal team. I think the general direction is to grant different credit amounts based on each person's work ability, position, and tenure, with a repayment period of 3-5 years. Of course, if they stay with our company, this loan can also be offset from their year-end bonuses..."

After rambling on for a long time, Chen Nuo stated all his general thoughts. Then, he glanced at Qi Yuntian, suddenly smiled, and said: "Hello? Please, can you not have that expression? Think about it, with this condition, your recruitment plan after the New Year will definitely be easier, don't you think?"

After a while, Qi Yuntian's "Yes" sounded like it was squeezed out of a crack in a stone, extremely stiff.

Haha.

The Netflix group arrived at Huanyin Company past two in the afternoon.

Although he hadn't overcome his jet lag, the leader, Reed Hastings, was still full of energy. As soon as they met, he followed Western etiquette and gave Chen Nuo a heavy hug at the entrance of the Huanyin office, beaming as he said: "Haha, Chen, I knew it."

Chen Nuo ignored his exaggerated enthusiasm and just said in a normal tone: "Reed, welcome to China."

"Thank you, thank you very much. To be honest, although I've only been off the plane for an hour, I feel like I've already fallen in love with this place. OMG, I have to say, it's really not what I imagined. What kind of stuff are those bastards at Fox broadcasting every single day!"

From this sentence, Chen Nuo could tell that this person had traveled thousands of miles with the firm determination to reach an agreement. It was likely that the upcoming negotiations would be easier than expected.

Afterward, he looked at Luo Rui Eisner. This woman had clearly touched up her makeup before coming, and now she was smiling with a radiant glow.

Chen Nuo noticed that the young male employees at Huanxin Company—guys who faced female celebrities every day—were mostly captivated by her.

This showed that as long as Luo Rui Eisner put in the effort to spruce herself up, her looks were truly top-tier.

Chen Nuo looked at her expression and said helplessly, "If you want to laugh, then laugh."

"Hahahaha, you said it yourself." Luo Rui really did burst into laughter. She walked over, leaned in close to him, the two of them pressed cheeks, and then Luo Rui whispered, "Although it looks like he helped me, I still have to say one thing: fuck Murdoch."

Chen Nuo laughed immediately, patted her back gently, and said, "Thank you."

Just as Chen Nuo had thought, for the next half day, the atmosphere was exceptionally harmonious, with professional matters left to the legal teams of both sides to negotiate. His "negotiation" with Reed Hastings consisted of sitting in his office, the two of them chatting casually, getting to know each other, and building trust.

So, how do you build trust?

Clearly, the Netflix team had aligned their talking points before coming—they knew who the number one person on Chen Nuo's blacklist was right now.

"I have always hated News Corporation, hated Fox, and hated that vicious Australian capitalist, Murdoch."

"Chen, have I ever told you that my original purpose in founding Netflix was to kill off cable television, especially that piece of junk that monopolizes the discourse like Fox News?"

"Oh? Really?" Chen Nuo played along with a look of slight surprise.

"Really." Reed Hastings said with a serious face, "That year, I subscribed to cable TV in San Francisco for a year. The service was terrible, and I was forced to watch Fox's garbage news every day. I thought to myself then that this kind of media hegemony would be overturned sooner or later, and I might as well do something about it myself."

"Although Netflix looks small now, I can guarantee that our direction is correct; we represent the future of content distribution. As long as the content is good enough and the platform is free enough, users will naturally choose us instead of those high-and-mighty old media outlets."

"The more News Corporation monopolizes and stagnates, the faster it will die."

"Chen, let's start from now, from this TV series, and do all of this together, how about it? Let's be the gravediggers for News Corporation together."

When Reed Hastings said these words, Chen Nuo kept staring at him.

Finally, from an actor's perspective, he was somewhat surprised to find that at least thirty percent of this passionate speech seemed genuine.

Holy crap, is Reed Hastings actually an idealist? A Don Quixote of the new century?

Who would believe this if it were said out loud?

Chen Nuo laughed and said, "Reed, your words sound fantastic. I think I'm moved."

Once he was moved, the negotiations naturally proceeded very quickly.

The next morning, both sides reached an agreement on the most critical terms of the cooperation. That was the issue of remuneration.

The Netflix side had indeed shown great sincerity.

Chen Nuo's personal acting fee and executive producer salary were consistent with what Hastings had proposed while in Palm Beach—the treatment reserved for top-tier actors: $2 million per episode, plus a 5% profit share.

As for Huanxin Hong Kong, as the production company, it would participate in the entire production process of the series as the "General Producer."

According to the framework provided by Netflix, the production budget for the series would be fully covered by Netflix, with costs per episode controlled between $4.5 million and $5 million, and Huanxin Hong Kong would be responsible for overall coordination and allocation.

In addition to the full reimbursement of production costs, Huanxin Company would receive a management fee of 12% of the total production budget as fixed income for its production services.

Furthermore, Huanxin Hong Kong would participate in a 5% share of the platform's profits after the series went live.

These were the same terms Netflix had offered to Kevin Spacey and David Fincher. The difference was that the behind-the-scenes company for *House of Cards* was the American firm Media Rights Capital, while this time, it was Huanxin Hong Kong.

However, the signing of all these contracts had one prerequisite: the legal representative of Huanxin Hong Kong was Chen Nuo.

In this way, Chen Nuo the actor, Chen Nuo the producer, and Chen Nuo the company legal representative each obtained clear and distinct profit shares from this project in three separate capacities.

In other words, Reed Hastings had used money and benefits, plus idealism and the slogan of shared enmity, to firmly tie Chen Nuo to this chariot, making it impossible for him to jump off even if he wanted to, and ensuring he couldn't help but put his heart into the process.

After the core cooperation terms were determined, the rest were just some minor details. The legal teams of both sides spent two days combing through and revising the contract clauses one by one to ensure all legal details were correct.

During these two days, Chen Nuo took Hastings around Jingcheng to sightsee—the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, they went to all of them. Fortunately, it was winter, and everyone was dressed thickly; with sunglasses and scarves on, it was quite safe, unlike last time when he was recognized.

Since Hastings and his party had already booked their flight back to the United States for December 2nd, time was tight. Therefore, on December 1st, both teams worked overtime through the night to finalize all the formal contract documents.

Finally, in the Huanxin Company conference room at night, Chen Nuo and Reed Hastings picked up their pens together and solemnly signed their respective names on the last page of the thick stack of documents.

For Chen Nuo personally and for Huanxin, and even for Netflix, this was absolutely a moment of great significance.

But at this moment, Chen Nuo's phone screen had already received several unread text messages urging him.

"When are you coming over?"

"Not done yet?"

"Changchang has started blowing out the candles."

"We aren't waiting for you anymore, we're starting to eat."

"???"

"What time can you finish on your end?"

"Never mind... don't come."

(End of chapter)