Chapter 442: Be the gravedigger of News Corp

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

Holding it in for a whole night, Guli Nazha finally asked.

If it were a year ago, she definitely wouldn't have dared, but times were different now. The trio had traveled north and south together for so long, the poker-faced big brother had a bit of the clown's intimacy, and the boss had changed from a god high above to a human with seven emotions and six desires. The Uyghur girl was naturally curious and active, so her courage naturally grew.

What's wrong with asking? The boss has several women, and we are very clear about what happens on a daily basis, right?

However, the poker face in the driver's seat didn't mean to pay attention to her, just glanced at her from the rearview mirror.

Guli Nazha was a little unsure for a while. Did he know, or didn't he? But she was more inclined to the former. After all, he had been with the boss longer than her, and his mouth was tight enough, able to keep everything airtight, truly a living mute.

She didn't ask anymore, and her eyes swept to the underground parking garage she didn't have time to look at last night.

To be honest, this place was really not great—dilapidated, damp, and permeated with an indescribable cheapness. It wasn't even as good as the small residential area Michelle went to see last week.

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

Ah... could it be to deliberately cover up?

Yes, yes, yes, it must be. Who would have thought that the famous Chen Nuo would choose such a broken place to meet his lover, 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 duck-billed cap sat into the car and said.

Guli Nazha hurried back to her senses and smiled obediently: "No, no. Good morning Boss, did you rest well last night?"

"Not very well. Linghu, drive."

The car started slowly.

Chen Nuo didn't lie. He really didn't rest for too long last night, his eyes were a little sore, so he closed his eyes as soon as he got in the car, started to nourish his spirit, and asked: "We are going abroad again in a few days, have you found a house during this time? Are you and Michelle ready to buy? If you want to buy, do it quickly."

"Uh, I looked at two sets. One is in Wang Jing, and there is another one in Beiyuan, still hesitating..."

Before Guli Nazha could finish, Chen Nuo interrupted her: "Definitely buy the one in Wang Jing. Buy a house, buy a location, understand?"

"Uh..." Guli Nazha also felt that this was the truth.

That set in Wang Jing was a Poly real estate project, a small unit, only 66 square meters, one bedroom and one living room, but the layout was very good, the traffic 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 of money?"

Guli Nazha smiled embarrassedly and nodded.

Chen Nuo's lips moved, it could be seen that he wanted to say something, but in the end, he closed his mouth.

Seeing Han Zong again, Chen Nuo found that the 60-year-old man had lost all his spirit, lying on the hospital bed, looking a whole year older.

Chen Nuo felt a sense of sympathy when he saw it.

Seriously, who could have expected this?

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

The so-called entrustment of an orphan really almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The misfortune in the fortune was that there were people at home, and it wasn't far from the hospital. The 120 ambulance arrived quickly, and he was sent to the hospital in time. After expert consultation, it was preliminarily judged to be a mild stroke, without large-scale vascular obstruction, and no serious complications had formed. As long as he underwent systematic recuperation and conditioning for about three to six months, most of his physical functions could be restored.

However, having said that, it was unlikely to fully recover to the original situation, and there would be more or less sequelae. At present, it seemed to be the face.

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

The nurse called out when she saw Chen Nuo's face, stopped directly at the door, and continued after two seconds: "That... I'm here to measure Mr. Han's blood pressure, and change the IV drip." Her voice instantly became soft and sweet.

Chen Nuo nodded lightly, stepped aside to make room, and even moved the table next to the hospital bed slightly to make room for the nurse to operate.

And then he looked, and felt he couldn't help much, so he said to Han Zong's wife: "Then I'll leave first. Auntie Liu, Sister Han, if there is anything you need help with later, just say... Han Zong, rest well."

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

Originally, he would have left like this, but just as he was leaving, he met Zhang Pingmin, the deputy director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, who also came to visit the patient, and was pulled by him to find a quiet corner in the hospital to chat for more than half an hour before he could get away.

"So... Han Zong actually turned a misfortune into a blessing?"

Arriving at the company, Qi Yuntian heard the news he had previously obtained from Director Zhang, and his eyes widened in surprise for a moment.

Chen Nuo understood very well, because he was the same when he first heard about it.

Originally thought that Han Zong's fake sick retirement would definitely become a real sick retirement after this incident.

But while chatting, listening to the meaning of Director Zhang's words, the higher-ups actually planned to retain Han Zong's position and arrange for a deputy to act as the person in charge for a period of time. After Han Zong was discharged from the hospital, he would continue to be in charge of China Film.

This really surprised Chen Nuo, and he was completely confused, not knowing how such a change could happen.

"Could it be that one of Han Zong's big backers exerted force? Taking this opportunity to play the sympathy card?" Qi Yuntian touched his head and said with a confused face.

Chen Nuo shrugged: "Who knows, probably. It's also a good thing for us. After all, right? If someone really iron-faced and selfless comes up, it would be a bit uncomfortable. By the way, is the pick-up arranged for the afternoon? Luo Rui said they are a group of more than ten people, send a bigger car."

Qi Yuntian nodded: "I know, it's already arranged, two were sent over. Now that the company has money, I plan to fully upgrade the nanny cars used by our artists, and then assign one or two more assistants to each person."

Chen Nuo nodded: "Okay."

Over the past two years, the company had been living a tight life.

Even for Fan Fan Binbing, the old 2007 Alphard she used for travel was nothing. Like Liu Yifei, Zhao Liying, Zhang Xinyu, Ning Hao, etc., except for Liu Yifei who also used an Alphard, the others only used Buick GL8 or Honda Odyssey when going out. To be honest, it was nothing before, but now many film and television companies are either going public or receiving capital injection, and the artists' travel style is getting bigger and bigger, which makes it look a bit shabby.

It was fine when there was no money before, but now, Huanxin's account has 150 million USD in cash from "Inception" that has not been moved, plus 160 million RMB in dividends from "No Man's Land," and after receiving the dividends, he also gave the company 20 million USD in copyright fees for "No Man's Land," and the artist share from the brokerage contract.

Adding it all up, Huanxin Company's RMB account now has about 220 million in liquid funds, and the foreign USD account also has about 170 million USD as a reserve.

Hardware configurations like cars and assistants really should keep up.

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

Qi Yuntian smiled: "Hehe, booked, I paid the deposit before coming to work."

Chen Nuo smiled and said: "Borrow it to me for a few days when the car arrives."

"Hahahaha..."

Watching Qi Yuntian laugh so happily, Chen Nuo also felt happy.

Qi Yuntian had always liked cars. From the beginning when they traveled in Chen Kexin's G-Wagon in Shanghai, he still remembered Qi Da's excitement. Later, the BMW 740Li his father bought for him, Qi Yuntian grabbed the driver's seat every time, picking him up and dropping him off in Beijing tirelessly.

After this dividend, Qi Da finally achieved preliminary wealth freedom, buying a small luxury car worth several million to be extravagant, which was naturally a matter of course. It's just that he still felt sorry for the money, didn't want to buy a better one, so he bought a Mulsanne.

As for Chen Nuo himself, his material desires were actually not strong. To be honest, he was quite envious of Qi Yuntian's simple happiness. It also made him think of his own private jet that would be delivered next year—the waiting time was really hard to endure.

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

"How many employees do we have in the company now?"

Qi Yuntian thought for a while and said: "Adding everything up, there are about 60 people?"

"I heard from Li Jing that she discussed with you, and we are going to expand next year?"

"Hmm, the recruitment plan was set at the beginning of the year, and we need to recruit about forty more. The publicity department, production department, artist management center, legal department, and business cooperation department all lack people."

"In addition to "Wolf Warrior" next year, we are also preparing to independently invest in one or two theatrical movies, plus a TV series. Zhao Liying is just one step away from the first line, and Li Jing and the others are also talking to Yu Zheng's studio to see if they can cooperate on the next drama. Also Zhang Xinyu, I think we can make another effort to see if there is a script suitable for her, and make another run on the movie path. My mother said her face is actually quite suitable for acting in movies, but the foundation is too poor and she hasn't received professional training. Before, she was sent to Zhang Songwen to learn for a few months, and currently Zhang Songwen feedback says that the performance is quite good. I just want to see if there is any salvation."

"As for Fan Fan Binbing and Liu Yifei... the company is preparing to tailor-make for them. Currently, we are picking scripts with them to see whether to shoot movies or TV series next, or which big directors to cooperate with. We have received a lot of scripts and are looking for suitable ones."

Chen Nuo rarely talked about work with Fan Fan Binbing and Liu Yifei privately, so he really didn't know their thoughts on this, so he asked: "What do they mean now?"

"Fan Fan Binbing's meaning is that as long as it can make money, she can do it, but it must be closer to home, can't go far, you understand the reason. Anyway, I think she looks like she has no desires other than money now. And Liu Yifei... she still wants to go for awards."

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

Qi Yuntian said: "I think it can be..."

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

Qi Yuntian said helplessly: "What I said is the truth. What do you mean, you say."

Chen Nuo said: "Usually I don't care about these things in the company. I think you shouldn't worry about my relationship with them, just do what you should do. Like what you just said, the requirements of those two women, in my opinion, are just messing around. If you ask me, it should be the other way around."

"The other way around... Fan Fan Binbing goes for 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 ass. This is called objective reality. However, don't say I said it when the time comes... just say it's the company's arrangement."

"Hahaha, understood."

Qi Yuntian laughed, Chen Nuo also laughed with him for a while, and then continued: "Your meaning, that is to say, after recruitment next year, our company will have about a hundred people in total?"

"That's right, maybe a little more."

Chen Nuo calculated silently for a while and said: "Then the number of people should be no problem. It's like this, there is something I want to discuss with you. I want to set up a home purchase fund within the company..."

Chen Nuo said the inspiration he got from Guli Nazha before.

According to his understanding of the Chinese real estate market, 2011 should be the last window of time to buy a house in the core area of Beijing, such as Xicheng, Haidian, etc.

After this year, the matter of buying a house in Beijing will become further and further away from ordinary people, until it is out of reach, don't even think about it.

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

Of course, he is not a saint, just a normal person with a little rebirth perspective, a little lustful, a little selfish, and a little utilitarian, and also a little compassion, so he thought, within his ability, within the reach of his hands, to pull his brothers.

"When we paid dividends before, we reserved a total of 150 million USD, of which 100 million USD was the production cost we left for "Eagle Catches Chicken." But looking at it now, this part shouldn't be needed."

"My initial idea is that if our employees have plans to buy a house in the near future and are short of down payments, 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 give different credit amounts based on each person's ability, position, and years of service. The repayment period is 3-5 years. Of course, if he has been working in our company, this loan can also be offset from the year-end bonus..."

After nagging for a long time, Chen Nuo said all his general ideas, and then he looked at Qi Yuntian and suddenly smiled, saying: "Hello? Please, don't make this expression. Think about it, with this condition, your recruitment plan after the New Year will definitely be easier to recruit, right?"

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

Hahaha.

The Netflix group arrived at Huanxin Company after two o'clock in the afternoon.

Although they hadn't adjusted to the 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 door of Huanxin's office, smiling and saying: "Haha, Chen, I knew it."

Chen Nuo ignored his exaggerated enthusiasm and just said normally: "Reed, welcome to China."

"Thank you, thank you very much. To be honest, although I have only been off the plane for an hour, I think I have already fallen in love with this place. OMG, I have to say, this place is really not what I imagined. What are those bastards at Fox playing every day!"

From this sentence, Chen Nuo heard that this person came from thousands of miles away with the determination to reach an agreement. It is estimated that the negotiations later will be easier than expected.

Then he looked at Luo Rui Eisner. This woman obviously put on makeup before coming, and now she is smiling brilliantly.

Chen Nuo noticed that the young male employees of Huanxin Company around—these guys who face female stars every day—were mostly attracted by her.

This shows that as long as Luo Rui Eisner tidies up seriously, her appearance is truly capable.

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

"Hahahaha, you said it." Luo Rui really laughed out loud, walked over, leaned close to him, the two touched cheeks, and then Luo Rui whispered: "Although, it seems he helped me. However, I still want to say one thing, fuck Murdoch."

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

As Chen Nuo thought, for the next half day, the atmosphere was unusually harmonious, leaving professional matters to the legal teams of both sides to negotiate. His "negotiation" with Reed Hastings was just sitting in his office, chatting casually, getting to know each other, and building trust.

So how to build trust?

Obviously, the Netflix team had unified their caliber before coming—they knew who the number one person on Chen Nuo's blacklist was now.

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

"Chen, have I told you that my original purpose in creating Netflix was to kill cable TV, especially the rotten stuff like Fox News that monopolizes the right to speak."

"Oh? Really?" Chen Nuo cooperated and showed a little surprise.

"Really." Reed Hastings said seriously, "That year I ordered a year of cable TV in San Francisco, the service was a mess, and I had to be forced to watch Fox's garbage news every day. I thought at the time that this kind of media hegemony would be overturned sooner or later, I might as well do something myself."

"Although Netflix looks small now, I can guarantee that our direction is correct, and we represent the future content dissemination method. 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."

"The more News Corp monopolizes and becomes rigid, the faster it will die."

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

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

Finally, from the perspective of an actor, he was a little surprised to find that this person's impassioned speech was at least 30% like it was true.

Damn, Reed Hastings is 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 great. I think I'm moved."

Since he was moved, the negotiations naturally went very quickly.

The next morning, both sides reached a consensus on the most critical terms of cooperation. That is the issue of remuneration.

Netflix did indeed show great sincerity.

Chen Nuo's personal salary and executive producer salary were consistent with what Hastings proposed in Palm Beach, the treatment only top actors have—2 million USD per episode, plus 5% profit sharing.

And Huanxin Hong Kong, as the production company, participated in the entire production process of the series as the "general producer."

According to the framework given by Netflix, the production budget of the series was fully paid by Netflix, with the cost per episode controlled between 4.5 million and 5 million USD, and Huanxin Hong Kong was responsible for overall coordination and deployment.

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

In addition, Huanxin Hong Kong would also participate in 5% of the platform's profit sharing after the series went online.

This was also the term Netflix opened for Kevin Spacey and David Fincher. The difference was that the behind-the-scenes company of "House of Cards" was the American Media Rights Capital, and this time, it was Huanxin Hong Kong.

However, the signing of all these contracts also had a premise: the legal representative of Huanxin Hong Kong was Chen Nuo.

In this way, actor Chen Nuo, producer Chen Nuo, and company legal representative Chen Nuo obtained clear and explicit revenue sharing from this project in three identities respectively.

In other words, Reed Hastings used money and interests, plus idealist and common enemy slogans, to firmly tie Chen Nuo to this chariot, making him unable to jump off even if he wanted to, and he couldn't help but be attentive in this process.

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

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

Because Hastings and his group had already booked their flight back to the US on December 2nd, time was tight, so on December 1st, the teams of both sides worked overtime overnight to finalize all formal contract documents.

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

For Chen Nuo personally and Huanxin, and even including Netflix, this was definitely a very significant scene.

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

"When are you coming?"

"Not done yet?"

"Changchang started blowing out candles."

"Then we won't wait for you, started eating."

"???"

"What time can you finish over there?"

"Forget it... don't come."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 443 =====