Chapter 329: Lust, Caution

Yang Mi's thoughts were very simple.

She had watched the live broadcast of the birthday banquet on August 25th of last year.

At that time, she was a bit confused:

Was Fan Fan Bingbing playing some kind of role between Lu Kuan and Liu Liu Yifei?

Or was Liu Liu Yifei playing some kind of role between Lu Kuan and Fan Fan Bingbing?

Or perhaps, the pure jade maiden and the glamorous starlet were both nothing more than his playthings?

But as of today, judging from Boss Lu's stance at the Fox Center and Fan Bingbing's current fearful and cautious behavior, it was clear that the nineteen-year-old girl held the upper hand.

How could Big Mimi dare to confront her directly? She could only secretly pull some small stunts.

At 8:30 PM Beijing time, it was 7:30 AM in Chicago on the other side of the globe. A transoceanic message made the phone on Liu Liu Yifei's desk buzz and vibrate.

However, the owner of the phone was not there; Little Liu and her female bodyguard Mia were working out in the gym at Hyde Park.

As the morning exercise neared its end, Little Liu looked at the scantily clad female bodyguard and suddenly whispered, "Mia, is there any way to make..."

She shyly gestured vaguely toward her chest: "Here... bigger?"

Mia had a knowing look; in fact, she had already received consultations from many wealthy and celebrity female employers.

"Crystal, what you want to ask about should be methods other than surgery or medication, right?"

"Of course, of course, I mean... from the perspective of exercise."

There was something she was too embarrassed to say: ever since she started morning exercises with this retired Marine bodyguard and increased the intensity, her glutes had become perkier, but her chest seemed to be shrinking!

After the normalization of their relationship, Little Liu had developed some romantic, whimsical thoughts on top of her maidenly innocence.

A woman dresses for the one who delights in her; naturally, she wanted to be more charming.

Or rather... sexually attractive.

The lecherousness of that dog of a man was simply a consensus of all humanity!

The bodyguard of Russian descent easily crushed a plastic water bottle: "If you want cleavage, I suggest you do less cardio and start doing heavy bench presses."

"Increasing the thickness of the pectoralis major by 3 centimeters will visually increase your cup size by two—remember that silicone-implanted celebrity who called me last week? Her agent even came to ask me how to train the lines of the accessory breast."

Little Liu pursed her lips knowingly, thinking about how to improve the aesthetics of a certain area without making her upper body lines overly hardened.

Improving the aesthetics of a certain place.

In the Hyde Park villa, after her bath, Liu Liu Yifei compared her proportions in the mirror again, then sheepishly threw on a bathrobe and walked out.

The indoor heating was turned up high. She opened the complete script of *Sky of History*; the creases in the paper revealed the high frequency of use by this actress.

Little Liu's porcelain-white ankles were flushed with the pale pink of cherry blossom bath salts. She shook her wet long hair, and water droplets rolled down her swan-like neck into her silk bathrobe, pooling in the hollow of her collarbone like a tiny lake.

Her nineteen-year-old skin still carried the light sweat from her morning run, steaming in the morning sun with a downy halo like a peach that was not yet fully ripe; it was truly devoid of worldly sophistication.

She worried needlessly that her feminine charm had yet to manifest, not knowing that her current appearance was exactly the taste most favored by gourmands like Boss Lu.

Artists, after all, emphasize a return to simplicity.

Women are the same.

And what scene could be more intoxicating to an artist than their own self-cultivated muse jumping out of the frame and standing before them, fresh and lovely?

The young girl was biting a pearl hairpin to tie up her hair when the phone screen on the table suddenly lit up.

【Lu Kuan and Fan Fan Bingbing are together right now.】

What is this?

In 2006, for unknown calls and messages, the screen naturally did not display the origin of the number.

Perhaps those with experience would know to go to a specialized website to check the information, but Liu Liu Yifei clearly didn't have the leisure, nor the heart for it right now.

This single message was enough to make her heart clench.

The morning light refracted off the mirror-finish lacquer of the Nokia N93, creating tiny specks of light, just like her threshold of courage, which was collapsing at that very moment.

Liu Liu Yifei's wet thumb slipped on the navigation key three times, and the metal keys made a ticking sound as they touched the water droplets.

She saw the previous unread message.

【Fan Fan Bingbing came to the *Huang Jinjia* set today to visit the crew.】

The moment the young girl's wet hair fell and swept across the screen, it happened to cover the two characters "Fan Bingbing" in the message.

Her eye sockets instantly grew hot. She held up the phone, and the vanity mirror reflected her pupils, dilated from tension.

Looking at the characters in the anonymous text message that pierced her heart like a sword, Liu Liu Yifei suddenly flipped to the young director's number, her finger hesitating over the green dial button for a long time.

Should she make this call?

The soul-searching question of whether she should be "in the car or under the car" once again assaulted her fragile nerves—

These nerves seemed to have only just been repaired a few months ago.

The key was whether she even had the standing to do so.

Little Liu had confessed to Liu Ayi herself that under the skyscrapers of Manhattan, Boss Lu's so-called pursuit was merely a PR tactic.

To put it more ruthlessly and realistically, it was a reward for the loyalty and unyielding nature she had displayed.

From this perspective, even if she got through, what tone and attitude should she use to verify it?

But the way he had been so responsive to her every wish and so caring during the days of the Lunar New Year couldn't all be a fake disguise, right?

The authenticity of such feelings is naturally best understood by the parties involved.

Liu Liu Yifei even felt like retreating; she didn't dare make this call. She wanted to bury her head in the sand like an ostrich, constantly comforting herself in her heart.

Hasn't he always been like this?

Aren't you the person who understands him best? Why can't you accept it now?

You haven't even confirmed a relationship with him, so why are you still using these already-confirmed facts to engage in internal friction and self-harm?

The young girl hardened her heart and pressed the red button, attempting to long-press to power off.

On the metal key, her thumb turned white from the force of her pressing.

In the mirror's reflection, the pale blue veins bulging on her neck looked exactly like the curve of the neck in the work photo taken at the Yale library when Zhang Zhang Chunru discovered the contradictions in the historical materials in the script.

The suffering young girl buried her head and sobbed, her shoulders trembling slightly.

The phone's hot keypad was imprinted with the patterns of her fingers, like a humiliating seal.

Can powering off isolate her from this torment of wild thoughts?

She dared not ask, and had nowhere to escape.

Little Liu lay on the desk, feeling dejected. The script page before her was quickly soaked through. She saw a line of narration written by the young director in the script:

*After the conversation with the survivor ended, Zhang Zhang Chunru's eyes seemed like the frozen Xuanwu Lake. *

And her own tear glands were now like the Xuanwu Lake that had just thawed.

It was even worse than before; hadn't she stabbed at him several times in the past?

It was just that the tenderness of this period had trapped her like a spiderweb, letting her indulge in the illusion she had woven for herself, not daring to pierce that veil.

The more she gained, the more she feared losing.

She feared that another rupture would be a final farewell.

Suddenly, the classic Penguin notification sound exploded in her ears!

Liu Liu Yifei jerked her upper body straight. The video call notification sound woke her from the "bullet time" of her sorrow and shattered the silence of the room.

It was actually a pop-up from the man she was grieving over!

She answered without a moment's hesitation. The few seconds of delay from the Penguin cross-border server made Little Liu feel like a day was a year.

The signal on the young girl's side seemed to connect first. Boss Lu's somewhat messy hair filled the screen, with the monotonous background of a hotel room behind him.

The network conditions in Hengdian were poor, and he didn't know yet that he was already at the center of the other party's screen.

Boss Lu leaned in toward the screen that only showed his own avatar, looking at the cut he had accidentally left with his razor.

Liu Liu Yifei didn't speak, quietly watching his pale blue lower eyelids bump into the screen as the camera shook.

The laptop camera seemed to have been pulled back by Boss Lu, and more background elements entered the frame.

The desk was filled with ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts, coffee cups, stirring sticks, and paper drafts piled high...

It didn't look like a night of illicit intimacy, but rather like a workaholic who had finished who knows how many all-nighters?

The image froze for a moment; it seemed the connection on the other end had also gone through, and Boss Lu suddenly froze in the middle of the screen with his pupils dilated!

Had Little Liu transformed into his own exclusive "fan service" girl?

On the Penguin video screen, Liu Liu Yifei's bathrobe had slipped down a bit because of her sudden sitting up, barely hanging on her shoulders.

She was completely unaware of the crescent-shaped gap at her neckline; the bathrobe was stuck tightly at the rise of her chest, paired with a patch of tender white, like the border of the snow line in early spring that was just beginning to melt.

And that tiny mole near her chest rose and fell with her breathing in front of the lens.

The snowy, creamy curve of the young girl was like a peeled lychee, making Boss Lu, this gourmand, unable to look away.

The tiny black-red mole, stuck by her wet hair, was just lightly dotted on her chest, like a lone red berry in the snow.

The water droplets remaining from her hair slid down, plowing crystal-clear gullies across the snowy plains of her chest.

"Little Liu... are you... are you okay?"

Boss Lu hesitated for a long time before reluctantly looking away and speaking to alert her.

Liu Liu Yifei frowned slightly, her face looking naive and charming; she could faintly hear the sound of an Adam's apple bobbing through the microphone.

"Ah!"

The young girl followed his gaze and looked down, suddenly letting out a gasp like a startled kitten, and quickly slammed the laptop shut.

She used so much force it was as if she wanted to slam the young director's face from the screen onto the desk!

She quickly armed herself, but the "half-hidden" view of the young girl's body had already been seen in its entirety by the "washing machine."

When they reconnected the video, Boss Lu looked at her with a playful expression: "Little Liu, you've learned to be bad, huh? Using this trick on me, are you?"

"To hell with you! You pervert!"

Liu Liu Yifei simply couldn't look directly at his aggressive gaze, biting her lower lip hard.

Her post-bath skin glowed with a glaze-like color on the screen. Seeming to recall the ambiguity from just a moment ago, a layer of pale pink quickly suffused her porcelain-white face.

Boss Lu continued to tease her: "Intentionally turning off your phone, forcing me to video call you, and then..."

"Bullshit! My phone... my phone ran out of battery!"

Whether it was the confidence given to her by Boss Lu's demonic gaze just now, or the fact that his act of initiating the video call seemed natural and unhidden, Little Liu asked angrily: "Where are you! What are you doing!?"

Boss Lu was dumbfounded: "I'm at the *Huang Jinjia* set, don't you know that?"

"So it wasn't you who liked the photo of me with Jay Chou and Gong Li on the blog yesterday?"

Little Liu squinted at the man in the video with her phoenix eyes. The hesitation in her heart was slightly relieved, but she still endured and didn't ask about the core issue directly.

She was afraid, too.

She was afraid he would lie to her, and afraid he wouldn't.

She really didn't want to taste even a tiny bit of the despair and bitterness of that moment just now.

However, this didn't stop Little Liu from acting spoiled and probing: "Why is there a cut on your chin?"

The young director looked at her suspiciously.

Why did this tone sound like she was following clues, or making a bold assumption and then an even bolder verification?

You might as well just ask if I was fooling around with a woman just now; that would be more direct.

Boss Lu sneered in his heart. This proud young girl had bowed her head once at the birthday banquet; it seemed that now, even if she bit her silver teeth to pieces, she wouldn't take the initiative to bring up sensitive questions again.

The young director sighed helplessly: "It's normal for a man to get a cut while shaving; don't make a mountain out of a molehill."

"Oh." Liu Liu Yifei was expressionless, clearly not in a good mood: "What do you want with me? Spit it out if you have something to say!"

"I saw the email you sent me, about the acquisition of Netflix and Blockbuster."

Little Liu's attention was instantly diverted, her face showing joy and anticipation: "What do you think of my idea?"

Boss Lu looked at the various detailed data in her proposal, some of which didn't even fall under the disclosure obligations of a listed company; it was clear she had achieved this through her connections at that business school.

"Your point of view is that Blockbuster is a dying giant, Netflix is a rising star, and you suggest that after buying a stake in Blockbuster, we should lay out streaming media services in advance to counter Netflix, right?"

Liu Liu Yifei had a serious face: "Yeah!"

"Blockbuster's current market value is less than 500 million USD, down more than 92% from its 2002 peak, with nearly 900 million USD in debt. The estimated pure acquisition cost won't exceed 2 billion USD."

"And Netflix's current market value is over 1.4 billion USD. Although its debt is minimal, Netflix's Hastings holds Class B shares with 10 times the voting power. Unless you completely control Netflix, why would he listen to a Chinese person bossing him around?"

As the top two DVD rental giants in the US, the competitive situation between Blockbuster and Netflix reached a white-hot stage in 2006.

Netflix used online subscriptions with no physical stores, offering unlimited mail-order for 9.99 USD/month, one disc at a time. After watching, postal workers would come to collect the disc, and customers could place new orders.

This move by Hastings directly destroyed the asset-heavy Blockbuster, whose business model was mostly based on physical stores.

But Blockbuster's CEO Antioco also gave a fierce counterattack; he launched the "Total Access" plan, where users could return discs to stores and get online delivery.

Since Blockbuster had 4,500 stores across the US, they were present in almost every community.

Once this move was out, compared to Netflix's mail service, it seemed to have a few more advantages.

Similar to online shopping in later generations, with Blockbuster, I can go downstairs and rent a disc to watch at home, but Netflix requires waiting for mail.

But because of its asset-heavy operations, Blockbuster charged high late fees to customers, reaching 2 USD per day, while the rental of a single disc was only about 4 USD.

This was a fatal flaw, but one they had to charge because of the massive number of stores and operating costs.

Based on this competitive background, Little Liu continued to elaborate on her point of view: "Blockbuster's Antioco has already started pushing this all-around rental model. I think Blockbuster's valuation will rebound; now is a great opportunity for you to buy a stake."

"As for the method of buying a stake and controlling it, and how to lay out the streaming media you mentioned to counter Netflix, I don't have too many concepts in my head yet; I need to continue collecting data and cases."

Boss Lu listened patiently to her exposition; the basic logic was correct.

It was just that because she didn't know enough about his own connections and resources, she didn't know what other weapons were available besides the 2.5 billion in cash.

"Your basic thinking doesn't have much of a problem, but your thinking is still too one-sided and lacks a comprehensive consideration of the overall situation."

Little Liu was a bit unconvinced: "There is an information gap between you and me. You keep so many things from me; how do you expect me to consider the overall situation?"

"Don't look for excuses. I'll just ask you one fatal question: as you said, acquiring Blockbuster with less than 2 billion USD, pledging equity, or using the remaining 500 million to maintain store operations and transition to streaming media."

"Blockbuster has 4,500 stores in the US and 7,500 globally. Why do you think the federal Committee on Foreign Investment would give the green light?"

"I've already told you about the Twitter issue. Infiltration and counter-infiltration in the ideological field between countries have always existed. If you were Bush, would you so easily let a Chinese person control such sensitive assets?"

"You should understand how terrifying it would be if stores of this magnitude, reaching every residential community in the US, were really used to achieve certain political goals."

"Another thing, since you've decided to transition to streaming media in the future, the massive number of Blockbuster stores you mentioned are no longer an advantage, but a burden!"

"US labor laws are quite strict, and large-scale layoffs are especially troublesome. If you start the acquisition directly as you described, the Committee on Foreign Investment will undoubtedly throw such a question at you."

"Can you promise that after the acquisition, the number of existing Blockbuster employee positions will not decline to a certain extent within a certain period? How would you answer?"

Liu Liu Yifei wrinkled her delicate nose; this was indeed a dilemma.

Promising no layoffs meant carrying this burden forward, struggling to compete with Netflix for the future streaming media track;

Not making a promise, or not fulfilling it after making one, would likely lead to the committee rejecting the acquisition application, and the latter would directly lead to heavy federal penalties!

Everything promised at the hearing would be recorded. Investors coming to realize the American Dream couldn't just draw a big picture like some domestic entrepreneurs; data would be closely tracked and evaluated within the commitment period.

What should she do?

Netflix's Hastings was an entrepreneur who guarded strictly against "barbarians." He firmly controlled voting rights within Netflix by setting up AB shares.

Starting with Blockbuster was also a starting point Liu Liu Yifei chose helplessly after evaluating various financial data.

Admittedly, she didn't know how many trump cards Boss Lu actually had.

For example, he could do some shady things through Harvey, or have a pool of acquisition funds far exceeding 2.5 billion USD through Paulson.

But Blockbuster's problem was right there on the surface; this was indeed her oversight, and her consideration of the problem was too superficial.

This was mainly because her thinking wasn't as broad as a reborn person's. For example, the streaming media Boss Lu kept talking about—how could she imagine such a vast industrial blue ocean?

And the Haidilao stores she had invested in were expanding, which made the young girl feel better about the 4,500 stores, naturally feeling that these were high-quality assets.

Boss Lu guided her very patiently: "The three parties competing now—Wenjie, Blockbuster, and Netflix—we are the challengers, and these two are mortal enemies fighting to the death. No matter which side we start from, we will become the hostile camp of the other."

"But what is our true stance? You should be very clear about that, right?"

Liu Liu Yifei nodded: "Our true stance is to defeat, dismantle, and swallow these two companies to become the only streaming media company."

"That's right. Then why should we reveal our identity and stance right from the start, join Blockbuster, and drag a heavy burden to fight Netflix to the death?"

"Besides, Microsoft has already rumored an intention to acquire Netflix. These are all problems that need to be considered."

Boss Lu laughed: "When in doubt about foreign affairs, ask *Dragon Slayer*."

"You should have watched *Crossing the Chishui River Four Times* by now, right? The Old Man used the contradictions between the Xiang Army, the Dian Army, and the Lu Chuan Army to cross the Chishui River four times in the Guizhou-Yunnan-Sichuan triangle, finally jumping out of the encirclement."

"Our situation now is slightly different. Strategically, Wenjie has surrounded Blockbuster and Netflix, but tactically, we are unarmed new recruits, waving money sticks without a clue."

"Based on these judgments, think carefully again: what should we do now?"

With a master's guidance, Little Liu started to sort out the logic of this business war from the beginning.

*War is a way of deception. *

For a challenger, the best way to enter the battlefield is when the fog of war has not yet dispersed.

If she were to brazenly buy a stake in Blockbuster and engage in a head-on confrontation with Netflix, it would be no different from blowing away the fog of war that served as cover, completely exposing her strategic goals to the enemy.

The young girl's face flushed slightly; she seemed to have chosen the most upright, and at the same time, the most stupid method.

She couldn't help but think of the perspective from which he viewed this world, a perspective of overlooking and overriding, which she had glimpsed in the Taro father-son incident. A chessboard suddenly appeared in Liu Liu Yifei's mind. In the early stages of the battle for the future streaming media empire, Wenjie hid behind the fog of war, just like...

That's right!

Why couldn't they first buy a stake in Netflix, help Netflix completely crush Blockbuster, and use the enemy's power to force Blockbuster to cut off one of its own arms and close its core asset physical stores?

In this process, Blockbuster's stock price would fall further, and Wenjie could undoubtedly "cross the sea in secret," acquiring its assets with a higher cost-performance ratio.

To outsiders, Blockbuster's precious physical stores were burdens that Wenjie would want to discard like worn-out shoes?

At least in the current industrial development process, they didn't count as high-quality assets.

Just as Lu Kuan said, Wenjie had surrounded the enemy strategically.

What strategy? The future streaming media strategy!

This was a huge information gap between them and the people of the current world. Currently, only Netflix's Hastings had some preliminary ideas, and this was also the key to creating the fog of war!

Liu Liu Yifei excitedly elaborated on her thinking, not expecting Boss Lu to look at her with great dissatisfaction, as if he had transformed into a tyrant during film shooting.

"Are you a donkey? You only take a step when you're whipped? Can you only see Blockbuster in your eyes? Did you never think about how to plant a mine for Netflix in this process?"

"Oh! That's right!"

The young girl was extremely excited; this was a feeling of sudden enlightenment: "The two are fighting to the death over the DVD rental business right now. After Wenjie buys a stake in Netflix, we should further push them to deepen their cultivation in the DVD business, completely leading them down a path of no return!"

"And, this can be euphemistically called 'for the sake of defeating Blockbuster.' No one will be able to see our strategic intentions!"

"Blockbuster will close its stores itself, and the labor disputes will be left for them to solve. When the time comes, Wenjie, as the one taking over, will be the savior."

"As long as we enter the market at the right time and promise to keep the number of jobs within an acceptable range, I believe the committee will consider giving the green light to the acquisition! Right!"

What is the "right time"?

Closing more than half of the 4,500 stores across the US is a relatively appropriate number.

It won't make Wenjie, the one taking over, pay too high a price, and it can give the Trade Commission and the Department of Justice enough bargaining chips to push the federal compliance review to give the green light.

Even if he is Chinese, the possibility of this deal succeeding is very high.

The logic is very simple: it's kidnapping the interests of the voters.

Acquiring a listed company in the US, besides doing detailed work through professional lobbying firms on K Street, also requires pushing the pressure of public opinion from US voters onto the committee from the side.

This involves the endogenous chain in the US electoral and political system.

For example, Wenjie acquires Blockbuster and promises to continue the operation of more than 2,000 stores on the verge of closing, keeping at least 10,000 jobs.

Legislators in specific states heavily affected by this will naturally shout and cheer for this acquisition for the sake of votes.

For legislators, creating job opportunities and keeping jobs is their political correctness and the key to winning elections.

And this will, in turn, force state legislators to exert pressure on Congress, the Department of Justice, and the federal Committee on Foreign Investment, while also facilitating the work of lobbying firms.

Driven by the interest chain from top to bottom, Wenjie will be packaged as a beacon of light that saves more than 10,000 jobs and extends the life of Blockbuster, this dying giant.

Liu Liu Yifei spoke more and more smoothly. Under Boss Lu's guidance, she sorted out the context of the event, and the next step was to fill in and implement some details.

She suddenly thought of the Old Man pointing at the map in *Dragon Slayer*:

"Let Zhou Hunyuan think we are going to attack Guiyang, let Wu Qiwei think we are going to attack Kunming, but in reality, we are going to eat Long Yun's cured meat."

By the same token, let Netflix think they are going to fight Blockbuster, then buy a stake in Blockbuster, and let Netflix think they are coming to compete for hegemony in the DVD market.

Finally, turn the guns around and intercept the strategic intention of realizing the streaming media layout in advance.

Little Liu let out a long sigh, once again marveling at the wisdom of the great man.

"This time I really understand. What do you need me to do?"

Boss Lu said in a deep voice: "I will have people start talking to Carl Icahn, Blockbuster's major shareholder, about the 15% equity in his hands. Standard & Poor's rating for Blockbuster is now 'junk,' and Carl Icahn's holding price has been cut in half from 10 USD; he is eager to sell."

"At the same time, you will be packaged as Chinese capital to talk to Netflix about buying a stake. I will have Disney's Iger introduce you. Do you know how to talk?"

Liu Liu Yifei in the Penguin video wrinkled her smooth brows: "Exert as much influence as possible, persuade Netflix's Reed Hastings to focus on the life-and-death battle in the DVD rental market, and drag them into the mud."

The young girl pondered for a while and looked up, feeling a bit lost: "Is... is there anything else?"

Boss Lu laughed: "Not for now. Just be careful not to have too much contact with Huang Anna, Chen Chen Shijun, and others on the surface."

"In addition, you must pay attention to Hastings. He is an extremely confident, even arrogant person. I don't know if he has had the idea of transitioning to streaming media yet. You must know how to avoid the important and dwell on the trivial when talking to him."

"If he talks about streaming media, you must judge the situation and make demands with the investment funds."

"Mm, I know."

Buying Blockbuster uses a "gunman" fund that no one, including Liu Liu Yifei, knows about; buying a stake in Netflix is a company personally controlled by Liu Liu Yifei.

The former is unknown to anyone; the latter has some connection to him after peeling the cocoon, after all, there was that Fox incident, but it's not too big.

Celebrity couples in the eyes of Westerners might even be more casual than changing their breakfast flavors every day.

As for Twitter, which is actually controlled by Liu Ayi, there is a CEO on the surface to execute company affairs, and it has nothing to do with Lu Kuan or Liu Liu Yifei.

After all, even if Liu Ayi is the major shareholder behind the scenes, she isn't socializing everywhere and doing business negotiations every day; she's just sitting in a position.

Just like the legal representative of a domestic enterprise, they aren't all the leading figures of the enterprise on the surface; they just bear legal responsibility.

If Liu Ayi doesn't come forward, unless someone with a heart digs into the relationship, no one will pay attention.

Looking at it from another angle, in fact, the struggle between Blockbuster and Netflix is quite dramatic.

Today in 2006, the two are still at a stalemate.

But Blockbuster's major shareholder, Carl Icahn, is known as the "Wolf of Wall Street." He will soon force CEO Antioco out because of a 7.6 million USD bonus issue, leading to Netflix's comprehensive dominance.

After defeating Blockbuster, Hastings led Netflix to resolutely transition to streaming media in 2007.

Entering the market early, the battle between Blockbuster and Netflix hasn't reached a white-hot stage;

A little later, Netflix, led by Hastings, will soar into the sky and become the top enterprise in the world to lay out streaming media.

Therefore, now is the best opportunity for Wenjie to enter the market!

This time the situation is special, belonging to a two-front war.

To be safe, of course, it would be most secure for Boss Lu to sit in North America himself, but domestically, there are both the Olympic plan and the filming of the massacre movie; he really can't spare himself.

He can only remote-control the command.

On one side is North American Wenjie, and on the other is Twitter, which has no relationship on the surface and whose equity distribution looks like it has no relationship either.

And as for the candidate to buy a stake in Netflix first and confront the top entrepreneur Hastings, Lu Kuan doesn't have many choices.

He only told Liu Liu Yifei about the streaming media layout, and now she is the only one around him who can shoulder this trust and also possesses certain capabilities.

For her, this time is also a tempering.

Boss Lu was still a bit worried and made his words more detailed to avoid strategic misjudgment when Little Liu encountered problems.

"On the timeline, you must have a deadline in your heart. Early 2007 is when we will launch the final acquisition of Netflix."

"Before this, whether it is the acquisition of Blockbuster or the accumulation of Netflix shares, it must be completed at the fastest speed."

"Why?" Little Liu isn't a reborn person; how would she know that Netflix in 2007 would embark on a transformation path?

Similarly, she also doesn't know that the first batch of 1 billion USD in CDS injected by this man in the screen at the "Big Short" Paulson's place will harvest for the first time early next year, providing bullets for the Netflix acquisition war.

Boss Lu smiled: "There is no why, just do as I say."

Liu Liu Yifei looked dissatisfied: "Hmph, your brain is divided into three parts: one part is tricks to pit people, one part is your various secrets, and one part is movies."

"Missing one part, right?" Boss Lu sighed leisurely, and with a *click* of his lighter, he started to puff away on the screen.

"What?"

"Women! For example, someone's 'lust, caution' just now!"

"You, you, you washing machine, you're not allowed to talk about it anymore!" The young girl's earlobes instantly flushed with a coral tide. Recalling the scene that was so embarrassing just now, she couldn't help but tighten her clothes again.

The most intimate contact before this was just playing in the pool, but just now it was really vacuum...

Her well-proportioned legs under the table overlapped from time to time, accompanied by the maidenly shyness of someone who hadn't experienced human affairs, and an itch sprouted from her body.

It was this kind of shyness, like a narcissus unable to withstand the cool wind, that was more seductive than countless big breasts and fat buttocks.

The young director once again sighed that "flowers should be picked when they can be picked." Looking at the girl on the screen, he remembered a short poem he wrote when he was a literary youth in his past life:

*Her beauty is the most exquisite alchemy since the creation of the world, forging Adam's rib back into the pillars of the Muse's temple. *

Boss Lu didn't know how many people's "white moonlight" Little Liu was, but it was clear that the cinnabar mole on her chest was destined to belong only to him.

He suddenly asked out of the blue: "What did you mean when you asked where I was and what I was doing just now?"

Little Liu's breathing choked: "Nothing, just asking casually."

Boss Lu's expression was indifferent: "Oh, that's fine then."

"Then digest the hints I just gave you, check for omissions and fill in the gaps yourself. You can look at business cases related to Hastings recently to get to know him as a person first."

"Mm, I know."

The young director was suspicious in his heart, but seeing her tight face, he didn't want to be too aggressive: "Then that's it?"

Little Liu thought of what happened just now, and her mood wasn't very beautiful either. Fortunately, Boss Lu's work video could be considered a "clarification" for the time being.

She didn't want to hang up, but she pursed her lips, not knowing what to say: "I'm going to school, hang up."

Boss Lu nodded and directly crossed out the interface.

How could the suspicious Cao Cao be dismissed by Little Liu's "casual question"?

When the video connected, the young girl's slightly red eye sockets and messy hair, her expression of having no love for life, plus the two questions she blurted out.

She should have known that Fan Fan Bingbing came to the crew to find him, right?

Either Little Liu was using her old tricks again, and there was another Sun Sun Wenwen by his side;

Or Fan Bingbing was using her old tricks again, wanting to step into the same river twice, but the possibility of either was not high.

Liu Liu Yifei was very proud; since the birthday banquet, she hadn't mentioned his relationship with certain women.

Fan Bingbing was also very cautious now; she was truly scared out of her wits last time, and now she was focused on standing at the top of the pyramid in the entertainment industry.

Boss Lu suddenly felt like he had thorns on his back. Out of caution, he sent Fan Bingbing a message: he wouldn't go anywhere tonight and would stay in his room to draw the storyboards for *Sky of History*.

The Hyde Park villa was wrapped in the warm sun of spring, and the sunlight climbed onto the script Liu Liu Yifei had spread out through the window lattice, scorching her curled eyelashes.

The young girl finally came back to her senses from the series of events just now.

Like Boss Lu, she was also secretly pondering: who was the person who sent the message?

Fan Fan Bingbing was the first suspect, but she knew that with the "washing machine's" methods, her doing this wasn't using old tricks, but "repeating the same mistakes."

He would absolutely not allow anyone to create "surprises" for himself again and again.

Referencing Sun Sun Wenwen, mere suspicion was enough to sentence her to death.

Now she was just exiled to North America.

Fan Bingbing was the same back then; the mental torment she suffered stemmed from the young director's presumption of guilt and free judgment.

Little Liu flipped through the anonymous number on her phone, intending to call back, but thought better of it.

After opening her computer and finding out it was Beijing Mobile, she casually searched for news about the *Huang Jinjia* crew.

Being able to know Fan Fan Bingbing's visit and lie about them having an affair, it wouldn't be unrelated to the *Huang Jinjia* crew.

【*Huang Jinjia* crew undergoes major changes, Zhang Zhang Yimou changes the script midway】

【Lu Kuan and Zhang Zhang Yimou join forces again after the Olympic opening ceremony, working together to present a New Year's blockbuster for the audience】

【First-generation "Mou Girl" Gong Li and new-generation "Mou Girl" Yang Mi】

Yang Mi?

Clicking the mouse repeatedly, Liu Liu Yifei's eyes sparkled. She stopped at the last news item and clicked to read it for a long time.

The news was a press release bought by Yanda Huayi, and at the end of the article was a hyperlink to Yang Mi's blog V-number.

She clicked it; the recent posts were all behind-the-scenes footage of the *Huang Jinjia* crew. The account had about 4 million followers, which was quite considerable among this batch of "artificial little flowers" imitating Liu Liu Yifei.

Latest blog post...

Photo album...

Browsing history...

Three minutes ago, visited Liu Liu Yifei's VIP homepage;

Five minutes ago, visited Liu Liu Yifei's VIP homepage;

Ten minutes ago, visited Liu Liu Yifei's VIP homepage...

There were also other sporadic records of liking and replying to fan comments.

Why is she suddenly paying such close attention to me?

The young girl's phoenix eyes were still clear and bright, but recalling the suspicion of Yang Mi at the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers banquet that year, her face instantly frosted over.

She went out to find Liu Ayi, who was arranging flowers, and took another spare phone into the room. This was the work phone she used when she was a guest assistant for her daughter.

Little Liu first used her own phone to dial Yang Mi's number.

At the Hengdian VIP Building Hotel, Big Mimi was pacing restlessly in the room.

She didn't know if these two messages had any effect.

The first one was sent and sank into the sea.

She didn't care whether Fan Fan Bingbing had a relationship with Lu Kuan or if the two were meeting in private; she just went all out and sent the second one.

As a slanderer and informant, where would there be an obligation to find out the truth?

She only needed to hand over the suspicion and doubt to a certain pure girl, believing that she would choose a way out through internal friction and suspicion or by facing it and then firing back.

No matter how she chose, just like the plot of the birthday banquet, it was naturally beneficial to a third party like herself.

A sudden ringtone shattered Big Mimi's complicated thoughts. She looked at the caller and her pupils dilated.

It wasn't fear; it was excitement!

It must be that she's looking for verification!

"Hello? Sister Xixi?"

"Mi Mi, are you busy?"

"No, no, why did you think of calling me?"

Little Liu stood in the courtyard, the sunlight seeming to plate her raven-black, waterfall-like hair with a layer of glaze. From a distance, there was a golden arc.

She pressed the cold phone to her ear, and her right hand, holding her mother's spare phone, had already entered the number of the anonymous text message and dialed it directly!

"Nothing, just saw you were in the *Huang Jinjia* crew, concerned about how your filming is going lately."

Big Mimi giggled: "Last time you signed with Disney in Xiangjiang, it's a pity I had just joined the crew and couldn't attend the 'Bestie Night.' Tang Yan even scolded me for it!"

Yang Mi was getting close in her words, looking at her good figure in the floor-to-ceiling mirror, when suddenly the screen of the other phone on the table lit up!

She wasn't too panicked, walking over calmly to see what was going on: "By the way, Sister Xixi, when are you returning to the country to join Director Lu's new movie? This time, no matter what, I have to host a welcome party for you."

"Should be in the summer vacation, right? It's not very certain yet; I'm waiting for notification too."

Liu Liu Yifei wrinkled her smooth forehead, not noticing a trace of abnormality, continuing to chat idly, while her right hand edited a text message and sent it out.

The phone call was useless; try a text message to "beat the grass and startle the snake."

【Yang Mi, I know it's you!】

The young girl still had an ancient-well-like tone: "Mi Mi, is Director Zhang strict with actors?"

She calculated that the text message should have arrived by now, right? She pressed the phone tightly to her ear.

Unless you power off, or it's on silent.

But Little Liu was now an "old drama bone" with profound line skills. Any emotional fluctuation in Yang Mi's sharp voice could cause a different auditory effect.

"Ah? Oh! Strict... strict." Yang Mi looked at the message on the other phone and was terrified in her heart!

Out of the instinct of a guilty conscience, she wished she could transform into the "Six-Fingered Demoness," rushing to power off, not noticing she had knocked over the perfume she had just used on the table.

Little Liu in the Hyde Park villa courtyard had her pupils shrink to pinpoints, listening to the sound of hard objects colliding with the floor on the other end of the phone, and listening to the flaw in Yang Mi's answer just now.

The latter "strict" was like a dandelion scattered by the wind; the short-byte vocabulary, which should have been rounded in pronunciation, unexpectedly had a wrinkle in it—

According to Grotowski, this is a typical breath fault.

"What's wrong, Mi Mi, what's that sound?"

Yang Mi swallowed her saliva and came back to her senses in seconds: "Nothing, Sister Xixi, I knocked over that bottle of Dior cedar you gave me, my heart aches!"

In the hotel room, Big Mimi bent down to deal with the perfume bottle debris, the floor-to-ceiling mirror reflecting her tense spine.

Little Liu's expression was calm, but her tone became more and more vivid: "It's okay, I'll bring you another one when I return to the country. I used the same one after showering just now, but the base note is citrus."

"Okay Sister Xixi, thank you. I won't talk to you for now, I need to deal with the glass shards."

"Mm, bye."

On both sides of the Pacific, across a distance of 10,000 kilometers, it seemed there were two bottles of perfume side by side, refracting a treacherous rainbow light.

The scent of citrus and cedar was silently fighting in the air.

New month, brothers, please vote! Please vote! Thank you!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 330 =====