Chapter 329: Spring Light Leaks Out

Yang Mi’s thoughts were very simple.

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

At that time, she was a bit confused:

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

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

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

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

How could Big Mimi dare to face her head-on? She could only secretly pull some small stunts.

At 8:30 PM Beijing time, which was 7:30 AM in Chicago on the other side of the globe, an overseas message made the phone on Liu Yifei’s desk buzz and tremble.

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 workout 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 on her face; in fact, she had already received consultations from many wealthy women and celebrity employers.

"Crystal, what you want to ask about should be methods other than surgical breast augmentation and taking pills, 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 workouts with this retired Marine bodyguard and increased the intensity, her little bottom had become perkier, but her chest seemed to be gradually shrinking!

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

A woman dresses for the one she loves, so naturally, she wanted to be more charming.

Or rather... sexually attractive.

That dog’s lecherous nature was practically a consensus among all of humanity!

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

"Increase the thickness of your pectoralis major by 3 centimeters, and your visual cup size will go up by two—remember that silicone-breasted starlet who called me last week? Her agent even came to ask me how to train for those underarm lines."

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

Improving the beauty of a certain place.

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

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

Little Liu’s porcelain-white ankles were tinted 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 into a small lake in the hollow of her collarbone.

Her nineteen-year-old skin still carried the light sweat from her morning run, steaming in the morning sun with the fuzzy halo of a peach that was not yet fully ripe, truly still possessing a childlike innocence.

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

Artists, after all, all seek a return to simplicity.

Women are the same.

What scene could be more intoxicating to an artist than their own muse, whom they had cultivated themselves, jumping out of the frame and standing prettily before them?

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

[Lu Kuan and Fan Bingbing are together right now.]

What is this?

For a strange phone number and message in 2006, the screen naturally did not display the origin of the number.

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

This single message alone was enough to make her heart tighten.

The morning light refracted off the mirror-finish lacquer of the Nokia N93, creating tiny spots of light, just like her threshold of courage that was currently collapsing.

Liu Yifei’s wet thumb slipped on the navigation key three times, and the metal keypad made a ticking sound as it touched the water stains.

She saw the previous unread message again.

[Fan Bingbing is coming to the *Curse of the Golden Flower* set to visit the crew today.]

The moment the young girl’s wet hair fell and swept across the screen, it happened to cover the word "Bingbing" in the message.

Her eyes instantly grew hot; she held up the phone, and the vanity mirror reflected her pupils, dilated from nervousness.

Looking at the characters in the anonymous text that pierced her heart like a sharp sword, 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 he should be in the car or under the car assaulted her fragile nerves once again—

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

The key was, did she even have the standing to do so?

Little Liu had even confessed to Liu Xiaoli that under the skyscrapers of Manhattan, Boss Lu’s so-called pursuit was merely a public relations tactic.

To put it even 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 the call, what tone and attitude should she use to verify it?

But the way he had catered to her every whim and been so caring during the Lunar New Year, surely that couldn't all be a fake facade?

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

Liu Yifei even felt like retreating; she didn't dare to make this call. She wanted to be like an ostrich, burying her head in the sand, 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 confirmed a relationship with him, so why use these facts that were already determined long ago 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 forceful pressure.

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

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

The phone’s hot keypad left the prints of her fingers, like a humiliating personal seal.

Can powering off isolate this torture of wild thoughts?

She dared not ask, and there was nowhere to escape.

Little Liu lay on the desk, feeling dejected; the script page in front of 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 Chunru’s eyes were 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 wallow in the illusion she had woven for herself, not daring to pierce that veil.

The more she gained, the more she feared losing it.

She feared that another break would be a final farewell.

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

Liu Yifei jerked her upper body straight; the video request notification startled her out of the bullet time she had been drowning in, 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 first, with the monotonous background of a hotel room behind him.

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

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

Liu Yifei didn't speak either, watching quietly as the camera shook, his bluish lower eyelids bumping into the screen.

The laptop’s webcam seemed to be pulled back by Boss Lu, and more background elements entered the frame.

On the table were ashtrays filled with cigarette butts like a sword graveyard, coffee cups and stirrers, and paper drafts piled all over the desk...

It didn't look like some night of intimacy filled with ambiguous elements, but more like the workaholic’s who-knows-which-all-nighter he had pulled?

The image froze slightly; 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 shaking!

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

On the Penguin video screen, Liu Yifei’s bathrobe had slipped down a notch 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 caught snugly at the rise, paired with a patch of tender white, like the boundary of the snow line in early spring that was melting but not yet gone.

And that little mole on her chest, just inches away, rose and fell with her breathing.

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

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

The water residue remaining from her hair slid down, plowing a glistening gully on the snowy plain of her chest.

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

Boss Lu hesitated for a long time before reluctantly moving his eyes away and speaking to prompt her.

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

"Ah!"

The young girl looked down following his gaze, suddenly let out a gasp like a kitten with its fur standing on end, and quickly covered the laptop.

The force was so great it was as if she wanted to slam the young director’s face from the screen onto the desk!

She hurriedly armed herself completely, but the "half-hidden behind the lute" view of the young girl’s body had already been seen in its entirety by the washing machine.

When the video connected again, Boss Lu looked at her with a playful expression: "Little Liu, you’ve learned to be bad, haven't you? Pulling this trick on me, are you?"

"Pulling your head! You lecher!"

Liu Yifei simply could not look directly at his aggressive gaze any longer, biting her lower lip hard.

Her skin after a fresh bath shimmered with a glazed luster on the screen; seemingly recalling the earlier intimacy, a layer of pale pink quickly suffused her porcelain-white, pretty face.

Boss Lu continued to tease her: "You intentionally turned off your phone to force me to video call you, and then..."

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

Not knowing if it was the demonic gaze Boss Lu had just used that gave her confidence, or if his proactive video call behavior seemed natural and unhidden, Liu Yifei asked huffily: "Where are you! What are you doing!?"

Boss Lu was bewildered: "I'm at the *Curse of the Golden Flower* set, don't you know that?"

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

Liu Yifei squinted at the man in the video with her phoenix eyes, her inner hesitation slightly eased, yet she still held back from asking the core question directly.

She was afraid, too.

She was afraid he was lying to her, and also afraid he wasn't.

She truly did not want to taste even a tiny bit of the despair and bitterness from that moment just now.

However, this did not stop Liu Yifei from using her favored status to fish for information: "How did you get a cut on your chin?"

The young director looked at her with some suspicion.

How did this tone sound like she was following clues, or perhaps making a bold assumption before seeking even bolder verification?

You might as well just ask directly if I was messing around with a woman just now.

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

The young director said helplessly: "It's normal for a man to get a cut while shaving, don't make a fuss over nothing."

"Oh." Liu Yifei was expressionless, clearly in a bad mood: "What do you want with me? Spit it out!"

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

Liu Yifei'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 were even outside the scope of disclosure obligations for listed companies, clearly obtained through her connections at that business school.

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

Liu Yifei had a serious face: "Yes!"

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

"And Netflix's market value is now over 1.4 billion USD; although its debt is minimal, Netflix's Hastings holds Class B shares with 10 times the voting rights. Unless you have complete control of Netflix, will he listen to a Chinese person bossing him around?"

As the top two DVD rental giants in the United States, the competitive situation between Blockbuster and Netflix reached a fever pitch in 2006.

Netflix followed an online subscription model with no physical stores, offering unlimited mailing at $9.99/month, one disc at a time; once finished, postal workers would collect the disc, and the client could place a new order.

This move by Hastings directly destroyed the asset-heavy Blockbuster, whose rental business was still mostly offline.

But Blockbuster's CEO Antioco also launched a fierce counterattack; he introduced the Total Access plan, where users could return items to stores and have them delivered online.

Because Blockbuster had 4,500 stores across the U.S., they were present in almost every community.

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

Similar to later online shopping, with Blockbuster I could go downstairs and rent a disc to watch at home, but Netflix required waiting for the mail.

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

This was a fatal flaw, but one that had to be charged due to the massive number of stores and operating costs.

Based on this competitive background, Liu Yifei continued to elaborate on her point: "Blockbuster's Antioco has already started to push this all-around rental model; I think Blockbuster's valuation will rebound, and now is a good opportunity for you to buy in."

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

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

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

"Your basic thinking isn't a big problem, but your mindset is still too one-sided, lacking a comprehensive consideration of the overall situation."

Liu Yifei 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 everything?"

"Don't make excuses. I'll just ask you one fatal question: as you said, acquire Blockbuster with less than 2 billion USD, pledge the equity, or use the remaining 500 million to maintain store operations and make the transition to streaming."

"Blockbuster has 4,500 stores in the U.S. and 7,500 worldwide. Why do you think the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States would give the green light?"

"I've already told you about the Twitter issue; the infiltration and counter-infiltration in the ideological field between countries always exist. 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 with such a magnitude of reach into American residential communities were really used to achieve certain political goals."

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

"American 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 within a certain period after the acquisition, you will keep the number of existing Blockbuster employee positions from declining? How would you answer?"

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

If she promised not to lay off staff, she would have to carry this burden forward, struggling to compete with Netflix for the future streaming track;

If she didn't make a promise, or didn't fulfill it after promising, the former would likely lead to the committee rejecting the acquisition application, and the latter would directly lead to heavy federal penalties!

All promises made at hearings are recorded. Investors coming to realize the American Dream cannot just paint a big picture and be done with it like some mainland entrepreneurs; data must be closely tracked and evaluated within the commitment period.

What should be done?

Netflix's Hastings is an entrepreneur who guards against barbarians; he firmly controls voting rights within Netflix by setting up AB shares.

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

Admittedly, she didn't know how many trump cards Boss Lu 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 the problem with Blockbuster was right there on the surface; this was indeed her oversight, as her consideration of the problem remained on the surface.

This was mainly because her thinking was not as broad as a reborn person's; for example, how could she imagine the grand industrial blue ocean of the streaming media Boss Lu kept talking about?

And the Haidilao stores she had invested in were expanding, which made the young girl have a better impression of the 4,500 stores, naturally feeling that they were high-quality assets.

Boss Lu guided her very patiently: "The three parties competing now—Wanjie, Blockbuster, and Netflix—we are the challengers, and these two are rivals 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 position? You should be very clear about it, right?"

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

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

"Besides, Microsoft has already expressed interest in acquiring Netflix; these are all issues to consider."

Boss Lu smiled: "For foreign affairs, consult *Crossing the Dragon*."

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

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

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

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

Warfare is the art 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 into Blockbuster and engage in a direct confrontation with Netflix, it would be tantamount to blowing away the fog of war that served as cover, exposing her strategic goals completely to the enemy.

The young girl's pretty 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 she had glimpsed in the Taro father-son incident, his perspective on this world—a perspective of overlooking and overriding. A chessboard suddenly appeared in Liu Yifei's mind; in the early stages of the battle for the future streaming empire, Wanjie hid behind the fog of war, just like...

That's it!

Why not buy into Netflix first, help Netflix completely crush Blockbuster, and use the enemy's momentum to force Blockbuster to cut off an arm and close its core heavy-asset stores?

In this process, Blockbuster's stock price would fall further, and Wanjie could undoubtedly cross the sea under camouflage to acquire its assets with a higher cost-performance ratio.

The offline stores that outsiders considered precious were, in Wanjie's eyes, burdens to be discarded like worn-out shoes, right?

At least in the current industrial development process, they were not very high-quality assets.

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

What strategy? The future streaming strategy!

This was a huge information gap with the people of the world; currently, only Netflix's Hastings had some preliminary ideas, which was also the key to creating the fog of war!

Liu Yifei excitedly explained her thoughts, not expecting Boss Lu to look at her with great dissatisfaction, as if he had transformed back into the tyrant during film shooting.

"Are you a donkey? You only move when whipped? Can you only see Blockbuster in your eyes? Didn't you think about how to plant mines for Netflix in this process?"

"Oh! That's right!"

The young girl was extremely excited; this was a feeling of sudden enlightenment: "The two companies are fighting to the death over the DVD rental business. After Wanjie buys into Netflix, we should further promote its deep cultivation of the DVD business and completely lead it down a path of no return!"

"And this can be euphemistically called defeating Blockbuster; no one will be able to see our strategic intent!"

"Blockbuster will close its own stores, and the labor disputes will be left for them to solve. When the time comes, Wanjie, as the successor, will be the savior."

"As long as we enter at the right time and promise an acceptable level of employment, 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 U.S. is a relatively appropriate number.

It won't make Wanjie pay too high a price, and it can provide enough bargaining chips for the Trade Commission and the Department of Justice 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 voters.

Acquiring a listed company in the U.S., besides doing meticulous work through professional lobbying firms on K Street, also requires pushing the public opinion pressure that American voters bring to the committee from the side.

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

For example, Wanjie acquires Blockbuster and promises to continue the 2,000-plus stores on the verge of closing, saving at least 10,000 jobs.

Legislators in specific states significantly 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 chain of interests from top to bottom, Wenjie will be packaged as a beacon of light that saves over ten thousand jobs and extends the life of the dying giant, Blockbuster.

Liu Yifei spoke more and more fluently, and under the guidance of Boss Lu, she cleared up the context of the event; what followed was filling in and executing some details.

She suddenly thought of the old man in "Dragon Slayer" pointing at the map:

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

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

Finally, turn the guns around to intercept and realize the strategic intent of the streaming media layout in advance.

Little Liu sighed deeply, 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 Blockbuster's major shareholder Carl Icahn about the 15% stake he holds. Currently, Standard & Poor's rating for Blockbuster is junk, and Carl Icahn's holding price has been cut in half from 10 dollars, so he is eager to sell."

"At the same time, you will be packaged as a Chinese capitalist to negotiate an investment with Netflix. I will have Disney's Iger help you with an introduction. Do you know how to negotiate?"

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

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

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

"Additionally, you must be careful with Hastings. He is a person who is extremely confident to the point of arrogance. 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 discussing things with him."

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

"Mm, I understand."

Buying Blockbuster uses a hedge fund that no one, including Liu Yifei, knows about, while the investment in Netflix is through a company personally controlled by Liu Yifei.

The former is known to no one, and the latter has some connection to him when peeled back—after all, there was that Fox incident—but it is not considered too significant.

In the eyes of Westerners, wealthy couples are perhaps even more casual than changing breakfast flavors every day.

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

After all, even if Liu Xiaoli is the major shareholder behind the scenes, she is not socializing or conducting business negotiations every day; she is just holding a position.

Just like the legal representative of a domestic enterprise, they are not necessarily the leading figure on the surface of the company, but merely bear legal responsibility.

As long as Liu Xiaoli does not come forward, no one will pay attention unless someone with ulterior motives digs into the relationships within.

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 out CEO Antioco over a 7.6 million dollar bonus issue, leading to Netflix gaining total dominance.

In later years, after defeating Blockbuster, Hastings resolutely led Netflix to transition to streaming media in 2007.

Enter early, and the struggle between Blockbuster and Netflix has not yet reached a fever pitch;

Wait any longer, and Netflix, led by Hastings, will soar into the sky, becoming the world's first top-tier enterprise to lay out a streaming media strategy.

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

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 personally sit in North America, but there is both the Olympic Games plan and the filming of the massacre movie domestically, so he is truly unable to be in two places at once.

He can only command by remote control.

On one side is North American Wenjie, and on the other is Twitter, which has no relationship on the surface and whose shareholding distribution also appears to have no relationship.

And as for the candidate to first invest in Netflix and face off against the top entrepreneur Hastings, Lu Kuan does not have many choices.

He only told Liu Yifei about the streaming media layout; currently, she is the only one around him who can bear this trust and also possesses a certain level of ability.

For her, this is also a tempering.

Boss Lu was still a bit uneasy, so he explained things more meticulously to avoid Little Liu causing strategic misjudgments when encountering problems.

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

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

"Why?" Little Liu is not a reborn person, so how would she know that Netflix in 2007 would embark on a path of transformation;

Likewise, she also does not know that the first 1 billion dollars of CDS invested by this man on the screen in the Big Short Paulson's fund will be harvested for the first time early next year, providing ammunition for the Netflix acquisition war.

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

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

"Missing one, aren't you?" Boss Lu sighed leisurely, his lighter clicked, and he began to puff away on the screen.

"What?"

"Women! For example, someone's accidental exposure just now!"

"You, you, you washing machine, you are not allowed to talk about it anymore!" The little girl's earlobes instantly flushed with a coral-colored tide, and remembering the scene that was so shameful, she unconsciously tightened the clothes on her body again.

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

Her well-proportioned calves, placed under the table, overlapped from time to time, accompanied by the shyness of a girl who had not yet experienced the world, sprouting an itch from within her body.

It is precisely this kind of shyness, like a narcissus unable to bear the cool breeze, that is more alluring than countless voluptuous bodies.

The young director once again sighed that flowers should be plucked when they can be, and looking at the girl on the screen, he recalled a short poem he wrote when he was a literary youth in his previous 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 does not know how many people's "white moonlight" Little Liu is, but clearly, the cinnabar mole on her chest is destined to belong only to him.

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

Little Liu's breath hitched: "Nothing, just asking casually."

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

"Then digest the tips I just gave you, check for gaps and fill them yourself. You can take a look at business cases related to Hastings recently to understand him as a person first."

"Mm, I know."

The young director was suspicious, but seeing her pretty face tense up, he didn't want to be too aggressive: "Then that's it?"

Little Liu remembered that incident just now, and her mood was not very beautiful either; fortunately, Boss Lu's work video counted as a "clarification" for the time being.

She didn't want to hang up, but pouted, not knowing what else to say: "I'm going to school, let's hang up."

Boss Lu nodded and directly closed the interface.

Could the naturally suspicious Cao Cao be dismissed by Little Liu's "just asking casually"?

When the video connected, the little girl's slightly red eye sockets and messy hair, her expression of utter hopelessness, plus the two questions that blurted out.

She must have known that Fan Bingbing came to the set to find him, right?

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

Or Bingbing herself was repeating old tricks, wanting to step into the same river twice, but the possibility of either was not high.

Liu Yifei is very proud; since the birthday party, she has never mentioned his relationship with certain women.

Bingbing is also very cautious now; she was truly scared out of her wits last time, and now she is focused on reaching the pinnacle of the entertainment industry.

Boss Lu suddenly felt a prickle on his back. Out of caution, he sent a message to Bingbing, saying he wouldn't go anywhere tonight and would stay in his room to draw the storyboards for "Sky of History".

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

Only then did the little girl come back to her senses from the series of events just now.

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

Fan Bingbing was the first suspect, but she knew that with the washing machine's methods, what she did was not repeating old tricks, but "following the same disastrous path."

He would absolutely never allow anyone to create "surprises" for him again and again.

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

Now she has just been exiled to North America.

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

Little Liu looked at the strange number on her phone, intended to call back, but thought better of it.

After checking on the computer that it was Beijing Mobile, she casually searched for news about the "Curse of the Golden Flower" crew.

The person who knew Fan Bingbing visited and lied that the two had an affair could not be unrelated to the "Curse of the Golden Flower" crew.

["Curse of the Golden Flower" crew undergoes major reform, Zhang Yimou changes the script midway]

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

[First-generation Yimou Girl Gong Li and new-generation Yimou Girl Yang Mi]

Yang Mi?

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

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

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

Latest blog post...

Photo album...

Browsing history...

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

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

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

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

Why is she suddenly paying such close attention to her?

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

She went out to find Liu Xiaoli, who was arranging flowers, to get another spare phone and went 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 Hotel, Yang Mi paced back and forth in her room, feeling restless.

She didn't know if those two messages would have any effect.

The first one she sent had vanished like a stone into the sea.

Regardless of whether Fan Bingbing actually had any connection to Lu Kuan or if the two were currently meeting in private, she gathered her resolve and sent the second one in one go.

As a slandering informant, where would one have the obligation to investigate the truth?

She only needed to leave the suspicion and doubt to a certain innocent young girl, trusting that she would choose a way out through internal friction and suspicion or by confronting the situation head-on.

No matter what she chose, just like the plot of the birthday banquet, it would naturally be advantageous to a third party like herself.

A sudden ringtone shattered Yang Mi’s complex state of mind; her pupils dilated slightly as she looked at the caller.

It wasn't fear; it was excitement!

She must be calling to verify things with her!

"Hello? Xixi?"

"Mi Mi, are you busy?"

"No, not at all. What made you think to call me?"

Liu Yifei stood in the courtyard, the sunlight seemingly plating her raven-colored, waterfall-like hair with a layer of glaze, creating golden arcs when viewed from afar.

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

"Nothing much, just saw you were in the *Curse of the Golden Flower* crew and wanted to see how your filming has been lately."

Yang Mi laughed coquettishly: "Last time you signed with Disney in Xiangjiang, it was a pity I had just joined the crew and couldn't attend our girls' night. Tang Yan even scolded me for it!"

Yang Mi was trying to get close in her speech, looking at her own beautiful figure in the floor-length mirror, when suddenly the screen of the other phone on the table lit up!

She didn't panic too much, walking over calmly to see what it was: "By the way, Xixi, when are you returning to the country to join Director Lu's new film? I have to host a welcome dinner for you this time no matter what."

"Probably during the summer break? It’s not quite certain yet, I’m waiting for notification too."

Liu Yifei furrowed her smooth brow, not noticing a hint of anything unusual, continuing to chat aimlessly while her right hand composed and sent a text message.

A phone call was useless; she would try to flush out the snake by beating the grass with a text.

[Yang Mi, I know it's you!]

The young girl maintained her calm, unruffled tone: "Mi Mi, is Director Zhang strict with the actors?"

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

Unless you turned it off, or it was on silent.

But Liu Yifei was now an "old pro" with deep training in line delivery; even the slightest emotional fluctuation in Yang Mi's sharp voice could produce a different auditory effect.

"Ah? Oh! Strict... he's strict." Yang Mi looked at the message on the other phone and was terrified!

Out of the instinct of a guilty conscience, she wished she could transform into the Six-Fingered Demoness, rushing to turn off the phone, and accidentally knocked over the perfume she had just used on the table.

In the courtyard of the Hyde Park villa, Liu Yifei’s pupils contracted to pinpoints as she listened to the sound of a hard object colliding with the floor on the other end of the line, and the flaw in Yang Mi’s response.

The latter part, "he's strict," was like a dandelion scattered by the wind; the short-byte vocabulary, which should have been articulated clearly, had wrinkled unexpectedly—

In the words of Grotowski, this was a classic break in breath.

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

Yang Mi swallowed, regaining her composure in a split second: "It's nothing, Xixi. I knocked over that bottle of Dior Cedar you gave me. It hurts my heart so much!"

In the hotel room, Yang Mi leaned over to clean up the debris of the perfume bottle, her tense spine reflected in the floor-length mirror.

Liu Yifei’s expression was serene, but her tone became increasingly vivid: "It's okay, I'll bring you another one when I return to the country. I used the same one after my shower just now, though the base note is citrus."

"That's great, Xixi, thank you! I won't talk to you for now, I need to hurry and clean up the glass shards."

"Mm, bye."

On both sides of the Pacific, across a distance of ten thousand kilometers, there seemed to be two perfume bottles side-by-side, refracting an eerie, iridescent light.

The scents of citrus and cedar fought silently in the air.

A new month, brothers, please vote! Please vote! Thank you!

(End of this chapter)