Rebirth of the Godly Prodigal

Hong Dali went about telling Yu Meiqin and the other kids about his glamorous story, from the concert to the purchasing of housing properties and land, then the family meeting and saving Big Turtle. He spoke extravagantly with colorful descriptions as he beamed with joy, and the few kids applauded as they heard it and were extremely satisfied with it.

In the meantime, on the opposite of the big ocean, Merika, Hollywood.

In a huge conference room.

In the center of the conference room was a super huge round table. There were a total of eight chairs around the round table, and there were people seated on each seat. And at this time, the lighting indoors had deliberately created a dim effect. Thus, everyone’s looks could not be clearly seen, and it was filled with a rather mysterious feeling.

Today, this occasion which gathered these eight people was one of the most important conferences of Hollywood in Merika, the Round Table Conference.

These eight people were all top-notch personnel from a few major companies in Hollywood. It could even be said that once they stomped their feet, it could cause the entire Hollywood entertainment business in Merika to shake.

It could be said that every time a Round Table Conference was called for, it was the time when Hollywood was facing a most pressing issue.

And just then, one of the eight people was holding a report in his hands and slowly read out, “Hong Dali, the only son of Hong Weiguo from one of the biggest clans in Heavenly State, the Hong Family. An idler and loafer, with the nickname of superprodigal.

“However, this person’s luck is pretty good, and he likes to be involved in various businesses. It just had to be that everything that he set up brought in a lot of money, and recently, he even saved Big Turtle(Black Tortoise), and thus, ignited the arrival of the era of the huge development of Heavenly State’s economy.”

The voice of the person that was reading out the file was exactly that person who had had an encounter with Hong Dali previously—James!

“En, these are only rough information, are there any specific details?” Just then, a slightly older person sitting on the other side asked, “Dear James, what you know are only these, and it isn’t of any use to us. From these pieces of information, the only information that I’ve gotten is that this is someone who is very lucky—there isn’t anything more.”

“Specific details…” Now that this was brought up, James helplessly shrugged. “After all, this person had only come to our attention recently—the investigations started rather late, thus, there are many things that we couldn’t get detailed information about. Furthermore, this Hong Dali just had to set up all kinds of things, and he doesn’t have a specific goal on doing them. This has made our intelligence personnel at a loss as to what to do as well. Currently, the only thing that we know is that this Hong Dali is rather lucky—only this point.”

He said it very helplessly.

Hong Dali was playing around with almost all sorts of businesses—today he might be doing a food and beverage business, but tomorrow he might be dealing with property businesses instead, and the day after tomorrow, he might be gone to play games instead. Who would be able to grasp the accurate intelligence of such a person?

“You must be joking.” Another person sniggered and said, “Instructions from above require our Hollywood to suppress Hong Dali, yet there isn’t even any detailed intelligence. How can we make our move, then? There’s a legend in Heavenly State about the four sacred beasts, and now that alligator snapping turtle has been intentionally promoted and worshipped as a divine beast by Heavenly State, which has a relatively great impact on their morale. The last time you failed when you went to request to loan the alligator snapping turtle, and now what do you expect us to do to suppress the morale of the other party?”

“What can I do about this?” James shrugged. “Heavenly State has always been the enemy that our Merika has paid the most attention to. It’s definitely impossible to start a war, so we can only fight a financial battle. Now that those above want us to think of a way by ourselves instead, to be honest, I don’t have any good ideas at the moment.”

“It’s not important whether you have any ideas, Sir.” Just then, a third person slowly started speaking. “We’re a film corporation, we can’t interfere in other aspects. However, we only need to stifle the film industry in Heavenly State, that’s enough. Their so-called ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre: Pugilistic World’ is about to enter the later phase of production, right? What we need to do is only make an issue of this. James, the ‘Magic Age’ filmed by your company is going to screen soon, right? Perhaps we could consider screening it on the same day as their ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre: Pugilistic World’…”

“I object!” James decisively shook his head. “My ‘Magic Age’ currently still needs two to three more months before it can hold its premiere. If it’s pushed forward, it will obviously be lacking in terms of preparations, and the audiences will not buy it.”

“In that case, are there any other films that are going to be screened?” The third person slowly asked, “This time we only need to attack their box office earnings. We’ll make them understand that even if there’s the alligator snapping turtle, their films are still not worth to even be mentioned. By then, when the time comes, we will open up on our technology support again to use it as a bargaining chip. With that, I believe that they will carefully consider our suggestion of loaning the alligator snapping turtle. When that time comes, hehe, the legend about the Black Tortoise will naturally be overturned.”

“I agree.” Just then, the first person that had spoken nodded and said, “However, I suggest that to be safe, we consider increasing the movies to two. In that case, during the premiere of ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre: Pugilistic World,’ there will be a good show to watch.”

“I support this.” “Support.” “Support.”

Now that everyone supported the idea, the third person nodded and said, “En, then this idea is counted as approved. Does anyone know which two movies will be screening recently?”

“En…” James thought for a while. “At the moment, there are two movies with investments of around 10 million that are about to be screened—’Moment of Screaming’ and ‘Air-Raid of the Trump Cards,’ which genres are horror and war respectively. Though the production fees cannot compare to the 15 million yuan capital cost of ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre: Pugilistic World,’ that shouldn’t be a big problem. By then, we only need to snatch the box office from them.”

“‘Moment of Screaming’ and ‘Air-Raid of the Trump Cards’?” The third person thought for a while, then nodded and said, “Alright, we’ll first use these two small-budget films to play a while with them. Oh right, the abilities of these two companies are still not enough to enter the core tier in our Hollywood, so we need to give lots of publicity to them first. That way, of course, it would be good if we win, but if we lose, it isn’t a big deal too.”

James smiled and said, “I understand, I’ll deal with this after I go back. I reckon these two companies will be very willing to gain the support of Hollywood.” After saying this, James asked again, “Oh right, due to the global protection act on local movies, we need quite a big amount of public relation fees to directly compete with them over the box office. What does everyone think a suitable amount of money would be?”

The third person slowly said, “10 million USD will be enough.”

“Alright, then that’s not an issue anymore!” Upon hearing this, James instantly smiled and said, “Two unknown small companies alone are already able to crush them till they can’t even lift their heads. Just this alone will make them feel pretty bad, haha.”

Upon hearing his amusing words, the seven other people in the conference room burst out laughing as well.

Now that the atmosphere had become relaxed, the third person smiled and asked, “En, is there anything more? Is that Hong Dali up to anything else recently?”

“Other things, let me see.” James looked at the report in his hands. “The first gaming fest that he is starting up tomorrow looks like it’s related to online gaming or something like that.”

“This Hong Dali really does meddle with everything.” The third person smiled and said with disdain, “Alright, it’s truly a waste of our time to specially call for a Round Table Conference just for a little rascal who splurges mindlessly. Since there’s nothing more to discuss, let’s end the meeting here. We can just wait for the good news afterward.”

…

The morning of the next day, Chenhui Building level nine, Caiwei Entertainment.

Lao Deming’s forehead brimmed with sweat as he paced back and forth in the conference room, looking at the clock from time to time. Finally, the room door was pushed open and Hong Dali relaxedly walked in. Lao Deming leaped forward and anxiously said, “Young Master, big matter, big matter!”

“What kind of big matter has caused you to be this anxious?” Hong Dali asked strangely. “There’s nothing big that happened recently?”

“It’s Hollywood!” Lao Deming despondently said, “The screening date in our country and premiere of the two Hollywood films, ‘Moment of Screaming’ and ‘Air-Raid of the Trump Cards’ has been announced. It’s… it’s on July 6, two hours earlier than ours!”

“Oh?” Once he heard what Lao Deming said, Hong Dali understood. “They’re planning to fight with us for the box office?”

“Definitely!” Lao Deming said, “July 6 is on a Sunday, and these two movies will be screened locally at the same time. I’m afraid that our box office will…”

“It’s box office, after all. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a little higher or lower. Moreover, didn’t our film turn out pretty well after it’s been edited?” Hong Dali strangely asked, “However, speaking of which, why can their movie screen in our country, yet ours can’t be screened at theirs? What kind of logic is this?”

“It’s because of the national film protection act.” Just then, Zhang Cai, who was at the side, explained to Hong Dali. “Every country has a protection regulation towards their local movies. Take our country for example. It only imports about 30 Merikan movies to be screened locally, and it’s due to the world trade agreement, or else there’d be less of it. These movies need to go through rounds of examination. It’s not only due to the issue regarding quality, but the key problem is that the screening amount of a country has a limit. With so many movies waiting to be screened every year, of course, those who are nearer will get it first.”

“This is rather interesting.” Hong Dali touched his chin as he smiled and said, “That means that our ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre: Pugilistic World’ has been cut off by them, while their ‘Moment of Screaming’ and ‘Air-Raid of the Trump Cards’ instead hadn’t been cut off by us?”

“That’s about what it means.” Lao Deming furiously said, “They are obviously planning to fight for the box office with us. But we can’t even resist this type of thing, it’s really infuriating!”

“It’s fine, just do what you ought to do.” Hong Dali was not the least worried. “Anyway, I believe that the audiences have sharp eyes!”

“Alright. Then, I’ll go back first.” Lao Deming wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead and went out.

Actually, it was understandable that he was so nervous. After all, the film industry in Heavenly State was a lot lacking compared to that of Hollywood. It was already inadequate in the first place, thus, now that it was heard that Hollywood’s movies would be fighting for the box office, anyone would be uncertain about how things would turn out.

Hong Dali didn’t mind, however. The books of Mr. Jin Yong on earth had been sold to over tens of countries, and Pugilistic World’s storyline was awesome. Thus, he really didn’t believe that the box office would lose out to the other party.

“Sister Cai, where’s Xiaoyi?” After Lao Deming went out, Hong Dali looked at Zhang Cai and asked, “Seems like she’d gone out shortly after she came here, do you know where she went?”

“Young Master, have you forgotten?” Zhang Cai smiled and said, “It’s the day of the first gaming fest today. Xiaoyi has gone there to carry out inspections.”

“Oh, oh.” Hong Dali smiled. “I’d have forgotten! Then let’s go take a look at it tonight together!”