Chapter 343 How to survive in the future

There aren’t so many relatives visiting, and no one gives out New Year’s money anymore.

The New Year atmosphere was a little dull, as the excitement belonged to others. Fan Wumian only received a large number of New Year greeting text messages and phone calls asking about his well-being.

Behind many of the courtesies, there are other troubles involved. I'm really annoyed during this period.

He was worried that other people would visit him during the New Year and was concerned about the resources he had, so on the morning of the first day of the New Year, as soon as Zhuang Muxi left his house, Fan Wumian also slipped away.

After repeated discussions with Zuo Ziyan, he decided to visit cities such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket in Thailand, and look for suitable locations for filming "Detective Chinatown 3".

Until the Lantern Festival, it is considered Fan Wumian’s vacation.

After the Chinese New Year, the long-awaited "My Love from the Star" will start filming. The crew is the original crew of "The Lonely and Great God", and the leading female role will be played by Feng Ying'er.

"Crazy Racing", directed by Lu Hao, is also ready. The shooting will start on the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, and will be filmed on the warm South China Sea islands.

The projects for next year have basically been arranged. If I work with Andy Lau to shoot "Wushuang", it is estimated that it will be scheduled to start shooting at the end of the year. It will take a long time to prepare for creating the script and coordinating the schedule.

It was around 9 o’clock in the morning on New Year’s Day.

I flew back to Hong Kong first, and after meeting Zuo Ziyan, I immediately set off and took a private plane to Bangkok.

It's tiring to travel.

But suddenly coming from Yanjing in the cold winter to Bangkok where only short-sleeved shirts, shorts and flip-flops are required made Fan Wumian feel particularly comfortable.

On the private plane, they had already changed their clothes in advance according to the temperature on the ground. The hotel sent a car to pick them up to check in, and they went out for dinner and strolling that night.

It's about 7 o'clock in the evening.

In a private room at a new Bangkok restaurant, the table is laid out with dishes such as pineapple rice, Tom Yum Goong soup, grilled prawns and grilled pork neck.

After tasting the Tom Yum Goong soup, Fan Wumian found it quite sour. It was hard to imagine how it became so popular all over the world. He said to Zuo Ziyan:

"There are Thai restaurants everywhere in Hong Kong. If the street food is a little more hygienic and healthy, it seems better to try the local specialties."

Zuo Ziyan stretched out her chopsticks and said:
"The pork neck is grilled well. Bangkok's streets are so messy that it can barely be considered a local feature. Aren't you going to come here to shoot a detective movie? The scene should be very impressive, and it should look like a crime scene."

"Well, there may be more than one. Detective Chinatown, Manslaughter, and Lost on Journey 2, which may be filmed in Thailand, can all be set in Thailand."

As a joke, Fan Wumian laughed again:

"I originally wanted to film Lost on Journey 2 in India, but then I thought I should hold back on the big move until the mainland box office market is developed. It will be easier to make a big hit with Indian themes. With corpses floating in the Ganges, cow dung festivals, drinking cow urine, laundry workers, etc., what other comedy films can do to compete with me?"

Raising her hand quickly to stop him, Zuo Ziyan said dissatisfiedly:

"I was eating right now! Cow dung and cow urine are affecting my appetite."

"Okay, okay, I'm going out this time just to play with you. Your happiness is the most important thing. I guess we'll have to wait until we finish filming My Love from the Star before we can find time to meet again."

"Well, if I'm free, I can come back to see you."

Although Zuo Ziyan likes to be with him, she does not rely on Fan Wumian's love brain.

She has too little experience in love. In her eyes, love is about two people supporting each other and realizing their respective dreams.

The Zuo family has a huge family business waiting for Zuo Ziyan to inherit, and she has been instilled with the idea that "she needs to learn how to manage the business and take care of the assets" since she was a child. Therefore, she is not planning to skip classes for a long time like Fan Wumian, and she really wants to study hard at Cambridge University.

Zuo Ziyan tasted the grilled prawns and started talking:
"This time I accompanied my parents to Singapore and met with the president of a local chamber of commerce. They plan to join forces to acquire a piece of land and build a 220-meter-high skyscraper."

".Buying land in Singapore? The market is not good recently. American banks are lending recklessly and the review is not strict enough. It is easy to have problems."

It was already January 2006, and the subprime mortgage crisis was quite close to breaking out.

A 220-meter-high skyscraper is not cheap to build, especially in Singapore where commodity, labor and land prices are all very high.

Before the subprime mortgage crisis broke out, only a few people sensed the crisis. It was only January 2006, and no one paid attention to this aspect.

Thinking that Fan Wumian was just speaking casually, Zuo Ziyan only replied:
"It's pretty good. Housing prices in major regions around the world are rising rapidly. You should have made money on the land in Shenzhen. They have a lot of money, and the joint venture accounts for the majority. My family is just one of the small shareholders, and there is also an investor from Hong Kong."

After hearing her say this, Fan Wumian stopped worrying about it.

I thought that even if she really encountered some problems, the worst that could happen was that I could help her family. By then, they would probably have enough money.

Just this morning, Fan Wumian received a call from YouTube's Chen Shijun, saying that Masayoshi Son of SoftBank Group, the major shareholder of Alibaba Group, plans to bid US$4.5 million to acquire YouTube.

In the first half of last year, Fan Wumian raised funds from it with only US$50. This valuation growth rate makes people feel like a dream.

Fortunately, Pu Jiajing went home for the holiday, otherwise she would probably mutter again, "I wouldn't be able to earn so much money even if I started working since the days of the apes."

Chen Shijun told us on the phone that the company was developing rapidly and the funds in the account were enough to support three or four months. He and the other two founders wanted to wait a little longer.

Fan Wumian also supports holding on for a while as there is no need to use money in the short term. YouTube is so popular that it is appropriate to wait for a while before considering a package sale or listing.

There are also some institutions that try to acquire Fan Wumian's 25% Youtube shares. The highest bidder before was $6000 million, but was decisively rejected. If you ask who in the world has the most confidence in the video website industry, Fan Wumian is definitely one of them. After all, others only rely on imagination and evaluation research data, while he has truly experienced life more than a decade later.

The gap between others is only a dozen years, but it seems like half a century.

Every time Fan Wumian takes out his Nokia point-and-shoot phone from his pocket, he gets a headache for a second or two. Without a smartphone to entertain himself in his daily life, he always feels that a lot of fun is missing from his life.

After dinner, we took a walk and returned to the hotel to have some wine to cheer ourselves up.

New Year's Eve.

Zuo Ziyan rarely loses face and listens to his request to indulge herself.

The girl brought with her the school uniform she wore while studying at Trinity College, Anglican Church, in her suitcase.

After changing her clothes, she waved and called out "Student Fan" with a smile.

The taste was right right away, and I relived the good times on campus several times.
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Just a vacation.

Special forces style check-in tourism.

I spent a day in Bangkok and a day in Chiang Mai, marking a few scenic spots with nice views.

On the last day, I went to a resort by the sea in Phuket again, booked two rooms without telling anyone, and kept the invoices to prevent someone from secretly photographing me and putting me on the news, but I couldn't provide any evidence to refute the situation.

The mainland economy is in a period of super-fast development and has not yet fully risen, and many aspects of Southeast Asia are affected.

Without the support of a large group of tourists from the mainland, Thailand's tourism industry is not very developed and the travel experience is mediocre.

I only played for three days in total.

Fan Wumian rented another private jet.

The plan was to send him to Hong Kong City first, and then Zuo Ziyan would continue to take the private plane and return directly to the UK from Hong Kong City.

On the way back to Hong Kong City.

The flight attendant from the island country waited outside the bathroom behind the door curtain, finding the right moment and trying to take the initiative to attack and take him down.

The stewardess is fair and pretty.

However, Fan Wumian had not had a good rest for four consecutive days, day or night, and was in a state of having no desires or demands.

Faced with the business card handed to him by the island country stewardess, he just smiled and waved his hand, appearing to be an exceptionally gentleman.

Zuo Ziyan didn't know about the little episode that happened at the bathroom door. Seeing Fan Wumian return to his seat, she asked:

"You're going back to Hong Kong City and just resting for a while?"

"Yeah, I guess I can't lie down all day. I have to be busy with scripts, albums, company affairs, and I'll be filming a new movie soon. How about I find some time to find you in March or April, and come to the crew to guest star for a few days?"

"I'm a little excited. Let me look through the script to see if there's a role I like."

Zuo Ziyan held her chin with her hand, looked at him and said:
"Aren't you going to Hollywood again? Can you go later? I also want to visit Los Angeles."

Fan Wumian flipped through the magazine and explained:

"It hasn't been finalized yet. The timing is not up to me. It depends on Miramax. They are very slow. The CEO seems to be on vacation for two weeks and is traveling in South America."

"It could also be that he wanted to whet my appetite so that he could renegotiate the price with me."

"Miramax's management has changed. They used to be more generous, but now that Disney has taken over the company completely, they've started to be more calculative. In the previous film The Promise, they breached the contract without hesitation. The investors of The Promise did not have any room for bargaining."

Zuo Ziyan replied:
"It's a common problem for large companies. If the management changes, they will definitely implement new regulations. But your last movie, A Quiet Place, helped Miramax make so much money. If they make a move against you again, it would be too ugly."

Fan Wumian didn't know much about Miramax Films, and added:
"I've heard some rumors before. It seems that the chief operating officer of Disney Group is very dissatisfied with the original management giving me 7.5% of the total box office, and hopes to re-sign with me. Hollywood is a very exclusive place. When I shoot the "A Quiet Place" series next time, it would be best to contact more agents and distributors."

Since such news has been spread, it is most likely not groundless.

Last time, Miramax Films was very quick to pay, but this time, after a change in management, they started dragging their feet and found fault several times, clearly scheming.

After listening to this, Zuo Ziyan said helplessly:
"It's not just Hollywood. All walks of life in the United States are monopolized by large companies, which are best at excluding and suppressing competitors. But once a contract is signed, it should be abided by and fulfilled. You can't save money in this way."

The quality of "A Quiet Place 2" is fine, and a deposit of 600 million US dollars has been received. The worst result is that they will have to find another company to cooperate with.

But as long as the management of Miramax Films is not stupid, they will not lose the big picture for the small, so Fan Wumian is not panicking:
"It's not clear yet. My sample film has been sent to Hollywood for a few days, and the US is not celebrating the Chinese New Year, so no one has tried it yet."

"If they want to leave it alone, then let them. I can't possibly give in. If the box office reaches $7.5 million, 1500% of the profit would be $ million. Only a lunatic would give up this profit."

"If I were to be threatened by them, I would just give in and surrender. How would I survive in the future?"

(End of this chapter)

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