"Long time no see."
After Chen Yuanguang left the airport, Lin Jia was waiting for him in the underground parking garage beside a Chevrolet.
Before Chen Yuanguang could say anything, Lin Jia suddenly stepped forward and gave him a tight hug.
Chen Yuanguang patted her back. "It's okay, it's okay. Didn't I come to keep you company?"
"Mm."
After putting the luggage in the trunk, Chen Yuanguang comforted her. "Whatever your dad does won't affect much unless he's willing to divorce your mom and split the assets equally.
That way, he and your mom would each get half. You could take all of your mom's share and part of your dad's. He wouldn't have built such a big business if he were capable of doing something like that."
As Lin Jia drove, she said, "That's not the point. The main thing is that he brought the illegitimate son he's been keeping outside back and said he wanted him to meet me. The whole thing reeks of testing the waters.
He said the kid should get to know me, his older sister. The question is, does he deserve it?
Maybe he's paving the way for that illegitimate son, testing whether he can return to the group and take up a position there. The old man hasn't changed at all. I wouldn't care if he gave money to his illegitimate son. It's his money, and he can divide it however he wants.
But I will never agree to him paving the way for that illegitimate son to take a job in the group. Forget me—even my uncles wouldn't agree to it," Lin Jia said indignantly.
Chen Yuanguang asked, "Didn't you say that brother of yours is only in middle school?"
Lin Jia said, "He's not my brother. He's just a stranger. What's wrong with him being in middle school? The old man is already fifty. By the time he's nearly sixty, that illegitimate son will be about ready to graduate from college.
He'll enter the group, spend a few years building connections, and then get handed a subsidiary to manage. Do you think I don't know exactly what the old man is planning?"
Lin Jia sighed. "That's exactly why I didn't want to go back for Christmas Holiday this time and instead asked you to come over early.
The old man pulled this out of nowhere. I really didn't want to go back and look at that face of his."
Chen Yuanguang's head hurt whenever he heard about things like this. His own father was much the same, except at least his father did not have an illegitimate child and hadn't caused a life.
But considering that his family and Lin Jia's were not on the same scale—his family's real estate and other assets added up to around fifty million, while Lin Jia's family was a thousand times larger—Chen Yuanguang figured his dad probably lacked the capital to defy the equal inheritance rule.
He changed the subject. "Driving a Chevrolet isn't your style. Back at Jiang University, you always drove a BMW X5. Why did you downgrade after coming here?
Didn't you say luxury cars in America were much cheaper than back home because there's no value-added tax?"
Lin Jia said, "Who told you this is my only car here?
I bought this Chevrolet specifically to pick you up because you had a lot of luggage. I also have a Porsche 911."
Chen Yuanguang was speechless. "You're insanely rich. Still need a charm? I want to be a charm hanging off your leg."
Lin Jia said, "No problem. Hug it whenever you want.
This is what I'm thinking for the next few days. We can spend Christmas in New York first, then go to Boston after Christmas and ring in the New Year there.
While we're in Boston, we can rent you a place, buy a used car, and invite Professor Bawendi to dinner.
Cars are especially important in America. It's very inconvenient without one.
Once you have a car, your quality of life will improve dramatically. To celebrate your Nature publication, want me to buy you one? Didn't you just say you wanted to hug my leg?"
Chen Yuanguang shook his head repeatedly. He did not want to marry into her family or take advantage of her.
"That's too expensive. There's no need. I can afford one myself. The copyright income from Goose Factory just came in, and I transferred fifty thousand dollars to bring with me this time. That's enough for a used car."
Lin Jia explained, "If you don't want to take advantage of me, then I'm just letting you use it. Buy a used car, drive it for a few years, then sell it. It won't cost much.
Besides, it would be a waste not to spend my dad's money."
That last sentence inexplicably reminded Chen Yuanguang of Shi Huilan. He felt that their filial piety had something strangely similar about it.
"In that case, there's even less reason to," Chen Yuanguang said. "I was only planning to get a Golf GTI anyway, for daily commuting and coming to New York to see you."
Lin Jia did not insist further. "All right, if you insist, forget it.
That's why, Yuanguang, you care too much about saving face. Sometimes, if you want to succeed, you can't care about your dignity. But you make a living with your brain, so keeping your dignity isn't necessarily a bad thing.
If you were a writer without any shame, you'd be invincible."
Chen Yuanguang had already grown used to Lin Jia's bizarre tangents. She came across as incomparably aloof to outsiders, but in reality she was both scatterbrained and funny.
When Lin Jia saw that Chen Yuanguang was silent, she continued, "Show me your contract with Goose Factory, along with the filming progress and promotion plans for Kuala Lumpur Affairs.
I keep feeling that the value of the Kuala Lumpur Affairs IP is far greater than the five hundred thousand they gave you. We need to figure out how to squeeze more profit out of this."
Lin Jia studied finance and had both a strong interest in business operations and a sharp instinct for them.
After they put the luggage in Lin Jia's three-bedroom apartment near Columbia University, they waited for their food at a Chinese restaurant nearby while Lin Jia reviewed the contract on her tablet.
"How is it? Is there a problem with the contract?" Chen Yuanguang asked. "I had lawyers from my mom's company look it over."
Lin Jia said, "There's no problem. It's just that the proceeds from Kuala Lumpur Affairs have nothing to do with you.
But that's normal. You're a newcomer, after all. Five hundred thousand for a newcomer's film and television adaptation rights is already very good.
But you aren't an ordinary newcomer. You're a promising young scientist, a genius with countless stories waiting to be mined.
Do you know what that means? It means you yourself can become part of the film's publicity campaign.
Yuanguang, I noticed that the media hasn't connected your Nature publication with your identity as 2477, the author of Kuala Lumpur Affairs.
Not even Jiang University's report connected the two identities. This matter itself is filled with promotional potential. Beneath the surface, there are stories everywhere waiting to be uncovered.
An undergraduate student, a Nobel Prize winner, a science fiction writer, Nature, a film adaptation—any one of those points would be enough to satisfy a media outlet's daily KPI for reposts, comments, and views.
I don't believe nobody knows about this. Why haven't they been linked together in the reporting? I think Goose Factory suppressed it. They're waiting to reveal it when the movie comes out and drive up the box office.
And now that you've been admitted to MIT, people here have a fixation on prestigious schools. Reading is tiring, so of course everyone would rather watch a movie to learn about you, to learn about the plot imagined by a genius like you.
So the five hundred thousand Goose Factory gave you was only the value of Kuala Lumpur Affairs itself. The publicity value contained in you has to be priced separately!"
Lin Jia was very excited. Chen Yuanguang was not surprised at all that she had noticed these things. Whatever they did, Lin Jia loved calculating how much money other people could make.
When they went out to eat, she calculated table turnover, how long it would take for the business model to recoup its investment, and where the risks would be if it expanded into a chain.
When they went to concerts, she calculated the audience size, promotion, stage design, performance crew, band, revenue-sharing ratios for sales channels, and how much the singer would actually receive.
Another chapter done~
Before you continue