Chapter 647 New Year Greetings and Competition
The Spring Festival Gala performance ended and it was already midnight.
The cold wind howled outside the CCTV building. Link and the princess said goodbye and drove away.
After walking around the street, Link bought a bag of handmade dumplings on the street, drove to his apartment in Chaoyang District, and cooked two plates of beef dumplings.
Not long after the dumplings were taken out of the pot, there was a knock on the door, and the princess who had been separated not long before came in wearing a plush hat and a mask.
After eating dumplings and replenishing some energy, the two made love to each other from the bathroom to the bedroom.
The princess said this was the happiest New Year's Eve she had ever spent.
The next morning, Link brought the New Year's greetings to Zhang Zilin's house to pay New Year's greetings. He also had the reunion dinner that he missed last night and watched the replay of last night's Spring Festival Gala. The performance was pretty good.
After dinner, he drove Zhang Zilin and her siblings around the street to watch "A World Without Thieves" which was released at the end of last year, and to watch a dragon and lion dance performance in Wangfujing.
In the afternoon, I was invited to have dinner at director Wang Xiaoshuai's house. In the evening, I had a meal at Zhang Zilin's grandfather's house, and the next day, I had a meal at her brother-in-law's house.
At noon on the third day of the lunar new year, he paid New Year greetings to several coaches and school leaders who lived in Beijing. Originally, he wanted to leave gifts and leave, but the coaches and leaders refused to let him go and treated him as an important guest. Dayton.
On the fourth and fifth day of the lunar month, we continued to visit the homes of the leaders of the Athletes Management Office and the National Sports Bureau to pay New Year greetings.
He plans to work in the National Sports Administration after graduation and needs to know his way in advance.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, I went to pay New Year greetings to my partners Liu Qiangdong, Song Ke and Zhang Yadong.
He was busy until the eighth day of the Lunar New Year before he found a chance to have a casual meal with Liu Yifei and chat about their respective jobs. She was filming the new movie "Legend of Sword and Fairy", produced by Tangren Film Production Co., Ltd., and she played the leading female role Ling'er. .
"This role is very good and suitable for you."
In the private restaurant, Link said while drinking tea.
"After "Dragon Movie" was released last year, Tang Dynasty's boss Cai called my mother and said that I was very suitable for this role. After I received the script, it looked good, so I took the next step.
It's just my first time filming a fairy tale movie, and I don't know whether to hang Wi-Fi. I did it twice on the set of Tian Long Ba, and it was so scary to be dangling in the air. "
Liu Yifei was holding long chopsticks, with beautiful phoenix eyes, pink cheeks, and jelly-like red lips. Even if he had tasted it before, looking at it now was very tempting.
"It's really scary to hang in the air. Many actors are also resistant to this kind of scene. It's not easy for you to persevere. It's very brave."
Link said.
This is also what he said sincerely. Liu Yifei just turned 18 this year, and she was just a little girl over 16 years old when she was filming "Dragon". She could endure the hard work and finish the film without acting like a young lady or giving up her husband in the middle.
This is indeed commendable.
Liu Yifei was also very happy to receive his praise. She smiled and chatted with him about the interesting things about filming on the set. Judging from the girl's tone of voice and the expression on her face, she really enjoyed being an actress and filming.
He originally wanted to persuade Liu Yifei to change her career, or to study for a few years before going out to film, which would not be too hard.
Since Liu Yifei likes to be an actress, Link doesn't mind helping her to pave the way for her acting career, so that she can be less harassed and troubled in the entertainment industry in the future.
Link asked which agency her management contract was with.
Liu Yifei said that after "Dragon" became a hit, many agencies wanted to sign her, but she didn't agree. Now her agency work is mainly handled by her mother, and her godfather helps. The last time she filmed "Dragon" she also had Part of her godfather's investment.
Link also knew something about her godfather.
The godfather surnamed Chen once pursued her mother, and the two dated for a while, but later they broke up due to differences in personality.
Now, although her godfather will give her some help in her career, it won't be too much, otherwise she won't be without dramas around 2009.
At present, her acting work is mainly taken care of by her mother. Her mother is a national first-class actress and has some connections in the industry.
In addition, she performed well in "The Golden Family" and "Dragon" and received support from many viewers and gained a large number of fans. Since last year, many fans have called her the fairy sister.
She has the support of fans and has a "fairy spirit" that other actresses do not have. This also gives her an irreplaceable "characteristic" in the film and television industry, and she is favored by film and television companies.
This is also the reason why she can easily win the heroine role in "Legend of Sword and Fairy".
Link asked her if she had any plans to sign with a brokerage company. With the help of a brokerage company, she would have more resources and her work would be smoother.
Liu Yifei said that she and her mother had considered it before, but her mother said that the internal affairs of domestic and foreign brokerage companies were very chaotic. In order to compete for resources, there were all kinds of overt and covert fights and all kinds of hidden rules.
Because foreign brokerage companies have been established for a long time, they are relatively more professional, have more complete systems, and have fewer hidden rules, while domestic brokerage companies have only just developed and their management is more chaotic.
It's easy for actresses to suffer a loss.
After thinking about it, her mother decided to rely on the resources she had to try her luck first instead of joining a brokerage company.
Link nodded and said that her mother was right. Of the few agencies he knew, almost none were formal. They were all grass-roots teams. Although they hid a lot of dirty things, the smell was too strong. He stood outside the circle. Can also smell it.
If a little white flower like Liu Yifei goes in, the spiritual "fairy energy" in her body will be polluted in a few years, and she will become no different from the charming female stars in the industry.
In her previous life, Liu Yifei was originally very ethereal. After having two children with him, she not only became fatter, but also lost a lot of spirituality.
Liu Yifei's decision not to join the agency was right.
"Feifei, have you and your mother ever considered creating a film and television company or studio, which can be responsible for your personal agency affairs on the one hand, and can also invest in movies on the other hand. With your own company and your mother as the boss, no one in the circle dares to bully you."
Lin Ke picked up food for Liu Yifei with a serving chopstick.
"Start a film and television company? No, my mother has thought about starting a studio, but the studio is too small and can't get resources. It's similar to what my mother is doing now, but without the name of a studio."
Liu Yifei said while eating.
"It's more convenient to have a physical studio."
Lin Ke paused and said, "I have made some money from releasing albums and boxing in the past two years, about tens of millions, and I plan to invest in the film and television industry, but I don't know much about this aspect, I don't know how to operate, and I don't have a good partner.
When you go back, you can discuss it with your mother and ask her if she is interested in cooperating once to jointly establish a film and television company and be our own bosses."
Liu Yifei put down her chopsticks and blinked her beautiful phoenix eyes, "Are you going to invest in movies and TV series? I advise you to think about it again. Now filming movies and TV series sounds very profitable, but in fact many are losing money. It's not easy for you to make money, so don't invest randomly."
"I understand, but I am optimistic about you. When I invest in the future, I will mainly focus on the film and television dramas you participate in. In addition, I make tens of millions from an album, and I can make more from concerts, so don't worry that I will go bankrupt."
Lin Ke said.
"Invest in my film and television dramas? Why?"
Liu Yifei looked at him seriously.
"You are a good actor, and you will not lose money if I invest in you. Secondly, you are a good girl, smart, beautiful and kind. I want to continue to make friends with you, and I am indeed ready to invest in the film and television industry. Our cooperation is mutually beneficial.
But this matter is based on your and your mother's opinions. If you are willing to cooperate, I will invest. If you don't have this idea, forget about this matter, and we will still be friends."
Link said.
"Okay, I'll go back and tell my mother and ask her opinion."
"Okay! Come on, keep eating. I've eaten the private dishes here once and felt pretty good. I invited you here. I hope it suits your taste."
Link continued to pick up food for Liu Yifei.
"I eat well too, so I ate a lot. Wait!"
Liu Yifei suddenly blocked the plate and blinked at him, "Why do you always pick up food for me after you start eating, and you only drink tea."
Link smiled gently and told her the reason.
In the past few days after the New Year, he was dragged to eat every day. He gained more than 8 kilograms during the Spring Festival. He is a boxer and has to measure his weight before the game. If he is overweight, he cannot compete.
There is a match at the end of this month.
He needs to lose weight during this period, and dare not eat greasy food.
"Is it so troublesome to be a boxer?"
Liu Yifei asked with a smile.
"Yes, it is a little troublesome, but I am an athlete, and I can lose weight quickly."
"I envy you so much. Sometimes I will grow worse if I eat a little more. If I eat too much by mistake, I will gain weight again tomorrow."
Liu Yifei put down her chopsticks with a face full of annoyance.
"It doesn't matter. You are still growing up. Eating more is good for your body. You will gain weight first and then lose weight. You are much healthier than those who control their diet and dare not eat enough."
In order to persuade her to eat more, Link also picked up his chopsticks to eat with her.
After dinner, Link sent Liu Yifei home. The next day, he received a call from Liu Yifei's mother, who asked about co-investing in a film and television company.
Liu Xiaoli asked him why he did this and what his purpose was.
Lin Ke repeated what he said to Liu Yifei yesterday. First, he wanted to invest in film and television to make money. Second, he was optimistic about Liu Yifei's development in the film and television industry and investing in her was profitable. Third, Liu Yifei was a beautiful girl and he hoped that the two sides would have more opportunities to get along with each other during the cooperation.
Liu Xiaoli sneered and asked if the third one was his real purpose.
Lin Ke said that if it was the third one, he would not invest tens of millions and there was no need to do that.
As a man who is not so stupid, no one would invest tens of millions to make a beautiful woman smile.
Liu Xiaoli was silent for a moment and said that he needed to think about it again.
Lin Ke said yes.
After hanging up the phone, Lin Ke continued to train in his personal boxing gym and tried to lose weight.
After the Spring Festival Gala ended, CCTV selected the best program of the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Rooster. "Where Did the Time Go" played and sung by Lin Ke won the first prize.
When he came on stage, the highest ratings of the program reached 98.6%, setting the highest ratings of the night.
"The Rest of Life" he and the princess collaborated on was also awarded the third prize.
At the same time, with the broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala, the sales of his second album also rose. In addition to young people becoming his fans, many middle-aged people also joined in. During the Spring Festival, the song "Where Has the Time Gone" was repeatedly played by major radio and television stations for more than hundreds of millions of times.
With the help of the spring breeze, 2.82 million genuine albums were sold in China in the second month of its release, and the cumulative sales reached 7.87 million copies.
Overseas, the second month sales were 1.28 million copies, and the cumulative sales were 3.48 million copies.
Two months after the release of his album, the total global sales exceeded 10 million, and it also became the best-selling Chinese album last year.
The second share of the album revenue also arrived in mid-February, more than 18 million yuan after tax, which is only the share of the album revenue, and the subsequent ringtone business share is more.
Currently, in terms of ringtone subscription service fee income, only "Mouse Loves Rice" and "Two Butterflies" can compare with a few of his songs. There are 8 songs in the second album ranked in the top 20 of the subscription list, and 18 songs in the two albums are in the top 100.
Due to the successive sales of his two albums, which have a huge influence in the domestic music industry, "Southern Weekend" specially published an article lamenting that Link's name of "Zhong Shentong" is stable, even if the Southern Emperor Zhou Jielun meets him, it can't be said that he will win.
On the eve of the Lantern Festival, Link took Zhang Zilin back to Handong Province to spend the Spring Festival with his family, and participated in the Lantern Festival Gala of Handong Province, playing and singing the two songs "When You Are Old" and "Steady Happiness" on the stage.
After the Lantern Festival, Link and Zhang Zilin returned to Beijing.
Link continued to train and prepare for the competition. In addition to attending classes, Zhang Zilin was also receiving training to prepare for the Miss World competition.
At the end of February, Link flew to Las Vegas, USA, to participate in the second round of the boxing championship challenge.
In this game, his opponent is the Puerto Rican boxing champion Felix Trinidad, who is ranked second in the WBA organization middleweight and sixth in the organization's middleweight.
Felix Trinidad, a black man, is 32 years old this year, 180cm tall and has a wingspan of 184cm.
Amateur record: 51 wins and 6 losses, five consecutive Puerto Rican boxing champions.
Entered the professional boxing world in 1990, initially as a welterweight boxer.
In January 1994, he defeated Camacho by points and won the IBF welterweight gold belt.
Later, he successfully defended the IBF welterweight gold belt for 12 consecutive times.
In September 1999, he defeated De La Hoya by controversial points and won the WBC welterweight gold belt again, becoming the overlord of the welterweight field at that time.
In 2000, he was promoted to super welterweight and successfully won the IBF super welterweight gold belt.
In 2001, he continued to move up to middleweight and knocked out former WBA middleweight champion William Chopp in two rounds to become the WBA middleweight champion.
Unfortunately, in the middleweight championship title unification match in September, he encountered "executioner" Hopkins and lost the WBA middleweight world champion gold belt.
Felix Trinidad's current professional record: 43 wins and 1 loss.
Before meeting Hopkins, he had never lost a single game and had KOed his opponents 32 times. He was a very strong boxer.
It was also one of the obstacles to Link's dominance in the middleweight class.
Link carefully studied the opponent's game video before the game.
Trinidad is good at attacking, with a maximum punch weight of no less than 800 kilograms, and he is also fast and flexible, and has good skills. Even top boxers like De La Hoya will be defeated when they meet him.
It is not easy to deal with him.
It is difficult to defeat the opponent in one round.
The coaching team's opinion is that the best way to deal with Trinidad's good attack is to use exquisite defense to restrain the opponent's heavy punches. With Link's defensive skills, it is not difficult to do this.
But if you choose the defensive end in the game, you will lose the opportunity to strike first, and you will not be able to KO the opponent in the first round.
He will also lose the bet with "Ring" magazine.
So it is not feasible to use passive defensive tactics.
After carefully watching the video of Trinidad's game, Link chose a hard-to-hard tactic to see whether the opponent's fist is hard or his fist is fast and hard.
Before the game, major casinos in Las Vegas set up gambling projects with the results of this game.
Link's winning odds are 1.35 to 1, and his opponent's winning odds are 1.62 to 1, and the odds of both sides are not much different.
However, the odds of betting on Link to win in the first round are relatively high, 5.5 to 1. Judging from this odds, the casino does not think he can beat Trinidad in the first round.
The odds of his opponent KOing him in one round are as high as 10.2 to 1.
If he dares to cheat, he can make 1 million dollars by betting on himself to lose, and then he can make 10 million dollars.
Before the game, Link asked his agent Sean Gibbons to bet 1 million US dollars at the MGM Casino, betting that he would win in the first round.
The game was quite lively that day, with more than 8,000 spectators.
The number of spectators was less than the previous few games. It was not that the game was unpopular, but the tickets for the MGM Grand Hotel were more expensive. The price of ordinary audience tickets reached 220 US dollars, and the front row audience tickets were over 10,000.
In addition, the number of seats in the audience was limited.
Most of the spectators who could come to watch the game were rich people, such as tourists and gamblers in the casino.
This game was also broadcast live by ESPN TV, and Link could also get a share of the PPV income afterwards.
The game was held at 6 pm.
After the match started, the opponent Trinidad took the lead in attacking him, using his advantage of heavy punches to launch a fierce attack on his double arm defense, one punch after another, looking very fierce.
The audience saw Trinidad firing on all cylinders and shouted excitedly. Some people used discriminatory language such as "yellow monkey" and "Chinese guy" to verbally attack Link, most of whom were black people.
When those audiences saw that Link only defended and did not fight back, they shouted louder, calling him a liar who did not live up to his reputation.
Bang bang bang!
The opponent Trinidad punched Link's arm, first hitting the head, and then preparing to hit his ribs.
But Link reacts quickly, and his speed of dodging and retreating is also extremely fast. Even if the opponent uses a combination of "hitting up and down", he can't really hit his body.
Bang, bang, bang!
Trinidad continued to attack, roaring while hitting, looking like a chimpanzee.
Link blocked the opponent's combination punches, suddenly took two steps back, leaning his back against the ropes, and interrupted the opponent's offensive rhythm.
When the opponent caught up and prepared to continue to suppress him, he performed Ali's butterfly step, quickly stepped forward, and closed the distance with the opponent.
When the opponent was not prepared, he used a liver-bursting punch to hit the opponent's right rib steadily.
Trinidad was beaten back a step, with an angry expression on his face, but the opponent's ability to resist blows was good, and this punch did not cause much damage to the opponent.
Link succeeded in one punch, and then stabbed the opponent in the face with a jab.
Because of his fast punching speed, Trinidad was startled and tilted his neck back to take a half step back.
Link continued to chase him, punching his opponent's arms in turn, one heavy punch after another, one faster than the other, forcing his opponent to retreat continuously, without any chance to fight back.
Since Trinidad is a boxer who is good at attacking, he defeated more than 40 boxers in previous competitions with his super heavy punches and sharp offensive techniques.
But he was average in defense.
Link punched the upper part of his opponent for more than 10 consecutive punches. When the opponent focused on protecting his head, it was difficult to take care of the position below the head.
When the opponent got used to his attack, he immediately moved down the direction of attack and hit the opponent's left rib with a straight punch.
Trinidad was hit again and groaned, with an angry expression on his face, baring his teeth and roaring at him.
The audience below the stage also shouted to kill the Chinese.
Without waiting for Link to continue attacking, the opponent Trinidad punched back.
Link dodged sideways, and with his flexible steps, he quickly came to the opponent's left side. While the opponent was not stable, he used his liver-blasting fist again and hit the opponent's left rib steadily.
Trinidad screamed in pain, kneeled on the ground, and clamped his left rib with his left arm.
"Stop!"
The referee stopped the game and asked Trinidad if he would continue the game.
Trinidad asked to continue the game with a dark face.
The first round lasted 135 seconds, and there were only 45 seconds left before the end of the first round.
Trinidad stood up, clamped his arms between his ribs, and blocked his face with his fists, preparing to use this method to block his fists.
Seeing that the first round was about to end, Link did not care about the opponent's defense. He turned on the violent storm attack mode and punched the opponent in turn.
Unlike Trinidad's attack, his speed was faster, and each hit was purposeful and more accurate.
At the 147th second, he used his left fist to interfere with the opponent's judgment, followed by a powerful right swing punch, which hit the opponent's arm from right to left, and then hit the opponent's head with his fist.
Trinidad staggered and his defense had obvious loopholes.
Link followed with a punch to hit the opponent's left rib, and when the opponent's defense sank, he followed with a straight punch to hit the opponent's forehead. This punch was relatively strong, weighing more than 700 pounds.
Bang!
Trinidad didn't hold on this time, and fell on his back on the boxing ring, his arm clamped between his ribs and screamed in pain, grinning.
"Stop!"
The referee stopped the game again and squatted down to check on Trinidad's situation.
At this time, the game was 165 seconds in, and there were only 15 seconds left before the end of the first round.
Many spectators in the audience shouted to Trinidad to hold on and stand up to continue fighting.
Unfortunately, Trinidad couldn't do it. This time, not only did his liver hurt, but his head was also buzzing.
The referee counted down to ten, but Trinidad did not stand up.
The referee raised Link's arm and announced that Link won.
There were applause and cheers from the audience, as well as many racial discriminations.
Link didn't care, and raised his fists high in victory, protesting to everyone.
After winning this match, he only had one opponent left to challenge Hopkins, and he was one step closer to the middleweight hegemony. (End of this chapter)