Chapter 183: Seizing by Force

Reeves was now very confused—perhaps better described as troubled. He had talked in detail with Daisy and learned that Phantom Company was among the strongest in Asia. He also learned that Hong Kong produced over 120 films each year. Of course, he also learned that the highest salary in Hong Kong at the time was 4 million Hong Kong dollars, paid to an actor named Shenxianfa.
Reeves initially thought such a sum wouldn’t amount to much, but Daisy quickly dispelled his naive assumption: “In Hong Kong, 4 million is enough to buy a standalone villa. And from what President Xiao said, I think he believes current actor salaries aren’t high enough and there’s still plenty of room for improvement!”
Daisy was only guessing, but she was right. Xiao Ran indeed wasn’t satisfied with current salary levels. Given Shenxianfa’s popularity, he definitely deserved a salary of 10 million. However, Xiao Ran knew these things had to be handled carefully; otherwise, the market would collapse, and the other three major companies would surely unite against Phantom.
Reeves did some calculations and realized he had wasted four years in Hollywood with no achievements, still in a desperate situation. Instead of chasing unattainable goals, it might be better to develop his career in Hong Kong. After all, according to Daisy, Xiao Ran valued Westerners like them quite highly.
Yet he still couldn’t let go. After all, Hollywood was the holy land of filmmakers worldwide. Although Phantom was extremely famous in Southeast Asia, it remained unknown internationally. The only things that brought some attention were the rumors about Xiao Ran and Lin Qingxia, along with their wildly romantic proposal.
“Don’t hesitate. This is an opportunity right in front of you. If you seize it, your future will be different!” Seeing that Reeves remained silent after long contemplation, Daisy grew anxious. By then, Reeves had already made up his mind.
Meanwhile, Yangguang and Monkey were wandering around the streets out of boredom. Today, Xiao Ran gave them a day off because he had to meet Lucas. So they strolled around leisurely and happily, even taking the time to watch a movie. In the cinema, they were surprised to find that Phantom was far superior in many aspects.
After leaving the cinema and wandering around for a while, just as they were about to take a ride back to the hotel, they suddenly heard muffled groans coming from an alley. With their rich experience, they immediately hid cautiously and realized the sounds came from a dark alley, along with faint voices.
Yangguang gave Monkey a signal, asking if they should go in to take a look. The two complemented each other well—Yangguang made decisions while Monkey provided suggestions. Of course, they rarely disagreed on small matters.
Monkey was very excited. Having been around Xiao Ran for so long, he had hardly anything to do and felt as if he was going to rust away. Now that he had such a good opportunity, he naturally wanted to give it a try and experience something new. Nodding firmly at Yangguang, Monkey waved and went in.

Sunshine was momentarily stunned—their identities were not convenient… Thinking of this, he smiled. For practical reasons, their names had already been removed from the roster. Now they were just Xiao Ran’s bodyguards, with no special status. Not only him, but even Guan Xindu was the same.

With that, there was no longer any issue with their identities. Perhaps they might even receive a reward for acting bravely. The two of them quietly slipped into the alley in the dark, where three men were beating up another guy.

Monkey and Sunshine watched quietly for a while before hearing one of them ask the guy lying on the ground in English who else his accomplices were. The guy on the ground shook his head bravely, though the pain on his face was evident.

What followed was somewhat dramatic. One of the three pulled out a gun and tried to shoot the victim. Monkey and Sunshine gently touched each other’s hands and immediately acted in perfect coordination. Monkey was agile, so it was naturally he who took care of the gunholder.

Two Chinese men suddenly rushed out of the darkness, startling the four men. Monkey leaped up, kicked the hand holding the gun, sending it flying into the air, then slashed at the guy’s throat with his palm. His fingers quickly wrapped around the artery in the guy’s neck, and with a slight pressure, the guy fainted.

Meanwhile, Sunshine was even more fierce, knocking out each of them with a single punch. Monkey went over to the guy lying on the ground, helped him up, and asked in English, “Are you okay?”

The guy, barely alive, overwhelmed by emotion and severe physical injuries, managed to remember the two concerned faces in the dim light before fainting. Sunshine and Monkey were surprised—this guy fainted quite quickly. They called the police and then returned to the hotel, without mentioning the incident.

Xiao Ran was currently talking with Reeves. It was really difficult for him to give any specific guarantees regarding Xiao Li. The only thing that could be confirmed was that he had signed contracts for three movies with Xiao Li, which finally allowed Xiao Ran to feel at ease.

However, he didn’t stop there. He quickly approached Apple and bought Pixar for six times the price Lucas had paid back then—sixty million dollars. With Pixar in hand, Xiao Ran’s mood improved even further. With this animation studio, Chinese-language animations now had hope.

After meeting the staff of the studio, Xiao Ran promised not to interfere in the day-to-day operations. This reassured the people at Pixar. To be honest, their situation was quite tragic—they had first been abandoned by Lucas and then by Apple, becoming a burden.

While Xiao Ran was relaxed, Lucas was frantic. He was on the verge of desperation, as if forced to take drastic measures—if such a thing existed in the U.S. After some thought, he realized his only option to avoid bankruptcy was to sell everything.

He knew one thing for sure: if he sold Gremlins and Skywalker, he would still get about 500 million dollars. Otherwise, if the bank took it back, he might end up with nothing. Under such pressure, he had no choice but to sell all his shares to Xiao Ran.

On the seventh day, Lucas finally arrived at the hotel where Xiao Ran was staying. In the café, Xiao Ran sipped some water leisurely before smiling and saying, “George, since you’ve taken the trouble to come to me, I guess you must have made up your mind.”
“Xiao, tell me—was it you?” Lucas wanted to bite off a piece of Xiao Ran’s flesh and chew it fiercely. “I think you’re the only one who really wants me to go bankrupt!”
Xiao Ran smiled gently, his gaze fixed on the clear water, and said calmly, “George, doing business always requires some tactics. I believe you can understand that. And I knew you’d come to me. After all, you’re not suffering any losses now, are you?”
“Five hundred million dollars—everything to you! But my condition is that you must stop any attempts to attack me!” Facing Xiao Ran, Lucas no longer felt the same pressure as before, yet the fear in his heart was even greater.
“Of course, I’ll stop!” Xiao Ran finally raised his gaze, his sharp eyes meeting Lucas’s. “But it’s not worth five hundred million anymore. Have you forgotten the conditions I gave you back then—one hundred million, or three hundred million, or five hundred million? You failed to make a choice in time, so now you won’t get five hundred million!”
That devil! Lucas cursed inwardly, gritting his teeth, about to say something. At Xiao Ran’s signal, An Yuxuan smiled gracefully, took out a document, and read it to Lucas: “Mr. Lucas, the current market value of your Light Magic and Skywalker companies is only 330 million. To get you to sell these two companies, Phantom has already spent 60 million dollars. So, it’s absolutely impossible for you to get five hundred million or three hundred million!”
Lucas took the document and glanced at it, then couldn’t help but groan in pain. He swore to himself that he would never do business with Orientals, especially Chinese people again—they were all devils, able to uncover his secrets completely.
This was Lin Yongqiang’s skill. Now, Lin Yongqiang and Ah Biao were in charge of gathering business intelligence, which was highly beneficial to Tianxia Fund. Of course, Xiao Ran had far more sources of information.
After further discussion, Lucas completely surrendered. Three hundred million dollars—going forward, Skywalker and Light Magic would both belong to Phantom Group. Satisfied with this outcome, Xiao Ran returned to Hong Kong. Of course, he also gained Xiao Li as a reward.
For Xiao Ran, the most important thing about this trip wasn’t acquiring those three companies but rather finally establishing a future development strategy for Phantom, which was in a critical phase. Back in Hong Kong, Xiao Ran quickly had a thorough discussion with Wei Dongling.
“I think the company needs to change its strategic goals!” That was the first thing Xiao Ran said upon entering Wei Dongling’s office. His expression was very serious. “Hollywood is indeed very powerful. It’s difficult for us to compete with them in the short term!”
“Really?” Wei Dongling raised his head in surprise and stood up immediately, staring at Xiao Ran. “You changed your mind after just one trip to the U.S.? I think the previous strategy was good—there’s no need to change it!”

Xiao Ran smiled bitterly and shook his head. He had previously overlooked how deeply rooted Hollywood movies were globally—defeating them was certainly not something that could be achieved overnight. The two sat down on the sofa, and Xiao Ran couldn’t help but sigh, “The West completely ignores the existence of Chinese-language movies. While this is certainly unfavorable for our efforts, it does give us ample time to prepare!”
Was there really enough time? Xiao Ran wasn’t sure, but he knew one thing for sure: 1991 was the year when computer graphics truly took off, and Hollywood also began to soar thanks to the popularity it had built over previous decades.
With only one or two years left, various factors made it difficult for Chinese-language movies to quickly penetrate the North American market. Therefore, the company’s overall strategic approach had to change; otherwise, it would still be stuck in the American market.
“We shouldn’t engage directly with Hollywood in North America within three years.” Three years—with that time, it should be enough to transfer the talents from Pixar, Skywalker, and DreamWorks to Hong Kong. He stared at Wei Dongling, his tone firm, and even made a sweeping gesture to emphasize his point.
“During these three years, our goal is to dominate the Asian market and capture the European market as well.” At that moment, Xiao Ran suddenly thought of the strategy of encircling cities from the countryside, which he found quite similar to his current decision: “As long as we can take over these markets and displace Hollywood, it won’t be too late to focus all our efforts on the North American market!”
Wei Dongling remained silent for a long time. He really didn’t understand why Xiao Ran was so afraid of Hollywood, even though he knew that Mirage needed to consolidate its market share due to its fragmented industry. Yet he believed there was no need to fear Hollywood so much—technologically, Mirage was by no means inferior to Hollywood.
In Wei Dongling’s eyes, Xiao Ran saw incomprehension, and he couldn’t help but sigh. Computer graphics—those damned things. Back then, *Jurassic Park* was a milestone in special effects. When it was released in Hong Kong, it completely changed the situation where Western movies had no market there, earning over 60 million in box office revenue and breaking all records. More than a decade later, not even *Kung Fu* could surpass that record. Not to mention there was still the insurmountable peak of *Titanic* ahead of it.
If it came to computer graphics, Xiao Ran was willing to invest 100 million dollars, or even 1 billion dollars, to make a movie. After the 1990s, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that those who mastered computer graphics could dominate the industry. The top 25 highest-grossing movies in U.S. history were mostly related to computer graphics.
“Do you think the action scenes in *Spy Change* are great?” Frustrated, Xiao Ran decided to gently nudge this CEO. If even Wei Dongling couldn’t understand, mistakes might occur during execution. Xiao Ran disliked failure, though he knew it was inevitable.
“Very great—extremely impressive, especially that final explosion scene!” Wei Dongling didn’t quite understand what Xiao Ran was trying to do, but he still gestured to illustrate just how amazing the movie was.

“Very good. Let me tell you—the action and explosion scenes in this movie are nothing!” Xiao Ran stood up, looking down at Wei Dongling, and said in a pressing tone, “What do you think if a movie makes a building with dozens of floors explode? What if someone films an eruption of a volcano or a meteorite falling? What if all of this is filmed in complete realism? What do you think then?”
Wei Dongling was instantly stunned. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe someone could achieve such effects, but he thought even the best movies must have flaws, and such things could definitely not be done in a short time. He immediately shook his head and said, “Such scenes are impossible!”
“I mean, if they really existed, do you think such a movie could attract audiences?” Xiao Ran’s expression was now as aggressive as if he were dealing with a business rival. “Tell me, if they really existed, would you be fascinated by it?”
Just then, someone rushed in, bumping through the door despite Wei Dongling’s secretary’s attempts to stop them. After scanning the room and seeing Xiao Ran, they immediately exclaimed excitedly, “President Xiao, we’ve succeeded!”