Volume 3 Summer Rain Chapter 0355 The Truth of the Traveler
When the time came to January 28th, the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month.
Nan Ruoyin's school has already started the winter recess. Fan Hongdou is busy with her own company's affairs, but Nan Ruoyin asked Nan Yi to send a plane to pick her up from Hollywood.
After Nan Ruoyin arrived, Nan Yi asked Rachel to contact Barry Diller, and he took Nan Ruoyin out to run around. In order to find an office space for the gunman more conveniently, Nan Yi recruited the first employee for the gunman company, who was the tour guide Chen Fang.
Chen Fang had long been tired of his , but as he could not find an opportunity to enter the film industry, he could only make a living with this job. Now that he could join a ghostwriter company, even if it was a newly established screenwriter company, he could only do some odd jobs, but he was very happy about it.
Even if the Gunman Company went bankrupt, this was still a qualification for him in the film industry.
Naturally, Chen Fang became the first employee of the Gunman Company, with employee number 002. Of course, he is also the only formal employee at present. His position is very misleading, called Chief Great Strategy Implementation Officer.
Everything else can be ignored, the key is the word "realization".
To put it simply, no matter whether it is Nan Yi's strategy or Nan Ruoyin's strategy, they just need to give the order and Chen Fang will execute it.
To explain it in simple terms, this position is a miscellaneous job. Of course, if Chen Fang is happy, it can also be called a "reserve cadre."
Nan Yi's requirements for him were not high. As long as he could maintain the normal operation of the company, pay the telephone, water and electricity bills on time, and not let anyone cut off the water or prevent calls from being made, it would be fine.
Of course, for the time being, Chen Fang's salary will not be too high, US$240 per week. At the end of the year, he can receive four extra weeks' salary as a year-end bonus.
In addition, Nan Yi also gave him a promise that was not really a promise. If there was a role suitable for him in a script, Nan Yi would find a way to recommend him to the crew.
Nan Yi also arranged for Chen Fang to clean the gunman’s office - an old warehouse located on the edge of Beverly Hills. It should have belonged to a medium-sized supermarket before, but it was not used later for some unknown reason.
The area is not small, it is more than 500 square meters. The windows are all very high ventilation windows, so ventilation is no problem, just install a few exhaust fans, but the lighting is a bit poor, and the office area needs to keep the lights on around the clock.
This is not a big problem. The ghost company will not have too many sitting-in employees. For example, the screenwriter who wrote "Jurassic Park" recruited by Rachel before, their salary structure is a low base salary plus project commission and project share.
If "Jurassic Park" is published or adapted into a movie, all the screenwriters involved in the project can get commissions and dividends. As long as the project is profitable, their dividends will not be interrupted.
Of course, Nan Yi is still relatively humane. Screenwriters can also choose to take a one-time considerable commission, and then the amount of profit generated by the project in the future will have nothing to do with them.
This requires the screenwriters to weigh their own actual situations and test their own vision. Nan Yi will not force them to make a choice. It all depends on them.
Chen Fang was in charge of cleaning, while Nan Yi took Nan Ruoyin to patrol the warehouse. Nan Yi said, and Nan Ruoyin recorded what needed to be added here, what needed to be repaired there, how the office area should be arranged, what things could be picked up from the garbage dump outside, etc.
"We can put a few pool tables here, a wine cabinet here, and a few refrigerators on the side. We'll go to the garbage dump later and we should be able to pick up the refrigerators."
"Dad, the old refrigerator consumes more electricity. After a long time, the extra electricity consumption will be enough to buy a new refrigerator."
"I know this is just a transition. Once the Gunners are on track, we will definitely move to a better place, maybe our own place. When we move out, we won't move the things here. We will just leave them here for the next family to use."
"Oh, where is the conference room?" Nan Ruoyin wrote it down in the notebook and asked again.
"Just install it near the entrance, where the lighting is better. You don't need to prepare a conference table. Just buy a few dozen chairs with retractable desks, and a movable blackboard and slide projector."
Nan Yi pointed to an empty area near the main entrance and said, “In addition to the meeting room, there are also 20 workstations reserved here. If several screenwriters want to discuss and write at the same time, they can also come here to write and don’t have to stay at home.
Of course, we also need to find a cafe to discuss the discount with them. Usually, the screenwriters can also go to the cafe to brainstorm. "
"What if the screenwriters live in scattered places? Now that the staff has not arrived, it is difficult to count their locations, and we cannot determine which cafe is more evenly located to most of the residences."
"Ruoyin, you don't need to think about this issue so carefully. Just find a restaurant that is close to here and has convenient transportation.
Screenwriters need inspiration to write, and perhaps a small thing that happens on the bus, subway, or taxi can inspire their inspiration.
So the fact that they spend more time on the road isn’t really a problem and might actually be a good thing.”
"Oh." Nan Ruoyin nodded and said, "I understand."
Chen Fang, who was cleaning nearby, pricked up his ears, wanting to listen to what Nan Yi and the others were talking about, but after listening for a while, he gave up.
"This big and small thing is really torturing me. You change the language every now and then, trying to show off how many languages you know?"
Nan Yi and Nan Ruoyin often switch languages when they talk, not to be on guard against anything, but to integrate teaching into their daily lives.
He couldn't let Nan Ruoyin completely unattended. She had to stay by his side and couldn't give up her studies.
Nan Ruoyin can be considered a genius. If she had stayed in China, she would have been sent to the junior class of USTC. But even though she is a genius, she cannot interrupt her studies.
Nan Yi didn't want to see the story of Zhongyong happening right under his nose.
After going through the warehouse, Nan Ruoyin made a list of things to be purchased and picked up. Nan Yi took a look at the list, and seeing that nothing was missing, he went to a car rental company and rented two F-150 Crew Cab double-row pickup trucks. Then he went around the trash cans near the Luoshanji residential area according to the map.
I picked up a lot of good things along the way, including a 60% to 70% new TV, an Atari game console, a bread oven, a microwave oven, a vacuum cleaner, a refrigerator, etc. Most of them should be in good condition, but a small part is visibly in need of repair.
If there is a problem with the circuit, Nan Yi can still tinker with it. He is very good at using a multimeter and an electric iron. He can solder a tin foot or replace a capacitor.
Most people are good at dismantling a TV or a tape recorder, but many of them probably can't put it back together properly, and they will basically be treated to a meal of stir-fried pork and bamboo shoots.
In more tragic cases, the father might beat the child and the mother might scold the child, or even men and women might take turns beating the child or beat the child together.
The naughty monkey would hold his buttocks and run around the yard, crying and shouting, attracting the neighbors to watch. This was a common sight from the 1980s to the mid-1990s.
If unfortunately the old man or uncle in the family is a butcher, it would be terrible. He would make the child drink two liang of yellow soup and, out of anger, tie the child to a long bench to simulate the pig-killing process. This is also possible. I guarantee that the monkey who was killed as a pig would be scared to hiss in front and puff in the back.
After transporting all kinds of things two or three times, Nan Yi and Nan Ruoyin rushed to the garbage dump again.
There are even more things in the garbage dump, but most of them are damaged during transportation, so you need to be patient if you want to find something usable.
After giving the staff fifty dollars , they told her to pick whatever you want. Nan Yi helped Nan Ruoyin put on protective clothing, found her a thin iron rod, and asked her to dig through the garbage dump.
Nan Yi went to the pile of metal and picked out things that seemed useful.
A refrigerator with a severely damaged appearance was pulled out. This one was the same model as the one picked up earlier. He had tried it when he moved the previous one back. It did not make a buzzing sound when plugged in. Most likely, the compressor was broken. Nan Yi wanted to remove the compressor of this one.
He doesn't know how to fix the refrigerator, but he can still solve the problem by replacing something else.
After a while, Nan Yi took down the compressor. Looking at it, he muttered, "I don't know if this is good or bad. I have to look for it again and take two more back."
…
Picking up things during the day, and at night Nan Yi holding a book on electrical appliance repair, and Nan Ruoyin helping him, learning and tinkering with the stuff.
When the refrigerator changes to the second compressor, it will make a buzzing sound. After a few minutes, you can feel the coldness when you put your hand into the refrigerator box. The refrigerator is considered to have been tinkered with.
It was a victory at the start, but when I was tinkering with the second microwave, it broke. I took it apart, looked everywhere, and tested the circuit with a multimeter, but still couldn't find out what was wrong.
"Dad, could the transformer be broken?"
When Nan Yi was reading, Nan Ruoyin was also reading, so naturally she could learn and apply what she learned.
"It's also possible that the waveguide and magnetron are broken. No matter where these three are broken, Dad can't fix it anyway. Forget it, I'll find a place to throw it away tomorrow."
Nearly half an hour had already been spent, and Nan Yi felt that there was no need to spend more time studying it.
"Let's go to the job-hopping market tomorrow, maybe we can buy a new one." Nan Yi said, and threw the dismantled parts into a plastic basket and placed the bread maker on the workbench in front of him.
"You can also go to the spontaneous exchange market in the suburbs. Tomorrow is Sunday."
"It's too far, not worth it." Nan Yi put down the screwdriver in his hand, took a sip of the teacup, and said earnestly: "Dad took you out to pick up things today, not because we are tight on budget and can't afford new ones, but because Dad wants to tell you that money should be spent wisely.
Spend where you should spend, and save where you can save.
No matter how rich you are, you have to know how to save. If you want to have a fortune of 18 million, you can earn it or spend it on a life of luxury; but if you want to pass down your family, you must know how to save.
Especially in business, you must argue with reason for the quotation, even if it is unreasonable; but when entertaining customers, you must not save, even if the cost of entertainment exceeds the profit gained.
Business is business, and it must be separated from friendship. Don't mix it up , and handle it separately. You should charge what you should for business. Even if you give away tens of millions of dollars for free out of friendship, you can't give up a cent in business."
"Well, Dad, I still don't quite understand."
"It's okay. You'll see actual examples later. You'll understand when you see how dad handles it." Nan Yi pursed his lips and said to the rosin flux beside him, "Pour some for dad. The circuit of this bread oven is broken. I hope it can be used after soldering it."
"oh."
Nan Yi was a little nervous. As for inheritance, he had no practical experience. He didn't have a son in his previous life and had no family property handover. All his knowledge about inheritance came from books. He didn't know if he could do a good job of inheritance.
He needs to make more preparations to give himself more capital to try and make mistakes.
The next day, Nan Yi and his friend compressed their time very tightly. They first went to the office market and bought three pool tables, plus several other necessary items. Then they went to two office supply companies and bought the remaining items after comparing prices.
On the third day, I went to the place where Luoshanji was doing the work and found a few black guys with a good reputation. There were many places that needed to be repaired, including the tea room and the bathroom.
The reason why we look for Hebrews is because they are cheap. Labor costs in China are notoriously high. If we look for locals, the wages will be half the price.
"Chen Fang, the rest of the work is left to you, just keep an eye on it." After bringing the Heixi man back to the warehouse, Nan Yi handed him over to Chen Fang.
"Okay, Nansheng, I will definitely keep an eye on him."
Nan Yi lowered his voice and said, "These guys are very clean, I'm just afraid they'll poop and pee casually, so I told them not to bother and just go out and poop. I bought a few boxes of beer and drinks and put them in the refrigerator so they can drink as much as they want."
"Okay, I'll ask them what they like to drink later."
"Here's the money. Remember to keep the receipt. It's for your account." Nan Yi handed Chen Fang a few Franklins and said, "We'll take care of their lunch. Take them out to eat or buy them back. It doesn't have to be very good, but the quantity must be sufficient. Be nice and don't treat them like they owe you something."
"I understand."
After giving the instructions, Nan Yi took Nan Ruoyin out of the warehouse and returned to 5103 Beverly Hills. Rachel was not there, so Nan Yi let Nan Ruoyin occupy her glass room while he went upstairs and got down a stack of manuscripts.
I went to make a pot of cocoa, walked into the glass room, and divided the manuscript in my hand into two.
"You read half, and I read the other half. Pick out the stories you think are more interesting, even if only one part is interesting."
"Dad, these are the stories about dinosaurs?"
"Yes, the story about dinosaurs. Children your age are the main consumers of this story. So, your preference is more important than your father's. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Nan Ruoyin nodded and began to read the manuscript.
Seeing that Nan Ruoyin was absorbed in the work, Nan Yi took out a folder and started flipping through it. The folder contained the resume of each screenwriter. He planned to read the resumes first and then look at the manuscripts.
Nan Yi always hoped to find a name he was familiar with, although his knowledge of Hollywood screenwriters was limited to George Lucas, Cameron, Nolan, and Spielberg. He was not sure whether this person could write scripts, but he had the impression that he could.
Anyway, they are all famous, and anyone who likes to watch Hollywood movies must have heard of these four. Especially the first three, they took all the screenwriter's share for themselves, and didn't give others a chance to share.
Of course, Nan Yi didn’t expect to see the names of these four people. They have already made a name for themselves, so how could they possibly come to a gunman company to be gunmen?
John Logan, Sofia Coppola, Nora Ephron, Alan Ball, Nan Yi looked through their profiles one by one and spent the longest time on Sofia Coppola's profile.
This is because she is very young, only 13 years old this year, and is still a student at school, but her resume shows that she has participated in the filming of two movies, "The Godfather" and "Fighting Fish", as an actor.
"The Godfather" was filmed in 1971, and Sofia was also born that year. Nan Yi recalled the plot of "The Godfather" and found that except for the baby who was baptized at the end of the film, there was no other role that she could play.
"Why did the crew of The Godfather call Sofia, who was just born, to film a movie?"
Nan Yi thought about it and realized that this movie was distributed by Paramount, but he didn't know who the director was, so he focused on Marlon Brando.
"Robin, do you know who directed The Godfather?"
"Dad, don't you know this? Francis Coppola also made "Fighting Fish" last year. Aunt Scarlett took us to the cinema to watch it. Oh, and his daughter and nephew also starred in the movie. His daughter's name is... I forgot, his nephew's name is Nicolas Coppola."
When Nan Ruoyin mentioned "Nicholas", Nan Yi reacted. Isn't this the famous Coppola family? "Nicholas is still Coppola, not Cage. Do you want to get to know him? Let him just call himself Zhao Si?"
"Oh, Dad got it." Nan Yi responded, and his mind continued to work, "Before Cage became the king of bad movies, he seemed to be a box office magic. What movie did he star in? "Firebird Attack" is about helicopters, and the MD500 helicopter in it is pretty good."
Nan Yi could no longer remember the plot of the film, but the scenes of several helicopters were still fresh in his memory.
Nan Yi can be considered a folk scientist when it comes to knowledge of aircraft models. When he was in junior high school in his previous life, he could memorize the entire "Aviation Knowledge" magazine in order to show off in front of his classmates.
He has always maintained this hobby. Nan Yi is a senior military fan and has a deep understanding of aircraft and firearms; of course, he is only limited to the appearance. Once he sees the picture, he can definitely recognize what model it is.
He can even live a life of glory about this model of gun, bombing everywhere, saying this gun is not good, the recoil is too big, etc. But in fact, he only played with a few kinds of guns in his previous life?
As a man, who doesn't like to brag, especially about being unable to get out of bed for three to five days, or about poking a hole through the earth? I believe most men have boasted about this.
"The Rock, in this movie, they really want the villain to win, Cage is fucking redundant; Con Air, Face/Off, Windtalkers, Matchstick Men, National Treasure, Lord of War, Bangkok Assassin... and the one with the guy riding a really cool motorcycle, what's the name of it...
Forget it, I don't want to think about it anymore. It seems that none of them have high box office, except for "National Treasure". This kind of movie is meaningless, treasure hunting movies, I can write a few good scripts at any time. "
Nan Yi flipped through Sofia Coppola's information. He thought that the Coppola family's face could be sold a little, but there was no need to sell it too much. If this little girl was reliable, then he would praise her. If she was not reliable, then he would just give her up.
Nan Yi then looked at the resume of the next screenwriter. He didn’t know that the resumes of the few people he had just read actually contained some future great talents.
John Logan is the screenwriter of "Alien: Covenant", "Spectre", "Skyfall", "Sweeney Todd", "The Aviator", "The Last Samurai", "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" and "Gladiator", and he is still a rookie among rookies.
Nora Ephron is already a well-known novelist, but as a screenwriter, she is still a newcomer. However, she will be nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Award at this year's Oscars.
I don’t know where Rachel found her from, I guess she just came here for fun.
Alan Ball, winner of the 2000 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Nan Yi knew nothing about all this, and his focus was still on Sofia Coppola.
It has to be said that although Nan Yi is a time traveler, he is not an omnipotent prophet. There are too many things and people he doesn't know.
Fortunately, he only needs to grasp a few key points, and the rest depends on the business skills inherited from his previous life and his unremitting learning in this life.
