Volume 4: White Devil Chapter 177: 700,000 as Consulting Fee
Under the soft lights of the suite's small dining room, a waiter in evening gown served two servings of food, picked up the decanter, poured the accompanying red wine into their glasses, and then bowed politely:
"Enjoy your meal, both of you."
For Tommy, it would be best to eat something to fill his stomach before attending a cocktail party. Otherwise, it would be very unpleasant to see everyone at the party drinking heavily while he would be the only one staring at the food like a hungry ghost. So after they took a shower, Tommy called the hotel and asked them to prepare a meal.
Seeing the waiter leaning forward but not leaving, Tommy reached for his trouser pocket and realized that he was wearing a shirt and tie on the upper body, but only boxer briefs on the lower body. He pointed in the direction of the bathroom: "Help me carry the pants over so that I can take out the change to pay you a tip."
The waiter ignored Tommy's clothes and agreed to help Tommy get his trousers back. Tommy took out his wallet and handed a few small bills to the other party. After sending the other party away, he threw the wallet back on the table and looked at Diane Lane, who had changed into a black backless evening dress and combed her hair. She was elegant and beautiful:
"I already know the rule of unlimited times for twelve hours, can you please not limit the number of guests?"
Diane Lane rolled her eyes at Tommy: "So? You want your friends to come with you?"
"No, no, no, I'm not a playful person. I mean, you are probably the most famous woman tonight. When you accompany me to the hall, there must be a lot of men interested in you, asking for your autograph, taking photos, and chatting you up. I mean, if you don't object, I can charge them 20,000 each time. If more than 40 men here are interested in you, it means more than 800,000 in revenue, and I can generously split it with you. It's good to get 400,000 back." Tommy took a sip of the red wine, and then said to Diane Lane with concern:
"I'm just worried about whether your physical condition can hold up."
Diane took a bite of salad and said with a half-smile, "You are so generous. Madam only makes 30% and you make 50%."
"I just proposed an idea that can help you make more money. I did it completely based on my helpfulness and kindness, and considering you. After all, you are short of money, and so am I. We can discuss the profit sharing ratio in detail. 40% to 60% is not impossible." Tommy said to Diane, shaking his red wine glass.
"I think those young people are unlikely to be able to afford a one-time expense of 20,000 yuan. After all, wealthy young people like you or your friend Stephen are a minority." Diane swallowed the food and then looked at Tommy and said.
Tommy showed a confident expression that "there is no need to worry about the other party defaulting on the payment": "I can ask the bank to lend them money with a lower interest rate. You don't have to worry about them not being able to pay. The bank can pay the bill for them. If they default on the payment, the bank will arrange for someone to find them and recover the money."
"You own a bank?" Diane asked Tommy after a moment's pause.
Tommy immediately shook his head. "No, I'm actually a gigolo If I spend such a large sum of money without telling her, I'll be dead if I'm found out. So I have to find a way to make up for the loss. How about it? Are you interested?"
"That's great, sir. It seems that as long as I agree and don't work myself to death, I can earn an extra four hundred thousand when I leave tomorrow morning." Diane raised her head slightly, pointed her smooth chin at Tommy, and said sarcastically.
Tommy seemed oblivious to the other party's sarcasm and continued to speak seriously, "The best of both worlds. Sometimes I admire myself for always being able to come up with this..."
"So you think I'm one of those women who can be fucked for money? You scumbag!" Diane picked up the wine glass and splashed it on Tommy's face, cursing angrily.
Tommy almost didn't hesitate. He picked up the salad on the table and poured the whole plate on the other person's face. Then he looked at Diane Lane with an apologetic look on his face: "Sorry, I'm really sorry. My words offended the pure and innocent saint in front of me. Fuck You! So, I can fuck you for 700,000, but you can only call me a scumbag for 20,000?"
Diane probably didn't expect that Tommy had no tolerance for women's anger. Her evening dress and face were covered with sauce. She was at a loss with her hands outstretched, unable to speak for a moment.
Tommy wiped the wine off his face with his hand, stood up and walked to the bathroom, took a towel and wiped the wine stains, saying:
"Once is selling, forty times is selling. I don't think it's hurtful to a prostitute to say such things to her. If you want me to apologize, then I want to tell you that there is only one way that can make me sincerely apologize for offending you, and that is if you prove that you are not a woman who is willing to sell her body for money. Only then will I sincerely apologize. Otherwise, you'd better pay attention to your attitude. Maybe those Hollywood guys you dealt with before looked elegant and gentlemanly, and only revealed their true colors when they went to bed. Unfortunately, I'm not that kind of gentleman. Even if all the teenagers in America regard you as an idol, I will still splash sauce on your face, because I paid the money and we are equal transactions."
Then he pressed the hands-free button and made a call: "Stephen, Fuck You! The chick you asked your wife to send over splashed me with red wine. I want you to take her out of my room now! Then call all the newspapers and ask them to send reporters to the hotel to take pictures. I want all American newspapers the next day to know that this American teenager's dream girl is a prostitute who takes money to receive customers."
"Shit~ what are you doing, brother? This is her first fucking business like this, you have to give her..." Stephen asked breathlessly after hearing Tommy's aggressive speech.
Tommy stared at Diane and said to Stephen on the other end of the phone, "It's the first time for me to spend so much money to sleep with a girl. It's the first time. Why should I accommodate her? America values gender equality! The equal rights movement can't just be talked about!"
Stephen said helplessly: “Stop it, Tommy, I know you are not…”
"Stephen, you are an idiot. Sooner or later you will die at the hands of a woman." Tommy saw that Stephen had no idea that he wanted to scare this girl and had no tacit understanding with him, so he could only curse in frustration and hung up the phone.
Diane wiped the mess on her face with a napkin and looked at Tommy with a calm tone and a calm gaze: "You are disappointed that your friend didn't cooperate with you to scare me."
"You look so funny with salad dressing all over your face, acting so smart." Tommy walked back depressed and threw the towel in his hand to the other person:
"Okay, let's be even. I just feel bad that Stephen, that idiot, spent all this money on me. I'm not a stingy person. I just prefer to spend money on things that are worth spending. But you are still very observant. Yes, Stephen is a kind idiot. He doesn't hurt women."
"To survive in Hollywood, observing people's words and expressions is a necessary skill." Diane Lane took the towel thrown by Tommy, wiped the stains on her face and body and said:
"So, if you sleep with an Oscar-winning actress, maybe you'll feel that your $700,000 is worth it?"
"No, there is no woman in the world worth this price, except my girlfriend." Tommy sat back in his seat, ripped open his shirt and took it off, and said while cutting the steak with a dinner knife.
Diane wiped it a few times and found that it was hopeless, so she simply took off her evening dress and sat back at the table in her underwear: "But you obviously don't respect her."
"Respect her. It doesn't conflict with me sleeping with other women." Tommy put the chopped beef into his mouth.
Diane also lowered her head and began to cut the food. As she cut, she asked, "Are you telling the truth?"
"What?" Tommy asked vaguely, chewing his beef.
Diane stopped cutting the steak and looked up at Tommy: "The story of your girlfriend, an ordinary girl from a small city, realizing her self-worth."
"If you ignore her father's shipping company with a market value of 500 million, yes, she is just an ordinary girl from a remote small town." Tommy swallowed the food and took a sip of his red wine.
After hesitating for a moment, he picked up the decanter and poured a glass of bright red wine into Diane's empty glass that was splashed on his face.
"Thank you." Diane looked at Tommy who was pouring the wine and said with a smile, "A woman splashed red wine on your face, but you were still willing to help her pour the wine. This barely changed my opinion of you. So, you are a gigolo and use your girlfriend's money to... have fun. Is that true?"
After Tommy finished pouring, he put down the bottle, sat back in his seat, shook the wine glass and looked at Diane: "Of course, I rely on my face to cheat women's money, so I can't stand you splashing red wine on my face."
"You're such a great actress, you can tell a complete lie with a serious expression," Diane said to Tommy.
"I'm sorry that my words just now hurt you. I mean it." Tommy raised his glass towards Diane and said seriously.
Diane raised her glass and clinked it with his. "I accept it, but I won't agree to your money-making plan, even if it can earn an extra four hundred thousand."
"I'm kidding. You are my companion tonight and I am the only one who can touch you." Tommy brought the wine glass to his mouth, took a sip, and said lightly.
At this moment, the doorbell suddenly rang. Tommy looked down at his boxers, then at Diane who was only wearing underwear. "Who do you think is more suitable to open the door?"
"Why don't we continue eating?" Diane said to Tommy.
"That makes sense." Tommy nodded. "I guess it's Stephen, the peacemaker."
The two continued to eat their food, ignoring the doorbell. Soon, the doorbell sounded like a knock on the door, and a woman's voice rang outside the door: "Diane! Honey! Are you okay?"
When Diane heard the voice, she quickly stood up, not caring that she was only wearing underwear, and walked quickly to open the door. A tall blonde girl came in quickly from outside, hugged her, and then turned her body to the position of her door, using her body to isolate her from Tommy in the room, and asked Diane nervously: "Diane, are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?"
"Who is she?" Tommy asked curiously when he saw the nervous blonde girl.
Diane patted the other person's shoulder and comforted her in a relaxed tone: "I'm fine, Laura, don't worry."
After releasing the frightened man, Diane Lane introduced Tommy: "Laura Dunn, my friend, and she introduced this business to me."
"Nice to meet you, Miss Dunn. I'm sorry I won't stand up and shake your hand to avoid embarrassment. After all, I haven't put on my pants yet." Tommy glanced at her and continued to pick up the knife to cut the steak and put it into his mouth.
Seeing Tommy's shirt on the floor covered with red wine stains, and the evening gown on the floor stained with salad dressing, Laura nervously whispered to Diane: "Mr. Stephen called me to see if you are in trouble."
"Nothing. As you can see, I poured him a glass of red wine, and he responded with a plate of salad, and then we apologized to each other." Diane turned around and walked into the restaurant with Laura Dunn: "Would you like to eat something to fill your stomach?"
Laura Dunn seemed to know how to deal with guests better than Diane. She pulled out a seat next to Diane and sat down carefully. Then she said to Tommy gently but seriously: "Sir, whatever Diane did was unintentional. She is a little nervous. I hope you can..."
"If I remember correctly, Stephen mentioned you to me, Miss Dunn. Your parents are both stars in the Hollywood circle. You should be able to thrive in Hollywood. I'm curious about how you ended up here?" Tommy picked up an empty glass, poured a glass of red wine for the other party and handed it to her, asking with a curious expression.
"...Thank you." Laura Dern didn't expect that the other party completely ignored her apology on behalf of Diane, and instead asked about her own experience. She took the wine glass and hesitated for a moment before speaking:
"Because of lack of money, sir. There are countless actresses in Hollywood, but there are only so many film projects in a year. Not everyone has constant film contracts. For most women, the money earned from film salaries is not enough to cover expenses. Many women look glamorous and beautiful when attending press conferences and dinners, but that's all an illusion. The income of men and women in Hollywood is completely unequal. If we are lucky enough, girls like us can get the leading role and get a maximum salary of 300,000, or as little as 100,000. Some low-cost productions will even offer a salary of 50,000, which is not enough to support a female star's decent life. You have to hire assistants, makeup artists, drivers, and even rent a house... You are lucky to get one movie a year. For example, Diane, because the previous two movies suffered huge box office losses, no film company dared to offer her a job opportunity for two years. People like us have alternatives in Hollywood. So what ? There are three others to choose from. Why choose a box office poison? So, sir, any emotional problems she has are because of the past..."
Laura tried to turn the topic back to Diane. She hoped to apologize to Tommy on Diane's behalf and explain that Diane had no intention of offending him.
Because the call Stephen made to her was a little scary, saying that Diane spilled a glass of red wine on a guest, and the guest was furious and wanted to ruin her reputation.
This was the first time for Diane Lane to do this kind of business, but it was not the first time for Laura. She had accompanied Stephen before and knew Stephen's background. Anyone who could make Stephen feel uneasy must be a high-ranking figure, so Laura immediately apologized to her guest Frank and left temporarily, then hurried over, hoping to apologize to the other party on behalf of her friend Diane.
"So your parents' connections are completely useless?" Tommy completely ignored Laura's efforts to turn the topic back to Diane. Instead, he raised his glass, signaled to her, and continued to curiously ask about her experience.
"Of course it does. For example, other girls have to graduate from high school to get a chance to enter Hollywood, and rely on selling their bodies to producers and directors in exchange for opportunities. But I, whose parents are in the industry, don't need that at all. I completed the deal with the producer a long time ago." Laura Dern clinked glasses with Tommy, then she took a sip of red wine, looked at Tommy, smiled at herself, and spoke.
Tommy frowned, looking somewhat shocked. He had heard a lot of gossips about Hollywood before, but he didn't expect this place to be so sinister. Two actresses in his room were assaulted by those Hollywood scums under the pretext of becoming famous through filming.
Is this still America that respects women? Is there still a king's law? Is there still law? How can a righteous person like me turn a blind eye to such evil?
He, Tommy Hawke, will always be at odds with evil.
He stood up, picked up his pants, took out a cigarette from it, lit one, sat back in his seat, and looked at Laura and Diane across from him: "After listening to your experiences, I... have lost interest. Sorry, Laura, I'm sorry, because of my curiosity, I made you turn up the scarred past again."
"The price of fame." Laura breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Tommy had no intention of blaming Diane. She followed Tommy's tone and said, "In Hollywood, a place where male power is supreme, a woman has no choice if she wants to become famous, unless she is lucky enough to be reborn as the daughter of a movie mogul."
"Sooner or later, God's holy light will completely cleanse the entire Hollywood." Tommy seemed to have become bored because of Laura's words. He leaned back in his chair, holding a cigarette in his mouth, and said sadly.
"That kind of talk is useless to actresses like us, sir." Diane saw Tommy's expression and reminded him lightly.
Mainly when she was taking a bubble bath, she had witnessed how powerful this man's acting skills were. This bastard could hold his head down to prevent himself from stopping while making an emotional phone call, calling on women to be independent and to find their self-worth.
The man is a born actor.
Tommy ignored Diane's teasing and said seriously again: "I am really angry about this. I know I don't seem to have any right to blame those people now. However, if I get dressed one day, you will see that I am completely different from those people. I really respect women from the bottom of my heart and am willing to speak up for women."
"Uh..." Laura didn't say anything. She smiled at Tommy and nodded.
Tommy looked at Diane. Diane was not too cautious after being frank with Tommy. At this time, she said to Tommy: "Laura doesn't know how to respond to you. The reason is, before you say you respect women , can you put on your pants first?"
"Just because Jesus is naked doesn't stop people from worshipping him." Tommy sighed and looked at Laura Dunn, who obviously knew how to please customers better and looked younger than Diane.
“Laura, do you have an agency?”
"Of course." Laura didn't understand why the other party asked such a question again, but in order not to offend the guests, she told the truth.
Tommy thought for a moment, then looked at the other party: "I have a friend who opened an agency. If he is willing to bear some of your expenses, such as the driver, makeup artist, and stylist, the agency will help you pay for these expenses. It is even possible that the agency's commission from you will be very low. Wouldn't it be a lot easier for you?"
"That's not important, sir. The most important thing is to help me get job opportunities. Between an agency that doesn't charge me a commission but also doesn't give me any job opportunities, and an agency that takes 40% of my income but can help me get one or two movie contracts every year, I will of course choose the latter." Laura answered without hesitation.
Artists are not willing to sign contracts with an agency just because it offers more favorable conditions. In Hollywood, it depends on whether the agency can help the artist continuously obtain film contracts, resources, increase their popularity, and prolong their acting career.
"What you said makes sense, but to be honest, in my eyes, you are so in need of sympathy. I can't bear to see you beautiful girls being exploited by those greedy capitalists in Hollywood." Tommy said with some sadness, then put down the cutlery and stood up:
"I'm not in the mood to dine anymore. Please feel free to do as you please. By the way, Diane, if you want, you can leave directly after the reception. You don't have to come back to this room."
Tommy said this, stood up and left the restaurant. After calling Paige in the living room to ask her to send up a new set of clothes, he walked towards the balcony of the living room with a lonely figure.
"Who is he?" Laura asked Diane, looking at Tommy, who was gazing at the night outside the living room balcony with a cigarette in his mouth.
Diane shook her head: "I don't know, but I think it's best not to be curious about him. Since he said the deal is over, I will leave as soon as the reception is over."
Meanwhile, Tommy stood on the balcony and dialed Susan's number on his mobile phone: "Where are you?"
"Help BT TV in Canada to find a possible partner TV station to export its programs." Susan said, "If there is none, register and establish a black TV station in Canada."
"I came across a group of injured actresses in Hollywood by chance. We want to save them, but the only problem is that these women don't trust men. Mark and I are unlikely to be trusted by each other. I think you can hand over the work at hand to other people and help Hollywood quietly form a victims' alliance. If it goes well, this will be the most important political asset in your life, and these girls will also be your most powerful gold medal fighters." Tommy exhaled a puff of smoke in the night breeze and spoke.
Susan paused for a few seconds. "Help these poor women speak up and criticize the Hollywood film companies?"
"No rush. I told you how to grow mushrooms. Invest in these women first. When you need to make further progress politically, release them and blow a gap." Tommy turned around, leaned against the guardrail, looked at the two Hollywood actresses sitting at the dining table under the soft light, and said.
Susan seemed to have caught Tommy's train of thought. She tried to give her own guessed answer: "You want to choose a listed Hollywood film company and buy its stock in the hope of making a profit when you need to spend money but don't want to pay out of your own pocket. Or even when you join forces with other companies to take advantage of a certain unfortunate company, you can pick a few people from the Victims Alliance and accuse the other company of what they have done to them?"
"It's not that superficial, Susan, but I'm surprised that you can think of these things. You always surprise me." Tommy smiled and praised Susan:
"This conversation with you is the happiest thing for me today. Simply put, you have to gain their trust and feed them as much as possible, so that one day in the future, they will be willing to use their scars as weapons for you."
"After I hand over the work at hand to other people, I will return to Los Angeles to see you as soon as possible. Good night." Susan did not continue to ask. Since Tommy had decided on the idea, she didn't need to waste time thinking about this issue.
"Good night, Susan." Tommy said, and hung up the phone. He looked up at the starry sky and said to himself:
"If I consider the $700,000 as consulting fees to help my dear Susan find a perfect entry point for her political career, it won't be so painful."
Author's words: Laura herself said something about her transaction, which shows that her parents are insiders. Unless they are really big names, they cannot escape the clutches of those people in Hollywood.
