It's often said that a gentle embrace is a hero's tomb, and that couldn't be truer.
It wasn't until evening, when Eric saw that she truly couldn't take it anymore, that he finally relented.
This state continued for three days, as if the two of them were living a married life.
They ate at home, binge-watched shows, played games, and then there was the non-stop lovemaking.
During this time, Eric called Sergei, that love-starved middle-aged man, whose voice sounded incredibly spirited.
"Sergei, where did you go that night? At first, I could see you, but then you suddenly disappeared, and so did Kate Winslet."
Sergei chuckled, "We left before ten, then went for a walk on Santa Monica Beach, enjoyed the scenery, and talked about life."
"And after the walk?"
"After that? After that, I drove her home."
Even though they were on the phone, Eric couldn't help but look puzzled.
"Brother, don't tell me you two were really just talking about life and living."
A resolute voice came from the other end.
"Exactly, that's it. Young man, I know what's on your mind, but sex is secondary to me now."
"Haven't I played with enough women? White-skinned, yellow-skinned, black-skinned, mixed-skinned, tall, petite, sexy, cute—many of them more beautiful and charming than Kate."
"But I'm tired of mere sex; spiritual compatibility is what's most important."
"Through a night of communication, Kate and I gained a deeper understanding of each other. We found common interests and directions, which is far more comforting than a session in bed."
"You might not understand what I'm saying now, but with your status and resources, especially being in Hollywood,"
"Surrounded by all sorts of beauties, facing so many temptations and seductions, I believe one day you will understand."
"By then, you will have undoubtedly experienced countless battles, and you'll naturally understand my mindset."
After listening to his long-winded speech, Eric's only thought was, 'You're really wasting resources.'
He had gone to great lengths to create an opportunity for him. Shouldn't he consider that he's a married man? Would she still be close to him if she knew? But he couldn't say that.
"Alright, brother, that's your choice. Anyway, I can only do so much."
"Eric, my brother, I'll remember your help. If you ever need me in the future, I'll do my utmost!"
After hanging up, Theron lay on his chest, drawing circles, having naturally overheard the conversation.
"You bad guy, look at your friend. He said the most important thing is spiritual compatibility. That's really well said."
Eric chuckled, "Baby, you have to look at problems dialectically."
"He also said he's played with all sorts of women, so it can be inferred that he's either tired of it or his 'lower half' isn't working, which is why he can only choose spiritual compatibility."
Theron, like a water snake, climbed up and straddled him, questioning him from above, "What about you? Sergei only operates in the toy industry, but you're a Hollywood mogul."
"Let me think, how many women have you been rumored with? And how many are hidden in the shadows?"
"I'm not! I didn't! Don't talk nonsense!"
Eric immediately denied all three: "Rumors are just for hype. Don't you know how those gossip tabloids are?"
"Baby, you're the only one in my heart. You should feel my love!"
"Oh, you're annoying!"
Hahahahaha.
Happy times are always short-lived. After three days of blissful living,
Finally, at Theron's strong insistence, they left the apartment and returned to work.
Her reason was that career comes first. 'You're a man, and the helmsman of such a big company; you have a heavy burden on your shoulders.'
'If I delay important matters because of me, it would be a huge loss, and people would hate me.'
However, whether she truly wanted to return to work or was just using it as an excuse to escape Eric's clutches, only Theron herself knew.
In any case, her walking posture had changed when she left.
The field was plowed by the bull!
The house of cards crew, as usual, was left for Andrea to handle. Eric reassured her to hold on for a few more days, and he would return.
At Meiyi Records, Michael's team was in charge, currently handling matters related to the company's establishment.
After discussing, they planned to set up the company in Los Angeles, specifically in Burbank.
This is the entertainment capital of America, with not only numerous film and television companies but also many record companies.
Moreover, it's very close to MGM, making communication convenient.
Currently, two things truly held Eric's attention: first, the competition between Facebook and MySpace, and second, communication with Marvel.
MySpace had been online for over half a month, and due to Fox's all-out promotion, it had generated a huge buzz.
The brainwashing offensive was like a constant jingle; any Fox viewer, upon hearing the word 'join,' would immediately think of MySpace.
Although many people complained, finding it as annoying as spam calls, the traffic it attracted was undeniable.
However, attracting traffic is just the most basic step; the key is how to retain users.
As a social software similar in function to Facebook, MySpace was the challenger and had to pull out all the stops. Its key strategy was personalization and suggestive content.
From its launch, one of its strategies was to recruit a large number of DJs, musicians, and'spiritual young men' and'spiritual young women' from various nightclubs and bars.
These musicians often brought their own fans; even if they weren't big stars, accumulating them could bring in a significant number of users.
But even more attractive were those'spiritual young women.'
America is a country divided in many aspects, and sexuality is one of them.
In exported film and television works, American girls are often portrayed as incredibly open, willing to play and fool around, with losing their virginity at fourteen or fifteen being common.
This is somewhat true but not absolute, because besides the extremely open, there are also many states that are extremely conservative, far exceeding China in their conservatism.
For example, in states like Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia, church influence is strong, and every household believes in God. To them, sex is like evolution—a monstrous flood.
Even twenty years later, with LGBT sweeping the Western world, you would never see pro-LGBT parades in conservative states like Alabama, because fervent religious believers would truly dare to shoot you directly.
The people MySpace recruited this time were all from sexually extremely open states like California and New York, which investigations show are the most rampant places for cheating, infidelity, and multiple relationships in the US.
Therefore, these'spiritual young women' are all incredibly open. Their profile pictures, where posing suggestively is considered modest, often show them with just a piece of cloth, almost to the point of showing too much.
This kind of tactic is irresistible to any normal man, let alone hot-blooded young men.
Honestly, did you ever download a dating app just to hook up? It's the same principle. So, while it's vulgar, it's very effective for attracting traffic.
Eric also registered an account to test it out and merely scoffed at the situation.
Relying on suggestive content might maintain temporary popularity, but it would ruin the foundation of the online ecosystem.
If you don't use suggestive content, you won't get attention, you won't attract fans, and it will gradually devolve into an arms race of who can be more explicit.
But society and the law will not allow an all-ages adult content platform.
Right now, it's still early, and public opinion and parents haven't reacted yet.
When MySpace gets bigger and more brazen, and parents suddenly discover their underage children browsing inappropriate content, what do you think their reaction will be?
At that time, Eric could use public opinion to fan the flames, stirring up trouble and escalating the situation.
When pressure is put on MySpace, rectification will be inevitable.
And at that point, its main label will be 'adult content,' which is what people came for.
If you suddenly say you're not doing it anymore, who would want to stay with you? Wouldn't Facebook be more appealing?
Besides suggestive content, MySpace's other feature was personalized homepage settings.
Users could freely change the color, background, decorations, and text content of their homepage.
This feature was somewhat similar to QQ Zone in later years, allowing users to make their homepages gaudy and dazzling to the eye.
When non-mainstream culture was popular back then, many people probably had this experience and feeling.
After trying it, Eric thought it was good and wanted Fitz to implement a similar feature.
But Fitz told him it was best not to do so, because while it seemed flashy, it came at a high cost.
"Boss, our team conducted a tiered test of MySpace's personalization feature, which involved continuously decorating personal homepages to be more elaborate and complex."
"If the level of extravagance is 1, it looks very pretty."
"And when the level of extravagance rises to 10, it looks even prettier."
"But when the level of extravagance rises to 20, side effects begin to appear. The homepage's opening and refresh speeds start to lag."
"As this number continues to rise, the degree of lag will also continue to increase, until it takes four or five minutes to open a single homepage."
"And even after opening, there will be continued lag, such as comments not posting, messages not syncing, and so on."
"Boss, our company's software and hardware configurations are already the most advanced available on the market, yet problems still arise. The experience for ordinary users is unimaginable."
"It might seem great now, but in just two or three months, the drawbacks will definitely become apparent."
After listening to Fitz, Eric couldn't help but think of QQ Zone again, which indeed became extremely laggy later on.
If a page takes several minutes to load, who would still be interested?
"You make a good point. What's your suggestion?"
"Boss, I believe we just need to do our job well and completely ignore MySpace's provocations."
"It chose a path of quick success, completely unworthy of competing with Facebook, and will soon destroy itself."
"According to the information I've received, MySpace's joint promotion within various companies and organizations hasn't been smooth, and the results are pretty much as you predicted."
"Meanwhile, our promotion in various middle and high schools has been very successful. Currently, the number of new middle and high school users has reached 3 million, and most of them are very active."
After a moment of consideration, Eric said, "Since MySpace is so eager to catch up to us, let's give it some extra motivation."
"Facebook hasn't released any data since its launch. Prepare over the next few days to release data with a 20% increase."
"Boss, isn't 20% too conservative? How about a 50% increase? Without pressure, there's no motivation."
"Won't 50% be too exaggerated? Will people believe it?"
Fitz chuckled, "We don't care if the average person believes it or not, but even if there's only a 1% chance it's true, MySpace won't dare to disbelieve it."
"As long as it believes it, it will inevitably go to more extreme lengths with suggestive content, and the hourglass of its demise will only flow faster."
"Alright, let's do that."
With Facebook temporarily stable, Eric's main focus shifted to Marvel.
Since deciding to make a move on Marvel some time ago, Eric had been investigating and contacting relevant personnel.
The information he obtained showed that the largest shareholder of Marvel was currently Toy Biz, holding 20% of the shares.
However, Toy Biz did not directly participate in operations; it was more of an investment.
But to say they completely ignored it wouldn't be accurate, because Marvel's two largest individual shareholders were Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad.
The former held 17% of Marvel's shares, and the latter held 10%.
Based on Marvel's current market value, their combined shares would be worth approximately 200 million US dollars.
Both of them were also shareholders of Toy Biz, but their stake was not as large as in Marvel.
So, to acquire Marvel, Eric now had two paths before him.
The first path was to directly negotiate with Toy Biz to see if he could acquire their 20% stake, which was currently valued at 400 million US dollars.
MGM's current liquid funds were sufficient, even with a 100 million US dollar premium.
But the process could be very lengthy, requiring board meetings, continuous back-and-forth discussions, and negotiations.
The second path was to approach Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad, find a way to win them over, buy their shares, and become Marvel's largest shareholder.
Then, when MGM was re-listed, with ample funds, he could buy back the equity from Toy Biz.
According to Eric's plan, MGM's re-listing was scheduled after the release of transformers.
Once re-listed, it would undoubtedly secure billions of dollars in financing.
At that time, even after paying back the money owed to Kirk Kerkorian and the banks, it would still be completely sufficient to acquire Marvel.
Even further, he might even acquire Toy Biz as well.
If a 100 million premium isn't enough, I'll offer 200 million. If 200 million isn't enough, I'll offer more. I'll stun you with money; who would turn down money!
"Chen Xing, how are the arrangements for Marvel?"
"Boss, the time has been set. In four days, Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad will be in Los Angeles to solicit investments, and a meeting has been scheduled with them at the company."
If things don't get done today, I'll take tomorrow off to handle them.