Two hours later, in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, Leon lay on the large bed.
His eyes were vacant, as if his body had been hollowed out.
"As a lingerie model, I feel my figure isn't perfect enough yet... What do you think?"
Megan, wearing only a set of red lingerie, stood in front of the mirror, posing in various alluring ways to admire her own body.
"I think it's just right," Leon answered instantly.
When women ask men for opinions on their figures, they aren't looking for objective opinions at all, but compliments.
"I once thought about getting implants, but my husband didn't agree," Megan sighed softly, cupping her hands over her chest. "I want to hear your thoughts on implant surgery."
"I respect your thoughts," Leon said casually.
"Really?"
"Of course. Your body, your choice. No one has the right to interfere with your will. That is the true spirit of an independent woman!"
Leon put down his phone, his expression suddenly becoming serious.
Anyway, the knife wouldn't fall on him; he was just responsible for enjoying the pleasure of dribbling the ball.
"You make a lot of sense!" Megan threw herself onto the bed and burrowed into his arms. "Looks like I need to educate Green properly. His brain is too old-fashioned."
Megan and her husband, Brian Austin Green, met on the set of Hope & Faith in 2004, when she was only 18.
After a six-year marathon, the two got married in June last year.
At that time, Leon was still worrying about where to get relief meals with a higher protein ratio.
Most entertainment media didn't view the future of this marriage favorably. A strong woman and a weak man is a fatal wound for a marriage.
Megan's career was rising rapidly, leaping to become an A-list actress with Transformers, while Green was just a fringe figure in Hollywood.
If she hadn't offended Spielberg, causing her resources to plummet, she wouldn't have accepted an endorsement for a borderline lingerie brand.
"I feel Evil Angel's products are no worse than Victoria's Secret at all, both in terms of feel and design." Megan bit her red lip lightly and picked at the lace trim on her bra with her finger.
The Evil Angel brand had long failed to meet Leon's expectations. Apocalypse Apparel relied entirely on the Chestnut Shoe brand for support.
The first batch of 60,000 pairs of shoes generated a total of $13.5 million in sales. According to the 10% profit-sharing ratio, Leon earned $1.35 million doing nothing.
A few days ago, Thomas, the North American marketing director of Adidas, called. The second batch, totaling 200,000 pairs of Chestnut shoes, had all left the factory and was planned to go on sale on the first day of the Christmas holiday.
When trendy shoes that the sneaker circle scrambled for met the Christmas holiday where the public's desire to consume exploded, these 200,000 pairs of Chestnut shoes would probably be sold out in less than a day.
Provided that Adidas didn't play the hunger marketing game.
This would bring Adidas more than $40 million in revenue at one go, of which $4 million would fall into Leon's pocket.
Compared to the widespread popularity of Chestnut shoes, Evil Angel's performance was much dimmer.
Sales of borderline lingerie showed a strong positive correlation with seasonal changes, peaking in August last year.
Thirty stores across the United States generated a total of $1.6 million in sales, with a gross profit margin of over 50%.
After September, sales began to plummet.
But Leon still wanted to give Evil Angel some more time. Celebrities using their influence to launch personal brands to harvest fans is the general trend.
Turning the brand into a lingerie giant like Victoria's Secret was a pipe dream, but making the other party feel a certain sense of crisis was still achievable.
Leon shouted about brand sentiment with his mouth, but his heart was full of dollars.
As long as the price was right, he would not hesitate to sell Evil Angel to Victoria's Secret to become their subsidiary brand, making a big profit and then cashing out.
What he was doing now was trying to expand the brand's influence as much as possible. Besides inviting Megan to be the new spokesperson, he was already preparing to hold a grand lingerie fashion show in Miami.
And actively cooperating with organizations like Woke, maximizing favor with left-wing young people.
"Want to go again?"
Megan rolled over and pressed onto Leon, reaching for a lady's cigarette from the bedside and lighting it.
Her enchanting appearance while puffing smoke somewhat resembled Mia, the heroine in Quentin's 1994 classic movie Pulp Fiction.
"Looks like my boxing training today is going to be wasted," Leon smiled wryly.
Megan took a puff of smoke, held it in her mouth, leaned down, and pressed against his lips. "This is the best way to exercise. I believe you'll be even better than before!"
A week later, the "Three Arrows" Leon fired into the record market began to show results.
Although Panda had only been on sale for ten days, it had long been carried by the huge traffic of winning The Rap of America.
It sold 150,000 copies in the first week, and its Billboard ranking climbed to the eleventh position.
Ariana's 7 Rings performed equally impressively. In the first three days of release, a total of 100,000 records were sold, debuting at the nineteenth position on Billboard.
Before this, the public's impression of her was still stuck on the sweet girl who sang Señorita with Street Jesus, and that was a work from a year ago.
Elsa predicted that, combining the streaming and physical record revenues of all artists in the company, Apocalypse Music's revenue in December would exceed $6 million.
In addition, the first two singles released by Leon through Columbia Records had both broken through million sales.
Blinding Lights sold 300,000 copies in the second week. Although it dropped by nearly half compared to the first week, breaking through a million sales next week was already a sure thing.
Under Stringer's operation, physical records of Leon's first three singles had landed in European and Japanese markets.
Compared to the North American market, the record sales share would drop significantly, but it was still a considerable income.
Columbia Records would transfer the $7 million sales share belonging to Leon before the Christmas holiday.
With the wallet dried up by filming Ready Player One about to be replenished, Leon immediately started the expansion plan for the copyright library.
Davis fulfilled his promise and persuaded his Sugar Mommy, Dionne Warwick, to sell copyrights to tide over her financial difficulties.
At 2 PM, he appeared at Apocalypse Records with Warwick.
"Bro, you don't know how much I missed you! You seem a bit stronger than before." As soon as Davis walked into the office, he rushed up and gave Leon a bear hug.
Not seen for a few months, his originally stocky physique had obviously thinned down quite a bit.
But seeing the godmother behind him, the change in body shape seemed to have a reasonable explanation.
The 71-year-old Warwick had short, capable white hair and wore a Gucci leopard print coat.
Like most women in the entertainment industry, even in financial distress, she didn't forget to arm every inch of her skin with jewelry.
There has always been a rumor in online communities that women's desire increases with age, with a qualitative leap from 30 to 40.
According to this theory, how could the young lad Davis satisfy a 71-year-old woman?
It was simply unimaginable.
"Congratulations on winning the big award at the AMAs, Leon. Truly a talented young man." Warwick took the initiative to extend her hand.
This wasn't their first meeting. As a well-known old artist, she was often invited to attend various awards galas.
At the AMA awards ceremony last month, when Leon uttered the bold words "This is my era" to the camera, Warwick was in the audience.
"It is my honor to communicate closely with an old artist like you. Whether in character or music, you have always been a model for the music industry," Leon said.
Warwick enjoyed this flattery very much. She pulled out a chair and sat down, taking a lady's cigarette from her handbag.
Without needing to speak, Davis beside her understood instantly and quickly bent over to light her cigarette.
"Your reaction seems half a beat slow." Warwick rolled her eyes. "Why is there such a big gap between you and Leon when you both come from that hellhole Brownsville?"
The hot-tempered Davis unexpectedly lowered his head and didn't dare to make a sound, just like a domesticated pet dog.
Seeing the other party's predicament, Leon felt both amused and angry.
Davis originally had a bright future. By successfully portraying Ice Cube in Straight Outta Compton, he had already entered the ranks of second-rate actors.
Taking on a few film and television resources every year, earning a million dollars would be as easy as drinking water.
However, this guy still courted death, falling into the black habit of squandering money. With no intention of filming, he indulged in wine and sex all day, ending up with a load of debt.
Now, he had to wag his tail and beg for food under the crotch of a septuagenarian woman.
"Don't say that, ma'am. Davis has his strengths, the kind that no one can compare to."
"Really? I think the only valuable thing on this ngga's body is his tongue." Warwick narrowed her eyes at Davis; just the look made him shiver all over.
After a few simple pleasantries, she got straight to the point about the copyright transfer, selling half of the songwriting copyright of her first album Dionne, recorded in 1972 after moving from Scepter Records to Warner Bros. Records.
"Only $2 million. Isn't it a great deal?" Warwick deliberately put on the attitude of a strong woman to make herself look less destitute.
She took a deep drag of her cigarette and continued, "You have to know, I'm not doing this because I'm short of money, just out of appreciation for your talent... Both Sony Music and Warner Records have talked to me, but I'm tired of those capitalist vampires."
Leon made no secret of his mocking smile, shaking his head while laughing. "This isn't the 70s, ma'am..."
Warwick retorted, "Works of art appreciate over time. Don't you understand this principle?"
In the 1960s, although Elvis Presley burst onto the scene, conquering territories with the new music genre of rock and roll, the mainstream of the music scene was still slow lyrical songs.
Warwick reached the peak of her life during this period, becoming the childhood role model in the eyes of her cousin Whitney Houston.
But after entering the 70s, the landscape of the music scene changed rapidly. Record consumers were no longer interested in these lyrical songs. Dionne had excellent reviews but dismal sales.
From the late 70s, rock and roll began its comprehensive domination of the world music scene.
For Leon, such an old album could generate almost zero streaming revenue, and he could only pin his hopes on sampling or movie soundtrack licensing.
He probably wouldn't be able to recover the cost even when Elon Musk fulfilled his promise to land on Mars.
"I'm very sorry, ma'am. I'm not very interested in the musical style of Dionne. As everyone knows, I make avant-garde style music."
"What did you say?" Anger instantly spread across Warwick's face. "Then what is the meaning of my coming to New York today?"
"Calm down, ma'am. In fact, I'm more interested in some other works in your hands."
"Which work are you referring to?"
"I Have Nothing."
Warwick's features immediately twisted together. "That's Whitney's work."
"That's right, but I know the copyright for that work is in your hands," Leon said. "I'm very interested in all of Whitney's work copyrights that you hold."
I Have Nothing was one of the peaks of Whitney Houston's music career. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song with this song.
Although she was recognized as a diva-level singer in the 80s and 90s, her creative ability had always been criticized.
In the divine album Whitney, which stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart for 11 consecutive weeks and produced four No. 1 singles, not a single song was written by her.
The lyrics and music of I Will Always Love You, familiar to listeners worldwide, were written by legendary country singer Dolly Parton.
This led to the superficially glorious Whitney being reduced to a toy for record companies. After experiencing a failed marriage, her life fell into a predicament.
In 2005, while hospitalized for treatment due to drug overdose, she once thought about buying back copyrights for some works.
At this time, she was delirious and no longer trusted anyone. All copyright repurchase matters were handed over to her family.
Unsurprisingly, the family disappointed Whitney again.
Her ex-husband Bobby Brown negotiated with creators under her name and bought copyrights for a large number of works released in the 80s.
Her cousin Warwick also took the copyright from I Have Nothing creators David Foster and Linda Thompson during this period and pocketed it.
Whitney, physically and mentally devastated, finally announced her divorce from Bobby in 2007, completely leaving the man who made her fall into being a drug addict.
At the same time, she announced that she would cut ties with most of her relatives.
"I can't do this without Whitney's permission..." Warwick said through gritted teeth.
While talking about family affection, her heart was actually full of monetary interests.
The classic status of I Have Nothing has not faded with time. It has been covered at least dozens of times on American Idol alone.
The number of times it has been used in movies, TV series, and commercials is uncountable.
For Warwick, I Have Nothing was like an inexhaustible gold mine. Every time it was used for commercial purposes, a fee had to be paid to the copyright owner!
Leon lowered his voice and seduced, "Listen, ma'am, your passion for charity makes me admire you. We Are the World, which you recorded with MJ and Paul Simon, is a great work of art beyond the scope of music."
"I will give you a beautiful number so you can continue to shine in the field of charity."
The success of We Are the World gave Warwick a taste of the sweetness of charity. As a major participant, she briefly became popular again for a while.
During that period, she contributed all the proceeds of many hit singles to the HIV Research Association, which also led to her financial situation deteriorating.
To some extent, MJ had to take some responsibility for her falling to the point of being chased by the IRS for debt.
"Honey, sell that song to Leon! You should know that he just donated $1.5 million for women's rights in Las Vegas a while ago!" Davis delivered an assist at the right time. "I know this guy's character! You will definitely not lose out doing business with him!"
"Look... look..." Hearing the other party say this, Leon himself almost couldn't keep a straight face.
After considering for more than three minutes, Warwick sighed as if she had made a decision.
Although I Have Nothing could bring her a steady stream of income, she really needed a huge sum of money to tide over the difficulties right now.
After repeated back-and-forth, she finally agreed to transfer all songwriting copyrights of I Have Nothing for $5 million.
In addition, four of Whitney's works were sold as a package at a price of $500,000 each.
The total transaction amounted to $7 million.
"I'm sorry, Whitney, but I had to do this..."
The moment the deal was reached, Warwick was still holding her forehead and sighing, looking remorseful.
Extremely hypocritical.
Leon sneered, stood up, and shook hands with her. "This is really a pleasant transaction, isn't it? If you still have thoughts of selling Whitney's works, please contact me anytime."
"Oh my God, forget it." Warwick waved her hand repeatedly. "My poor cousin is already withered from illness. I really can't bear to hurt her anymore..."
Leon waved his hand and didn't reply. Warwick had participated in charity activities organized by the Democratic Party for years; her acting skills were already on par with politicians.
If one day Whitney really died, these so-called family members would definitely circle around her body immediately like vultures.