Chapter 905: Kinship

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the first day of business of the "Titanic" themed exhibition hall ended. First off dear

According to preliminary statistics, in addition to the income of 100,000 US dollars from 20,000 tickets, the first-day income from other souvenir shops, restaurants, bars and other consumer items in the park also reached 570,000 US dollars. Operating income was $670,000. If this enthusiasm can be maintained, the annual operating income of the exhibition hall will exceed 200 million U.S. dollars, and Firefly's investment in the entire exhibition hall will be less than 15 million.

Of course, it is unrealistic to want the "Titanic" themed exhibition hall to keep this hot. Since it is a single movie-themed project, the ticket price of the venue is only 5 US dollars, which is less than one-tenth of Universal Studios. However, since it has such a good start, it is logical to continue to expand the theme park of Firefly Studios .

As night falls, although the film-related exhibition areas on the big ship have been closed, places such as restaurants and bars will remain open until late at night, and the grand banquet hall on the ship will also host various parties in the future.

In order to celebrate the opening of the "Titanic" theme exhibition hall, Firefly held a grand celebration party on the big ship today. Eric didn't intend to join in the excitement, but he was forcibly pulled over by the girl.

"The problem now is that the north of the movie city is Balona Canal, the south is a dense residential area, and the west is Lincoln Avenue. If the theme park wants to expand, it can only go east, which happens to be compatible with "Titanic" The exhibition halls are connected together. However, the east side has gradually developed into a residential area in recent years. If the news of our expansion of the theme park comes out, the residents on the east side will definitely sit on the ground and raise prices. I have seen this kind of problem before, because the plan was leaked in advance, and the land price was raised several times.”

On the top deck of the big ship, Katzenberg and Eric leaned on the railing together, looking at the carnival crowd all over the big ship, and discussed the expansion of the studio.

Eric turned around and glanced to the east. In the night, compared to the desolation of Firefly Studios when it was first established, there are indeed a lot of lights on there now.

When I bought the land under my feet, it was basically based on the price of wasteland. In order to promote Firefly Studios to be located in its own tax area, Playa Vista gave a lot of discounts.

But now, if the studio wants to expand to the east where the residential area has already been formed, it is absolutely impossible to pay the original cabbage price. Even, considering the current strong capital strength of the Firefly Group, no one will miss the opportunity to make a fortune.

Withdrawing his gaze and continuing to lie on the railing, Eric pointed to the dark area west of Lincoln Avenue: "Jeffrey, where is it?"

Katzenberg followed Eric's guidance and said, "I also had people collect information over there. There is about 160 hectares of vacant land from Lincoln Avenue west to the seaside, which is larger than the area of ​​the film studio. It needs to be big. However, if you buy it for theme park development, the "Titanic" exhibition hall here and other tourist projects planned to be opened in the studio will be divided into two by Lincoln Avenue. And Even without considering the division factor of Lincoln Avenue, the straight-line distance from the "Titanic" exhibition hall where we are now to the beach near the sea is more than 4 kilometers, and tourists are too willing to run back and forth for such a long distance."

Eric thought about it for a moment, and said: "Well, Jeffrey, you first contact the government of Playa Vista District to take the land to the west, and let the theme park team try to plan it, even if it doesn't work, we A large parking lot can also be built on the west side, and the theme park will definitely not work without a spacious parking lot.”

Katzenberg nodded, buying the 160 hectares of land on the west side would not cause any financial pressure on the Firefly Group: "Eric, what about the east side?"

"Come together, we can buy as much as we can, but we can't be taken advantage of, let's forget about those residents asking too much,

"Speaking of this, Eric added: "In addition, people can also release false news that the theme park will be built in the west, so that it should be easier to buy land. "

...

In the crowded banquet hall of the big ship, Melanie Gleeson had just left to bring two glasses of cocktails and came back when she saw two boys chatting up Caroline.

Walking over at a faster pace, Melanie Gleeson interposed directly between Caroline and the two boys, glaring at each other with a bit of venom in her tone, and said, "Hey, guys, my sister is only twelve Oh, you better stay away from her,"

Although the two boys were a little dissatisfied, they didn't dare to make trouble here. They looked at the petite girl like a doll with nostalgia, and walked away reluctantly.

Perhaps infected by the lively atmosphere around, Caroline's face was a little rosy, and she took the cocktail from Melanie, but she was a little dissatisfied, and said, "Mei, how can I be so young, you didn't return the cocktail last time?" Did you say I was fourteen?"

"Little bastards are getting bolder these days. Fourteen years old is no longer useful," Melanie leaned over and kissed Caroline's face in a rascally way, watching the girl flinch coquettishly. With a smile on his neck, he said with a smile: "Let's go, let's go around first, and then meet Mr. Boss, whom you miss day and night."

"You're embarrassing me again," Caroline protested, then looked around regretfully, and said, "It's a pity that Rachel has returned to England, otherwise she would definitely come here today."

"Let's think about yourself first," Melanie said, "Are you really planning to stay with Eric?"

"I, um, I think this is a good opportunity," Caroline said, her long eyelashes drooping, her tone inexplicably sad, and said: "And, like Peter, working beside Eric For a while, I'm probably going to work somewhere else."

Melanie sighed, and she also knew that this girl knew many things clearly. Although Caroline seems to always look like a petite doll, every time Melanie uses the guise of a girl as an underage to help her stop the person who strikes up, but in fact, she is 26 years old this year, and it is impossible after all. Then there was the little girl who had just left the ivory tower.

Reaching out and carefully hugging Caroline in her arms, Melanie said, "That's it. Anyway, every girl who wants to grow up must meet a few bastards."

Caroline patted Melanie lightly, and said, "You're teasing him with lines from Eric's movie again, he's not an asshole."

"Yes, yes," Melanie echoed, remembering some interesting things that Rachel had chatted with her, and continued with a smile: "He's a bad guy."

Caroline blushed immediately, and said, "It's disgusting that Rachel even told you this."

Eric talked with Katzenberg about the expansion of the studio, and entertained some more important guests. He noticed that Caroline and Melanie had arrived on the top deck, so he beckoned the girls to come over.

Melanie pushed Caroline, and the girl walked over alone, and said hello politely: "Good evening, Eric."

"You too," Eric smiled and looked at Caroline's knee-length tunic tonight, and praised, "You are so beautiful tonight."

"Thank you," Caroline nodded, seeing Eric lying relaxed on the railing, taking a step forward, standing next to Eric with restraint, and looking at the night scene in the distance together.

After thinking about it for a few days, Eric made up his mind. Looking at Caroline who was standing obediently next to him, he didn't rush to get straight to the point, and chatted casually: "So, how are you doing recently?"

"Very good," Caroline said, instinctively wanting to stay by Eric's side for a while, so she took the initiative to find a topic and said, "My aunt came to visit me in Los Angeles last week."

Eric felt something flashed in his heart: "Your aunt?"

"Yeah, it's the first time I've seen her, Eric, have you forgotten that when we met at Harvard that year, I showed you a picture of her."

Eric suddenly remembered, and at the same time another figure appeared in his mind, the woman in the black shirt he met at the London premiere of "Casino Royale".

When they met at Harvard a few years ago, Caroline had shown herself a photo of her aunt. Although the light in the corridor was rather dim at that time, after Caroline reminded him, Eric was 100% sure that the woman It was Caroline's aunt.

It's just that why the other party appeared at the premiere of "Casino Royale", I remembered that Caroline said a few years ago that her aunt mentioned herself in a letter. Thinking about it this way, the other party might have deliberately rushed to 'see' her boyfriend for his niece. This kind of thing was in line with certain customs in his previous life.

However, carefully recalling the woman's expression at that time, Eric felt inexplicably that things seemed to be not as simple as imagined.

"So, Caroline, do you have a picture of your aunt with you now?"

Caroline didn't understand why Eric asked this, but she nodded, took out a wallet from her handbag, flipped through it twice, showed it to Eric, and said, "Hey, this is the wallet that my aunt and I shared last week. They were filmed together on the Avenue of Stars."

Eric took the girl's wallet and looked at the woman in the photo who was hugging Caroline intimately. Once again, a feeling of complete ignorance arose in his heart. After struggling for a while, he couldn't come to the conclusion. What went wrong.

Seeing Eric staring at the photo for a long time, Caroline recalled that the T-shirt she wore that day was a bit short, as if her waist was exposed, her face turned red, and she wanted to take the wallet back. But he was embarrassed, so he could only find something to say: "But, um, Eric, I feel that your eyes are similar to my aunt's."

Caroline's completely unintentional words were like a flash of lightning, splitting Eric's chaotic thoughts through. He only felt that the girl's delicate pink wallet had fallen off as soon as he let go of his hand.

A woman, if she just guards her niece's boyfriend, she will definitely not show an expression similar to guilt.

However, if you think about it along a certain line of thought, many details seem to make sense. Moreover, Eric finally understood that the strange feeling in his heart was called deja vu.

When the wallet fell, Eric came back to his senses in an instant, and quickly apologized to the girl, then ordered a waiter on the lower deck to throw the wallet up, caught it and handed it to the girl, saying, "I'm so sorry, I accidentally dropped it .”

"It's okay," Caroline shook her head, put the wallet back in her bag, looked up, and saw Eric looking at herself again, smiled shyly, and said, "Eric, what's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Eric said, reaching out and twirling Caroline's shoulder: "There's a hair here."

"Yeah... yeah," Caroline just wanted to nod, but she already felt her head tense, and she tilted her head following Eric's strength. The girl saw that Eric withdrew his hand casually and put it into the pocket of his trousers , wrinkled his little nose in dissatisfaction: "Eric, you are really bad."

Eric looked at the girl's expression, which was obviously angry but looked cuter no matter what, hesitated for a while, gestured to Melanie who had been standing not far away, and waited for her to come over before saying: " Well, Melanie, you and Caroline will stay with me from now on."

Caroline and Melanie suddenly looked at each other in blank dismay.

In fact, Melanie already had this idea, but she also knew that she couldn't stay by Caroline's side forever. What's more, if Eric needs two assistants at the same time, in terms of ability and qualifications, it probably won't be her turn.

Eric didn't explain any more. Seeing that the two girls had no objection, he said, "That's it. Let Kelly arrange it for you next week. Let's go play now. I still have some things to do."

After the two girls left, Eric leaned on the railing and silently drank a glass of red wine, left the top deck, and found Katzenberg, who was discussing the pre-production of "Spider-Man" with Cameron. The two came to an office in the cabin together. Eric handed Katzenberg a paper bag that was simply folded with a napkin, and said, "Jeffrey, do me a favor. In addition, this matter knows The fewer people there, the better."

Seeing Eric's serious expression, Katzenberg nodded solemnly, and took the paper bag over, but his eyes were full of doubts.

Eric took the initiative to explain: "There are two hairs inside, I need you to find someone to do a genetic test."

Katzenberg obviously didn't understand the term Eric said: "Kindness test?"

"It's a dna test. Let someone check to see if the owners of these two hairs are, uh, cousins."

When Eric said this, Katzenberg immediately understood.

Although he became more and more curious in his heart, Katzenberg also knew that Eric would give him such matters involving sex out of trust, so he held back his inquisitive thoughts, took out his wallet and carefully wrapped the paper Put it away, nodded and said: "Don't worry, Eric, I will send someone to do it right away, and I will give you the result on Monday." (To be continued.)