From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Ding.

The elevator smoothly arrived at the fourteenth floor, but no one paid attention to the elevator's movement. Everyone was focused on their own work, a scene of tranquility.

This wasn't Ansen's first time at the movie company, but different departments had distinctly different atmospheres. What was before him was a typical office building office—

Neat rows of work cubicles and glass offices with light gray blinds, orderly, quiet, and serious; it wouldn't feel out of place if it were a accounting firm.

He paused slightly, looked left and right, and headed to the front desk to the right of the elevators.

“Good morning.”

“Ansen-Wood, nine thirty, Chris-Bender.”

The receptionist, Lena-Wilson, quickly checked the computer, and after a series of crisp keyboard clicks,

“Please wait in the waiting area for a moment. Mr. Bender's secretary will come to meet you.”

After completing the instructions in a businesslike manner, Lena paused for a moment. Before she could react, Ansen had already turned and walked towards the lounge area across the way. Then, a beat later, Lena stood there dumbfounded—

Ansen, that Ansen?

Heck.

She gasped.

Working at Warner Bros., she had seen many top superstars come and go: directors, actors, screenwriters, producers, and so on. But every time she saw a legendary figure, her heart couldn't help but race.

Like now.

Ansen-Wood, currently the hottest new generation heartthrob in North America, was actually standing right in front of her?

Lena swore that after truly entering Hollywood, she had experienced disillusionment. Some dazzling superstars were disgusting in private; but also, some seemingly aloof and unapproachable superstars were like a warm spring breeze in private, and you could genuinely feel their star quality.

People are different after all, and actors are different too.

Involuntarily, Lena craned her neck to steal a few more glances at the new Spider-Man:

White shirt, smoke-gray suit, black tie.

Ordinary and formal attire, yet you could tell at a glance that he was different. The tailored shoulder line, the narrowed waist, revealed a stubborn and rebellious rock temperament within the slim figure. The low-key yet dashing aura broke the dullness and rigidity of the suit, and you could feel the trendiness even in everyday attire.

That should be Dior Homme, right?

Slightly different from the image on the big screen and the image under the camera, a kind of impact that stripped away imagination while also bringing surprises, rushing towards you.

In the scanning and sizing up with the corner of her eye, she couldn't help but become distracted. Although Lena repeatedly warned herself not to peek, she couldn't help but take another look after just one glance.

Even just sitting there quietly, he could silently attract attention.

See, a woman in a knee-length skirt and business suit, who was just passing by in a hurry, stopped because of a casual glance, stared intently, and gasped, almost crying out.

Although she covered her mouth with her right hand to restrain herself, she still couldn't control her steps, and involuntarily stepped forward to talk to Ansen in a low voice, emitting a silver bell-like giggle, subconsciously tucking the drooping hair behind her ears, laughing uncontrollably, her steps seemingly unable to move.

Seeing this scene, Lena ultimately couldn't control herself. She picked up her phone, secretly placed it under the counter, and quickly edited a text message.

“Oh! God! Ansen-Wood is at the front desk! He's even more charming than I imagined, I'm practically melting just sitting here looking at him! Unbelievable! How can he be so handsome and so dashing! Ah! Ah ah ah ah ah!!!”

“Sabina is trying to seduce him, the same Sabina from the rumors last time, I can't believe it, she's giving him a flirty look with a smile on her face!”

After a series of exclamation marks, the message spread like wildfire throughout the fourteenth floor. Lena's hands trembled uncontrollably, her heart pounded like a drum, and the noisy buzzing in her ears made her mouth dry.

Jeff Robinov pushed open the office door, his brain working at high speed—

Although it was only October, and there were still more than two months until the end of 2002, they should start planning for the 2004 film market.

Currently, large-scale projects centered around “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings” were already on track, but no one could ignore the huge success of “Spider-Man” during this year's summer season. Warner Bros., which held the rights to DC Comics, naturally couldn't ignore it.

Of course, Jeff agreed with this. They needed to value the resources in their hands; but as a film enthusiast, Jeff also firmly believed that they couldn't just focus on these adaptation projects—

However, this was just Jeff's own worry, at most it was being prepared for a rainy day. Before there were better projects, Jeff couldn't convince Warner Bros. to put more resources into original works.

After all, the overall trend in Hollywood was that originality was becoming weaker and weaker. After half a century of vigorous development, the ability to create original works was indeed slowly entering a bottleneck.

If there were so many excellent original works, film companies wouldn't rashly shift their attention to adaptations, which was a problem.

Now, Jeff was thinking about how to plan for 2004.

His gaze went forward, and he inadvertently noticed a figure.

Honestly, even if he wanted to ignore him, it was difficult. His very existence was a declaration; moreover, Jeff was very sure that it wasn't his imagination. Compared to their last meeting, his temperament was becoming more and more charming, with a little more dashingness and rebelliousness, blossoming little by little.

It felt as if… this was the real him.

Interestingly—

Jeff also recognized Sabina, who was wearing a business suit. The tight-fitting clothes showed off her curvy figure to the fullest. The buttons on the front of her shirt and suit were almost about to pop off, easily grabbing the attention of passersby.

Last month, four men from different departments within the company had a fight over Sabina, but this sexy and beautiful woman looked innocent, refusing to be associated with any of the men, and cleanly extricated herself without a scratch, which was really surprising.

However, at this time, she stood in front of Ansen, completely gray-faced and dull. Jeff noticed Sabina, but his gaze still fell on Ansen.

“Hey, Wood.”

Jeff stopped, smiled, and greeted him jokingly.

Instantly, all eyes looked over. The woman in the business suit stopped breathing, glanced at Jeff hurriedly, exchanged a few polite words, and then turned and left immediately, although reluctantly, she still ran away.

Ansen raised his eyebrows slightly, didn't say anything, just looked meaningfully at the woman's departing back, and then looked at Jeff in front of him.

Jeff, with his big bald head, raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, “I really am a good person.”