Andy Rubin looked at Huang He as if he were an idiot.
"Ahem!" Huang He gave a dry laugh. "Alright, I'll tell you. My Jiangnan Group has people, it has land, it has production lines. The only thing we're missing is your technology. Will you come work for me?"
"I'm not going to China!" Andy Rubin said after hesitating for a moment.
"I never intended for you to go. You don't even have to change the company name; it can still be called Danger, and everything else can stay the same!"
"I want absolute R&D freedom," Andy Rubin stated.
"I can't give you absolute freedom right now, but I promise you that once the network mobile phone is successfully developed, I'll give you new research directions. Not only will I let you research, but I can even pour money into your research!" Huang He said.
"You have to provide me with $50 million in research funding after acquiring the company," Andy Rubin said.
"That's fine too!" Huang He nodded. "You've had three requests now, don't be too greedy."
"That's all. I have no more requests. As long as you agree, I'm good!" Andy Rubin chuckled.
"However, Mr. Rubin, you still haven't told me how much your company is willing to sell for?" Huang He said helplessly.
"You decide!" Andy Rubin said domineeringly.
"How about $1?"
"God will punish you, you greedy devil."
In the end, Huang He and Andy Rubin reached an agreement. Huang He purchased 90% of Danger's shares for $10 million and then injected another $50 million into the company as research and development funds.
In fact, at this time, Danger already had the prototype of the Android mobile phone system. After the acquisition was completed, Andy Rubin immediately took the engineering phone manufactured by Liu Nian and began adapting it to his Android system.
Meanwhile, under Huang He's hands-on guidance, Andy Rubin downloaded oo, added Liu Nian in Shenzhen as a friend, and tentatively started a voice chat. The conversation became so engaging that they completely forgot about Huang He and began to discuss new mobile system plans with great enthusiasm.
Huang He was no longer important, but he didn't mind. With a total of $60 million, Huang He had completed his initial layout in the United States and secured the future Android system. This ensured at least 20 years of prosperity for Jiangnan. Once smartphones arrived, the Jiangnan Group would usher in its own era.
Over the next few days, Huang He was busy handling the acquisition of Danger. Three days later, Danger and Android were officially incorporated into Huang He's portfolio, becoming a piece on Jiangnan's chessboard.
However, this event attracted no attention in the United States. After all, it was just one of hundreds of thousands of startups in Silicon Valley. Hundreds of such companies were acquired every day, hundreds went bankrupt, and hundreds were newly founded. These were all normal occurrences in Silicon Valley, and no one paid attention to them.
It wasn't until they grew into behemoths that many people regretted not paying attention.
After completing this task, Huang He began planning his second item on the agenda.
***
After leaving Silicon Valley, Huang He immediately boarded a plane and headed to Illinois.
This state is not very well-known in China, but it is home to a very famous director in China, Ang Lee.
When Ang Lee first came to study in the United States, he attended the University of Illinois. He likely studied there for six years, during which he met his wife and they started a family.
Although Ang Lee later bought a house in New York, he preferred to live in Illinois, this quiet place.
And today, this small house welcomed an uninvited guest.
Of course, it wouldn't be entirely accurate to call him an uninvited guest, as Ang Lee had previously received a call from this visitor and they had agreed on a meeting time. However, the appointment was made in the morning, and the guest appeared at his doorstep in the afternoon, catching Ang Lee somewhat off guard.
By this time, Ang Lee had already achieved great success. With his film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which dominated the Oscars for a year, his reputation in both the United States and China was at its peak. Therefore, when he faced Huang He, a legendary billionaire, Ang Lee did not appear flustered. He wasn't even wearing proper clothes, instead watering plants in his garden with mud-caked boots when he first met Huang He.
"You want me to film a movie?" Ang Lee asked directly, as this was the most common request he had received in the past year or two.
Ever since Ang Lee made "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," countless people had wanted him to make movies, including Americans and Chinese. The Chinese outnumbered the Americans.
However, these Chinese individuals only wanted Ang Lee to return to China to film, but Ang Lee was unwilling. After establishing such a great reputation in Hollywood, who would want to return to China, a place with so few cinemas at the time, to film?
The Chinese people who had approached him before all spoke in a roundabout way, wasting a day before finally stating their requests.
After dealing with several such people, Ang Lee lost the interest in dealing with them, feeling extremely exhausted.
Therefore, he had already made up his mind: he would directly ask the other party to state their purpose and then refuse them, aiming to send them away within half an hour.
"Not exactly!" Huang He shook his head. "I don't like the movies you make. Whether it's 'Pushing Hands,' 'The Wedding Banquet,' 'Eat Drink Man Woman,' or that huge hit 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' I don't like them. So, I'm not here to ask you to make a movie!"
"You little brat!" Ang Lee threw down the water hose in anger. "Fine, your name is Huang He, right? I'll remember this name. You're the first person to dare tell me to my face that you don't like my movies!"
"Why don't you like my movies?" If it were ten years ago, the insignificant Ang Lee would never have asked such a question, because it was perfectly normal for people not to like his movies.
But now, Ang Lee, with all the Oscar accolades, was hearing such a dislike for the first time and wanted to understand why.
"Because they're uncomfortable to watch!" Huang He said. "I've watched all your movies, and they all made me feel quite uneasy, so I don't like them!"
"Nonsense!" Hearing this answer, Ang Lee's anger actually subsided a little, because his movies were naturally meant to make people feel uneasy.
If a movie makes everyone feel comfortable, how can it win a Nobel Prize? Oh, wait, an Oscar.
"You need to savor my movies carefully to taste their flavor, rather than being shallowly confined to whether they are 'comfortable' or not!" Ang Lee said. This was the first time he had spoken such shameless words to someone.
"What's the point of tasting the flavor? Doesn't it just make people feel even more uncomfortable?" Huang He shrugged. "These flavors are actually useless, other than making people a bit depressed. It's better to let me have a good time!"
"You can leave!" Ang Lee said, decisively flicking his hand and preparing to go back inside. However, Huang He shamelessly followed him. At this moment, Ang Lee's wife had prepared some snacks and warmly invited Huang He to eat.
"Don't let him eat anything! How dare he say he doesn't like my movies!" Ang Lee waved his hand.
"Come on, you're not a twenty-year-old girl. Why should everyone like you, just like that young girl behind you?" His wife retorted. Only then did Ang Lee reluctantly invite Huang He to sit down.
"Since you're not here to ask me to make a movie, what do you want from me?" Ang Lee asked.
"I'm currently making a Xianxia-themed TV series and hope to find Hollywood special effects studios to help me produce the special effects. But I don't know how to go about it, so I hope Director Ang Lee can introduce me!" Huang He said honestly.
"What? You want to make a Xianxia movie? I advise you to give up this idea. Making Xianxia movies in China these days is a dead end!" Ang Lee said bluntly.
"Oh, why do you say that?" It was Huang He's turn to ask this question.
"It's simple. Have you seen Tsui Hark's 'Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain'?" Ang Lee asked.
"Yes, I have!" Huang He nodded. He had seen "Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain" a long time ago.
"And what do you think of that movie?" Ang Lee asked again.
"Trash, it was terribly made. I couldn't even watch it for five minutes!" Huang He said very frankly.
"Ahem!" Ang Lee choked on his tea. This guy wasn't playing by the rules! How could he say that Tsui Hark's "Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain" was bad?
If he wanted to make a Xianxia movie, shouldn't he praise "Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain" like everyone else and say it was a great movie? Then he could use the box office failure of "Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain" to tell Huang He why Xianxia was a dead end.
Well, but since he said my movies were bad, if I also said Tsui Hark's movies were good, wouldn't that be losing face?
Thinking this way, Ang Lee felt a bit better.
"Why?" Ang Lee asked his second, and third overall, 'why'.
"Because the movie was too gloomy, it wasn't made for living people to watch!" Huang He said indifferently. Ang Lee and his wife simultaneously puffed out their cheeks, luckily restraining themselves, otherwise, they would have burst into laughter.
"Old Li, that's the same as your evaluation!" Ang Lee's wife said with a smile.
"Nonsense, when did I ever say that movie was gloomy? I just said the color grading was too dark and the plot was too bizarre, that's all!" Ang Lee said with a smile.
"You're right, Tsui Hark's movie is indeed flawed in these two aspects!" Huang He smiled. "If 90% of the plot were set during the daytime, and the plot wasn't so erratic, if these so-called profound plot points were presented in a simple, straightforward manner, and the visuals weren't so terrifying, filled with blood, but instead had dazzling special effects and combat like 'Da Wei Tian Long,' 'Buddha's Palm,' 'Ten Thousand Swords Return to One,' and 'Purple Qing Double Lightning,' combined with the movie's only redeeming quality of special effects, then the box office would at least increase tenfold!"
"Then this movie wouldn't be a film made by the conceited, dark-loving Tsui Hark!" Ang Lee said with a smile. "Alright, since you plan to make a Xianxia-themed movie and are willing to seek special effects from Hollywood, I'll help you with this. I'll contact a few people for you later. Whether it works out depends on your sincerity."
"How do I show my sincerity?" Huang He asked curiously.
"The more money you give, the more sincere you are!" Ang Lee said, rolling his eyes.
"Understood!" Huang He nodded vigorously.
"However, I still have to tell you the honest truth: if your movie requires Hollywood special effects, it will definitely not recoup its costs when released in China. So, I suggest you find some distributors in the United States to at least recover some of the costs."
"Although, even with the North American box office market, you're still guaranteed to lose money."
"Uh, I don't plan to make it into a movie, I plan to make a TV series. I think I mentioned that at the beginning!" Huang He said.
"Pfft!" Ang Lee completely spat out the tea he was drinking. Using Hollywood special effects for a TV series? Is this guy in front of me an idiot?