Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

"Is Link coming? He's a busy man."

In the Beverly Hills Movie Club, Robert Downey Jr. said while shuffling the cards.

"He said he'll come later."

Leonardo shrugged and added, "This guy has been staying home taking care of the kids and driving Ivanka to and from work since he came back from the set. I really don't understand. How did a world-famous playboy like him become a male nanny? Married men are really scary."

"That's normal. Men tend to be more unruly when they're young and settle down to be good men after getting married. Nobody can be a playboy for life."

Matt Damon flicked his cigarette ash and took a sip of beer.

"Nobody?"

"Matt, you're speaking in absolutes."

The people around them chuckled as they looked at Leonardo. This guy was nearing 40, not far from being a lifelong playboy.

"Damn, why are you all looking at me? I'm not a playboy; I just haven't met the right girl yet."

Leonardo said with a scowl on his face.

"I think there are two things that are difficult for Leo to achieve. The first is to get the Oscar for Best Actor, and the second is to meet his destined heavenly woman."

Tobey Maguire teased from the sofa.

"Don't talk about me, none of us have won the Oscar for Best Actor."

Leonardo snorted coldly, glancing at those around him—Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Joaquin Phoenix, Ryan Gosling, Ben Affleck, etc. They were all in the same boat, so no one was in a position to laugh at anyone else.

"Don't look at Joaquin; he could win it this year."

Casey Affleck said with a laugh.

"Stop talking about the Oscars; it's boring."

Joaquin took a cigarette and shuffled the deck on the table.

The group continued to play cards. After a few rounds, Link and Paul Walker came in.

"Link, come play, it's not fun without you."

Seeing Link arrive, everyone at the table stood up to make room for the two.

Link sat down to play cards, listening to everyone chat about some film industry gossips, box office earnings, actors' performances, auditions for new movie roles, and some fresh scandals.

But now he was a movie company boss, a billionaire, and everyone else was an actor. Except for Leonardo, Joaquin, and a few others who could speak more freely, everyone else was very cautious with their words, as if they were afraid of saying something wrong and offending him.

Link played a few rounds and found it uninteresting, so he gave up his place to Tobey Maguire and sat aside to watch the game and chat.

Joaquin mentioned a good script he had recently taken an interest in and asked if Link was interested in taking a look.

Link said he could. Joaquin's current films were mostly art films, not big box office hits, but of high quality and with a certain investment value.

Matt Damon also chimed in, asking if there were good projects, could he collaborate.

Link didn't reject the idea. Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Ben Affleck, and a few others were actors with great cost-performance. If there were suitable projects, collaboration was possible, he didn't mind that they had once been close to Harvey.

Ryan Gosling also took some time to chat with him, getting on familiar terms.

——

"Weren't you supposed to be playing cards? Why are you back so soon?"

Link returned to Half Mountain Villa to find Eva with skincare cream on her face coming downstairs.

"It wasn't fun. It's better to stay home and spend time with you and the kids."

Link picked up little Margarita, who was crawling on the carpet, and placed her between Alexander and Cynthia, then began to talk about the situation at the club. Originally, he wanted to mingle with everyone as an actor; gossiping about women would have been fine.

But they all treated him as the boss of the movie company, so their conversation was restrained. The atmosphere couldn't liven up, and he didn't want to be the one to break it, so leaving early felt more appropriate.

"That's normal. When you were a diver, the people around you were people like James the fatty, Daniel from the hot dog shop, Michael from the surfboard store, and Mario. After becoming a singer and actor, the people around you changed to Taylor, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Paul Walker, Casey Affleck, etc.

Now, you're the boss of Lionsgate Films, a billionaire, and your work focus is no longer music and acting. You have less in common with your old friends, especially those you aren't very close with; there's even less to talk about. I suggest you attend more parties at banks, investment firms, and billionaire clubs, get to know some high-level individuals from the upper echelons of society. You'd have a lot to talk about with those people."

Eva said with a smile while pinching his shoulder.

"No way. Those people are all in their fifties, sixties, or even older. When they get together they often talk about health, life-extension techniques, and young women. Listening to their conversations is more boring than attending those Hollywood card games."

Link shook his head. After entering Forbes, he received countless invitations from billionaire clubs of all sorts, attended numerous rich folks' parties and functions such as Morgan's super VIP cocktail parties, senior partner parties at Vanguard Asset Management Company, Forbes Billionaires List dinners, charity dinners hosted by Bill Gates, and so on.

At these gatherings, the guests were mostly old men, emitting an old-fashioned scent, their mannerisms steeped in a bygone era's customs, also revealing a significant generational gap in their conversation topics.

This made him, the nouveau riche of the capital world, totally unable to adapt.

At first, he attended several such events, but now he attends fewer, mostly just the parties hosted by younger rich individuals like Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Musk, and Zuckerberg.

He could find common ground in conversations with these people.

"Honey, it's because you've run too fast, and your peers couldn't keep up."

Eva teased.

"No, you've caught up with me."

Link said with a smile, hugging her waist.

"Not at all, you're the one who pulled me along. Otherwise, I would've been left far behind by you."

Ivanka's arm was hooked around his shoulder.

The two swayed unsteadily in the living room to the music.

"Daddy! Daddy! Margarita peed, and she peed everywhere, you need to pick her up quickly."

Cynthia called out with a clear voice.

"Coming."

Link shrugged his shoulders, kissed his wife's neck, and went to wipe the little one's butt, calling a maid to clean up the living room.

After finishing "Gone Girl," Link spent more than ten days busy with the post-production team of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," finally completing the filming tasks for this movie.

While he was busy filming, Taylor's new album "Enchanted" was released, containing a selection of high-quality songs that were written over the past few years but not included in her first five albums, such as "Never Grow Up," "Haunted," "Long Live," "If This Was A Movie," "Ours," "Superman," and others.

The album was released at the beginning of August and debuted atop the Billboard 200 with a first-week sales figure of 1.047 million copies, and continued to clinch the top spot on album sales charts in regions such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, and Taiwan Island.

By mid-August, the global sales of the album had reached 6.8 million copies, making it another best-selling record.

Before August, Justin Timberlake, Eminem, Imagine Dragons, Selena, Bruno Mars, Charlie Puth, Carly Rae Jepsen squatted, Duck Drake, Beyonce, Blake Shelton, and others had released albums.

Currently, the highest sales are of Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience," with 2.27 million copies.

Taylor is currently ranked second, and it's predicted that she will surpass Justin by October.

Compared to last year and the year before, this year's album sales market seems quite sluggish, with no other album sales breaking the million mark in the first week besides Taylor's and no fierce competition hitting the charts.

Time magazine commented in July that after Link announced he would no longer release new albums, the entire U.S. album sales market became very quiet with no hot news, and everything seemed calm.

Because of the stark contrast compared to the previous years, people are reminded of how many newsworthy events Link created in the music industry over the past few years, more than any other industry, garnering more attention and likewise earning more.

The music industry can't do without Link or artists like him who are good at creating topics.

Link didn't quite agree with Billboard magazine's comments; he believed that the lively and prosperous Western music scene in recent years was not just because of him but also thanks to Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Taylor, Adele, Kanye, Pink, Justin Bieber, and others.

With his departure from the album market, Lady Gaga's popularity plummeted rapidly, and neither Katy Perry nor Adele had new albums.

Now of the Empress and the five queens, only Taylor continued to release albums.

It's quite normal for this year's total album sales to be lower than last year's.

Although Link didn't release any new albums this year, his fifth album "As It Was," released in August of last year, was still hanging on the Billboard 200, staying in the top fifty for 47 consecutive weeks.

By the one-year mark of its release, the U.S. sales of this album reached 11.07 million copies, making it Link's first album to achieve diamond status within its release period.

The global sales of "As It Was" are currently about 79.57 million copies, also setting a new global sales record.

Currently, Link's five albums have a total global sales of 1.82 million copies, although it still falls short of the total album sales of famous artists and groups like MJ, Shania Twain, Mariah Carey, and The Beatles.

However, with just five albums, having sold over a hundred million copies, he's also the fastest among all artists and groups to achieve this.

Rolling Stone magazine's rating of Link in the music industry is that all five of his albums deserve to be recorded in the history of modern music, and Link is the Emperor Superstar of the 2010s music scene that cannot be circumvented.

"What are you doing at home?"

"Reading, working out, looking after the kids."

Link said, looking at Taylor in the video.

"Write more songs when you have time; you've made enough money, no need to earn so much anymore, but you can never have too many songs."

Taylor said.

"I got it, when are you coming back? Alexander and Cynthia miss you."

Link said.

"Mommy! Mommy! When are you coming back?"

Alexander and Cynthia also leaned on the table, looking at the disheveled Taylor on the computer and asking.

After the album's release, she followed the company's publicity team around for autograph sessions and small concerts, visiting four or five countries a week, becoming a frequent flyer.

"Do you miss mommy? Mommy will be back next month, are Alexander and Cynthia having fun with daddy?"

Taylor leaned close to the camera and said with a beaming smile.

"It's fun! Daddy took us to see the fishies."

Alexander pouted and said.

"It's the aquarium, I took them to learn about fish."

Link said with a smile.

Taylor ignored him and continued to chat with the two kids in a very childish voice, asking them if they were attending classes well and eating properly, and after a while, Margarita also scampered over, joining Cynthia in calling out for mommy.

Taylor covered her mouth, laughing uncontrollably, praising Margarita for doing well and asking her to call out a few more times.

Little Margarita wasn't afraid of having one more mommy, chattering non-stop.

"You look very tired, the dark circles are showing up. Make sure to rest more normally; you don't need to push yourself too hard, I'll always have your back."

Link said, noticing her yawning.

"Who needs you to have my back?"

Taylor crinkled her nose disdainfully, continuing to chat intermittently with the three kids on the desk, but after four or five minutes, she fell asleep in front of the computer. It was still Link who called her agent Emily to take her to bed.