Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

"Cut!"

"This take is done!"

On the set of "The Expendables 3", director Michael Bay shouts at the camera.

After over a month of shooting, Link's scenes are complete. Compared to the previous film, he had more scenes, but as "The Expendables 3" is an ensemble film, each actor gets only a few minutes of screen time, and the main characters don't get much more.

Moreover, director Michael Bay likes to shoot large action scenes, especially explosion scenes, and this film has more special effects than the first two combined.

This also led to a severe budget overrun, from an initial 120 million to 150 million US dollars.

However, the appearance of many new types of weapons, cool-looking cars, mobile phones, and computers, as well as watches and other products, brought in advertising sponsorships up to 68 million US dollars, which alleviated some of the production company's financial pressure.

But because of the numerous ads, along with Michael Bay being known for popcorn movies, this film could also end up being categorized as a popcorn movie.

Whether the movie can perform well at the box office and avoid losses will only be known after it is released.

After the film wrapped up, Link flew back to the United States and attended the 31st MTV Video Music Awards at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

Compared to last year, this year's music scene was dominated by artists born in the 90s, including Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Charlie Puth, Demi Lovato, and Iggy Azalea, all of whom performed well.

Meanwhile, artists born in the 80s engaged mostly in online spats this year, notably Lady Kesha, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga.

Timeouts also saw Justin Bieber and Orlando Bloom fight over Miranda Kerr, Beyonce's sister fighting with Jay-Z exposed, Kanye West's marriage to Kim Kardashian with Kanye photographed scowling throughout the wedding.

The conflict between Kesha, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga started earlier this year when Lady Kesha accused the gold record producer Dr. Luke of abuse, who counterclaimed that she fabricated defamatory statements, leading both sides to court. Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and others voiced their support for Kesha.

Lady Gaga revealed she had been abused during her school years. Katy Perry decided to terminate her contract with Dr. Luke's music company in support of her friend Kesha.

Link and Taylor donated $100,000 each to the Joyful Heart Foundation to help sexual harassment victims with their legal battles.

The situation caused quite a stir.

Due to insufficient evidence, Dr. Luke could not be convicted. Kesha, who heard rumors that Katy Perry had also been abused by Dr. Luke, hoped Katy would testify.

Katy Perry swore under oath that she had never been sexually assaulted by Dr. Luke.

Later, court documents revealing chat records between Kesha and Lady Gaga were leaked online; Kesha complained in messages that Katy Perry did not want to testify against Dr. Luke at the critical moment, calling her no good, while Lady Gaga suggested that Katy probably didn't want to lose everything she had, which is why she chose not to stand up.

These documents, once leaked online by insiders, caused quite a sensation in the entertainment industry, with fans of the three artists arguing on various platforms, creating a very toxic environment.

Although the three of them haven't released a new album, they often made headlines due to gossip news.

The incident of Beyonce's sister assaulting Jay-Z started because Jay-Z cheated on Beyonce with one of her friends during her tour. Beyonce's sister was upset with Jay-Z's behavior and confronted him, which was then exposed by the paparazzi.

After the incident, Beyonce chose to forgive, winning the affection of countless fans and earning praise for her strong sisterly demeanor.

There was also a physical altercation between Justin Bieber and Elf Prince in a restaurant in Spain in July, reportedly over Justin Bieber's involvement with Elf Prince's ex-wife, Miranda. This, coupled with Justin Bieber's recent string of scandals including brawling, drunken driving, marijuana use, drug possession, and soliciting prostitutes.

Justin has also repeatedly made the trending searches this year.

Due to the various messy events in the music scene this year, Link also found himself on the trending search.

Many media outlets expressed nostalgia for Link's days in the music industry, where although he often trended, it was mostly about musical feuds over album and song chart positions.

After the breakup with Taylor, some scandals emerged involving Link, but they were all within reasonable bounds; Link has never been involved in drugs, soliciting, drunk driving, or violence.

When some top music industry figures were embroiled in scandals, the media also reported on Link's recent work engagements, including boxing training, boxing matches, promoting movies, filming movies, attending the Cannes Film Festival, and being a stay-at-home dad. His schedule was packed, barely leaving any time for rest.

Because of this, the media praised Link as a fresh breath of air in the music industry, the most positive, upright, and admirable idol superstar.

Despite being reputed as a playboy, with the context provided by his colleagues, he is once again labeled as 'the most perfect man in the entertainment circle,' a title he had before breaking up with Taylor ten years ago, which the media has now restored to him.

This time he wears it more steadfastly.

Influenced by these scandals, this year's MTV Video Music Awards ceremony was more lively, resulting in the 1980s generation of singers, who usually liked sitting together, becoming dispersed and displaying different behaviors in front of cameras.

The post-90s singers have not yet produced a leading figure like Link, Lady Gaga, or Taylor, neither in album sales nor in domestic and international influence, and thus can't compare to the 'One Emperor, Four Queens' era.

At this year's MTV awards ceremony, Link was neither an award presenter nor a performer; he was the host.

This year's MTV awards ceremony performances all had one theme: boxing. All invited performing guests had to incorporate boxing elements in their attire, performances, or other aspects.

For instance, the stage was designed to resemble a boxing ring, Katy Perry performed in boxer shorts and gloves, Ariana Grande performed wearing his WBA Heavyweight Golden Belt, and Selena even performed boxing on stage.

This type of show helps promote boxing matches, and Link was happy to assist.

This year Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" won the Video of the Year award, Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" won Best Female Video, Ed Sheeran's "Sing" won Best Male Video, and Ariana Grande's "Problem" won Best Pop Video.

This year's biggest MTV award winner was Beyonce, with 8 nominations and 3 awards, Eminem had 6 nominations and won 1 award, and other awards were distributed like sharing a cake—one for each, Selena, Lana Del Rey, Charlie Puth, Sia Furler, Fifth Harmony, and Duck Drake also won several technical awards.

Compared to previous years, there were few hit songs in the music industry this year, with Pharrell Williams's "Happy" being the best-selling single, with sales of 5.63 million.

Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" ranks second with 4.04 million copies, and other singles' sales are all below four million.

Including Ariana Grande's lead single "Problem" from the album "My Everything" sold 3.54 million copies, Lana Del Rey's lead single "Ultraviolence" from the album "Ultraviolence" sold 3.32 million copies, and several new songs from British singer Sam Smith, which also didn't compare to last year.

Before September, there were 36 singles that sold over one million copies, 15 less than last year, with the total album sales in the record market at 120.9 million copies, a 15% decline from last year, and a 13% decrease in single sales from last year.

This year's best-selling album is the soundtrack of "Frozen", selling 3.23 million copies, Link released his fifth album "As It Was" in August the year before last, selling 1.87 million copies this year, currently at second place, with a total US sales of 15.05 million copies for this album.

British singer Sam Smith's album "In the Lonely Hour" sold 1.21 million copies, ranking third.

From the current situation, if there are no blockbuster albums to save the day, this year will be the worst year in the music industry since 2000.

"This year's music scene doesn't have any good songs, haven't you thought about getting to work and writing some good songs for the fans?"

After the award ceremony, Taylor asked him, pulling him aside.

"No need for me to do so; your new album songs are quite good, fans can listen to your songs to satisfy their cravings."

Link said, smiling.

"Of course, the production quality of my album is top-notch, believe it or not, my '1989' will definitely have higher sales than your... than your first album."

Taylor said, giving him a glare. Originally, she wanted to say '1989' would surpass Link's last album's sales, then thought about Link's fifth album having over 15 million in US sales, not possible to surpass.

The fourth album also surpassed 10 million, also not possible to surpass.

Both the third and second are now over 7 million, even the poorest first album "The Fighter" is also close to 5 million.

She thought it over, only Link's first album might compare, and she immediately felt annoyed, Link this half-way entrant into the music industry has now become an insurmountable peak, even needing her, his former teacher, to look up to.

So frustrating.

She still remembers back in '08 when they first met, Link couldn't even play the guitar, his fingers stiffer than rocks, needing her to teach hand by hand. He didn't understand musical scores either.

In the blink of an eye, six years have passed, and this guy has become a towering figure in the music industry, a legendary figure, even surpassing his teacher.

Sometimes thinking about it, it feels quite incredible.

"You should be more confident, the songs in this album are very good, maybe they can sell 10 million domestically."

Link said with a light laugh.

"It doesn't matter, however many sell; I'm not that concerned about these things now."

Taylor blinked her blue fox-like eyes, suddenly looking at his cheek, "How many years have we known each other?"

"Over six years, six years and three months."

Link thought about it and said.

"Does it feel like time has passed very quickly?"

Taylor said with pursed lips.

"Yes, in the blink of an eye, Alexander and Cynthia have both grown up so much."

Link laughed.

Taylor snorted lightly, raised her foot, and kicked him slightly, discontentedly saying, "All these over six years have been wasted because of you, you should compensate me for the loss of my youth."

"Okay, I'll keep you company!"

Link wrapped his arms around her waist, ignoring the mother of his children's resistance, and kissed her passionately, Taylor hit him with her fist, gradually collapsing into his arms, her arms hooking around his neck.

"...."

Beside them, Selena blinked her big, bewildered eyes; she had just scrolled through some news and looked up to see the two kissing, completely ignoring her presence.

"Hey, you guys are too much, I'm still here, okay?"

As Link's hand almost slipped under Taylor's skirt, Selena covered her eyes and yelled discontentedly.

"Huh? How come you are here?"

Link asked, puzzled.

Selena puffed up her little round face and glared at him angrily, Link is the most annoying, picking romance over friendship, sometimes he even forgets his own sister, too much.

Taylor, her face red, pushed Link away and sat next to Selena, ready to team up against him.

Link just smiled lightly, crossed his legs, and read his magazine, ignoring the visual attack from the two.

The car left the stadium, gradually merging into the dense traffic of Los Angeles in the twilight.