Entering mid-December, the footsteps of the new millennium are gradually approaching. Le Wen novels.
Although the fear of Y2K even caused another volatility in the Nasdaq technology stock market, during this period, with the announcement of the birth of the fourth child of the Williams family and the continued strong box office of "Gravity", , most of the focus of media and public attention is on Eric Williams, the young mega-tycoon.
From December 10 to December 16, the fourth week of its release, "Gravity" once again earned $190 million in box office worldwide, and the film's total global box office quickly reached $850 million.
The invincible box office figures have led most media to predict that "Gravity" is likely to break through the global box office mark of 1 billion US dollars before December 20, which will also become the fourth global box office led by Eric Williams. 1 billion videos.
At the same time, with the full stamina shown in the film, "Gravity" will undoubtedly hit the box office record of US$2.2 billion created by "Titanic" that year.
When the entire film industry was eager to try the industrial opportunities brought by 3D and imax, Eric stayed in the Martha's Vineyard manor during the end of the year.
Now that the news of the little guy's birth has been made public, the Martha's Vineyard estate has also become extremely lively during this time.
Cindy's parents and two sisters rushed over in the next few days. Although Eric didn't like Cindy and the children being disturbed too much, many senior executives, business partners, relatives and friends of the group still kept coming in the name of visits. Absolutely.
After all, the birth of a child is a happy event, and it is impossible for Eric to refuse too firmly, so he can only greet him with a smile.
After a full week of such excitement, the Martha's Vineyard manor was considered quieter, and Cindy's parents left within less than a week. Apart from the status of marriage, the couple found that there was really nothing to blame for the man of their daughter, but Cindy's two sisters continued to stay in the name of accompanying Cindy.
As Christmas approaches, the days gradually calm down.
Although there is a delay in global statistics, on December 22, "Gravity" still announced the news that the global box office officially exceeded 1 billion US dollars.
The celebration banquet is naturally indispensable.
The Los Angeles side asked Eric if he wanted to arrange the banquet in New York. Most of the main creators of the crew lived in Los Angeles. It was impossible for Eric to let everyone mobilize the crowd just for the convenience of himself, so he ordered the side to arrange the celebration banquet in New York as usual. On the big ship of Firefly Studios, he will rush back in the day.
This year's Christmas falls on a Saturday. Of course, starting from December 20th, the entire North America has actually entered the holiday.
After returning to Long Island a few days ago, on Christmas Eve, Joanna and Virginia came to Martha's Vineyard again with the little ones. The girl also flew over from nowhere, and there were a few more daughters in the manor again. Country means.
After the lively Christmas Eve, on the second day of Christmas, the first snow of this winter finally fell, and the heavy snow fell for a whole day, soon covering the Martha’s Vineyard manor in snow. As a result, the atmosphere became more intense.
The heavy snow only became smaller on the 27th.
After breakfast, Virginia took a few women to go shopping in the small town on the island to prepare ingredients for the New Year. Eric sat on the bench under the eaves of the villa and quietly looked at the snow field not far away. The girl took Emma and Kevin to make a snowman, and Hawaii sat next to her father as usual, holding a thick book, her immature face was affectionate and focused.
Joanna came over with a tray, put the tray on the small table next to her, poured Eric a cup of hot cocoa, and then sat down on the other side, gently touched her daughter's head, and looked at the man's expression, Said: "You have always liked snow days."
"I just like this feeling," Eric took a sip from the cup, moved his eyes up, looked at the boundless sky in the distance, and said with a smile on the corner of his mouth, "I'm actually afraid of the cold."
Hawaii, who was sitting between the two, tilted his head slightly under his mother's touch. Hearing what his father said, he blinked his beautiful eyes, broke the silence rarely, and suddenly read in correct Mandarin: "Qianshan Birds fly away, thousands of trails and people disappear, and the lone boat and hat are fishing alone in the cold river and snow."
The sudden "Jiang Xue" made both Joanna and Eric stunned.
Joanna couldn't understand it at all, but felt that the cadenced verses sounded very rhythmic and full of some kind of wonderful beauty.
Eric was surprised, because at a certain moment just now, he happened to think of Liu Zongyuan's Tang poem. Although the connotation of the poem does not fit the situation, Eric feels very comfortable in the sense of loneliness in the boundless world and a lonely boat.
After a moment of silence, Joanna came back to her senses first, but she was not surprised by her daughter's words just now. Too many people were amazed by the language talent shown by Hawaii. She just asked gently: "So, baby, what is this?" Is it a poem, what do you mean?"
The little girl did not answer her mother's words, but turned to her father beside her, with a little inquiry in her clear eyes, and said, "Maybe Dad knows?"
Joanna looked over suspiciously.
Eric met his daughter's bright eyes, and his mood has been settled for so many years. When he heard the words that might have been earth-shattering in the past, there was no turmoil in his heart at this time. , Dad can only speak some everyday expressions, so you should explain such abstruse things to Mom.”
Hawaii's beautiful blue eyes blinked a few times, and there was nothing he could do about his denying father. Turning her head to look at her mother, Joanna smiled softly, but her expression was blank. So he put the thick book in his hand on the chair, jumped off the bench a little depressed, and ran towards the villa with his little boots on.
Joanna was completely at a loss for the sudden interaction between the father and daughter, but she didn't pursue it any further. She picked up the book left by her daughter and stroked it, saying: "I'm more and more worried about what Xia Xia will be like in the future. This book, um, I can’t understand it at all, what about you?”
Eric glanced at the book in Joanna's hand, and suddenly his heart became a little clearer. He took the book in the woman's hand and flipped through it, and said, "I don't understand, I just know that it's about Bayesian theory. .Bayesian theory, in order to have a few words with our precious daughter, I studied it specially."
Joanna smiled and hummed, waiting for Eric to continue.
Eric fiddled with the pages of the book and said, "In terms you can understand, Bayesian theory is probably to derive some unknown conclusions based on known conditions."
Joanna asked curiously, "Is this useful?"
"Actually, we have been using this theory in our lives, but everyone doesn't know it," Eric said to Joanna patiently: "The simplest example, if a person has a fever, cough, sore throat, and runny nose, Then, based on these few conditions, you can roughly determine that this person has a cold."
When Joanna heard Eric say this, she suddenly showed some surprise, but then smiled and pointed to the thick book in Eric's hand, and said: "Does such a thing need such a thick book to discuss? "
"Of course, what I just said is just the most shallow understanding of Bayesian theory. As for the deeper application, it is very complicated, such as Internet search engines, artificial intelligence, etc., but they all need to use this knowledge .”
Eric said this, but he remembered the Tang poem his daughter had just read, and couldn't help but add in his heart: Maybe it can be used on his father.
Eric would never admit to some facts that might have been spotted by his extremely smart baby daughter.
As long as you don't admit this kind of thing, no one can come up with any actual evidence.
or.
Big deal.
In the future, I will admit to my daughter that I am an alien.
Anyway, it's my own daughter, and the father is an alien, so of course the daughter can only be an alien. In order to prevent the whole family from being caught in the research institute, our lovely classmate Xia Xia must help hide it.
It is naturally impossible for Joanna to know Eric's thoughts, and then said: "You are going back to Los Angeles tomorrow, when will you be back?"
The celebration banquet of "Gravity" is tomorrow night. For ordinary people, traveling from the east coast to the west coast is probably a cumbersome long-distance trip, but Eric doesn't have this problem, he just stays in the air for a few minutes It's only an hour.
"If there is nothing else, the day after tomorrow. I will definitely spend the New Year with everyone."
Having said that, the children playing in the snow in the yard were probably tired. Emma ran towards Eric first, holding a small snow ball in her hand, followed by Kevin and Drew , the twins guarded the children carefully to prevent them from falling.
Seeing the children coming, Joanna got up and said, "You can accompany the children. I'll go ahead and have a look. Vicky and the others should be back."
Eric nodded, watching Joanna leave, Emma also ran to Eric, and as if asking for credit, she sent a small snowball in her hand to him, and said crisply: "Dad, dad, look, the little snow I made man."
"so cute."
Eric took it over with a smile, and praised him. Seeing that Kevin also brought the little snowman in his hand to him, he also praised softly, and discussed with the two little guys around his knees about giving the little snowman to him. The naming thing.
The girl following behind walked over with a smile, sat down next to Eric, and listened to him discussing with the two little guys. She ignored herself for a while, hugged the man's arm and shook it slightly, pointing to the man in the yard. The big snowman, imitating Emma's tone: "Dad, dad, look, I made a big snowman."
Eric heard the girl being funny, raised his hand and knocked on her forehead. After so many years, I got used to being knocked on, and hummed a few times like a little girl, and then continued to lean on Eric.
However, Emma, who heard what the girl said just now, was puzzled, and looked at the girl curiously with big eyes: "Aunt Drew, why are you called Dad, Dad?"
The girl smiled and stretched out her hands to pinch Emma's small face, with a natural expression: "If you don't call me dad, can you still call me mom?"
Emma tilted her little head.
Although it doesn't feel right, it seems to make sense.
Eric glared at the girl, and in order to prevent this girl from continuing to mislead Emma's worldview, he sent the two little guys away, motioned for the twins next to him to follow, and then said to the girl next to him: "I haven't asked you yet. , Where did you go crazy a few days ago?"
"It's in New York." There was no one around, the girl hugged Eric's arm tightly, resting her head on the man's shoulder, and said: "I went to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, this year's is really good, dreamy bra It's so beautiful, but those songs, German, French, Chinese, etc., I can't understand."
In order to cater to the atmosphere of the millennium, this year's sixth Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was postponed to December 17th again, and the TV broadcast time was also scheduled for December 28th at the end of the year, which is tomorrow night.
Moreover, compared with Victoria's Secret, which expanded slowly in time and space, after several years of rapid development, Emily is going to take the brand further to the global market.
In order to cooperate with the follow-up promotion plan, coupled with the opportunity of the millennium, this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show has six themes, using music in six different languages, with a bit of "I live in the global village with you heart to heart" meaning.
Although he has seldom participated in the preparation of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, when he first saw the plan, Eric still chose a Chinese song and stuffed it in.
It was a Chinese song that I used to like very much. After so many years, things are different. Originally, I thought that this big butterfly of my own might kill that song, but at the beginning of this year, the related album appeared again.
However, because of Peter's birth, Eric was not able to go to the Victoria's Secret show in New York this year, and he doesn't know how it will work.
The girl rested on Eric's shoulder, keenly feeling that he suddenly fell into some strange emotion again.
Eric in this kind of mood always makes people around him feel a kind of obvious alienation. The girl doesn't like this feeling, and even feels a little uneasy, so she rubbed her cheek on the man's shoulder and interrupted softly: "Ai Rick, when I was in Manhattan a few days ago, I passed by Hell's Kitchen."
Pulled back from the sudden thoughts by the girl, Eric smiled, and followed the girl's tone: "What's wrong?"
"Then I remembered the song you sang many years ago, and realized that Hell's Kitchen is a district of Manhattan. I didn't notice it before."
Eric's memory of a long time ago was a little fuzzy, and he said, "I don't remember any songs."
"How can you not remember, I remember clearly, that night, in your house in Beverly Hills, we talked a lot."
The girl seemed a little dissatisfied, so she hummed softly, but the tune was a little scattered.
Eric listened to the girl's reminder, and then gradually remembered, nodded and said: "I seem to remember."
The girl's fair and tender face leaned forward, looked at Eric, and said, "Then can you sing it to me again?"
Eric felt that the snow in the sky seemed to be increasing again. He raised his hand to catch a piece of snowflakes that had drifted into the eaves of the corridor. Why do you want to recall the past when you are old?"
"I want to hear it," the girl said, suddenly a little bit more wronged in her tone, and she sighed with some self-pity: "Now that you have another child, you will definitely pay less and less attention to little Drew in the future .”
"Okay, okay, I'll think about it."
Eric smiled and began to search for some tunes in his memory.
I thought that after so many years, I had forgotten the whole song, but when I thought about it carefully, the memory in my mind was very clear, so I hummed softly.
*On the windows of the Boeing 727, your tearful eyes are reflected
*Overlooking the city, everything has become slightly invisible
*When the sunset renders Hell's Kitchen a paradise
*you turn your face away
*I put a strand of messed hair up to your ear
*says everything will be all right
*As long as we're together, forever, ever.
*As long as we're together, forever, ever.
*…
*…
In the depths of my distant memory, the first time I heard this song was the last episode of the sixth season of a TV series called "California Love".
Tim Minchin, "so long".
However, if you haven't watched the whole TV series, it is difficult to appreciate the sense of nostalgia enough to make people cry. Just like many stories, if one only looks at the beginning and the end, it often doesn't make any sense.
The humming under the eaves fell, and after an unknown amount of time, the girl said softly: "Eric."
"Um?"
"We'll be together forever."
"Um!"
The next day, the weather in New York finally cleared up. Eric didn't fly to Los Angeles until 4:30 in the afternoon. Due to the time difference, he arrived at Firefly Studios, and it was just after 6:00 in the evening Western time.
Although the celebration party for "Gravity" didn't start until seven o'clock, many guests have already started arriving one after another.
Discussed some things with Katzenberg in the office in the studio, and when the Qinggong party was about to start, the two took them to the banquet hall on the big ship.
In the new week, although "The Lord of the Rings Part One" began to be released and some screen resources of "Gravity" were diverted, the film still managed to earn another US$165 million worldwide, pushing the total global box office to 1.1 billion A high of $83 million.
At the same time, the first-week box office of "The Lord of the Rings" also reached 98 million U.S. dollars. Considering that the length of this film is nearly twice that of other movies, which severely limits the number of screenings in theaters, the first week of 98 million U.S. dollars The box office results almost surpassed everyone's expectations, and it also indicates that Firefly Group will once again have another super-best-selling blockbuster series.
Of course, the series of twists and turns of the transfer of the "Lord of the Rings" series from MGM to Firefly Group inevitably aroused some discussion in the media. It cannot affect the strength of the entire firefly system.
"So, you're really bold, Eric."
In the banquet hall, after some entertainment, Eric turned to the heroine of tonight's party, but Judy's first words made him feel a little inexplicable.
"So," imitating Judy's tone, Eric said with a smile on the corner of his mouth, "Did I do something unreasonable again?"
Judy gave Eric a slight glance, but there was something different in his eyes, and said, "I mean, 'the fourth child of the Williams family is born'."
"This matter," the old god Eric nodded, and said, "I think your 'bold' evaluation is very interesting, as if you have nothing to do with 'Eric Williams' at all, Thinking about it this way, I should be sad."
Judy pouted: "You don't look sad at all."
With so many people staring at the hall, Eric didn't tease Judy too much. He put away his expression as a joke, and raised the champagne in his hand: "Hey, let's talk business, I also want to congratulate you for becoming a billion-dollar movie Where's the heroine, um, you, is this juice?"
Judy raised a glass of orange juice in his hand and said, "Obviously."
"Let's have a glass of champagne, juice is not suitable tonight."
Seeing that Eric was going to greet the waiter, Judy shook her head, but her tone suddenly stumbled, and said, "I, I don't want to drink tonight."
Eric looked at Judy suspiciously, seemed to understand something, nodded, and said, "Okay, you, that, if you feel uncomfortable, why don't we go to the small restaurant above to rest for a while."
However, Judy realized that Eric was wrong, and she gave the man a blank look, with a little teasing in her tone: "You seem to understand, but I'm really a little hungry, but I really want to go to your exclusive restaurant to eat something."
The two said, and left the banquet hall together, and came to the company's internal restaurant on the upper deck.
Even now, Eric is a little hungry.
Instructing Amy Adams, who was on duty tonight, to prepare a dinner for the two of them, Eric thought of something, and asked someone to turn on the wall-mounted TV in the small dining room and tune it to the abc channel.
The Victoria's Secret Millennium Show was playing on the screen, but it happened to be a gap between performances.
Eric was thinking about whether he would miss the song he personally selected, when the screen switched, the catwalk of the show reappeared.
Under the quiet light, a black-haired young man in plain clothes sat on the small stage at the beginning of the catwalk with his guitar in his arms, gently plucking the strings.
A distant but familiar prelude sounded.
Accompanied by the gorgeous flower-themed day costumes of the angels, the youth began to hum softly.
*…
*that laugh reminds me of my flowers
* Quietly open for me in every corner of my life
*I thought I'd be by her side forever
*Today we have left in the vast sea of people
*…
Eric looked at the TV screen, and the thoughts of these years suddenly flooded in. Those who are still around, those who have gone away, those that remain in memory, and those that are gradually forgotten, many people, many things, like a scene The scenes of the movie flashed quickly in the brain painting, washing out endless emotions, but quickly turned into plainness.
Perhaps, all the soul-stirring, in the end, will turn into the most beautiful ordinary.
The phone rang suddenly.
Eric picked it up and looked at it. It was from Caroline, so he smiled at Judy, got up and walked to the balcony outside the restaurant.
The phone was connected, and Caroline's voice seemed small with the characteristic electric sound of the transoceanic phone.
"Eric, I'm hearing a song, it's on the Victoria's Secret show, it's very nice."
"What a coincidence, I'm listening too."
Eric spoke softly, and poked the phone into the restaurant, and the two listened to the faint singing together.
*…
*They have been blown away by the wind and scattered in the sky
*Some stories haven't been told yet, forget it
*Those feelings have been difficult to distinguish between true and false in the years
*Now the grass is overgrown and there are no flowers here
*Fortunately, I used to have your spring and autumn, winter and summer
*…
After listening for a while, Eric put the phone to his ear again.
Caroline's voice came again, with a bit of obsession: "Suddenly I miss you."
"Well," Eric nodded, "I miss you too."
There was a pause on the other side of the phone, and Caroline finally said again: "Actually, Eric, I, I ran away from home again. I had a quarrel with my father, and he said he didn't want me to return to the United States to work for you."
Eric suddenly felt distressed, and asked with concern: "Then where are you now, is Rachel there? Now, give Rachel the phone, and I'll talk to her."
Caroline's tone was slightly dissatisfied: "Eric, I'm not a child."
"Of course, and, sorry, Carly," Eric continued, "how about I talk to your dad?"
"No," Caroline said, hesitated for a moment before saying, "Eric, I just miss you, I, I know this is self-willed, but I really want to see you now."
Eric heard the weak words of the girl who was thousands of miles away, and he felt endless pity in his heart, and said without hesitation: "Okay, I'll go there right now, wait for me for eight hours, okay?"
"Well," a warm response came from the phone, and then added: "Eric, I like you."
"I like you too."
"Then, then I'll wait for you."
"see you later."
"Well, wait...see you later."
Eric closed the line and went back to the restaurant. Just as he was about to explain to Judy, Judy noticed Eric's expression and just waved his hand: "It's fine for me to eat alone. I just happen to be able to eat tonight." Two copies."
Eric nodded gratefully to Judy, bowed his head and kissed the corner of the woman's lips, and hurriedly walked out of the restaurant.
Looking at the figure of the man leaving, Judy was slightly stunned, and then turned her attention to the TV screen again.
The singing on the runway is coming to an end.
*…
* la la la...
*miss her
* la la la...
*Is she still driving
* la la la...
* go
*They have been blown away by the wind and scattered in the sky