King of Hollywood

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It seemed that everything was under control. Adrian knew the exact time the US Army would launch the attack and used his conservative uncle's reputation to persuade Claude, who had outstanding talent and skills, making this venture nearly a guaranteed profit.

However, in reality, it was still a gamble, albeit one with a higher success rate, because Adrian didn't know what kind of butterfly effect his rebirth would bring. Perhaps while strolling down a street in New York, he might accidentally kick a stone, causing a woman who was supposed to return to Washington D.C. to fall and hit her head. Her general husband then rushed over, and because of his wife's situation, he remained in a foul mood. Consequently, the Ministry of Defense might have to replace this general, who was supposed to go to Kuwait. Through several adjustments and so on, the attack could be delayed to the 20th or brought forward to the 15th, and then… One could imagine.

From an ordinary person's perspective, what Claude said was undoubtedly correct; the $50 million was enough for anyone to start and develop a business. But Adrian wasn't an ordinary person, and he had grand ambitions. The success of his first film and Claude's exceptional completion of his requests only fueled such ambitions.

Of course, he was not a mindless person; he had been revising his plan repeatedly from the beginning. The crux of the problem was that, although the early '90s offered many opportunities, capturing them required substantial financial support. To compress the accumulated time to the shortest possible, one had to look at high-profit yet high-risk ventures like futures.

Adrian had also complained to himself that if he could have been reborn five years earlier, the situation would be much better. Even without considering Microsoft or Cisco stocks priced like cabbages, the stock market crash of '87 and the Japanese economic collapse of '89 could have allowed him to garner enough funds—if Claude were still willing to help him.

However, such thoughts would at most turn in his head briefly before being cast away. Adrian understood that being reborn in 1990 was already extremely fortunate. He had no time for complaints; seizing every opportunity at hand was what mattered most.

In short, he had to bet on this. If he won, he would acquire a large amount of liquid assets—estimated to be at least tripled or quadrupled, amounting to over 200 million US dollars! If he lost, starting over was still possible; after all, he had properties in Marbury and Orange County, plus the one he currently lived in. Saving his film company shouldn't be a problem.

After spending a decent Christmas at The Godfather's house and securing a promise from Claude, Adrian rested at home for a few days, writing novels, exercising, and occasionally strolling through town. Then, with the arrival of the new year, he went to London.

Even though they had been apart for less than a month, Kate was thrilled by his arrival. Women in love always wish they could be with their lovers every day. She had even wanted Adrian to stay at her place, but he politely declined. Naturally, visiting her home was a must.

Besides her mother and stepfather, Kate had a half-sister and two step-brothers with no blood relation in her family. She and her sister didn't really like their stepfather but got along well with the two brothers.

Adrian had heard all this from Kate, so he made preparations when visiting her home. By the end of dinner, his demeanor and humor had won over much of her family's favor.

"He's quite good, lacks the typical American rudeness, carries himself well, speaks humorously, like an English gentleman." This was Kate's stepfather Robert's private assessment of Adrian.

"Not particularly handsome, but very charming, with an indescribable aura that makes people instinctively want to be close." This was the impression of Kate's sister Samantha.

Even Kate's mother, who had been somewhat worried, had to admit that this young man was indeed remarkable.

Kate was both happy and frustrated about this, happy that her family liked her boyfriend and frustrated because… since everyone liked Adrian, they dug up quite a bit of her past embarrassments. For instance, her dislike for wearing baggy shorts, her long temperamental and silent phase, and her school nickname "Dull No. 6," among others. Kate didn't know how many times she rolled her eyes at her family that evening, but unfortunately, not one paid her any attention.

"Actually, it's no big deal," Adrian comforted her afterward. "Everyone does silly things they'd rather not share when they grow up. Don't care so much; these are your growth tracks. If you still feel it's unfair, I can tell you some silly stories from my childhood."

Adrian had to admit that he was good at sweet-talking women. However, this time it seemed not to work, as Kate grabbed his collar and fiercely said, "Unless I say it myself, I won't be polite to whoever brings it up!"

She was very imposing, even more so than when she provocatively challenged him at their first meeting. Her fiery spirit, subdued by love, was now in full display. Unfortunately, the situation now was different from back then; shortly afterward, she was leaning against the floor-to-ceiling glass window of the hotel room, softly moaning in a gentle, intricate voice.

Adrian only stayed in London for three days before leaving, though somewhat reluctantly, because only a quarter of the post-production on "Memento" was complete, and attending the Berlin Film Festival required speeding up the process. Besides, he needed to take time to visit New York—since it was New Year's, how could he not visit his uncle? Moreover, it was also the place where the "source" of information came from.

However, part of the reason for such a tight schedule was his own doing. Because while editing, thoughts of the film ran continuously through his mind, and he unknowingly followed along, editing as it played out. The uniqueness and highlights of this film lay in the parallel forward and backward narratives, exchanging every five minutes. Imagine how troublesome it was to edit in this manner.

When Adrian noticed something was wrong, he had already wasted four days, which made him laugh bitterly for quite some time. Initially, he only needed to edit in a single narrative line until the end, then divide it into segments every five minutes and reinsert them based on the original concept, but he had unwittingly complicated it greatly.

Thankfully, it was not too late to mend the situation. Plus, with sufficient funding this time, Adrian only needed to personally handle the editing, leaving everything else to other professionals. Consequently, by Christmas and New Year holidays, a quarter of the editing was finally complete. Though there was some salvation made, it was still far from enough, so after visiting his uncle, Adrian hurried back to the movie studio.

Probably because he had a good rest over the Christmas and New Year holidays, after editing for a few days and familiarizing himself again, Adrian suddenly had a surge of creativity. He was already very familiar with the movie. Coupled with the experience gained from "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," Adrian had successfully incorporated his previous life's experience into the process, which greatly sped up progress.

Adrian finally breathed a little easier. After stabilizing the editing pace, he started to do other things, such as novels, scripts, etc. Stephen King's novel adaptation script needed to be put on the agenda.

"I hate the word 'accumulate!'" He always told himself in his heart.

Besides that, he also took the time to pull out the footage of Sarah and try to edit it. This segment, shot as compensation for the little girl, wasn't without its uses. Adrian had this in mind when he decided on such compensation: these seemingly discarded shots could be used as practice material for editing.

The footage involving Sarah totaled about twenty minutes, allowing Adrian to edit freely. He could compress it to within five minutes, fully showcase the character's personality in twenty minutes, or attempt to edit an unrelated short story from "Memento."

One should know that Adrian successfully replicated "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" relying entirely on his prodigious memory, which didn't significantly aid his skills and qualities in film production. Although many movies could still be copied, it didn't mean he should neglect them and allow the knowledge to go stale.

But the problem lay in the fact that, due to the tight timeline for each production, Adrian relied on his prodigious memory to forcibly suppress the film's scrap rate below 30%, resulting in a scattered collection of unused footage. Even if he wanted to practice using this leftover film during breaks, it wasn't easy.

This time, the set of shots lasted twenty minutes and wasn't tightly linked with the core of "Memento," allowing for more carefree, unfettered practice without being influenced by the original work. Though its utility wasn't immense, it was still better than none, right?

As time progressed, the completion of "Memento" increased. If nothing unexpected happened and Adrian had a few more bursts of inspiration, finishing it ahead of schedule wasn't impossible. Then, Adrian received some good news: Congress officially authorized the president to use force when necessary to resolve the Gulf crisis!

Once announced, this message immediately stirred a great uproar. There were supporters, but even more opponents, after all. It hadn't been twenty years since the end of the Vietnam War. Who knew if another Vietnam War might emerge? Moreover, the conflict was occurring in the Persian Gulf, one of the key stronghold areas in the world's bipolar contest.

But these weren't issues Adrian was concerned with. He already knew the outcome of this local conflict. He didn't believe that the flapping of his butterfly wings could help the dull-witted win the war. What Adrian cared about was that with the announcement of this message, as long as the higher-ups of large companies and funds weren't idiots, they would realize that a local war in the Persian Gulf was inevitable. Thus, moving funds into the market also became a necessity. So, if one aimed to grab a piece of the big pie, it was about who could acquire the exact date of the US Army's attack.

Although Congress had indeed authorized on January 13th as he remembered, this could only be considered half a guarantee because it still didn't mean the US Army would 100% launch an attack on the 17th.

(Group, ah, there really isn't…)

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