Chapitre 250: Chapter 247 The Future's Richest Man
*The Fighter* opened in 1,209 theaters in North America in its first week, earning $15.37 million at the box office, ranking sixth in weekly box office performance.
The box office champion was the simultaneously released movie *Twilight 2*, which earned $140 million in North America in its first three days, becoming the third-highest opening weekend box office in history, following *The Dark Knight* at $158 million and *Spider-Man 3* at $151 million.
Ranking second to fifth were *The Blind Side*, *Up*, *2012*, and Disney's hand-drawn animation *The Princess and the Frog*.
Compared to the top five big productions with investments exceeding $50 million, *The Fighter* had a production cost of only $18 million, and its first-week box office of over $15 million fully demonstrated the film's good quality.
Some media also believed that Link's appeal at the box office was getting stronger and stronger, and he was a newcomer actor with great commercial value.
*Variety* called him another A-list singer to gain a foothold in Hollywood after Will Smith and Justin Timberlake.
Time came to December.
Compared to the end of last year, when he was just a simple boxing star with not much work at the end of the year.
This year, he had become a boxing superstar, a popular singer who had released two best-selling albums, a movie star, a swimming champion, and an entrepreneur and billionaire with companies like Dynasty Promotion, Link Records, Palm Bay Agency, Palm Beach Pictures, and over $100 million in stocks like Amazon.
With more titles, he was busy every day at the end of the year.
First, he went to the set of *Easy A* to shoot the final scenes and was "bullied" by his employee, Emma Stone, in terms of acting skills.
He decided to find a chance to get back at her and let her know how dark a capitalist's heart could be.
Before the movie was finished, he took Taylor to the neighboring villa district to attend the wedding party of Scott Stuber and his supermodel girlfriend, Molly Sims.
At the wedding party, he also collaborated with Taylor on the song "You Belong with Me," with Taylor singing and him playing the piano, as a wedding gift.
Stuber and Molly were so moved that they wiped away tears, and the many billionaires attending the party also applauded and cheered for them.
At the party, he also met Elon Musk, who came to freeload.
Meeting this future richest man, he naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity to get acquainted.
Elon Musk was also one of the people he admired.
Elon was 38 years old this year, a South African immigrant, with a bachelor's degree in economics and physics from the University of Pennsylvania, and had studied for a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University.
He started his business at the age of 24 and became a multimillionaire at 28 with the self-developed online content publishing software Zip2.
In 2002, when e-commerce was just emerging, he co-founded the digital mobile payment platform PayPal, similar to Alipay, and became a billionaire.
Since 2003, he founded the space exploration company SpaceX, researching how to reduce the cost of rocket launches, and planned to achieve Mars immigration in the future, creating a human space civilization.
Unfortunately, the workload of rocket research was too large, and three consecutive rocket launch failures led to a shortage of funds for the company. He then shifted his attention to the electric car industry and acquired Tesla Motors in 2005, becoming the chairman of the company.
However, Tesla's research was not smooth. The first electric car, Roadster, was not launched until October 2008, and the price was as high as 110,000 US dollars. Because the price was too high and there were too many problems with the electric car, Roadster's sales in the car market were dismal.
Also due to the impact of the financial crisis, both SpaceX and Tesla Motors were in trouble. The media often reported that Musk was about to go bankrupt, and the two companies were about to go bankrupt and close down.
It wasn't until September that Musk sold 10% of Tesla's shares to Daimler AG for 70 million and got a 460 million low-interest loan from the US Department of Energy that he successfully overcame this crisis.
But there was also news that Musk's crisis was not over.
Because the research and development cost of Tesla cars was too high, and SpaceX's rocket launch failed again, Tesla was still short of money. Because of this, Musk was planning to let Tesla go public on Nasdaq to overcome the current difficulties.
After Link met him, he didn't take the initiative to mention investing in Tesla.
He didn't understand financial investment or car research and development, and he couldn't talk to him about these things, so they only talked about music, boxing, and movies.
Musk founded a film company in 2003 and served as a producer for three films, including *Iron Man 2* released this year. He also made cameo appearances in many films. His current girlfriend, Talulah Riley, was also an actress.
Musk was also a boxing enthusiast, claiming to be his fan and having watched every one of his matches. He even posted a boxing video on the YouTube boxing section.
Link hadn't seen that video and said they could practice boxing together sometime. Musk also took the initiative to exchange contact information with him.
"Honey, you seem to be very interested in Elon Musk."
"Why do you say that?"
After the party, Link and Taylor walked hand in hand on the path outside the villa. On both sides of the path was a lush botanical garden. Even in the winter of the northern hemisphere, many trees still had lush foliage, especially the two rows of tall palm trees on the roadside, which didn't change color all year round.
"You two just chatted for over an hour, and you were so engrossed. I've never seen you so enthusiastic about anyone before."
Taylor said, swinging his hand.
"It's different. Elon is a great genius, like Edison. Chatting with him can broaden your horizons, so I chatted with him for a while longer."
Link shrugged. He remembered that this was what Ivanka's father used to describe Elon.
"So that's it? Then I'm relieved."
Taylor patted her chest and exhaled exaggeratedly.
"Relieved? What do you mean?"
Taylor smiled slightly and pointed to his eyes, "I saw your eyes light up when you looked at him, like you were seeing a beautiful woman. When he looked at you, his eyes were also very passionate. Talulah and I thought you two were going to come out."
"What? What nonsense are you talking about?"
Link looked at her with black lines, put his arm around her waist, and said, "With such a hot girlfriend like you, how could I become that kind of man?"
Taylor covered her mouth and smiled, "You mean if it weren't for me, you would come out?"
"Of course not, I'm straight as an arrow, my orientation is very normal. I'm just interested in Elon's space immigration plan. If he succeeds, in the future we only need to buy a ticket to travel to outer space on SpaceX's spaceship. Do you want to travel to space?"
Link looked at the sky obscured by palm leaves and said.
"It does sound interesting. If I could travel in outer space, I would definitely find inspiration there and write many great songs."
Taylor looked up at the sky with him and saw a few blue jacaranda petals falling down.
Link shook his head helplessly. Taylor had to relate everything to creation, as if she was obsessed with songwriting.
"Did you feel anything when you saw Scott and Molly get married just now?"
Link asked.
Taylor picked up a petal and shook her head: "No, I'm not familiar with them, so what could I feel? If they were my sisters, friends, or ex-boyfriends, seeing them get married might give me some writing inspiration."
"I'm asking about your feelings about marriage. Generally, when single people or couples attend other people's wedding parties, they will think about their own lifelong events. Did you have any similar thoughts just now, or consider when to get married and have children?"
"I did."
Taylor smiled slightly, faced him, and walked backward while saying, "Preferably in four or five years, when our work stabilizes and we're not as busy as we are now, we'll get married in a country villa in Nashville and have two children. What do you think?"
"Sounds great!"
Link smiled and kissed her on the cheek.
Taylor smiled and said, "I heard that giving birth is very painful. Do you think it will inspire creative inspiration during childbirth?"
"Definitely. Many singer-songwriters have created related songs during the period of having and raising children. Madonna and Whitney Houston both have. I think you can too. How about we have one now?"
Link hugged her and smiled.
"Now?" Taylor shook her head repeatedly, saying it was too early. She was only twenty years old and still a big girl, not ready to be a mother.
"It won't be too difficult, trust me. Let's go, let's go home and have a baby."
"No!"
Ignoring Taylor's resistance, Link embraced her and returned to the villa, spending a pleasant Wednesday afternoon in the small bedroom bathed in the setting sun.
(End of Chapter)
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone