America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

Outside the Museum of Contemporary Art, Martin received a call from Lily and after a few words, he got into the car Bruce drove over: "Head over to the staff entrance on the east side."

Bruce drove the Escalade over, and as soon as the car stopped, Lily ran out from the door and got into the back seat.

Martin glanced at her and naturally switched to an Atlanta accent, "You're not too dumb, idiot, not foolishly running into the exhibition hall, knowing to retreat early so he wouldn't get the chance to see you."

Lily felt a bit challenged but didn't retort. Instead, she reminded him, "Hey, you told me that swearing is bad. I've stopped swearing but you're still doing it."

Martin noticed she really had grown up and said, "I won't call you an idiot in the future, at most I'll say you're a dummy."

"I'm not dumb." Lily muttered, "I still have some smarts, those practice scraps sold for over a hundred thousand US dollars."

Martin turned his head to look at her.

Lily thought Martin was eyeing her money and quickly said, "I haven't gotten the money yet. The school is going to deduct taxes and a big chunk for operational costs, I might not even get a hundred thousand dollars."

Martin wasn't about to steal Lily's money and said, "Stay away from the Affleck brothers in the future."

Although a bodyguard was always secretly following her, it was still better for Lily to interact less with those bad people. Find your next read on empire

Lily nodded repeatedly, "I understand."

Martin said to Bruce who was driving, "Find a place to eat. After dinner, take her back." He then said to Lily, "If you want to clean my new house, I don't mind."

Lily quickly said, "Old Cloth, I'll treat you and Martin to a feast!"

Bruce knew what she meant and just picked a mid-range restaurant.

Getting out of the car, Lily was walking on air with another big payment in her pocket, occasionally humming a tune and showing off. She couldn't resist asking Martin purposely, "Should I call Elena and tell her all about it, so she knows I made a big sum of money?"

Then she got another idea, "No, I'm going to take the red-eye flight to Atlanta tonight so I can tell her in person."

Martin, ever blunt, didn't hesitate to dampen her spirits, "You'll find out just how hard Elena's fist is."

Lily, who had been in a good mood originally, instantly felt depressed and regretted offering to pay for dinner that night.

Martin delivered a blow but then offered a sweet treat, "Because of the Joker's popularity, Warner Bros. is starting this weekend to launch a full line of Joker merchandise, and they will publicly announce that it's the work of heart and soul from you, the outstanding female sculptor."

Hearing there was money to be made, Lily's depression vanished instantly, and she became jubilant, "I'm going to have another payday."

Martin said, "You've become a money-grubber now."

But Lily said, "I want to earn a lot of money and someday buy a house bigger than your new one!"

Martin, being who he is, said, "No problem, when the time comes I'll continue to invite you over to clean. With two big houses to clean, you'll be very happy, I'm sure."

Lily suddenly regretted coming to Los Angeles. It was nothing like what she had imagined.

......

A black Ford Mustang roared as it turned out of Santa Monica Boulevard and stopped by the side of the road in a neighborhood.

Casey Affleck got out of the car and entered his house. As soon as he pushed open the front door, he saw six sculptures prominently displayed in the living room made of plaster, stone, and wood—all expensive art pieces he had bought.

They were displayed in the living room with the idea of inviting the creator over to his home, to make her feel valued in order to gain control over her, and then get more out of her.

Now Casey just felt these sculptures were a blatant mockery.

He didn't explode in anger but calmly walked out of the main house and into the toolshed. He came back with a hammer and an axe in his hands.

Holding an axe in one hand and a hammer in the other, Casey returned to the main house, going first to a plaster sculpture and swinging the hammer down hard against it.

The plaster shattered, and white powder flew everywhere, covering Casey's head.

But Casey didn't care. He then swung the axe into a wooden sculpture. The wood sculpture crashed to the floor with a bang, a deep gash now marring its surface.

With both the axe and hammer, the hardwood sculpture was quickly reduced to several broken pieces of wood.

Casey breathed heavily yet appeared very calm. He even put down the tools, took a can of ice-cold beer from the fridge, opened it, and drank half a can down.

Feeling his breathing ease, he picked up the tools again and struck at the next marble sculpture, smashing it.

After spending a whole hour, Casey managed to turn the six sculptures he had purchased into trash.

Perhaps everyone has different ways of venting frustration when feeling down, but by smashing these worthless items to pieces, Casey felt oddly relieved.

Out of sight, out of mind.

He sat down on the couch, picked up the remaining half can of beer, and slowly started drinking. Grabbing the remote control next to him, he turned on the television, and the screen showed Warner Television Network.

Cassie looked at some entertainment news, and the report suddenly shifted to "The Dark Knight," which was currently a hit.

"It is reported that this weekend, the Joker statues and figures based on Martin Davis will be going on full market sale. This time, all the related merchandise have been designed, sculpted, and finalised by the young genius sculptor Lily Carter. Simultaneously hitting the market is a limited-edition Joker statue hand-carved by Lily Carter herself..."

"Although Lily Carter is only 19 years old, she is exceptionally talented and has won awards in numerous sculpting competitions. Top artists like Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Aniston, and Meryl Streep all have her works in their collection!"

"Mr. Jones, the deputy director of the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art and also a renowned master appraiser at famous art auction houses, believes that Lily Carter's works have collectible value and potential for future appreciation."

The beer can in Cassie's hand dropped to the ground with a thunk as he turned to look at the trash all over the living room, wanting to cry but finding no tears.

He had seen similar hype for art pieces before. Could Lily Carter's works possibly appreciate in value in the future?

Now, they've all been smashed into trash on the floor!

Cassie leaned back and lay down on the couch like a super-sensitive artsy youth, with shameful tears streaming from his reddened eyes.

This Lily Carter, she was really pushing him too far!

Cassie wiped his eyes, but the tears flowed even more.

The phone rang, and Cassie quickly wiped his tears before answering the call.

It was Ben: "The exhibition is over. Have you sorted out your part?"

"Not yet, give me some more time." Too embarrassed to admit the truth to Ben, Cassie deflected by asking, "How is everything on your end?"

Ben replied, "I got into the Adler School of Acting and have already given them two acting classes, but I haven't seen Elizabeth Olsen. I had Judi Dench ask around, and ever since that bastard Martin Davis returned to Los Angeles from New York, she hasn't been to any acting classes."

Cassie seized the key point, "A young girl whose head is full of love."

Ben, more thoughtful, said, "I think we might have drawn Martin Davis's attention. Don't mess up, Cassie. Keep it safe for now."

Cassie glanced at the trash all over the floor, sighed, and said, "I won't go looking for Lily Carter any time soon. She is... quite extraordinary."

The brothers didn't say much more and quickly hung up the phone.

......

As more and more people watched "The Dark Knight," its popularity remained unabated and it had become a social phenomenon.

Like the big ship and Star Wars back in their day, the talk of the town after meals always circled back to "The Dark Knight."

And the Joker was a focal point within this hot topic.

The second weekend after "The Dark Knight" premiered, riding almost frenetic popularity, the Joker series of merchandise hit the North American market in full force.

In North America, long lines formed without exception in front of toy stores that had signed sales agreements with Warner Bros. This weekend, freshly stocked Joker merchandise flew off the shelves, and the production studio's business phone lines were blown up.

Not to mention the mass-produced Joker items that were not very expensive—all hand-carved editions signed by Lily Carter and Martin, priced at thousands of US dollars, sold out as well.

There was even a price markup for resales in the market.

Especially the hand-carved editions—if you managed to snag one, you could make a few hundred US dollars.

Among them, the hand-carved Joker wearing the red Cola Cult T-shirt, which originally cost 2499 US dollars, was being bid up to 5000 US dollars online.

After street artists in North America made a fortune from the hype, a new profession emerged—dealers reselling or procuring Joker hand-carved statues on behalf of others.

Furthermore, following the explosion of diary gate, many fans wanted to collect Martin's hand-written "real Joker diary," but Martin refused all of them.

Warner Bros. promptly announced that it would publish the "Joker Diary" to satisfy the demands of fans.

The booming Joker merchandise sales were partly due to market frenzy and partly because Warner Bros. had employed hunger marketing.

The shelves being swept clean and the high-price transfer deals in the market only further drove the popularity and recognition of "The Dark Knight."

Especially those posts online offering thousands of US dollars more for a limited-edition Joker hand-carved statue, which were continuously published and reshared by the media, easily attracting the attention of even more people.

This weekend, a huge number of viewers continued to walk into theaters to watch "The Dark Knight."

The North American box office trend for the film remained solid—it took in another 85.14 million US dollars in its second weekend, retaining the title of box office champion in North America and bringing the cumulative North American box office to a staggering 338 million US dollars!

Responding to the high box office, the film had a rock-solid reputation—its Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating stayed above 95%, and its IMDB score of 9.6 ousted "The Godfather" and "The Shawshank Redemption" to top the IMDB movie rankings.

Also this weekend, "The Dark Knight" began showing in Europe, Australia, Latin America, and East Asia among other international markets.

Even though Batman's international appeal isn't as strong as in North America, the frenzy for the Joker spread there too, bringing in 166 million US dollars on its first weekend overseas.

Even the most conservative market institutions estimated that "The Dark Knight" would top 1 billion US dollars in global box office earnings.