Chapter 44: Slashed in Half
Chapter 44: Slashed in Half
“Gentlemen, these are the office buildings selected according to your requirements. This set is for the Burbank area, and these are for the Santa Monica area. Oh, and this one is near Hollywood, though the prices there are relatively expensive.”
Inside the real estate agency lobby, the agent named Raymondster skillfully handed the documents to Eric and Jeffrey Hansen. Since they had decided to establish the new Firefly Film Company, the first step was naturally renting an office location, which led to the current situation.
The two men listened to Raymondster’s introduction while flipping through the materials and discussing them together.
For some reason, Eric kept feeling that Raymondster’s gaze toward him was somewhat strange, almost eager and expectant. Finally, during a pause in the conversation, Raymondster could not help asking:
“Excuse me, Mr. Williams, are you the young director who made Home Alone?”
Eric raised an eyebrow. Judging from the other man’s expression, he thought the middle-aged agent could not possibly be a fan, right? Still, he nodded frankly.
“Yes, Mr. Raymondster, that’s me. Is there a problem?”
After confirming his suspicion, Raymondster continued:
“It’s like this, Mr. Williams. I wonder whether you might be interested in a mansion in Beverly Hills? Our agency just happens to have a hilltop mansion there, around six thousand square feet, very close to Sunset Boulevard, with convenient transportation. Most importantly… the privacy is excellent.”
When he spoke the last few words, Raymondster’s expression became somewhat unnatural. Clearly, after reading today’s Los Angeles Metropolitan News gossip about Eric, he had suddenly thought of promoting the mansion.
It had to be said that this real estate agent’s timing was excellent. Eric was currently feeling troubled by those omnipresent paparazzi, and the agent’s sales pitch hit directly at his needs.
Beside him, Jeffrey added at the perfect moment:
“Eric, I also think you need to change residences. With your current wealth, living alone in North Hollywood isn’t exactly safe anymore.”
Eric nodded.
“Mr. Raymondster, if I’m interested, when can we go see the house?”
Raymondster was delighted inside and immediately nodded.
“We can go right now. The owner entrusted the mansion entirely to our agency, and we have the keys here.”
After hearing that, Eric no longer had the mood to continue selecting office buildings. He left behind a check for Jeffrey to make the final decision himself, then drove together with Raymondster toward Beverly Hills.
Following Raymondster’s directions, after more than half an hour, the two arrived outside a mansion located in the hills of Beverly Hills.
“This is the place, Mr. Williams.”
After getting out of the car, the first thing Eric saw was a wall nearly two meters high, with dense green tree canopies stretching above it.
Standing beside him, Raymondster introduced the property:
“You see, Mr. Williams, the privacy of this mansion is extremely good. The walls are high enough, and with the dense vegetation inside, it completely eliminates the risk of paparazzi taking photos. Also, there are no streetlights around the mansion, and it has both front and rear gates. It’s very suitable for a public figure like yourself.”
Eric nodded in satisfaction.
“Raymondster, let’s go inside and take a look?”
“Oh, of course.”
Raymondster hurriedly took out the keys and opened the mansion gates, stepping aside to invite Eric in first.
“Please take a look, Mr. Williams. The main villa leans toward a modern design style and was designed by the Edward Niles Design Company. Inside, there are four bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and two kitchens. The garage can hold ten cars. Outside there’s an open-air pool and a miniature basketball court. Also, from the second-floor balcony, you can overlook all of greater Los Angeles. The nighttime view of Los Angeles lit up with countless lights is absolutely enchanting…”
While listening to the agent’s practiced introduction, Eric patiently toured the roughly six-hundred-square-meter mansion.
“Raymondster, how much is this mansion?”
Raymondster froze for a moment, then a surge of joy rose in his heart. Unlike other house hunters who endlessly asked all sorts of random questions, Eric had directly asked about the price. The odds of closing this deal were obviously very high.
The owner of this mansion had suffered losses in last year’s stock market crash and was forced to list the beloved property for sale. However, he had not been pushed to complete desperation, so the asking price remained relatively high. As a result, the house had been sitting with Raymondster’s agency for nearly half a year.
Suppressing the excitement inside him, Raymondster kept a calm expression on the surface.
“Two million dollars, Mr. Williams.”
Eric’s first reaction was that it was so cheap. But he quickly remembered that this was 1988, not the twenty-first century when housing prices had risen high enough to force decent people into desperation. If he remembered correctly, even Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, which covered eleven square kilometers, had only cost nineteen and a half million dollars last year. Clearly, two million dollars for this mansion was rather expensive.
Although Eric was not short on money now, he was no fool. Turning toward the real estate agent, he said:
“Raymondster, you understand that I’m sincerely interested in buying, so give me a realistic price. Two million dollars is obviously impossible.”
Raymondster revealed a pained expression.
“Then one million nine hundred fifty thousand dollars. It really can’t go any lower.”
“One million.”
Eric named his price.
Raymondster practically jumped.
“That’s impossible!”
At this time, Chinese-style property investment in North America had not yet become popular, so this was Raymondster’s first encounter with the utterly insane first move of Eastern-style bargaining—cutting the price in half.
As if greatly insulted, Raymondster stiffened his neck.
“Mr. Williams, if you’re making offers like that, then there’s no point continuing this negotiation.”
Seeing that the other man was genuinely angry, Eric quickly laughed.
“Alright, alright, Raymondster, I was just joking. But you’re not very sincere either. You only lowered it by fifty thousand dollars.”
Although Raymondster was still somewhat unhappy inside, Eric was ultimately a major client. Selling this mansion would earn him a huge commission, so his expression soon returned to normal.
“Mr. Williams, the owner of this mansion isn’t particularly short of money. Also, you can have someone appraise it yourself—the complete set of custom luxury furniture and the other decorations inside the villa cost no less than five hundred thousand dollars. That’s why the price is so high. Originally, the owner insisted on two million dollars. After much persuasion from our side, he finally agreed to reduce it by one hundred thousand. So one million nine hundred thousand dollars is already the lowest possible price.”
After speaking, Raymondster adopted the posture of waiting for Eric’s decision. Clearly, there was no more room for negotiation on the price.
Eric considered it for a while. He truly did like this villa, and in the end he nodded.
“Raymondster, if I decide to buy it, how long before I can move in?”
Raymondster replied:
“If you can pay in full, we can handle the transfer procedures with maximum efficiency, and you could move in within three days. If you need a bank loan, then it would naturally take somewhat longer.”
What a country where money really could do anything, Eric thought. He remembered a friend from his previous life bragging about buying a house in Los Angeles, saying the process took more than a month from beginning to end.
In the end, Eric chose to pay in full. The two returned to Raymondster’s agency. Eric called the law office of Edward Lewis and asked them to send over a lawyer familiar with real estate transactions. Eric himself only needed to write a check; the rest was basically handled entirely by his private attorney.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Hansen had also selected an office building in Burbank to serve as the headquarters for Firefly Film Company. Eric glanced at it, expressed his approval, and the matter was settled just like that.
After an entire day of running around, Eric only returned home in the evening. With a quick glance, he noticed that even more paparazzi had gathered nearby. Clearly, those people had been stimulated by this morning’s gossip article and wanted to squeeze more valuable news out of him.
Toward these people, Eric could only helplessly pretend not to notice them.
After dinner and a shower, Eric changed into loose home clothes and entered the bedroom. After thinking for a moment, he still began writing the screenplay for Pretty Woman. As for the Resident Evil novel that Michael Kraus had urged him about several times already, Eric directly chose to put it off for now. After all, Michael Kraus would eventually get used to nagging him over and over, and Eric himself had already grown used to hearing it.
Over the following days, Eric spent his daytime busy with Jeffrey handling matters related to establishing the film company, while at night he wrote the screenplay. Originally, he believed that the issue involving Drew and Aniston—even if certain media outlets with ulterior motives sensationalized it for several days—would eventually fade away like other celebrity scandals.
Unexpectedly, however, the situation showed signs of escalating further and further, with the sense of an approaching storm becoming increasingly obvious.