Chapter 1 - Prodigal Son

The early morning sun fell on the street, illuminating Ronan who was standing in front of a newsstand, staring at a copy of the Los Angeles Times.

The date in the newspaper was January 5, 1998.

Ronan rubbed his haggard face and scratched his hair that looked like a bird's nest. When he woke up at the bar early in the morning, he had a guess as to what had happened, but now he was completely sure of it.

He had transmigrated to Los Angeles from China on the other side of the Pacific Ocean to the year 1998, more than two decades in the past.

To be precise, he had transmigrated to Burbank, a satellite city of Los Angeles.

"Morning, Mr. Anderson," The owner of the newsstand greeted him actively, "Would you like a newspaper?"

Ronan nodded, bought a copy of the LA Times, and walked towards a small office building nearby.

"Isn't that Ronan Anderson?" A chubby middle-aged woman walked out of the newsstand, "Wow, look at him! He's really a prodigal son. He destroyed his father's company and lost his property."

The newsstand owner pulled the woman back and said, "Lisa, don't talk nonsense."

The middle-aged woman murmured, "I'm only saying what happened."

Ronan heard these words passed, but ignored them. She was right. The former owner of his body was currently in the middle of a big predicament.

Arriving in front of the building, he saw the board of Sand Sea Entertainment hanging among a slew of other boards. Ronan did not enter the building immediately, but silently looked at the golden yellow board.

- - -

After drinking with an advertising agent, he had returned home drunk, fell asleep and woke up at a bar in Los Angeles on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in the body of a man named Ronan Anderson.

'Was it because our names have the same pronunciation?' he thought.

The confusion that he had felt since waking up early in the morning had gradually cleared.

He had read a lot of transmigration novels, so it was not too difficult for him to accept his new reality.

Anyways, he had been a bachelor in China. Apart from his job, he had nothing and no one else.

Ronan closed his eyes and slowly recalled "Ronan Anderson's" memories.

'That guy could be described in one sentence: Ambitions higher than the sky yet lacking the ability to achieve them,' Ronan thought while shaking his head in disappointment.

"Ronan Anderson" was from a good family. His father, Mr. Anderson, was a millionaire. He had made his fortune through Sand Sea Entertainment which he had founded in the 1980s and mainly engaged in film production.

Sand Sea Entertainment was small in scale and mainly produced B-movies that were directly distributed through video tapes. Mr. Anderson was a conservative producer and never made any film that had an investment of more than $1 million. During the ten years since he had created the company, although most of his productions were unknown, Mr. Anderson had accumulated a net worth of more than $10 million.

Over a year ago, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson had gone hiking in a national park in Utah. However, due to a sudden landslide, they were both killed. As a result, the company and all family properties were inherited by "Ronan Anderson."

"Ronan Anderson," 19, dropped out of the USC School of Cinema-Television and took over Sand Sea Entertainment.

The company was small, so he held 100% of the shares.

As a young man, his ideas were very radical. He wanted to grow Sand Sea Entertainment into a large studio. As a result, he completely rejected his father's conservative business strategy, took most of the company's cashflow, took the life insurance proceeds from his parents' death, and also took out a mortgage on his family’s apartment to raise a total of more than $6 million. He then used all of that money to produce a gritty action film called The Agent.

During this era, action films were quite popular. Even stars known for their acting skills such as Nicolas Cage had turned to action films and had transformed into action stars.

Unfortunately, The Agent released in early October last year was so terrible that it was removed from the theaters after just four weeks of screening.

The film's total North American box office barely reached $800,000, but after the distributor deducted its various fees, the box office share given to Sand Sea Entertainment was negligible.

The film was a massive flop in North America, so no one cared to buy its overseas distribution rights.

Over the next two months, Sand Sea Entertainment's cashflow broke, banks came to collect debts, and employees resigned one after another. Ronan Anderson was even caught in the dilemma of impending double bankruptcy for both his company and himself.

The young man with ambitions higher than the sky collapsed instantly and began to wander around from bar to bar, getting drunk.

As a result, Ronan took his place.

- - -

"His dad wasn't Larry Ellison, yet he actually dropped out of school to invest in films."

[TL Note: This is a jibe at David Ellison and Megan Ellison, the son and daughter of Larry Ellison, respectively. Both of them dropped out of school to invest in films, but both of their companies have gone bankrupt at least twice. Between them, the two have squandered at least $500 million on film investments.]

Ronan really had no words for the former owner of his body. Judging from his memories, "Ronan Anderson" was talented in filmography, and was even among the top students at USC School of Cinema-Television.

Especially in screenwriting, he had considerable accomplishments.

The screenplay of The Agent was written by "Ronan Anderson" himself.

However, talent didn't always equate to success.

"Ronan Anderson" was too idealistic and impulsive.

He had invested all of his net-worth and the future of his company into making a high-risk commodity like film.

With Ronan's years of experience in the Chinese film industry, the best way to invest in films was to "borrow someone else's chicken to lay eggs."

Of course, "borrowing someone else's chicken to lay eggs" was also quite difficult.

- - -

During his previous life in China, Ronan had graduated from a second-rate film school and had been involved in film and television production.

He had started his career as a production assistant in small film crews. Through hard work and clever means, he had stepped on countless competitors along the way and eventually became a small producer.

Anticipating the internet's growing popularity, he moved to Tencent Penguin Pictures, a label under Tencent Pictures, to take charge of content production of web series and web films.

- - -

Looking at the board of Sand Sea Entertainment, Ronan thought back to his experience with content production and his knowledge about future blockbuster films before he began grinning.

'Hollywood and the internet are quite promising. As long as I play my cards right, I may be able to stand at the peak of this world,' he thought, 'At the peak, I will have more money than I can spend and more beauties than I can sleep with!'

However, thinking about the mess left by "Ronan Anderson," his head couldn't help but begin aching.

Finally, Ronan entered the office building while reading the newspaper. As it was working hours, there were many people entering and leaving different companies, and most of them stared at him.

He could even hear some people's comments.

"The company that Mr. Anderson spent over a decade building has been destroyed by his son in less than a year."

"Do you think Mr. Anderson will crawl out of his grave in rage?"

"Look at his shaggy face, maybe he's going to jump off the building."

"Ronan Anderson is a failure."

Ronan ignored the remarks directed at him and arrived on the second floor where Sand Sea Entertainment was located. The company's four remaining employees had already arrived.

The company was not big with his office being just a few tens of square meters. The company originally had nearly 20 employees, however, most of them had resigned and left. The remaining four employees were confidants of Mr. Anderson who had been with him since the company's inception.

A brown-haired woman in her forties among the four greeted him and asked with concern, "Ronan, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Mary," he replied.

Mary had started as Mr. Anderson's assistant, and later took on the role of the company's CFO thanks to her loyalty and her excellent skills in finance and accounting.

Ronan had just entered his office when a middle-aged man entered behind him.

"Mr. Anderson," He placed a letter on the desk and said, "This is my resignation."

Ronan gave the resignation letter a simple glance and said, "Jamie, the company has not gone bankrupt, yet."

The middle-aged man named Jaime was quite competent. If possible, he wished to retain him.

Jamie replied without hesitation, "I'm very sorry, but I have two children to raise. Not to mention, a mortgage and a car loan, so I can't take risks."

Ronan nodded gently and asked, "Have you found a new job?"

"Yes," Jamie directly replied.

Ronan picked up a pen, signed the resignation letter, and called Mary to have her complete the resignation procedures for Jamie.

As soon as Jamie left his office, Ronan faintly heard a quarrel outside.

From the voices, it seemed to be Mary questioning Jamie.

Ronan knew very well that the company was in a predicament. If he didn't take measures to resolve the issues, it wouldn't be long before the remaining employees also resigned.

'How can I get out of trouble as soon as possible?' he began thinking.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. After hearing Ronan tell her to come in, Mary pushed the door open and walked in.

"Miss Judith from the bank is here," she stated.

The former owner of his body had been hiding from the bank. Ronan knew that this was not a good idea and said, "Let her in."

Soon, a tall blonde woman walked into the office.

Ronan greeted her, "Hello, Miss Judith."

"Hello, Mr. Anderson," Judith put the dunning notice in front of Ronan, smelled the unpleasant smell of alcohol on him and a trace of disgust flashed in her eyes as she bluntly stated, "Your company’s $1 million mortgage is due in three months and your personal $1 million property mortgage is also due in six months."

Ronan glanced at the dunning notice and said, "Alright, I understand."

Judith reminded him, "I hope you can repay the loan on time."

The blonde woman said no more and took her leave.

Ronan picked up the dunning notice and realized that the bank was quite worried about the situation of Sand Sea Entertainment, fearing that it may go bankrupt before repaying its loan.

Sand Sea Entertainment’s $1 million loan was obtained by mortgaging the copyright of the films produced by the company before 1997; "Ronan Anderson" had mortgaged his North Hollywood apartment which he inherited from his parents for the second $1 million loan.

The bank would not wish to take coercive measures unless it was a last resort.

He had planned to think of countermeasures, but after facing a huge debt of $2 million, Ronan subconsciously had the thought of ​​absconding.

Taking a deep breath, Ronan dispelled such a foolish thought since he was not at the end of his road, yet.

He looked at Mary and asked, "Mary, how much money is left in the company's account?"

Since all the employees in the finance department resigned, Mary had been taking care of the company's finances alone, so she immediately replied, "$25,000."

Ronan had another $5,000 dollars tucked away as his living expenses. Still, what could he do with $30,000? Earn $2 million in half a year?

$30,000 was not even enough to pay the salaries of the three remaining employees and take care of the company's expenses. Water, electricity, office leases, network communications e.t.c. all cost money.

If the employees were not paid for two months, even Mary, who was most loyal to the company, would be forced to resign. Most Americans tended to spend their earnings as soon as they got paid. Few ever considered saving for a rainy day. As a result, losing a job could directly result in bankruptcy for them.

Mary reminded, "We still have the video tape and television copyrights of The Agent. If we sell them to Blockbuster, we can hold on for a while."

"Let me think about it," Ronan waved his hand so Mary stopped talking and soon left his office.

Mary had a point but the video tape, television and overseas copyrights of a flop film would not sell for much.

After thinking for a while, Ronan was still unable to come up with any plans so he asked Mary to fetch him a bunch of newspapers and magazines and perused through them.

Since he had just arrived, he urgently needed information.

While reading the newspapers, he also took out a pen and a notebook to record useful information.

After flipping through newspapers and magazines all morning, Ronan finally filled two pages in his notebook and circled the few most important pieces of news:

Last weekend, Titanic directed by James Cameron crossed the $200 million mark at the North American box office.

The prices of tech stocks have been soaring; the Nasdaq index has continued to rise with Cisco Systems and Yahoo! gaining the most.

A community weblog website called MetaFilter created by Matthew Haughey drew criticism.

U.A.E's Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a giant investment fund situated in the Middle East, sets up an office in Los Angeles.

In 1997, more than 1.4 billion people attended the  theaters in North America.