As it turned out, Lily Ling wasn't joking when she said it was going to be a long night. Not that I minded. I was already prepared for it.
She would tell me about the troubles in acting. Surprisingly, she had already done a fair bit of acting while I was away. Or at least tried to.
"Victoria managed to find me some ads to work in," she explained. "Small bit roles in advertising. A drink company, I think a chocolate company too. And a single ad for a fashion company."
"I don't suppose that fashion company is Victoria's Secrets?" I asked. Lily stared at me blankly. She clearly hadn't heard of it before. Which might be a good thing, considering that my joke was made in somewhat poor taste.
"No. it was for Unique Qlo."
"Oh! That's amazing!" I bought all of my clothing from Unique Qlo. It was a decent brand from Country J. I wouldn't say it was cheap, but it wasn't very expensive either. Somewhere in the middle, with nicely designed clothing. My favorites were the ones with anime pictures printed on the front of the shirts. "I should watch it."
"It's nothing impressive, I was part of a small group of actors and actress showing off their new designs." Lily shrugged and drank her coffee. By now, the waitress had arrived with our dishes. While I had ordered fish and chips, Lily had asked for spaghetti. She poked her fork into the strands, twirled it and put them into her mouth. "And it's about a minute long, I think. Not much to see."
"I still think it's impressive."
"Victoria and I are hoping to secure a role in a drama series…and maybe a movie." Lily ran a hand along her long, blond hair. "We haven't found anything yet. Oh, maybe we did. I was playing an extra in some drama series called Divine Sword Sovereign, as one of the disciples of an all-women sect. But all I did was stand around and watch the main actors and actresses perform their roles. It was an extra, not even a proper supporting role."
"Better than nothing," I said. Lily made a face before she took another bite of her pasta. Following her example, I chewed on a chunk of fish and then dipped a fry in garlic chili sauce.
"Well, Victoria said I should relax. It's just the first few months of my career, and I shouldn't be rushing and expecting too much. But she's right. I'm way past the prime for new actresses. Usually an actress should start out like maybe ten years ago, but I'm only starting to step into the entertainment industry in my late twenties."
Lily Ling had been working a long time in the business industry, having taken charge of the electronics subsidiary for nearly ten years after graduating from a top university known for its business courses.
"What about your dad? What does he think of all this?"
"Funnily enough, my stepmother approves of my decision more than Dad." Lily shrugged. "I believe that's because Wendy Lim thinks that I won't be much of a threat to her daughter if I step away from the family business. She managed to persuade my dad to let me act, even though he wasn't very enthusiastic about it at first."
She then grimaced.
"Though the deciding factor was when I asked him what I should do, now that I was kicked out of the company by the machinations of Linda Ling, my cousins and uncles and aunts. They were all working together to throw me out."
"What? They cooperated with Linda Ling?" I found hard to believe. Even if the relatives viewed Lily as a threat, why the fuck would they work with an outsider like Linda? She wasn't related to them by blood at all.
"Temporarily." Lily rolled her eyes. "I bet you my entire fortune that they are now busily plotting behind each other's backs, probably to bring the rest down so that they will emerge as the undisputed heir in the company."
She then chewed on another roll of pasta before dabbing her mouth with a napkin.
"I'm washing my hands clean of this mess. If they want the company so badly, they can have it. I'm going to make my name on the big screen."
For some reason, Lily was brightening up now, her eyes shining.
"My aim is to win an award eventually! The Golden Horse Film Festival Award or Golden Phoenix Award! Then maybe I might even make it to Hollywood! After the war is over, of course."
"There really isn't much of a war, it's mostly posturing and intimidation." I leaned back in my seat and sighed. I ought to know, I was right in the middle of the conflict.
The navy of Country A would eventually back off, especially now that our navy had Bulwark shield boats. They knew this was a battle they couldn't win. Even before the shield boats, they didn't really intend to open fire. From what I knew, the president and secretary of defense were trying to bully Hua Xia into handing over the technology for the shield generators and war walkers.
They would eventually produce their own versions – after all, most of the engineering skills I used to invent those were learned from the universities of Country A. Eventually someone over there would figure out the same theories and go through similar experiments and trials before coming up with a working prototype. Then it would spread all over the world.
This was just the beginning of an arms race.
I wasn't naïve enough to believe that they wouldn't leave me alone, though. I had defenses all over me warning of assassination attempts. Our rivals would attempt to level the playing field by eliminating me first, so as to hurt the technological advancement of our military. Quite frankly, they probably viewed me as a walking hydrogen bomb.
But just like they did a couple of centuries ago, they would make sure to protect the scientists working on the top secret Manhattan project.
After all, it would be a great loss if they lost their leading scientists and researchers before the project was developed. On the other hand, now that I've already produced the blueprints, it was pointless to assassinate me because my company could build them without me. So I could finally relax a little. Or so I thought.
"Yeah, I hop everything goes back to normal." Lily sighed. She then looked at me, a smile creeping up her face. "There are rumors that they might be making a sci-fi movie with your giant robots in it. If that happens, I'll audition for a role in there."
"Sounds good." I nodded.
"And here's a suggestion." Lily shrugged. "I know you've very busy at the moment, but if possible, you could try setting up a special effects branch. With all those robots, you can use practical special effects for more realistic displays than CGI."
"I'm not sure about that. I mean, CGI is a lot cheaper than practical special effects these days, and the technology has improved so much that they are pretty much photorealistic." The improvement of technology had lowered the costs of computer generated images by a lot, especially considering the ridiculous costs about a century ago. "Plus it is risk-free. People have gotten injured when trying to perform in the machineries before."
"It's a risk we're willing to take for our art," Lily replied with a chuckle. "With CGI, the movies don't feel that genuine, you know? We would prefer…something more authentic. That will also help us actors improve our performance on the screen."
"Huh…right."
I wasn't persuaded, but I wasn't an actor so I didn't pretend to know what Lily was talking about. Instead, I simply nodded and considered.
"I'll think about it."
Of course, if there was a business opportunity there, why would I refuse? Honestly, I would love to watch giant robot movies where they slugged it out. The whole reason why I loved giant robots was because I watched them on screen in the first place. I still remembered watching one of the first Zoic Android anime series where the protagonist was a kid who piloted a lion-type robot. Oh, and the Battle Mech series, The Broken Blade, Rebuild of Evangelion and Knight of the Rising Sun. all of these series formed the bedrock of my childhood and led me to wanting to build my own giant robots.
Not to mention kaiju movies where the protagonists piloted giant robots to fight against giant monsters to save mankind. Wasn't that every child's romance?
Now that I thought about it, wasn't most of these shows I watched animated series or animated movies?
"Hmm, rather than practical special effects, I would prefer to set up an animation studio." Then I grinned. "If I do set up an animation company, why don't you come and serve as a seiyuu, or voice actress? I'll definitely welcome you."
"Eh? I don't know about that." Lily was taken aback. Then she tilted her head and contemplated. "But you are right, it might serve as a starting point. Even though it's different here, in Hollywood they use real actors to do the jobs of voice actors, especially for big budgeted movies."
"Voice acting is serious business," I declared sternly. Lily giggled at that.
"Oh, of course it is. But I just don't know if I want to go down that route."
"Well, like everything, it has its pros and cons. You probably won't be as famous as a conventional actress, that's for sure. But you don't have to worry about age."
"I see. Well, I'll put forth the idea to my agent…but only after you set up that animation studio." Lily raised a hand. "It's a promise, okay?"
"Yeah, if I set up the animation studio, you'll be the first voice actress we hire." I was already running through the things I needed. I would need to contact a few people – I had a few friends in university who were interested in animation. Perhaps I could ask them…and even if they had changed, they might be able to put me in contact with acquaintances in the animation industry.
I was glad that the naval contracts were providing me a good amount of capital, with which I could invest into setting up an animation company. Of course, I would ensure that the animation company would focus solely on mecha anime. It wouldn't make sense for them to animate anything else when their parent company was a military subcontractor that manufactured giant robots.
"You are serious, aren't you?" Lily was watching me as I thought about the whole thing. I nodded.
"I'm always serious."
"Why so serious?" Lily sighed. Then she raised a knife. "Let's put a smile on that face!"
"Uh…" I wasn't sure if she was teasing me right now. "I did need to think about expanding my company anyway. Now that the ships are handled, I need a new project. I was building another giant robot, yeah, but I wanted something fresh as well."
"Sounds good to me." Lily raised her cup of coffee, almost as if to toast me. "Cheers. I hope the both of us succeed."
"Yeah. Me too."
Of course, I had to survive the assassination attempts on my life first before I could embark on any of my new projects…