Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

Chapter 178: Changing Minds

Chapter 178: Changing Minds

After chatting with Director Allen about movies, Link drove to Brooklyn to talk music with Eminem.

By the time he got back to his apartment in Yorkville, it was after seven o’clock, and the streetlights on East 80th Street were lit, with insects flying chaotically around.

When Link parked the car by the roadside, he felt a bit tired, but his mood was exceptionally light. After a busy week, he had finally marked off every task on that to-do list with red crosses—it had been a fulfilling week.

Beep beep!

Before he could go upstairs, a black Mercedes drove by from behind and stopped at the curb.

"Hey, Link, are you just getting back too?"

Leonardo, with a slicked-back hairstyle, got out of the car, followed by a blonde model. It was too dark to tell if she was the same Bar Refaeli as before.

Leonardo was supposed to go bowling with him today. Amid his busy schedule, he had specifically set aside some time to hang out with Leonardo, but at the last minute, Leonardo canceled to go on a date, which annoyed him.

"Hi! Leo! Bar!"

"Ahem, Link, Bar and I broke up, this is Anika!"

Leonardo glanced at him and said, pointing to the woman beside him, who was also a blonde long-legged model, just skinnier and more of a slender type.

"Sorry, my mistake, hi Miss Anika, your hair is gorgeous!"

Link said with a smile as he greeted Anika.

Inside the elevator, Leonardo looked at Link and laughed, "Link, why do I always see you alone, is your girlfriend busy with work again? Oh, poor Link, looks like you’re sleeping alone tonight."

Link gave him a glance, "Last time we played tennis, you said your kidney hurt? Feeling better now?"

Leonardo’s face darkened, and he frowned, "Bullshit, that was back pain, muscle strain in my back, not kidney pain."

"Okay!"

Link smiled lightly. Last time the two of them arranged to play tennis, after three sets, Leonardo was panting and complaining of a sore back, and then he stopped asking Link to play tennis and switched to bowling instead.

"Link, I heard that the movie you starred in broke 10 million in box office in three days and has a good reputation, congratulations!"

Leonardo said with a smile.

Link shook his head; this guy knew full well that he had recently been criticized by those movie critics and yet he brought up the movie’s success to his face—talk about hitting where it hurts.

He had meant to hit back with the news of Leonardo’s ex-girlfriend Gisele Bundchen getting married, but before he could speak, the elevator reached the seventh floor.

Back at his eighth-floor apartment, as soon as he opened the door, a warm light poured out from inside, with lights on in the entrance hall and the living room.

On the countertop, the vinyl record player was slowly spinning, and the sounds of Whitney Houston’s "I Will Always Love You" came from the speakers—deep and beautiful, like a massage for the ears.

Link paused, then called out ’Taylor’, but got no response.

In the walk-in closet where he changed clothes, two silver suitcases lay on the floor—Taylor’s luggage. Her jeans were tossed carelessly onto the carpet, and her leather shoes weren’t put away on the shoe rack either.

"Darling, where are you?"

"Over here!"

A familiar voice came from the kitchen.

Link walked through the sitting room and saw Miss Taylor at the counter, making matcha pastries. Her hair was in a golden ponytail; she wore a blue tank top and tight shorts that showcased her tall figure and pale, long legs.

Link went over and wrapped his arms around her waist, inhaling her scent, "When did you get back? You should’ve called me earlier; I would’ve picked you up from the airport."

"I got back around three o’clock. I wanted to surprise you,"

Taylor said, turning back with a smile on her face.

"It definitely is a surprise. I just ran into Leonardo when I got back. He teased me about having to sleep alone tonight. If I had known you were here, I would’ve told him you were at home cooking, waiting for me to come back," Link said as he washed his hands.

Taylor smiled slightly, pinching the pastry, "Leonardo changes girlfriends every year and never lacks for women around him. Would you be jealous of him?"

"Of course not!"

Hesitation on such matters was as good as an error—Link said without a pause, "Even though he’s never short of female company, he must be lonelier than me because when I’m lonely, I can think of you. But when he’s lonely, who can he think of? All the women he’s loved have become someone else’s wives; I think he’s a bit pitiable."

"Good answer, you get a reward,"

Taylor said happily, feeding him a warm egg tart with a smile.

Link laughed and hugged her, helping to make the pastries at the counter.

----

After Taylor’s return, Link’s life became a bit more relaxed. He would get up every morning to exercise, go to the studio to practice singing, and push away all other work to free up as much time as possible to stay at home with Taylor.

Taylor suggested writing a love song as a male-female duet, which he thought was a good idea—they might even collaborate on releasing an album.

Ding-a-ling-a-ling!

In the morning, as Link was practicing piano in the music room, the phone rang. The caller ID showed it was Eminem.

"Good morning, Em, are you ready to come over and record the song?"

A couple of days ago, he and Eminem chatted at a bar. Eminem, having seen "Lighters," praised it highly and agreed to collaborate with him and serve as the producer for the rap song.

"Hmm, Link, I have to apologize to you, I probably won’t be able to collaborate with you."

On the other end of the phone, Eminem hesitated, not sounding like a fast-talking rapper who could spit five words a second.

"Oh? Why?"

"I’ve been working on a new album myself, haven’t got the time... Fuck, not going to make excuses, Link, you know, I’m friends with Kanye, Lil Wayne and others, some people say you getting into rap is a direct challenge to Kanye and them, so it’s not convenient for me to work with you," Eminem said.

"I didn’t mean that, and last time I discussed it with Kanye, he said he wouldn’t interfere with our collaboration."

"I know, but... sorry, it’s still not convenient."

"All right, I understand."

Link shrugged his shoulders, about to hang up the phone, when Eminem mentioned someone well-suited to produce the song, who wasn’t part of the East Coast rap clique but was extremely talented, asking if he wanted to meet him.

Link wasn’t initially interested, but he hesitated when he heard the person was Bruno Mars.

Bruno Mars, aka Mars Brother, was a genius songwriter and producer with more than a dozen Grammy awards, nine Billboard number-one singles, and his song "Uptown Funk" had made him a global sensation, a top pop star in the world.

Moreover, Mars Brother was also one of the original singers of "Lighters," so collaborating with him seemed like a good idea.

Link thanked Eminem, expressing his interest in meeting Mars Brother.

"What’s up?"

Taylor asked as she came out of the piano room.

"Nothing, let’s continue practicing the piano."

"Don’t lie to me, you don’t look happy, spit it out!"

Taylor blinked her beautiful fox-like eyes, staring at him silently.

Link shrugged his shoulders and simply described the matter of Eminem reneging on his promise.

That day, to persuade Eminem to collaborate, he had shown off his dart-throwing skills in the bar and even had a drink with the man, only to be let down. It disappointed him.

However, Eminem had introduced him to Mars Brother, which was a saving grace.

"How can they do this, agreeing to reconcile and then going behind your back," Taylor said with a cold face, clearly indignant.

"It’s okay, their targeting me shows that they take me seriously, and it proves that I’m strong."

"Yes, you are the strongest. So, find a way to beat them and don’t let them get too cocky," she said.

"Will do," Link replied as he put his arm around Taylor’s shoulder and continued back to the piano room to practice.

—

"Fuck! I hate people who break their promises. Are you satisfied now?" Eminem threw down his phone and cursed unhappily in a music club in Brooklyn.

"Em, you’ve got us wrong, we never asked you to refuse Link, we just think Link isn’t a good collaboration prospect, and advised you to be cautious," 50 Cent said, holding a microphone.

"Yes, Link doesn’t know how to rap. Collaborating with him is just a waste of time," T.I. said, his arm around Eminem.

Eminem shook his head. He had heard that Link and Kanye had come to a reconciliation and, when Link proposed a collaboration, he found the song good and didn’t reject it.

But after he agreed to collaborate, he could visibly feel the circle excluding him, with some calling him a traitor, accusing him of helping Link against Kanye and Lil Wayne.

After careful consideration, Eminem chose to give up collaborating with Link because he was a rapper with his roots in black music, and falling out with the East Coast hip-hop scene was not worth it.

"Em, let’s drink! It’s on me today!" Lil Wayne put down his microphone and made a call to Kanye to tell him Eminem had declined Link.

Initially, they didn’t care about Eminem working with Link. A layman like Link getting into rap music had slim chances of success.

However, after hearing the rap song, they realized that both the lyrics and melody were amazing.

If Link and Eminem collaborated, the song had a great chance of breaking into Billboard’s Hot 100.

Having Link’s song enter the charts and rank above their songs would be like a slap in their faces.

They couldn’t let that happen, so they subtly pressured Eminem to give up and, thankfully, he valued the relationship with his peers more and decisively refused to work with Link.

As for Bruno Mars, that brown-skinned kid, Lil Wayne didn’t care.

Bruno Mars was signed to Atlantic Records in 2006, but because of his short stature and average image, he wasn’t given much attention by the label and hadn’t released a single song yet.

Lil Wayne didn’t think that collaborating with Link could compare to working with Eminem.