Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

Chapter 218: 202" Nightclub Gathering

Chapter 218: 202" Nightclub Gathering

Driving back to Santa Monica, it was already evening, and the setting sun cast slanted rays on the beach, making the distant pier and the gigantic Ferris wheel in the park look especially enchanting in the sunset glow.

Perhaps due to the hot weather, there were still thousands of residents and tourists scattered across the beach at dusk, walking dogs, playing volleyball, or strumming guitars on the sand, drinking and frolicking, enjoying the free seascape.

On the east side of Santa Monica Beach, there is also a row of bars, with more than a dozen bars, dance clubs, restaurants, and amusement parks.

By evening, before the sun had set, the neon lights on the street were the first to come on, a blaze of colors and lights, with even denser crowds than during the day.

Link parked his car in front of a dance club called Venice Coast.

Walking into the bar and then taking the elevator down to the underground dance floor, the moment the elevator doors opened, he was hit by a huge wave of sound and a chaotic scene, as if a heavy punch to his head, leaving him slightly dazed.

He saw hundreds, maybe thousands of people crammed into the bustling dance floor, screaming and twisting to the rhythm of the music.

The dazzling lights made his eyes a bit uncomfortable.

Link took out his phone to make a call, but couldn’t get through, so he looked around the booth area and heard someone shouting, ’Link, over here!’

Link looked toward the corner spot, and it was Carrie Underwood, the country singer he had met last time in Nashville, waving at him.

Next to her were Taylor, Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, and two men in their thirties.

He had left the boxing gym earlier and seen a message from Taylor on his phone, inviting him for drinks at the bar and mentioning good news, so he rushed over.

Among these people, he was more familiar with Carrie Underwood, as they interacted on Twitter.

Miley Cyrus, whom he had greeted at the Grammy Awards backstage, was also friends with Selena.

Ke$ha, also a newcomer who debuted this year, was nicknamed "Money Granny" by fans because of the US Dollar symbol in her stage name ’Ke$ha’.

In March, Ke$ha debuted with her single "Right Round," topping the singles chart for six consecutive weeks.

Last week, she released her second single "TiK ToK," which sold 610,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number two on the Billboard singles chart, showing signs of overtaking "See You Again" for the top spot.

Fortunately, "See You Again" maintained its number one position as it still surpassed two million downloads across various platforms in its third week.

Of the two other men, he only recognized the more handsome one, John Mayer—who debuted in ’99, released four albums, with the second and fourth reaching the top of the first-week sales charts, and the third album as the runner-up.

At the Grammy Awards in March, he won Best Pop Male Vocal Performance and Best Rock Vocal Performance for his songs "Say" and "Gravity," respectively.

John Mayer had three quite famous ex-girlfriends, one being Jennifer Aniston who played ’Rachel’ in "Friends." They had started dating last year, but announced their breakup at the beginning of this year and were now single.

The next one seemed to be Taylor, with whom he had collaborated on a love song "Half of My Heart."

The next one after that was Katy Perry.

There were rumors that Taylor and Katy Perry had a falling out later, partly because of this man.

Of course, with Link around, those things probably wouldn’t happen again.

"Hey! Carrie, Miley, Ke$ha!"

Link walked over and hugged Carrie, then greeted Miley Cyrus and Ke$ha.

Before her transformation, Miley was a very cute young girl, always grinning, showcasing a sweet and adorable smile. Seeing her smile, one would easily think of the saying, ’A girl who loves to smile is never short on luck.’

After transforming, she let herself go—doing drugs, twerking, leaking risqué photographs, getting into lesbian relationships, and pursuing a mature and sexy style; but she was still doing well in the music industry and won quite a few Grammy Awards.

Kesha is simply known as Kesha, there’s no need to call her ’Miss’ or ’Lady’. Anyway, these musicians don’t care about that.

"Link, why did you just get here?"

Taylor staggered to her feet and said, clinging to his arm.

"How much have you had to drink?"

Link noticed her cheeks were flushed, and there was a hint of alcohol on her.

"Two Mojitos!"

Taylor said laughing, waving her fingers.

A Mojito is a cocktail made with rum as the base liquor, mixed with cane sugar, lime juice, soda water, and mint. It’s a refreshing and slightly sweet drink that is suitable for ladies to drink and also happens to be one of Taylor’s favorite cocktails.

"With the smell of alcohol on you, I thought you had finished off a bottle of vodka."

Link said, laughing as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

After Taylor introduced him, he shook hands with John Mayer and his friend Richard Sinn, and then pulled Taylor down to sit on the empty couch in the middle.

"You haven’t told me why you just got here. I messaged you almost an hour ago."

"I just came from the boxing gym, Emma was there too; she wanted to practice boxing with me."

Link explained to Taylor proactively so it wouldn’t be blown out of proportion by the paparazzi, which would be even harder to explain.

"Why does she want to practice boxing? She’s so tiny, I could knock her down with one hand."

Taylor said, throwing punches in the air.

Link shook his head, retrieved her fist, and turned to Carrie and the others, "Please continue what you were discussing, don’t let me interrupt."

"Link, we were talking about you."

Carrie Underwood said with a laugh, "You’re amazing, two albums released in your first year on the scene, both with global sales over 5 million copies. You’re really the first in the history of world pop music."

"Yes, Link, and that song ’See You Again’, it’s fantastic. How did you manage to write such a beautiful song? If I could write just one song like that in my lifetime, I’d die happy."

Miley Cyrus said with her charming smile.

"Miley, you’re only 17, you have decades to write hundreds of songs. It’s too early to say something like that," Link replied with a light laugh.

"It’s not too early, I know no matter how old I get, I couldn’t write a song like that."

Miley said, shaking her head so her hair swirled around her.

Link smiled gently and looked at Carrie, "Good music isn’t about sales, but quality. There was a lot of hype around my albums. Without the hype, the sales wouldn’t have been so high, so don’t idolize me too much."

"You’re too modest, it’s as if nobody does promotion for their albums," Carrie Underwood said, holding her glass and laughing heartily.

Seeing her laughter, Link realized that country music singers were different from pop rock singers.

They seemed cleaner on the outside and had an air of an artistic youth about them, making them easier to get along with. The country music scene often produced ’artistic goddesses’ like Dolly Parton, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Taylor was somewhat in that league too.

Pop rock female singers all tend to follow Madonna’s lead, starting out innocent and then turning sexy, choosing a visually oriented path.

"Kerry, you guys should stop praising him, there’s praise for his new album all over the newspapers, and I don’t even want to read them anymore," Taylor said, leaning on Link’s shoulder and waving his hand.

"You two are equally impressive, and your album is sure to set a new record this year."

"Kerry, don’t say it yet!"

Taylor cut off Carrie Underwood, looked at Link with a somewhat proud tilt of his chin, and said, "Link, do you think selling 2 million copies of your album in the United States is a lot? Do you know how many copies my ’Fearless’ sold?"

Link gave a light laugh, guessing the answer, but asked as if he didn’t know:

"How many?"

"Let me tell you, 3 million copies! It’s this year’s first album in the United States to break through 3 million copies."

Taylor bragged with the corners of his mouth raised proudly.

"Wow, that’s amazing, dear, you’re a hundred times better than me."

"Of course!"

Taylor covered his mouth and laughed.

"Hey, is it really okay for you lovebirds to be singing each other’s praises like this?" Carrie Underwood teased.

"Sorry!"

Link picked up a can of light beer and said, "Everyone! How about we toast to Taylor’s album sales breaking 3 million copies?"

"Cheers!" Miley shouted, raising her cocktail glass.

Kesha, along with John Mayer and Charlie Sheen, also raised their glasses for a toast.

Earlier, as he chatted with Kerry and Miley, Kesha stared at him blankly, as if studying him.

John Mayer also looked at him, occasionally at Taylor, with a faint smile on his face, wearing a watch on each hand. After setting down his glass, he would take off a watch and fondle it in his hand like a rosary.

"Kesha! When Link wasn’t here, you were the loudest, so why don’t you say a word now that he’s here?" Miley pulled on Kesha sitting next to her and asked.

Kesha glanced at Link, shrugged her shoulders, and said, "I’m a fan of Link; I get nervous seeing my idol in person."

"Really? Your music style is different from Link’s, how can you like his songs? I don’t like his songs," Taylor said, hugging Kesha and laughing.

Kesha shook her head, "I also like Link’s songs, but I’m a fan of his boxing; I think he’s really strong, and I would love to be like him."

"Link, I’m also a fan of your boxing. I didn’t watch boxing matches before, but ever since I found out you’re a Boxer, I started watching boxing programs," Carrie Underwood said with a smile.

"Me too!"

Miley nodded in agreement.

Link chuckled lightly, "Thanks for your support, everyone. Next time, I’ll invite you to a boxing match. Kesha, I heard that you wrote both the lyrics and music for ’TiK ToK,’ that’s incredible. Let’s collaborate sometime."

"Sure!"

Kesha nodded with her drink in hand.

Link thought about how she didn’t have a pleasant collaboration with the record company she’s currently signed to.

Her debut single "Right Round" topped the US charts for six consecutive weeks, but her name wasn’t credited on the record, nor did she get a single US cent in royalties. The news said that at the beginning of the year, while listening to her song played in a supermarket, she couldn’t even afford a potato there.

Because of this, she changed the S in her name to a $.

Link had plans to poach her, but Kesha was currently on the rise in her career, making it too difficult to lure her away.

"Link, do you like watches?"

John Mayer put his glass down and, playing with his watch, asked.

"Yes, I have two."

He had two luxury watches, one was a Patek Philippe given by Taylor on Valentine’s Day, and the other was a Vacheron Constantin given by Ivanka for New Year’s, advising him to use it for appearances, so as not to look too poor, both valued at over half a million US dollars.

However, because he usually trains, he’s accustomed to wearing sports watches, and those two watches were kept in boxes, only to be used as ornaments at public events.

"Link, which brand of watches do you prefer?"

John Mayer leaned forward, posing as if he wanted to have a serious talk about watches, his Rolex gold watch indicating he was a fan of Rolex.

"Stop!"

Miley interrupted with a wave of her hand between the two, exclaiming, "Don’t you think talking about watches here is boring?"

"Yes, let the guys talk. Let’s go dance."

Taylor got up unsteadily, pulling Kerry towards the dance floor.

"Let’s go! To the dance!"

Miley and Kesha also stood up to join.

Link saw that the dance floor was overflowing with people, like a tank crammed with fish, teeming with all sorts.

Worried that Taylor might be taken advantage of by someone, he signaled to John Mayer and followed them to the dance floor.

Taylor, having had a few drinks, was in high spirits. He followed the DJ’s rhythm, tossing his hair and moving his tall, sexy figure, his pert buttocks sometimes teasing Link, burrowing into his arms and kissing him.

Link just danced politely and without expression, like Vincent in "Pulp Fiction."

After the dance, the girls all laughed at him, saying he couldn’t let go and looked like he was performing a solo act in a crowd.

Link didn’t deny this. He wasn’t a nightclub person, nor did he enjoy being in a crowd.

To be able to move with the music in the dance floor was already a big step forward for him.

When they returned to their booth, John Mayer and his friend weren’t there, and it was unclear whether they had gone to dance or had left early.

Link and Taylor, along with the others, chatted about gossip in the entertainment circle for a while. Then, as it was almost 8 o’clock, they left the bar together.