"Besides the venture capital issue, there are two more things I wanted to announce today."
Bruce let his gaze sweep across the two men before continuing.
"First, our current office space is no longer enough. Tim, talk to building management and lease the two offices next to ours."
"Second, starting today, I'm stepping down as the company's CEO. Tim George will take over the role. I'll remain Chairman only, focusing on LinkedIn's long term development and overall strategic direction."
"Boss, I..."
Bruce raised a hand and cut Tim off.
"I know what you want to say. But I believe you're fully capable of handling this position."
A flicker of emotion crossed Tim George's face.
"Thank you for your trust, Boss. I'll do everything I can to help take the company to the next level."
"I know you will."
Bruce smiled and nodded encouragingly, then turned to Martin.
"Martin, from now on you'll serve as Vice President, in charge of technical development."
Martin Alexander nodded. He knew his own strengths and weaknesses well, so he did not feel much about Tim's promotion. Besides, a net worth of seven million dollars was more than enough to keep him in a good mood.
"All right. That's everything I needed to say. If there's nothing else, get back to work."
The two men almost simultaneously shook their heads. After Bruce waved them off, they left together.
Bruce watched until they disappeared, then let out a long breath. Once he relaxed, he leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and a faint look of relief crossed his face.
The reason he had given up the CEO title at LinkedIn was simple. He needed to free up more time and energy for other things, especially Google.
LinkedIn was different. As its founder, his status there would never truly change. But at Google, his presence was still relatively weak. He needed to strengthen his position there.
On top of that, Matrix Pictures still existed as little more than an empty shell without even a proper office. Since it was central to his future plans in entertainment, he could not let it stay that way.
Then there was the writing.
Then the Guo Charitable Foundation and Phoenix Capital, both of which still needed proper management structures.
And although Christopher Ritt and Katherine Lincoln were already handling Thorn Bird Publishing and Guo Commercial Group, Bruce could not really afford to ignore either company entirely as the majority owner.
It was easy to see where this was heading.
He was only going to get busier.
So if he wanted to avoid being crushed later, he had to start managing his time and energy now, before everything hit at once.
Three days passed in a blur.
Then the time came for Bruce's three books to officially hit the shelves.
"Distribution is fine. With the Harry Potter prequel angle, Rowling's endorsement, and the publishing relationships I already had, all one million copies of Fantastic Beasts have already gone out to major bookstores across the country. From the early feedback, sales are very strong. We moved fifty eight thousand copies on the first day alone. Once word of mouth spreads, the full million should sell through in three to five weeks."
Bruce nodded, satisfied.
"How are Pirates of the Caribbean and Fifty Shades doing?"
"Pirates has sold 2,677 sets. Fifty Shades has sold 109."
"I see. Handle the reprint schedule yourself. Decide when to reprint and how many. Also, I want the daily sales numbers emailed to me every night at nine sharp."
"Understood. Leave it to me."
"When does National Treasure go out?"
"One week from now."
Bruce nodded.
"Oh, one more thing. Besides Fifty Shades, send a set of the others in my name to Molly Bevin in England. I'll send you the address in a minute."
"You don't need to bother," Christopher said. "Your little girlfriend is practically at Rowling's house every day now. The two of them have really hit it off. I can just send them straight to Rowling."
"That works. But make sure Rowling gets a set too. I don't want her accusing me of favoritism."
Christopher laughed.
"Don't worry. I'll handle it."
In a ninth grade classroom at Monta Vista High, Lauren Jackson was sprawled across her desk in complete boredom, staring toward the front of the room where her history teacher, a man large enough to flatten his own desk, was enthusiastically lecturing on ancient Greek history.
Lauren could not have cared less.
Aristotle, Socrates, and the Seven Sages of Greece had nowhere near the appeal of Tom Cruise.
So even though her eyes still seemed pointed toward the blackboard, her mind had already drifted off into celebrity gossip.
As a freshman in high school, college still felt far away. Her classes were not especially demanding, and zoning out during lessons had become a habit.
She was not alone in that.
Most of her classmates were doing the same thing. Other than the few students who genuinely liked history, no one in the room cared much about a tedious lecture on ancient Greece.
Then something unusual caught her eye.
"Jennifer?"
She called her friend's name a few times, but Jennifer, who sat less than a yard away and wore her blond curls over her shoulders, a tight red camisole, and far more makeup than school rules probably allowed, did not respond at all.
That only made Lauren more suspicious.
The two of them were both regular residents of the back row, both mediocre students, and both close friends. Normally, Jennifer would start chatting even if no one had called her, often asking Lauren to judge whether her makeup looked good.
But now she was acting like one of the good students, completely focused on the book in front of her.
That alone was enough to make Lauren think the world had gone wrong.
The moment class ended, Lauren sprang over and slapped a hand down on Jennifer's shoulder.
"Hey..."
"Lauren, you scared me to death!"
Jennifer jolted so hard she nearly threw the book she was holding. Only after realizing it was her friend did she calm down.
Lauren barely reacted.
"What are you so absorbed in? Let me see."
"Hey, don't mess it up. If you lose my page, I'll kill you."
Lauren snatched the book anyway.
"Fifty Shades of Grey? This is a novel?"
Jennifer rolled her eyes and took it back.
"What did you think it was?"
"I thought maybe you'd suddenly decided to become a serious student." Lauren looked curious. "So it's just a novel. Is it really that good?"
"It's amazing. The best thing I've ever read."
Lauren blinked.
"Seriously?"
To stop Lauren from bothering her any further, Jennifer pulled the first volume of Fifty Shades of Grey out from her desk and shoved it into Lauren's hands.
"Read it yourself."
Curiosity won instantly.
Back at her seat, Lauren read a few chapters and was hooked almost at once.
She read fast. By the end of the day and late into that night, she had finished the entire first volume, all 250,000 words of it. The next morning, she rushed to school.
"Jennifer, where's the sequel? I need the sequel!"
"I haven't even finished the second volume yet."
Seeing the urgency on her friend's face, Jennifer thought for a second before saying, "Why don't you just go buy your own set? It's not that expensive."
"Where did you get it?"
"Carol's Bookshop on Balfour Street."
"Got it. Thanks!"
Before Jennifer had even finished the sentence, Lauren had already bolted out of the classroom.
"Hey, aren't you staying for class?"
She got no answer except the fading sound of footsteps.
When Lauren arrived at the bookstore, a line nearly thirty feet long had already formed outside. Almost everyone waiting was a girl around her age.
At once, a bad feeling settled in her stomach.
Then, before she could even ask what was going on, a store employee in uniform stepped outside and announced loudly,
"Sorry, Fifty Shades of Grey is sold out. Please come back later!"
"What do you mean sold out?"
"I've been waiting in line for fifteen minutes!"
"We want Fifty Shades!"
The girls immediately burst into protest.
There was a saying back home that one woman was equal to five hundred ducks.
A crowd of angry young women was something else entirely.
Inside the store, Candice Carroll, the owner, stood listening to the uproar outside while looking anxiously at her assistant.
"Did you call them?"
"I did. Thorn Bird Publishing says they're rushing another print run. The earliest they can get us another hundred copies is tomorrow morning."
"A hundred?" Candice nearly snapped. "I asked for five hundred. Why am I getting one fifth of that?"
"I already asked. They said too many stores are placing orders. Printing and shipping take time. That's all they can spare us for now."
Candice clenched her fist in frustration.
"Damn it. I should've ordered more in the first place."
Then she pointed sharply at her assistant.
"Call Thorn Bird once every hour. The moment they have new stock available, I want us first in line."
"Yes, Boss."
The assistant had barely turned before Candice stopped her again.
"Wait. The author of Fifty Shades, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Fantastic Beasts is the same person, right?"
"Yes," the assistant said after thinking for a moment. "The name was Dong Ren, I think."
"Dong Ren. Strange pen name. Whatever. As long as the books are good."
She thought for another second.
"Write this down. Besides Fifty Shades, order 300 more sets of Pirates and 1,000 more copies of Fantastic Beasts."
"Boss, we haven't even sold through our current stock of those yet."
Candice gave her assistant a pointed look.
"After what you've seen today, do you really think that's going to be a problem?"
The assistant understood at once.
All three books had only been out for a week. Once word of mouth spread, sales would only speed up. If they wanted to avoid another Fifty Shades style stockout, they needed to get ahead of demand now.
"Boss, I'll make the call right away."
Seeing the admiration in her assistant's eyes, Candice felt noticeably better.
"Go."
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