Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

In the evening, returning to the bay villa before nine o’clock, Taylor hadn’t gone to bed yet. The TV in the small upstairs living room was on, broadcasting the post-Oscars interview segment on ABC.

Link had also been stopped to answer a few questions. When the host asked who his favorite male and female actors were, he named Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe.

The host further inquired if it was true that his goal as an actor was to win the Oscar for Best Actor, to which Link confirmed it was indeed true.

When the host brought up the gossip about the album chart battle, Link dismissed it perfunctorily.

"Honey, I’m home."

Link called out, but received no response.

The TV screen was still flickering with Taylor lying sideways on the couch asleep, holding a pen with many drafts scattered on the floor.

Link approached the couch, stared at her face for a moment, and ran his hand through her long hair, fully revealing her delicate oval face.

Suddenly, Taylor opened her blue eyes and swung her fist at his face.

Link raised his hand to block and, grasping her fist, laughed, "I taught you boxing for self-defense, not to hit me."

"Hmph! Why did you only come back now?"

Taylor sniffed at his collar with a look of disgust on her face, "You smell foul, go take a shower."

"How about together? I can give you a SPA," Link said, stripping off his suit jacket with a smile.

"No! Every time I let you massage me, you take liberties, and you’re the one who ends up enjoying it," Taylor said, catching his jacket.

"This time I promise I won’t do anything inappropriate."

"I don’t believe you. You always make promises and then break them; I won’t be deceived again."

Shaking his head, Link undressed right in front of her, revealing a strong and fit figure, and walked into the bathroom wearing only his shorts.

But Taylor soon barged in, holding his white shirt and pointing to a lipstick mark on the collar, asked him furiously where it came from.

Link, lying in the bathtub, removed the towel from his face to look and, after thinking hard with a frown, couldn’t remember kissing or hugging anyone.

He suddenly noticed Taylor’s lips; they had been their natural color just a moment ago but now they were a shade redder.

Shaking his head helplessly, he asked her to come closer for a look, and when she approached, he pulled her into the bathtub for a mandarin duck bath together.

After the Oscars, Link continued filming for "The Expendables".

Originally, he had only about 40 scenes in the movie, which could be completed in ten days, but after filming commenced, Stallone and the producers decided to add more depth to his character, increasing his screen presence and his pay by two million US dollars on top of his original fee.

Having seen the new script, Link felt it was great and agreed to it.

This change added a lot to his work and caused him to be incredibly busy in the near future.

Boom!

The car window glass exploded.

"Cut!"

"Link, how are you? Any problems?"

At Universal Studios, on the set of "The Expendables", Stallone, taking off his headset, stood up and called out to Link.

"No problem! Just a slight knock."

Link stood up and said.

They were currently shooting a scene where his character was fighting Gunnar Jensen, played by the Swedish action actor Dolph Lundgren.

Dolph was also a martial artist, starting martial arts at the age of 14, holding a second-degree black belt in karate, and had served as the captain of the Swedish national karate team, winning the European Championship in the heavyweight division in 1980 and 1981, so his strength was formidable too.

As it was Link’s first time filming an action movie, he was unfamiliar with the routines and constrained in the fight scenes. For example, while sparring, he had to make his movements look good, fierce, and powerful but couldn’t exert too much force, as that might seriously injure or even kill his opponent.

So he had to hold back and not let loose during filming.

Additionally, representatives from the Federal Insurance Company were also on set monitoring, not allowing him to engage in any dangerous activities.

"Boss, do you need a doctor?" Anna asked.

"It’s nothing, just a minor injury."

Link had used too much force and kicked the car door with his shin, causing a bruise. He sprayed some ointment on it and went back to the set to continue filming.

"OK! Scene 17, shot 3, take 2, action!"

The clapperboard clapped, and the shooting resumed.

Link swung his fists fiercely at Gunnar, who shielded his head with his arms and was forced to retreat repeatedly, his back colliding with the car door which he was about to open for cover. Link, hanging from a chain, reverse kicked the car door.

The sequence of movements was clean and aggressive.

"That move is cool. Link’s a professional boxer; how come he can also fight like that?" Jason Statham said as he sat in the director’s area, watching the monitor.

"Indeed, it’s quite surprising," Jet Li, playing ’Yin Yang,’ said while leaning back on the couch with his legs crossed, commenting on Link’s fighting moves as combining boxing, Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, and Taekwondo.

What surprised him was that Link also knew Huaxia martial arts, including Through-the-Arms Boxing and Long Fist.

"Ha ha, truly a guy full of surprises," Stallone said, witnessing the fight scene, his rigid left face squeezing out a smile.

The character Link played, originally named ’Toll Road,’ was a muscular figure proficient in close combat and firearms, intelligent, similar to ’the brains’ of The Expendables team.

Initially, when Stallone was looking for actors, he planned to cast the famous wrestler and UFC Heavyweight Champion, Randy Couture.

However, Randy Couture had a muscular build, covered in muscles, and looked not very smart.

Later, he saw news about Link in the newspaper.

Link was a world boxing champion, with a strong physique and formidable strength.

More importantly, Link was also considered a master of boxing tactics on the ring, which made him very smart and a perfect fit for the character ’Toll Road’.

Also, Link was young, handsome, and popular.

All of the lead actors in the film were over forty years old; even the youngest, Jason Statham, was 43 that year—all seasoned hunks. Adding a young hunk like Link would attract a younger demographic, bringing many benefits.

For this reason, Stallone did not hesitate to change the script, changing Link’s character from ’Toll Road’ to ’Heartthrob Jack’, the son of Barney’s old war buddy who died in action. Before passing away, his friend entrusted ’Jack’ to his care. Barney and Jack had a mentor-mentee relationship.

In the entire Expendables team, Heartthrob Jack was also the one everyone took care of, somewhat like a team mascot.

’Heartthrob Jack’s’ role was upgraded from the sixth male lead to the fourth, gaining him more than twenty extra scenes.

"Cut!"

"Well done! This take is good, Jet, it’s your turn now."

Stallone shouted.

Jet Li got up, loosened up his fists and feet, and walked onto the set to join the fight, teaming up with ’Heartthrob Jack’ to knock Gunnar unconscious.

Bam!

Link and Jet Li bumped fists and shared a smile.

"Cut!"

"Very good! Let’s shoot one more take!"

Link continued filming with the crew.

Wiz Khalifa’s album "Deal Or No Deal" reached sales of 125,000 in its third week, totaling 527,000 copies in the United States.

Justin Bieber’s second album "My World 2.0", following endorsements from many music stars like Jay-Z, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Usher, Justin Timberlake, in its second week did not see sales drop but rather climb, selling 296,000 copies—an increase of 13,000 from the previous week—for a total of 579,000 copies in the United States, higher than the sales of Wiz Khalifa’s new album over three weeks.

Justin’s new album remained at the top of the Billboard album chart.

A 16-year-old topping the Billboard album chart consecutively generated a lot of discussions in the music industry.

Rolling Stone magazine gave the album a lukewarm review, only 55 out of a possible 100 points for "My World 2.0", a barely passing score.

Music critics had mixed reviews about the album.

The positive reviews said that the album catered to teenage tastes, leading the new wave of pop music, more mature than "My World 1.0", showing Justin’s improvement, and calling him a musical prodigy.

The negative reviews argued that the album was mediocre in quality with cliché songs, basic melodies, and Justin’s vocal skills were average, relying heavily on autotune. Moreover, out of its 12 tracks, only four made the Billboard Hot 100—fewer than other number-one albums.

Its popularity was puzzling.

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Despite the lukewarm reviews, the album’s sales remained high, continuing to sell 287,000 copies in the third week, reaching a total of 866,000 in the United States and set to confidently surpass one million the following week.

Media predicted Justin’s second album could exceed sales of two million, even three million, copies in the United States.

During a media interview, 50 Cent told reporters that he didn’t think Link’s third album could outsell Justin’s second album, stating that he would run naked in Times Square if Link won.

50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and others also posted photos on Twitter, celebrating with Justin, with ten bottles of Ace of Spades champagne at the party, seemingly securing the victory in advance.

Mainstream media began to take sides as well.

After it was confirmed that Link’s new album was a love theme, many media outlets and musicians were skeptical about the album.

They believed Link’s voice and style were more suited to rock and not ideal for singing sweet, spicy love songs.

Furthermore, love was a clichéd and overdone theme.

It would be difficult for a young singer like Link to bring something new to the table.

Amidst doubt, Link’s third album "The Woman I Love" began its online pre-sale campaign.

The event targeted Link’s fans, offering a limited release of 10,000 deluxe editions, 10,000 vinyl records, and 18,000 autographed copies by Link himself. The stock was snapped up by fans in just 13 minutes, setting a new online pre-sale record.

Billboard estimated sales of the album to exceed two million in the United States.

Mainstream media believed the fast pre-sale of Link’s album was due to his large fanbase blindly supporting him, independent of the album’s quality.

They still considered the album sales to hover around one million.

Seeing these numbers, Link also worried that album sales might fall short of expectations and phoned Ivanka to ask her to be careful with the promotion and not exaggerate, to avoid embarrassment.

Ivanka ignored him, telling him that as a singer, his job was to focus on singing and not to meddle in distribution if he didn’t understand it.

Heartened by Ivanka’s confidence, he decided not to interfere further, continuing with filming, boxing practice, and preparing for his boxing match.

On March 22, Link’s third album "The Woman I Love" was officially released in the United States, containing 18 tracks, including the already popular song "All of Me".

It also included works like "Everything You Need", "Someone You Loved", "Girls Like You", "Promises", "Stay With Me", among others—twelve songs by Link.

He co-wrote six songs, including "The Woman I Love", "Here With You", "The Rose", "Closer", and others.

The standard edition of the album was priced at 29.5 US dollars, with an average of 1.6 US dollars per song, priced 15 US dollars higher than Justin’s album, and more expensive than his previous albums.

The price was determined by the distribution company and local distributors.

In the listening session, representatives from Link Music and Universal Records—23 music producers and 54 record distributors—gave the album an average score of 92.7, qualifying it as a high-quality work.

Generally, if an album is of high quality, and the singer is famous, it will not struggle to sell, allowing a higher price point.

The distribution company and distributors also got a share of the money.

Compared to others, they also preferred to represent and distribute such albums.

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