Chapter 492 - 323: Unexpected Good News, Returning to New York

Chapter 492: Chapter 323: Unexpected Good News, Returning to New York

At 4 p.m. the next day, the taping for *The Tonight Show* began right on schedule.

The audience at the NBC studios in Burbank, all 300 of them, were in their seats. The lights, cameras, and teleprompters were all in position, and the warm-up DJ had already gotten the atmosphere to a good buzz.

Li Wei’s segment went quite smoothly. Jimmy Fallon was a very humorous host.

He asked Li Wei a few classic questions, like what an unprecedented 19-year-old Super Bowl champion planned to do for fun during the off-season.

"Well, how about becoming a talk show host?" Li Wei asked.

Jimmy Fallon replied with a deadpan expression, "Can we trade places, then? I want to go win a Super Bowl. What do you think?"

Then he began a hilarious impersonation of Joe Buck’s commentary. "Oh, here’s the 49-year-old Giants quarterback, Jimmy Fallon! He’s standing in the pocket, looking for a receiver—"

He stood up from his chair and climbed right onto his desk.

"He lets it fly! A deep, long pass—"

He picked up the paper cup in his hand and tossed it toward a distant trash can.

"The ball is airborne... it’s out of the stadium... it’s over the parking lot, causing an eleven-car pile-up."

The whole studio erupted in laughter, and Li Wei laughed out loud as well.

"But seriously," Jimmy Fallon said, sitting back down, "I actually tried to join the team back in high school."

"What position?" Li Wei asked.

"Water boy," Jimmy Fallon said. "Later, I got really mad. I said, ’Coach! Can you let me play, too? I think I’m ready!’ And the coach said, ’Who the hell are you?’"

The studio erupted in laughter once again.

"But we can talk more about my story later. Let’s get back to you," Jimmy said with a couple of coughs. "You’re nineteen, you’re already at the pinnacle of professional sports, and the off-season is long. You can’t just stay home and play video games all day, can you?"

"I’m actually not bad at video games," Li Wei said. "But you’re right, I am considering some other things."

"Like what?"

"Acting, for instance," Li Wei said.

"Yeah, honestly, you really should get into acting," Jimmy Fallon said earnestly. "People are really looking forward to seeing you on the big screen."

"Especially since a lot of our female viewers emailed us last week after they found out you were coming on the show." He pulled out his phone. "They wanted me to tell you, and I quote: ’Hey, Li Wei, this is Vanessa. When are you going to consider making a movie? I want to see your kissing scenes and your bed scenes.’"

"Uh..." Li Wei chuckled. "I haven’t really thought about that part yet, but my current plan is to act in a genre I’m interested in, like fantasy films."

"Right, swords and magic," Jimmy Fallon said with a straight face. "And then do kissing scenes and bed scenes with a princess."

For the third time, the studio erupted in laughter.

The entire taping lasted about twenty-five minutes. In addition to these topics, Jimmy also asked about things like his first impressions of Los Angeles and funny stories from the locker room, all of which Li Wei handled with ease.

After the taping was over, Jimmy pulled Li Wei backstage to chat for another ten-odd minutes. They exchanged contact information, and Jimmy said he hoped Li Wei would come back as a guest again sometime.

By the time they left the NBC studios, the sky over Los Angeles had already grown dark.

Li Wei had originally planned to stay in Los Angeles for another two or three days. Anya and Daria had already planned out his itinerary for the next few days—shopping on Rodeo Drive, watching the sunset at Griffith Observatory, and so on.

But just as he got into the car, Jin Heon received a phone call and her expression suddenly turned excited.

"Boss," she said, covering the mouthpiece and leaning close to Li Wei. "There’s news from Mexico."

"What about Mexico?" Li Wei asked, not following for a second.

"The contract manufacturer for LW beverages!" Jin Heon said. "Remember how I’ve been looking for an overseas production line? Pepsi and Coca-Cola have basically locked up all the contract manufacturers in the United States of America. This past week I’ve contacted over a dozen manufacturers in Southeast Asia, South America, and Europe. Today, a beverage manufacturer in Mexico finally got back to me. They’re willing to provide us with production and bottling lines."

"They’re one of the largest beverage contract manufacturing groups in Monterey, Mexico," she continued. "They’re willing to provide us with five complete aseptic bottling lines that meet FDA export standards. The total estimated monthly output could reach twenty million bottles."

Li Wei raised an eyebrow.

Twenty million bottles.

The current bottleneck for LW beverages was production capacity. The Pepsi Group had spent 450 million USD on a deal to sideline Li Wei for the off-season, aiming to gradually diminish his influence. At the same time, they secretly colluded with Coca-Cola to block any mainstream contract manufacturers in the United States of America from working with him. This left Li Wei with a formula and distribution channels, but no way to produce enough product.

The advantage of Mexico was that products made there could use the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) tariff-free corridor to legally enter the market in the United States of America.

Once production capacity was ramped up, given the current demand for LW, their monthly net profit would soar to 100 million USD—a five-fold increase from before.

"What are their rates and conditions?" Li Wei asked.

"I’ve already had preliminary discussions on the terms," Jin Heon said. "The finer details, like the lease, quality control, and logistics plans, will require Mr. Don Quixote and Arthur to meet with them in person. But the broad strokes look fine."

"Also," she added, "their representative said they happen to have a set of production lines that just became available after a contract with another client ended. If we can sign a letter of intent next week, they estimate we can start a trial production run by early April."

"Perfect," Li Wei said. "In that case, let’s head back to New York tomorrow."