1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Han Sanping's plan to hold a celebration banquet is not just a matter of frequency. The most important thing is that the box office of "Time Traveler" in Japan has nothing to do with Yanjing Film Studio. The film's allotment income in Japan will not go to Yanjing Film Studio at all.

Therefore, if there is really a celebration banquet, it should be organized by Tang Chen in the end.

After hearing what Han Sanping said, Zhou Yan didn't say anything to spoil the fun. After all, the movie made money, so it was normal for everyone to be happy.

"It would be nice to hold a celebration banquet. We didn't have a good meal when the filming was wrapped, so let's make up for it. But I definitely can't bother you guys, Third Brother, to host the celebration banquet. I'll talk to Sister Feng later and Tang Chen will organize it." Zhou Yan smiled and took the responsibility of the celebration banquet over to Tang Chen.

Han Sanping thought about it and did not refuse, "Okay, then I'll trouble you and Mr. Xu."

After all, the money of Yanjing Factory is public money. Although Han Sanping can spend it, it is definitely not as convenient as Tang Chen's.

The two chatted for a few more sentences and then hung up the phone.

After Zhou Yan hung up the phone, he called Xu Feng first and told her about the celebration banquet.

Xu Feng agreed without any hesitation.

For Xu Feng, organizing a celebration banquet is not only a way to reward the main creative staff, but also an opportunity to expand his network. He spends money to organize a relatively large event and invites some well-known people in the industry to attend. Everyone builds interpersonal relationships and grasps the future development direction of the industry.

With the excuse of a celebration banquet, things will be easier.

The cost of hosting a celebration banquet is naturally a drop in the bucket for Tomson and is not worth mentioning.

After hanging up the phone with Xu Feng, Zhou Yan called Xu Junrong again.

Xu Junrong was a little surprised when he received Zhou Yan's call, because Zhou Yan had not contacted him actively for quite a long time.

Nowadays, Zhou Yan seems to have focused all his attention on Taiwan. In the past two years, the number of Taiwanese artists signed by Zhou Yan is so great that one can hardly count them on one hand.

On the Hong Kong side, Zhou Yan has never been involved in signing anyone.

Therefore, whenever Zhou Yan has any business-related matters, he will contact Huanyin directly.

Although Huanyin is a company controlled by Zhou Entertainment, Xu Junrong has gradually stopped actually managing Huanyin, and Huanyin has gradually gained autonomy.

From a business perspective, the two companies are already at an equal level.

After the call was connected, Zhou Yan didn't waste any time and asked directly, "Mr. Xu, do you know which record company Faye Wong is signed to now?"

Zhou Yan’s question made Xu Junrong a little confused. Could it be that Xiao Zhou was going to poach Faye Wong?

If this is true, Xu Junrong is not optimistic. After all, Faye Wong is different from Wu Bai, Wang Lihong and others before her.

No matter which record company it is, Faye Wong is a treasure and they will not let her go easily. If they want to poach her, they will not be able to succeed unless they offer a sky-high price that no one can refuse.

Spending huge amounts of money to recruit talents is not Zhou Yan's style. So far, none of the people they have signed are first-tier stars. Wu Bai is now considered to have squeezed into the first-tier market, but he has achieved his current development only after he was signed.

But since Zhou Yan asked, Xu Junrong answered seriously, "Faye Wong's contract is still with Cinematheque, but as far as I know, she will sign a contract with EMI in a while, and the signing fee is more than 50 million Hong Kong dollars."

The news that Faye Wong is going to sign with EMI has not been announced to the outside world yet, but Xu Junrong is well-informed in the industry and already knows the details.

The reason why Xu Junrong added the signing fee at the end was to tell Zhou Yan that if he wanted to sign Faye Wong, he would have to pay a higher price than this.

The reason why Faye Wong can get such a high signing fee is certainly not because EMI is rich and stupid, but because Faye Wong is indeed worth this price now.

No matter how Faye Wong and Dou Wei's private lives have been criticized, Faye Wong's career development in the past two years has not been bad.

Two years ago, Faye Wong was nominated for the Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in Chungking Express. The EP "One Person Playing Two Roles" and the cover album "Faye Wong's Mimi's Sound" released that year both sold very well.

The Cantonese album "Di-Dar" won the Hong Kong IFPI record sales championship in the second week of its release and stayed in the top ten for ten weeks. The cumulative sales exceeded triple platinum, and she won many awards that year.

Last year, she gained international attention with her album "Impulsive" and became the cover character of Time magazine. In the same year, she also won music awards such as the Billboard Hot 100 World's Most Popular Female Singer.

Although she just gave birth to a child this year, her career was not affected at all. She released the Cantonese EP "Toys" in February and was very active.

She is 28 years old this year, which is the peak of her career as a female singer.

Zhou Yan didn't know what Xu Junrong was thinking. When he heard that Faye Wong was going to sign with EMI, he asked, "If I want to ask her to sing now, should I contact Cinema or EMI?"

It turned out that they wanted to ask Faye Wong to sing. Xu Junrong nodded in understanding, "If you want to ask her to sing now, I suggest you contact her directly."

Zhou Yan was originally planning to connect the companies, but after hearing what Xu Junrong said, he nodded and said, "Okay, I got it, Mr. Xu, thank you."

"Mr. Zhou, you're too polite. Would you like me to help you find Faye Wong's contact information?"

"no need."

"Ok."

……

Zhou Yan hung up the phone with Xu Junrong, lowered his head and took out a phone book from the drawer, and found Wang Fei's phone number in it. There were two numbers on it, one was a landline number in Yanjing, and the other was a mobile phone number.

When they met in Hong Kong before, they exchanged contact information.

Zhou Yan first dialed the landline number in Yanjing. Someone answered, but the person on the other end was not Faye Wong or her family. It should be that Faye Wong used to live there, but later moved.

Afterwards, Zhou Yan dialed the mobile phone number again. The call was connected, but no one answered for a long time.

Zhou Yan thought that if no one answered the call, he would ask Anita Mui.

But just when the phone was about to go busy, someone picked up the phone.

"Hello."

She speaks Cantonese, but you can tell it's Faye Wong's voice.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Sister Fei, I'm Zhou Yan."

"Director Zhou." Wang Fei's tone revealed a hint of surprise, and then she smiled and said, "I am younger than Xiaoxian and Maggie. Why do you call me sister instead of them?"

Zhou Yan curled his lips. Women really care about age and titles.

Faye Wong is a few months older than him, so there is no problem in calling her sister. Moreover, Zhou Yan thought that Anita Mui had a good relationship with him, so he called her sister just like he called Anita Mui. Unexpectedly, she was not happy about it and even brought up Zhang Manyu and Joey Wong.

"Then what should I call you?"

"Why don't you call me A Fei like everyone else? I won't call you Director Zhou, but A Yan." Faye Wong suggested.

Zhou Yan nodded, "Okay."

In Hong Kong, most people also call him A Yan, and he is used to it.

"Why are you calling me? You don't want to give me the concert tickets, do you?"

A few days ago, Anita Mui called Zhou Yan and asked for concert tickets, one of which was for Faye Wong.

When Zhou Yan called, Faye Wong immediately thought of this matter.

Originally, Faye Wong wanted to call Zhou Yan herself, but she thought that she was not very familiar with Zhou Yan, and it would be inappropriate to call to ask for tickets, so she asked Anita Mui to do it.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I've already discussed the concert tickets with Sister Mei, so you can just come directly when the time comes. I called you today to tell you something else." "Well, tell me, if there's anything you need my help with, just let me know and I'll definitely help if I can."

Faye Wong’s singing is delicate and ethereal, but she speaks like a Yanjing girl, quite bold.

"It's like this, I wrote a song for a game, and I want you to sing it."

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, Wang Fei immediately agreed, "No problem, when do you want to record it?"

Faye Wong agreed so readily that Zhou Yan was a little confused.

"You don't ask what game it is, how about listening to the song, or how much it costs?"

Faye Wong smiled and said, "These are not important. I've always wanted to sing your song, and now is the perfect opportunity. I don't understand games, so it doesn't matter what they are. As for the money, you can't ask me for an exorbitant price, right? As long as it's not much more than the market price for the duration, I can afford it."

"..." Zhou Yan scratched his head, "Maybe you misunderstood. I was the one giving you money, not you giving me money."

Faye Wong was surprised and asked, "You write songs for me to sing and give me money. Is there such a good thing?"

Zhou Yan pursed his lips and explained, "I did sing this song for you, but after you finish singing it, the copyright has nothing to do with you. It's different from me writing songs for your album. In other words, you have become the spokesperson for this game by singing the theme song."

Wang Fei probably understood, "Then is this money given by the game company or by you?"

"I give."

If Zhou Yan cooperates with SQUARE in the form of an all-inclusive music package, then Faye Wong's expenses will need to be settled by Zhou Yan's studio.

Wang Fei smiled and said, "If you gave it, I'll give you a discount based on the market price."

Zhou Yan didn't bother to talk to Wang Fei and directly quoted the price, "I will pay you 5 million Hong Kong dollars."

Hearing the price, Faye Wong was shocked, "So much?"

Faye Wong originally thought that it would be great if she could earn hundreds of thousands or even a million Hong Kong dollars by singing a song for the game, but she didn't expect Zhou Yan to directly offer her 5 million Hong Kong dollars.

Although Faye Wong had seen a lot of money, she never thought it was so easy to make money.

Because the money was so much, Faye Wong couldn't help but ask, "Besides singing, do I have to do something else? Like, like a real spokesperson, help promote the game?"

"unnecessary."

"Just singing?"

"Well, just sing and do what you do best."

"Then I'll take the job."

“Do you want to communicate with your company?”

"No, I can make the decision myself now."

Zhou Yan nodded. Her contract with Cinematheque has ended, or in other words, she has complete autonomy.

None of this has anything to do with Zhou Yan. Even if there are disputes in the future, they will be disputes between Faye Wong and the record company.

"Do you have time to come to Yanjing in the near future?" Zhou Yan asked.

"I'll be back tomorrow."

Zhou Yan was very satisfied with Wang Fei's efficiency. "Then let's meet the day after tomorrow?"

"No problem, see you the day after tomorrow."

"By the way, the matter of the song must be kept secret for now."

"No problem, I understand."

……

On the morning of the third day, Zhou Yan met Faye Wong.

When he saw Faye Wong, Zhou Yan's eyes darkened because he really couldn't appreciate Faye Wong's outfit.

The top was okay, a simple long-sleeved T-shirt, but it was very tight above the chest, the bra straps were visible through the clothes, and the shoulders looked very broad.

She wore a pair of loose houndstooth trousers and a pair of oversized sneakers.

In addition, she also tied her hair into a Nezha style with no visible middle part and two buns on her head.

In recent years, artists have been pursuing fashion, and this outfit is also Faye Wong's attempt at fashion. However, Zhou Yan believes that this outfit can only be considered special rather than fashionable. The most important thing is that it exposes all her shortcomings.

But to be honest, although Faye Wong just gave birth to a child a few months ago, she is in very good shape, with a slim figure and full of energy.

After they met, Zhou Yan first asked, "Can you read the musical notation?"

Wang Fei rolled her eyes, "You're looking down on me, aren't you?"

It has to be said that Faye Wong is the best at rolling her eyes among all the people Zhou Yan has ever met, as if the shape of her eyes is very suitable for rolling her eyes.

"Just to confirm. Since we know each other, that's fine."

It is not strange that a singer cannot read musical notation, but when collaborating, the composer certainly hopes that the singer can recognize and sing the musical notation, which can make the collaboration much easier.

If the composer cannot sing the song well and the singer cannot sing the musical notation, then he must find someone who can sing the music to record a demo, and then let the singer record the song based on the demo.

Since Faye Wong knew how to play musical notation, things became much simpler. Zhou Yan simply handed the score to Faye Wong.

After receiving the score, Faye Wong was surprised and asked, "It's an English song?"

"Is there any problem?" Zhou Yan asked with a smile.

Faye Wong shook her head, "No problem."

Her English is not very good, but she did release English songs in the past few years.

“Are you having trouble understanding the lyrics?”

"I think should not be."

Faye Wong quickly read through the lyrics. The lyrics of this song did not contain any complicated words, so she had no problem reading them.

But after reading the lyrics, she was a little confused. What was the song about?

Love?
The lyrics seem to have some meaning, but it's not quite clear, and it feels like it's expressing something other than love.

If you only look at the lyrics of the chorus, it would be okay to guess that it is a love song, but the lyrics of the main song contain hidden secrets.

"I feel scared, watching your heart slowly die, every night, I can hear you crying in your sleep..."

This doesn’t sound like a love-themed lyric…but Faye Wong isn’t sure, is it definitely about a tragic love story?
After reading the lyrics, Faye Wong began to sing. (End of this chapter)