1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Since Zhang Guorong said so, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Since we still have some time in the morning, I will write a song for you as well."

"Now?" Zhang Guorong asked in surprise.

Xu Guanjie beside him laughed and said, "Why are you surprised? Didn't you say it yourself that A-Yan writes songs very quickly?"

Zhang Guorong pursed his lips. Although he knew that Zhou Yan wrote songs very quickly, he still couldn't help being surprised that Zhou Yan wrote a song for him on the spot.

However, he was also very happy that Zhou Yan wanted to write a song for him on the spot.

I had wanted to ask Zhou Yan to write a song for him before, but this idea had never come true. I didn’t expect that today, by chance, I would fulfill this wish.

It just so happens that when Sam Hui makes his comeback, he can also release a new song, which will definitely attract the attention of a large number of fans.

"Actually, this is an idea I had before. I think it suits you well, so I'll sing it for you." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

In fact, it was not an idea at all, but Zhou Yan did not want others to exaggerate his song-writing speed. He said that the songs had been written before and were just released now, so that everyone would be more accepting of it.

"Now that you put it that way, I feel much better." Sam Hui said with a smile.

"Maybe Ayan said that just to take care of you," said Zhang Guorong.

"I'll write the score for you now." Zhou Yan smiled, then found paper and pen and started writing the score.

Soon, Zhou Yan handed a music score to Zhang Guorong.

The score contains both music and lyrics, making it very complete.

Zhang Guorong tried to sing according to the score, "Youth seems to begin because I love you..."

As soon as Zhang Guorong sang the first line, Zhou Yan hurriedly stopped him, "Stop, stop, stop, this is not how you sing it."

"Isn't that how it's sung?"

Leslie Cheung looked surprised. Although his singing ability was average, he was confident that there should be no problem with what he sang just now. Even if there was a problem, it should not be a big problem. Why did Zhou Yan react so strongly?
"Well, you sang it wrong. You should sing this word in Cantonese." Zhou Yan explained.

“In Cantonese?”

Zhang Guorong was surprised. He didn't expect Zhou Yan to write Cantonese lyrics. Zhou Yan had written some songs for Hong Kong singers before, but he had never written Cantonese lyrics for a song.

But he didn't hesitate any more and started trying to sing in Cantonese.

Sure enough, after singing in Cantonese, it felt much smoother.

The last words of the first few sentences are "始", "字", "忆", and "事" respectively. If they are sung in Mandarin, they will not rhyme at all, but they will rhyme more if sung in Cantonese.

After singing a few lines, Zhang Guorong couldn't help but sigh that Zhou Yan could even write Cantonese lyrics now.

This reminded Zhang Guorong that when they were together now, they sometimes spoke Cantonese, and Zhou Yan could understand it completely.

Unlike before, Zhou Yan could only hear some of the information and had to guess some of it.

I just don't know if Zhou Yan can speak Cantonese in addition to understanding it. I haven't seen Zhou Yan say a few words in Cantonese in all these years.

Zhang Guorong's singing ability was indeed average. After singing a few lines, many notes were not very accurate and the emotions were not on point. Zhou Yan hummed beside him to assist him.

Although Zhou Yan's singing is not good, his humming is still very accurate.

With Zhou Yan's assistance, it became much easier for Zhang Guorong to sing the music score.

After singing the score twice with Zhou Yan, Zhang Guorong became much more familiar with the song.

Sam Hui was listening to Leslie Cheung singing the song and nodded constantly. Although Leslie Cheung's singing was average because he was not very familiar with the song, Sam Hui could tell that the song was very good.

Especially the chorus part, it has a hysterical feeling of sadness and is very addictive.

This is a very typical pop song and is sure to be very popular. However, compared to this typical pop song, Sam Hui still prefers the "Song of Trouble" written for him by Zhou Yan.

"The Trouble Song" is special enough and much more interesting than the average sad pop song.

Of course, Xu Guanjie also knew that Zhou Yan knew his preferences, so he gave him "Song of Trouble".

As for giving this song to Leslie Cheung, Sam Hui felt it was quite suitable and that Leslie Cheung was able to handle this style of music.

"Ayan, what's the name of this song?" asked Sam Hui.

"Oh, I forgot to write my name."

Zhou Yan smiled and picked up a pen to write the name of the song on the score.

Sam Hui looked over and saw, "Big things happening in this small town."

After seeing the name, Sam Hui was a little confused again, "Why is it called Small Town Big Event? There is no mention of a small town in the lyrics at all."

Zhang Guorong was also puzzled. "Yes, why is it called a small city with big events? Is this small city referring to Hong Kong?"

"Can Hong Kong still be considered a small city?" Sam Hui curled his lips.

If Hong Kong can be considered a small city, then there are not many big cities in the world.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's just a random name. If you think there is a better one, you can change it."

"We need to change it..." Zhang Guorong stared at the lyrics for a long time, and finally shook his head and said, "Let's call it "Small Town Big Event", which is easier to remember."

“It’s easy to remember.”

Both Leslie Cheung and Sam Hui felt that it would be a hassle to come up with another name, and since "Small Town Big Affairs" sounded good, they decided not to change it.

In fact, the reason why this song is called "Small City Big Things" is because it comes from a movie called "Big City Small Things".

This movie was filmed in Shanghu, so the big city in it refers to Shanghu.

In 04, Faye Wong and Leon Lai starred in the movie "Big City Small Affairs".

Later, Wong Pak-ko took a fancy to the soundtrack "Old Man Down" in the movie and called Raymond Lam, hoping that the film company would authorize the soundtrack to be used by Miriam Yeung.

Later, they asked Lin Xi to write the lyrics, and the song "Small Town, Big Love" was created.

The lyrics have no direct relationship with the song title. If you haven't watched "Big City, Small Love", you won't understand why this song is called "Small City, Big Love".

Zhou Yan had considered changing the name of this song, but after thinking about it, he couldn't think of a more suitable name, so he just used the original name.

Anyway, no one has stipulated that the song title must be directly related to the lyrics.

Now he just said something to Leslie Cheung and Sam Hui, and they didn't ask any more questions.

Seeing that Zhang Guorong was already familiar with the song, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It won't be too bad. You can figure out the rest by yourself. You guys practice the song here. I'm going back first. I'll come back tomorrow morning." Xu Guanjie nodded and said, "Don't worry, we will work hard and strive to meet the recording requirements as soon as possible."

"Anyway, you just have to meet the requirements before I leave Hong Kong. After I come over tomorrow, if I have enough time, I will start to arrange the music for these two songs. I already have the arrangement in my mind, so it won't take too long to do. If everything goes well, it should be finished in two and a half days."

"If there is anything we need to prepare, let's tell the boss in advance." asked Sam Hui.

This recording studio was booked by Sam Hui, and he is very familiar with the owner of the studio.

Zhou Yan shook his head and smiled, "It's okay. I just checked and found that everything I need is in this studio. I don't need to prepare anything else. I can just come over tomorrow and use it directly."

When recording "this is me" just now, Zhou Yan made a special observation. The equipment in this studio is quite complete. Basically, everything he wants is there. After all, what Zhou Yan wants are just some ordinary things.

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Xu Guanjie smiled and nodded, "That's fine, see you tomorrow."

……

Jabbar came quickly and left quickly. He stayed in Hong Kong for less than two days before returning to the United States because he had work to do in Houston.

In the following few days, Zhou Yan was very busy every day, from morning to night, and it was difficult for him to have time to rest.

He had to prepare for the concert, help Sam Hui and Leslie Cheung record new songs, and attend literary exchange meetings with the Writers Association.

After a few days, I wanted to break it apart and use it.

But the final result was satisfactory. The songs of Sam Hui and Leslie Cheung were recorded smoothly, and the concert went without any mistakes. As for the literary exchange meeting, Zhou Yan mainly went there to make a cameo appearance.

……

After the event in Hong Kong ended, Zhou Yan rushed to Los Angeles, USA without stopping.

When Zhou Yan arrived in Los Angeles, it was the afternoon of July 17th, US time.

He came to Los Angeles alone this time without any entourage, so it was very secretive.

After arriving at the airport, there were no fans to greet me.

The only people who came to pick up Zhou Yan at the airport were the two black-clad bodyguards arranged by Zhang Youan for him.

The two bodyguards were tall and strong, half a head taller than Zhou Yan. They walked in front of him like two mountains blocking Zhou Yan, making him feel safe.

However, there is one downside to having these two bodyguards around, which is that it is easy to attract attention.

When they left the airport, passers-by kept casting curious glances at them.

Two bodyguards with such physiques are rare even in the United States, let alone two of them appearing at once.

The key point is that these two people are dressed like bodyguards. When passers-by see them, they will subconsciously think that the person they are protecting must not be a small figure.

Therefore, even though Zhou Yan was not recognized, passers-by still took pictures of him.

Whenever someone took a photo of them, the bodyguards would very cleverly stand in front of them to prevent them from taking a photo of Zhou Yan.

Seeing the bodyguard taking pictures, Zhou Yan smiled. It turned out that the bodyguard was indeed very professional.

After arriving at the hotel, the two bodyguards were not idle either. They searched the room very quickly, apparently searching for any eavesdropping devices, cameras, etc.

Zhou Yan lived in a suite, which had two guest rooms.

Two bodyguards also live here. Originally, Zhou Yan wanted them to live in another bedroom, but they refused to agree and insisted on sleeping on the sofa.

Zhou Yan said that one sofa could not accommodate both of them, but they told Zhou Yan that it was impossible for them to sleep at the same time.

If one person wants to sleep, the other person must stand guard to prevent anything from happening to Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh that the two bodyguards were so professional. After this set, Zhou Yan felt like he was in a movie.

After settling in the hotel, Zhou Yan went to the study to work, while two bodyguards guarded the living room.

At about half past four, the doorbell suddenly rang.

Hearing the doorbell, the two bodyguards immediately became alert and walked towards the door one after the other.

But in the end there was no danger. The person who rang the doorbell was Sebadisian, the assistant director of "Titanic".

When Sebatisian walked in and saw the two "big mountains", he was also stunned. What were going on with these two burly men?

Seeing Sebadisian's surprised face, Zhou Yan introduced them to him with a smile, "This is Lucian, and this is Talon. They are responsible for protecting my safety."

"Oh, hello, hello."

The two bodyguards just smiled and didn't say anything. Seeing that the visitor was not dangerous, they stepped aside, trying not to interfere with the conversation between Zhou Yan and Sebatisian.

After the two of them stepped back, Sebastian looked at Zhou Yan with a smile on his face.

He was very happy to see Zhou Yan. Although they had not known each other for a long time before, they had experienced life and death together when they were at Dartmouth.

Going through drastic changes together can make people's relationship deeper and stronger, which is a bit like the "suspension bridge" effect.

The so-called suspension bridge effect refers to the fact that when a person crosses a suspension bridge with trepidation, his heartbeat will involuntarily speed up. If he happens to meet another person at this time, he will interpret this accelerated heartbeat caused by the environment as the other person making his heart beat faster, thus creating the illusion of love for the other person.

Many people like to use this suspension bridge effect when picking up girls.

When they were a group of people experiencing such a thing, it was more than just their heartbeats speeding up. Since then, Sebatisian and the others have had a special feeling towards Zhou Yan.

"You're finally here. If you don't come again, I'll call you again."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Did the director ask you to urge me to come over?"

"If the director wanted to urge you, he wouldn't use me, he would call you directly. I urged you to come here purely because we haven't seen each other for a long time and I wanted to see each other. When I came here today, Christie said she wanted to come with me, but she had work today and couldn't come."

Zhou Yan asked curiously, "Is Christie still so busy at this stage?"

Logically, Christie shouldn't care about post-production. She should be more relaxed at this time and should have finished all the work she needed to do before the filming was finished.

"Yeah, I'm busy. There are a lot of things to do at this stage, so I told you to come quickly and not delay the film's soundtrack, otherwise the director will..."

As he was talking, Sebastian suddenly remembered something. He patted his forehead and said, "Why should I worry about you so much? You are not an ordinary film music director now. Even if there is a problem with the music, no one can do anything about you."

Sebastian suddenly remembered that Zhou Yan is also one of the investors of "Titanic", which means he is one of their bosses.

Even though James Cameron has a bad temper and loves to scold people, he can tell the difference between the important and the minor, so he won't scold Zhou Yan easily. (End of this chapter)