Exciting 1979!

Chapter 313 One Man Surpasses the Four Great Talents of Hong Kong

18-year-old Li Lianjie carried a backpack and wore a sun hat. Because he was not tall, he looked like a primary school student.

Among this group of people, the one he was most familiar with was his senior brother Zhao Debiao. However, his gaze only lingered on Biaozi for a moment before turning to Lizhi, and then he looked at Wei Ming with embarrassment.

Wei Ming noticed all these details. In his opinion, his aunt was much prettier than Xiao Li, and her temperament was far superior. Perhaps A Jie just liked Xiao Li's type. Now that they had met again several years earlier, their aesthetic preferences remained the same.

However, Ah Jie was still a shy virgin at this time. He first greeted his senior brother Biao and Teacher Wei, and then, while patting Xiao Wu Jing's head, he talked about Teacher Wei's great achievements in Hong Kong.

"Oh, you've heard of my legendary exploits in Hong Kong too?"

"Yes, I bought a copy of Ming Pao on my way to the airport. It reported your life story, including the fact that one of your songs shocked the international music scene."

Of course, what Li Lianjie envied most was earning a million Hong Kong dollars for a single song, something unimaginable for athletes like them. He had won so many championships since childhood and performed abroad several times, yet he had never become a millionaire.

Having frequently traveled abroad for performances, he understood the importance of money all too well. This time, he was on his way back from a performance in Singapore with the team when he was transiting through Hong Kong. Director Zhang Xinyan called him to reshoot a scene, leaving him alone. His newly grown hair was shaved off again.

Biaozi hurriedly said, "The newspaper, let me take a look."

Li Lianjie, with his delicate features, took the newspaper out of his bag and said, "Senior brother, you're quite impressive in Hong Kong too. Although I arrived late, I've heard about your tug-of-war with the elephant. Oh, and I've even seen your advertisement."

Upon hearing this, Biaozi immediately pulled Li Lianjie aside, casting a shadow over him: "What advertisement?"

He's shot quite a few commercials during this period.

"It's that ad for the leather jacket," Li Lianjie said innocently.

Biaozi breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he had seen an underwear advertisement. What a close call!

At this point, the copy of Ming Pao had already passed from Biaozi to Wei Ming, but it was quickly taken away by Wei Lingling, who then put her head together with Lizhi to read it.

Ah Jie immediately seized the opportunity to ask, "Who are these two?"

Wei Ming: "This is President Wei Lingling, and this is her assistant, Ms. Lizhi."

Ms. Wei! So young and yet a female boss. Ah Jie's thoughts shifted slightly, then he realized, she also has the surname Wei?
However, Wei Ming did not go into details. He walked over to Li Zhi and asked, "What did Ming Pao say about me?"

"Oh, Ming Pao first talked about writer Wei Ming's literary achievements in mainland China, even using the phrase 'the first since Weng Weng,' and then highlighted his novel 'The Right Path of the World is Full of Vicissitudes,' which was being serialized in Hong Kong. Then it introduced several of Wei's works, calling him the 'King of Fairy Tales' in mainland China, and saying that his influence extends to Europe and America..."

Lizhi spoke of the article with an admiring tone: "However, the article also says that Wei something is far less high-profile than Wei Ming. Apart from Elton John's statement, there is no other way to prove that Wei Ming is Wei something, that is, Mr. Why."

Wei Ming praised him, saying, "Strict." Other media outlets followed TVB's lead and immediately concluded that Wei Ming was Mr. Why, but Ming Pao felt that this was still debatable.

Lizhi added, "The article also said that the original novel of 'Heroes Since Ancient Times,' which broke ten million at the Hong Kong box office, was written by Wei Kuangren and the screenwriter was Wei Ming. Perhaps these two are the same person."

Wei Ming was taken aback; the writer of the article was quite something.

He asked, "Who wrote it?"

Lizhi: "Oh, her name is Yi Shu."

Wei Ming was delighted. He felt that he had a real connection with the Ni family during this trip to Hong Kong. At this time, Yi Shu had already published "Xi Bao" and "The Story of Rose", which initially established her position in the Hong Kong literary scene.

Li Lianjie hurriedly asked, "So, is what the newspaper says true?"

Biaozi laughed and said, "Wei what? Wei Madman, Mr. Why are all Ming-ge. They can't even imagine how awesome Ming-ge is."

The outside world is unaware that Ming-ge has started a comic book company, and Biao-zi is unaware that Wei-ming has started a company overseas.

Ah-Jie's mouth was slightly open, which Li-Zhi thought was incredibly silly.

Meanwhile, Wei Ming was thinking that the news of his identity as Wei something was probably going to be exposed soon. If Hong Kong found out, the mainland wouldn't be far behind. It was time to send reporter Zhu Wei to take action.

"Let's go, Ming, let's go to the VIP waiting room." Auntie urged, glancing at the time.

Wei Ming said, "Auntie, you don't need to upgrade me this time. I'll just stay with my brothers."

Li Lianjie: Aunt? I thought they were siblings, but they're aunt and niece!

Wei Lingling: "Xiao Li, come with me. I'll upgrade you to a cabin."

"Ah, thank you, President Lingling," Lizhi had never flown first class before. She waved to Wei Ming and said brightly, "Goodbye, Young Master Ming."

Ah Jie was mesmerized and waved his hand in response, but Xiao Li only had eyes for Ming Shao.

Finally, the four men and a doll boarded the plane in economy class.

Meanwhile, in first class, Lizhi whispered to Wei Lingling, "President Lingling, have you seen that old man in front of us?"

"I saw it, what's wrong?"

Lizhi: "He's Jin Yong!"

In July 1981, Jin Yong was invited by the chief architect to Beijing for a chat, accompanied by his third wife and his youngest daughter from his second marriage.

As the plane took off, Jin Yong gazed at the clouds outside the window, lost in thought, perhaps thinking of the clouds over his hometown.

On the plane, through sweet talk, Li Lianjie changed his seat to sit next to Wei Ming and the others, wanting to find out about Miss Lizhi.

For example, is she single? Is she from Hong Kong? How old is she?

However, Wei Ming didn't give him a chance. He pulled him aside and asked about the situation of "Shaolin Temple," teasing him: "Get ready to become a big star. Your brother Biao can still charm Hong Kong people even when he plays a villain. You're playing a hero, and you're more handsome than your brother Biao. Your fighting skills in the movie must be amazing too."

Li Lianjie repeatedly expressed his modesty, saying that he was far inferior to his senior brother: "My skills are all just for show, while my senior brother has real strength."

However, he secretly hoped that "Shaolin Temple" would be as successful as "Heroes Have Been Born Since Ancient Times". If Hong Kong businessmen asked him to shoot commercials, wouldn't he be able to become a millionaire overnight?

~
While Wei Ming and the others were chatting idly on the plane, Amin was preparing to go to Teacher Dai Sicong's house for a lesson. In order to sing the theme song for Holiland, her mother had also agreed to let her learn vocal music.

However, just as Amin was about to leave, the phone rang at home. It was Alan Tan Yonglin, whom she hadn't contacted in a long time.

"Brother Allen, is something the matter?"

Tan Yonglin exclaimed excitedly, "Amin, is Amin the same person as Wei Ming? The Mr. Why who wrote 'Moonlight Shadow'?"

Zhou Huimin asked in surprise, "How did you know?"

“Yay! I guessed right!” Tan Yonglin said proudly. “Because A-Ming has written Mandarin songs, I initially thought he was a Taiwanese musician. But recently Mr. Wei Ming has become very popular, and his name contains the character ‘Ming’, so I couldn’t help but make the connection.”

"Well, you're quite smart." Amin regretted speaking so quickly.

Tan Yonglin smiled and said, "Amin, as Amin's agent in Hong Kong, you should have already met him, right?"

“Of course,” Amin said with a touch of pride.

"Could you help me make an appointment? I want to thank A-Ming in person," Tan Yonglin said again. Of course, he mainly wanted to commission a song. Wei Ming's two versions of "Flowers in the Water" helped him expand his territory in the music scene, and his contribution was immense.

"Unfortunately, he has already returned to the mainland and just left today."

"Oh, what a coincidence."

“I had already left, and I was invited to go to England before. I was transiting through Hong Kong on my way back to Yanjing, so I stayed for another day.” To prove that she wasn’t lying to him, Amin explained in detail.

When Tan Yonglin heard that Wei Ming had been invited to the UK, he was excited and wondered if this musical prodigy had started writing English songs again.

If he could write a song of the caliber of "Moonlight Shadow," wouldn't that mean he also had a chance to reach a million sales?
“Amin, although Amin has returned to the mainland, my respect for him remains unchanged. Please be sure to convey my respect. Next time you come to Hong Kong, please let me know and I will treat you.”

"Okay, okay," Amin replied perfunctorily. But she still needed to tell Amin about this. Hmm, she would write him a letter now. She missed him again after only one day apart.

……

A month later, Wei Ming returned to his loyal city of Yanjing. He had traveled the entire way in economy class with his poor brothers, but he couldn't stay with them any longer. Wei Ming had to take his aunt to the Yanjing Hotel, and thus parted ways with Biaozi and Along.

Wei Lingling is now a foreign friend, so going through customs will be a bit more complicated. Wei Ming waited for them outside. When he saw his aunt, he also saw Jin Yong behind her.

However, everyone was in a hurry to get in the car and didn't get to know each other. It was a vehicle provided by the Yanjing Hotel for their guests. During the journey, Lizhi told them about recognizing Jin Yong and was curious as to why Jin Yong would come to Yanjing.

Wei Lingling looked around at Yanjing City on both sides of the road. It was similar to what she remembered: poor and backward. There were few cars on the road, and bicycles were the main mode of transportation.

However, the pedestrians on the street did not appear dejected, which was different from what she had imagined. In her mind, being so poor and left far behind by the world must have made them extremely anxious.

The situation improved slightly once we entered Wangfujing Street, where we could see some modern commercial features. The driver was quite interesting; he deliberately drove around to the most prosperous and modern area of ​​Yanjing City to show the foreign guests what it was like before finally taking us to the hotel.

When checking in, he ran into Jin Yong and his family of three, who were also staying there. Because he was not familiar with his family, Wei Ming couldn't tell which one was his wife and which one was his daughter, even though they were about the same age.

It was Jin Yong who took the initiative to greet him this time. He had been paying attention to the name ever since "Heroes Have Emerged Since Ancient Times". As the owner of Ming Pao, Wei Ming has recently been a hot topic and has frequently appeared in the newspaper, so he naturally recognized him.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Wei Ming?" Jin Yong's Mandarin was quite standard.

"It's me, Mr. Cha."

"You recognize me too?"

In my past life, I wanted to buy the copyright from you to produce an online movie, but unfortunately, I couldn't succeed.

"Naturally, when I first joined the gatekeepers at Peking University, I built relationships with my colleagues by talking about 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'," Wei Ming said with a smile.

At that time, there were no official versions of Jin Yong's martial arts novels in mainland China. They only became available after his trip, so Wei Ming naturally read pirated or Hong Kong versions.

"Do you live here too?" Jin Yong asked.

"No, I have a home in Yanjing. I'm here to see off relatives and friends."

Jin Yong glanced at Wei Lingling and the other woman, unsure which was a relative and which was a friend.

However, he was mainly curious about the relationship between Wei Ming and Wei something, and since he happened to have met the person in question, he could finally settle this unsolved case.

“Wei is me, Wei the Madman is also me, and Mr. Why is the name I use when publishing my works abroad,” Wei Ming said very frankly.

Jin Yong exclaimed in surprise: "It really is you, Wei Kuangren!"

"So you write martial arts novels, serious literature, fairy tales, and you can also write lyrics and compose music?" Jin Yong thought for a moment and said, "I heard you're also a gourmet and have written quite a few articles about food?"

Wei Ming nodded: "I wouldn't dare call myself a gourmet, but I do have a sweet tooth. I tried a lot of good restaurants during my time in Hong Kong, which would give me a lot to write about."

Jin Yong laughed and said, "So, you're practically on par with the Four Great Talents of Hong Kong all by yourself, except you can't write science fiction."

Jin Yong himself rarely mentioned the Four Great Talents of Hong Kong, as he was of a different generation from the other three. However, Wei Ming's versatility reminded him of this group that was widely known in Hong Kong.

The four of them are authorities in Hong Kong in their respective fields of martial arts novels, music, science fiction, and cuisine.

However, Wei Ming bluntly said, "Although I haven't written many science fiction novels, I did publish two under the pen name Wei something recently, and we're already preparing to publish the English version."

"Oh, what's your name?"

"Jurassic Park, it's about dinosaurs."

Jin Yong noted it down, saying he would definitely read it later: "So you are stronger than all four of us by yourself!"

Wei Ming shook his head: "I just know a lot, but I can't say I'm an expert. When it comes to writing martial arts novels, I'm afraid no one can surpass 'Flying Snow, Shooting White Deer,' 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer,' 'The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils,' and 'The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.' As for music, I'm a latecomer and rely on inspiration. I wouldn't dare to compare myself to a grandmaster like Mr. Wong Jim. As for food, I love to eat but not to cook. I heard that Mr. Cai Lan has already recreated Huang Rong's 'Twenty-Four Bridges Under the Moon.' When it comes to gluttony, I'm far inferior."

Wei Ming paused for a moment, and Jin Yong thought he was going to continue to be modest, but unexpectedly he changed the subject: "After thinking about it, I am only confident that my science fiction novels can surpass Ni Kuang's. In my opinion, the Wesley series is not a high level of science fiction, so it is easier to surpass it."

Jin Yong was not angry because Wei Ming looked down on his friend. On the contrary, he felt that it was reasonable. How could such a talented person not be arrogant? He had almost thought that the young man was too influenced by Confucianism and was too moderate.

Seeing Wei Ming reveal his sharp edge, Jin Yong asked with a smile, "I wonder if I could publish your words in Ming Pao?"

"Since you've said it out loud, there's nothing you're afraid to let others know."

As expected of a young man with sharp wit, Jin Yong added, "Could we exchange contact information? Perhaps we can have the opportunity to collaborate."

“Okay.” Wei Ming gave him the phone number of the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

Jin Yong wanted to reprint Wei Ming's works in Ming Pao, while Wei Ming wanted to adapt Jin Yong's martial arts novels into comics.

Both Wong Yuk-long and Lee Chi-ching, who was still working at Madman Comics at the time, did this in the 90s, and both were very successful.

Wong Yuk-long uses the style of traditional Hong Kong comics to draw Jin Yong's martial arts novels, while Lee Chi-ching uses the brushstrokes of traditional ink painting to construct a martial arts world with great artistic beauty.

After parting ways with Wei Ming, Jin Yong's 18-year-old daughter, Cha Chuanne, looked back at Wei Ming. She had heard the conversation. This young man was so knowledgeable and talented, even more so than his father!
After seeing his aunt upstairs, Wei Ming didn't linger. He said, "You should rest well today. You can also go sightseeing with Xiaoli. Tomorrow I'll arrange for you to meet my dad, and then we'll set a date to go to Shanghai."

Wei Lingling: "And Wei Ping'an, I want to see both of them."

“Okay.” Wei Ming thought about it and agreed. He was going to tell Uncle Ping’an about his grandfather’s affairs, which would inevitably involve Wei Lingling, so he should meet her.

Wei Lingling added, "He works at a university, so he should be on summer vacation too. Why don't we go to Shanghai together then?"

"Huh?" Wei Ming was a little confused. Why did they still need to send Uncle Ping An to Shanghai?

Wei Lingling's words left Wei Ming speechless: "My aunt said that the house will be split equally among the three of us."

Nani! ?
~
"Sister, Wei Ming is back!"

Of the two, Gong Xue was the first to receive news of Wei Ming's return to the capital.

She received a phone call from her younger sister, Gong Ying, at her dormitory in the Beijing Film Studio.

Gong Ying was with Liu Rulong at the time, and she immediately informed him of the situation.

Gong Xue was overjoyed that Xiao Wei hadn't stayed in England and hadn't become a British citizen. After a month of feeling lost and uncertain, the heavy weight on his chest finally lifted.

"Do you know where he is?"

Gong Ying handed the phone directly to A Long and asked him to give a detailed report.

Ah Long answered the phone: "Sister Xue, it's like this, Ah Ming separated from us after landing. He was going to the Yanjing Hotel to see off a relative, and I don't know where he went after that."

There are only three places: the Overseas Chinese Apartment, the Beichizi Courtyard, and the Tuanjiehu Residence, but none of these three places belong to me.

Gong Xue sighed and could only sit in the guesthouse room and wait for him to finish his work and come to him.

~
Wei Ming used the phone at the Yanjing Hotel to call the China Youth Daily and look for reporter Zhu Wei.

He didn't say much, but the core message was: I've been exposed.

Without even eating, Wei Ming asked the restaurant's car to take him there, otherwise he would have too much luggage.

At the Overseas Chinese Apartment, when the gatekeeper, Old Sun, saw Wei Ming being brought back in a car, he was quite surprised. Had this writer Wei been promoted in just one month?

Wei Ming handed the old man a cigar and warned him, "Don't put this in your lungs."

Old Sun opened the gate and let the car drive downstairs. Wei Ming went upstairs to call for help, but only his grandmother was there.

“Your mother went to deliver food, and your father and sister went back to their hometown. They will be back tomorrow. Once they return, I will also go back to my hometown in Sichuan.”

Wei Ming figured the floods in Sichuan must be imminent, so he smiled and said, "Grandma, how about this? I'll call Xiao Yang over and have him escort you back. Otherwise, I'm worried. Besides, Dad and I are going to Shanghai soon, so please wait a little longer."

The driver downstairs was urging him on, so Wei Ming said, "It's settled then. I brought you a gift from Hong Kong, just wait a moment~"

(End of this chapter)