Exciting 1979!

Chapter 319 Although he wasn't in Hong Kong, his legend was everywhere there.

Qi Kexiu couldn't understand it no matter how many times he looked at it. The books Wei Ming read when he was a child were the ones he had already finished reading. He himself barely had a high school education and had more life experience than Wei Ming. So why was Wei Ming called a rising star in serious literature and a king of fairy tales, while no matter what he wrote, no one wanted his books?

Qi Kexiu, who had no appetite for dinner, put down his chopsticks. No, he still had to write. Having gone from being a city dweller to a rural person, besides his unreliable son, only his pen could change his fate!
But what should I write about? The magazine doesn't really like stories about Qin Shi Huang. Maybe I should write about the Qing Dynasty myself.

During his recent visit to the Forbidden City, he heard many secrets about the Qing Dynasty, and his inspiration started flowing again.

Yes, let's write about this: Emperor Yongzheng neglected the harem because he was busy with state affairs.

So the women in the harem went to the prince, the imperial physician, the eunuch, and even other women.

Emperor Yongzheng has a reputation for being quite cruel among the people, so readers will definitely love reading about him!

As for who to vote for, Qi Kexiu thought for a moment and decided that a work of this caliber should naturally be voted for in "Story Club".

~
He Chengwei never expected that his magazine would be viewed in Qi Kuangren's mind in this way. It's simply, simply reasonable!
Today, He Chengwei announced that he was leaving get off work early, and then the entire editorial team went to Da Guangming to watch "Heroes Have Emerged Since Ancient Times".

This was the first story from the magazine "Story Club" to be adapted into a film, and it was a co-production at that, which garnered a huge following in Hong Kong.

The film did not disappoint the audience in Shanghai, nor did it disappoint editors like He Chengwei. It was brilliant!
After leaving the movie theater, he passed a newsstand on the street and saw a lot of people gathered there. He went over to take a look and found out that a report in the China Youth Daily had sparked a heated discussion.

He Chengwei took a look and exclaimed, "Oh, isn't this my old flame, Teacher Wei Ming?"
He immediately bought a copy, only then realizing that Teacher Wei Ming's true identity had been exposed.

He read the whole article but didn't see the words "Wei the Madman," which is a pity. The outside world doesn't know that Teacher Wei is also an excellent popular literature writer.

What's even more regrettable is that it seems Mr. Wei has given up the pen name "Wei the Madman" now. It's been so long since he submitted any articles to "Story Club" or to any other publication. Sigh!
~
"Uncle, see you tomorrow."

"Stay."

Wei Ming saw Lao Fei out. He checked the documents Wei Lingling brought, and they were very complete and in order. He felt there shouldn't be any major problems, and they could go through the formalities tomorrow.

Not long after Lao Fei left, A Long returned alone, expressionless.

"What happened? Did it not work?"

Ah Long said, "It was quite successful. My aunt and uncle thought I was pretty good, and my brother and sister-in-law liked me too. They also agreed to let Ah Ying come to Hong Kong with me. It's just that the mother and daughter hugged each other and cried their hearts out in the end. It made me feel really bad. It was like I had kidnapped Ah Ying and separated them from their own flesh and blood."

Wei Ming patted him on the shoulder: "It's inconvenient for them to go to Hong Kong, so you can come home to visit often."

Ah Long nodded. He had already met the parents. Next up was Gong Ying. This time, Teacher Yang, Ah Long's mother, would also be going to Hong Kong to visit Uncle Liu. They would be traveling together.

Then Wei Ming and A Long discussed going to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio the next day.

The next day, when Lizhi came to find them dressed up beautifully, she learned that Wei Ming was going to split up with them.

The matter of the house is settled between the two parties, the father and the aunt. Wei Ming plans to go to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio to check on the filming progress of "The Legend of the Heavenly Book" and "Black Cat Detective". Ah Long, on the other hand, wants to see if he can poach staff from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

The choice between earning a few dozen dollars at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and going to Hong Kong to earn 2000 Hong Kong dollars is both easy and difficult.

The influence of the China Youth Daily should not be underestimated. After a day of fermentation, at least a million people across the country already know about the relationship between Wei Ming and Wei something.

On the bus to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Wei Ming overheard two middle-aged men discussing Wei something and Wei Ming's situation.

Compared to Wei Ming's literary achievements, which touched the hearts of countless people, Hu Ye was clearly more curious about how much foreign exchange Wei Ming had earned. The two of them kept discussing how much foreign exchange Wei Ming had.

At that point in 1981, the Chinese people and the government were extremely eager for foreign exchange.

In order to promote reform and opening up and to introduce advanced technology, China's foreign exchange reserves even turned negative in 1980. Before 80, they were only a few hundred million US dollars, and China was always short of funds.

In order to attract more foreign exchange, Chinese antiques and cultural relics have undertaken a very important task in generating foreign exchange.

The foreign trade department will export the acquired cultural relics, including Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain, jade, and ancient books, in bulk as "general cultural relics".

In addition, cultural relics, calligraphy and paintings, and high-end handicrafts were sold to foreign guests through channels such as Friendship Store and Rongbaozhai. Bulk exports were only stopped in 88 when the country had more money.

Therefore, the fact that a children's author could earn so much foreign exchange at this time was equivalent to that of a well-performing handicraft factory, which would inevitably cause widespread discussion across the country. Moreover, this children's author also had a more famous name, which added to the legendary status of the story.

This is also why Wei Ming asked Jin Yong to transfer the royalties to a mainland account; some of the royalties he received from Melinda were also transferred to the mainland.

Although Wei Ming could only enjoy the unreasonable official exchange rate once the foreign exchange was in mainland China, and he would definitely suffer some losses, the reputation of earning foreign exchange for the country was equally important. This writer was probably already on the radar of many high-ranking officials.

To date, Wei Ming has earned nearly $100,000 in his mainland China account alone, and even more in his Hong Kong account. Including the profit sharing when "Moonlight Shadow" sold 1 million copies, he has earned more than $400,000 in total, nearly half of which came from this song.

However, Wei Ming is sorry that he cannot contribute the money from Hong Kong. He can use that money to accomplish many important things, earn more foreign exchange, and give back to the country in the future.

Many people at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio are unaware that the children's author, Wei Shenme, who frequently visited the studio to provide guidance, is actually Wei Ming.

However, they now know that from the moment Wei Ming entered the factory, he received far more enthusiastic and proactive greetings and small talk than before.

For a promising and serious literary writer to be willing to engage in these childish games with them—that's an incredibly high level of thinking.

"Teacher Wei, welcome, welcome! You're a national celebrity now," as usual, workshop director Wang Bairong greeted Wei Ming. "Tell me the truth, how much foreign exchange did that song of yours earn?"

The two were already quite familiar with each other, and Wei Ming knew that Wang Bairong was an innovator in the factory and very interested in earning foreign exchange through OEM manufacturing.

Wei Ming estimated: "It's probably equivalent to what 'The Legend of the Heavenly Book' earned."

"Oh, so many!"

This is something that the factory's elite can only earn after several years of hard work.

Seeing Director Wang's surprise, Wei Ming humbly replied, "It's also good luck that my song commemorating John Lennon has garnered so much attention since the world's music fans were still mourning his passing. If you want to earn foreign exchange, you still have to be down-to-earth."

We should focus on doing OEM work diligently and conscientiously.

Once Transformers toys are released, they will inevitably need to be marketed in conjunction with corresponding animations. However, Hong Kong's animation industry is too weak. Over the years, they have only produced one film, "Old Master Q." American and Japanese animations are too expensive. In fact, having Shanghai Animation Film Studio produce them would be a good option. I can recommend it to my aunt later.

This time, Wei Ming didn't rush to watch "The Legend of the Heavenly Book," but instead asked about "Black Cat Detective" first.

Wang Bairong: "Although Director Dai Tielang doesn't have much experience as an independent director, he has a special fondness for the Black Cat Detective theme and has devoted a lot of effort to it during this period. The first episode is basically completed."

Each episode is about 20 minutes long, and it took about three months from start to finish.

This efficiency is definitely not enough for making "Transformers," but the length of each episode can be shortened, and the opening and ending themes can be used to create the illusion that each episode is very long.

Director Wang then took Wei Ming and Liu Rulong to find Dai Tielang and his team, and on the way, he jokingly asked Liu Rulong a question.

"Is Ah Long coming to our factory for an internship again? Don't worry, with your abilities, our factory will definitely be eager to hire you after graduation, haha."

Ah Long scratched his head, embarrassed to lie. Wei Ming said for him, "He's not here for an internship, he's in Shanghai to meet his parents."

"Oh? Ah Long found a girl from Shanghai?"

Ah Long: "Mm."

"Wow, you've got guts and guts!"

The first episode of "Black Cat Detective," titled "The Painful Destruction of the Warehouse-Moving Rats," is still a bit short of completion, but we can already see the results of the first half.

Dai Tielang watched the original author's expression as he watched the film with some trepidation.

Wei Ming had no expression. He had watched "Black Cat Detective" countless times. Even though he was an adult in his previous life, he still watched it with great interest whenever it was on TV. He would watch five episodes over and over again, as if there were 50 episodes.

It's been a few years earlier now, but the quality of the film hasn't diminished.

Wei Ming asked, "After the first episode is finished, can it be broadcast immediately?"

“Yes, it will be broadcast on Shanghai TV to test the waters,” Wang Bairong said.

Wei Ming nodded, and Director Dai finally couldn't help but ask, "Teacher Wei, how did my film turn out?"

Wei Ming: "Great, that's wonderful! It's exactly what I had in mind. I hope that Director Dai can continue to direct this series."

"Haha, I hope so too." Director Dai Tielang finally showed a relieved smile, and then began to chat with Wei Ming about his new film "Jurassic Park," which he himself also liked.

While Wei Ming was chatting with Wang Bairong and Dai Tielang, A Long had already made an excuse to leave.

At noon, Wei Ming and A Long left the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. A Long said, "The three line drawing workers are all willing to go to Hong Kong with me, and they are all married with families. They just hope to provide their families with better material conditions."

"But once they go over there, it will be very inconvenient for them to come and go." This is similar to the situation for the sailor man.

Ah Long: "They said they were planning to work for two or three years, earn tens of thousands of yuan, and then stop."

Wei Ming: "If they want to come back then, we won't stop them."

Two or three years is enough time for the Madman Comics team to mature.

Ah Long's mission in Shanghai is now complete; he'll be spending time with Gong Ying now.

Wei Ming went home alone, drew for a while, and finally waited for Lao Wei and the others to come home.

Wei Lingling slumped somewhat inelegantly on the sofa. She had visited too many government offices and spoken too much bureaucratic jargon today; she was exhausted.

Lizhi quickly and obsequiously massaged her boss's legs to help her relax.

"You're still tired? They're treating you so well. You don't know how lucky you are," Old Wei criticized her.

To be honest, Old Wei had encountered all sorts of officials when he went to the government office—some good, some bad—but none of them had been as friendly as the one he encountered today. Old Wei sighed: "It really comes down to the Americans!"

Wei Ming asked, "So, is it considered done today?"

"No, they just accepted our application. They still need to investigate and verify to confirm that the house belongs to my aunt and uncle and that there are no other heirs," Wei Lingling briefly explained today's results.

Old Wei added, "Moreover, confirming the return does not mean it will actually be returned. We still need to find office space for the units that work inside before we can get the money back, so the timeframe is uncertain."

Wei Ming asked, "How long will we have to wait?"

Wei Lingling tilted her head: "It will take three or four days at the shortest, and ten days to half a month at the longest. This is just to confirm the return time. I will leave once it is confirmed. I will leave the rest to Lao Fei."

Wei Ming was devastated. He missed home, missed Sister Xue, and missed Sister Lin.

~
"I wonder if Ah Ming is thinking of me." Little Ah Min from Hong Kong looked out the window at the sunset, missing that man.

Summer vacation is really tough, but the summer vacations in previous years weren't this tough, even though my family was much richer now.

With a creak as the door opened, Mom came back, bringing a newspaper with her, but she didn't say anything.

Zhou Huimin glanced at it and found it was a copy of Ming Pao, with the front page actually about Ah Ming!

Previously, Yi Shu's story about Amin was not featured on the front page. Amin took another look and exclaimed, "Wow, it's actually written by Mr. Jin Yong himself!"

No wonder.

This is Jin Yong's first article after he went north, and the elite and wealthy classes of Hong Kong are all waiting to read it.

However, before he could even describe his meeting with the top officials in Yanjing, he first recounted his experiences on the plane and in the car, and then described the summer scenery of Yanjing in detail. He then met Wei Ming at the hotel and inquired about Wei Ming's other pen names.

Wei Ming himself admitted that Wei something, Wei the Madman, including his English pen name Mr. Why, are all him. He also has a songwriting stage name "Ah Ming" and has written several popular Mandarin and Cantonese songs in Hong Kong.

Therefore, Jin Yong's title is "Not only does he transform into the Three Pure Ones, but Wei Ming, Wei something, Wei the Madman, A-Ming, and Mr. Why are all him!"

Upon reading this article, Zhou Huimin was so excited that she didn't want to eat dinner. Ah Ming's brilliance was finally no longer something only she could see!
Now all of Hong Kong knows how amazing Ah Ming is!

Previously, there was no concrete evidence that Wei Ming was Wei something, but now that Jin Yong has endorsed him, there must be no problem.

Of course, "all of Hong Kong" is just Ah Min's wishful thinking. Ming Pao's circulation is not that strong, usually just over 100,000, and can reach 140,000 or 150,000 during hot events. However, its user base consists mainly of white-collar workers and elites.

Therefore, this article had a strong impact. The group with the strongest purchasing power got to know Wei Ming and realized that he was not only talented but also somewhat arrogant.

In the latter half of the article, Jin Yong described Wei Ming as "one man who can rival the Four Great Talents of Hong Kong".

Wei Ming first spoke modestly, then became arrogant, claiming that he was inferior to Jin Yong, Huang Zhan, and Cai Lan in one particular area, but when it came to science fiction, he disagreed with Ni Kuang.

~
Ni Kuang looked at Wei Ming's evaluation of him in Ming Pao and snorted angrily: "Young man, you don't know your own limitations!"

This is the second time he has recently become a hot topic in the news; the last time was when he lost a tug-of-war to an elephant and ate its excrement.

He actually ate it later, but it was civet coffee. He even teamed up with coffee merchants to successfully hype up this high-end coffee and made a small profit from it.

This is the celebrity effect; even eating excrement can generate economic benefits, something Ni Kuang has always been quite pleased with.

Just then, his son Ni Zhen walked by, humming "Moonlight Shadow," a song that young people love these days.

A 17-year-old boy is at the age where he is pursuing fashion.

"Don't sing!" Ni Kuang thought of his lover as he listened to the song, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

A 17-year-old boy is also going through a rebellious phase: "Why can't I sing?"

“I don’t like this song. If you sing it again, I won’t give you any pocket money after you go abroad,” Ni Kuang threatened.

The 17-year-old boy was also in dire need of money, but he retorted defiantly, "Hmph, if I don't want to sing, I won't!"

Then he sang the Cantonese version of Tam Yung-lun's "Flower in the Water".

Ni Kuang: "You're still singing!"

"I've already changed the song!"

“This song can’t be sung either!” Because he remembered that the song’s author was named “Amin”.

~
Many musicians in Hong Kong now know who this mysterious "Ah Ming" really is.

Wei Ming is incredibly versatile; he can write popular Mandarin and Cantonese songs like "Liuliu De Ni," "Shui Zhong Hua," "Nan She Nan Fen," and "Meng Tuo Ling," as well as traditional mainland songs like "Zai Xiwang Tian Ye" and "Tong Yi Shou Ge," and even "Moonlight Shadow."

When Zhang Guorong saw this report, he was recording a song with his mentor, Li Xiaotian, and then he began to talk at length about how amazing this person was.

Li Xiaotian said, "I have worked with this person before."

"Huh? How come I didn't know?"

Lai Siu-tin: "The Huo Yuanjia production team invited me to write the theme song, and the lyricist was Wei Ming. He wrote a song called 'The Great Wall Will Never Fall' and gave it to Yip Chun-tong to sing. The lyrics were so good that I believe whoever sang it would become a hit. It's a pity that the style of this song is not suitable for you."

"Master, what do you think about me inviting him to create a song tailored specifically for me?"

"Well, he's in mainland China, so we can't get in touch with him."

"By the way, Alan asked him to write a song before, so he must have his contact information. We can ask him!"

At this time, Zhang Guorong and Tan Yonglin were not in the same company and had different statuses, so they did not constitute competition. But Li Xiaotian thought to herself, if they could contact him, would they tell you?

Tan Yonglin: It's not a matter of whether to tell them or not, it's that I can't get in touch with them either, I can only do so through that little girl Amin.

Tam Yung-lun knew that once Ah Ming's identity was exposed, Hong Kong singers would definitely be eyeing this piece of meat. Just now, Danny Chan and Kenny Bee had both asked him about Ah Ming.

Tan Yonglin knew he couldn't monopolize Amin's songwriting, and only hoped that Amin would prioritize writing songs for him in consideration of their past collaborations.

As a rare Chinese musician who has made it into the international market, Wei Ming is seen as having an aura of prestige by Hong Kong musicians. Even Teddy Robin of Cinema City saw the news and proudly boasted to others in the company about Wei Ming's high level of musical talent.

"Otherwise, he definitely wouldn't have been able to write so many songs with such different styles."

Teddy Robin, one of the Seven Wonders of Cinema City, was shorter than Tsang Chi-wai and his directing, writing, and acting abilities were not particularly outstanding, but he was quite good at making music. Influenced by the Beatles in the 60s, he formed Hong Kong's first Chinese rock band with Cheng Hon-tung – the Playboy Band.

Zheng Handong is the general manager of PolyGram, and he has a son named Zheng Zhongji.

Just then, Huang Baiming passed by and told Teddy Robin to keep his voice down, then pointed behind him and whispered, "McKa."

Teddy Robin chuckled. It turned out that Wei Ming really could earn millions from a single song, which made Mai Jia, who had exposed the matter, lose face.

Karl Maka isn't very happy right now. A while ago, he wanted to imitate "Seven Days of Wrong Love" and make a script. He thought the plot was pretty good and could be made into a comedy version.

But now Wei Ming's reputation has soared, Jin Yong himself wrote an article introducing him, and all the wealthy people in Hong Kong are watching.

Moreover, since Qingniao has already announced the launch of the project, engaging in such petty tricks would easily give others ammunition against them and could even make them a laughing stock.

It's fine to bully junior screenwriters, but to fight with an international celebrity like this would be a losing proposition.

Mai Jia was only thinking about infringing on Wei Ming's rights, but some people had already done so.

Although Ming Pao is not published in mainland China, Hong Kong and Shenzhen are connected, and many places in Guangdong can access some Hong Kong publications through special channels.

On the desk of Liao Mingzu, the general manager of Pacific Audio-Visual Company, there was a copy of Ming Pao.

He now knows that the authors of songs such as "Liuliu De Ta," "Shui Zhong Hua," and "Meng Tuo Ling," which were plagiarized by Pacific Entertainment, are all his old friend Wei Ming!
"Oh dear, what a mess this is!" Liao Mingzu valued maintaining his relationship with Wei Ming. After all, Pacific Music couldn't have an exclusive business forever. In the future, when the music market became more competitive, quality would be the deciding factor, and Teacher Wei Ming was the epitome of quality!
Now, General Manager Liao is working with Beijing Film Studio to produce the original soundtrack album for "Mom, Love Me Again". Most of the songs in it were composed by Wei Ming alone, and these songs are simply amazing!

How many times must he have experienced life-and-death separations from his mother to write this? He didn't even dare to listen to it a second time.

Liao Mingzu immediately contacted the authorities in Beijing, hoping to make up for Wei Ming's royalties, even though it was only a few dozen yuan, it was a token of his sincerity.

Unfortunately, Wei Ming was not in Yanjing and could not hear Liao Mingzu apologize in person.

~
Magic City.

Li Xiaolin has already found Wei Ming, and the two spent a day discussing the details of the publication revisions. Wei Ming listed more than thirty points.

Besides discussing the manuscript, Editor Li also mentioned his father's worries about their hometown in Sichuan.

News of the Sichuan floods has finally started appearing in newspapers.

First, on the 9th, a mudslide caused by heavy rain led to a major accident on the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, which was the most serious accident in the history of Chinese railways, with hundreds of people dying or going missing.

Since the 9th, the heavy rain in Sichuan has not stopped. As a basin, Sichuan has been unable to escape the fate of being flooded.

Wei Ming returned home with a heavy heart, but Wei Lingling finally brought him some good news.

"After the government's confirmation, this house can be returned to us!"

(I'll be updating again on the 5th of this month, please vote with your monthly tickets!)

(End of this chapter)