Exciting 1979!

Chapter 405 Shining at the Grammys, First Arrival in San Francisco (Part 2)
Sarah Brightman expressed her heartfelt gratitude on stage to Wei Ming, who wrote the song, and the production team.

After the award ceremony, she had a performance segment, a solo rendition of "Moonlight Shadow." This song once again brought everyone back to the sadness of Lennon's passing. Yoko Ono, who was in the audience, was wearing sunglasses, so it was impossible to see the changes in her eyes behind the sunglasses.

After stepping off the stage, Sarah generously allowed Wei Ming to touch her trophy.

Next up is the Production of the Year award, and "Only Time" is among the nominees.

This award is given to the production team of a single, including the singer, producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, etc., emphasizing recognition of recording technology and production process. Apart from the fact that the song was written by Wei Ming, this award is actually not very relevant to him.

Apart from "Only Time", the other nominated works are also quite strong.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Starting Over" was the song from Lennon's last album. It was initially only moderately well-received and popular, but after Lennon's assassination a month after its release, it became his final work and its sales and critical reception exploded.

Kim Connes' "Bette Davis Eyes" is a legendary song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine consecutive weeks in 1981, a song that belongs to this era.

"Endless Love," the theme song of Brooke Shields' film of the same name, also topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks. It was later covered by Luther Vanderlus and Mariah Carey, and became popular again more than a decade later. It is a timeless classic.

Then there's Bill Withers' "Just The Two of Us," which is probably the easiest to interpret.

"Only Time" held the number one spot on the Billboard charts for seven weeks, but it had the longest time on the charts among all the nominated works, and it is still hanging at the bottom of the top 100. It also has the highest sales.

Three of the five nominated songs dominated almost half of the Billboard number one spot.

Wei Ming was unaware of who would win this year's Grammys, though he might remember the Oscars.

At the last moment, the result he and the others heard simultaneously was Kim Connes's "Bette Davis Eyes".

She and the song's producer, Val Garay, went on stage to accept the award, and she thanked the Grammys and her husband, Dave Ellingson, in a husky female voice.

The international students had had their fill of fun in the villa and were now sitting on the sofa or on the floor watching TV. Chen Chong muttered, "Wei Ming didn't win an award again."

The male classmate next to him said, "It's normal. After all, he's Chinese. American music is so developed. It's already quite lucky that he was shortlisted. Maybe it's because they want to win over China to counter the Soviet Union."

The other students nodded in agreement, feeling that Wei Ming's inclusion in the shortlist was a victory in itself. Moreover, he wasn't a professional musician; his main profession seemed to be writing, and his name had recently appeared on the New York bestseller list.

Next up is the Best Single of the Year award, which is the real award that Wei Ming was nominated for. The winner is the songwriter and composer of the song.

Of course, sometimes the songwriter is also the singer. Original singers can earn a lot of money in the US and Japan, earning three salaries in one person.

For example, the nominated song "9 to 5" was written and sung by country music singer Dolly Parton, and it will be heard in films and television shows such as "Sing" in the future.

Other films nominated for Production of the Year include Endless Love, Bette Davis Eyes, and Just The Two of Us.

The overlap between the Record of the Year and Music of the Year awards reached 80%.

The award presenter came on stage; he was a blind Black man. He opened the envelope, which contained Braille text specially prepared for him.

"The winner of this award is... 'Only Time.' Congratulations to Mr. Why, a talented young writer and musician from Red China. Let's give him a round of applause."

The black man was very nice, and it seemed like he added a lot of the words himself. Later, Wei Ming learned that he was the very famous Ray Charles, the legendary musician known as the King of Soul, and a musician who was already featured in Hollywood biographies while still alive. The movie "Ray" even won Jamie Foxx the Oscar for Best Actor.

However, he had just passed away when the movie was released.

Ray Charles's mention of Wei Ming's identity as a writer may stem from his status as one of the earliest internationally renowned writers to voice support for Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

In the back row of the audience, Cheng Long asked Li Aiguo next to him, "Is this award impressive?"

"Of course it's amazing! It's the highest honor a songwriter can receive, and I never expected to win it on my first nomination. It's absolutely incredible!"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Long immediately stood up and applauded loudly, followed by Li Aiguo, then Melinda, who even tried to pull Wei Lingling up as well.

Wei Lingling thought it was so childish, but she couldn't resist Melinda's insistence, so she stood up anyway.

When the TV broadcast glanced at the row of "fans," the old lady from San Francisco spotted Wei Lingling immediately and couldn't help but giggle. Then, wanting to taste the flavors of her hometown, she was stopped by the nurse from taking the bottle of wine.

"Madam, you can't drink anymore today."

"Ugh, this is boring, time for bed."

I said I was going to sleep, but I still waited to listen to Wei Ming's acceptance speech.

He first thanked the singer Sarah, the producer, and the fans as usual, and then solemnly thanked and remembered Mr. John Lennon: "He guided me onto the path of creating English songs and made me realize that my abilities are not limited to Chinese creation. Now I have not only created many English songs, but I have also started to write novels in English."

Then the camera focused on Yoko Ono; she was definitely the woman with the most screen time tonight.

Finally, Wei Ming thanked two international student friends from Peking University: "Melinda from the UK introduced me to English songs, and Thomson from the US made it possible for 'Moonlight Shadow' to be released. I'm very happy to have met you both."

Finally, Wei Ming waved his golden phonograph trophy and stepped off the stage in high spirits.

There was a moment of silence among the international students in the villa, and then someone took the lead in applauding their compatriots. From now on, if anyone says that Chinese people have no musical talent, they will finally have a second example besides Yo-Yo Ma.

Officials from the Chinese Embassy in the United States and Xinhua News Agency writers were also watching the program. Upon seeing the results, the writers immediately began to write, recognizing it as a great thing that would boost the confidence of the Chinese people.

With the reform and opening up, many new foreign things that were previously strictly prohibited are now flooding into the country through various channels. The huge gap between China and the world has made people feel confused, vulnerable, and even inferior.

Wei Ming's award is the most effective antidote to this sentiment. Although we started developing later, Comrade Wei Ming was able to write a musical work that conquered the world after only listening to English songs for two years. Chinese people are still very excellent, so we should not underestimate ourselves.

~
There's one more Album of the Year award left, but that has absolutely nothing to do with Wei Ming; Sarah only released singles.

Ultimately, the grand prize was awarded to "Double Fantasy," a collaborative work by the late John Lennon and his widow Yoko Ono. Yoko Ono walked onto the stage amidst enthusiastic applause.

In fact, many music critics, including Wei Ming, were not very fond of this album. Due to Lennon's privileged family life, the album was described as "a narcissistic disaster."

However, Lennon was assassinated three weeks after the album's release, and the negative reviews from the outside world completely disappeared. The album jumped from number 11 to number 1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart and remained at number 1 for eight weeks. In the UK, it jumped from number 46 to number 1 in two weeks.

The 24th Grammy Awards ceremony has now come to a close, followed by some social activities. Sarah had already met Yoko Ono when she came to the United States for an event before, and she took this opportunity to introduce Wei Ming to this Japanese-American.

Over the past year, numerous songs have been released in memory of John Lennon, but the most influential is still "Moonlight Shadow."

Even Paul felt that his unreleased tribute to Lennon, "Here Today," was slightly inferior to Lennon's work, never imagining that there was a musician in the world whose feelings for Lennon were even deeper than his own.

Wei Ming usually keeps his distance from avant-garde artists like Yoko Ono, because being too avant-garde can easily offend him.

Take her avant-garde performance art piece "Slice" for example, where she had the audience cut her clothes to shreds until she was completely naked, in order to express the pain of women being stared at and stigmatized.

Later, when "The Slice" was performed in London, it caused a sensation. The young Lennon was deeply moved after seeing it and fell in love with it.

Wei Ming can only say that he has not reached the level of an artist; he is just an ordinary person who wanted to have sex with Melinda after winning the award.

However, taking a group photo was still a must. Not only with Yoko Ono, but also with Phil Collins, the King of Soul, host John Denver, and the Michael Jackson brothers, Mr. Why established himself in the Western music scene from then on, and everyone was welcome to come and buy his songs.

Currently, songwriting is more lucrative than writing novels or screenplays, and it's beneficial for accumulating initial capital.

After leaving the awards ceremony, Wei Ming and a few close friends went to a bar on Sunset Boulevard to have some fun. Cheng Long and Li Aiguo had wanted to go for a long time, and now they had a legitimate reason to go. Li Aiguo even generously covered all the expenses for the night.

Even Sarah Brightman, who seemed like a well-behaved girl, was at ease in such a lively and noisy setting, but Wei Ming noticed that his aunt was a little uncomfortable.

He handed Wei Lingling a glass of non-alcoholic beverage: "What, you've never been to a place like this before?"

Wei Lingling sniffed the air before taking a sip: "This kind of place isn't that fun, so why did we come?"

"So where did you usually go for fun during your years studying abroad?"

Wei Lingling: "Go to my aunt's company for an internship, or do some outdoor activities, like road trips or hiking."

"You don't seem to have much of a social life?"

“What’s the use of something useless?” Wei Lingling said righteously.

Wei Ming seriously doubted whether she had ever had a boyfriend, since having hands was of little use to either men or women anyway.

After leaving the bar, only Wei Lingling hadn't drunk any alcohol, so she drove Wei Ming and the other four back to the Hyatt Hotel not far away. When they parted, she reminded Wei Ming not to be late the next day.

Wei Ming gave an "OK" sign. He hadn't drunk much; Melinda could drink more during the real celebration that night, but he was only slightly tipsy.

However, just as Wei Ming and Melinda were making love, a somewhat unfashionable Asian girl came to the hotel, gave a room number, and said she was looking for someone.

After taking a shower and waking up, Cheng Long received a phone call and hesitated for a moment before letting the caller come up. At the same time, he immediately took out his essential safety equipment.

Wei Ming doesn't use this thing with Melinda anymore.

He knew he might not be able to give Melinda marriage, so he wanted to give her something else, but the two of them were often apart and things just didn't go their way.

The next day, Wei Ming woke Melinda up early: "My aunt and I are going to San Francisco, do you want to come along?"

Melinda: "Okay, Sarah's leaving today anyway."

"Back to London?"

"No, we went to Broadway. Webber went there too, saying he wanted to talk about the Broadway performance of 'Cats'."

So after they got up, the two went to find Sarah first and told her they would see her in New York. Then Wei Ming knocked on Lin Zhengyi's door and invited him to go to San Francisco together.

San Francisco is a hub for Chinese Americans, and has a significant number of Taiwanese immigrants; he wouldn't dare go there.

He asked, "Are you going back to Los Angeles?" "Yes, we're coming back tomorrow. We still have to negotiate with MGM."

"Then I'll wait for you at the hotel."

“That would be so lonely,” Wei Ming said. “I’ll have Li Aiguo show you around. You can visit the University of Southern California. A day will pass quickly.”

Lin Zhengyi sincerely said, "Thank you for being so thoughtful. Also, congratulations on winning the award. I watched the live broadcast yesterday."

"Haha, winning this award is quite a surprise. I can ask for higher prices for songwriting in the future." Wei Ming has now been gilded, and can be considered a top-notch songwriter.

Finally, Wei Ming went downstairs to find Cheng Long, but unexpectedly saw Cheng Long running out of the room in a panic, carrying a bag.

"Ah Ming, I can't wait to go back to Hong Kong to film 'Project A'. Goodbye for now."

"You're rushing way too much."

"There's no other way. There are few flights to Hong Kong, and I'm afraid if I miss my flight I'll have to wait until tomorrow. I can't afford to waste a single day."

"Alright, then take care on your journey."

Jackie Chan pulled out a script and pen: "Here, sign your name, and write 'I agree to let Jackie Chan direct.'"

Wei Ming laughed and took the pen to write his comments.

However, just as Cheng Long left, Wei Ming and Melinda saw a familiar girl walk out of Cheng Long's room.

Melinda blurted out, "Little Flower!"

Wei Ming: "Chen Chong?"

Chen Chong's expression was complicated. She straightened her hair and asked, "Where did that person go?"

Wei Ming paused for a moment, then pointed to the elevator.

Chen Chong immediately ran towards the elevator.

Once she was in the elevator, Melinda immediately pulled Wei Ming into another elevator: "Come on, let's go take a look!"

After the two went downstairs, they saw Chen Chong and Cheng Long arguing in the lobby. Cheng Long looked somewhat helpless. Later, he said something and finally calmed Chen Chong down. Then the two left the hotel together and got into two separate taxis.

On the way to the airport, Cheng Long held his head, somewhat regretting his impulsiveness last night. He hadn't expected that not all women in mainland China valued chastity. He was clearly not her first man, and he had almost been entangled with her. She wanted to go to Hong Kong with him and even marry him.

What are you thinking, little sister!

Later, after much persuasion, Jackie Chan said that the Hollywood blockbuster "Cannonball Run" which was a huge box office hit last year was going to have a sequel, and he would recommend her for an important role.

They also allowed her to stay in the United States, to be their strongest support overseas.

Chen Chong has now decided to transfer to Northridge in Los Angeles to study film and television, and will become Brother Long's good wife in the future.

Although Wei Ming and Melinda didn't hear any useful information, they both obviously guessed that the two people had slept together last night!
Wei Ming didn't know how to evaluate the butterfly effect he had created, but both Chen Chong and Cheng Long loved writing autobiographies. However, Cheng Long's autobiography rarely mentioned women; it was mostly about brothers and career.

Chen Chong's autobiography, on the other hand, is keen to show readers her rich and chaotic private life. If she uses her real name in the future... well, it doesn't seem to matter much to Cheng Long, since he no longer needs to maintain his reputation when it comes to women.

At most, it would be a little awkward for Aunt Chen to see him when Xiao Fang was acting in "The Sun Also Rises".

Actually, driving along the West Coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco is a great route, with unique scenery along the way. It takes about six hours to drive, so for three people, that's about two hours each.

However, considering I have a lot to do and need to get back quickly, I'll just take a plane.

Upon arriving at San Francisco International Airport, they were greeted by people holding up signs with Chinese characters.

“Gong Biyang?” Wei Ming was taken aback.

Wei Lingling: "You two know each other?"

Melinda: "His company bought the traditional Chinese and English rights to some of Wei Ming's novels."

Wei Ming: "Moreover, my comic book company has a very close partnership with his company."

Wei Lingling: "What do you mean 'his company'? That's my aunt's business."

Gong Biyang also knew Wei Lingling and called her "Miss".

When Wei Lingling was studying in San Francisco, she interned at Tangren Publishing House and was a colleague of Gong Biyang.

She asked, "Why are you the one picking us up?"

"I don't know either. Maybe the old lady thought I knew Teacher Wei, so she sent me."

Wei Ming immediately understood, and he said dejectedly, "I thought it was my work that attracted you, but I didn't expect it was because of my great-aunt's instructions."

Gong Biyang got into the driver's seat: "The old lady's instructions are excellent. Our Tangren Publishing House is seeing rapid growth in business thanks to our collaboration with Mr. Why. We've even bought a small publishing company in Taiwan to handle our Asian business."

He was clearly saying that it was a win-win situation, and it seems that it really is.

Wei Ming inquired about the sales figures of "Madman Comics" in Taiwan and North America.

"It sells about 50,000 copies per issue." This business is actually very small. Even if the price can be increased in the United States, the profit is not much higher. Wei Ming's children's literature works are still easier to sell.

Gong Biyang is now looking forward to when Wei Ming can collaborate with Tangren Publishing House on a best-selling book.

Melinda laughed and said, "That's not possible. Next, we plan to start our own publishing company and produce and sell our own products. However, we may cooperate with your Tangren Bookstore chain."

Gong Biyang sighed after hearing this: "That's such a pity."

After driving across the famous Golden Gate Bridge, we arrived at a quiet town called Tiberon. Nestled against the mountains and by the water, it is sparsely populated and is a well-known affluent area of ​​San Francisco.

Following the principle that the richer you are, the higher you live, the car entered the mountainous area. Wei Ming opened the car window, and the air felt very comfortable.

Along the way, we could see a few high-end-looking villas scattered around. Finally, the car almost reached the top of the mountain and stopped in front of a tall wooden gate. After a short wait, the gate was opened.

This is the largest house Wei Ming has ever seen; it could perhaps be called a manor. In terms of land area, it is definitely much larger than his own three-courtyard house.

Moreover, the buildings inside have a distinct old Shanghai feel, and Wei Ming guessed that they might have been built based on the original Jueyuan Garden.

After the car entered the courtyard, it drove for a while before stopping. After that, Gong Biyang had nothing more to do. Wei Lingling led Wei Ming and Melinda inside.

"It's so big, so luxurious!" Melinda whispered to Wei Ming, "So your family is a wealthy one!"

Wei Ming: "This is a relative's house, but there is a difference. Our wealthy families need to work hard to build their own success."

As they were talking, a lazy calico cat came out of the villa. Wei Lingling greeted it, and the cat stopped, meowed at her, and continued walking out.

Wei Ming greeted it, but it ignored him and went straight out the door.

"It seems you're not as popular with animals as your grandfather." An elderly woman with a full head of silver hair but very good skin came out. She looked to be in her seventies, but could easily be mistaken for someone in their early sixties.

Wei Ming knew that the old lady was actually over seventy years old and was born in the late Qing Dynasty, but she looked like she was the same age as her younger brother who was more than ten years younger than her.

“Auntie, this is Wei Ming, and this is Melinda. The three of us recently started a media company together.”

"It's good for young people to start their own businesses."

Upon first meeting this great-aunt in both his past and present lives, Wei Ming respectfully kowtowed three times and called out, "Great-aunt."

Wei Lindi looked at Wei Ming with somewhat complicated emotions. Before they arrived, she had been looking at a photo. The young man in the photo was wearing a military uniform, tall and handsome, and his appearance seemed to overlap with that of Wei Ming in front of her.

She shakily helped the person up, then turned her back to them.

"Hmm, sit down." After calming down for a while, the great-aunt stopped looking at Wei Ming and started chatting with Wei Lingling, asking about her uncle's health.

Wei Lingling spent the Lunar New Year in Taiwan. She said, "My uncle is still in good health, but he is a little afraid of flying. He always says that if you miss him, you should come to Taipei to see him."

Wei Lindi laughed and said, "I don't miss him. If he misses me, he should overcome his fear of flying."

Wei Ming asked, "Why is Grandpa afraid to fly? Is he scared by what happened with Boss Dai?"

Wei Lingling: "Firstly, this, and secondly, the plane almost crashed when we flew to Taiwan."

Wei Lindi said, "It's just that Taiwan is small, so it doesn't take too long to travel by car. If he were in the United States or mainland China, it would be too inconvenient not to fly."

“My uncle said that unless he is allowed to return to his hometown on the mainland, he probably won’t fly again.”

Upon hearing this, Wei Lindi lowered her eyes, perhaps also missing her hometown.

She then looked up and asked, "Have you eaten?"

~
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(End of this chapter)