Exciting 1979!

Chapter 437 Amin's Surprise, Jiaxin's Gaze

Amin, just give it to me! I can't wait any longer!
Wei Ming felt that Amin was using his own lyrics. Could it be because she didn't like Mandarin songs like "Pink Memories"?

When this song was first released, it became incredibly popular in mainland China, a phenomenon. It easily surpassed one million copies upon release, and Li Lingyu's cover version also sold at least one million copies.

According to official statistics from Guangzhou Audio-Visual Publishing House, the album sold over 20 million copies between 1987 and 1997.

Whether it's true or not, this song did accompany Chen Sicheng through his childhood, and he loved it dearly.

Wei Ming will definitely do his best to meet the little girl's needs.

"Okay, you wait and see."

Zhou Huimin didn't urge him, but she hoped he could finish writing it as soon as possible, and that it wouldn't be delayed.

Early the next morning, Wei Ming knocked on Zhou Huimin's door.

As Amin rubbed her eyes, she saw Wei Ming hand her a piece of paper.

"what?"

Wei Ming: "It's finished. Here's a song for you."

Amin remembered that Amin had written several songs for her before, and had given them to her one after another in the past two years. Now, only "Burning Heart with Fire" was left.

However, after she accepted the song, the title of the song was "A Rare Lover".

"Isn't it 'Burning Heart with Fire'?"

Wei Ming: "That's a Mandarin song, and it's quite difficult to sing. I was afraid you wouldn't be able to handle it, so I wrote a new song overnight. I'll give you 'Burning Heart with Fire' when you're a bit older."

Hearing him say that, Vivian Chow lowered her head in shame, feeling that she had been immature. Ah Ming worked so hard filming during the day and then stayed up late writing songs for her at night. He must have exhausted a lot of his brain cells.

She glanced at her home; her mother hadn't gotten up yet. Then she pulled Wei Ming into the hallway, hugged him affectionately, and told him, "I won't go to the film set with you today. Anyway, Sister Xiaoli is here."

Wei Ming laughed: "What? Are you jealous? She's just a producer, but you're my source of joy."

"I'm not jealous at all, because I trust you completely and know you won't do anything reckless."

"Don't flatter me, I'm not a good person at all." Wei Ming said no to the "good guy card".

"Anyway, I won't be spending the next couple of days with them. I'll stay with Sister Hong instead."

“Okay, we’re going to film at a nightclub next, and I don’t want you to go to a place like that,” Wei Ming nodded, taking her small hand and saying, “Alright, you should go back now, Auntie is probably about to wake up.”

Vivian Chow held up the lyrics sheet: "I haven't sung it for you yet."

Wei Ming: "Okay, you sing it, and I'll give you some pointers."

A few minutes later, Amin's singing voice echoed in the hallway.

"Like the first awakening of early spring, urging my heart to urge me on, I can wait no longer. Those years, full of tender feelings waiting to bloom, have left behind a heart full of longing, which is truly moving..."

This song, "Rarely Have a Lover," by Shirley Kwan, is a perfect match for Amin's style. It is also Shirley Kwan's signature song, written for her by the famous lyricist Xiang Xuehuai with deep affection.

"Sweetly running with my lover in the wind, shouting with joy that you love me, this life has not been in vain. With a 'you do' and a 'I do,' our earth-shattering love has no regrets."

When she sang the chorus, Vivian Chow looked at Wei Ming with tender affection, as if her eyes were veiled with a layer of mist.

Wei Ming also gained a clearer understanding of Amin's singing ability at this time, which was almost at the level of her mature period in later years. Moreover, her breath control was now long and stable. She had worked hard to prepare for the college entrance examination and had a bout of tuberculosis, which had some impact on her singing.

"The moon shines through the mist, and love and affection add a touch of sensuality to couples. Some love stories turn into hate, but many more are touching and imbued with a subtle beauty."

After singing the song, Amin suddenly stood on tiptoe and ran back home after succeeding.

Wei Ming chuckled and went downstairs.

Amin loves this song so much. It's completely tailor-made for her, perfectly matching her style and their relationship.

But thinking of the lyrics, "to add sexiness to a couple's relationship," she lowered her neckline in front of the full-length mirror in her room. Hmm, it was still quite a sight to behold.

After her mother got up, Zhou Huimin told her something and then went upstairs to find Sister Hong.

Zhou's mother asked in surprise, "Don't you need to go to the film set today?"

"Going there won't be of any help, so let's just hang out with Sister Hong."

Zhou's mother thought to herself, "This child isn't stupid. She knows that the problems between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, and sisters-in-law, have always been an age-old problem. Shufen is a good-tempered girl. As long as Wei Hong is dealt with, there won't be any difficulties with the Wei family."

Zhou Huimin went upstairs to the Wei family's house for breakfast, and then went out with Wei Hong.

Wei Hong originally intended to go to the Far East Club, but Zhou Huimin said, "Why don't we go there when the market is about to close? There's no point in keeping an eye on it all day. Why don't you come with me to TVB?"

"TVB? You mean the TVB that made 'The Beach'?"

"Correct!"

After explaining her thoughts, Wei Hong said, "Let's go to the trading hall first to check the opening prices this morning, and then check the closing prices in the afternoon. That should give us enough time, right?"

"Okay, that's enough!"

Vivian Chow said she's going to participate in TVB's New Talent Singing Awards. Although it's unclear why she wants to participate in this competition, her good friend Siu-Hong will definitely give her her full support.

In mainland China, being a singer is a very honorable and respectable profession. Even Lele from Uncle Ping An's family dreams of becoming a singer when he grows up, and his family has never expressed any disapproval.

However, it's a completely different story in Hong Kong. Singers do earn higher incomes, but ultimately it's about entertaining others, unless they reach the level of a cultural icon like Jackie Chan.

Therefore, Zhou Huimin felt that her mother would definitely not support her, so she could only participate secretly. She would sing a song for Ah Ming in public during the semi-finals and then stop. This was one of the few things she could do for him when she was young.

Coincidentally, the song he wrote for her, "It's Rare to Find a Lover," was perfect for her to sing to him, and she had to sing it well. So, after registering, she planned to consult with friends in the music industry about the arrangement.

The problem arose during the registration process.

"I'm sorry, our registration deadline was yesterday, and the preliminary test will be tomorrow. You're late."

It was obvious that the staff did not recognize her as Vivian Chow, who sang "First Love".

Amin didn't want to reveal her identity, but she also didn't want to use connections to get in through Li Xiaotian's back door. So she said, "The competition isn't until tomorrow, so it shouldn't matter if I'm added today. Besides, I sing really well. There's a song called 'First Love' that I sing."

"First love? Why don't you just say your name is Vivian Chow?"

Zhou Huimin immediately handed over her identification: "Hello, my name is Zhou Huimin."

staff member:"……"

Soon, the staff brought out a person who was very persuasive. Her name was Chen Shufen, also known as Shufen, which gave Wei Hong and Zhou Huimin a strange sense of familiarity.

"Just call me Mrs. Chan." Chan Suk-fan looked at Chow Wai-man with delight, as if she were looking at a precious treasure.

She has been organizing concerts for Teresa Teng for ten years. Now she has joined Capital Artists and is the manager of Leslie Cheung. She has a very sharp eye and thinks that the then young and inexperienced Vivian Chow is a rare gem.

Not only because of her own qualities, but also because she had Wei Ming standing behind her.

"Amin, you already have so many representative works and many fans in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Why do you still want to participate in this kind of newcomer competition? Do you hope to take your career to the next level? You've made the right choice by choosing us, Capital Artists..."

“Mrs. Chan,” Vivian Chow interrupted her, “I’m still in school. I don’t have any career aspirations, and I won’t sign an agency contract. I’m just on summer vacation and I’m bored and want to have some fun.”

"Oh, I see~" Chen Shufen understood. After all, she was the daughter of the Holiland heiress. She had heard that this fast food chain was developing very rapidly and was putting pressure on McDonald's in Hong Kong.

"It's okay, just have some fun. You sang so well, you'll definitely get a ranking later. Here, this is the registration form." Chen Shufen got Zhou Huimin's registration sorted out, and told her to come to the recording in the next three days, whichever day she wanted.

"Then Sunday it is, I'll practice some more."

"Practice some more? Is it a new song?"

"Ah."

"Written by Wei Ming?"

"Keep it a secret." Zhou Huimin kept it a secret.

After Zhou Huimin left, Chen Shufen immediately reported the matter to her superiors. Eventually, Fang Yihua found out and thought to herself, "It's really heaven's help! Student idol Zhou Huimin is performing on stage for the first time, and she will even be performing on the same stage as Wei Ming."

So she gave the order: "We must get her into the semi-finals no matter what!"

The preliminary round will select 30 singers to participate in the semi-finals, and then half of them will be eliminated, leaving only 15 people to participate in the finals, where the gold, silver and bronze awards will be determined.

Fang Yihua had Chen Shufen keep an eye on the registration area to see if she could find any hidden gems. She did find some; she had previously discovered a very cool girl named Anita Mui, and today she discovered the highly talked-about Zhou Huimin.

However, these are all potential stocks. Chen Shufen's most important asset right now is Zhang Guorong.

Wei Ming's song "Melinda" propelled Zhang Guorong to super popularity, making him a rival to Tam Yung-lun and even slightly surpassing Danny Chan. He recently starred in director Tam Ka-ming's new film "Nomad," collaborating with the first Hong Kong Film Award-winning actress Cecilia Yip, and even had some explicit love scenes.

Knowing that Wei Ming was coming to Hong Kong as a guest, Chan Suk-fan arranged for Cheung Kwok-yung to meet Wei Ming beforehand to get to know him better.

Zhang Guorong: "I also really like Ah Ming. Do you think I didn't do anything? My master told me where he was filming, and I went there, but it turned out that they had already moved the filming location, and I was disappointed."

At this point, the crew of "The Witness" had left Wedding Invitation Street and arrived at Chungking Mansions.

In fact, not only Leslie Cheung, but also Hong Kong musicians such as Alan Tam, Danny Chan, and Jenny Tseng wanted to do their part as hosts.

When Vivian Chow approached Alan Tam to discuss the arrangement of "A Rare Lover," Alan Tam also inquired about Wei Mingren's whereabouts.

Amin couldn't let Amin get distracted, so she just said, "I'll pass on the message for you. He should be free after filming is over."

At that moment, Wei Ming was on set giving advice to the third actor.

The third actor is the manager of the nightclub where the female lead works, a rough-looking cross-dresser. Wei Ming asked Li Zhi to find someone, and Li Zhi, through Wei Ming's connections, got to know Liang Xiaolong, who then introduced Cheng Kui'an, with whom he had a past relationship.

Cheng Kui-an, nicknamed "Big Fool," was known as the "Head of the Four Villains" in the Hong Kong entertainment industry because he often played bad guys.

Now Wei Ming wants him to wear a tight leather jacket and pants, high heels, and a bra to play a pervert. This outfit was decided by Wei Ming and Zhang Shuping together, and it's quite edgy.

At this point, although Da Sha had started to associate with bad people, he had never tried being a pervert before, as it was too much of a challenge to his bottom line.

However, since Leung Siu-lung had been kind to him in getting into the industry, and Wei Ming was a friend of Leung Siu-lung, Da Sha gritted his teeth, stomped his foot, and decided to go all out!
Fortunately, the director gave this character a mask, and since the film won't be released, he probably won't be seen by acquaintances.

His first scene after he finished his makeup was a scene with Xu Jinjiang in the hallway. While they were filming, Li Jiaxin opened the door and saw the freakish Da Sha. She screamed and rushed back into the room, leaving the child terrified.

Wei Ming asked Li Zhi to go and handle it; it's inevitable that such things will happen when filming in public.

Lizhi knocked on the door, but no one answered. Since she was home alone, she shouted, "Don't come any closer! I'll call the police!"

Lizhi said, "Young lady, you've misunderstood. We're not bad people. We're a film crew, and it was just for the role."

"Film crew? What film crew? A lewd film crew?"

"Sexy? Of course not, this is an art film, directed by the great writer Wei Ming!" Li Zhi defended the short film.

"Wei Ming?" The tension in the voice lessened slightly. "Is he the Wei Ming who wrote songs for Sarah Brightman and organized the 'Tomorrow Will Be Better' concert?"

"Yup!"

Li Jiaxin: "I recently listened to 'Wake Me Up'."

“Haha, you have quite good taste,” Lizhi said. “Would you like to open the door? I have a gift for you, as compensation for disturbing you while filming.”

The door opened a crack, just a crack, and Li Jiaxin saw a busty woman: "What gift?"

Upon seeing this face, Lizhi was clearly stunned. She hadn't seen it clearly before, but she hadn't expected it to be such a stunningly beautiful young woman. In her opinion, the perfection of her features even surpassed that of Zhou Huimin, and she seemed to have some mixed-race genes.

Lizhi had only one thought in mind: she absolutely couldn't let Wei Ming see her!

Lizhi took off a historical cat plush keychain from her LV bag and handed it to Li Jiaxin.

Li Jiaxin took over the History Cat bag, but her eyes were only on Lizhi's LV bag. What a beautiful bag! It must be expensive!
This was a birthday gift that Wei Lingling gave to Lizhi last year. She couldn't bear to buy it for herself. She also noticed where Li Jiaxin's eyes were fixed on and thought to herself, "So she's still a little money-grubber."

"Alright, lock your door at home. We need to continue filming."

"How many days will it take to film?" she asked.

"In a few days."

Lizhi hoped that the other party would quickly close the door and retreat to their room, and not show up again while they were filming.

However, this time Li Jiaxin completely opened the door, walked out of her home, and even strolled to the filming location.

The scene in the stairwell had already been filmed, and they were about to move into the nightclub. Li Jiaxin immediately recognized Wei Ming, recognizing him as the handsome man who had come out of the nightclub a few days earlier.

"Are you Mr. Why?"

"Yes, I am Wei Ming."

"Hello, my name is Michele, oh, my Chinese name is Li Jiaxin."

She was given this Chinese name after starting elementary school. However, her father is Portuguese and her mother's surname is not Li. It is unknown where the "Li" in her name came from.

"Oh, Michele, hello. I'm sorry I startled you. Actually, that guy is a nice person, not a bad one."

Although the girl was beautiful, she was only 12. Wei Ming didn't chat with her much and quickly went inside to film. Li Zhi nodded in satisfaction, thinking that she was indeed a gentleman who could remain unmoved by temptation.

As a result, Li Jiaxin, who was just terrified, went to the set of a nightclub to watch them film.

This requires many extras, mostly female employees of nightclubs who play themselves.

Wei Ming's name is quite useful; all the work is voluntary, and all you need to do is provide a meal.

Finding a group of female extras with such professional skills would be difficult, so Wei Ming simply used what was available.

It wasn't until noon that Li Jiaxin was found and brought back from the film set by her older sister, Li Jiaming, who had gone home. She thought her younger sister had gone to sea, but later learned from her sister that she was filming a movie.

She lamented to her sister, "If only I could become a big star, our family wouldn't have to live in a place like this."

Li Jiaming: "Want to be a star? You'd better wait, you're still too young."

Li Jiaxin glanced down and thought of Lizhi again, her eyes filled with hope that she would grow up to look like her in the future!

When Wei Ming returned home after work that evening, he saw Wei Hong analyzing a stock market chart. Next to her were Zhou Huimin and Lin Ni, who were listening attentively. Lin Ni also traded Hong Kong stocks. She had some spare money, but she had recently lost some money and dared not enter the market again.

When Wei Ming returned, Zhou Huimin told him about Tan Yonglin's invitation.

Wei Ming: "I'll invite them after filming is finished."

The news of Wei Ming's presence in Hong Kong spread far and wide, eventually reaching Qiu Degen, who had contacted Wei Ming through Ah Long.

This company, which recently acquired all of RTV's broadcasting rights, has officially begun competing with TVB in the free-to-air television business.

He was also a sponsor of "Journey to the West," and probably wanted to know about the filming progress of "Journey to the West," so Wei Ming planned to take some time to visit him the next day at noon.

After the morning's filming ended, he told everyone to rest a little longer at noon, and that he would be right back.

Then I drove to the RTV Building at 81 Broadcast Drive, but when I arrived, RTV was changing its signboard and it was now called Asia Television Limited, or ATV for short.

"Mr. Wei, it's been a long time. What do you think of my ATV?"

Chiu Te-ken also has Hsu Hsiao-ming by his side. The young Hsu Hsiao-ming is now an all-around talent that Chiu Te-ken needs to rely on. Next, he will be counting on him to film the TV series "Chen Zhen".

"Not bad, very good, but you must have suffered a lot of losses due to the poaching of your employees by Wireless."

“Yes,” Qiu Degen sighed, “It’s a pity that you, Wei Sheng, are unwilling to stay in Hong Kong. If you were willing to stay, I would even be willing to give up a portion of ATV’s shares.”

He thinks highly of Wei Ming because he knows that Wei Ming was the one who proposed the popular New Talent Singer Competition at TVB. Now he's also a director. He's an even more well-rounded talent than Tsui Siu-ming!

Wei Ming laughed and said the same old thing: "I am a mainlander, and my soul is bound to the mainland."

Then I took the opportunity to tell him about the story of "Journey to the West".

"I've already seen the pilot episode, and it lives up to CCTV's reputation. The production quality is very high, and it's an exquisite work of art that Hong Kong and even Taiwan can't match. I look forward to seeing the full series soon."

Wei Ming dared not promise, but if filming progressed quickly and there were no unexpected events, it should be possible next year or the year after. However, when traveling across mountains and rivers to film all over the world, unexpected events are the least of their worries.

Afterwards, Chiu Te-ken consulted Wei Ming about his suggestions for ATV.

Wei Ming is in a hurry to get back to the film crew; he has to leave some valuable insights behind.

"I haven't filmed any TV dramas, you can ask Brother Xiaoming about that. But I think TV programs are also a point of competition, especially beauty pageants. TVB has Miss Hong Kong, which has selected celebrities like Cora Miao and Cecilia Yip. So why doesn't ATV also have a Miss Asia pageant? Miss Asia sounds more prestigious than Miss Hong Kong, and the beauties selected can also be used to film dramas for ATV, enriching the pool of actors."

After a little thought, Chiu Te-ken understood the benefits of this. The reason why TVB's dramas are so strong is not only because of the behind-the-scenes talent, but also because of the annual TVB training classes and Miss Hong Kong pageant that provide them with talent.

At this point, setting up a training course from scratch is definitely not as good as TVB, but beauty pageants are actually much easier to manage.

Later, the Miss Asia pageant did indeed cultivate a large number of well-known actresses, including Lizhi, Qiu Yueqing, Weng Hong, Wan Qiwen, and Wu Qili.

Of course, training courses could also be organized.

"Wei Sheng, your idea is fantastic! Let's have a meal together!" Qiu Degen said sincerely.

"No, no, the crew is waiting for me. The filming schedule is very tight every day."

That night.

Unable to refuse their hospitality, Wei Ming could only say, "Alright, tonight."

For dinner that evening, Qiu Degen brought along his top generals, including Li Zhuanglie and Xu Xiaoming, while Wei Ming brought along Xu Jinjiang.

After all, Lao Xu will be working in Hong Kong in the future, and he might be able to get a few roles in ATV dramas. This kind of dinner party is very beneficial to him.

During the conversation, they also talked about the New Talent Singer Competition, and Wei Ming admitted that he would go and serve as a judge for one episode.

Despite his advanced age, Qiu Degen still said sourly, "It's a pity that ATV doesn't have a music competition program suitable for Mr. Wei."

"Actually, it's not just music competition shows that are worth watching. I have a program proposal here. If it's done, it could probably wipe out all of TVB's television programs."

"Ah, what program is it?" Qiu Degen's eyes lit up immediately.

Wei Ming laughed heartily and raised his glass: "Let's drink, let's drink."

Qiu Degen understood. If the idea of ​​Miss Asia was worthless and could be easily imitated by Miss Hong Kong, then Wei Ming's original idea was definitely very valuable.

Of course, whether it's as miraculous as he claims or not, you'll have to see it for yourself and verify it before you can draw a conclusion.

So he asked Wei Ming, "Mr. Wei, if it's really as good as you say, I'm willing to pay HK$100 million for the idea of ​​this program."

Wei Ming waved his hand: "It won't cost a million. Talking about money would hurt our feelings, but I do have two small conditions."

"You said."

"First, the global rights to this show belong to me, or more precisely, to my company. In addition, I want the title sponsorship of the show for three years, as well as two minutes of advertising time within those three years."

The naming rights go to Holiland, while the two-minute commercial break can be given to Madman Comics or Langning Toy Factory for advertising. As long as the show's ratings are high, it will definitely be worth more than HK$100 million!
……

(Today's guaranteed minimum)
(End of this chapter)