Exciting 1979!

Chapter 489 What kind of behavior is it to consummate the marriage with Amin!

Vivian Chow had already prepared for the shoot, and director Tsui Hark told her to relax: "It's normal for a newcomer to have several or even ten takes. You're the boss. As long as you can afford the film and labor costs, it doesn't matter how many takes you want."

Anita Mui then left the room, and director Tsui Hark wanted to start filming from when she entered the room.

It seemed that all the staff had left, and Amin felt like she was all alone in the room. Moreover, the red veil wasn't transparent, so she couldn't see what was happening outside at all.

What's going to happen next? Oh, Ah Mei will come in, hold your hand, then use a wedding scale to lift your red veil, then drink the nuptial wine, then the camera will focus on them through the red candles, the image will blur, and finally the two of them will fall onto the bed together. As for kissing scenes or bed scenes, of course, that's impossible.

Soon she heard footsteps entering the room. As a musician, Vivian Chow's ears are very sensitive. She realized something was wrong; the footsteps were heavier than Anita Mui's.

But she can't lift the veil now, as filming has already begun.

The person sat down next to her, and Zhou Huimin instinctively moved to the other side. Then the person picked up the wedding scale and pointed it at her red veil.

When the obstruction in front of him was lifted, Wei Ming, dressed in ancient-style groom attire, appeared before him.

Vivian Chow's eyes lit up instantly; Ah Ming in period costume looked even more handsome!

She almost blurted it out, then heard Wei Ming say, "Greetings, my lady."

Besides Wei Ming, the photographer also came in carrying a camera. Zhou Huimin suppressed her surging excitement and continued to reply according to her lines: "Greetings, my lord."

"Cut!" Xu Ke popped up. "This shot is done. Get ready for the toast."

Zhou Huimin suppressed all her doubts and began filming the cross-cupped wine scene again. There were basically no lines, just drinking straight, mostly water, but Amin's eyes were already somewhat drunk when she looked at Wei Ming.

After finishing the drink, it was time for the wedding night. This part was filmed very subtly; they didn't even capture the two kissing. With so many people around, they definitely didn't go all out. Ah Min is still a baby.

However, after the crew members had all left the room, before Amin could make a move, Wei Ming kissed her directly, very forcefully.

The two, dressed in their wedding attire, immediately got up on the bright red bed.

After a long while, Amin was finally able to catch her breath and ask, "How could it be you?"

Wei Ming: "I actually came to Hong Kong a long time ago, but I didn't look for you until today. I wanted to give you a surprise. I've already won over director Tsui Hark and Anita Mui."

Upon hearing that Wei Ming had deliberately created a surprise for her, Amin's eyes immediately welled up with tears. So that's how it was; all her sadness these past few days had been for nothing.

However, I was genuinely happy when I saw Wei Ming. This kind of extreme joy and sorrow is probably what love is all about.

At this moment, all her worries, grievances, and uncertainty about the future vanished. So what if she wasn't his only one? All she wanted now was to consummate their marriage.

However, at this moment a sneaky figure appeared. It was Anita Mui. She was still wearing the groom's clothes, and she even had two sets.

Remembering that Wei Ming hadn't agreed to let her appear in the music video before, Amin asked, "Do I have to act it out with Amei again?"

Anita Mui waved her hand and began to take off her clothes: "No, I have completely handed over this role to Mr. Wei. I'm here to say goodbye to you all. Oh, and Mr. Wei, don't forget that you owe me a song."

Zhou Huimin looked at Wei Ming, who gave Anita Mui an OK sign: "I'll give it to you when I come to Hong Kong next month."

After she left, Wei Ming told Amin, "Do you think it's that easy to get her to cooperate with me? It's not just about having a song, but also about tailoring it to her temperament and voice."

"Thank you for your hard work, my dear Amin." Amin pinched Wei Ming's cheek.

At this moment, Xu Ke popped up again and said, "Still lying in bed? Go change your clothes."

The two quickly got up and changed from their wedding attire into casual clothes to film the scene of them painting and playing the zither.

To appease his girlfriend, Wei Ming, who usually avoids appearing in public to increase his exposure, made an exception this time and starred in Amin's first music video.

However, his role is relatively small. After filming the bedroom scenes, a few outdoor shots will be enough. The main focus is on Amin, and that's what the audience and fans want to see.

Afterwards, Wei Ming changed his clothes again and filmed an outdoor scene. He finished filming all his scenes for the day. Amin still had two more days of filming. She thanked the crew members for their hard work and then got into Wei Ming's car.

"How was your first time filming?" Wei Ming asked Amin.

"Hmm, it's quite fun, not as difficult as I thought." Amin was a little proud; the filming went much more smoothly than she had imagined.

Wei Ming: "Because this is a music video, not a real TV drama, not only will the audience not be too picky about your performance, but there is also no need for dialogue. The director can express the emotions through editing."

"Oh, I thought I was pretty good," Amin said, humbly accepting Wei Ming's guidance. "How's your movie coming along?"

Wei Ming: "I've already had a detailed talk with the director today and also visited the set. I'll be coming to Hong Kong again in a week or two, and I'll stay for two months then."

Hearing this, Amin was overjoyed, knowing that she wouldn't be lonely this summer.

"Do you need me to play a cameo role in this movie?" Amin asked. "And also to experience how difficult it is to actually act."

"Okay."

There really isn't a suitable role for Amin in this story, but Wei Ming will try his best to find one. After all, it's Zhou Huimin's film debut, which will help the box office to some extent.

It's a trend for singers to act in movies these days. Although Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung are primarily singers, they've been acting in quite a few movies lately, and because of their loyal fans, their films have performed well at the box office.

On the way, Wei Ming told Amin about the story of "Home Alone".

"My cousin Xizi has been cast as the male lead, and my father will come to Hong Kong as his temporary guardian."

"What about Auntie? I want to eat her cooking," Amin asked.

"I'll try my best to bring my mom over too," Wei Ming said, adding that it was indeed inappropriate to keep the elderly couple separated for so long.

Once downstairs, Wei Ming parked the car: "I'm going to check on Lao Gui and Grandma Ni. Should I take you home first, or do you want to come upstairs with me?"

"I'll go up with you." After saying that, Amin took the initiative to kiss him.

Before getting out of the car, the two cuddled together for a while. When they went upstairs, Wei Hong opened the door for them.

Seeing that the two people had come up together, holding hands, Wei Hong was very surprised. What had happened in just one day?

"Grandpa, Grandma, my brother and Amin are here!" Wei Hong called out.

Old Gui put down the map and took off his reading glasses.

"Coming."

Lin Ni laughed and said, "I thought you were too busy to come today. Your grandfather and I are looking at houses."

Wei Ming asked with a smile, "So you're finally getting ready to buy a house? The prices are definitely about right now."

He glanced over and asked, "Are you all looking at buildings?"

"Otherwise what?" the old ghost retorted.

Wei Ming: "Such a big boss, why doesn't he buy a villa? My aunt bought a villa, which cost almost ten million."

Old Gui rolled his eyes at him: "Do you think we catering companies are like toy companies, where one hit product can make us soar to the sky? We are all down-to-earth, taking it one step at a time. Every penny we earn is hard-earned, and we reinvest all our profits into buying shops and opening new stores. Ah Fen and I are both on salaries."

Although the salary is high, it's not as high as Liu Bin's; it's only enough to buy an apartment.

Wei Ming sat down and said, "Then you should buy an apartment. Amin, listen to me, let your aunt buy a villa. Now that you're becoming more and more famous, it's not safe if there are too many neighbors. You need to be more careful about privacy in the future."

Zhou Huimin readily agreed: "Okay, I'll listen to you."

Now she is driven to and from school by a driver, otherwise she would hardly be able to get around. Wei Ming's suggestion is very constructive.

She didn't know how much money her mother had, but she had some money of her own. Thanks to Sister Hong's management, her money was now generating more money than before, and she also received another sum of money after the release of her new album.

Moreover, buying a villa would give him more private space to spend alone with Ah Ming.

Hearing her say that, Lin Ni shook Lao Gui's arm: "I don't want to be separated from Afen and Amin. Let's continue to be neighbors, okay? I also want to live in a big villa."

Old Gui couldn't stand her coquettishness, especially in front of the child, so he said helplessly, "Buy, buy, buy. I'll have Afen look for nearby villas to sell later. We can just close two less stores."

Wei Ming: "It's not that bad. You can buy a villa on mortgage. Once the Sino-British negotiations are over, the economy will definitely recover. You can hold onto the money and start your business." "We'll talk about that later. I heard from Lingling and Xiaohong that you're planning to make game consoles," Lao Gui pulled Wei Ming to sit down. "I don't quite understand. Why would you think of getting involved in this field? Isn't this just a waste of time?"

Wei Hong hung her head. She had just shown off her gaming achievements in front of her grandfather and had been scolded.

Wei Ming asked, "Grandpa, let me ask you, does reading novels count as indulging in trivial pursuits and neglecting one's duties?"

"How can that be considered novels? Novels have existed since ancient times, and reading novels can improve one's literary literacy."

"Is that young man reading comics?" he asked again.

"Well, some people aren't into written text, so reading comics is understandable." At this point, Lao Gui was already a little hesitant. In fact, he felt that it wasn't good for young people to always be reading comics.

"Then let's watch a movie."

"Then it's purely for leisure, it's not very useful, but it can help pass the time and relieve boredom," Old Ghost said.

Wei Ming clapped his hands: "Games were created to provide entertainment and relieve boredom. As productivity increases, humans will no longer need to work from dawn till dusk. As development progresses, humans will use less time to meet their survival needs. With that extra time, some people will want to work overtime to earn more money, while others will definitely feel content. They will use that extra time to play, to have entertainment, to play games..."

Wei Hong and Amin sat side by side, listening attentively to the lesson.

Wei Ming: "Just like those developed countries now, they have a huge demand for entertainment, so they need music, movies and games even more, and they do a better job in these areas. We want to start a game company to make money from developed countries, and that money is too easy to make."

"At its peak, Atari's annual sales revenue reached $11 billion, making it the most profitable subsidiary of Warner Bros., far surpassing Warner Bros. Pictures. In contrast, Langning Toys' revenue last year was less than $200 million, yet it was practically the strongest toy company in Asia."

Hearing that game companies were making so much money, even Lin Ni sat down and listened attentively. Old Gui felt a little better when he heard that his daughter and grandson were making money in developed countries.

"Won't this game console enter the mainland market?" He was mainly worried that Chinese people would become distracted by entertainment and forget the mission of China's rejuvenation.

Wei Ming said: "A game console costs more than one hundred US dollars, and a game cartridge costs tens of US dollars. How can people on the mainland afford it? When will mainland residents be able to afford it? This shows that the mainland's economy has developed to a certain level, and there is a group of wealthy people who need higher-level spiritual and cultural needs. This is actually a good phenomenon."

Old Ghost nodded, "That's true."

Wei Ming had an even more important purpose: "Xiao Hong, did you bring your game console?"

Wei Hong casually pulled out a Nintendo Game & Watch handheld console.

Wei Ming casually picked one up: "This little thing is worth about twenty or thirty dollars. Grandpa, let me ask you, how much fried chicken do you need to sell to earn twenty or thirty dollars?"

"I'd like five or six family buckets."

"That's the problem. This little thing is small, but it's expensive. That's the power of technology. The gaming industry is so profitable that all the major manufacturers are desperately developing new technologies. Although these new technologies may seem to be just to make games more fun and game consoles smaller, they involve high-tech technologies such as semiconductors and chips. In fact, it's a high-tech industry."

Hearing this, even Old Ghost became serious, his eyes revealing a humble attitude of seeking advice.

Teacher Wei stood up and said as he walked, "We call the first industrial revolution the steam age, the second industrial revolution the electrification age, and now we are in the midst of the third industrial revolution, which I would like to call the information age. Its representative symbol is the computer."

Amin nodded as if she understood, and then asked her mother to buy her a computer, but the computer was not fun at all.

Wei Mingdao: "China has missed the opportunities of the first and second industrial revolutions in the past few hundred years. Whether it can overtake other countries in the competition depends on the third industrial revolution. This is why my aunt and I want to develop the game industry. Games are just the surface. The deeper purpose is actually for the semiconductor industry and to cope with the future wave of information technology."

After he finished speaking, everyone agreed and no one objected. Amin even led the applause for him. He knew so much, he was so knowledgeable. If a correspondence student from Peking University was this amazing, then what about the undergraduate students from Peking University? She glanced at Wei Hong, who was dizzy from being talked to, and thought, "He's not that great, is he?"

Wei Hong realized that there was such a significant mission behind her playing video games.

Although Lao Gui still didn't fully understand, he knew he might really be getting old.

For the sake of his poor children left behind in mainland China, he decided to start his own business, choosing the snack industry because he knew that people cannot live without food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, and food is the least expensive and the most basic human need.

People can live without buying a car or a house, but they cannot live without eating.

The grandson and daughter, on the other hand, are highly educated and have seen the world. Their business targets people's spiritual world: comics, toys, movies, and games. These seemingly intangible things now seem to have more potential than the tangible things like food, clothing, and shelter.

Old Gui nodded with satisfaction: "If I have the chance, I really want to visit Japan and the United States, these countries that were our former rivals. Although they were our defeated opponents, there are indeed things we can learn from them."

Lin Ni said, "Go ahead, I asked you to go to Japan last time, but you didn't go."

Old Ghost shook his head: "My identity is special, and I don't want to cause trouble for my elder brother."

This is the bond between the brothers. He is a man who shouldn't be alive. Running around recklessly is bad for his older brother, and he's unwilling to take any risks, even if they are small.

Unless the Kuomintang steps down or his elder brother passes away, he would rather grow old and die in Hong Kong.

Today, Grandpa had a great time chatting with his grandson. He even asked Wei Hong for a game console to play. After much deliberation, Wei Hong gave her grandfather the game console she had completed the fastest.

Wei Ming said, "These handheld games are not very playable. Next month, Japan will release a groundbreaking game console that can be connected to a TV. I will send you a set then."

The old ghost smiled and said, "Good, good, good."

It was getting late, and Zhou's mother must be getting anxious, so Wei Ming took Amin home and promised to go to the film set to accompany her again the next day.

Wei Hong: "Me too! Me too! I've never seen Amin in ancient costume before!"

The next day, Wei Ming first took Wei Hong to the film set, while he and Li Zhi went to sign a contract. They rented the villa for 10 yuan, which was not cheap, but better than buying one themselves.

Next came the arrangements. As expected, Huang Baiming handed over these specific tasks to his apprentice, Gao Zhisen.

He then returned to work at Cinema City, and then, with great principle, used his off-duty time to revise the script of "Home Alone" to make it more localized, noting that Wei Ming's use of Cantonese in some parts was not good enough.

After Wei Lingling returned, they signed a director contract with Huang Baiming, paying him half of the director's fee upfront, with the other half to be paid once the film was completed.

The budget for this film is HK$300 million, of which HK$100 million is for the director's fee. The remaining HK$200 million is enough to produce a comedy with few scenes.

Huang Baiming was very excited and had already planned how to spend the 100 million. There was also one thing to do: to confront Mai Jia. For this, he called on Xu Ke and Teddy Robin, who had dragged him into this mess.

Xu Ke thought to himself, "What business is it of mine? I'm just going to watch the excitement." But since he was going to watch the excitement, he certainly couldn't miss it, since the music video had already been filmed.

"Ah Huang, you've come at the right time. I haven't seen Gao Zhisen lately. He's in charge of you. Ask him if he doesn't want to work here anymore!" Karl Maka stroked his bald head, looking impatient. Cinema City is too strong now. Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest are being beaten so badly that he's getting a little cocky.

"Oh, it's like this. Young people like him want to improve. A film company outside approached him to be a director, so he wanted to give it a try. Don't worry, you don't need to pay him a salary while he's away. But in the end, he still agreed to work at Cinema City."

Hearing Huang Baiming say this, Mai Jia glanced at Xu Ke. It was all this old monster's fault. If he hadn't gone to Golden Harvest to make a flop like "The New Legend of Shushan", would the newcomers in the company have dared to follow suit?

However, Clifton Ko was, after all, a disciple highly regarded by Wong Pak-ming, and his screenwriting skills were indeed outstanding. Karl Maka only expressed a few words of dissatisfaction, but did not say anything about firing him.

Xu Ke thought to himself: Is that all? I wanted to see rivers of blood!
After sitting down, Karl Maka asked, "Which company is so supportive of its juniors, Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest?"

"Neither, it's DreamWorks Pictures."

“A new company? I’ve never heard of it before,” Maka asked. “Who’s the boss? Do I know him?”

Seeing that Huang Baiming was still trying to cover it up, Xu Ke said directly, "It's that talented man from the mainland, Wei Ming. He even wrote the script himself. Ah Sen really hit the jackpot this time."

"What, Wei Ming's company?"

“Oh, not entirely. Qingniao also made an investment,” Huang Baiming said.

Upon hearing that it was Wei Ming's company, Mai Jia was clearly displeased. He had some past grievances with Wei Ming, but when he thought about how the other party couldn't even hire a decent director and had to borrow a screenwriter from his own company, he felt quite sorry for him.

Thinking about it, Karl Maka laughed: "With Clifton Ko as the director, and Wei Ming not knowing much about movies, I'd like to see if he flops."

Wong Pak-ming smiled and then Karl Maka started talking to Tsui Hark about "Aces Go Places 3".

In order to upgrade the series' scenes and achieve the level of an international action blockbuster, the director was changed from Tsang Chi-wai to Tsui Hark. Of course, Karl Maka, the retired emperor, has more authority than the director, and his opinions should be taken into account.

After he finished speaking, Huang Baiming was about to get up and say goodbye when he casually added, "Oh, and one more thing, Ah Sen is a young man after all and doesn't have much experience. I'm his mentor, so I might have to help him with some guidance. Ah Sen is also very loyal and insists that I be credited as a director, so that we can co-direct. Don't overthink it."

Upon hearing this, Karl Maka didn't immediately understand what it meant, but Tsui Hark and Teddy Robin had already given each other a thumbs up.

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Only cultured people know the art of speaking!

It wasn't until Huang Baiming left the office that Mai Jia realized, wait a minute, is one of the bosses of his own company going to be Wei Ming's director?
This, this, this is outrageous!

(End of this chapter)