Exciting 1979!

Chapter 494 Showing One's Face (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
Liang Jiahui then chimed in: "With this award, our campus selection will definitely receive more attention. Thank you so much!"

Liu Rulong introduced, "Ahui is now the deputy editor-in-chief of our magazine, YES!"

"Oh, Editor-in-Chief Liang, my apologies."

"Director Wei, not at all."

After exchanging a few jokes with the two old acquaintances, Liang Jiahui got down to business.

“We’d like to invite Ms. Vivian Chow to be the cover star of the inaugural issue of ‘YES!’, so we were thinking of asking you to help us make the connection.” Liang Jiahui rubbed his hands together, feeling that with a rising star on the team, they could at least directly penetrate the middle school student consumer market.

Logically, Wei Ming should help, since this is also his business, and Amin wants to develop her career in the music industry, so shooting magazine covers is part of her job. However, since he invited her, she would agree whether she wanted to or not.

Therefore, Wei Ming said, "Since this is official business, personal feelings should not be mixed in. You should invite them yourselves. I have faith in your abilities."

Next, Wei Ming and A Long went into his office, where he had something to say to Wei Ming.

"The Shangguan brothers have already left Yulang International. Shangguan Xiaobao still wants to continue creating and use our channels to publish his comic books. As for Shangguan Xiaowei, I would like to invite him to be the comic instructor for Kuangren. Many of our young comic artists still have a gap in basic skills compared to the older generation. We can learn a lot from their experience."

Wei Ming nodded: "It's very necessary. Among the cartoonists in the company, apart from you, Ma Rongcheng, and Niu Lao, whose skills are comparable to Japanese manga, and Li Zhiqing who draws The Legend of the Condor Heroes, who has his own unique style, the other cartoonists' styles are still a bit lacking. After all, they are just teenagers and young people in their early twenties, and they haven't developed their own style yet."

“Liangzi has been doing well lately. He’s now supporting ‘Qin’s Moon’ on his own, and my name isn’t on it anymore. Take a look.” He showed Wei Ming some of Long Aotian’s recent paintings.

"Yes, he has your spirit. I hope he can find his own path."

Currently, only four of Kuangren Comics have a market internationally: Dragon Ball, Transformers, Storm Riders, and Qin's Moon. Among them, Dragon Ball, which was released the latest, has received the strongest response.

Wei Ming had already read Zhao Rude's "City Hunter" before. The story was very well written and full of highlights, but the level of young people's manga skills was still not as good as that of the genius Hojo Tsukasa.

In fact, Hojo Tsukasa is not very old, only 24 years old, but he has become famous in Japan with "Cat's Eye". Recently, he was introduced to Hong Kong by Wong Yuk-long's "Yuk-long Comics", which has set off a reading craze.

Ah Long pulled another invitation out of the drawer: "For you."

Wei Ming took the invitation and saw that it was from ATV, inviting him to be a judge for the first Miss Asia pageant.

"Wow, this is going to be done."

Ah Long said, "Your talent is well-known. If the Miss Hong Kong pageant hadn't ended in June, Mr. Shao would probably have invited you too."

It should have been held a long time ago. ATV delayed it because it wanted to link the competition results with the Miss World pageant.

Currently, if you win the Miss Asia pageant hosted by ATV, you can directly advance to the Miss Universe pageant. This pageant has not yet been bought by a reliable company.

"Are there any beauties in this year's Miss Hong Kong pageant?" Wei Ming asked, accepting the invitation but unable to resist thinking of Michelle Reis.

At this moment, Lizhi knocked on the door and came in. The office door was open, and she listened outside for a while: "Miss Hong Kong is just so-so. I think the winner, Yang Xueyi, is far inferior to me."

Yang Xueyi? Never heard of her before.

Liu Rulong flipped through the bookshelf behind him: "Oh, I have the last two months' worth of Ming Pao here. I actually found it. You can judge for yourself what Sister Li says."

Wei Ming chuckled and said, "Sister Li, she's half a year younger than you."

All three of them were born in 61, the Year of the Ox. According to the month, Ah Long is the oldest, Wei Ming is the tallest, and in terms of bust size, well, she is indeed Sister Li.

Wei Ming glanced at it and realized that the champion didn't really have any special features. Even her face, which was the weakest point of Li Zhi's, was inferior. Not to mention Li Zhi's figure and fair skin, it was a complete knockout.

Lizhi herself was the winner of the second Miss Asia pageant. If she participates this year, no one else will stand a chance.

The first runner-up of this year's Miss Hong Kong pageant caught Wei Ming's eye, not because of her beauty. Although she won the Miss Photogenic award, Wei Ming didn't think she was that pretty. However, her acting skills were superb.

Because her name is Zhang Manyu.

Right now, she can't really talk about acting skills. She's just a 19-year-old girl with buck teeth who has some aspirations for the entertainment industry. She mainly lived in the UK before returning to Hong Kong last year to develop her career.

Wei Ming felt he could call her over to play a small role, so that when they watched "Home Alone" again, they could say that every character was a star.

Wei Ming accepted ATV's invitation and replied using Ah Long's phone. However, he would only participate in the finals, as he was quite busy. He needed to create the follow-up storylines for several of Madman Comics' works independently or in collaboration with the screenwriters, especially for several top-tier comics, which he absolutely could not afford to deviate from.

ATV happily accepted, and then, the day after Wei Ming, Cheng Long, and Hung Chin-po had dinner, TVB also extended an invitation, inviting Wei Ming to serve as a judge for the second New Talent Singer Competition.

As a master of impartiality, Wei Ming treats women this way as well as television stations. So, after confirming that the finals of the two programs would not clash, he agreed to serve as a judge for the finals of the New Talent Singer Competition.

The invitation was also sent to Vivian Chow and Anita Mui, the two most famous contestants from the first season. Anita Mui couldn't refuse to participate, and after being persuaded by Anita Mui, Vivian Chow also agreed to participate, as a way to promote her new album.

As for the cover star and interview invitation from YES! magazine, she was initially hesitant.

However, when Liang Jiahui mentioned that their magazine was a sister publication of "Madman Comics," Amin didn't hesitate at all.

"Thank you, Ms. Vivian. When should we take the photos? The inaugural issue will be released in early August, so it would be best to finish the shoot this week. We need a set of photos."

"Then let's do it this Friday."

Because Amin had to take photos on Friday, Wei Ming and Sister Xue finally had time to watch "Lucky Stars" together. Wei Ming even had to pretend it was his first time watching it, even though he had actually done it six or seven times in his past lives.

The film has now easily surpassed 1000 million at the box office, and Raymond Chow has asked the screenwriter to start working on the script for the second part of "Lucky Stars" so that they can continue filming once Hung Chin-po and the others return from Europe.

Oh no, Ah Long still has to film that Hollywood blockbuster, so we'll have to postpone it a bit. Hopefully, it can be made in time for next year's Spring Festival.

He then asked Ho Kwun-cheung, who was sitting next to him, "Kwun-cheung, when will Wei Ming's movie 'Home Alone' be released?"

"They say it's Christmas."

"Oh, Christmas." For some reason, Raymond Chow instinctively breathed a sigh of relief. It shouldn't be like this. He heard that the male lead was just a little boy from the mainland, not Li Lianjie. What was he afraid of?

Although he is not Li Lianjie, Xizi now often refers to himself as Li Lianjie's junior brother and can even strike a pose in a convincing manner.

After watching the movie with Wei Ming, Gong Xue inquired about Xi Zi's condition.

“My grandpa takes care of him and loves him very much. I saw that my stepmother is still so young, so I advised them to have another child, but he scolded me.”

Gong Xue covered her mouth and chuckled: "That's right, how can you joke about your elders like that, especially your grandfather?"

Wei Ming didn't say one thing: he felt that his grandfather was being too good to Xizi. He heard from Xiao Hong that his grandfather even took Xizi to work, and that he was cultivating Xizi's temperament as a middle-class Hong Kong child for the sake of their movies.

I think Xiaohong is jealous. She's probably thinking: Am I the one who's ...?

When Gong Xue went home to rest, he asked Wei Hong about her stock trading.

"Oh, I lost over ten thousand yesterday."

"what?!"

"Don't worry, a few hundred thousand dollars won't cripple her $400 million principal." Moreover, in addition to the $400 million principal, there is also $800 million in leverage, which means Wei Hong is controlling a huge sum of $1200 million. A loss of a few hundred thousand dollars would only result in a fluctuation of one percentage point.

There was a TV in their bedroom, so after their lovemaking, Wei Ming turned on the TV and tuned to ATV, where he happened to see the preliminary rounds of the Miss Asia pageant.

Seeing that Wei Ming stopped watching this channel and was watching very attentively, Xue Jie's little foot under the blanket playfully slapped Wei Ming's leg.

"So many beautiful women, isn't it beautiful?"

Wei Ming stared intently and said, "They're all just ordinary women, far inferior to my two older sisters. I'm only doing this for work."

"Work? What kind of work?"

Then Wei Ming told her about the beauty pageant judges.

Gong Xue crossed his arms: "Why would they ask you to be a judge for something like this?"

“Didn’t you see Wong Jim and Chua Lam on the judging panel? Writers are the best at discovering beauty, so it’s perfectly normal to have writers as judges. Besides, I have a lot of collaborations with ATV and we have a good relationship.” He said this, and Gong Xue expressed her understanding. Then she watched with Wei Ming and pointed at the contestants as they appeared. She also kept a close eye on Wei Ming to see which contestant made him react the most strongly.

It has to be said that Sister Xue has also gone astray in capitalist society. She used to be such a pure and innocent girl.

Suddenly, a face that looked both young and mature appeared, and Gong Xue looked at Wei Ming and nodded.

Wei Ming said awkwardly, "To show respect."

This girl is only 16 years old, just meeting the entry requirements for Miss Asia, and she is studying abroad. She secretly registered for the competition during her summer vacation without telling her family.

Her name is Ye Yuqing.

She was originally supposed to participate in the first Miss Asia pageant two years later, and debut as the third place winner, Miss Fitness, and Miss Personality. Unexpectedly, the Miss Asia pageant started two years earlier, but she still participated.

Of the two leaves from Hong Kong, Wei Ming preferred this one. Although the other leaf was bigger, what good was its size? It was too stingy. Unlike this leaf, who came from a good family and was willing to show her face in public.

Before long, Wei Ming saw a familiar face again. Xie Ning, who was supposed to be the Miss Hong Kong winner two years later, was also participating.

Her most famous role is Su Ying in "The Legendary Twins", and she also married Cen Jianxun, who has curly hair.

It seems that linking Miss Asia with Miss Universe is indeed attractive, even the future Miss Hong Kong winner has come.

However, even if they win the title, they have little hope in the Miss Universe global competition because they are too short. Many of the contestants from abroad are models, and 1.7 meters is the minimum height.

If Michelle Reis were to come in two years, there would still be some hope.

The mature Michelle Reis is 172cm tall. As a mixed-race person, her facial features are both Eastern and Western in appearance.

In fact, Michelle Reis also wanted to participate in the Miss Asia pageant, as more exposure would allow her to take on more advertisements to supplement her family's income. Unfortunately, the standard was that she had to be at least 16 years old, and at 13, she had no chance.

So I could only send out a few photos at random to participate in the Hong Kong Youth Star competition organized by "Madman Comics". If I could win the championship, there would be a generous reward.

The "Madman Comics" magazine, published in mid-July, was brought back by my mother early this morning after she returned from grocery shopping.

"Honey, you've made it into the top ten!" Li Jiaxin's mother told her the good news.

Michelle Reis was not surprised at all; she felt that if she hadn't been shortlisted, the Madman Comics editorial department would probably be without any men.

Unless the staff are all women and they are jealous of her appearance, she would not be selected.

She checked and saw that she had not only been selected, but was also ranked first. This must be a kind of recognition for herself.

What surprised her even more was that she saw that this season's champion prize had been expanded to include a role in Wei Ming's new film, "Home Alone"!
Although the man hadn't contacted her since filming "The Witness," she had kept up with his news during that time.

The most impressive achievement was winning the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Back then, King Hu was overjoyed when his film "A Touch of Zen" only won a technical award, and from then on, he embarked on a path of deep artistic pursuit, making films at a slower pace.

The technical awards don't even rank highly in Cannes; it's true that outstanding people excel at everything they do.

Michelle Reis immediately tore off the voting page, selected herself in the girls' group, and randomly selected one in the boys' group and sent it out.

Because the results of this selection are not yet available and need to be determined by reader votes, although Wei Ming could manipulate things behind the scenes, he didn't want to do it so carelessly. It was a bit inappropriate to call Zheng Yijian and Li Jiaxin over to film a movie when the voting had just begun.

But the crew can't really wait until next month to start filming, otherwise they might not be able to finish filming during the summer vacation, and Xizi is eager to go back to second grade.

Therefore, it was decided to proceed with filming as scheduled, shooting all the exterior scenes first, and then focusing on filming the scenes inside the villa.

"Good luck with the boot!"

Wei Ming, Biaozi, and Xizi all came on the day filming started.

Biaozi exclaimed, "Ming-ge, you've finally shown up! I've been feeling lost these past few days without seeing you."

Wei Ming: "Why are you so down and out? Did Zhen Zidan not treat you well?"

"No, he's been pretty free lately, and he's been driving me around quite a bit," Biaozi chuckled. "You know what? This kid's about to become the lead actor. His master has prepared a movie for him called 'Laughing Tai Chi,' which will be filmed soon."

"So it means it hasn't been filmed yet, right?" Wei Ming laughed. "We'll have him come over and play a cameo role later."

"Okay, he respects me, his senior brother, very much and is very obedient."

The role of the strange neighbor played by Biaozi is mostly filmed on location, so his scenes will be shot on the first day. He has already been made up, which not only enhances his fierce and menacing appearance but also makes him look older.

Wei Ming spent two days on set, and "Home Alone" quickly got on track. Although Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen were both directing for the first time, Gao Zhisen was extremely talented, while Huang Baiming had extensive experience on set. The two worked together seamlessly.

Huang Baiming was also afraid of ruining his reputation, so he didn't hand over all the actual work to his apprentices as he initially said. In fact, he did both the work and the effort.

However, Karl Maka is no longer making things difficult for him, because Wong Pak-ming told Karl Maka that if he can get on good terms with Wei Ming this time, he can get the copyright of the "Happy Ghost" series.

Karl Maka was also eyeing Golden Harvest's comic book adaptation film "Lucky Stars". Although "Happy Ghost" didn't seem to have that much of a blockbuster appeal, he thought, what if the audience liked it?

He was interested in Wei Ming's "Happy Ghost," and Wei Ming was also interested in Huang Baiming.

That evening, Gong Xue returned to Gong Ying's house because Wei Ming had gone to participate in a program recording.

When her mother turned on the TV, the Miss Asia pageant finals were in progress, and the contestants were all wearing swimsuits. Gong Xue felt somewhat embarrassed watching this scene with her parents. What made it even more embarrassing was that Wei Ming was commenting on the contestants' figures, acting as if he knew a lot about them.

~
15-year-old Yvonne Yung is tall and has long legs. She has dreamed of becoming a dancer since she was a child. Two years ago, she even went to Yenching University to study dance. Her parents both work at Tsinghua University, and she grew up in Tsinghua Garden. She comes from a scholarly family.

At that time, she was studying dance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Today, she happened to see the Miss Asia Pageant on TV and couldn't help but compare herself to the beauties.

Finally, she couldn't help but feel smug; these contestants' posture seemed rather poor.

She went to the mirror to look at her posture, which she had developed from dancing since childhood, especially her swan neck. If she were to participate, she would definitely win the championship easily, but that was not her ambition.

~
“Amin, it’s just that you’re not interested in this. Otherwise, you would definitely have won the championship if you participated!” Wei Hong and Zhou Huimin were sitting on the sofa, watching the Miss Asia beauty pageant.

Actually, the main reason was to see Wei Ming, to see if he was giving special treatment to any particular player.

Although Vivian Chow's attitude towards this relationship has changed, she still doesn't want her man to fall in love with every woman he meets, because she couldn't stand that.

Zhou Huimin glanced at her mother in the kitchen and said softly, "I can't bear to wear a swimsuit and be stared at by so many people."

However, she puffed out her chest, looking somewhat arrogant. But if it really came down to showing off her figure, she was no worse than them, as Ah Hong and Ah Ming both knew.

Ultimately, Lai Yan-shan, who was also a contestant this year and was originally the champion of the original timeline, won the title, while Xie Ning only won the runner-up, which was a bit of a loss compared to the Miss Hong Kong title.

With Wei Ming's strong support, Veronica Yip won third place. The sixteen-year-old flirted with Wei Ming on the judges' panel several times.

Amin looked sullen. Humph, vixen!

And she's just a weaker version of Lizhi, what's there to be so proud of?

Wei Hong stayed at Zhou Huimin's house tonight, and as the night deepened, the two snuggled into bed.

Wei Hong exclaimed excitedly, "Amin, do you know how much money we've made now?"

"how much?"

Wei Hong held up one finger: "It's already five hundred thousand, in US dollars!"

Her initial investment was $400 million, of which $300 million belonged to Wei Ming, and the remaining $100 million was split equally between her and Zhou Huimin.

That's the power of leverage, and the market is moving exactly as she predicted.

As the negotiations in Yanjing stalled, the British began to make moves. The first was that Jardine Matheson, a long-established British trading company with a 150-year history, moved its registered office from Hong Kong to Bermuda!

(End of this chapter)