Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 167 Busy
[One more update later]

Tianjin, the location for the music video shoot.

"I'm writing it! I'm really writing it!"

Zhang Yan hung up Zhang Guoli's call and couldn't help but rub his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

Ever since that day at the braised mutton restaurant, when he spontaneously conceived of a new time-travel version of "The Dragon and the Phoenix," Zhang Guoli has been the one who has been most concerned about the script. After some consideration, Chen Daoming felt that he was not suitable for such an unconventional role.

Zhang Guoli had never played this kind of role before, but he didn't want to miss this opportunity. He felt that if he prepared well, he should be able to handle the role of Zhu Houzhao.

So he would call every now and then, but instead of asking about the script's progress, he would just keep discussing the plot with Zhang Yan.

"boss Zhang."

Seeing Zhang Yan's troubled expression, Wang Jinghua asked with a smile, "How much have you written so far?"

"Sigh, I'm so busy every day, dealing with things at the film and television base, the New Year's Eve concert, and even arranging to shoot a music video. All I've written so far is one page."

Zhang Yan flipped through his notebook and showed Wang Jinghua a page.

Wang Jinghua quickly skimmed through it and found that the main content was:
A girl named Li Fengjie spent all her time sleeping at home after the college entrance examination, but her grandfather forcibly dragged her to watch Peking Opera.

On the way, she asked her grandfather, "Grandpa, what play is being performed today?"

"Playing with dragons and phoenixes".

Then the lyrics of "Rap Opera Masks" are inserted below:

That day, Grandpa took me to see a Peking Opera. On the stage, there were many painted faces, in red, white, yellow, green, and blue, grinning and glaring, singing and shouting "Waaaaaah..."

As the song played, Li Meifeng drifted off to sleep, feeling utterly bored. The song gradually faded, and the screen darkened.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself lying on a street in the Ming Dynasty, surrounded by a crowd of ancient people.

After reading this.

Wang Jinghua said, both amused and exasperated, "He Zhe, half of this page of yours is lyrics!"

"Isn't this just a convenient way to promote our dream come true?"

Zhang Yan spoke with conviction, saying that he wasn't planning to put too much effort into the script before the new year and would wait until he had more free time during the Lunar New Year.

The two were chatting when Gao Feng burst in with his guitar, ignoring the music video being recorded on stage, and excitedly shouted, "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Zhang, could you give me Zheng Zhihua's contact information?! I want to talk to him more, maybe... no, I'm sure I can write a new song!"

This was clearly an inspiration, and Zhang Yan quickly signaled Wang Jinghua to contact Su Yue.

Su Yue was initially reluctant to give up his contact information, fearing that Yuanmeng would abandon him as the middleman. However, after Zhang Yan assured him, he reluctantly gave up his contact information.

"By the way, Mr. Zhang, I recently found a singer with great potential. I'll take him to Tianjin in a few days so you and Director Zhang can take a look. Please remember to thank Ms. Chen for me; if it weren't for her guidance, I'd still be confused."

"I understand. I'll pass the message on to her later."

Zhang Yan hung up the phone and saw that Gao Feng next to him had already contacted Zheng Zhihua using his mobile phone and was talking and singing on the phone.

"The theme of 'both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family'... yes, yes, it's a bit too narrow in scope. How about changing it to 'Greater China' or 'We all have a home called China'? How about that opening?"
Yes, yes, yes, we should include all the iconic landmarks and buildings...

The century of national humiliation must be mentioned, but not too much; the overall theme is a happy one…

Focusing on people's livelihood? No, no, no, this song just doesn't feel right...

No, no! Absolutely not!

Although the two had never met, they were both creative individuals with a strong sense of national identity and patriotism, so they got along quite well at first.

However, when Zheng Zhihua suggested adding some specific descriptions of people's lives, the two had a conflict in their creative ideas, and later even started arguing with each other from a distance.

Zhang Yan and Wang Jinghua exchanged glances, worried that they might offend Zheng Zhihua and lose a major highlight of the gala, but also afraid that interrupting the two's conversation would affect Gao Feng's composition. Although they had only heard Gao Feng hum a few lines, they were fairly certain that the song was of high quality and the kind of song particularly suitable for a large-scale gala.

Fortunately, the two sides eventually reached a compromise. Gao Feng's song mainly adopts a grand narrative, while Zheng Zhihua wrote another song that starts from the people's livelihood on the island, criticizes pro-independence sentiments, and calls for unification.

Gao Feng's song is called "Great China," and Zheng Zhihua's song is tentatively titled "Great Citizen."

In the following days, Gao Feng also began to go into seclusion.

However, his seclusion was very different from Xu Wei's. Xu Wei's seclusion was a true seclusion, where he stayed in his room and focused on creating, while Gao Feng's seclusion involved him running around everywhere once inspiration struck.

On one occasion, he even went to Han Hong's apartment in the middle of the night and asked Han Hong to tell him about the scenery of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

If it were someone else being harassed, it would probably have gone all the way to Zhang Yan. Fortunately, everyone treats Han Hong as a buddy, so no one thinks there's anything wrong with it.

December arrived in a flurry of activity.

This morning.

Su Yue, with his newly signed singer, rushed to Tianjin in high spirits. On the way, he suddenly spotted two familiar figures wearing trench coats and sunglasses.

"General Manager Zhang? General Manager Chen?"

After careful examination, Su Yue realized that it could only be Zhang Yan and Chen Hong.

He was immediately flattered: "I didn't expect you two to come and pick me up in person, this is truly..."

"President Su, you've misunderstood."

Chen Hong quickly interrupted him, laughing, "Actually, it's Mr. Zhang's sister who wants to bring her boyfriend over."

"Uh~"

Su Yue felt a little embarrassed when he realized he had misunderstood, but he quickly composed himself and pulled the young man behind him over, saying, "This is Huang Gexuan. He, like Mao Amin and Liu Huan, is a disciple of Teacher Gu Jianfen."

The young man named Huang Gexuan quickly explained, "It's different. Sister Min and Brother Huan are both disciples, while I'm just a student in the training class."

Su Yue said confidently, "Once you become famous, you'll definitely be able to gain entry into the inner circle!"

Then he introduced Huang Gexuan: "These two are Mr. Zhang and Mr. Chen from Yuanmeng Records. Whether you can make a splash at the concert this time depends on Mr. Zhang and Mr. Chen!"

Upon hearing this, Huang Gexuan grinned at the two of them, seemingly wanting to please them, but unsure of what to say.

"Brother, sister-in-law!"

At this moment, Zhang Fang and Kang Hui also arrived. Although Zhang Yan was somewhat opposed to his sister dating so early, he had to admit that the two of them standing together did indeed give off a feeling of being a perfect match.

While Zhang Yan was scrutinizing the two, Zhang Fang nudged Kang Hui from behind, and Kang Hui awkwardly called out "Brother," then called Chen Hong "Sister-in-law."

Chen Hong laughed and said, "No wonder Fangfang chose him; the young man is indeed very handsome."

Zhang Fang smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, I'm the same as you; I mainly value inner qualities."

"Yes, yes, we are both people who value inner qualities."

The two sisters-in-law chatted and laughed, while Zhang Yan and Kang Hui stared at each other, both quick-witted as ever, as if they had been sealed into silent gourds, neither of them having figured out what to say.

Zhang Yan then turned to Su Yue and said, "After you've settled in, contact Jinghua first. I might not have time to entertain you today. Once you've gotten past Brother Ning, I'll arrange a feast for you tomorrow to welcome you back."

Su Yue hurriedly replied, "Okay, okay, Mr. Zhang, don't worry, the talent you selected is absolutely top-notch, and the voice is especially suitable for the song 'Spring Water Flows'."

[PS: For details on Huang Gexuan's works, please see the author's notes.]

(End of this chapter)