Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 171 Mei Gu and the Conflict

While Zhang Yan delivered a passionate speech at the mobilization meeting, Mei Yanfang, who had been struggling with this decision for many days, finally arrived in Tianjin.

In truth, she didn't want to come. At this stage, Hong Kong Island attaches far more importance to the Lunar New Year than the mainland, and many events are waiting for her to attend at the end of the year.

Compared to this inexplicable New Year's Eve concert in mainland China, the events in Hong Kong are definitely more important to her.

But no way.

She overdid it a bit last year.

As the 97th anniversary approaches, many celebrities on the island are actually a little uneasy, which is why their charity performances for disaster relief during the East China floods last year received such a huge response.

As one of the organizers, Anita Mui shed tears on stage during the charity performance, pleading: "Save our compatriots!"
When asked later where she was in 97, she firmly stated that she would stay on Hong Kong Island.

Regardless of whether it was staged or not, they did raise a considerable amount of money and received widespread praise from mainland media.

We've received an invitation from a mainland concert organizer, who wants to bring together patriots from across the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong. We've all seen Anita Mui's performance during last year's East China floods, so we've decided to invite you to participate in this concert.

If you were in that situation, what would you do?
They were so patriotic last year, they can't go back on their word now, can they?

Mui Yan-fang had been hoping that the other party was just a makeshift team, so that her absence would be understandable.

But the closer it got to the end of the year, the more frequent the news came from the other side: big names from the mainland gathered, important figures would be present in person, and the event would be broadcast simultaneously in multiple provinces and cities across the country...

In the end, Anita Mui had no choice but to accept the invitation. This was for the mainland audience as well as for the Hong Kong media—those paparazzi who thrive on chaos would not miss any opportunity to slap a star in the face.

After landing at Tianjin Zhangguizhuang Airport.

As soon as they stepped off the tarmac, Wang Fei greeted them with a smile, "Aunt Mei, I've been waiting for you for so long! I'm so glad you're here!"

As fellow artists in the Hong Kong music scene, Anita Mui certainly knew Faye Wong, but they weren't close, given the significant difference in their current status.

She smiled politely at Wang Fei and said in slightly broken Mandarin, "As you know, there are many events in Hong Kong around Christmas."

As soon as she finished speaking, the person next to Wang Fei praised her, "Your Mandarin is so good—Anita Mui, on behalf of Dream Company, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you for taking time out of your busy schedule to participate in this New Year's Eve concert."

As he spoke, he extended his hand to Mei Yanfang.

Wang Fei quickly said, "This is Chen Hong, she is..."

Mei Yanfang grasped Chen Hong's hand and smiled, "I know the female lead of 'The Male and Female Detectives'."

"The Male and Female Detectives" is the name TVB gave to "Tianjin Wei".

Fortunately, the Cantonese dubbing and subtitles were overseen by Sil-Metropole, who ensured that no lines related to Tianjin were changed. Otherwise, it would have been like throwing good money after bad, with absolutely no promotional effect.

Wang Fei added, "Chen Hong is also the girlfriend of Zhang Yan, the boss of Yuanmeng Company."

Chen Hong also laughed and said, "My boyfriend originally wanted to pick me up at the airport in person, but unfortunately, there was a meeting at the municipal government, and we needed him to be there to give some advice, so..."

Upon hearing this, Mei Yanfang's gaze towards Chen Hong changed, and on the way to the hotel, she and Chen Hong chatted quite congenially.

It can only be said that as a former Miss Hong Kong from Yangcheng Lake, Wang Fei understands the mentality of Hong Kong stars very well. They look down on most people in the mainland, but because 97 is approaching, they also have an instinctive fear of the power elite in the mainland.

As the biggest star of this concert, Anita Mui naturally received top-tier treatment, occupying three suites on the top floor along with her entourage—the remaining one was given to Zheng Zhihua.

Furthermore, Yuanmeng specially arranged six security guards, divided into three groups, to guard the stairwell 24 hours a day.

After seeing the six security guards standing at attention, Mei Yanfang became even more convinced that Yuan Meng's background was extraordinary, and even sketched out a rough portrait of Zhang Yan in her mind:
He's in his forties or fifties, pot-bellied, and exudes an air of pampered luxury. He's also probably a womanizer, otherwise why would he date a young star like Chen Hong?
With this in mind, when Zhang Yan and Chen Hong invited her to lunch in the evening, Mei Yanfang couldn't help but widen her eyes in surprise: "Mr. Zhang, I really didn't expect you to be such a handsome young man!"

"Haha~"

Zhang Yanlian, after some guessing, understood the meaning behind these words and laughed heartily, saying, "There are many promising young people in the mainland. I'm just lucky enough to have caught the wave of the times."

Mei Yanfang smiled but didn't say anything, but in her heart she secretly raised the level of Zhang Yan's family background—given the impressions Hong Kong stars had of the mainland, someone who could cause trouble at such a young age must be a second or third generation of some family.

However, this softened her stance further, and she cooperated quite well during subsequent rehearsals.

Besides Zhang Yan and Chen Hong, Dou Wei and Wang Fei also dined together that evening.

Dou Wei and Mei Yanfang had met once or twice, after all, he had only become famous in Hong Kong not long ago before falling out with Black Panther.

In fact, he has recently been having a falling out with Zhang Yan.

The main reason was that Zhang Yan wasn't very fond of his experimental avant-garde rock, and even refused to let him sing those songs at his concert, only allowing him to sing a more upbeat song, or simply sing "Dreaming Back to the Tang Dynasty".

Although it was at a banquet welcoming Anita Mui, Dou Wei still wouldn't let go of this issue: "You're practically an insider now, do you dare say my new song isn't awesome?!"

"From a musician's perspective, it is indeed a rather avant-garde musical form, but you have to consider the audience. This is also the New Year. Do you think it's appropriate for you to go up and yell something like 'higher animals' during the New Year?"

"I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's better than letting people listen to those patched-up pop songs..."

Why don't you just call it decadent music?

Zhang Yan raised his hand to stop Dou Wei from speaking, saying, "I don't want to talk to you about music today. If you insist on talking, then tell us what unhappy things happened in Hong Kong, so that everyone can have a laugh too."

"屮~"

Dou Wei raised his middle finger, crossed his arms, and remained silent.

Wang Fei and Chen Hong were already used to it, and Zhang Yan simply apologized to Mei Yanfang, saying, "I'm sorry, Aunt Mei, I've made you laugh."

Mui Yan-fang shook her head slightly and smiled, "In Hong Kong, musicians often argue about their ideas."

Upon hearing the words "Hong Kong Island" and "musician," Dou Wei couldn't help but want to purse his lips, but Wang Fei quickly stuffed a large shrimp into his mouth.

Just then, Zhang Yan's mobile phone rang. Zhang Yan said "Excuse me" to Mei Yanfang, picked up the mobile phone, and went out the door.

As soon as the call connected, Wang Zhongqi said in a panic, "Teacher Zhang, something bad has happened! Zhang Mi's boyfriend and Mao Ning got into a fight, and Mao Ning is saying she's deaf and is insisting on going to the hospital!"

"what happened?"

Zhang Yan hurriedly asked, "Could it be that Mao Ning and Zhang Mi are having an affair?!"

"It's hard to say for sure right now, but Zhang Mi's boyfriend suddenly barged into Mao Ning's dressing room, started arguing with her, and even smashed her head with a Walkman! Mao Ning is now insisting on going to the hospital for a medical examination to gather evidence, and she's even saying she's going to sue Zhang Mi's boyfriend!"

"Tell him to wait. I'll contact the hospital directly for a home visit. Also, have the security guards restrain Zhang Mi's boyfriend and tell him that if he doesn't want to make a big deal out of this, he'd better shut up!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yan felt a headache coming on. Of all the people who came this time, New Era Audio-Visual was the biggest troublemaker, and now it was their top singer who had been beaten up...

At this moment, Chen Hong also came out and asked in a low voice, "Did something happen? I heard you were making a lot of noise outside."

"A fight broke out on the rehearsal site—you keep an eye on things here, I need to go check it out right away."

(End of this chapter)