Chapter 203: The Daughter Kingdom King Poisoned by Toxic Grass (Guaranteed 2-in-1)

Zhang Mingmin had not only become a big name in Hong Kong, but he had also gained some fame in Guangdong; however, few people paid attention to the lyricist and composer of those few songs.

Even Liao Mingzu, the boss of Pacific, didn't connect the lyricist and composer "A Ming" with Wei Ming, and he began his great undertaking of covering songs with a clear conscience.

How many tapes could one really smuggle over from Hong Kong? One still had to look at our own localization!

Such good songs could easily reach a million in sales without any problem; according to the rules of the Hong Kong people, a million in sales was equivalent to 20 platinum records.

Wei Ming didn't tell Biaozi or Xiao Mei about his relationship with this album; if they knew he was secretly earning Hong Kong dollars, they would be devastated.

The two of them had finally felt that the gap between them and Brother Ming had narrowed a little, and their hearts were currently filled with grand ambitions.

Besides earning money, their motorcycles arrived two days later—a small-displacement Suzuki. The two of them spent 2,300 yuan, and the right of use belonged to both of them; they would get another one after they earned more money later.

When they returned, they only brought the goods back; the motorcycles were a bit of a struggle. First of all, they were large, and they hadn't come through official channels.

Originally, the two of them thought about dismantling the bikes and mailing them back to Yanjing as parts. Later, fortunately, they met a good big brother from Yanjing in Guangzhou. The big brother did big business and used a train car to haul goods, so he helped them bring the bikes back without even charging a labor fee.

Today they rode the bikes back. Although they weren't as imposing as Wei Ming's, they were enough. This was the second motorcycle for the Peking University Security Office.

On this joyous day, Brother Feng decided to treat the three young people to a meal. Because Biaozi and the others helped bring goods, he had also earned quite a bit of money this time—earning two months' salary in one go.

Brother Feng's mother-in-law nagged every day about when the two young men would go south again so she could continue setting up her stall to sell goods.

The two motorcycles were parked at the entrance of the Long March Canteen, and passersby couldn't help but take a few extra looks.

Outside the door, the two motorcycles were the most eye-catching.

Inside the door, the two foreigners became the focus of the whole room.

They were used to it. They finished their meal under everyone's curious gazes and ran into Wei Ming just as they were about to leave.

"Leonardo!" Li Aiguo and Li Kui were very happy to see Wei Ming.

Wei Ming was too; he hadn't seen them for a long time.

Ever since Melinda left, Wei Ming had also been transferred away from Spoon Garden. His relationship with the international students was like that of a divorced man with his ex-wife's family—the interactions had ceased.

It wasn't that he was deliberately avoiding them, it was just that his recent auditing of classes had been mostly in literature and history, and even when he audited English classes, he audited those for Chinese students.

Biaozi and the others ordered food first, and Wei Ming chatted with his two black and white friends about recent events.

"Do you know? Ma Meilan is getting married!" Li Aiguo told Wei Ming.

Ma Meilan?

Wei Ming took a moment to react. Oh, it seemed she was a female international student from Canada; he had had some contact with her when he was a dorm manager before.

"Who is she marrying?"

"A Chinese student from the Peking University Spanish Department, a transnational marriage," Li Kui said.

"Oh!" Wei Ming was a bit surprised. Although there had been precedents for transnational marriages, this was the first time he had heard of one at Peking University.

Li Aiguo said, "They have already received their marriage certificate in Haidian. We plan to celebrate for them tomorrow. Do you want to come over and join the fun?"

They had already received the certificate. Wei Ming couldn't help but think of Melinda again.

"Sure, I'll definitely be there tomorrow." Anyway, he had nothing else to do tomorrow, so he nodded and agreed.

The next day after work, Wei Ming arrived at Spoon Garden. Old Qin was still guarding the gate, and he smiled and said to Wei Ming, "Long time no see!"

"Yeah, long time no see. I'll head in first."

In the international student canteen, Wei Ming saw many familiar faces—both international students and their companions.

Wei Ming's appearance brought the atmosphere of the scene to a new climax. He was a contemporary Chinese celebrity, and both the bride and groom scrambled to take photos with him.

It was just that he hadn't had many works recently and was a bit low-key, with only one short poem, so everyone started urging him to update.

"Soon, soon, right away, right away." Wei Ming smiled and presented his congratulatory gift.

This was also the first transnational marriage everyone had witnessed. The thin and tall Xiao Cha walked to Wei Ming's side with a wine glass.

"Actually, I originally thought you and Melinda would become the first Chinese-foreign example of marriage here."

Wei Ming smiled: "To each their own."

"Yeah, to each their own. Xiao Zhu is already happily preparing to go to Canada to study abroad with Ma Meilan; he'll probably be a foreign friend in the future." Xiao Zhu was today's male lead, a gentle male college student wearing glasses who looked even more delicate than Ma Meilan, the white foreign girl.

Xiao Cha knew that if Wei Ming had been willing to go to the UK with Melinda back then, he would have definitely gone abroad long ago, and he wouldn't have broken up after going out.

But many international students didn't think much of Ma Meilan and Xiao Zhu, feeling that Xiao Zhu only married Ma Meilan, whose image wasn't very good, just to go abroad. However, it was a case of one willing to hit and the other willing to be hit.

When the party was breaking up, Li Aiguo stopped Wei Ming. He had collected quite a few magazines and wanted to ask if Wei Ming wanted them.

Wei Ming: "Give them to me."

Although they weren't current, they were helpful for him to understand the outside world. He even dared to take *Playboy* if they gave it to him.

"Damn, you guys actually have this!"

Li Aiguo blinked: "Well, we're men."

So when Wei Ming went out, he had a large box in his hands, with *Playboy* hidden at the bottom and magazines like *Time* on top.

When he walked out of the male dormitory building, someone walked out from the opposite female dormitory building.

"Hey, Leonardo!"

"Hi, Susan." This was a black girl, and she was also British. The key was that she had knocked on his door after Melinda left.

Susan told him: "I went back to London last month. Guess who I met?"

"In London? Could it be Elizabeth II?"

"You're still as humorous as ever," Susan revealed a mouthful of white teeth, "I met Melinda. Are you still in contact?"

"Hmm, it's been a while since we were in contact." It had been almost two months since he last wrote to her, but he hadn't received a reply yet.

Susan said: "She's doing very well now. She works at the famous Macmillan Publishers in the UK, dresses decently, has paid off her student loans, and seems to have moved to an expensive apartment in the city center."

"Oh~" Wei Ming thought to himself, could it be that she didn't reply to him because she moved? But she should have said something before moving.

"Thank you, Susan. Thank you for the good news. I'm relieved to hear that Melinda is doing well." After thanking her, Wei Ming hugged the magazines and left, but he was still muttering in his heart: could it be that *Jumanji* sold out, and Melinda couldn't resist the temptation of wealth and ran off?

When he returned home with the box, he happened to see Wu Lao and his wife returning from a walk. They happened to meet on the stairs.

"What is Ma Xiaowei holding?" Old Xiao asked.

"Oh, old magazines given by international student friends. Do you two want to take a look?" Wei Ming asked.

He wasn't afraid of them seeing *Playboy* at all; those who had studied in France had seen everything.

Wu Lao shook his head: "No, no, you keep them and read them yourself. Young people should indeed learn more about the outside world. We are at this age and have long lost that spirit; what we care about most is the price of vegetables nearby."

Wu Lao added: "Oh, there's half a month left until the one-month agreement with Rongbaozhai. How is your foreign exchange coming along?"

Wei Ming: "I'm also waiting for a reply from my Hong Kong friend. If it succeeds, then there will be no problem."

He went up to the third floor, opened the door, and entered the room. It was pitch black and he didn't see Zhu Lin, so he put down the magazines and started to continue perfecting the outline of *The Righteous Path of the Human World* in the study, flipping through foreign magazines when he was tired.

"Whoa, *Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back* has been released!"

This was the second installment of the *Star Wars* original trilogy. The first *Star Wars* set a historical record, and although this second one was slightly worse, it could still crush a crowd of films from the same period.

In North America during the same period, there was a famous film called *The Shining*, which was released later than *The Empire Strikes Back*, but its box office performance was much worse, though its reputation was quite good.

Moreover, *The Shining*'s original author, Stephen King, relied on efficient creation, and recently almost every year had works on the *New York Times* bestseller list. Thinking of the speed at which foreign writers earned money, Wei Ming sincerely hoped that Melinda hadn't run off and hoped that their friendship could continue.

This was the awkwardness of not being able to go out; abroad, he needed Melinda to be his spokesperson.

In Hong Kong, he needed his grandfather and Mao Mao Amin's help. Mao Mao Amin was just a pen pal, and the most reliable one here was his grandfather.

At this time in Hong Kong.

Old Ghost didn't expect the manuscript to be accepted so easily, and it was the leftist newspaper *New Evening Post*. Perhaps they felt that this novel could promote the Terracotta Warriors in the mainland well, so the acceptance and payment were very straightforward, and they even increased the price a bit, giving 3,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Looking at this money in his hand, Old Ghost hesitated.

Anyway, his grandson had already bought a house, so he shouldn't be short of money, right? And didn't he say at the beginning that if he was short of money, he should just take it and use it, considering it as filial piety to him?

He shouldn't have been talking only about the manuscript fee for that novel *Heroes Born in Troubled Times* back then, right?

And it just so happened that he was currently short of money. If he kept this money, he could immediately rent a storefront, upgrade his equipment, and grow bigger and stronger!

So Old Ghost wrote a letter to Wei Ming, planning to act first and report later, renting the storefront first. Anyway, what was his was his grandson's.

On the other side, Zhou Huimin had long ago submitted the three songs of *Water Flower* to PolyGram.

However, that day, she and her mother didn't see Tan Tan Yonglin, nor did they see the general manager. Just a person in charge of a small department received them and even asked how Zhou Huimin's singing was, thinking it was she who wanted to debut.

Mother Zhou immediately protected her daughter behind her and explained their intention. They accepted the songs and then let the mother and daughter go home to wait for news. They had been waiting for several days now.

Zhou Huimin prepared to go again tomorrow. If they weren't interested, she would give them to Brother Zhang Mingmin. Although the style wasn't very suitable, their company might accept them for other singers. She felt that small companies didn't have so many issues, and she could even talk directly to the boss.

Large companies indeed had some "large company syndrome." A few days later, the songs of *Water Flower* finally reached Tan Tan Yonglin's hands.

Tan Tan Yonglin had just finished filming a movie in Taiwan called *Happy Enemies*, and the female lead was Lin Fengjiao, the woman who later gave birth to Jackie Chan's child.

After the Wynners disbanded, Tan Tan Yonglin ventured into the film industry and filmed several movies in Taiwan, collaborating with Lin Fengjiao, Brigitte Lin, and Kuei Ya-lei, but what he truly loved was still music.

Two Cantonese albums had initially established his status as a new generation force in Cantonese songs. Apart from the older generation, no one could suppress him for the time being.

The company felt that the Cantonese song market was the focus, but the Mandarin song market also needed to be consolidated, hoping he could release a Mandarin record for Taiwanese fans. This stumped him; his Mandarin was terrible, and even the tone of his Mandarin singing was very awkward. When filming movies in Taiwan, he used dubbing.

But using dubbing didn't affect him winning the Golden Horse Best Actor award later.

But singing couldn't be dubbed. Perhaps knowing he was a "Mandarin-challenged" person, the company didn't have high expectations for this Mandarin album, only requiring it to be finished before the end of the year.

So Tan Tan Yonglin planned to use a few songs from the movie *Summer Intern* he had filmed before to make up the numbers.

Just then, three songs were handed to him, and they were explicitly written for him. The company's music director had already seen them and gave a very high evaluation, especially the first one, *Water Flower*.

The music director specifically asked him to come to the company tomorrow to try the songs, appearing to attach great importance to them.

And the reason for the importance was mainly because they discovered that a Mandarin album on the market recently was selling quite well and had even entered the Taiwanese market.

And the main songs of this album were all written and composed by a musician named "A Ming," who was also the author who submitted these three songs.

Tan Tan Yonglin played soccer with friends for a day, and the next day he went to the company to try singing a few songs. Although his Mandarin was still terrible, these songs were sung with great feeling. No wonder they said they were tailor-made; they felt very suitable for his vocal range, and he felt very comfortable singing them.

"Director, I want these songs! I think they can be released as soon as possible. I believe Taiwanese fans will like them very much."

!

"Good, I'll contact them right away."

Zhou Huimin left the phone number of a grocery store downstairs, but when she was preparing to go to school in the morning, the aunt in the store bit her toothpick and called her to stop.

"Mao Mao Amin, there's a phone call for you. You should call this number back."

"Did he say what he does?"

"He said, he said he's PolyGram."

Zhou Huimin: "Okay, okay!"

Yanjing.

Today Zhu Lin came to Wei Ming's house. She came to return the tapes. In a few days, she had already recorded two discs, and the master tape was no longer needed.

When she came, Wei Ming hadn't returned home yet. She put down the tapes and didn't leave, habitually starting to help Wei Ming tidy up the house.

Wei Ming wasn't really that lazy; he just felt that if he tidied up, what would Sister Lin do when she came? So he specifically left it for her.

But he shouldn't have, he shouldn't have left that box of foreign magazines directly in the study without putting them away, and then Zhu Lin saw them.

The top layer was *Time* magazine. She couldn't understand it and could only look at the photos.

"Can Ma Xiaowei understand all of this? So amazing!" Zhu Lin sighed, and whenever she saw figures and elements related to China in the magazines, she would be very happy.

After flipping through the *Time* magazine on top, the magazines in the middle were related to sports and entertainment.

Here she saw many Hollywood stars, especially female stars. The clothes on them were really beautiful!

Of course, there were also things that made her frown, feeling they were too revealing, with thighs exposed, and the cleavage on their chests wasn't even covered, just openly shown for people to see.

Zhu Lin continued to dig deeper, and suddenly she was dazzled by something.

So white!

What is this?

She pulled out the magazine, and then she saw a white woman who was almost wearing nothing, only covering the key parts!

Two words popped up clearly in Zhu Lin's mind: "Toxic grass!"

She still recognized the two English words on the cover: "play" and "boy."

This *Playboy* magazine wasn't anything decent. How could Ma Xiaowei have such a thing!

Zhu Lin was heartbroken and decided to critically look at the content inside.

The scale inside was about the same, feeling even more revealing than those medical books in their unit. But the pictures and photos in the medical books made people very calm, while the photos in this magazine made people's hearts unable to be calm, all full of waves.

Zhu Lin hesitated for a moment, closed the study door, and then pulled out another *Playboy*.

Wei Ming ate at the school canteen today and started supervising Biaozi to gain weight and muscle. Anyway, Biaozi wasn't short of money now and could eat to his heart's content.

The brothers had already left the stage where they had to be calculating about eating. Even if the food stamps weren't enough, at most they would just go to the black market and add some money.

Wei Ming, full and satisfied, noticed Sister Zhu Lin's car when he returned home to park. He was very happy. He originally wanted to find an excuse to watch a movie and ask her out tomorrow, but now she came on her own initiative.

Entering the house lightly, Wei Ming didn't see anyone in the living room, and the bedroom door was open but he didn't see her, so she was probably reading a romance novel in the study.

So Wei Ming went to the bathroom to wash up first, and then walked to the study, pushing open the door with a "creak."

The creaking sound wasn't loud, but for Zhu Lin, it was like a thunderclap.

"Ah!" She screamed, throwing the magazine away, and it happened to land on Wei Ming's face. His eyes happened to see a pair of waves.

"Why didn't you say anything when you came back!" Zhu Lin first accused him, trying to muddle through.

Wei Ming held the magazine and smiled: "This is my house. Usually, it's just me. Who should I tell?"

Zhu Lin: "Then, then I'll leave since you're back."

"Have you eaten? Why don't you eat before leaving?"

"No need, I have things to do."

"Do you want to slow down before leaving?" Looking at her red face, Wei Ming suggested. He was really worried about Zhu Lin's state; he felt her walking was a bit floaty.

Zhu Lin felt she was being ridiculed, so she was no longer timid, picked up a *Playboy*, and lectured Wei Ming: "Ma Xiaowei, how can you look at this kind of thing? This is all toxic grass from capitalist countries!"

Wei Ming said playfully: "Wronged! This was all given to me by international student friends. I thought they were just some current affairs and social publications. Who knew it would contain this kind of thing, and it was even dug out by you."

"You really don't know? I see you're not surprised at all. It doesn't look like you're reading it for the first time."

Wei Ming laughed: "I really don't know. If I knew, I wouldn't put it here but by the bedside. But it's true that it's not my first time reading it, so I don't think it's anything strange. I often saw it in the international student building before; boys and girls all love to read it."

"Girls, girls also read it?" Zhu Lin was very surprised. This was all about revealing women, and at a glance, the user group was male readers.

Wei Ming: "They read it. Didn't you just read it with great interest?"

"I, I didn't, I don't, I was criticizing," Zhu Lin defended with a red face, "How would I know if you can read it if I don't read it?"

"That makes sense," Wei Ming applauded, "Then why don't you continue to criticize, I'll go cook for you."

"I don't want to..." Before she finished speaking, Wei Ming actually closed the door.

Zhu Lin's eyes turned red, out of anger. She was angry at herself for not being able to control herself, looking at it endlessly, and even being discovered by Ma Xiaowei.

They were all women. Some of what they had, she also had. What was there to look at? It was just that they were shameless and dared to show it.

And, it seemed, it seemed to be a bit bigger than her own.

Zhu Lin looked down, oh my, how embarrassing.

Having lived for twenty-eight years, this was the first time she felt so embarrassed.

Zhu Lin definitely wouldn't look at it again. She opened the study and prepared to slip away, but Wei Ming really went to the kitchen and was cooking noodles for her.

Zhu Lin walked over, thinking of saying goodbye to Wei Ming, but when the words reached her lips, they changed to: "Don't you think it's indecent for girls to read this kind of toxic grass?"

Wei Ming: "It's okay. It's more indecent for boys to read it. Melinda liked to read it before. She liked to learn the outfits of the models on it to make herself more beautiful."

"Learn that? Can that be worn out?"

"If it can't be worn out, it can be worn for me to see." Wei Ming blurted out.

Zhu Lin: "..."

Humph, men!

But I have to say, the underwear in the magazines was varied and very interesting, indeed better-looking than the fully covered ones she usually wore. It was estimated that if he was used to seeing the colorful underwear of foreign girlfriends, he wouldn't have any waves even if she took off her coat.

Soon Wei Ming made a bowl of hot noodle soup. Although it was dried noodles at the bottom of the noodle contempt chain, it was still quite delicious with a few drops of sesame oil and some chopped green onions.

Zhu Lin was indeed hungry, so she didn't refuse. After Wei Ming said it lightly, she also felt it wasn't a big deal.

Even at the dining table, she discussed the topic of European and American fashion with Wei Ming, which was a bit out of bounds.

"Sister Lin, are you free tomorrow?" Wei Ming asked, "I saw a new movie, *Evening Rain at Mount Ba* from the Shanghai Film Studio. Are you interested?"

"Is it released? I saw reports in *Popular Cinema* before, it seems quite good!"

"Then it's settled. I'll pick you up after work tomorrow."

"Hmm."

"Then do you want to take a magazine back to read tonight?" Wei Ming asked her with a smile after eating.

"You want me to be caught by the public security as a female hooligan!" Zhu Lin glared at Wei Ming fiercely and warned, "You are not allowed to read it either, at least you can't take it out to read."

Wei Ming smiled: "I'm not a little boy who doesn't understand anything. Those magazines are not as attractive to me as real people."

Zhu Lin's heart was pounding. She didn't know if the real person Wei Ming mentioned was his ex-girlfriend Melinda or herself.

She always felt his eyes could penetrate her clothes. This feeling was too dangerous, but also very exciting, making people unable to stop.

The next day Wei Ming went to work early. When he arrived at the South Gate, he was stopped by Mei Wenhua.

He held a newspaper and said excitedly to Wei Ming: "Brother Ming, good news, good news!"

(End of chapter)