Chapter 320: Although he was not in Hong Kong, Hong Kong was everywhere he went

Qi Kexiu tossed and turned, unable to understand it. The casual books Wei Ming read when he was a child were all ones he had finished reading himself. He himself could barely be considered to have a high school education, and his life experience was richer than Wei Ming's, so why was it that Wei Ming was one moment a "new force in serious literature" and the next the "King of Fairy Tales," while no matter how he wrote, nobody wanted his work?

Qi Kexiu, who didn't even find his dinner appetizing, put down his bowl and chopsticks. No, he had to keep writing. Having gone from a city dweller to a villager, besides that unreliable son of his, only the pen in his hand could change his fate!

But what to write? The magazine didn't really like stories about Qin Shi Huang. Maybe he should write something about the Qing Dynasty.

Recently, he had been visiting the Forbidden City and had heard many secret anecdotes about the Qing palace; his inspiration was bubbling up again.

Right, he would write about this: because Yongzheng was busy with state affairs, he neglected his harem.

Consequently, the women in the harem sought out princes, imperial physicians, eunuchs, and even other women.

Yongzheng's reputation among the common people was quite brutal; readers would definitely love to read this!

As for who to submit it to, Qi Kexiu thought for a moment—for a work with this kind of style, of course, he should submit it to *Story Monthly*.

He Chengwei never expected that his magazine would have this kind of reputation in the mind of "Qi the Madman." It was simply—simply reasonable!

Today, He Chengwei announced that they could leave work early, and then the entire editorial department went to the Daguangming Cinema together to watch *Heroes Born of Youth*.

This was the first story from *Story Monthly* to be turned into a film, and it was a co-production at that, receiving the adoration of the entire city of Hong Kong.

The film did not disappoint the Shanghai audience, nor did it disappoint He Chengwei and the other editors. Brilliant, simply brilliant!

After leaving the cinema, while passing a newsstand on the street, he saw many people gathered there. He went over to take a look and only then realized that an article in the *China Youth Daily* had sparked heated discussion among everyone.

He Chengwei took one look and thought, "Yo, isn't this talking about my old friend, Wei Laoshi Ming!"

He bought a copy immediately and only then learned that the identity of "Wei Shenme" had been exposed.

He finished the entire article without seeing the three characters "Wei Kuangren." What a pity; the outside world still didn't know that Wei Laoshi was also an excellent author of popular literature.

What was even more of a pity was that Wei Laoshi seemed to have abandoned the pen name "Wei Kuangren" now. It had been so long since he had submitted anything to *Story Monthly*, and he hadn't heard of him submitting to anyone else either. Sigh!

"Uncle, then we'll see you tomorrow."

"Stay where you are."

Wei Ming sent Old Fei out. He had checked the documents Wei Lingling brought; they were very complete and thorough. He felt there wouldn't be much of a problem, and they could go through the procedures tomorrow.

Not long after Old Fei left, A-Long returned alone, his face expressionless.

"What's wrong? It didn't go well?"

A-Long said, "It went quite well. The uncle and auntie think I'm not bad, and the older brother and sister-in-law like me too. They also agreed to let A-Ying go to Hong Kong with me. It's just that the mother and daughter cried in each other's arms at the end. Hearing it made me feel quite unbearable, as if I had abducted A-Ying and caused them to be separated."

Wei Ming patted him on the shoulder. "It's not convenient for them to go to Hong Kong, but you two can come home to visit often."

A-Long nodded. He had already met the parents; next, it was Gong Ying's turn. This time, the "Mother of Dragons," Teacher Yang, would also follow them to Hong Kong to visit Uncle Liu, and they would travel together.

Then, Wei Ming and A-Long discussed going to the Shanghai Animation Er Yingchang tomorrow.

The next day, when Li Zhi arrived dressed up beautifully to find them, she learned that Wei Ming was going to split up and act separately from them.

For the house matter, the two parties involved—the father and the aunt—were enough. Wei Ming prepared to go to the Animation Er Yingchang to see the filming progress of *The Legend of Sealed Book* and *Black Cat Detective*, while A-Long wanted to see if he could poach some talent from the studio.

Whether to earn a salary of a few dozen yuan at the Animation Er Yingchang or go to Hong Kong to earn 2,000 Hong Kong dollars—this choice was both easy and not easy.

The influence of the *China Youth Daily* could not be underestimated. After one day of fermentation, at least a million people across the country already knew the relationship between Wei Ming and Wei Shenme.

On the bus to the Animation Er Yingchang, Wei Ming even heard two middle-aged men discussing the matter of Wei Shenme and Wei Ming.

Compared to Wei Ming's literary achievements and how many people's inner worlds he had touched, the Shanghai uncles were clearly more curious about how much foreign exchange Wei Shenme had earned. The two of them kept discussing how much foreign exchange Wei Ming had in his hands.

At this point in 1981, the Chinese people and the government were too eager for foreign exchange.

For the sake of Reform and Opening Up, and to introduce advanced technology, China's foreign exchange reserves even became negative in 1980. Before 1980, it was only a few hundred million dollars, always stretched thin.

To absorb more foreign exchange, China's antiques and cultural relics took on a very important task of earning foreign currency.

The foreign trade department would batch-export acquired cultural relics, including Ming and Qing porcelain, jade, and ancient books, as "general cultural relics."

In addition, they would sell cultural relics, calligraphy, paintings, and high-end handicrafts to foreign guests through channels like Friendship Stores and Rongbaozhai. It wasn't until 1988, when the country had more money on hand, that batch exports were halted.

Therefore, at this time, a children's author being able to earn so much foreign exchange was equivalent to some handicraft factories with good efficiency. It was bound to cause widespread discussion across the country, not to mention that this children's author had an even more famous "big account," adding to the legendary nature.

This was also the reason why Wei Ming had Jin Yong deposit the royalties into a mainland account. Part of the royalties obtained from Melinda were also remitted to the mainland.

Although once the foreign exchange reached the mainland, Wei Ming could only enjoy the unreasonable official exchange rate and would certainly suffer some losses, the reputation of earning foreign exchange for the country was equally important. This little author of his was probably already "registered" with many high-level officials.

To date, Wei Ming had already brought in nearly 100,000 US dollars in his mainland accounts alone, and the Hong Kong accounts had even more. Counting the dividends from the 1 million sales of "Moonlight Shadow," he had earned over 400,000 US dollars in total, nearly half of which was produced by that one song.

However, Wei Ming could not donate the Hong Kong portion. He could use this money to do many big things, earn more foreign exchange, and give back to the country in the future.

Many people at the Animation Er Yingchang still didn't know that this children's author, Wei Shenme, who often came to the studio to guide work, was Wei Ming.

But now they all knew. From the moment Wei Ming entered the studio, he received greetings and small talk far more enthusiastic and proactive than before.

A serious literature author with a bright future willing to accompany them in playing with these children's things—this ideological realm was simply too high.

"Wei Laoshi, welcome, welcome. You are a big national celebrity now." As usual, workshop director Wang Bairong greeted Wei Ming. "Give us the bottom line: how much foreign exchange did that song of yours actually earn?"

The two were already very familiar, and Wei Ming knew that Wang Bairong was a reformist in the studio and was very interested in OEM work to earn foreign exchange.

Wei Ming estimated, "Probably equivalent to what *The Legend of Sealed Book* earned."

"Ah, that—that much!"

This was something the studio's elite could only earn after working hard for several years.

Seeing Director Wang so surprised, Wei Ming said modestly, "It was also luck. I caught up with global fans feeling deeply about John Lennon's passing, which is why this song commemorating him could get so much attention. If you want to earn foreign exchange, you still have to be down-to-earth."

Down-to-earth in doing OEM work.

Once the Transformers toys were released, they would inevitably need to be marketed in conjunction with corresponding animations. However, Hong Kong's animation industry was really too weak; after so many years, they had only produced *Old Master Q*. The US and Japan were too expensive. In fact, finding the Animation Er Yingchang for OEM was a good choice. He could recommend it to his aunt later.

Wei Ming wasn't in a hurry to watch *The Legend of Sealed Book* this time, but first asked about the situation with *Black Cat Detective*.

Wang Bairong said, "Although Dai Dao Tielang doesn't have much experience as an independent director, he has a special fondness for the subject of Black Cat Detective. He has poured a lot of heart and soul into it during this period, and the first episode is basically finished."

One episode was about 20 minutes long. From starting to the final presentation, it took about three months.

This efficiency definitely wouldn't work for making *Transformers*, but they could shorten the duration of a single episode and create the illusion of a long episode through the opening and ending theme songs.

Immediately, Director Wang took Wei Ming and Liu Rulong to find Dai Tielang and his team, laughing and asking Liu Rulong on the way.

"Is classmate A-Long coming to our studio for an internship again? Don't worry, with your ability, our studio will definitely fight to have you after you graduate, haha."

A-Long scratched his head. He was embarrassed to lie to people, so Wei Ming said for him, "He's not here for an internship this time, but to meet the parents in Shanghai."

"Oh? A-Long found a Shanghai girl?"

A-Long: "Mm."

"Aiyo, capable and bold!"

Currently, the first episode of *Black Cat Detective*, "Painfully Annihilating the Granary Rats," still needed some work to be finished, but they could already look at the results of the first half.

Dai Tielang looked somewhat nervously at the original author's expression while watching the film.

Wei Ming had no expression. He had watched *Black Cat Detective* too many times. Even when he was an adult in his previous life, whenever this film was played on TV, he still watched it with relish. He watched those five episodes over and over again, as if there were 50 episodes.

Now it was a few years early, but the quality of the film hadn't decreased.

Wei Ming asked, "Can it be broadcast after the first episode is finished?"

"Yes, it will be screened on the Shanghai station at that time to test the response," Wang Bairong said.

Wei Ming nodded. Dai Dao finally couldn't hold back and asked Wei Ming, "Little Wei Laoshi, how is my film?"

Wei Ming: "Good, it's too good. It's exactly the same as what I imagined in my head. I hope this series can always be directed by you, Dai Dao."

"Hahaha, I hope so too." Dai Dao Tielang finally revealed a gratified smile, and then began to chat with Wei Ming about his new work, *Jurassic Park*. He himself was also into this kind of thing.

While Wei Ming was chatting with Wang Bairong and Dai Tielang, A-Long had already left under a pretext.

At noon, Wei Ming and A-Long left the Animation Er Yingchang. A-Long stated, "All three tracing workers are willing to go to Hong Kong with me, and they are all married with families. They just hope to provide better material conditions for their families."

"However, once they go there, it will be very inconvenient to come back." This was about the same as a sailor.

A-Long: "They said they just want to work for two or three years and stop once they earn enough tens of thousands of yuan."

Wei Ming: "If they are willing to come back then, we won't stop them."

Two or three years was enough for the *Madman Comics* team to mature.

A-Long's mission for this Shanghai trip was considered complete. Next, he had to accompany Gong Ying.

Wei Ming went home alone and drew for a while, finally waiting for Lao Lao Lao Wei and the others to return home.

Wei Lingling collapsed on the sofa somewhat inelegantly. She had visited too many government offices today and spoken too much official jargon; her heart was tired.

Li Zhi hurriedly massaged her boss's legs like a sycophant, letting her relax.

"You're still tired? Their attitude toward you was so good. You don't know how lucky you are," Lao Lao Lao Wei criticized her.

To tell the truth, the officials Lao Lao Lao Wei encountered when handling matters at the government offices were a mix of good and bad, but even the best ones didn't have as good an attitude as today. Lao Lao Lao Wei sighed: It still has to be the Americans!

Wei Ming asked, "So, was it handled today?"

"No, they just accepted our application. They still need to investigate and verify that this house belongs to the aunt and uncle and that there are no other heirs," Wei Lingling briefly stated the results of the day.

Lao Lao Lao Wei added, "And confirming the return doesn't mean it's truly returned. We still have to find a good office location for the unit working inside before it can be returned to us. The time for that is uncertain."

Wei Ming asked, "Then how long do we have to wait?"

Wei Lingling tilted her head. "Short, three or four days; long, ten days or half a month. This is just the time to confirm the return. Once it's confirmed, I'll leave, and Old Fei can handle the rest."

At this, Wei Ming also collapsed. He missed home, missed Sister Xue, and missed Sister Lin.

"I wonder if A-Ming misses me." Little A-Min in Hong Kong looked at the sunset outside the window, missing that man.

The summer vacation was really hard to endure, but the summer vacations of the previous few years hadn't been this hard, and clearly, the family was even wealthier now.

With a creak of the door opening, Mom returned, and she even brought a newspaper back, but she didn't say anything.

Zhou Huimin went over to take a look and discovered it was a copy of *Ming Pao*. The front page was actually about A-Ming!

Previously, the things Yi Shu wrote about A-Ming hadn't been put on the front page. A-Min took another look—ya, it was actually written by Mr. Jin Yong himself!

No wonder.

This was the first article Jin Yong wrote after going north, and the elite class and wealthy class of all of Hong Kong were waiting to see it.

However, this article hadn't even reached the meeting with the Yanjing high-level officials yet. He first talked about what he saw and heard on the plane and in the car, meticulously described the summer scenery of Yanjing, and then met Wei Ming at the hotel and verified Wei Ming's other pen names.

Wei Ming personally admitted that Wei Shenme, Wei Kuangren, and even his English pen names were all him. In addition, he also had a stage name for songwriting, "A-Ming," and had written several popular Mandarin and Cantonese songs in Hong Kong.

Therefore, Jin Yong's headline was: "More than just one Qi transforming into three purities; Wei Ming, Wei Shenme, Wei Kuangren, A-Ming—they are all him!"

Seeing this article, Zhou Huimin was so excited she didn't want to eat dinner. A-Ming's brilliance was finally not something only she could see!

Now all of Hong Kong knew how amazing A-Ming was!

Previously, there was no solid proof that Wei Ming was Wei Shenme, but now with Jin Yong's endorsement, there was definitely no problem.

Of course, "all of Hong Kong" was just A-Min's wishful thinking. The circulation of *Ming Pao* wasn't that strong; usually, it was just over 100,000, maybe 140,000 or 150,000 when encountering popular events, but the user base was all white-collar workers and elites.

Therefore, the influence of this article was still very strong. The group with the strongest consumption power all recognized Wei Ming and knew that he was not only talented but also somewhat arrogant.

In the latter part of the article, Jin Yong used "One person can equal the Four Great Talents of Hong Kong" to evaluate Wei Ming.

Wei Ming first was modest, and then began to be "mad," claiming that in individual items he was not as good as Jin Yong, Huang Zhan, and Cai Lan, but when it came to science fiction novels, he didn't submit to Ni Kuang.

Ni Kuang looked at Wei Ming's evaluation of him on *Ming Pao* and snorted coldly in anger: "Young people don't know the immensity of heaven and earth!"

This was already the second time he had become a popular news figure recently. The last time was losing a tug-of-war to an elephant and eating poop.

Later, he really ate it, but what he ate was civet coffee, and he even united with coffee merchants to successfully hype up this high-end coffee and made a small profit from it.

This was the celebrity effect; even eating poop could produce economic benefits. Ni Kuang had always been smug about this.

At this time, his son, Ni Zhen, walked past him, humming exactly "Moonlight Shadow," which young people nowadays liked very much.

A 17-year-old boy was at the age of pursuing fashion.

"Not allowed to sing!" Ni Kuang thought of the person when hearing the song, and the more he thought, the angrier he got.

A 17-year-old boy was also at the age of rebellion: "Why can't I sing?"

"I don't like this song. If you sing it again after you go abroad, I won't give you pocket money." Ni Kuang threatened.

A 17-year-old boy was also at the age where he needed money. He said toughly, "Hmph, if I don't sing, I don't sing!"

Then he started singing the Cantonese version of Tan Yonglin's "Water Flower."

Ni Kuang: "You're still singing!"

"I've already changed songs!"

"You can't sing this song either!" Because he remembered the author of this song was called "A-Ming."

Now many musicians in Hong Kong already knew who that mysterious "A-Ming" was.

Being able to write Mandarin and Cantonese pop songs like "The Girl Who Slips Away," "Water Flower," "Hard to Give Up," and "Dream Camel Bell," and also being able to write traditional songs from the mainland like "On the Field of Hope" and "The Same Song," and also being able to write "Moonlight Shadow"—this Wei Ming was simply too comprehensive!

When Zhang Guorong saw this report, he was recording a song with his mentor Li Xiaotian, and then he began to talk endlessly about how amazing this person was.

Li Xiaotian said, "I've worked with this person."

"Ah? How come I didn't know?"

Li Xiaotian: "The *Huo Yuanjia* crew invited me to write the theme song, and the lyricist was exactly this Wei Ming. He wrote 'The Great Wall Never Falls' and handed it to Ye Zhentang to sing. The lyrics were written too well. I believe whoever sings it will be popular. It's a pity the style of this song doesn't suit you."

"Master, what do you think if I invite him to tailor-make a song for me?"

"As for that, but he is in the mainland. We can't contact him, right?"

"Right, A-Lun invited him to write songs before. He must have contact information. We can ask him!"

At this time, Zhang Guorong and Tan Yonglin were not in the same company, and there was a gap in status, so they didn't constitute competition yet. But Li Xiaotian thought to himself, if others could contact him, would they tell you?

Tan Yonglin: It's not a question of whether I tell you or not; it's that I can't contact him either. I can only go through that little girl, A-Min.

Tan Yonglin knew that as long as A-Ming's identity was exposed, Hong Kong singers would definitely target this "Tang Seng meat." Just now, Chen Baiqiang and Zhong Zhong Zhen Tao had also asked him about A-Ming.

Tan Yonglin knew he couldn't monopolize A-Ming. He only hoped that A-Ming would prioritize writing songs for him, considering everyone's past cooperation.

As a rare Chinese musician capable of breaking into the international market, in the eyes of Hong Kong musicians, Wei Ming carried an aura. Even Teddy Robin of Cinema City saw this news and was still boasting about Wei Ming's extremely high musical literacy to people in the company.

"Otherwise, he absolutely wouldn't be able to write so many songs with such different styles."

Among the Seven Monsters of Cinema City, Teddy Robin was even shorter than Ceng Zhiwei, and his directing, screenwriting, and acting abilities weren't too prominent, but he was quite good at music. In the 60s, influenced by the Beatles, he and Zheng Handong formed Hong Kong's first Chinese rock band—the Playboy Band.

Zheng Handong was the general manager of PolyGram and had a son named Zheng Zhongji.

At this time, Huang Baiming passed by, told Teddy Robin to be quieter, and pointed to the back, whispering, "Mai Jia."

Teddy Robin gave a hehe smile. Facts proved that Wei Ming really could earn millions with one song, which made Mai Jia, who had leaked this matter, lose a lot of face.

Mai Jia wasn't very happy now. A while ago, he had wanted to imitate *Let's Make Laugh* to make a script. He felt that the plot pattern was quite good and could be made into a funny version.

But now Wei Ming's reputation had shaken the world, Jin Yong personally wrote an article to introduce him, and all the wealthy people in Hong Kong were watching.

Moreover, Bluebird had already announced the project launch. Making such small moves now would easily give others a handle, and might even make himself a laughingstock.

Bullying small screenwriters was fine, but fighting with such an international celebrity would be more trouble than it was worth.

Mai Jia only thought about infringing on Wei Ming, but some people had already infringed.

Although *Ming Pao* wasn't distributed in the mainland, Hong Kong was connected to Shenzhen, and many places in Guangdong could see some Hong Kong publications through special channels.

On the desk of Liao Mingzu, the general manager of Pacific Audio & Video Company, lay a copy of *Ming Pao* at this moment.

Now he already knew that the author of songs like "The Girl Who Slips Away," "Water Flower," and "Dream Camel Bell," which had been pirated by Pacific, was actually his old friend Wei Ming!

"Aiya, this matter, this matter has caused such a stir!" Liao Mingzu attached great importance to maintaining his relationship with Wei Ming. After all, Pacific couldn't do exclusive business forever. In the future, when competition in the music market grew, it would still be quality that spoke, and Wei Laoshi Ming was synonymous with quality!

Now General Manager Liao was already studying with the Animation Er Yingchang to produce the original soundtrack album for *Mom, Love Me Once Again*. The songs inside were basically all handled by Wei Ming alone. These songs were simply too divine!

How many times must one experience separation from a mother to write this? He didn't even dare to listen to it a second time.

Liao Mingzu immediately contacted the Yanjing side, hoping to make up for Wei Ming's royalties. Although it was only a few dozen yuan, it was his sincerity.

It was a pity Wei Ming wasn't in Yanjing and couldn't hear Liao Mingzu personally say sorry.

Shanghai.

Li Xiaolin had already found Wei Ming. The two chatted for a day about the details of the publication revisions; Wei Ming listed more than thirty items.

Besides chatting about the manuscript, Editor Li also mentioned his father's worry about their hometown in Sichuan.

News of the Sichuan floods finally began to appear in the newspapers.

First, on the 9th, due to mudslides caused by heavy rain, a major accident occurred on the Chengdu-Kunming line. It was also the accident with the heaviest passenger casualties in the history of Chinese railways, with hundreds of people dead or missing.

And from the 9th until now, the heavy rain in Sichuan hadn't stopped. Being a basin terrain, Sichuan couldn't escape the fate of being flooded.

Wei Ming returned home with a heavy heart. Wei Lingling finally brought a piece of good news.

"After confirmation by the government, this house can be returned to us!"

(Make-up update for the 5th of this month, asking for monthly tickets!)

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 321 =====