Chapter 322: Eastern Palace, Western Palace, Official, Don't

One song wasn't safe, so Wei Ming whipped up another one—double insurance. It was just that he stayed up all night and slept quite late.

The next day when he woke up, Biaozi was standing at the head of his bed, and he was pursing his lips, holding back laughter.

Wei Ming vigilantly touched his backside. Fortunately, it was fine.

"Biaozi, why are you here?"

"I've been here for a while. Seeing you were still sleeping, I didn't disturb you."

"You're not at home accompanying your wife; what are you looking for me for?"

"Brother Ming, you came back at a very unfortunate time. If it had been two days earlier, it would have been great."

"What's wrong?"

"We went in two days ago?"

"Went into where? The police station?"

"The Sea! We went into the Sea!" Biaozi said excitedly. "A big leader surnamed Liao invited us to go. Me, Yanzi, Xiao Jing, and Director Yang Qitian. Originally, they also invited you, but it's a pity you weren't there. The leader even said it was too regrettable."

Oh, surnamed Liao, and liked watching movies so much—Wei Ming knew who it was.

"What did the leader say?" he asked.

"Didn't say much. The leader asked how many months Yanzi's belly was and even wished us both in advance for becoming a father and mother."

The leader was simply because of appreciation and liking, so they met, encouraged them, and ended up getting Biaozi excited. Hearing that Wei Ming had returned, he hurriedly ran over to show off.

He also asked Wei Ming: "With so many audiences across the country liking our movies, Brother Ming, do you think I should continue to make contributions to the film industry?"

"Don't even think about making contributions within a year. Yanzi is going to give birth next month, right? After giving birth, she still has to do the postpartum confinement and nurse the child. You, as the father, shouldn't think about being idle either; follow along and stay up late and suffer. If you are relaxed and easy, Yanzi will definitely quarrel with you."

Wei Ming had the look of an expert. Even wanting to go out and film movies, normal life and work were a luxury.

"I definitely have to wait until Yanzi has recovered before going to film. When the time comes, we will film together and dump the child to my parents or her parents. Anyway, they are all retired, so just treat it as retired elderly people re-employment." Biaozi was big-hearted.

Wei Ming said: "If you really want to film, I can take you to Hong Kong to film in the future, to film internationally."

"Really!"

"Drawing a pie, you eat it first." Wei Ming gave a hehe laugh.

Afterward, Wei Ming let Biaozi take Long Xiaoyang to the Oriental New Territories. He still had to go and report back.

Two songs, both lyrics and sheet music—a phone call couldn't explain it clearly. Wei Ming first sent an international fax to Melinda.

International fax was cheaper than international long-distance, but the speed was also slower. Wei Ming first scanned and faxed the two songs over, then began to queue up for an international long-distance call.

At this time, although it was the middle of the night in London, Melinda should be at home, so he wouldn't be making a wasted call.

First, he had to fill out a form and pay, to prevent calling over the limit but having no money to pay the fee, and then he started to queue.

The people calling before him all spoke very quickly, basically explaining things within a minute. Soon, it was Wei Ming's turn.

He had to call London, 50 yuan per minute. One minute was a month's salary for an ordinary person. Wei Ming directly paid 500 yuan; ten minutes was enough to explain things clearly.

The phone ringing woke Melinda from her sleep. Calculating from the moment she picked up the phone, because it was long-distance, the sound was a bit crackly.

Wei Ming told her: "You pay attention to receiving the fax. I have already faxed the songs I wrote to you. There are two in total. One is suitable for a female voice, and the other is more suitable for a male voice. You should be able to tell from the lyrics."

Melinda woke up instantly: "You actually wrote two songs, wrote two songs in just three days!"

"I just came back from Shanghai yesterday. In fact, I only used one night." Wei Ming modestly showed off and received Melinda's surprised scream.

Wei Ming also cared about the adaptation of *The Lion King*.

"It hasn't started yet. You gave up the signing fee at the beginning and sought more performance dividends instead. If you want to share the money, I'm afraid you'll have to wait."

"It doesn't matter. I'm not short of money now."

"That's right. In a few days, the publishing royalties for *The Lion King* in North America will be transferred to you. There are 50,000 dollars, 20,000 of which were transferred to the mainland, and 30,000 to Hong Kong."

"OK, OK."

When Wei Ming put down the phone, it had only been less than three minutes, charged as three minutes.

After finishing this matter, Wei Ming ran to the post office in their area again. Those ordinary letters were all collected by his mother; the rest were overseas packages or remittance slips.

He got A-Min's package, and there was also a remittance slip from the Guangzhou Pacific Audio & Video Company. Was this the royalties made up for A-Ming?

Fine, General Manager Liao was still a particular person.

In A-Min's package was a cassette tape she recorded of "First Love," an unofficial version, recorded by herself for fun, singing and playing.

Just right, he could take this cassette tape to Masashi Sada and let him listen.

In addition, A-Min's letter also mentioned that Tan Yonglin had guessed his identity and sincerely invited him to write a song.

However, thinking about the cost-effectiveness of Cantonese songs, Wei Ming didn't have much interest for the time being. At this moment, Hong Kong should already know the relationship between Wei Ming and A-Ming, and he estimated there were even more people wanting to find him to write songs.

If he didn't have the energy to deal with them all, then he would simply ignore them all.

Next, he still had to create *In the Heat of the Sun*, *Jurassic Park 3*, and two fairy tale series. He was very busy.

Catching the lunch hour, Wei Ming arrived at the Yanjing Hotel.

Masashi Sada had been waiting for a long time.

"Wei-san, have you eaten?"

"Not yet."

"Then let's eat."

The two entered the restaurant. Wei Ming first showed the simplified notation to Masashi Sada. He couldn't understand Chinese, so he could only look at the musical notes, feeling it was quite good. Perhaps he could really handle it.

Wei Ming said again: "A singer in Hong Kong recorded a demo. Let's go upstairs and listen to it in a while."

"Good, good." Masashi Sada accelerated his eating speed a bit.

Going upstairs and entering the room, the two didn't say a word and started listening to the song.

"Brother A-Ming, we've been separated for a while. I don't know if you've missed me..."

Wei Ming thought it would be singing directly. He didn't expect A-Min to chat for a few sentences first.

Masashi Sada looked at Wei Ming suspiciously. Wei Ming indicated: "Keep listening."

Because quite a lot of text had already been written in the letter, the cassette tape only spoke for a minute, slightly revealing some girl's inner voice, and then started playing the guitar and singing.

Masashi Sada nodded. A very beautiful female voice, a very relaxed and cheerful rhythm, made him feel as if he had returned to that summer of first love.

Wei Ming told him: "The name of this song is 'First Love'."

After listening to the song, Masashi Sada was pleasantly surprised. Although Sada didn't have 100% certainty about whether he could change this song into a male singing method suitable for himself, or whether he could write Japanese lyrics worthy of this song, he still decided to buy this song for himself.

Next was discussing the details of the cooperation.

Wei Ming only then knew why Japanese music could be so developed. They were too good to creators!

Generally, 6% of the sales price of a single would be used as royalties. The lyricist and composer could each obtain 1.7% to 3%, while the singer could only obtain 0.9%. Singers mainly earned money through concerts or commercial performances. This treatment was even stronger than the European and American music scene.

This was also an important reason why original singers were prevalent in Japan. Masashi Sada mainly focused on original work. Previously, he alone could eat up 6% of the record sales.

Masashi Sada also gave Wei Ming the highest treatment. Wei Ming occupied 3%, and he, the singer, occupied 0.9%. If Sada wrote the lyrics himself, it would be 3%.

In addition, buying this song, Wei Ming could also get 300,000 yen. Although converted into RMB it was only 2,000-plus yuan, this was because of the distorted exchange rate. In reality, it was already quite a lot, mainly still sales dividends and media usage fees and other copyright income.

Besides the usage fees of radio and television stations, karaoke had already appeared in Japan at this time, which also required charging money.

Wei Ming, who had completed the overseas cooperation, was very happy. Next, he should go find Sister Xue.

Sister Lin was busy at this moment. *The Small Courtyard* had already finished filming, and now she had to go to the Central Academy of Drama to learn the demeanor of the ancients. She had clearly embarked on the fast lane of her career.

Gong Xue was also busy now, busy making friends with Liu Xiaoqing.

After *Heroes Born of Youth* was released, the controversial *The Mysterious Buddha* was also approved for release. It was at the end of the month, and some cinemas had already posted the film information and posters.

Besides praying that this film could be as popular as *Heroes Born of Youth*, Liu Xiaoqing had already started preparing for a new film.

This was the film *Deep in the Heart*, adapted from the novel *The Birth of a Statue* by Meng Weizai, deputy editor-in-chief of *Contemporary*.

However, a rumor recently emerged in the studio that the Qing palace drama that Hong Kong big director Li Hanxiang was cooperating with the Beijing Er Yingchang on was finally about to start. In addition, the screenwriter had been changed to Wei Ming—that Wei Ming, the "foreign exchange little expert" who had been in the limelight recently.

And one film had become two films. In the future, the films would also be taken to Hong Kong for screening and awards. Maybe the main actors would even have the opportunity to follow to Hong Kong!

She also heard that Director Li Hanxiang had fully entrusted the casting work in the mainland to Wei Ming.

Hearing this news, Liu Xiaoqing directly exclaimed that it was bad!

Whether it was Gong Xue who had entered the Beijing Er Yingchang or Zhu Lin who hadn't, Wei Ming was clearly closer to them.

If Wei Ming had the final say, where would it be her turn? And she was so eager to progress and wanted to participate in this co-production.

Gong Xue was staying at the guest house. Liu Xiaoqing had contact with her twice and learned from Gong Xue that she wouldn't participate in the role competition for this film, and also confirmed that Li Hanxiang's entrustment of Wei Ming to cast was true.

At this, Liu Xiaoqing, who had previously been somewhat wary of Gong Xue, instantly became Gong Xue's good friend.

This woman would be very tricky if she were an enemy; if she were a friend, she was also truly capable of carrying things.

She not only helped Gong Xue resolve the hostility of several actresses in the studio but also helped Gong Xue integrate into it and made several more friends.

So when Wei Ming came to find her, she was rarely not in the guest house room. The neighbor next door said she had gone out shopping with Liu Xiaoqing and the others.

Wei Ming had no choice but to return to the courtyard to engage in creation, and when evening came, he made a phone call to the guest house.

Gong Xue: "You came to find me? Sorry, made you run for nothing."

Wei Ming: "It's okay. You sound quite happy, so I'm relieved. Do you have time tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Then let's meet at Shichahai." "Mm."

Hanging up the phone, Wei Ming took out a stack of manuscript paper. The first page was written with "In the Heat of the Sun."

This story about youth and lost time had only been written for more than 10,000 words because it had been interrupted for too long by going to Hong Kong. Wei Ming read the manuscript from the beginning again, looked at his creative notes, and used this to find the feeling.

Looking until past nine o'clock, the dog Ginkgo outside the door suddenly barked.

Considering the recent public security situation, Wei Ming picked up a wrench from under the desk.

A scholar, a wrench—reasonable.

"Who is it?"

Outside the door: "It's me."

Wei Ming immediately opened the door and saw Gong Xue pushing a bicycle outside. In the darkness, he could see sweat beads still hanging on her face; the weather was too stuffy.

Wei Ming dragged her and the bicycle in. Before Gong Xue could throw herself into his arms, he scolded: "It's so late, what are you doing here? Deep in this hutong, how dangerous it is! What if something happens!"

Gong Xue came to find her lover full of expectation, not expecting to be scolded first.

Sister Xue was a little aggrieved, her deer-like eyes flashing with water: "But I knew you missed me, and I missed you too~"

At this moment, Wei Ming could no longer be fierce and hugged her tightly.

"Then you can't do this in the future. I'll be worried."

Gong Xue nodded and said again: "It's close to the Forbidden City here, and there are many patrolling public security officers, and I'm carrying a knife."

Daring to talk back, Wei Ming directly blocked her mouth.

There were many mosquitoes outside, so Wei Ming carried her horizontally. He wouldn't write today; sleep!

After waking up the next day, Gong Xue remembered to ask: "Why did you ask me to go to Shichahai?"

Wei Ming rubbed the tip of her nose: "To look at a house."

"Ah?"

Gong Xue originally didn't want to go. She had already accepted an old Western-style house in Shanghai and didn't want him to buy her another house. A woman weighing less than 100 jin, what did she need so many houses for?

But Wei Ming said that for the sake of future sexual happiness, they must have a private space that belonged exclusively to them in Yanjing.

"And I have so much money in my hands that I don't feel at ease myself. I just want to spend it as soon as possible. Houses will appreciate in value; buying a house is more cost-effective than putting money in the bank."

After much persuasion, Gong Xue finally agreed, and Wei Ming had long since made an appointment with Li Guangfu.

After breakfast, the three met at the Drum Tower on the east side of Houhai.

Li Guangfu was very surprised. Last time at the People's Art Theatre, the person beside Wei Ming was Zhu Lin; this time it had changed to Gong Xue. Both were popular big stars.

And Wei Ming said he was helping Comrade Gong Xue look at a house. Fine, this had become Gong Xue buying it. She was a small actress; could she afford it?

But Li Guangfu was like a human spirit; he didn't ask what he shouldn't ask and took the two into Ju'er Hutong next to Nanluoguxiang.

Wei Ming was quite satisfied with this location. It wasn't far from Nanluoguxiang, but it wouldn't be the most bustling area in the future. It was quiet amidst the noise, and it was convenient to travel from Andingmen Inner Street.

He looked at houses while considering how to renovate the parking garage in the future.

Pushing the door into the courtyard, the owner was a gentle and introverted old woman with silver hair. She looked to be seventy years old, but she wasn't old or dim-sighted at all, and her mental state was good.

The old lady probably didn't know Gong Xue, seeing her without any emotional fluctuation.

For people coming to look at the house, she directly stated her requirements: "My son is doing research in the United States. He doesn't want to come back, but I can't bear to part with him, so I can only go over myself. Therefore, I require US dollar transactions, cash."

This difficulty was raised by another notch. Wei Ming couldn't withdraw the US dollars in his domestic account, but fortunately, he still had quite a lot of cash.

"Okay, let's look at the house first."

The first courtyard wasn't too big, counting the house it might be about 150 square meters. The space behind was large, with over 600 square meters, just without trees, which could be transplanted later.

And Gong Xue was thinking, such a large residence—if Sister Lin lived in together, it would be fine. If she lived alone, it would be too empty, unless she gave birth to ten or eight for him, but the policy didn't allow it now.

This house was maintained generally; it should have just been returned. She didn't know what the old lady's family originally did to have such a large set of residences.

Wei Ming was a straightforward person. When the old lady proposed 10,000 US dollars, he bargained symbolically. Seeing the old lady was determined, he agreed.

This speed made Li Guangfu very horrified. Why not come a few more times? This was decided? This was 10,000 dollars! In this day and age, who could have so much foreign exchange!

Wei Ming thought to himself, come for what? Even if he could suppress the price, with this time, it would be better to write more works.

Facing Wei Ming's straightforwardness, the old lady was unmoved. It seemed she was also from a large family before.

Next, it would be troublesome for Sister Xue to go through the procedures with the old lady. Wei Ming was only responsible for settling the payment.

However, in the afternoon, Wei Ming sought out Li Guangfu alone, asking him to take him to see that three-entrance courtyard in Houhai.

This courtyard in Ju'er Hutong, Nanluoguxiang, was on the east side of Houhai, belonging to Dongcheng. The second three-entrance courtyard was on the west side of Houhai, belonging to Xicheng.

Li Guangfu smiled: "This one is always bought by yourself, right."

Wei Ming: "Not really, helping a friend look."

Zhu Lin was too busy, so he looked at it himself. After deciding, he would notify her.

Li Guangfu had a bold guess: could this one be "looked at" for Zhu Lin?

This viewing wasn't successful. First, the house was too dilapidated, belonging to the degree where the ground building needed to be torn down and rebuilt. And the layout wasn't good either; it didn't look like a proper courtyard, but rather like two courtyards pieced together.

In addition, the three brothers couldn't unify their opinions, and Wei Ming didn't have that American time to argue with them.

"Old Li, help me look around again. It's best if it's a standard three-entrance courtyard," Wei Ming said. Because Sister Lin had a house, there was no need to be too anxious, but it had to be large enough to treat everyone equally.

"Fine, I'll keep an eye on it."

Immediately, Wei Ming rode his motorcycle to Tuanjiehu, preparing to give Sister Lin a surprise.

He didn't expect Sister Lin to give him a surprise. She actually came back wearing a full set of ancient costumes.

"The teacher said, let me wear ancient clothes usually, and walking and talking must imitate the ancients." This was called muscle memory.

Seeing Wei Ming's eyes rolling around, Zhu Lin covered her chest: "Young Master, what bad ideas are you having?"

Wei Ming hugged the ancient-costume version of Sister Lin, feeling as if he were playing cosplay. This set of clothes could increase attack speed.

"Little Lady, what bad ideas do you think I, the Great Official, am having?"

Seeing Wei Ming reveal his fangs, Zhu Lin cooperated: "Official, don't."

Lao Lao Lao Wei returned. That night, Wei Ming went home for dinner.

Lao Lao Lao Wei had already negotiated the scholarship issue with the commune junior high school and the county No. 1 middle school. As for the supervision issue, he handed it over to the old branch secretary and A-Long's grandfather, the county celebrity Yang Songqiao, respectively.

In addition, Lao Lao Lao Wei also brought back a handwritten letter from County Magistrate Qin of Ping'an County.

Learning that Wei Ming intended to donate money to rebuild a bridge, County Magistrate Qin was extremely excited. A man of nearly forty, he directly called him "Brother Wei Ming" in the letter.

As for how much money it took to repair a bridge, this thing fluctuated greatly. County Magistrate Qin indicated that Wei Ming only needed to contribute 10,000. Even if it wasn't enough, the rest could be paid from the county finance, but in name, this bridge was built by Wei Ming. After it was built, it would be directly named "Wei Ming Bridge."

"This is not appropriate," Wei Ming said to Lao Lao Lao Wei. "I'm so young, it's a bit too ostentatious. How about using your name instead? Call it Jiefang Bridge."

Lao Lao Lao Wei waved his hand: "This name doesn't sound like it has anything to do with me either. It sounds more like a bridge built to celebrate liberation."

Lao Lao Lao Wei persuaded his son: "I think you should accept County Magistrate Qin's kindness. You get the name, and this can also inspire other wealthy people to do good deeds."

He didn't expect Lao Lao Lao Wei, who hadn't read many books, to be able to penetrate the core of Zigong's thought of redeeming people.

Lao Lao Lao Wei said again: "If you become an international celebrity in the future, then Ping'an County having such a bridge can also be considered a scenic spot."

What else could Wei Ming say? He could only accept it. He would write a letter back to County Magistrate Qin later, and by the way, chat about the supervision issue.

He could donate the money, but if the bridge became a "tofu-dreg" project in the future, people would be poking his, Wei Ming's, spine, so he had to say the ugly words first.

"Alright, you father and son stop chatting first. Eat, eat." Xu Shufen served the dishes to the table.

Today, Mei Wenhua and Yunyun also came, and the whole family was very complete.

The TV was on in the living room. Grandma, Yunyun, and Xiao Yang paid special attention to the news on TV. This was one of the few channels they could use to understand the current situation in their hometown.

After six days of continuous heavy rain, the rain in Sichuan finally stopped, but the disaster had just begun.

According to known news, this flood affected 14 prefectures and cities and 119 counties and districts in Sichuan. A large number of houses were washed away, landslides occurred on three main railway lines, and roads were also severely damaged.

This meant that it was difficult for rescue teams to enter Sichuan. Currently, they mainly had to rely on self-rescue.

In short, one word: "miserable," too miserable!

Watching this situation, Wei Ming wondered what he, a man of letters, could do.

He thought of the 1991 East China floods, when the Hong Kong entertainment industry filmed *The Banquet*. Actors waived their appearance fees, and the box office revenue was used for disaster relief.

But this model couldn't be moved to the mainland. After all, the film market now wasn't a market economy. What did high box office have to do with your production side?

As for going to Hong Kong, Wei Ming didn't feel he could have this kind of appeal in the Hong Kong film industry.

The key was that China and Britain hadn't even started negotiations yet. The situation in '81 and '91 was very different. Most of those stars couldn't, and didn't dare, to get close to the mainland.

Later, the disaster in Sichuan became more and more serious. Even the US *Time* magazine began to report it, with the headline "Floods and Famine," which included a figure saying that the number of affected people was 15 million, direct losses exceeded 2 billion, and thousands of people had lost their lives in the floods.

And the Chinese side also sent out a request for help to the international community for the first time. One had to know that they hadn't even asked for foreign aid during those three years.

Seeing this, Wei Ming didn't even have the heart to write novels. No, he had to do something!

(Make-up update for the 6th, asking for monthly tickets! The broken update make-up is over, next is the monthly ticket make-up~)

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 323 =====

(Make-up update for the 6th, please vote for monthly tickets! The break in updates is over, next are the make-up updates for monthly tickets~)

(End of chapter)