[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rising-in-1979":3,"chapter-rising-in-1979-rising-in-1979-chapter-468":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rising in 1979",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2261176,4412,"Chapter 468: Xiao Li and Xiao Li","rising-in-1979-chapter-468",468,"\u003Cp>Upon hearing one million U.S. dollars, neither Wei Ming nor Zhou Huimin showed any surprise—their horizons had changed; even little Amin knew how valuable Haoli Lai was now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cheng Long, however, was somewhat taken aback—Zou Wenhua clearly resented that “Project A” had lost at the box office to “The Best of the Best 2,” yet he was still willing to spend one million U.S. dollars!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zou Wenhua was still Zou Wenhua—no wonder he was the first to aim for the international market and actually achieved some success; “Enter the Dragon,” “The Cannonball Run,” and future “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” were all films with a certain standing in Hollywood history.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his earlier attempts to push Cheng Long into international markets with “The Killer’s Den” and “The Cannonball Run” had both failed—why was that?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming smiled and asked: “Mr. Zou, you must have some betting conditions attached to this one-million-dollar script, right? You’re not aiming for a global box office of one hundred million U.S. dollars, are you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, Mr. Wei, can you actually achieve that?” Zou Wenhua perked up—this was something even the massive hit “The Cannonball Run” hadn’t accomplished, and “The Cannonball Run” had other Hollywood stars on board; Cheng Long wasn’t even the lead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming: “A hundred million U.S. dollars in box office isn’t hard—but not now. First, I’d like to ask: if this Hollywood film gets greenlit, can you fully empower Cheng Long to handle his own action choreography—even direct it himself?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, Cheng Long became excited—this was exactly what he had always fought for!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Making films in Hollywood was damn frustrating—they only wanted him to imitate Bruce Lee’s fighting style and become Bruce Lee’s second, but he wanted to be Cheng Long the first!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted his own style!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Zou Wenhua shook his head: “Mr. Wei, you probably don’t understand how Hollywood films operate…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming raised a hand: “I understand perfectly—it’s the producer system, where everything is decided by the producer. Not just actors—even directors sometimes become the producer’s puppets. That’s what you mean, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, because it’s an international collaboration, on their turf, I can only trust experienced Hollywood producers.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But I trust Cheng Long more—he has real potential to become a world-class kung fu superstar, surpassing even Bruce Lee, and even becoming a cultural icon of China, provided he controls his own work, makes action films with Cheng Long’s signature style—even if he doesn’t direct, he must handle the action himself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, even Cheng Long himself was moved—Aming understood him!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Aming, I’ll pay the one million U.S. dollars—just write me a script quickly!” Cheng Long urged impatiently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zou Wenhua coughed violently—was this kid trying to break away and start his own empire? But He Guanchang, sitting beside him, directly interrupted Cheng Long, telling him to calm down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Guanchang, Shaw Brothers’ number two, was Cheng Long’s godfather—his words still carried weight; Cheng Long fell silent, realizing he had been impulsive—he spent money lavishly and truly couldn’t afford one million U.S. dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming smiled: “The right film must appear at the right time—at least now isn’t right. First, your style isn’t mature enough to handle a big international budget. I think ‘Project A’ marked the beginning of your signature blend of death-defying and comedic action— you need more films to refine and strengthen this style.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cheng Long listened attentively—he truly felt transformed by “Project A,” but so far he only had one such film.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming: “Second, even if you were at your absolute peak now, American audiences might not accept you—because Hollywood’s current action trend is the tough-guy style: Stallone in ‘Rocky’ and ‘Rambo,’ Schwarzenegger in ‘Conan the Barbarian.’ Only when these muscle-bound stars grow stale will your moment come to shine and rescue the action genre.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Wei Ming said Cheng Long was less attractive than Stallone and Schwarzenegger now, he also said Cheng Long could rescue the action genre—this made Cheng Long feel deeply validated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cheng Long would truly establish himself in Hollywood only a decade later with “Rumble in the Bronx,” when Stallone had faded and Schwarzenegger had completed his most important film, “Terminator 2,” shifting focus toward politics; other action stars lacked the charisma of these two—this would be Cheng Long’s best chance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Zou Wenhua didn’t accept Wei Ming’s theory—he couldn’t wait ten more years for Cheng Long—who knew which studio Cheng Long would belong to by then?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he immediately laid out Cheng Long’s schedule: finish “The Five Lucky Stars,” then have Cheng Long, Yuen Biao, and their brothers make another film together, then move on to “The Cannonball Run 2” to keep promoting Cheng Long in Hollywood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, since Wei Ming didn’t want to earn the one million U.S. dollars, they’d hire a Hollywood screenwriter to craft a tailor-made Hollywood action blockbuster for Ah Long—with Cheng Long as the lead. He refused to believe that with so many resources poured in, Cheng Long still couldn’t become an international superstar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming knew this film would be “Police Story 3: Super Cop,” a project with very low visibility among Cheng Long’s lead roles—it would completely kill Cheng Long’s desire to develop in Hollywood, forcing him to focus on the Asian market for years to come.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The meal ended blandly; Cheng Long agreed Wei Ming made sense, but his fate rested in Shaw Brothers’ hands—he could only obey Mr. Zou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After leaving the meal, Wei Ming and Amin returned to the hotel—they planned to refine “Bodhisattva Mantra” again today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They agreed that after Wei Ming left, Amin would produce these two songs first to preheat the album; when Wei Ming returned to Hong Kong for summer vacation a few months later, they’d combine their newly written ancient-style songs into a full album.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Can’t you stay a few more days~?” At night, when they parted, Amin’s face was full of reluctance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I can’t—I still have to escort a professor from Peking University back to Beijing; it’s part of my duty.” Wei Ming had already contacted Wan Xiaoping—they’d return to Beijing together tomorrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming touched Amin’s cheek, then showed off the hickey on his neck: “Don’t worry—I’ll miss you when I get home.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm, we must write to each other often.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming: “Alright. Maybe I won’t even wait until summer—if there’s news from Cannes, I’ll come back to Hong Kong in May.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The half-hour drive took two hours to complete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back at the hotel, he began writing furiously—he hadn’t even started the comic story promised to Zhao Rude; he wondered if he could write ten thousand characters tonight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t—only five thousand, but it was enough to lay out the main plot outline and character designs clearly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first story hadn’t been expanded—he planned to hand it over to the writers at Kuangren Comics, since he himself couldn’t recall much of the plot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn’t read the original comic, but he’d seen many film and TV adaptations—Hong Kong, Japanese, French, and Korean versions. In his view, its greatest charm was the male lead’s character: deeply loyal, incredibly skilled in martial arts, yet a lecher—capture that essence, and the artwork wouldn’t be bad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tomorrow, Ah Long would see him off at the airport—he’d give him the story outline then.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But early in the morning, someone rang the doorbell; Wei Ming opened it sleepily—it was Li Zhi, bringing breakfast and a suitcase.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wei Ming, I’ve come to see you off.” Li Zhi was dressed beautifully today—her skirt was very short, her plump white legs extremely alluring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was calling him by his first name—this woman had some bold intentions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She placed the items on the coffee table, then pulled out a stack of documents from her bag: “These are all the toy types currently produced by Lanning. The bag contains samples—Lingling always tells me to deliver them to you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming took them: “I’ll look later—let’s eat first.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm, I’ll drive you after breakfast—I took a taxi here, and I’ll return the car for you,” Li Zhi smiled. “My driving is excellent now—I haven’t had another accident since that time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright.” Then Li Zhi tenderly served Wei Ming breakfast, helped him wash up, and packed his luggage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When she personally draped his coat over his shoulders and he slipped his hands into his pockets, he suddenly froze, then frowned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That object—that shape—no mistake. Li Zhi had indeed briefly left his line of sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Xiao Li,” Wei Ming said seriously, “don’t you feel a chill down below?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi looked down at her short skirt and blushed: “It’s fine—I’m cold-resistant.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But you can’t put your underwear in my pocket!” Wei Ming angrily shoved it into her hands. “Put it on—don’t catch a chill.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the item in her hand, then at Wei Ming’s back, Li Zhi was momentarily stunned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What are you standing there for? Do I need to go to the bathroom to give you privacy?” Wei Ming asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi suddenly stepped forward two paces and grabbed Wei Ming’s hand, shoving it into her skirt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What are you doing?” Wei Ming froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To prove my innocence!” Li Zhi declared firmly. “Yesterday your Amin accused me, today you accuse me too—no one treats me this way!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You…” Wei Ming’s hand was forced inside—huh? She was wearing one!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked at the wad in Li Zhi’s hand, took it, unfolded it—it looked familiar, as if from yesterday.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[If you must give me something, I’d prefer one you’ve worn.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming remembered the words he’d spoken to Amin that day—this this this—good job, little Amin—you quietly pulled off such a big trick! No wonder she seemed guilty when he dropped her off last night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luckily he had the habit of checking his pockets—if his sisters had found it later, the consequences would’ve been disastrous—he couldn’t possibly blame it on Zhu Lao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Li Zhi’s pained expression, Wei Ming quickly apologized: “I’m sorry, Xiao Li—it was Amin playing a joke on me. I thought it was you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If she were right here in front of you, would you be this harsh with her?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming rubbed the back of his head: “When have I ever been harsh with you? I haven’t.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1695,"2026-06-19T16:30:59.356Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","d1f8ff68cea5e2c114f26bb55cee0152d910a619d56b65f9bfaac4ab0fadf3fb","rising-in-1979-chapter-469","rising-in-1979-chapter-467",509,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frising-in-1979-cover.jpg"]