Chapter 496: My cousin has become my aunt; you tell me, what a mess this is

All of Wei Ming's money in Hong Kong was in US dollars. After the second stage of the Sino-British negotiations began, the cash flows of Langning, Holiland, and Minglong were all converted into US dollars, thereby eliminating the impact caused by the Hong Kong dollar's plunge.

The departure of Jardine Matheson was just the beginning. In order to gain the initiative in the negotiations, the British were bound to let Hong Kong be in chaos for a while. Wei Hong, holding nearly 100 million Hong Kong dollars in funds, took the opportunity to fish in troubled waters and hone her own skills.

However, another matter soon caught her attention. That day, Aunt Wei Lingling brought a box to Grandpa's house and only opened it once she, Grandpa, and Xizi were all present.

"This is..."

Wei Lingling: "That's right, it's Nintendo's newly released home game console, the Family Computer, or FC for short."

Because of its red-and-white color scheme, many people called it the "Red-White Machine." It was very small and pretty.

Nintendo produced over 400,000 units in the first batch of the Red-White Machine. Wei Lingling snatched up 10 units directly, along with some accompanying game cartridges. She kept one at her own home, sent one to Wei Hong and her dad, and planned to take the rest apart.

In Wei Lingling's heart, handheld consoles were just temporary substitutes for when one was away from home and lacked a home game console, so what she truly cared about was the home console market.

Wei Hong hurriedly connected it to the television, but upon looking, she said: "How come it's all in Japanese?"

Old Ghost said: "There's no difficulty in that; I'll do the translating."

Working underground in the Japanese-occupied zone, one couldn't get by without knowing a bit of Japanese.

Xizi liked pretty big sisters most, and after that, game consoles. He also played along with his sister and Grandpa.

They casually plugged in the *Donkey Kong* game. Although it was a port from a handheld console, the screen on a handheld was only so big; playing it on a TV now felt significantly different.

"Wow, so smooth!" Wei Hong was an expert at playing games. As soon as she started, she knew it had instantly crushed the Atari 2600; even the Atari 5200 was lacking in comparison.

The Nintendo Red-White Machine and the Atari 2600 were both 8-bit consoles, and while Atari had recently launched the 16-bit Atari 5200, its market acceptance wasn't very high.

The Red-White Machine launched with a total of seven debut games. The *Mario Bros. * that Wei Ming cared about most was not among them; perhaps it had been placed in the follow-up plans.

These were all independently developed by Nintendo and couldn't be played on other game console platforms.

Besides the classic *Donkey Kong*, there was also *Popeye*, for which they had bought the copyright from the US. These two were the main featured games.

Several other titles included *Donkey Kong Jr. Math*, which was an educational game. Wei Hong tried it out: "Xizi, this game is suitable for you; you can play it more often in the future."

Xizi looked miserable: "If I have to study while playing games, wouldn't I be playing for nothing?"

Lin Ni picked up a cartridge: "Can you play mahjong on a game console too?"

These debut games also included sports and leisure games like mahjong, five-in-a-row, and baseball. It could be considered quite targeted, aiming to sweep up all types of people.

They tried the "Mahjong" game again. Lin Ni played with great delight because there was a single-player mode, so even if there was no one at home in the future, she could still play mahjong.

Back when she was at the Wei Mansion in Taiwan, she often accompanied her sister and the two Mrs. Weis to play mahjong. Her skills had been honed, and every time, she could lose in a way that looked incredibly lifelike.

Whenever she returned to Taiwan, the three of them would say they missed her terribly and could never find such a good mahjong partner again.

Wei Lingling communicated with the playtesters while taking notes. It was certain that the performance of this Nintendo Red-White Machine was crushing compared to the Atari 2600, and crucially, it could keep the unit price so low.

Moreover, the playability of their games was also excellent. The best-selling games on the Atari console, *Space Invaders* and *Pac-Man*, were both made by Japanese companies. The *E. T. * game they made themselves was just trash on the side of the road compared to these Japanese games.

It was estimated that Spielberg also regretted selling the game copyright to Atari for over 20 million dollars. This crappy game had even had a not-so-small impact on the reputation of the critically acclaimed original film.

With Xizi's IQ, the game he liked most among these was "Five-in-a-Row." Traditional five-in-a-row was just connecting five pieces in a line; it was simple and fun, and it had to be played with Grandma Ni—he absolutely refused to play with Big Sister Hong.

Old Ghost, Xizi, Wei Hong, and Lin Ni—the four of them were in a chaotic mess fighting for control of the game console. Wei Lingling regretted it; she should have brought one more console.

Just as they were playing, Zhou Ma came knocking. Looking at the whole family gathered around the TV, she asked: "Haven't A-Min and A-Ming returned yet?"

Everyone shook their heads. Lin Ni just wanted to say there was no need to worry or be anxious, but then she looked at the time—it was already ten o'clock, and they hadn't even eaten yet.

"A-Fen, do you still have any leftovers?" Lin Ni said, putting on a thick face. "I'm hungry."

Xizi: "Me too!"

Zhou Ma shook her head and went straight into the kitchen to whip up something simple for them. Wei Lingling also went over to help.

As for Wei Ming and A-Min, they were recording the song *Know Whether You Should* today. After finishing the recording, Wei Ming and A-Min took Zhang Guorong out for a meal. Anita Mui was also there, so Wei Ming took the opportunity to hand over the song he had promised to write for her earlier.

The song was titled *Years Flow Like Water*. That's right, it was the theme song for the movie starring Sister Xue. The original version was composed by Kitaro and had lyrics by Zheng Guojiang.

"Gazing at the sea /

Full of weariness, no tears and no words /

Gazing at the sky /

Only feeling, feelings in chaos /

My heart is like a small wooden boat..."

This song perfectly matched the state of mind of the female lead in the movie.

Wei Ming gave this song to Anita Mui, but with the requirement that it must be the theme song for Blue Bird's *Paper Butterfly*. Although this film was shot in the Mainland and would certainly make the Freedom Association unhappy, Anita Mui didn't hesitate and readily agreed.

In the original timeline, this song was also sung by her and was one of her representative works.

Wei Ming was very proud. While handling A-Min's business, he had also helped Sister Xue. Killing two birds with one stone, oh yeah!

He turned his head and saw Zhang Guorong looking at him expectantly. Wei Ming indicated: "Don't be anxious, you have a share too."

A-Min's album needed Zhang Guorong's help to sing two songs as a duet. Although he was very willing to help for free, including a cameo in *Home Alone*, Wei Ming still promised to write a song for him.

After receiving Wei Ming's promise, Zhang Guorong smiled and asked: "Then can I make some additional requests?"

"Please speak."

"A Mandarin song."

"Oh?"

It turned out that seeing Alan Tam had already released two Mandarin albums to capture the Taiwan market, Capital Artists couldn't sit still either. They were preparing to create the first Mandarin album for Zhang Guorong, to be produced jointly by Michael Lai and Taiwan's Chyi Yu.

Although Chyi Yu was very impressive, there was clearly still a gap between her and Wei Ming. If he could get Wei Ming's help, Zhang Guorong would have more confidence in this album.

"Mandarin songs are great; writing Mandarin songs is much easier for me than Cantonese songs." Wei Ming readily agreed.

After finishing the meal, it was already late. Wei Ming and A-Min went for a drive outside again before taking her back.

Unexpectedly, upon sending her home, he found that Mother Zhou was not at home, so A-Min invited Wei Ming to sit in her room for a while.

"Better not."

"Come on, let me show you the photos I took for *Yes! *."

The magazine had hired the most professional photographer in Hong Kong, who captured A-Min's pure and vibrant side. Among them, there was a photo of her wearing a basketball jersey and dribbling that made Wei Ming hallucinate Haruko Akagi. These legs, straight, long, and white—Wei Ming couldn't help but start using his hands again.

As they touched, the two fell onto the bed and embraced and kissed. A-Min took the initiative to pull Wei Ming's hand to let him climb the hillside.

Just as the two were gradually getting carried away, Mother Zhou's voice came from outside: "A-Min, you're back?"

She remembered turning off the lights when she left.

"Mom, um, just got back." Vivian Chow responded while tidying her clothes.

Wei Ming pressed down: "Auntie, I'm relieved now that you're back. I'll be going then."

A nervous son-in-law is always afraid of his father-in-law. A-Min had no father since she was small, so Mother Zhou was equivalent to mother-in-law + father-in-law, constantly radiating pressure.

Wei Ming had already reached the door when Mother Zhou added: "Your aunt just went downstairs; she probably wants to chat with you."

"Oh, okay, I'll go down and find her right now."

After going downstairs, Wei Lingling had already driven away. Wei Ming thought he might as well go to Langning Company to find her tomorrow.

As a result, when he returned to his home in Causeway Bay, Gong Xue was somewhat shyly entertaining Wei Lingling.

Wei Ming looked at the time: "It's already past eleven, couldn't this wait until tomorrow?"

Wei Lingling laughed: "Sorry, it seems I've disturbed you two. I came over just to tell you that I've already gotten my hands on the Nintendo FC, and also that the block game has been developed. Do you want to come over and play tomorrow?"

"Oh, is that so? Great. You could have just made a phone call; why run over in person? I'll see you out."

Wei Lingling thought to herself: If it weren't for seeing you hiding a beauty in a golden house, I would definitely have had a long heart-to-heart talk tonight. This Nintendo had given her too much of a shock.

The next day, Wei Ming arrived at Langning. Because their own handheld console hadn't been made yet, he tried playing it on a computer.

The game plan he had given earlier was very detailed; it was exactly the kind he wanted, identical. However, because it was called "Chinese Blocks," some Chinese elements were added to the art, with a giant dragon spitting blocks at the top.

"Not bad, it's done quite well, I'm very satisfied," Wei Ming said. Because he had experience, he lasted a full ten minutes before dying. During the process of him playing, Wei Lingling seemed to feel the fun in it; this was a game that required calculation and risk-taking.

The engineer responsible for developing this game said: "I'm also very satisfied. During the process of making it, I realized that the playability of this game is very strong. I believe it will definitely amaze the gaming world!"

That was for sure. For a long time, this would be the highest-selling game globally, especially on handheld consoles, becoming a craze for a time.

Wei Lingling said: "Do you want to play the FC again?"

"Sure."

Wei Ming looked at the cartridge; there was no *Mario Bros. * yet, so he chose *Donkey Kong 2*. *Donkey Kong* was adapted directly from the handheld game, while this *2* was prepared specifically for the home game console.

Wei Ming was very calm while playing. For him, having played many 3A masterpieces, perhaps he would have to wait until *Super Mario Bros. * came out to give himself a surprise.