Chapter Eighty-Eight: So It Was Her

After the pair singing at the mouth of the alley had finished, the crowd below still pleaded in fervent reluctance for an encore, but when Yan Xu saw the singer standing beside the bar owner, he still yielded the stage to him.

“Sir, do you happen to have any time to come sing here regularly? We can talk about the terms.” The bar owner had barely taken back the guitar from the musician when he came over. He was very pleased with Yan Xu’s performance. If Yan Xu could appear as a resident act in his bar, he would surely draw a crowd.

“Ah?” Yan Xu had not expected the owner to invite him to sing there regularly, and for a moment he was taken aback. Singing was only his hobby; his true interest lay in directing. Still, to have such a small hobby acknowledged by others made him genuinely happy.

“Boss, his fee is quite high. You certainly couldn’t afford him.” Before Yan Xu could answer, Zhou Hui-min came over from backstage with the young girl beside her. Hearing the bar owner’s words, the girl let out a soft laugh and spoke first.

“He’s a major director from Hong Kong. The recent film Taxi Judge was made by him, and it earned nearly twenty million Hong Kong dollars at the box office in Hong Kong alone.”

“A director?” The bar owner had never imagined that the performer in his bar would be a director, and twenty million Hong Kong dollars in box office receipts was the equivalent of well over a hundred million in local currency. Even his entire fortune might not amount to a fraction of that.

Under the owner’s enthusiastic insistence, Yan Xu signed autographs for him and posed for photographs. It seemed this bar owner truly knew how to do business, as if he meant to squeeze every last drop of value from him.

“When did you write those two songs? Why didn’t I know?” After dealing with the bar owner, Yan Xu returned to the two women. Zhou Hui-min looked at him and asked.

“I wrote them some time ago. Those two songs weren’t quite right for you, so I didn’t bring them out.” Yan Xu looked at Zhou Hui-min and said.

During this period, besides preparing his film, Yan Xu had also been preparing Zhou Hui-min’s second album. He had already given her five songs: I Am Very Happy, Original Form, The Truth, If the Clouds Know, and My Dear, Why Are You Not by My Side. Each of them was a hit that had once swept the charts.

Of course, Yan Xu could have given her all the songs needed for the album in one breath, but that would have been too unbelievable. Even with the mantle of genius, it would still seem uncanny.

For this album, Yan Xu intended to target the Southeast Asian market, so most of the songs would be in Mandarin.

After all, the Hong Kong market was far too small; selling a hundred thousand copies was already remarkable. If he could make a name for himself in Southeast Asia, then sales of several hundred thousand, even over a million, would be possible.

That was why Yan Xu had selected each song with great care. Every one of them could have served as a title track.

“Big Brother Yan, could you sign this for me?” The girl who had been following beside Zhou Hui-min also came over, holding a notebook bearing Zhou Hui-min’s signature.

Only then did Yan Xu finally see the girl’s face clearly. She was truly very young, only fifteen or sixteen at most, with large standard-issue eyes and a slender oval face.

Her straight nose and small, delicate lips, together with her thin arched brows, gave her a pure expression touched by a faint melancholy, a look that inspired an urge to protect her. She was unmistakably a little beauty in the making.

At the sight of that face, only two phrases surfaced in Yan Xu’s mind: the timeless goddess and the queen of beauty. Aside from a little more sadness and a little less sex appeal, she looked basically no different from she would twenty years later.

“Hello, Big Brother Yan. My name is I-Neng Jing.” Seeing Yan Xu’s gaze fixed on her, a faint blush rose in I-Neng Jing’s face.

“Oh, hello!” Yan Xu quickly took the notebook and signed his name beneath Zhou Hui-min’s.

To encounter such a future star in a bar was something Yan Xu had not expected. Surprises and delight often came in the most inadvertent moments.

In Yan Xu’s memory, what stood out most about I-Neng Jing was surely the much-publicized hand-holding scandal, as well as her role as a judge on a talent show.

Of course, there were also those glamorous and sexy photo spreads that circulated online: that petite and exquisite face, that hot and slender figure, those smooth and long legs, that dazzling and seductive allure. It was hard to connect such an image with her true age.

As for the rest, Yan Xu knew only a little. Her albums sold quite well in the early nineteen-nineties, and when Yan Xu was in middle school, he had once seen some of her albums at his cousin’s home.

He also knew that she was a writer, and that several of her books, especially those in literature and beauty care, sold very well.

And then there was the matter of her surname, which came from her Japanese stepfather.

The I-Neng Jing of the present did not yet possess that scorching sensuality, but her pure and innocent appearance was just as charming.

“Why are you out playing these gigs at such a young age? Bars like this are full of all kinds of people; it’s not the sort of place a girl your age can easily handle. Do your family members know? Aren’t they accompanying you?” Yan Xu looked at I-Neng Jing. She was still only of middle-school age, yet she was already out performing at clubs. He could never have imagined that the future Queen of Beauty had such an experience behind her.

“Xiao Yi’s family isn’t in Taiwan. Her mother is in Japan, and her sister is in Hong Kong.” Zhou Hui-min took over the conversation, as if she did not wish Yan Xu to speak too much with I-Neng Jing. Especially after seeing the slightly dazed way Yan Xu had looked at I-Neng Jing just now, Zhou Hui-min felt a little uncomfortable.

“Do you really like singing that much?” Yan Xu did not notice Zhou Hui-min’s little thoughts at all. Knowing full well that the person before him was a future star, he naturally would not miss any opportunity.

I-Neng Jing nodded firmly. “Although I’m only a backup singer at Eagle Records right now, I believe that one day I’ll have an album of my own.” Confidence shone in her eyes.

“You’ve already joined a record company?” Hearing this, a trace of disappointment appeared on Yan Xu’s face. He had originally wanted to sign the girl to his own company, but unexpectedly another company had gotten there first.

He knew a little about Eagle Records. It was the company founded by Liu Wenzheng, the most popular male singer in Taiwan. Although Yan Xu had not witnessed his heyday, he still knew something about him; in the time he came from, his father had been one of Liu’s fans.

I Love You, Mei Lan, March Rain, Orchid Grass, Country Lane, Ah Mei Ah Mei—Yan Xu had practically grown up listening to these songs.

What was more, Liu had retired at the height of his fame and vanished from public view for decades. There were even rumors that he possessed extraordinary business acumen and a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Then why are you still coming to bars to perform?” Yan Xu asked further. Normally, after joining a record company, a singer would receive full packaging and training, appear on variety shows to build an image, and even the selection of performance venues would be handled with care.

“I can’t help it. I’m not old enough yet to sign a formal recording contract. Right now I’ve only signed an eight-year labor contract, and my annual pay is only ten thousand Taiwan dollars. It’s nowhere near enough for everyday expenses, so once I finish the company’s assignments, I can only go around singing wherever I can.” I-Neng Jing gave a faint sigh.

Such income was extremely low, even less than what one might earn working in a restaurant. But in the industry, that was basically how things were; most low-level entertainers made about that much. Even many familiar faces who often appeared on television were frequently unable to afford three proper meals a day, and some could not even rent a house, being forced to squeeze into makeshift tin-roofed shacks.

She had wanted to earn money to support her family, but she had not expected that the situation she faced would be no better than if she had gone to work in Japan. Still, she also knew that once she could release her own records, the hardships would be behind her.