The younger generation, starting from where the wind blows...

Chapter 269 Potato had never seen the Soul Emperor, but Jiangnan had indeed seen Caesar.
Cheng Dongqing and Meng Xiaojun had the same idea.

Is it too late to sponsor now?

I'll ask about it later—

No sooner had he finished speaking than Meng Xiaojun suddenly changed his mind.

There's no time to lose; it's best to ask now.

Cheng Dongqing meant the same thing.

Wang Yang was left speechless, watching the two of them.

How did our conversation end up talking about work again?

Can't we just have a proper hot pot meal anymore?
Meng Xiaojun got up and called his assistant, asking him to contact Xingchen Dahai, the production company behind "Old Boys," to inquire about the situation.

After returning to his seat, Meng Xiaojun asked Wang Yang to continue playing the movie.

Wang Yang remained unmoved, his eyes fixed on Meng Xiaojun:
"I think you're hiding something from me and Dongqing."

Meng Xiaojun was stunned.

Before he could even explain, Wang Yang pointed at him and said with absolute certainty:
"The movie has already been officially released, how could we still be inserting ads at this point? After being a CEO for so many years, you can't be unaware of this. The only explanation is that you are deliberately changing the subject."

Meng Xiaojun spread his hands, looking completely innocent.

What topic did I change?

Wang Yang persisted: "I just asked you if you ever had a crush on the school beauty or your white moonlight during high school, and you still haven't answered me."

Cheng Dongqing raised his hand and nudged Wang Yang, telling him to stop asking.

Meng Xiaojun and his ex-wife Liang Qin were childhood sweethearts, a perfect match in terms of social status, and went to the United States together after graduation, where they even got married.

However, Meng Xiaojun did not wear his wedding ring after returning from the United States, and Cheng Dongqing and Wang Yang tacitly did not inquire about Liangqin's whereabouts.

Later, the two learned that Meng Xiaojun was doing very poorly in the United States, and had even been reduced to working as a waiter in a restaurant.

Under these circumstances, Meng Xiaojun must have divorced Liang Qin.

Meng Xiaojun never mentioned Liangqin again after returning to China, which reveals some clues.

Wang Yang made a startling statement:

"I wasn't asking about Liangqin!"

Now it was Cheng Dongqing's turn to be surprised.

He adjusted his glasses, turned to look at Meng Xiaojun, and was about to ask if it was true.

Meng Xiaojun slowly raised his head, a barely perceptible sadness flashing in his eyes.

"How did you tell?"

Wang Yang instantly transformed into Sherlock Holmes.

"You and Liangqin were already a couple when you entered university, so you must have confirmed your relationship in high school, but not too early. I guess it was around the time of the college entrance exam, right?"

Meng Xiaojun nodded.

He and Liangqin did indeed get together after the college entrance examination, after submitting their scores and university applications, and after confirming that they had both been admitted to Peking University.

Wang Yang clapped his hands after hearing this.

"That's right. Your relationship was based entirely on rational considerations, not on the stimulation of youthful hormones. To be honest, you two seemed like an old married couple to me when you were in college. There was no passion in your relationship at all."

Cheng Dongqing interjected:
"Isn't this great? You said it yourself, no matter how dazzling the love is, it will eventually settle into the ordinary!"

Wang Yang nodded, admitting that he had said those words.

But the prerequisite for returning to ordinariness is that it must have been dazzling!
Just like Wang Yang himself, he dated more girlfriends than he could count on two hands, experiencing all sorts of ups and downs, before finally choosing his current wife to settle down with.

To put it bluntly, Wang Yang had had enough of his wild ways, which is why he decided to come ashore.

But Meng Xiaojun was different; he didn't even have a fling before quickly settling into a mundane relationship, which didn't conform to Wang Yang's understanding of the rules of dating.

"In Xiaojun's case, I think the most likely scenario is that he had a passionate relationship in high school, which ended without a trace for some reason."

As Wang Yang finished speaking, he shook his head and recited a line of poetry.

This love can only be cherished in retrospect, for at the time it was already a regret!
Cheng Dongqing looked at Meng Xiaojun with curiosity.

The three have been brothers for almost twenty years and know each other inside and out.

Wang Yang said that if these things were true, Meng Xiaojun had kept a deep secret.

Meng Xiaojun gave a wry smile.

A passionate and intense love affair?
It was nothing more than a one-sided crush on me!
That year, Meng Xiaojun was a freshman in high school, and the older girl was a senior.

Our first meeting was on the stairs of the teaching building.

Meng Xiaojun went up, and the senior went down.

In the brief moment we passed each other, the senior student really looked just like the school beauty played by Jiang Nansun in the movie.

He was radiant.

From then on, Meng Xiaojun was like a man possessed, frantically inquiring about and paying attention to all sorts of news about his senior.

After graduating from high school, my senior chose to study abroad directly, instead of going to Peking University or Tsinghua University.

At this point, Meng Xiaojun should have given up and completely severed that thought in his heart.

In the late 1980s, after graduating from high school, she went abroad to study. Her senior's family background was definitely beyond Meng Xiaojun's reach.

Meng Xiaojun knew this in his heart, but he was just unwilling to accept it.

Going abroad became his biggest obsession.

At the time, Meng Xiaojun naively believed that as long as he went to the United States, he could realize his so-called "American dream".

After graduating from university, Meng Xiaojun successfully obtained a visa and set foot on that "free" land.

Despite suffering a series of harsh realities, even when he was reduced to waiting tables and washing dishes, and divorced his wife Liangqin, Meng Xiaojun never completely gave up hope.

Until one day, Meng Xiaojun met the senior student who had haunted his dreams again.

She was still as beautiful and elegant as I remembered, beyond compare.

However, she was accompanied by a handsome man who was elegant and well-dressed.

The watch that was casually glimpsed on the other person's wrist was worth over hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The fact that the two were a perfect match only served to highlight Meng Xiaojun's disheveled and down-on-his-luck state.

He was like a toad in a stinking pond, gazing up at a beautiful and noble swan.

Not daring to let his senior recognize him, Meng Xiaojun fled in panic.

This encounter caused Meng Xiaojun's Dao heart to completely collapse, and the next day he spent all his savings to buy a plane ticket back to China.

After recounting this unpleasant past, Meng Xiaojun looked up at Cheng Dongqing beside him.

Do you know what I envy most about you?

Cheng Dongqing was stumped by this question.

You still envy me?
Do you know how envious I was of you back then?
When I was in college, I envied your family background, your broad vision and knowledge.

After graduation, I envied you for getting your visa approved on the first try and setting foot on that "free" land that you had been longing for.

Even now, Cheng Dongqing still harbors envy for Meng Xiaojun deep down.

I admire Meng Xiaojun's international perspective and business acumen.

Although New Dream was founded by Cheng Dongqing, its growth and expansion are all thanks to Meng Xiaojun.

Meng Xiaojun then made a surprising statement:
"What I envy most is your country bumpkin nature!"

Cheng Dongqing was dumbfounded.

He was a little confused; was Meng Xiaojun praising him or scolding him?
Meng Xiaojun sighed.

He wasn't kidding.

In his eyes, Cheng Dongqing, a "country bumpkin" who had never been to the United States, successfully founded New Dream with his fearless courage born out of ignorance.

When he went to the United States, he not only suffered the harsh realities of life, but also witnessed the true class divide.

That's why their ambition and drive have been worn away.

If it weren't for the accidental involvement of Cheng Dongqing and Wang Yang in joining the group and gradually regaining their confidence, they might still be lying low and doing nothing.

After hearing Meng Xiaojun's explanation, Cheng Dongqing fell silent. Wang Yang silently turned around, raised his hand, pressed the space bar, and continued playing the movie.

At the beginning of the film, Cheng Dabao is practicing guitar diligently, which turns out to be his way of confessing his feelings to the school beauty by playing and singing "Xiao Fang" on his way home from school.

As a result, he was completely ignored by the school beauty.

On the other hand, Wu Xiaoshuai, who also has a crush on the school beauty, opens up a new world for himself after accidentally seeing a Michael Jackson videotape.

Wu Xiaoshuai caught the attention of the school beauty by imitating Michael Jackson's dance moves at school.

It turned out to be a misunderstanding.

The school beauty was there to deliver an MJ cassette tape to Wu Xiaoshuai on behalf of her chubby deskmate, Hao Fang.

Spurred by this incident, Cheng Dabao willingly degenerated into a gang leader at school, taking pleasure in bullying his classmates, especially Wu Xiaoshuai.

Despite being humiliated by Cheng Dabao several times, Wu Xiaoshuai regained his confidence under the encouragement of his idol, Michael Jackson, and continued to practice dancing diligently.

In a chance encounter, Wu Xiaoshuai rescued Cheng Dabao from being bullied by thugs outside the school, and the two became friends.

Under Wu Xiaoshuai's influence, Cheng Dabao repented and reformed his ways. The two practiced MJ's songs and dances day and night, determined to make a name for themselves at the campus gala.

On the day of the gala, Cheng Dabao and Wu Xiaoshuai performed outstandingly on stage, attracting the attention of the entire school.

But just as the performance was at its most exciting moment, the auditorium suddenly lost power.

It turns out that Bao Xiaobai, who had been bullied by Cheng Dabao before, secretly pulled the power switch to get revenge on Cheng Dabao.

The scene shifts back to the wedding Cheng Dabao was hosting at the beginning of the film. Due to an accident, Cheng Dabao ruined the wedding and was beaten black and blue by the couple's family.

After calling the wedding planning company he was working with to apologize, Cheng Dabao had just hung up the phone when he rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz.

The Mercedes driver got out to check the situation and was about to call the police.

At this moment, the Mercedes-Benz driver got out of the car to check the situation and found that it was his former high school classmate, Bao Xiaobai.

When Cheng Dabao faced Bao Xiaobai, whom he had bullied in the past, he could only nod and bow repeatedly, apologizing incessantly.

Little did he know that the school beauty he secretly admired was sitting in the back seat of a Mercedes-Benz, already Bao Xiaobai's wife.

Bao Xiaobai gave Cheng Dabao a business card and invited him to participate in "The Voice of China".

Cheng Dabao found Wu Xiaoshuai, who was also having a rough time in life. While the two were having hot pot together, they saw the news that MJ was preparing to make a comeback and start a world tour.

Encouraged by this news, Cheng Dabao and Wu Xiaoshuai finally decided to sign up for "The Voice of China".

Thanks to their impressive stage performance, the two successfully passed the audition.

The camera then shifts to the competition venue of "The Voice of China".

Xu Kaiyang, who plays the host, reads the advertisement for the red can of Jiaduobao in one take at a speed of 350 words in 43 seconds.

Cheng Dongqing and the other two, who were enjoying hot pot while looking at their computer screens, were all stunned.

The three of them had never seen an advertisement read so quickly before.

It looks like the ad time was deliberately compressed, but the effect was surprisingly good.

At Meng Xiaojun's insistence, Wang Yang rewound the progress bar and watched the ultra-fast spoken advertisement again.

Xu Kaiyang is not a professional host, and his Mandarin is not even that standard.

However, the actual effect presented gives people a very professional and impressive feeling.

After watching it a second time, Cheng Dongqing suddenly sighed.

He now truly regrets not sponsoring the film.

Meng Xiaojun, standing to the side, had a flicker in his eyes, and it was unclear what he was thinking.

Of the three, only Wang Yang wasn't focused on the spoken advertisement.

He was more interested in the format of "The Voice of China".

The chairs of all four mentors were facing away from the stage.

I don't care what the singer looks like, I just choose based on their voice.

When providing the script ideas, Yang Muyi slightly modified the competition rules. Instead of introducing the concept of teams like in the previous "The Voice of China", he simplified it into a qualifying round.

If no judge turns around or only one judge turns around, the contestant is eliminated.

The two judges turned around, and the contestant entered the waiting stage.

The three judges turned around, and the contestant advanced.

All four judges turned around, and the contestant advanced directly to the finals.

The first to perform was Geng Hao, who sang "Go to Dali".

During the performance, she received turns from three judges, including Bao Xiaobai, and successfully advanced to the next round.

The next three contestants, numbers 2, 3, and 4, were all extras; they were eliminated after only showing their faces.

Contestant number 5 is a singing duo, consisting of Guan Zhenlei and Lu Xiaobei, who are known as "loser boys".

According to the original plan, they were to go on stage and sing "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style," which was also the original version they filmed.

But the day after filming wrapped, Hu Ling called Yang Muye.

Phoenix Legend asked someone to contact Xingchen Dahai, hoping to buy the song "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Trend".

The timeline has come to a close.

Since the person in question had come to him, Yang Muye couldn't very well refuse.

Thus, "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Trend" was "returned to its rightful owner" and sold to Phoenix Legend.

As a result, Lu Xiaobei and Guan Zhenlei had to re-record a song.

Considering their future style and positioning, Yang Muyi prepared this song for them.

Wild Wolf Disco!
The two stood on the stage, dressed in trendy hip-hop attire.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, his thick, plastic-sounding Northeastern accent and Cantonese left all four judges, as well as Cheng Dongqing and the other two in front of the computer, stunned.

"The flower in my heart, I want to take you home."

"In that late-night bar, who cares if it's true or false?"

"Sway freely and forget about the girl you like."

"You're the most charming, you know that?"

……

"stop!"

Cheng Dongqing asked Wang Yang to press pause.

Meng Xiaojun, who was standing to the side, thought that Cheng Dongqing couldn't stand it anymore, but Cheng Dongqing asked Wang Yang to pull him back so he could listen to it all over again.

Wang Yang did as instructed.

As a result, Cheng Dongqing called for a halt again at the same location.

Wang Yang and Meng Xiaojun were both dumbfounded.

"What, do you want to hear it again?"

Cheng Dongqing shook his head, then looked at the two of them very seriously and asked:
"When you first heard me speak English, was your pronunciation as rustic as the Cantonese pronunciation in this song?"

Well--

Wang Yang and Meng Xiaojun exchanged a glance.

Cheng Dongqing's English pronunciation back then was just heavily accented, which sounded awkward, but at least his grammar was correct.

Not only does this song, "Wild Wolf Disco," have a strong Northeastern accent, but its grammar is also wrong.

Especially the phrase "You're the most charming one, you know that?", which is not said at all in Cantonese to express the same meaning.

Anyone who has watched Hong Kong and Taiwan dramas knows that the same sentence is expressed differently in Cantonese and Mandarin.

This is also why there are some subtle differences in the dialogue between the Cantonese and Mandarin versions of Hong Kong and Taiwan dramas.

However, after listening to it twice, Meng Xiaojun and Wang Yang had to admit it.

The lyrics of "Wild Wolf Disco" may be corny, but it's genuinely fun.

Once you get used to it, it actually sounds pretty good.

(End of this chapter)