Ten thousand Hong Kong dollars in 1973 was considered a quite large sum of money.
In the early 1970s, Shaw Brothers Studio was only willing to offer $5,000 for Bruce Lee to act in movies.
Bruce Lee was unwilling, and later signed with Golden Harvest Entertainment.
He took on two movies, and the remuneration was $25,000.
Calculated according to the exchange rate at that time, it was not even 200,000 Hong Kong dollars.
The monthly salary of people at the bottom of Hong Kong society was only a few hundred or so, and a bit better was a thousand.
In fact, Li Zetian’s parents earned more money than many people in the slum areas.
Li Chengzhi was an editor, and Xiao Zhixuan was a junior high school music teacher.
Both of their salaries exceeded 1,500 Hong Kong dollars.
But you must know, the expenses to cultivate Li Zetian into a student of the Harvard University Conservatory of Music were also huge.
As everyone knows, studying music is extremely expensive.
You must understand various musical instruments, and even if you can’t afford to buy them, you have to rent them.
True, Li Zetian’s mother was a music teacher, but using public resources for private purposes would definitely attract criticism, not to mention Xiao Zhixuan was a mainlander!
After Li Zetian left PolyGram Record Company, he went to a restaurant and had a beautiful, good meal.
After finishing, he went shopping at a mall, bought a Parker fountain pen for his father Li Chengzhi, and bought a pair of high heels for his mother Xiao Zhixuan, spending roughly three thousand Hong Kong dollars.
In the blink of an eye, of the 10,000 Hong Kong dollars, three-tenths were gone, but Li Zetian didn’t feel heartache at all.
If he had money, he was willing to buy even more expensive things!
It was only August 3rd now, and Li Zetian was very confident that he could earn enough money for his tuition and miscellaneous fees before Harvard University started!
In the evening, the sun set in the west, and the golden afterglow shone on Li Zetian, as if putting a golden veil on him.
Mother Xiao Zhixuan had returned a step earlier than Li Zetian, and was currently preparing dinner in the kitchen.
As soon as Li Zetian entered the door, Xiao Zhixuan noticed he was carrying a bag in his hand.
“Bought things?”
“Yes, Mom.
Bought a pair of shoes for you!”
As Li Zetian spoke, he took out the shoebox and placed it on the table.
Seeing the English on the packaging box, Xiao Zhixuan couldn’t help but be startled!
“Salvatore Ferragamo!
How could you buy such expensive shoes!!!”
Ferragamo is known as the kingdom of women’s shoes in Italy.
Its style is luxurious and elegant, emphasizing both practicality and style, and is world-renowned for its traditional hand-made designs and novel styles.
Every woman yearns to have a beautiful pair of high heels of her own.
Although Xiao Zhixuan had never bought this kind of shoe, she obviously knew something about the Ferragamo brand!
Li Zetian handed the contract in his hand to her, saying at the same time: “This is the contract I signed with PolyGram Record Company.
I wrote a song and sold it to them, making 10,000 Hong Kong dollars, and I also get lyrics and composition royalties.
In the past, it was always you guys buying things for me.
Now that I am making money, of course I have to buy gifts for you!
Your gift is this pair of Ferragamo high heels, and Dad’s gift is a Parker fountain pen.”
“But, there was no need to buy such expensive things!” Xiao Zhixuan shook her head, feeling a bit distressed about the money.
I will buy you even better things in the future, let you live in big houses, drive nice cars, and have servants to attend to you!” Li Zetian’s mind held the memories of the original owner of this body.
When the memories merged with him, the two of them were completely inseparable.
Xiao Zhixuan and Li Chengzhi were his biological parents.
Li Zetian’s words were a true expression of his feelings, without the slightest falsehood.
Hearing this, Xiao Zhixuan’s eye sockets slightly reddened and moistened, and she was deeply moved in her heart.
She carefully put the shoes into the cabinet and treasured them.
This was a gift from her son, and she must wear them only on important occasions.
“Son, you rest, I’ll go cook.”
“I’ll help you wash the vegetables!”
…
Li Chengzhi worked overtime tonight and only returned at 9 o’clock in the evening.
“Have you had dinner?” Xiao Zhixuan asked while helping her husband take off his suit.
“I ate at the company,” Li Chengzhi replied, changing into a pair of slippers.
“What’s wrong?
Work isn’t going smoothly?” Xiao Zhixuan asked.
“It’s nothing…”
Li Chengzhi shook his head, walked into the living room, and sat heavily on the sofa.
“Still saying it’s nothing, look at you, the unhappiness is written all over your face.
Tell me, what exactly happened?” Xiao Zhixuan furrowed her brows slightly and asked.
Li Chengzhi sighed slightly and said: “You know, we are mainlanders.
We’ve only been in Hong Kong for more than a year, so it’s very normal to be marginalized.
Our newspaper agency plans to open a detective novel column to attract more people to buy newspapers.
I was originally responsible for this matter.
To this end, I spent a lot of time carefully studying the information of outstanding detective novel writers in Hong Kong, so as to persuade these detective novel writers to sign with our newspaper!
But I didn’t expect that this afternoon, the leadership suddenly said they were changing people, and another person from the company will be responsible for this!”
“Why suddenly change people?”
“Because this person is relatively familiar with several very outstanding detective novel writers…”
“Then aren’t all the efforts you made before wasted?!” Xiao Zhixuan frowned.
Li Chengzhi nodded helplessly.
In his room, Li Zetian heard their conversation loud and clear, and felt injustice for his father in his heart.
When a father is humiliated, the son feels the same way.
“What should I do for my father?
Write a detective novel?”
Li Zetian couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.
He didn’t read many novels.
Because he liked highly logical mathematics and was naturally talented, he coincidentally loved reading detective novels very much.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes” goes without saying, and there were also Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” and “Murder on the Orient Express”, Keigo Higashino’s “The Devotion of Suspect X” and “Journey Under the Midnight Sun”, Ellery Queen’s “The Tragedy of X”, and so on.
But if he wrote an imitation, he could probably write a pretty good detective novel.
Perhaps he could even make some innovations based on the original work, making the story more full of ups and downs and gripping!
The Li family was a scholarly family.
His grandfather was a patriotic scholar, and his father Li Chengzhi was an editor who had engaged in literary translation in his early years.
Under this constant influence, Li Zetian’s writing level in this life was not bad either.
Coupled with the fusion of memories from his past and present lives, his writing ability naturally improved greatly.
“I’ll write it.
Every beginning is hard!
Perhaps I can also write an extremely outstanding work!
Once the book is written, not only can it help my father gain a firm foothold in the newspaper, but it can also make money.
Killing two birds with one stone!” Li Zetian fixed his eyes and made up his mind.
As for which work to choose, he had also decided on Keigo Higashino’s “The Devotion of Suspect X”.
The book tells the story of a mathematical genius who, in order to help a mother and daughter hide the crime of murdering the ex-husband, engaged in a series of battles of wits with the police, fabricating the entire hoax.
Li Zetian was himself a mathematical genius, so he had an extremely deep impression of this work!
In the living room.
Xiao Zhixuan comforted: “Don’t think so much about it!
I have a good thing to tell you!”
“What good thing!”
“The song our son wrote was sold!”
Upon hearing this, the unhappiness on Li Chengzhi’s face immediately vanished, replaced by excitement, curiosity, and joy.
As long as his son was promising, that was more important than anything else!!!
“What’s the name of the song?
Which record company did he sign with?” Li Chengzhi hastily asked.
“The song is called ‘A Man Should Stand Strong’, and he signed a contract with PolyGram Record Company!” Xiao Zhixuan said.
Hearing the song name, Li Chengzhi couldn’t help but freeze for a moment, “Sam Hui’s new album’s title track seems to be called ‘A Man Should Stand Strong’?”
“That’s right, the song our son wrote is exactly this ‘A Man Should Stand Strong’!!!”
“I remember it seemed to be a song written by a person named Wu something?”
“Hmph, he is a shameless thief who plagiarized our son’s song!
You have no idea, this morning, our son went alone to PolyGram Record Company to demand an explanation.
Not only did he successfully expose Wu Feitian’s plagiarism, but he also got compensation!”
Li Chengzhi looked excited.
He hadn’t expected his son to be so capable, much stronger than him as a father!
Xiao Zhixuan continued: “In the end, our son earned 10,000 Hong Kong dollars and obtained the lyrics and composition royalties for the song ‘A Man Should Stand Strong’.
See, he even bought a gift for you, a Parker fountain pen!” After speaking, Xiao Zhixuan handed the Parker pen to him.
Li Chengzhi took the pen, so moved that he couldn’t speak for a long time!
(END CHAPTER)