Chapter 4

When applying for his ID card, Yin Jun found out that it was February 16, 1978, a Thursday. He had returned to exactly 42 years ago in one breath. Feeling a mix of melancholy and excitement, Yin Jun, who was usually a carefree person, decided that since the situation was irreversible, he would live his life to the fullest in this world.

Before leaving home, Yin Jun had carefully examined his body and found that he indeed looked like a teenager of 16 or 17. When he visited the bone-setting doctor, he even asked the elderly doctor, who was over 70, to feel his bones and guess his age. The old doctor confidently told Yin Jun that his bones were those of a 16-year-old, and if he guessed wrong, he wouldn't be in this profession.

Therefore, when he went to apply for a new ID card later, Yin Jun filled in his birthday as February 16, 1962. In fact, before this, he didn't even know his own birthday; the principal of the orphanage had set the day he was found as his birthday. Now, since he was essentially living a new life, he decided to treat today as a new beginning.

Speaking of people from the mainland coming to Hong Kong, there is quite a story behind it. Before the 1950s, people could freely enter and exit between the mainland and Hong Kong, but this gradually became more restricted. Due to poverty and other reasons, more and more people from the mainland came to Hong Kong. In the 1940s, when Hong Kong's population was less than 500,000, the city was happy to welcome so many young and able-bodied workers to contribute to its development.

Thus, Hong Kong began implementing a new ID card application policy in 1961, known as the "Defensive Line Policy." In baseball, a defensive line means that once a player reaches the base, they are safe. In the context of Hong Kong, this meant that as long as you successfully reached the city and could support yourself, you would be recognized as a Hong Kong resident and given an ID card to live there.

However, with the continuous influx of people, the population of Hong Kong exceeded 4 million in the early 1970s, causing the government to worry about the difficulty of managing such a large population. In November 1974, they revised the policy to "Anyone who successfully reaches the city and has contact with Hong Kong relatives and is capable of working can obtain an ID card."

But how many people actually had relatives to rely on? Many people came without any regard, and the police department tacitly accepted this situation, continuing to follow the 1961 policy.

From this, it can be seen that the majority of Hong Kong's population consists of people who migrated from the mainland between the 1950s and 1970s and their descendants. They are essentially one big family, and it's hard to understand what those with ulterior motives are trying to stir up!

By 1979, the population of Hong Kong officially exceeded 5 million, reaching 5.017 million. Therefore, the government firmly decided to revise the policy again at the end of 1980, implementing the "Immediate Capture and Deportation" policy, which remained in effect until 2020.

However, it was 1978, and with a celebrity like Guan Shan vouching for him, the application for Yin Jun's ID card was completed quickly. What made Yin Jun chuckle was that he was issued a child's ID card, and he wouldn't be able to exchange it for an adult's ID until he turned 21, not 18.

It wasn't until 1990, when the "Age of Majority Ordinance" was amended, that the age of majority was lowered to 18.

Interestingly, although the age of majority was 21, the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Hong Kong was much lower: 7 years old. Yes, you read that right. In Hong Kong, anyone over 7 years old who commits a crime would be sent to a "youth prison" or "reform school." It wasn't until 2003 that the minimum age of criminal responsibility was raised to 10.

Now, back to the present. To understand Hong Kong's entertainment industry, one cannot separate it from Hong Kong itself. The rise and fall of Hong Kong's entertainment industry is closely tied to its economic factors. Therefore, Yin Jun was very clear about the economic development patterns of Hong Kong.

1978 was a very good year for Hong Kong. The oil crisis and the stock and real estate market crashes of five years ago seemed like distant memories. After five years of recovery, Hong Kong was on a fast track to development. The ongoing construction of the MTR, in particular, spurred the rapid development of real estate projects along the MTR lines, which in turn boosted the overall real estate market, marking the beginning of another surge in property prices.

At the same time, as one of the Four Asian Tigers, Hong Kong had not yet completely abandoned its industrial base. In recent years, Hong Kong's electronics, small appliances, clothing, and toy industries were among the world leaders, generating substantial profits through massive exports.

Hong Kong also maintained a close relationship with the mainland, serving as the only bridge for China's external trade. This role brought in a significant amount of wealth.

Due to this comprehensive and diverse development, Hong Kong truly entered its golden age.

For Yin Jun, however, the industrial and real estate sectors were far too distant. He had no money and still needed to rely on the Guan family for food and shelter. His current biggest hope was to quickly determine what he would do in the future, just to ensure he could eat and not end up on the streets.

It wasn't that he was angry with Zhang Bingqian for wanting to kick him out. In fact, he was used to living alone and found it uncomfortable to live with so many people. After a month, when his ID card was issued, he would find a job and a small place to live, and then stabilize his life before thinking about other things.

Of course, the most pressing reality now was not how to find a job but to solidify his memory. Solidifying his memory was simple: he needed to write down the memories in his mind. As the saying goes, "A good memory is not as reliable as a bad pen."

Yin Jun had 42 years of future memories, but these memories would not remain etched in his mind forever. As time passed, they would sink into the depths of his mind, only surfacing when relevant events occurred. "Oh, there's that thing!"

This would be a waste of both the memories and the rare opportunity to return 42 years in the past. Therefore, after dinner, Yin Jun asked Guan Zhilin for a notebook and locked himself in his room to start recording.

Yin Jun couldn't write down these future memories in great detail, as that would be a huge risk if they fell into the wrong hands. Besides, these memories wouldn't truly disappear, and he only needed to write down concise summaries to help him recall them later.

Over the past five years, Yin Jun had dealt with Hong Kong-related matters almost every day, and his memories of Hong Kong's economic, cultural, and entertainment events were very clear.

For example, regarding the ID card policy, he wrote "8010, capture, return." For "78, Pao, nine, rise and fall," it meant that in 1978, Pao Yu-kang, the richest man in Hong Kong at the time, began his first major battle, the acquisition of the Kowloon Wharf, which saw a significant rise in the stock price in the first half of the year, followed by a sharp decline in the second half, and then another rise.

Another example was "788, Jia collapses," which referred to the bankruptcy of the TVB competitor, Asia Television, in August 1978, reducing the number of major TV stations in Hong Kong from five to four.

For the major TV dramas of the following year, he wrote "799, Gu, Qiu, handsome," meaning that in September 1979, the legendary TV series "Chu Liuxiang," adapted from Gu Long's novel and starring Adam Cheng, would captivate countless viewers.

And so on.

Yin Jun used time as the axis, first writing down the major events, and then searching and recording them month by month. This complex task couldn't be completed in one night; it would take several days, or even longer, to recall and add more details. He would continue to fill in any new memories that came to mind.

It wasn't just about Hong Kong; he also recorded significant entertainment and economic events from the mainland, Europe, and America, as well as some notable events from Japan and South Korea. Although he didn't know if these would be useful in the future, they might come in handy and would certainly benefit his future.

Solidifying his memory was just the first step. After completing this, Yin Jun had another important task: to write down the basic outlines of the movie scripts, TV series, songs, and variety shows he could remember.

This was more complex than recording major future events. He didn't need to write down every detail of every movie script or TV episode, but he needed to summarize the main plot, highlight the strengths, and note the cast and content of the TV series. This required a lot of concentration.

In comparison, songs were simpler; writing down the titles was enough to recall the tunes. Variety shows were similar; writing down the titles, such as "The Challenge," would remind him of the funny characters and interesting segments.

At midnight, Yin Jun put down his pen, washed up, and went to bed. Although his mind was brimming with content he wanted to record, maintaining a regular schedule was the key to long-term success, and there was no need to rush.

Lying in bed, thinking about the day's extraordinary events, Yin Jun felt both excited and reflective.

People often say that gold is precious, but they don't ask the heavens for youth. This was not only the golden age of Hong Kong but also his own golden age!

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