Chapter 100: The Real Opponent

"What? I really didn't date anyone. Bringing someone home or not is still a long way off. Mom, Dad, stop worrying about this; I have my own plans. That's it, I'm hanging up."

In Baodao, inside Zhou Yi's "luxury dormitory."

Zhou Yi, who received a call from his parents early in the morning, felt a bit of a headache and hurriedly explained a few things.

This storm was stirred up a bit too much; even his parents, far away in their hometown, heard about it and specifically called to ask if Sun Yanzi was the girl they had seen at the Global Chinese Music Awards live show last time.

It was somewhat ridiculous.

"Your and Sun Yanzi's fame is too great; it's only natural that rumors between the two of you would cause such a stir."

Qian Jiang, the manager who had combed his hair meticulously, sat on the single sofa in the living room. Seeing Zhou Yi finish the call and walk in through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the balcony, he smiled and comforted him: "But the company has already taken action; this impact will dissipate soon."

"Let's hope so."

After sighing, Zhou Yi plopped down onto the large sofa, looked up at the milky-white living room ceiling, and bared his teeth in a sigh: "This time, Sun Yanzi is truly an innocent bystander."

He himself didn't care about the rumors, but Sun Yanzi did.

Moreover, if he were to play the hype game, he always adhered to the bottom line of mutual willingness, which violated his principles.

"You just have to say you need to be more careful in the future, especially when meeting privately with Elva Hsiao and Fan Bingbin."

Thinking of the only two women in Zhou Yi's many rumors whose authenticity was 100%, Qian Jiang still reminded him: "Learn from a setback; the paparazzi are truly impossible to guard against.

"It's not just you; even the current Jackie Chan would fall victim to it."

Speaking, Qian Jiang took out several newspapers and weeklies and placed them in front of Zhou Yi—

"Thank Jackie Chan; now the matter between you and Sun Yanzi has had much of the spotlight stolen by him and Zhang Ziyi across the country."

"Jackie Chan? Zhang Ziyi?"

Zhou Yi, whose mind hadn't quite caught up yet, lowered his gaze, and his eyes immediately fell on the newspapers on the coffee table—on the color pages, a photo of Zhang Ziyi actively kissing Jackie Chan's cheek was crystal clear, and the surrounding environment looked quite luxurious, like the scene of some banquet.

Flipping through, there were even more extremely clear photos, with Jackie Chan and Zhang Ziyi as the protagonists, their poses being extremely intimate.

The moment he saw these photos, Zhou Yi instantly remembered why he had made an excuse to politely decline Jackie Chan's birthday banquet invitation back then.

"How about it? Even Jackie Chan fell victim; can you let it go now?"

Qian Jiang chuckled twice: "This newcomer paparazzo with the pen name Zhuo Wei is truly impressive; he actually had the ability to sneak into Jackie Chan's 47th birthday banquet and take close-up photos of Zhang Ziyi and Jackie Chan. No one in the paparazzi world had ever heard of this figure before.

"It's said he's a mainland paparazzo; no one knows who brought him out."

Zhou Yi, who had simply glanced through the content of these periodicals, had the corners of his mouth rise slightly: "No need for 'it's said'; he is from the mainland. Taking down such a big event right out of the gate, he should be famous after one battle."

One could only say that the future number one mainland paparazzo indeed had some skills; if he remembered correctly, this Zhuo Wei had apparently released some dirt on him last year.

It's just that last year's Zhuo Wei was obviously not yet mature, couldn't distinguish truth from falsehood, and followed his Xiangjiang predecessors to publish a bunch of fake news.

"A bottle of champagne close to twenty thousand yuan, just opened and poured into Zhang Ziyi's mouth. Tsk tsk."

Even though he had already seen it once, Qian Jiang still had to marvel at the luxury of Jackie Chan's birthday banquet; after all, this was just the tip of the iceberg exposed by Zhuo Wei.

"Now the media outside are criticizing Jackie Chan and Zhang Ziyi, and the rumors between you and Sun Yanzi have been suppressed instead."

One was the solid international superstar Jackie Chan, the other was Zhang Ziyi, who had just made a name for herself in Hollywood with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Both were figures who had been famous in the domestic film industry for a long time; the storm they stirred up was indeed powerful enough.

"One can only say it's a good thing you didn't go; otherwise, with this storm rising, you might also be implicated and criticized." Seeing Zhou Yi still studying those "world-famous paintings," Qian Jiang smiled and said: "Your luck is truly something; no one can compare."

Jackie Chan's 47th birthday banquet had sent an invitation to Zhou Yi; at that time, Qian Jiang had even wanted to persuade Zhou Yi to go, since everyone had already started cooperation.

But Zhou Yi was then filming the Coca-Cola advertisement in full swing; his reason given to Jackie Chan was that he simply couldn't get away, so he didn't go.

It now seems that was indeed a wise choice.

Hearing this, Zhou Yi casually threw the periodicals into the trash bin, smiled, and said nothing.

Even if he hadn't been filming the Coca-Cola advertisement, he would have found another excuse to reject Jackie Chan back then. After all, the Zhang Ziyi incident was Zhuo Wei's capital for becoming famous in one battle; he had no interest in going to join the fun.

"Oh right, for the Golden Melody Awards ceremony this session, are your parents coming? If they are, I'll book tickets for them first."

"They are coming. Trouble you, Uncle Qian."

Zhou Yi nodded.

This was his first time attending the Golden Melody Awards; his parents had nothing to do now, so naturally they would want to come to the scene.

To be honest, if he didn't feel that he would definitely get at least one trophy this time, he would be too lazy to make the two elders travel such a long distance; it's more comfortable at home.

In his parents' words, they couldn't make it to the Ten Best Chinese Songs Awards in Xiangjiang before because of the upcoming New Year at home; naturally, they couldn't miss this Golden Melody Awards in Baodao.

Their son is getting face for the first time by winning an award in Baodao; they, as parents, have free time; how could they not come?

"No problem, I—"

"Zhou Yi, what did you make for breakfast? If you haven't, I'll just have my assistant—"

Before Qian Jiang finished speaking, Elva Hsiao, wearing a pink nightgown, walked out of the master bedroom. Seeing Qian Jiang, her expression froze for a moment, then she smiled, nodded at him, and greeted him: "Good morning, Uncle Qian."

"Breakfast has already been bought for you; eat while it's hot. If there's nothing else, I'll leave first."

Seeing the woman dressed this way, Qian Jiang immediately understood how Zhou Yi spent last night; he smiled, stood up, and was about to leave: "Oh right, if you have time this afternoon, come to the company. That model named Wang Xinling is ready for the audition for the 'Da Cheng Xiao Ai' MV; she and her manager are in Baodao."

"OK."

After making an OK gesture to the manager, seeing Qian Jiang leave just like that, Elva Hsiao, yawning, sat down on the now-empty single sofa and looked with interest at the breakfast on the coffee table: "Your manager is quite nice."

"He's someone who came out of the golden age of the Xiangjiang entertainment industry; what scenes hasn't he seen?"

Zhou Yi, noncommittal, raised his hand and accepted the chopsticks the woman threw to him: "As for you, you're hungry like you haven't eaten in days."

"Don't start; my waist is still sore until now."

Elva Hsiao rolled her eyes at the man: "I don't know which unlucky person will be the one to marry you in the future."

"That's one-sided, isn't it?"

Zhou Yi, breaking open the chopsticks, smiled and started eating, casually turning on the TV news with the remote—

On the screen, the first thing to come into view was the advertisement he shot for Coca-Cola—once the intro of 'Don't Listen to Slow Songs When You're Sad' played, Elva Hsiao, sitting on the single sofa, began to sway her body slightly with the rhythm.

The extremely rhythmic beauty made Zhou Yi a bit envious.

In terms of dancing, Elva Hsiao was truly blessed by heaven; her rhythm and groove were top-tier.

"'The Love of the Rainy Season' is very popular recently; I see Gu Juji's 'I Really Want to Want You' has started to threaten the ranking of your songs."

Watching the year's hottest Qiong Yao drama air right after the commercial, Xiao Yaxuan chewed on her chopsticks, her tone laced with schadenfreude.

Her "Love's Main Song" had firmly secured the top spot on all major music charts; even Gu Juji, bolstered by a Qiong Yao drama, could not shake it.

In her view, Zhou Yi's commercial track holding off "Hao Xiang Hao Xiang" for nearly five days was already absurd enough.

"Qing Shen Shen Yu Meng Meng poses no threat to me in the Treasure Island."

Hearing this, Zhou Yi couldn't help but snort, looking as if he didn't care about the Qiong Yao drama at all. The mainland release date for "Qing Shen Shen Yu Meng Meng" was already set for September; by then, his second album would be out, his dominance in the mainland would be established, and Gu Juji absolutely could not shake "Jiang Nan" from the top spot.

In his heart, his biggest rival this year was the idol drama "Meteor Garden," scheduled to air in late April. The new group F4 would go viral across all of Asia thanks to this drama, becoming incredibly popular.

Moreover, in the Treasure Island, he very likely would not be a match for this drama; it was simply too much of a bug.

In the mainland, however, he could still give it a try, since by March 2002, this drama would be banned in the mainland, leaving him to win by default.

"Looks like you're very confident about your new album. Do you have a demo? Let me listen first?" Seeing that the man didn't even glance at Gu Juji, Xiao Yaxuan asked with great interest.

"I do, it's at the company. Do you want to come to the company with me?"

"... Then let's forget it. You've just managed to have some of the spotlight taken by Jackie Chan; I don't want to walk into the eye of the storm with you again."

Sneaking over to see Zhou Yi and checking his mood, to see if he had been affected, was already the limit of Xiao Yaxuan's willfulness. If she got any more high-profile, her teacher, Yao Qian, would probably have a stroke and end up in the hospital.

After finishing breakfast, Xiao Yaxuan, having confirmed that Zhou Yi was unaffected by outside influences, left his house after disguising herself, got into the car driven by her assistant in the underground parking lot, and headed straight for the company.

Zhou Yi, after tidying up, also got into the company-provided van and headed straight for the Warner office building.

In the afternoon, while Zhou Yi was recording songs, he received a call from his manager, Qian Jiang. After going downstairs, he met Wang Xinling, the future "Sweetheart Idol" and one of the Four Big and Three Small.

"Hello, I am Wang Xinling. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, thank you very much."

Wang Xinling, who had not yet risen to fame, was extremely excited upon seeing Zhou Yi, looking exactly like a fan meeting her idol.

PS: Overtime isn't over yet. Today's three updates are still two short. It will be too late after work ends; I'll probably fall asleep immediately.

PS2: I'll make up the two missing updates tomorrow. After finishing overtime tonight, I'll have tomorrow off. Four updates.

(End of this chapter)