Chapter 109: The Only Man in the Diva Palace

The Xie Tingfeng fans, who had always felt since the "Twin Princes" era that Zhou Yi was merely pulling a scam and unworthy of being mentioned alongside their idol, were now silenced.

Regarding endorsement fees, Coca-Cola matches Pepsi, both commanding endorsement fees at the ten-million level;

Regarding album sales, Zhou Yi's album achieved a terrifying total Asian sales figure of nearly two million, comparable to Xie Tingfeng's actual record.

Now even Zhou Yi's most criticized weakness in awards has been filled. Not only did he win the Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs in Xiangjiang and some awards on the mainland, but also the Golden Melody Awards of the Treasure Island, and even some awards from Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and even Vietnam.

Regarding channels for picking up small awards abroad, Warner is far more professional than Emperor, which Xie Tingfeng belongs to.

What must be admitted is that currently, when Xie Tingfeng compares himself to Zhou Yi, he truly only wins on having a girlfriend with a huge reputation, after all, Wang Fei is a solid, old-school Diva.

But Zhou Yi has so many scandals.

Whenever Xie Tingfeng's fans try to use Wang Fei to suppress Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi's fans can always bring up young female stars like Xiao Yaxuan, Fan Bingbin, Chen Hao, Sun Yanzi, and Zhou Xun to mock Xie Tingfeng for only "eating soft rice from women," unlike our Zhou Yi, whose female stars change one after another.

Consequently, fans on both sides escalated to personal attacks against each other, with unprecedented heat.

Under entertainment news on the three major mainland portal websites, whenever there is news related to Zhou Yi or Xie Tingfeng, if there are not more than a dozen comments, both sides' fans will inevitably start a war.

On Tianya Community, where domestic netizens currently have the most interaction, posts about Zhou Yi snatching four Golden Melody Awards one after another, and even many people have started digging into Zhou Yi's so-called background and who his scandalous girlfriends actually are based on the Golden Melody Award news.

Zhou Yi, who often surfs Tianya to eat melons, noticed this situation immediately; for this, he specifically called Qian Jiang to ask if the company had hired internet water army.

The answer received was no.

Along with that, Qian Jiang also brought Zhou Yi another piece of good news with a smile: "Ah Yi, due to your outstanding performance at the Golden Melody Awards, you have currently secured the marketing position of Little Heavenly King that the company promoted for you.

"Anta is also getting a bit restless because the Li Ning brand has also noticed you.

"After all, the incident of you kicking the Peking University Chinese Department 13:0 is getting more and more exaggerated, and even a national-level player commented on it, a man named Fan Zhiyi, making the scope of influence even wider.

"To fight for you, Li Ning offered a price of eight million for three years, higher than Anta's first-round quote;

"Anta didn't want to lose the spotlight to Li Ning again, so they offered nine million for three years. I estimate this is the limit, after all, Anta has only just started on the fast track to profitability.

"So, do you sign with Li Ning or Anta? Li Ning's fee will be one million lower, but the brand influence will be stronger, and the promotion channels will be better."

"... Anta, then. Li Ning's current best spokesperson is still the founder, Li Ning; if I went there, I'd at most get the number two resources. But Anta is different; Anta doesn't have a number one guy. Having spent so much money to sign me, their number one promotional resources can only be invested in me."

After pondering carefully, Zhou Yi made his choice.

Li Ning is still young; whether in official channels or public prestige, he is the undisputed choice for the Li Ning company's promotions; if Zhou Yi went there, he would purely be the second brother.

"Alright, I'll go talk to the people at Anta about the contract right now; wait for my good news."

Qian Jiang hung up the phone.

Soon, Ding Shizhong, the son of Anta's boss who received the news, personally brought his team to the Treasure Island on May 7th to meet Zhou Yi and signed this endorsement contract.

Ding Shizhong, born in 1970, is exactly at the age where he wants to accomplish something; signing Zhou Yi was a result he orchestrated himself.

"I look forward to our cooperation, Zhou Yi."

After snatching Zhou Yi as a spokesperson before Li Ning, the ambitious Ding Shizhong smiled particularly happily: "According to the agreement in this contract, we will soon launch a personal exclusive series model targeting your personal image.

"At that time, our design department colleagues will submit the exterior design drafts for your review, and you are welcome to offer modification opinions."

"Pleasant cooperation, Mr. Ding."

Accompanied by his agent, Zhou Yi, who signed his name with a pen in front of the camera, wore an equally brilliant smile.

Another nine million came in; although it had to be split with the company and taxes deducted, it was still very satisfying.

So much so that when he returned to the company building with Qian Jiang and saw Na Ying, who was officially announced to join Warner that day, he was full of joy himself.

"Zhou Yi, haven't seen you in a few days, why do I feel you've become even more handsome?"

"Sister Na, please stop praising me; otherwise, Yanzi will say I'm narcissistic again."

Zhou Yi waved his hand with a smile, and seeing Chen Zeshan following Na Ying, his eyes held a somewhat playful look.

It must be said, Chen Zeshan's move of the "Diva Palace" concept was indeed played beautifully; at least from the aspect of marketing, which he is best at, it was very successful.

After Zhang Huimei joined Warner, adding to Warner's original number one sister Zheng Xiuwen and the newly promoted Little Diva Sun Yanzi, the four Divas gathered together, not knowing how many people's eyeballs they murdered.

Then, except for Sun Yanzi, these four were all as if bewitched, one after another failing to stand up.

After Zhang Huimei joined Warner, only the first album maintained the heat; the next one failed more than the last, until the heat of the last album before she left Warner finally warmed up a bit;

Na Ying was even more extreme; one year after joining Warner, although she released a hugely popular album with the classic song "A Smile and Move On," she temporarily retired from the entertainment circle to go home, get married, and have a baby...

Zheng Xiuwen's heat plummeted off a cliff; of course, the reason for her decline was highly likely that she had no more wool to shear; the Korean singer Lee Jung-hyun had already been sheared bald by her.

The original Diva Palace, one year after its establishment, was left with only Sun Yanzi to maintain the facade.

Zhou Yi guessed this was probably one of the reasons why Sun Yanzi released seven albums in three years, plus two concert tours, numerous signing sessions, fan meetings, and appeared on a bunch of variety shows.

Especially in the variety show sector; since the Diva Palace of Warner was left with only her standing up, she had to take the lead.

"Zhou Yi! It's crazy, crazy! Zhang Huimei is really coming to Warner too!"

After returning to the company lounge, Zhou Yi hadn't even sat down yet when Sun Yanzi, rushing over in a hurry, came to tell him the news she just heard from Chen Zeshan, with a worried face: "Why do you think the company signed so many female singers? Are they dissatisfied with me?"

According to common sense, it is very difficult for a company to accommodate multiple number one sisters.

Na Ying, Zheng Xiuwen, and Zhang Huimei, each one is no pushover; is a young person like her out of place sandwiched between these three?

"What are you afraid of? At worst, there's still me."

Zhou Yi didn't say any comforting words; instead, he glanced at her sideways and chewed on an orange slowly: "Be confident; maybe you won't even need me to step in, and you can defeat them and sit in the number one sister's position."

Sometimes, luck is really metaphysical.

Looking at Sun Yanzi's performance in rising to the number one sister position at Warner, it was truly that her competitors dragged themselves down one by one; she sat on the number one sister's throne without much effort, even without a single obstacle.

"..."

Sun Yanzi gave him a look as if he were an idiot: "Did you win a big prize and get your brain scrambled? It's been three days; even Fan Jin passing the imperial exam should have returned to normal. Me as the number one sister? Dreaming on."

"Want to make a bet?"

"No bet; you already lost to me once at the Golden Melody Awards; I'll tell you when to cash it in when I decide."

Zhou Yi, chewing on an orange segment, laughed: "No, it's been three days, and you haven't even said what I should do."

"I haven't thought of it yet; wait until I think of it first."

Reaching out to grab the other half of the orange from Zhou Yi's palm, Sun Yanzi flashed a mischievous smile at the man.

Seeing this, Zhou Yi became alert: "Are you thinking something bad?"

"Is there? No, there isn't."

Sun Yanzi sat on the sofa arm, lifting her hips, gently swinging her dangling feet, smiling at him as she chewed an orange segment: "Relax, I won't make you do anything illegal—I'm a law-abiding good person."

"Did you know? In our line of law, people who loudly proclaim themselves law-abiding are usually not good at all."

"... Shut up."

Sun Yanzi reached out and shoved the remaining orange segments in her palm straight into the man's mouth, muttering grumpily: "You judge a gentleman by the standards of a petty man."

"Oh, by the way, Coca-Cola also asked me to be a spokesperson—but for Sprite."

"Sprite?"

"Yes."

Sun Yanzi nodded, her expression odd and slightly resentful: "But the fee won't be as high as yours—Chen Zeshan probably negotiated it down to between three and five million, for four years."

Zhou Yi gave her a withering look: "Obviously—I have to write the ad song too."

Every penny he earned was hard-earned!

Besides, he was benchmarked against Xie Tingfeng's popularity; Sun Yanzi currently had no such benchmark—she got this amount only because of Warner's Twin Stars effect.

Even Jay Chou, when he first blew up, got his first Pepsi endorsement for a mere two million—a bargain price.

"Hey, will the company ever ask you to write songs for new additions like Na Ying, Zhang Huimei, or even Zheng Xiuwen?" Sun Yanzi asked, suddenly remembering this after hearing about songwriting.

"You think writing songs is like selling cabbages? It depends on my inspiration."

"For you, it's practically cabbages—you'll be the only man in Warner's Palace of Queens," Sun Yanzi counted on her fingers: "Four female singers, and you're the only man."

"I'm not interested in any of you four, thanks."

Zhou Yi glanced at Sun Yanzi's small, baozi-like figure and sneered.

Sun Yanzi: "..."

Aaaah!!!

PS: Business trip over, back home today. Starting vacation tomorrow—four updates per day!

(End of Chapter)