Chapter 112: Take Me as the Standard

"Unbearable, No Need to Endure Any Longer! Little Heavenly King Zhou Yi's Counterattack!"

"Say No to Rumors, Declare War on Rumormongers!"

"Zhou Yi: 'Young and Impetuous' Is Not an Insult to Me"

"..."

On May 11, after the Warner Golden Melody Awards celebration ended, interviews regarding Zhou Yi were immediately released by various media outlets on the island eager to ride the heat.

His sharp, unpretentious stance instantly won the support of many young listeners who had merely been listening to his songs, while also attracting massive attention and controversy.

Zhou Yi, who had just rightfully secured the position of Little Heavenly King by winning four Golden Melody Awards, was already at the peak of his popularity; moreover, on the 9th, photos surfaced of Sun Yanzi's driver's car appearing in his residential compound, and news about meeting the parents had already broken, causing rumors of the twin stars to spread wildly.

Suddenly pulling a stunt like suing all the rumor-mongering media in court was somewhat baffling.

For how many years has writing rumors or spreading gossip been a routine operation ever since the entertainment industry was born in the country?

Besides, didn't they just write a rumor? They didn't spread anything else.

Alienating the media too severely is really unnecessary for an artist who needs exposure; the pens are still in their hands.

After the reports were published, artists close to Zhou Yi, such as Jay Chou, Elva Hsiao, and Angela Chang, immediately called to inquire about the specific situation.

However, unlike the two women, Elva Hsiao and Angela Chang, Jay Chou first let out a shriek to express his admiration for Zhou Yi's "fearless of power" and unyielding spirit in fighting the paparazzi media to the end, before then standing on a realistic footing and advising him that it would be best not to sue, suggesting that sending a lawyer's letter and reaching a private settlement would be enough.

"There's no need to do this, Zhou Yi. The paparazzi are indeed annoying, but getting entangled with them for too long will waste your energy."

Jay Chou, who also suffered greatly from the paparazzi, although agreeing with Zhou Yi's tough stance from the bottom of his heart, couldn't help but offer comfort: "You are already lacking many exposure channels here in Taiwan; offending the media willing to write about you to the point of no return will greatly affect your future album sales."

"Is it possible that if I hurt them badly enough, they will hold a grudge against me and instead tirelessly search for my scandals and track my news?"

On the balcony outside the floor-to-ceiling window, Zhou Yi, leaning against the black railing, casually spat out the grape seeds from his mouth, glanced up at the distant sky, chuckled softly, and retorted: "Moreover, even if we take a step back, my public opinion situation here can't get any worse, can it?"

"..."

It wasn't just Jay Chou; everyone, including Elva Hsiao, Angela Chang, and even Sun Yanzi, was silenced by Zhou Yi's words.

They felt something was wrong somewhere, but couldn't quite say what it was.

Because the rented residential compound was not far away, Sun Yanzi went straight to Zhou Yi's house immediately after hanging up the phone—

"Zhou Yi, really, I think having the company send a lawyer's letter to state your position is enough."

Sun Yanzi, also a victim of rumors, watching Zhou Yi stir up trouble step by step in the public opinion arena, ultimately couldn't ignore the warning from her manager Chen Zeshan and came personally to dissuade him.

She was truly afraid that Zhou Yi would be completely crushed here in Taiwan; this was going to court, and if things went wrong, it would truly mean ruin and disgrace.

"Rest assured, I have a sense of proportion."

Facing Sun Yanzi's sincere concern, Zhou Yi opened the door for her, washed some fruit for her on the side, sat down with a smile, and recounted the plan he had discussed with Qian Jiang.

Because they feared that if the media targeted later were not on the same page, the marketing campaign would fail, the implementation of this plan was kept at a very high level of secrecy; only Zhou Jianhui, Zhou Yi himself, and Qian Jiang knew about it.

Now there was one more person: Sun Yanzi.

"... You really are too willful."

Having heard the plan, Sun Yanzi's mouth dropped open in shock: "Who uses this kind of thing for hype? If things go wrong, you'll lose your market here."

"How could there not be? You're seeing it right now."

Placing the fruit plate on the coffee table, Zhou Yi shrugged, unconcerned.

This was just the beginning.

It was time to give the young paparazzi of the new century a unique marketing lesson.

On May 13, 2001, according to an official Warner announcement, due to the speed of evidence collection, Zhou Yi, who had returned to the Imperial Capital, was the first to sue the mainland media that had spread rumors about him in court.

The young mainland media, due to lack of experience, left too many loopholes when spreading rumors about Zhou Yi, which were easily found by the battle-hardened elite lawyers in Warner's legal department, and they were directly sent to court.

Once the news broke, everyone in the media and entertainment circles across the two sides of the strait and the two special administrative regions understood that this young talent of the music scene was playing for real.

He was not joking.

As expected, on May 15, in Taiwan and Xiangjiang, Warner's legal team struck again, targeting the first batch of paparazzi and media where loopholes were found, and suing them all in court!

On the same day, Zhou Yi, back in the Imperial Capital, formally began writing his graduation thesis while filming the MV, with all the cases being about himself.

It was hailed as the most hardcore and simultaneously the most high-quality university graduation thesis in the history of the domestic entertainment industry.

No matter what was questioned, he could confidently say, "Take me as the standard."

"Hello, Zhou Yi."

At the filming site of the "Drifting North" MV, Tan Jing, a graduate of the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe, met Zhou Yi, the Little Heavenly King currently at the height of his fame, for the first time and said with a closed-mouth smile: "I am very happy to cooperate with you."

"Sister Tan is too polite; I should be the one saying that. After all, you are a talent from the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe; in terms of singing skills, I still need to learn much from you, and I hope you won't look down on me then."

Upon first meeting the future Tan Jing, the Great Demon King, Zhou Yi smiled very humbly.

Let alone the full-fledged Tan Jing, just in terms of singing skills, the current version of Tan Jing, the winner of the Popular Singing Gold Award at the National Youth Singer Television Competition, was enough to crush him.

No matter how good his abilities were, he was always a half-baked amateur from the wild. If it weren't for Warner's intervention changing his life trajectory, he should have still been planning to do other things.

"Oh no, oh no, you are a veritable Little Heavenly King; saying that somewhat humbles me; we just take different paths."

Feeling that this younger brother spoke quite properly, Tan Jing chuckled a few times, and then, thinking that this Little Heavenly King who was currently at the height of his fame seemed to be clashing with a large number of rumor-mongering media, out of kindness, she couldn't help but ask: "Given your current situation, is there any problem filming the MV?"

"Of course, not a single problem; the company will handle those matters."

Zhou Yi, who was originally going to handle things lightly in the mainland, make a typical cooperation in Xiangjiang, and finally strike hard in Taiwan, felt no psychological pressure regarding this.

Who else could let him promote without obstacles in both the mainland and Xiangjiang?

Filming the MV for "Drifting North" presented absolutely no difficulty for Zhou Yi, after all, it was just walking around the streets of the Imperial Capital.

After establishing a simple friendship with Tan Jing, Zhou Yi, who finished the "Drifting North" MV in two days, rushed directly to Jiang Xi Province, to Lushan.

For him, the truly difficult part of this album was actually the album's first lead single, "Jiangnan."

The original MV for this thing was completely impossible to reference; Lin Junjie just sang while sitting in a drainage ditch. And precisely because of this overly abstract MV, Lin Junjie would later be jokingly nicknamed the "Drainage Ditch War God."

Now that Zhou Yi was filming it, he definitely couldn't play it that way.

Because Jiang Xi Province was originally part of the Jiangnan region in ancient times, and now there were so many undeveloped and undamaged original ecological scenic spots within its borders, Zhou Yi simply decided to directly turn his "Jiangnan" MV into a scenic spot promotion.

The plot was just a very simple love story of a Jiangnan water town.

And the MV's female lead, Liu Tao, each in two sets of modern and ancient costumes—

In ancient times, it was the spirit of scholars, talented men and beautiful women;

In modern times, it was sightseeing in spring, strangers to each other.

The two met in the ancient and modern plotlines at places one by one: Mount Lu, Mount Sanqing, Tengwang Pavilion, Wu Gong Mountain, Longhu Mountain, Poyanghu, and so on.

Switching between the modern and ancient dual storylines, creating a contrast between past and present against the magnificent scenery of Jiangnan, evoking a sense of fate where lovers are reborn.

Most importantly, to embody the lyrics "round, circle, round," he specifically had the filming crew capture the ripples spreading out when a drop of water hit the surface of Poyanghu.

When the sunset falls and the water and sky share one color, the ripples rising on the lake under the glow of the sunset are enough to stun anyone.

PS: Came back late from a late-night snack~

One more chapter~

(End of this chapter)