Chapter 118: Rising Against the Tide, Looking Down on the Heroes

180,000 copies. Even setting aside the few thousand odd ones, that's a full 180,000.

Even Zhou Yi, who personally orchestrated the entire marketing plan, couldn't help but clutch his head upon seeing this number, finding it hard to believe.

This figure far exceeded his expectations.

At the very beginning, he had estimated that with a series of marketing campaigns, he could sell around 200,000 to 250,000 copies in the Taiwan region within about a week.

After all, this was the peak of his popularity, and fan loyalty had been refined to an extreme degree after rounds of "fan tormenting."

But, he had thought there would be a pleasant surprise after this forced refinement, yet he never expected such a huge surprise.

"If you say you're going to sue the people restricting you in Taiwan, Zhou Jianhui would probably do exactly as you say."

Qian Jiang, whose eyes had nearly disappeared from his grin, forcibly suppressed the surging excitement in his heart: "Do you know what kind of psychological shock the company felt seeing your legitimate sales data of 180,000 copies in a single day?"

"Let me give you an example: Wang Fei's album 'Parable' sold only 175,000 copies in Taiwan last year; the single 'Courage', which once competed with you for the number one spot on the charts, has its eponymous album selling only nearly 200,000 copies to date."

"Wu Bai's 'Movie Song Collection' sold 130,000;"

"You Hongming's album 'Down the Sand' sold 120,000, and Xu Huaiyu's 'Love' sold 120,000;"

"Even Gigi Leung's 'Gigi Leung's Favorite Selection' was only 110,000, and PolyGram's Crown Prince Ronald Cheng's 'Love You with Every Song: New Hits + Best Of' was a pitiful 100,000 copies."

In the new century, where the Taiwan music market has been increasingly depressed by piracy, even the Taiwan music scene, which once saw million-sellers as easily as drinking water, is like Wang Xiaoer celebrating the New Year—getting worse year by year.

In 2000, the entire Taiwan music scene released over 140 proper studio albums, yet only 27 sold more than 100,000 copies.

This is a terrifying number.

Top-tier singers' sales can still look good, selling hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands, but the singers below can only barely get a sip of soup...

In the current chaotic music market, the siphon effect of top-tier singers in the Taiwan music scene has become increasingly obvious.

Against this backdrop, Zhou Yi's achievement of selling 180,000 copies in a single day might not be earth-shattering, but at the very least, it can be called unique.

After this result came out, all the criticism within Warner against Zhou Jianhui for supporting Zhou Yi's lawsuit vanished.

In fact, Warner executives, fearing Zhou Yi might be distracted by the lawsuit, thoughtfully assigned ten more elite lawyers to Zhou Yi for this legal storm, adding to the ones who had joined earlier, forming a luxurious legal team totaling seventeen lawyers.

Whether to sue or not, who cares.

Money isn't important; the main thing is not to let our precious Zhou Yi get scared.

June 10.

With the faces of the defendant media editors in Taiwan turning green, Warner's reinforcements arrived instantly. They relentlessly pursued them on the point of their illegal rumor-mongering, showing no sign of holding back.

Most importantly: Warner even announced to the world, making a public announcement for every victory, causing the Taiwan onlookers to stop watching the entertainment section and start reading the legal section every day—

Under this all-out bombardment by Warner, Zhou Yi's photo, name, and new album became the representatives of "righteous resistance against injustice," gaining a huge new batch of fans.

Fans who would actually buy albums.

Especially the students in Taiwan, who are prone to emotional outbursts, were just one step away from taking to the streets to perform their traditional art of holding banners to protest the injustice against Zhou Yi by the Taiwan side.

It was precisely against this backdrop that on June 11, with the album released for less than a week, the eleven songs in Zhou Yi's album began a slaughter on various charts.

The Zhou Yi fans in Taiwan, who had been holding back a belly full of anger, now possessed incredible combat power one by one. Starting from the hundredth position on the radio charts upon debut, in just two days, 'Jiangnan', 'Back-to-Back Embrace', 'Da Cheng Small Love', and 'Love Me or Him' directly surged into the top ten.

Elva Hsiao's 'Sun Never Sets', ranked tenth, was directly knocked out of the top ten, while 'Parable' at ninth and 'Little Happiness' at eighth were also in precarious positions.

Because 'Meteor Garden', a monster-level competitor, still existed on the charts, Zhou Yi's fans, feeling the difficulty, discussed in various chat rooms and collectively made the strategic decision to give up—

Focusing exclusively on 'Jiangnan', 'Da Cheng Small Love', and 'Back-to-Back Embrace', the three songs gradually spreading through the streets and alleys.

'Love Me or Him' only needed to hold its position in the top ten.

In terms of popularity required for charting, 'Love Me or Him' was still inferior to the aforementioned three.

Conversely, on the KTV request chart, 'Love Me or Him' was far ahead of 'Back-to-Back Embrace' and 'Da Cheng Small Love', ranking second only to 'Jiangnan'.

June 13, one full week after Zhou Yi's second album 'Jiangnan' hit the shelves, Warner officially announced Zhou Yi's terrifying legitimate album sales figures—

Mainland China: 403,621 copies, directly breaking the record for first-week album sales in the Mainland music scene!

Xiangjiang: 162,150 copies, breaking the record for first-week album sales by a Mainland artist in Hong Kong, while also selling a record 210,000 photo books...

And in Taiwan, where the storm was the fiercest, the controversy the greatest, and the crystallized fans from refinement the most numerous, Zhou Yi's second album 'Jiangnan' sold a jaw-dropping 302,300 copies!

In one week, 300,000 copies sold.

Tao Zhe's god-tier album last year, which he sold for a whole year, only had sales of over 420,000.

Looking solely at Zhou Yi's sales data, one might believe it wasn't 2001, but rather the golden age of the Chinese music scene before it was struck by piracy.

The combined first-week sales across the two sides of the strait and the two special administrative regions totaled over 860,000; even in the golden age of the Chinese music scene, Zhou Yi's first-week sales for this album could compete with the gods standing at the Jin Zita peak.

"Even if piracy becomes rampant again, breaking the one million sales mark for your album within a month is a foregone conclusion. You can even aim for the Asian Sales Award."

Zhou Jianhui recently felt like he was walking on air; every time he saw Zhou Yi, his face was smiling like a sunflower.

This was a precious treasure rising against the tide in a poor market environment; in any company, this would be the level of a house-guarding treasure, and having even one should make one burn high incense.

He, Zhou Jianhui, had the wisdom to recognize the pearl, and now he had two.

Sun Yanzi, though not as eye-catching as Zhou Yi, was at least a force rising against the version in the female singer track in terms of sales.

Truly, the ancestral grave is emitting green smoke.

"To stimulate legitimate sales, the company will continue to market and buy press releases for you, but you still have to run the promotions. Especially since you cannot go to Taiwan for promotions currently, the Mainland and Hong Kong are the top priority."

"Especially Hong Kong; your explosion in Hong Kong this time surprised everyone, your photo books sold best there, and they are more interested in your fashion elements."

Speaking of photo books, Zhou Jianhui couldn't hold back either; he looked Zhou Yi up and down, who was speechless, and joked with a smile: "Others have album sales driving photo book sales, but you have photo book sales driving album sales."

"..."

Zhou Yi, who never thought he would one day be targeted by a rich woman, pulled out a chair and sat down grumpily: "Considering it's all real gold and silver, I won't bother to speak."

"However, you said you can't run promotions in Taiwan, but there is actually a loophole to exploit." Zhou Yi, once again exercising his subjective initiative, had a hint of a smile on the corner of his mouth.

June 15, while Zhou Yi's album was selling like hot cakes, Warner officially announced: Due to the lawsuit, Zhou Yi needs to return to Taiwan to appear in court.

Two days later, Zhou Yi, wearing a well-tailored white suit and sunglasses, made a flashy appearance in front of the Taipei Court gate under the protection of a group of bodyguards—

Reporters, who had been holding back since the album's release, rushed forward, transforming into legal reporters and shoving microphones in front of Zhou Yi:

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi! What are your thoughts on the public opinion storm you've stirred up in Taiwan? Did you do this on purpose, or was it an accident?"

"Zhou Yi! Some have called you the most courageous singer since this century—what do you think of that title?"

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi, when do you plan to stop? Are you determined to fight these rumor-mongering media outlets to the death? Is there really such deep hatred between you?"

"Aren't you being too unforgiving now that you're in the right?"

"..."

The reporters, frantic not to miss Zhou Yi's rare appearance, pushed forward relentlessly; under the escort of bodyguards on either side, Zhou Yi struggled to advance—until he finally stopped just before ascending the courthouse steps.

Turning around, he looked down at the crowd of reporters below and smiled calmly: "When you do something wrong, you must accept punishment; when you break the law, you must accept punishment—that's the rule."

"I'm a law student. I believe in the law. I am certain that Taiwan's legal system will deliver me justice."

"Many say I'm young and impetuous, unforgiving now that I'm in the right—I don't care. Besides..."

As he spoke, Zhou Yi lifted his hand and removed his sunglasses. Standing at the entrance of the Taiwan courthouse, facing the island's media, with the solemn dignity of the law behind him, he tilted his head slightly and asked, "If a young person isn't bold and fiery, what's the point of being young?"

(End of Chapter)