Chapter 137: It Is Recorded That He Is Chasing Me

"Cheers!"

In a private dining room of a restaurant two streets away from the Hunan Television Broadcasting Building, amidst the clamor of the night, Li Xiang raised her glass of red wine high, her smiling face flushing with a few tints of red as time passed.

Beside her, He Jiong and Li Weijia were equally showing expressions of excitement.

As professional hosts, and hosts who had struggled and clawed their way through this industry for several years, they knew better than anyone how much entertainment value today's episode of "Happy Camp" would deliver.

Zhou Yi's every move had brought them far too many surprises, so much so that the final result was far superior to what they had achieved during their previous rehearsals.

Especially for He Jiong.

He was considered the one with the highest variety show talent among the current "Iron Triangle" of Happy Camp, even being regarded as a top-tier figure in domestic variety hosting.

Yet even with that, he was still shocked by the effect Zhou Yi presented on the live show.

Since he started his career, Zhou Yi was the first artist he had encountered with such immense entertainment value.

He was convinced.

"Zhou Yi, to be honest, if your price tag wasn't so ridiculously high, I would really want to pull you in for a few more episodes."

After downing the remaining red wine in his wine glass in one gulp, He Jiong, now seated, was truly filled with deep emotion.

There was a rule in the Taiwan music scene: for singers in their promotional period, no matter how big a star you are, when appearing on TV programs to promote your album, the production team basically only covers transportation and accommodation costs, and perhaps gives a symbolic few thousand New Taiwan Dollars as a gesture.

Previously, when Zhou Yi participated in Wu Zongxian's "Food Street" in the Taiwan music scene, he ended up receiving only an amount comparable to pocket money.

In the mainland, because the variety show market is currently in a wild, pioneering stage, there are many advertisers and sponsors willing to throw money. Therefore, even for well-known singers in their promotional period appearing on shows, appearance fees can reach one or two hundred thousand.

Big stars coming to promote can even get five or six hundred thousand.

Thanks to Qian Jiang's super negotiation skills, even though Zhou Yi's original intention for appearing on "Happy Camp" was to promote his new album, Hunan TV still offered an ultra-high appearance fee of eight hundred thousand.

Ultimately, his ultra-high popularity was something the Hunan TV variety show, which was actively seeking innovation and change, was willing to bet on.

The newly appointed Vice Director last year was ambitious, determined to make the station's flagship variety show "Happy Camp" surpass the Southeast TV flagship variety show "Happy Hundred", CCTV's "Lucky 52" and "Happy Dictionary", and even Anhui TV's "Super Big Winner", which had firmly held the national variety show ratings championship.

Because of Zhou Yi's origin from Jiang Xi Province, ever since he burst onto the scene last year and swept through the Taiwan music scene, the Vice Director, also from Jiang Xi, had noticed this young man who had turned the Taiwan music scene upside down.

Until this year, after Zhou Yi's second album was released, the heat was absolutely explosive; the target audience for the lead single "Jiangnan" was even broader than last year's "Happy Worship", suitable for both the young and the old.

This is what prompted the "Happy Camp" production team to proactively contact Warner Bros. and offer a higher bid than other variety shows.

Don't ask; if you ask, it's because they planned to learn from Zhou Jianhui.

"Your topic's popularity is likely to explode tomorrow."

After the celebration, Zhou Yi got into the car driven by his manager and returned to the hotel.

Qian Jiang, responsible for handling the money and taking the blame, was unusually excited, gesturing wildly in the car: "The company has been closely monitoring the effect when the program aired; while you were cooking for the fans, some small forums even crashed directly."

This was a unique occurrence in the mainland, the first time in the history of the world.

Including Zhou Yi's warnings to certain fans, his methods of debunking rumors, and even his comedic Duan Zi, the impression left on people was truly profound.

Even Qian Jiang himself now had Zhou Yi's demonic "Peking University is also okay" running through his mind.

Zhou Yi, biting on a toothpick, said nothing; he turned his head to look at the city night view outside the car window, and the handsome face reflected on the glass softly hummed a ballad from the album.

In his phone, many people who had watched this episode of Happy Camp sent greetings immediately, with senior brother Sa Beina being the most prominent among them.

The next day, the influence of Zhou Yi's Happy Camp episode truly began to spread across the mainland—

After all, Hunan TV is a national television station with a huge audience. As the flagship variety show of Hunan TV, Zhou Yi's fierce performance on "Happy Camp" last night naturally spread to thousands of households along with the program—

At this stage where the mainland generally lacked, or rather was generally still exploring what entertainment meant, Zhou Yi used his performance to directly give a vivid lesson to variety show producers of major satellite channels and even public relations companies.

More importantly, "Happy Camp" had reruns.

Besides the live broadcast last night, starting from the next day, as long as you watched Hunan TV, you could basically notice the scheduled rerun time—

Furthermore, Hunan TV would even edit out some clips first to boost the ratings for the reruns and run advertisements.

Compared to the live broadcast, the rerun of "Happy Camp" not only had subtitles added but could even cut out some scenes that weren't very "harmonious".

For example, last night, a certain female fan of Zhou Yi's "Wang Fei" shout, made while enjoying the spectacle and hoping for trouble, was not present in the rerun version.

And reflected in the ratings, which Hunan TV valued most—the entire "Happy Camp" production team received direct commendation!

"Record broken! Record broken!

"This episode's variety show ratings are number one, completely overturning "Super Big Winner" and "Happy 100", and incidentally surpassing CCTV's "Lucky 52" and "Happy Dictionary" as well!

"The fan effect Zhou Yi brought to the program is simply terrifying!"

The entire production team of "Happy Camp", which had never taken first place since the program was established and had always hovered between second and fifth, felt like they were drinking ice-cold cola on a hot summer day when they got this result—absolutely refreshing!

And as Zhou Yi's novel performance on the program exploded in reputation day by day, on the variety show rerun ratings chart, this episode of Happy Camp was far ahead of the rest!

"No singer is more worthy than Zhou Yi! He can even cook for fans!"

While the eyes of the massive number of fans were almost bulging red as they fought external battles, they were also frantically urging Warner Bros. to quickly stuff Zhou Yi into another variety show to cook again.

They also wanted to eat the food cooked by Zhou Yi with his own hands!

Peking University also broke out of the circle strongly because of Zhou Yi's phrase "Peking University is also okay", literally becoming one of the admission brochures for this year's graduation season.

The mouths of the people at the Peking University Admissions Office were crooked with joy.

The 2001 college entrance exam time was still July 7th-9th, not yet changed to June, so the airing of this Happy Camp episode allowed the Admissions Office to have some invisible advantage in public opinion.

After all, basically every year in the battle for talent, it comes down to Tsinghua and Peking University fighting it out. Under the condition that the terms offered by both sides were roughly the same, Peking University had actually gained a wave of goodwill among the young people in advance.

Being able to teach such a "reckless" and fun Zhou Yi is enough to prove that our Peking University's academic atmosphere is inclusive of all things.

"Peking University: I am indeed still okay"

"Natural sense of humor, Zhou Yi from Peking University"

"Caring for fans! Zhou Yi's heartwarming act!"

"Breaking Hunan TV's ratings record!"

"..."

If the reports about Zhou Yi by this group of newspapers in the mainland could still be somewhat restrained, then when he arrived in Hong Kong the next day, what awaited Zhou Yi were various sensational headlines—

"Zhou Yi publicly strips in the mainland! Praised for being very big!"

"Zhou Yi's Crowd-Fueled Firestorm Continues, Yet Female Fans Remain Unsatisfied!"

"Wang Fei's Heart Wanders?! The Sharp-Fei Romance Collapses, All Because Xie Tingfeng Isn't as Great as Zhou Yi?!"

"..."

Because he was to be the surprise guest at Elva Hsiao's Hong Kong Coliseum concert, Zhou Yi, having finished his promotion for Happy Camp, rushed straight to Hong Kong. Looking at the top ten best-selling newspapers at the newsstand, his eyes squinted into a single crease.

What is all this nonsense?

Did I sue the Hong Kong paparazzi too lightly before?

Qian Jiang, holding back his laughter nearby, tried to speak several times but was forced to swallow his words due to his uncontrollable giggles. After composing himself for a moment, he finally spoke: "It's normal. You broke the viewership record Leon Lai set on Happy Camp, and you helped Happy Camp secure a number one ranking it had never achieved before. That also broke a record.

"Most importantly, the sales of your new album in Hong Kong have also broken the record for mainland singers, almost putting you on par with Xie Tingfeng.

"Didn't you notice that most of the news in the papers is about you and Xie Tingfeng?"

"..."

But it's bearable.

"Oh, by the way, there's one more thing."

Qian Jiang reminded him: "Your role as the surprise guest at Elva Hsiao's concert is supposed to be confidential, but you are too famous now; your schedule simply cannot be kept secret. Right now, a swarm of reporters and paparazzi must already be down there.

"Be sure not to slip up and say anything."

"Don't worry, I know."

Zhou Yi nodded—

Just as Qian Jiang predicted, a massive horde of lurking paparazzi and reporters surged forward—

"Zhou Yi! Zhou Yi! Is the rumor about you and Wang Fei true? Someone claims they saw Wang Fei at your variety show!"

"Zhou Yi! Did you say you have face blindness because you feel those female stars aren't pretty enough or distinctive enough?"

"Zhou Yi..."

A pair of eyes filled with "If you're unhappy, come hit me right now" stared fixedly at this man who was clearly not in Hong Kong yet was constantly the subject of legends in the treasure island of Hong Kong, microphones nearly blocking his nostrils.

"Wang Fei? I've never even met her; that's all nonsense you wrote. It seems it's time for my company to sue a few more of you."

"Also, my face blindness was caused by your camera flashes."

Zhou Yi, who was used to being chased and blocked by paparazzi every time he came to Hong Kong, wasn't in as good a temper as last time and immediately fired back.

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi! What do you think about breaking the record Leon Lai helped Happy Camp set? And what do you think about creating a new record for mainland singers' album sales in Hong Kong?"

"I look at it using the company's financial reports."

"... Then may I ask if you plan to break other records, such as the Ha—"

Zhou Yi glanced sideways at that reporter and interrupted: "Break other records? No, no, no, let me correct you. I never actively go to break any records; the records come chasing after me instead."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Qian Jiang: "..."

PS: Slept too late, damn it!

Let's adjust; start by not staying up late!

I'll write ten thousand words tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)