Chapter 143: Now They Are Truly the Two Princes

"Hong Kong Celebrity Charity Football Match? Isn't that just for Hong Kong? What does it have to do with you?"

Having just finished communicating with the company about the concert DVD release, Selina He looked up in surprise and glanced at the man.

"Who knows? They probably saw my high popularity and the fact that I can actually play football, so they invited me to play for about half a match. Besides, I happen to be in Hong Kong these days."

Zhou Yi, who had been idly twirling a pen out of boredom, shrugged noncommittally: "Recently is the critical period for the Chinese national team to qualify for the World Cup, and the heat is at its peak."

For this generation of the Chinese national team, stepping onto the pitch of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup finals was not an unreachable dream. Having learned from the failures of the previous tournament, the newly appointed head coach, Milutinović, who took office in February this year, brought an unparalleled football storm to China—

Up to now, they have not lost a single match in the ten-team group stage of the qualifiers, with a strong chance of advancing and breaking into the 2002 World Cup finals.

With this surge of popularity, and because Zhou Yi had been sharply criticized by Fan Zhiyi, a key defender of the national team, over the "13:0" football meme, it was not hard to understand why the Hong Kong Celebrity Charity Football Match would seek him out to ride the wave of attention.

After all, this thing is essentially just a show; what it needs is exposure.

Selina He, who didn't understand football well but understood the heat of the World Cup very well, nodded as if she understood: "So, will Xie Tingfeng participate? The two of you are currently fighting fiercely in the media."

If she were the organizer, having invited Zhou Yi, even if it were just for one match, she would definitely have to invite Xie Tingfeng as well.

This was a rare confrontation between two people of similar age in the Chinese music scene: one was the Crown Prince of Emperor Entertainment, the other the Crown Prince of Warner. Their personalities behind the scenes were hard to say, but in their public appearances, they were equally youthful and fiery.

In reality, the two had only appeared together on stage at last year's Global Chinese Music Awards and the Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards; apart from that, it was basically "when kings meet, one must hide."

"I'm not sure, but the rumor Qian Jiang received is that the organizers did invite Xie Tingfeng. As for whether he will go, that's unknown, unless he is willing to be crushed by my dimensional strike."

As if thinking of a ridiculous scene, the corner of Zhou Yi's mouth involuntarily curled upward.

Even if he let up on purpose out of consideration for human relations, his basic skills were right there; the current Xie Tingfeng wouldn't know a damn thing about playing football.

"When are you going to play? If the timing works out, I'll come to the scene to be your cheerleader and cheer you on. Your Warner label doesn't have many female stars who can hold the stage; counting them all, there's only Zheng Xiuwen."

As Virgin's own daughter, Selina He casually declared that she could be a cheerleader.

"Fourteen days from now. If you have time, feel free."

Just as he was speaking, Zhou Yi received a call from his own agent—

"What did you say?"

…………………………………………………………

"I'm going to play in a football match?"

Emperor Tower, Ouyang Feifei's office.

Xie Tingfeng, who hadn't yet turned 21 and was currently still 20 according to the international age calculation method, looked at his agent, and disbelief instantly flooded his young eyes: "But I don't know how to play at all."

If someone who didn't know how to play at all stepped onto the field, wouldn't that be like a lazy donkey pulling a millstone—spinning around in circles to make a fool of oneself?

"Precisely because you don't know how to play, the company has decided to use this charity match to find you a new fan growth point. Football is currently the most popular sport in the country. Didn't you see that Zhou Yi even secured an endorsement contract with Anta because of football?"

Knowing Xie Tingfeng's personality, Ouyang Feifei advised him earnestly: "It is already common knowledge that Zhou Yi's football skills are very high; losing to him is not shameful.

"The company will also help you promote that you are a newcomer who just started playing football, and that you only accepted the invitation and participated in the match at the risk of being overshadowed because you have a heart for charity.

"This way, you won't be criticized for being bad at football; instead, you can lower public expectations to gain points for yourself.

"Think about it: Zhou Yi scoring goals is a daily occurrence; if he doesn't score, that's the news. But for someone like you who can't play, not scoring is perfectly normal, right? You are stepping onto the field with gritted teeth just to do charity, so the public will be very tolerant of you.

"And if you manage to score one or two goals through your own struggle and effort on the field, that will immediately become a beautiful story."

"..."

The young Xie Tingfeng was instantly silenced.

That actually made some sense?

"The most important thing is still the heat, the heat."

Seeing that Xie Tingfeng was showing signs of wavering, Ouyang Feifei quickly pressed the advantage: "Recently, the heat of 'Meteor Garden' on the Taiwan side has exceeded the company's expectations. After stepping out of Taiwan, this male group cultivated by idol dramas is very likely to snatch part of your Asian market.

"From this perspective, you and Zhou Yi have common interests: to create as much heat for yourself as possible to suppress the threat posed by F4 from 'Meteor Garden'.

"From another angle, it can also reduce the attention on your negative news."

In the music scene, neither Zhou Yi nor Xie Tingfeng could currently pull far ahead of the other, and if they used music achievements for marketing now, Xie Tingfeng would easily fall a step below Zhou Yi.

This was something Emperor Entertainment did not want to see.

And setting aside their main battlefield, the music scene, the football field, which is currently a red-hot sports domain, is very suitable, and it can also market a 'sports genius' persona for Xie Tingfeng—

For example, how many days he has been learning to play football and what he has already achieved, and so on, and so on.

"... I understand. Then I'll start learning the basics of football in the next few days."

Knowing he couldn't resist the company, Xie Tingfeng adjusted his mindset; anyway, he wouldn't be playing the full match, and with so many stars, cooling down the temperature would work too.

The news that he had recently spent a huge sum to bid on a special license plate to give to Wang Fei had been stirred up into a frenzy, and many media outlets directly criticized him for extravagance and waste, which made him very annoyed.

Soon, July 20th.

After arranging things for Xie Tingfeng, Emperor Entertainment officially announced that its artist Xie Tingfeng would participate in the Celebrity Charity Football Match to contribute to charity—

One stone stirred up a thousand waves.

Because just three hours earlier, Warner had officially announced that its artist Zhou Yi would be invited to participate in the Hong Kong Celebrity Football Charity Match.

The Hong Kong media's report on this was even more direct—

"The Two Princes Face Off! Emperor Entertainment Invites the Gods to Break the Rumors!"

"The Two Princes of the Music Scene are about to become the Two Princes of the Football World?! How can I be having such a dream?!"

"I thought these two might fight in the music scene for several years or even a dozen years before finally determining the winner, and I thought they might decide the victor in the film industry.

"But I never thought their first face-to-face confrontation would actually be on the football field?!"

"Xie Tingfeng seems to not know how to play football at all. If I remember correctly, his father said playing football would make you shorter and didn't let Xie Tingfeng play when he was young?"

"..."

Thanks to the existence of the internet, the moment the news was announced, the various chat rooms and forums that had been buzzing with arguments suddenly quieted down significantly; obviously, even fans from both sides were shocked by this news.

Immediately after, the fans of Zhou Yi and the fans of Xie Tingfeng went to war—

"Zhou Yi, step it up! Send that soft-rice man to Children's Day!!"

"Nonsense! This is charity! Do you have any public morality?! All you care about is the match results!"

Once the news was announced, even Xie Tingfeng's most optimistic fans dared not dream their idol could defeat Zhou Yi on the football field. Yet, upon seeing Emperor announce that the reason Xie Tingfeng was participating was to contribute his own effort to charity, the reaction was pure emotion.

This spirit of doing what one knows is impossible is truly an example for today's youth!

Under Emperor's deliberate guidance, Xie Tingfeng, who usually had no good image in public opinion, unexpectedly gained a huge boost. If he didn't care about losing face by playing just to do charity, what else was there to criticize?

He is only a twenty-year-old child!

Under Albert Yeung's instruction, female artists from the Emperor group one after another stood up to express admiration for Xie Tingfeng's courage and stature; many female artists close to Emperor even publicly stated they would serve as cheerleaders for Xie Tingfeng's team on the day.

Among them were heavyweight female artists like Anita Mui and Liza Wang.

Warner immediately sensed something was amiss and likewise first had their top artist, Zheng Xiuwen, speak out publicly stating she liked watching Zhou Yi play football, then similarly gathered a large crowd of female stars to support Zhou Yi.

But in terms of quality, Emperor, deeply rooted in Hong Kong, was clearly superior.

After all, for female stars who were popular in the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong still reigned supreme nationwide.

This massive showdown titled "Two Stars of the Football World," which hadn't even started yet, saw fans from both sides already competing to form cheerleading squads.

Under the joint hype of Warner and Emperor, portal websites like Sina, NetEase, and Tencent, which began carrying Hong Kong circle news, saw their traffic skyrocket.

So much so that Chai Zhiping, who had brought the Taiwan F4 from "Meteor Garden" out for an event, surprisingly found that F4's popularity in Hong Kong this time was lower than in her surveys.

Even mainland media merely mentioned the Taiwan F4's arrival in Hong Kong in passing, focusing their attention instead on Zhou Yi and Xie Tingfeng.

Chai Zhiping: "..."

Damn it!

(End of this chapter)