Chapter 168: Sing, Dance, Rap, Football

"I'm trying to figure out how to arrange your schedule as best as possible, striving not to waste a single second."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. It's truly an opportunity not to be missed; miss this village and you might not find this shop again. Trust me, just grit your teeth and push through."

The decline of the legitimate music market is already visible to the naked eye; Qian Jiang can assert that next year Zhou Yi will not have such terrifying sales figures, because the threat of piracy is almost doubling every few months.

And in his impression, the last person whose album sales were this awesome under the impact of piracy was named Jacky Cheung.

Last year, Jacky Cheung was the only male singer among the older generation of singers whose single album broke one million in legitimate sales.

Yet even as strong as Jacky Cheung, after releasing the album "Walk Through 1999" on November 11, 1999, to boost the total Asian sales to a sufficiently shocking level, he released two greatest hits albums, one EP, and one English album throughout the entire year of 2000 following that.

After all, during the peak period of the Hong Kong music scene, releasing greatest hits albums and EPs to make money had become a habit for both singers and record companies.

Stacking the sales of several albums together, each singer had sales figures in the millions.

If it weren't for the lingering power of Jacky Cheung's "Kiss Goodbye" still raising the sales ceiling too high, Qian Jiang would have wanted to cash in on this God of Song one way or another.

"..."

Recalling how exhausted he was during the promotion period, collapsing into sleep as soon as he got home, and even unable to guarantee sufficient sleep while running venues back-to-back, Zhou Yi's eyelids twitched slightly: "Ahem, well, the recording is about to start, I have to go."

"Mm."

Seeing that Qian Jiang had completely entered fantasy time, Zhou Yi could only bare his teeth and slip away directly.

Unlike Qian Jiang, he still held a certain confidence in that English single "Lazy Song". Not to mention worldwide, it wasn't impossible to achieve considerable sales within Asia.

If the total adds up to over three million by then, he probably won't need to treat himself like a donkey... right?

Brought by the staff of "Super Visit" to wait behind a Jin Se curtain before his entrance, Zhou Yi let his mind wander in boredom.

As time passed, ticket-holding audience members began to enter the recording venue one after another; Zhou Yi, who had slightly lifted the curtain to look outside, watched the audience who, in a short time, had almost squeezed out two-thirds of the entire studio stage, and couldn't help but be somewhat stunned.

One can only say that one doesn't know what Li Jing was thinking when planning "Super Visit"; now that the production team is so wealthy, giving him a appearance fee of 1 million, they still can't bear to change to a better venue.

The not-so-large stage was directly divided into a four-sided concert format; audience members carrying sponsor signs took their seats in order, with one side of the stage reserved for Zhou Yi's fan club members.

A single sofa shaped like a five-fingered hand stood in the center of the stage opposite the hosts' podium belonging to Dai Jun and Li Jing; that was the seat he would sit in later.

After the production staff secured the microphone on him, Dai Jun and Li Jing on the stage outside had also finished their opening remarks and text message interaction methods, and began building up the introduction for him—

But as soon as the words "today's guest" were spoken, cheers of "Zhou Yi" erupted from all four sides of the stage, including the sponsor audience section.

"Listen to this cheering; how nice it would be if they were all shouting my name." Dai Jun, whose introduction script had been interrupted, shook his head and sighed: "Back in my day, I was a popular singer too, but I never had this kind of treatment when appearing on shows."

"How can you compare yourself to Zhou Yi?"

Li Jing, his partner, immediately wore a look of disgust: "You've been in the industry for so many years and only have one song, 'Ah Lian'; look at Zhou Yi. 'Happy Worship', 'Have to Love', 'Jiangnan', 'Big City Small Love', and so on; I can casually list over a dozen well-known hit songs.

"He can sing and dance, and is also very good at rap and football.

"The newly released 'Graduation' EP two days ago had all four songs topping the charts; now the total Asian sales of the 'Jiangnan' plus 'Graduation' albums have already broken 2.3 million copies..."

Item by item, the trophies Zhou Yi had won and the record-breaking album sales he had achieved were all recounted by Li Jing. With every sentence she spoke, enthusiastic cheers erupted from the four-sided audience, and the applause never stopped.

Seeing that the atmosphere had been sufficiently built up, Dai Jun finally stepped in: "So next, let us welcome our Asian Little Guo Tianwang—Zhou Yi!"

The song "Stubborn" sounded at the right moment; lifting the Jin Se curtain, Zhou Yi, walking out of the passage door, instantly caused screams throughout the entire venue—

"Zhou Yi! Zhou Yi! We love you!"

"I love Zhou Yi!"

The fan club, holding up support signs as if rehearsed, slowly unfurled a banner with golden embroidery reading "Music Pure, Love Yi Absolute," matching the perfectly synchronized sound that almost pierced the studio; under such close-range impact, it was indeed somewhat shocking.

"How is it, Zhou Yi? Is it shocking?"

Seeing Zhou Yi, dressed in a fresh style, walking while thanking his fans and arriving at the center of the stage, Dai Jun smiled and leaned over to say.

"It is shocking; it feels like attending a concert, especially with this four-sided stage setup." After expressing his thanks to the fans, Zhou Yi spoke with a tone of some emotion.

"Indeed—huh? Wait, haven't you held a concert yet?" Li Jing, asking a question she already knew the answer to, curiously asked.

Before Zhou Yi could even open his mouth to answer, a still photo of Elva Hsiao and Zhou Yi dancing passionately at her Hong Kong Coliseum concert suddenly appeared on the large screen in the venue, sparking a wave of heckling from the stands.

"Obviously, even if I haven't eaten pork, I've still seen a pig run."

Turning his head to see the photo, Zhou Yi couldn't help but exclaim in admiration: "But Brother Jun and Sister Jing, you guys are really impressive; the angle of this photo is actually quite good."

"For your sake, the production team went all out; not only did they interview your classmates and friends on the mainland, but they even specially hired people in Taiwan to help record several VCRs about you.

"You might not know, but we were originally planning to change the studio."

Mentioning this, Dai Jun didn't forget to self-deprecate about the small venue that had been talked about so much.

"Really?"

Zhou Yi walked over and sat on that single sofa shaped like a five-fingered hand. But before his butt had even warmed the seat, a figure that surprised all the audience members in the venue suddenly appeared on the large screen—

"Hello everyone, I am Sun Yanzi."

Sun Yanzi, wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt with shoulder-length short hair that fully displayed her lively and generous nature, appeared before the camera and greeted everyone.

Zhou Yi, who only knew during the rehearsal that there was a video in the flow but didn't know what the video recorded, raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"First of all, here I congratulate our all-around little prince of singing, dancing, rap, and football, student Zhou Yi, on his album's huge sales; however, I believe you will be more interested in seeing his other side..."

Mortal world!

(End of Chapter)