Chapter 170: The Tooth-Baring Laugh Teacher and the Everyone-Loves-Her Sister

Love unrequited, hatred born from love? Fuck that.

Hard to say.

Watching Zhou Yi speak with such conviction, Dai Jun, who had hosted countless big-name guests and engineered plenty of dramatic moments on the show, bit back the words on his tongue. For the first time ever on Super Interview, he failed to manage his expression—his face remained frozen for several seconds, looking utterly strange.

In contrast, Li Jing, as a woman, laughed with genuine joy from the bottom of her heart.

She truly found the boy's words amusing; had she met someone like him when she was young, she couldn't say what might have happened…

To Li Jing, born in June 1970, Zhou Yi, born in December 1981, was still just a big boy.

"Your verbal skills are truly impressive—no wonder you're a top law student."

As a talk show host, Li Jing had never imagined her Super Interview would ever produce such comedic effects.

Warmth, humanity, emotion—these were always the hallmarks of her show; entertainment was merely an ancillary sub-item beneath these three pillars.

"I'm curious, Zhou Yi—when did you first start learning music? Music lessons are expensive; didn't your family lack the money to support that back then?"

After the playful banter, Li Jing firmly regained control of the stage and began digging into Zhou Yi's past.

Ever since Zhou Yi became famous, his family background was completely exposed by the media.

Never mind distant relatives—thanks to his hometown's clan elder still being alive, they even dug up the claim that an ancestor from the Ming Dynasty had passed the imperial examination, a fact no family genealogy could verify.

Thank goodness he didn't have the surname Fan.

"I first encountered music theory in high school, but I didn't learn any instrument then. I didn't find a teacher—I taught myself entirely."

Zhou Yi rubbed his chin and chuckled: "As for how I taught myself back then, I'm sure everyone knows Xinhua Bookstore. Music theory books were right there in the store; once I became interested in music, I'd go there every few days just to read."

"Because only the Xinhua Bookstore staff never chased me away—they even kindly pointed out which books were new and which were old."

"... Xinhua Bookstore?"

Li Jing and Dai Jun were utterly astonished—they never expected this answer.

This was Zhou Yi's first public revelation of his music theory origins, radically different from the public's prior guesses like "someone recognized his talent and taught him for free" or "he learned music after making money."

"Yes."

Zhou Yi nodded.

He wasn't lying about this—he really did learn basic music theory by reading at Xinhua Bookstore, cross-referencing what he read with memories in his mind.

Combined with the sound and instrument tutorial videos he had once saved on Little Bilibili but never actually practiced, he accomplished the feat of self-taught music.

"When I first went to Taiwan, Teacher Li Sisong warned me to systematically study singing technique, because my style was self-taught—I could sing well only because of my vocal timbre and natural vocal ability."

Zhou Yi shrugged and joked: "After that, since my album was already in preparation and Yanzi hadn't debuted yet, she came over to help correct my vocal technique."

"Back then, I was exhausted every day—recording in the morning, practicing dance in the afternoon, and learning singing from Yanzi at night. So even now, whenever she loses an argument with me, she brings this up and demands I call her teacher and never talk back."

As he spoke, Zhou Yi imitated Sun Yanzi's exaggerated, tooth-baring, furious tone when she couldn't win an argument—his lifelike imitation sent the entire audience into roars of laughter.

Especially his tooth-baring laugh—he had truly mastered the soul of it, honoring Teacher Sun Yanzi's instruction.

It's well known that Sun Yanzi loves to laugh, especially when truly happy; since her debut, she's contributed countless tooth-baring, silly grins.

"What about Chen Hao? I just saw in the VCR that she said she's known you a long time?"

Imagining Sun Yanzi teaching Zhou Yi singing every night back then, only to now be driven to furious outbursts by her former student, Li Jing couldn't help but smile and pressed further.

"Yes, I started school early, and because my grades were relatively good, I skipped grades. So when I went to Beijing for university, I was still very young. After meeting Chen Hao, she often called herself my big sister."

Recalling those days, Zhou Yi's lips involuntarily curved upward: "Chen Hao was different from me—back then, she could earn 100,000 yuan just by filming a commercial for a Pocket PC, making her a well-known little rich girl around campus."

"She knew I wasn't wealthy, so she often showed up at the bar street where I worked part-time to cheer me on, clap for me. At that time, I was just starting out, hadn't become famous yet, and she even helped promote me."

"Later, when I needed money and asked her to lend me some, she handed it over without hesitation, generously."

If Chen Hao hadn't been so kind before he took off, he never would've taken her along to find channels to profit from the World Cup after earning his first fortune.

As Zhou Yi recounted, the large screen immediately displayed photos of Zhou Yi when he first entered university—

Compared to now, he clearly still looked youthful and unpolished, without flashy clothing, his smile that of a simple, sunny boy—prompting immediate screams from every woman in the audience.

"This guy is pure classic good-looking material—the kind of guy a mother-in-law would immediately urge her daughter to marry and register with."

Dai Jun glanced sideways and immediately gave his highest internal evaluation.

Li Jing compared heights: "You looked about 1.7 meters tall back then, right?"

"Yeah, just over 1.7 meters."

Seeing the photo, Zhou Yi felt a pang of nostalgia.

He wasn't even that old yet—why did he always feel like time had flown by?

Especially as Li Jing and Dai Jun kept digging into his past, Zhou Yi was forced to recall some embarrassing moments he desperately wanted to forget but couldn't—

Like riding his bicycle with both hands off the handlebars to show off, only to crash face-first into the ground after hitting a small stone, captured on camera;

Even worse, photos of him as a child running around chased by his grandmother's goose.

Some of these old photos he'd thought were long gone—he had no idea how Super Interview's crew had dug them up from some forgotten corner.

Truly impressive.

Even after the recording ended, he went specifically to ask the production team, and upon learning they had restored and reproduced them, he gave them a thumbs-up—and asked for an extra copy to take home.

Those photos still showed his grandparents and grandmother looking relatively young.

"The official broadcast date is September 13. If you want to watch, make sure to tune in. Also, you can't rest these next few days."

After getting offstage, Zhou Yi, holding the photos, was met by the relentless Qian Jiang, who solemnly presented his upcoming signing schedule.

September 10: five shows in Beijing;

September 11: four shows in Tianjin.

The moment he saw the schedule, Zhou Yi immediately raised his voice in disbelief: "Nine shows in two days?!"

Qian Jiang, ever the student of his own methods, offered his usual comfort: "Suffer a little yourself, let your fans be happy—I'll bear the blame for being a monster."

Zhou Yi: "..."

So you've fully mastered the art of applying my bullshit, huh.

Zhou Yi, having accepted his fate, embraced a life that was both busy and painful.

Meanwhile, on September 11, in Taiwan.

A three-member female group named S. H. E. officially debuted under the coordination of HIM Records, releasing their first album: "Girls' Dormitory".

PS: A little late, but not yet past one in the morning; I suppose one foot is still half in the world of the living!

It's fine; I didn't stay up late.

(End of this chapter)