Chapter 19: Two Great Divas Serving One Man

"At three o'clock this morning, a gas poisoning incident shocked Taipei's Eastern District.

"Sanli News reached the scene immediately and, in an exclusive shoot, discovered that the three poisoning victims rushed to hospital were all well-known entertainers, and all of them were Wu Zongxian's prized talents.

"They are, respectively, Liu Genhong of the Doobi Xiubi duo, the exceptionally talented songwriter Zhou Jielun, and newcomer singer Wen Lan, who gradually drew attention last year for her duet 'On the Roof' with Wu Zongxian.

"According to reliable sources at the hospital, the person who made the emergency call and saved the three lives was another, yet-to-debut entertainment industry figure, belonging to Warner International Music Co., Ltd...."

The next morning, the lounge area of the Warner recording studio.

When Zhou Yi, yawning and arriving late, pushed open the door, the first thing he heard was not the greetings of the two women, but a news broadcast coming from the television—

"Brother Yi, perfect timing—the person with the mosaic over their face in this news clip is you, right?"

Zhang Shaohan, who had just torn open the wrapper of a throat lozenge while sitting in a chair, lit up at the sight of the man himself, and her instantly recognizable voice rang out, leaving Zhou Yi dumbfounded.

"What? How did you know?"

"Obviously from the clothes, the build, and the body type." Zhang Shaohan raised a finger to point at the screen, which was still playing the live footage from the early-morning scene—Zhou Yi and Zhou Jielun, their faces mosaicked, stood out conspicuously in the crowd.

Because neither had officially debuted as an artist yet, for this kind of breaking-news report, the two of them, as ordinary people, could not show their faces.

"What time did you sleep? In that state, can you really record today? Maybe just take a rest—hurting your voice wouldn't be worth it." Sun Yanzi, sitting in a chair munching an apple and gently swinging her crossed leg, offered the sincere suggestion.

"After wrapping everything up I got home and fell asleep around five, so I can't record. Just have Shaohan come in alone today. I'll work on the arrangement for the new song and think about the MV as well."

Casually pulling over a chair and sitting down, Zhou Yi, the weariness still lingering at the corners of his eyes, picked up a pear from the fruit platter and took a bite.

The moment the words fell, Sun Yanzi and Zhang Shaohan both froze at the same time—

"A new song? You've already written a new song?"

"Is there a problem?"

Facing the two women who were collectively dumbfounded, Zhou Yi curled his lips into a grin, smiling with particular smugness: "Writing songs and arranging music—how could that possibly be hard for me?"

It's just a little dance number—handle it!

The lead singles on his album were "Happy Worship" and "Can't Help Loving"—two killer tracks. The dance song the company wanted was just to ride Guo Tianwang's heat anyway; it didn't need to be a timeless classic, so he could just pull out a few of Luo Zhixiang's reasonably well-known tracks, size them up, and lift one to get it over with.

As an artist who excelled at dancing, setting aside his status as a top-tier, muscular athlete in Taiwan's entertainment circle, Luo Zhixiang's popularity and the singability of his representative works were still commendable.

Like Pan Weibo, a fellow member of the Sinicization group, although he hadn't reached the so-called "Pantheon of the Music Scene," he could still be considered a leading figure of the second tier.

He had still heard a few of his representative works—

For instance, the song "Dance Gate," which firmly cemented his so-called title of "New Generation Asian Dance King";

Or, for another example, the two love songs "Love's Turning Point" and "Gray Space," which became huge hits alongside idol dramas, as well as the CP-themed duet "Fox Spirit," which enjoyed a small revival on Bilibili for nearly a year in later years.

When he was about to head out in the morning, Zhou Yi had specifically confirmed the timeline—"Dance Gate"'s original track hadn't come out yet—so he decisively decided to copy it.

To be safe, he also picked a widely circulated pop dance track from Lin Junjie's catalog—"Just Me."

Two pop dance songs—more than enough to hand in to the company.

Of course, regarding the choreography for these two songs, after finishing the arrangement he would still need to take the demo to the dance teacher and ask him to help choreograph the dance to the beat.

Watching Zhou Yi express writing songs as casually as eating or drinking, both Sun Yanzi and Zhang Shaohan fell into a silence that wanted to speak but held back.

As industry insiders, they understood the difficulty of handling both lyrics and composition.

As singers, they had also tried writing their own songs.

Sun Yanzi was fine—her creative ability, while not exactly heaven-bestowed, was not nonexistent either.

But Zhang Shaohan... her creative ability, compared to her divinely gifted voice, was at the token-effort level.

"That's easy to say, but the dance song is supposed to be recommended by Guo Tianwang. How about you write it out first so we can take a look?" Still worried that Zhou Yi's dance song might end up in the wastebasket, Sun Yanzi carefully chose her words as she made the suggestion.

"That's not a big problem. You two can be my first audience, but right now I have another question I want to ask you both."

Zhou Yi, his confidence undimmed, suppressed the mischievous tone about to rise in his throat, sat up straight, and said in earnest: "Senior sister, Shaohan—any interest in being the MV's female lead for me?"

"MV female lead?"

The two women, suddenly hearing this invitation, froze in unison, and then a look of eager anticipation simultaneously appeared on both their faces. Zhang Shaohan in particular seemed afraid she had misheard, and actually pressed further: "Really? Brother Yi?"

In the current era, music videos were also a way for newcomers to quickly build fame and get their faces recognized.

In Zhang Shaohan's understanding, a company as big as Warner would definitely shoot MVs in a lavish style, and a complete unknown like her should have absolutely no chance.

Not to mention that her label was Linfair Records, which in theory was still a rival of Warner Music.

"Of course, would I lie? I have a lot of autonomy over my own album."

Zhou Yi shrugged, then turned his gaze to Sun Yanzi, who hadn't spoken yet: "How about you, Senior sister?"

"I'd love to go. My own album's filming is done, and it felt pretty fun."

After the eager anticipation faded and reason returned to the fore, Sun Yanzi's brow furrowed slightly: "But your style is either hip-hop or R&B, and now under the company's planning you've added dance tracks. That clashes with my album's style positioning—the company probably won't agree."

"That's not a big problem. There are still slots open on the album. I'll just write a few more songs that lean lyrical and won't conflict with your album's positioning."

Zhou Yi, who understood Sun Yanzi's concerns, waved a hand grandly, indicating this was no issue at all.

To be honest, this was an idea that had suddenly popped into his head yesterday after meeting Xiao Yaxuan.

After all, the "Pantheon of the Music Scene" of this era, both male and female, hadn't yet truly risen to the heights they would in later years. If he could get them to appear in his MV, then when people in the future dug through his album's MVs, wouldn't that be one surprise after another?

If possible, for these two pop dance tracks on his debut album, he would even want to invite the currently surging Xiao Yaxuan to appear.

When the time came and Xiao Yaxuan and Sun Yanzi spent the years '01 to '03 battling it out for the throne of the new divas, wouldn't his debut album amount to two great divas serving one man?

Lying down and still gaining traffic—now that's what you call a hype genius!