Chapter 2: A Person from the Future of the Millennium

Peking University, the football field, the sidelines crowded with heads.

The scorching midsummer sun treated every person on earth equally; Peking University students and non-students coming and going occasionally glanced toward the football field, where a figure standing out like a crane among chickens attracted everyone's gaze.

A man wearing the same red-and-white Arsenal kit performed a Marseille turn with flair, then followed up with a nutmeg and a rabona to beat five defenders, finally blasting a goal past the opposing goalkeeper's hands—

"Beautiful!"

"Holy crap, another goal?!"

"Is this Arsenal number 22 that fierce?"

"I don't watch football, but may I ask, who is this person?"

"I don't watch football either, but may I ask, is this a football match or a table tennis match?"

Watching the scoreboard on the sidelines already read 13:0, an uninformed bystander looked at the man sliding on his knees to celebrate on the green pitch and voiced a question from the bottom of his heart.

"Bro, is this your first time at Peking University?"

Among the crowd watching on the sidelines, a local from Peking University glanced at the unfamiliar face beside him expressing confusion and explained: "That is Zhou Yi, a celebrity from the Law Department."

"Oh, so he is Zhou Yi."

A junior student from a neighboring technical college who had come to see beautiful girls heard this, and his face immediately showed a look of realization.

Zhou Yi, currently a junior student in the Law Department of Peking University, had quickly become famous throughout the entire Peking University student circle the moment he entered the school with his extremely high looks and flamboyant style.

Everyone knew that after Sa Beinan, the Law Department of Peking University had recruited another flashy guy, and this person's flashiness far surpassed that of Sa Beinan, who was now working at CCTV.

Moreover, unlike Sa Beinan, who was fond of the "righteous" path, this fellow named Zhou Yi was quite wild and quite bold.

He had been on galas and sung songs, gone to bars and danced;

He dared to flirt with girls others wouldn't dare to flirt with, and dared to fight fights others wouldn't dare to fight;

He had taken on work-study jobs, and it was rumored that a talent scout had taken a liking to his appearance and wanted to sign him for a debut, and it was even said that Gao Xiaosong from nearby Wudaokou wanted to sign him to Mai Tian to release his songs.

He studied well, was tall, and had a handsome face. Not only was he athletic and strong, but he also sang beautifully.

His flamboyant and active style highlighted exactly the image young people entering the new era had fantasized about, and pretty girls rushed to send him secret glances of affection.

And whenever those pretty girls on the sidelines who boldly cheered for him and brought him water appeared, the students of Peking University's Stomatology Department would always welcome a wave of urgent need to fill their back teeth.

"Give us some leeway, Zhou Yi, you've already scored 13 against us; don't we Chinese Department students have any pride?"

On the football field, the man in the red jersey holding the ball and returning to the center line to kick off wore a bitter expression, complaining to the man standing opposite him; the back of his bright red jersey clearly displayed the five large characters "Peking University Chinese Department."

"I gave leeway, I definitely gave leeway."

Opposite the man in the red jersey, Zhou Yi, who stood a full 1.83 meters tall, raised his hand to brush back the bangs on his forehead dampened by sweat, placed one hand on his hip while panting, and a few smiles stacked upon his sharply defined, handsome face: "I only scored 3; the others were scored by my teammates."

"..." The senior from the Chinese Department couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Although he knew Zhou Yi had indeed given leeway, why did these words sound more and more bitter the more he heard them?

You scored 3, and the other ten teammates each scored one, right? What "equal distribution of rain and dew" technique is this? Even the goalkeeper came up to take a penalty kick and scored one; that's just ridiculous.

"Alright, alright, hurry up and kick, hurry up and kick, what a lousy match..."

Since the two teams combined couldn't even muster three substitutes, under the nagging on the field from the Chinese Department, the Law Department team very politely kept this 13:0 scoreline until the end of the match.

Having finished the match, Zhou Yi was drenched in sweat; he casually took off his jersey, came to the sidelines chatting and laughing with classmates with his upper body bare and muscles clearly defined, and just as he picked up his backpack containing his clothes to go change, he heard someone calling his name from behind—

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi, someone just called for you; they said someone is looking for you outside the school gate."

With the Arsenal jersey twisted into a rope hanging over his shoulder, Zhou Yi paused his drinking action upon hearing this, turned his head in surprise to look at the classmate who came to notify him: "Looking for me? Who is it?"

He had a school football match today; everyone close to him knew that if they wanted to find him, they could just come directly to the football field, right?

"They said it's someone from Warner; is a talent scout really digging you up to become a star, Zhou Yi?"

Upon hearing the two words "Warner," Zhou Yi's eyebrows instinctively raised.

Why Warner again?

Isn't that old guy trying to trick me again?

As a transmigrator reborn from the future, the name Warner Music was undoubtedly not unfamiliar to him. Warner Music at its peak was undoubtedly a giant, but right now...

Sun Yanzi, the comeback ace created by Warner, had not yet debuted; the famous "Empress Palace" had not yet been formed; the domestic market share, compared to other giants, belonged to the pitiful level of leftover scraps, relying entirely on Guo Fucheng and Zheng Xiuwen, who were already declining year by year, to struggle and hold it up.

Although Zhou Yi was confident that with the memories in his brain, which should be highly clear due to his rebirth, he could at least leave a name as "one of the gods of the millennium music scene" in the Chinese music industry by plagiarizing the classic tracks of future kings and queens, but considering the contract Warner offered, he still refused.

He refused twice.

He didn't want to end up having to fight endless lawsuits just to get the copyright to these songs back.

As a person from the future, he knew very well how much money the copyrights of those popular songs could make in the distant future. Just look at Zhou Dong, JJ, and that batch of people; relying solely on song licensing, they could earn a fortune.

Anyway, his memory didn't lack channels to make money, nor did he have any small goal of earning a hundred million.

Two years later, the 2002 World Cup, the black-whistled, jaw-dropping scandalous results of the Little West Koreans would be enough for him to earn a large sum of money without any effort.

By then, he would be rich and young, and could let his parents retire twenty years early.

Living a second life, having money to guarantee a flamboyant life and letting his family live a wealthy life without being so tired was enough.

Anyway, he wasn't the material for doing business.

Making money in the entertainment industry using the memories in his brain was an unexpected joy; if not, it didn't matter.

If all else failed, when the ringtone era arrived later, he could just do a hand with songs like "Autumn Won't Return," "Damn Gentle," "Rat Loves Rice," etc., to earn a sum.

Anyway, if he had to sell copyrights, selling the copyrights of these songs wouldn't hurt him at all.

This was a very strange psychology.

Zhou Yi once, out of boredom, analyzed himself and arrived at a precise answer for his own despicable psychology: double standards.

He felt he probably defaulted to treating those future songs in his memory that hadn't appeared yet as his own; of course, this specifically referred to those golden tracks that could serve as steps to godhood.

If he were to "sell" the copyrights of these golden tracks, he would feel very pained.

But if the original author created them, signed with a music company to debut and gave up the copyrights, he would completely lack this psychology; instead, while listening to the song, he would sigh and remark that the singer was awesome and sang really well.

The reason for this was simply that he knew the value of these song copyrights.

If he were to "sell" them himself, it would instinctively feel like he was cutting his own flesh.

If the original author writes it to "sell," then it's fine; after all, the future losses will absolutely not be his.

Double standards, very normal.

Zhou Yi readily accepted his own shortcomings and had no intention of changing them.

He is not a saint.

Hating others' double standards, understanding one's own double standards, becoming the double standard others speak of.

In his previous life, after graduating from university, he was brutally beaten by society in a law firm for four years, yet he never expected that after sleeping due to exhaustion from overtime, he would actually be reborn.

Precisely because of this, over the nineteen years since rebirth, Zhou Yi has become thoroughly adept at the so-called double standards.

He is just a commoner, not so ambitious.

True saints worthy of admiration certainly exist in this world, but absolutely not him; at most, he has some bottom lines within his power.

Taking out his Nokia 3210 from his backpack, he notified the Warner representative waiting outside the school gate, then Zhou Yi went back to quickly take a shower, changed into a white T-shirt and navy blue jeans, stepped into white sneakers, and hurried to the school gate.

Walking to the school gate, it was still the same familiar spot as the previous two times, still the same familiar face as the previous two times—

The Warner representative, in his thirties, in a suit and leather shoes, with a slicked-back hairstyle, carrying a briefcase, stood outside, exceptionally eye-catching.

"Brother Qian, sorry, I was just playing in a football match at the school."

Although he planned to refuse in his heart, Zhou Yi still possessed the necessary politeness; he apologized first to explain the reason, as politeness is never a burden.

"No problem, no problem, this is my fault. Oh right, A-Yi, regarding the suggestion you proposed last time, if it's convenient, shall we continue chatting?"

The man speaking with a Cantonese-accented Putonghua delivered news to Zhou Yi that was somewhat unexpected.

Ten minutes later.

Inside a coffee shop that is now considered luxurious, Warner's Brother Qian brought sincerity from the higher-ups: "That's right, A-Yi, the company has decided to relax restrictions on your song copyrights..."

What the heck?

Is Warner this bold?

Upon hearing this news, Zhou Yi felt some surprise in his heart.

He had heard that Warner waited a full two years to sign Sun Yanzi, and immediately upon signing her, created a debut album tailored specifically for her.

This treatment, looking across all the top male and female singers at the turn of the millennium, was incredible.

When Zhou Dong was young, to release albums, he ate, drank, relieved himself, and slept cooped up in the company, writing songs desperately just to get an opportunity. Comparing the two, there is a bit of tragedy.

Is he now about to experience Sun Yanzi's treatment?

No, when Sun Yanzi first signed with Warner, although she was jokingly called "Warner's own daughter" by outsiders, at the very least, the song copyrights before 2003 were all taken away, right?

Uh, that's not right either; back then, Sun Yanzi herself seemed to have composed only a few songs.

Putting aside the surprise in his heart, Zhou Yi took the draft new contract sample and looked it over—

Compared to the previous two versions, it was much the same, except for added copyright protection clauses; among them, one clause looked somewhat familiar to him. Simply translated, it meant: All song copyrights created by Zhou Yi himself belong to Zhou Yi.

Of course, limited to those he created himself.

Seeing this, Zhou Yi smiled.

He is familiar with this thing.

In his previous life, it was rumored that the reason Zhou Dong was able to reclaim the copyrights to the songs in his first seven albums after falling out with Wu Zongxian was because the copyright protection clause, which Zhou Dong's father insisted on keeping in the contract when signing with Wu Zongxian's Alpha Company, took effect back then.

And the meaning of that copyright protection clause was much the same as this Warner version.

He didn't expect that his two previous refusals without any hesitation actually made Warner, which has been in an absolute low point for several good years, concede.

It seems the songs he took on to sing for himself during these university years were not sung in vain.

However, this is probably the maximum concession a singer-songwriter can fight for.

After all, for non-singer-songwriters, the songs you sing are all recovered by the company for you; having only the performance rights is not a problem, unless you spend your own money to buy the song copyrights.