Chapter 234: A Unique Privilege (Third Watch)

Li Jiang is also 40 years old this year; as a journalist, she has struggled in the industry for over twenty years before finally securing the position of top reporter at Asia Weekly.

When she got the assignment to interview Zhou Yi, she was actually quite happy at first.

But now...

Let's put it this way: she has interviewed stars in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and even the New Malaysia-Thailand region, yet she has never interviewed anyone as honest as Zhou Yi.

You really say what you mean.

"Ah Yi, you are truly the most confident artist I have ever interviewed."

Since the manager Qian Jiang does not object, Li Jiang will no longer dwell on this matter: "Then let's talk about your music."

"We all know your musical style is very whimsical, especially songs like 'Dong Feng Po', 'Hua Tian Cuo', 'Zai Mei Bian', and 'Xi Xiang'; they sound very different from other songs in the domestic music scene and possess strong traditional Chinese elements."

"Songs like Jay Chou's 'Niang Zi' and 'Dao Ma Dan' which he wrote for Li Wen also belong to this type; do you feel he is imitating you?"

"No, this is actually a comprehensive reuse of R&B elements and Hip-hop elements, just wrapped in a Chinese style."

Zhou Yi shook his head: "Actually, Tao Zhe and others started trying this long ago; it's just that these few songs, building on that foundation, have defined a relatively clear scope."

"With this, future new musicians who want to understand this type of music and create this type of music won't have to walk in the dark; they will have a stylistic reference..."

Li Jiang, who had expected Zhou Yi to be very arrogant about music, was surprised to find that this child, when speaking of music, was not as arrogant as the outside world speculated, nor did he have that "arrogance" he showed earlier when talking about sales.

His vision was so broad it was astonishing; he had an extremely clear understanding of the Chinese music scene, the Asian music scene, and even the European and American music scenes.

His personality was even more so.

Like a sincere big boy, he was exchanging everything with her with a true heart.

He was simply very well-raised.

This was Li Jiang's highest praise for a young person.

"What about your family? You know, rumors about your family background are flying everywhere outside right now; people say all sorts of things. What do you think of this?"

"Read the newspaper."

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi wanted to laugh: "If my family had that kind of background, why would I mix in the entertainment industry? Isn't that tiring?"

"My parents are a very ordinary traditional Chinese family, the strict father and kind mother type. When I was in school, I was beaten by my dad many times for things like dating, not doing homework, and skipping class."

Huh?

Dating?

Li Jiang's eyes twitched subtly several times: As expected of you.

"Logically, since your grades are so good, is it because you settled down after your parents disciplined you?"

"No, it's because every time I took an exam, I got first place; my parents gradually stopped managing me much. As long as I didn't go astray or turn bad, they let me do as I pleased."

Speaking of the past, a rare trace of genuine smile climbed onto Zhou Yi's eyebrows.

During his student days, especially in elementary school, even though he skipped grades, he still thoroughly experienced the psychology of Conan's God Elementary School days.

"Have you ever thought about writing a song for your parents one day in the future?"

"My third album already has a song I sing to my parents."

—?!

Hearing this answer out of the blue, Li Jiang raised her eyebrows in surprise: "Have you already written the songs for your third album?"

Zhou Yi smiled and shook his head: "Not exactly; I won't spoil the specifics. When the album is released, Sister Li, you will know."

Two families, two sets of parents, two growth paths, two lives.

This is the foundation of his third album.

Besides that, he would leave a Hidden Soundtrack after the last song of the album to surprise the fans—

This can also be considered a small Easter egg in the era of physical albums.

The so-called hidden song refers to a song outside the promotional tracklist of the album.

For example, if a physical album lists ten song titles, and after the fan buys it and listens, they think there is nothing after the tenth song, but then they actually hear an eleventh song not written on the album list, that is a hidden song.

Usually, such hidden songs are either simply a surprise for the fans, with a style unrelated to the album's theme;

or they serve as a supplement to the main concept of the album.

When the streaming era comes later, many music websites will directly expose the hidden songs carefully prepared by the singers in the album tracklist, letting fans see immediately after buying the album that there is actually another song after the theoretical last one, losing that surprise of "there's actually a song after this."

After the long interview ended, Sun Yanzi, who had come to observe, finally couldn't hold back; after seeing off the people from Asia Weekly, she bumped the man's arm with her shoulder: "What do you mean by the secret third album? How does it involve uncles and aunts?"

"It is precisely because of my parents' upbringing that I didn't go astray, which allows me to date normally."

Zhou Yi lightly pressed his elbow against Sun Yanzi's shoulder, turned his head back, and said with a grin: "What's wrong? Is there a problem with this logic?"

"...???"

Sun Yanzi gave him a contemptuous look but did not push him away: "Is that what you call dating normally?"

"The me in the album, thank you."

"You distinguish quite clearly."

"Of course."

Zhou Yi, who had just yawned, raised his eyes to check the time and suddenly remembered something: "That's not right, weren't you rehearsing at CCTV?"

"Rehearse my head; I'm not going to rehearse in the morning." Sun Yanzi rolled her eyes in annoyance and slapped away Zhou Yi's elbow that was resting on her shoulder.

"Stop making that expression; you look better when you smile."

Zhou Yi happily walked out of the interview room: "I think the plan you mentioned is feasible, so you need to smile at me more, you know, so I can find inspiration."

"Inspiration? Like what?"

"Your little dimples look very nice when you smile."

"... Do I have dimples?"

Sun Yanzi's language system suddenly became a bit chaotic; her blinking frequency increased wildly. She bared her teeth in a fake smile, then touched one side of her cheek and tentatively poked it: "How did I not know? Is this a dimple?"

"Otherwise, why would it be called little dimples?"

Zhou Yi hummed the tune of "Little Dimples" intermittently, and after finishing, he didn't forget to remind, "The kite you brought home last time when filming 'Summer Blown by the Wind', bring it out to use again; it fits perfectly as a prop in the MV plot related to you."

"Luckily you took that kite with the broken tail last time; if you had handed it to the props department, it would have been recycled long ago, and we wouldn't be able to create a crossover with the new kite."

"Summer Blown by the Wind" is from the album "Kite", and the token of love between the male and female leads in the plot is indeed the kite;

In "Little Dimples", the two people in the throes of love can sweetly fix the kite together;

But in "Fairy Tale", the kite is fixed, but the person is gone.

One kite runs through the entire relationship.

Cry! Everyone, cry for me!

Just as Zhou Yi and Sun Yanzi were discussing how to make the MV plot even more tragic, another piece of news from the music scene swept over them both—

On December 3, Taiwanese media broke the news that Jay Chou and Cai Yilin were traveling in Japan together, with their romance seemingly exposed.

During media interviews, Cai Yilin and Jay Chou's statements were surprisingly consistent: they just happened to meet in Japan.

As the only male singer among Taiwan's younger generation capable of closely following Zhou Yi, Jay Chou's popularity was not low after the explosive sales of "Fantasy"—

"Warner's Twin Stars' Romance Seemingly Revealed Before, Now the Double J Romance Seemingly Exposed?"

"I'm not clear, don't ask me, I'm not even in Taiwan."

As someone with a good relationship with Jay Chou, Zhou Yi and Sun Yanzi were, naturally, asked about this by the reporters waiting when they arrived at the CCTV building; their synchronized head-shaking and hand-waving gestures in front of the camera were a hundred percent in sync.

After sneaking into the CCTV building, the curious Sun Yanzi quietly grabbed Zhou Yi's arm, leaned close to his ear, and gossiped in a low voice, "Did those two really start dating? Didn't Jay Chou just chase Xu Ruoxuan before?"

"They definitely aren't dating now; it's probably just hype, but who knows about the future."

Zhou Yi, who had come for the first review of the duet, shrugged, his tone carrying a somewhat irreverent tease.

However, he soon couldn't tease anymore, instantly becoming exceptionally serious.

"Little Zhou..."

"..."

Zhou Yi, who never expected to receive notice that he could perform a solo upon passing the first review of the duet song, was a bit stunned; then, under someone's introduction, he discussed his views on the solo with the CCTV leaders.

Zang Tianshuo's program was cancelled, freeing up a singing slot, which was given to Zhou Yi directly without review.

Zhou Yi, being very savvy, expressed being overwhelmed with honor, which also brought him closer to the hosts.

"Little Zhou, I heard you plan to enter the European and American markets next year?"

"Just testing the waters, testing the waters..."

The three parties conversed happily.

Sun Yanzi, who was still working hard to prepare the song "Connect with the World", soon saw Zhou Yi walking towards her, full of smugness—

"Didn't you go to participate in the program review?"

"What program review? This great master has now upgraded to a Spring Festival Gala soloist."

Zhou Yi raised his right thumb and pointed at himself: "Do you understand the weight of a Spring Festival Gala solo?"

"You? A solo?"

Sun Yanzi, who had recently cram-studied Spring Festival Gala knowledge, instantly opened her mouth wide, looking at him in shock: "Did your English single sales explode? That doesn't sound right, I haven't heard anything about it."

As someone who often went to Zhou Yi's side to slack off, Sun Yanzi might have cared more about his English single results than Zhou Yi himself—

Released on Monday, November 26; the first-day sales summary on November 28: over twenty-three thousand copies.

Due to the pre-order factor, this sales figure was within Warner's and Zhou Jianhui's personal expectations.

But the growth over the following three days, compared to Zhou Yi's previous results in the domestic and Japanese markets, was too ordinary, even below expectations.

To avoid causing unnecessary psychological pressure to Zhou Yi, Sun Yanzi stopped following the North American results of "The Lazy Song" directly starting from December 2.

"If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten; today is the 3rd, Monday, exactly one week has passed."

After learning that the first day's sales were only over twenty thousand, Zhou Yi, who had chosen to ignore it and not take the English single matter to heart, slapped his forehead; just as he was about to call Qian Jiang, the latter called him first—

"It skyrocketed! It skyrocketed! A-Yi! Your single skyrocketed! Focusing on the DVD market really works!"

PS: Three chapters!

……………………………………………………

PS2: Recommending a friend's book~

Book Title: "Evil Dragon: The Baby Dragon I Picked Up Always Wants to Be the Empress"

Synopsis:

"I turned into a baby dragon and was captured and raised by an evil dragon; as time passed, I found the evil dragon's gaze towards me gradually becoming strange.

He seems to be raising me as his wife!"

Princess Lucia, turned into a baby dragon, trembled as she wrote her discovery in her notebook.

——————

The evil dragon Lance recently had an obsession: he wanted the baby dragon he picked up to call him "Dad".

(End of Chapter)