Chapter 242: A Small Shock from Internet Enterprises

A day named Great Cold on the solar calendar, whose meaning somewhat clashed with the entertainment industry, yet Zhou Yi's triumphant return caused the entire entertainment circles of both sides of the strait and Hong Kong-Macau to boil over—

Warner's red and festive press releases had long since spread across the country; except for news sections that were truly unreachable, every other available space was bought.

Whether small papers or big papers, I don't lack money. As long as you are a legitimate channel and willing to faithfully reprint the draft Warner's PR department wrote long ago, you can come collect the money.

In the first month of 2002, Warner's extravagant money-spending behavior received unanimous praise from most domestic news practitioners, and even the Billboard Awards, which were currently a niche thing in the country, were cyclically washed into the minds of a large number of domestic people.

Finally, it was officially announced that a victory banquet would be held in the Imperial Capital on January 25, which is the 13th day of the 12th lunar month, because this day is Zhou Yi's true birthday; at that time, a large number of media outlets would be invited to broadcast it live.

Due to past historical grievances, the Weekly and Apple Daily, who neither received money nor an invitation, did not dare to utter a single word about Zhou Yi's achievements at this moment, and could only secretly find another path to sell copies and ruthlessly cash in on traffic—

"Southern Nicholas Tse Cannot Defeat Northern Zhou Yi; 'Cousin' Wang Fei Suspected of Heartbreak and Choosing Someone Else!"

During the days Zhou Yi was not in the country, the Television Broadcasts Limited of Hong Kong held the third TVB8 Golden Melody Awards. At this awards ceremony, Wang Fei and Xie Tingfeng, who were rumored to be in a relationship change, completely solidified the rumors of their breakup and discord—

After going on stage to receive the award, Xie Tingfeng sang "Perfume," a huge hit from his personal new album "Century Prophecy," sat beside Zhang Baizhi, with whom he had been rumored to have a scandal, and teased her, while chatting and laughing with his good brother Edison Chen.

Wang Fei's eyes, slightly red from sadness after turning her head to see this scene, were captured squarely by cameras that loved to stir up trouble; the diva, known for her genuine emotional expression, even appeared somewhat at a loss when she saw the lens, like a newcomer who had just debuted with no expression management.

Because Zhou Yi was not in the country when the news fermented, although many media outlets included him in this storm, more accusations were directed at Zheng Xiuwen and Zhang Baizhi, suspected of interfering in the Feng-Fei romance.

After all, Wang Fei's expression clearly showed she was heartbroken by Xie Tingfeng, not that she had first shifted her affection to Zhou Yi.

Not to mention earlier, the intensity of the rumors between Warner's Zheng Xiuwen and Xie Tingfeng forced Xie Tingfeng to personally hold a press conference to clarify.

"Wang Fei is suspected of attending Zhou Yi's victory banquet, officially holding hands with the new Asian Heavenly King Zhou Yi. There are also rumors that Wang Fei is considering leaving EMI Records and transferring to Warner for her beloved, becoming the Empress of Warner's Heavenly King Palace..."

In the past year of 2001, Warner's Heavenly King Palace could be said to have made rich harvests—

Na Ying, Sun Yanzi, and A-Mei struck hard; three people, three albums, directly making the title of Warner's Heavenly King Palace truly deserved.

Especially Sun Yanzi.

As a work of ascension, relying on the album "Kite" which sold out completely, she leaped to become the youngest Chinese female singer with the reality of a diva in the new millennium.

And precisely because of this, as the other side of the twin stars, she had long become the actual Empress of Warner's Heavenly King Palace in the eyes of fans.

The influence of the Weekly need not be mentioned; plus, after this report came out, Wang Fei's side only made a simple denial and then fell silent. The extremely powerful Wang Fei fans seemed to accept Zhou Yi, the playboy younger brother they previously looked down upon, overnight—

He may be a playboy, but at least his achievements are hard enough!

Here, Wang Fei's fans were satisfied after a comparison, but it was Sun Yanzi's fans' turn to be dissatisfied—what are you, a thirty-something old woman, making a fuss about?

"A woman three years older brings a gold brick; how many years older than Zhou Yi are you?"

"Do you really think everyone is Xie Tingfeng? Didn't Xie Tingfeng just get tired of her and leave?"

"Does your Wang Fei run a gold vault?"

Here, Sun Yanzi's fans declared sovereignty for their idol, beating Wang Fei's pain points relentlessly; there, Wang Fei fans, whose combat power dominated the Chinese music scene, were equally unwilling to yield, relentlessly pursuing the wealthy fact that Sun Yanzi had an airport at such a young age.

Sun Yanzi, who was originally happily surfing the internet and eating melons, jumping around like a badger in a melon patch, suddenly became depressed—

Slumped in the chair in her home study, gazing up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle for a while, then lowering her eyes to glance at...

Damn!

The more she thought about it, the angrier Sun Yanzi got; she grabbed the keyboard and joined the battlefield, striking hard with an anonymous small account, fighting ten alone in the forum, and was directly hailed by a crowd of Sun Yanzi fans as the war god and leader!

Benefiting from the fact that Zhou Yi previously used a small account to infiltrate her fan group to watch them brag every day, only to be sanctioned by fans for not liking Zhou Yi enough, Sun Yanzi, finding it fun, had also cultivated several unknown small accounts herself.

After all, in this day and age, small accounts didn't require any cost.

While clicking away with the keyboard, Sun Yanzi, with a straw in her mouth, took two sips of milk from her cup and didn't forget to search whether some of the secret formulas mentioned by fans were reliable.

Feeling that a few were quite feasible, Sun Yanzi hurriedly picked up paper and pen and wrote them down stroke by stroke.

Hmm... It's not that she wanted to try, mainly the rigorous scientific exploration spirit of a college student had struck.

She, Sun Yanzi, was one of the few legitimate high-achieving students in the entertainment industry—

"Ring-ring-ring!"

"Hello?"

"Yanzi, the evening gown for tomorrow's banquet for A-Yi is ready; come over to try it on?"

"Okay, coming right away."

After receiving Chen Zeshan's call, Sun Yanzi cleared the crime scene, wrapped herself up like a big zongzi, and took the company car straight to the Warner Building.

In the parking lot downstairs of the building, Sun Yanzi, about to get out of the car, also noticed a middle-aged man outside who was also escorted by bodyguards—his looks couldn't be said to be very handsome, but at least he had a nose where a nose should be and eyes where eyes should be.

"Is that a celebrity from the mainland?"

Sun Yanzi, whose knowledge of the history of domestic entertainment was completely blank, feared meeting this person in the company and not knowing how to greet him, so she hurriedly asked her assistant.

The assistant glanced over and said with some tact: "Uh, that person is not a celebrity; he is the founder of Sina..."

Sina?

Hmm?! Sina?!

Sun Yanzi immediately widened her eyes.

As a little expert at surfing the internet, she was too familiar with this name.

"This person is here to..."

"... come to talk about signing a contract with A-Yi."

In Qian Jiang's office, after handing a contract that had already been negotiated to Zhou Yi, Qian Jiang said cheerfully: "Jianhui is probably chatting with him right now; your slaughter in the United States this time has greatly increased your commercial value.

"This group of internet enterprise players is smarter than anyone; once they saw your heat, the quotes that were originally pulling back were directly doubled."

Sina: 27 million for three years; Sina: 40 million for three years; NetEase directly withdrew from the competition.

This was simply choosing Sina with eyes closed.

Seeing the contract, Zhou Yi raised his eyebrows in surprise. If this Sina contract was signed, it would be the highest endorsement contract he had signed so far.

"I have to say, Zhang Chaoyang is really willing to spend; isn't it said that internet enterprises are all experiencing a winter?"

Qian Jiang, who was encountering the way internet companies threw money for the first time, felt somewhat emotional.

They really just smash money down hard.

"Winter is winter, but Sohu still has some money, plus Zhang Chaoyang himself played with the internet over there and knows very well the results and heat I caused there."

Bachelor's in Physics from Tsinghua, PhD from MIT, a first-generation internet tycoon in China, a genuine genius-level figure.

Zhou Yi glanced over the contract, chuckled lightly, closed it, and teased, "Besides, it's the investors' money anyway."

One could only say that Zhang Chaoyang, not yet blinded by success, acted very decisively, directly hitting Sina's fiscal red line with a price that left Zhou Yi unable to utter a single word of refusal.

One could only say that when internet companies give money, they really give it...

"Including the internet broadcast rights for this celebration party, for the next three years, not just the exclusive interview, but the internet exclusive broadcast rights for all your schedule-related news will be handed to Sohu, including abroad."

"I suppose it is precisely because of this that Sohu is willing to throw down this price."

Qian Jiang, marveling at the size of the contract he had seen for the first time in his life, clicked his tongue and said, "Oh, right, there's one more thing. Do you have any ideas for the World Cup ad song from Coca-Cola?"

"With your explosion in the US market, Coca-Cola can't sit still anymore. If possible, they suggest you best create an English song while creating a Chinese song, because English songs have a wider audience globally."

After witnessing Zhou Yi's achievements in the US with his own eyes, the financially powerful Coca-Cola directly asked about the English song.

"No problem with that."

Zhou Yi shrugged: "After the New Year, I can."

"Wavin' Flag," the classic 2010 South Africa World Cup Coca-Cola ad song, so classic that many people mistake it for the theme song of that World Cup.

The classic Lei Gui style contained in this song fits perfectly with what he played in "The Lazy Song," except instruments like African drums in the arrangement need to be replaced with Chinese instruments; no big problem.

Finding a few drummers is simple.

Coincidentally, this song also has an official Chinese version titled "Victory," making a complete Chinese-English bilingual version.

"Alright."

Having settled the time with Qian Jiang in a few words, Zhou Yi formally met the domestic internet godfather who once dominated both Big Ma and Little Ma, the best performer of the song "Dear, That's Not Love," and a lifelong physics enthusiast—Zhang Chaoyang—twenty minutes later.

"I didn't expect President Zhang to come personally."

"Sincerity above all."

Zhang Chaoyang, well aware of how difficult it is for Chinese people to open up the US market, smiled and said, "Pleasure doing business, Zhou Yi. I heard you are also very interested in investment and have an investment company; perhaps later we can sit down and chat about other things."

In the internet winter, if he didn't find a way to increase traffic and then use that traffic to negotiate ads, the company would truly go under. The stock price of NetEase next door is breaking historical lows every day, which serves as a warning to him.

Under Chen Hao's management, with cash flow exploding alongside Zhou Yi, this cash cow, even though Duan Mou's actions were hidden and invested in batches, they still couldn't be hidden from top-tier tycoons like Zhang Chaoyang.

NetEase hasn't reacted yet for the time being; after all, Ding Lei is still busy fighting the board of directors.

"Just small-scale play, just trying it out."

Zhou Yi smiled and agreed.

Although it sounds rather strange that he, as Sohu's spokesperson, holds NetEase shares through various means, investment is normal.

Moreover, Zhang Chaoyang was obviously trying to bring him into the game, and the sincerity shown was undeniable.

In a stage where all internet companies are collectively going downhill, Zhou Yi, this walking traffic wind tunnel, is undoubtedly a blue pill that can boost their confidence.

Zhang Chaoyang even keenly smelled a trace of familiarity in all of Zhou Yi's promotional tactics since his debut.

Soon, on January 24, the fourth day after Zhou Yi returned to China, Sohu, having finished the promotional photos, officially announced with Warner Bros. that Zhou Yi would formally become their spokesperson—

Both parties signed a 3-year contract with a total amount of 40 million!

Once the news broke, it directly shocked the domestic entertainment industry, which had never seen such a high endorsement contract, to the point of numbness!

Damn!

Zhou Yi's endorsement fee rose way too fast!

At a time when mainland stars generally command fees of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, and contracts of several million are considered sky-high endorsements, Zhou Yi came out with a forty-million figure, truly opening the eyes of everyone in the domestic entertainment industry.

Even the Hong Kong media, who had seen many sky-high endorsement contracts, felt surprised by this number.

Some were envious, some jealous, some sour, but not a single one dared to complain.

He just came back from making a round of US dollars in America, and is about to release globally. Not to mention anything else, just this single song, Zhou Yi's conservative estimated final earnings after revenue sharing in the European and American markets could reach several million US dollars, let alone the various copyright earnings that will continue to flow in the future.

He deserves to earn such a huge contract!

If you don't accept it or are jealous, go to America and make a round of your own!

And for domestic internet companies, Sohu throwing down Zhou Yi with such a big hand was itself sending them a signal: Zhou Yi is very strong.

"You, as one person, earn more than my investment company; isn't that a bit ridiculous?"

At Chen Hao's home, Chen Hao, whose mindset clearly still lingered in the era of million-yuan endorsements, stared with wide eyes.

"Don't rush; I see the internet, the internet wind tunnel hasn't arrived yet."

Zhou Yi, who returned to talk business with her, smiled: "Now that Zhang Chaoyang is backing us, entering the internet company investment circle isn't that troublesome."

After all, trading marketable circulating stocks and trading shares after entering the circle are completely two different concepts.

"Oh, right, the celebration banquet tomorrow, are you coming?"

"I won't go; what would an unknown little actor like me do there? Better to stay home and read books."

Chen Hao, who received the invitation, shook her head and refused: "Have fun."

At best, she could only meet one acquaintance, Liu Ruoying, over there.

Others want to attend to have a chance to get familiar with Zhou Yi; she can see Zhou Yi every day if she wants, they invest together, and their homes are on the same floor in the same residential area, so what's the point of getting familiar?

Meanwhile, Zhou Jianhui, having finished the arrangements for the celebration party, looked at the proposal on his desk and fell into deep thought—

How did Zhou Yi manage to coax Jiang Wen over?

Also, does Jiang Wen really think he's making a movie? Weren't you a banned director? An MV director is a director too, right?

Holding the thought of personally finding Jiang Wen to ask tomorrow, Zhou Jianhui rubbed his brow.

The next day, inside the hotel prepared in advance by Warner Bros., it was resplendent with gold and jade—a celebration party that was somehow turned by Warner Bros. into the feeling of an awards ceremony, with a galaxy of stars.

Even Jackie Chan, who recently completely broke into Hollywood's twenty-million-dollar club with "Rush Hour 2," came personally to offer congratulations to Zhou Yi;

On the Emperor side, although the public opinion between Xie Tingfeng and Zhou Yi is currently not very elegant, Albert Yeung still personally brought Joey Yung and Twins to congratulate Zhou Yi.

Basically, all major record companies sent their elite forces; not to mention the older generation of creators like Li Zongsheng and Luo Dayou who rarely appeared, almost all new-generation Taiwanese singers who could come did come, and even the Crown Prince of the Hong Kong circle, Zheng Zhongji, who was hailed as the successor to the God of Song, attended this celebration party together with his father.

"Wang Lihong, Jie Lun, SHE, Dai Peini, Elva, Shaohan..."

Sun Yanzi, dressed in a fitting gown today, looked at the familiar singers appearing before the media lenses, stood beside Zhou Yi, bared her big teeth, and waved at them continuously: "Here, here!"

"Pretty awesome, Zhou Yi."

Zhou Jielun, his face still bearing traces of haggardness, smiled and threw a punch at Zhou Yi's chest: "Congratulations."

PS: Suddenly remembered I seem to have said the days for the third update and the first update backwards...

Did overtime really add to my brain until I lost my senses? ()

(End of this chapter)