Chapter 252: The Zhou Yi Trilogy?

"I don't know, so I didn't write it."

Zhou Yi sipped some warm water, smacked his lips a few times, then shook his head: "I have four ideas now, but haven't decided which one to use."

"Tell me?"

"One is like you said."

"The second is to use my age—call it《Twenty-One》."

Although according to international age calculation Zhou Yi had only just turned twenty a few months ago, in China's tradition of adding a year at the start of each lunar year, he was already twenty-one in nominal age after the New Year.

"The third is to name it after the year—like《2002》."

"The fourth is even simpler—《Lianshan》."

"... Wait, hold on, I get the others, but this《Lianshan》...?"

Qian Jiang, taken aback by the name, frowned: "You mean the《Lianshan》I remember—the one that's famous alongside《Zhou Yi》?"

Zhou Yi, leaning against the desk, nodded.

"So what's the connection to your album? Your name is Zhou Yi, not Lianshan."

Naming a debut album after oneself makes sense, but looking at these eleven songs for this third album, how could they possibly relate to《Lianshan》?

Are you really planning to switch careers and become a fortune-teller?

"Well, how to put it—《Lianshan》is also called《Lianshan Yi》, and its name includes the character 'Yi' too."

"This book contains the concept of three cycles and nine phases as a framework for temporal-spatial transformation, which directly corresponds to the album's concept of time and space."

"Moreover, the pre-heaven Eight Trigrams in《Lianshan》mainly describe the opposition of yin and yang hexagrams, which perfectly mirrors the album's dual themes of black and white in life."

"Furthermore, the content of《Lianshan》largely consists of ancient people defining natural laws of cosmic development through objectivist and observational theories, systematically outlining and arguing rules for human social behavior—"

"This aligns exactly with the album's concept regarding social environment."

After Zhou Yi recounted some general overviews of《Lianshan》he had read in his past life, Qian Jiang was left slightly dazed—

"You've read《Lianshan》? Your knowledge is surprisingly broad."

Is《Lianshan》really like that? Isn't it just another divination text like《Zhou Yi》?

Wait—could it be that the White Dragon King ran back to Thailand overnight because he couldn't out-calculate Zhou Yi?

Recalling last year's White Dragon King's claim about Zhou Yi's "imperial purple star destiny," Qian Jiang was certain Warner hadn't paid him to say that.

"I haven't read much—just grasped the broad outlines. I don't have the patience to read something whose authenticity is still uncertain."

Watching Qian Jiang's expression grow increasingly strange, Zhou Yi raised his eyes and asked: "I ask you—what does Jiang Xi have plenty of?"

"People?"

"..."

That's not wrong—it's a famously populous province.

"It's mountains—endless, connected mountains."

"... So this name is just a dry joke about the landscape?" Qian Jiang rubbed his buzzcut.

Jiang Xi really is famously mountainous, with dozens of scenic mountain areas, all rich tourism resources.

"Forget it—I'll submit all your ideas to the team. Let marketing and planning have a meeting to discuss."

Feeling he didn't fully grasp《Lianshan》, Qian Jiang still decided to report it: "Oh, by the way, if you end up choosing《Lianshan》, why not go back and look into《Guicang》? Maybe your next album can use it too—perfect for forming a Zhou Yi Trilogy."

"Look: Zhou Yi Trilogy—《Zhou Yi》, 《Lianshan》, 《Guicang》; the Zhou Yi Trilogy is these three—makes sense, right?"

Zhou Yi: "..."

What the hell is a Zhou Yi Trilogy!

In the Chinese music industry, achieving godlike status means—wait, no, this actually kind of fits...

"Oh, by the way, one more thing. Here, take it—your award."

Seeing Zhou Yi lost in thought, Qian Jiang pointed to the bookshelf behind his chair: "The awards you couldn't collect have all been delivered and gathered here."

"Hong Kong Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award—Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs, Most Popular Male Singer Gold Award, National Most Popular Male Singer Award, IFPI Annual Highest-Selling Singer Award, Outstanding Mandarin Song Award... damn, I didn't even show up and they gave me five?"

Having collected his award last year, Zhou Yi first picked up the familiar Hong Kong Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award trophy, counted them, then teased: "If I'd shown up, would they have given me ten?"

The 24th Hong Kong Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards ceremony was held on January 18, 2002—he was still in the U. S. and had no time to attend.

"Add the others and you've got ten."

"On January 13 this year, the Hong Kong Top Ten Golden Melody Awards officially opened eligibility for Mandarin songs and albums—they even gave you Best New Artist."

Qian Jiang, who had witnessed the golden era of both awards in the last century, spoke of this with a touch of pride.

Zhou Yi's gaze then fell on the Hong Kong Top Ten Golden Melody Awards trophy Qian Jiang had pointed to—

Best Mandarin Song Gold Award, Best New Male Artist Gold Award, Best Songwriter Gold Award, Outstanding Performance Grand Prize Gold Award.

Four trophies in total—

"Huh? Wait, Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs and Golden Melody Awards add up to nine—what's this last one?"

Noticing the trophy was different, Zhou Yi immediately turned to the last one on the shelf, picked it up—and saw: MTV Asia Award for Most Popular Artist from Mainland China.

Oh, the MTV Asia Award—then it's fine.

Zhou Yi instantly understood.

That award ceremony was held in Singapore on the evening of February 2—he was busy preparing for the Spring Festival Gala and didn't attend.

Anyway, there's another MTV-sponsored event this July—the 4th CCTV-MTV Music Awards, co-hosted by CCTV and MTV—he planned to attend if he had time; both were MTV, no real difference.

"The Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs and Golden Melody Awards were trying to ride your hype, but didn't expect your success in the U. S. was so explosive—the flood of news coverage completely drowned out their award announcements."

Qian Jiang, who had personally witnessed the decline of these two Hong Kong awards, sounded half-mirthful, half-mournful.

As for the MTV Asia Music Awards—it was their first year, and Qian Jiang was just glad Zhou Yi hadn't gone; he'd seriously overestimated the ceremony.

It was pure name-dropping, with zero real influence in China—even less than the one co-hosted by CCTV.

But soon, on February 26, the Lantern Festival—Zhou Yi received a truly prestigious invitation: the 2002 World Music Awards.

At the 2002 World Music Awards, the European and American stars and models attending the ceremony; the nominees for this awards show were each and every one dazzlingly brilliant.

Kylie Minogue, Destiny's Child, Linkin Park, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, and even Jay-Z, who had back-to-back number-one albums on the Billboard chart, and so on.

Zhou Yi saw a long string of European and American pop stars he was familiar with on the list. He even spotted Utada Hikaru from J-pop.

"A Fated Meeting!"

The moment the World Music Awards list was made public, the J-pop media—who had had their singles market dominated by Zhou Yi for a stretch last year—also began hyping up these two figures who had been "kings who never met" the previous year.

In terms of Asian sales, Zhou Yi was certainly no match for Utada Hikaru last year—that was a limitation of the market.

But the fact couldn't be helped that in February of this year, Utada Hikaru had also adopted the new stage name "Utada," formally announcing her entry into the American music scene.

Given that Zhou Yi had been the first to achieve enormous success in America, Utada Hikaru's move made it hard for people not to let their imaginations run wild, and the J-pop media even used the two for comparison.

PS: I'm done with work, phew, one update tonight on this last day, going to bed early, starting tomorrow I'll get back to normal~

Last week wore me out to death, every minute I wanted to grab a blade and do in the client!

(End of chapter)