Chapter 264: The Unexpected List

Xie Tingfeng Appears in Bangkok Shooting an Ad, Looking Happy and in Great Shape!

Instant Teleportation! Xie Tingfeng's Relationship with Zhang Baizhi Exposed Amid Escape from Crime!

The Breakup of Feng-Fei Romance Was Not Zhou Yi's Fault—Could the Real Culprit Be Someone Else?!

……

After a day of public fermentation, Emperor Entertainment's attempts to cover up the scandal failed to suppress the frenzied media coverage across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China.

Lin Bibao, President of PepsiCo Greater China, and Hou Xiaohai, Director of Marketing, were left stunned.

Coca-Cola's rivals were running rampant with promotions; even Zhou Yi, that lazy dog who barely shows up outside promotional periods, had been running around like a donkey—how did their hardworking star Xie Tingfeng end up in trouble?

"At the time of the incident, Xie Tingfeng was working in Bangkok. We kindly ask all media reporters to stop sensationalizing this matter."

As Xie Tingfeng's agent, seeing the momentum slipping out of control, Huo Wenxi immediately appeared for an interview, emphasizing Xie Tingfeng's alibi for the incident on the early morning of March 23.

"The driver who crashed into the flowerbed has been Xie Tingfeng's personal driver for years; immediately after the accident, he recognized his fault and voluntarily turned himself in to the Hong Kong police…"

Because the incident occurred at dawn and no police were nearby, after urgent backstage maneuvering, Huo Wenxi forcibly suppressed the sudden scandal and, leveraging the flood of media narratives, redefined it as an entertainment-style fake news story.

The reason this blew up so big is because someone was behind the scenes scheming to destroy Xie Tingfeng's reputation.

Emperor Entertainment used its money power to muddy the waters of eyewitness accounts; the flood of so-called "eyewitnesses" turned the incident into a real-life Rashomon.

Zhou Yi, as a bystander, thoroughly enjoyed the show.

This was the first time he'd seen Emperor Entertainment go all-out handling negative publicity for an artist—in just three days, the confirmed cash payouts alone exceeded one million Hong Kong dollars, and that was only what Warner could trace on the surface.

"Xie Tingfeng has narrowly escaped disaster. With the public opinion now muddied, he's presented an alibi, and the driver is taking the blame. As long as the police are properly handled and don't pursue it relentlessly, he should get through this."

Hong Kong, a private club, private reception room.

Chen Qiwai, President of Coca-Cola Greater China, cheerfully opened a bottle of champagne and poured for Zhou Yi, his agent Qian Jiang, and Warner's CEO Zhou Jianhui—who had come to discuss distribution.

"Of course, assuming no one tries to keep targeting him."

Although Emperor Entertainment currently holds the lead in Hong Kong's entertainment circle, Xie Tingfeng's massive achievements are too tempting to ignore.

"Let's just promote our own stuff—this incident gives Al Yi's new single another perfect hook."

Zhou Jianhui, who never expected Xie Tingfeng to self-destruct at this moment, was grinning so wide his mouth twisted.

He'd been delighted when they bundled Xie Tingfeng with the then-unknown Zhou Yi to secure Coca-Cola's high-value endorsement, especially after reaching an agreement with Yang Shoucheng—their mutual hype had been smooth, splitting Hong Kong's major award shows and catapulting Zhou Yi to stardom overnight.

But no one anticipated that Zhou Yi would completely surpass Xie Tingfeng over the next year and a half.

Since the start of this year, Zhou Jianhui had been agonizing over how to untangle the so-called "twin stars" relationship—now, no need to agonize anymore; the problem vanished on its own.

"Al Yi, do you know what everyone's calling you outside now? The Heavenly Purple Star—how absurdly mystical it's gotten."

Qian Jiang, dressed in a sharp suit, chuckled: "Some even claim Xie Tingfeng was jealous of your international dominance, so he had people in Emperor Entertainment raise a spirit to curse you—but it backfired, overwhelmed by your true Purple Star aura."

"Really?"

Zhou Yi sipped his champagne, a wry smile curling his lips: "Didn't know I had such a market in Hong Kong's occult circles."

"We were still debating the release date for your single, but now this momentum is too good to pass up."

Chen Qiwai raised his glass: "To our resounding success."

From March 15, when Zhou Yi returned to Warner and began producing the bilingual "Wavin' Flag," to today, March 27, the full demo version of the single was completed.

Had the arrangement not taken extra time, the actual recording could've been even faster.

Zhou Yi's speed in producing songs was once again unanimously affirmed by everyone at Warner—though under Zhou Jianhui's continued blind eye, only Chen Zeshan, upon learning the exact production timeline, stood with arms crossed, staring blankly at the sky.

Especially after seeing Sun Yanzi, fresh off her Taipei concert, talk on a show about how long and exhausting it took to produce her album "Kite"…

Don't you two feel any guilt?!

As a driven careerist, Chen Zeshan was heartbroken—but couldn't even accuse them.

After all, Zhou Jianhui had tacitly approved it all.

For Zhou Yi, the only issue was that the upcoming promotional workload seemed a bit overwhelming.

As the spokesperson, he must tour multiple cities over the next two months, performing old songs to promote the bilingual "Wavin' Flag" single submitted to radio stations.

Simultaneously, footage of his "Wavin' Flag" performances in each city will be edited into the upcoming official single DVD.

"The bilingual Chinese-English mini-album 'Qi Kai De Sheng' will be released on April 20; the English single 'Wavin' Flag' will launch globally on April 25."

"Considering your focus remains primarily domestic, I and Brother Chen will contact headquarters to assist with international promotion."

"You've already built your reputation in the global market last year—your initial promotional resources won't be lacking. No need to worry."

A month is enough time for a promotional single, especially since the World Cup itself still has another month to run. If the heat is high enough, the promotional track can sustain momentum throughout the entire tournament.

Moreover, Coca-Cola's promotional channels aren't empty boasts—after Zhou Yi finished recording, his advertisement began rolling out immediately—

All it takes is one order, and Zhou Yi will instantly appear on televisions across China and on Coca-Cola bottles nationwide.

Coca-Cola even launched a special collectible card featuring Zhou Yi's personal image, constantly advertised on TV—buy a Coke, win a random pack of player cards.

Alongside World Cup team players, Zhou Yi's image will be included as a rare special guest.

Due to his outstanding record in Peking University soccer matches, his on-field position was set as both forward and attacking midfielder, with two distinct card designs.

Looks great—except the drop rate seems absurdly low.

"I bought three or four bottles and got nothing. Finally, I bit the bullet and bought a whole case—only opened one card of yours!"

This was the feedback from Sun Yanzi in Taiwan, a complete bystander—she was so furious over the low drop rate she screamed over the phone, nearly threatening to storm Coca-Cola's office with a knife.

"Just one?"

Zhou Yi, equally incredulous at the drop rate, burst out laughing—so even global gacha rates are all the same, huh?

"Yeah, just one. Do you have your attacking midfielder card? I only got the forward one." Sun Yanzi, having already distributed her entire case of Coke as a team perk, was now looking for shortcuts.

"Nope. I'm not into gacha."

"Come on, you're right there at Coca-Cola's Hong Kong HQ—getting one card shouldn't be hard. In exchange, I'll give you a rumor about the Golden Melody Awards."

"A Golden Melody Awards rumor?"

"Yeah."

Taiwan, Sun Yanzi's residence.

Under a thin moon and scattered stars, Sun Yanzi, sitting in a rocking chair on the balcony and talking on the phone, deliberately lowered her voice: "You probably don't know, but it seems there's been a huge internal dispute within the organizing committee for the 13th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards. It was originally scheduled to be released tomorrow, the 28th, but now I don't know if it'll be delayed."

"A dispute?"

"Yes. Based on what I've heard these past few days in Taiwan, it seems your fame is just too resounding for singers still grinding it out in the domestic music scene. They feel that releasing this nomination list might cause enormous controversy and a sensation."

Like a melon-field raider who'd just had its fill of melons, Sun Yanzi said with a beaming smile the source of the controversy she'd heard about — Jay Chou.

The next day, the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards finally released the nomination list for the 13th Golden Melody Awards on schedule. Instantly, a single stone stirred up a thousand waves!

The reason was none other than this: within this Golden Melody Awards nomination list, two people surnamed Zhou were eye-catching to an excessive degree —

Best Mandarin Album: Zhou Yi "Jiangnan," Jay Chou "Fan Texi," Sun Yanzi "Kite"…

Best Album Producer: Zhou Yi "Jiangnan," Jay Chou "Fan Texi"…

Best Music Video: Zhou Yi "Love Me or Him," Jay Chou "Can't Say It," Sun Yanzi "Kite"…

Best Composer: Zhou Yi "Jiangnan," Zhou Yi "East Wind Breaks," Jay Chou "Love Before BC"…

Best Lyricist: Zhou Yi "East Wind Breaks," "Drift Northward," "By the Plum"; Fang Wenshan "William Gubao," "Shanghai 1943," "Love Before BC"

Best Arranger: Zhou Yi "Susan Says," "Jiangnan"; Hong Jingyao "William Gubao"; Zhong Xingmin "Nunchucks"…

Best Mandarin Male Singer: Zhou Yi "Jiangnan," Jay Chou "Fan Texi," Wang Lihong "The One," Harlem Yu "Tsunami"…

Looking over the entire list, any normal person with a pair of eyes could see where the controversy (or the highlight) of this year's Golden Melody Awards actually lay.

Zhou Yi's last year's album "Jiangnan" received nominations across all categories — eleven in total;

Jay Chou's last year's album "Fan Texi" received nominations across all categories — ten in total.

"Rigging! Rigging! What is the Golden Melody Awards doing?! Regional protection?!"

"Honestly, this isn't really rigging, is it? Jay Chou's 'Fan Texi' last year really was high quality. Although its overall singability can't compare to Zhou Yi's, it's not that far behind — they're about even in quality."

"Setting aside whether it's rigging or not, isn't this Zhou Yi guy just too terrifying? Didn't you notice the list? Isn't this basically Zhou Yi single-handedly fighting Jay Chou + Fang Wenshan + Hong Jingyao + Zhong Xingmin?"

"Our Zhou Yi is the famous one-man machine! He doesn't need a team!"

"Last year's Golden Melody Awards, Zhou Yi had six nominations and won four; Jay Chou won zero. This year these two are at it again…"

(End of chapter)