Chapter 271: Hai Die: I Think I Can

I should be under the car, not inside it.

Seeing how sweet you two are~

This way, I can let go more easily.

Give me the courage to leave~

In Beijing's Chaoyang District, at the Hai Die Music offline album signing event.

A man with mid-length hair styled like Wu Jianhao from Meteor Garden was singing passionately on stage his album's biggest hit.

His voice carried a weathered texture, and his rugged appearance made him look from afar like a construction site foreman—down-to-earth through and through.

At the final chorus, he spun the microphone toward the crowd and waved, triggering a massive audience singalong—

He must love you very much, and he's put me far behind.

Breaking up took only a minute~

The fans' fiery passion matched perfectly with Beijing's summer heat; the relentless waves of cheers pushed the man on stage to give even more energy in his next songs.

Only after the signing ended did Lin Junjie, the music assistant, hand him a bottle of water and deliver the good news: "Brother Du, you've worked hard—today's signing sales were impressive."

"Thank you, Junjie."

Du smiled, twisted open the cap, and downed more than half the bottle in one go, then wiped his mouth: "What's the total sales so far?"

"According to company data, the album 'Dark Night' has now sold over two hundred thousand, nearing three hundred thousand copies nationwide."

The good news instantly energized Du, but then he remembered Zhou Yi—the freak—whose mini-album, priced at a flat $4 to align with international standards, had sold an astonishing number on its first day in China; his spirits sank slightly, and envy crept in.

"Don't rush. No one in China can currently match Zhou Yi in sales. Even Xie Tingfeng, who once showed promise, ruined himself."

Xu Huanliang, the CEO of Hai Die Music and the producer behind Du's album, was equally thrilled: "Besides, when Zhou Yi first debuted, his album sales followed the same trajectory as yours. Keep this up—you might just become the next pop king."

"And this time, perhaps you can rise to the top by stepping over the corpses of all those kings and queens—even Zhou Yi himself."

To be fair, Hai Die had spent over a year preparing Du's album 'Dark Night'—it was impossible not to hope it would succeed.

But no one at Hai Die expected it to become this big.

Especially not on the mainland.

Before this, the mainland had been widely regarded as Zhou Yi's personal backyard—yet now, Du's song 'He Must Love You Very Much' had climbed to number one on the mainland's music charts, surpassing Zhou Yi's own hits from last year's second album and even the duet by Shuang Zixing. This was beyond Hai Die's wildest expectations.

Precisely because of this, Xu Huanliang had developed a bold idea—'topple' Zhou Yi.

Each generation produces its own talents. In 2000, Zhou Yi emerged suddenly, stepping over veteran kings and queens like Wang Fei, Lin Yilian, Ren Xianqi, and Zhou Huajian to claim the throne, slashing his way through the industry with bloodshed, forging his legendary status.

Two years later, fortune turns—now it's Zhou Yi's turn to be overthrown by newcomers. Isn't that only fair?

Lin Junjie, who had listened silently throughout, wanted to say something, but after considering his lowly position, he kept his mouth shut.

The CEO's vision had fired Du up at first, but within a minute he calmed down: "Mr. Xu, you mean…"

As a former Singaporean foreman who once led a crew of workers just to make ends meet, talking to Du about pure idealism was laughable.

Anyone who could master the role of a foreman—no matter how small—was a master of human nature.

"Have you heard Zhou Yi's new single 'Triumph'? Though its sales are high, it's only a one-time surge. And advertising jingles like this will never maintain a high ranking on domestic playback charts."

Xu Huanliang smiled as he analyzed: "Because there have been too many Coca-Cola ads during the World Cup buildup. As Coca-Cola's heavily promoted spokesperson, Zhou Yi's two jingles will appear constantly on TV and radio."

"Under such intense bombardment, his jingle might be heard everywhere—but its chart ranking will never be high. Even if it climbs, it won't last."

World Cup jingles are not real songs.

Remember the last World Cup's 'gogogo oh oh oh'? It was wildly popular and made a fortune—but its chart performance was worse than many hit songs at the time, both in the West and in China.

"If you keep your single at number one on the charts, and Zhou Yi's jingle fails to reach number one during its peak popularity, you'll earn the title of having defeated Zhou Yi."

Xu Huanliang grew more excited as he spoke, as if a bright future was waving at him.

Ever since Zhou Yi pulled away from all other Chinese singers internationally, he's become the fastest shortcut to fame for every new Chinese singer, obscure veteran, or faded star.

Want overnight fame? Want the national newspapers to report on you? Then defeat Zhou Yi!

As long as you don't resort to watered-down tricks or unfair slandering, it's normal, fair, and transparent market competition—no one can find fault.

The last singer to briefly reach number one during Zhou Yi's 'Jiangnan' slump was Jay Chou; before him, it was Wang Lihong. Both are now the hottest male Chinese singers after Zhou Yi—

'Double Section Staff' and 'Only You' have swept across Dajiangnanbei.

Du's breathing grew rapid.

Though using an album's lead single to challenge an advertising jingle is deeply unsportsmanlike, it's Zhou Yi we're talking about!

Who could resist this temptation?

Once decided, Hai Die's entire promotional strategy shifted dramatically—

Starting April 22, besides continuing to book Du for various appearances, Hai Die began heavily promoting his humble past—

'Ordinary People Also Have Singer Dreams: The Grit of Hai Die's Du!'

'Du: Good Food Never Comes Too Late—Anyone With a Dream Is Amazing!'

'I'm Not a Chosen One—I'm Just an Ordinary Man—Du'

'…'

Born in 1973, Du is now 29. A 29-year-old debut singer is an extremely rare phenomenon in the music industry.

With an unstable family background, divorced parents, two older sisters, and two younger brothers, he dropped out of school at 15 to work and support his family—

He worked as an apprentice in a car repair shop, then as an assembler in a computer market;

Finally, he picked up a red bucket and joined the great, labor-starved construction industry, becoming a proud civil engineering worker and rising to a small foreman.

This was the true story of countless middle- and lower-class men—now, many men in their thirties, even forties and fifties, saw themselves in Du's journey, feeling deeply connected.

Unlike Zhou Yi, who was smart enough to reverse fate through education, acing the college entrance exam to escape his mountain village and enter Peking University as a chosen one, young and surrounded by beauties and wealth,

Most of them, like Du, had left home at fifteen to work any job just to feed their families, doing anything, wasting away into their thirties and forties.

They didn't have Zhou Yi's handsome looks or physique, didn't have beauties throwing themselves at them—only the grind of construction work, and the bitter experience of losing their girlfriends (or wives) to others.

Even if many of them had since grown wealthy through construction and related industries, their past struggles remained deeply buried in memory—and now, Du's song 'He Must Love You Very Much' had sung straight into their hearts.

"Oh oh oh, he must love you very much~"

"I should be under the car, not inside the car"

"Seeing how sweet you two are~"

In the KTVs frequented by major and minor construction bosses, a group of middle-aged men in their thirties and forties hugged young women, clinking glasses while singing about being under the car, yet the car keys they now owned were hidden deep in their pockets.

These middle-aged men had money, and those targeted by Sea Butterfly ultimately became the miracle-makers behind Ah Du's album sales, reputation, and song rankings holding the top spot continuously!

On April 25, when Zhou Yi's "Victory at the First Battle" still failed to reach the number one spot on any chart in the mainland, Hong Kong, or Taiwan five days after its release, the restless Sea Butterfly directly unleashed their final trump card of persona tailored specifically for Ah Du—

"The Commoner Singer, The Ah Du Storm!"

And it was from this very day that Ah Du's extremely down-to-earth personal image, a persona easily resonating with a vast number of middle-class men in society, reached its peak!

As the leading industry in the country, far ahead of the second place, obviously, the energy of the brothers in the construction industry had been ignited by Sea Butterfly.

"Zhou Yi's New Song Suppressed! Unable to Reach the Top Spot for Long!"

Warner Building, President's Office.

Having listened to Zhou Jianhui's report on the English version release arrangements for "Victory at the First Battle," Zhou Yi took the newspaper handed to him by Qian Jiang, glanced at it briefly, and laughed.

"Sea Butterfly really found a treasure this time; this Ah Du is impressive, the momentum is fierce, very much like you were two years ago."

Zhou Jianhui, who also saw this headline, remained perfectly calm, even reminiscing about the days when Zhou Yi first debuted, filling the office with laughter and joy.

"The positioning is very precise."

Putting down the newspaper, Zhou Yi took a sip of tea, clearly not very concerned.

"If the English version of Ah Yi's song can achieve the same popularity as the previous one, 'The Lazy Song,' can we apply to headquarters to jointly lobby FIFA with Coca-Cola to see if we can get Ah Yi a spot to appear and sing at the World Cup closing ceremony?"

As Zhou Yi's manager, Qian Jiang, whose gaze was already fixed on the international market, immediately seized an opportunity to boost Zhou Yi's profile on the global stage.

There's definitely no chance for the opening ceremony; the two hosts, Japan and South Korea, are fighting so hard internally for the slots that their brains are about to burst.

The competition on the Japanese side was so brutal that top-tier divas with high recognition, such as Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru, were all eliminated and missed the chance to perform at the opening ceremony, shaking the entire Japanese music industry.

"Impossible, this is the Japan-South Korea World Cup," Zhou Jianhui shook his head: "They can't even divide the slots among themselves; how could they possibly give us a slot?"

Even though Coca-Cola was one of the official sponsors, a huge number of Japanese and South Korean conglomerates were also the major financial backers of this World Cup.

"Is that so, Ah Yi, what do you think? Want to try? I think regardless of whether it works or not, if the popularity of your song is high enough at that time, we can try to fight for it."

Qian Jiang was still unwilling to give up this opportunity for Zhou Yi to appear before a global audience.

The World Cup closing ceremony starts before the final; what concept is the World Cup final? It is the most watched match in the entire World Cup schedule—

It is a match watched by football fans worldwide and even the bandwagon fake fans.

"I'll lie at home and watch it on TV."

Zhou Yi smiled slightly: "Moreover, I need to correct you, Brother Qian, the official term is the South Korea-Japan World Cup, not the Japan-South Korea World Cup."

"The Koreans went to great lengths to put their 'Korea' before 'Japan' in the name, even if it caused dissatisfaction within Japan, they insisted on doing so; you cannot arbitrarily change it for them."

PS: Okay, adjusted back to half-step Netherworld.

Two days of sick leave left; tomorrow during the day, I think I won't need to sleep and can type during the day.

Tonight's chapter will be a compromise; tomorrow two updates to return to the Land of the Living!

(End of Chapter)