Chapter 280: The Banned Person and Group

"Zhou Yi! I thought you were having so much fun abroad that you wouldn't come back to participate."

"This Jia fan, hello. Let me correct you: I wasn't having fun abroad; I was actually working."

In Taiwan, Kaohsiung, inside the hotel where the stars were staying.

Zhou Yi's arrival caused continuous screams from all the fans squatting nearby; the momentum was so great that even Zhou Jielun, Wang Lihong, and others, who knew long ago he had many die-hard fans on the island, couldn't help but be stunned.

And Zhou Yi, who rarely got to come to Taiwan, in order to satisfy the fans on the island who still supported him unswervingly, actually signed autographs all around outside the hotel, coming so close to asking the hotel to set up a tent so he could sit down and hold a small signing session on the spot.

Some female fans with undying hearts of murder were firmly blocked by security personnel, and some who believed the news reports thought he was just playing around; Zhou Yi immediately sternly refuted the rumors: "You can say I play soccer poorly, but you cannot say I am lazy. This is slander, this is an insult to my rigorous and serious work attitude."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Ah, yes, yes, yes!

You're the idol, you decide!

After not appearing in Taiwan for a long time, this batch of fans screened out now can be said to believe whatever Zhou Yi says.

They are purified fans with maximum purchasing power.

Those who originally met Zhou Yi and Sun Yanzi at a late-night snack stall late at night almost became the last witnesses of the Twin Stars' life in Taiwan.

As Zhou Yi himself had almost only one Golden Melody Award event to attend in Taiwan, the late-night snack stall where Zhou Yi and Sun Yanzi used to eat together has now become a special check-in holy land for Twin Stars fans.

The only regret is that the tables and chairs they sat on together seem to have been bought by someone a step ahead, so that now many claiming to be "original items" have appeared on the market, creating chaos.

"Basically, everyone staying in this hotel is an acquaintance. Besides Yanzi, people like Zhou Jielun and Zhang Shaohan are all here. There's also F4; you need to be careful not to say the wrong thing later."

After accompanying Zhou Yi to finish signing autographs, Qian Jiang handed the room key card to him upon entering the hotel room and said.

This year's Golden Melody Awards can be called the most expensive in the history of the Golden Melody Awards—the organizers booked three entire buildings just for the hotel, totaling 850 rooms; not only various industry insiders, but also artists, with artists from home and abroad and their accompanying assistants all arranged, totaling over two thousand plane tickets, highlighting sheer extravagance.

However, in Qian Jiang's view, this was somewhat like beating one's face to look fat.

"What wrong words could I possibly say? I have no conflict with F4."

Regarding Qian Jiang's warning, Zhou Yi felt he might have some misunderstanding of himself.

Normal commercial competition isn't a death-match octagon duel; the other side has drama bonuses, so it's very normal for them to be more popular than him in Taiwan right now.

He isn't that kind of petty person.

"It's not that you have a conflict; it's that the mainland directly banned 'Meteor Garden'."

Qian Jiang reminded him: "Right now, everyone here is spreading that this is a counterattack by the mainland, directly silencing the most popular F4 on the mainland, just like they banned you back then."

"..."

Hearing this inside story, Zhou Yi raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Really?"

That explained why F4 didn't seem as popular on the mainland as in his memory, why there wasn't that situation of enjoying some drama dividends, and instead Ah Du became popular faster.

"I don't know; even Zhou Jianhui isn't clear on this kind of news."

"Anyway, the result now is that it's banned; after confirming the import, it was banned before even a few episodes aired. The reason given was related to school bullying; anyway, the official reason given is this, which has nothing to do with you."

"But strangely, not much school bullying plot was seen in the first few episodes; that's all in the later parts. So people here are guessing that someone on the mainland is venting anger for you, and that they let a few episodes air just to find a reason to ban this drama."

Qian Jiang shrugged, laying out everything he knew.

Sitting on the sofa and rubbing his chin, Zhou Yi looked thoughtful.

In his memory, the drama 'Meteor Garden' was indeed banned, but it was banned about a month after it started airing.

At that time, many people speculated whether it was a counterattack: let you air for a month to give you some sweetness, then find a reason to strike with a stick and directly ban your most popular idol drama to show their stance.

After all, in terms of values, Qiong Yao dramas are much more twisted than 'Meteor Garden', yet Qiong Yao dramas are unimpeded on the mainland.

Targeting 'Meteor Garden' was just because it happened to be the hottest Taiwanese drama at that time, popular all over Asia, having the effect of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.

Originally, this was just an unconfirmed rumor.

But after the mainland took an extremely hard stance and killed 'Meteor Garden', the island immediately relaxed some restrictions.

Actors from some films and dramas were also able to appear on Taiwanese variety shows for public promotion; typical examples include the Zhang Jizhong version of 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'; Liu Tao, Liu Yifei, and others who were not adapted to the Taiwanese variety show style were even asked some questions with very Taiwanese variety show characteristics.

"Looking at it this way, my face is quite big?"

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi laughed.

It's so cool to have a backer!

They didn't even wait a month; they found a reason two days after airing and smashed them with a fist, not letting F4 compete with him on the mainland—

You want to sell records? No problem; F4's 'Meteor Rain' is welcome to open sales in the mainland music market.

"Without the 'Meteor Garden' drama bonus, F4's records in the mainland can't even beat your defeated opponents Han Hong or Yu Quan."

"Ah, no, to be precise, the records of any single person from Han Hong or Yu Quan could hang F4 up and beat them, let alone Shui Mu Nian Hua, who, like you, graduated from a prestigious university."

Qian Jiang, talking about this matter, laughed until his two eyes were squeezed into a single slit.

Shui Mu Nian Hua's album has sold over 700,000 copies so far, while F4 in the mainland is still a pitiful 100,000 or so copies.

As one of Zhou Yi's fierce rivals in popularity in the Asian region, the suddenly emerged F4 was terrifying with the drama bonus. But without the drama bonus, Zhou Yi's one-day sales could crush them.

The most critical point is that with Zhou Yi, who has made a name for himself internationally, as a backing, it is natural for the mainland to stand firm. Except for those public intellectuals who find angles to speak sarcastically about being magnanimous, no one can accuse anything—

What, you can ban, but I can't?

Isn't Zhou Yi's achievement better than F4's? Isn't his popularity worldwide higher than F4's? Have the restrictions on him been lifted?

Not lifted?

Then you're talking absolute nonsense!

This time, even the public opinion on the island itself was polarized—simply because Zhou Yi's achievements were so dazzling that no one could ignore them, yet he happened to be the first one to suffer.

"The Golden Melody Awards are also messing around this time, inviting F4 to be the award presenters for Best Arrangement. You should know that in the nomination list for this award, only people from your team and Zhou Jielun's team are competing."

Qian Jiang, talking about this matter, also showed some dissatisfaction on his face.

According to the current opposing and banning reputation between F4 and Zhou Yi, he could tell with his butt that this Best Arrangement Award might have some trouble.

For the sake of gimmicks and ratings, the Golden Melody Awards have fallen.

(End of this chapter)