Chapter 283: Angela Locks the Door

"What happened?"

"They're fighting, they're actually fighting."

"What kind of joke is this? Are you crazy? This is the Golden Melody Awards backstage! Even if you're unhappy, you have to keep up appearances! We're all in the same circle, we see each other every day; is this necessary?"

"It would have been fine, but Wu Jianhao had a loose tongue and shamelessly bragged about Xu Ruoxuan, which directly set off the already annoyed Jay Chou."

"... Then it's fine."

Having a woman snatched away is something no man can tolerate, let alone for Jay Chou, this rising star currently at the height of his fame.

Thanks to Helody's powerful public relations, Jay Chou, who had released only one album, successfully earned the title of "Little King of Pop" in press releases by leveraging his healthy competitive relationship with Zhou Yi over the past year.

After all, since Zhou Yi, who had nearly the same number of Golden Melody Award nominations as him over two editions, was already a King of Pop, wasn't it reasonable for Jay Chou to be a Little King of Pop?

Unconvinced?

Unconvinced? Then compete for Golden Melody Award nominations! Compete for sales! Compete for song popularity!

Among the rookie singers who debuted around the same time as Zhou Yi, besides Jay Chou, who else could hold their own against Zhou Yi in the domestic music scene?

"That doesn't make sense, so what's going on with Zhou Yi?"

"The atmosphere was already tense; F4 was definitely unhappy with Zhou Yi. After all, their popularity across Asia was even higher than Zhou Yi's, yet because of him, they failed to make any splash on the mainland."

"After the conflict between Jay Chou and Wu Jianhao, they might have inadvertently mentioned Sun Yanzi, who wanted to speak up. Zhou Yi didn't say a word, lunged forward, and directly pushed down Jerry Yan and Zhu Xiaotian who were trying to help. One man fighting two, he's truly impressive; his physical condition is quite strong."

"... That really fits his style."

"What happened next? How did the fight end?"

"Who knows? The conflict started after they entered the dressing room. The accompanying staff hadn't gone in yet. Apparently, someone realized what was happening and locked the door from the inside to prevent too many people from seeing."

"Shh, don't talk too much. Those are people who are half the sky famous. Let the organizers mediate..."

There was Zhou Yi, who dominated the European and American scenes, and F4, who dominated the Asian scene, and it also involved Jay Chou and Sun Yanzi, two singers with extremely high popularity in the Chinese-speaking regions.

Strictly speaking, this is no longer a scandal; to put it bluntly, it's an accident.

Especially since the scale of this year's Golden Melody Awards was the greatest in history.

If public relations handle this poorly, tomorrow the Golden Melody Awards will become the laughingstock of the domestic award ceremony industry.

"You can't sing well, you can't act well; who gave you the courage to come out and make a fool of yourselves?"

Inside the huge dressing room, Jay Chou, whose back and waist ached from the fight, pointed mercilessly at F4, who were slumped on the floor and only managed to stand up with the help of staff, and started shouting: "And you, Mr. Wu, you're a piece of trash!"

"Wrong, not just one piece of trash, you're all trash."

Zhou Yi reached out to take the new shirt handed to him by Qian Jiang, changed out of his own shirt which had lost a few buttons at the collar, put on the suit jacket handed to him by Sun Yanzi, and sneered: "You should be grateful that this is the Golden Melody Awards backstage and someone is blocking you."

"Even Chow Yun-fat wouldn't dare to fight me; who do you think you are? If you have the guts, get that group to completely blacklist me; if my records don't sell, what's that got to do with me?"

"Even when spreading rumors, you drag in unrelated women; you four pieces of trash are just like that."

They were all young men full of vigor. Although they were not close privately because they belonged to different companies, at least publicly the four of them could still present a united front against outsiders.

Therefore, upon hearing Zhou Yi's mockery, the four, who had just recovered, immediately turned their gaze back to him—

Zhou Yumin, the weakest of the four, was clearly still a bit afraid; facing Zhou Yi's contempt, he turned his head away slightly, feeling guilty, and refused to meet his eyes.

Jerry Yan and Wu Jianhao still clearly showed defiance on their faces, but on the "face" of having been beaten up by Zhou Yi, they just wiped the corners of their mouths and said nothing.

Stubborn Wu Jianhao knew he couldn't out-talk Zhou Yi, so he turned around wanting to get revenge on Jay Chou, who was still babbling, but was stopped by the arriving Chai Zhiping: "Enough! Apologize to Yanzi!"

To be honest, Chai Zhiping herself felt ashamed.

Mindless fools; spreading rumors about Sun Yanzi, Elva Hsiao, and others in front of Zhou Yi was bad enough, but then getting beaten up by Zhou Yi meant they lost both face and dignity completely.

Four against two and they still lost; are they four pigs?!

With Jay Chou, this skinny monkey, it's even questionable whether he could beat Wu Jianhao without Zhou Yi's help.

"Sorry, Yanzi, we spoke without thinking earlier."

In the makeshift F4, Zhou Yumin was the first to apologize to Sun Yanzi, who was completely ignoring them. The latter, who was seriously checking Zhou Yi's arm for skin abrasions, turned her head and glanced at him sideways, too lazy to speak.

"Yao Qian, I'm sorry, they didn't mean to slander Elva. They're young, got carried away, and spoke impulsively without holding back."

"You're an old hand too; you should know this kind of thing isn't rare in Taiwan."

Chai Zhiping apologized to Yao Qian, who had rushed over representing the Golden Melody Awards organizing committee.

As the general manager of Virgin, who personally discovered and nurtured Elva Hsiao, Yao Qian has no children of his own. Having an extremely good relationship with Elva's mother, he almost treats Elva like his own daughter.

To prevent her from being criticized by the outside world, after reconciling with the Golden Melody Awards and becoming a judge, Yao Qian still did not register Elva Hsiao this year to avoid people saying Elva got in through the back door.

"Indeed, it's not rare. I hope you will have good results in the future." Yao Qian, expressionless, glanced at the four members of F4: "Popularity without true talent is just a castle in the air, no matter how hot it gets."

F4: "..."

"According to the old rules, we will treat this as a joke. If anyone asks, everyone must use the same story: say it was just playing around and joking."

As an old veteran who has weathered many storms, considering the Golden Melody Awards' official interests and aiming to reduce the impact, Yao Qian still provided a solution.

Although saying "fighting was just a joke" is a bit nonsensical, after all, even if normal people are joking, where would they get so realistic that they actually fight and bring in others to help?

But at least this gives an explanation to the public and the media.

Buy more water army accounts and press releases, wash this incident into a joke, and it will be fine.

"I have no problem."

Having seen the big storms in the Hong Kong music scene in the past, Qian Jiang felt no pressure about this.

Zhou Yi fighting backstage is nothing; during the golden age of the Hong Kong and Taiwan music scene in the past, conflicts between artists tearing each other apart were much more serious than this.

Besides, Zhou Yi is so popular.

Popularity is the hard truth.

"Who locked the door earlier?"

"..."

Under Yao Qian's questioning, everyone in the dressing room looked at each other for a moment, not knowing who it was.

"... Uh, it was me."

Zhang Shaohan, who had only come looking for Sun Yanzi, raised her hand and admitted it in a somewhat quiet voice, never expecting to encounter this situation.

Heaven is my witness; she was just worried it would be bad if too many people saw this, and since a young girl couldn't interfere in a fight between several grown men, she thought to lock the door from the inside to avoid people seeing, filming videos, or taking photos.

"Well done."

After recognizing this as a newcomer from Fomus, Yao Qian instructed, "Do not spread this matter."

"Oh, um."

Zhang Shaohan blinked her big eyes and nodded.

(End of this chapter)