Chapter 309: Fairy Tales Say a Rainbow Appears After the Rain

"Give me a reason to forget you, who loved me so much.

"Give me a reason to give up the decision I made back then.

"Some loves, the more you try to pull away, the clearer they become; and the most painful distance

"Is you not being by my side, yet being in~

"My heart~~"

The top-tier contralto in the radio was infectiously MAX; the emotion contained in the song was enough to make empathetic listeners project themselves into it, shedding tears in a vague, lonely environment.

Zhou Yi, nestled in the lounge watching the outside world's storms, hummed along to the song with the rhythm and casually tossed the chilled watermelon rind into the trash can.

Since releasing the album "4U" on July 12, which exploded with three songs—"Give Me a Reason to Forget," "No Crime in Losing Love," and "Prague Square"—Elva Hsiao has thoroughly solidified the Queen of Pop position the company marketed for her.

Among these, "Give Me a Reason to Forget" had the highest popularity in the public sphere.

The final track of Zhou Yi's quartet, "Pirate," though not as hot as the previous three, also won Elva Hsiao a huge amount of praise due to its unique and breakthrough style.

At the same time, it completely pushed the concept of "Zhou Yi Production" up to the divine throne.

During this period, if one could say Zhou Yi was slaughtering wildly abroad, then Elva Hsiao was slaughtering wildly domestically—

As of today, the 24th, in 12 days, the album "4U" has sold nearly half a million copies across the two sides of the strait and the three regions.

With Sun Yanzi not releasing anything, no other female singers, including the older generation, were Elva Hsiao's match; the sales figures were simply terrifying.

However, due to the album's hot sales, conspiracy theories about a breakdown in the relationship between Elva Hsiao and Zhou Yi were gaining more and more traction.

Although Elva Hsiao herself had debunked such news claiming she and Zhou Yi had become "strangers" multiple times in front of media reporters, the pen is in people's hands and mouths are on people's bodies.

Under the prevailing trend, those tabloids that dared not gamble on whether Zhou Yi would strike them turned their pens around—attacking Elva Hsiao, who was currently fighting fiercely against Jay Chou, A Do, and others on various charts across the two sides of the strait and the three regions.

Precisely because of this, this Young Lady simply gave up trying to fix things at yesterday's promotional event: "Since you are still so curious, then go ask Zhou Yi yourself; anyway, his press conference is about to start."

As the number one Chinese singer in terms of overseas achievements, the international commotion Zhou Yi caused this time was indeed too great.

If Warner had not officially announced a press conference at 8:08 PM on the 25th, no matter how high-end the residential area where Zhou Yi stayed was, or how many more security guards were added, it would have been useless; they couldn't stop those reporters daring to play at sneaking in.

It had only been how long since he returned? According to the property management's report, the residential area's security personnel had already caught no fewer than five reporters who had unauthorizedly entered the compound to lie in wait for Zhou Yi to obtain first-hand interview materials.

"Disguise, climbing walls, sneaking in... these people are good; they've allocated their skill points well."

Zhou Yi, busy to the point his feet didn't touch the ground, flipped open the document handed to him by his assistant, glanced at it, and then leisurely strolled over to the sofa, plopping down.

"If you didn't hold this press conference, your home would probably become a tourist attraction for those paparazzi."

After waving away the life assistant specifically responsible for handling these daily trifles for Zhou Yi, Qian Jiang, who was also busy to the point his feet didn't touch the ground, loosened his tie, sat directly opposite the man, gulped down several mouthfuls of water, and then, as if realizing something, looked him up and down a few times: "How can you be so idle? Isn't anyone looking for you?"

Listening to small songs, eating watermelon, lying on the sofa, with the air conditioning on.

What a godly life.

Compared to himself, who had been as busy as a top spinning top since picking up the phone upon returning, Qian Jiang was puzzled: who exactly was the legendary artist?

"I said I'm preparing for the concert rehearsal; I have no time."

"..."

Qian Jiang wore an expression as if he had seen a ghost: "You're rehearsing?"

"Today's rehearsal is finished."

Zhou Yi, noncommittal, shrugged: "My concert doesn't have any dangerous live performance items; I don't even need to hang a single wire. Just wait until tomorrow for Yanzi to come over and rehearse the duet."

"Speaking of which, where is she? Hasn't she returned yet?"

"She returned long ago; Chen Zeshan has already started collecting songs for her new album."

Sitting on the sofa, twisting his waist, and finding a comfortable posture leaning against the backrest, Qian Jiang threw a proposal document into the man's lap—

"Leave (Líkāi)."

The highest theme of the album was to let Sun Yanzi herself leave the comfort zone of her first three albums, "Sun Yanzi," "I Want Happiness," and "Kite," break free from the past habitual thinking of "what Sun Yanzi is suitable to sing," and start exploring new musical possibilities with an attitude of "let's try."

In this proposal, Zhou Yi even saw several familiar names—

Besides Li Caishong and Li Weisong, the two brothers who were essential as Sun Yanzi's teachers, top lyricists Yi Jiayang and Yao Ruolong, and even Fang Wenshan, who had just completed his coronation and transformation at the Golden Melody Awards a few months ago, were all invited by Warner to write songs.

Regarding arrangement, besides the Li brothers and Bao Xiaosong, Zhou Yi even saw these two: Zhong Xingmin and Hong Jingyao.

The lineup was nothing if not luxurious.

"Chen Zeshan's meaning is to ask if you can let Yanzi sing a solo version of 'Good Time' to include, which would also be a surprise for the fans and serve as a sales floor."

While Zhou Yi was flipping through the proposal, Qian Jiang also voiced Chen Zeshan's request: "He had planned to put an English song in this album for Yanzi to sing; your 'Good Time' is so hot right now. When promoting, it will have a gimmick and a commercial performance floor."

"Additionally, if possible, Chen Zeshan still wants to ask you to help write two songs. He thinks Yanzi's idea for this album is too focused on musical diversity; even heavy rock styles have come in, so commercial performance might not be guaranteed."

If one asked who in the company right now whose words Sun Yanzi could completely listen to, it would probably only be Zhou Yi.

As a businessman who had struggled in the industry for quite a few years, may heaven bear witness, when Chen Zeshan saw the so-called rock, he almost directly killed the song "Understanding."

Helplessly, he simply couldn't go against Sun Yanzi, so he came begging to the company's "God of Commerce," Zhou Yi.

As everyone knows, Zhou Yi is currently the person in the Chinese music scene universally recognized as best able to balance an album's musicality and commerciality, without exception.

"I see it."

Zhou Yi, not knowing what he was thinking, couldn't help but hold a smile at the corner of his mouth: "I'll take this job."

Two hours later, Sun Yanzi, humming a song, knocked lightly on the door of Zhou Yi's lounge with a light step—

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Come in."

"Don't be lazy, don't be lazy; I'm here to supervise you again~"

Humming a rising and falling tone in her mouth, seeing Zhou Yi sitting before the coffee table spinning a pen as if thinking about something, Sun Yanzi, with her hands behind her back, cheerfully arrived by the man's side.

Zhou Yi, dissatisfied, glanced at her sideways: "Which eye of yours saw me being lazy?"

"The third eye."

Sun Yanzi, without a moment's hesitation, pointed to her forehead: "Haven't you heard of the Heavenly Eye? Have you heard of Erlang Shen?"

"What, is Erlang Shen your brother, Third Holy Mother?"

"I—"

Sun Yanzi, momentarily speechless, opened her mouth; her look of wanting to speak but holding back made Zhou Yi unable to hold back his laughter.

"Laugh at your head, laugh."

Mumbling that sentence, Sun Yanzi was full of contempt: "As soon as you return, all you know is to lie down; can't you learn from me? I work hard every single day. If it weren't for having to rehearse with you, I would have already flown to Malaysia to prepare for the final show of my tour."

"Guess if I believe it?"

"How could this be fake?"

"Pick the watermelon pulp off your teeth first before you talk to me about this."

—?!

I was careless!

Upon being spoken to like that, Sun Yanzi instinctively closed her mouth and used her tongue to clean her teeth; she searched for a long time but felt no so-called watermelon pulp whatsoever.

Realizing she had been tricked, she instinctively raised her gaze to look at Zhou Yi; the latter was clearly staring at her with mockery.

"... What are you writing? The speech draft for tomorrow night's press conference?"

Choosing to avoid this topic, Sun Yanzi bent her elbow and pressed it onto the man's right shoulder, peering curiously at the messy pile of papers on the coffee table—

Many lyrics with scribbles and a huge pile of gibberish that no one knew what was being written.

"Someone requested a new song from you?"

Glancing past the gibberish that only Zhou Yi could see, Sun Yanzi immediately spotted the neat lyrics and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow: "The fairy tale says there will be a rainbow after the rain?"

"Chen Zeshan, afraid your new album's commercial performance won't be good, asked me to help you secure a baseline."

Zhou Yi casually handed over this first-thought draft of the lyrics to Sun Yanzi, his tone carrying a bit of teasing.

"Between the Rainbow?"

With the concealment gone, the new song's title clearly reflected into Sun Yanzi's eyes.

However, after reading all the lyrics, she immediately associated them with the song "Fairy Tale" from Zhou Yi's third album; her expression instantly became somewhat strange: "Why did you turn the song into a TV series?"

PS: In the land of the living!

(End of this chapter)