Chapter 334: The Year of the Gods' Decline

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi, may I ask, as a law student, could you evaluate from your professional perspective what the final outcome of this case might be?"

"Zhou Yi, it is rumored that Rayson Ng invited Wang Jing to reach an unspoken deal with you. Is this true?"

"Zhou Yi, will the market failure of A-Mei's album have any impact on you?"

"Zhou Yi..."

September 8th, Sunday.

After the recording of the "Lianshan" album was completed and stock began being prepared for various channels, Zhou Yi, who had gradually increased his exposure, finally appeared frequently at various events and radio program live broadcasts to accept interviews amidst the clamor of gongs, drums, firecrackers, and cheers from his fans.

Because it happened to coincide with the court opening of the Xie Tingfeng incident, most of the news surrounding Zhou Yi, besides his new album, was also related to Xie Tingfeng.

However, contrary to the expectations of many thrill-seekers, Zhou Yi, who usually does not let a point go without a fight, showed extraordinary generosity when facing this tailwind situation sent by heaven—

"Do not comment before knowing the full picture."

These eight big characters directly encompassed his attitude at this moment.

The Emperor Public Relations Department, which had been monitoring public opinion since the lawsuit opened, immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

If Zhou Yi also joined in to crush him, then Xie Tingfeng would truly be unable to play; cleaning up the public opinion would be very difficult, after all, in this current era, it was not yet the time when the general public's moral requirements for the entertainment industry were constantly lowering.

Even for someone as strong as Zhou Yi himself, his negative news mostly concentrated on continuous arrogance, intermittent disdain for others, and a chaotic private life.

These all belong to minor details; under his existing halo, they are at a level acceptable to most passersby.

The unscrupulous media, who expected him to crush Xie Tingfeng to death just as he did with others, were severely disappointed.

Damn it, your new album is being released in a month; do you not want the heat anymore?

Won't Warner use this heat?

Fine, if you won't come, we will do it ourselves!

The bold die full, the timid die hungry. To chase hot spots, many Hong Kong and Taiwan newspapers came up with a hundred tricks, exhausting their minds to have it both ways, avoiding being dragged to death by Zhou Yi suing them for spreading rumors.

Some tabloids planning to make a quick buck and run even wrote outrageous statements like "Wang Fei and Xie Tingfeng broke up because Xie Tingfeng gave her to Zhou Yi to exchange for public opinion support chips," and solemnly cited Zhou Yi's previous concert as an example—

At the "Star" concert at the Beijing Workers' Stadium, the camera once captured Wang Fei, who came to watch Zhou Yi's concert accompanied by Na Ying, A-Mei, and others.

"This, is ironclad evidence!"

On forums like Tianya and Mop, there were even trolls who created IDs purely to stir up trouble based on these rumors—classic examples like "Zhou Yi ruthlessly beats Wang Fei" or "Zhou Yi ruthlessly beats Zhang Baizhi."

Quoting classics, speaking off the cuff.

Furthermore, an unknown person with the ID "Brother Chi" started writing gossip about these people on Mop—

Things like "Zhang and Wang's soft bodies make one feel pity; their smooth, soft arms draped over Zhou Yi's shoulders, rubbing against his tough muscles. This dialogue between hardness and softness ultimately ended with softness overcoming hardness..."

Relying on outstanding erotic talent, it directly sparked a large number of follow-up posts.

Even Zhou Yi himself, while surfing the melon-eating internet, watched with great interest; with such writing skills, it was a pity he didn't write about Little Liu Bei.

It was just that the reporting mechanisms of the internet's barbaric era were not yet so perfect; otherwise, the report button on "Brother Chi's" post would have been pressed into smoking by the fans of Zhou Yi, Xie Tingfeng, Wang Fei, and Zhang Baizhi from all four sides.

"Let me clarify, I went to Zhou Yi's concert simply because I was accompanying Na Ying and A-Mei. They are all with Warner; it is normal for them to support Zhou Yi when he holds a concert. Coincidentally, I was also in Beijing with nothing to do at the time, so Na Ying took me there to relax."

Wang Fei, who had not yet faded from the music scene, was already at the center of the storm due to her ex-boyfriend incident; suddenly being slandered, she directly publicly fought back and sent many newspapers to court. However, all the print media capable of doing this were prepared, dragged it out to make a profit, and then simply stopped playing.

Zhou Yi, who did nothing, inexplicably freerided a huge wave of heat from this couple.

"It has to be Zhou Yi; in the days without him in the music scene, there really is a lack of fun. Everyone is harmonious, only Zhou Yi can create some drama every time he comes out."

"Is Warner's marketing a bit excessive?"

"Excessive my foot; Warner is currently so busy with its head on fire cleaning up the mess of A-Mei's poor album performance that it has no time to deal with these newspapers and forums. Anyway, Zhou Yi has more than one scandal; adding Wang Fei and Zhang Baizhi doesn't matter."

"F*** your mother!!!" This was a die-hard Wang Fei fan.

"..."

The commotion on the domestic internet regarding Zhou Yi during this period somewhat diverted the heat from Xie Tingfeng, which was somewhat unexpected by everyone at Emperor. However, this time, even Wang Fei's fans, who were known for their formidable combat power, were a bit afraid to touch Zhou Yi—

After all, under the current situation, no one in the country dared to actively tear him apart. After walking around the international stage, his status was too high; the commercial value and coolness that Wang Fei's fans loved to brag about were almost a total defeat in front of Zhou Yi.

As for the previous generation of Heavenly Kings—

Richie Ren, the absolute popularity king of the late nineties and the number one guy at Rock Records, completely fell into a slump this year; his new album "A Richie Ren," released on September 6th, basically didn't bubble up among the general public, belonging to the category of an album visible only to fans.

In the previous two years, he at least had one or two well-known hits that could fight with Zhou Yi on the music charts; this year, Richie Ren looked completely exhausted, not even as good as Andy Lau's single "Practice."

Another major general under Rock Records, Zhang Zhenyue, released a new album "Wait for Me One Day," but the market response was still not as expected.

Leon Lai, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, also released a new album "Homework" in September, but the market treatment was similar to Richie Ren's, attracting very few casual listeners.

Plus, the diva A-Mei under Warner, who just suffered a door-opening black, and even Wang Fei, who switched to a new label this year, released a greatest hits album that was criticized for only changing the skin to make money—

As if possessed by a strange sense of mission, the singers who once dominated the scene in the nineties all completely descended from the altar this year, as if announcing the end of an era.

Among the older generation of singers, besides Andy Lau, only Harlin Yu, who revived last year thanks to "Meteor Garden," managed to submit a passable report card this year: the song "Spring Mud" in his new album "Harlin's Heaven" allowed him to maintain his heat, not falling into the dust.

The mainland's number one music magazine "Contemporary Music Scene" even specially released a special issue targeting this phenomenon—

"2002, The Year of the Decline of the Former True Gods of the Mandarin Music Scene."

Whether it was Zhou Yi, F4, Jay Chou, Tao Zhe, Wang Lihong, A-Du, or among the female singers: Sun, Xiao, Liang, Zhang, S. H. E, Dai Peini, Twins, and so on.

Except for Tao Zhe debuting early, the rest were all new generation singers debuting around the first two years of the century.

However, in Taiwan right now, the singer with the highest heat and popularity was Zhang Weijian, who continued to be extremely popular thanks to "The Monkey King Sun Wukong"...

This man, who once shaved his head bald to bet on a breath of anger, is now glorious across both sides of the strait and the three regions, regarded as the number one person in television dramas.

"Fortunately, Zhang Weijian's same-named album 'The Monkey King Sun Wukong' did not make any waves this time; people are more willing to accept him as an actor rather than as a singer, so it won't affect you as much as F4 did last year."

Qian Jiang, who received the market research results, breathed a sigh of relief.

It is undeniable that Zhang Weijian indeed has some skills in singing; his vocal ability is at least stronger than Xie Tingfeng's, but the record market does not recognize him, unlike F4.

(End of Chapter)