Chapter 337: Heartache for Sister

It wasn't just Sun Nan who felt his heart grow cold.

Or rather, it wasn't just Sun Nan who was paying attention to Zhou Yi's new song chart performance.

A-Du, Li Shengjie, and even Yang Kun, who exploded in popularity with "No Matter What," all chose to stare speechlessly at the sky after seeing the fresh results in their hands.

Even though everyone had mentally prepared themselves beforehand, the fact that he directly airdropped to the number one spot still dealt them a crushing psychological blow.

The position they had climbed to only after working themselves to death for one or two months, or even several months, was nothing more than a small steep slope that this man could easily walk up in a single day—

Oh no, perhaps for Zhou Yi, winning a Capital City Radio Chart championship wasn't even a steep slope; it was as simple as eating and drinking.

For the current Zhou Yi, the only things that could be considered difficult and challenging were probably dominating the entire nation within two weeks.

There was no way around it; China was too big, with medium and large radio stations in every province, city, and subordinate district and county as numerous as cow hairs, and there were always places Warner couldn't cover.

"But that doesn't matter; dominating the Capital City Radio Chart board within a single day can already be called an unprecedented miracle. No one has ever done this before you!"

Qian Jiang, extremely excited, spoke without stopping: "Stabilize this heat; as long as we stabilize this result, even if you market yourself as having stepped on Deng Lijun in the future, it won't be a problem."

Zhou Yi's songs have only just gone online for charting; being able to achieve this result is largely due to his fan base and the heat generated during his recent business activities.

A-Mei's failed album "Fever" had also looked very good in terms of results generated by the fan base before the songs started charting, giving Warner the illusion that the results would be good—

But the subsequent heat and reputation couldn't keep up, directly causing the album sales to crash and collapse after release, leaving everyone at Warner completely stunned.

Chen Ze Shan, who insisted on bringing in A-Mei to form the Queen's Palace, tried every hardship to save the sales and reputation, but it was useless; if the market doesn't accept it, it doesn't accept it, and now he is so worried he can't even sleep well.

Qian Jiang saw all this, so naturally he suppressed the urge to pop champagne halfway through.

If we are going to pop it, we must do so steadily!

"That Xiao Zhang, go get the bottle of champagne from my office; Xiao Wang, go set up the celebration decorations; Xiao Zhao..."

Zhou Yi, cracking melon seeds, watched Qian Jiang, who was saying "no, no" with his mouth but was very honestly busy setting up everywhere, spat out the seed shells with a smile, and bumped his shoulder against Sun Yanzi beside him: "See? This is steadiness; learn from it, and stop being so noisy all day long."

"I can't be noisy even if I wanted to now."

It was clearly a happy day, but Sun Yanzi, whose expression carried a hint of bitterness no matter what, stuffed a fresh, unreleased "Lianshan" album into her bag—

Glancing left and right at the Zhou Yi team members who were gradually leaving after being ordered around by Qian Jiang, she scratched her head in frustration when only the two of them remained in the lounge: "Do you know how much pressure I'm under? Chen Ze Shan is watching me right now."

"Aren't you always watched by him?" Zhou Yi, feeling a bit dry from eating too many melon seeds, picked up a cup and drank some water, asking in confusion.

"That's different; last year, when A-Mei's album didn't flop, although he was watching me, he still gave me a lot of freedom of movement."

Sun Yanzi, feeling her life for the next few months was about to turn dark, covered her face with both hands and fell straight onto the orange sofa where her handbag was placed, the bag landing exactly under her knee: "But this year is different; Sister A-Mei failed, Sister Li Yijie's album schedule isn't that soon, so only I am left."

"I can't play anymore, Zhou Yi, save me..."

Sun Yanzi, with a pitiful pout, reached out a hand for help to the man, but her full expectations shattered with the crisp sound of the man slapping her hand back—

"It's what should be done; I'm busy, so how can you run?"

With the improper mindset of "seeing you work overtime makes me feel better," Zhou Yi, unable to bear Sun Yanzi's leisurely attitude, slapped that hand, which was almost extended to his face, back with one palm, speaking with such unshakable confidence that he had no right to be.

Sun Yanzi immediately gnashed her teeth in anger, her expression so fierce she wished she could bite him right then and there.

"You call this busy? If you're busy, do you still have time to crack melon seeds?"

"Four days, seven appointments coming up; are you going to rush me?"

Zhou Yi, sitting calmly in his chair, glanced at her sideways, and Sun Yanzi immediately shut her mouth and said nothing.

In an era where information spread still relied heavily on traditional media, even if Zhou Yi was now a big shot with immense popularity, promoting an album still required him to go into programs and run offline promotions with real swords and guns.

"It just so happens that I still have a concert; the concert itself is a channel for promotion; otherwise, the number of appointments Qian Jiang arranged would have to be even higher."

After finishing the melon seeds, Zhou Yi clapped his palms, crossed his ten fingers behind his head, leaned back, and sighed.

"Every time we hold a concert in a new city, it will stimulate the growth of my album sales."

Warner stretched his concert schedule very long, even extending into next year, considering that after the album's heat period passed, the heat from the concerts could still be used to push sales further up.

Sun Yanzi, who went silent whenever work was discussed, silently lowered her head, secretly reached out to grab a sugar orange from the fruit plate, and broke it open to stuff her mouth—

"Do you want to eat?"

"No."

The next day, Shenzhen, a certain convention center, the scene of Elva Hsiao's new album signing event.

Elva Hsiao, who came to the mainland to promote her new album "4U," had slightly disordered breathing after singing and dancing five songs in a row; after taking a few sips of water, she refused the throat lozenges handed to her by her manager: "My throat condition is still okay; how is the situation?"

"Not bad; I estimate that after running around for today and tomorrow, your album sales in this area of Shenzhen can increase by another thirty to forty thousand copies."

The manager, talking about the situation at the signing event, smiled brilliantly.

"That's not bad."

Elva Hsiao's face also showed a satisfied smile.

Since releasing her album in July, she had basically been running all over the country starting from Taiwan to promote, without a moment's rest; even when Cai Yilin, with Sony's help, forcibly tied her popularity to hers, she didn't have much time to pay attention—

Making money is the only hard truth.

Only when Fish Leong also entered the fray under Rock Records' management did Elva Hsiao belatedly smell something wrong with this storm; but upon looking, she found that the two of them tied together were just so-so.

Fish Leong and she were not even on the same track, and Fish Leong's album sales had always been lower than hers. Cai Yilin had only released one song, "Knight Spirit," and even in terms of popularity, she posed no threat to her.

Although all three debuted in the same period, if we talk about album sales, even in the year without Zhou Yi's support, she could beat both of them together.

"However, there seems to be some public opinion on the internet targeting you and Zhou Yi; it's currently unclear whether it's good or bad; do you want to call Zhou Yi and ask?"

"On the internet?"

Elva Hsiao, who had also started paying attention to internet trends under Zhou Yi's influence, slowly typed out a question mark—

Looking at the summary again, she immediately felt a mix of helplessness and amusement.

As everyone knows, although the relationship between Elva Hsiao and Sun Yanzi was decent, the fans of the two sides fought fiercely over the status of "New Generation Number One Sister."

Since both of their albums had Zhou Yi's participation after the millennium, when these fans fought each other, they tacitly ignored Zhou Yi and then—discovered that Elva Hsiao's total sales were undoubtedly more advantageous.

Sun Yanzi's fans, who were at a disadvantage in this area, immediately started talking about the Golden Melody Award nominations.

Originally, it was always "the husband says the husband is right, the wife says the wife is right," until Zhou Yi's new song started charting, and the Gemini fans within Sun Yanzi's fan group suddenly got excited.

"Look at the songs Zhou Yi wrote for Elva Hsiao; the two of them are the ones who broke up!"

"Setting aside that 'Pirates' reveals nothing of note, 'Prague Square' has absolutely nothing to do with Prague; the two of them never even went there, only feeding white doves by a wishing fountain in a square over in Monaco."

"After that came 'No Crime in Falling in Love' and 'Give Me a Reason to Forget'—doesn't that prove exactly that they are the ones who broke up?"

"That makes sense. Look at these two duets by the Twin Stars: 'Little Wine Dimples' and 'Today You Marry Me.' The sweetness is already overflowing from between the lines of the lyrics."

"Eleven is getting married and plans to use Zhou Yi's new song; 'Today You Marry Me' is too perfect for a wedding!"

"Huzzah, this settles it once and for all. Zhou Yi is openly confessing in the song. Dancer fans, don't come trying to claim connection!!!"

"Both of these pre-release chart-toppers are so sweet; I dare not imagine how sweet Zhou Yi's album will make people feel. I've heard that when artists fall in love, inspiration pours out by the basketful. Zhou Yi's 'Lianshan' is probably going to be sickeningly sweet."

"..."

As time passed and the reputations of 'Little Wine Dimples' and 'Today You Marry Me' began to ferment, Elva Hsiao's four songs were directly interpreted as breakup songs.

Even in Taiwan, where the CP fans of both sides were evenly split, the supporters of the Twin Stars gained the upper hand at this moment.

Elva Hsiao inexplicably gained a batch of 'heartache fans.'

Elva Hsiao's male fans who disliked Zhou Yi as a person were celebrating the Lunar New Year with great joy—besides constantly typing 'Poor sister (younger sister) met a scumbag' on their keyboards, they also intensified their efforts to buy albums and recommend her.

"The strongest Mandarin singing and dancing female singer after Li Wen, get to know her."

"Sexy yet artistic, never selling misery or hard work, focusing steadily on her career—Elva Hsiao deserves it!"

"Stay away from Zhou Yi, the scumbag!"

What surprised Virgin even more was that many female fans who disliked Zhou Yi having a girlfriend actually chose to cheer for Elva Hsiao after her 'breakup,' with reasons such as 'Since you left Zhou Yi, we are no longer enemies' or 'Sun Yanzi is now our common enemy.'

As a top-tier male star who is tall and handsome with a verifiable educational background, Zhou Yi's wife fans have always been a huge group.

This group buys albums, but they are actually quite uninterested in female stars who get close to Zhou Yi, even to the point of being displeased.

However, since Zhou Yi debuted, he never created a template like a Prince Charming or a dream lover like Wang Lihong did; they were simply attracted by Zhou Yi's albums, then sank into his genuine, interesting personality and excellent looks and figure.

He became famous at the start of his career through rumors with Elva Hsiao; he never claimed to be some kind of virtuous man from the beginning. Female fans who like him simply chose to take the bait; what can be blamed?

(End of Chapter)