Chapter 344: Born with Natural Wealth

"The Mandarin music scene, welcome your King!"

The moment the first-week sales figures were announced, Zhou Yi's fans who loved to jump around no longer faced the embarrassment of potentially being proven wrong.

You have to understand that, up until this National Day holiday, even the total sales of the best-selling current album by A-Du were barely over seven hundred thousand, and that was the result of Butterfly Media going all out on marketing and running promotional appearances for him.

Even so, A-Du was often questioned by some about inflated sales, with suspicions that Butterfly Media had bought them to boost his fame through marketing.

After all, in the current climate where the physical record market gets worse year by year, even if a new singer's songs are incredibly popular, it's hard to say their album will sell out.

It's no longer the turn of the century from the late last century.

Moreover, popular songs don't necessarily mean the album will sell massively—Liang Jingru's 2000 album "Courage" is the best proof of that.

The Waterloo that many industry insiders had hoped to see for Zhou Yi ultimately did not appear; this man's performance in this year's overall more sluggish record market remained as strong as in previous years!

And in the face of such powerful sales figures, many rival fans who had jumped all over him could only swallow their anger—

They can't win by comparing awards, and they get utterly crushed when comparing sales.

Then they can only rely on seniority to compare.

After all, the main audience demographic is still teenagers and young adults.

"I can't control others, but during the era when the Four Heavenly Kings were active, your Zhou Yi was still a brat; watch your mouth and show some respect!"

"You even take on Wakin Chau? He's a well-known, kind-hearted senior that even paparazzi don't want to follow; aren't you guys being as annoying as locusts?"

"Every generation has its own idols; when Richie Ren was awesome, your idol Zhou Yi hadn't even grown his hair yet!"

"Liu Ruoying spoke up for your Zhou Yi back in 2000; don't go too far, she has just shifted her focus to film and television dramas now."

"..."

Two top-tier stars from consecutive generations of the same peer group: one, Xie Tingfeng, is now waiting in court for his verdict; the other, F4, is being mocked as a bunch of losers and illiterates due to the "Three Sticks in the Backstage" incident at the Golden Melody Awards—

Nowadays, their fans are basically completely defeated in direct confrontations with Zhou Yi's fans, having no resistance whatsoever; when subjected to cross-regional enforcement, they can only choose to ignore it, change the subject, or join the fray to help fans of other seniors fight against the locust-like swarm of Zhou Yi's fans.

"So what if he's a brat? I could say that if Zhou Yi had been born ten or twenty years earlier, the Four Heavenly Kings would have been beaten into submission, and Teresa Teng would have been beaten until she was howling."

"Wakin Chau only managed to avoid scandals by currying favor with paparazzi; our Zhou Yi is called authentic, not engaging in empty flattery."

"Richie Ren's era wasn't that far from Zhou Yi's rise; wasn't his era ended by Zhou Yi?"

"Liu Ruoying, get lost; you're no good at singing, but you're an expert at being the third party in a relationship."

"..."

Some even called in reinforcements, bringing out Teresa Teng, that ancient true god of the Mandarin-speaking region.

Both sides argued that their own side was right, fighting fiercely, with nothing left but to arrange a real-life fight or a PK.

A fan war, vaguely possessing seventy to eighty percent of the power of the peak era of Hong Kong music, made Emperor Entertainment's boss, Albert Yeung, feel heartbroken and distressed—

Originally, according to his plan, Xie Tingfeng was the one to be pushed out to fight Zhou Yi, the two forming the new generation's twin kings of the Mandarin music scene to jointly harvest fans and trophies, expanding their influence.

But just as Zhou Yi was getting started, he reaped the benefits of the opposition, securing a sky-high endorsement deal with Coca-Cola in one fell swoop, while Xie Tingfeng now gets nothing and instead has to go sing "tears behind iron bars"—

He's lost completely.

"Zhou Yi really is, his luck is simply too good; he has a destiny of natural wealth."

Since Xie Tingfeng himself caused the trouble, even if Albert Yeung wanted to accuse Zhou Yi of not cooperating, he couldn't; in fact, he no longer has the face to push the "Twin Wonders" marketing campaign now, as the person is about to go to prison, so what pride is there to speak of?

"Just as he was breaking into the Western music scene, he happened to encounter Jackie Chan's globally explosive movie 'Rush Hour 2'; although a single song didn't win the Billboard chart, it rode the wind of Jackie Chan's movie to make a name for himself globally;

"The World Cup wasn't supposed to have anything to do with him, but coincidentally, the football associations of Japan and South Korea clashed, and the South Korean Football Association shamelessly rigged the results, allowing him to snatch a lucky break and once again make a huge splash in front of the whole world.

"Although the English version of 'Victory' only ranked seventieth-something on the Billboard chart, at the very least, Zhou Yi's influence and fame were further expanded by leveraging the World Cup, the world's number one sports event, which led to the stunning success of his English special 'Attitude Show' that followed.

"Since his debut, it's been smooth sailing; he has never tasted a day of hardship or experienced a single setback. Every key node was like making choices with God's eye view, taking all the benefits and avoiding all risks.

"To be honest, I didn't believe in fate before, but now my heart is truly wavering; there was a reason why the White Dragon King fled back to Thailand overnight by plane back then..."

On the forum, the ID "Brother Chi," who had once written about the details of Zhou Yi's private interactions with female stars, posted again, tallying up the various things Zhou Yi encountered on his journey: "Zhou Yi: The Huo Qubing of the Modern Mandarin Music Scene, Born with Natural Wealth"

"As everyone knows, General Huo Qubing of the Han Dynasty was born with natural wealth; no matter how he fought, he won, achieving the highest honor sought by military generals of subsequent dynasties at a young age—sealing the Wolf Mountain and becoming the Marquis of Champion, creating history.

"Zhou Yi is also very young, and similarly, no matter how he fights in the music scene, he wins.

"From his debut until now, his opponents have changed from Liu Ruoying and Xie Tingfeng in 2000, to F4 in 2001, to A-Du in 2002; every year his opponents change, the only thing that remains unchanged is that he is always there.

"Furthermore, General Huo Qubing fought opponents in several expeditions until they dropped their armor and shields, directly sealing the Wolf Mountain; Zhou Yi also went overseas several times, fighting the Western music scene until they dropped their armor and shields, watering their horses in the Pacific Ocean!"

Such shameless flattery, even someone as thick-skinned as Zhou Yi himself would feel a bit embarrassed seeing it, so he decisively told Qian Jiang to remove this ID account from the lawsuit list.

Look at that wording, "watering horses in the Pacific Ocean," sounds awesome, obviously not a paid professional hater.

"Zhou Yi is awesome!"

"To be honest, it really is similar; Zhou Yi also seems like a favored son of heaven who appeared out of nowhere; musical wars are wars too, just hope Zhou Yi doesn't have a short life like Huo Qubing..."

"Hiss, if he has a short life, wouldn't he be able to appear on that news broadcast?"

"Pah, pah, pah!"

"Cultured people bragging is different; anyway, the 49 yuan for this album by Zhou Yi was worth it, plus an extra song was given for free; conscience! Compared to those bragging Four Heavenly Kings, Heavenly King Killers, and Heavenly Queens, I don't know where their conscience went."

"Indeed, the version I bought for over a hundred came with a VCD, a 90-minute music film called 'In the Name of the Father,' it was so satisfying to watch! I paid that money willingly; the only regret is that this damn thing didn't give a good ending in the MV."

"???"

"Where did the extra free song come from?"

"..."

Under Brother Chi's post, which was originally just discussing whether Zhou Yi was the Huo Qubing of the modern music scene, it was directly skewed by a commenter to the hidden track.

Hidden tracks on albums are usually surprises singers slip in for their fans, but in the past Mandarin music scene, singers willing to do this were few, even scarce as giant pandas.

One by one, the Heavenly Kings and Queens spoke nicely about caring for fans, but in reality, they were too busy releasing greatest hits albums to make money; who would bother with such empty nonsense as hidden songs?

This resulted in a large number of people turning off the TV (or cassette player) after listening to the final visible track "Mr. Lonely," completely unaware that they just needed to wait eleven seconds to hear a hidden surprise.

The fan base spread the word from one to ten and ten to a hundred; due to Zhou Yi's "strange" move, the Easter egg "Fireworks Cool Easily" actually became a driving force promoting more album purchases in the short term—

Because the radio stations hadn't lifted the ban on this song yet!

Can't request it, so you have to buy the album...

Even the ID "Brother Chi" gained a bit of fame, and his article comparing him to Huo Qubing sparked heated discussion—

They debated whether, if Zhou Yi had died at his peak just like the Marquis of Champion Hou, he would have been deified, with no criticism at all, perhaps even getting his own page in the family tree...

(End of this chapter)