Chapter 347: The Hundred Flavors of Life, All in Lianshan

If a look could strike someone, then Zhou Yi, smiling on stage right now, would have been beaten by the fans in the audience who had once shed tears and suffered for him until his limbs were broken and his five grains indistinguishable.

"Really? Are you sure?

"Do you know how many people every day cry themselves to sleep at night just because they listened to your song or watched your MV? I was moved to tears after watching 'Fairy Tale'—do you know that???"

Li Xiang, speaking with a slightly gritted-teeth tone, had become the mouthpiece for all of Zhou Yi's fans present, pretending to strike: "Now you tell me you were very happy when you wrote this song??? What is there to be happy about in this song, may I ask?"

"No choice. I have no other great virtues; I just love telling the truth."

Twisting his body to barely dodge Li Xiang's right hand as it swatted toward him, Zhou Yi, who had retreated a few steps, couldn't hold it in himself and burst out laughing into the microphone: "Besides, honesty and trustworthiness are traditional virtues, Sister Xiang. I am a very good child who respects traditional virtues."

"You? Traditional virtues? Ask the fans in the audience if they believe it?"

Li Xiang, who had improvised and failed to hit Zhou Yi, seeing the fan group below clearly growing restless and murmuring, turned the microphone toward the audience—

"Don't believe it!"

"Believe it!"

"Zhou Yi, you're lying again!"

"You cheated my tears! Refund the money!"

"..."

The rising and falling answers were enough to illustrate the degree of "division" within the fan group; Zhou Yi on stage wanted to speak but was choked back by the die-hard fans below chattering all at once, and he showed a certain helplessness regarding being "slandered."

"See that, Zhou Yi? If you don't explain this matter clearly to us today, you恐怕 won't get off the hook."

Smiling, Li Xiang took the topic back again, and in the push-and-pull, gave Zhou Yi another opportunity to promote the album to the fans—

"Actually, those familiar with me know that I am actually a very caring person."

The moment his tongue swept across the corner of his lips, Zhou Yi's smile, paired with his white suit, had a bit of a Prince Charming flavor, causing many screams: "The concept this entire album seeks to express led me to make this decision.

"I believe quite a few music fans have already noticed this point..."

The dissatisfaction in the hearts of the fans listening to Zhou Yi explain the album's concept on stage gradually dissipated step by step as time passed.

"As everyone knows, I took a stroll through the foreign music scene and achieved a tiny, insignificant little success."

Zhou Yi, gesturing with his fingertips, used a tone that was humble in name but actually showing off, which immediately caused a burst of laughter from the audience below— "This album was truly confirmed in direction and began production only after I returned from abroad; part of the inspiration came from what I saw and heard while abroad.

"I believe many people have been wondering why I put two completely different tones in this album. In fact, Side A of the album originates from some families I saw while abroad, the kind I witnessed with my own eyes.

"Side A of the album has five songs; the first four all originate from some situations I witnessed after going abroad once; the fifth song, 'Mom and Dad', was born after I synthesized my own family situation and that of the village children I grew up with.

"I believe many music fans will feel a strong sense of immersion when listening to 'Mom and Dad', because often, this is just the daily interaction of a traditional Chinese family."

One parent plays the red face, the other plays the white face.

"I have read many reviews from music critics and many netizens about this album of mine; some I think are very fun and impressive, capturing my intent;

"But some music critics, I can only feel they are talking nonsense."

At this point, Zhou Yi pretended to slap his mouth and laughed: "Sorry, I couldn't hold it back; I told the truth again."

Amidst the laughter and heckling from below, Zhang Jie, invited as both a "music critic" and a fan, immediately became fully alert—

"Actually, in this album of mine, the core is not just one song, but two—'Can You Feel My World' and 'Mom and Dad', two songs about family education. This is also why I placed these two songs at the very beginning and end of Side A.

"Family education determines whether a child's psychology will be healthy from a young age, and only then come the various experiences in society. When everyone is still a child, whether in thought or psychology, they are a blank slate; what they grow into in the future, family factors rank first, and social factors rank second.

"'Can You Feel My World' can connect with 'Ghost', 'Assassin', and 'In the Name of the Father', and can also form a contrast group with 'Mom and Dad'. Even if you look at it in reverse, this song about family pressure can serve as a conceptual supplement to 'Mom and Dad'..."

As Zhou Yi's words fell, the large screen at the Huanben venue immediately began playing in reverse order—

Starting with the hidden track 'Fireworks Cool Easily': Chen Hao, playing the role of 'Good', and Zhou Yi met on the film set; they went from polite strangers to physical contact after becoming familiar, bringing out the story of 'Fireworks Cool Easily' and also bringing out Zhou Yi's deceased ex-girlfriend, Sun Yanzi.

Immediately following was Zhou Yi's heart-wrenching grief after losing his girlfriend Sun Yanzi, shown from a reverse perspective: 'Mr. Lonely'.

So, why was he so heartbroken back then?

'Today You Marry Me' and 'Little Dimples' gave the answer.

Then 'Cheers' appeared, explaining when their romance began—during their student days.

Afterwards, it retreated to Side A, where 'Mom and Dad' interpreted the reason Zhou Yi was able to walk out of the psychological shadow—emphasizing the importance of family influence.

At the same time, the television set flickering with snow in 'Mom and Dad' happened to be playing a clip from 'In the Name of the Father'—

Using cinematic montage transitions, the perspective moved into 'In the Name of the Father', letting the audience witness the rise of a Mafia godfather.

Reverse again—'Assassin', 'Ghost', 'Can You Feel My World'.

"Whether you listen from Side A to Side B, or from Side B to Side A, the concept of this album will not change in any way, nor will any incompleteness appear. Even if you shuffle the song order of Side A and Side B, you can still derive everything from the two songs 'Can You Feel My World' and 'Mom and Dad'.

"For example—

"If the Zhou Yi in 'Can You Feel My World' is the Zhou Yi in 'Mom and Dad', then under the condition of good family education, the tragedies appearing in Side A could be attributed to the social influence depicted in the song 'Ghost'?

"And if the Zhou Yi in 'Can You Feel My World' were switched to Side B, would he then 'Cheers' for the friendship of classmates? Would he be healed of childhood emotional trauma by the beloved woman with 'Little Dimples', singing 'Today You Marry Me' as he enters the marriage hall?

"Even if he subsequently suffered the shock of his beloved woman's death, his psychology showed no signs of collapse. Because the negative family influences he encountered in his youth had been healed by the social influences he encountered in adulthood, so after walking out of the shadow, he could still film 'Fireworks Cool Easily' and still meet Chen Hao."

Family and society, combined with each other containing the other.

Able to be taken out separately to tell one concept, or to connect the past and present to combine into four concepts—

A poor family environment meeting a bad social environment leads to total corruption;

A poor family environment meeting a good social environment leads to being healed by others.

A normal family environment meeting a bad social environment leads to forced corruption;

A normal family environment meeting a good social environment leads to a happy life.

"Family and society, the hundred flavors of life.

"This is also the reason I named this album 'Lianshan'—

"Because the ancient book 'Lianshan' uses the ancients' ontology and empiricism regarding the objective world to define the natural laws of the development of all things, and systematically rules and argues the social human behaviors based on people."

When Zhou Yi spoke to this point, the large screen at the Huanben venue immediately flashed a Xinhua Bookstore edition of the ancient book 'Lianshan'; on the title page was exactly the definition of 'Lianshan', which, combined with Zhou Yi's ringing words, caused thunderous applause from the entire audience!

"Zhou Yi is awesome!!!"

A guy wearing glasses stood directly on his seat, cupping his hands around his mouth like a megaphone: "I love you!!!"

(End of this chapter)