Chapter 355: Zhou Yi's Six Great Virtues

"Tomorrow Today" is included in Chen Yixun's Cantonese album "The Line-Up," released on July 24 this year. Upon launch, it quickly climbed to the top of the charts in Hong Kong and the Guangdong region, solidifying his status as a top-tier Cantonese singer.

For audiences outside the Cantonese-speaking region, they might be more familiar with the Mandarin version released in 2003, with new lyrics titled "Ten Years."

"Chen Yixun's performance this year has been fierce. Whether in the Mandarin market or the Cantonese market, barring any unexpected events, next year's major Hong Kong award ceremonies will be his harvest season."

Qian Jiang was not blindly confident; instead, he began analyzing this roadblock in the Hong Kong music scene for Zhou Yi—

This year can be said to be the year Chen Yixun crazily elevated his status and popularity.

In April, he released a Mandarin album "Special Thanks To," where the songs "Thank You" and "Your Backpack" successfully helped him break into the massive mainland market. Combined with the dominating performance of "Tomorrow Today" in the Cantonese region, he can fully be said to represent the face of Hong Kong circle singers in '02.

At least up to now, whether it is Yu Wenle, who was expected by the outside world, or Chen Guanxi, the albums they produced were actually very unsatisfactory, leaving them to be beaten up by Chen Yixun alone.

Especially Chen Guanxi.

As the good brother of former music scene top star Xie Tingfeng, Chen Guanxi, who intentionally or unintentionally bundled himself with Xie Tingfeng in marketing during the latter's peak years a few years ago, also ate his fill of popularity. Xie Tingfeng himself did not mind these things; on the contrary, he was happy to give his good brother news column space every now and then.

Driven by manager Gan Jingjing, Chen Guanxi adopted the persona of a new-generation little king, yet his albums declined in quality year after year.

In the year he debuted, to build momentum for Chen Guanxi, Ying Huang actually marketed a Best Newcomer Sales Award for him to win. Chen Guanxi, walking the rogue-handsome route, had every intention of overtaking Xie Tingfeng on a curve—then there was no then.

This year, after Xie Tingfeng got into trouble, Ying Huang, in disappointment, urgently piled resources onto Chen Guanxi, Chen Yixun, Twins, and Rong Zu'er. The result was that the only one who failed was Chen Guanxi—

On August 29, his new album "Transition," which he claimed had been in preparation for a long time, was released, but it failed to stir up even a drop of water.

The only lyrics from this album that will be passed down in the future are the first two lines of the title track "I Never Told You": "Remember the summer of 2000, lying on the beach chatting together..." It only gained some circulation on the future mobile internet thanks to Zhou Jielun's "quirky cover."

As for Wang Jie, who is currently having a falling out with Ying Huang, his new album "Love and Dreams" released in July directly caused him to completely lose his past glory, and he was stepped on by Chen Yixun to take his place.

"And there are Xie Tingfeng's fans. This is their territory after all; you need to be careful when you go out."

In the end, Qian Jiang solemnly added a reminder.

Hearing this for the first time, Zhou Yi was extremely surprised: "Be careful? Can they even hit me?"

"You might have some misunderstanding about the celebrity-crazy fans here in Hong Kong."

Qian Jiang smacked his lips a few times and told a story that made his own mouth unable to close: "You didn't attend the Top Ten Gold Songs Awards last year, which was 2001, so it's normal not to know. That day, Sammi Cheng's crazy fans and Chen Huiling's crazy fans fought right on the road outside the award venue, staging a full-scale brawl, and the scene seriously got out of control.

"Sammi Cheng herself was even attacked with a stick by Chen Huiling's crazy fans, while Chen Huiling was beaten on the head by Sammi Cheng's crazy fans..."

"... Awesome."

Zhou Yi was instantly silenced, and only after a long while did he spit out an evaluation, walking out of the room while giving a thumbs up.

Sammi Cheng is a legitimate Warner Music Queen; Chen Huiling, due to her prominent family background and power, is nicknamed Princess Lin in the Hong Kong circle.

Even the security for these two groups couldn't control the situation on the spot, and it even led to the artists themselves being attacked; one can imagine how out of control the scene was that day.

"Xie Tingfeng wasn't sent in by me; his fans shouldn't hold a grudge against me to this extent, right?"

"Hard to say. Your fans are too arrogant; there's no excluding that someone might use this as an excuse to make a fuss."

Raising his right thumb and pointing backward at the five black SUVs following the car, Qian Jiang said with schadenfreude: "These are the security reinforcements assigned for you. Fans follow their idols. Since you are so arrogant, your fans are naturally the same, riding faces and stepping on people everywhere, offending quite a few people."

"Get lost."

Zhou Yi disdainfully curled his lips.

"Exactly, exactly, get lost!"

Inside True Light Girls' College.

Deng Shiyin, muttering curses, passionately opened her mic to the fans of Xie Tingfeng, Chen Guanxi, and Chen Yixun from the neighboring class who had dirty mouths: "Zhou Yi, a person with such traditional virtues, is actually described as having no merits at all in your mouths?"

"Where did he like to cause trouble? Blind!"

"???"

"???"

Do you want to listen to what you are saying???

"Deng Shiyin, are you awake?"

???

"I am very awake, thank you."

"Eh?! Shi Yi, forget it, forget it..."

As the number one fan leader of Zhou Yi in the school, if it weren't for other classmates around her holding her back, Deng Shiyin would have gone up and exchanged a few moves with the opposite side.

Afterwards, while Deng Shiyin was checking materials during a self-study period in the computer room, she got angrier and angrier the more she thought about it. She simply used the school's internet to surf the web, detailedly listed Zhou Yi's five great virtues, and called on like-minded people to stop being silent and use practical actions to help Zhou Yi slap those people's faces!

"Too many Hong Kong young people and middle-aged or elderly people have misunderstandings about Zhou Yi. He is simply not a person who likes to cause trouble. On the contrary, he is the man who possesses the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation.

"For example, first: Humility—

"Zhou Yi never actively provokes any seniors. When facing true old veterans, he has always been extremely humble. Haven't you seen the evaluations of Lo Ta-yu, Li Zongsheng, and Chen Long on Zhou Yi?

"Among singers of the same generation, hasn't he always expressed his appreciation for the music of Zhou Jielun, Wang Lihong, and others?

"Many people say he is arrogant and overbearing, young and impetuous. But that is merely because he said what he should have said and did what he should have done. The Qing Dynasty has been destroyed for who knows how many years, yet some people still haven't cut off their queues!

"Besides humility, Zhou Yi is also very friendly. Not only does he never publicize his charity work, but if he hadn't extended a helping hand in time back then, Zhou Jielun might have already died from carbon monoxide poisoning. This is ironclad evidence..."

A long, flowing essay, fully displaying his talent!

Diligence: Refers to the fact that since Zhou Yi's debut until now, he has not only released three Chinese albums, one Chinese EP, and one English album himself, but also wrote songs for Xiao Yaxuan, Sun Yanzi, and Zhang Shaohan. Xiao and Sun have subsequently asked Zhou Yi to serve as album producer multiple times.

At the same time, he is currently holding concerts. Although the number of concert dates is a bit small, just ask yourself: did he hold them or not?

Is such a Zhou Yi not diligent?

Honesty: Refers to the fact that Zhou Yi has always said one thing when there is one, and two things when there are two. Even rumors that other stars avoid at all costs, he doesn't care about, and he never hides his past emotional status; he even wrote songs to self-expose.

Is such a Zhou Yi not honest?

Rigor: Refers to the fact that Zhou Yi will use a rigorous attitude in programs to advise his student fans to study hard and go to school properly.

Bravery: Refers to Zhou Yi's refusal to bow to the "relying on past glories" Chow Yun-fat and his fearlessness toward the Western king Eminem in the European and American music scene; he simply charges straight into the fight.

"Such a man who combines the six great traditional virtues of humility, friendliness, diligence, honesty, rigor, and bravery, why are there still so many people who misunderstand him?!"

At the end, Deng Shiyin kept promoting, attempting to let more passersby understand Zhou Yi's true face.

Due to the fact that this little fan leader Deng Shiyin possesses a certain level of fame, the Warner Public Relations Department discovered this promotional article written by her not long after.

Under their covert instigation, this article quickly became known to many more people.

Of course, besides Deng Shiyan's original version, there were several adapted versions—

"From Listening to the Four Heavenly Kings to Listening to Zhou Yi: Listening to the Development of the Era and the Evolution of History";

"Each Generation Has Its Own Youthful Memories; Zhou Yi Is the Presence That Burst Into Our Youth."

"Our Growth Is From the Four Heavenly Kings to Zhou Yi";

"The Chinese Family: Zhou Yi Taught Us How to Understand the Emotions of Mom and Dad."

"..."

Influenced by the seamless bombing of headlines in Warner's Public Relations Department, "Our Growth Is From the Four Heavenly Kings to Zhou Yi" successfully exploded in popularity, gaining maximum attention in Hong Kong in a short time—

Many middle-aged and elderly people who were indeed unfamiliar with and uninterested in Zhou Yi, upon hearing the song "Mom and Dad," which could almost be said to perfectly depict the family affection of the Chinese family, also felt a hint of goodwill toward him in their hearts.

Looking again—

This young man actually has so many virtues?

Not bad, not bad.

October 17, 2002, Thursday.

The entire Hong Kong music scene was on high alert—

Because the songs on the album by that man named Zhou Yi, after more than two weeks of building momentum, finally entered the top twenty on the request charts of radio stations like RTHK and Xincheng Radio, as well as on the song request charts of large chain KTVs like Money Box!

Zhou Yi's powerful appeal combined with Warner's terrifying marketing meant that even the least popular song "Ghost" from the "Lianshan" album hung onto the twentieth spot, the threshold of the daily charts across major rankings, leaving a crowd of singers and producers with their jaws dropped—

Wasn't it said that songs with such high social engagement wouldn't have high popularity?!

How did you break the convention?!

On the 18th, Hong Kong's most authoritative record sales statistics body, the Hong Kong IFPI Record Association, and RTHK published a sales statistics chart that day—

"According to feedback from daily sales statistics data from the Hong Kong Record Dealers' Association and major record stores, on October 17, the 'Lianshan' album accounted for 60% of the Hong Kong record market, with another 10% being his English album 'Attitude Show'..."

In other words, in the past day, Zhou Yi alone occupied 70% of the entire Hong Kong record sales market?!

Although anyone with eyes could see this was a result of marketing, after all, there were quite a few pre-modifiers, and the sales proportion was even precise down to this Thursday.

But this did not prevent the Hong Kong media from chasing Zhou Yi for reports—

"Crazy Thursday! 50 Dollars, Zhou Yi Treats You to a Feast!"

(End of Chapter)