Chapter 369: To the Glorious Ones

"How is that cheating?! Explain yourselves clearly?!"

"Isn't Hong Kong part of China?"

"Isn't Taiwan part of China?"

"Are we not Chinese, or are you not Chinese?"

"……"

To put it grandly, in the early years of this century when the internet was a chaotic circus, Zhou Yi's move was undoubtedly a great "holy war" that united music fans across the straits and three regions.

Especially after that episode of "SMS Just Click It" aired.

Zhou Yi had already confidently declared on the show "I am the number one, number two, and number three in history"—how could we fans let him down?!

Charge!

Charge for grandpa, damn it!

If you don't charge, you're not Chinese!

Make the American devils slap their own faces, make Brother Chen Long cry tears of joy!

After the long-brewing copy had circulated widely in schools across Hong Kong, the mainland, Taiwan, and Macau, Warner finally integrated it and completed the final stroke, adding the last few words: "If you don't repost, you're not Chinese."

"Wang Fei? A money-grabbing queen thinks she deserves to be called a diva?"

"Wake up, Wang Fei's fans—stop giving this old woman your money. Look how many greatest-hits compilations she puts out every year, and how few proper albums she actually releases."

"Exactly, exactly—look at our Zhou Yi. He doesn't release a single greatest-hits compilation. Every time he drops an album, the whole thing is listenable. He never puts out those greatest-hits compilations that exist purely to rip off fans."

"Feel sorry for Wang Fei's fans—getting scammed and happily counting the money for the scammer."

"Tell you a joke: Wang Fei signed with Sony Music this year. Everyone thought she'd release a new album, but she dropped another greatest-hits compilation, prettily calling it 'giving back to the fans.'"

"I'm a former Wang Fei fan, truly disappointed by her antics. Now I'm a Zhou Yi fan. Jay Chou works too, Sun Yanzi or Elva Hsiao are also fine—anyway, none of them have ever released those money-grabbing greatest-hits compilations…"

When only Wang Fei and Chen Yixun were left struggling on the charts, Warner took the lead and aimed its spear at Wang Fei—

Strike the snake at its vital point—directly bombarding Wang Fei's fans until they couldn't breathe, and AOE-ing the rotting Hong Kong music scene along the way.

"Greatest-hits compilations are proof of true fans. What the hell do you know? The entire Hong Kong music scene does it this way."

"Forgive them—they're just kids, like Zhou Yi, arrogant fools who don't know the sky's the limit, with nothing in their heads but women and grades. They'll catch some disease sooner or later, damn it."

"Calling your mom, are you a servant of the Wang Fei household? A Filipino maid? Well, makes sense—only a paid servant would defend a public bus like that."

"xxx!"

Unable to beat Zhou Yi in sales, Wang Fei's fans began to find another way—

The result was cursing syphilis on one side while furiously bashing the public bus on the other.

As the most combat-capable fanbase among the previous generation of singers, Wang Fei's fans were the first—besides Xie Tingfeng's fans at their peak—to withstand Zhou Yi fans' carpet bombing and still organize a counterattack.

At the same time, they even dragged the late Teresa Teng into it.

Didn't you, Zhou Yi, say you were the number one, number two, and number three in history?

What about Teresa Teng?

As everyone knows, the current holder of the highest album sales in Chinese music history is Teresa Teng.

In terms of popularity, her song "Sweet as Honey" slaughtered every demographic—men, women, young, old—and to this day no singer can match her reach.

"Shameless. Wang Fei's fans used to curse Teresa Teng's fans the hardest, and now they're dragging her out as their savior."

"Didn't Wang Fei herself sleep with Zhou Yi? She even went to his concert. I don't know what these Filipino maids are thinking—Wang Fei herself is moaning on Zhou Yi's bed, and all they can do is bark online."

"Fuck your mom, spreading rumors? Wasn't that Zhou Yi shamelessly inviting her to hold up the scene at his concert? All day long your mouths only know how to spread smut rumors—guess you yourselves can't perform, huh—oh, sorry, you all love calling him Yi Emperor, so each and every one of you must really be impotent, only able to fantasize in your heads!"

"……"

Here a "Filipino maid," there an "ed."

The sheer ferocity of Wang Fei's fans' combat ability truly shocked half the domestic internet fan circles—

The new generation of internet surfers had mostly never experienced Wang Fei's fans at their peak, that rabid bite-anything-that-moves frenzy. Zhou Yi fans' once-unstoppable cursing tactics hit a wall for the first time—

With the two sides' total album sales completely disproportionate, Wang Fei's fans began playing the qualifier game—we're all Chinese, so if we're comparing, compare Chinese-language albums.

Your Zhou Yi's three albums and one EP combined haven't even broken ten million in sales—what the hell are you bragging about?

The awards Wang Fei has won over the years piled up could crush you to death!

Zhou Yi himself was very puzzled—

"Wait, why do Wang Fei's fans have so much free time?"

He was genuinely shocked.

"Wang Fei's fan circle has always been this aggressive—by a huge margin among Chinese-language female singers. After she switched to Sony, the fan-circle management tactics Sony inherited from Japan were also brought to bear."

Qian Jiang was delighted to see Zhou Yi make that expression for the first time.

Facts proved that Wang Fei's fans' strong combat ability was not a good thing for Chen Yixun—

On November 3rd, two old songs from Wang Fei's newly released greatest-hits compilation this year, "You're Wang Fei So I'm Wang Fei," charted again—this time knocking out not only Zhou Yi's "Cheers" but also Chen Yixun's "Next Year Today."

Yes, Chen Yixun is done for!

When Gan Qingqing and Chen Yixun saw this result, both of them were dumbfounded—

Damn it, you can curse all you want, but how did you manage to push us out too?!

"I'll fuck your mother!"

Gan Qingqing, who had always held back from cursing in front of the media, finally couldn't hold it in privately and cursed Sony for being inhuman: "Fucking Sony!"

Sony is guilty as hell!

Guilty as hell!!!

So seeing that the flame war could boost sales, they just threw all caution to the wind, huh???

What happened to the strategic alliance??

Sony's response was also very simple: "It is a strategic alliance. It's your own fans who can't keep up. Look at Zhou Yi's fans—not only did they keep up with our pace, they bought even more than we did, and now they're outselling us."

Gan Qingqing: "..."

Chen Yixun: "..."

Heart so tired, I just want to be alone.

Chen Yixun, whose fame suffered greatly in both mainland China and Taiwan, ultimately fell behind at a speed that surprised everyone.

On the entire chart, only Zhou Yi and Wang Fei remained locked in a duel—

Both enjoyed immense popularity and fame across the two sides of the strait and Hong Kong; their fans were notorious for being obsessive and notoriously willing to spend money.

One represented the old order of the Hong Kong music scene, the other represented the new future of the Mandarin music scene—neither would yield, neither could convince the other.

Both of their weekly album sales, personal photo books, and image calendars sold like hot cakes, making Huo Wenxi unbearably envious—

If Xie Tingfeng hadn't had that incident, this would have been the double-prodigy showdown she had envisioned.

Unfortunately, the one facing off against Zhou Yi now was no longer Xie Tingfeng, but Xie Tingfeng's ex-girlfriend.

By now, this smokeless war had completely exploded across the entire Mandarin music scene, and further purified Zhou Yi's already loyal fanbase—

A holy war, extreme sense of participation—and the thrill of challenging the old order.

The printers at mainland China's "Contemporary Music Scene" were overloaded to the point of nearly smoking; for this matter, it had almost become a daily publication—

November 4, Wang Fei released another song—

November 5, Zhou Yi's "Fireworks Cool Easily" entered the chart.

November 6, both were knocked down one spot each; Chen Yixun and Li Keqin took advantage of the chaos to each rush in with a new song—

November 7, Zhou Yi's fans struck again; this time, Wang Fei's fans finally began to run out of steam and couldn't keep up.

After fighting on for over half a month, both sides' fans were exhausted; even Wang Fei, who rarely appeared publicly before, had turned herself into a beast of burden, appearing on various programs to promote her greatest hits collection—

However, in the end, she was defeated by Zhou Yi's even larger young fanbase.

November 11, 2002, exactly 11:08 AM, Zhou Yi ultimately completed an unprecedented achievement—

"Contemporary Music Scene" released a special thickened issue for this: "Conquering the Hong Kong Music Scene: To the Glorious One"

(End of Chapter)