Chapter 370: Welcoming Your King (6k)

"In Taiwan, he was restricted by completely unreasonable people; since his debut in the mainland, he has had no rivals;

"On the international stage, he went head-to-head with the world's hip-hop king Eminem, yet some claim he lacks dominance—his English album sales held the top spot for only four consecutive weeks, falling short of his domestic standard.

"And this time in Hong Kong, he created an unprecedented legendary record, single-handedly raising Xincheng Radio's market share, surpassing both RTHK and Commercial Radio, to rank first in Hong Kong..."

As the most authoritative music magazine in the mainland, Contemporary Music has almost declined alongside the music scene itself.

The editor-in-chief worries almost every day about whether to change the magazine's focus and add more film and television information; otherwise, there is basically nothing left to write about in the mainland music scene. Zhou Yi dominating the charts was inevitable long ago; no new singer from Hong Kong or Taiwan dares to challenge Zhou Yi, this god who burst onto the scene, and another major news source, Xie Tingfeng, has even gotten into trouble.

Until this unprecedented demonstration of commercial value by Zhou Yi in the country—truly unprecedented.

Single-handedly helping Xincheng Radio achieve a long-held dream of over a decade—surpassing RTHK and Commercial Radio to reach the number one spot.

Although Wang Fei's fans contributed significantly, after all, they held on until the very last moment.

But they ultimately failed.

From the moment the power of speech fell into the hands of the victor, it was destined that this monumental achievement would belong to Zhou Yi alone; no one else could possibly claim any part of it.

Contemporary Music is the most typical example, directly ignoring Wang Fei, who nominally should also be considered of mainland origin, and placing this laurel crown on Zhou Yi's head to thank him for saving the magazine's sales over the past month—

By constantly publishing news of Zhou Yi's breakthrough battles, Contemporary Music's sales have revived. In an era where buying one magazine allowed the whole class to read it, it even set a new sales high since the millennium!

"Zhou Yi is so amazing! So many well-known Hong Kong singers have been defeated."

"Didn't Wang Fei say she was the most powerful female singer since Teresa Teng? She lost too..."

"..."

Shangrao, Zhou Family Village.

While Zhao Ping and her husband were casually running their supermarket to avoid boredom, serving the villagers, the good news from Contemporary Music had already spread here through distribution channels.

The neighbors who had watched Zhou Yi grow from a toddler with open-crotch pants and a water gun into an adult superstar would mention Zhou Yi's conquest of Hong Kong while playing mahjong or washing clothes by the river.

"Andy Lau is gone? Zhang Xueyou lost too? And Wang Fei?"

"Oh my god, is that son of the Old Zhou family really that fierce? I thought he was only popular among people my son's age."

"..."

For these township residents living in remote small cities, their fixed impression of superstars is that batch of people from Hong Kong in the past—they actually have no concrete concept of just how popular Zhou Yi is.

If you tell them how awesome the American king Eminem is, they will just look confused; if you tell them Zhou Yi is a global bestseller, they will only sincerely praise him with a "this kid has guts, can earn money from foreigners," but have little concept of the so-called global bestseller status.

At most, they are very sensitive to the matter of making money, knowing he earned a lot, a lot of money, enough to last a lifetime, several hundred million.

But those big stars in Hong Kong are different.

Not just Zhou Family Village, expanding this scope to rural areas across provinces and cities nationwide, the superstars in the parents' generation's memory are that batch from Hong Kong; some even mistake Li Zongsheng and Lo Ta-yu for being from Hong Kong;

In the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, after Zhou Yi's shocking statement "I am the first, second, and third in history" spread, many middle-aged people who prefer the old to the new couldn't help but frown at this arrogant young man.

But now, when the so-called sacred land in their hearts is conquered, some of them must hold back even if they are unwilling.

As for the internet, right now it is the world where Zhou Yi's fans are active, crushing all dissent, everyone kneel!

"This damn thing... who can I appeal to? I give up."

Shanghai, inside a certain hotel.

Sun Nan, who had come to Shanghai to promote his new album, looked at the statistics handed to him by his manager, and a deep sense of powerlessness instantly surged to his heart; he slumped onto the sofa and took a sip of gloomy wine.

The two songs "Rescue" and "Sky of Fate" in his new album were, speaking reasonably, already hot enough in the music scene, especially "Rescue," which was completely at the level of a classic hit.

He knew that without the backing of English major achievements, he definitely couldn't compete with Zhou Yi in status nowadays, but at least in the Chinese major, he still had some ambition—

Then Zhou Yi gave him a blow to the head.

Or rather, gave a blow to the head of everyone in the mainland music scene who did not look favorably on him.

Sun Nan debuted in Hong Kong to polish his credentials before returning to develop his career on the mainland; he knew better than anyone that the unwritten rule in that circle was to exclude mainlanders.

Mainland actors were a bit better; in the past, they could at least play a supporting role in movies. Mainland singers in the past, even those with high status like Cui Jian, Dou Wei, or even Liu Huan, did not fare well.

This is also why there is rarely open communication between the big shots of the mainland music scene and the Hong Kong music scene.

But now Zhou Yi has broken this damn unwritten rule, rubbing the face of the Hong Kong music circle on the ground.

As Zhou Yi's employer, the signed singers under Warner Records, from top to bottom, all jumped out to congratulate Zhou Yi on this unprecedented achievement—

"Congratulations to Zhou Yi; this result is really too hard to achieve, truly."

Na Ying, who actually debuted in the mainland and then moved to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and suffered discrimination in between, spoke with feeling when facing reporters: "Before him, we never thought a singer could occupy the top ten of the radio."

After the dust settled, Sammi Cheng and Guo Fucheng, the former number one male and female stars of Warner, also generously sent their blessings to Zhou Yi: "Ah Yi has a boundless future; our era in the music scene has passed."

Other mainland musicians such as Wang Feng, Xu Wei, Pu Shu, and Zhang Yadong also expressed their admiration for Zhou Yi through various media channels.

Busheng Music, unexpectedly receiving Zhou Jianhui's poaching invitation, saw Hu Yibing so excited that he trembled all over. Even though Busheng Music was about to merge with a big company, he was still attracted by the prospects Zhou Jianhui described.

That is Zhou Yi!

Hefei, Anhui, a certain high school student surnamed Xu listened to "Fireworks Cool Easily" from Zhou Yi's "Lianshan" song cassette, copying the unique and melancholic lyrics word by word on the blank pages of his homework book—

All the classmates in the class loved "Fairy Tale," only he loved "Fireworks Cool Easily." He even felt that in Zhou Yi's album, the lyrics written best were the two songs "Fireworks Cool Easily" and "Mom and Dad."

"Xu Song, still copying lyrics? Want to play table tennis? The table is already taken."

"No, you guys go."

Xu Song, having politely declined his classmate's kindness, glanced at the copy of Contemporary Music on the top left of the desk; the cover featuring Zhou Yi holding up his index finger facing the camera, signaling silence, made him feel a sudden longing—

He also really wanted to do music!

But thinking of his family, Xu Song immediately became depressed again.

Forget it, better to study hard first and get into university properly; didn't Zhou Yi also start his music career only after going to university?

Thinking of Zhou Yi's pre-debut experience he had exposed on a show, Xu Song used it directly to motivate himself.

Shenyang, a certain Northeast boy surnamed Wang who was still a junior high student, encountered a teacher explaining Zhou Yi's finger technique while studying classical music—

"You can see that the classical music Zhou Yi played for the female lead in the MV of 'In the Name of the Father' is the 'Nocturne' I mentioned to you before. It is obvious that the version Zhou Yi learned in the past was the version by the piano giant Rubinstein; he is also currently called by the classical music world the master most capable of interpreting Chopin's piano pieces..."

In this era where Zhou Yi dominates students in junior high, senior high, and university, enabling naughty children to calm down and seriously study classical music, this teacher obviously chose the simplest method: bringing up Zhou Yi, the topic children are most interested in.

Qingdao, a certain Xu surnamed aspiring high school student who likes drawing was sketching his idol's portrait based on the poster included with Zhou Yi's album; the more he practiced, the more realistic it became, even earning exclamations from classmates: "Your sketch is getting more and more amazing, Xu Liang; this Zhou Yi you drew looks just like the real thing."

"Stop bragging and just draw something random."

Xu Liang smiled, but the moment he glanced up and saw a girl walking past the window, he immediately put down his pen and paper, tucked a cassette of Zhou Yi's into his pocket, and rushed out the back door of the art classroom in pursuit...

Zhou Yi, the subject of rumors everywhere, was his life idol!

The idol had said, "If you like someone, just confess directly!"

Xu Liang confidently charged in, and Xu Liang GG'd.

A few hours later, he learned a cruel truth from a friend—that the girl thought his singing wasn't great; a perfectly fine, full-of-breath "Fairy Tale" was sung with such a kidney-deficiency vibe.

"The 'Fairy Tale' he sang was so terrible, weak and breathless..."

After experiencing his first crush in life that withered before it even began, Xu Liang felt hurt. But soon he wasn't discouraged, after all, his favorite male singer was Zhou Yi!

A guy who would never lack female friends—

"Harem on Fire? Fan Bingbin Arrives in Hong Kong Overnight!"

Even at this peak moment of Zhou Yi's prestige, the gossip magazine, always so unique, kept死死盯着 his tabloids, especially after Fan Bingbin arrived in Hong Kong, capturing photos of her appearing downstairs at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel where Zhou Yi had been staying during this period.

Of course, her manager, Chen Shufen, naturally denied it: "Bingbin is just in Hong Kong to attend the Xincheng Radio Celebration Gala. Please, media friends, do not write nonsense."

As one of the biggest beneficiaries of this storm, Xincheng Radio was now so happy from top to bottom that they were practically blowing snot bubbles; this was solid market share snatched right from the mouths of their rivals.

"Ah Yi, at next year's Xincheng Mandarin Power Awards, you will absolutely be the biggest winner; I'm putting my words right here!"

At the Xincheng Radio executives' victory celebration.

Gan Guoliang, the first batch of Hong Kong entertainment figures to move north, former supervisor of TVB, hailed as Hong Kong's most successful cross-media figure, and current Xincheng Radio station manager, smiled very kindly and patted Zhou Yi's shoulder: "Jianhui didn't misjudge people, I didn't misjudge people."

"Uncle Gan, actually, I'm not very concerned about awards and such. Of course, if you insist on giving them to me, I can't do anything about it." Regarding this station manager who had bet on him under pressure, Zhou Yi was still very grateful; his teasing tone made the whole room burst into laughter.

"Of course it's not forcing it on you; how could it be forcing it? Who has the face to say that?"

Gan Guoliang, born in 1950, was older than Zhou Yi's parents; when he smiled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were countless: "This time you really slapped those old stubborn guys' faces until they swelled up."

As the person who entered Xincheng Radio in '98 to become station manager, Gan Guoliang had tried many methods but was never able to increase Xincheng Radio's market share. At the same time, as one of the first batch of elders from the Hong Kong circle to move north, he was also among those actively establishing connections with the mainland—

Precisely because of this, after seeing Zhou Jianhui's plight, he, who was also deeply mired in internal strife, decided to go all in: he introduced Zhou Yi, who was already invincible on the mainland, at the cost of the gimmick "Defeating the Hong Kong Music Scene" to boost Xincheng Radio's market share.

This was a gamble where he suppressed opposing voices and bet everything on a single throw.

Very luckily, like Zhou Jianhui, he won the gamble.

"Whether it's listenership ratings, song-play frequency, incoming call numbers, advertising placements, or other metrics, over the past five days, Xincheng Radio has firmly secured first place in Hong Kong, far outpacing the second-place Hong Kong Radio by 13 to 16 percentage points."

"Ah Yi, come, I toast to you with this cup."

Gan Guoliang raised his wine glass with utmost solemnity: "In the future, if you encounter any problems in Hong Kong, you can come find me. Although I can't help much on the mainland, I'm familiar with big directors and actors from the mainland like Zhang Yimou and Gong Li."

"Have you heard of 'The First Emperor: The Quest for the Terracotta Warriors' starring Yimou and Li? That's the one directed by Tsui Hark; I was the producer."

?

Now Zhou Yi was truly surprised; buddy, your credentials are really quite old.

While the Xincheng Radio executives were happily holding their victory celebration, on the other side, the executives of Commercial Radio Hong Kong and Hong Kong Radio were collectively broken—

Especially Commercial Radio Hong Kong, which had dropped to third place.

"Damn it! Zhou Yi, you scoundrel!"

Yu Zheng, the current CEO of Commercial Radio and once hailed as one of Hong Kong's talented women, watched helplessly as her unfinished cause was overtaken by Gan Guoliang of Xincheng Radio; she finally couldn't hold back and cursed: "What is the Board of Directors eating?!"

After entering the new millennium, due to personal reasons, she had gradually faded from Commercial Radio's management, yet the people under her hand pulled off such a big stunt for her.

"Who could have thought that a mainland kid like Zhou Yi could bring such huge market value? This situation has never appeared before."

The subordinates were also aggrieved, but they couldn't say it.

If anyone else had come in, they couldn't have accomplished this miracle; losing really couldn't be blamed on them.

Yes, a miracle.

In their eyes, 'miracle' was no longer enough to explain this situation.

To all radio practitioners across the country, this move by Xincheng Radio truly deserved for everyone to kneel down and kowtow to Zhou Yi.

Whether it was marketing, wooing, or dividing fan groups, the coordination between Warner and Xincheng Radio was taken to the extreme; plus Zhou Yi's solid album quality and the attribute that Hong Kong people not only didn't reject English songs but actually liked them very much, all this created the birth of this carnival.

Look at the real-time rankings now—

First: "Fairy Tale"

Second: "Little Dimples"

Third: "Today You Marry Me"

Fourth: "BaBy"

Fifth: "Lonely Mr."

Sixth: "Mom and Dad"

Seventh: "GoodTime"

Eighth: "Fireworks Cool Easily"

Ninth: "Cheers"

Tenth: "Yeah"

A full ten songs, with lyrics, composition, arrangement, and vocals all written exclusively with the two characters "Zhou Yi"—truly unprecedented!

Without Zhou Yi's solid English album, even if his "Lianshan" was of higher quality, it couldn't have achieved a chart sweep; the three songs from his English album that charted, besides "Yeah" which was just popular in various Western countries, "BaBy" and "GoodTime" could even be said to be on fire in countries all over the world—

Dominating the charts for a long time in neighboring Japan and South Korea, making Utada Hikaru, who hadn't released her English album yet, look even more awkward by comparison.

As of 11:08 AM on the 12th, this new Hong Kong number-one radio music chart, ruled by Zhou Yi, still had no challengers; the record of exceeding 24 hours continued to extend, and Zhou Jianhui, even more excited, had already started directly coordinating with the Guinness World Records application that had been prepared long ago.

Don't ask; if you ask, it's because Zhou Yi is so awesome he's being recorded!

This is the gold content of Zhou Yi!

This is Warner!

At the same time, Zhou Jianhui, leveraging the "Zhou Yi Slaughters Hong Kong" event to showcase Warner's muscle, scored big points this time; the number of musicians submitting to Warner doubled every few hours, all hoping to be selected by Warner—

Best case scenario, he'd be noticed by Zhou Yi.

Because the last composer Zhou Yi took a fancy to was a Singaporean named Lin Junjie, who had been tagging along with Ah Du doing promotional rounds these past few months and had already built up quite a bit of popularity. Word was that Ocean Butterflies was already considering letting him learn the ropes and then debut him.

And while Zhou Jianhui was still busy preparing the Nice World record stunt for Zhou Yi to unveil at the Xincheng Radio celebration, Zhou Yi's manager Qian Jiang wasn't idle either, still squeezing every last drop of sales potential out of the *Lianshan* album without a moment's rest.

"As of 11 PM last night on the 11th, Zhou Yi's *Lianshan* has sold 416,861 copies in Hong Kong! Breaking 8x Platinum!"

When Warner Records officially joined hands with the Hong Kong Record Association to announce the results of this chart-dominating battle, the entire Hong Kong industry was shaken!

How many years, how many years has it been—Hong Kong has actually produced another 8x Platinum album?!

In Hong Kong, due to the market, the Platinum standard is 50,000 copies. Even in the golden age of Hong Kong music, 8x Platinum albums weren't exactly a dime a dozen.

And after Hong Kong's music scene gradually declined, forget 8x Platinum—even selling 3x or 4x Platinum like Xie Tingfeng was already something worth burning incense to thank the heavens for. Occasionally one might brush the threshold of 5x Platinum, which is also why Xie Tingfeng had the capital to be proud.

Zhou Yi's past albums—even his hottest one, *Jiangnan*—had never reached 8x Platinum in Hong Kong.

Yet this year's *Lianshan* made countless people dream back to the golden age of Hong Kong music—an era the older generation described as one where gold littered the ground and you could pick up money just by bending down!

"Wang Fei, Andy Lau, Zhang Xueyou, Li Keqin... I feel like I'm seeing that glorious era of the past, except this time the one competing with them is a kid who's only 21."

Because of his cancer, Hong Kong entertainment industry grandmaster James Wong, who had shaved his head, was rather irreverent in an interview: "But the times are different from back then. To be honest, I used to look down on Zhou Yi's music.

"I think when Chinese people make music, they shouldn't be playing exactly what the foreign devils play—we need to have our own innovation, our own culture. Like his Hip-hop stuff from before, I really couldn't stand it. The stuff fusing in opera was also neither one thing nor the other—only someone like Jackie Chan who's been in America a long time might listen to it.

"But starting from *East Wind Breaks* to this *Fireworks Are Easily Cold*, I do find this guy a bit interesting. You can clearly see he's also realized his limitations and has started consciously adjusting his musical style.

"But I still feel his songs aren't grand enough now—he should be a bit more grand."

The famous Wu Xia novelist Jin Yong, when interviewed, said it was a pity Zhou Yi hadn't played Duan Yu: "I think this is a very regrettable matter. There's a natural nobility about him—that's very rare."

In the already-filming *Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils*, the earlier story of Lin Zhiying's side wanting to raise their price and then, upon hearing that Zhang the Big Beard wanted to invite Zhou Yi to play Duan Yu, being scared into dropping their price overnight to accept the role, had already become a laughingstock.

And as figures the Hong Kong entertainment industry simply couldn't get around, a large group of veterans including James Wong were all invited by Xincheng Radio to the celebration on the 15th. Especially that incorrigible old rogue James Wong—he'd been wanting to meet the legendary little hooligan Zhou Yi for a long time now.

On the 13th, after holding out for 48 hours, 5 minutes, and 8 seconds, Zhou Yi's chart-dominating record came to an end. And the one who ended his record was neither Chen Yixun nor anyone else, but another song created by Zhou Yi—

Elva Hsiao's *Prague Square*.

With Sun Yanzi's new album not yet released in Hong Kong, Elva Hsiao's *4U* became the only option to break Zhou Yi's chart-dominating record.

After all, in this day and age, the only person who dares to release an album nationwide at a unified time is Zhou Yi.

Either way it's Zhou Yi's songs, and the two of them are so close—better than having some outsider crack the egg.

And with the breaking of Zhou Yi's golden chart-dominating body, Warner also officially announced on the morning of the 14th the Nice World record and album sales—

"As of 23:59 on November 13, 2002, Zhou Yi's *Lianshan* album has officially broken through the 2.25 million mark in total legitimate nationwide sales! Of which, Hong Kong 8x Platinum, Mainland 1,327,407 copies, Taiwan 400,700 copies, Macau 110,000 copies!

"A brand-new Nice World record has been created—ten songs dominating Hong Kong's number one radio station Xincheng Radio's music chart for over 48 hours! At the same time, Zhou Yi is also currently the only singer in the world to have ever monopolized the entire top ten of a music chart—no exceptions!"

Because the chart-dominating incident caused such a sensational impact domestically, with media reporting on it every day. Affected by this, the people on both sides of the strait and in Hong Kong, who actively or passively received all kinds of information about Zhou Yi every day or every two or three days, directly pushed Zhou Yi's new album to an unprecedented sales peak!

43 days after release, total sales broke 2.25 million!

At the same time, Zhou Yi's all-Chinese album's total Asian sales also broke 7.8 million copies, with global total sales reaching 8.04 million copies, making him the fastest Chinese singer in history to break the 8 million mark in total Chinese album sales!

"Chinese Music Scene, Welcome Your King!"

On the 15th, the day the Xincheng Radio and Warner Records celebration began, a series of Hong Kong newspapers—whether they'd coordinated or shared a telepathic link or had superpowers, who knew—all used the exact same headline—

The accompanying photos were basically handsome shots of Zhou Yi standing atop Hong Kong landmark buildings—

A typical example: Zhou Yi standing atop the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower, surveying all below him, one hand in his pocket, while his right index finger pressed against his lips, telling everyone below to shut up!

(End of chapter)