Chapter 375: A Bet Worth a Ferrari

"That could work; he is indeed very popular in the United States, and if we invite him, he could also bring heat to our film later, not just in the US, but he has extremely high popularity in Japan and South Korea as well."

"Provided he is willing to cooperate with our promotion."

As the lead actor of 'Hero', Li Lianjie, who had already made a name for himself in the US, knew a little about Zhou Yi's fame in Europe and America to some extent—even Eminem, to get high attention for his autobiographical music film '8 Mile', had unusually opened a fan group specifically for Zhou Yi alone.

This matter had caused a huge uproar abroad.

If Zhou Yi could bring up 'Hero' when he retorted later, it would undoubtedly serve as promotion for the film's release in North America.

"I'll go with you then; that young man actually had some connection with me before." Li Lianjie, who also wanted to take this opportunity to meet Zhou Yi, discussed it with his wife and then finalized the details over the phone.

Unaware that he was already being coveted like Tang Seng's flesh, Zhou Yi was currently immersed in the news of his progress—

the All-China Youth Federation, the full name of the organizer of the Top Ten Outstanding Youth Award;

actually, given his current age, seniority, and the temperament he has revealed to the outside world, if his achievements were not outstanding enough, it would be hard to say whether he could be admitted.

As for the Musicians Association, Zhou Yi originally didn't care much about whether he could join; after all, even if he did join, he would just be a mascot.

But when he learned that his recommender was the person he had chatted with so happily during the Spring Festival Gala rehearsal, he immediately became obedient.

"To put it in their words, since you stopped Zhou Jianhui from going to the US headquarters to make a big fuss over that Zang incident, recommending you is considered a small favor."

Qian Jiang cheerfully reported the good news: "This should be a stepping stone prepared for you in advance; next year you will likely have some gains."

He didn't understand this area very well, but with the year-end approaching, suddenly having two official associations extend an olive branch to Zhou Yi at once made it hard for him not to overthink.

"What gains could I have? Sitting in the front row at a literary and artistic commendation conference?"

Zhou Yi imagined that scene and couldn't help but laugh; surrounded by a circle of old people, with himself being the only young man in his early twenties, the scene was somewhat...

"Let me remind you, one of the organizers of the Top Ten Outstanding Youth Award is the All-China Youth Federation."

"Let's see; I'm not from Shandong anyway."

Facing Qian Jiang's excitement, Zhou Yi didn't have much emotional fluctuation; for him, this was less powerful than the Musicians Association's recommender. Besides, he had only just received the invitation; even if there were an evaluation, the earliest it could be would be next year.

"Go, go, go; you only say such things privately with me; don't say such stereotypical things outside."

After Qian Jiang scolded him with a laugh and reminded him, the two walked out of the side room one after the other and returned to the banquet hall, which had turned into a networking event—

and just as Zhou Yi changed into a white suit and returned to the scene, a dazzling bald head suddenly popped out of the crowd, walking towards him with a loud laugh: "You look much more handsome than I remember, Ah Yi; so tall and mighty, no wonder you're so popular with the girls."

"Mr. Wong?"

Seeing this person suddenly, Zhou Yi was somewhat surprised; Qian Jiang, standing beside him, also became much more serious upon seeing him and greeted him properly: "Mr. Wong."

Wong Jim, Hong Kong's top talent, and also one of the founders and promoters of originality in Cantonese music and pure Chinese-style songs.

His reckless style was the unique heroism he had possessed while roaming the world for so many years, yet he was also a top boss who could write 'My Chinese Heart' as early as 1982.

He could be high-brow or low-brow, with extremely strong adaptability.

Unfortunately, his private lifestyle habits were too chaotic; not only did he spend money without restraint, but his daily addiction to smoking and drinking was also too heavy, leading to him eventually contracting lung cancer.

"Just call me by my name; calling me that makes me feel much older."

Having become bald due to chemotherapy, Wong Jim still spoke with plenty of energy; since last year, he had even started a language talk show called "Three Bald Guys" in Hong Kong, which was basically a scaled-down version of the former "No Limits Tonight."

"If I called you that, I'm afraid all the newspaper pages in Hong Kong tomorrow would say I'm bullying people." Zhou Yi, shaking hands with him, smiled and joked: "I don't want to be pointed at by a thousand people."

"You've already dominated the Hong Kong music scene; would you still care about these things?"

Wong Jim laughed heartily.

As a top boss who became famous from the start by doing marketing and advertising, Wong Jim couldn't fail to see the promotional nature of this event, but he still came.

Besides wanting to get in touch and see what kind of young person the future of the Chinese music scene was, he also wanted to investigate whether this person was suitable for 'Three Bald Guys', because ATV had always wanted to invite Zhou Yi to chat on this program.

"To be honest, Ah Yi, I still think that with your talent, it's a pity to only write these styles of songs; you could write some grander songs, and then those people would have shut their mouths long ago, so where would they get the chance to nag?"

Having seemingly become "familiar" with Zhou Yi over a few sentences and some champagne, Wong Jim patted his chest and assured: "Like your 'In the Name of the Father', the production is exquisite, the song has a great feel, and you value it highly, even specially filming a 90-minute music video for it.

"But the public still cannot accept it; why? The reason lies here: it is too Western."

It could be seen that Wong Jim indeed had a very deep understanding of the domestic public's degree of love for music.

'In the Name of the Father', as the song Zhou Yi put the most heart and soul into, was ranked last among the songs in the album 'Lianshan', only slightly better than the obscure and hard-to-understand 'Ghost'.

In this current era, 'The Godfather' was an unbelievable fairy tale that most Chinese people had never even heard of, let alone the Italian Mafia; ordinary people's impression of such people was only of hooligans and thugs.

Precisely because of this, 'In the Name of the Father' became the most controversial song in Zhou Yi's album, without exception.

Most passersby and fans thought that Zhou Yi spent such a high cost hiring Jiang Wen and filming a music video, only to end up with such an esoteric thing, which was truly a loss to the extreme; it would have been better to write two more love songs;

a small minority of die-hard fans thought that this song was enough to represent the highest level of Zhou Yi's exploration in different musical directions together with 'Susan Says', 'Dong Feng Po', and 'At the Plum Line', and then they received extremely strong criticism.

Yes, extremely strong criticism.

'In the Name of the Father', even up to this point in time, had not stirred up even a single ripple in the market and belonged to the niche within the niche.

In terms of popularity alone, it could almost be said to be firmly occupying the last and second-to-last spots in Zhou Yi's ranking of all Chinese songs, together with 'Ghost'.

Even on the internet, which is full of elites, the approval rate of this song was far lower than Zhou Yi's other songs.

"It doesn't matter."

Zhou Yi shrugged slightly: "Just treat it as an attempt; anyway, it doesn't affect the album's huge sales."

Even in the era when mobile internet had matured, 'In the Name of the Father' still belonged to the online carnival of internet users and the obscure hit among the offline general public.

Many Jay Chou fans always thought that the Dark Trilogy, including 'In the Name of the Father', was his golden body in China, but actually it was not like that.

On the contrary, if Jay Chou had no Chinese style and only the Dark Trilogy, which was later blown up on the internet, he might have lost his golden body at the public level long ago, and there would never have been the subsequent status that was almost mythologized.

The Chinese public's acceptance of such completely Westernized songs was not as high as imagined.

Wong Jim, who was eager for talent, originally wanted to take the time while he could still live a few more years to properly correct Zhou Yi's thoughts about music and act as a guide. But after a chat, he was surprised to find that Zhou Yi knew clearly how to integrate Chinese cultural elements.

Moreover, some of his ideas and concepts could even open up Wong Jim's train of thought in return.

As the last original face-level figure of Cantonese music, the two, who appeared to outsiders as a clash between new and old, were actually "birds of a feather" and chatted very happily. By the end of the chat, this old rascal Wong Jim even introduced to Zhou Yi which of this year's Miss Hong Kong contestants was the most moist...

So that when many media reporters finally swarmed towards Wong Jim wanting to ask him what he thought of Zhou Yi, this unrestrained talent who had once publicly said Zhou Yi's songs were not grand enough actually... changed his tune???

"Ah Yi has a new song; after hearing his concept, I was very shocked. We made a bet: if this song can eventually reach my high standard, then I will directly lose him a Ferrari."

Facing the reporters, Wong Jim started by giving away a Ferrari, which was somewhat enough to make people's hearts tremble.

And his remarks quickly sparked discussion among many fans—for no other reason than that this flag felt somewhat familiar.

In the early millennium, Jay Chou, who is now second only to Zhou Yi in the country, once received a promise from the elder Wu Zongxian to gift him a sports car, but in the end, that promise was altered again and again and came to nothing.

"Fake, right? How long has Huang Zhan known Zhou Yi? It hasn't even been a full twenty-four hours; could he really gift a Ferrari directly?"

"Hiss, who knows? It's said this person is notorious for acting recklessly, squandering money in all sorts of ways before. Now he even has cancer and won't live long."

"Uh, you mean, when he dies, the money won't have been spent?"

"Doesn't he still have a wife and children..."

On the 16th, after Sohu's special topic updated the latest news on Zhou Yi's Hong Kong trip as usual, active Zhou Yi fans began discussing.

And on Peking University's BBS, many were discussing when suddenly someone shouted: "Go check out the commotion next door! Ao Dajin got beaten up! And had rotten eggs thrown at him!"

(End of this chapter)