Chapter 383: True Influence (5k)

When Chen Shufen came to the hotel room to find Fan Xiaopang, the latter was still lying in bed, groaning and refusing to get up.

She pulled the quilt over her eyes, only waking from her sleep with a drowsy expression upon hearing the sound.

Her disheveled long hair was scattered wildly over her shoulders and chest; the faint mark on her back, visible as she got up to dress, drew Chen Shufen's sidelong glance.

"What's going on with your back? Did you get injured during filming? Or while attending an event? If you were hurt, why didn't you tell me?"

Chen Shufen frowned in confusion.

As the most promising new star under her management, she quite values Fan Xiaopang, regardless of the aspect.

Especially against the backdrop of the entertainment industry's center of gravity gradually shifting north, she, like Yinghuang, sees it clearly.

Why did she want to sign Zhou Erkang when "My Fair Princess" was hot? Wasn't it simply for his mainland origin? Unfortunately, this Erkang ultimately had no fate with her.

Fan Xiaopang was actually her backup choice at the beginning.

But considering her performance over the past two years, she is incredibly glad that she turned around and signed Fan Xiaopang after failing to sign Erkang.

The Hong Kong circle is already adept at marketing, and Fan Xiaopang, thanks to Zhou Yi, can receive some help from Yinghuang, which further fuels her arrogance—she now dares to publish gossip claiming Fan Xiaopang outshines Zhao Wei and Lin Xinru.

This year, taking advantage of the fact that neither of these two film and television dramas sparked much buzz, she secretly undermined them several times, staging a dramatic story of an inspiring comeback.

To use the mockery on the mainland internet, Fan Xiaopang has truly turned from a maid into the master—she has devoured her owner.

"I wasn't injured. I just had some late-night snacks with Zhou Yi last night, drank a little alcohol, and accidentally bumped into something."

Fan Xiaopang lowered her gaze, avoiding her manager's line of sight, while inevitably recalling the slightly uncomfortable but exceptionally novel experience from early morning.

It felt like breaking a conventional taboo; especially at the moment when the chaotic piano sounds intertwined with her pleasure, she, who specializes in musical instruments, always became more sensitive than usual, feeling as though she was desecrating the beauty of music.

Although it was merely a decision made on a whim at the time, once she reflected on it afterwards, that feeling of breaking tradition still made her feel tingling and nostalgic.

Thinking this, she unconsciously pressed her legs together, and her toes inside her socks instinctively gripped the floor.

"You two really aren't afraid of being photographed," Chen Shufen said helplessly, holding her forehead. "Just because he isn't afraid doesn't mean you can be either. Did he invite you to be a guest at his concert?"

"Guest at the concert? No, why would you ask that?"

Fan Xiaopang was somewhat puzzled. "You know my singing ability, Sister Chen."

"Zhou Yi's new album songs have spread across the mainland via the internet, exploding everywhere nationwide. Moreover, since Warner officially applied for a full four-sided stage for him, the Shanghai authorities have specifically given him the green light. Now, his concert is almost equivalent to a high-exposure program, a large-scale event destined to attract significant attention from heavyweight media."

Speaking to this point, even the well-traveled Chen Shufen couldn't help but feel a sense of the new wave pushing the old wave aside.

She has a figure of high status in the Hong Kong entertainment industry under her management—Leslie Cheung.

The Tan-Zhang rivalry back then was the peak of the golden age of Cantonese music, and now, since Principal Tan has no intention of developing in the film and television sector, Leslie Cheung's popularity in the mainland has far surpassed his former rival.

Although his public opinion environment in recent years is not what it used to be, with no shortage of slander and abuse, he still has a massive number of fans.

Yet even so, Leslie Cheung was not granted permission for a four-sided stage when holding concerts, with the reason being the high risk of accidents and a lack of sufficient security measures and forces.

"Then I definitely can't go up there and make a fool of myself. If I can't even sing well, isn't that just asking for criticism?"

Regarding her manager's regret, Fan Xiaopang was exceptionally clear-headed.

With Sun Yanzi's masterpiece preceding her, the "hey" from the first Star concert at the Workers' Stadium in the Imperial Capital, which could be described as piercing the soul, was regarded as a classic live performance by countless fans and music critics. For this second Imperial Capital show, if she performed even slightly poorly, she would absolutely be scrutinized and compared under a magnifying glass.

"You are still worried about this?"

Chen Shufen looked surprised.

Fan Xiaopang herself has already caused considerable resentment due to excessive marketing and stepping on others, especially after marketing the title of "International Superstar." But she, who acts on her beauty with impunity, is not afraid at all, possessing an aura of "I am aiming for the number one spot in the world," and she takes no notice of any abuse or slander.

"Being scolded is my own business, but I cannot drag Zhou Yi's reputation down just because I want to appear at the concert. If my performance fails to meet expectations, a segment of his concert might collapse."

"Right now, there is more than one pair of eyes watching him, and there are many people who want to pull him down."

Everyone is currently tacitly avoiding touching other aspects, but once Zhou Yi makes a mistake in his primary work, others will not hesitate to seize the opportunity to attack.

She can ride on Zhou Yi's fame, but she cannot ride on his fame and also cause trouble for him.

"That doesn't matter. I can help you find a song that isn't difficult."

"I already have one; I'm practicing it."

"?"

Seeing the question marks all over her manager's head, Fan Xiaopang smiled slightly. "Sister Chen, help me book a recording studio. After I finish filming next year, I'll go record a single."

"What single? Did a musician submit a song to your assistant? Let me tell you, your momentum is perfect right now. If there isn't a suitable song, absolutely do not rashly—"

"Zhou Yi wrote it. He wrote it for me."

As she said this, Fan Xiaopang slightly raised her head; her superior jawline, in Chen Shufen's eyes, carried a hint of showing off.

—?!

"You wrote a song for someone?"

Zhou Yi's suite.

Since Zhou Yi hadn't slept at all in the early morning, he had simply stayed in the room today to sleep his fill. He was woken up in a daze by Qian Jiang's phone call: "Wrote a song? Hmm, ah, Fan Xiaopang, right? Was I photographed again?"

"Didn't you return before four in the morning? Why are you still sleeping? It's almost five in the afternoon."

Upon hearing Zhou Yi's hazy voice, Qian Jiang on the other end of the phone automatically imagined his sleepy-eyed appearance.

"Returning at four in the morning doesn't mean sleeping at four in the morning."

Zhou Yi, under the covers, let out a yawn, turned onto his side, placed the phone over his ear, and continued to close his eyes to rest.

"You really have your ways." Qian Jiang's voice also sounded somewhat helpless.

"The promotion here in Hong Kong is about to end. You should start preparing for the Shanghai concert at the end of the month. Our team has basically completed all the coordination with the venue. Don't stay up late anymore, or it might affect your condition at that time."

"Rest assured. I am still clear about my body's recovery ability."

"Additionally, several relevant department heads from different cities have contacted us, wanting to inquire if you have plans to hold concerts there, meaning adding shows."

Qian Jiang's voice immediately became serious as he spoke of the main matter.

Adding concert shows is common in the schedules of top-tier superstars.

A typical example is the God of Songs, Zhang Xueyou, who has been frantically holding concerts this year. His "Music Journey World Tour" was not originally scheduled for so many, but because the effect was so good, it was stubbornly increased to 45 shows, with the schedule extending into January of next year.

Although many of these venues were merely ten-thousand-person arenas, this still, in a sense, corroborated this God of Song's weight in the Greater China region.

"Didn't I schedule my concert long ago?"

Zhou Yi was somewhat stunned.

When Warner had originally planned his concert, they hadn't anticipated he would become this popular to this extent; therefore, the planning was somewhat conservative, even considering Zhou Yi's creative energy and album release schedules, stretching the few Star concert dates out to a year and a half.

Originally, in a tour series that often spanned one to two years or even two to three years, Warner's arrangement had no flaws at all. It could both consolidate his popularity through concerts and use the concert heat to inversely stimulate the growth of Zhou Yi's domestic album sales.

But sometimes, when something is planned perfectly and nothing unexpected is expected to happen, that is often the beginning of the unexpected.

"The discussion around your third album on the mainland has exploded."

Qian Jiang was concise: "After nearly two months of fermentation, the heat of 'Lianshan' on the mainland kept rising; after your episode of 'Happy Camp' aired, it even inversely ignited the... uh, anger in the hearts of many mainland fans?

"Anyway, that's the gist.

"Based on this, this anger not only wasn't erased as time passed but intensified with the airing of your other promotional programs. Various interpretations online, various interpretations in the media, and public opinion spontaneously organized by fans have all now escalated following your topping the Hong Kong charts.

"Your fans are a bit too radical.

"However, precisely because of this, the eighty thousand tickets for your Shanghai concert have already been swept away. The relevant Shanghai departments even released a guide on eating, staying, and traveling for your fans after they arrive in Shanghai, directly setting off the entire market."

"???"

What the hell is a travel guide???

Zhou Yi, in bed, suddenly opened his eyes, instantly alert—

As everyone knows, in an era where the main battlefield of public opinion was not yet the internet camp, the fermentation of offline public opinion possessed a certain delay.

Often, a week, half a month, or a month could only expand the scope of influence, winning an initial reputation in a certain area, and then using that reputation to snowball in the following time.

The so-called blockbuster TV dramas basically followed this pattern.

The immense national popularity generated by constant reruns provided an influence that later so-called Tang Dynasty Poet Immortals and the "85 Flower" generation could compare to the later "Little Flowers," representing a crushing, generation-spanning dominance.

And for music, whether radio requests or single charts, for the general public, the explosion of this reputation often required a considerable amount of time to accumulate.

Zhou Yi had many fans willing to vote, but in reality, there were even more passersby who only listened to the songs without knowing the person; this was thanks to his appearance on the Spring Festival Gala.

Now, the travel precautions specially released by the relevant Shanghai departments have once again sent Zhou Yi's name to the forefront of controversy—adding more fuel to the fire!

November 22, 2002, Friday.

Shanghai People's Radio Station, Shanghai Oriental Radio Station, Shanghai Television Station, Shanghai Oriental Television Station, Shanghai Cable Television Station, and other official Shanghai TV stations and radio stations were repeatedly broadcasting the Shanghai travel safety guide at different time slots, just so that Zhou Yi fans who had already arrived or were about to arrive in Shanghai would not cause trouble and... to promote themselves.

Correspondingly, the economic vitality brought by accepting eighty thousand people in such a short time made many cities envious—

In the first year of joining the WTO, every locality was going all out to make money and expand their own influence.

You suddenly bring eighty thousand people for tourism?

How much money it stimulates is secondary; even though everyone knows these eighty thousand people can't all be outsiders, saying it out loud is intimidating, and the reputation is loud.

"The first eighty-thousand-level concert in the history of the Chinese music scene!"

"November 30, meet Zhou Yi in Shanghai, Star, see you there!"

"Highest ticket price in domestic history! Zhou Yi Star Concert Shanghai Station tickets top tier priced at 2000, market price has reached five thousand!!!"

"The man who made the Shanghai Eighty Thousand People Stadium truly live up to its name—Zhou Yi!"

"Surpassing Deng Lijun! Twice Zhang Xueyou! All eighty thousand tickets for Zhou Yi's Star Concert Shanghai Station sold out!"

One was an insurmountable peak in physical album sales in the Chinese music scene, the other was the God of Song of the past decade.

When these two idols of the parents' generation were completely outshone by Zhou Yi in the concert field, this city of Shanghai seemed to become a landmark where Zhou Yi's fans found their organization in that moment.

"Eighty thousand people, oh eighty thousand people, doesn't the Shanghai Eighty Thousand People Stadium only have fifty thousand seats?"

"Warner is blowing smoke without a draft."

"No, it seems they rearranged the seating plan. Actually, the number of seats in this stadium can be added up to seventy-two thousand; if the track area below is also enclosed in a circle, increasing it to eighty thousand is really no problem, it's just that security issues must be the top priority."

"Just so happens Zhou Yi is doing a four-sided stage this time; although the seats arranged in the track area are not as good as the original stadium seats, they have instead become VIP seats."

"... Is there a possibility that this eighty thousand isn't worth bragging about? Brother already held two consecutive concerts at Victoria Park in Hong Kong back in '89, you know?"

"Forget it, Victoria Park existed, but whether Leslie Cheung attracted that many people to enter is a question; look, did he mention these two concerts himself later?"

"Exactly, even if we take a step back and say it's true, how does a ticket price of 30 HKD compare to Zhou Yi's official pricing with a minimum of 500 and a top tier of 2000? Not to mention the scalper price for Zhou Yi's concert has now skyrocketed to 5500 at the highest."

"..."

Inside the Shanghai Theatre Academy campus, several people were chatting about the hottest topic in the city recently.

"No matter what, I really want to go; damn scalpers have even f***ing driven the price up to nearly six thousand, one price a day is f***ing annoying."

"Yeah, every time tickets were sold in batches, I queued up at the ticket office immediately, but I still couldn't grab a single one."

"Eh? Isn't that Hu Ge and Yuan Hong? Hey! Hu Ge, where are you two going in such a hurry?"

Several students saw the school's advertising little expert and called out.

"Oh, going to pick up Zhou Yi's concert tickets."

—?!

The few people who heard Hu Ge speak like that widened their eyes in unison, but before they could ask, these two had already slipped away after casually showing off a bit.

"Scalper prices are nearly six thousand per ticket; how did you get two tickets for six thousand?"

Hu Ge, who had been dragged out of school by his good friend Yuan Hong, was excited but also somewhat curious, so he asked.

"A friend I met while working on a film crew; I badgered him for a long time before he finally agreed to loosen up."

Yuan Hong, very smug about being able to show off in front of his good brother, said: "How about it? Awesome, right?"

"You're pretty good."

Hu Ge flicked his bangs and this time sincerely gave him a thumbs up: "Could these be fake tickets? I heard that when Zhou Yi participated in Sun Yanzi's concert in Singapore before, some rich second-generation kids bought fake scalper tickets for over ten thousand."

As the famous advertising little prince in the Shanghai Theatre Academy, Hu Ge could afford the money; it was just that originally one ticket was a bit of a loss, and two exceeded his budget range.

Yuan Hong sneered: "If I hadn't broken up, this good thing wouldn't have fallen to you, kid."

"Damn, we're brothers and you treat me like this? Is this my status?"

"You're sitting at the same table as a dog."

Hu Ge flew into a rage and reached out to choke his best friend.

"Damn, sometimes I think Eileen Chang was right: fame must be seized early. Zhou Yi is only one year older than us, yet his concert has already set a record in the history of the Chinese music scene, while we're still shooting commercials everywhere."

After their scuffle, Yuan Hong sighed, gazing at the promotional poster for Zhou Yi's solo concert outside the shopping mall, his tone tinged with envy.

Zhou Yi, who skipped grades, was born in '81; the two of them, who studied normally, were born in '82.

One was heaven, the other earth.

"No wonder he's my idol."

Hu Ge shook his head proudly, as if Zhou Yi's greatness were his own: "Someday I want to be a superstar like him, doing whatever I want whenever I want."

"Give it a rest. Zhou Yi can write an entire English album and go harvest the West, while you can only travel when you fly there, sending money to the West, and you can't even speak English properly."

Yuan Hong mocked him: "But I heard that Long Face is releasing an English album next year too? Sony has already let the cat out of the bag."

Long Face refers to Wang Lihong.

He earned the nickname because of his overly long face; no one knows exactly who coined it, but it has now become his exclusive derogatory label.

"He's American by birth, so releasing an English album is pretty normal."

Hu Ge shrugged indifferently: "But I think he won't make it. If he could have made it in the American music scene back then, he wouldn't have come back wearing the title of American-Chinese to hype up some elite image."

"Compared to him, I think Stutterer might be better, with a higher chance of success, but I don't know how well he's learned English by now."

(End of this chapter)