Chapter 384: Please Download the Anti-Fraud App

"Seems there's another American too? That Tao Zhe."

"Is he American? I thought he was Chinese?"

"Really or not?"

"Really—never mind, who cares if it's true or not."

Hu Ge pondered for a moment, but couldn't recall this person's specific details right away.

In the current mainland music market, the only two young-generation singers qualified to keep pace with Zhou Yi and also regarded by many of Zhou Yi's fans as mere copycats are these two—for this reason, some of Zhou Yi's extreme fans thoughtfully gave each of them a nickname based on their characteristics.

As for Tao Zhe?

If I say we're not close, then we truly aren't close.

The stutterer and the horse-faced one's "Double-Section Staff" and "Only One"—well, at the very least, they once fought on the charts with Zhou Yi and have both reached number one at different times.

Tao Zhe? His hottest songs in the mainland right now are "Melody" and the adapted version of "The Moon Represents My Heart," and he hasn't even beaten A Do.

But precisely because of this, Tao Zhe has become the only singer some of Zhou Yi's extreme fans can call by his full name, and they haven't given him a nickname yet.

Neither Hu Ge nor Yuan Hong are members of that group of extreme fans, but having seen so much of it in daily life, they are somewhat influenced during private chats and refer to those two by derogatory names.

As college students at a contemporary art academy, they actually don't have the identity of die-hard fans of anyone in particular, even if that person is Zhou Yi. They are more like the ideal fans Zhou Yi described when he first debuted and gave his first exclusive interview to "Contemporary Music World"—

Don't focus on his life; just keep the focus on the music.

Especially Hu Ge.

As the school's well-known "Little Advertising Prince," although his singing is decent and he once earned the nickname "Shanghai Bund Low-Cost Little Zhou Yi" when performing on campus, what he actually prefers most is acting.

Yuan Hong needs no further explanation.

The only reason he initially joined an offline Zhou Yi fan club was because there were many good-looking girls in it; for this, he even specifically learned the "obscure songs" from Zhou Yi's past albums to showcase that he actually had "higher and more unique taste," crafting a persona of an intellectual and cultured person.

Typical examples include songs like "Susan Says," "Sound Wave," and "West Chamber."

Then, as he studied and studied, he truly became a fan of Zhou Yi.

And precisely because of this, in Zhou Yi's third album "Lianshan," what he knows best now are not the big hits like "Fairy Tale," "Little Dimple," "Today You Marry Me," or "Cheers," but the obscure A-side tracks.

Among these, "Can You Feel My World," "In the Name of the Father," and "Ghost" successfully rose to become Yuan Hong's weapons for showing off to others, thanks to their popularity ranking at the very bottom of Zhou Yi's entire album series since his debut.

There was originally another song called "Assassin," but two weeks ago, "Assassin," with its relatively more popular composition and arrangement, gradually climbed in popularity—it can't be called a big hit, but at the very least it could rank as medium.

Bolstered by the subculture philosophy that obscurity equals coolness, Yuan Hong decisively kicked it out of his arsenal for showing off, because this song could no longer provide him with the superiority of "everyone else is drunk while I alone am sober," meaning he lost the capital to show off in front of girls.

"Growing up, this is my first concert, and I never expected to dedicate it to Zhou Yi."

More than ten minutes later, Yuan Hong, who had just received two tickets from a scalper in a small alley in a manner resembling spies meeting, felt somewhat emotional.

In the past, stars had come to Shanghai to hold concerts before; he would mostly just pass by, with no intention of buying tickets at all. It wasn't because he was poor; although he had filmed fewer commercials than his good friend Hu Ge, he still had more than enough money to attend a concert.

He was simply too lazy to go.

Hu Ge, standing nearby, said nothing; instead, he held the tickets in his hand up to the sunlight as if inspecting real versus fake money, squinting slightly to distinguish their authenticity.

"Stop looking; if it's real, it can't be fake. I already chatted with him on Langma UC before."

Yuan Hong, seeing no flaws and noticing his good friend being so cautious, couldn't help but laugh, then immediately spoke up to dissuade him: "Besides, this person was introduced by a friend of mine. That friend not only handles the recently popular Langma UC, but also takes on channels like QQ and NetEase Chat Rooms, so he wouldn't—"

"Yuan Hong!"

Suddenly, Hu Ge shouted. The former was startled, his body instinctively shuddering, then he looked at him in confusion: "What's wrong?"

"It's fake."

Hu Ge snatched the tickets from his hand, and in the latter's bewildered gaze, applied the authentication method previously announced by Warner to judge their authenticity: "Yours is fake too."

"..."

"I told you, so cheap must mean there's something fishy! What are you standing there for! Chase him!"

Hu Ge, disappointed in Yuan Hong's lack of steel, immediately sprinted after the direction the scalper had just gone, and while running, didn't forget to take out his phone to call the police. Only then did Yuan Hong, coming to his senses, belatedly follow, running until he felt his throat was smoking—

"Hey! Stop! Don't run!"

Two strong young college students engaged in a chase on the bustling street with a scalper who hadn't yet had time to unlock his bike and leave.

And this scene was already the fifty-eighth case of scalper ticket fraud reported by police departments across Shanghai districts up to this point, forcing the Shanghai police to directly use this incident as a case study to announce it to the public once again, reminding citizens and tourists: "Beware of new types of online fraud..."

Since someone in the police station recognized Hu Ge, the former child host who had hosted programs, the police specially took photos of Hu Ge and Yuan Hong, who had been the first to report and seek help, using their experience in identifying fake tickets for publicity, which was then published in newspapers.

……………………………………

"Newspaper? What's the headline?"

Hong Kong, Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Zhou Yi, finally having slept enough, sat on the living room sofa eating a luxurious dinner (late-night snack) brought up by the hotel staff; his chopsticks were flipping meat under the chili peppers. Hearing this, his action paused slightly, and he leaned forward to look at Qian Jiang, who had just pushed open the suite door and walked in.

"Your first television drama."

Saying this, Qian Jiang threw the newspaper next to Zhou Yi—

"First Screen Kiss? First Touch of Electricity! Zhou Yi's Only Television Drama to Date!"

With a bit less exaggerated style and a few more exclamation marks, the accompanying photo showed Zhou Yi in the past on the set of "The Pink Lady," holding a guitar and chatting and laughing with a group of actors—Cheng Hao, smiling brightly, stood right beside him, positioned at the center of the photo.

Liu Ruoyin, the original female lead of this drama, didn't even have a shot.

"Is 'The Pink Lady' about to air?"

Although the hook was written very exaggeratedly, the content was basically the same old promotional material for a television drama, except the subject of the promotion had now become him.

It was obvious that the drama production team must have started building momentum.

"Yes, since you can't properly enter Taiwan to maintain your current popularity, you need some new stimulus points, so the company agreed to the promotional strategy proposed by the other side..."

Qian Jiang nodded.

Promoting a television drama should normally be something completely unrelated to Zhou Yi. But alas, this "The Pink Lady" is the only television drama in which Zhou Yi has an official acting record since his debut, even if it was just a cameo—

But the production team did not specify this; instead, they used an ambiguous "Special Lead" to describe Zhou Yi.

Furthermore, on the promotional poster for "The Pink Lady" in Taiwan, Zhou Yi's personal image openly occupied the center position. Not only that, his personal image was also very large, almost reaching the same level as the several main actors.

It is very hard not to give people room for imagination.

Most importantly, even the drama's female lead, Liu Ruoyin, would occasionally bring up Zhou Yi during variety show interviews; for instance, he originally intended to visit Cheng Hao on set, but since the production was short one role, his visit gradually turned into him playing Li Bai in the drama, and he even wrote a song titled "Li Bai" about it—

Cheng Hao, who was merely a minor background figure, gained a certain level of fame in Taiwan in a very short time.

It was all because of Liu Ruoyin's words: "If it could matter, I want to be Li Bai. This isn't just a lyric; back then, we all joked that Zhou Yi must have been too immersed in his role, truly wanting to be with Cheng Hao, which is why he wrote such a lyric."

In Taiwan's Zhou Yi pairing community, which was split between Xiao Yaxuan and Sun Yanzi fans, while they were still verbally attacking Cai Zuoyan in Hong Kong, an mainland woman named Cheng Hao quietly emerged from Liu Ruoyin's mouth, instantly triggering many people's memories—

"Isn't she the female lead from the music video for 'Hua Tian Cuo'?"

"Wait a minute, she seems to be the female lead from the music video for 'In the Name of the Father' as well!"

Before the drama aired, the attention had already reached its peak, and Zhou Yi's new album "Lianshan" saw its sales figures rebound alongside the drama's promotional launch.

"Don't they fear a backlash on their reputation?"

Zhou Yi felt somewhat amused yet exasperated.

How much screen time did he even have, yet why was his headshot so huge on the posters?

There were even life-sized cutouts of his character from the drama at the offline promotional events; it was just ridiculous.

Even Mahua would have exclaimed, "That's professional!"

"Rock Records seems quite confident; they must have high hopes for the drama's quality. Since you can't enter Taiwan anyway, their promotion counts as boosting your popularity too; it's a win-win."

For Qian Jiang, who was accustomed to marketing stunts, although this was somewhat unethical, once you're in the entertainment industry, this isn't an issue.

As long as the drama's quality is good in the end, everything can be reversed.

"Besides, they haven't acknowledged you as a lead actor; they only said you visited on set to help out temporarily, and only mentioned that you and Cheng Hao are a couple. Strictly speaking, they didn't lie. But rest assured, once in the mainland, they won't promote it this way; they will explicitly state you made a guest appearance."

Qian Jiang clarified the bottom line: "'The Pink Ladies' premieres in Taiwan in December; due to the need for submission and review in the mainland, it will likely air between March and April next year, so there is plenty of time. By then, just say you knew nothing about it and that I handled everything."

(End of this chapter)