Chapter 388: The Teleprompter Prepared for Fans (6k)

Thanks to Warner's powerful offline promotion channels, there were no shortage of mainland teenagers receiving the same treatment as Deng Shiyin.

But in the end, thin arms could never twist thick thighs; they were ruthlessly suppressed by their parents—"Student studies are most important. If you get into Peking University like Zhou Yi in the future, Mom and Dad will sell the pots and pans to buy you tickets to his concert."

Peking University had become a mountain weighing heavily on the hearts of countless teenage Zhou Yi fans, heavy and oppressive.

Is that something you can just decide to take the exam for?!

Yet whenever a child tried to refute, parents could always bring up Zhou Yi—"Didn't Zhou Yi become a big star only after getting out of a small mountain village through exams? Your idol studies so well; if you fail your exams, how can you have the face to say you're learning from your idol?"

At this moment, Zhou Yi's student fans experienced for the first time what impact an idol who was too good at studying could have on them; their usual star-chasing behavior had instead become a perfectly perfect reason for parents to urge them to study, and the students who had asked for trouble could only tearfully open their textbooks...

"Zhou Yi! Why bother taking the Peking University exam?!"

A certain middle school student surnamed Wang from the Northeast, after being thoroughly CPU'd by his parents, curled up under the quilt and sincerely let out a reluctant sob: "I hate you!"

"Achoo!"

In Shanghai, Zhou Yi, who had just gotten off the plane, suddenly sneezed, raised his hand to rub his nose: "Damn it, who's cursing me?"

"Is there a possibility that you just caught a chill?"

Qian Jiang, accompanying him, handed him a wine-red thermos, glanced at the new down jacket the man had put on: "Be careful not to catch a cold, otherwise your concert will be difficult."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. I've only caught a cold a few times when I was in elementary school; my body is super strong, I eat whatever I want and it tastes great."

Zhou Yi, unscrewing the lid and blowing a few breaths into the bottle opening, lowered his head and took a small sip: "It'll be fine after adapting for an hour or so."

Late November in Hong Kong was still weather where you could run around wearing just a single shirt plus a jacket; you could even sit on the street corner with Fan Xiaopang and grill skewers, but at this time in Shanghai, people had already put on down jackets early.

"You'd better be careful, especially your throat."

At this moment, Qian Jiang was like an old mother fussing over Zhou Yi.

He was truly afraid.

If Zhou Yi's throat or body really had any problems, the light consequence would be injections and medicine affecting his condition, while the heavy consequence would be postponing the concert.

Neither consequence was something he wanted to see.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

After screwing the lid back on and carrying the thermos, Zhou Yi completely ignored the reporters trying to crowd in to interview him, wrapped in his down jacket, and walked straight out under the escort of security—

"Zhou Yi! Zhou Yi! There are rumors that Director Zhang Yimou and Jet Li flew to Hong Kong just to seek cooperation with you; is this true?!"

"Zhou Yi, may I ask if you are going to participate in the movie Hero?"

"Zhou Yi, may I ask if it's true that Fan Bingbin and Cai Zuoyan fought at the event backstage for you?"

"Zhou Yi, may I ask..."

Seeing the questions getting more and more outrageous, Zhou Yi stopped walking, and just as he was about to speak, Qian Jiang, quick-eyed and quick-handed, grabbed him back—"Forget it, forget it, Zhou Yi."

The reporter who had asked that question, seeing his purpose unfulfilled, watched as Zhou Yi was coaxed and tricked away by his manager, and a few traces of regret unconsciously climbed between his eyebrows.

Rumors in the Jianghu said that because of Zhou Yi, Cai Zuoyan, a member of the popular Hong Kong idol group Twins, met Fan Xiaopang, who was taking Zhou Yi to eat barbecue, at an event backstage, and the two sides fought fiercely over the man.

Although this news had zero evidence, and not even a photo of Cai Zuoyan and Fan Xiaopang appearing together at the event had surfaced, helplessly, gossip spreads widely.

Just like Zhou Yi's recently developed new pastime "outdoor play," legends said Zhou Yi and Fan Xiaopang had a fierce battle of intestines in Hong Kong Park, yet still no one could verify it; only people said they had passed through that place.

Helplessly, the sales were just high.

There were even outrageous rumors like "Zhang Yimou sent Zhang Ziyi to use the beauty trap to seek Zhou Yi's joining."

In the face of profit, even if Zhou Yi sued, he still couldn't stop the Hong Kong media's extremely gossipy hearts.

After all, after Xie Tingfeng announced his temporary withdrawal from the entertainment industry, as long as Zhou Yi was still in Hong Kong, he was the only top-tier topic figure.

"You'd better say less; the more you respond, the happier and more ecstatic they get."

After accompanying Zhou Yi onto the van and leaving the airport, Qian Jiang, seeing Zhou Yi still sighing with regret in his mouth, couldn't help but sigh and say.

What's the experience of taking care of an ancestor who likes to do whatever he wants?

This is the experience.

"I'm not responding to that; I just want them to stop writing nonsense. If they really must write nonsense, they'd better add a 'muscle man' label for me." Zhou Yi, stroking his chin, expressed his dissatisfaction.

What, staying in "Hong Kong Park" for only two minutes? Who are you looking down on?

Ultraman can last three minutes.

Qian Jiang: "..."

What the hell is a muscle man!

"If you really want that title, you can contact Hong Kong's erotic film masters; I know people in that industry too."

"Get lost, get lost, get lost."

Zhou Yi, in a bad mood, let out a string of bird songs and flower scents.

Qian Jiang, chuckling, lightly patted his general's belly and took him to the hotel first.

The 80,000-People Stadium is located in Shanghai's XH District; the hotel assigned by Warner was nearby too. Zhou Yi, who spent more than half the year in hotels, now felt too powerless to even complain.

Xiao Yaxuan, Wang Xiaojing, and the Women's Twelve Music Workshop under their command, who had arrived in Shanghai before him, all stayed in the same hotel. After he arrived at the hotel, Wang Xiaojing, who had been waiting and drinking tea in the lobby lounge, specially stood up to welcome him.

"Long time no see, Zhou Yi. Congratulations to you."

"Too polite, Brother Wang."

Glancing at the large group of women of various looks following behind Wang Xiaojing, Zhou Yi's face immediately rose with a smile warm enough to make people feel like they were bathed in spring breeze: "Long time no see, everyone. You'll have a hard time during the concert."

During the last Spring Festival Gala rehearsal, he had still had a few encounters with these women.

"Thank you, Brother Yi." The leading woman, knowing the current state of the domestic music market for them, naturally held twelve thousand percent gratitude that Zhou Yi was still willing to promote them.

"Because I need to rehearse during the day every day coming up, we'll put the music recording at night; that way you can also use the rehearsal to get familiar, and when it comes time to record, it'll be faster."

"Okay."

The members of Women's Twelve Music Workshop, cherishing this opportunity very much, answered in unison.

Zhou Yi waved goodbye to them in a friendly manner.

Honestly, if it weren't for Women's Twelve Music Workshop to back him up, it would still be quite difficult for him alone to recreate "Xiang Wang Xing" at the concert.

He cannot create shadow clones.

He had considered using other purely instrumental pieces for promotion, but given the required reach, "Xiang Wang Xing" was essentially the best choice he could confirm.

Take "Qin Wang Po Zhen Qu"; this is actually Li Shimin's exclusive BGM. The "Qin Wang" here refers to Li Shimin when he held the title of Qin Wang back then, not Qin Wang Ying Zheng, and this score has existed for a long time.

"Lan Ling Wang Ru Zhen Qu" has enough martial spirit, but its artistic conception does not match Ying Zheng's status, and its popularity is not ideal.

The so-called Indian battle anthem "Nijamena" on future short-video platforms only achieves a grand atmosphere in the chorus; in reality, the song's intro and outro follow a rhythm fitting its definition as a love song.

It is just that the popularity of short videos led many video creators to cut the beginning and end, keeping only the grand climax of the chorus to match various high-energy war scenes, thus creating the false impression that it suits war.

Positioned as a promotional song, "Xiang Wang Xing" possesses both the grandeur of war and the prosperous future Ying Zheng envisioned after unifying the six states.

Unlike Tan Dun, who composed a full set of scores, he merely created a promotional song more suitable for market promotion. The 48-second grand version has a lingering feeling, which in the film perfectly corresponds to the inevitable unification of the six states after the Qin Emperor finally killed the assassins—

Push open that door, and the destined great unification awaits.

Of course, this piece is also very suitable for performance in public venues, especially crowded occasions like concerts.

Since Lao Mouzi has dug out his bottom 200,000, Zhou Yi, being highly professional, naturally had to help with the promotion, while packaging himself in the process.

Hmm, truly just a side effect!

After a simple rest at the hotel, Zhou Yi immediately followed the team to the 80,000-Person Stadium. With the assistance of Warner and the relevant departments of the XH District, the stadium, which had been expanded to an 80,000-person capacity, was now filled with densely packed seats at a glance—

The central four-sided stage had been built into an oval shape surrounding the original running track.

A large number of audio equipment had been fully debugged and hoisted into place; those still testing the lighting procedures with Warner staff stopped their actions upon seeing Zhou Yi approach and nodded in greeting to him—

Except for one person.

Xiao Yaxuan gazed at the large teleprompter surrounding the four-sided stage, lost in thought.

"What are you looking at? So absorbed?"

Zhou Yi, who hadn't seen her at the hotel, unexpectedly encountered her at the rehearsal site. As he strolled over to her side, Xiao Yaxuan's train of thought was abruptly interrupted. Startled, her body instinctively wanted to retreat when she sensed someone approaching, but upon seeing it was Zhou Yi, her tense muscles immediately relaxed—

"What are you thinking? From the singers I've seen, you are the first to bring such a huge teleprompter to a concert. Can't you remember the lyrics?"

Xiao Yaxuan was somewhat surprised, pointed at those conspicuous teleprompter screens, sized him up, and whispered close to him: "Did you exhaust yourself in Hong Kong? Memory declining, eyesight failing?"

In the early millennium, teleprompters were not rare. But bringing a teleprompter screen enlarged to this extent to a concert, Zhou Yi was truly the first in history.

Xiao Yaxuan wanted to laugh.

Besides memory decline leading to forgotten lyrics, she could think of no second possibility.

"You can try it yourself if you want. Between the two of us, there is no need for such subtlety." Feeling the woman's breath lingering on his earlobe, Zhou Yi raised his gaze to look at the large teleprompter screen his company had specially purchased, smiling noncommittally.

Facing Zhou Yi's still vigorous "threat," Xiao Yaxuan initially wanted to push back, but considering she needed to conserve energy for rehearsal to avoid embarrassment at the concert, her eager provocation was ultimately suppressed deep within her heart after much deliberation.

"This thing isn't prepared for me; it's prepared for my fans."

"?"

Xiao Yaxuan slowly typed out a question mark: "Fans who can come to your concert, at the very least, should be able to sing your big hits and medium-hit tracks perfectly by heart, right? Is this even necessary?"

Concerts, concerts; in this era, fans attending a concert, if not die-hard fans or hardcore fans, must at least be casual fans who know Zhou Yi's many big hits inside out.

Moreover, usually, the songs that trigger a full-house sing-along at a concert are the singer's own famous blockbusters, the kind ordinary listeners might hum along to.

In this era where copying lyrics and lyric books were prevalent, Zhou Yi setting up such a large teleprompter for fans seemed to her nothing more than taking off one's pants to fart—utterly superfluous.

"No, no, no, it's for new songs."

Zhou Yi shook his head with a smile and revealed his plan amidst Xiao Yaxuan's astonished gaze.

"New songs? Wait, did I hear that wrong? You're going to sing new songs at the concert?"

Xiao Yaxuan frowned slightly, seriously doubting whether she might have misheard.

This was even more outrageous than using a large teleprompter; which singer would sing new songs at a concert?

"Don't you have enough old songs to sing?"

Not counting Zhou Yi's own three studio albums, one EP, and one Chinese album, plus the song "Yellow Race" included in the "China-Korea Song Gala" DVD, just the Zhou Yi songs in her albums and the Zhou Yi songs in Sun Yanzi and Zhang Shaohan's albums combined would be enough to put on a small concert.

"It's not easy to gather 80,000 people; there will definitely be many fans coming from out of town, traveling long distances just to catch a glimpse of me."

Zhou Yi, with his hands tucked into his down jacket pockets, exhaled a breath; wisps of white smoke rose with the cold air: "I must say, I have to thank them."

Pop singers, pop singers; in the end, they still rely on fans for a living.

Although he played with fan circles, fabricated rumors, and had an arrogant persona, he was genuinely grateful in his heart to those fans willing to support him with real money.

The Spring Festival holiday hasn't started yet.

Although November 30th was a Sunday, even counting Saturday, it was only a two-day weekend holiday, let alone many people who didn't even have weekends.

Xiao Yaxuan, who also went all out for her fans, paused, then suddenly thought of a possibility: "Thank them? How? You didn't write a song specifically for your fans, did you?"

Zhou Yi said nothing, simply nodding.

Xiao Yaxuan: "..."

Good heavens, you are awesome.

"I seriously suspect you kid are putting me on the hot seat." Xiao Yaxuan, calling it like an insider, propped her elbow on the man's shoulder, leaned against him shaking her head, and exclaimed with admiration.

In this era, fans giving gifts to idols was a normal thing; no one would find it strange, and instead, it would be seen as a way to interact closely with fans.

Like herself, she often received heartwarming gifts from fans during signing sessions.

Regarding this, the industry's unwritten rule was generally to let the singer perform brilliantly, treat fans well, and sometimes give away signed photos, signed albums, merchandise, and the like, but none of these were supplied in unlimited quantities.

Zhou Yi's behavior was something almost no one had done.

"What are you afraid of? Your fans all know you aren't good at writing songs."

"... I thank you."

Stung by a critical hit, Xiao Yaxuan directly reached out and pinched the soft flesh at the man's waist to defend herself: "I also possess a certain ability to create, okay? I can write songs too."

Feeling no pain at all, only a ticklish sensation at his waist, Zhou Yi glanced at her sideways: "What does your teacher Yao Qian say?"

"He told me to take on endorsements, what can I say."

Xiao Yaxuan, decisively avoiding this topic, guiltily changed the subject.

It's not that I'm afraid, truly not afraid...

"Come to think of it, why did that NetEase thing, 'Westward Journey Online II', ask you to be their spokesperson instead of me? Didn't your company buy their stock?"

Just two days ago, NetEase officially signed a three-year game endorsement contract with Xiao Yaxuan, making her the second spokesperson for NetEase's 'Westward Journey' series after Zhou Xingxing.

Thus, among the Four Heavenly Kings of the portal websites, Sohu's portal news business signed Zhou Yi, Sina's portal news business signed Sun Yanzi, and NetEase's game business signed Xiao Yaxuan; only the little penguin remained with little news circulating.

"You'd have to be able to afford me first."

Even real brothers keep clear accounts, let alone those who aren't even real brothers.

Zhou Yi, personally adjusting the on-site equipment, curled his lip.

"We can afford it, absolutely we can afford it!"

Shenzhen, Penguin, main conference room.

The not-yet-fleshy Little Ma sat in the head seat, brows furrowed, watching the dispute among his subordinates.

"We don't need to sign an exclusive contract with Zhou Yi; we only need his influence among the youth, which is crucial for maintaining our QQ business."

Facing the doubts, the executive who advocated signing Zhou Yi presented facts and reasoned: "I've also investigated his eight-person concert in Shanghai at the end of the month; it's a solid eighty thousand people, with no fluff, and even then, many of his fans simply can't make it.

"Over ninety percent of his fan base consists of young people and teenagers; this is vital for restoring our reputation. They are the future, the main force willing to accept new forms of the internet.

"Signing Zhou Yi will absolutely allow us to stabilize during this wave of impact."

2002 was undoubtedly a year of pain and joy for Penguin.

The profitability of the Mobile Dream Net made them the first among the four major portal websites to achieve a massive leap in profit, but the problems that followed also gave the executives headaches—the QQ account charging system.

In March 2002, Penguin publicly announced the cessation of free QQ number distribution; if one wanted one, paid registration was required. Since then, user registration numbers and new active users began a steady decline.

Originally, this would have been merely a period of pain for Penguin, but unfortunately, in September 2002, a company named Langma emerged as a dark horse, becoming the only company on the current market capable of threatening Penguin's foundation—

This company launched an instant messaging software named 'Langma UC', which won user favor with numerous novel features such as unique scene-based chatting, action languages, and animated icons.

By the end of November, within a mere three months, the number of newly registered users for this software broke through eight million, an unprecedented boom, forming what could almost be called a fatal threat to Penguin's future prospects.

And what was even more fatal was that, upon discovering Penguin's weakness, Sina, NetEase, and even Sohu began to step into the instant messaging field, developing various trial products, further forming a cordon encircling Penguin.

Under these circumstances, Penguin's market share was being nibbled away step by step.

What the company is discussing now is whether to cancel the charging model; if it is to be cancelled, how should it be cancelled? What excuse should be used?

And, if returning to free, how must they act to restore the image and reputation in the market that has already been damaged?

After observing Zhou Yi for a long time, the executive immediately proposed his own opinion—invite Zhou Yi.

"Zhou Yi's fan loyalty is extremely high, and his overall willingness to pay is higher compared to other stars; this was built by his album sales one by one, and this eighty-thousand-person concert is the best proof.

"In a few months, QQ will turn three; at that time, we can use the third-anniversary birthday as an excuse to invite Zhou Yi to serve as the image promotion ambassador, while simultaneously announcing the move to free.

"In this way, relying on Zhou Yi's powerful influence in the market and among the youth, the news of QQ going free can spread at maximum speed, while also maximizing the recovery of the market we have lost."

Speaking, the executive also released the Sohu data he had collected—the bar chart clearly showed the magnitude of the traffic boost Sohu gained after signing Zhou Yi; not only did advertising revenue leap to become the highest among the four major portal websites, but user activity also significantly outpaced other competitors.

Because of Zhou Yi's exclusive internet news deal, Sohu's status in the minds of many young people could be said to be the number one internet entertainment news station.

There was no way around it; who else in the mainland could stir up so much wind and rain and cause so many incidents? There was only Zhou Yi, the sole sprout.

"We cannot enjoy his popularity abroad, but his domestic fame is already evident to all. Whether it's topping the charts in Hong Kong, or Xincheng Radio becoming number one with his help, or the current eighty-thousand-person concert, all suffice to demonstrate the innate commercial value he possesses.

"If you all don't believe me, you can refer to the data that Warner and the Shanghai authorities will likely publish after the concert ends; I dare bet that Zhou Yi's contribution to the economic growth of Shanghai's XH District this week might be second only to the National Day holiday throughout the entire year!"

The executive's words were spoken with iron-clad certainty, and Little Ma Ge in the head seat was obviously somewhat moved.

The National Day holiday is basically the peak season for eating, drinking, playing, and consumption in the country. If Zhou Yi could drive growth second only to that, then this commercial value, let alone forty or fifty million, he would have to secure even sixty million.

Penguin's account currently holds over one hundred million in net profit, with expected significant growth next year; the Mobile Dream Net's surge exceeded everyone's imagination. Even if signing for sixty or seventy million, spread over three or four years, it would only be twenty or thirty million a year, which is absolutely Mao Maoyu.

"Negotiate, go make contact. Isn't he preparing for the concert right now? Go investigate on the spot."

Little Ma Ge immediately made a decision: "QQ's third anniversary needs a story, which can be paired with a catchy song. I don't require depth, only singability and advertising effect. If Zhou Yi can deliver a satisfactory answer, then we can begin cooperation."

(End of this chapter)