Chapter 4: Similar Circumstances

"Hello, my name is Zhou Yi."

After a polite handshake, Zhou Yi returned a sunny smile: "Senior sister, I hope you will look after me in the future."

Terms like senior sister, junior brother, senior brother, and junior sister were actually very popular during this period, whether in media promotion or within various companies.

Putting aside whether one is famous or not, artists in the same company must have an order of arrival.

"Alright, if I can look after you. I haven't debuted yet; perhaps by then, junior brother, you will have to look after me."

Sun Yanzi, a university graduate, was not someone ignorant of worldly affairs. Smiling, she pointed to the office with the closed door behind her, then curiously opened the topic: "Junior brother, how did you practice your Mandarin? Why is it so good?"

Compared to her, who clearly spoke with an international friend's accent upon opening her mouth, the fluency of Mandarin displayed in Zhou Yi's simple two sentences was nothing short of miraculous.

Although she, who grew up in Singapore, could speak Mandarin and had no major problems singing Mandarin songs, her accent was still very difficult to conceal in daily conversation.

And since coming to the Treasure Island, the people she came into contact with were either from Hong Kong Island or the Treasure Island; among this group, whether middle-aged, young, or even students, the accent problem was very obvious.

Only Zhou Yi's sudden, perfectly enunciated Mandarin made her feel somewhat surprised.

"Senior sister, I am from the mainland; how could my Mandarin not be good?"

Zhou Yi sat on the chair in the lounge area as if he were an old acquaintance, smiling: "However, I think there is still a bit of an accent problem; of course, the main responsibility lies with the teachers who taught me in school when I was young; they led me astray."

"You are from the mainland?"

Sun Yanzi suddenly understood, her eyes inevitably carrying a bit of curiosity as she looked the man with excellent body proportions over a few more times: "I am from Singapore, but my grandparents previously came from the Guangdong Province of the mainland."

"I am from the Jiang Xi Province; rounding off, we can be considered fellow villagers. Senior sister, when you become famous in the future, don't forget to help me out."

While Zhou Jianhui went to exchange ideas with the in-house gold-medal producers at Warner, Zhou Yi, having nothing else to do on the left or right, was quite happy to chat and joke with the yet-to-debut diva in front of him, enhancing the senior-junior bond between them.

Setting aside other things, the words about helping him out were absolutely heartfelt.

It was May; Sun Yanzi was still an ordinary high-achieving student from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. By early June, after Sun Yanzi released the first solo album of her career, she would be a rapidly rising little diva in the Mandarin music scene.

As for exactly how famous she would be...

One sentence to evaluate her: the only peer female singer between 01 and 03 who could stand on equal footing with Zhou Dong in popularity.

This gold content was visible to the naked eye.

And in June, he estimated he was still producing album songs; he was just a layman with no fame at all.

"Certainly, certainly; I borrow your auspicious words..."

Having someone of similar age to chat with, Sun Yanzi's nervousness in her heart dissipated considerably, and her eyes curved into crescent moons.

In fact, because Warner had placed a heavy bet on her album, the closer it got to the release date, the greater her psychological pressure became.

She had very few people to confide in.

Her parents and relatives were not by her side; at most, they could make phone calls, and she had very few friends on the Treasure Island.

She couldn't go chat about pressure with Zhou Jianhui, the mentor who discovered her and brought her to Warner; this person's pressure might be even greater than hers.

As for the other artists in the company...

Guo Fucheng and Zheng Xiuwen, this king and queen, were stationed in Hong Kong Island; their star power was simply not something she could reach at present;

The already debuted artists each had their own small groups, most of whom were puzzled by the heavy bet the company had placed on her, and were privately observing her new album with cold eyes.

At this critical moment, a fellow junior brother with no foundation at Warner suddenly appeared, whose personality seemed quite good; naturally, Sun Yanzi's attitude towards him was quite good.

This was due to the environment.

After all, this fellow junior brother and she shared one common point: both were personally discovered and signed by Zhou Jianhui, the General Manager of Warner.

From another perspective, the two of them were a genuine faction within the current Warner.

Especially after she heard Zhou Yi's signing experience, which was extremely similar to her own.

Both attended prestigious universities in their respective countries; both sang a few songs during university and were noticed by Zhou Jianhui; both rejected Zhou Jianhui several times before signing with Warner...

Zhou Yi also realized this, and his expression inevitably became somewhat strange.

"What type of songs do you write?"

As they chatted, when Sun Yanzi heard that this junior brother of hers could also write his own songs, her eyes immediately lit up, and she asked: "Do you have demos? Can I listen to them?"

"I do have demos, but I threw them in the school locker; I didn't bring them. As for the type, I have dabbled in all of them."

Zhou Yi shrugged, indicating he had brought nothing but himself: "However, recently the songs I sing the most are actually folk, pop, and rock, with a slight bias."

It wasn't that he loved singing these so much; purely because around the millennium, the markets in bars and discos in the Imperial Capital were willing to give flowers and tips to those who loved these genres.

As a literary plagiarist with no grand musical dreams, writing songs entirely by copying from memory, Zhou Yi naturally would not go against the version trends.

The reason he was able to earn his first pot of gold in '98 with a few friends during the World Cup was entirely due to working part-time singing and collecting tips.

After the World Cup, singing for him was purely for fun; after all, it was foolish not to take money when it was offered.

"You have dabbled in all of them? Then you—"

"Zhou Yi, you can go in now. I have also shown them your original works; you can talk."

Before Sun Yanzi could finish speaking, the office door not far behind her was suddenly pushed open by a hand—

Zhou Jianhui, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, walked out. Seeing the two young people communicating friendly, he smiled and said: "I have also arranged your residence on the Treasure Island for the past month. Just come find me after you finish talking with Li Saisong."

"Okay, I understand. Thank you, General Manager Zhou."

After making a gesture to chat later to Sun Yanzi, Zhou Yi, who had risen from the chair, immediately left the lounge area and pushed open the office door.

Li Saisong, an industry music producer born in 1966 and 34 years old this year, was sitting in the chair. Upon hearing the sound of the door opening, he immediately raised his head—

Zhou Yi, wearing a white printed T-shirt and blue jeans, immediately came into his view.

Simple, sunny, fresh, handsome.

Just at the first meeting, several singer images that could be crafted for the album immediately floated into the mind of Li Saisong, a professional music producer.

"Zhou Yi, right? Please sit. My name is Li Saisong; just call me Brother Li."

Facing this child who was only nineteen years old this year, the 34-year-old Li Saisong spoke in a very kind tone: "I have seen the works Jianhui brought over. He said you are very good at writing folk, pop-rock, and ballad songs?"

Speaking, Li Saisong raised the several sheets of sheet music in his hand; the works titled Nanshan Nan, Mercury Record, and Beautiful Land were vaguely listed among them.

"Yes, Brother Li."

Zhou Yi, sitting directly opposite this person, was not intimidated; on the contrary, he was secretly sizing up this producer.

He wore a striped shirt, and his black suit trousers and leather shoes were clearly of great value; his hair was slicked back, and a pair of black round-framed glasses rested on the bridge of his nose.

"What about other aspects? Are there any other genres you've explored or particularly enjoy? For instance, R&B? Dancing?" Considering Zhou Yi's age and his ability to independently write lyrics and compose music, whether through self-study or instruction, Li Saisong felt he had likely encountered relatively Western musical styles.

The reason for asking this was twofold: first, to further understand this young prodigy's personal stylistic comfort zone, and second, because Tao Zhe, currently wildly popular in Taiwan, and Guo Tianwang, the top star at Warner, were both relevant.

Zhou Yi, instantly understanding his meaning, fell into thought.

In these current times, Tao Zhe had sparked an R&B craze in Taiwan with his album "I'm OK," which had dominated the sales charts from the end of last year through the first quarter of this year; throughout Taiwan, people were either singing "Hua la la la la, the sky is raining" or vigorously performing "Big Manager."

As for the latter, it was simply that Guo Tianwang was a dance king capable of both singing and dancing. Since they were from the same company, if Zhou Yi wanted to debut under the title of "Asia's Little Dance King," it was certainly possible, and he could even have Guo Tianwang mentor him.