Chapter 411: The Superstar Effect? The Zhou Yi Effect!

"What time is Zhou Yi arriving, Old Han?"

Inside a private room of a Chinese restaurant in South Korea.

After finishing the ordering, Han Hong, who was gradually developing the aura of a big sister, returned to the private room. Before she could even close the door, a tall, leggy, and beautiful woman spoke up curiously, "Did he not have time to come? He seems very busy."

"Soon, soon. He said he is on the way."

Han Hong smiled and closed the private room door. As she spoke, she turned her gaze toward the somewhat silent Sun Nan. Passing by, she unconsciously raised her hand and patted his shoulder to comfort him, "He was just handling company matters. You all know his songs exploded in the US again."

"Yes, it really is a miracle."

Qu Ying's tone clearly carried a hint of disbelief.

As the only person present with experience breaking into the American market, she, known by foreign reporters as China's number one model, knew very well how difficult it is for a Chinese person to go global.

Having appeared in top-tier magazines, endorsed international brands like Ericsson phones and Longines watches, and even served as a judge at international modeling competitions, Qu Ying believed she had already broken into the international scene in the modeling world. Yet, the cruel reality ultimately left her banging her head against a wall.

Due to her age, she decided to retire while at the peak of her career. Returning to the domestic scene, she carried her unbroken model halo, resting and recuperating while searching for opportunities to transition.

Her name on this Sino-Korean Song Festival roster was specifically for transitioning and building credentials.

"In terms of credentials, the two of you should have some common ground. After all, you both achieved success abroad, even if she is in the modeling circle."

At a traffic light, Qian Jiang, who was driving personally, glanced at Zhou Yi, who was looking at the list of materials, and joked with a smile, "Moreover, Sun Nan is here tonight. I guess he intends to submit to you personally."

As the number one figure in the mainland, his ability to participate in this Sino-Korean Song Festival was thanks to his outstanding performance at the previous Sino-Japanese Song Festival.

"Originally, he didn't really want to come, but he was likely swayed by his agency's advice behind the scenes. After all, bowing to you now isn't shameful."

"That's quite a statement. Do I look like the type of person who eats people? I have no deep grudge with him that would prevent us from ever meeting again."

Zhou Yi glanced sideways at Qian Jiang, "The resources for 'Young Bao Qingtian' were snatched by you, not by me. The title of mainland number one wasn't something I actively sought."

"... If I were Sun Nan, I'd floor the gas pedal right now and take you down with me."

As the car started again, accompanied by Qian Jiang's threat that held no real menace, the black Mercedes sped past the brightly lit streets—

Ten-plus minutes later, following the address Han Hong gave him, Zhou Yi entered the restaurant under the delighted gaze of the female owner. After the routine of signing autographs and taking photos, he followed the owner, who was leading the way, and pushed open the door to the private room—

Han Hong, Sun Nan, Qu Ying, Zhou Hui, Mo Wenwei, and the Zero Point Band.

Except for Jing Gangshan and Sun Yue, these two senior pop singers with early debuts, and Wu Your Majesty, a national-level vocalist responsible for maintaining order and leading the team, all other participants of this Sino-Korean Song Festival had arrived.

"Sorry, company matters delayed me quite a bit. I'm late, I'm late."

Zhou Yi, who started by self-criticizing, didn't let the atmosphere in the private room become awkward. He feigned helplessness and sighed, "Recently, I've been squeezed by the company until I feel like I'm being used as a donkey."

"That's quite a statement. Come, come, Zhou Yi, let me introduce you. This is Qu Ying, China's number one model."

With Sun Yue absent, Han Hong, who had known Zhou Yi for quite some time, acted as the intermediary. She enthusiastically introduced that tall, leggy, nine-head-proportioned beauty to Zhou Yi. The latter extended her hand to Zhou Yi at the appropriate moment, "Finally meeting the real person. You're even more handsome in person than on the posters."

"Also, don't believe what Old Han says about being the number one model. That's just the media's flattery that turns into a killing blow."

"You're being modest, Sister Qu."

Zhou Yi shook hands with her cheerfully, "I've also shot a magazine issue. Those models don't have your temperament."

"'Vogue Bazaar', right? I bought those issues. You have great style; even Hu Bin would feel ashamed compared to you."

"I love hearing that. Say more."

With a few smiles climbing his eyebrows, Zhou Yi's gaze then turned to the others in the room—besides Sun Nan and the Zero Point Band, these two old acquaintances, the other two new faces were the female singer Zhou Hui, representing Taiwan at the Sino-Korean Song Festival, and Mo Wenwei, representing Hong Kong at the Sino-Korean Song Festival.

The former debuted in 1999. In terms of credentials, she belongs to the same generation as Xiao Yaxuan, Cai Yilin, Liang Jingru, and Sun Yanzi. However, compared to these four, her hit song, and the one with the highest recognition to date, is a cover of Wang Fei's "Agreement".

Although Zhou Yi had never met Mo Wenwei before, on the charts, she had once been a top-tier diva who fought against him.

"Finally meeting you. Ah Yi, you really didn't give any face in Hong Kong." Mo Wenwei joked about the things Zhou Yi did in Hong Kong, "And, you are the first person to win a Ferrari from Wong Jim."

"You flatter me, Sister Mo."

After exchanging contact information, Zhou Yi then turned to Zhou Hui. After leaving contact details with her as well, his gaze finally turned to Sun Nan—

"Long time no see, Zhou Yi."

Unlike the others, Sun Nan initiated a friendly hug right away, his smile on his face looking incredibly sincere.

Seeing this, the several people present, each with their own thoughts, quietly breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts.

"Long time no see."

Seeing Sun Nan voluntarily bow to him and release the goodwill of admitting defeat, the smile on Zhou Yi's lips gradually became more genuine.

This man, who still wanted to use his new album "Sky of Fate" to reclaim the throne of the number one figure, finally gave up on that thought—Zhou Yi was simply too strong; he completely saw no hope of winning.

Seeing this, Han Hong immediately called for everyone to take their seats. Relying on the appetizers brought by the shop owner, they ate and chatted, mostly discussing the changes that had occurred in the domestic music scene recently.

"To be honest, if I were Sea Butterfly, I'd probably want to call the police."

While chewing on peanuts, Han Hong, when mentioning the major music scene battle that erupted at the end of this year, laughed until her eyes were almost invisible, "Ah Du, do you remember him, Zhou Yi? Sea Butterfly knew you had no plans to release an album at the end of the year, so they planned to hype him up again. But then they ran into your situation, and the funds were wasted again."

"Ah Du?"

Hearing this name out of the blue, Zhou Yi raised his eyebrows in surprise. Subsequently, he figured out exactly what the situation was from the chatter of these few people—

The cause was that Sea Butterfly wanted to hype up Ah Du and make efforts to help him secure the number one spot on the Baidu Annual Singer Search Chart.

Looking at the entire year of 2002, only two truly stood firm in the position of super top-tier male singers—one was Zhou Yi, and the other was Ah Du.

Although there was a significant gap between the two.

Therefore, at a time when they were comprehensively defeated in both album clashes and song rankings, taking advantage of Zhou Yi's trip abroad, Sea Butterfly wanted to make a big leap to catch up with Zhou Yi in terms of popularity and internet search volume—

November 29, Ah Du under Sea Butterfly officially released his second album, "Persist to the End".

The title track "Persist to the End", under Sea Butterfly's marketing, began its buildup right when Zhou Yi just left the country. Until last week, with Zhou Yi's popularity dropping significantly, Ah Du, who had once again sung across Dajiangnanbei with this song, seemed to be proving to the outside world that he was not just a flash in the pan.

December 18, in the mainland, Busheng Music, a singer named Xu Wei gradually walked out of the gloom of depression and released a new album, "Time · Stroll". An almost song that swept the mainland music charts in a short period was born from this album—"Blue Lotus".

December 20, a new singer under Universal Records, Pan Weibo, officially debuted under the name "Hip-Hop Little Zhou Yi" and released his debut album "Gecko Stroll". The title track of the same name, "Gecko Stroll", and the male-female duet "Tell Me", upon release, also had a fierce momentum, showing signs of becoming famous with one album in Taiwan.

In an instant, at the end of the year, the music scenes on both sides of the strait and in the two special administrative regions all seemed to have emerged people who could suppress Zhou Yi, who was currently in the period of weak album sales, on the charts.

Sea Butterfly was caught off guard and forced to shift their focus to the path of opposing them. After all, Zhou Yi was not releasing an album this year, so there was no need to worry too much.

Then, their minds went blank.

Or rather, the top executives of these several companies all went blank—when the news of "In the Name of the Father" began to be reported continuously in the country, they found it somewhat difficult to understand.

No, bro, we're about to fight with real swords and spears, and you're already bringing out the cannons?

Chinese songs breaking into the foreign market?

Why don't you soar straight up ninety thousand li?

And precisely because of this sudden, sky-falling surge of popularity, the promotional and advertising funds that Butterfly, Universal, and Busheng, the three record companies, had prepared for their artists were all wasted!

Warner, sitting securely on its fishing platform, only needed to leverage this wave of popularity and add a tiny bit of marketing budget to help Zhou Yi return to the number one spot on all major charts—along the way, it also brought several other songs back into the top ten.

On the Music Wind and Cloud Chart, "Fairy Tale," which had already lost the number one spot and slipped to third, suddenly shot back to first like a rocket under this wave of popularity. What made the major record companies even more surprised was that the song "On My Father's Name" actually stirred up waves domestically as well...

"Let the haters speak!"

On the domestic internet, because of the achievement of "On My Father's Name," which was said to have broken the barrier of song languages, the crystallized fans who had been suppressed by the marketing budgets of Universal, Butterfly, and Busheng during this period all spoke up. Some even arrogantly went to various forums and chat rooms to cross-region instruct others—

Including, but not limited to, running into the fan support groups of corresponding singers to despise them and tell them to come out and see the Emperor; educating those people about Zhou Yi's achievements; and absorbing and converting those wavering passersby fans, and so on.

Precisely because of this reason, the upcoming Sino-Korean Song Festival that Zhou Yi was about to attend immediately attracted more attention—

According to online voting, on January 3 of the coming year, the number of domestic viewers wanting to watch the Sino-Korean Song Festival on time in front of their televisions increased by a staggering 325% compared to the previous Sino-Korean Song Festival!

And this was all because they came to watch for Zhou Yi.

This directly caused immense psychological pressure on the pop singers participating in this year's song festival.

After all, according to common sense, this kind of gala is not the Spring Festival Gala; the number of people truly willing to stare and watch is actually not too large, as can be seen from the previous Sino-Korean Song Festival.

And precisely because of this, when the Sino-Korean Song Festival officially began recording on December 27, aside from Zhou Yi and the veteran singer holding the line, everyone else on the Chinese side had a serious expression.

Sun Nan and Han Hong, with their stern faces, projected an aura that looked quite terrifying, leaving the Korean side completely baffled.

Those who knew thought they were there to sing; those who didn't thought they had come to Hanseong to fight a war...

(End of this chapter)