Chapter 416: The Ten-Million-Level Hall

December 28, 2002, Saturday, a day with not-so-beautiful weather.

Forced out of her warm bed, Sun Yanzi had a sour face from the moment she threw off the covers; she did nothing, just sat on the stool by the bed, lost in thought for several minutes—her eyes vacant, as if emptying her mind.

Outside the window, the sky had not yet begun to dawn; the dim streetlights still held their posts. When her assistant called, the lit phone screen displayed the time—4:13 AM.

Even cold water could not reduce her sleepy eye bags. Sun Yanzi, trying to shake off her drowsy state, wet her hands with cold tap water and stood before the sink, hesitating for a long time; several times she wanted to scoop up the water and splash her face but couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Yanzi, breakfast is already bought for you; you can eat it directly once you get down to the car. Also, after the sponsor event this morning, you still have to go shoot the commercial stills for China Mobile. Then you have the Spring Festival Gala rehearsal, a fashion magazine event, and a media exclusive interview, mainly about the theme song for the movie 'Left Turn, Right Turn'..."

The assistant's voice also sounded tired, but she still responsibly reminded her.

After hanging up, Sun Yanzi, with her messy short hair, closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, stomped her foot, and turned on the faucet to splash cold water on her face—the icy sensation of the water against her skin made her shiver instantly, sending goosebumps all over her body.

Even though she was prepared, Sun Yanzi couldn't help but keep saying "Sss-sss" in her mouth from the shock; unstyled strands of hair stood up as she shook her head. Seeing this, Sun Yanzi, finding humor in her hardship, pinched them twice in front of the mirror, messed with the strange style, and somewhat dispelled her unspeakable morning grumpiness.

"Hold on, just hold on a bit more; it'll be fine once these two days are over."

At eight, Chen Ze Shan, who also woke up early, kept coaxing Sun Yanzi, who had finished her makeup and styling, saying nice things: "The China Mobile endorsement is crucial for promoting your image; this fashion magazine also values you highly. These are resources you cannot turn down."

After China Mobile confirmed they would launch the "Donggan Dizhi" service in March next year, Sun Yanzi, who had been haggling with them at the negotiation table for a long time, finally made it onto the list of first endorsers. Now she was preparing to shoot various promotional materials, waiting to use them for the pre-heat of the Donggan Dizhi service after the New Year.

"I've heard you say this for over half a month."

Then, Sun Yanzi grabbed a newspaper and covered her face with it, tilting her head back; her voice sounded weak and listless. Just as she was about to close her eyes to rest, she instantly widened her eyes upon seeing the content published on this newspaper—

"Talented and Romantic! The Little Samsung Princess and Zhou Yi Return to the Hotel Together!"

?

With all sleepiness gone in an instant, Sun Yanzi immediately sat up straight and instinctively checked the date of the report first—Hmm, it was today.

Let me see what's going on...

Sun Yanzi, who was about to use a magnifying glass to examine the photo details, instinctively scratched her temple with her right index finger; for a moment, she couldn't make anything out—

The photos taken by Korean paparazzi couldn't be called blurry, only not very clear. However, based on her familiarity with Zhou Yi, she could indeed identify whether it was him.

"As expected, waking up and there's definitely a progress bar from paparazzi about Zhou Yi's Korean girl-chasing."

"I said it must be groundless rumors; there's definitely something fishy between these two!"

"They went back to the hotel together late at night; I dare not imagine what they'll do next..."

On Zhou Mo's chat rooms, forums, and website news sections, internet users were often more numerous and active than usual; on Mop, people even started digging up information on this Little Samsung Princess—

"Born with a golden spoon in her mouth, she possesses hundreds of millions of US dollars in assets at a young age; her family is one of the most famous conglomerates in South Korea..."

"Wait, hundreds of millions of US dollars??? Zhou Yi himself doesn't even have that much wealth right now; is he hooking up with a rich woman like the actor who played Tang Seng?"

"Upstairs, that's still different; at least Tang Seng's rich woman was older, while this Samsung one is only two years older than Zhou Yi. Moreover, this Samsung girl might inherit even more wealth in the future."

"..."

In 2002, domestic netizens knew little about South Korea; Samsung had not yet evolved to the point of controlling the entire South Korean economy. Netizens' knowledge of celebrities was also limited to a few imported Korean TV dramas and movies.

Even the fact that Sun Yue was the adopted daughter of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung did not generate much genuine discussion online.

If it weren't for Samsung phones making a splash in the domestic high-end business sector, thereby boosting Samsung's popularity, many people probably wouldn't even know what Samsung was; they might even mistake it for Jackie Chan's Mitsubishi.

And thanks to Zhou Yi's continuously rising popularity in China, the movie "Hero," whose box office and topic buzz were also continuously rising, completely welcomed a polarization of reputation—those who liked it loved it to death, while those who hated it even criticized Zhou Yi, who promoted it, along with the movie—

"Don't ask why we're cursing; he deserves it! Writing a promotional song for such a piece of trash movie; hasn't he always been very protective of his reputation?!"

"Zhou Yi is not that guilty; he's just someone who gets paid to write promotional songs. The plot has nothing to do with him; he's not even an actor, just someone with third-rate kung fu."

"To be honest, he did quite well in that 'In the Name of the Father'; I heard the director Ning Hao locked him in a small dark room for a day and a night without food to train him. Is that true or false?"

"'In the Name of the Father'?"

"Yes, I heard he is now regarded as the Godfather of Chinese Pop Music abroad, just because he starred in the music video for this song..."

As two movies that could be said to be "released simultaneously," one relied entirely on Zhou Yi's connections, while the other was understood by those who understood.

Thanks to being a niche boutique, "In the Name of the Father" actually exploded with new vitality in China—its ranking didn't recover much, but its voice on the internet gradually became arrogant enough to step on others' heads.

Unconvinced?

Unconvinced? Then go out and sell yourself?

You can't sell yourself, buddy.

Look at our Zhou Yi; just this one "In the Name of the Father" made a fortune in the US.

"In the Name of the Father" directly hit shelves through Warner's global channels by selling discs, something Warner Records itself could not achieve.

And precisely because of this, Warner, which had reopened its old business of selling discs, gave Zhou Yi a huge surprise—

On December 29, under strong ground-level promotion, the global total sales of the "In the Name of the Father" DVD reached an astonishing 920,000 copies, breaking the ceiling for overseas sales of Chinese songs by Chinese singers.

And this, at present, is far from the limit of Zhou Yi's album "Lianshan."

Because "In the Name of the Father" opened a new path in Europe and America based on its theme, with sales climbing step by step and being reported, a batch of domestic fans also fell into the pit to support it.

This directly led to an increase in Zhou Yi's total Chinese record sales—reaching just over nine million copies.

On the 31st, accompanied by an increasingly obvious snowball effect, a concept appeared on the album market, which had reignited under Warner's hype at some point—helping Zhou Yi break into the ten-million-level record club.

Whether in South Korea or Japan, these two ticket warehouses were places where Warner basically focused its promotional efforts; sending a large group of employees to inadvertently set the pace was no problem for Warner. Especially since it was currently the New Year holiday, there were plenty of idle people in these two places.

As for China, Warner didn't even need to get involved directly; they only needed to guide slightly, and the massive number of career fans would promote Zhou Yi themselves.

On January 1, the special program "Approaching South Korea" of "Same Song" officially released a New Year's preview, stating that the program would air precisely at 7:30 PM on January 3, and also highlighted Zhou Yi's figure.

And it was amidst this noisy atmosphere that on January 3, 2002, Warner suddenly released an announcement that shook the entire music and entertainment circles, yet was entirely reasonable—

"Zhou Yi's personal Chinese album global total sales have broken 10 million copies, making him the first singer since the new century to accumulate over ten million album sales!"

(End of Chapter)