Chapter 42: Zhou Yi, the God-Slayer

"Forget you exist

"What do you expect

"Joy, you invite it and it surely comes~

"Rather than longing for care, let's be brilliant together

"Happiness is contagious, be generous, Come on!"

A penetrating female voice emanated from the speakers in the KTV private room; college students, Gao Zhongshengs, and even young people just entering the workplace were relaxing, forming pairs, inviting their crushes to sing duets, or engaging in playful duels with friends.

"Those in love or out of love, come with me, dance and worship happiness together

"Those happy or unhappy, come with me, beautiful and sacred time waits for no one~"

The dynamic melody, the highly memorable chorus, and the rap blended seamlessly—

The appearance of "Worship Happiness" added a fire falling from the sky to this scorching summer, sweeping across KTVs, bars, and even nightclubs—places where young people frequently gathered on the entire island at a speed unimaginable to ordinary people.

Before this, hiphop elements, which had never received audience recognition in the Chinese music scene, leaped this summer to become the existence in young people's hearts that best represented fashion, best represented the new century, and best represented the trend.

What "Tianya", "Spring Flowers Will Bloom", those are things for the older generation to listen to; Zhou Yi's trendy album is the pursuit of us millennium new humans!

Ren Xianqi? Zhang Xinzhe?

Zhang Xueyou? Liu Dehua? Guo Fucheng? Li Ming?

Old things, it's time to step down!

The older generation, baptized by Hong Kong music in the eighties and nineties, obviously did not like songs like "Worship Happiness", "My Microphone", "Reverse the Earth", "Have to Love", etc., so the young people, stirred up with rebellious psychology, instantly erupted with tenacious "resistance"—

Adults have work and trivial matters to busy themselves with in real life, but students and even young people just entering the workplace who have family backing don't have this worry.

Moreover, compared to the older generation who are not very familiar with the Internet, they can often quickly find like-minded people through the network, rapidly form "alliances", and spontaneously team up to generate data and create momentum for the songs they like.

Precisely because of this reason, Zhou Yi's album reputation, aided by the power of the Internet, completed widespread dissemination at a speed far surpassing the old era—

Reflected on KTV song selection screens, it was that the request rate and broadcast rate soared to ninety thousand li;

Reflected in sales data, it was that CD and cassette sales data were far ahead of peers, even surpassing Sun Yanzi!

July 10, the 10th day since the release of the "Zhou Yi" album, Zhou Yi achieved an unprecedented feat—

As a newcomer, all eleven songs in his debut album topped the top thirty of quarterly charts on major song charts, KTV request charts, radio broadcast charts, and other lists across the island.

On the monthly chart of the island's public radio broadcast rankings, Zhou Yi fought against all rivals single-handedly—

July 12, "Have to Love" surpassed天后 Liu Ruoyin's "Love You Very Much" and rose to seventh;

At six o'clock that same afternoon, "Worship Happiness" officially stepped on Ren Xianqi's "Tianya", Liu Dehua's "Forget Love Water", "Love You for Ten Thousand Years"; Zhang Xueyou's "She Comes to Listen to My Concert" and surged to third;

July 14.

"Give Me a Song's Time", "It's You I Love", "My Microphone" defeated Zhou Huajian's "Haunted by Love", Zhang Yu's "The Moon Caused the Trouble", "It Keeps Raining", ranking tenth, twelfth, and fifteenth respectively.

Zhang Xueyou's other song "You Are So Poisonous" and Chen Huilin's champion dance track from the first half of the year "Better to Dance" were directly knocked off the charts by "It's Me" and "Hate the Red Dream".

In just half a month, the entire island's industry could not sit still.

What kind of monster did Warner release?!

We admit that Sun Yanzi, whom you launched in June, exploded in popularity; at least she only had strong album sales performance, did not complete this kind of chart-slaughtering operation, and the only song that could compete with the various male and female superstars was "Black Sky".

But this Zhou Yi, if given another half month, is he going to have his entire album directly dominate the top ten of the monthly chart?!

"Don't stop! Don't stop! Continue to increase the intensity of marketing for me!"

July 15, Warner General Manager's office.

Zhou Jianhui, with a ruddy face, pulled his tie and roared: "Also, prepare Zhou Yi's album in batches for me towards a total volume of three hundred and fifty thousand copies; don't be afraid, the market will absolutely digest it in the end!"

In 14 days, two weeks, the excellent reputation of the "Zhou Yi" album, through the unique dissemination speed of the Internet era, became the biggest winner of the month, selling a hundred and sixty thousand copies wildly.

This is enough to rival the data when music tycoons release albums; it is only second to a few perverts; the new album sales of the millennium century popularity Guo Tianwang Xie Tingfeng are also no more than this number so far.

The promotional power exploded by the Internet characteristic of one tells ten, ten tells a hundred, a hundred tells a thousand, a thousand tells ten thousand is simply terrifying.

One is a newcomer with only rumors before debut, the other is a popular Guo Tianwang who is famous across both sides of the strait and Hong Kong and Macau; yet Zhou Yi managed to take off directly with the help of this eastern wind of the Internet.

One Sun Yanzi, one Zhou Yi; Zhou Jianhui already didn't know how to praise his own eyes that had such keen insight into people.

"Grab the point of Xie Tingfeng to fight; I want Zhou Yi to step on Xie Tingfeng to rise!"

After hanging up the phone, after pondering for a moment, Zhou Jianhui hardened his heart and directly called the marketing side: "Emperor used Xie Tingfeng to provoke Guo Fucheng last year; today it is time to return it with principal and interest."

At the end of last year, Emperor's Xie Tingfeng was so popular it lit up half the sky; Emperor directly arrogantly provoked the Four Guo Tianwang, promoted Xie Tingfeng to become the successor to the Four Guo Tianwang, and ate a wave of popularity heavily.

Zhou Jianhui had been holding this grudge in his heart; now it was time to settle the account.

And as the person who actually ate the first of this traffic dividend, Zhou Yi, who was currently at the absolute center of public opinion on the island, could truly realize how popular he was.

Going out to eat a meal with Sun Yanzi, after being recognized in the restaurant, the people asking him for autographs were actually more than those asking Sun Yanzi for autographs.

Occupying the radios on streets and alleys were no longer just "Later" and "Tianya"; even passing by schools, one could hear students singing "Worship Happiness", "Have to Love", "My Microphone", and other songs from his album to each other.

He even personally saw a brat holding a guitar on the playground singing "It's You I Love" to a girl, moving her to tears, and then successfully holding hands.

"Too exaggerated, this is really too exaggerated."

Zhou Yi, who was running around venues everywhere under Warner's arrangement to promote his new album, was truly exhausted, especially his right hand.

Damn, signing autographs almost broke his hand; now even lifting a cup to drink water feels like trembling.

"It is not time to rest yet, Zhou Yi."

The agent Qian Jiang, with a general's belly, flipped through the schedule in hand, looked at Zhou Yi who was almost sinking into the sofa with his eyes closed to rest, and spoke: "You must seize this opportunity; your album sales are now equal to Xie Tingfeng's; try harder, run more promotions, and strive to surpass him."

"I know, let me rest for a while; I am really a bit tired; just call me later."

With Zhou Yi's energy and physique, being able to exhaust him to this extent was enough to show how intense his workload was during this half month; fortunately, the results were gratifying.

Xie Tingfeng, who should have dominated alone in July, had his momentum directly covered by him.

"Oh right, there is one more thing; if reporters ask you some sensitive questions today, remember not to fall for it, do not answer; I will block them back for you, understand?"

"Sensitive questions?"

Zhou Yi, touched by the keyword, opened his eyes, furrowed his brows: "What do you mean?"

"Some media outlets with nothing better to do have tallied your achievements over the past half-month and, today, directly bestowed upon you a terrifying nickname."

As Zhou Yi's manager, Qian Jiang, who constantly monitored news about Zhou Yi, took out a weekly magazine he had just received from the company and handed it to him.

Zhou Yi, puzzled, reached out to take it, and the first thing that caught his eye was a huge headline—

"The God-Slayer Zhou Yi! Will the next Diva to fall at his feet be her?!"

What the hell kind of weekly magazine is this, so exaggerated?!

Zhou Yi, who had been stunned into a daze, squinted and took a closer look: One Weekly.

In that case, it's fine.

On the full-color page, behind Zhou Yi's portrait, a string of albums by Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Guo Fucheng, Li Ming, Wakin Chau, and even Richie Ren were photoshopped into cracked, gray images, placed on the gravel path at his feet in a state of shattering—

And at the end of this thorny path beneath Zhou Yi's feet sat the Diva Liu Ruoying upon the Throne of "Later"!

"In merely 14 days, the Four Heavenly Kings, who represented the glory of the past music scene, have all fallen;

"The Heroic Knight Richie Ren no longer possesses the courage of his youth, and the Assassin Wakin Chau has also lost his former edge.

"In this summer, a young man from the mainland descended from the heavens, representing the new force of the Mandarin music scene and launching an assault on the older generation.

"As the last glory of the older generation of singers, under Zhou Yi's relentless pressure, can the Diva Liu Ruoying defend the throne of the old era?!"

Below the full-color page, a set of data from the day the newspaper was released was attached—

The hit song "Later," which had led by a massive margin and held the number one spot for nearly half a year, for the first time welcomed a challenger whose data was constantly closing in on it—

Zhou Yi, dragging a blade in his hand.