Chapter 443: Is It Illegal to Be Arrogant? (4k)

Of course, this kind of proper terminology is limited to the more traditional print media.

The die-hard Yi-fen online couldn't care less about that, and once again seized the moral high ground to throw their weight around, directly leading a large number of rubbernecking netizens to coin a simplified term for the stir Zhou Yi had stirred up this time—the "58 Warning."

Don't rebut, or a rebuttal is a 58-nomination warning!

Don't curse people, or cursing people is a "life not going your way" warning!

In any case, it's a warning.

This is the favorite silencing tactic of those Yi-fen.

After all, Zhou Yi's performance really did give them a boost.

Such a forceful display naturally also drew the resentment of plenty of passers-by who only listen to the music, who occasionally chimed in to rebut: "This is Zhou Yi's achievement, not yours—what are you throwing your weight around for here? Is Zhou Yi going to split you a single cent?"

Then they received a contemptuous "life not going your way" in return, which in turn helped Zhou Yi gain a wave of anti-fans.

"I'm not picking on Zhou Yi, I'll admit he's awesome no matter what, but I just can't stand you lot of fans—you're almost turning into online gangsters!"

"Hilarious—when Wang Fei's fans used to silence passers-by, why didn't you step out and say all this? Go ask Lin Yilian's fans and Zhang Huimei's fans how domineering Wang Fei's fans were back in the day, alright?

"When the Four Heavenly Kings' fans used to tear into each other, why didn't we see you jumping out to say any of this?

"During the Alan Tam–Leslie Cheung rivalry, the fans on both sides were fighting offline every three days and having a big brawl every five, and they'd bring knives and call in people at the drop of a hat—aren't you the same now, calling him 'Principal Bro' nonstop?

"Why should we be called online gangsters now?

"If we're online gangsters, wouldn't the fans of those old stars basically be real-life triads?

"You're a Toad Peak fan in disguise, aren't you? Is Toad Peak about to make a comeback and you're out here trying to get screen time for your master?"

After rattling off the history of Hong Kong stars' fans fighting offline in person as if reciting her own family treasures, the clatter of the keyboard finally stopped. Deng Shiying took off her headphones and hung them around her neck, twisted open the cap of a Coca-Cola, gulped down a mouthful, and smugly crossed her legs and hummed twice.

This couldn't really be blamed on her fighting a phantom enemy—it was just that in the span of a single New Year, every major Hong Kong media outlet had already started hyping up the news that Xie Tingfeng was going to make a comeback in showbiz.

As a die-hard little fan leader of Zhou Yi, she believed that although she herself wasn't full of Cantonese elegance and flair, she still had to have at least the basic level of vigilance.

Knowing Emperor Entertainment Group's nature, it would be impossible for them not to buy some news space to ride Zhou Yi's heat—Yang Shoucheng wouldn't have the patience for that, but the East Weekly under him wouldn't be writing all that eye-catching stuff every day either.

As for why Xie Tingfeng was called Toad, one reason was that he used to like wearing all kinds of sunglasses to act cool;

two, it was because after the breakup, Wang Fei's fans mocked him as a toad wanting to eat swan meat, and gave that to him.

Zhou Yi's Yi-fen group summed it up and simply bestowed on him the elegant nickname of Toad.

Once this slur was born, it quickly swept through two fiercely militant die-hard fan groups—Zhou Yi's fans and Wang Fei's fans.

Relying on the combined online discourse power of two strong camps, they directly beat the weaker Xie Tingfeng fans into a steady retreat, forcing the nickname to become a mainstream slur, which made Xie Tingfeng's fans hop mad and curse them for being shameless, but in the end they could do nothing about it.

The main thing was that Xie Tingfeng himself was still preparing for his comeback, and with the scandal on the table, he was naturally a notch below Zhou Yi.

There were even Zhou Yi fans who photoshopped an image of Zhou Yi personally arresting Xie Tingfeng...

One studies law, the other breaks it.

Perfect match, you might say.

"Deng Shiying! Still playing on the computer!"

"Coming, Mommy!"

The Deng Shiying who had just been throwing her weight around instantly wilted like a mouse that had seen a cat. After closing off her surfing alter ego on the internet, she obediently walked out of the room.

"It's not that I'm picking on you, but this year you're going to Warner to start singer training—if you keep being so cavalier, how could your father and I possibly feel at ease?"

Looking at her daughter putting on an act of being well-behaved, Deng's mother felt a bit of a headache.

In the end, their family still couldn't hold out against the relentless bombardment from fellow Hong Kong-er Qian Jiang, who had been at it from last year all the way to this year. Added to that, their daughter Deng Shiying really did love singing, so on February 5th of this year they finally signed a 4+6 ten-year contract with Warner, with Qian Jiang as her manager.

Since Deng Shiying was only 12 years old and far too young, Warner had to cover her monthly living expenses during her time studying at Warner, and also had to spend money on all kinds of music training for her—this phase would last four years.

During this period, Warner was not allowed to force Deng Shiying into any commercial activities.

Four years later, when Deng Shiying turned 16, Warner would be able to arrange music activities for her, and over the following six years she would become a full-contract artist of Warner.

A very complete artist development pipeline.

"Don't worry, I have company too. That Zhang Jingying-jiejie we met at Zhou Yi's Shanghai concert—she's joined the company too."

Full of longing for her future, Deng Shiying acted coquettishly toward her mother.

Zhang Jingying also chose to sign with Warner on the same day, February 5th, the day of welcoming the God of Wealth, with Qian Jiang as her manager as well—except that the contract Warner signed with her was a 2+6 eight-year long-term deal. Zhang Jingying is currently 19, so two years of training, and the remaining six years as a full-contract Warner artist.

At the tail end of the record era, when these big record companies signed immature artists like Zhang Jingying, they would more or less give them one to two years of training.

"Oh right, Mom, can you get me a China Mobile GoTone SIM card? The one Zhou Yi endorses."

"Go-what-now, GoTone—you don't even go abroad. I'll get you a M-Zone card when the time comes, it's about to launch too, and by then you'll definitely be going to the mainland headquarters often. Even though Zhou Yi isn't the endorser, Zhou Yi also wrote the promotional song for it, and Sun Yanzi is also one of the endorsers—don't you like Sun Yanzi too?"

Deng's mother was genuinely a bit helpless with this daughter of hers who loved buying Zhou Yi merchandise.

"Oh."

Not knowing much about GoTone's rates, Deng Shiying nodded with a hint of disappointment, but she quickly immersed herself in the joy of having signed with Warner.

After eating with her family, she went back to her room alone, threw herself straight onto the bed, lay on her stomach on the covers with her chin propped on both hands, and gazed with longing at the walls of her room plastered with all kinds of posters of her idol Zhou Yi...

"Hehe~"

Little Deng Shiying giggled out loud.

As long as she grew up fast enough, in four years she might be able to compete on the same stage as her idol!

Thinking this, she took out her phone and called the radio station, ready to request a new song that China Mobile and Warner were jointly launching today—"Superstar."

Lyrics, composition, and arrangement by Zhou Yi; performed by Sun Yanzi, Elva Xiao, and Zhang Shaohan.

Warner's male Zhou and female Sun were out in full force, and they also brought in fashion diva Elva Xiao and elfin girl Zhang Shaohan.

To be fair, just hearing this lineup rattled off was already intimidating enough.

February 8th, the eighth day of the first lunar month.

To build buzz for its new brand M-Zone, which was about to officially launch in March, China Mobile on this day made the promotional song "Superstar" available for free across the country, and threw a large amount of promotion money at all the major music radio stations and TV music channels.

Zhou Yi was already riding a wave of public-opinion heat thanks to the post-New Year "A Young China" and "Zhou Yi Day" remarks, and China Mobile, seizing the momentum, had set its sights squarely on that heat.

As one of the chief editors of Contemporary Song Weekly, Wu Yidan had long since prepared to watch the MV of this song on YinYueTai, and at the same time had taken out paper and pen, ready to jot down quick notes on the points that interested her.

For someone in her line of work, Zhou Yi was basically no different from the parents who provided her with food and clothing.

Other musicians had to beg to be featured in magazine specials; only with Zhou Yi was it the magazines begging him.

And even then, they still couldn't get him.

To date, Zhou Yi had only had time to take on a shoot with *Contemporary Music Scene* right when he first debuted.

"He's only 22 years old…"

Sighing over Zhou Yi's achievements, Wu Yidan quickly got a look at the true face of this song "Superstar"—

The very first shot of the MV was the four big characters "M-Zone" rolling over and over, and an extremely melodious and eye-catching erhu prelude captured Wu Yidan's ears in an instant!

Right after that came a dense, rock-style drumbeat!

The collision of erhu and drum kit sparked an unusual kind of brilliance!

The dynamic rhythm shifted along with the MV's visuals. Sun Yanzi, Elva Hsiao, and Zhang Shaohan—all three dressed as superstars, wearing sunglasses—walked onto the performance stage.

The M-Zone logo and elements filled every corner of the MV: the Senyu Zhushang on the stage site, the light strips, even the fonts flashing constantly in the special-effects shots.

Until Zhou Yi appeared among the audience below the stage—

Zhou Yi himself had actually appeared in this MV?

Wu Yidan was surprised in her heart, but her right hand swiftly jotted down this point worth talking about.

"When you smile, I sing your praise; when you frown, my heart aches.

"I have no time to mind myself, I only feel what you feel~"

As the first to take the stage, Elva Hsiao, gripping the microphone, showed off her rock vibe. Her queen-of-the-mid-range attribute made her opening lines instantly catchy, and the MV's visuals flashed to a scene of Zhou Yi interacting with female fans on stage.

Right after that came Sun Yanzi's entrance, playing the guitar—

"Wherever you go, take my soul with you.

"It's bewitched by you, what's the use of keeping it~~"

Sun Yanzi pulled a heavy note, and the moment her voice fell it was like a signal for a carnival to begin. The next second, the three distinctive voices of Sun Yanzi, Elva Hsiao, and Zhang Shaohan all opened together, suddenly pushing the whole song to its climax!

"You are electricity! You are light! You are the only myth!

"I only love you, you are my superstar!

"You dominate, I worship, there's no better way.

"I can only love you, you are my superstar~"

Along with the three women's singing, Zhou Yi—as if stepping out of memory—appeared once more among the audience below the carnival stage, greeting the fans like a superstar. And among those fans were the very three women now radiating superstar aura on stage!

"Oh my god, isn't Zhou Yi way too narcissistic! He actually set himself up as the idol of superstars in the MV? What's that? A superstar among superstars?"

"Star among stars among stars—that's what Japan calls Zhou Yi. Nothing wrong with it."

"China Mobile is awesome! SEA Big Sea Girls is awesome! Mobile Heavenly Queens, charge! Take down Zhou Yi!"

"……"

As a song with extremely strong infectious power, the moment "Superstar" came out it caused a tremendous sensation and response—its extreme infectiousness let it spread and be sung rapidly.

After hearing the song once, over 90% of people could basically confirm that another classic had been written by Zhou Yi.

At this moment, the happiest of all were Zhang Shaohan's fans.

As the first of the Mobile Heavenly Queens to enjoy Zhou Yi's windfall, Zhang Shaohan had been mocked as unworthy of the name ever since the Mobile endorsement was announced—people saying she was just an idol-drama actress who probably couldn't sing anymore. But this song had ruthlessly slapped every hater in the face.

Even compared with Sun Yanzi and Elva Hsiao, those queens of timbre, she was in no way outdone, and could even maintain her own memorable quality.

"Zhou Yi is awesome! I'm starting to look forward to the song 'My Territory' he wrote for Jay Chou now. It has to be him."

"I heard the next one is one Mobile specially commissioned Zhou Yi to tailor-make for our Jay, just like this 'Superstar'."

"Yanzi in rock outfit holding a guitar is so cool! So cool so cool so cool!"

"Elva really is still the queen of the mid-range. It's all thanks to her bridging and balancing Sun Yanzi and Zhang Shaohan, those two timbre bullies—it sounds really harmonious."

"……"

For people at the start of 2003, the destructive power of "Superstar" was a bit much.

In January, Zhong Xintong, just freed from the collapsed Magic Rock Records, set up her own studio, and with Rock Records taking over, re-released the album she hadn't been able to put out at Magic Rock.

But before her promotion had even been going for half a month, in Taiwan she ran head-on into the appearance of "Superstar"…

Warner was pushing Sun Yanzi, Virgin was pushing Elva Hsiao, and after seeing the situation clearly, Linfair Records also began pushing Zhang Shaohan.

This Zhou Yi song that wasn't sung by Zhou Yi himself shot straight up, unexpectedly beating the mainland to it and beginning a carpet-bombing campaign across Taiwan!

In just three days, it topped the request charts of all major music radio stations!

And on the mainland, what "Superstar" brought was not just rankings rocketing up various charts, but also a gradually spreading sing-along rate in hair salons, small shops, music stores, and even some city commercial streets and pedestrian streets…

That line "You are electricity, you are light, you are the only myth, I only love you, you are my superstar" was like poison—anyone who heard the song a few times could hum along to a couple of lines…

Zhou Yi, who had ended his short holiday on February 5th and begun recording new English album songs and MVs at Warner, was also caught red-handed by a reporter staking out his workplace as he got off work—the latter was so excited his microphone was almost stuffed into Zhou Yi's mouth!

Damn it!

Finally caught him!

"Zhou Yi! Zhou Yi! May I ask—many people online say you're too narcissistic, that setting yourself up as a Superstar is too flashy, that in America you were trading insults with others, that you're too arrogant and domineering, and some even say your cocky attitude is detrimental to our country's image—"

"Hold on, wait a second. Wait a moment."

Zhou Yi gently slid the small sunglasses perched on his nose bridge down a notch, stared at the reporter with his head slightly lowered, raised a hand to interrupt the reporter's rapid-fire delivery, and asked unhurriedly: "So what if I'm cocky? Is being cocky illegal?"

(End of chapter)