Chapter 505: Zhou Yi Sang, a Heart Full of Conscience

"Slander! This is outright slander! Which son of a bitch is spreading rumors here? Get me a full list of every single one of them!"

Zhou Yi, who had inexplicably been saddled with the fate of killing his wives, was furious beyond measure.

If he could, he'd want to follow the internet cable and pin every one of these rumor-mongers and spreaders to the ground and beat them soundly.

Professional internet surfer Sun Yanzi was already laughing so hard she was nearly out of breath—

"I can't take it, I can't take it, hahaha, Zhou Yi, so you've finally met your match!"

With the SARS restrictions lifted and her normal work rhythm restored, Sun Yanzi now spent every day at the company preparing her new album "Unfinished." Her leisure entertainment was surfing the internet and catching up on gossip.

Under her high-intensity surfing, Zhou Yi's ridiculous—absurdity's mother opening the door for absurdity—absurdity taken to the max internet rumors nearly made her laugh until she cried.

"Laugh, laugh, laugh, what are you laughing at? You want to be on the list too?" Zhou Yi, somewhat embarrassed and turning angry, grabbed Sun Yanzi—who had been chattering away happily—in one swift move.

If I can't beat up others through the internet cable, can't I still bully you?

You're real-name registered and appearing in the flesh!

"Wuwuwu, I was wrong, I was wrong, I won't dare do it again."

Sun Yanzi, pinned dead-still on the sofa unable to move, turned her head, blinked her eyes pitifully, looking every bit the picture of pitiable charm.

Outside it was 30° weather, yet the words coming from her mouth were 18°: "Let me off this time, won't you, wife-killing brother?"

"..."

Pin ma!

Zhou Yi pressed down a little harder with his hands. Sun Yanzi, who was smiling instead of getting angry, grinned even more happily, and her yelping grew even more enthusiastic: "Pain pain pain! Easy, easy!"

"?"

The man slowly typed out a question mark: "Can't tell you actually like this kind of thing?"

"That's not it, mainly I just can't resist you. In your words, if you can't resist, you might as well lie flat and enjoy it."

Sun Yanzi tossed her head, looking like a dead pig unafraid of scalding water: "Press a little lower, it just so happens that it rained every day recently and I'm almost getting moldy lying around, give me a good stretch of the muscles and bones."

"Get lost."

Zhou Yi released his hands and gave an unamused slap on her shoulder. Sun Yanzi, newly free, flipped over with a carp-kip-up, her mouth automatically dubbing in the sound effect of "heyo"—

"Ah, I'm dead, I'm seriously injured, I can't work for at least seven days."

"Stop being crazy around me. If you've got the guts, go say it to Chen Ze Shan."

Zhou Yi, looking quite disgusted, pushed away the woman's legs that kept swinging in front of his eyes: "You're already a dead person, so stop thinking about how long to rest. Dead people don't need rest anyway."

"Go to hell."

The moment her fair, tender feet were pushed away, Sun Yanzi, hearing his words, bent her legs and then stretched them straight out, lightly kicking the man's unguarded waist—

Then immediately pulled them back, as if afraid of being grabbed by the ankle and swung around like a human pendulum. Her eyeballs darted about, always ready to deal with the man's possible incoming attack—

"I'm warning you, I'm in the album preparation period right now, I'm a Class One protected animal at the company."

"Are you sure you want to compete with me on this?" Zhou Yi gave her a half-smiling glance. Sun Yanzi immediately behaved, though her mouth was still stubbornly holding on—

"Just wait until my English songs make a name."

In the new album, the two English songs collaborated with Mai Kuraki—one was written by her, the other by Mai Kuraki.

Under Chen Ze Shan's planning, Sun Yanzi, who wasn't in a rush to develop in Europe and America, still set her sights on the Japanese market first.

Not everyone is Zhou Yi, able to have such good luck—during the first stage of breaking into Europe and America, first encountering the global blockbuster of "Rush Hour 2," and then picking up the World Cup closing ceremony.

Paired with two high-quality singles, she went straight onto the fast track, exploded globally, and accumulated her first batch of fans in the international market.

Although Chen Ze Shan does indeed give people plenty to criticize in certain respects, when it comes to his planning ability for artists and his grasp of the market, he is indeed the foremost presence within Warner.

Although Sony kept Wang Lihong's debacle in Japan "a closely guarded secret," it was no secret to the top executives of the major record companies in the industry.

He could basically be considered the first post-Zhou Yi new-generation singer to break out of the Chinese-language sphere, yet he ran into a Waterloo—even Sony Japan couldn't recoup the promotional costs it had invested in him.

Under these circumstances, Chen Ze Shan was even more grateful that he'd gotten Japan's currently hottest songstress Mai Kuraki to collaborate.

With Zhou Yi holding down the fort, first using the Warner Twins' name and the gimmick of collaborating with Mai Kuraki to test the waters in the Japanese market, see the response, and then further plan the next moves—

For example, based on market feedback, asking Zhou Yi to write a song or something.

After all, even Zhou Jianhui doesn't know which route suits Sun Yanzi in the international market right now—they can only feel their way forward and learn from mistakes.

"Then I'm afraid I won't live to see that day." Zhou Yi pretended to sigh, speaking in a tone of destined flop that made Sun Yanzi's teeth itch with anger.

While the two were bickering, Zhou Yi's phone suddenly rang, interrupting their verbal sparring—

"Ayi, a Japanese person wants to chat with you."

At the other end of the line, the notification from Qian Jiang made Zhou Yi pause: "A Japanese person?"

Hearing that Zhou Yi was talking business, Sun Yanzi also put away her playful manner. Without making a sound, she gestured to the man, then picked up her sandals and walked barefoot step by step out of his rest room.

"Right, a producer from Japan's Fuji TV, named Tsuchiya Ken."

Qian Jiang, looking at the materials in hand, introduced the other party's identity: "You know your current fame internationally, especially in Japan.

"It's no exaggeration to say that although you haven't been to Japan yet, your fame in Japan is no less than in America.

"Under these circumstances, this Mr. Tsuchiya Ken has set his sights on you, wanting to get one of your songs to take back and adapt, to use as the theme song for a TV drama he's newly producing."

Riding on heat—everyone in the world does it.

Japan's Fuji TV had also happened to catch the moment when Zhou Yi had broken through the entire American music scene, and everyone was trying to hitch a ride on this wave of popularity.

"Which of my English songs does he want to license? Wants to bargain?"

For reasons known to all, Zhou Yi's English song copyrights were worth far more than his Chinese ones—even the licensing fees weren't on the same level.

Generally speaking, ordinary copyright purchases only required notifying Warner. Coming directly to Zhou Yi himself basically meant the price had reached an unacceptable level, and they wanted to bargain.

"No, no, no, what he's buying is the adaptation rights to a Chinese song."

Qian Jiang shook his head: "The reason he wants to find you is that he wants to pay an extra price to have you cooperate with them on promotion.

"Because he's prepared a gimmick—after buying your song, he wants to find Japan's hall-of-fame singer Nakajima Miyuki to write the lyrics and perform it. He wants to create a collaboration gimmick between you two to promote this drama.

"So, he needs the two of you to take some promotional photos together."

"... Nakajima Miyuki?"

Hearing this name, Zhou Yi was slightly surprised; the next second, a song title instantly surfaced in his mind...

"Yes, it's 'The Original Dream' that you wrote for Zhang Shaohan to sing back then."

"Hai! Arigato gozaimasu!"

Japan, Tokyo, Fuji TV, Tsuchiya Ken's office.

As a famous producer at Fuji TV, he was now speaking honorifics to the person on the phone with great gratitude.

Warner is a good person, and Zhou Yi-sama is even a much greater good person!

Not only was he willing to personally answer his call, but he was also willing to cooperate with him to shoot five promotional photos and attend a press conference, charging "only" three million US dollars.

Never mention Hamasaki Ayumi or Utada Hikaru again; what rotten fish and shrimp they are! Zhou Yi-sama is the true god!

"But, five promotional photos and one press conference—won't this price be a bit high?" his working partner hesitated.

This basically meant Zhou Yi would pocket three million US dollars just by showing up in Japan; robbing people isn't this fast.

"Then who do you want to invite? Do you think this money could invite Michael Jackson?"

Tsuchiya Ken retorted with a question, leaving his companion speechless.

Although due to seniority, Zhou Yi, who had debuted for three years, had not yet reached the status of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, that was on the international stage.

In Japan, Zhou Yi's name was far more effective than Michael Jackson's.

The most important point was that although Zhou Yi had a proud and willful personality, he did not act like a diva.

Fuji TV had previously invited the most popular American diva in the Japanese market, Mariah Carey, but her series of diva antics, even more extreme than Hamasaki Ayumi's, almost suffocated everyone.

Without mentioning the entourage of assistants, just the various strict requirements for accommodation and filming were enough to drive people mad.

By comparison, Zhou Yi's appearance fee of three million US dollars was conscientious beyond any further conscience.

"Oh, by the way, pay more attention to Kuraki Mai's new album. Warner will have a female singer collaborating with them coming to Japan to make a name for herself in a few months; our TV station's flagship program will reserve a few promotional slots for her."

(End of this chapter)