Chapter 512: I Also Learned Cantonese

Under Warner's official blog account, a steady stream of messages requesting Zhou Yi to hold a concert in the US poured in, keeping the public relations department extremely busy.

Shi Misi, editor of the Washington Star Evening Post, went so far as to describe this massive explosion as a miracle—

This is no longer a miracle; this belongs to the category of God getting his head caught in a door and smoking...

He was not at all stingy with his praise for Zhou Yi, even opening a special column to rave about Zhou Yi's musical adaptability—

"Spike: A Cross-Border Musical Explorer."

"First, I must state that I am not a fan of Spike. But I have to admit, this guy has conquered me; he pinned me to the ground and KO'd me over and over again, time and time again.

"To be honest, I admire him.

"In my view, Spike is not only a genius musician skilled in composing pop music, but also a musician adept at film scoring, a musical explorer capable of breaking cultural barriers and transcending national boundaries with the language of music!

"The piece 'He's a Pirate' undoubtedly demonstrates his diversity in musical composition and profound artistic attainment, not only perfectly blending traditional orchestral music with modern electronic sound effects, but also endowing the film with unique musical charm and dramatic tension through its melody full of adventure and passion.

"I am certain this piece will absolutely become an indispensable classic in the hearts of many.

"God, I have to say, I am already starting to envy Spike..."

Riding the wind of 'Pirates of the Caribbean', Warner and Disney joined forces, launching non-stop joint marketing campaigns; Zhou Yi, who had been somewhat quiet in the US since returning home, began appearing frequently on the front pages of major media outlets again.

And this time, he wasn't even in the US.

The MGM executives were dumbfounded.

Earlier, they had already become the first victims under Zhou Yi's "golden words" due to the film 'Bulletproof Monk', which was a bloodbath of a loss; before the release of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in which Zhou Yi participated, they had held no small amount of schadenfreude.

Who would have thought that they actually became the spectacle itself.

The reason was that the mischievous Disney dug up what Zhou Yi had said back then: one statement saying 'Bulletproof Monk' was a huge loss, and another saying 'Pirates of the Caribbean' would be a huge hit.

This is very normal behavior in the marketing world; the MGM executives, having no grounds to refute, could only hold their noses, lie flat, and let themselves be mocked, but the faction that originally brought in Chow Yun-fat was directly beaten to the periphery of the board's power...

And the Apple executives, who had also signed a contract with Zhou Yi, were so happy their faces were about to twist sideways.

After Steve Jobs personally stepped in to successfully sign Zhou Yi for a revenue-sharing contract and an iPod endorsement contract, the iTunes Music Store carried out a new round of design specifically for Zhou Yi—for this, they did not hesitate to postpone the plan to launch the music store originally scheduled for the end of April, changing it to the end of July.

Doing this was first to express importance, and second to leave ample time for promotion;

Having finally snagged a big fish, they certainly had to promote it to death.

Third, it was also to leverage Zhou Yi's influence to push the new generation of iPods onto the market.

Now it was good; with the heat of the global promotional period for the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie, Zhou Yi would at least be able to keep showing his face globally for another year without interruption.

Win!

Win big!

Won to the point of numbness!

When domestic entertainment media captured this news, which was like a sci-fi drama to them, most practitioners found it hard to believe—

Clearly, the person was not in the US, yet legends belonging to him were still circulating in the US.

They didn't even have to spend effort thinking about how to hype Zhou Yi; they just needed to take the reports from American newspapers on how they hyped Zhou Yi, translate and polish them without changing a word, and then publish them.

"The Influence of Zhou Yi!"

"Film Theme Songs Receive Overwhelming Praise, Zhou Yi Conquers the World Again!"

"Pirate March, Zhou Yi's Ingenious Ideas!"

"Selected Again as One of the World's Ten Musical Geniuses—Zhou Yi!"

"The Man Who Changed the Asian Music Landscape—Zhou Yi!"

"British famous singer Craig David recently stated in an interview in the US that he believes Zhou Yi is the most talented musician he has ever met, and called him the ruler of Asian music, capable of changing the direction of Asian pop music on the world music stage by his own strength..."

Unlike the lack of quality in 'Hero' back then, this time the explosive results of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in the two premiere locations, the US and Canada, undoubtedly added another golden mark to Zhou Yi's credentials—

This was a big-budget film with total expenditure reaching around 130-140 million US dollars after accounting for various miscellaneous costs.

Looking at the whole world, currently only giants of Disney's caliber could afford to throw money like this to test the waters.

A large number of media reporters flocked to Tianhe in Guangzhou, just to interview what Zhou Yi felt at this very moment—

"Uh, how should I put it? I don't have any feelings."

July 18, Friday.

Zhou Yi, having completed the final rehearsal before the concert, accepted media interviews outside the Tianhe Stadium; his indifferent attitude was somewhat, um... like a full man not knowing the hunger of a starving man?

"This is really nothing strange; I am already used to it."

Holding a pile of microphones, Zhou Yi shrugged: "To put it in the Cantonese I have learned, it's just 'mei yat gau yeung'."

"..."

Listen, listen, listen, listen, is this human speech?!

Of course, some people also spotted the key point—

"Zhou Yi, you, are speaking Cantonese?"

"Don't look at me like that; I also specifically learned Cantonese."

"Did you learn it from Fan Bingbin? Or from Ah Sa?"

Zhou Yi glanced sideways at the reporter who was obviously trying to stir up trouble: "What does that have to do with you?"

"..."

Zhou Yi, having finished the brief interview, left, and he left openly together with Cheng Hao, who had just walked out of the Tianhe Stadium; before leaving, he even waved to the reporters, as if afraid they wouldn't get a shot.

Many people didn't even have time to glare angrily at their colleagues who intended to stir up trouble before they were startled by Cheng Hao suddenly appearing at Tianhe—

Holy crap!

Wan Ren Mi!

If one had to choose the hottest female star in the country from the beginning of the year until now, there was no doubt it would be Cheng Hao, the actress playing Wan Ren Mi in 'Love in the City'.

After the ending broke the viewership record, the moment the first broadcast of 'Love in the City' ended, the subsequent reruns were immediately aired simultaneously on various local satellite TV channels. The satellite channels took turns broadcasting, and Wan Ren Mi's charm thus entered the small screens of thousands of households.

But coincidentally, Cheng Hao had already retired from the entertainment circle, which created an aura of mystery around her.

"Hiss... that doesn't add up. Cheng Hao appears neither early nor late, but shows up right now—could he be the mysterious guest at Zhou Yi's Guangzhou concert?"

The reporters exchanged glances, then immediately picked up their phones to notify their superiors.

Rumor has it that Wan Ren Mi, who supposedly retired from the industry, is about to appear at Zhou Yi's concert. Coupled with the screen couple pairing of "Li Bai and Wan Ren Mi," which has grown hot due to frequent reruns of the TV drama, what exactly is Zhou Yi's concert planning to do?

(End of this chapter)