Chapter 527: Out-of-Town Gangs Are Too Rude

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard that Warner and Chai Zhiping have any recent collaboration."

"So Chai Zhiping wants to find Zhou Yi? That doesn't make sense either. What connection could these two possibly have?"

"..."

Unlike the celebrities who dare not speak freely in front of the camera, facing this rather "strange" scene, as Zhou Yi began his acceptance speech again, the familiar reporters in the media area exchanged views and speculation with each other.

Moreover, this arrangement by the Golden Melody Awards left them baffled.

There were so many choices for award presenters; why on earth did they shove Zhu Xiaotian in?

Did Warner kidnap his family?

Or did Warner kidnap the Golden Melody Awards judges?

"Don't look at me, I don't know what's going on either."

After delivering his acceptance speech, Zhou Yi, holding the trophy as he descended the stage, met Sun Yanzi's questioning gaze. After taking his seat, he shrugged slightly and covered his mouth with his hand, forming a shape with his lips for her.

He himself was completely in the dark right now.

First, Yao Qian's unexpected phone call, saying he wanted to resign and demanding this and that, only for him to pull this stunt when he arrived at the scene—

The award itself was fine, but the presenter was a major problem.

According to common sense, it would be impossible for any single member of F4 to personally come and present him with an honor; this would be equivalent to admitting defeat.

"Maybe Zhu Xiaotian wants to go solo? I heard there are also deep internal contradictions within F4; the four of them are friendly on the surface but at odds underneath."

Inside the media area, a reporter curiously cast his gaze toward where Zhu Xiaotian was seated and speculated.

The reason F4's popularity plummeted so quickly was not only because the four members of the group lacked talent themselves, but more importantly, the internal contradictions among the four had reached a point that was almost semi-public.

This situation of known internal team conflict was fatal to the group's popularity; Chai Zhiping wanted to create a sense of team spirit, but there was no way to do it.

"It's not impossible, but he still has a contract, right? A company on the mainland wants him, is willing to pay his breach of contract fee, so that's why he wants to admit defeat to Zhou Yi?"

"Reasonable."

"That's very reasonable."

"..."

The speculation of a certain man with glasses received approval from most of his colleagues in the media area.

After all, to not exaggerate, Zhou Yi's status in the mainland entertainment circle was already as high as the seventh or eighth floor of a building.

The only disadvantage was his young age and short career; otherwise, it wouldn't just be the official title of "Young Singer."

After the award ceremony concluded, Zhu Xiaotian, now seated, cast a final glance at Zhou Yi's location and sighed in his heart—Damn it, he was jealous!

He was envious!

To actually have the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong powers all personally come out to escort and protect him...

If he had this kind of strength, wouldn't he have hung the other three in the group up and beaten them?

Sigh...

"Zhou Yi took both the lyrics and composition; according to the usual tradition, he shouldn't get a share of the arrangement next."

Watching Chen Huilin and Chen Zhiyuan, the presenters for the Best Arrangement award, go on stage, several reporters clearly didn't want to listen to these two, who were completely strangers, awkwardly chatting on stage, and began to guess who would win this award.

The Golden Melody Awards is just an award, selected by people. And since they are people, human feelings and social conventions are unavoidable.

"There are only these seven individual pop music awards in total. Zhou Yi took the lyrics and composition, so at most he'll get the grand finale Producer award? Or perhaps the main finale Best Album?"

"I think it should be Zhong Xinmin. His song 'The Last Battle' is indeed good."

"Hard to say. I think it should be Hong Jingyao's arrangement of 'Dragon Fist'. Although both of these are from Jay Chou's albums..."

"What about Wang Lihong? He was nominated too."

"Give it a rest. His album was just a greatest hits collection. Getting a nomination was already the result of Sony's operations."

"..."

The group chattered away in a mix of voices.

Compared to the nominated songs in Best Lyricist and Best Composer, which weren't very famous, the Best Arrangement segment finally had a bit of the god-level battle scene from last year's Golden Melody Awards—

Lu Shaochun - 'Beautiful New World' (Performer: SHE);

Wang Lihong - 'W-H-Y' (Performer: Wang Lihong);

Hong Jingyao - 'Dragon Fist' (Performer: Jay Chou)

Zhong Xingmin - 'The Last Battle' (Performer: Jay Chou)

Zhou Yi - 'In the Name of the Father', 'Ghost'.

After winning both the lyrics and composition trophies, Zhou Yi himself didn't take this trophy to heart; he was even talking to Jay Chou, who was sitting next to him. The two were betting on who would win the award—the stake was originally beer, but Zhou Yi, with his twisted sense of humor, changed it to milk tea.

"Ah Yi, why do you like drinking milk tea so much? Is that stuff really tasty? It makes you fat easily."

Jay Chou, who was currently still a skinny monkey, looked strange: "And it's all sugar. Drinking too much is bad for your health and will affect your vocal cords. You aren't from a professional background; you should protect your voice even more. Don't take advantage of your youth to do whatever you want."

Zhou Yi: "..."

You're the one qualified to say that?

Wang Lihong, who was sitting nearby, had been pricking up his ears to listen, wondering if they would pick him. But before the person was even chosen, the two of them started "arguing" about what the stake was first, which disappointed him somewhat.

However, the next second, his expression instantly stiffened for a moment—

"The 14th Golden Melody Award for Best Arrangement goes to... 'In the Name of the Father', Zhou Yi! Congratulations!"

"Congratulations to Zhou Yi!"

Zhou Yi, who was still betting with Jay Chou on who would win the award, froze. His neighbor, Jay Chou, froze too—

What the hell?!

What's going on?!

What did I just hear?!

Is the Golden Melody Awards gone mad?!

Giving out three in a row?!

Jay Chou's face had clearly lost its expression management; the two big characters of "shock" were practically written all over it.

Never expecting the Best Arrangement Award to go to his own Zhou Yi, he instinctively scanned the surroundings. Unlike the previous two times where everyone's eyes held only congratulations, this time many eyes held a few more shades of doubt and uncertainty—

"You kid, eating alone?"

"Isn't that a bit unprofessional?"

"Yes, your album is awesome, your results are invincible, but at least leave us a bowl of soup!"

Sun Yanzi, sensing something seemed off, immediately turned her head to look at where the Warner executives were seated. Qian Jiang and Chen Ze Shan, two Warner executives, clearly had no contingency plan for Zhou Yi winning this award either; they simply signaled with their eyes that she was fine.

Zhou Yi, who walked up to the stage to accept the award, was not wearing the off-the-rack haute couture he wore at the Grammys, but a purple cloud-patterned suit specially dyed and tailored for him by the other party after they heard he was coming to attend China's domestic highest-prestige awards ceremony, now that he had become an Armani spokesperson—

The cloud-pattern lines outlined in gold thread stood out exceptionally against the crimson-purple suit; the two combined made Zhou Yi look of inestimable nobility.

The fans in the audience didn't understand the unwritten rules like the industry insiders and big stars present; they only knew their idol had won another award, and this was already his third time on stage tonight, as screams sweeping through the entire venue erupted once more—

"Ahhh!!!"

"Zhou Yi!!"

"Zhou Yi!!!"

Feeling as if he had been forced onto the spot, Zhou Yi took the trophy from Princess Lin's hands, looked at the crowd below for the third time with his eyes, and joked, "I can tell, my album must be very popular. Thank you..."

After breaking up and recombining his acceptance speeches prepared for other awards, Zhou Yi improvised on the spot with a complete lack of stage fright; his open and generous demeanor made people like Zhang Xueyou in the audience curious.

Of course, for another part of the nominees present, this behavior was somewhat tainted...

"Warner, you're really breaking the rules here, acting like a greedy and power-hungry gang?"

"You can't be so rude just because Zhou Yi is from out of town, giving him all three awards..."

(End of this chapter)