Chapter 542

As a crossover singer who started late, the aspect of Sae Yuzuki that has been criticized since her debut last year is her vocal ability—

She has looks if you want vocal ability, and she has looks if you want looks; in short, her main selling point is looks.

Although she has slightly improved her vocal ability through training in various small offline theaters, she is still far from being a true talent anomaly or a top-tier singer.

Precisely because of this, upon seeing Zhou Yi, she felt not only excitement but also an uncontrollable curiosity.

As everyone knows, since his debut, a light of top-tier talent anomaly has always been shining on Zhou Yi's forehead—

He is self-taught, never received any professional training before, and even learned music knowledge by reading books for free at Xinhua Bookstore; his vocal mechanism was purely a gift from heaven, overwhelmingly powerful to the point of being absurd.

Some even claimed that if he just calmed down and studied for five or six years, he would surely ascend to the throne of the world's number one male pop singer in the field of vocal ability.

If only a few people or even a minority said this, it could be attributed to Warner's marketing, but basically, any professional who has collaborated with Zhou Yi or heard him perform live, no matter how much they dislike him, has to hold their nose and admit that this claim does make sense.

Naturally, Sae Yuzuki was very curious whether this was true, curious about what exactly the so-called vocal mechanism that heaven chases to feed him meant.

Then, she was shocked.

In the two days since she started rehearsing with Zhou Yi, she fully realized what the saying "comparing people makes you die, comparing goods makes you throw them away" means. Especially when singing the rock songs from the second album, she had privately learned them herself, but her handling was never as effortless as Zhou Yi's—

Due to the special nature of the live performance, the listening experience was even better than the album.

Especially in the area of improvised key changes, Zhou Yi could give her a huge sense of surprise every single rehearsal.

"Unbelievable, a performance that leaves one staring in disbelief, Zhou Yi Jun."

August 13, afternoon, inside a small performance hall in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

After accompanying the last song once again, Sae Yuzuki, serving as the keyboardist, sincerely stood up from her seat and, together with the other members of her band, clapped for the man from the bottom of her heart.

After rehearsing together these days, she, who was originally somewhat awkward in front of Zhou Yi, no longer felt any nervousness; she appeared very relaxed. Zhou Yi's approachability far exceeded her imagination; he could even be said to have not the slightest air of a superstar like Guo Tianwang.

For Sae Yuzuki, who is currently a newcomer in the Japanese entertainment industry, this greatly increased her favorability; Japan's perverted and extremely strict workplace senior-junior culture had truly tortured her enough.

"Although, I still don't quite adapt to your exaggerated expressions of admiration when facing me."

Zhou Yi, having put down the microphone, took the water and Mao Jin handed over by his assistant, smiled, wiped the sweat on his forehead, unscrewed the bottle cap, and took a sip: "Doing this every time, won't you get tired?"

"We are used to cheering for our seniors."

When Sae Yuzuki smiled, she was very sweet, belonging to the category of superior Japanese beautiful girl sweetie: "Besides, Zhou Yi Jun, your performance is indeed great, isn't it?"

With the other band members unable to speak English, Sae Yuzuki, as a top student, could communicate freely with Zhou Yi in English, and the relationship between the two was no longer as strange as when they first met.

"Indeed, praise from a beautiful girl is always more pleasant to the mood than from a big man."

With a Mao Jin draped over his shoulder, Zhou Yi smiled and greeted the others, then turned and left without hesitation, waving to them without looking back: "Good work, go back and rest quickly, everyone."

Sae Yuzuki, who had originally intended to invite the approachable Zhou Yi to see if he was free to go have afternoon tea together, forcibly swallowed the words at the tip of her tongue, her gaze fixed on the man's departing back filled with regret.

Opportunities to eat with an idol are rare, especially since Zhou Yi is not Japanese; who knows when he will come to Japan again.

"Ah Yi, how is the rehearsal going?"

"About done, the flow is already familiar; we can return to the country after finishing the singing."

Zhou Yi, having returned to Warner by car, pushed open the door of the lounge and happened to see Qian Jiang sitting on the sofa holding a folder, replying with a tone filled with some laziness: "What are you looking at? Does Warner Japan still have documents you need to see?"

"No, it was transmitted from the domestic side."

Qian Jiang smiled, closed the folder in his hand, placed it on the coffee table, and pushed it in front of him: "It is about the casting for the roles in your new album's MV."

Although, due to compensatory psychology, Zhou Jianhui, the general director of the "Gui Cang" album, still chose the cheap and useful Ning Hao, according to Zhou Yi's consistent character, MVs are to be shot for all songs within the album.

This unique operation in the Chinese music industry, which he has maintained from his debut until now, applies without exception to three Chinese albums, one EP, and two English albums.

"What's wrong with the casting? Are you going to hold a harem selection for me?" Zhou Yi chuckled lightly, unconcerned.

"Don't say it, you really shouldn't say it."

Hearing this, Qian Jiang also laughed: "The Hong Kong media over there indeed all say this."

Since times have changed, after Warner in the domestic market released news that they would begin selecting female roles for Zhou Yi's new album MV, various self-recommendations flew to Warner like snowflakes, among which there were even many votes based on personal connections—

Everyone wants to become the next "Qian Yijun Girl."

Especially after Wang Xinling and Lin Yichen in Taiwan also started to become popular this year, there were even more people envious of Zhou Yi's metaphysics.

Hong Kong models and minor actors rushed in like madmen—

Buddy, he may be arrogant and willful, but he really can make people famous.

Now "Qian Yijun Girl" has become a complete delicacy; even many female actresses in the mainland express during interviews that they would like to act in Zhou Yi's MV.

"I have never seen anyone whose MV role positions could compete so fiercely; you are truly a unique case, like a scorpion's dung." Qian Jiang, who could not figure this out at all, couldn't help but scratch his head while talking about this matter.

This is very weird.

"So, are these all the candidates for the female MV roles?"

Zhou Yi, with his legs crossed, reached out and took the document; the first person he saw upon opening it was someone he did not know.

Qian Jiang nodded: "These have already been screened through several rounds, leaving only this batch. Their resumes and evaluations are written below the photos; you can see which people to use."

Finally, he added: "Those women who are models basically all hold titles of beauty pageant champions; there are some from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the mainland, and Macau."

The more Zhou Yi listened, the stranger his expression became—no wonder the Hong Kong media said he was holding a harem selection.

Damn it, it's all Warner's fault! They always manage to twist the public opinion when asked to do something!

His original intention was good; Warner executed it wrongly.

"Don't tell me that this whole stack is full of beauty pageant champions, runners-up, and third-place winners."

"No, there are also hosts and actors," Qian Jiang said cheerfully: "There are even some making apologies."

Hearing the last sentence, Zhou Yi immediately perked up his ears, and a few questions appeared between his eyebrows: "Making apologies?"

"Do you remember the idol drama approval I told you about after the Golden Melody Awards?"

Speaking of this matter, Qian Jiang's expression unconsciously became proud: "At that time, I told you that even Qiong Yao's 'My Fair Princess 3' was no exception, right?"

"So?"

"After your Golden Melody Awards, 'My Fair Princess 3' was still stuck and had not moved; every time they asked, the answer was that everything was normal and the process was ongoing. Then, Qiong Yao and her daughter-in-law thought of you; after all, they had previously had conflicts with you, and this time they were afraid you would settle old and new grudges together; they had invested heavily in this drama."

Qian Jiang's tone carried obvious schadenfreude: "So, whether they thought you were obstructing things in the middle or felt that stalling 'My Fair Princess 3' was the higher-ups helping you vent your anger, they both wanted to reconcile with you.

"For this reason, knowing you are filming a new album MV, I specifically arranged for a female actress highly praised by Qiong Yao herself to compete for the role. This is also considered me bowing my head and releasing goodwill first; this person also played a role in 'My Fair Princess 3'."

Zhou Yi laughed—

What kind of tyrant protecting his own behavior is this, but he likes it.

"Who did you send over?"

"She is quite valued by Qiong Yao in 'My Fair Princess 3', named Qin Lan, and the character she played is called Zhihua. Qiong Yao herself holds her in very high regard, saying 'one tear from her is a star in the sky'."

"..."

What the heck?

Who?

The fingertips of Zhou Yi, flipping through the resume in his hand, paused for a moment—She was in 'My Fair Princess 3' too?

"... Why does it sound more and more like I'm some kind of evil landlord? I have always been pure and innocent, okay."

Hearing this, Zhou Yi immediately rolled his eyes; Zhou Yi, who quickly flipped to Qin Lan's page, also saw this person's current resume—Hmm, just out of the nest, 'My Fair Princess 3' was the first big production she accepted.

Now this is truly behaving like a Japanese person—

Miss Qin, you wouldn't want 'My Fair Princess 3', which could make you famous overnight, to be unable to air, would you?

For some reason, this sentence popped into Zhou Yi's head, causing him to immediately spit 'pfft pfft' in his mind several times.

He can't stay in Japan any longer; his pure thoughts have already been contaminated.

"How about it? Should we send her a contract?"

"Since Qiong Yao has already bowed her head proactively, then it doesn't matter; we need actors anyway, it's the same whoever plays the role." Zhou Yi laughed, utterly unexpected that this arrogant old woman would actually bow her head to him proactively.

It was precisely because Liu Tao herself had a falling out with Qiong Yao that she didn't sign with Qiong Yao's company back then, and thus was unable to star in 'My Fair Princess 3'; otherwise, Qiong Yao would have probably sent her over to beg for mercy.

"Is there anything else that needs special attention?"

"There is one, from Taiwan, named Chen Qiaoen, a host. The program she hosts is called 'China is So Big'. She often runs back and forth between the mainland and Taiwan, recording travel footage from various places in the country for this program."

Seeing Zhou Yi ask proactively, Qian Jiang also brought up another person: "She debuted in 2001 and started hosting this program in 2002. Originally everything was steadily improving, but this year she offended her company boss and is currently directly frozen."

"She wants to make a comeback, but hosting a program is temporarily hopeless, so she contacted someone in the company through an intermediary, wanting to seize an opportunity to appear in your MV to open up her fame."

Hearing this name, Zhou Yi quickly flipped through the resume in his hand and soon saw the photo of Chen Qiaoen, one of the future idol drama queens—

The first thing that came into view was those fiery big breasts.

She really knows how to highlight her advantages.

Considering that this person's future fame could also continue writing his 'Metaphysical Myth', Zhou Yi also pulled out her resume and placed it together with Qin Lan's.

The rest... anyway, up to now, he hadn't seen any familiar faces—

Hmm?

Just as he was flipping through resumes like an HR, another familiar face came into his view.

Tang Yan, born December 6, 1983, participated in the third Shu Lei Century Star Beauty Pageant in 2001 at age 18, and won the championship in one fell swoop...

Tang Yan, one of the representatives of 'bad acting' among the future evergreen female stars of the mainland entertainment industry, appeared before his eyes in a way he didn't expect.

"This one is still studying at the Central Academy of Drama; although she is a beauty pageant champion, her schedule isn't busy, at most shooting commercials and working as a model, but it is said she has hope for the Olympics; Zhang Yimou said he wants to organize a bunch of women wearing qipaos."

"If she is successfully selected then, you will have a collaboration during the eight-minute segment at the Athens Olympics next year."

The Olympic eight-minute segment is still okay.

Zhou Yi also pulled out her resume.

Although she is one of the future '85 Flower' generation whose age doesn't match her reputation, Tang Yan's future fame is indeed unquestionable—famous enough, meeting the standard.

As for the Olympics... if he remembered correctly, she actually was selected for the Olympic eight-minute segment, although she didn't have many shots, belonging to a group performance.

As for the champions and runners-up of several beauty pageants in Hong Kong...

To be honest, Zhou Yi frowned directly: "Why has Hong Kong's beauty pageant declined so much? What is all this nonsense?"

Not to mention they are all unknown, just their faces and bodies are not quite right.

It's only been a few years since the turn of the century; have Hong Kong's beauties been cut off so severely?

"The mainland economy has risen; handsome men and beautiful women naturally stay in the mainland; who would drag their families to Hong Kong? Now is the era of Hong Kong capital moving north."

Qian Jiang, whose generation up was also mainlanders, shook his head: "You can look at other Hong Kong models; there are a few decent young models and models over there, although they haven't participated in beauty pageants yet."

Zhou Yi flipped through them, and sure enough, this time he finally saw two familiar faces—

One named Yang Ying, one named Wen Yongshan.

Yang Ying hasn't evolved into a fully artificial human yet; Wen Yongshan has already completed minor adjustments.

Zhou Yi thought for a moment, first pulled out Wen Yongshan's resume page, and threw it on top of the three resumes of Tang Yan, Qin Lan, and Chen Qiaoen—

Yang Ying is still too ugly right now, or rather, hasn't been fixed to match his aesthetic yet, so forget it.

"Just these four; you can go contact them."