Chapter 550: I Want to Challenge Sun Yanzi

"It hasn't even started yet, and these reporters are already putting Zhou Yi on a pedestal, huh?"

"Beware of malicious flattery!"

"What Oscars? That's next year's business. Why are you so eager to press for details? You have no sense. My take is you should dig into whether Zhou Yi hooked up with girls in Japan first. I'm still waiting for Mr. Zhou's further scoop."

"What nonsense! Brother Zhou Yi is pure and clean, okay!"

"..."

After a series of questions from Hong Kong reporters cornering and pursuing Zhou Yi on the 18th were exposed, on the 19th, the mainland internet, which began reposting these gossip news, scoffed at them.

Your perspective is too narrow. Does the Oscars give Zhou Yi any particularly huge boost? He won the Grammys; that's the Oscars of the pop music world.

Why not show us the Japanese girls, let us appreciate Zhou Yi's taste in Japan.

And then, videos of Zhou Yi on Japanese variety shows and fan meetings, along with reports from Japanese media, which leaked from Hong Kong and Taiwan, gradually appeared on the internet—

In this year of 2003, where network bandwidth can already support live online concert streaming, although few people could download online videos, the sheer number of mainland netizens was right there; where there's a will, there's a way.

Zhen Junjie was just such a person.

To see his idol's performance as fast as possible, he gritted his teeth, took his memory card, and ran to the internet cafe with the best broadband speed within his knowledge, booked a room for the night, and started pulling an all-nighter—

"Damn it, why is the internet speed so laggy!"

"Holy crap, why the hell did I get disconnected!"

"Net admin! Net admin!"

"Which Wang Ba is downloading Japanese porn!"

"..."

Guilt-ridden, Zhen Junjie pretended to be fully focused on his game while secretly observing the people around him with his peripheral vision—based on his experience of frequently coming here to surf the net, that net admin was just a slacker who didn't know how to check the backend at all, very easy to fool.

After finishing downloading Zhou Yi's video, when he logs off tomorrow morning, he can just buy Sun Yanzi's new album "Unfinished" which starts selling then; killing two birds with one stone, simply perfect.

Thinking this, Zhen Junjie put on his headphones, opened Qianqian Jingtting, and started adding that song he had been quite enjoying recently—

"July 7th, Sunny Day."

Seems to be sung by a singer named Xu Huixin; good to listen to, love to listen to.

If one were to find the biggest surprise in the 2003 Mandarin music scene up to now, without a doubt, Xu Huixin's name would top the list.

Under the premise that her first two albums made no splash in the mainland region, this female singer from Universal Music suddenly shot to fame after releasing her third personal studio album, "Beautiful Love," in July this year—

"July 7th, Sunny Day," arranged by Wu Qinglong and with lyrics and composition by Mulanhao, Aka, and Chen Weiling, exploded across all of Taiwan immediately after its release, and then this trend gradually spread to both sides of the strait and Hong Kong and Macau in August, becoming a true nationwide hit.

No matter where you go, you can almost hear this "July 7th, Sunny Day" in street-side shops, hearing those lyrics—

"On July 7th, a sunny day, it suddenly started snowing heavily; I dare not open my eyes, hoping it's just my illusion."

"I stand by the edge of the earth, watching helplessly as the snow covers the street where you came from~"

The momentum was so strong it rivaled the current hottest female singers in the country, Sun Yanzi, Xiao Yaxuan, and others. Universal Music also quietly started marketing titles like "Snow White Songstress" and "Fairy Beauty," trying to use this album to push her up to the position of a minor diva.

Moreover, because Sun Yanzi's new album was released on August 20, Universal Music also operated water army accounts, using her in the news to boost Xu Huixin's status—

Buying press releases non-stop with titles like "The hottest young female singer in all of China right now" and "Pure-hearted Soul Songstress," trying to secretly mold Xu Huixin into an image capable of challenging Sun Yanzi.

"Sun Yanzi still relies on Zhou Yi; it's an unfair victory. How many years does it take to produce one Zhou Yi? If her new album has the guts to remove the two songs Zhou Yi wrote for her, it's guaranteed to get beaten into submission by Xu Huixin."

"Agreed, Sun Yanzi relies too heavily on Zhou Yi."

"????"

"Wait, are you blind or deaf? Yanzi's latest hit song 'Meet' wasn't written by Zhou Yi, what's going on?"

"..."

Earlier in Taiwan, the discussion on whether Xu Huixin could successfully challenge Sun Yanzi sparked a huge amount of controversy, which then spread to various internet platforms in Hong Kong and the mainland, gradually stirring up public opinion.

Given that the popularity of the song "July 7th, Sunny Day" was indeed too formidable, Xu Huixin's identity as a "challenger" was actually raised up unknowingly—

Now fermenting into August, as this discourse grew loud, it naturally drew the attention of Sun Yanzi's side.

"I'm not quite clear on what the media means, but I met eVonne (Xu Huixin) before at the 14th Golden Melody Awards."

August 20.

Sun Yanzi, who had always avoided this question before under Chen Ze Shan's arrangement, answered this topic directly for the first time at her mainland press conference, smiling and waving her hand to indicate that public opinion was making a mountain out of a molehill: "She won the Best Newcomer Award; the relationship between us is not as tense as some media friends say..."

Translate that, what do you mean by Golden Melody Award Best Newcomer Award?!

I, your humble servant, won the Golden Melody Best Female Singer trophy!

This response script, arranged single-handedly by Chen Ze Shan, was full of the charm of journalism; the room for maneuvering left was too large, completely beneficial for hype after the album release.

"Then Yanzi, what is your view on what Zhou Yi said in Japan about a female model who smiles very much like you?"

Some reporters also asked about the gossip many people were eager to explore.

Thanks to the leak of pirated copies, Arakawa Yui, entering Chinese netizens' vision for the first time, directly left a not-so-small first impression in many netizens' memories—Zhou Yi's personally selected "Sun Yanzi fragment."

"Does this mean you two are already together? You are the ideal type in Zhou Yi's heart, so that's why he keeps thinking about you?"

"I have no chest and no butt; aren't you guys imagining too much?"

Sun Yanzi raised her hand to cover her grinning mouth and said loudly, "As for why he would say that, you might as well ask him yourself; he is right here at the scene."

"?"

"??"

"????"

Under the bewildered stares of the reporters and Sun Yanzi's grinning, wide-mouthed gaze, a man wearing a baseball cap and a mask stood up from the very back row of the media section, removed his disguise, and walked up to the stage—

"Yeah~"

Seeing that the reporters had been successfully fooled, Sun Yanzi laughed loudly, raised her hand to high-five the man who walked up, and gave a wink: "Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome the supporting guest, Zhou Yi!"

Holy crap?!

Zhou Yi just got back, right?

No rest or preparation at all, and he came directly to support Sun Yanzi's album launch?

Is Warner, seeing Universal's fierce momentum, trying to use Zhou Yi's fame and star power to further widen the gap between Sun Yanzi and Xu Huixin?

The flashlights instantly began flashing wildly at a speed far exceeding before, almost turning into flash grenades.

"First, I need to state one thing: that so-called mysterious Mr. Zhou from Japan spreading online is truly not me. I have always conducted myself without changing my name or hiding my identity, and I never engage in leaving a surname but no name."

"Of course, the reason I appeared here is not because my conscience awakened; it is because Yanzi begged at my door for three days and three nights last night..."

As soon as Zhou Yi opened his mouth, it was that familiar flavor of running wild with lies, and the reporters photographed even more vigorously—

Last night?

Three days and three nights?

In the Imperial Capital, at Fan Xiaopang's home.

Watching the live broadcast of the press conference, Fan Xiaopang pondered for a long while but simply could not figure out what logical connection existed between these two phrases.

"Bingbin, are you sure you want to compete?"

In the phone call, the voice of her agent Chen Shufen brought her back to her senses, and her expression instantly became unshakably firm—

"I will compete. So what if it is Liu Ruoyin? She debuted with Zhou Yi as her stepping stone, and this year she is being pressed down tightly by Cheng Hao, who has already retired from the industry. On what basis can I not compete with her?"

Three days ago, her agent Chen Shufen used connections to snatch an opportunity—

A film that has not yet started shooting was scouting for actors; the film is titled 'A World Without Thieves', and the male lead is tentatively Liu Dehua.

Liu Ruoyin is not the kind of god-level actress like Zhang Manyu, where competition is completely hopeless.

If she is too beautiful, then she can also accept playing a grotesque role.

Of course, the reason she wants to fight for the female lead in this film is that Fan Xiaopang has another undisclosed selfish motive—

As everyone knows, Sun Yanzi is currently leading the female lead in Zhou Xingchi's new film 'Kung Fu'. A music queen making her first foray into acting to collaborate with a master of nonsense humor makes this film full of highlights and gimmicks.

As an actress, she naturally wants to 'defeat' Sun Yanzi, an interloper from another field, in the area where she excels most. Of course, the main reason is that the relationship between that woman and Zhou Yi is simply too enigmatic, which ignited her competitive spirit.

She cannot win in the music aspect; her song 'Street Dog Lovers' can only hang on the ringtone charts.

But films and television dramas are different; this is her domain.

Feng Dapao is at least a major director of commercial films in the mainland, and Huayi, one of the group's members, has considerable strength; there is a possibility of defeating Zhou Xingchi, who is currently on a downward slope.

She also wants to challenge Sun Yanzi!