Chapter 606: Zhou Yi

"What did she do? What does she want to do?"

Yuan Li, whose first instinct was to call Chen Luyu, was furious, but upon dialing, he discovered the number was unreachable—he couldn't even contact the manager.

The implication was obvious.

"Fuck! This ass-selling bitch!"

Yuan Li directly cursed.

In her view, Chen Luyu was merely an American ex-husband sought for a green card, so such insults were understandable.

Yuan Li couldn't comprehend it; she even felt this big-headed doll was fucking crazy.

The term "colonizer" was practically an insult delivered straight to one's face; as a highly educated intellectual who had previously been invincible across various news fields, this was her first encounter with a freak like Zhou Yi.

It must be remembered that although she was indeed preparing to resign, emigrate to the US, and join The Wall Street Journal, she had not yet resigned; she was still a senior reporter and editor at the Xinhua News Agency's International News Editorial Department!

From Xinhua News Agency!

In Beijing, Cheng Hao nearly blacked out upon seeing this news—

At the same time, Fan Xiaopang, who was filming a commercial; Qin Lan, who had truly risen to fame with the role of Zhihua due to the broadcast of "My Fair Princess 3"; Sun Yanzi, who was filming in Shanghai; Jay Chou, who was practicing magic in Taiwan; Tao Zhe, who had just disembarked from a plane returning to Taiwan; as well as Elva Hsiao, Lu Yi, Zhou Xun, Ren Quan, Li Bingbin, Hua Yi, and others attending events—all were dumbfounded.

Wait, bro?

Online, things immediately boiled over! Whether it was Tianya, Mop, or major campus BBS forums, everyone was in an uproar over this episode of "Chen Luyu Has an Appointment."

"Zhou Yi is awesome!"

"Can some expert explain why Zhou Yi said this? I don't quite get it."

"Colonizer, people from a colony? Is it an abbreviation? Quite interesting, Zhou Yi."

"Zhou Yi is just an idiot!"

"This bastard; I'll consider the albums I bought before as feeding dogs. I never expected Zhou Yi to be such a disgusting person."

"???"

Compared to the general public forums still enjoying the spectacle, the first place where contradictions erupted and sides were taken was actually Zhou Yi's home ground, the Peking University BBS.

As a university forum capable of reigniting the popularity of "A Chinese Odyssey" through reinterpretation, the proportion of literary youths among this generation of Peking University students was naturally not low. As everyone knows, whenever a group has too many literary youths, evaluations concerning that man will split into two or even three factions, leading to warfare.

Although it sounds laughable, this was the reality of 2003.

This was an era where a celebrity would be attacked even for publicly praising or commending him; an era where Japanese craftsmen produced immortals by the dozen and American summer camps produced prodigies endlessly.

"OP is a good person; may you be American in your next life."

This was a common phrase left in comments under pirated downloads.

Even comments under such posts contained such words, indicating just how powerful the "shepherd dogs" were and to what extent they had subtly influenced the general public.

Originally, those supporting the administrators were at a disadvantage, but Zhou Yi's sudden intervention directly brought massive reinforcing forces—

Not everyone enjoys political debates, but undoubtedly, debating politics is something engraved in a man's bones, especially for college students who have plenty of time.

And Zhou Yi's primary consumer base happened to be college students and young office workers.

Even more terrifying was that the post-90s generation, especially the new generation born after 1995, were also the largest potential audience for Zhou Yi's songs.

Even if only one person out of every 100—no, it should be said, out of every 1,000 or 10,000 people—was converted into someone who, due to Zhou Yi's album, went to understand history and learn about that man, it would mean the shepherd dogs' efforts were diminished by that much.

The only thing worth celebrating for Yuan Li was that no major figures in the music industry would likely want to touch this hot potato.

In that case, sooner or later, she could lead people to seize the interpretive rights over this album.

She dared not mention that man's name, but she could muddy the waters to render Zhou Yi's act of piercing the veil futile.

Everyone is getting paid in US dollars; it's time to work.

Step one: Disguise as a vulnerable group and, from a female perspective, accuse Zhou Yi of bullying others by relying on his power.

Step two: Smear Zhou Yi further, guiding him into a exhausting cycle of self-justification.

Step three: Continue finding people to relentlessly attack the substantive loopholes in the lyrics of "Blue and White Porcelain," shattering Zhou Yi's golden reputation as a talented scholar.

She intended to make this incident her first achievement upon immigrating to the United States.

Yes, she had already passed the immigration review; theoretically, she was already a genuine American, merely waiting to go to Washington next year to take the oath and change her nationality.

Coincidentally, there were also many people in the United States who disliked Zhou Yi.

Back then in the US, if not for concerns about the impact, Zhou Yi might have already encountered a crazy gunman.

However, before she could even finish planning, the appearance of one person directly disrupted all the deployments in her mind—

Huang Zhan.

A grandmaster-level figure in Chinese pop music, a top-tier big shot who had been hired as a consultant on Hong Kong affairs before the handover and had engaged in substantive communication with the upper echelons.

In terms of official status alone, he was even above Luo Dayou, the ballast stone of the Chinese music scene.

On November 29, 2003, Ming Pao published a music review by Huang Zhan titled "The Future Has Arrived: Zhou Yi, the Hope of Chinese Music."

This was a scene no one had anticipated beforehand.

Huang Zhan had not written a music review for a long time; previously, he had only verbally praised Zhou Yi once. Among the new generation of the Chinese music scene, he had praised only Zhou Yi.

"I am very fortunate to see, at the final stage of my life, the hope capable of carrying the future of Chinese music. Zhou Yi is truly a very interesting young man.

"I remember when I first listened to the album 'Zhou Yi,' I scoffed, thinking this young man playing with hip-hop fusion was squandering what our ancestors left behind, especially the song 'Flower Field Mistake.'

"Subsequently, he released his third album, 'Lianshan.'

"To be honest, I was very disappointed when I first listened to this album because I simply didn't like songs such as 'Fairy Tale,' but when I delved into the album's title and the concepts hidden within the tracklist, I retracted my evaluation and chose to temporarily remain silent.

"Now, he has released his fourth album, and as I expected, it is indeed named 'Guicang,' corresponding to 'Guicang'..."

In this extremely detailed music review, Huang Zhan stood at an absolute height, analyzing why Zhou Yi named his albums this way and why he arranged these concepts for the albums.

"Zhou Yi," "Lianshan," and "Guicang" are three books of changes from ancient China. They are the crystallization of the Chinese nation's wisdom, representing an understanding and grasp of the world from a holistic perspective, viewing humanity and nature as an interconnected organic whole.

Legend has it that during the Zhou Dynasty, these three books of changes—"Zhou Yi," "Lianshan," and "Guicang"—were all controlled by divination officials to predict individual fortunes, social trends, and national wars.

And this happened to correspond to Zhou Yi's four albums—

"The debut album 'Zhou Yi' corresponds to individual fortunes. This marks the beginning of Zhou Yi's skyrocketing rise in the music scene, the starting point where he changed his original destiny.

"The second album, 'Jiangnan', is an extension of the first, elevating his personal fortune. Because it is an extension, the single 'Hua Tian Cuo' from the first album directly spawned five new songs of different styles and directions in the second.

"Facts prove this album was the key for Zhou Yi to reach the pinnacle of the Mandarin music scene; 'Jiangnan' pushed his personal fortune to the extreme, sending him to the peak.

"By the third album, 'Lianshan', Zhou Yi, having pushed his personal fortune to its absolute limit, turned to social fortune, expressing his understanding through changes in the social environment and differences in family education, corresponding to the potential consequences of varying social fortunes.

"This year's fourth album, 'Guicang', naturally completed the final piece of the puzzle—national war.

"America's Iraq War shook the world and ignited this genius's inspiration. Standing on the premise of war, he criticized the unjust war of American imperialism and contrasted it sharply with the love and homesickness possible only in a peaceful domestic setting, highlighting the efforts of heroes in modern history.

"It is precisely because of him, because of them, that we have the hard-won life we lead. Just as Zhou Yi wrote in the final line of the lyric booklet: We do not live in a flat world, we are merely lucky to live in a peaceful country.

"Four years since debut, four years of time, four albums; Zhou Yi used his talent to achieve a musical transformation and tightly linked his four albums with a cohesive concept—

"This is a love letter, a love letter dedicated to all listeners and all singers of the Mandarin music scene. It spanned four years and completed its cycle at this very moment.

"They are four albums, yet they can also be called one album.

"If one were to name this single album, I think 'Zhou Yi' would be the most appropriate. For this is Zhou Yi's starting point, it is also his name, and it represents the I Ching—

"At the same time, it also represents a summary of Zhou Yi's musical journey over these four years."

(End of Chapter)