Chapter 608: Righteousness Reaching the Point of Evil

"Mutual Appreciation Between Two Generations of Chinese Talents"

"Zhou Yi Unaffected by Public Opinion, Concert Passionately Goes Live with Mic"

"Zhou Yi Suspected of Immigrating to the United States"

"A Gift from Zhou Yi — The Ocean of Wu Xia"

"Full-Hall Sing-Along, Unparalleled Emotion"

"Self-Inflicted Woe, Unsurvivable! Zhou Yi Destroys His Star Path, Suspected of Being Blacklisted"

"Wong Jim's Final Swan Song, Joining Hands with Zhou Yi to Forge a Classic"

"..."

December 1st, whether in the mainland or Hong Kong, was flooded with a massive number of extremely similar news headlines—

Wong Jim, suffering from lung cancer, appeared in public again after more than four months, and it was actually at Zhou Yi's concert; this was something no one had expected.

Originally, everyone thought that him writing a music review for Zhou Yi's album would already be the limit.

And now, given his current physical condition and status, it is impossible to say that Zhou Yi forced him onto the stage to perform.

The only explanation is that Wong Jim truly has high hopes for this junior and wants to help him as much as possible in the final stage of his life.

A small number of wealthy brothers and sisters who specifically bought tickets to attend Zhou Yi's concert at Hung Hom were sharing their feelings on the internet, unable to wait—

"Have to say, the final scene of 'Laughing in the Sea of Life' was really a pleasant surprise; I didn't expect to hear Uncle Wong's singing skills again, and even as a duet with Zhou Yi."

"Have to say, comparing Zhou Yi's voice, it is indeed a gift from heaven."

"If Wong Jim hadn't appeared, I would have thought Luo Dayou had come."

"Luo Dayou's voice is even more broken, okay? He couldn't even hit the right pitch singing 'Laughing in the Sea of Life', and he can't reach the high notes either."

"I didn't expect Zhou Yi to have quite the style of a young hero when singing this kind of song."

"Are you joking? He's a 'bao' hero, okay. A body of proud bones that won't bow, a hard life that can't learn to bend."

"Are you writing Wu Xia here?"

"Just ask yourself if it is or not!"

"He's already got a green card and is about to immigrate with his wife and kids; what the hell is that!"

Compared to the Hong Kong entertainment media, which was mostly discussing the concert, because there was no live web broadcast, the attention of mainland netizens and media was clearly drawn to the Zhou Yi smear articles that had sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain over the past two days.

Things like getting a green card and immigrating were just a light drizzle; there were even claims that he already had an illegitimate child with a flight attendant, conceived during one of his several trips back and forth between the domestic and foreign countries, a result of rapid progress on the plane. To conceal the specific situation, Zhou Yi directly bought a house for the mother and child in Shanghai and bore all expenses.

This sensational headline and content, due to being so outrageous, actually had quite a few believers.

And precisely because of these various rumors flying everywhere that couldn't be stopped, Warner had no choice but to hold a press conference to clarify, and would also invite media people who had misunderstood Zhou Yi, such as Yuan Li, who had always only attacked Zhou Yi using the loopholes in 'Blue and White Porcelain'.

In this era, once an artist had some incredible scandal or rumor that couldn't be covered up, to show formality, they would generally choose to hold a press conference to clarify or admit their mistakes.

Artists like Jay Chou, Wang Lihong, F4, S. H. E., Xie Tingfeng, Yu Wenle, Chen Guanxi, and so on, were all like this.

And because Zhou Yi had just finished the Hong Kong Hung Hom concert, for convenience, this press conference was also set in Hong Kong.

"Sure enough, launching an offensive to muddy the waters while he was busy preparing for the concert and had no time to attend to it was very effective."

In the capital, at home, Yuan Li nodded in satisfaction.

The US dollars weren't given for nothing; this group of people really worked harder than before when they weren't taking money.

"Are we going?" Xu Qingliang asked.

It wasn't that he was afraid of being put in a sack in Hong Kong; mainly, Zhou Yi's track record at the previous two press conferences was a bit too terrifying. Hearing about a press conference out of the blue made him feel a bit intimidated in his heart.

"Go, why wouldn't we go."

Yuan Li was somewhat disdainful: "You don't have any compromising material, did you take money or immigrate? Or are you trying to extort him? Don't forget you used to praise him; freedom of speech, can't a law student not understand that?"

"... That's true." Xu Qingliang pondered for a while and nodded.

Yes, compared to certain big shots in the cultural circle who did indeed take money or had exchanges of interest, Xu Qingliang, as an editor for Southern Daily, really hadn't taken any money—

He was simply longing for the United States, plus hating his own country.

For him, even the air in the United States was fragrant.

And there were many more people like Xu Qingliang who surfaced this time. There was no way around it; Zhou Yi's area-of-effect attack with full damage really pierced their hearts.

They actually knew in their hearts better than anyone that what they were doing perfectly fit the definition of 'colonized person' in Zhou Yi's mouth, but they were never willing to admit this point directly.

Kneeling completely to the West equals embracing progress.

This is the consensus.

If they could, they would rather take off this skin of being Chinese and put on the skin of an American or even a Japanese person.

Unfortunately, they can't change it.

Taking ten thousand steps back, aesthetics are very subjective.

They just didn't like the album 'Gui Li Canghai', so they couldn't hold back and cursed online to scold Zhou Yi. And because of Zhou Yi's fans' indiscriminate siege, they had no choice but to join hands.

This reason is reasonable and justified.

As for Yuan Li herself, she didn't believe that Zhou Yi, who could immigrate without even her own boss knowing, could know.

This is the golden spirit of news.

Pointing out the errors in 'Blue and White Porcelain', Zhou Yi should even thank her for it.

"Zhou Yi's Hong Kong concert, a clumsy children's Wu Xia performance. Zhou Yi attempts to use Wong Jim's reputation to clear his own suspicions, but this cannot convince the public. However, I am gratified to see Zhou Yi has a willingness to admit mistakes."

"You have to know, standing from the perspective of the international community, the reason the United States attacked Iraq was only because..."

Before leaving, Yuan Li still wrote her last blog post as a Xinhua News Agency reporter. If nothing unexpected happened, the next time they saw each other would be next year, by which time she would already be an American with American international status.

At the same time, inside Xinhua News Agency, a person received a phone call—from the Guangzhou side, a man named Cui Songming, who was considered his old leader.

In the late 1980s, Cui Songming was already the Deputy Minister of the Culture and Sports Department of the Hong Kong Xinhua News Agency; nowadays he is retired in Guangzhou.

And one of this Leader Cui's prominent achievements was using his eloquent tongue in the early 1990s to pull the confused number-one talent of Hong Kong, Wong Jim, over, making him become a Hong Kong Affairs Advisor without hesitation.

…………………………

"Kid, now you owe me a favor."

"Didn't I tell you while we were eating earlier? You're still far from where I was at your age, kid—ahem." Huang Zhan, laughing so hard he was somewhat lost in his own delight, coughed repeatedly.

Zhou Yi chuckled lightly, handed him the medicine, and said, "Oh, come on. My connections are way stronger than yours, you old fool who plays up his age."

The verbal battle had been going on for so long without being forcibly cooled down; for him, that was a signal in itself—a signal favorable to him.

As long as no one stepped in to take sides, it was favorable to him.

Clearly, someone wanted to see his performance, to see if he was only capable of singing to commemorate or if he truly dared to take action.

"Fine, then I'll watch how you perform."

Huang Zhan, while taking the medicine, gave him a gesture of contempt.

December 3rd, 2:30 PM, Warner Building, Hong Kong, First Floor Press Hall.

Zhou Yi, dressed in an Armani suit, faced a sea of reporters, sat upright, and said just one sentence: "Warner has collected all the evidence and will file lawsuits against all rumor-mongers in one week. That's all for this press conference."

"If you have any questions, ask quickly; I'm in a hurry to go play."

"..."

"???"

Xu Qingliang, who knew this damn thing had no good intentions, raised his hand immediately—

"I am Xu Qingliang, a reporter from Southern Media Group, and also the reporter who questioned the aesthetics of your album online. Without cause, you labeled me a so-called 'colonial person'; shouldn't you publicly apologize to me and to everyone you have categorized under that insulting term?"

He had no substantial dirt; Zhou Yi was just like with Chow Yun-fat and others, unable to dig up anything, fearless.

"Apologize? Why should I apologize? Don't you know yourself if you are a colonial person?"

Zhou Yi didn't bother with any logic at all, casting him a sideways glance.

He actually knew this person—the future famous public intellectual, Executive Editor of the Southern Weekly, Weibo ID Ximen Bu An.

"You?! This is an insult to my character; you must give me, give us an explanation!"

"I'm too lazy to speak; you're not worthy of listening."

—?!

Zhou Yi was too lazy to deal with him.

Yuan Li stepped up—

"This is slander, defamation, rumor-mongering, an infringement on our right to reputation, Zhou Yi."

"I don't think I'm breaking the law; I understand the law better than you. If you have the guts, meet me in court; if not, shrink back and stop whining. Next."

Glancing at this famous "traitorous reporter," Zhou Yi waved his hand, the gesture as if to say, bring on the next batch.

Yuan Li, who had been holding high the banner of law, finally lost his composure.

Zhou Yi was crazy; he completely disregarded evidence.

"Zhou Yi! Wait for the court summons; you are beyond saving. This is name-and-shame slander and rumor-mongering!"

"You, who secretly plan to emigrate to the US while hiding it from people, what nonsense are you spouting? All you do day after day is spread rumors and stir up trouble."

Having no awareness at all that he was at a press conference, Zhou Yi brushed off his pants, stood up, swept his gaze over the crowd, his eyes finally landing on the indignant Yuan Li and Xu Qingliang, and sneered: "A rotten orange is just a rotten orange."

???

"You—"

"Once a colonial person, you are a colonial person for your whole life! Never think you can shake off this title; this is your dog tag!"

Straightening his collar, Zhou Yi strode away with long strides, showing not an ounce of fear.

Those led by Yuan Li and Xu Qingliang were each so angry they were fuming from every orifice—

The other reporters, who had simply come to follow up on the coverage, looked at each other in confusion—

This guy; if you say he's bad, his stance is clearly upright.

But if you say he's upright, he's a bit too upright to the point of being sinister.

Yuan Li's face turned completely black; he had clearly lost control of his expressions.

He had thought that since he couldn't dig up dirt on Zhou Yi like the kind that could be used to personally attack Chow Yun-fat to death, he would be in an unbeatable position against Zhou Yi, but this thing was truly too sinister; it had evolved to the point of not following any logic at all.

Just as she was preparing to use her last identity with Xinhua News Agency to do something, after Zhou Yi left, his manager Qian Jiang, with his general's belly, walked onto the stage, coughed twice—

"According to Ah Yi's request, we have collected evidence of legal rights infringements against Zhou Yi's reputation by Yuan Li, Xu Qingliang, Yuan Tengfei, Feng... totaling eighteen people, and will formally file lawsuits in one week..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Wait, you, suing us?

Yuan Li was so angry he was about to fly away; Xu Qingliang was completely stunned.

Who the hell is the villain?!

The villain sues first, is that it?!

Yuan Li, who had just taken out his phone to make a call, suddenly received a text message from his superior—

"Come back, accept the investigation; someone will come to escort you back."

An unquestionable tone, no room for negotiation.

Yuan Li suddenly looked up; Qian Jiang was smiling, but his thin, narrow eyes showed not an ounce of simplicity.

Also on this day, the fourth album "Gui Zang" officially broke the 2.2 million copies sales mark.

(End of this chapter)