Chapter 67: Official Endorsement

Under the night sky, the lights of the Century Theater in the Imperial Capital flickered.

The audience entered in an orderly fashion holding their tickets; although the weather was cold, their faces were still filled with the excitement of seeing the stars. Especially after the limousines of the various stars parked one by one at the entrance of the grand theater—

When those stars, whom they could usually only see on television, appeared before their eyes, jumping around with energy, the excited fans could hardly control themselves—

"Guo Fucheng! Guo Fucheng! Guo Fucheng!"

"Andy Lau! Andy Lau!!"

"I love Leon Lai!!!"

"Jacky Cheung!!!"

At the turn of the century, although the album sales of the Four Heavenly Kings had already begun to drop significantly, a dead camel is still bigger than a horse; their appearance still triggered the first wave of cheers outside the theater.

And after the second wave of mainland artists began to enter, the fans' cheers weakened significantly.

Na Ying and Sun Nan were the only two mainland pop singers whose momentum was not too embarrassing; when the others—Pu Shu, the Yu Quan duo, Ding Wei, Chen Ming, Teng Geer, and others—appeared, the cheers were basically cut in half.

This contrast became even more obvious when the third round of Hong Kong and Taiwan artists appeared again—

The appearance of Richie Ren and Xie Tingfeng directly exploded the entire venue!

"Richie Ren! Richie Ren!"

"Xie Tingfeng!!!"

It was just lucky that the area beside the Century Theater was not a residential district; otherwise, they would definitely have been complained about for disturbing the peace.

"It seems the organizers knew to some extent that the mainland popularity was insufficient, so they arranged for me to go in the fourth round."

Zhou Yi, sitting in the limousine waiting to go out, sighed; compared to the white suit he wore when accepting interviews in the afternoon, the Zhou Yi who came to attend the gala in the evening sensibly changed into a warm sweater and a heavy coat.

The hotel where the interview was held had air conditioning, but this theater did not; it was unknown whether it had not been installed yet.

Along the way, Zhou Yi had already seen a group of stars with absolutely no idol baggage arriving wrapped in thick cotton-padded jackets.

Among them were female singers such as Sun Yanzi and Cai Yilin.

And directly opposite him, Cheng Hao, who was also dressed incredibly warmly, glanced at the people outside and also clicked her tongue: "Xie Tingfeng's popularity is really high; I saw that when he chatted with you this afternoon, he didn't seem very unfriendly, and he didn't seem as arrogant and unruly as the newspapers say."

"He is not as arrogant as the newspapers say, but he is not very smart, and even a bit stupid," Zhou Yi commented on Xie Tingfeng, who was waving to the fans outside.

It is normal to have pride when becoming famous at a young age, but not bringing a brain and easily getting carried away is his own fault.

Don't look at how he is at the peak of his career now; once the 2002 taxi-swap case comes out, his music career will be directly buried.

"Alright, it's almost my turn; see you inside the theater."

Watching as Lo Ta-yu, Sun Yanzi, Cai Yilin, and others all finished appearing after Richie Ren, Zhou Yi also moved his wrists, got out of the car, and strode with head held high toward the theater entrance.

And with his appearance, the popularity of mainland artists reached a level equivalent to the heavenly kings of Hong Kong and Taiwan for the first time—

"Zhou Yi! Zhou Yi, look over here! Zhou Yi!"

"Zhou Yi! Zhou Yi!!!"

The energy unleashed by the fans holding advertising boards that read "Music is pure, love for Yi is absolute" shook all the artists in the venue, and the photographer in charge of filming precisely recorded the scene of Zhou Yi greeting the fans.

"Tsk, Old Sun, it's really unavoidable that your song for 'Young Bao Qingtian' was snatched by him."

Inside the theater venue, Na Ying, hearing the cheers from outside, stopped and sighed to Sun Nan beside her: "Listen to this popularity; don't say you and me, even if Xie Tingfeng came, he probably wouldn't be inferior."

Hearing this name, Sun Nan's face looked a bit ugly, but his eyes were also filled with helplessness. He originally didn't want to come to this gala tonight, but his agent told him he must come.

Even if he really had to lose his position as the number one star tonight, he had to come, to formally and smoothly hand over the baton of the number one star of the mainland music scene to Zhou Yi.

On the other side, Chen Yufan, who looked quite handsome, watched Zhou Yi's dashing appearance, clicked his tongue, his eyes full of envy, and elbowed his partner Hu Haiquan: "Tell me, when can we have such high popularity like him?"

"There will be a chance."

Although he wasn't handsome, Hu Haiquan did not give up.

Musicians speak with the music in their hands; a temporary defeat does not mean being inferior forever.

After all the artists had entered the venue, the remaining audience members then held their tickets and entered in an orderly fashion.

Inside the venue, the artists' area.

The moment Zhou Yi stepped into this area, the first person he saw was Cheng Hao, who had arrived early and was sitting; at this moment, she was talking to Sun Yanzi in the seat next to her.

Both of them were wrapped in cotton-padded jackets, making the scene quite comical; they didn't look like female stars, but rather like members of a village intelligence organization during the Spring Festival.

"What are you chatting about that's so happy?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to ask Leon Lai for an autograph, but I'm a bit shy."

Seeing the man arrive, Cheng Hao quietly pointed to Leon Lai sitting in front and explained in a low voice.

Among the Four Heavenly Kings, Leon Lai was the first to see his fame in the mainland weaken after the millennium; but for Cheng Hao's generation, Leon Lai was still an idol-level figure.

"What's the big deal? After the show ends, I'll take you to find him."

"No, no, no, no need, no need, it's too much trouble, not necessary." Hearing Zhou Yi say this, Cheng Hao shook her head repeatedly, then reached out and pulled him over to sit down: "Alright, stop standing and blocking others; the award ceremony is about to start."

Sun Yanzi, who had already seen Wu Zongxian preparing to go on stage, also urged: "Brother Xian is going up, sit down quickly."

Seeing the camera lenses sweep toward himself from time to time, Zhou Yi immediately lost the mood to joke with the two women, sat down steadily, and watched Wu Zongxian walk to the front of the stage to open the show.

The other three hosts also appeared one by one under Wu Zongxian's connecting introductions: David Wu, Ke Lan, and Zhu Xun.

To be honest, Zhou Yi did not know the man named David Wu, but he was familiar with the two female hosts behind him.

Zhu Xun naturally needed no further explanation; she was one of the future face-level female hosts of CCTV. It was just that this Ke Lan was truly unexpected by Zhou Yi.

The moment he saw this face, the first impression that floated into Zhou Yi's mind was Lu Yike from the future hit drama "In the Name of the People."

Unlike Han Xue's boastful background, this one had a truly terrifying background.

However, it was obvious that she only had a terrifying background; her professional ability was truly not up to par; just watching her hosting mistakes on the scene now, there had already been two.

She even dragged Zhu Xun, the future face of CCTV who was still leveling up, off course, almost making it impossible to save.

Zhu Xun on the stage also glanced at Ke Lan, who was smiling a bit awkwardly, sighed internally, but quickly adjusted herself and enthusiastically introduced the winner of the first award of the night—

"In the past year, many new forces have emerged in the Chinese music scene. They are the future, and they are also the present. And among them, one person has performed exceptionally brilliantly."

Below the stage, upon hearing this opening line, almost everyone at the same time involuntarily turned their gaze toward the same direction, the same person.

Zhou Yi, seated between Sun Yanzi and Cheng Hao, was immediately captured by the knowledgeable camera.

Zhou Yi blinked, resting his index finger against his chin; his motionless, mountain-like demeanor showed not a trace of nervousness, and his superior features bore an utterly calm expression.

"Mr. Li Zongsheng said he pioneered a unique new style of pop music for the Chinese music scene, while Mr. Lo Ta-yu highly praised Zhou Yi's act of integrating opera culture into modern pop music."

As the emotions built layer by layer, Zhu Xun, the CCTV host, raised her voice even higher: "He has created a happy era belonging to himself, belonging to the contemporary youth."

The moment the words fell, the music of "Happy Worship" immediately blared from the on-site speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the seventh Global Chinese Music Awards, jointly hosted by China Central Television and Channel V Music Radio, the first of the Top Ten Most Popular Songs:

"'Happy Worship,' Zhou Yi!"