Chapter 69: The Number One of the Mainland Music Scene

"Winning this award truly surprised me. I want to thank everyone who has supported me, such as Young Lady Sun Yanzi, who helped me adapt to the new environment when I first joined Warner."

Zhou Yi, who could no longer find anyone else to thank, held the "Most Popular Singer" award, pulled the microphone up a bit, and pointed the trophy toward Young Lady Sun Yanzi, whose face showed shock after being named: "As everyone knows, more than half a year ago, I was tricked by Mr. Zhou of Warner."

"A nineteen-year-old suddenly leaving a familiar environment; to be honest, it was impossible not to feel worried at the time."

"Young Lady Sun Yanzi made me realize that I wasn't the only unlucky person tricked by Mr. Zhou into joining Warner. So after talking with her, I don't know why, I suddenly felt mentally balanced."

Young Lady Sun Yanzi: "..."

Young Lady Sun Yanzi, wanting to laugh but holding it back, saw her face appear on the big screen on stage, helplessly covered her face with one hand, and immediately drew a wave of good-natured laughter from the audience below.

Mr. Zhou Jianhui of Warner, who last year had picked up two explosive new talents, Young Lady Sun Yanzi and Zhou Yi, as if he had cheated, had already spread throughout the entire Chinese music scene; the internal doubts within Warner that "relying on kids can't do anything" were completely sealed under the impressive achievements of the Warner twins.

Mr. Zhou Jianhui also relied on Zhou Yi and Young Lady Sun Yanzi to completely quell the internal strife that was stirring within.

While performance rose rapidly, as the General Manager, Mr. Zhou Jianhui's power increased, and the support feedback given to Zhou Yi, his direct subordinate, grew even stronger.

This was a positive cycle.

"And then, there is Miss Cheng Hao."

Under Zhou Yi's already rambling speech of thanks, Miss Cheng Hao, who had been clapping and smiling, suddenly froze, and the camera immediately captured her exquisite and bright face.

"As everyone knows, Miss Cheng Hao was the female lead in the music video for 'Mistake in the Flower Field'. I am very happy that 'Mistake in the Flower Field' won the Best Album Video award, which shows that I did not betray Miss Cheng Hao's trust."

Speaking here, Zhou Yi pretended to be helpless and shrugged: "At that time, I was just an unknown student, while Miss Cheng Hao was already a somewhat famous actress."

"Although we are friends, when we encountered difficulties filming the music video, I was really a bit embarrassed to continue troubling Miss Cheng Hao."

"Later, after Miss Cheng Hao learned about this, she contacted a professional Peking Opera team through her teacher to facilitate the filming of the music video."

"It can be said that without Miss Cheng Hao's help, the music video for 'Mistake in the Flower Field' would not have been so complete, nor would it have won the Best Album Video award at the Global Chinese Music Awards."

"I myself might not have won this Most Popular Singer award due to flaws in the overall quality of the album."

Miss Cheng Hao: "..."

When Miss Cheng Hao's lively and bright eyes and eyebrows also appeared on the big screen on stage, facing the gaze of so many big shots present, she moved her lips but couldn't say a word, and finally could only helplessly shake her head, though there was a hint of affection in her smile that others found hard to notice.

Seeing someone accompany her to become a "sacrifice" named for the sake of filling the thank-you list, Young Lady Sun Yanzi, feeling she had found a kindred spirit, immediately grinned widely and laughed foolishly.

Among the people around Miss Cheng Hao, she was the one clapping the hardest.

At the award presenter's seat, Jiang Wen, who turned his head and saw Miss Cheng Hao, looked at her a few more times and asked Zhang Yimou beside him: "She seems to be the girl from Old Teng's movie before, right?"

Zhang Yimou took a look, thought for a moment, and nodded: "It should be, 'That Mountain, That Person, That Dog', if I remember correctly."

The Old Teng in Jiang Wen's mouth referred to Teng Rujun, an actor with excellent acting skills, whose breakthrough work happened to be Zhang Yimou's 'Red Sorghum'.

Interesting.

Jiang Wen, whose gaze circulated between Zhou Yi and Miss Cheng Hao for a moment, seemed to smell something, and a smile of understanding appeared on his rugged face: "But you have to say, this girl looks good, suitable for the big screen, photogenic."

"Just don't know how her acting skills actually are; I'll go back to school and ask later."

As a famous alumnus of the Central Academy of Drama, seeing a junior actress like Miss Cheng Hao, who was formally trained at the Central Academy of Drama, at such a music event unexpectedly, he was quite curious in his heart.

Anyway, he had submitted 'Devils on the Doorstep' in violation of regulations; since he was idle afterwards, it was just right to go back to his alma mater to take a look.

On stage, after thanking everyone one last time, Zhou Yi held his fifth trophy of the night, came down, returned to his chair, and finally breathed a sigh of relief: "It's finally over; I was just about to thank the eight generations of ancestors of the old Zhou family."

"So you dragged me and Yanzi out to be named, right?" Miss Cheng Hao glanced at the man and pulled Young Lady Sun Yanzi together to jointly attack him.

Young Lady Sun Yanzi joined in the scolding: "Exactly, when you mentioned me, I almost thought you were going to cause a broadcast accident."

"How is that possible."

Zhou Yi flatly denied it: "My gratitude to you is sincere; the sun and moon can bear witness—"

Before the words finished, on the main stage, host Wu Zongxian called out Zhou Yi's name again: "Most Popular Song 'A Person's Brilliance', Watching Xiao Yaxuan."

"Since Miss Watching Xiao Yaxuan is not present at the scene for the time being, she has entrusted classmate Zhou Yi to accept it on her behalf. Classmate Zhou Yi? Come up again?"

Zhou Yi: "..."

Zhou Yi, who had almost forgotten about Miss Watching Xiao Yaxuan after winning so many awards, stood up from his seat under the teasing gaze of Wu Zongxian and walked up to the podium for the sixth time tonight.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem, well, this time I'm not accepting the award, everyone can rest assured about my thank-you speech."

Taking the trophy from Wu Zongxian's hands, Zhou Yi pretended to be awkward and coughed twice, and his words immediately drew another wave of good-natured laughter from the audience below.

"As everyone knows, Miss Watching Xiao Yaxuan is a good friend I met in the Treasure Island, so I'm helping her accept it; Viking Music, remember to contact my agent later to settle the running fee."

At the backstage, the director's team preparing this program had their mouths crooked from laughter.

This Zhou Yi is good; when there is novel program effect, he really does it.

This is a genius, this is a genius, born to eat from this bowl.

Amidst the laughter and joy, Zhou Yi, who helped accept the award, came down from the stage and watched the final part of the awards ceremony in the posture of a winner.

At the social gathering after the gala, those who should exchange contact information exchanged contact information, and those who should expand their connections expanded their connections.

Zhou Yi, who had handed all the trophies to his parents in advance, strolled around and ended up with a huge pile of contact information, some relevant and some not, on his phone.

They were all big shots.

The next day, as if agreed upon, several major newspapers in the Imperial Capital simultaneously published the grandeur of last night's award gala—

"The Number One Person in the Mainland Pop Music Scene — Zhou Yi"

"From Newcomer to Best Singer, Zhou Yi Only Took Half a Year."

"The Inheritance of the Music Scene! Zhou Yi, Who Took the Baton from Sun Nan!"

On the entertainment headline of this newspaper, the scene of Sun Nan presenting the award to Zhou Yi was specially enlarged; the angle chosen was very good, with Young Lady Sun Yanzi not showing her face, only Sun Nan and Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yuan, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of 'Imperial Capital Daily', even stated in his column that Zhou Yi's strong rise marked the beginning of a new era for the mainland Chinese music scene, because Zhou Yi's personal musical elements were completely different from the musical elements popular in the mainland music scene in the past.

'Daily New News' even directly pasted the photo of Zhou Yi, Xie Tingfeng, and Wang Lihong accepting the Best New Creator Singer award on stage, and added the title: "Leading Figures of the Chinese Music Scene in the Millennium Across the Two Shores and Three Regions".

A group photo is not scary; whoever is short is awkward.

After this photo came out, 'Daily New News' directly received a large amount of criticism and abuse from Xie Tingfeng's fans.

Although Xie Tingfeng was indeed handsome enough, Zhou Yi and Wang Lihong were not ugly; Zhou Yi's looks were even above Xie Tingfeng in public aesthetics.

But on the height that could not be faked, Xie Tingfeng, estimated to be just over 1.7 meters, formed a sharp contrast with Wang Lihong at 1.80 meters and Zhou Yi at 1.83 meters.

And the uniquely angled Southern Metropolis Daily and Southern Entertainment focused their emphasis on gossip—

"Zhou Yi's rumored girlfriend suspected to be someone else?"

The accompanying photo featured a blurred image of Cheng Hao.

"Watching Xiao Yaxuan or Cheng Hao? Or perhaps Sun Yanzi? Or Zhang Shaohan? Who exactly is Zhou Yi's rumored girlfriend?!"

Compared to so-called status in the music industry, Southern Metropolis Daily and Southern Entertainment clearly grasped the public's appetite for drama, riding on Zhou Yi's fame, and their sales skyrocketed.

So much so that when Zhou Yi prepared to fly to Xiangjiang the next day, he was still asked about the matter by media waiting at the airport.

"I have no time to care about which girlfriends those reporter friends have found for me; I have many important matters to attend to. For instance, it is time for me to prepare my graduation thesis."

Facing the microphone nearly shoved into his mouth, Zhou Yi, with a serious expression, stated solemnly: "As everyone knows, I am still a university student; a graduation thesis is indispensable."