The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 879 China's Most Affectionate Person
Tokyo, hot!

The Tokyo concert's Day 1 ended overtime; an imperfect ending brought the most perfect memories!

The most heartfelt concert in Tokyo history: Zhou Yi Star World Tour!

Masami Nagasawa makes a surprise appearance, ignoring the awkward timing, and teams up with Zhou Yijun to sing a new song!

A Love Song? A Deep Dive into Masami Nagasawa's Relationship with the I Ching...

"..."

The following day, many fans who had been waiting to see the second concert that day opened their newspapers to find the first news items on how popular their idols' concert had been the previous night, how energetic their idols had been, and so on—

The idol's first Japanese song.

"???"

"Am I seeing things? It really was written by Zhou Yijun?"

“Masami Nagasawa sang more of the parts; to be precise, Zhou Yijun wrote them for her.”

"I'm so happy! Last night was actually the premiere of this song!"

"Is the new song good?"

"It's so good! It's absolutely amazing! No wonder it was written by Zhou Yi-sama. It's a pity we couldn't bring a DV camera to film it, otherwise the video of this song would definitely be a hit online by now."

Why haven't Toho and Warner sent the songs to the radio stations yet? Why haven't they released singles?

"..."

The unanimous praise from 67,000 concert attendees is undoubtedly a huge boost to the promotion of a new song—the phenomenon of word-of-mouth marketing is vividly demonstrated in their case.

Everyone who has seen the concert raves about it, which only piques the interest of other passersby.

Due to Japan's strict market regulations, not a single DV camera was allowed at the concert, resulting in no video leaks. Many eager fans are now worried about something else—

Damn it, they should change the guest performers for Day 2 today. Are they just not going to sing at all?

Masami Nagasawa was the guest on the first day. Logically speaking, the guest on the first day would not be able to appear on the second day. And the second day is said to be... Yuuka Saegusa and Miyuki Nakajima?

"No way! I didn't get a ticket for the first day, so there's no chance to see it the second day?!"

"It's fine if Masami Nagasawa doesn't sing, Zhou Yijun, you can sing!"

"I'm so regretful for not buying a ticket for the first day!"

"Waaaaah, my Yami..."

As expected, amidst the swirling public opinion, Masami Nagasawa did not appear as a guest on the October 25th event; instead, Yuuka Saegusa and Miyuki Nakajima were present.

Although the atmosphere at the concert was still very lively, and Zhou Yi sang several Japanese songs, this time, thanks to his experience of going over time on the first day, he managed to finish perfectly without going over time.

Many fans who missed seeing Masami Nagasawa and Zhou Yi's duet were treated to another kind of concert-limited edition: Zhou Yi's solo version of "Uchiage Hanabi".

"Day 1: Yami-chan and Zhou Yi-san's duet;
"Day 2: Zhou Yisang's solo performance."

"He's so kind, he recommended songs for Yami-chan for two days in a row..."

Many fans who watched the second show were also drawn to "Uchiage Hanabi," only to discover that the song hadn't even started promotions yet, and the single hadn't been released...

Japanese fans, whose appetites had just been whetted, were now truly enraged.

In a fit of anger, I went straight to attack Toho and Warner Bros. — Hurry up! Get up and get to work! Lots of money are coming!
Sixty-seven thousand people a day, that's nearly 14 people in two days.

Due to the exorbitant ticket prices, the number of people traveling on the same day over two days is significantly low. Even if we assume there are as many as 7,000 people traveling on the same day, that would still leave 120,000 people.

"Uchiage Hanabi" has been listened to by at least 12 people and received rave reviews from at least 12 people.

In any country's music scene, a song that reaches this number of initial listeners is considered a huge hit.

The fact that the person in question hasn't posted it yet is really frustrating.

Whether it's "Zhou Yi's first Japanese song," "Masami Nagasawa's first solo single," or "Zhou Yi and Masami Nagasawa's first duet," it's all a huge gimmick.

Not to mention that this thing was shown at Zhou Yi's concert.

27 number.

Just as the media was frequently reporting on the success of Zhou Yi's concert and how much his new songs resonated with fans, a piece of news from Japanese leaker Wang Wenchun once again thrust the names of "Uchiage Hanabi," Zhou Yi, and Masami Nagasawa into the spotlight.

Willing to accept exorbitant fines for Masami Nagasawa! Zhou Yi's Tokyo concert Day 1 overtime fines revealed!

Why did Zhou Yijun say at the concert that this song was expensive? It's because the concert ran overtime that night and the fine was as high as 672 million yen!
"If Zhou Yi hadn't sung this song, he wouldn't have had to break his contract, and I believe Ms. Masami Nagasawa would understand."

"But Zhou Yijun chose to continue."

"He was willing to pay a fine that he could have avoided, just to let Masami Nagasawa, with whom he had a verbal agreement, perform on stage..."

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

672 million yen, which is almost seven million yen.

Never before in Japanese history has a song had such a high cost to perform—and this cost was actually incurred by Zhou Yi himself.

When the news reached China, the staggering figures left netizens stunned.

"Holy crap? Over six million seven hundred thousand?! Zhou Yi is really going all out to pick up girls?!" "Yen, yen, the person upstairs should do the conversion."

"That's roughly 500,000 RMB. 500,000 for a song? That's so expensive?"

"Wait a minute, shouldn't the overtime fine be just a few thousand or tens of thousands of yuan, a token amount? Why is Zhou Yi's so expensive?"

"That was at Tokyo Dome. The contract was very strict, and it's very likely that the fines were calculated by the minute, with each minute of overtime incurring a fine of several tens of thousands of yen."

"Damn, Zhou Yi is out of his mind! With that 500,000 yuan, he could sleep with any beautiful woman he wanted!"

"You don't know anything! This is called deep affection! Didn't you see the Japanese media headline? It says 'Deep affection from China moved people'..."

"What kind of bullshit headline is 'China's Most Affectionate'?"

"The Book of Changes? You think you're worthy?"

"A 50 yen fine for exceeding the time limit? How can you not be worthy of it? Even the Japanese say, 'If you are, who do you think you are?'"

"That's just the style of the Japanese media. Didn't they used to report on Zhou Yi as a handsome man who appears only once every fifty years or even many years? And some kind of star among stars, it's all so exaggerated."

"Too……"

People who have seen this kind of behavior from Japanese media for a long time are no longer surprised.

But that doesn't stop the title "China's Most Affectionate Man" from becoming a sensation in East Asia from a rather comical angle—after all, the man's name is Zhou Yi, and he's known for his playful nature.

When playfulness is combined with deep affection, it obviously creates a comedic effect.

Even Zhou Yi himself felt that the way people around him were looking at him was strange.

"What do you mean by 'China's most affectionate person'? Japanese media are just making things up."

Qian Jiang laughed so hard his eyes were almost closed: "Isn't that all your doing? Now all the Japanese media are saying you're deeply in love and spent almost seven million just to win a smile from your beauty."

"..."

After a moment of speechless silence, Zhou Yi rolled his eyes: "Do you believe I can recoup this 672 million yen cost by more than double?"

Spending lavishly on a woman, and having a good song is considered a talented man winning her heart, resulting in maximum positive marketing effect.

"I believe you, your song is indeed quite good. But I think that Masami Nagasawa is really moved by you. You'd better be careful when you get there." Qian Jiang clicked his tongue and shook his head, muttering to himself that it was a terrible thing.

At the Tokyo International Exhibition Center, the venue for the 2005 China-Japan Song Festival, a black Cadillac was parked at the entrance.

Due to the official restart, in addition to popular idols like Noriko Sakai, Masami Nagasawa also made it into the final round of the selection process due to her sudden rise to fame and her connection with Zhou Yi.

After all, the Chinese side is guided by the I Ching.

The China-Japan Friendship Concert, the China-Japan Friendship Concert—doesn't the relationship between Zhou Yi and Masami Nagasawa perfectly embody this theme of friendship?

It's just a good thing that Masami Nagasawa's solo version of "Uchiage Hanabi" can be featured at this year's China-Japan Song Festival, which can be considered fair.

"Zhou Yijun, Qianjiangjun."

"Zhou Yijun".

"The Book of Changes" (周易).

"..."

Amidst the greetings along the way, Zhou Yi hadn't even had a chance to speak as he entered the rehearsal venue when Masami Nagasawa, who had been keeping a close eye on the entrance, brightened up and ran towards him, saying, "You're here."

The people present were already used to it.

Other people's claims of Sino-Japanese friendship are only in the literal sense; communication between them is so difficult that it's utterly unfriendly.

The Book of Changes (I Ching) is the only one that is truly practical—this one is beyond reproach and genuinely friendly.

Five hundred thousand in 2005 was a considerable sum for anyone present, even A-mei and Wang Lihong. For the Japanese artists, it was even more lucrative; everyone would be envious, even veteran actress Noriko Sakai.

But Zhou Yi just opened his eyes and released it.

Masami Nagasawa can still vividly recall that night, from the initial disappointment upon learning of the timeout to the subsequent rollercoaster of tension—she admits that Zhou Yi was really cool when he casually announced the timeout.

"Let me introduce you, this is Ms. Noriko Sakai."

"I've heard so much about you, Ms. Sakai."

Zhou Yi, whose forearm was being held by the girl, shook hands with her.

He wasn't lying about that.

Among the top female singers in the Japanese music scene during the 1980s and 90s, Izumi Sakai, Chisato Moritaka, and Noriko Sakai were among his personal favorites in terms of looks.

Unfortunately, none of these three had a good ending, except for Chisato Moritaka.

"This is Ms. Natsukawa Rimi."

"Hello, Ms. Natsukawa."

The singing was alright, but the looks weren't good enough. Goodbye.

That's how strong-willed the first deep affection is.

(End of this chapter)