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

Chapter 929 "Stefanie Song"

Sun Yanzi and Zhou Yi had eaten dinner together many times, but tonight's dinner was the most relaxing for her.

Perhaps it's because their relationship has been exposed, or perhaps it's the ease that comes with honesty, but no longer plagued by anxieties, Sun Yanzi has rediscovered the carefree state she had when she first met Zhou Yichu in the Warner Building.

The only downside might be that...

"Hey? Yi, I'm back in Taipei. Where are you staying?"

Jay Chou called me as he rushed to the airport, still munching on bread.

On the other end of the phone, a sumptuous dinner was laid out in front of Zhou Yi and Sun Yanzi.

"You should go home and rest first. We can talk about it tomorrow. Yanzi and I are outside right now..."

Under Sun Yanzi's suppressed laughter, Zhou Yi casually hung up the phone.

"If you don't ask more questions, what if he needs to talk to you about something?"

"What urgent matter could he possibly have that requires him to contact me?"

“That’s hard to say. Rumors are circulating in the industry that he and Holiday KTV have fallen out over contract renewal issues,” Sun Yanzi said meaningfully.

The longer she stayed in the industry, the more grateful she became to her mentor, Zhou Jianhui, who had recognized her talent. Not only was he willing to waste time waiting for her to make concessions on the contract, but he even allowed her to establish her own music company, Make Music, to get a share of the market when she renewed her contract for the first time in 03.

Jay Chou is now stuck at this step.

When Jay Chou signed with Alfa Records under Wu Zongxian's company, he was completely unknown. Aside from the music copyright agreement being an agency agreement, the rest of the contract was essentially a servitude contract. After being packaged and sold to Holiday KTV Group, the latter did not renew the contract.

Call it short-sightedness or greed, but the point is, as time goes by, with Jay Chou's contract expiring in ten months, Holiday KTV has yet to reach a new agreement with him.

Moreover, the two sides had a very tense argument over copyright issues.

According to information obtained by Sun Yanzi from gossip, Holiday KTV appears to be gathering relevant evidence. If the contract renewal ultimately fails and Jay Chou still decides to leave and establish his own music company, Holiday KTV will immediately initiate legal proceedings and request the court to freeze his assets.

"It wasn't a contractual issue that caused the falling out; it was mainly a copyright problem," Zhou Yi said, shaking his head as he chewed on his beef.

Holiday Group's main business is running KTVs. Jay Chou is now a Mandopop king, and the copyright fees for playing his songs in KTVs represent a huge expense.

Previously, when they were under the same company, they only needed to pay one royalty fee per year. However, once they split up, Jay Chou took back the copyrights to his songs, and Holiday KTV had to pay him a large additional broadcasting rights licensing fee and royalty every year, which was almost double the current amount.

Holiday KTV doesn't want to pay this money.

After going to court, Jay Chou lost, and the Taipei court ordered the freezing of NT$5000 million in assets of his newly established company.

In the end, it was Wu Zongxian who stood up for justice and spoke out against Haoleidi's insatiable greed, stating that when he signed Jay Chou, he signed an agency contract and that the copyright should return to the creator after it expired. This helped Jay Chou, who was in a disadvantageous position in public opinion, to regain some ground.

Ultimately, Jay Chou's side had no choice but to settle with Holiday KTV – the two parties signed a cooperation agreement stipulating that the KTV backing tracks would still be handled by Holiday KTV Group, the parent company of Alfa Music, but the audio-visual copyright would remain with Jay Chou.

Although Holiday KTV failed to successfully demand full copyright through its dramatic demands, it still managed to obtain the KTV broadcasting rights it desired most.

The skylight theory will never be outdated.

As for Zhou Yi, even if Zhou Jielun asked him for help, he couldn't do much. At most, he could exert pressure through public opinion, just like Wu Zongxian, since he couldn't reach the Taipei court.

Not to mention that he himself is in a very difficult situation in Taiwan, and can only come in once a year.

“You’ve caught a perfect storm of favorable timing, location, and people.” Sun Yanzi smiled as she thought about the trajectory of the person in front of her.

"Is it possible that I'm saving up for baby formula for my future child?"

"It seems like your future child will have a big appetite. Who will they take after?"

"I hope he doesn't take after his mother; he's too thin."

"Ugh, are you trying to die?! Who wants to have your baby?!"

Zhou Yi feigned surprise: "Hmm? You want to have my child?" "..."

Sun Yanzi, who was rather shy on this topic, knew she couldn't win an argument with him, so she could only grit her teeth and poke him several times under the table with her sandals. When it came time to pay the bill, she didn't even notice that Zhou Yi had taken the menu with the phone number on it.

After Zhou Yi finished paying the bill and walked into the parking lot through the VIP passage, Sun Yanzi noticed with her sharp eyes that the menu was in the souvenir bag given by the restaurant.

"How did you bring it back?"

"It made me think about what song I should play for you next."

Zhou Yi tossed the bag onto the back seat of the Porsche, closed the door, and started the car with a smile under the watchful eye of the passenger.

Call Me Maybe, remember to call me.

This is a sweet single by Canadian singer Carly Rae Gibson, nicknamed "Squat Girl," which became a global hit and can be said to be the most commercially successful song of her career.

It topped the singles charts in Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, held the number one spot on the US Billboard Hot 9 for nine consecutive weeks, and won the Billboard Music Award for Best Pop Song.

Within China, this song was also incredibly popular, rivaling the popularity of Avril Lavigne and Lady Gaga.

The music video's plot revolves around a sweet love-at-first-sight story, though the ending is a bit...unconventional. If it were ever remade, he'd simply cut out the cheesy plot point where the male lead turns out to be gay.

This completes the story of love at first sight.

Coincidentally, the first song on the EP "Stefanie song", "Love Story", also tells a story of love at first sight.

The difference is that "Love Story" is the famous Romeo and Juliet, a love story from a folk tale.

Although Sun Yanzi herself loves rock music, especially Britpop, Zhou Yi doesn't intend to use this EP to shape her image in that direction. Instead, he prefers to help her create a passionate, Western-style image of someone who chases the sunset for love.

This suits her neat short hair better.

First, "Love Story" expresses the fantasies that girls love to indulge in when watching love stories;
Secondly, there's "Call Me Maybe." When the fantasy of love at first sight becomes reality, in order to avoid a Romeo and Juliet tragedy, Sun Yanzi takes the initiative to leave her phone number and actively seize this relationship.

In this way, the third song on the EP is "Seorita," a love duet between a man and a woman.

It's also a phenomenal single that topped the charts in more than ten countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Canada, with global sales exceeding 1600 million copies.

The story in the music video is simple: Sun Yanzi, after falling in love at first sight, gives him her phone number, and Zhou Yi, the male lead, dials it as promised. The two begin a seemingly sweet but actually ambiguous relationship until the truth is revealed—

You say we're just friends, but how can friends know how delicious you are?
"You know we've maintained this for a long time, don't disappoint or upset me..."

These two lines of lyrics almost perfectly encapsulate the tacit understanding and unspoken bond between Zhou Yi and Sun Yanzi over the years.

To avoid disappointing or hurting each other, the final song on the last EP album was created—

"Run Away With Me" is also known as "Run Away".

It's also a song by Carly Rae Gibson, and it's arguably the most musically stunning song of her career.

Hailed as "one of the greatest pop songs of this century" and "one of the textbooks of 21st-century pop music," the praise this song has received has directly elevated Squat Girl's status in the history of world pop music.

Besides serving as a conclusion, there's another important reason for placing this song at the end of the EP—to create a sense of connection between the beginning and the end.

The love story told in "Love Story" is a tale of elopement condensed from traditional storybooks. Inspired by this spirit, Sun Yanzi chose to muster the courage to "elope" with Zhou Yi in real life at the end of the EP.

After the courageous Sun Yanzi finally confessed her feelings to the male protagonist Zhou Yi, the two officially became a couple. Even when faced with obstacles, they were willing to elope together—running wildly through the night and flying far away together.

The beginning and the end, the story and reality, complement each other.

"Stefanie Song," a song by Sun Yanzi. This is the song she wants to sing to her listeners—a musician who dares to speak of love and is full of courage in love.

(End of this chapter)