1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan waited in the hotel until 1:30, but the Backstreet Boys didn't show up.

They agreed to meet at 11:30, but at 11 o'clock, the Backstreet Boys called to say that their car broke down on the way and was being repaired.

Zhou Yan hadn't waited any longer since he hadn't seen anyone by 1:30, as the book signing session was set to start promptly at 2:30.

Zhou Yan's signing event was scheduled at Record Surplus, a record store located on Santa Monica Boulevard.

This place is very large and has many affordable and collectible records, so music lovers often come here to shop.

Even when there are no activities, there are still a lot of people coming to buy records.

When Zhou Yan arrived at the door of the record store, he didn't see anyone gathered, but there were two girls standing next to the poster at the door taking pictures.

What is written on this poster is the content of today's book signing event, and since these two girls came with cameras, they must have come specifically for the book signing event.

The record store is only one floor high, with white walls and a red doorplate. From the outside it looks like a factory, but its main entrance looks like a farmers' market.

As soon as their car stopped, it attracted the attention of the two girls with license plates.

Seeing Zhou Yan getting out of the car, the two girls covered their mouths in surprise. They obviously recognized Zhou Yan.

Looking at the two girls with surprised faces, Zhou Yan took the initiative to wave and greet them, and they quickly waved back.

After saying hello, Zhou Yan walked into the record store.

At this time, one of the girls finally reacted and quickly pulled the clothes of the other girl, "Selena, take a picture quickly."

"Oh, yes." Another girl quickly raised her camera and wanted to take a picture of Zhou Yan.

But at this time Zhou Yan had already walked into the store.

As soon as Zhou Yang walked into the store, a man in his thirties came up to him with a look of surprise.

"Hello, Y. I'm Huo Yilun, the person in charge of record surplus."

Zhou Yan nodded and responded, "Hello."

Huo Yilan looked at his watch and asked in confusion, "Didn't Zhang say that you wouldn't be here until 2:15?"

It's just after two o'clock.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I'm used to arriving a little early. Is there any problem?"

"No, no." Huo Yilan shook his head. "Let me show you around the store first."

As he said this, Huo Yilan winked at the young man next to him, and the young man turned and ran away.

Zhou Yan saw his little movements and felt a little confused, not knowing what was going on.

But soon, he roughly understood.

More than a minute later, seven or eight people who looked like reporters came towards this side in a hurry.

Even before they arrived, the cameras in their hands had already started working, taking pictures frantically.

Seeing the reporters, Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows. He thought there would be no media reporters present at the signing event today.

Zhang Youan said earlier that the publicity for today's book signing event wasn't very strong and not many people would come. Zhou Yan was thinking that the publicity was too poor and not a single reporter showed up.

It now appears that the reporters had arrived early, but were not guarding the door.

In fact, the reporters had arrived a long time ago and were originally waiting at the door for Zhou Yan to show up. However, the person in charge of the record store, Huo Yilan, saw that the weather was quite hot, so he invited them to the lounge inside for coffee.

Although the temperature today is not very high, the sun is very strong and it is really uncomfortable to stay outside.

Moreover, Hoylen told the reporters that he would get the news first before Zhou Yan arrived. The reporters believed him and went to the lounge to drink coffee.

But who would have thought that Zhou Yan arrived early and did not give any advance notice.

Several reporters rolled their eyes at Huo Yilan while taking pictures of Zhou Yan.

After the reporters rushed over, the attention of the customers who were originally shopping in the store was also attracted.

Many of these customers came for today's book signing event, but they took advantage of the fact that before the event started to browse the record store first. When they saw Zhou Yan had arrived, they all gathered around him.

Seeing that everyone was gathered at the door, which greatly affected the flow of people, Huo Yilun turned sideways and said to Zhou Yan, "Mr. Y, let's go inside."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Let's find a place first and talk to the reporters to see if there are many people coming to the book signing. If there are many, let them line up first. If not, we can call them back after the official start."

Huo Yilan smiled and said, "No need to queue up in advance. Everyone who has bought the album has already received a number. When the show starts, just let them queue up according to their numbers."

Since it is a signing event, of course you have to buy the album on the spot, so paying in advance and getting a number is indeed a solution.

Then Huo Yilun took Zhou Yange and the reporters to the lounge and started a simple press conference.
There weren't many reporters. Zhou Yan roughly counted them and there were less than ten people. Of course, this kind of book signing event itself wouldn't attract many media reporters. Even if it was heavily promoted, there wouldn't be too many reporters coming to the scene. It was already good to have so many reporters.

After sitting down, Zhou Yan did not let Huo Yilan and others host the meeting. He made a brief opening speech himself, welcomed the reporters, and then announced the start of the interview session.

The first person to be called was a blond young man in his twenties. After being called, he was very happy and stood up to introduce himself. "Hi, I'm Dave, a reporter from Billboard."

Hearing that he was a reporter from Billboard, Zhou Yan smiled and asked, "Why didn't Linda come this time?"

This question brought them closer. Dave smiled and explained, "Linda is in New York these two days and can't come over."

"Give her my regards. What's your question?"

"Thank you." Dave cleared his throat and asked his own question, "I noticed that you played the song 'We Are Young' live on 'Music World', a very lively and inspiring song. What I want to ask is, when will this song be released? You said on the show that there is no plan to release it for the time being. Has there been any change now?"

Zhou Yan nodded. As a reporter for Billboard, he had done his homework.

The program "Music World" is quite popular, but it is just an ordinary music radio station after all, and it is a morning program. In a short period of time, the popularity of "We Are Young" will definitely not be too high. Dave must have known about this program and this song in advance.

Just look at the expressions of some reporters. Their faces are full of surprise. They probably don't know about this at all.

"That's a good question, because there is indeed a release plan. A brand has already taken a fancy to this song and wants to use it as an advertising song. And I have already written the lyrics for this song, and it will be sung by a singer later. I believe you will be able to hear this song soon."

Dave was pleasantly surprised and said, "That's great. I believe the fans will be very happy to hear this news. Then can you tell us which singer will sing this song?"

Zhou Yan shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, I can't reveal this for now."

Because it has not been confirmed yet, it is still uncertain whether to sing for Backstreet Boys.

Dave asked two questions and was too embarrassed to ask more, so Zhou Yan called on the second reporter. The second reporter asked, "Can you tell me whether the singer of "We Are Young" is a man or a woman?"

"No." Zhou Yan shook his head again, "Next one, the one in red next to you."

Then, the interview entered into a quick question and answer session.

Reporter: "Do you have any plans to release a new album this year?"

Zhou Yan: “There are no plans for a new album for now.”

Reporter: "When will this year's concert schedule be announced?"

Zhou Yan: "It should be available within this month, please pay attention to it."

Reporter: "Has the soundtrack for Titanic started yet?"

Zhou Yan: "Not yet, but I have already met with Director Cameron. Everything will have to wait until the filming starts."

……

The previous questions were relatively normal, so normal that Zhou Yan was a little confused. When did these reporters become so easy to deal with?

But what was coming had to come, and soon a reporter asked about the scandal between Zhou Yan and Maria.

Reporter: "Someone photographed Maria entering the hotel where you were staying the day before yesterday afternoon. Do you have any response to this?"

When the reporter asked this question, other reporters also became excited. As expected, this kind of gossip news was the most popular among reporters.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Maria did come to see me yesterday, and we talked about some things related to the new song."

Reporter: "Can you tell us what the new song is?"

Zhou Yan: "It's not really a new song, it's a soundtrack from Sense and Sensibility. I wrote the lyrics and gave it to her."

When Dave heard the soundtrack to Sense and Sensibility, his first reaction was, “Is it ‘Someone Like You’?”

Zhou Yan nodded: "Yes, it is this song. We have reached a cooperation intention."

Reporter: “When will this song be released?”

Zhou Yan: "I don't know the exact release date, you should ask Maria. In fact, when I saw the rumors about her, I was quite surprised. I didn't expect that just a simple interview would be spread like this."

Because Zhou Yan revealed the news about the new song, reporters no longer cared about the gossip.

In fact, they also knew that this rumor was most likely false. In the photos taken of Zhou Yan and Maria, the two did not behave very intimately, and neither of them did any disguise, which was not the behavior that should be associated with an "affair".

Reporters also know that Zhou Yan seldom comes to the United States and has relatively few interactions with Maria, so the possibility of problems between them is very small.

It’s just that many readers are paying more attention, so they will definitely ask about it. Now that there is news about a new song, they naturally don’t want to ask about the gossip anymore, and instead ask about the new song.

After a while, Zhou Yan checked the time and said with a smile, "Everyone, the book signing is about to begin."

After hearing what Zhou Yan said, the reporters stopped bothering him.

Zhou Yan smiled and waved to them, then walked out of the lounge.

This was not the first time the record store held a signing event, so they were quite experienced. They set up a signing area in the open space inside. There was a long table surrounded by posters related to Zhou Yan, which looked quite presentable.

Although Huo Yilan said there was no need to queue in advance, when Zhou Yan went out, there were already more than a dozen people standing in front of the table.

Zhou Yan's appearance caused a commotion, and music fans greeted him one after another.

Facing the enthusiastic fans, Zhou Yan smiled and waved in response, then without saying anything, he sat down behind the table and prepared to start signing autographs for them.

As soon as he sat down, another group of fans came running over with their purchased albums, and the line immediately became much longer.

The first person in line was a young girl in her twenties. She bought two albums, a CD of "Yu Lin Ling" and a vinyl of "Mysterious Country".

Seeing her holding the vinyl record of "Mysterious Country", Zhou Yan also became interested. He took the two albums and asked with a smile, "Have you heard of this "Mysterious Country"?"

"Of course!" the girl replied immediately, "I have the CD of "Mysterious Country", so I bought the vinyl. I didn't feel anything when I listened to this album before, but I like it more and more recently. Because I have listened to this album so much recently, I want to go to Yanjing to see it."

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, "What's your name?"

"My name is Evelynn."

"A very nice name."

Zhou Yan signed his name on the outer cover of the vinyl record, and then wrote Evelyn's name, "Welcome to visit China, and thank you for your support."

After getting the to sign, Evelin was flattered and thanked him repeatedly, “Thank you, thank you.”

After signing the first one, Zhou Yan looked at the line behind him. There were only about 20 to 30 people, not many, so he deliberately slowed down.

If there are few people, it would be very embarrassing if they sign too quickly and there is a gap behind them.

This way the pace can be controlled and there will always be people queuing, which will make the scene much better.

Moreover, by slowing down the tempo, he not only feels more relaxed, but can also communicate more with his fans.

The fans at the front of the line also felt very lucky. They didn't expect Zhou Yan to be so friendly. He not only chatted with them but also often gave them autographs.

But while Zhou Yan was chatting, Huo Yilan suddenly ran over and whispered in Zhou Yan's ear, "Mr. Y, we need to speed up, there are still many people behind us."

"A lot of people?"

Zhou Yan raised his head and glanced back again, only to find that the line had become much longer than before, with at least more than a hundred people queuing.

Because there were so many people, they couldn't line up in a straight line, so they lined up in a Z shape.

Seeing this situation, Zhou Yan could only speed up and stop chatting with the fans. He just focused on signing autographs.

He thought that if he speeded up a little, he could slow down the queue, but ten minutes later, Hoylen ran over again, "Mr. Y, can you speed up a little more?"

"Speed ​​up?"

Zhou Yan looked up again, only to see that the line had not gotten shorter, but longer. His signing speed simply couldn't keep up with the speed at which the line was expanding. (End of this chapter)