1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Record surplus often has performances, so there is a stage and even a piano in their store. However, the sound of their piano is so bad, it seems that it is not well maintained.

It’s no wonder that they don’t pay attention to maintenance. This piano is rarely used and there is no need for maintenance.

Generally, the performers in the store are pop and jazz singers. They bring their own musical instruments, and it is better to use keyboards than pianos.

The performance stage was on the east side, next to the lounge. When Zhou Yan followed Huo Yilen over, he saw the audience crowded under the stage and couldn't help but widen his eyes.

When he came to the store just now, he saw a small stage here, but the space under the stage was very small at that time, only slightly larger than an ordinary aisle, and when it was crowded, it could only accommodate fifty or sixty people.

But now the place has changed. The original shop has been moved away, leaving a large space that looks about the size of a middle school classroom.

In such a small place, there were at least three hundred people crammed in, it was so packed that there was no space at all.

The most outrageous thing is that there are still many people sitting near the stage.

They didn't sit on independent chairs, but on long and thin benches that could accommodate many people, so even though they were sitting, they didn't take up too much space.

The people in the back rows were standing normally, and further back, quite a few people were standing on the benches.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Yan recalled the time when he was in junior high school. The school held a New Year’s Eve party and the stage was the basketball court. All the audience gathered around the basketball court, and some were sitting, some were standing, and some were climbing.

Zhou Yan couldn't help but lean over to remind Huo Yilun, "Be careful."

With so many people squeezed into a small space, and so many of them standing on stools, it was really dangerous.

Huo Yilan smiled and said, "Please rest assured, nothing will go wrong. We often hold performances in our store, and this is not the first time."

Hearing him say this, Zhou Yan could only nod his head. Anyway, if anything went wrong, Huo Yilen would be in trouble.

When we reached the side of the stage, Ivan from the Tomson office brought over the violin.

Because of the performance, Zhou Yan specially asked Ivan to send a violin over. In addition to the violin, Zhou Yan also brought a bamboo flute.

As he just picked up the violin, a beam of light suddenly shone on him, followed by warm applause from the audience.

Although there weren't a lot of people, the applause sounded particularly loud because the space was small and the audience was right next to the stage.

Zhou Yan looked at the light falling on himself and couldn't help but marvel at it. He didn't expect that there would be lights in a record store, and it was quite professional.

Holding a violin, Zhou Yan walked onto the stage, with the lights following him. Then he saw the source of the lights.

It turned out that there was a small mezzanine above the lounge, about one person tall, and someone was holding a lamp facing him.

When he got on stage, Zhou Yan bowed to the audience first, then said into the microphone, "Thank you all for coming to my book signing event today. Because more people came than expected, I had to work overtime a little bit. I guess everyone hasn't eaten yet, right?"

It was time for dinner, but in order to wait for Zhou Yan's performance, none of them ate.

"We're not hungry."

Hardison, sitting in the front row, shouted excitedly.

The only reason he and Jessica could sit in the front row was because of their money.

At first, the cashier told them that if they bought a record, they would get a seat at the show.

But after a while, the staff told them that although they had seats, they were at the back, and if they wanted to sit at the front, they would need to spend more.

Hardison and Jessica spent more than a hundred dollars to get seats in the first row.

The same thing happened to everyone else sitting in the front row, who all spent a lot of money.

However, they did not feel that they were at a loss at all, because watching Zhou Yan's performance originally cost money, and their money was not wasted, as they also bought a lot of records.

Especially when they sat down, they found that the members of Backstreet Boys and Mariah Carey were also sitting in the first row, right next to them, and they suddenly felt that the money was well spent.

Many people regretted not spending money to sit in the first row when they saw the Backstreet Boys and Mariah Carey sitting in the first row. They originally thought that in such a small space, there would be no difference between the first row and the back row.

I have to say that Hoylen really knows how to do business. Originally, by taking on a book signing event, they could only gather popularity but could not make much money.

Record surplus's business is very good, with a large daily shipment volume. The few hundred records signed are nothing to them, and they also have to give the profit to Tang Chen, so the money they get is not much different from usual.

But now, with this, the store's sales have skyrocketed. Hoylen just calculated that today's sales are equivalent to more than a week's normal sales.

It was also Zhou Yan's first time to perform in such an environment. The audience in the front row was only one meter away from him. If they were closer, the saliva from the audience's conversations would have sprayed on his face.

This is a bit like an offline talk show, where the performers and the audience are completely face to face, making it convenient for them to communicate with the audience.

Looking at the excited audience, Zhou Yan smiled and continued, "This autograph session was decided at the last minute, so the preparations were not sufficient, but I didn't expect so many friends to come. I also know that many people here didn't get autographs. To express my apologies, I will bring you a few songs."

"In addition, I will come to the United States with the Piano Youth Orchestra again in a while. In addition to holding concerts, I will also hold a book signing event. If you are interested, you can pay attention to it. Well, without further ado, next, I will bring you a relatively old song called "Kite". I hope you will like it."

The song "Kite" is simple and suitable for violin solo. Zhou Yan chose it as the first piece and also as a warm-up.

After saying that, Zhou Yan took a step back, got into position, and prepared to start playing "Kite".

After Zhou Yan got ready, the record store, which had been a little noisy, became quiet, and the audience held their breath, waiting for Zhou Yan's performance.

As Zhou Yan said, the song "Kite" is a relatively early one. It was the first time he wrote it independently for the movie "Letter from Heaven" and it is also a song in his first album "Piano Boy".

Compared to the soundtrack of "Sense and Sensibility", this song is definitely less popular, but those who can come to the scene for the signing today are all fans of Zhou Yan, so they have basically heard this song.

When the slightly sad melody sounded, the audience suddenly felt that the environment they were in had changed, as if this was no longer a crowded record store, but a concert hall full of romance.

Music gives people the most intuitive and impactful feeling. When listening to "Kite", they don't have to think about anything, just feel the emotions expressed by these combinations of notes.

As Jessica listened to "Kite", the scene of "Letter from Heaven" emerged in her mind. She should be one of the few audience members who had seen "Letter from Heaven" on the spot.

This movie is very difficult to find in the United States. Except for Zhou Yan's fans, basically no one knows about it. Even Zhou Yan's fans generally don't make a special trip to see the movie, and even if they want to see it, they can't find it.

Jessica was able to see this movie because the owner of the previous video store had many videotapes related to Zhou Yan in that video store, including Zhou Yan's concert videos and all the movies whose music Zhou Yan participated in.

During this period, Hardison and Jessica often went to that video store and basically watched all the videotapes related to Zhou Yan. She even borrowed the videotape of "Letter from Heaven" and watched it for several days. By the end, she felt that she could speak a few words in Chinese.

A few minutes later, the song "Kite" ended, but Zhou Yan did not stop and directly continued with "Young and Beautiful".

When the melody of "young and beautiful" sounded, there was a low cheer at the scene and the audience all looked in the direction of Mariah Carey.

Over the past six months, "young and beautiful" has been extremely popular. Even now, the popularity of this song has not subsided and it is still a popular song on the radio.

However, the popularity of the song also caused a problem. When Zhou Yan played the song, many audience members in the audience could not help but hum along.

Although their humming was not loud, the sound became quite loud when more people joined in.

Especially in this environment, he could even hear that an audience member in front of him had problems with his pitch when humming.

Of course, since he chose to play this song, Zhou Yan no longer cares about the current situation.

If the audience likes to hum along, let them do it. In this environment, everyone hums along and the atmosphere is pretty good. Zhou Yan is not a picky performer.

As soon as the song "Young and Beautiful" finished playing, Zhou Yan saw Mariah Carey, who was sitting in the first row, stand up and wave at him, as if she wanted to say something to him.

Zhou Yan immediately turned his head to the other side, pretending not to see Maria. He was afraid that this woman would do something weird again.

Although he pretended not to see it, the audience at the scene saw it and shouted Maria's name to remind Zhou Yan. Being reminded by so many people, Zhou Yan could no longer turn a blind eye. He could only pretend to have just seen Maria and smiled into the microphone, "What do you want to say? Maria?"

Maria didn't say anything, but just waved to Zhou Yan, indicating that Zhou Yan should give her the microphone.

Zhou Yan rolled his eyes helplessly and could only take the microphone off and hand it to her.

After getting the microphone, Maria said nothing and started singing, "I've seen the world..."

While she was singing, she raised her hand to signal the audience to sing along with her.

Just now when Zhou Yan was playing the violin, the audience wanted to sing along, but they were quite restrained, for fear of disturbing Zhou Yan's performance. But now that Maria was leading the singing herself, they naturally had no scruples and sang along with abandon.

The emotions they had suppressed before were now released because of the chorus.

Indeed, it is very uncomfortable to want to sing but not be able to.

Zhou Yan stood on the stage, listening to the chorus from the audience, and couldn't help but curl his lips. Maria was indeed an uneasy person.

But to be honest, with her leading the chorus, the atmosphere was indeed much better, and Zhou Yan also felt a lot more relaxed.

Originally, Zhou Yan only wanted to play two or three songs and then finish, but when he saw so many audiences in the audience before going on stage, and the stage was well-presented, he felt embarrassed to leave after playing only two or three songs, otherwise the audience would definitely be disappointed.

After all, it would take at least half an hour to stand in the audience.

Anyone who waits this long and only listens to two songs will be disappointed.

So Zhou Yan just decided to play for a while longer, at least half an hour.

Now that Maria is leading the chorus, Zhou Yan can rest for a while longer.

……

“Isn’t this that song?”

At this time, two girls passed by the door of Record surplus and stopped when they heard the singing coming from the store.

"Maria's 'Young and Beautiful'." said another girl.

“Is there a performance inside?”

"That should be it. It seems to be a record store. But from the sound of it... it sounds like Maria."

"It seems like it. It's probably the original sound."

"No, there's no accompaniment, and it doesn't look like it was played."

"Go in and have a look..."

The two girls walked into the record store with curiosity, and were immediately shocked by the scene in front of them. In a corner of the record store, there was a large group of people gathered, and the people in the back row were all standing on stools.

Maria's voice came from inside, and everyone at the scene joined in the chorus.

"what's going on?"

The two girls jumped a few times, trying to see what was going on inside, but the people in the back row were standing too high and were completely covered.

One of the girls was brave enough to run to the back row and squeeze her head between the waists of two audience members. Then she saw Zhou Yan standing on the stage.

As for Maria, she couldn't see because she was standing in the audience.

The audience in the back row felt a head squeezed in near their waist and almost fell off their chairs.

"what are you doing?"

"Who is singing?" the girl asked with a smile.

"Of course it's Maria, can't you hear it?" The man curled his lips, ignored the girl, and continued to sing with everyone else.

When the girl heard that it was Maria herself singing, she hurried to report to her companions.

"It's really Maria."

"Why is she here?"

"I don't know. I really want to squeeze in and take a look."

Just as the two girls were wondering how they could get in to see Maria, a few more people walked in from outside.

"What's going on in here?"

The two girls immediately said, "It looks like Maria is having a concert."

"Wow, Maria."

……

Before the chorus was over, more people poured into the record store, making the aisles between the shops more and more crowded.

When the staff saw this situation, they quickly reported it to Huo Yilen.

Learning that more and more people were coming, Hoylen was both surprised and delighted. In order to allow more people to see the performance, he immediately took people to maintain order. He first asked the people in the last row to get down from their chairs, and then lined up for the newcomers.

Although it is still difficult for short people to watch the performance in the back row, it is much better than before.

Zhou Yan was on the stage. When Maria finished singing with the audience, he ran over to take the microphone from Maria.

But Maria held on to the microphone and even stepped onto the stage and said into the microphone, "Did you enjoy the singing?"

"Enjoyed!"

"Do you still want to listen? Do you want to sing?"

"miss you!"

After getting the answer she wanted, Maria smiled and said, "I am also very happy to sing, but I can only sing this one song today."

"Oh~" The audience was a little disappointed.

"Don't be disappointed, everyone. The lyrics for the new song "Someone Like You" that Y wrote for me have already been completed. It will be released soon. Then we can sing "Someone Like You", okay?"

Hearing that a new song was about to be released, the audience became excited again.

"it is good."

After promoting her new song, Maria also did not forget to promote it for Zhou Yan. "Y is going to hold a concert in a while. Let's all go to support him. Okay? Then we can go together."

"it is good!"

After saying this, Maria finally returned the microphone to Zhou Yan. (End of this chapter)