1990: Starting from Baojia Street

When Zhou Yan came out with the phone in his hand, he found that his neighbors had come to the living room to say goodbye to the old year.

After saying hello to the neighbors, Zhou Yan took his younger brothers and sisters out to set off fireworks.

There will be a lot of people coming to their house soon, and their house is not big, so it will be very crowded. They might as well go out and play by themselves for a while.

My younger brothers and sisters have grown up, and Xiaojiu is already a teenager, but they still like to set off fireworks.

They not only play by themselves, but also lead other children in the yard to play.

The Zhou family’s children have all grown up, but the children in the yard are like rice, growing up one after another. Every year when I come back, I can see children of all ages.

However, as time went by, the children's way of addressing Zhou Yan and others changed.

Zhou Yan remembered that when he just came back that year, Xiaojiu introduced him to everyone as their brother, and most of the children in the yard also followed suit and called him brother.

But this year, many more people call him Uncle San. Many people of their generation have had many children in recent years.

Since those people called him Third Uncle, they naturally called Xiaojiu Auntie or Ninth Aunt.

Zhou Yan was also very impressed that these children had very good memories and so many people could remember it.

In addition to the children playing behind him, Zhou Yan also discovered that there were teenage boys in the yard, following behind Xiao Jiu like flower guardians.

In fact, when Xiaojiu was very young, she was followed by a bunch of boys of the same age because she was pretty and smart, and was especially popular among the little boys.

Her sisters are all very beautiful and have been liked by boys since childhood.

But most boys like Xiaojiu because this girl is very good at manipulating people’s hearts, and she will have different faces when meeting people of different ages.

After setting off fireworks with his younger brothers and sisters until around ten o'clock, Zhou Yan asked the driver to take him back to his residence.

The villa built by Zhou Hong has not been completed yet, and Zhou Yan is still living in the house left by his mother when he returns to Jinling.

Although he is not at home, there are always people taking care of the house, so Zhou Yan does not need to worry about it and can move in directly when he comes back.

When he got home, Zhou Yan first lit a stick of incense for his mother, and then sat on the sofa in the living room reading a book.

He turned on the TV in the living room, which was playing the Spring Festival Gala. He occasionally looked up to take a look while reading.

At this time last year, he was waiting to go on stage in the studio. He was not invited to this year's Spring Festival Gala, but many TV stations invited him to record programs such as the Lantern Festival Gala. However, he turned them all down as he still had to go home for the New Year.

At eleven o'clock, the phone in the living room rang. Zhou Yan turned sideways and answered the phone: "Who is it?"

The woman on the other side said in English, "Can't you hear my voice?"

Zhou Yan frowned. The voice coming from the phone was severely distorted and he couldn't tell who it was.

But he could probably guess it, because among the people he knew, there were not many women who spoke English, and even fewer who would call him at this time.

"Maria?" Zhou Yan asked.

"Haha, you guessed it right. It's so hard to make a phone call today."

"It's hard to make overseas calls. How do you have my home phone number?"

"I asked Zhang for it. I called your mobile phone but couldn't get through, so I asked him for the number."

"Oh, that phone is dead."

His cell phone received too many calls today and the battery was exhausted, so he didn't charge it. On the one hand, he was lazy, and on the other hand, he didn't want to receive any more calls.

So many people know that phone number, and many people who I don’t know very well also called today to send my blessings.

No matter who calls, as long as you know the person, you will inevitably exchange a few words.

Each person shouldn't talk for too long, even a minute or two, and Zhou Yan would spend a lot of time on this throughout the day.

The battery life of today’s mobile phones is also relatively short, and they run out of power after only a few calls.

In fact, his mobile phone has a text messaging service, so we can send him blessings via text messages, but few other people have mobile phones that can send text messages, so we can only call.

In a few years, as SMS services become popular, fewer people will call to send blessings, and people will start editing and sending group text messages.

Zhou Yan remembers that every New Year’s Eve in those years, telecommunications companies would make a lot of money from the text messaging business.

"Why are you calling me at this time? Is there something wrong?" Zhou Yan asked.

He actually hadn't contacted Mariah Carey for some time, so he was quite surprised to receive a call from her today.

"Nothing special, just wanted to say Happy New Year to you."

Zhou Yan glanced at the clock on the wall and smiled, "It's a bit too early to say Happy New Year now. It's only an hour from now until next year."

"Why don't we just talk until tomorrow?"

Zhou Yan smiled and didn't respond. Instead, he asked, "Are you busy recently?"

"I'm preparing for my new album, but everything is fine, not too busy. You know, what really makes people anxious is not work, but life, especially a bad marriage."

Mariah Carey has officially divorced her husband, and it can be seen that she is in good condition after the divorce.

After the divorce, she also had time to worry about her new album.

Her divorce caused quite a stir before, but now it’s finally cooling down.

Fortunately, Zhou Yan went to the United States relatively rarely, otherwise his scandal with Mariah Carey would have become even bigger.

"Then I wish you success with your new album in advance."

"There are still two songs on the new album that haven't been finalized yet... I was actually thinking of telling you about this."

"Uh...how about you put "Someone Like You" in your new album?" Zhou Yan suggested.

"Someone Like You" was released as a single, and now it is included in the new album, which is completely routine.

Although this is a rehash, most people do it.

"I've already put it in, but I still want new ones. In fact, I listened to the songs in your new movie and I really liked them."

"The song in the new movie?" Zhou Yan asked in confusion, "Are you talking about "All of Me"?"

"A Time Traveler" was not released in the United States, and Mariah Carey could only hear the song "All of Me" sung by Celine Dion, so Zhou Yan made this guess.

Mariah Carey said, "No, I watched the whole movie and listened to all the songs in it."

"You watched the whole movie? Where did you watch it?"

"I asked someone to buy the CD of "Time Traveler"."

Hearing this, Zhou Yan couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Time Traveler" hasn't even been released yet, and the CD hasn't even been released. What Mariah Carey bought must have been a pirated copy.

Zhou Yan was also convinced. In order to watch a movie, Mariah Carey actually asked someone to buy her a pirated CD from China. The key point is that she must have known that it was a pirated CD.

"The movie has no translation and no subtitles. How did you watch it?"

"I don't quite understand the plot, but I can understand the music. There are many good songs in it, such as the one..." Mariah Carey didn't know the name of the song, so she sang, "How long will I love you..."

Zhou Yan nodded, "This is the theme song of "About time", the name is the first line of the lyrics."

"I guessed right." Mariah Carey laughed, "Can I cover this song and put it on the new album?"

Zhou Yan smiled. Maria called him during the New Year's Day. It seemed that she wanted to invite him to sing a song.

He thought about it and said, "You'd better not cover this song, because the male singer who sang this song will probably develop in Europe and the United States in the future."

"Really? That's a pity. I really like this song." Mariah Carey said with some regret.

"I can't give you this song, but I can give you another song to sing."

"Which one?"

“bleeding love.”

"Bleeding Love?" Mariah Carey's tone was full of confusion, she had no idea which song it was.

"Let me think about it..." Zhou Yan recalled the part of "Bleeding Love" selected in the movie, and then hummed it.

Mariah Carey immediately remembered, "There is this song, I remember it, but it's too short."

"Bleeding Love" does not appear in "Time Traveler" for a long time, and it is definitely not comparable to "How Long Will I Love You".

In fact, there are too many episodes in "Time Traveler", most of which do not appear for long, and many of them just flash by.

The song "Bleeding Love" was also recorded by someone found in China, and only a short part was recorded.

Today, Mariah Carey called to invite Zhou Yan to sing a song. Zhou Yan thought that "Bleeding Love" was very suitable for her, so he decided to let her sing this song.

Because Zhou Yan's singing skills were average and he only hummed a short part, he did not give Mariah Carey any surprise. In comparison, she definitely preferred "How Long Will I Love You".

"Can you sing the whole song for me?" Mariah Carey asked.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I can't sing well. How about this, when I get to Yanjing, I'll find someone to record a complete demo for you."

"When are you going to Yanjing?"

"It should be sixteen days later."

Zhou Yan planned to spend the Lantern Festival at home and then set off for Yanjing.

Hearing that Zhou Yan would return to Yanjing in half a month, Mariah Carey became anxious, "That's too long. I can't wait."

"Are you in a hurry to release your album?" Zhou Yan asked puzzledly. From her tone just now, it seemed that she was not in a hurry.

If it comes to the new album, Mariah Carey is definitely not in a hurry. She still has a long time to prepare. According to the plan, the new album will not be released until summer.

But she was worried that the longer the night goes, the more trouble there would be. What if something unexpected happened in the next half month?
And she was indeed anxious to hear the song.

"How about..." Mariah Carey thought for a while and said, "I'll go find you."

Zhou Yan curled his lips, "I'm sure you won't be able to come to me in the next two days. I still have to go through the visa procedures. Besides, you can only come to Yanjing if you want to see me. It's not convenient to record anything here. Otherwise, I'll send you the score tomorrow and you can sing it yourself."

Mariah Carey has the ability to read music, and she can sing even if you give her the music.

"That's fine too. Have you finished writing the lyrics?"

"Well, it's done. By the way, when will your new album be released?"

"It should be July or August, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just asking. I want to see if my movie will be released in the United States when your new album is released."

“When will your new movie be released here?”

"It's probably about that time."

"That's great. I can also promote the movie for you. Haha, don't worry, I will definitely promote the movie for you on various occasions in the future."

"You should have helped me promote the movie more to make up for your mistake of buying pirated CDs."

Mariah Carey laughed even harder, "I will definitely buy you movie tickets after the movie is released... I'm not the only one going to watch it. I'll book a few shows for my friends to watch."

"I think you should just give away movie tickets when you sell albums later."

Zhou Yan was just joking, but Mariah Carey actually thought about it very seriously, "If we just give it away, it won't work. Many fans may not be willing to go, and we can't afford it either."

Movie tickets aren’t cheap either, so buying an album and getting a ticket for free is definitely not a good deal.

"I was just joking." Zhou Yan said.

Mariah Carey continued seriously, "We can't just give it away, but we can have a lottery. As long as you buy the album, you can enter the lottery. Adjust the winning rate to 1%... Isn't that a bit low? What if it's 10%... Will this activity be very troublesome?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "No need to do all this, just help me promote it more."

This activity seems simple, but without a complete system, it is very troublesome to operate and it is easy to make mistakes. Zhou Yan thinks there is no need to do it.

The most important thing is that the effect may not be very good.

If we give away too many tickets, the cost will be too high.

I guess the gifts I gave away were too little, but I don’t really care. The promotional effect is not achieved.

With this funding and energy, it would be better to use other publicity channels.

If it were ten or twenty years later, this kind of joint activity would be much simpler. You could just create a small program for the lottery and operate it completely online, which would be simple and less prone to errors.

"When the movie comes out, do you want to come here to promote it?"

"I probably won't go for promotion, at least not specifically for promotion. But I might go in the first half of this year because I'm also composing the music for Titanic."

"Oh, yes, you are composing the soundtrack for this movie. This movie must have taken quite a long time to shoot. Is it not finished yet?"

"No, it should be some time."

Mariah Carey's words also reminded Zhou Yan of the lack of money for "Titanic".

Earlier, Zhang Youan went to talk to Fox about investment, but they kept him on the sidelines and there has been no news so far.

Zhou Yan was not in a hurry, but he felt a little bit sorry to miss such a good opportunity.

"When you come to the United States, remember to let me know in advance and I'll treat you to a meal."

“I wouldn’t necessarily go to Los Angeles or New York.”

"It's okay, just tell me in advance."

"Okay." Zhou Yan nodded in agreement.

The two chatted for about five or six minutes before Mariah Carey hung up the phone. It was obvious that she was bored today and wanted to chat with Zhou Yan for a while, but Zhou Yan felt sorry for the phone bill. (End of this chapter)