1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Although today's theme is music, the host still introduced Zhou Yan's other identities, and introduced his works every time he introduced an identity.

Because "Never Let Me Go" has been really popular recently, the host also specially introduced Zhou Yan's identity as a writer and talked about his new book.

Seeing this, Chu Changsong smiled and said, "Teacher Zhou's new book is on CCTV again. I think the sales will be even better now."

"The book was already out of stock, and now it's even harder to buy."

"Yeah, but we don't care, we've already bought it anyway."

Their fan club cooperates directly with booksellers. When the single volume of "Never Let Me Go" was released, the fan club directly purchased several hundred copies. Now most of the members of their fan club have this book, so they are naturally not worried about not being able to buy it.

"I heard that this book has sold millions of copies, I don't know if it's true."

"It may be true. My cousin is in Shanghai and he said that this book is no longer available in many places."

"Yes, my hometown is Luzhou. I called my dad a few days ago and he told me that every student in his class has a copy of Never Let Me Go. He said it was recommended by the biology teacher."

"Biology teacher... that's quite reasonable."

"The last book that sold so well was The Wasted City, as I recall."

"It seems that Wasted City is not so popular. Many people buy it secretly."

The discussion of "Wasted City" at that time was indeed not as high as "Never Let Me Go". "Wasted City" was marked as pornographic reading material at that time, so many people bought the book secretly, or even bought pirated copies at book stalls, and did not even go to regular bookstores.

In addition, some middle school students dare not buy it because they will be beaten if caught by their parents.

Lin Juan listened to their discussion from the side and just smiled without saying anything.

She knew something about the sales of Never Let Me Go, although not in detail, but she was sure that the sales were definitely not in the millions, which was too exaggerated.

The reason why everyone has this feeling is, on the one hand, because the book was sold out as soon as it came out, which shows that it performed well, and on the other hand, it is also due to piracy.

Before the official single volume of "Never Let Me Go" came out, pirated copies had already come out. Some unscrupulous pirates directly used the first part of the serialization before "October" to make up the number.

Many readers did not read the book carefully and bought it just because they saw that the content at the beginning was correct. Then when they went home and read the later part, they found that the product was not what they described. When they wanted to go back and confront the bookseller, they found that he was no longer there.

This was the case with the book that Akina Nakamori bought before.

After the genuine single-volume edition came out, piracy became even more rampant, and the piracy at this time was very formal, and the quality of some pirated books was almost the same as that of the genuine books.

Because the book sold so well, some pirates didn’t even have time to print copies a few days ago.

However, the situation has improved a lot in the past few days, because more and more pirates have entered the market, and large and small workshops are printing together. At least now there is no shortage of pirated products.

While everyone was discussing the new book, the host on TV had finished his introduction and the special program officially began.

"In 1973, three-and-a-half-year-old Zhou Yan received his first bamboo flute, a gift from his mother..."

Everyone here has read a lot about Zhou Yan's deeds. They also know that Zhou Yan started learning bamboo flute from his mother when he was very young. Zhou Yan mentioned this in an interview before.

But this time the program is very different, as the time was actually precise to three and a half years old.

As the narration continued, a color photo appeared on the TV.

A delicate and pretty child with a small red dot on his head was holding a flute and pretending to play it.

This is a qudi, very long and large. It looks even bigger in the hands of a three-year-old child, as if he is holding not a musical instrument but a golden hoop.

Seeing the photo, everyone exclaimed.

"Is this Teacher Zhou?"

"Wow, Teacher Zhou was so cute when she was a child."

"He has been handsome since he was young."

"I'm so envious. Teacher Zhou started learning bamboo flute when she was just over three years old, but I was still playing in the mud when I was just over three years old."

"Hey, there are no pictures of me as a kid at all."

It is normal to not have photos of your childhood, especially these kind of life photos.

This photo of Zhou Yan was taken in 74. At that time, color photos were quite rare in the city.

If ordinary people want to take photos, they have to go to some large photo studios and make an appointment in advance.

This photo of Zhou Yan was obviously taken by his family. At that time, if his family had a color camera, it was definitely not an ordinary family.

However, everyone's attention was not on the color photos. It was the first time they saw Zhou Yan's childhood photos, so they were very excited.

Behind the child who surprised them, CCTV was obviously well prepared this time. There were not only photos of Zhou Yan receiving his first bamboo flute, but also a video of Zhou Yan's first performance on stage.

That’s right, it’s a video.

In the second semester of the first grade of primary school, when the school held a Children's Day party, Zhou Yan was already able to perform on stage. He played the song "Harvest Time" very calmly and presented it very completely.

Xu Yongke, who had learned bamboo flute, was surprised and asked, "Is Mr. Zhou so good at bamboo flute?"

Everyone else laughed, "What? Is this the first day you know that Teacher Zhou is so amazing?"

Yes, everyone who likes Zhou Yan knows that bamboo flute is his main instrument and he can solo difficult pieces.

For other instruments, such as piano and violin, Zhou Yan has never played difficult pieces in concerts.

But the bamboo flute is different. Zhou Yan has played difficult pieces such as "Fragrance in the Air" and "Journey to the West Fantasy" in concerts, and his performances were very good.

Therefore, when everyone heard Xu Yongke say this, they felt strange.

Xu Yongke explained, "I knew that Teacher Zhou was good at playing bamboo flute, but I didn't expect that he was so talented. At that time, Teacher Zhou was only six or seven years old. Many people who learn bamboo flute have not even come into contact with this instrument or have just started to play it. For example, I started learning bamboo flute at the age of six. The students of my teacher at that time were basically the same age as me, and some were only five years old. In theory, if you start learning at an older age, you will make faster progress in the early stage. The older you are, the stronger your comprehension ability is, and the more energy you have. But among our batch of students, even the best ones, no one could reach Teacher Zhou's level in four years."

"You mean, with Mr. Zhou's talent, if he keeps learning bamboo flute, he can become a bamboo flute master?" a girl asked.

"I can't say he's a master, but he's definitely a first-rate bamboo flute player."

To become a master of a musical instrument, you need a lot of things, not just good skills.

But to become a highly skilled performer, the difficulty is lower, and it can be accomplished with talent and time. Zhou Yan was able to reach such a level when he was only six or seven years old. As long as he keeps practicing, he will not be bad when he grows up.

Although Xu Yongke did not say it explicitly, everyone understood his meaning.

Zhou Yan’s current level of bamboo flute performance does not actually live up to his amazing talent.

While Xu Yongke was speaking, the introduction to Zhou Yan's academic career on TV had already reached high school.

At this time, Xu Yongke discovered that Zhou Yan's bamboo flute level had improved very little in high school.

Zhou Yan has a performance video from his first year of high school and another one from his third year of high school. There is a gap of two years between the two videos, but Zhou Yan's bamboo flute level has not improved significantly.

Logically speaking, at this stage, Zhou Yan had enough time to move up a level in two years, but he didn't.

Xu Yongke probably understood that Zhou Yan had not only learned the bamboo flute since the third year of junior high school, but also started learning the piano. This was mentioned in the video.

Although he did not take piano as his major subject, he must spend a lot of time on it. After all, the piano is an instrument that requires a lot of time.

After entering high school, in addition to bamboo flute and piano, Zhou Yan began to learn violin.

Now, if you have to learn three instruments at once, no matter how talented you are, it will be impossible to master them.

Let's not talk about the piano. After all, if you just learn it casually, you can fool outsiders. But if you don't learn the violin seriously, it's just like sawing wood. It's useless except disturbing others.

The key point is that piano, bamboo flute and violin are three types of musical instruments, which are more difficult to learn.

Although they are all three instruments, the combination of piano, bamboo flute and violin is definitely more difficult than the combination of erhu, violin and cello or the combination of bamboo flute, dongxiao and saxophone.

The latter two are similar instruments and have many things in common. Once you learn one, the other two will be much easier to learn.

But it was precisely because Zhou Yan learned three types of musical instruments that he was able to easily control so many instruments when he later learned to compose, because most of the musical instruments in the world have the shadow of bamboo flute, piano and violin.

In other words, Zhou Yan’s purpose of learning from this point on was no longer to become a bamboo flute player, but to become a composer.

At the high school graduation ceremony, Zhou Yan played an original song "Summer Lotus", which further proved that Zhou Yan had already started his own composing career.

"This song sounds familiar," said Chu Changsong.

In fact, most people didn't need him to remind them, as they felt it was familiar, but they couldn't remember where they had heard it before.

But soon, when "Summer Lotus" was played to the middle, a girl suddenly shouted, "It's "An Xiang Fu Xing". This part is very similar to the melody in "An Xiang Fu Xing."

Others also heard that "Summer Lotus" and "Fragrance Floating" have some similarities. It seems that the composer's creation did not appear out of thin air, there are traces to follow.

They all sighed with emotion that Zhou Yancai was able to compose such a beautiful song as "Summer Lotus" when he was in middle school. He was undoubtedly a genius.

Some people even think that this song "Summer Lotus" is better than "An Xiang Fu Yang".

Mainly because "Fragrance in the Air" uses a lot of techniques, which does sound very cool, but it is not as good as "Summer Lotus", which has the natural flow of comfort and freedom.

Listening to "Long Summer Days", I feel like I am standing under the willow trees by the pond, watching the wind blowing the lotus leaves and wafting the lotus fragrance.

Some people recalled the time when they had just finished the college entrance examination. They were also carefree, comfortable and full of hope for the future.

“I don’t know if this song ‘Summer Days’ can be turned into a single, it’s really good.”

"It's okay if we don't release a single. We're already recording it anyway."

The VCR in Chu Changsong's home has a TV reception function, so it can record TV programs.

"I can't just come to Chu Changsong's house to listen to this song, and the full version isn't played on TV. It would be nice if there was a tape."

"Haha, if you want the tape, you'll probably have to buy a pirated copy. After this TV comes out, it won't be long before pirated tapes appear." A boy laughed.

This is almost inevitable. Pirate dealers know that Zhou Yan has a large traffic. If they find that a song has not been released yet, they will naturally not miss such a business opportunity.

"Yes, there will definitely be pirated tapes, and they might even have a photo of Teacher Zhou performing on stage as the cover."

"Haha, it's possible."

While everyone was chatting, the program had already talked about Zhou Yan's college days.

What surprised everyone was that there were videos of Zhou Yan almost every year from elementary school to high school, but after entering college, not only were there no videos, there were even very few photos.

Even if there are photos, many of them are group photos, and there are very few individual photos of Zhou Yan.

Therefore, the introduction to Zhou Yan’s college years is much less interesting, consisting basically of narration and some other photos.

However, after 91, there were more video materials about Zhou Yan, because although Zhou Yan was still in school at that time, he had already started working.

As we go further on, there is more video material and the introductions are richer.

However, the classmates still felt that the first part was more interesting, because as their loyal fans, they had more or less seen the things Zhou Yan did after work, so there was no sense of surprise.

"Musical Bridge" is not long, only about twenty minutes in total, and it feels like it's over in a flash.

When the film ended and the TV screen returned to the studio, the host smiled and said, "Hello, audience friends, thank you for watching this episode of "Music Bridge". At the end of the program, I have good news for you. Zhou Yan's Forbidden City Concert will be held on May 2, 3, and 4. Tickets for this concert will go on sale on April 10."

After this news came out, the scene went into an uproar.

"What, a new concert is coming?"

"Didn't you hear it? It was the Forbidden City Concert."

"Wow, CCTV is so good to Mr. Zhou. They not only help him sell books, but also help him sell tickets."

"Of course, Teacher Zhou is CCTV's favorite."

"I have waited so long for Teacher Zhou to finally come back to Yanjing."

"What's the point of hoping to come back? I don't know how many tickets there are this time and whether I can get one."

When it comes to grabbing tickets, everyone feels a little discouraged. Yes, tickets are so hard to get, can they get them?
Why can't the concert be held in a stadium? If so, they will definitely be able to get tickets for three consecutive shows. (End of this chapter)