1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Ever since the previous war of words, many people who support Zhou have been keeping an eye on "At Your Service Newspaper". If "At Your Service Newspaper" publishes articles insulting Zhou Yan again, they will fight back.

This time, "At Your Service Newspaper" published two articles in a row to flatter Zhou Yan, which actually made those who were eager to do something big feel discouraged.

You can't just scold people for flattering Zhou Yan, right?

Besides, the two reports about Zhou Yan in "At Your Service Newspaper" did not mention his name. Even if one wanted to criticize him, one could only point fingers at "At Your Service Newspaper" and could not name him.

As for why "At Your Service Newspaper" behaved like this, many people speculated that it was because the lawsuit Han Shaogong filed against them might be very unfavorable to them, and the newspaper's move might be intended to ease the relationship between the two parties.

But everyone knows that all this is in vain. The harm caused to Han Shaogong and Zhou Yan by Zhang Yiwu and others has become an established fact and cannot be changed.

The grudge that had been created could not be resolved simply by them trying to get it right.

Of course, another group of people still believe that "At Your Service" is not trying to ease the relationship, but simply wants to take advantage of the popularity of "Time Traveler" which is a big seller in Japan.

……

In the evening, when the concert was about to begin, Zhou Yan asked the staff to test the lights again.

After testing the lighting and making sure there were no problems, Zhou Yan walked off the stage and met Gong Li and her husband Huang Hexiang coming in.

When Huang Hexiang saw Zhou Yan, he was the first to congratulate him, "Congratulations, Director Zhou. Last night's concert was a great success."

After the concert ended yesterday, Gong Li and the others left first, and Zhou Yan also left directly from the backstage, so Huang Hexiang and the others did not have the chance to congratulate Zhou Yan, and left the congratulations to today.

There was no red carpet session today, so Gong Li and Huang Hexiang came in directly, which saved a lot of trouble. However, Zhou Yan didn't expect them to come so early, it was only a little after four o'clock.

"I also want to thank Sister Li and Mr. Huang for their support." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

Gong Li said with a smile, "Little brother, verbal thanks are not enough. Don't forget what you promised me before. You will buy me a drink after the concert."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Don't worry, Sister Li, I haven't forgotten. After the last game tomorrow, I will treat you to a drink. Mr. Huang will also have to honor me."

Huang Hexiang looked at Gong Li with a smile and said, "Wherever she goes, I will go."

"Don't worry, I will definitely bring him with me." Gong Li smiled and said, "I also want to congratulate you on one thing. I saw on the news today that the distribution income of Time Traveler in Japan is almost 2 billion Japanese coins. This is an amazing achievement."

"Not bad." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

Gong Li looked at the faint smile on Zhou Yan's face and couldn't help curling her lips and said, "Little brother, you are a bit pretentious. 'Not bad', you haven't achieved such a result before."

When Zhou Yan heard Gong Li imitating his own way of speaking, he pursed his lips. This girl is really a hermaphrodite.

But it's no wonder that Gong Li teased him, as what he said just now was indeed a bit pretentious.

Although his films have always performed well in Japan and had previously broken the box office record for Chinese-language films released in Japan, the results achieved by "Time Traveler" in Japan this time are something he has never achieved before.

"Of course I'm happy that Time Traveler has achieved such results, but Japan's ticket market is limited. No matter how much we develop, we won't get much money."

Gong Li's lips curled even more. "You are such a great artist, why do you always talk about money?"

Zhou Yan shrugged and smiled, "So what? My purpose of being an artist is to make money."

Huang Hexiang smiled and said, "Director Zhou is very sincere and has a very high level of integrity. This makes people admire him. There is no one in this world who doesn't love money, but Director Zhou can speak his mind frankly. Not many people can do this."

Zhou Yan glanced at Huang Hexiang and thought that this guy was indeed an executive of a large company. Every word he said was a bunch of colorful farts.

He was able to climb up step by step to his current position, and I'm afraid all these flattery played a big role in that.

Zhou Yan waved his hand and said, "Boss Huang, you're too kind, too kind. What you said makes me blush."

"Director Zhou, you are too modest. Oh, by the way, has the release date of "Time Traveler" been decided in Hong Kong? When it is released, we must be in Hong Kong to support it."

"It's the end of this month, soon."

"Not bad, not bad. The movie is going to be released in Hong Kong. Director Zhou, are you going to promote it?"

"I may not have time. I'm also very busy at the moment. Xiaoxian and his team may be mainly responsible for Hong Kong."

"That's a pity. I had planned that when you come over, we would also play the role of host and treat you to a meal. Although I work in the tobacco industry, I am actually very interested in film and television." At this point, Huang Hexiang took Gong Li's hand again, "Otherwise, I would not have married a movie queen."

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows, wondering if Huang Hexiang had something else in mind, maybe he wanted to get involved in the film business?
In fact, this is understandable. Huang Hexiang has not had a good time recently. Although he is the president of British American Tobacco Asia Pacific, he is ultimately just a senior employee.

Huang Hexiang comes from an ordinary family without any deep background, and it is not easy for him to climb to his current position.

This year, due to the poor economic trend in Hong Kong and the uncertain situation with the imminent return, British American Tobacco was affected and Huang Hexiang's position in the company was not very stable.

Under such circumstances, it is normal for Huang Hexiang to want to find other ways out. And because he is married to Gong Li, the most profitable way he can see is to engage in film and television.

Especially when it comes to movies, after all, Zhou Yan's movie only grossed in two box office and could earn such a huge profit, it was hard for him not to be tempted.

However, even if Huang Hexiang wanted to enter the film and television industry, he probably did not have the capital.

After all, I'm just an employee. Although the salary is good, I'm afraid I may not have earned much money over the years.

Zhou Yan believes that the only way for Huang Hexiang to develop well in the film and television industry is to leave the tobacco company, honestly work as Gong Li's agent, and get Gong Li more good scripts when he has nothing to do.

Instead of continuing what Huang Hexiang said, he changed the subject and talked about music. "Which of the songs last night did Mr. Huang like best?"

Huang Hexiang barely reacted, and immediately replied, "Of course I like the song 'Bauhinia March' the most. Hong Kong's return to the motherland is a major event that concerns Chinese people all over the world. When I heard the 'Bauhinia March' last night, my eyes were filled with tears."

When he spoke, he considered both Zhou Yan's stance and preferences as well as Gong Li's stance and preferences.

Of course he had to say this in front of Zhou Yan and Gong Li.

Zhou Yan nodded. Huang Hexiang is Singaporean, so he has no psychological burden in saying this.

"Since Mr. Huang likes to listen to this song, you are blessed tonight."

"Is this song still played tonight?" Gong Li asked. She really liked this song and wanted to hear it again tonight.

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, "Yes, there is, but tonight it's a folk music version."

"The folk music version. The folk music version is good."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Please listen carefully tonight, Mr. Huang. I have something else to do, so I'll excuse myself first."

"Well, go and do your work, don't worry about us," Gong Li said.

...For the second concert, since there was no red carpet segment, the audience who didn’t buy tickets took their seats early.

With the lesson learned the day before, fans who wanted to listen to the concert outside came here a long time in advance. Some audience members even came in the morning, and at noon, some vendors came here to sell boxed lunches, and they actually sold quite a lot.

So much so that even though the concert was scheduled for seven o'clock, the door was already full of people before six o'clock.

The staff who maintained order also put up the isolation belt early to prevent people from coming in later. Those who came late could only stay away or go home to watch TV.

After taking their seats, everyone stopped moving and waited quietly.

The concert hasn't started yet and everyone is discussing what music will be played tonight.

"Since this is the Bauhinia City series of concerts, the programs must be similar. There shouldn't be many changes to today's music."

"That's true, but Mr. Zhou has so many songs, why don't you arrange a few for everyone to listen to?"

"Forget it. Even if the songs are the same, I still like to listen to them. As long as they are Teacher Zhou's songs, I can't get enough of them."

"Isn't it better to do the same? I want to listen to the "March of the Bauhinias" again. I listened to that song last night and couldn't sleep when I got home. It was so exciting."

“That piece of music is really exciting to listen to.”

“I hope there will be new songs.”

“Maybe there really is a new song.”

……

At seven o'clock, the concert started on time and the first instrument of the entire concert sounded.

It's the sound of a bell.

When hearing the bell, music fans knew that the opening song had not changed and was still "Memories of the Forbidden City".

Everyone naturally thought that the music tonight was no different from last night.

But starting from the second song, the following songs were different from yesterday's songs.

Even though the concert lasts two hours and there is nearly an hour for the encore, there are actually not many songs that can be played in a concert.

If Zhou Yan hadn't strung those songs together when he was playing the bamboo flute solo last night, greatly shortening the time, he would probably have played fewer songs last night.

After all, a large piece like "Journey to the West Fantasy" would take at least half an hour to perform. If Zhou Yan puts a piece like "Eternal Night" in, the audience would only be able to hear a few pieces in a concert.

It is normal for many concerts to have only a few songs, but Zhou Yan still wants the audience to listen to more songs, after all, everyone has spent a lot of money.

Since he can't let everyone spend less money, he will try his best to make the tickets they have more cost-effective.

Zhou Yan has so many songs that he is not afraid of using them up.

Not to mention that the music for the two concerts is different, even if he holds five concerts in a row, he has enough music.

There were only two pieces of music in common between the two concerts.

One is the opening song "Memories of the Forbidden City" and the other is "Bauhinia March".

But the difference is that tonight's "Bauhinia March" is a folk music version, which mainly uses bamboo flutes, pipa and erhu in various tunes.

Music fans were dazzled by the folk music version of "Bauhinia March", especially the performance of the erhu in this piece, which was really surprising.

In other words, Zhou Yan first arranged the Western instruments. If he had played the folk music version first, everyone would probably have a preconceived idea that "Bauhinia March" was suitable for erhu performance.

In the second concert, "Bauhinia March" appeared again, not only to let the audience feel the charm of folk music, but also because this song is indeed of great significance and suitable for repeated performance in concerts.

The regular duration of the concert is still two hours, and after it ends, everyone will have an encore as usual.

Just like yesterday, Zhou Yan returned seven times and performed seven songs. No more, no less than yesterday.

As for extra games outside the venue, of course there are none.

Unless Tiananmen Square is tidyed up late at night, there is no place to hold an outdoor performance.

And because it was an open-air concert, fans outside could also hear a lot of the music, so there was no need to give them extra benefits.

……

The third concert was the same as the second concert, except for "Memories of the Forbidden City" and "March of the Bauhinia Flowers".

This time, it was a collaboration between Western musical instruments and folk musical instruments. The French horn part of the Western instruments was retained by Zhou Yan, and the erhu part of the folk music was also kept by Zhou Yan.

Three concerts, three versions of "Bauhinia March", each with different styles, but all are very popular with music fans.

On May 4th, the last concert of the Forbidden City Concert finally came to a successful conclusion.

After Zhou Yan's encore, he did not wait for the rest of the band, nor did he say hello to the other guests. He took a car back to the studio alone.

After returning to the office, Zhou Yan made himself a cup of tea, then leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

He was indeed a little tired after working non-stop these past few days.

Although he was rubbing his eyes, it was actually his ears that were tired.

Even at his own concerts, the noisy sound was still very uncomfortable for his ears.

Outdoor concerts are noisier than indoor ones and are more tiring for his ears.

Therefore, after the concert, he came back immediately to be alone.

Compared to the concert, the park is much quieter.

His office was not originally close to the main road, and the windows were replaced with soundproof glass, so no noise came in.

If there is really noise, Zhou Yan will run to the recording studio to give his ears a good rest.

Zhou Yan had been in a noisy environment for a long time these days, and he felt that his hearing was damaged. However, after returning to the office and relaxing for a while, he felt that his hearing became sharp again. (End of this chapter)