Huayu: The Unbelievable Matching Mechanism of Jay Chou's Love Songs

As the year draws to a close, the entertainment industry in Taiwan is gradually becoming lively.

Major TV stations have released their lists of celebrities to be invited at the end of the year, and fans have begun to discuss what kind of antics their favorite stars will bring this year.

Some galas and ceremonies of that era were quite extravagant and knew how to come up with all sorts of creative ideas, such as singing while doing pull-ups, spinning to grab the microphone, and Indians making a motorcycle entrance during a military parade... and so on. They were full of highlights, so the ratings were quite good.

However, compared to previous years, the level of discussion this year is obviously not as high. The reason for this is naturally because the news that F4 plans to hold a concert at Neihu Stadium has recently spread.

As a new group that only became popular in the last few months of this year, F4 rose to fame with unstoppable momentum. Their popularity in Taiwan is no less than that of the Four Heavenly Kings in their prime. Because of their absolute popularity, even though their concerts didn't feature many famous songs other than "Meteor Shower" and "Can't Help Falling in Love", fans still showed great enthusiasm and support.

Long lines formed at various offline ticketing channels, including convenience stores, venue windows of the organizers, record stores, etc., starting the night before the tickets went on sale. The ticket booking hotline was overwhelmed with calls within 10 minutes of opening. Even tickets distributed through online ticketing channels, which are among the few places in this era that only accept credit card payments, sold out within minutes.

VIP tickets for the inner field were even being resold by scalpers for an outrageous price of over 10,000 New Taiwan Dollars!

This is the year 00!

Just imagine how outrageous that is!

Because it was so popular, this even made headlines for many entertainment reporters. Recently, the F4 entertainment headlines haven't just been about the concert, but also...

And Wu Zong is now publicly criticizing Chai Zhiping on a variety show, haha...

Wu Zongxian is a typical big mouth who spills everything. Recently, hasn't Chai Zhiping been suppressing Feng Zheng in various ways, and even buying articles to smear Feng Zheng?

Boss Wu was too lazy to spend the spare money to argue with someone behind their back, so he simply named and spoke sarcastically about Chai Zhiping on the show, saying that she was of bad character and that she looked down on people now after making "Meteor Garden" a hit.

This infuriated Chai Zhiping, who immediately retaliated against Wu Zongxian in an interview that same day…

Unfortunately, Mr. Wu is a professional in the variety show business and a well-known figure in Taiwan. He not only retaliated in a few words but also gave her a thorough dressing down.

The situation escalated considerably, with both sides finding the drama quite entertaining. As for whether there was any real progress in the end…

Ha, no.

Wu Zongxian remained tight-lipped, and the contract was still not negotiable.

The important business isn't progressing, but there's a ton of trivial stuff going on in the online forum...

For example, Chai Zhiping publicly criticized Wu Zongxian but failed to get back at him, so she thought of "getting revenge" from other places. Then, she turned her attention to Feng Zheng again!

Isn't F4 preparing for a concert soon?

The tickets had already been sold, so the four of them began to prepare and practice intensively.

The concert is packed with content. Besides group performances, there will be opportunities for solo performances to showcase their individual talents. To this end, Chai Zhiping has arranged all sorts of extravagant and dazzling lighting, stage design, makeup, and sound effects for Wu Jianhao, Yan Chengxu, and Zhou Yumin. They've also prepared support signs for the three of them for the fans attending the concert...

What about Feng Zheng?

There was nothing there.

Yes, you read that right. Forget about the stage effects, the band at the concert venue didn't even prepare any of Feng Zheng's songs.

What's the most disgusting thing?

These are two songs by Feng Zheng, "Meteor Shower" and "Can't Help Falling in Love," which Feng Zheng himself cannot sing!

"Meteor Shower" is one thing, since it's a duet song, but "Can't Help Falling in Love" was originally sung by Feng Zheng as a solo performance, yet it was arranged to be a solo performance by Yan Chengxu at his concert...

He can't even hit a note properly, he can't play the guitar, and you expect him to sing "Unavoidable Love"?!

"Damn my neighbor, Chai Zhiping! Damn my neighbor!"

Enraged, Wu Zongxian called that very day and yelled, "If you push me too far, I'll take back the copyrights to both songs, and I'll make sure you can't sing them at your concert!"

Chai Zhiping remained calm and said, "We've already paid for this. Go ahead and sue us if you dare. You're not going to revoke our authorization this year anyway."

"Damn it, neighbor!" Wu Zongxian cursed furiously on the phone.

And now things are getting a little interesting...

That means that on the day of the performance, Feng Zheng didn't have a single solo performance; all his repertoire was given to others, and he only had a few "group performances." They hadn't even prepared a "team uniform" for him, and he probably wouldn't even get a spotlight during the performance...

If the lights go out, fans might not be able to find him anywhere on the stage.

"Why don't you just mute Feng Zheng?"

That day, Chai Zhiping happened to be supervising the rehearsal on site. Zhou Yumin was so angry that he took Feng Zheng and Wu Jianhao to find Chai Zhiping.

"Sister Chai, you know what kind of person Feng Zheng is. You were the one who chose him to play Ximen in the first place, so is it appropriate for you to target him like this now?"

Zhou Yumin said, "It's a contract dispute between your two companies, what does it have to do with him? If he could, he'd also like to transfer his contract. How upset and disheartened he must be by doing this!"

Feng Zheng listened quietly to Zhou Yumin's words, thinking to himself that besides Coach Liu, he now had another person he could confide in...

Wu Jianhao also stood up for Yan Chengxu, who stood far away with his arms crossed, trying to look cool.

Chai Zhiping wasn't angry with Zhou Yumin and the others. Instead, she showed a helpless expression and said, "I understand how you feel right now, but we're trying to find a solution..."

She said to Feng Zheng, "Feng Zheng, please bear with us for now. Don't worry, once your contract issues are resolved, we will compensate you double for everything that is rightfully yours."

Classic example of making empty promises.

They slap you and then paint you a rosy picture, making you feel that you'd be willing to take a few more slaps if you saw that rosy picture.

Feng Zheng could actually pretend to be a good person now, but since Zhou Yumin and Wu Jianhao have stood up for him, it would be too disrespectful and a betrayal of them if he continued to act like a good person...

So after thinking for a moment, Feng Zheng simply said, "I don't care, just don't regret it, Sister Chai."

There was an inexplicable threat in his words, but Feng Zheng, who said them, was not excited at all, and seemed to be "confident".

This attitude made Chai Zhiping somewhat dissatisfied. It was one thing for Wu Zongxian to scold her, but now even Feng Zheng was dissatisfied with her. In other words, Feng Zheng was determined to stand with Wu Zongxian.

Okay...

"Zhou Yumin, what did you just say?" Chai Zhiping asked.

"I told you, how upset and heartbroken Feng Zheng must be by doing this!" Zhou Yumin said.

"No, the previous sentence."

"? You chose him to play Ximen, and you're targeting him like this... Is that appropriate?" Zhou Yumin couldn't understand what Chai Zhiping was trying to say.

"One more sentence," Chai Zhiping said.

This time, Zhou Yumin racked his brains before finally coming up with the line: "Why don't you guys just... mute Feng Zheng... and that's it?"

"Snapped!"

Chai Zhiping clapped her hands:

"That's right!"

good idea!

……