1990: Starting from Baojia Street

The two chatted for quite a long time. Wang Zuxian finally reminded Zhou Yan again what things he should bring, and then hung up the phone reluctantly.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yan called Tomson's music division.

Tang Chen is a film company, but for Zhou Yan, they set up a separate music division. Now this department mainly serves Zhou Yan and the students of CAFM.

Department manager Liang Youxing was very happy when he received Zhou Yan's call, because usually, when Zhou Yan had something, he would either contact Xu Feng or Zhang Youan, and rarely contact him as the department manager.

The key point is that their department mainly serves Zhou Yan, but Zhou Yan never looks for him, making him feel that he, as a supervisor, is of no use.

If one is unable to demonstrate his value, he will lack a sense of security and will always feel that he may lose his job at any time.

"Mr. Zhou, what can I do for you?"

Zhou Yan got straight to the point and asked, "Has a Japanese record company contacted you and wanted to buy the lyrics for the song "Snow Flower"?"

Liang Youxing smiled and said, "Teacher Zhou, the number of Japanese record companies that have contacted us to buy this song to make it into a song is too many to count on one hand. I don't know which one you are talking about."

"MCA-VICTOR." Zhou Yan said the name of the record company.

Liang Youxing thought for a moment and said, "It seems that there is such a company. Although this company is not very famous, they said that they wanted to buy it for Akina Nakamori to sing, so I have some impression of it. What happened to this company?"

"Talk to them. If the conditions are similar, give them 'Snow Flower'. But make sure it's sung by Akina Nakamori."

"Okay, no problem, I'll contact them right away."

Liang Youxing was quite surprised by Zhou Yan's decision. He had thought that Zhou Yan would give the song to Kudo Shizuka again, but he didn't expect that he would specifically give it to Nakamori Akina.

Akina Nakamori is indeed good, a Japanese diva, but her development in recent years has not been very good. The sales of the records she released in the past two years were not satisfactory.

Whether for personal reasons or commercial value considerations, it would be better to give the song to Shizuka Kudo than to Akina Nakamori.

Of course, no matter how much he couldn't understand, Liang Youxing would not raise any objections.

Teacher Zhou had asked him to do something with great difficulty, so of course he had to do it smoothly. Besides, the song was written by Zhou Yan, so he could give it to whoever he wanted, and he had no right to do anything about it.

Not to mention that he couldn't control Zhou Yan, even if their boss, Mr. Xu, came, he still couldn't control Zhou Yan.

Although Zhou Yan has an agency contract with Tang Chen, the company has basically no constraints on Zhou Yan. The two parties have an equal cooperative relationship. If Zhou Yan is unhappy one day and quits, Tang Chen will have no way to stop him.

In Liang Youxing's eyes, Zhou Yan is not just a director or musician signed by Tang Chen, but even his boss.

"When it's done, please let me know."

"Mr. Zhou, you are too polite. I will definitely report to you when the matter is settled."

"okay……"

Zhou Yan was about to hang up the phone when Liang Youxing quickly said, "Teacher Zhou, Akina Nakamori is not signed to a formal agency at the moment. Do you think we should sign her?"

Zhou Yan was stunned for a moment. He didn't quite understand why Liang Youxing told him this. Tang Chen didn't need to report to him what artist he wanted to sign.

It seems that Liang Youxing is really anxious. The music division has been wanting to expand its scale for a long time. However, Xu Feng has no ambitions for a career in music. He just wants to serve Zhou Yan's studio well.

As for Zhou Yan, his music career does not entirely rely on Tang Chen Company. His own studio can do a lot of things, and there are also some things that Zhou Entertainment can do.

When encountering a situation where he needs to sign someone, Zhou Yan will go to Zhou Hong instead of Xu Feng.

"Manager Liang, I think you should ask General Manager Xu about this matter," Zhou Yan said.

Liang Youxing was not disappointed, or rather, he was used to disappointment. He had mentioned the matter of expanding the music division to Xu Feng before, but Xu Feng had never been interested.

The main reason was that this time Zhou Yan took the initiative to call him and asked him to contact the record company that Akina Nakamori was signed to, and he happened to remember that Akina Nakamori was not signed to a formal agency at the moment, so he had the idea and brought it up.

"Okay, I'll ask Mr. Xu later."

"Okay, I'll wait for your news on the MCA matter."

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhou."

……

Liang Youxing hung up the phone with Zhou Yan, and asked his assistant to get the memo of recent contacts for song invitations. He found the contact information of MCA-VICTOR and called directly.

The call went directly to the office of Shinji Aikawa, the general manager of MCA-VITCOR. Shinji Aikawa answered the phone and said, "Moshi Moshi."

Liang Youxing replied in English, "Hello, I am Liang Youxing, the director of the music division of Tomson Company. Your company contacted us some time ago and wanted to buy the song "Snow Flower". I called you this time to discuss this matter."

When Shinji Aikawa heard this, he almost stood up from his chair with joy.

He sat up straight, "Hello, I'm Shinji Aikawa, the general manager of MCA. You can talk to me directly about this matter. Does Mr. Zhou Yan agree to hand over the song to us?"

"First of all, we have to confirm one thing, this song will be sung by Akina Nakamori." Liang Youxing said.

Shinji Aikawa immediately said, "Of course, we bought this song just for her."

"Well, we will write this in the contract. Let's talk about the conditions next."

"No problem. If you have any conditions, just ask."

"OK……"

Afterwards, Liang Youxing told Shinji Aikawa about the conditions, including the distribution of copyright and remuneration. When Zhou Yan sold his songs, he basically focused on copyright rather than one-time remuneration.

The conditions given to MCA this time are the same. The remuneration is not much, mainly because the copyright regulations are quite strict.

Shinji Aikawa accepted all the conditions proposed by Liang Youxing. For a small record company like theirs, getting Zhou Yan's songs was a piece of cake, so what other conditions could they negotiate?

Furthermore, the conditions proposed by Tang Chen were not very harsh. Although the copyright regulations were relatively strict, they were still within a reasonable range, and the remuneration was not high. These conditions were very suitable for a small company like theirs because they could greatly reduce costs.

Shinji Aikawa doesn't think that they will be able to have a good life with Akina Nakamori.

In recent years, Akina Nakamori has been unable to sign a contract with a major record company for various reasons, otherwise they would not have been able to get her a good deal.

After signing Akina Nakamori, MCA tried very hard to give Nakamori a second spring, but their efforts did not have any effect.

When Shinji Aikawa invited Akina Nakamori to sing a song this time, he was just trying it out, but who would have thought that Tomomi would come.

It seems that Akina Nakamori's name can still be of some use.

Liang Youxing was not surprised to hear that Shinji Aikawa agreed to all the conditions so quickly. After all, neither Akina Nakamori nor MCA had the capital to make the conditions now.

"We will draft a specific contract. If you look at it and agree, you can sign it. Oh, by the way, there is one more thing. After you finish writing the lyrics, you need to pass Zhou Yan's review. Only when he agrees can the song be recorded and released." "No problem."

Shinji Aikawa also agreed to this condition immediately. In his opinion, this was not a condition that restricted them, but a benefit.

After agreeing on a date to sign the contract, the two hung up the phone.

Shinji Aikawa called Akina Nakamori immediately.

When she received the call, Akina Nakamori was sitting in front of the window, staring out in a daze.

Now, whenever she has nothing to do, she likes to sit by the window alone, doing nothing but daydreaming.

There was a time before when she also liked to sit in front of the window, but she would always hold a bottle of wine in her hands. She was in a very bad state during that time and could only numb herself with alcohol every day.

Now she also wants to drink, but she can still control it.

"Akina, there's news from Tomomi. They agree to let you sing "Snow Flower". We've roughly reached an agreement. I'm going to find someone to write the lyrics right away. Once the lyrics are ready, you can prepare to sing."

Akina Nakamori looked out the window with a glimmer in her eyes. She didn't expect that this would really happen.

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Aikawa." Akina Nakamori thanked.

"You're welcome, Akina. This is a good opportunity to sing 'Snow Flower'. You must seize it."

"I understand."

"Well, I hope it goes well this time." Shinji Aikawa smiled and asked, "Akina, do you know Zhou Yan?"

The reason why Shinji Aikawa asked this was because it was Akina Nakamori who took the initiative to ask for a song, and for Akina Nakamori, this behavior was a bit abnormal.

Shinji Aikawa didn't take it seriously before, but as Akina Nakamori had been silent for a long time, she was anxious to make a comeback. Plus, the song "Snow Flower" was really good, so it was normal for her to want to sing it.

But the moment he hung up the phone with Liang Youxing, he suddenly felt something was wrong, because Tang Chen was too straightforward.

When two abnormal things came together, it was hard for him not to make associations.

After thinking about it, he could only think of the possibility that Akina Nakamori knew Zhou Yan.

However, he was a little confused because he had never heard that Akina Nakamori knew Zhou Yan. Although Zhou Yan was famous in Japan, he had no connection with the artists in Japan.

The only one with whom they have more overlap is probably Shizuka Kudo.

Moreover, if the two knew each other, why didn't they contact each other directly, but contacted Tang Chen Company?

Akina Nakamori said very honestly, "I know her. I met her once."

"Only met once?"

"Ah."

After hearing what Akina Nakamori said, Shinji Aikawa did not ask any more questions, but just smiled and said, "No matter what, prepare well."

After hanging up the phone, Akina Nakamori was still staring out the window.

Perhaps Zhou Yan was willing to give her "Snow Flower" because of Shizuka, because it was Shizuka who suggested that she let MCA invite Tomson to sing the song.

It seems that Shizuka and Zhou Yan have a very good relationship and can even influence Zhou Yan's decision.

After being in a daze for a while, she suddenly stood up and opened the window. Breathing the fresh air blowing in from the window, she felt that the sky was much brighter.

……

When Zhou Yan arrived in Los Angeles, it was already noon local time.

Bregman attached great importance to his arrival and came to pick him up in person.

After they met, Bregman shook Zhou Yan's hand and said happily, "I have good news for you. The global box office of The Sixth Sense has exceeded 300 million US dollars."

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, "This is indeed good news."

"The Sixth Sense" has already been released in some European countries and has performed very well at the box office. It is certain that the global box office will exceed 300 million US dollars.

And according to Columbia's own forecast, there is no problem for this film to exceed 400 million US dollars in global box office.

"Why do I feel like you're not excited at all?"

Zhou Yan shrugged, "I'm very excited."

"I can only say that your way of expressing excitement is very special." Bregman smiled. "The celebration party will start tomorrow evening. You still have a day and a half to rest. I will take you to the hotel first. You can tell me if you need anything."

"Nothing is needed. I have some things of my own to do. In fact, you can send someone else to pick me up."

"Oh, are you going to meet Director Cameron?"

Zhou Yan smiled and did not answer the question. Instead, he asked Bregman, "Is there any special procedure for tomorrow's dinner?"

"Apart from the interview session, there's nothing special. And don't worry, not many reporters are invited this time. Catherine and Kevin are staying in the same hotel as you. Do you want to meet them in advance?"

Zhou Yan shook his head and said, "Let's meet at the dinner tomorrow."

"Well, okay, let's go to the hotel first."

Zhou Yan said he would see Catherine and the others tomorrow, but as soon as they arrived at the hotel, they ran into Catherine in the lobby.

The weather was hot, and Catherine was wearing something cool, a green tube-top miniskirt that perfectly outlined her figure. She looked thin, but unexpectedly she was quite well-endowed.

Although Zhou Yan didn't like the color of the skirt, he still thought it was nice.

Catherine was also very happy to meet Zhou Yan and Bregman. She smiled and greeted them, "Mr. Bregman, Y, what a coincidence, did Y just get here?"

Bregman smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I just picked him up from the airport."

Zhou Yan also smiled and greeted, "Long time no see, Catherine."

"Yes, it's been a long time. I'm also very happy to hear that you are coming to the cocktail party."

Catherine is grateful to Zhou Yan. Thanks to the popularity of "The Sixth Sense", she has finally established herself in Hollywood.

At that time, Zhou Yan recommended her to play the leading female role. Although I don't know why Zhou Yan recommended her, without Zhou Yan, she might still be worried about getting a role. It's not like now, when there are all kinds of scripts coming to her every day and the media who want to interview her are lining up. (End of this chapter)