1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After hanging up the phone with Akina Nakamori, Zhou Yan started working on the arrangement of "Someone Like You".

He had been very busy since he came back and hadn't found time to do it. Maria even called him to urge him to do it.

Zhou Yan originally thought that Maria didn't have much time and energy to work on the new song because of her divorce. However, after chatting on the phone for a while, he felt that Maria was in good shape, even better than the last time they met.

At least Maria's emotions were much more stable. She didn't talk nonsense and could even make a joke from time to time.

Three or four days had passed since Maria called to urge him to finish the work. Zhou Yan estimated that if he didn't finish the arrangement, she would call him again.

It just so happened that I finished other work early today, so I took the time to start doing it.

It was not until after nine o'clock that Zhou Yan packed up and went out, but he heard the sound of chatting coming from the other end of the corridor.

When Zhou Yan reached the stairs, he saw Wang Feng and others coming down from upstairs.

Seeing Zhou Yan, Wang Feng and the others greeted him one after another.

"Teacher Zhou."

"Senior brother."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "When did you come back? I didn't see you at dinner."

"We came back in the afternoon, but we had dinner late, so we might have missed it. We stayed in the practice room the rest of the time," Wang Feng explained.

Long Long said with a smile: "The food at home is still the best. When I go out to perform, I can never get a good meal."

"It's good enough that you can eat on time. Don't be so demanding." Zhao Muyang said.

Zhou Yan glanced at Zhao Muyang and felt that this guy had become more outgoing recently. In the past, he would not respond at this time.

Their band's first album "43 Bao Street" has been out for several months. The response was not great at the beginning. Of course, it was not particularly bad. After all, they had performed many shows before and even went to Shizuka Kudo's concert as guests. Some sales were also made after the album came out.

However, it is still a long way from becoming an overnight success.

Zhou Yan has also been observing them, trying to see if they would lose confidence because the album sales did not meet expectations. However, judging from their performance during this period, it is still pretty good.

"Where are you performing recently?"

During this period, either Zhou Yan was out or they were out, so they never met.

Since we met today, I would like to ask a few more questions.

"I just came back from Shanghai. The fans there are still very enthusiastic."

"Always in various bars?"

"Not all of them are bars... but most of them are."

Zhou Yan nodded, and then said: "This kind of performance is necessary, but it's okay to have it in moderation. It's getting late today, you should go back and rest early."

Performing in places like bars can maintain the performance state to a certain extent and get closer to the public, but excessive performance is not good.

Wang Feng nodded and said, "Okay."

……

The next morning, Zhou Yan called Xu Junrong.

"Lao Xu, I want to tell you about Wang Feng and the others."

As soon as Zhou Yangang finished speaking, Xu Junrong laughed, "Teacher Zhou, I was just about to talk to you about this. The company is planning to prepare a few more formal performances for No. 43 Baojia Street, and we are already selecting a location."

Hearing Xu Junrong say this, Zhou Yan couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and said, "What a coincidence."

He called Xu Junrong about this matter.

"Grown Ups is about to be released. Regardless of how the film performs in the market, our company must take this opportunity to promote their band."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

Zhou Yan also thought that "Grown Up" would be released soon, and felt that such a good opportunity should not be wasted.

Compared to Xu Junrong, Zhou Yan is definitely more confident about the movie "Growing Up".

Although "Grown Ups" has no chance of becoming a blockbuster movie, its market performance is likely to be good. Zhou Yan has seen the film that finally passed the review, and it is even better than the original version, and is more likely to attract audiences.

In the original movie, although the protagonist is a band member, there are actually not many things related to rock in the entire movie, and there is no memorable music.

But this version is different. With Wang Feng's participation, the level of the film's soundtrack has been greatly improved, and the several songs that Wang Feng put in the film are just right.

After the movie is released, the songs in it will definitely be heard by more fans.

"Besides the performance, does Teacher Zhou have any other instructions?" Xu Junrong asked.

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and said, "In July, Shizuka Kudo will come to China for a concert. Let's arrange another concert for them and let them go up as guests."

"No problem, I'll contact Ogi Production in a bit, there shouldn't be any problem."

"There's nothing else to do. Just make your own arrangements."

"it is good."

"How is Wu Bai doing recently?" Zhou Yan asked.

"He just released an album in June, and it's doing really well. I'm currently arranging activities for him in mainland China."

“Oh, the new album has been released.”

Zhou Yan has been busy with other things recently and didn't notice that Wu Bai's new album has been released.

When Wu Bai's new album "The End of Love" was just being prepared, Zhou Yan had watched it. There were several very classic songs in it, such as "Norwegian Wood" and "Last Dance", which were both chorus songs.

Zhou Yan also expected that this album would be popular.

Speaking of which, the opportunity for Zhou to sign Wu Bai was indeed very good. If he had waited until Wu Bai finished making "The End of Love", it would have been difficult to sign him.

"It was posted around the time you came back from the United States. The wind hasn't reached the mainland yet, but it should be soon."

There are many reasons why Wu Bai is willing to sign with Zhou Entertainment. One of them is that he also wants to have more development in the mainland market. Although Zhou Entertainment is only a new company, its influence is actually not small.

Now that he has released a new album, Zhou will of course vigorously promote him in mainland China.

Zhou Yan did not ask much about Wu Bai's affairs. After all, no matter how much he asked, it would be useless. The key still depended on Wu Bai himself and the resources provided by the company.

Wu Bai's strength is naturally beyond doubt. The company, without Zhou Yan's reminder, also attaches great importance to Wu Bai's development.

After all, there are not many musicians signed by the company now, and Wu Bai can be said to be Zhou’s top star at this stage. Naturally, any resources will not be used unfairly against Wu Bai.

"Have you discovered any new people recently?" Zhou Yan asked.

"There are a few who have performed well, but it is difficult to recruit them, such as Zhang Yu, Zhang Xinzhe, and Ren Xianqi, who all have great potential."

Upon hearing these names, Zhou Yan rolled his eyes. These people not only have potential, they have all debuted for a few years but have not yet become popular, which is similar to Wu Bai's previous situation.

Everyone can see the potential in them, but it is of course difficult to tap into.

And among these people, only Zhang Yu and Zhou Yan showed some interest. He was more interested in singers with creative ability.

Singers who have no creative ability have a lower tolerance rate. After signing them, we still have to find suitable songs for them.

Signing Wu Baiduo is worry-free. As long as we provide him with the conditions, he can handle the songs himself. When he has time, he can also help other singers write songs.

"Are there any who have just debuted and are less well-known?" Zhou Yan asked again.

"Yes, there is, but I haven't found it yet."

Zhou Yan sighed secretly, he was thinking too much. If Xu Junrong really had this ability, he would not have become unknown later.

Before many singers debuted, or when they first debuted, not many people could have imagined that they would become very popular in the future. "Please collect more singers like this and give me their information. It would be best if you could also give me their works to look at."

Actually, Zhou Yan had said this before, but the company had never taken it seriously. Xu Junrong did send information, but the ones he sent were all about singers who were already famous, such as Zhang Yu and Zhang Xinzhe.

Now hearing Zhou Yan bring up this matter again, Xu Junrong said, "I understand. I will collect the information and have someone send it over as soon as possible."

"It's best to have some creative ability." Zhou Yan reminded again.

"Ok."

……

After hanging up the phone with Xu Junrong, Zhou Yan continued to work on the arrangement of "Someone Like You".

After a morning, the rest of the arrangement work was basically done.

After finishing the arrangement of "Someone Like You", Zhou Yan didn't have time to rest as he was busy writing the novel "Shutter Island".

This novel was to be released in conjunction with the movie, so Zhou Yan wrote it completely according to the original settings without making any changes based on the situation in China.

Zhou Yan integrated the original novel with the original movie, taking the essence and removing the dross, and made an outline first.

After the outline is made, the subsequent work will be easy. Just follow the outline and work your way back.

It was not until the evening that Zhou Yan stopped writing. He stretched, saw that it was already past six o'clock, and got up to go to the cafeteria for lunch.

But before he reached the door, the phone on the desk rang, and he turned around to answer it.

On the other end of the phone, Akina Nakamori said in Chinese, "Hello, Mr. Zhou, have you had dinner?"

Hearing Akina Nakamori's greeting, Zhou Yan smiled. He didn't know who she learned Chinese from, but she asked right away if he had ever eaten. Although it was reasonable, it sounded awkward.

Moreover, it sounded like she was just learning it at the last minute, and her pronunciation was really poor. If this sentence wasn't so classic, Zhou Yan wouldn't be able to understand what she was saying.

Although Akina Mori is better at singing than Shizuka Kudo, her talent in languages ​​is much worse. The speed at which Shizuka learns Chinese is something that not everyone can match.

Zhou Yan did not answer whether he had eaten it or not, but asked, "Ms. Nakamori, you called me again, is there anything you want to tell me about the lyrics?"

The girl who was responsible for translating on the other side spoke a lot of gibberish, and then a man spoke in Neon language. Then the translator said to Zhou Yan in Chinese, "Mr. Zhou Yan, the creator of the lyrics today, Ooyama Yoshi, is also here. He made some changes to the lyrics based on the questions you raised yesterday. If you still have questions today, he wants to discuss them directly with you."

Hearing that the lyricist was also there, Zhou Yan smiled and greeted him, "Hello, Mr. Dashan."

"Hello, Mr. Zhou Yan, nice to meet you." Oyama Yi said in Neon language.

"Now that the lyrics have been changed, please sing it again for me."

After hearing what Zhou Yan said, Akina Nakamori on the opposite side prepared a little and then began to sing with the newly revised lyrics.

In fact, Zhou Yan did not raise many questions and did not require many revisions. Zhou Yan only needed to focus on a few important points.

The revised lyrics are indeed much better and fit the melody better than yesterday's version.

Zhou Yan only cared about these. As for whether the meaning of the lyrics had been changed and what it had been changed to, he didn’t really care.

After Akina Nakamori finished singing once, Zhou Yan said with a smile, "No problem, this is fine."

After hearing Zhou Yan's words, Akina Nakamori and Yoshi Oyama on the other end of the phone breathed a sigh of relief.

Yoshi Oyama is a newcomer and had not written many lyrics before. He was very nervous about working with Akina Nakamori and Zhou Yan this time.

Before writing the lyrics, he spent a lot of time studying the works of Zhou Yan and Nakamori Akina, and then studied the creative background of the song "Snow Flower", and finally wrote the lyrics.

After the lyrics were written, he communicated with Akina Nakamori and the people from VICTOR for a long time before finally sending the lyrics to Zhou Yan.

When Ooyama Yoshi learned that Zhou Yan was "dissatisfied" with the lyrics, he panicked, fearing that the lyrics would be completely rejected. Fortunately, only a small part needed to be modified.

But even if it was just a small part, he was very serious and did not waste a moment. It took him one day to change the lyrics according to Zhou Yan's needs.

Then he was still worried, so he came to communicate with Zhou Yan together with Akina Nakamori.

So when he heard Zhou Yan say that there was no problem, he breathed a sigh of relief.

But he couldn't help but confirm, "Is everything really okay?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's really no problem. Ms. Nakamori can prepare for the recording."

"Are we going to Yanjing to record?" asked Akina Nakamori.

"You can come to Yanjing or Nihong. It depends on your choice."

Akina Nakamori thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll go to Yanjing."

She wanted to go to Yanjing to record, not only because she wanted producer Zhou Yan to guide her, but also because Tang Chen Company wanted to sign an agent contract with her. She did not agree immediately at that time because the main body of Tang Chen Company was in China, and signing a contract with them might not be a good thing.

But during this period of time she figured it out. Since she wasn't signed to a proper management company and no major record company was willing to sign her, she might as well try to sign with Tang Chen. After all, the conditions offered by Tang Chen were very good.

So this trip to China is just the right time to finalize the signing.

Besides, Shizuka is going to China soon, so it would be a good opportunity for her to be with Shizuka, so she won't be so lonely.

When Zhou Yan heard that Akina Nakamori was coming to China, he didn't think much about it and just said, "Then arrange your own time. Tell me in advance before you come."

"Well, okay, I'll tell you when I confirm the time."

"Okay, that's it. We'll talk again when we have time. See you later."

"Goodbye."

After a simple hello, Zhou Yan hung up the phone.

This time, only Ooyama Yi was stunned on the other end of the phone. It was the first time he had contact with Zhou Yan, and he didn't expect that Zhou Yan would be such a "straightforward" person.

Before Da Shanyi came, he had planned to have a good talk with Zhou Yan, but from the time the call was connected to the time he hung up, he didn't say a few words to Zhou Yan.

Not to mention him, even Akina Nakamori didn't say a few words to Zhou Yan.

"Has Mr. Zhou Yan always been like this?" Da Shanyi asked weakly.

The translator nodded, "Yes, Mr. Zhou Yan is a very efficient person."

Hearing the word "efficient", Oyama Yi nodded in agreement. Perhaps only someone as efficient as Mr. Zhou Yan could create so many high-quality works.

Akina Nakamori couldn't help but say, "He's actually a very gentle person."

Although Zhou Yan hung up the phone quickly, he left a good impression on Akina Nakamori during their previous meeting.

In real life, Zhou Yan is a gentle and elegant person.

The translator curled her lips secretly. She really didn't see how Mr. Zhou Yan was gentle. But it was understandable. Such a talented and good-looking man would make people feel gentle just by standing there.

Now many girls in Japan are fascinated by Zhou Yan, and he also appears on various lists, such as "the most popular foreign star", "the most popular musician", and even "the man most wanted to marry".

Moreover, Zhou Yan already has fanatical female fans in Neon.

Although the scandal between Zhou Yan and Maria has not received much media coverage in China, it is quite popular in Japan. After all, Zhou Yan and Maria are both top stars in Japan.

Now that two top stars are rumored to be dating, the Japanese media will of course report it.

Zhou Yan's fanatical female fans reacted strongly to these rumors. They firmly refused to believe the news was true because they thought it was impossible for Zhou Yan to be with a married woman, and even if Maria was not married, she was not worthy of Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan has fanatical fans, and Maria naturally has some too.

However, the attitude of Maria's fans is different from that of Zhou Yan's fans. They believe that Maria's husband, who is divorcing her, is not a good match, and she and Zhou Yan are a perfect match made in heaven.

Zhou Yan's fans definitely disagreed with this idea, and the two sides had a huge argument over it. (End of this chapter)