Chapter 329: Unable to Keep up with the Expansion Speed

Zhou Yan waited in the hotel until 1:30, but did not see the Backstreet Boys.

They agreed to meet at 11:30, but at 11:00, the Backstreet Boys called to say that their car broke down on the way and was being repaired.

Zhou Yan could not wait any longer because the book signing session would start at 2:30.

Zhou Yan's book signing session was arranged at the record surplus record store, a record market located on Santa Monica Boulevard.

It is very large and has many affordable and collectible records, so music lovers often come here to shop.

Even when there are no activities, there are still many people who come to buy records.

When Zhou Yan arrived at the door of the record store, he did not see anyone gathered, but two girls were standing by the poster at the door taking pictures.

The poster was about the content of today's book signing session, and since the two girls came with cameras, they should have come specifically for the book signing session.

The record store has only one floor, with white walls and red doorplates. From the outside, it looks like a factory, but its main entrance looks like a farmer's market.

As soon as their car stopped, they attracted the attention of the two girls with license plates.

Seeing Zhou Yan get out of the car, the two girls covered their mouths in surprise. They obviously recognized Zhou Yan.

Seeing the two girls with surprised faces, Zhou Yan took the initiative to wave and greet them, and they also waved back.

After saying hello, Zhou Yan walked into the record store.

At this time, one of the girls reacted and quickly pulled the clothes of the other girl, "Selena, take a picture quickly."

"Oh, yes." The other girl quickly raised the camera and wanted to take a picture of Zhou Yan.

But at this time Zhou Yan had already walked into the store.

As soon as Zhou Yan walked into the store, a man in his thirties came up with a look of surprise.

"Y, hello, I am Huo Yilun, the person in charge of record surplus."

Zhou Yan nodded and responded, "Hello."

Huo Yilun looked at his watch and asked in confusion, "Didn't Zhang say that you won't arrive until 2:15?"

It was just after 2 o'clock now.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I'm used to arriving a little early. Is there any problem?"

"No, no." Huo Yilun shook his head, "I'll take you around the store first."

When saying this, Huo Yilun winked at the young man next to him, and the young man turned around and ran away.

Zhou Yan saw his little action and was a little confused, wondering what was going on.

But soon, he roughly understood.

More than a minute later, seven or eight people who looked like reporters hurriedly walked towards this side.

Before they arrived, the cameras in their hands had already started working, snapping and snapping.

Seeing the reporters, Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows. He thought that no media reporters would be present at the book signing today.

Before Zhang Youan said that the publicity for today's book signing was not very strong, and there would not be many people coming. Zhou Yan was thinking that the publicity was too poor, and no reporter was present.

Now it seems that the reporters have arrived early, but they are not guarding the door.

In fact, the reporters had already arrived, and they were waiting at the door, waiting for Zhou Yan to show up. However, the person in charge of the record store, Huo Yilun, saw that the weather was hot, so he invited them to the lounge inside to drink coffee.

Although the temperature today was not very high, the sun was very strong, and it was indeed very uncomfortable to wait outside.

Moreover, Huo Yilun told the reporters that he would get the news as soon as possible before Zhou Yan arrived. The reporters believed him and went to the lounge to drink coffee.

But who would have thought that Zhou Yan would arrive early and did not give any news in advance.

Several reporters rolled their eyes at Huo Yilun while taking pictures of Zhou Yan.

After the reporters came over, the customers who were originally strolling in the store were also attracted.

Many of these customers came for today's autograph session, but they took advantage of the fact that the autograph session had not started, and first visited the record store. Now that they saw Zhou Yan had arrived, they all gathered around.

Huo Yilun saw that everyone was gathered at the door, which was very obstructing the passage, so he turned sideways and said to Zhou Yan, "Mr. Y, let's go inside."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Let's find a place first and talk to the reporters. How many people are coming to the signing? If there are many, let them line up first. If not, we can call them after the official start."

Huoyilun smiled and said, "No need to line up in advance. All those who bought the album have already got the number. After a while, let them line up according to the number."

Since it is a signing event, it is natural to buy the album on the spot. This is indeed a solution to check out and get the number in advance.

Then Huo Yilun took Zhou Yan and the reporters to the lounge and started a simple press conference.

There were not many reporters. Zhou Yan counted them roughly and found that there were less than ten people. Of course, this kind of signing event itself would not attract many media reporters. Even if it was vigorously promoted, there would not be too many reporters on the scene. It was good to have so many reporters.

After sitting down, he did not let Huo Yilun and others host. Zhou Yan made a brief opening speech himself, welcomed the reporters, and then announced the start of the interview session.

The first person to be called was a blond young man in his twenties. After being called, he was very happy and stood up to introduce himself. "Hi, I'm Dave, a reporter from Billboard."

Hearing that he was a reporter from Billboard, Zhou Yan smiled and asked, "Why didn't Linda come this time?"

This question brought them closer. Dave smiled and explained, "Linda is in New York these two days and can't come."

"Give her my regards. Do you have any questions?"

"Thank you." Dave cleared his throat and asked his own question, "I noticed the song "We Are Young" you played live on Music World, a very light and inspiring song. What I want to ask is, when will this song be released? You said on the show that there is no release plan for the time being. Is there any change now?"

Zhou Yan nodded. As expected of a reporter from Billboard, he did his homework.

The program "Music World" is quite popular, but after all, it is just an ordinary music radio station, and it is a morning program. In a short period of time, the popularity of "We Are Young" will definitely not be too high. Dave must have known about this program and this song in advance.

Just look at the expressions of some reporters. They are full of surprise on their faces. They probably don't know about this at all.

"This is a good question, because there is indeed a release plan. A brand has already taken a fancy to this song and wants to use it as an advertising song. And I have already filled in the lyrics for this song, and it will be sung by a singer later. I believe you will be able to hear this song soon."

Dave was surprised, "That's great, I believe the fans will be very happy to hear this news. Then can you reveal which singer will sing this song?"

Zhou Yan shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, I can't reveal this for the time being."

Because it has not been determined yet, whether it will be sung by the Backstreet Boys is still uncertain.

Dave asked two questions and was embarrassed to ask more, so Zhou Yan pointed to the second reporter.

The second reporter came up and asked, "Can you reveal whether the singer who sings "We Are Young" is male or female?"

"No." Zhou Yan shook his head again, "Next, the one in red clothes next to you."

Then, the interview entered the quick question and answer session.

Reporter: "Do you have plans to release a new album this year?"

Zhou Yan: "No plans for a new album for now."

Reporter: "When will this year's concert schedule be announced?"

Zhou Yan: "It should be out within this month, everyone should pay attention to it."

Reporter: "Has the soundtrack work for "Titanic" started?"

Zhou Yan: "Not yet, but I have met with Director Cameron, and everything will have to wait until the filming starts."

...

The previous questions were relatively normal, so normal that Zhou Yan was a little confused, when did these reporters become so easy to deal with.

But what was coming still had to come, and soon a reporter asked about Zhou Yan's scandal with Maria.

Reporter: "Someone photographed Maria entering the hotel where you were staying the day before yesterday afternoon, do you have any response to this?"

When the reporter asked this question, other reporters also became excited. Sure enough, this kind of gossip news is the most popular among reporters.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Maria did come to see me yesterday, and we talked about some things related to the new song."

Reporter: "Can you tell me what the new song is?"

Zhou Yan: "It's not really a new song. It's a soundtrack from Sense and Sensibility. I wrote the lyrics and gave it to her."

When Dave heard the soundtrack of Sense and Sensibility, he was the first to react: "Is it 'Someone Like You'?"

Zhou Yan nodded: "Yes, it's this song. We have reached a cooperation intention."

Reporter: "When will this song be released?"

Zhou Yan: "I don't know the specific release time. You should ask Maria. In fact, when I saw her gossip, I was quite surprised. I didn't expect that it would be spread like this just for a simple interview."

Because Zhou Yan revealed the news of the new song, the reporters no longer cared about the gossip.

In fact, they also knew that the gossip was probably false. In the photos taken of Zhou Yan and Maria, the two did not behave very intimately, and neither of them pretended at all. This was not the attitude that "cheating" should have.

Moreover, the reporters knew that Zhou Yan rarely came to the United States and had little contact with Maria, so the possibility of problems between them was very small.

It was just that many readers were more concerned, so they would definitely ask about it. Now that there was news about the new song, they naturally had no time to ask about the gossip, and instead asked about the new song.

After a while, Zhou Yan looked at the time and said with a smile, "Everyone, the signing is about to begin."

Hearing Zhou Yan say this, the reporters stopped pestering him.

Zhou Yan smiled and waved to them, then walked out of the lounge.

This was not the first time that the record store held a signing event, so they were quite experienced. They set up a signing area in the open space inside, and a long table was surrounded by posters related to Zhou Yan, which was quite decent.

Although Hoylen said that there was no need to queue in advance, when Zhou Yan went out, there were already more than a dozen people standing in front of the table.

Zhou Yan's appearance caused a commotion, and fans greeted him one after another.

Facing the enthusiastic fans, Zhou Yan smiled and waved in response, then sat down behind the table without saying anything, ready to start signing for them.

As soon as he sat down, another group of fans came over with the albums they had purchased, and the line immediately became much longer.

The first person in line was a young girl in her twenties. She bought two albums, a CD of "Rainy Bells" and a vinyl of "Mysterious Country".

Seeing her holding the vinyl of "Mysterious Country", Zhou Yan also became interested. He took the two albums and asked with a smile, "Have you heard this "Mysterious Country"?"

"Of course!" The girl replied immediately, "I have the CD of "Mysterious Country", so I bought the vinyl. I didn't feel anything when I listened to this album before, but I like it more and more recently. I want to go to Yanjing to see it because I have listened to this album more recently."

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, "What's your name?"

"My name is Evely, E-V-E-L-Y-N-N."

"It's a nice name."

Zhou Yan signed his name on the outer cover of the vinyl record, and then wrote Evelyn's name, "Welcome to visit China, and thank you for your support."

After getting the to signature, Evelyn was flattered and thanked him repeatedly, "Thank you, thank you."

After signing the first one, Zhou Yan looked at the team behind him. There were only about 20 or 30 people, not many, so he deliberately slowed down.

If there are few people, if you sign too quickly, there will be a gap behind, which is very embarrassing.

In this way, the rhythm is controlled, and there are always people queuing up, which makes the scene much more beautiful.

Moreover, the rhythm is slowed down, which not only makes him feel relaxed, but also allows him to communicate more with the fans.

The fans in the front also shouted that they were lucky. They didn't expect Zhou Yan to be so friendly. He not only chatted with them, but also often signed autographs.

But while Zhou Yan was chatting, Huo Yilan suddenly ran over and whispered in Zhou Yan's ear, "Mr. Y, we have to speed up. There are still many people behind."

"Many people?"

Zhou Yan looked up and looked back again, and then he found that at some point, the line had become much longer than before, and there were at least more than a hundred people in line at this time.

Because there were so many people, it was no longer possible to line up straight, and they had already lined up in a Z shape.

Seeing this situation, Zhou Yan could only speed up, and didn't talk much with the fans, but just buried his head in signing autographs.

He thought that if he sped up a little, he could slow down the queue, but ten minutes later, Huo Yilan came over again, "Mr. Y, can you speed up a little more?"

"Further speed up?"

Zhou Yan looked up again, but saw that the line was not only not getting shorter, but getting longer. His signing speed could not keep up with the speed of the line. (End of this chapter)