I returned to the hotel where I was staying, entered my room, hung my thick coat on a hanger, and made a cup of hot tea. A few moments later, there was a soft knock on the door of the room.

"Ye Zhaosang, this is the first day of the singles list sent from Tokyo. Yuki Uemura handed Ye Zhao a piece of paper.

"Well, it's hard work. Ye Zhao took the list and glanced at it, "WINTER, AGAIN" won the first place on the daily list with a score of 86,000 copies, which is a bad achievement.

"If this momentum can be maintained, it should not be a problem to sell 200,000 copies this week. Yuki Uemura's tone was very optimistic.

"I hope so. Ye Zhao put the list aside, "Kamimura, have you booked all the tickets to Aomori?"

"I booked the Shinkansen at 7:40 in the morning, it's not early, Ye Zhaosang should take a good rest. After speaking, Yuki Uemura exited the room.

At 6:30 a.m. the next morning, Yuki Uemura came over and woke Ye Zhao up. The group packed their bags, had a simple breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, and then took a taxi to the station.

Of RB's total population of approximately 125 million, 100 million live on the island of Honshu, and 25% of those 100 million live in Tokyo and Yokohama.

Aomori Prefecture is located in the northernmost part of the island of Honshu, and about 1.32 million people live here, and among these 1.32 million people, there are about 850,000 people who really have purchasing power, excluding the elderly and children who are not familiar with the world, and among these 850,000 people, excluding the two or more families who are not interested in music at all and do not buy repeats, the market in Aomori Prefecture is no longer smaller.

In fact, the situation is similar not only in Aomori but also in the entire Tohoku region of Honshu Island, and for a variety of reasons, pop music in the Tohoku region is not developed, but traditional songs are very active, and many singers have been born in these areas. In line with the attitude that mosquito meat is also meat, Ye Zhao still visited Aomori Broadcasting, participated in a radio program at noon the next day, and set off for Akita County in the afternoon.

……

When it comes to Akita Prefecture, the first thing that comes to Ye Zhao's mind is Akita dogs and hot springs. Like Aomori Prefecture, Akita Prefecture is a large agricultural prefecture with few young people and not many old people – in short, it is very sparsely populated. There are still 1.32 million people in Aomori Prefecture and about 1 million people in Akita Prefecture.

Not only is there a small number of people here, but it is also one of the poorest counties in RB, and the people who live here are probably very peaceful, the kind of peace that is self-satisfied and willing to accept the status quo. And this kind of calm is precisely the most difficult to break. Although he had prepared in advance to be cold in the process of national publicity, Ye Zhao never expected that he would be rejected by the local broadcasting bureau outright.

"Sorry, we don't offer singing services. Kota Ohara, the producer of Akita Broadcasting, even refused to listen to the song.

Walking out of Akita Broadcasting, Takeda Jun said: "Ye Jun, why don't we go to Akita Asahi Broadcasting for another trip?"

Ye Zhao didn't speak, and raised his head to look at the gray sky consciously, "It's snowing?" Hearing his words, Jun Takeda and Yuki Uemura raised their heads together, and sure enough, they saw snow particles as fine as sand falling one after another.

A taxi stopped in front of the three of them, got into the car, Takeda Toshigang reported Akita Asahi Broadcasting, but Ye Zhao interrupted him, "No, please take us to the shopping street in the city, I want to buy a guitar." ”

"Buy a guitar?" Takeda Jun was stunned for a moment, but didn't ask more.

The taxi driver started the car.

Akita is a Japanese-style backcountry, but it has a lot of facilities and many large chains have opened branches here, so it's not difficult to buy something.

At a shop called Yamada Musical Instruments, the young clerk with a brush head has a very different attitude from the appearance: "Welcome, do you need anything?"

"I wanted to choose a noodle guitar, and I didn't need it too well, I just had to play it easily. ”

"Please come over here. The clerk made a gesture of invitation and led Ye Zhao to a corner of the store, "Here are some entry-level noodle guitars, if you are a novice, I suggest you consider this Yamaha, this piano feels comfortable, has a soft tone, is quite cost-effective, and can be discounted by 10% if you buy it now......"

Ye Zhao's gaze swept over the price card below: fifty-nine thousand eight hundred yen. RB's guitar is really expensive.

"Can I try it?"

With the consent of the clerk, Ye Zhao took the guitar from him, adjusted the strings, and played a few chords, the feel and timbre were similar to those introduced by the clerk, Ye Zhao didn't choose again, and bought the guitar directly.

Out of the Yamada musical instrument, Ye Zhao greeted Jun Takeda and Yuki Uemura, who were waiting outside, "Since signing with the record company, I haven't sold songs anymore, and today is a rare opportunity, let's find a place to go to the roadshow." ”

In the evening, the business district is the most crowded time of the day in the whole city, young office workers, students who have just finished a day of schoolwork, families who come to shop and eat, and all kinds of people draw a group portrait of the city here.

In front of an HMV record store near Takashimaya, a simple stage was set up quietly - it was said to be a stage, but in fact, it was just a slightly higher stage with a few boxes. A young and handsome young man stood on it, holding a log-colored acoustic guitar in his arms, facing the road, and the pluck swept over the strings.

This HMV has been open in downtown Akita for six years, and in the past six years, his business has been tepid, although it has not been deserted, but there has never been a situation where records have been sold out, whether it is B'z or Chuck Asuka, there has never been a group of singers who have completely captured the hearts of Akita people.

The store manager in the store faced Chengshan's records all day long, and when he saw Ye Zhao, he naturally recognized him at first sight, and when Ye Zhao proposed to borrow a roadshow outside the store, the store manager happily agreed, not only that, but also provided him with this simple stage and a microphone with a shelf.

The music atmosphere in Akita Prefecture is not very strong, and there are few public performances on the streets, and the sound of strings being plucked suddenly sounds on the crowded streets, and passers-by subconsciously look sideways. Several of them recognized the person performing this performance as Ye Zhao and stopped for him.

It was in this situation that Ye Zhao began his performance. The first song is "Rainbow", the second song is "Because of You by Your Side", after the two songs, facing the audience, Ye Zhao gave a short MC, "Hello everyone, I'm Ye Zhao, and I will have a public performance here for about forty minutes today, please advise." ”

The simple Akita people applauded cooperatively. Those few people who knew Ye Zhao shouted: "Ye Zhaosang, come on!" "I like Ye Zhaosang the most!"

Finely broken snowflakes continued to fall from the sky, and outside the HMV record store, a crowd of people gathered on the inner and outer three floors, and the one surrounded by these people was Ye Zhao, who was playing the guitar and singing. He had only released three singles, and he couldn't even make up enough playlists for a 40-minute roadshow, so after singing the first two songs, he then played freely, scouring a few songs in the library that were warmer and suitable for winter.

"Good...... It's amazing!" Yuki Uemura, who was in charge of maintaining order, couldn't help but exclaim as he looked at the spectators who occupied both sides of the road and almost affected traffic.

"There must be one or two hundred people here, we can make such a big battle in Akita, Ye Zhaosang is really powerful. The record store manager sighed as he smoked a cigarette.

"But at this level, Mr. Policeman should be coming over soon. Takeda looked around.

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, several uniformed policemen walked briskly towards this side, shouting through a loudspeaker: "Hey, roadshows are prohibited here, you have already affected the traffic, stop quickly!"

Standing on the stage, Ye Zhao, who had a glance at the surrounding situation, naturally also saw the police coming this way, he smiled, changed the guitar tune in his hand, and said: "Next is the last song! This song is my new single "WINTER, AGAIN" released on the 6th of this month, I hope everyone can like it, then, I will start singing!"

……

The clerk of HMV Records scanned the last "WINTER, AGAIN", and the last lucky winner walked out of the record store with a smile. Looking at the long line outside, the clerk apologized and announced, "Our store's "WINTER, AGAIN" has all been sold out, so please come back tomorrow." ”

"Eh~" There was a frustrated sound outside the record store, but there was no way, and the people in line had to disperse.

In the lounge of the record store, the store manager said: "Ye Zhaosang is really amazing! I will contact the supplier to complete the distribution in the fastest time." ”

"It's all thanks to the store manager's generosity in lending the place. Ye Zhao said modestly.

"I still have a reluctant request,...... the store manager discussed, "It's rare to have a celebrity here to do publicity, can Ye Zhaosang leave an autograph in the store?"

"Of course no problem!" Ye Zhao picked up the guitar at his feet, and Yuki Uemura took out the signature pen from the bag he carried with him and handed it over. Signing his name on the guitar panel, Ye Zhao handed the guitar to the store manager, "This will be left for the store as a souvenir." ”

While waiting for a taxi on the side of the road, Yuki Uemura said in a good mood, "After today's performance, this song will definitely spread slowly in Akita." ”

"Just now, I was worried that after being rejected by Akita Broadcasting, it would be difficult to open the publicity here, but now I am relieved. Toshitoshi Takeda said.

"Maybe tonight's Akita Broadcasting will have to be bombarded with a song call!" said Yuki Uemura with a grin.

Takeda Jun looked at Ye Zhao, "Ye Jun, you are different from many artists I have come into contact with, most people are difficult to put down the shelf and start from the most basic part after becoming popular, you really impressed me today." ”

Ye Zhao smiled, "Music is something close to life, so no matter when, I will not reject this kind of street propaganda, on the contrary, I also enjoy the interaction with the audience very much." At first, he decided to embark on the path of music only to get rid of the poverty dilemma after being reborn, but in this interaction, he suddenly discovered a new meaning in music.

……