*Chapter 363: MTV Award Nomination*

After finishing filming, Link drove to Jiangpu New District’s Jianghai Building. On the way, he received calls from Ivanka and Mandy, and the three of them chatted about various things.

First, *"The Woman I Love"* saw its weekly sales in the U.S. drop below 10,000 copies this week, with its chart position falling out of the top 30. After being on the market for five months, the album has sold a cumulative total of 4.45 million copies in the U.S., but it seems to have exhausted its potential.

As for overseas sales, thanks to his tour and numerous tabloid stories, this month's overseas sales reached 2.24 million copies, bringing the global cumulative total to 18.72 million copies, with a strong possibility of surpassing 20 million by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Taylor's *"Last Kiss"* dropped to second place after five consecutive weeks at number one, with 125,000 copies sold this week, bringing its total U.S. sales to 3.02 million copies, making it third in the year’s album sales rankings and still growing strongly.

However, due to Taylor's relatively lesser influence overseas, the album’s global sales are only about 5.35 million copies.

Seeing these numbers, Link thought to himself that he had miscalculated; he should have compared global sales with Taylor instead of just U.S. numbers.

This week also marks the second week of Selena's second album, *"A Year Without Rain"*, which debuted with 247,000 copies sold in its first week, securing second place on the album chart.

When Selena released her new album last week, Link, following Little Round Face's suggestion, tweeted to encourage everyone to support her new album.

As a result, fans teased him, saying he didn’t want to see Taylor’s album continue to sell well and was afraid of being beaten by Taylor on the charts, so he used Selena’s new album to suppress Taylor.

Some even called on everyone to keep supporting Taylor, defeat this jerk, and let justice prevail over evil.

Link countered this claim.

He said that in his third album *"The Woman I Love,"* all 18 songs were written with "I love you," and each song represents the purest form of love.

In contrast, Taylor’s third album *"Last Kiss"* has 14 songs, each filled with resentment, saying "I don't love you."

This is a world full of love, so those who love his songs must outnumber Taylor's fans, and his album’s success represents the victory of "love." All people with love in their hearts are winners.

Fans joked that while his words were nice, they still couldn’t hide the fact that he was a jerk.

They also posted rumors from Chinese media about his concerts in China, where he was reported to have had affairs with several Chinese female celebrities, including Kris Liu, Jennifer Shu, Zhou Xun, Wang Fei, He Chaolian, Tsai Yi-ling, Alice Li, and Jun Ji-hyun.

Link denied these claims, stating that they were all false. He argued that if merely talking and discussing work with women led to such rumors, he might not even be allowed to speak to women in the future. He urged everyone not to believe or spread rumors, as wisdom will ultimately dispel them.

Taylor’s fans said he brought this on himself for not cherishing Taylor earlier.

In the end, it was Taylor who resolved the situation.

Taylor also retweeted Selena’s tweet about her new album.

Seeing Link and Taylor, this pair of lovesick individuals, both supporting Selena, fans declared Selena the ultimate winner.

Selena timely posted a cute smiling face on Twitter, saying, "Love or not, it doesn’t matter. What’s important is being cute."

Thanks to their promotion, Selena’s new album *"A Year Without Rain"* sold 148,000 copies this week, narrowly taking the top spot.

The lead single *"We Don’t Talk Anymore,"* which Link and Selena performed together, also reached number one on the singles chart this week.

This song was believed to be written by Link for Taylor after their breakup.

This single topping the chart was seen as a victory for all three of them.

Of course, many fans continued to mock him, saying, "Great songs, but he’s a scumbag," and "A scumbag with deep feelings." They joked that every time he gets dumped, he releases several great songs as if he were a treasure chest, and suggested that Ivanka and all his rumored girlfriends should dump him to inspire him to write more great songs.

Aside from the *Billboard* news, the nominees for the 27th MTV Video Music Awards were also announced last week.

This year’s MTV Awards primarily recognize music videos released between July 2009 and July 2010.

Link, with videos from his second and third albums and several singles, received 11 nominations across 16 categories, including Video of the Year, Best Male Video, Best Rock Video, Best Pop Video, Best Collaboration, and Best Direction.

However, the most nominated artist this year was Lady Gaga, who led with 13 nominations, topping many other Western artists.

Taylor’s third album was released too late to be eligible for this year’s awards, so she received only one nomination for Best Female Video.

Selena earned two nominations for videos from her first album: Best Dance Video and Best Art Direction.

Among the four artists under Link Music:

- Lana Del Rey received two nominations, including Best New Artist and Best Direction.

- Bruno Mars received three nominations: Best Male Video, Best Collaboration, and Best New Artist.

- Wiz Khalifa received two nominations: Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Collaboration.

- Justin Bieber received one nomination for Best New Artist.

The remaining nominees were mostly familiar faces, such as Eminem, Beyoncé, Pink, Jay-Z, Kanye, Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Coldplay, and Green Day.

When reporting on this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, *The Los Angeles Times* mentioned that there aren’t many highlights in this year’s event. The only noteworthy aspect is the competition between Link and Lady Gaga—whoever wins the most awards will be considered the most influential artist in the Western music scene this year.

The MTV Video Music Awards will be held in mid-September, and Link will need to return during his concert tour to attend.

Additionally, Ivanka mentioned that Ariana Grande has signed up with Link Music and asked if he had any plans for her.

Link thought for a moment and said that she should receive the same treatment as Charlie Puth—starting by learning to create music in the recording studio. With professionals like Greg, David Kahne, and Bruno Mars guiding them, they should be able to learn a lot. After a year or two, they can consider releasing an album.

Ivanka suggested that they could gain some experience and fame by participating in *American Idol*.

Link agreed that this was a good idea.

He also inquired about the progress of Lana Del Rey and Bruno Mars’ new albums.

Both of them released their previous albums nearly a year ago and are currently preparing their second albums. Link has been busy with his concert tour and working on his fourth album, so he hasn’t provided them with any new songs.

However, he could still help oversee the production process and offer some suggestions for revisions to ensure they don’t go off track.

After finishing the call, he took two gifts for his two Japanese teachers and went to the 30th-floor apartment in Jianghai Building. He rang the doorbell twice.

Although he had the key to the apartment’s smart lock, he rang the doorbell out of courtesy to give the people inside some time to prepare.

After waiting for two minutes with no one answering, he was about to call when the door opened from the inside. A fresh and elegant face appeared, nodding at him while holding the door.

“Konnichiwa, Mr. Baker. Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Konnichiwa, Yui-sensei!”

Link returned the greeting and walked inside with the gifts.

(End of the chapter)