55: Chapter 55 This is not an album, this is a massacre

Two days is enough time for a war to burn across the entire internet.

On the second day after Su Yuyan's "song" was released, the data provided by Tencent Music showed that the single's sales had exceeded thirty million.

The publicity team at Times Media was throwing their budget around as if money were no object.

On the trending list, the topic #Su Yuyan song# had reached nearly five hundred million views.

But what Times Media hadn't expected was that the buzz on Tianyu Entertainment's side hadn't been suppressed at all.

Instead, it was getting higher and higher.

The reason was simple.

Following Jiang Fan's strategy, Manager Chen had the publicity team release signals rhythmically across various platforms.

They didn't argue or explain; they only did one thing: push the narrative of "Xu Qingya vs. Su Yuyan" to the forefront.

Many marketing accounts came sniffing around as soon as they smelled blood.

"Two top divas releasing albums at the same time: coincidence or a declaration of war?"

"Is Xu Qingya's new album a direct confrontation with Su Yuyan?"

"Insiders reveal: The two singers' musical styles are highly similar, possibly handled by the same producer."

Once these headlines appeared, the onlookers all flooded in.

The entertainment industry is never short of people who love to watch the drama.

A duel between two top-tier divas—you don't see that kind of drama even once a year.

There were even polls on Weibo asking, "Who are you supporting: Xu Qingya or Su Yuyan?"

Fans on both sides were going at it with eyes bloodshot.

Topic feeds, comment sections, private message reports—they used every method they could.

Tianyu Media publicity department.

Director Liu Fang slammed the latest public opinion report onto the table, a rare smile appearing on her face.

"In two days, the total exposure for topics related to Xu Qingya has exceeded one billion. And our publicity budget was only one-third of theirs."

She handed the data to Manager Chen.

"For every extra cent Times Media spends promoting 'song', Xu Qingya gains that much more traffic. It's essentially the other side paying to advertise for us."

Manager Chen took the report and flipped through a couple of pages.

The numbers were indeed impressive.

Manager Chen put the report down; thinking back on the time she had been working with Jiang Fan, she finally understood.

This twenty-year-old young man always had the same expression when facing any situation: calm.

Things that made others panic were, to him, just a few words: "Let the bullets fly for a while."

————

Times Media, Chen Weiyang's office.

On the desk sat three empty coffee cups, and the laptop screen had seven or eight tabs open.

There hadn't been any movement from Xu Qingya's side for two days.

No rebuttals, no delays, and they hadn't even changed their publicity plan.

This silence made Chen Weiyang uneasy.

His phone buzzed; it was a message from Director Wang.

"Weiyang, Xu Qingya's album goes live at midnight. The internet trolls are all in position. Don't worry, let her come."

Chen Weiyang replied with an "OK" hand gesture emoji.

—

Xu Qingya's new album, "Red Bean", went live on time across the three major platforms: Tencent Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and Kuwo.

There were no splash screen ads, no homepage recommendations.

Tianyu Entertainment's publicity team just posted an update on their official Weibo.

"Xu Qingya's new album is live."

The accompanying image was the album cover.

A solid black background with a single red bean in the center.

Within two minutes, thirty thousand comments flooded the comment section.

"It's here, it's here! Waited two days for this!"

"Sister Ya, you finally decided to release an album!"

"Mandarin and Cantonese dual title tracks, which one should I listen to first? Waiting online, it's urgent!"

At 12:03 AM, the data on the Tencent Music backend started jumping.

Manager Zhang Lei was woken up by notification sounds on his phone. He groggily opened the backend, took one look, and sprang up from his bed.

In three minutes, the single "Red Bean" had surpassed one million streams.

He dialed the technical department.

"Can the servers handle it?"

"No problem for now; we expanded the capacity threefold after the crash during the 'nocturne' release."

"Keep a close watch. If anything goes wrong, find me immediately."

—

The first wave of reactions online came faster than anyone had anticipated.

The first song to be opened was the title track, "Red Bean".

After all, the whole internet had been discussing "Xu Qingya vs. Su Yuyan" for the past two days, and everyone wanted to hear what level this song was at.

In the first ten seconds of the intro, the comment section started to fill up.

"Wait, why does this intro sound so much like 'song'?"

"The tonality is similar... Xu Qingya isn't actually following the trend, is she?"

"Disappointed. I thought she would bring out something new, but it turns out she's on the same path as Su Yuyan."

Times Media's team of internet trolls had long been lurking in the comment sections of various platforms.

These accounts had staggered registration dates and varied avatars, disguised as ordinary listeners.

"Is this confirmed plagiarism? 'song' was released two days earlier than 'Red Bean', so do we even need to ask who copied whom?"

"There's an eighty percent similarity between 'Red Bean' and 'song'. Isn't Xu Qingya just following the trend?"

"No wonder Tianyu Entertainment didn't dare release songs before; they were feeling guilty."

"Supporting Sister Yuyan in protecting her rights! Plagiarism is shameful!"

For a time, the comment sections on the three major platforms were filled with questioning voices.

On Weibo, the topic #Red Bean plagiarizes song# was forced up to the eleventh spot on the trending list by the trolls.

The speed was unnaturally fast.

When Liu Fang from the Tianyu publicity department saw this topic, she almost dropped her phone.

She grabbed her phone and called Manager Chen.

"Agent Chen! The opposing trolls are too aggressive; the 'plagiarism' topic is already trending! Should we pay to have it taken down?"

"Don't take it down." Manager Chen's voice was surprisingly calm. "Let it hang there."

"What?!"

"Let the bullets fly for a while."

Liu Fang held the phone, unable to speak for a long while.

—

But drama is drama; ultimately, music has to speak for itself.

At 1:00 AM, the data for another song quietly started to rise.

"the woman who easily gets hurt".

In the first hour of its release, this Cantonese song had only one-third the number of listens as "Red Bean".

After all, mainland audiences have limited acceptance of Cantonese songs, and most people came for "Red Bean".

But for those who had listened to it, the tone of the comments was completely different.

"I've been listening to Cantonese songs for twenty years, and this one goes straight into my Top 3 of the year."

"The breathy processing in the chorus is amazing; I've been looping the single until now and can't stop."

"As a Greater Bay Area native, this song reminds me of the classics that played on the radio when I was a kid. But it's even better than those."

No trolls, no comment control—these were all spontaneous reviews from real listeners.

At 3:00 AM, the streaming numbers for "the woman who easily gets hurt" quietly surpassed "Red Bean".

No one had anticipated this situation.

Even the Tianyu publicity department hadn't anticipated it.

The tone of the comment section changed completely.

"My god... As someone who doesn't understand Cantonese, I was moved to tears."

"I knew this song wasn't simple from the very first line. That melodic progression is completely different from 'Red Bean', but it's just as ridiculously good."

"Sisters, it's over; I'm going to have this on loop until dawn."

"Wait a second, have you guys listened to 'legend' in this album???"

"legend"

Another killer track.

When the first batch of listeners clicked on "legend", someone typed a line in the comment section:

"I just came from 'the woman who easily gets hurt' and thought it was impossible to be amazed again tonight. Then I clicked on 'legend'."

Immediately after, the comment section went completely out of control.

"Three songs, three completely different styles. One Mandarin sentimental song, one Cantonese classic, one grand sentimental song. Each one, taken individually, is at a yearly top-tier level."

"This is not an album, this is a massacre."

"Who's still talking about plagiarism? Why don't you try copying three songs of this level for me!"

At 4:00 AM, the trending topic #Red Bean plagiarizes song# started to drop in rank.

Replacing it was another topic: #Xu Qingya's new album is legendary#.

No one paid to push this topic.

Purely spontaneous discussion by passersby, it forced its way to eighth on the trending list.