56: Chapter 56 Creators Without a Ceiling

6:00 AM, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

In the data center behind the scenes at Tencent Music, the technician on duty stared at the graphs on the screen.

"Red Bean" had been online for six hours, with eight million streams.

For any first-tier singer's new song, this would be considered an excellent result for the first day.

But the data trends for the other two songs completely exceeded his scope of understanding.

"the woman who easily gets hurt" had twelve million streams.

"legend" had nine point six million streams.

Combined, the three songs had nearly thirty million streams in six hours.

What was even more outrageous was the growth curve.

The growth rate of "Red Bean" had already slowed down, but the curves for "the woman who easily gets hurt" and "legend" were still shooting upwards.

Especially for "the woman who easily gets hurt"; during the period from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM, the lowest point of traffic across the entire network, its stream count actually rose instead of falling.

Backend data showed that the repeat rate for this single song was ridiculously high.

Everyone who listened to it was completely hooked.

—

Chen Weiyang was woken up by his phone vibrating.

He had set an alarm the night before, intending to get up early to check the data and write a few Weibo posts to mock Xu Qingya.

Opening the Tencent Music app, he first glanced at "song," which he had participated in producing.

The album sales had already passed forty million and were still rising.

"Hmm, it's steady."

Then he switched to Xu Qingya's album page.

"Red Bean," eight million.

A sneer tugged at the corners of Chen Weiyang's mouth.

"Is that it?"

He continued to scroll down with his thumb.

"the woman who easily gets hurt" — twelve million.

His finger froze on the screen.

A Cantonese song? Six hours? Twelve million?

He swiped down hard.

"legend" — nine point six million.

Chen Weiyang quickly exited the app and reopened it.

He refreshed it twice.

The numbers hadn't decreased; instead, they had jumped up even further.

He clicked on the comment section for "the woman who easily gets hurt."

The pinned comment was a long review written by a Cantonese music fan, analyzing the melody structure and emotional handling of the song sentence by sentence.

It ended with a striking statement:

"I've been listening to Cantonese songs for thirteen years. This song ranks first in my heart, no contest."

Chen Weiyang exited the comment section and clicked play.

The prelude began.

Thirty seconds later, he threw his phone onto the quilt and stared fixedly at the ceiling.

As a gold-medal producer, his ears couldn't deceive him.

This wasn't just any good song.

This was a god-tier song, a masterpiece rarely seen in a decade.

Chen Weiyang grabbed the water glass by the bedside and took a gulp.

The cold water tumbled down his throat and into his stomach.

The words "the good show has begun" he had said in the office two days ago now felt like a loud slap, hitting him heavily in the face.

His phone vibrated again. It was a call from Director Wang.

"Chen Weiyang, have you seen the data?"

"I have."

"What's going on with that Cantonese song of Xu Qingya's?? Who wrote it?"

Chen Weiyang's knuckles turned white as he gripped the phone.

"Jiang Fan."

"Director Wang," he said hoarsely, "the top priority right now..."

"The top priority is damage control!" Director Wang interrupted him irritably.

"That topic #Red Bean plagiarizes song# has already surged back onto the trending searches."

Director Wang's speaking speed became faster and faster.

"What's more troublesome is that music critics have started comparing the Arrangement of 'song' and 'Red Bean.' They say the harmonic progression of the two songs is highly similar, suspecting that 'song' was imitated after hearing the demo of 'Red Bean.' Do you know what this means?"

"I understand," Chen Weiyang gritted his teeth.

"Today, we need to maintain a unified stance to the public—'song' is an independent creation and has nothing to do with 'Red Bean.' I will handle the communication with Su Yuyan."

At 8:00 sharp, the Tencent Music real-time popular song chart refreshed.

"the woman who easily gets hurt" landed in second place.

It was just one step away from the top spot, "song."

The topic #The Showdown Between Two Divas# that had been on the trending list for three days had completely become a traffic-driving tool for Tianyu Entertainment.

Countless onlookers poured in, listening to both albums at the same time.

Then, the trend in the comment section began to change.

"Wait, the style of this 'Red Bean' and Su Yuyan's 'song' is similar, but... how should I put it? After listening to 'Red Bean' and going back to listen to 'song,' I always feel like 'song' is missing something."

"I'll tell you what it's missing—it's missing a soul."

"Is there a possibility that 'song' is the one following the trend?"

"Big scoop! Chen Weiyang, the songwriter for 'song,' just jumped from Tianyu Entertainment to Times Media last month! He left, and then immediately produced a song with a clashing style. Thinking about it is terrifying!"

—

Fanyin Culture Studio.

Li Cheng's eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night, and four empty Red Bull cans lay on the table.

Zhou Yutong arrived at the company right on time, pushed open the door, and was shocked to see Li Cheng's state.

"Brother Li, you didn't sleep all night?"

"Sleep? Who could sleep?" Li Cheng didn't even look up, staring at the computer screen, muttering, "Do you know how many streams 'the woman who easily gets hurt' has now?"

"How many?"

"Eighteen million. It's only been online for nine hours! And this is a Cantonese song, for God's sake!"

Zhou Yutong's mouth opened into an 'O' shape.

"Since when do mainland audiences like listening to Cantonese songs so much?"

"That's the most terrifying part."

Li Cheng suddenly looked up, his face full of fanaticism.

"The data from the Greater Bay Area hasn't even been integrated yet!"

"Once the channels in Hong Kong and Macau are opened up, this data will double!"

—

That afternoon, public opinion completely turned around.

In the top twenty Weibo trending searches, four topics were related to Xu Qingya.

#Xu Qingya's New Album is Legendary# — third.

#the woman who easily gets hurt on repeat# — seventh.

#Xu Qingya's Agelessness# — twelfth.

#The Showdown Between Two Divas# — eighth.

Meanwhile, topics related to Su Yuyan's "song" had already slipped from the top ten to sixteenth place.

In-depth music reviews from major music self-media outlets began to be produced in concentration.

The first to ignite the discussion was a long article posted by "Melody Deconstructor," a music critic signed with Tencent Music.

Title: "From 'Red Bean' to 'the woman who easily gets hurt': What Level of Creator is Jiang Fan Exactly?"

The article used over three thousand words, comparing "Red Bean" and "song" bar by bar from three dimensions: harmony, melodic structure, and lyrical imagery.

The conclusion section had only one paragraph:

"If 'song' is the meticulous imitation of an excellent craftsman, then 'Red Bean' is the casual, free-flowing work of the original creator. The gap between the two is not at the technical level, but in the dimension of aesthetics. Chen Weiyang used 'song' to tell us where his ceiling is. And Jiang Fan used three songs to tell us—he has no ceiling."

—

At 4:00 PM, Su Yuyan's manager, Zhao Li, called her three times.

Su Yuyan finally answered.

"Yuyan, the public opinion online has completely spiraled out of control!"

"I saw it." Su Yuyan's voice was devoid of emotion.

"That loser Chen Weiyang. The company spent twenty million in marketing budget, and now it's all gone down the drain. No, it's worse than that; we essentially did two days of free promotion for Xu Qingya's new album."

Su Yuyan leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window of her apartment, holding a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Zhao Li, this isn't Chen Weiyang's fault."

"If not him, then whose fault is it?"

"It's our fault for underestimating that person." Su Yuyan placed the cup on the windowsill, "Each of the three songs Jiang Fan wrote for Xu Qingya exceeded the limit of imitation. Even if we had launched a month earlier, the result would be the same."

Zhao Li was silent for a moment.

"Then what should we do now? This wave of public opinion has had a significant impact on your reputation. Many people have already started saying that we are..."

"The ones following the trend. I know." Su Yuyan enunciated the words "following the trend" very softly.

After hanging up, she clicked on Jiang Fan's WeChat chat box.

The last message was still the one she had sent, on the night after the "Tomorrows Star" grand finale.

Su Yuyan picked up the coffee again and took a sip.

Her exquisite, languid face was reflected in the glass window.

Everything that happened in the hotel suite on the night of the grand finale flooded into her mind like a tide.

To this day, she still couldn't understand what it was about that man that could leave a person with such a strong desire for control as her completely defenseless.

She put down the cup, picked up her phone, and clicked on "the woman who easily gets hurt."

The prelude flowed out.

Her brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

It wasn't because it didn't sound good.

It was because it sounded too good.

She knew better than anyone what a Cantonese song of this level meant. Xu Qingya could open up the entire Greater Bay Area market with just this one song.

And this lethal weapon came from the hands of the man who had worn her out so much she couldn't get out of bed.

Su Yuyan turned off the screen.

She leaned her head back against the chair.

Tucked into the frame of the vanity mirror was a sticky note.

On it were four characters written in the man's bold, flowing handwriting:

"Thanks for the hospitality."