novelraw Chapter 8 Plagiarism Scandal!
Chapter 8 Plagiarism Scandal!
Lin Shishi remained rooted to the spot.
The fingers gripping the Birkin bag tightened slightly.
Song Ze's public declaration of "finding a rich woman" was still ringing in her ears.
Talking about music with this kind of person?
That's an insult to those two words.
Without saying a word, she turned and walked quickly towards the second floor.
Song Ze returned to his single bedroom, but before he could even sit down, he was already in bed.
My phone screen immediately lit up with three WeChat voice notifications from my agent, Zhang Juan.
He pressed the forward text button:
"Old Liu has set his direction! A truly hilarious guy! This is your chance to turn things around! Even being infamous is still fame! Make sure to stick to this tone during tomorrow's live stream, the more reckless the better! And whatever you do, don't try that sentimental reversal persona again, netizens don't buy it!"
Song Ze typed a single word: "Oh."
He was about to toss his phone onto the bedside table when the screen lit up again.
It was Zhang Juan again.
This time it was a phone call, not a voice message.
Song Ze raised an eyebrow. Zhang Juan usually wouldn't call directly at this time unless something urgent needed to be dealt with immediately.
He answered the call.
"Something's happened." Zhang Juan's voice was very low, and she spoke very quickly. "A dozen or so marketing accounts suddenly appeared on Weibo, collaborating with three music review influencers with tens of millions of followers, and simultaneously posted articles saying that your song 'Liang Liang' is suspected of plagiarizing a song called 'Late Autumn Farewell'."
Song Ze paused for a moment, then smiled, having been reborn from 2026 back to 2016.
"What did they say I plagiarized?" Song Ze asked, suppressing a laugh.
"I had someone transcribe the original song and sent it to you on WeChat. You can listen to it yourself."
Song Ze switched out of the call interface and opened the audio file sent by Zhang Juan.
A classical Chinese melody drifted from the phone's speaker.
The accompaniment is rough, the vocals are overly edited, and the lyrics are filled with various melancholic and sentimental images.
To be fair, the chord progression in the chorus does have a slight resemblance to "Liang Liang"—but only slightly.
More importantly, the song's arrangement and mixing style bear obvious traces of digital audio production, as if it were hastily pieced together using software synthesizers.
"Did you hear that?" Zhang Juan's voice came through the receiver.
"I heard you."
"Is that song real...?"
"No." Song Ze answered without hesitation, "I know the songs I 'wrote' myself. 'Liang Liang' didn't copy a single note."
The song "Liang Liang" was a phenomenal hit that emerged in 2017.
It is only September 2016.
The person who wanted to mess with him must be out of their mind.
"Can you find out who did it?" Song Ze asked.
"Cannot be found."
Zhang Juan's voice carried a hint of resentment.
"The marketing accounts that published the article were all hired on assignment, but the release date of that song 'Late Autumn Farewell' was indeed earlier than your live stream. On a niche original music platform, the date displayed is three months ago. This time difference is very disadvantageous to you legally."
"Three months ago?" Song Ze couldn't help but chuckle.
The methods used were despicable.
But as despicable as it may be, such methods of forging timestamps are indeed difficult to prove legally.
Ordinary people only look at "who posted first" and don't check the server logs.
"You can still laugh?" Zhang Juan's voice rose a half octave. "The problem now is that 'Late Autumn Farewell' was released three months earlier than your song. The other party is using that time difference to publish articles all over the internet, and you have no way to defend yourself—"
"No need to argue," Song Ze interrupted her.
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.
"What do you mean?"
"You said that poem 'Late Autumn Farewell' was released on a niche platform, and it's an archive from three months ago, right?"
"right."
"Then have someone from the technical department investigate something for me."
Song Ze leaned against the headboard, his tone calm.
"Listen to the master spectrum of that song. If it was recorded three months ago, the spectrum will have a natural background noise from the recording studio."
"But if it was rushed out in the last two days, the spectrum will show traces of digital clipping from the synthesizer."
Zhang Juan remained silent for a moment.
"You even know this?"
"People who make music know a little bit about it." Song Ze didn't elaborate further.
After being smeared by these people in his past life, which ruined his reputation and forced him to leave the industry, some bigwigs in the industry privately reviewed the technical flaws in these smear articles for him.
The painful lesson of not being able to overturn the verdict back then is etched into our very bones.
"Okay, I'll have someone investigate right away."
Zhang Juan said.
"But even if we find out, it can only be used as internal evidence, not directly used to accuse someone on Weibo. If the other party dares to do that, they must have timed their actions carefully; by the time you finish the legal process, the hype will have died down."
"Who said I was going to take legal action?"
"So what do you want to do?"
"Didn't he accuse me of plagiarism?" Song Ze laughed. "Then I'll write another new song. In front of the entire internet."
There was silence for at least three seconds on the other end of the phone.
"...You're going to write songs live?"
"right."
"are you serious?"
"I've never been this serious before."
Zhang Juan took a deep breath.
"Okay. I'll have Lao Liu send the lawyer's letter, but that will only appease some casual observers. As for the media battle—Song Ze, if you mess this up, there's really no hope for you this time."
"Then don't let me crash and burn."
Hang up the phone.
Song Ze tossed his phone onto the bedside table, put his hands behind his head, and stared at the ceiling.
Now, the person hiding in the shadows has finally made their move—
The methods were exactly the same as in the previous life; the only difference was that the other party would have to go through much more trouble this time.
Because "Liang Liang" is a song that hasn't been written yet in this time and space, the other party can't find any real evidence and can only forge it.
However, forgery inevitably leaves flaws.
He closed his eyes.
In my past life, I searched for three years but couldn't find out who wove that net.
This life—
We absolutely must capture them.
One month.
Three arrows fired simultaneously.
"You've hidden yourself well."
He rolled over, leaving the back of his head facing the ceiling.
"Fine. Then I'll keep writing until you can't sit still anymore."
Sleep in seconds.
The next morning at eight o'clock, in the living room on the first floor.
Eight guests sat on either side of a long sofa, and three main cameras were already set up.
The atmosphere was even colder than last night. Zhang Hao turned his face toward the French windows, refusing to look in Song Ze's direction no matter what.
The director raised a megaphone: "Last night's Heartbeat Singing King competition has come to a successful conclusion! Congratulations to Song Ze and Lin Shishi for winning first place in the male and female groups respectively!"
"According to the program's special rules, the two will be forced to start—a special episode of a heart-pounding, all-day live-streamed date!"
The living room was quiet.
Lin Shishi held the coffee cup, touched the rim to her lips, and then put it back on the saucer without moving it.
Forced dating?
And a male celebrity with a bad reputation who shamelessly asked a rich woman to take care of him in front of millions of viewers?
Song Ze was peeling a boiled egg when he heard the horn, so he stopped and looked up.
"Forced dating? Does that count as overtime?"