novelraw Chapter 128 - 125: Absolutely Impossible?
Chapter 128 - 125: Absolutely Impossible?
The trending topic, "I am just older than you," had already shot to the top of the charts, and Li Yueling’s response only added more fuel to the fire.
If Yinyin had called out Li Yueling by name before, then this time, Li Yueling was practically calling out Chen Jincheng by name.
In reality, everyone could see that Yinyin posting a video with a title like that had to be the work of Second-Life Star, and Chen Jincheng was the owner of Second-Life Star.
All at once, everyone grew even more excited for the dueling song releases tomorrow. Meanwhile, Li Cheng, Li Yueling’s ex-boyfriend, was pushed into a corner, completely ignored.
As the incident’s popularity surged once again, it drew even greater attention. More and more online influencers began following the drama, and naturally, so did an increasing number of celebrities.
With all the hype, the situation had seemingly transformed into a showdown between online influencers and celebrities.
This led many celebrity singers, such as Chen Xinglin, Yang Kun, Xin Hong, Magic Universe, and others to repost Li Yueling’s video and support her.
In their eyes, it was clear that their sacred profession as celebrity singers was being encroached upon by online influencers.
Magic Universe was even more blunt, saying, "I never think these influencers can produce any good songs. It’s one thing that they only do covers and can’t come up with any originals, but they can’t even sing their covers well. And as for Chen Jincheng’s ’Trajectory’ and ’Girl,’ the arrangements for both songs are an absolute disaster, not even meeting the bare minimum standard. I have zero expectations for his new song."
Naturally, Sister Hong reported the situation to Chen Jincheng immediately.
After hearing the news, he just laughed and said, "Besides those spirit-summoning rituals he calls stage performances, does this Magic Universe have any actual hit songs?"
He hadn’t expected these singers to publicly support Li Yueling, but on second thought, he understood. It was because of the food chain of contempt—celebrities look down on influencers. ’They must feel like I’ve offended them, huh?’
What did surprise him, however, was seeing two celebrities who had also existed in his past life.
Besides Magic Universe, there was also that jackass, Yang Kun.
In his past life, this jackass had also been incredibly arrogant, creating some infamous moments. The most famous was when he got a little drunk and brazenly dissed King Liu on a livestream, drawing a torrent of mockery from netizens: ’You pathetic little jackass, how laughable.’
Chen Jincheng hadn’t expected he would attract the hostility of these two particular celebrities.
But as far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter.
「Meanwhile.」
Han Shangyou had gone to headquarters today to report to President Zhang on Tiao Yin’s recent performance. After staying for a round of drinks, he returned home, where he immediately received an update on the latest developments.
His assistant reported over the phone, "President Han, the hype surrounding this is at an all-time high. The thing is, once the songs are released tomorrow, if Chen Jincheng’s side loses, I’m afraid he’ll be facing long-term ridicule from those singers."
"And what if Chen Jincheng wins?" Han Shangyou, however, felt a faint sense of anticipation.
He had been following this matter from the very beginning. While he had initially planned to work with Li Yueling, he now found himself hoping Chen Jincheng would win.
Because he had been thinking about something for the past two days.
Namely, breaking down the barrier between online influencers and celebrities, even blurring the lines between them, and redefining them all as "Tiao Yin creators."
This was what aligned with Tiao Yin’s interests.
’He even planned to bring official government departments onto Tiao Yin to create accounts, forging a completely different kind of video platform. By then, when even government agencies are on board, what will celebrities even matter?’
It was just that he had no idea how to do it.
Now, leveraging this incident, if Chen Jincheng could defeat Li Yueling, it seemed like it could be the perfect start to breaking down the barrier between influencers and celebrities and blurring the lines between them.
「Time passed.」
Amidst all the anticipation, the next day finally arrived.
Many people discovered that Tiao Yin was recommending an official livestream.
Everyone who clicked in saw the names of three songs—"Can’t Help Falling in Love," "Betrayal," and "Must Love"—with their sales data listed. Currently, all the numbers showed: 0.
Those who entered the stream quickly understood that this official channel would be tracking the sales data for the three songs in real time.
Tiao Yin wasn’t going to create a special chart for just three songs, so they presented it in this livestream format instead.
Furthermore, thanks to all the hype, the livestream gathered over a million concurrent viewers in a remarkably short time, all waiting for the three songs to be released.
Li Yueling hadn’t slept well that night. Being flat-chested had always been a source of her insecurity. She had mostly gotten over it after becoming a celebrity, but yesterday’s events and all the taunts had brought it rushing back, accompanied by a surge of anger.
The thought of so many uninformed people actually believing she had reported Yinyin out of jealousy over her large breasts made her so angry her chest ached.
Therefore, as soon as she got up that morning and saw the official Tiao Yin livestream, she immediately had her team upload "Must Love."
At almost the same moment, she announced the release on her Weibo and Tiao Yin accounts.
As soon as the upload was complete, the featured promotional spot on Penguin Music’s homepage was updated to feature "Must Love."
Anyone who visited Penguin Music saw the song right away.
The million-plus viewers waiting in the official Tiao Yin livestream also found out instantly that Li Yueling’s song was up. Regardless of whether they were fans, many people immediately logged into Penguin Music to purchase it.
Fans bought it to show their support; everyone else was just there for the drama. They wanted to see which of the three songs was best so they could weigh in, which meant they had to listen to all three.
At 3 Yuan per song, it was only 9 Yuan for all three—a price anyone could afford.
As the first to release her track, Li Yueling’s song was immediately purchased and played by a huge number of people.
Han Shangyou also purchased and played it immediately, hearing the vocals of "Must Love" begin:
"Love needs no begging, nor demanding; love must have the power of faith in one’s heart."
"Love is not about being attracted, but about actively attracting."
...
"I want love! A love that is steadfast! A love that is eternal! A love where we will never abandon one another!"
"This song is actually pretty good!" Han Shangyou said, surprised.
His assistant nodded as well. "It is. This song from Li Yueling is definitely top-tier. It’s no worse than her last hit, and it’s better than Chen Jincheng’s ’Trajectory.’ Without the hype from being an ’Ancestral Master’ exclusive, ’Girl’ is far inferior too. Things are looking iffy for Chen Jincheng. A song of this quality has never come from the influencer scene before."
"Mm," Han Shangyou nodded, then asked, "How are the sales for ’Must Love’?"
The assistant replied immediately, "With this much hype, their sales are incredibly high. In less than 10 minutes, it’s already sold 12,000 copies. At this rate, they’ll break a million sales on the first day. Also, Li Cheng’s song ’Betrayal’ has been released too. Only ’Can’t Help Falling in Love,’ the song Chen Jincheng wrote for Jiang Xiaobai, hasn’t been released yet."
"What is that Chen Jincheng playing at?" Han Shangyou’s face was full of confusion.
At that moment, over at Second-Life Star, Sister Hong was also wondering what on earth her boss was up to. ’Doesn’t he know today is the release date?’
The other two songs were already uploaded. But her boss was late this morning, and even that girl, Xiaobai, was also late.
She could only keep calling her boss’s phone. After several consecutive calls, he finally answered, asking breathlessly, "Sister Hong, what’s up?"
Sister Hong was speechless. "My dear boss, have you forgotten what day it is? And you’re asking me what’s up? More importantly, why are you panting so heavily this early in the morning?"
"Just getting some exercise in, Sister Hong. I’ll be at the company as fast as I can," Chen Jincheng said before hanging up. He tossed his phone aside and looked at Jiang Xiaobai on the bed.
’Sister Hong’s already calling to chase me down. I’d better finish up with this girl quickly.’
’Every time with her, my morning schedule gets messed up.’
’But it’s not like releasing the song is urgent. Sales aren’t decided in the first few minutes, after all.’
He didn’t care, but Li Yueling cared a lot, especially since in less than an hour, her song’s sales had broken 100,000.
Meanwhile, in the official Tiao Yin livestream, Li Cheng’s "Betrayal" had only sold 5,000 copies. As for Chen Jincheng’s song, "Can’t Help Falling in Love," the number was still a flat zero.
’She even began to suspect that Chen Jincheng didn’t have a song at all, that he had just been stirring up drama to ride the hype train. Or perhaps, after hearing the quality of "Must Love," he was too scared to release his own song and face the humiliation.’
She wasn’t the only one; even the celebrities who had supported her last night were thinking the same thing.
After all, with the way Li Yueling’s song was trending, hitting a million sales on the first day would be no problem. The final sales would likely land somewhere between two and three million.
That celebrity, Magic Universe, was once again the first to voice his support: "Congratulations to Li Yueling for ’Must Love’ breaking 100,000 sales in less than an hour! Now *this* is a real song, with exquisite arrangement and lyrics. It’s not something the likes of ’Trajectory’ can even compare to."
His words were completely unapologetic. After all, there was no way an online influencer’s song could possibly beat "Must Love."
Two to three million sales was no joke in the current music market.
His own latest song, "Hope," had only managed to sell just over 2.02 million digital copies.
He didn’t think an online influencer’s song could reach that level.