Chapter 63 Locked
The phone on the table started vibrating incessantly, like a bomb about to explode, startling Tan Xi, who was racking her brains over her thesis screen.
Tan Xi paused for a moment before unlocking her phone.
In the pinned Fang Yucheng fan group, bright red message notifications were flashing wildly, already exceeding 99+.
[Group Admin: @Everyone, please go online immediately!]
[Yu Mengcheng is truly the most cunning: Chengbao's negative trending topics have quietly emerged! Several marketing accounts have jumped in to stir up trouble, and the public square is about to be flooded with comments!]
[Chengbao's wife: Anyone with a brain knows it was those two scumbags, Ling Zhao and Mu Jiu, who were behind this! Those two are despicable to the core. The moment Yu Cheng gave them a friendly look, they swarmed on like leeches. Did they really think we couldn't see through them?]
[Chengbao's wife: Who exactly is blindly believing those brainwashing propaganda packages? Sometimes I really feel like I'm not even in the same world as those idiots who are being led by the nose.]
Immediately afterwards, a series of echoing messages flooded the screen. Some people joined in with curses and insults, while others rushed to call for an anti-black campaign. The screen was filled with hostility, making people feel irritable and confused.
My roommate, who was half asleep, peeked out after hearing the noise and said, "Still getting messages this late? It's so loud I could hear it."
"No, it's just a message in the group chat."
Tan Xi switched her phone to silent mode, and the incessant buzzing finally stopped. She then frowned and continued scrolling through the messages flooding the group chat.
[My Sincere Heart: Let me say a few words first, lest anyone's ideas are still naive]
[Yu Cheng's Original Intention: Don't watch those so-called analysis videos. These marketing accounts deliberately cut out the beginning and end, and release some similar clips. It's like using basic chords in songwriting or generic sentence structures in copywriting. They take advantage of ordinary people's lack of knowledge and use spliced videos to fabricate evidence without any bottom line in order to make dirty money.]
[Yu Cheng's original intention: Yu Cheng has no background or backing, and now he has been stabbed in the back. He still has no way to defend himself. His account is not even in his personal control.]
[Yu Cheng's original intention: So this is not something to do within one's capabilities at all. This is not about voting or boosting sales; it's a real battle to save Yu Cheng's dream and stage.]
[Yu Cheng's original intention: We must make others hear Yu Cheng's voice, unite to counter the trending topics, so that the general public can see our attitude, and only then can Yu Cheng live in the light.]
Tan Xi: ...
She recognized the ID; it belonged to a long-time fan who always seemed rational and objective, leading the charge.
In previous years, she would always respond to the other party's orders in an emergency.
But I wonder if it's because she's already interning elsewhere and has experienced enough of life's hardships.
Looking at these inflammatory rhetoric, she felt that this tone of pressuring people to spend money and creating anxiety was exactly the same as that of her boss, who was good at manipulating people, and the evil capitalists.
Not only did the content spread anxiety, but it also put immense pressure on people when making choices. She was already working late into the night revising her thesis, and reading that long string of arguments made her head spin.
Tan Xi rubbed his temples and swiped to bring up the group message interface.
Without much hesitation, I opened a search engine and typed in #FangYuchengPlagiarism#.
The page redirects, and the video that ranks first in popularity appears.
[King of Plagiarism? Or a True Musical Prodigy?]
The video garnered three million views in just half a day after its release.
After clicking the play button, the screen clearly shows a segment of the live stream.
Before Tan Xi could identify the people in the image, a deep male voice slowly came through:
"Want to see the teacher's re... songs from 'I Go'?"
The man clicked his tongue, tapping the screen with his finger as if trying to search his memory: "I know, you want to see that... sun and moon, right? Day and night?... Oh, dawn and dusk?"
[Brother Xing actually knows about Chao Mu? It feels like the dimensional barrier has been broken.]
Who is this man?
[Brother Xing, known as the walking ears of the Chinese entertainment industry, specializes in identifying lip-syncing and plagiarism. His most recent achievement was identifying a certain four-character superstar's lip-syncing during a concert.]
Wow, he identified that one? He's an ancient, top-tier tech expert!
While the chat was going on in the bullet comments section, the audio source had already been switched out in the background. The man leaned back, his well-defined fingers resting on his earphones.
Listening to this song again still feels both sweet and bittersweet; it brought tears to my eyes.
I never imagined I'd become so obsessed with shipping couples.
[Is this sung by Mu Jiu and Ling Zhao? I feel like I'm living in the last century. Aren't these two people either having a scandal with a top celebrity or being a substitute for that top celebrity? And people actually think it's sweet when these two are together? This world is truly sci-fi.]
[It's really strange that these two actually have fans who ship them as a couple.]
[Is the person upstairs a caveman? Seriously believe me, go watch "Our Past," it's so sweet it's sickening! /doge]
[Meal replacement my foot! Ling Zhao is Ling Zhao. Don't drag everything into this, or you'll get attacked by both sides' fans.]
The density of comments in the live stream was almost bursting the screen. Xing Ge finally frowned, raised his hand and pressed the microphone, his tone becoming a bit calmer: "Listen up, everyone, don't discuss anything unrelated to the song in the comments."
His voice came through the microphone with a noticeable echo.
After he finished speaking, the chat gradually quieted down thanks to the streamer's mediation.
Xing Ge then turned his attention back to the audio source: "It's definitely a live performance, just a sweet pop song with no technical skill involved... Xing Ge, do you want to check your private messages? There's a song by Ling Zhao when he first debuted."
"I don't usually check my private messages, but Ling Zhao's singing style is quite interesting, so I'll take a look today."
As he spoke, the screen switched to his personal private message interface.
Following the video link, the screen cuts to a clip of Ling Zhao practicing in his practice room.
Ling Zhao, still with black hair, held his guitar, tuned a few notes, and then began to play a piece smoothly.
He lowered his eyes, his fingertips lightly strumming the guitar strings. The tone was clear and crisp, yet still carried a hint of youthful naiveté. His low, gentle singing voice flowed out, enveloped in the rich melody of the guitar.
When the song reached its climax, the comments section finally couldn't hold back any longer:
Why do I feel like it's so similar to Fang Yucheng's song?
[I'm too scared to speak. Back when Ling Zhao debuted, Fang Yucheng wasn't pursuing the musical talent route yet, was he?]
[This is unbelievable! A top celebrity is copying a washed-up celebrity? I could keep this gossip going for a year!]
Xing Ge lightly clicked the mouse twice, a mischievous smile flashing in his eyes, his tone "full of warning": "Don't talk nonsense, or if my live stream gets flooded with comments, it's everyone's responsibility."
At this point, the video suddenly cut out.
【？？？】
[Am I stuck?]
Immediately afterwards, the screen cut to a screenshot of Xing Ge's personal video account.
//Given that my personal live stream was bombarded by some fans, I have decided to take an objective and rational approach to create a comparison between the hit song of top male star Fang Yucheng and the practice room song of Ling Zhao.
The technical analysis videos are entirely unnarrated, relying solely on visual breakdowns using diagrams.
The screen displays the sheet music and sound waveforms of the two songs side by side, with the main melody and core waveforms highlighted in red.
In the comparison panel, Fang Yucheng's song excerpts and Ling Zhao's song excerpts are listed directly. It can be seen that the core paragraphs are almost half overlapping, and the chords are incorporated to confuse the listener.
At the end of each of the contrasting clips, the blogger thoughtfully added the caption: "I won't say anything, you can listen for yourselves."
The end credits directly extracted pure melody segments from the two songs for comparison.
If the original technical, image-based comparison allowed people to see similarities from graphics, the current intuitive comparison through music provides a pure sensory impact.
In the comments section after the video ended, more and more musicians flooded in, and in the escalating discussion, one thing was almost a certainty.
The once flawless top idol has developed cracks.
The vague premonition in her heart was confirmed, and the surging thoughts in her mind made Tan Xi feel somewhat uncomfortable.
It's like when a beautiful garment is lifted up, and she discovers that underneath it's covered in disco.
Meanwhile, messages kept popping up in the fan group:
[Yu Cheng's Initial Intention: Everyone, take immediate action! After making a purchase, immediately send a screenshot and report it. Don't think you can stay out of it. The group admins and I will check everyone's activity. Anyone who dares to slack off, pretend to be dead, or say anything discouraging will be removed from the group and never be added again! Everyone should log in to get an anti-blacklisting account and take turns cleaning up the forum and reporting negative posts.]
[Yu Cheng's Sincere Heart: Think about how hard my brother works to make music, why is he being slandered? This is a do-or-die battle, one step back means an abyss! We can only do our best to protect him, if we can't protect him, we don't deserve to say we loved him.]
Tan Xi stared at the screen in silence for a moment, then casually took a screenshot of the chat history. Her finger hovered over the "Leave Group" button for a long time, but she couldn't make up her mind.
But amidst her roommate's exclamation, she accidentally clicked the button.
"Hey! Fang Yucheng is trending on social media, and he's been confirmed to have plagiarized!"
Her roommate peeked in surprise, saw Tan Xi looking at her, and then carefully lowered her voice, "Ah, it could also be a misunderstanding..."
"Let him be."
Tan Xi sighed, a forced smile playing on her lips, her gaze fixed on the paper on her computer. She was now completely lost and without any direction. She simply saved the document and clicked into the "I Go" live stream.
[Hey, why are Fang Yucheng and Ling Zhao alone on the balcony at this hour?]
[Damn it, I can't hear anything!]
[Is there anyone who can read their lips?]
[It's so dark, who can see anything? Besides, you can't capture the whole thing in a photo.]
I never imagined I'd see these two chatting so calmly in the same place.
...
Half-asleep, Mu Jiu opened his eyes and was greeted by the deep night outside the window.
She yawned and slowly sat up.
She had a jumbled dream, and she couldn't remember the specifics very well.
I only skimmed through the memories in my mind, and during that time my head felt heavy and had a tingling, electric-like pain, as if I had an extra electronic tumor.
Throughout those scenes, she seemed somewhat disoriented. It wasn't until the scene flashed back to when she entered the cabin and appeared with Ling Zhao that her mind began to clear up.
On the other side of the bed, Xiang Wan was sleeping soundly, her breathing light and even.
She didn't want to bother the other person, but she was a little thirsty.
Mu Jiu hesitated for a moment, then put on her coat and tiptoed out of the room.
As I was about to go downstairs, I unconsciously glanced in the direction of the balcony.
Under the moonlight, his silver-gray hair and the dark undercurrent in his eyes truly made him look like a fierce wolf.
It possesses an untamed wildness and a sharp, dangerous hostility.
Ling Zhao? What are you doing out so late? Mu Jiu's not-so-clear mind slowly pondered, and he looked in the direction of his gaze.
On the other side is... Fang Yucheng?
This combination was unexpected and brought Mu Jiu to her senses.
Fang Yucheng opened and closed her mouth, saying something, but she could feel the growing coldness emanating from Ling Zhao.
When she came to her senses, she was already standing behind the glass door.
When Fang Yucheng saw her, his smile suddenly froze on his face.
Very well, she probably knows that the other person is talking badly about her...
The moment Fang Yucheng changed his expression, the silver-gray color also suddenly turned.
When those brown eyes fell on her, Mu Jiu's heart skipped a beat.
Before she could even discern her own feelings, Ling Zhao had already unhesitatingly opened the glass door and stepped out. He even slammed the door shut behind him, decisively locking the bolt.
With a "click," the glass door completely shut out the evening breeze that had just rushed in from the doorway, Fang Yucheng's astonished face, and the words he hadn't yet uttered.
Mu Jiu: ...?
Her initial nervousness was overshadowed by deep doubt.
Are you just going to lock them out like that?
After hesitating for a moment, Mu Jiu looked at Ling Zhao and asked, "What are you two talking about on the balcony? Why aren't you sleeping so late?"
"nothing"
Ling Zhao spoke as casually as if he were discussing the weather: "He's lost his mind."
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