Chapter 149: Bizarre Methods of Smearing

The encirclement campaign by Dynasty Entertainment was officially declared a failure.

Facts proved that when there is a vast disparity in strength, such a "siege" is nothing more than a joke.

At Dynasty Entertainment, Zhao Hengyuan stared at the refreshing data on the Tiantian Music platform with a gloomy expression, his heart burning with rage. While the singers who released songs in January were not the company's top-tier stars, they were, generally speaking, quite balanced in talent—none of them were particularly weak. He had expected that with the company's resources and prime promotional spots, they would achieve solid results. He wouldn't go so far as to claim every song would outperform Su Chen’s, but if even half of them could surpass "Courage," then Su Chen’s track would never see the top of the charts.

Instead, "Courage" had left everyone in the dust, now far outpacing the new songs from the Dynasty singers.

Listen to it!

In the end, he couldn't help but pay to download it, "supporting" Su Chen.

"I finally made this decision,
I ignore what others say,
As long as you are just as certain,
I am willing to follow you to the ends of the earth...
...
Love truly requires courage,
To face the gossip,
As long as I have your look of affirmation,
My love has meaning..."

Xu Shuang’s voice was unique, brimming with emotion; it seemed to possess a certain magic that pulled the listener in effortlessly.

"If my stubbornness and willfulness,
Inadvertently hurt you,
Could you gently remind me?
Though I am too impatient, I am even more afraid of missing you..."

When the chorus hit, even Zhao Hengyuan felt a shiver run down his spine.

After the song ended and he drifted back from his immersion, his brows furrowed, and his expression turned grave. Putting aside their rivalry, this song was a masterpiece! The Dynasty Entertainment singers hadn't lost unjustly. But when did Su Chen become so talented? Truth be told, when Su Chen wrote songs for Jiang Yan last time, he never believed they were actually written by Su Chen.

At most, he assumed that to fulfill the boastful claims Su Chen made at the press conference, Jiang Yan had simply used her resources to find songs and credited them to him. That was why, although he had approached Su Chen for a song later, it was merely to test the waters. Seeing Su Chen’s new work now, it seemed so different from his expectations that he found it difficult to accept.

*Knock, knock, knock.*

He tapped his fingers rhythmically on the desk. If this truly was Su Chen’s capability, it posed a potential risk to Dynasty Entertainment. Having handled and participated in the entire Chen Qianyuan affair, he knew well that there was no room for reconciliation between Su Chen and Dynasty Entertainment. If Su Chen were to explode in popularity and act against the company, it could lead to significant trouble.

What should he do?

If he had been playing around before, this time he was genuinely concerned. He sat in his chair, pondering for a long time, when a sudden glint flashed in his eyes. He pulled up the lyrics to "Courage" again, reading them repeatedly. After setting them aside, he let out a long, heavy sigh.

"Follow my instructions and coordinate with the PR department immediately..."

Soon, a scathing commentary targeting the new song "Courage" appeared out of thin air.

A major influencer affiliated with Dynasty posted:
"Just listened to the song 'Courage.' The melody is very catchy, and I couldn't help but put it on loop. However, the more I listen, the weirder it feels. I have some personal conjectures I’d like to share. What kind of love is afraid of gossip? And what kind of love cannot be 'too impatient' for fear of missing the other person? After thinking it over, I can't see how this could be interpreted in any other way! I have a question: where does one get the 'courage' to so brazenly promote such values? If adults like us listen to it, it’s no big deal, but what about minors? Will this song influence their growth or their orientation? I believe it is best not to go against universal values when writing lyrics and music. These are just my shallow, personal thoughts, for reference only!"

As soon as this statement was released, it immediately drew a response from a segment of the public.

"You’re really not wrong. When I first heard it, I was wondering why it felt so strange. Now that it’s been analyzed this way, I get it! How could such a song even be released for everyone to hear?"

"Exactly. Only relationships not accepted by society need 'courage' to face gossip. If it’s not that, then what is it?"

"I regret thinking this song was good. I had no idea the background was like this. I’m not listening to it anymore, or people might think I’m gay!"

Some netizens, who rarely think for themselves, were easily led by the narrative. Under this influence, the public sentiment began to shift in a strange direction. For a time, "Courage" was labeled with all sorts of odd, non-conventional tags.

Of course, there were still many clear-headed netizens.

"What kind of messy analysis is this! It’s clearly about two people in love who can't be together for various reasons. To interpret it this way only shows that the bottom line for some influencers is getting lower and lower."

"Exactly. It sounds like the analysis of someone uncultured, connecting things that have nothing to do with each other."

"I’m speechless. A good song finally comes out, and it gets smeared like this."

The debate online was intense, but strangely, it did not affect the sales of "Courage." In fact, to some extent, the rate of downloads even saw a slight increase.

Su Chen didn't pay much attention to the data; he only looked at the discourse surrounding "Courage" online with a peculiar expression. It didn't take much to guess this was Dynasty Entertainment’s doing, though Zhao Hengyuan’s angle seemed to have hit the mark by accident. In his previous life, if one traced the origins of this song, it was indeed written with same-sex relationships in mind, though it later became so widely circulated that it transcended such narrow limitations.

He had to admit, Zhao Hengyuan was a real talent—to stumble upon that fact by pure coincidence? Still, Su Chen would never admit to that interpretation. If he did, he’d be branded with a label he could never clear. Moreover, when he "wrote" the song, he hadn't had that thought at all; he had written it purely from the perspective of an ordinary listener from his past life.

He looked at the posts from the influencers steering the narrative and shook his head with a smile.

So they wanted a war of words? Then why not play along?

At 9:25 AM on January 22nd, Su Chen updated his Weibo:
"In the eyes of a pimp, every woman is for sale! If she isn't, it’s just that the price hasn't been agreed upon! A dirty mind sees filth in everything!"

At the end of the post, he tagged and reposted the influencer’s original commentary.

With these words, everyone instantly understood what Su Chen meant.

"Hahaha, well said! People with dirty minds see everything as dirty!"

"I see a young girl’s desperate, selfless love. What did that influencer see? /smh"

"The human heart is like a mirror. If the mirror isn't clean, do you expect what it reflects to be clean? If you gave that guy a bar of soap, he’d probably associate it with women taking a bath."