Chapter 10

The number of sample playbacks revealed the promotional prowess of the record company behind the singer and the composer . But whether the audience could be turned captive, whether they would splurge on a download, that depended the song itself . Undoubtedly, this song had legs .

It was close to the end of the season, and though the extended delay put the song at a disadvantage, its meteoric rise drew a lot of attention, especially people who paid close attention to the music industry .

No one would notice a leap from the bottom of the charts to the top 200 .

Nor a leap from the top 200 to the top 100 .

But you couldn’t ignore a song that made the top 50 in three days .

For a newcomer’s single, the rapid rise of “Hehe, My Dear” dropped jaws among those who followed the new talent chart .

Most of the people who listened to the song were students, but among them were also veteran musicians who studied composition and arrangement, such as Prof . Zhou, who had his students analyze the arrangement in a test . That made the students both love and hate the song .

However you looked at it, the song was a success .

Just as Du Ang had predicted, the stars had aligned for that song . Even though it was a late entry, it wasn’t that late, and it had enough momentum .

Since Fang Zhao’s song was launched, Du Ang was glued to the new talent chart from dusk to dawn . His other newcomers weren’t raking in that many more downloads and had started to taper off, stagnating on the chart . The key was Fang Zhao’s release . It would determine whether Du Ang would get a raise or a promotion .

At Du Ang’s office at Silver Wing Media, things had quieted down as the new talent competition drew to a close . He didn’t have any more songs produced . The heavy lifting was left to marketing and sales .

So all Du Ang did was monitor the chart . He watched as Fang Zhao’s number of downloads went from zero to three digits, then to four and five, and then to six .

It hit 1 million on the ninth day after its release . Even if they hit 1 million downloads, many new releases would taper off, but not Fang Zhao’s . It saw J-shaped exponential growth as it crossed the 1 million download threshold and kept surging .

Glued to the data on his tablet, Du Ang’s eyes, covered in bloodied veins, barely blinked . From the moment he arrived at the office at 8 a . m . , apart from meals and toilet breaks, he was obsessed, constantly staring at the download tally on his screen . Every muscle in his body was taut and his brain remained in an orgasmic state .

None of his nine other interns had had Du Ang this on edge . Fang Zhao was an exception . He was quite surprised and eager with anticipation .

Even though demos differed from the final product, differences were minimal . But Fang Zhao’s arrangement in the final cut had even the demons over in the arrangement department impressed . “Maybe I will get promoted this time,” Du Ang mumbled . Between a raise and a promotion, Du Ang naturally preferred the latter .

Du Ang’s three assistants could hear him mumbling whenever they entered his office . Initially, they weren’t able to make out what he was saying, but after a few trips they realized Du Ang was chanting as he stared at the download counter, “Promotion! Promotion! Promotion!”

It wasn’t just Du Ang . The staffers who worked with newcomers were also glued to the chart; they also wanted Fang Zhao’s release in the top 10 . The only thing was that No . 10 had already hit 1 . 8 million downloads .

Eight hundred thousand downloads was too big a gap . Fang Zhao had to close a gap of 800,000 in 10 days . No, he had to chalk up at least another million . After all, the 10th-placed song would garner more downloads, so probably 1 million more downloads were needed to crack the top 10 .

Was 1 million more downloads possible for a newcomer, considering what promotional channels were in play?

He thought it was impossible, and yet he hung on to a sliver of hope . That sense of hope grew and expanded as the days passed .

What a rapid ascent .

It had just cracked the top 50 the day before yesterday . Now it was in the top 30 . The song at No . 30 was released by a small company . Their goal was to crack the top 50 . Low and behold the newcomer they signed went all out and clinched the 30th spot . What a pleasant surprise!

The composer was likewise delighted . Considering the season was coming to a close and the chart rankings had more or less settled—he had a considerable lead on No . 31—he was quite relaxed and had been celebrating with friends the past few days .

He was hungover and fast asleep at 2 in the morning when he was awoken by repeated reminders . His bracelet was set to “Do not disturb” mode and most calls were blocked, but calls were put through after a third try .

Three calls from the same number meant an urgent matter .

Frowning, he rolled on his bed and announced in a foul mood, “Put it through . “His bracelet put through the call after confirming his command . Before he could say anything, the caller started shouting .

“You’ve been crowded out!”

“You’re the one who’s been crowded out!”

The composer was still groggy but the caller had touched a nerve, which prompted the sharp response . After he rubbed his forehead, he froze and exclaimed, “What did you just say?”

A crisp voice emerged from his wristband . “You’re really being crowded out . I’m not kidding . Hurry, take a look! Check out the newcomer chart . You’re going to drop out of the top 30 . “

The composer got up instantly, turned on the screen on his wristband and scanned the chart . Indeed, he had dropped to No . 31 .

“F*ck! Who did this?”

He hadn’t been paying attention to the chart the past few days and didn’t pay much heed to the other songs on the list . Every day he would check his own ranking and the five songs above and below him . How did he drop out of the top 30 in the blink of an eye?

No . 32 to No . 36 were the same, and the gap between them hadn’t changed much . He shifted his attention to the songs ahead of his . He recognized No . 30, No . 29 and No . 28 – it was the same three songs that had edged ahead for some time . But No . 27 was a fresh face . “‘Hehe, My Dear?’ From Silver Wing Media?”He was curious and puzzled by the last-minute challenger, so he clicked for more details .

It was released on June 11 . So late . “What’s wrong with Silver Wing Media, waiting until June 11?”As he was complaining, the composer’s fingers shuffled, scrolling through other details about the song . The more he read, the more he freaked out . After tracking the song’s movement over the past few days, he took a deep breath . It resembled a hormone injection, the way it jumped from 500,000 downloads to 1 million in a few days . And counting . In two days, the song had risen from around No . 50 to the top 30 . An increase of 400,000 downloads . Now it was eyeing the top 20 .

The gap between No . 25 and No . 30 wasn’t that big . No . 30 had 1,403,952 downloads, while No . 25 accounted for 1,437,756 . If it were early in the season, a gap of 30,000 was nothing, but it was near the end of the season and most of the songs had peaked . Even a hike of 10,000 downloads was difficult . Low and behold, this song broke into the top 30 and upended the existing order in a few days .

What kind of song could manage such an amazing feat?

Curious, he clicked play .

A long silence followed .

He studied the details of the song with a confused look on his face . This wasn’t just a matter of marketing muscle, it was also a function of the quality of the song .

“I’m a lesser composer,” he admitted to himself .

It had been more than two hours since he got word that he had been crowded out and started studying the song and everything about it . Daylight began to seep in .

It suddenly dawned on him that he knew the composer who wrote No . 25 . Yesterday his friend was still praying that the chart stay unchanged . He was quite happy with 25th place .

Now a dark horse had emerged, he reached out to his friend .

His friend was also sleeping . He figured he had been partying the past few days as well . The friend answered with a sleepy voice, not bothering with a videoconference . All he heard was a slurred voice saying, “Who is it?”

“You’re being crowded out!”

“What? Don’t joke about something like this . ” The voice on the other end sounded panicked .

“I swear, I’m not lying . “

Bam! Smack!

A series of jumbled noises followed . After a while, his friend’s voice re-emerged . He sounded distracted .

“I’ve been… crowded out already . “

“What? That’s impossible . ” When he got word of his decline, Fang Zhao’s song was only at 27 . How could he have cracked the top 25 in two hours?

He refreshed the newcomer chart in disbelief . Indeed, there was new entry at No . 25 .

A bit of research revealed that a famed late-night radio host that gave relationship advice had recommended “Hehe, My Dear” around midnight . A flurry of downloads ensued .

“This isn’t the end of it . It can’t be . ” The composer shut the screen on his bracelet and checked the time . “

There are seven more days left in the competition . Many other composers are going to start losing sleep . ” Framing the problem that way, he felt a bit better about being squeezed out of the top 30 .

He couldn’t sleep anymore . He washed his face and contacted his agent, who was still asleep . He couldn’t afford to take it easy these last few days . If he persuaded his company to launch one last marketing campaign, he might be able to reclaim the No . 30 spot . If he did nothing, he might not even hang on to No . 31 .

The storm that this dark horse had brought would impact the entire chart .