Chapter 20: Double One

To satisfy his friend, Lin Yi tirelessly signed his name, finding the act increasingly intoxicating. After signing the final copy, he set down his pen and nodded with satisfaction at his own artistic signature.

"Not bad."

Niu Junjie happily tucked the autograph into his backpack. Niu believed that to win a beauty's heart, one must first start with her friends—a dating tactic he had deduced from watching television.

"Lin Yi, don't forget we're going on our trip tomorrow!" Niu reminded him as he prepared to leave.

"I know," Lin Yi replied with a sigh of resignation.

At KuGou Music, after netizens uploaded "Your Answer," the song surged forward with unstoppable momentum, ruthlessly crushing "In My Song," the hit single by popular singer Qu Wanting that had been holding the top spot on the New Song Chart.

Within twelve hours, the track had amassed twenty million streams.

In just half a day, "Your Answer" had climbed to the top of both the KuGou Trending Chart and the New Song Chart—a double victory! It was now charging ahead with an arrogant flair, showing signs of encroaching on the Top 50.

The explosive power of the song shocked many industry insiders, some of whom were left trembling in the corners.

Is this... even human?

Yuan Fei, the operations manager at KuGou Music, sat motionless, staring at the data in his hands in a stupor. It took him a long time to recover. It had been ages since he had seen a song with such impact; the last time was when Jay Chou released new music.

*Whoosh!*

"Quick, arrange a homepage recommendation for this song!" Yuan Fei hurried out of his office to instruct the staff in charge of promotional slots.

"The slots are already booked, and they can't be changed easily," the staff member replied with a troubled expression.

Yuan Fei frowned. Promotional resources were typically scheduled weeks in advance and rarely shifted unless something major happened. Furthermore, changing them was difficult because KuGou had existing cooperation agreements with talent agencies. Homepage features helped singers climb the charts and generated extra revenue for the platform—a win-win situation.

As for "major events," that usually meant a superstar dropping a new track. In such cases, resources were naturally tilted toward them, and existing promotions were pushed back. Few singers complained about this, as they knew they were no match for the star power and fanbases of those legends. Their agencies wouldn't allow them to fight it, anyway.

"Who is currently in that slot?" Yuan Fei asked.

"Jay Chou, Xu Gao, the Chopstick Brothers, and Qu Wanting."

Damn.

Yuan Fei’s mouth twitched. The fanbases of Jay Chou and Xu Gao were incredibly fierce—who would dare offend them? The Chopstick Brothers were famous across the country for "Father," so they were untouchable too. And Qu Wanting? She was a popular artist backed by a powerful agency. It was a thorny situation.

He decided to wait and observe; if the opportunity arose, he would propose giving the song more resources during the next meeting.

"Never mind then," Yuan Fei waved his hand and walked back to his office.

The staff member watched him leave and muttered, "Coward! Just swap out Qu Wanting. This song has already completely eclipsed hers; she probably isn't feeling too great sitting in that position anyway."

Hu Ge and Li Xue had also seen the video of Lin Yi singing "Your Answer."

"This young man, Lin Yi, is quite refined," Hu Ge remarked, biting into an apple while watching the video. He smiled and said to his assistant, "He's not bad."

Yao Yao glanced at the screen and replied perfunctorily, "He's alright."

"The song is genuinely good. I suggest you listen to it," Hu Ge posted on Weibo after finishing his apple, sharing the link to Lin Yi’s performance.

Director Li Xue had shared the video the moment he saw it. He had a favorable impression of Lin Yi, stemming from their first conversation at the Vienna Hotel. Since the director had shared it, the actors who had recently worked with him followed suit. A host of celebrities added fuel to the fire.

By 6:00 PM, "Your Answer" had reached sixty million streams and over half a million comments. Yuan Fei could no longer sit still and reported the situation to his superiors.

At 6:10 PM, KuGou held an emergency meeting centered on "Your Answer." During the session, Yuan Fei was sternly criticized for failing to react in time and for not yet securing the distribution rights from the artist.

"So full," Lin Yi sighed, rubbing his belly, which had risen into a small mound. One must never let down good food.

He had barely left the house all day. He’d gone out in the morning to buy groceries, printed and signed two copies of the contract, dropped them off at the courier, and returned home to be a quiet homebody, typing away at his novel.

Since he was leaving for his trip tomorrow, he wanted to get ahead and stockpile chapters, setting them to release automatically. Including the ones from the previous days, he now had thirty chapters in reserve, so he didn't have to worry about updates for a while.

"Sigh, time to pack," Lin Yi rose from the sofa and headed to the bedroom to pack his luggage.

*Ring, ring, ring!*

The phone rang again. Lin Yi couldn't even remember how many calls he’d received that day. They fell into three categories: those asking if he intended to enroll in their universities and offering scholarships, talent agencies scouting him for stardom, and singers or their assistants begging for songs.

He had rejected the first group immediately. He hesitated briefly with the second group but declined; he valued his freedom and disliked being constrained. In his view, the agencies were only interested in his songs anyway. What if they forcibly seized his work? He knew all too well from his past life how absurd and integrity-free such things could get.

As for the third group, he had rejected them because they found his prices too high. Some had even cursed him out, calling him a robber. Was his price high? Was it robbery? Lin Yi felt it was perfectly fair—you get what you pay for. If the song became a hit, the variety show invitations would roll in; why worry about not breaking even?

If they were stingy or cheap, they should just say so. Look at Lin Youjia—how generous, paying immediately without a single word of bargaining. The difference was stark. He had already added the names of those who called him a robber to his little notebook.

"Hello?" Lin Yi finally answered the call, thinking that perhaps another singer might be looking to make a successful deal. He didn't want to miss an opportunity, even if the chance was only one percent.

"Is this Mr. Lin Yi? I am Yuan Fei, the operations manager at KuGou Music. I would like to talk to you about the song 'Your Answer.' Do you have any time in the next few days?"

"No. Just say whatever you need to say over the phone."

"I see. Well, KuGou Music would like to purchase the distribution rights for your song. We will split the revenue from downloads and sales according to our standard ratio."

"Fine!" Lin Yi agreed readily. Money was money. "Anything else?"

"No... that's it."

*Click.*

Was it really that simple? Yuan Fei stared at the disconnected phone in disbelief. The deal had been completed in less than a minute. It was the fastest transaction in his career, bar none.