Chapter 133: The Brightest Star in the Music Scene

After the five of them finished their meal, Zhou Lun settled the bill, and then everyone went their separate ways.

As the car pulled up to the Fanhai Garden residential complex, Li Mengya opened the door and asked, "Can you still walk?"

Jiang Yun secretly opened one eye and groaned, "Can't walk, can't walk!"

Li Mengya caught him in the act. "Since you can't walk, you can spend the night in the car!"

"Don't do that!" Jiang Yun jolted upright in his seat.

"Didn't you say you couldn't walk?"

"Huh? Oh, right! How did I manage to walk? I forgot; I'm so drunk I can't move!"

Li Mengya rolled her eyes, ignored him, and turned to walk away. Jiang Yun rubbed his nose and followed her upstairs.

Upon reaching the seventh floor, Li Mengya opened the door and pulled a pair of slippers from the rack. "Put these on."

Jiang Yun paused, surprised. "When did you buy men's slippers?"

"Are you going to wear them or not?"

"Hehe!" Jiang Yun let out a sly chuckle and slipped them on.

Li Mengya fetched a quilt from the bedroom and laid it out on the sofa. After smoothing it out neatly, she retreated to her room. Jiang Yun collapsed onto the sofa, rested for a while, and then forced himself to get up and wash his face. He prided himself on being a refined man, and he couldn't let that image crumble. After freshening up, he lay back down on the sofa to sleep.

"Ring-ring!"

Just as he was drifting off, his phone rang.

"Who's calling at this hour?" Jiang Yun grumbled. He glanced at the screen; it was He Yong.

Jiang Yun answered, "What's up, Editor-in-Chief He?"

He Yong's voice came through the line: "Mr. Jiang, the new song audio you sent me at noon goes live at midnight. It's 11:50 now; keep an eye on the statistics later!"

"Is that all? Can't you just watch the numbers? Besides, I don't even have access to the backend!" Jiang Yun replied.

"Fair enough!"

Jiang Yun hung up, feeling somewhat speechless. He Yong had essentially told him nothing at all. Disturbed, his sleepiness vanished entirely. He decided to open the music platform to check the status.

As soon as the app loaded, a promotional poster appeared. It featured Jiang Yun holding a microphone, a still taken from his time as a coach on *The Voice*. The banner read: [Jiang Yun's new song drops tonight at midnight! See you there!] The platform's promotional efforts were quite impressive.

Zhou Xin, a college senior, loved music in his spare time, but he felt that most songs by current pop stars were cookie-cutter—bland, repetitive love songs. However, ever since Jiang Yun appeared on the scene, the music industry had undergone a complete transformation. The old formulaic pop songs could no longer capture the audience's attention. One could say that Jiang Yun had single-handedly pushed the entire music scene to new heights.

Zhou Xin stared at the promotional poster, refreshing the page repeatedly. "Damn! Why is it not midnight yet?"

Similar scenes were playing out everywhere. Whether they were fans or not, people were waiting for midnight. Even those who weren't die-hard fans had been won over by the high quality of Jiang Yun's work. His emergence had injected fresh blood into the music industry.

Lin Jie, an A-list singer, was scheduled to release his own song today and had spent a significant amount of money on promotion.

"Ring-ring!"

Lin Jie answered his phone. "Hello? What's going on?"

A voice came through: "Brother Jie, Jiang Yun is also releasing a new song today. Do you want to reschedule?"

"What?" Lin Jie stood up from his sofa. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Brother Jie, I just found out. Word is that Jiang Yun only finished recording it today!"

"He just recorded it today?" Lin Jie was stunned.

"Yes! What should we do, Brother Jie?"

Lin Jie frowned. "The money is already spent. You're asking me what to do?"

"Brother Jie, why don't you pick another date?"

Lin Jie gritted his teeth in anger. "Damn it! I'm going all in! We stick to today! I want to see what's so special about him!"

Meanwhile, other singers planning to release music that day were either scrambling to reschedule or choosing to hold their ground.

Back in the apartment, Jiang Yun sat on the sofa, staring at his phone and refreshing the screen.

*Click.*

Li Mengya’s door opened. She walked out, holding a towel and drying her damp hair. "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"Did you forget? I sent that new recording to He Yong; it goes live at midnight!"

"Oh," she said, walking over to the sofa and sitting down beside him.

*Thump-thump! Thump-thump!*

Jiang Yun caught the scent of her body wash and his heart began to race. He felt like he was suffocating. Suddenly, his phone chimed.

*Beep-beep!*

Jiang Yun refreshed the page. "It's midnight! Let's see how it's doing!"

He clicked the link, only to be met with a 404 error. "Damn! It crashed!"

At the same time, countless fans trying to access the page encountered the same issue.

"Damn! What the hell? The page won't load!"

"Are you kidding me? Did the server crash?"

Zhou Xin refreshed his screen over and over, but it was useless.

At the headquarters of the music platform, the night shift team was in a panic.

"Editor-in-Chief He, it's no good—the server has crashed!"

"Damn it! We’ve been working overtime just for this release, and you tell me the server crashed?" He Yong’s face turned livid. "Get the engineers to fix it immediately!"

"Yes, sir!"

Half an hour later, things finally returned to normal.

"Whew..." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "The traffic Jiang Yun is pulling in is terrifying!"

At 12:31 AM, Zhou Xin finally managed to load the page.

"Thank God, it's finally loaded!"

This scene was being repeated everywhere. "Finally, I can listen to music in peace!"

Zhou Xin clicked on "A Song in My Heart," put on his headphones, and lay back on his bed, listening quietly.

"I can't believe he actually got Li Mengya to sing on this track!"

Zhou Xin hummed along happily. "You are a song in my heart, a blooming flower in my soul..."

*Clatter!*

His roommate flipped on the room light. "Zhou Xin, what on earth are you humming?"

"Huh? What? What humming?" Zhou Xin asked, confused.

"Take off your damn headphones!"

"Oh!" Zhou Xin complied. His roommate looked at him with a deadpan expression. "You couldn't hear me, could you?"

"What are you humming in the middle of the night?" the roommate asked.

"Jiang Yun's new song just dropped!" Zhou Xin replied.

"What? Jiang Yun's new song?" His roommate got excited. "Let me see!"

He quickly pulled out his phone. "Why does it require a VIP membership?"

"Just get one, it's not expensive!" Zhou Xin suggested.

"Fine... alright!"

And so, his roommate signed up for VIP. This was happening across the country; fans who were already following the news signed up for VIP, and those who weren't were being converted by their friends.

After finishing "A Song in My Heart," Zhou Xin moved on to "The Undefeated Hero."

"It's good! I thought the solo version would be a letdown!"

He clicked on "As Free as the Wind" and listened quietly. Zhou Xin was in high spirits. "The production on this rock track is top-tier!"

"Huh? 'My Chinese Heart'? What song is this? I've never heard Jiang Yun sing this before!"

This was happening everywhere. " 'My Chinese Heart'? Why haven't I heard Jiang Yun sing this before?"