Online reactions were intensifying.
The Ordinary Road was gaining more and more traction. More and more people were listening to it, and the comment sections were growing crowded. The audio from the gala performance was converted into a recorded track and uploaded to the NetEase Cloud Music platform.
Within two hours, it straight-up crushed Xu Kun's newly released single, You Are So Beautiful, claiming the number one spot on the new release chart, the trending chart, and the hit song chart!
This definitely triggered the fans of Xu Kun.
The drama from the gala hadn't even blown over yet, and this random live audio track had instantly beaten Xu Kun's new song?
That was a track their fandom had busted their knuckles voting for!
And it had only taken two hours!
To get overtaken just like that?
There had to be something fishy going on!
It was clearly a deliberate hit job against their idol!
Xu Kun's fans threw another fit, swarming into the comment sections to attack The Ordinary Road:
"Everyone listening to The Ordinary Road is an out-of-touch old fossil. This kind of boomer folk garbage sounds terrible!"
"There's no climax whatsoever. It's completely bland from start to finish. Listened to the whole thing with a deadpan face."
"Just a bunch of old-timers who don't know the difference between good music and garbage!"
"Zhou Chen doesn't even have that many fans, so why are his play counts so high? Something's definitely shady here!"
"Talk about obvious stream-buying. Who even falls for this nowadays?"
"Hilarious. The album isn't even out yet, and they're dropping bootleg audio first."
"Pretending to be casual listeners just to stream the song? I can play that game too."
"..."
In reality, the people listening to The Ordinary Road were simply ordinary listeners. A good song was a good song, and a bad one was a bad one; they had their own internal compass and were expressing their genuine thoughts.
But Xu Kun's fans didn't see it that way.
They strutted everywhere, picking fights and shouting down dissenters.
Originally, these ordinary listeners figured Xu Kun's fans were just immature kids and didn't want to stoop to their level. But who would have thought they'd act like rabid dogs? Not only did they leave abusive comments, but they even chased people into their private messages to curse them out, and some unhinged fans even photoshopped other people's profile pictures into funeral portraits.
Could anyone tolerate that?
Right then and there, they spontaneously organized.
Weren't you guys annoyed by Zhou Chen?
Fine! Then we're going to make sure he stays permanently parked on top of your idol's head!
Didn't you claim The Ordinary Road sounded terrible and didn't deserve to be a hit?
Fine! Then we'll see you on the trending charts!
Whatever pissed Xu Kun's fans off the most, that's what they were going to do!
A coalition of seasoned middle-aged veterans and fired-up youngsters quickly formed the Anti-Xu Kun Alliance.
With sheer numbers and determination, they rocketed Zhou Chen from way outside the top five hundred on the Weibo celebrity popularity charts—the ranking Xu Kun's fans cared about most—straight into the top ten!
And he kept climbing higher!
He was showing faint momentum to surpass the third-place Xu Kun.
If he actually managed to overtake Xu Kun, where would the fans of Xu Kun put their faces?
Naturally, they couldn't just sit back and wait to die, so they poured all their energy into fighting back.
Unfortunately, most of them were still students with no financial independence. How could they possibly compete with a group of adults who had both money and time?
Zhou Chen was an unstoppable force, crushing Xu Kun's fans into a messy defeat with ashen faces.
Before the charts could even settle, people immediately noticed that Xu Kun's scheduled appearances were being canceled back-to-back, and his promotional ads were quietly being taken down.
Then, a blogger dropped an inside scoop:
[I stake my reputation on this gossip! Zhou Chen didn't steal Xu Kun's gig; Xu Kun just couldn't keep it in his pants! The night before the gala, he got caught soliciting prostitutes and was hauled down to the precinct! The production team had no choice but to call Zhou Chen in to rescue the show.]
The moment this piece of gossip dropped, it completely detonated Weibo.
"Impossible! My idol is the cleanest person alive; he gets shy just looking at women."
"Yeah, did you forget his 'gentleman hands' around female celebrities? Such a polite guy!"
"I hope whoever spreads rumors loses their whole family. Must be Zhou Chen's fans spreading lies again, right?"
"Oh ho, no wonder it happened so suddenly. Turns out he dug his own grave!"
"Hilarious. No wonder Xu Kun's fans were throwing tantrums for so long without getting an explanation."
"Didn't see that coming, did you? While you guys were charging the front lines, your base got stolen!"
"If the idol didn't say it happened, then it didn't happen. We have to trust him!"
"Yeah, trust our idol!"
"Idol, hurry up and explain yourself."
"..."
While everyone was speculating wildly, Xu Kun acted as though he knew nothing about the online storm, and even his studio maintained absolute silence.
The uproar drove his fans to protest frantically, and Xu Kun's trending searches dominated the charts for a full day.
Panicking and burning with anxiety, Xu Kun's fans realized that if he didn't respond soon, the rumors would be set in stone. Finally, Xu Kun made a surprise drop into a Weibo fan chat group and launched a live stream.
Catch the scent of gossip, crowds swarmed into the live stream room, only to hear Xu Kun saying: "...You guys be good, I'm fine! Looking forward to seeing everyone soon."
The live stream lasted a mere twenty minutes before Xu Kun logged off to prepare for "work."
Having received a personal response from Xu Kun himself, his fans swaggered back to life:
"My idol already debunked the rumors! This is all fake!"
"Why isn't the studio suing that gossip blogger? So completely devoid of public decency."
"The internet is not a lawless place; there are consequences for spreading rumors!"
"Zhou Chen's fans are truly disgusting, making up lies about things like this!"
" Fans take after their idol, I suppose."
"..."
Just as Xu Kun's fans were celebrating as if it were Chinese New Year and striking back with righteous indignation,
A police statement in white text against a blue background dropped straight to the number one spot on the trending search list:
Recently, Ping'an police apprehended a singer surnamed Xu (male, 28 years old) while cracking down on an illegal criminal case. The individual confessed in full to the illegal acts of multiple instances of prostitution, and has been placed under administrative detention in accordance with the law!
There were plenty of singers with the surname Xu.
Before everyone could confirm whether the "Xu" in question was indeed Xu Kun, eagle-eyed web users immediately noticed some unusual anomalies:
"Holy crap! Xu Kun's Weibo account has been banned!"
"You can't even send direct messages to his studio anymore!"
"The Supreme People's Procuratorate and CCTV have deleted all posts related to him too!"
"Do we even need to spell out who a 28-year-old surnamed Xu is?"
"Was that live stream just now Xu Kun's final struggle?"
"Xu Kun really has a stubborn mouth, still talking about seeing everyone soon."
"Xu Kun's fans truly reaped what they sowed..."
"Help, multiple times?! Is this the legendary clean-cut boy-next-door?"
"..."
As soon as this news broke, the internet blew up.
It was a complete meltdown!
Solid proof!
The pristine, pure boy-next-door who supposedly got shy around women turned out to be way easier to dig dirt on than the "vampire" Zhou Chen!
Everyone had witnessed firsthand how brutally smeared Zhou Chen had been these past few days, yet not a single video or photo had provided any real proof!
Combined with his songs Ten Years and The Ordinary Road, it sparked a wave of appreciation for his talent—only someone who had survived such a storm could write music so transcendent!
Riding the momentum of this incident, countless casual listeners converted and became fans of Zhou Chen.
Right at that moment,
Lin Hongfei published a Weibo post:
"Zhou Chen's new songs will officially launch today at 16:00, available to stream across all platforms!"
Terse and to the point.
It was Lin Hongfei's signature aloof style.
Zhou Chen's mouth twitched as he silently shared the post:
"No way, no way? Is there actually anyone who doesn't know the songs are dropping?"
One was Ten Years; the other was The Ordinary Road.
After a painful decade of love, what lay underfoot was the ordinary road.
It felt as though it was also saying that all the turbulence had passed, and everything ahead of them would be a smooth, wide highway.
You had to hand it to him—after a grueling multi-day melee where anyone else would have lost their mind, Zhou Chen was the only one calm enough to quietly record two songs.
"I'm crying, they're finally coming out!"
"You sneaky bastard, why didn't you tell me sooner, sob!"
"Holy crap, holy crap! Dominating the first and second spots across all major music platforms, and finally dropping the actual studio versions instead of rip-off audio!!!"
"Ahhhh, lossless audio quality! Do you have any idea how much I've suffered listening to screen-recorded audio all this time?!!"
"They're finally out! I practically wore those two videos down to digital dust!"
"You teasing little imp, you're finally giving them to me!"
"My long wait was not in vain."
People who had waited through trials and tribulations eagerly opened their phone apps, waiting for four o'clock in the afternoon to refresh and click through:
"Holy crap!"
"Free!!!"
"And completely free across all platforms!"
"Has he lost his mind???"