Watching Zhou Chen's name suddenly surge to red across various platforms, Ye Nan could hardly believe it.
"When did he write this song?"
"Above the Moon", "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond", "China Style"... The songs by this duo were certainly good, but their widely criticized flaws were equally obvious: bootleg style, rustic vibes, agricultural heavy metal... While this didn't stop the songs from exploding in popularity, they were simply too tacky and completely mismatched with Zhao Min's image.
Could you ever imagine Lin Daiyu uprooting a willow tree by its roots?
Having Zhao Min sing these songs with her pure and sweet face gave off precisely that kind of feeling.
And "Ten Years" was the exact opposite extreme!
Delicate, tender, and most terrifying of all was the resonance stirred up by his voice.
Upon first hearing, you don't yet understand the song's meaning; by the time you hear it again, you are already living inside the song.
This was the song Ye Nan wanted!
This was the song Ye Nan wanted Zhao Min to sing!
Since Zhou Chen was capable of writing such an outstanding song, why hadn't he brought it out earlier for Zhao Min?!
"I—I don't know!"
A look of utter bewilderment crossed Zhao Min's face. She knew Zhou Chen wrote songs, and she had seen all of his manuscripts, but there was definitely not this one among them!
Yet he had clearly held nothing back from her!
Could it be that Zhou Chen was keeping secrets from her after all?
"Sing this song, you must sing this song!"
"This song's current buzz is definitely more than just what you see on the surface. Trust me, if you can secure this song, the Director's Team of 'King of Singers' will personally invite you to take the stage!"
Ye Nan had a premonition that this song would not only become a massive hit, but it would also undoubtedly become a classic handed down through generations!
It was entirely capable of becoming the number one golden hit among the younger generation!
If Zhao Min wanted to shed her earthy, "down-to-earth" label, she had to start with this song.
The more Ye Nan thought about it, the more excited she became; she couldn't wait another second!
She reopened the video. "Hurry up and learn it. While it still has this buzz, record a cover and post it right away."
The soothing, smooth sound of a guitar drifted out softly, followed by Zhou Chen's deep, magnetic voice flowing with a faint hint of bitterness. Even though it wasn't top-tier recording equipment, he still managed to make it sound like it was played through a million-dollar audio system.
Zhao Min belatedly realized that Zhou Chen's control over his vocals and details was actually better than her own!
Of course, every time she recorded a song, Zhou Chen had been right there by her side assisting and directing.
The song ended.
Zhao Min bit her lip and reminded her, "Sister Nan, covers require copyright. I don't have the copyright."
"No need to worry. You just sing your part; I'll go get it from Zhou Chen. He won't refuse."
Ye Nan was full of confidence.
Zhou Chen had always been so good to Zhao Min. Even though they had agreed to a divorce, they hadn't collected their official certificates yet, so they were still legally a married couple.
Would a husband and wife really nitpick over the copyright of a single song?
At worst, this could just be considered the last good deed Zhou Chen did for Zhao Min before their divorce.
It was just that in order to temporarily appease Zhou Chen so he would willingly hand over the song, the plan she and the marketing accounts had prepared to slowly release news of their divorce today to drum up buzz would simply have to be pushed back a bit.
After all, the top priority right now was securing the copyright for "Ten Years"!
If she could enter the second season of "King of Singers" under the banner of being the first to perform "Ten Years", the Director's Team definitely wouldn't refuse!
At this thought, a flash of absolute determination crossed Ye Nan's eyes.
She liked Zhao Min: she had talent, ambition, and was willing to sacrifice anything to climb higher.
Look at Zhou Chen by contrast: he had talent, but zero ambition, content to work behind closed doors in isolation. Other singers were desperate to release two albums a year and chase commercial gigs everywhere.
As for Zhou Chen, not only was his recording speed slow, but a tiny mistake meant starting the whole thing over from the beginning. Clearly, letting the tuning engineer fix it would have been enough—a five-minute job that he dragged out into half a day or even longer!
He was a perfectionist splitting hairs!
He forced every staff member to accommodate his nitpicking!
He wasn't even a top-tier Heavenly King—was there really any need to strive for such extreme perfection?
With that kind of time, he'd be better off running more commercial gigs and cashing in on his fame with advertisements and variety shows!
Unfortunately, Zhou Chen was like a stubborn rock in a latrine—stinking and hard, completely refusing to listen to her.
Fortunately, the two of them were divorced.
Zhao Min, who had more fame and earning power, was in her hands.
Ye Nan was determined to propel her to the very top!
And secure her own position as a gold-medal manager!
With these thoughts, Ye Nan became even more set on securing Zhou Chen's song "Ten Years."
She pulled out her phone and dialed Zhou Chen directly.
As Ye Nan considered how she should open the conversation once the call went through, a cold female voice sounded from the receiver:
"The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later..."
Her call had been rejected by Zhou Chen?!
Refusing to believe it, Ye Nan dialed back again.
This time, the prompt changed instantly:
"The number you have dialed is powered off..."
Zhou Chen had actually blocked her!
Ye Nan found it hard to believe.
How dare he block her?
How could he block her!
Did he not want the resources in her hands anymore?!
Ye Nan's chest rose and fell, her face turning as dark as the bottom of a pot.
"What's wrong?"
Zhao Min raised her head, her eyes red-rimmed.
This song "Ten Years" was written far too well!
Not only the lyrics, but the melody fit the mood to perfection.
Listening to it instantly brought up a bitterness that felt entirely lived-in.
Since Zhou Chen could write such a love song, he must still have feelings for her.
It was just a pity...
In the end, they were simply not people of the same path.
"Minmin, call Zhou Chen."
Ye Nan said through gritted teeth, still refusing to believe that Zhou Chen had blocked her.
Zhao Min didn't know what had happened, but seeing Ye Nan's dark expression, she was clearly furious. Without asking any further questions, Zhao Min took out her phone and dialed Zhou Chen.
"The number you have dialed is powered off..."
"Powered off?"
Zhao Min was a bit puzzled. In the past, so she could find him at any moment, Zhou Chen's phone was never turned off.
How could it be turned off now?
Seeing the landline on her desk, Ye Nan reminded her, "Try the landline at home."
"Ah? But isn't his phone off..." Zhao Min started to say, then suddenly seemed to remember something. She immediately sat up straight and punched Zhou Chen's cell phone number into the landline.
Beep, beep—
"Hello?"
Zhou Chen's voice came clearly through the receiver.
He had actually blocked her!
The person who had promised that whenever she wanted to find him, she only needed to make a call and she would always reach him, had actually blocked her!
At that moment, Zhao Min couldn't describe what she was feeling. She finally gained a bit of the stark reality that she and Zhou Chen had agreed to a divorce.
He would never let her reach him at any hour of the day ever again!
"...I actually forgot this number."
From the receiver, Zhou Chen muttered as if just realizing it. Before Zhao Min could speak—click—the call was disconnected.
He had hung up on her first! This was definitely something that had never happened before!
Zhao Min stood frozen in a daze, unable to speak. When Ye Nan called back again, she found herself unequivocally blocked.
Zhou Chen could be so hard-hearted and merciless!
Men truly were the most ruthless creatures!
Ye Nan sneered. Dumping him really was the right choice; otherwise, once Minmin achieved success and renown, this guy would have just tagged along to enjoy the fruits of her labor, which would have been utterly disgusting.
Such heartlessness played right into their hands!
...
On the other side.
Zhou Chen decisively blocked the villa's landline.
After a moment of thought, just to be safe, he casually blocked WeChat, Weibo, Doukuai, and other social media apps right along with it.
As the saying goes, a good ex should act like they're dead; you only pop back to life on the day you collect your divorce certificate!
Don't go corpse-jumping every two days—that's terrifying, okay?
His poor little heart couldn't take it!
After this flurry of operations, his status as a minor nobody didn't cause much of a splash.
Given Ye Nan's eagerness to rush him into divorcing Zhao Min, aside from notifying him about the day to pick up the divorce papers, she definitely wouldn't want any contact with him whatsoever.
Now that "Ten Years" had exploded in popularity, her calling him at a time like this made her motives completely self-evident.
She wanted to squeeze out his absolute final drop of value?
Well, netizens didn't call him the Copyright Brother for nothing!
He had to live up to the title!
Zhou Chen swiftly logged into his Weibo account, snapped a photo of the sheet music and lyrics for "Ten Years," added a caption, and hit send!
Zhou Chen V: Hello everyone.
"I am the lyricist, composer, and singer of 'Ten Years.' Thank you all for liking this song. This song holds a special meaning for me and is also the first track on my upcoming personal album, so the copyright will not be sold, nor will it be licensed for commercial performances or other profit-making gigs for the time being.
Thank you all once again for your love for 'Ten Years,' and please look forward to my upcoming personal album!"
Ping-pong!
Ping-pong!
"Ten Years" was at the absolute peak of its trending momentum. The moment this Weibo post went live, comments instantly flooded in underneath:
"Copyright Brother lives up to his name!"
"May I ask what the joke about Copyright Brother is?"
"Directing the person above to Tang Tang's livestream cut, the number one defender of copyright in the domestic entertainment industry, hahaha."
"Tang Tang: 'Wanna sing?' Passerby: 'Sing, sing, sing, singing with Tang Tang is my honor!' Zhou Chen: 'Do you have the copyright?'"
"Hahaha, savage, Copyright Brother! Come to think of it, I only just learned today that covers need copyright."
"There must be loads of people wanting to sing this song, right? It really sounds amazing! So much flavor."
"Who? Who is it? Suddenly emphasizing copyright like that—could someone have asked for the rights? I smell tea here!"
"Ahhhhh a new album??? So there are going to be more new songs later!"
"I wonder how many songs are on the new album; I hope it doesn't start with a bang and then fizzle out at the end!"
"A solo album!!! Did you see that, a solo album!!! What does that mean? What does that mean???"
"It means the person above needs to go see a doctor."
"Is Zhou Chen debuting as a solo artist? What about Wind and Moon Legend? What happens to Zhao Min?"
"Can Wind and Moon Legend still be called Wind and Moon Legend without Zhou Chen?"
"What's wrong with Zhao Min? Zhao Min is super talented too. If she debuted as a solo artist, she would've blown up ages ago."
"Exactly, back at the beginning they only gained traction because of Minmin's dual-keyboard playing. Don't forget the well-digger when drinking water, alright?"
"Zhou Chen is just a freeloader. When he first debuted, he hyped himself up using Minmin's skills. Once he got famous, he slacked off and took half of Minmin's earnings, and now he's finally showing his wild ambitions!"
"Just waiting to see Zhou's solo album flop."
"Zhou Chen is going solo? Congratulations to Minmin for getting her freedom!"
"Minmin is finally going to walk her own flower path!"
"..."
Compared to the casual fans of Zhou Chen's "Ten Years," when it came to combat effectiveness, Zhao Min's die-hard fans were a cut above.
They were accustomed to swarming any news related to Zhou Chen.
Not to mention that Zhou Chen was about to release a solo album, sending a clear signal of going solo.
Zhao Min's fans caught the scent and swarmed in.
In no time at all, the comment section under Zhou Chen's Weibo post was completely occupied.
Opening the comment section, the top thirty comments were all meticulously controlled by Zhao Min's fan base to congratulate her.
Looking at all this, Zhou Chen wasn't annoyed in the least; he even wanted to thank these die-hard fans of Zhao Min for directly pushing his Weibo post onto the trending searches so that even more mainstream passersby would see it.
When those people clicked in and read the comments from Zhao Min's fans, what kind of impression would they form?
They wouldn't think their behavior was cute; they would only feel that these fans lacked basic manners and boundaries.
After all, on the surface, Zhou Chen and Zhao Min were still legally married, and their previous relationship had always seemed quite good.
Moreover, Zhou Chen hadn't mentioned anything related to Zhao Min in this Weibo post whatsoever, yet these fans came sniffing around the moment they caught a whiff!
And once they came, they even controlled the comment section!
Their whole gimmick was trying to tear apart a happily married couple.
How could that not breed resentment?
And along with it, people's favorable impression of Zhao Min would inevitably drop.
Zhou Chen glanced over them casually, pretending he hadn't seen a thing.
The one who should be anxious wasn't him.
His top priority right now was getting the accompaniment for this song properly done.
Compared to the original accompaniment, the solo guitar version was still far too rough.
Singing it in the livestream only managed to bring out about half of the song's actual feel.
The only question was, where should he go to record it properly?
The recording studio that Wind and Moon Legend had previously partnered with was definitely out of the question.
Other recording studios would work, but Zhou Chen found their equipment subpar.
Since he was going to do this, he wanted every single aspect done to the absolute best standard.
He refused to settle, and he wasn't going to compromise.