On the night of November 31st, many people stayed up late, waiting for the gods of the industry to upload their tracks.
The clock struck midnight.
As the songs went live, an array of eye-catching promotional blurbs appeared alongside them. Several tracks by Grandmaster Composers were placed front and center. Most of these masters collaborated with reigning Kings and Queens of Song, making them all the more irresistible.
Without hesitation, almost everyone immediately sampled the Grandmaster tracks. Next came the collaborations between Gold-Medal Composers and frontline singers or Song Kings and Queens.
True to the Clash of Gods, many of these songs would have easily swept the charts in any ordinary month. Pitted against one another here, the competition was fierce and fiercely contested.
For the listeners, however, December was a blissful month. Their playlists were ready for a refresh, and they downloaded anything they liked without a second thought.
Once they had sampled the heavy hitters, many people finally remembered the much-discussed song by Whale Fall and Bai Yan.
Someone immediately dug up "May We All Be Blessed with Longevity".
The promotional blurb used wildly exaggerated phrasing: "Whale Fall's earth-shattering lyricism: May We All Be Blessed with Longevity."
Such over-the-top promotion was just begging for backlash.
What on earth had Xinhai's publicity department been thinking?
Many industry insiders confessed themselves completely baffled. How long had Whale Fall even been in the industry? He had only released a handful of songs—how could anyone call him a demigod already? "Earth-shattering," indeed. Had the brains at Xinhai's PR department finally fried?
Even so, these skeptics clicked on the song anyway.
Of course, a massive portion of the audience had actually opened the song out of sheer midnight curiosity right at the start.
Then, they heard it:
"How long will the bright moon shine? Holding wine, I ask the clear sky. I wonder in the heavenly palaces, what year is it tonight..."
What the hell? These are pop lyrics?
Aren't these classical poems?
"I wish to ride the wind and return, yet I fear the jade towers and crystal mansions, so high up, the cold is unbearable. I dance with my clear shadow, as if I were no longer among mortals."
Holy crap, I feel like something carved deep into my DNA just woke up.
They could almost see a figure chanting softly in the moonlight, robes fluttering as they drifted away on the wind—unattainable, blurry, yet impossible to let go of.
"Turning the vermilion pavilion, dipping low through silk-latticed windows, shining on the sleepless. There should be no resentment—why is the moon always full when people are parted?"
An ethereal, pure voice, carrying a trace of bitter, mournful sorrow, echoed in everyone's heart.
"People experience sorrow and joy, absence and reunion; the moon is dim or bright, waxing and waning. These things have rarely been perfect since ancient times. May we all be blessed with longevity, sharing the beauty of the moon even a thousand miles apart."
The lingering melody resonated, refusing to fade from the ear.
So beautiful, so sorrowful, yet so transcendent.
The immediate reaction of many listeners upon finishing the song was:
Holy shit, this wasn't false advertising after all?!
This time, it truly was a masterwork of earth-shattering proportions.
Whale Fall had ascended to the pantheon, no doubt about it!
Who else in the entertainment industry could write lyrics like this?
*Just tell me who else.jpg*
Download, like, repost.
I refuse to let anyone go without hearing this song.
And so, the onlookers, the cynics, and the singers, composers, and lyricists who had released tracks in December hoping to climb the charts and reach new heights watched helplessly as a single song shot up in rankings and downloads like a rocket.
It overtook them one by one.
All their previous confidence, sarcastic sneers, and schadenfreude vanished into thin air in the span of a single night.
Yet anyone who listened to the song understood: this was only natural!
There was no room for luck, no ground for resentment.
The controversy ended right then and there.
Whale Fall was truly a god!
These lyrics were genuinely god-tier!
With lyrics like these, how could he not become a Gold-Medal Composer? And how could Bai Yan's performance fail to secure her the title of Song Queen?
Besides, aside from the lyrics, the composition itself was hardly lacking.
The next day, a Whale Fall fan directly tagged a prominent Weibo influencer who had previously claimed Whale Fall was just clinging to Bai Yan's coattails to secure Gold-Medal status:
"I'd like to ask, who was riding whose coattails here?"
Below the post was a meme: *Go on, keep talking, let's see what else you can pull out of your hat.jpg*
The influencer didn't pull anything out of his hat. He simply posted a quiet meme: *Big shot is unmatched.jpg*
The December Clash of Gods ended in an extremely short span of time, with Whale Fall stepping over the shoulders of numerous Grandmaster Composers and Lyric Gods to claim the number one spot.
And it was an indisputable number one.
Not a single person had any objections.
For the first time, this forced many Grandmasters and Lyric Gods to truly take this newcomer seriously.
Previously, the uproar online hadn't bothered them in the least—they had simply dismissed it as a junior making a fuss.
Who would have thought that a slap in the face could come as fast as a tornado?
Several Lyric Gods gathered in a club, staring at the track and breaking into bitter smiles. They couldn't guarantee they could write anything of this caliber themselves.
Over the next few days, heated discussions and analyses of the lyrics to "May We All Be Blessed with Longevity" swept across the internet.
While many lyricists frantically debated the genius of the words with their peers, composers began pondering the possibility of collaborating with Whale Fall in the future.
The lyrics of this song clearly overshadowed the composition. If they could get Whale Fall to pen lyrics for their own melodies, they might just churn out a classic.
Consequently, Old Xu's phone started ringing off the hook once again.
Xu Nanshan didn't pass every single collaboration request along to Yu Hai. He merely mentioned it in passing during the phone call where he informed him of his promotion to Gold-Medal Composer.
To this, Yu Hai's reply was that he would consider suitable opportunities if they arose.
Indeed, Yu Hai had effortlessly attained the Gold-Medal Composer title that many composers failed to reach in a lifetime.
His Weibo account was verified by the official Music Association almost immediately, adorned with a small red crown. (Ace Composers received a golden one.)
This felt somewhat surreal to many people who had been following Whale Fall.
How long had this composer known as Whale Fall even been in the industry? Had it even been half a year?
How did he become a Gold-Medal Composer just like that?
Why was it so easy for him to reach the gold tier?
Driven by curiosity, many people flocked to the official Music Association website to dig into Whale Fall's streaming and download data.
Earlier, some people had listed his numbers, even claiming Whale Fall would make gold within the year. But back then, most people had simply laughed it off as a joke, taking none of it seriously.
Now, however, they discovered that from his debut until today, Whale Fall had released a total of five songs, and every single one of them had maintained a certain level of popularity, with downloads far exceeding five million—and several even surpassing ten million.
It seemed that whatever Whale Fall produced was guaranteed to be a masterpiece!
Surely, this year's annual hit songs would feature a spot reserved for Whale Fall.
From this day onward, many industry insiders who had previously viewed Whale Fall as a mere rookie began to fundamentally shift their mindset.
On this day, Yu Hai's follower count finally crossed the ten-million mark.
That was the kind of treatment and reputation reserved exclusively for Gold-Medal Composers.
While others focused on that, Whale Fall's attention was elsewhere.
His Gold-Medal status prompted the company to increase his revenue share: where it used to be a fifty-fifty split, it was now seventy-thirty in his favor.
Even so, Yu Hai already had more than enough money for his current needs.
Feeling like he couldn't possibly spend it all, he began quietly donating to various charitable causes, keeping things so low-profile that no one else knew.
Consider it accumulating some good karma for the original owner and his father!
After all, having hijacked someone else's body—even if he hadn't done it on purpose—he still felt a twinge of guilt.
Yu Hai decided to donate twenty percent of his income.
It wasn't because he was inherently a philanthropist.
He knew that with the system at his disposal, he would only earn more and more money, more than enough for his own expenses. Since twenty percent wouldn't impact his lifestyle in the slightest while buying him peace of mind, why wouldn't he do it?