Huayu: Traffic is king

Chapter 200 Tian's Suspected Identity Exposed
Tian Xiwei was awakened by the continuous vibration of the alarm clock under her pillow. She took out her vibrating phone.

In the darkness, the faint light of a mobile phone screen lit up at 4:27.

There were 23 unread messages in the message bar. After opening the software, I found that they all came from the "Jingyiwei" group chat.

Breaking news, just 3 minutes ago.

"Plum Jam is only ranked 2nd, while Drop Tower has dropped to 3rd! Oh no, what should Sweetie do?"

Tian Xiwei frowned, dragging her tired body as she issued commands in the group chat:

Gu Jingyi's Donut: @All friends, only three hours left!

1. QQ Music link for "Everywhere I Go" playing on repeat.

2. Switching accounts on NetEase Cloud Music to play "Drop Tower" (or similar game), I remember it was...

3. Use the hashtag #GuJingyiNewAlbum# on Douyin to boost its popularity.

Dear "Jingyiwei" (Jingyi Guards), hold the line!

After 7 PM, major music platforms will experience a new peak in traffic. Casual listeners will gradually join in, bringing a new influx of viewers.

At that time, our focus will shift to "Plum Jam." We just need to maintain its number one position on all the charts for today. Gu Jingyi will then achieve a real-time "All Kill" and deliver the most satisfying result.

Tian Xiwei moved her finger and sent the message.

The group chat became lively, with one reply after another saying "Received".

They then methodically went to the management office to get numbers and generate data for Gu Jingyi's new song.

Tian Xiwei nodded and then habitually opened Weibo.

I copied the announcement that was sent in the WeChat group and posted it in the Super Topic.

Another group of casual fans saw it and replied with "1".

Suddenly, Tian Xiwei's vision went black, and the device in her hand was snatched away and thrown onto the bedside table.

The digital clock on the bedside table showed 4:21. Gu Jingyi grabbed Tian Xiwei's wrist and pulled her down into the fluffy bedding, where she was then held in Gu Jingyi's arms.

"Go to sleep," he said, his voice muffled by the silk fabric as he pulled the down comforter over his head. "I'll look at the list tomorrow."

Tian Xiwei struggled to peek out: "But on NetEase Cloud Music, there's 'Light Years Away'—"

Gu Jingyi chuckled lightly, "No need to think so much, just let nature take its course."

He placed his arm across her waist, and with his eyes closed, he precisely touched and gently pinched the back of her neck.

"Your boyfriend is Gu Jingyi, the one who redefined the top star. You don't need to consider everything for me, just trust me. It's already past four o'clock, the data engineers should be off work, right, Sweetie?"

Gu Jingyi emphasized the last few words, reading out the fan club nickname with a smile.

The lingering tone of the song carried a teasing undertone, and Tian Xiwei felt inexplicably flushed.

"Oh dear, what 'Sweetie Sister'? I'm clearly your little sweetheart!"

She pouted and buried her head in Gu Jingyi's chest.

The next second, her chin was lifted. Before she could speak, her words were silenced by a kiss. Gu Jingyi bit her lower lip and mumbled, "Then prove to me how much you love me. Seven more times, not one less."

Love rises with the wind, and fish and dragons dance all night.

.........

As usual, Erdi opened various music charts to learn about the latest developments in the Chinese music scene.

One name has been dominating all the music charts, such as the QQ Music Rising Chart.

1. Gu Jingyi's "Plum Jam" → (↑1st place)
2. Gu Jingyi's "Drop Tower" (↑3 places)
3. Gu Jingyi, "Everywhere I Go Is You" (↑7th place)
4. Gu Jingyi, "11" (↑4th place)
5. G.E.M. (Deng Ziqi) - "Light Years Away"

6. Ai Chen's "Can We?"

7. Gu Jingyi's "Hug Me"

8. Gu Jingyi, "A Short Letter, A Long Affection"

9. Gu Jingyi, *A Possible Night*

10. Ai Chen, "The Wind Rises"

Gu Jingyi occupies 7 of the Top 10 spots.

Aside from G.E.M., the rising star of the Chinese music scene, and Ai Chen, the absolute top star of the karaoke app during this period.

The charts are now dominated by Gu, prompting renowned music critic Erdi to frown and open NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou Music, and Kuwo Music.

He quickly exclaimed, "Is this for real? Did Gu Jingyi buy traffic? How could 'Plum Jam' beat a bunch of musicians on its first day of release and achieve an 'All Kill'? Even Zhou Jielun would have had a hard time achieving this in recent years, right?"

With this question in mind, he clicked on the music video for "Plum Jam".

At first, he felt the melody was too simple. It wasn't quite like the level of Gu Jingyi's previous album, but the progression of the melody made the whole song full of artistic conception.

The first verse is Gu Jingyi's usual level, and it sounds good.

When the chorus came, "Your gentle smile is like plum jam."

"I tasted the lip balm on your lips, it tasted minty."

"It's sweet love, and it's come so definitely."

Erdi frowned. The first half of the song's lyrics was really good.

But when it comes to the chorus, it can be a bit more rustic.

But to say it's particularly vulgar wouldn't really be accurate.

Perhaps he had high hopes for Gu Jingyi, so he always felt that this song was like a top student who consistently scored above 95 points handing in an 80-point exam paper.

It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's unbalanced in its subjects!
The lyrics have a good overall feel and sound warm. There's nothing overly strange about them, and comparing love to plum jam is indeed a very comforting comparison!
The most important things are the music, the arrangement, and the singing style!
The more Erdi listened, the wider his squinty eyes opened.

He had a premonition:
This song has a strong pop appeal and is sure to become a song with high listenership!
This means that this kind of song will be extremely strong in terms of chart performance!

And it's sure to have a strong staying power, soaring to the top of the charts every summer and Valentine's Day.

Ear Emperor listened to it again. "Is it just my imagination? This hook, 'Your gentle smile is like plum jam,' uses City pop rhythms as its base, which must be very suitable for the short video format, right?"

After the rise of short videos in 2018, many professional musicians also made a special effort to study them.

Some songs are well-suited to the needs of short videos and often become popular hits on short video platforms, giving them new popularity.

Clearly, Gu Jingyi's song "Plum Jam" is very much in line with the trend of short videos.

You just need to see if this song goes viral in short video challenges and hand gesture dances in the next few days.

As if on cue, the moment Erdi opened Douyin, he was greeted with a new update from Gu Jingyi.

Your gentle smile is like plum jam.

Gu Jingyi and a pretty, big-eyed girl were doing a hand gesture dance together.

Finally, she gently poked her favorite dimple with her fingertip, and the girl smiled brightly, her eyes filled with his image.

The caption for this Douyin video reads, "Has everyone been listening to plum sauce lately? @TianXiwei"

When Erdi opened the video, he discovered that Tian Xiwei was the female lead in the music video for this song.

He mechanically opened Tian Xiwei's Douyin account and glanced at her number of followers.

Only a few hundred thousand, seems like a newbie. Wait, why would Gu Jingyi suddenly challenge her?

They even specifically tagged her Douyin account. Aren't these two people a bit suspicious?

Given Gu Jingyi's popularity, why didn't he choose Song Qian, who is more professionally suited and also very sweet?

Also, the lyrics of this song are "sweet love".

Are you sure this isn't a "publicly funded romance" between the two of them? Gu Jingyi himself admitted that the relationship is "sweet."

It's terrifying to think about; young people these days really know how to have fun.

Looking at the comments section again, I saw that fans were selectively ignoring Tian Xiwei. Instead, they were showering Gu Jingyi with praise.

Only a true sister-in-law could make fans break down. Erdi looked at these fans who knew nothing at all with pity.

He also gave up on writing a music review for Gu Jingyi's song, lest Gu Jingyi's relationship be exposed and fans use the clues to attack him.

However, Gu Jingyi's album was truly a success.

Regardless of the lyrics, the fact that it maintained this level of success even after people started going to work is enough to prove that "Plum Jam" is a very successful album.

It must be said that EarEd's control over music is very accurate.

When it reached noon again, "Plum Jam," which had accumulated data, experienced another surge in popularity.

The reason is simple: working professionals and students now have more free time.

Gu Jingyi's "Plum Jam" took advantage of this period and became an instant hit in terms of word-of-mouth on short videos!

If listeners hear a song, they will only develop a preference for a singer if they love the song to the core.

Although Gu Jingyi doesn't have that ability, he has a lot of trump cards up his sleeve...

It's okay if you don't like "Plum Jam," but you'll surely like "Everywhere You Are" and "11" from the emo "trilogy," right?

What, not special enough?

What about "Hug Me"? It's a pretty typical sweet little song, isn't it?

That's still a bit lacking. How about "A Short Letter, A Long Affection" or "Youth"?

Gu Jingyi's album does not have a unified style.

To judge whether an album is good or not, all you need to do is make the songs sound good.

The songs that love to play with album concepts are K-pop songs, not Mandarin songs.

Moreover, the so-called album concept is merely "visible to fans".

Passersby don't care about the concept of the included tracks; they only care about whether it sounds good or bad.

Gu Jingyi's album is precisely targeted at the lower-tier market, aimed at casual listeners.

As for his performance, his sales figures are far ahead of the competition.

First-day sales broke records again. With the overwhelming popularity of the "Douyin Emperor" and the purchasing power of his fans, the album's first-day sales are expected to exceed 1.5 million RMB.

Cai Xukun was about to break down when he saw that his song "Wait Wait Wait" had sold 1500 million copies on its first day.

Fun fact: 1 Kun is approximately equal to 10 Yi.

Gu Jingyi's online traffic surpassed Cai Xukun's by a factor of several, breaking the record for Chinese digital albums.

The singles dominated the charts, with 12 highly addictive short video hits simultaneously occupying the top 10 of the hot song charts on platforms such as QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music. Among them, "Plum Jam", "Hug Me" and "Everywhere You Are" have been in the top three for a long time, with daily play counts exceeding 100 million.

On Douyin, the use of background music (BGM) has exploded.

After a week of buzz, Douyin launched the "Gu Jingyi Divine Song Challenge" across its entire platform, with over 2000 million videos created for the album's songs in a single week, which is exactly what Douyin users like.

Some of them didn't know Gu Jingyi at all before and couldn't match his name with his face.

But after a week of bombardment, anyone who uses Douyin knows Gu Jingyi.

Moreover, Gu Jingyi's album also boosted Douyin's daily active users by 15% in a single month. With Kuaishou's market share squeezed, Douyin executives were overjoyed.

Riding this wave of momentum, Gu Jingyi's digital album sales reached 5 million yuan in its first week.

QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music both sent good news, creating a huge buzz.

Tian Xiwei, who played the female lead in Gu Jingyi's music video, has also become a "new generation sweet girl" and has added Extra chewing gum as a new spokesperson.

Gu Jingyi, on the other hand, gained the added endorsement deals for sour plum drink and dried plums.

On the set of "Go Go Squid!", Gu Jingyi had just finished filming.

Lin Ze frowned, his face looking very pale.

"Jingyi, you've been scolded."

Tian Xiwei, who was sitting on a small stool waiting for the Shanghai Theatre Academy, suddenly stood up and raised her voice, "Which lapdog dares to act so shamelessly?"

Feeling her protectiveness, Gu Jingyi patted her on the back with amusement.

"Okay, stop making a fuss. Isn't it normal for me to get criticized? If I didn't get criticized, it would mean nobody cares. If I did get criticized, it would mean I'm in their way, which is why there's controversy."

Although Tian Xiwei listened, she was still somewhat sullen.

"But I can't let them insult you..."

"Who's insulting me, a music critic or a singer?" Gu Jingyi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He's a music critic, see for yourself..."

Lin Ze handed his phone directly to Gu Jingyi, and immediately began a long review:
Gu Jingyi: A Slave to Algorithms Under the Spotlight of Top Stars, Dragging the Chinese Music Scene into a Pigsty

This album is the pinnacle of the music industry's cesspool—10 saccharin-filled tracks cobbled together by algorithms, feeding the pigs of the short video era but starving the last vestige of artistic dignity!
Melody? "Plum Jam" is just a copy of the 12216155 template 10 times ("Drop Tower" didn't even bother to change the electronic sound effects);
Lyrics? "Honestly" and "You Are Everywhere" are just cobbled-together ramblings that make even a middle school student's notebook look eloquent;

You may have forgotten that Gu Jingyi's "Butter" recently gave Chinese people a lot of face.

The most tragic thing is that a top influencer who could have changed aesthetics has instead become a 'foreman of viral hits' by pandering to online traffic. When pseudo-inspirational songs like "Youth" and "Hug Me" flood short videos, we finally understand: Gu Jingyi isn't someone who can lead Chinese people to a counterattack against the Western market; he's a money-grubbing septic tank that has shattered the bottom line of the Chinese music scene!
"Hehe," Gu Jingyi laughed in exasperation.

He picked up his phone and logged into his long-dormant main account.

The fingers danced across the screen, beginning to respond.

"Jingyi, are you going back?" Lin Ze asked, somewhat surprised.

"Otherwise, we'll be bullied to the point of being taken advantage of."

Three minutes later, the fans discovered that their idol's Weibo account had been updated.

@Gu Jingyi:
I've recently seen many 'professionals' say that my new album is tacky and cheap.

Regarding being vulgar: If being 'vulgar' means making a food delivery driver hum "Youth" while riding his bike, it means making students hum "Drop Tower" on the playground after class.

I admit it!
Music should never be a toy used to reflect class; it should live in the lives of ordinary people.
Regarding the cheapness: The melody that some people consider 'cheap' was written by me while staying up all night;

The 'cheap' lyrics are a record of genuine feelings (laughs).

By the way, regarding those who say the melody is simple. When my idol Jay Chou's "Sunny Day" was first released, you guys criticized the "3323" melody too, right?

Finally, here's a lyric for all you judges: "Honestly, am I being too eccentric?" (Lyrics from "Honestly") You guys continue being sophisticated, my song and I are waiting for you at the hot pot restaurant.

Anyway, those who believe in "pig swill" think everything smells like pig swill, while I only care about feeding the people I love.

(End of this chapter)