Huayu 2011: Starting with Hilarious Men

Zheng Nan has accounts on three Weibo platforms: Sina Weibo, Sohu Weibo, and Tencent Weibo.

The Weibo account with the most followers is Sina Weibo, with 720,000 followers, while Sohu Weibo and Tencent Weibo combined have less than 400,000 followers.

I usually manage my followers on Weibo mainly for promotional purposes.

My buddy wrote a song, everyone come listen!

The Weibo post was published and immediately received replies from netizens.

What song is it? The theme song for the second season of "Hilarious Men"?

Where's the song? What am I listening to?

Yeah, what are you listening to?

[Just sending text? Dude, are you just imagining the song in your head?]

"Boss, you have so many active followers on Weibo," Aya said with envy.

"Don't be obsessed with me, I'm just a legend." Zheng Nan accepted Aya's envy without hesitation, and then edited and posted a second Weibo post.

[This is an original song written and composed by my buddy. If you don't like it, I'll wash my hair upside down!]

Zheng Nan attached a video to the Weibo post, which was recorded on her phone, showing Chen Li singing in the recording studio. Because it was recorded on a phone, the video quality was average and there was slight shaking.

Just one second after it was posted, a netizen commented, "It doesn't sound good. You should wash your hair upside down."

[Two-minute video, buddy, you watched it in one second? Quantum speed reading, huh?] Zheng Nan was preparing to reply to a few more silly comments from netizens, hoping to get on the trending topics and let more people hear the song.

[After listening for only a couple of sentences, I sincerely ask: Isn't it dangerous for the ocean to kiss a shark? The blogger's safety awareness is a bit weak!] A netizen's comment, made as a joke.

【My wife cake I just bought doesn't have a wife in it, and neither does the husband and wife lung slices. *crying emoji*】 Zheng Nan replied.

[After watching "Chasing the Dawn at Dusk," I'm still single. I can't stay calm, so I'm going to have an hour-long romance.] - Comment from a single netizen.

[Getting caught by the police is not an acceptable explanation.] Zheng Nan noticed that there were a lot of male fans in his fan base.

[It's great! When will the official version of the song be released?]

[Come listen tonight at 8 PM.]

Zheng Nan browsed the comment sections of three Weibo platforms, but Sina Weibo, which had the highest popularity, failed to make it to the trending topics. Instead, Sohu Weibo did.

"It's good to have a collaboration; it makes it easier to trend on Weibo." Zheng Nan silently made a mental note about Sina Weibo: they won't let you trend if you don't pay them, huh!

"We've built up some initial buzz. I'll have Chen Li register accounts on all the major platforms in a bit, and we'll release the song all at once tonight," Aya said, taking notes.

In 2011, the core rule of mainstream music platforms in China could be summed up in one sentence: basic listening was completely free.

This has led to a large number of music platforms, such as QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music, Baidu Music, Qianqian Music, etc., resulting in fierce competition among these platforms. New songs that want to become popular have to be released on multiple platforms.

"Did I sing alright?" Chen Li asked cautiously as she walked out of the recording studio.

"I suddenly remembered something!" Zheng Nan slammed his phone down and shouted!

"What's wrong?!" This was the second time in two days that Chen Li had seen Zheng Nan act so startled, and she strongly suspected that the boss's talent was earned through sheer willpower.

While Zheng Nan was browsing Weibo comments, she suddenly saw a netizen whose username was Qu Xiang Xiang Tian Ge.

This single word, "qu," stirred up memories deep within Zheng Nan's mind.

As a Northeasterner, he remembered a stupid singer with the surname Qu, named Qu Wanting. This stupid singer's mother did countless things!

When was this idiot's famous song "In My Song" released?

Zheng Nan tried hard to recall, but couldn't remember.

In her previous life, Zheng Nan only learned about "My Song" long after it became a hit, and didn't learn much about the song's creation time.

Zheng Nan quickly searched the entire internet and finally found only one similar demo clip.

"Ha, a demo doesn't count as copyright, and it hasn't been officially released, right? This time, I'm going to crush your entire business!"

A brilliant idea came to mind: Zheng Nan was more than willing to do anything that would annoy Shabi.

Having been reborn, of course we should live life to the fullest.

"I've got an inspiration! I've written another song. Chen Li, let's record another one! We'll release both songs tonight!" Zheng Nan said to Chen Li.

"Wrote another song? When did you write it?" Chen Li was stunned. Weren't you just playing on your phone?

"I just wrote it. I'll write out the lyrics for you and hum the melody for you." As the boss, Zheng Nan naturally didn't need to explain much to his employees.

Under the watchful eyes of Chen Li, Aya, and the sound engineer, Zheng Nan picked up Aya's notebook and began to write.

"You Exist in My Song"

without any precautions,

Without a single worry,

You just appeared in my world like that.

It surprised me so much, I couldn't contain my joy...

"Sing it! Didn't you sing it as soon as you saw the lyrics yesterday?" Aya nudged Chen Li.

"This song doesn't feel as good to me as 'The Song of Wonderful Abilities,' I can't sing it," Chen Li replied softly.

It's difficult to tell whether a song is good or bad just by looking at the lyrics.

After Zheng Nan finished writing the lyrics and sang them himself, the three nodded and gave a unified evaluation: "Boss, you sing off-key."

"..." Zheng Nan was speechless. What kind of employees had he hired? "I'm here to judge the quality of the songs, not how well I sing!"

The success of many works is related to the time and environment at the time.

"A Chinese Odyssey" is a good movie, but it did poorly at the box office when it was released, which directly led to the bankruptcy of Star Overseas Film Company founded by Stephen Chow.

Even good works are unlikely to succeed if they are not released at the right time.

At this point in 2011, Zheng Nan has more confidence in "My Song" than in "The Song of Wonderful Abilities".

"I was so focused on the boss singing off-key that I didn't pay much attention to the song. Chen Li, did you memorize the melody? Sing it once." Aya believed that professional tasks should be done by professionals.

There's no need for the boss to handle such a small matter as singing; let Chen Li, the singer, do it.

"I've got it." Chen Li nodded. For professional singers, memorizing melodies is a very simple thing.

Chen Li went into the recording studio and recorded "My Song" once. This time, everyone could tell that it was a good song.

"That sounds great! Boss, you're so talented!" Aya didn't hold back her praise.

"Boss Zheng, I also have a dream of becoming a singer." Even the recording engineer was tempted and wanted to curry favor with Zheng Nan.

Singers know best how rare a good song is; many professional singers only have one representative work in their entire career.

What merit does Chen Li possess to receive two good songs in just two days?

Will my boss give me another new song tomorrow?! I wish I had his brain!!!

As Chen Li daydreamed, she looked at Zheng Nan with utter admiration: "Isn't a four-year contract too short?"

"Stop praising me, let's record the song."

Zheng Nan posted another Weibo update: "[My buddy wrote another song, let's release them together tonight!]"

Before Zheng Nan could even interact with netizens, a QQ notification sounded, and a Crayon Shin-chan emoji popped up.

...Divider line...

I did a lot of research when I was writing this. For example, the web series "Online Love" used the song "My Song", but it wasn't used on the premiere day of 2011-09-02. It was used in the revised/rebroadcast version after 2012.

In September 2011, only the low-quality demo of "You Exist in My Song" was available online; there was no full version.

In July 2012, Nettwerk and Universal Music stated at a press conference that "You Exist in My Song" was composed in 2010, but there is no evidence to support this claim.

In September 2011, the song "In My Song" was a work without copyright, audio source, or promotion.

Please forgive any errors or omissions. I really want to punish Qu Wanting's family. I didn't even bother to type the homophones when I wrote their names.