Lin Fei

The speakers were still looping Kong Xi's rendition of Always Been Quiet.

"Empty streetscapes, looking for someone to pour feelings into." "Making this kind of decision, loneliness is my neighbor."

The voice was soft and pleasant, tinged with a faint melancholy.

Lin Fei quickly calmed down, hesitated, and placed her hand over the delete button on the post.

After a moment's pause, she let out a self-deprecating laugh.

"Why should they be allowed to attack and smear me however they want, never once considering whether I'm happy or not, while I have to think about so much?"

"I want to speak, so I'll speak. What can they do?"

She turned off the speakers, stood up, and walked out of the office feeling refreshed.

After greeting a group of people with a smile, she drove off in her newly purchased coupe.

Her mood suddenly lifted again—time for a SPA!

Nine in the morning.

Song Dao was studying the electronic contract sent over from the Penguin Platform.

This wave of traffic had given the other party a taste of sweetness, bringing in many new users. The deep-pocketed Penguin immediately recognized Song Dao's value as a newcomer.

To lock him in long-term, they promptly offered a generous new contract.

This included See Through Love, See Through You, which hadn't yet received its share split, changing directly from a 60-40 split to 70-30.

The platform gets thirty percent, Song Dao gets seventy!

Don't underestimate that extra ten percent cut—for Song Dao right now, it was still a huge amount of money!

Living in Beijing wasn't easy.

Even if the original owner hadn't blown that money being a simp, buying a house and settling down here would still be tough.

Not to mention the little cash he had left in his pocket now—he couldn't even afford to swap for the latest smartphone.

So Penguin's move was still heartwarming to him.

This contract was modified from the previous standard one; aside from the benefits and some recommendations, nothing else changed.

Song Dao was very satisfied. After replying to confirm it, he saw a flood of messages from Kong Xi, a few dormmates, and some other acquaintances.

He thought to himself, What's up now?

Although the buzz was still ongoing, he hadn't shown his face or responded, so no one had been bothering him daily.

He opened Kong Xi's message.

"Senior Brother, my boss just backed you up!"

"It's really amazing—my boss hasn't posted anything on Shuibo in years, at most just going through the motions on holidays, saying 'Happy New Year' or something, but she actually made a post for you!"

"Oh, and Senior Brother, I didn't say you're Teacher Sanqian who created Always Been Quiet, so don't misunderstand. Sister Yan Yu specifically told me not to blab, and I haven't shown the contract to anyone, so rest assured, Senior Brother, I won't tell anyone!"

Reading this girl's message was like not reading it at all—Song Dao had no idea who Kong Xi's boss was.

Seemed like a pretty big deal.

After checking messages from a few dormmates and some alumni, he finally pieced together the full picture.

And he understood why Kong Xi was so excited.

Her boss was actually Lin Fei?!

The National Goddess hailed as the Xia Kingdom's Last Heavenly Queen was the boss behind Kong Xi's company?

Then this sister, who had been retired for a long time, got dissed again by music critic Cui Luo and actually stepped in personally to speak up for him...

What a surreal feeling.

Song Dao opened Shuibo and immediately spotted topics about Lin Fei on the trending list.

Whoa!

He couldn't help but mutter what a beast to himself.

No wonder she was a Heavenly Queen-level figure—just casually posting something and she hogged three trending spots!

First place: [Hidden for Years, Young Heavenly Queen Speaks Up for Music Industry Newcomer!]

Fifth place: [Sister Fei Appears!]

Ninth place: [What's the Relationship Between Lin Fei and Song Dao?]

Clicking into Lin Fei's post, Song Dao finally saw just how terrifying a Heavenly Queen's influence could be.

From the time she posted until now, at most a little over an hour, this post already had over seven hundred thousand likes and nearly two hundred thousand replies!

This wasn't the era of big entertainment companies buying traffic for their top stars, and Lin Fei wasn't bored enough to spend money promoting herself.

To cause such a massive impact in such a short time could only mean Lin Fei's national recognition was indeed terrifyingly high.

Looking at the post content—

[I heard the Central Conservatory of Music recently produced a pretty impressive young talent. I listened to that song—the melody is catchy, and the lyrics strike straight at the heart.

I don't think this is a retaliatory song.

If speaking the truth counts as retaliation, then I guess today's values are just incomprehensible.

The fact that he hasn't used this wave of traffic for anything is proof enough.

Songs, like literary works, have both artistic embellishment and grounded realism.

How do you judge whether a song is good?

Simple!

Give the power of judgment back to the listeners.

Music is meant to be heard!

As long as people enjoy listening to it, it stirs emotional resonance, and its values aren't problematic, I think it's a good song!

As for others who say they don't like it—who the hell do you think you are?]

After reading, Song Dao couldn't help but exclaim again.

This sister is fierce!

The whole post didn't mention Ma Shen or Cui Luo once, giving them zero screen time.

But every single line refuted their arguments.

Full of punch.

The comment section below was also blowing up.

"Holy crap, sister actually showed up!"

"Who's Song Dao? Sister's speaking up for him? Fei Hongs, three minutes—I want all the info on this Song Dao, right now!"

"Drop the 'I want' vibe, sis. You don't even know Song Dao? Go scroll through Audio-Visual, you'll get the full story!"

"Wahhh, Sister Fei's finally out! Missed you so much! I've been waiting since high school till college graduation—when will you come out and sing?"

"A once-in-a-lifetime moment. First time I heard Sister Fei, I was in middle school, a flower of the motherland. Now I've successfully clocked into a factory to screw bolts, a glorious wage slave."

"Finally, a heavyweight steps up to speak justice for our Brother Dog? Horse-Face Shen and Black-Mouth Cui, you two act like you're the embodiment of truth—you say it's good, it's good; you say it's bad, it's bad. Borrowing Sister Fei's line—you say you don't like it, who the hell do you think you are?"

"Sister Fei's so cool, domineering and mighty!"

"Pure passerby. Haven't really listened to Lin Fei's songs, but what she said is absolutely spot-on. Some people are just bored out of their minds, strutting around like Teddy dogs all day, picking fights and leeching traffic—they've been asking for it!"

"Upstairs, don't insult Teddy dogs, okay? Animal protection warning!"

"I've always felt Song Dao's song was maliciously twisted by some people. His song is more of a critique of this phenomenon than revenge on his ex-girlfriend!"

"No doubt. If his ex-girlfriend hadn't shamelessly started streaming to ride this wave of traffic, would anyone even know who she is? And she still has the nerve to claim online bullying? Song Dao never even mentioned her name, right?"

To be honest, given Song Dao's personality, he wasn't really into gossip.

But the replies in Lin Fei's comment section still had him reading for an entire morning.

He also noticed something.

There were no paid trolls in Lin Fei's space!

Song Dao guessed they couldn't win, so they didn't dare to come.

Even though Lin Fei had been retired for years, her fans' combat power was truly fierce!

The comment section wasn't free of snarky voices—like mocking Lin Fei and Song Dao for being "birds of a feather."

Both singing shallow, meaningless pop songs.

Or digging up old grudges, calling Lin Fei shameless.

But they were quickly drowned out by Lin Fei's terrifyingly massive fanbase.

No help for it. This woman hadn't posted a serious Shuibo in years, and this post made her fans feel like it was New Year's.

They also saw a glimmer of hope.

Maybe Sister Fei still had a chance to make a comeback!

Facing those black fans, they unleashed a frenzy, venting years of pent-up emotions all at once.

Soon, aside from a few die-hard holdouts clinging to private accounts and still yapping, everyone else was forced to delete their posts.

If they didn't delete, they might even get doxxed...

Song Dao didn't know much about what Lin Fei had been through. Five or six years ago, his original self was still in high school.

He only had a vague impression of the incident.

First, the producer who made her famous died unexpectedly. Then her father suddenly stabbed her in the back, coming out to accuse her of being unfilial.

After that, a tidal wave of online abuse swept across the internet, and all kinds of dirt against her exploded at once.

The specifics were unclear.

The original host was too busy with her studies at the time to pay any attention.

By the time she entered university, the matter had already passed.

She was also busy being a simp, circling around Miao Xiu all day, with even less energy to care about outside affairs.

Song Dao thought for a moment and searched on Zhi Fou.

He actually found several detailed, highly-upvoted analysis posts, which gave him a good understanding of the whole story.

Lin Fei had shown extraordinary musical talent from a young age. If she had been born into a happy family, she might have become famous before she turned eighteen.

Unfortunately, her parents divorced early on.

Her father, a struggling eighteenth-tier actor in the entertainment industry, was nothing short of scum aside from his good looks.

Drinking, womanizing, gambling, beating his wife.

Drinking and womanizing—things like that aren't unusual even in the entertainment world; people are long used to it.

But gambling and domestic violence are behaviors people absolutely cannot tolerate.

If her father had been a star, his reputation would have collapsed long ago.

An eighteenth-tier actor, even if he caused a huge uproar, wouldn't attract much attention beyond those around him.

When Lin Fei was in her teens, her mother could no longer endure it and filed for divorce in court.

Afterward, she brought Lin Fei to Beijing, working odd jobs while supporting her education and music lessons.

Finally freed, Lin Fei lived up to expectations.

Not only did she earn praise from every teacher who taught her in music, but she also never fell behind in her academic studies.

What made her fans most proud wasn't Lin Fei's stunning voice and unparalleled singing skills, nor her titles as National Goddess and Heavenly Queen.

It was that she graduated from Jing University!

This wasn't a case of being specially recruited for fame after becoming popular—she got in on her own merit the year she debuted!

Her four years of university were her peak years of fame, with an astonishing number of performances and engagements.

Even so, Lin Fei relied on her strong willpower to pass all her courses, accumulate enough credits, and successfully graduate from Jing University!

Even her professor at Jing University said in an interview, half-jokingly: "Lin Fei is too outstanding—she didn't even give me a chance to go easy on her."

Why did she skyrocket to fame as soon as she debuted?

That halo of being a top student was a huge bonus.

But fate is fickle. Just as her career was at its peak, the heavens played a cruel joke on her.

The gold-medal composer Dong Hui, who had discovered her and personally placed the eighteen-year-old girl on the throne of "National Goddess" and "Xia Kingdom's Last Heavenly Queen," suddenly died of illness.