Requesting a Song

"What the fuck are you acting for here, bitch?"

"Did you see what people revealed under that video? He spent over a million on you in four years!"

"That was money his parents left behind with their lives after their accident! It was a man's unconditional love for you! Then you turned around, found someone new, and dumped him outright. Are you even human?"

"I almost believed you, you pure little lotus. Song Dao was some narrow-minded scumbag? And then he spent over a million on you?"

"He treated you like a goddess, and you treated him like an idiot!"

"You hooked him so hard he became a bass with its mouth wide open. He woke up and wrote a song, yet you and your paid trolls claimed he was trying to ruin you. Did he even mention your name? A gold-digging woman like you has no character to speak of. Do you even need ruining?"

"Gold digger, take your Little Car and get the hell off the internet!"

"Stop crying here and pretending to be innocent. Let me guess, you're with Little Car's owner right now. Otherwise, how could those dickhead paid trolls have rushed in so quickly?"

"The first sword after reaching shore cuts down the one you loved. Fuck it, everyone, disperse. Don't give people like her any more attention!"

"Unfollowed, unfollowed!"

"I just sent two Sunglasses as gifts, damn it! Give me my money back!"

The entire comment section practically exploded in an instant. Countless people scurried back and forth between the two comment sections like crazed raccoons, reposting evidence everywhere.

Some especially sharp-eyed netizens even noticed something off in the details.

"Didn't you see her background? Judging by the decor, it looks like Wangfu Hotel. Five-star, expensive as hell. Could she afford to stay there herself without some simp paying for it? So do we even need to guess who she's with now?"

Watching the endless stream of comments flooding across her phone screen, Miao Xiu saw that they had even figured out which hotel she was staying at.

At last, she could not hold it in anymore and burst into tears.

This time, it was more genuine than any time before.

Her exquisite face twisted into a knot as she frantically shut off the livestream.

Then, heedless of everything, she collapsed onto the table and sobbed.

She had hesitated all along, not because she still had feelings for Song Dao, but because she knew perfectly well that he really had given her everything over the years!

He had spent far too much money on her!

The longtime fans who often watched her streams knew about these things too. She had even proudly shown off all sorts of luxury goods more than once.

Her youthful ignorance back then had all become mines buried beneath her own feet.

Not only that, Song Dao had been her top-ranking supporter!

Over the past few years, he had spent more than two hundred thousand on gifts in her livestream room, and he only spent money on her.

He would not even buy a fan badge for anyone else, yet his fan badge in her room had reached level seventeen.

His account was over level forty, the kind that made girls leave comments for him!

Netizens might have short memories, but the internet had a memory.

There was no shortage of people who loved taking screenshots and saving them.

So as the buzz continued to explode, there was a ninety-percent chance those things would be dug up too.

So, she was finished!

She regretted more than anything why, in a moment of rashness, she had agreed to Lu Wen's suggestion. If she had not gone live tonight and had instead chosen to let things cool down—

Then she could have had the paid trolls steer the narrative afterward!

As long as they framed it as a conflict between men and women, pushed the idea that women had the right to choose their own happiness, she would have been invincible.

What did it matter if black publicity was still publicity?

But now, she was not only a gold-digging woman. She was also an ungrateful bitch who had drained her ex-boyfriend's savings, then kicked him aside for someone new!

Worst of all, after being with Song Dao for all those years, she had never even slept with him!

She had smugly bragged about that to her fans during previous livestreams!

She had mainly wanted to show how pure and conservative she was.

If she had actually slept with him, there would still have been room to spin things.

Most fatal of all, just now, in order to seem innocent, she had once again emphasized in front of countless netizens during her livestream that her relationship with Song Dao had been utterly pure.

They had only held hands, studied together, and eaten together.

If she absolutely had to call them boyfriend and girlfriend, then it had been the kind of simple, beautiful campus romance.

—So it was perfectly normal for me to break up with him!

If only she had said that she and Song Dao had been a normal couple who had done everything couples did, the backlash would not have come so quickly or so fiercely!

Lu Wen, who had witnessed the whole thing, was dumbfounded too.

He had only known that Miao Xiu was still a virgin, and he had been rather pleased about it, thinking Song Dao was a huge idiot.

But he had no idea that over the past four years, that young man had spent the million-plus compensation he received after his parents died in an accident on her.

That was a terrible blow to one's reputation!

He was no saint, but if he had known about this beforehand, he probably would not have touched Miao Xiu.

Who knew how a young man who had given everything would react after his girlfriend was stolen and slept with by someone else?

He had only written a song to vent his feelings. From beginning to end, he had not said a single excessive word.

That already made him a fucking first-rate civilized person, okay?

So Lu Wen regretted things a little too. He had thought she was a pretty girl willing to do anything to climb the ladder. Who would have thought she was this kind of gold digger?

But he also knew that if he simply walked away now, Miao Xiu might do something extreme.

That extremity might be directed inward, but it could just as easily be directed outward!

Either way, it would not be good for him.

He had to stabilize her emotions first.

With that thought, Lu Wen spoke reassuringly. "Don't worry. This isn't an unsolvable problem."

Hearing that, Miao Xiu immediately stopped crying and raised her head to look at him, her eyes terrifyingly red.

Lu Wen chose his words carefully. "Keep a low profile for a while. Stay here, order whatever food you want, and I'll figure out the rest."

"What way is there? I... I did spend his money, but he spent money too. It wasn't just me spending it. Now everyone is cursing at me..."

Miao Xiu choked back sobs, looking utterly wronged.

Lu Wen glanced at the Orange Horse bag Miao Xiu had thrown on the sofa, worth seventy or eighty thousand.

"Right, right, he spent money too. Don't panic. I'll go back and think of something."

Her classmates had already revealed that the guy was pretty stingy with himself. Even his phone was an old model from years ago!

And what about everything you wore, carried, used, and adorned yourself with?

So trying to clear her name from the angle of "he spent money too" would not only be pointless!

It would get her cursed even harder.

"Huh? You're leaving?" Miao Xiu looked at Lu Wen, her eyes full of reluctance.

He was the only person she could rely on now.

"I could have stayed here with you, but now..." Lu Wen's tone was gentle. "Baby, people have already exposed how much of his money you spent. I need to find a way to settle this for you!"

Miao Xiu immediately grew flustered. She was not afraid of netizens calling her a gold digger, but she was deeply worried Lu Wen thought so too.

After all, she was not with Lu Wen for money, but for fame!

She wanted to become famous!

"Hubby, I..."

Lu Wen waved a hand. "All right, I know what you're thinking. I don't care whether you worship money or not. I worship money too! So don't worry, I definitely won't shortchange you on what I promised. That's it for now. You're tired too. Take a shower and go to bed early."

He put on his coat and hurriedly left.

There was another concern he could not tell Miao Xiu about. People online had already guessed the hotel where she was staying.

With the absurd level of attention he had caused, if people found out he was staying here too, the trouble would be enormous!

The woman at home turned a blind eye to his fooling around outside, but it absolutely could not be exposed!

So he did not even call his driver to bring the luxury Little Car parked in the underground garage. Instead, he directly hailed a rideshare.

Then he fled in a panic.

As for how this matter would be dealt with?

Deal with my ass!

He would wait for the buzz to die down, then talk about it later!

He had no intention of getting burned himself.

After Miao Xiu shut down her livestream, countless netizens who had been happily watching the drama and cursing away suddenly had nowhere to go, so they returned to the original video's comment section and continued the war.

The paid trolls had retreated by then.

It was not because the enemy was too strong, but because their teammate was too fucking brainless!

Her own story was leaking from every angle, yet she still dared to livestream and complain about being wronged, forcibly trying to clear her name. Was her brain full of shit?

With the internet developed to this point, many things fermented far faster than they did in the past.

That was why all sorts of dramatic reversals often appeared.

But tonight's scandal from the Central Conservatory of Music seemed, in most people's eyes, almost impossible to reverse.

And as time passed, more and more information was dug up.

Just as Miao Xiu had expected, even the fact that Song Dao had been the top supporter in her livestream room and had sent her lots of money in gifts was exposed.

Some longtime fans were alerted and came over to join the excitement.

People even posted video clips and screenshots of Miao Xiu showing off the various gifts Song Dao had bought for her.

Many sharp-nosed bloggers had already begun organizing the entire incident according to a timeline.

They edited videos, added images, then posted them with their own commentary as quickly as possible.

This was such easy traffic to ride!

There was no risk at all. It was simply delicious.

With the attention already spilling beyond its usual circle like this, if no other explosive news appeared soon, it would probably keep going for a long time!

By the time Song Dao finally signed the electronic exclusive licensing contract for the song, completed the upload process, and prepared to send the audio source to Penguin Platform, it was already past midnight.

He stretched tiredly, picked up his phone, and saw that Carrier Pigeon had 99+ red notifications.

The moment he opened it, countless messages began chiming nonstop, nearly freezing his old phone.

"Damn it, I forgot to mute it!"

He could not help mocking the original owner again. The idiot bought his girlfriend the latest flagship phone every year, while using an old relic from years ago himself.

After skimming through them, he was somewhat surprised. Did this song really have that much impact?

He ignored the flood of friend requests.

In the end, he simply turned off Carrier Pigeon's add-friend feature.

There was no helping it. As a Central Conservatory of Music student, his phone number was no secret. No one even needed to dox him for countless people to find his information.

He looked at the messages from the guys in his dorm, then checked the time and did not reply.

They were not close, after all, and he did not know what to say.

He was currently supposed to be "heartbroken." It was perfectly reasonable for him to quietly heal alone.

The other messages were more or less the same. Some comforted him, some said he was amazing, and some said that if he blew up, they wanted him to take them along.

Then he opened the messages Kong Xi had sent tonight after adding him. He froze for a moment, then could not help smiling.

He had been a little curious before about why the Bronze Treasure Chest reward had given him a song like this.

Now he had found the answer.

It seemed the system was "trigger-based."

"Senior, you're famous!"

"Oh my God, how did this blow up so fast?"

"Oh no, they found paid trolls to slander you!"

"You scared me to death. I thought those paid trolls were going to smear you, but there was such a huge reversal instead!"

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"What are you doing, Senior? Is it convenient for you to reply?"

"There's something I want to ask Senior for help with. More accurately, I want to commission a song from you."

Perhaps because Song Dao had not replied, Kong Xi finally could not hold herself back.

She went on and on, taking the initiative to explain what had happened.

She even told him about the film and television company offering one million to commission a song. It was not something she could hide anyway; the production company would definitely use it for promotion later.

"If Senior can help me, I'm willing to buy it out at a high price..."

"If Senior prefers a revenue-sharing arrangement, I can give you twenty-five percent."

That was already the standard rate for well-known lyricists and composers.

Of course, if it was a top-tier songwriter, or an even higher, hall-of-fame godfather-level master, it was not as simple as splitting revenue.

Those people ran their own companies, wrote their own lyrics and music, and handled everything from arranging to production themselves.

Then they found singers to perform the songs and took an even larger share of the profits.

Even if those masters treated the Heavenly Kings and Queens like tools... they would still flock to them.

For a newcomer like Song Dao who had just graduated from the Music Conservatory, Kong Xi, who was already somewhat famous, offering those terms was already the greatest sincerity.

The young woman seemed very innocent, as if she simply wanted to complete this task.

Of course, if this song made her even more famous and allowed her to rise another level, she could earn much more in other fields in the future.

Making some concessions for that was no big deal.

So she could also be called very smart.

From his past life to the original owner in this life, both had suffered huge losses because of women.

Especially the latter, who had simped until he had nothing left and even lost his life!

When dealing with women... he needed to be cautious!

Song Dao pondered.

Things really were that coincidental.

He actually had a song on hand that was quite suitable!

That song had been a very famous insert song from an xianxia drama back in the day.

Its lyricist had been an absolute big shot.

When Song Dao had opened the treasure chest and gotten this song, he had barely believed his eyes.

He had spent ages mocking the system's song classifications.

It felt like that cold, emotionless system was just like those musicians at the top of the contempt hierarchy, looking down on pop music!

But that did not matter. Given his current situation, it was perfectly reasonable for him to have "created" a song like this.

He checked the time and figured young people like Kong Xi might not be asleep that early, so he replied, "I wrote a song a while ago, but it isn't ancient-style. I'll record a demo for you later. Send it over and see if it suits them. But let's be clear first—I'm short on money lately."

"Wow!"

"Senior, you finally replied!"

"You already have a completed song? That's great, that's wonderful!"

"The price is negotiable. As long as the song fits, everything's fine!"

"Can I come find you right now?"

The girl had practically been depressed out of her mind lately, and she was instantly beside herself when she saw his reply.

At the same time, she felt a little indignant on her senior's behalf.

Why was her senior short on money?

He must have spent too much on that woman and was running out of money just sitting around!

Song Dao was speechless. With black lines practically running down his face, he replied, "It's too late now. Tomorrow."

"Uh, sorry, sorry. I didn't even check the time. Then it's settled, Senior. I'll come find you tomorrow..."

"Don't come find me. Pick somewhere quiet, and we'll go there separately," Song Dao replied with a frown as he scrolled through the comments on that viral video. "If people see you with me, who knows what they'll say."

"Senior, you really are thoughtful. I know a place. I'll go there first tomorrow and wait for you, then send you the location!"

"Okay. Good night."

Song Dao did not reply again.

Kong Xi was wearing fluffy pajamas, her long, silky hair draped over her shoulders. After sending that final message, she tossed her phone aside and pumped her pale little fist.

"Yeah!"

"This is amazing!"

"Senior's a little aloof, but this might actually work!"

It was not as though she had not considered whether the song her senior had written would actually suit that drama.

But she had to treat a dead horse as if it were alive!

She might be quite popular now, but in mainstream eyes, she was still nothing more than an internet celebrity who had suddenly risen to fame.

People like her appeared every year—not too many, but always three or five of them.

Some were like shooting stars, while others stayed popular for a long time.

Either way, making money from livestreaming was not a problem. But becoming famous in the entertainment industry, going from internet celebrity to star—that was far too difficult!

It was not as though the company had not considered getting her a song. After all, the film company was offering plenty of money, and its requirements were not demanding.

But as soon as those famous songwriters heard her name, every one of them politely declined.

They went online too.

How could they possibly not have heard of Somersault Cat Girl's "illustrious reputation"?

An internet celebrity who sang folk songs?

Better not!

They did not want to ruin their lifelong reputations for that little money.

These days, it was fine for major celebrities to livestream and sell products, but many people would always hold prejudice and discrimination toward internet celebrities.

The company was helpless about it too. That was simply the current situation. Those older generation lyricists and composers had already achieved fame and success; they did not lack money at all.

The new generation of creators had no standing and no works worth showing off.

The entire songwriting industry was stagnant water!

Almost no one could change it.

But none of that mattered to Kong Xi. She had already seen hope for breaking the deadlock.

She began looking forward to meeting tomorrow.

She even wanted to report the good news to her manager.

But after checking the time, she decided against it. Besides, nothing had been fully settled yet; she could not start celebrating at halftime.

So she opened her phone again and started catching up on tonight's biggest gossip.

As she scrolled, she made a new discovery.

She immediately found her earbuds, put them on, and opened Penguin Music.

She found See Through Love, See Through You, which some all-powerful netizen had just posted in that video's comment section...

"The audio quality is a little better than the live version, at least it isn't noisy. But the emotion doesn't seem as full as it was live. Did Senior use some shabby recording studio outside the school gates? Perfect—I can introduce him to a better one tomorrow..."