He Swept Through the Entire Summer

Artists were mostly free-spirited and uninhibited by nature, especially those who made music.

If they thought a song was good, they would willingly post about it and promote it for you.

As for everything else, they really did not think much about it.

After all, there were plenty of cases where terrible movies produced god-tier songs.

Even if a movie was bad, people would only criticize the director or actors. Few would attack the musicians.

What did a bad movie have to do with the musicians?

Google searched TWKAN.

I was just a singer.

Besides, Lin Chuan's boldness in staking his entire fortune on one movie perfectly suited these musicians' tastes.

These musicians valued doing things on a whim.

Before becoming famous, some of them sang in bars, while others performed beneath bridges.

Their motto was simple: either become famous overnight or end up on the streets.

Soon, the big names in the group began reposting Lin Bai's Weibo post.

Brother Seven reposted it too, along with a caption:

[A new friend from the group made this. I especially love the style of his song. The rap has substance, and the melody is fresh and natural. Friends who enjoy love songs are in for a treat this summer!]

A producer of Old Seven's age had long reached the stage of doing whatever he pleased without crossing the line.

When recommending songs, he followed his heart and voiced his honest thoughts.

Of course, he often got roasted for it.

Younger fans often teased him good-naturedly, poking fun at his elderly taste in music.

After all, the young lads and young ladies he mentioned were at least thirty.

They could even be forty.

Veteran musicians like Old Seven might not have many fans, but they held great status within the industry.

The moment many people saw Brother Seven's Weibo post, they started speculating.

Could this Love Confession Balloon be about the love story of middle-aged people?

As soon as he posted, plenty of older fans left comments:

"Brother Seven actually typed this much. Looks like the song must be pretty good."

"The title is less tacky than before, but I'm still cautious. Last time I listened to a song Brother Seven recommended, my roommate thought I'd been kept by a rich older woman."

"And then your roommates started excluding you?"

"No, they chased me for her contact information."

Ten minutes later, however, the comments had taken on a completely different tone.

"I listened to it once, and it really is pleasant. I shared it with my daughter, and she actually praised my taste!"

"Congratulations, Brother Seven. You've discovered another promising talent."

"Oh my God, Brother Seven's taste has finally become normal!"

"Love Confession Balloon, the wind blows to the street across from mine~ It feels so romantic."

The other musicians in the group had even more staggering follower counts.

A first-tier singer might not compare to an idol celebrity, but they would still have at least a million followers.

Even second-tier singers had hundreds of thousands.

Not to mention, these singers followed each other with celebrities, actors, directors, and others.

When those industry friends saw Love Confession Balloon, they decisively chose to repost it as well.

Many fans noticed that singers they followed had recommended Love Confession Balloon, so they clicked on Lin Bai's Weibo post to listen.

Love Confession Balloon quickly entered the top ten of Weibo's trending searches.

Eighth, sixth—the song kept climbing the rankings.

When a group of musicians suddenly began reposting the same song, the impact was no less than a storm.

There were also plenty of gossip-loving netizens on Weibo who did not follow celebrities or singers, but clicked on Lin Bai's original Weibo post after seeing Love Confession Balloon make the trending list.

Very quickly, the number of comments beneath Lin Bai's Weibo post skyrocketed.

"So good!"

"It tastes like first love~"

"It gave me such a huge auntie smile~"

"It's just too short. Not enough to listen to."

"Boss, release the full version! Tell me what platform you're going to, and I'll definitely buy a membership!"

"I have a feeling Paris will have no more falling leaves from now on. Hahaha."

"Is this song the promotional track for Balloon?"

"Hahaha, I'm already looking forward to it. Will the male and female leads meet because of a balloon, then fall into a sweet romance?"

"Even if the movie is just a music video for Balloon, I'll accept it. When does it come out? I'm booking an entire theater!"

In just a few short hours.

The follower count of Lin Chuan's alternate account, Lin Bai, had already surpassed three hundred thousand.

That follower count had already exceeded Lin Chuan's main account.

Music naturally spread more easily than other forms of art.

That summer, as temperatures rose, many people felt a restless heat in their hearts.

Love Confession Balloon used a simple melody to capture their hearts.

It even made quite a few people take notice of the movie Balloon.

That afternoon, Love Confession Balloon officially launched on Penguin Music.

Lin Chuan spoke with the person in charge of Penguin Music in Jianghai City and signed a contract.

Well, because it had gone viral across the internet before even launching on Penguin Music, Penguin Music showed the sincerity of offering a fortune just to attract talent.

A seventy-thirty split.

As for the cover, it was the promotional poster Lin Chuan had drawn for the movie Head Balloon.

To avoid driving away most viewers, Lin Chuan changed the animated film Head Balloon to Balloon.

For the promotional poster, Lin Chuan had also deliberately used a deceptive style of painting.

The sky was blue, and the clouds were white.

A girl's back was lifted by the summer breeze as balloons rose into the air, drifting on the wind and filling most of the sky.

If one did not look closely, they would think the poster was as fresh and natural as the song.

After Love Confession Balloon launched on the music platform.

It took only one day to climb to fifth place on this month's new song chart.

With more exposure, even more people began listening to Love Confession Balloon.

Its play count reached two million in an extremely short time.

More and more people learned that there was a song called Love Confession Balloon.

They learned there was a singer named Lin Bai.

The tags Lin Bai and Love Confession Balloon surged into Weibo's top ten trending searches.

Many people left comments beneath the song.

"Hahaha, I finally got to hear this song."

"I'm putting this on repeat all day."

"The cover is a great choice. It has such a fresh, sweet feeling. It makes me want to fall in love."

"If this gets over five thousand likes, I'll confess to my goddess!"

Amid the flood of cheerful comments, one comment was buried among the crowd:

"Wait, don't you think this cover is kind of creepy?

That balloon looks like... a person seen from behind?"

Few paid attention to that comment tucked away in the corner. Only the handful of people willing to read through the comments would see it on the final page.

Even if they saw it, some might agree with him, but at most they would smile and think he was overthinking things.

That summer, a Love Confession Balloon craze swept through the country.

Countless phones and computers played the same song.

Some people even set Love Confession Balloon as their ringtone.

"By the Seine Lake, coffee on the left bank~"

"Roses from the flower shop, whose name was written wrong~"

From campuses to streets.

From earphones worn beside one's ears to beaches by the sea.

A flavor called romance continued to ferment.

For a time, the melody of Love Confession Balloon filled every street and alley.

Perhaps many years later, people would still remember the afternoon Love Confession Balloon was released.

That summer, mixed with the sweetness of oranges, somewhat stuffy yet wonderfully cool.

And they might occasionally think of that person in their hearts.

Recently, Lin Chuan had finally made a rare trip out to arrange the release date with the theaters.

Hearing Love Confession Balloon playing all over the streets outside, the corner of his mouth twitched.

Would Love Confession Balloon become an essential square-dancing track in the future?

But then Lin Chuan quickly relaxed.

Love Confession Balloon was sung by Lin Bai. What did it have to do with me, Lin Chuan?

After coordinating with the theaters, Lin Chuan confirmed the release date.

It would be August 8th, exactly three days later, in the middle-to-late period of summer vacation.

Balloon was a horror animated film.

And September brought something even more terrifying: the start of school.

Oh, its screening allocation was a pitiful 9.3%.

Even that was only out of respect for Love Confession Balloon.

There was no helping it. Lin Chuan was a small-time director, and the only works he had put out were the two short films Spoon Killer Demon and Hide-and-Seek.

There was no company backing him, not even a premiere event.

His method of promotion was a group of musicians promoting Balloon's theme song, Love Confession Balloon, online.

And Balloon was a freaking animated film.

Under Huaguo's rating system, minors were forbidden from watching it.

An animated film that only adults could watch!

Whether it was Huaxia on Earth in the parallel universe of his previous life or Huaguo on Blue Star.

It was truly one of a kind!~

For Balloon to get a 9.3% screening allocation, Lin Chuan had to thank Love Confession Balloon for becoming so popular that many viewers had become interested in Balloon.

After returning home, Lin Chuan lay on his bed and had a proper rest.

That summer vacation, after finishing Spoon Killer Demon, Lin Chuan began drawing the Head Balloon manga.

After finishing the manga, he began producing Balloon.

Once Balloon was complete, he searched for voice actors.

After the dubbing was done, he became Lin Bai and produced the song Love Confession Balloon.

After Love Confession Balloon became popular, Lin Chuan contacted the theater representatives again to discuss the release date and screening allocation.

He had truly been a little busy.

Even so, Lin Chuan had still found time to visit the Golden Warrior production set several times.

Although Lin Chuan's daily routine was still fairly regular.

He went to bed at eleven every night and made sure to get eight full hours of sleep. Before bed, he drank a glass of warm milk, then did twenty minutes of gentle warm-up exercises before sleeping soundly until dawn. Like a baby, he never carried fatigue or stress into the next day.

Still, after completing his main work, Lin Chuan inevitably fell into a sense of emptiness.

After resting for twenty minutes, Lin Chuan recovered his energy.

He logged into his main account and posted on Weibo, preparing to inform his fans.

Lin Chuan also thought about how to introduce the movie Balloon to viewers.

The original work for Balloon was the famous short horror manga Head Balloon by Junji Ito from Earth in a parallel universe.

It was revered as a masterpiece among horror manga enthusiasts.

It had remained popular for decades.

But there was a group of people who had heard of Head Balloon long ago.

Yet because they thought the manga was too terrifying, they had not even read its opening after all these years.

Lin Chuan ultimately decided to tell the truth.

[Dear viewers, my first mildly horror animated film, Balloon, will meet you all in three days.

Thank you to @voice actor Jiang Kui and Feng Jian for your wholehearted performances.

Thank you to @Liu Jiayun for the behind-the-scenes production.]

Thanks to Lin Bai for the promotional song Love Confession Balloon. It sounded fantastic, and the lyrics suited Balloon perfectly!

See you at the cinema!]

Jiang Kui and Feng Jian were the two main voice actors for Balloon.

Liu Jiayun, meanwhile, was Xiao Hei's real name.

The main reason he had @'d the three of them in the Weibo post was to give them a boost in popularity.

Although Balloon might be terrifying.

Huaguo films had a well-established rating system.

Minors aged sixteen and under could not enter theaters to watch Balloon.

People with high blood pressure or heart disease could not watch it either.

Lin Chuan felt that tricking a group of adults into the theater to watch Balloon.

Was just like tricking Ren Hang and Xiao Hei into eating very sour green tangerines.

It was nothing more than a harmless little joke.

Most of Lin Chuan's Weibo followers had followed him after watching Spoon Killer Demon.

Only a small number had followed Lin Chuan because Love Confession Balloon was the promotional song for Balloon.

To put it bluntly, Lin Chuan was currently a niche director whose debut film was about to be released.

As such, quite a few people raised doubts.

"Director Chuan, it feels like your style doesn't match Love Confession Balloon. The song is great, but will the movie not be scary enough?"

"I still prefer that short film with the clapping in the basement. It was so terrifying that I couldn't sleep for days, but it was such a thrill!"

"Even though I like fresh, wholesome animated movies too, I still want to see Director Chuan make horror films!"

Lin Chuan had not expected his fans to actually think Balloon would not be scary enough.

After giving it some thought, Lin Chuan responded to their concerns.

"Everyone, please rest assured. Balloon is absolutely a quality horror animated film.

How should I put it? It's the very 'special' kind.

Before Spoon Killer Demon, few people would have associated spoons with serial killers.

I believe that after Balloon, you'll feel differently when you see balloons on the street too!"

Most of Lin Chuan's Weibo followers were fans of Spoon Killer Demon.

And Spoon Killer Demon itself was a horror short with an unusual art style.

Therefore, after Lin Chuan made his Weibo post, most fans expressed their understanding and support.

After all, Lin Chuan's character had been rock-solid so far.

Whether it was releasing that minute-long short film or holding a giveaway for more than five hundred Spoon Killer Demon sets.

Lin Chuan had proven both his talent and his character.

Among all the Uploaders on Bika Net who took ads, Lin Chuan was the only one who had not accepted a single ad to this day.

And he even paid out of pocket to hold giveaways for his fans.

He really... I'm crying.

Quite a few fans decided to buy tickets first and worry about the rest later.

For no other reason than the Spoon Killer Demon cloaks and spoons they had won in the giveaway.

So what if I buy a movie ticket?

Some imaginative fans even began speculating about the plot:

"Could this movie be a film version of Balloon Killer Demon? The killer's weapon is an air pump, and he pumps air into the victim's stomach until they fly into the sky?"

"Maybe it's a killer who rides in a hot-air balloon."

"Or maybe he ties balloons to the victims and sends them flying high into the sky to freeze to death!"

"Say no more. Let's wait for the movie to come out."

Meanwhile, some people who had followed the movie Balloon because of Love Confession Balloon.

After clicking through various topics and finding Lin Chuan's Weibo.

Most of them opened Bika Net and watched Spoon Killer Demon.

After watching it, those people were relieved.

After all, Spoon Killer Demon was merely a horror film with a prankish slant.

There would definitely be more people who found it entertaining than people who found it scary.

During a break from filming Golden Warrior, Ren Hang came across Lin Chuan's Weibo post.

He immediately reposted Lin Chuan's Weibo.

He posted a caption with a picture: This summer, let Golden Warrior watch Balloon with you.

In the picture, Ren Hang wore the Golden Warrior costume and watched a television screen.

The TV screen had been edited to display a poster for Balloon.

Ren Hang's Weibo bio did not say that he had once played Spoon Killer Demon.

Playing Spoon Killer Demon required heavy facial makeup, so many of Lin Chuan's fans did not recognize him at first.

Although Ren Hang had an account on Bika Net, at the Golden Warrior director's request, Ren Hang had deleted every video showing his face.

Ren Hang had the standard outgoing personality. Even before filming Spoon Killer Demon, he had often uploaded videos to Bika Net.

After using his Bika Net account for two years, he had several hundred videos on his profile.

Most were gaming compilations, with some footage of him walking around, and very few videos showed his face.

Oh, Ren Hang's Bika Net account was called Did You Go to the Mental Hospital?

Fans of Spoon Killer Demon had even praised it, saying that as expected of Spoon Killer Demon, his whereabouts were mysterious.

Ren Hang's Weibo account, on the other hand, was verified under his real name: Ren Hang NO1.

Golden Warrior had not aired yet.

Even if someone realized that this Ren Hang, who played Golden Warrior, looked mysteriously similar to Spoon Killer Demon.

They would not connect the two.

There was one day left until Balloon premiered.

The popularity of Love Confession Balloon continued to spread.

Female streamers on major livestreaming platforms began singing Love Confession Balloon.

Though they could not compare to Lin Chuan's voice, those pretty, innocent-looking girls sang Love Confession Balloon to their viewers in front of the camera.

They sang, "Darling, I've fallen for you, don't be so willful anymore~

Your eyes are saying that you love me~"

Countless viewers cried that they could not handle it, that they were about to fall in love.

As the popularity of Love Confession Balloon continued to spread.

Those people also learned that a movie called Balloon would soon premiere in theaters.

Quite a few of them bought tickets as well.

They wanted to see whether Balloon was a romance film or a horror movie.

Or whether it would give audiences a surprise like Spoon Killer Demon had.

On the third day after Lin Chuan made his Weibo post.

At four in the afternoon.

The animated film Balloon premiered as scheduled.

Those entering the theater included couples who had listened to Love Confession Balloon, streamers chasing the trend, viewers drawn in by the hype, Spoon Killer Demon fans, and even fans of the female version of Spoon Killer Demon.

As the film began.

The theater fell into darkness.

In the quiet cinema, only the sound of people chewing popcorn remained. Everyone was eagerly awaiting Balloon.