Chapter 147: A Milestone in Chinese Music

Once the four girls made up their minds to follow Cheng Xiaoyu all the way to the end, a brand-new chapter of their lives was quietly unrolled, though they were entirely unaware of it at the moment. However, the continuous high-intensity training over the past few days, combined with Cheng Xiaoyu's rigorous and unforgiving standards for music and dance, put the girls through a grueling trial.

Fortunately, Cheng Xiaoyu did not play favorites; if anything, he was even stricter with Su Yuxi and Xu Qinning, which made the other four girls feel slightly better by comparison. Su Yuxi excelled in everything, leaving Cheng Xiaoyu with no faults to pick, but Xu Qinning was driven to tears by his harsh rebukes. Cheng Xiaoyu told her bluntly not to treat other people's youth as a casual game, warning her that a lack of earnestness and effort was an act of irresponsibility toward the lives of others, and she must remember that they were a team.

Words like these completely transformed the other girls' impressions of Cheng Xiaoyu. Although Xu Qinning, having been scolded to tears, ignored him for a few days, she practiced with utmost dedication thereafter and strived to do her absolute best. It was only when Cheng Xiaoyu praised Xu Qinning in front of the other girls, apologized to her, and treated them all to a grand feast that he finally won back her forgiveness.

Such intense yet ordinary days flowed by like water, and the six girls of the Idol Project had completely embraced Cheng Xiaoyu's presence. Over these days, the profound understanding of music and dance he demonstrated had completely conquered them all.

In Cheng Xiujing's eyes, however, her ultimate idol remained Poison.

Because of her adoration for Poison, Cheng Xiujing had registered an account on Whisper and followed him. Yet Poison's bio was exceptionally brief: "I am singer Poison. Thank you all for following me."

Since then, Poison had posted only a single Whisper over all this time: "Whenever I release new songs or encounter anything interesting, I will share it here with everyone." Cheng Xiujing refreshed the Whisper page daily, eagerly anticipating news of Poison's new music, but she had never received anything.

Many of Poison's fans had registered on Whisper, leaving messages under his posts demanding prompt releases of new songs or demanding free downloads. In stark contrast to the relative harmony on Whisper, the Music Network was being bombarded with scathing abuse at this moment.

Although Poison had a vast following, the reception for his new song *The Consort* was generally unfavorable. Many listeners who had never heard Poison's first four tracks simply clicked on *The Consort* from the homepage. Seeing that it was a recommended pick promoted by the Music Network, they spent five yuan to listen to the trial, only to lose all interest in even listening to Poison's previous songs. Consequently, these people began flooding Poison's comment section with abusive remarks.

People are prone to herd mentality, and some, curious as to why so many were reviling this singer called Poison, also clicked to listen. In truth, many did not find it all that terrible, but upon seeing the insults below, they persuaded themselves that it sounded awful and joined the chorus of detractors. Even worse were those who had never even listened to the track yet still stirred up trouble in the comment section of Poison's profile page.

As it happened, Cheng Xiaoyu never managed his comment section, nor did he set up fan clubs to guide his supporters in defending him. Meanwhile, the Music Network believed that the greater the controversy surrounding Poison, the higher his click-through rates would be, so they chose not to interfere. As a result, Poison was branded with the infamous title of "Music Fraudster."

It was not as if no one spoke up in Cheng Xiaoyu's defense; at the very least, Cheng Xiujing spent every day in Poison's comment section on the Music Network explaining things, urging listeners to check out his earlier works. Yet it was of no use—any newly posted comment was drowned out and pushed to the bottom by a torrent of abuse within two seconds. Even amid such an uproar, Poison offered not a single word of explanation, and his output remained stalled, leaving many fans deeply disappointed.

Eventually, the volunteers who had spontaneously defended Poison stopped leaving messages, leaving his homepage almost entirely submerged by the comments of internet trolls. The round-the-clock music streaming groups previously established by fans were all disbanded. Many assumed Poison was merely a flash in the pan; if he truly possessed genuine talent, they reasoned, he would have long since signed with a major agency instead of lingering on indie websites. They remained completely unaware of the contract binding Cheng Xiaoyu to the Music Network.

The truth was that Cheng Xiaoyu had no time to deal with these tiresome online comments. By day, he went to the company to teach the Idol Project members how to sing and dance, and by night, he had to complete the arrangements for the music he needed. On top of that, he had to record and upload new songs to the Music Network, as well as record all the vocal tracks for *Guilty Crown*. All these tasks had to be squeezed into a limited amount of time. He often felt that if only he could split himself into two people, it would still not be enough. Busy to the point where he didn't have a single spare minute every day, he still felt there was always more work left undone.

Finally, on this day, Cheng Xiaoyu finished recording the new song to be uploaded to the Music Network and posted a second update on Whisper: "Tonight at eight o'clock, a new song will be uploaded. I believe this is a milestone musical work, so please look forward to it."

As a devoted fan, Cheng Xiujing spotted Poison's Whisper update immediately. Gathering with the other three girls in their dorm, they all waited for Poison's eight o'clock release. Prompted by Cheng Xiujing's zealous recommendations,裴秀智 (Bae Suzy) and 景雪绚 (Jing Xuexuan) had also become fans of Poison, though not nearly as fanatical as Cheng Xiujing. As for 泉佑璃 (Izumi Yuri), she wasn't particularly fond of Poison; she was simply tagging along for the excitement.

The Music Network began hyping the release as early as seven o'clock, splashing a banner across the homepage: *Poison's latest masterpiece goes live tonight at eight—answering all doubts with Nunchucks.*

After reading this promotional slogan, Cheng Xiujing felt she had missed the point and was utterly baffled, thinking it impossible that Poison could have written a song called *Nunchucks*. It simply sounded absurd—what kind of music could possibly be written about nunchucks?

Cheng Xiujing was not the only one left in a fog; many others shared the exact same confusion. Even Hao Yifeng thought the song title chosen by Poison was bizarre to the extreme. Could one really write a song about nunchucks? While he believed in Poison's caliber, he feared that his unrestrained, bizarre, and exaggerated mindset was growing too detached from the era, resulting in works that no one could understand or appreciate.

Before Poison even uploaded his new song, his comment section had already blown up, filled entirely with accusations like "Fraud, coming to scam us for money again!"

There were also remarks such as: "Do you take us fans for fools? Do you really think we'll fall for your trick twice?"

And cries of: "Poison, get lost from the Music Network!"

Cheng Xiaoyu did not even glance at his comment section. To him, uploading music to the Music Network was a mission to fulfill, not something he cared to obsess over.

At precisely eight o'clock, Cheng Xiaoyu uploaded the new song *Nunchucks*. He left not a single word on his homepage and closed the browser.

Cheng Xiujing refreshed Poison's homepage on the Music Network right at eight o'clock. Sure enough, a new track titled *Nunchucks* had appeared in his works. Clicking into it, she was greeted once more by the formidable five-yuan trial fee. It seemed Poison had no intention whatsoever of compromising with the trolls, choosing instead to stick with the paid trial. Cheng Xiujing felt that Poison was so proudly unyielding that she couldn't help but admire him, even as her wallet ached. She held boundless expectations for the masterpiece Poison had described as a milestone.

Little did she know that *Nunchucks* was not merely a milestone in Chinese music, but a sharp turning point for the entire industry.