Chapter 66: A New Storm Has Appeared!

August 5th.

Saturday.

Long queues had formed outside audio-visual stores of all sizes.

Countless people were waiting for the release of Zhou Yang’s new album, Common Jasmine Orange.

In the early hours of the morning…

The stores had already put up promotional posters.

They read: “Zhou Yang’s New Album ‘Common Jasmine Orange’ – A Shocking Debut!”

In the poster, one side of Zhou Yang’s face was bathed in sunlight while the other remained in shadow. Under the orange-red glow of the setting sun, he looked incredibly cool, possessing the aura of a knight walking between darkness and light.

One year ago!

Zhou Yang had released a new album that set the Chinese music scene ablaze.

It had shocked his management company and even the executives at Star Entertainment!

They never expected that this strange, fast-paced music, which some people couldn’t even understand, would sell so many copies and even become a trend!

They keenly realized that a new era of trends belonging to the youth was about to begin!

During the subsequent gap period, many young, handsome, and talented idols were packaged in the same way. They achieved massive sales, marking what many called the beginning of the “Battle of the Gods¹” era!

However, whether it was ringtone downloads, album sales, or even pirated sales, no idol singer could reach the heights of Zhou Yang’s “Storm Blast”…

A year later…

Many of his songs were still being sung on school campuses!

His posters were still making money for countless street vendors!

…………………………

Saturday.

Everyone at Universe Technology was hard at work.

Zhang Yang, however, had treated himself to a rare day off.

He was wearing a hoodie and walking down the street with headphones plugged into his MP3 player.

Looking at everything in this world, even the young people walking on the street, he felt a profound sense of nostalgia.

Many trendy youths already had phones equipped with flashing marquee lights² and loud speakers.

The speakers were blasting songs downloaded from the internet onto memory cards.

He looked at the audio-visual stores lining the street…

He saw the MP3 and MP4 players displayed in the windows…

These were the trendiest gadgets right now!

Back then, he had been obsessed with these things for a long time, dreaming of owning one.

But he never could have imagined that in the future, these devices would be replaced so quickly.

Where was that middle-aged man Tong Wei mentioned?

Why hasn’t he come to find me?

Could he have started his own business?

Zhang Yang hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.

The trend of this era should be obvious by now. Many sharp individuals must have discovered the sales code for mobile phones long ago…

Zhang Yang said nothing more.

“It’s here, it’s here!”

“Zhou Yang’s new song is here!”

“Oh my god, it’s finally here!”

“Wow… the boss is coming out, he’s bringing them out!”

“Boss, give me an album!”

“Boss, I want a cassette tape!”

“…”

Bursts of excited voices erupted from the nearby audio-visual store.

People swarmed into the shop to buy tapes.

Zhang Yang moved closer to take a look.

He noticed that most of the tapes in the store were pirated collections of various singers’ hit songs…

However, when it came to Zhou Yang’s new album, Zhang Yang found that the shop owner was decent enough; he was mostly selling genuine tapes.

Ten yuan each…

Many fans were more than happy to pay.

As for the album of another singer released at the same time, Zhang Linjie, it was tossed aside. It was a complete mess, almost entirely ignored.

It was the same for many singers; aside from one lead single that was worth listening to, the rest of the songs were just filler trash to the fans.

Buying that kind of album always felt like a losing bargain.

Zhang Yang squeezed into the store. Looking at the gaming section, he saw many single-player games that were quite popular on the market.

Then…

He stared in disbelief at a computer game with a yellow background on the top shelf.

“Universe Bicycle!”

His eyes widened.

Even this had a pirated version?

“Boss, how much for this game?”

“Oh, that one? That’s a bundle deal. Buy an album, get the game for free…”

“Is it not selling?”

“What do you mean not selling? This is the hit ‘Desert Bicycle’! Haven’t you heard of ‘Desert Bicycle’? That money-making game…”

“You can still make money from games now?”

“Why are you asking so many questions… Hey, you over there! Don’t touch the albums. Pay first before you take the tape!”

“…”

Seeing the owner’s frustrated and unlucky expression, Zhang Yang knew that the pirated “Desert Bicycle” wasn’t making any money. In fact, hardly anyone was buying it.

The damn thing was practically gathering dust here!

Thinking about it, it made sense. “Desert Bicycle” became popular mainly because of its strategy of making money and recruiting others. The core gameplay was actually quite boring after a while. Once the incentive of making money was gone, who would want to play it?

After circling the store once.

Just as Zhang Yang was preparing to check out other places, he suddenly received a call from Tong Wei.

“President Zhang, we’ve arrived in Yanjing. Where are you?”

“On the street. What’s up?”

“Something happened. Something very important!”

“Oh?”

On the phone, Tong Wei’s voice was extremely hyper.

He sounded like he was on some kind of stimulant, so excited that Zhang Yang could even hear him panting between words.

……………………….

“The sparrows outside the window are chirping on the power lines,

You say this sentence feels very much like summer…”

He didn’t know when it had started.

But next to Chen Weiwei’s office, this song had been playing on a continuous loop.

Over and over again.

Chen Weiwei walked downstairs.

On her way back at noon, the melody of “Common Jasmine Orange” was also playing from the driver’s stereo…

The driver was completely enthralled.

He hummed along incessantly, though fortunately, he didn’t start swaying to the beat while driving.

After she stepped out of the car…

Inside every major shopping mall, the same single was playing on a continuous loop.

Over and over again.

Sparrows, power lines, the view outside the window…

Accompanied by the soft, gentle melody, Chen Weiwei suddenly felt as if she had been transported back to that summer many years ago – the time right after the college entrance exams, an era filled with longing for the future.

Of course, beyond that, she felt a bit dazed.

Even now, she remained in a state of utter disbelief.

A song this beautiful had actually been written by Zhang Yang.

What was even harder for her to believe was that on Zhang Yang’s sheets of A4 paper, there seemed to be many more songs just like this one.

After returning home…

She lay quietly on her bed, listening to the music.

As she listened, she found herself growing drowsy.

Exhausted, she drifted into a dreamland to the sound of the music. In her dreams, she seemed to return to that summer from years ago…

Though there was no first love…

There was also none of this exhaustion, no endless nights of insomnia, no crushing pressure, and no overwhelming workload.

In her haze, she had a very, very long dream…

When she woke up.

She found the sun was already setting, painting the sky in evening hues.

She felt wonderful.

Her spirit was better than it had ever been!

Her phone had been ringing off the hook, but she remained completely oblivious…

In her life…

Opening the window, she saw the sky filled with sunset clouds.

When she turned on her computer again…

She discovered that the sales of her computers in Huaxia had begun to climb once more.

When she saw the sales figures for the game God of Conquest, her eyes widened in shock!

…………………………………………

Taiwan³.

The evening glow shone through the windows.

Li Ziwen clenched her fists, watching the skyrocketing album sales. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking with excitement!

She felt as if her heart and the very blood in her veins were about to explode!

Yes!

Even someone like her couldn’t help but be stunned and exhilarated by such data!

Last year…

Storm had reached a total album sales of seven hundred thousand copies!

It had set a peak for Zhou Yang’s personal album sales!

It had caused a literal storm!

She had originally thought that was the pinnacle.

She had even mentally prepared herself for the sales of the current album to drop slightly!

However, she never expected that was merely the beginning…

In less than a single day!

The total album sales across Huaxia had already reached a terrifying seventy thousand copies!

That was more than five times the single-day sales of Storm!

This was insane!

Absolutely insane!

She never dreamed that Common Jasmine Orange would be this powerful!

Beside her, Zhou Yang was equally excited.

He double-checked the figures repeatedly for a long time before confirming the data was real!

Then…

He received a call from the marketing department!

“Brother Zhou!”

“According to our survey, out of every two customers who walk into a music store in Taiwan, one is buying our Common Jasmine Orange! Moreover, their enthusiasm is soaring. Many stores are already out of stock…”

“…”

This was a level of success unprecedented in the history of the Tianxing Company!

The entire company seemed to be cheering!

After hanging up, Zhou Yang took a deep breath and looked at Li Ziwen.

“Sister Li, what height do you predict this album will reach?”

“Don’t be in a rush. Let’s watch for two more days. It’ll be easier to predict if the sales trend doesn’t drop much over the next forty-eight hours. Right now, this data is so terrifying it feels surreal!”

“Right!”

“…”

Before they could finish their conversation, a knock sounded at their office door.

Then…

The marketing director, a flamboyant man wearing glasses named Zheng Chen, walked in, suppressing his excitement.

“Sister Li!”

“Director Zheng, what is it?”

“You mentioned before that Zhang Yang seemed to have other songs in his possession, right?”

“Yes, why?”

“It’s nothing. Can you give me Zhang Yang’s contact information? I want to have a chat with him!”

“Huh?”

…………………………………………

“Holy crap!”

“Holy crap, tell me this isn’t real!”

“This song Common Jasmine Orange… oh my god, Zhang Yang wrote it?”

“Who’s Zhang Yang?”

“You don’t know who Zhang Yang is!”

“Dammit! I really don’t know who Zhang Yang is!”

“The hottest educational game out right now, do you know it?”

“Ah, I’ve heard of it…”

“That’s the game produced by Zhang Yang’s company!”

“Wait, is that the deadbeat the internet was bashing before?”

“Deadbeat my ass, he hasn’t been one for ages. There was a reason he ended up in debt; his father screwed him over!”

“Heavens…”

“I’m going to go check out that educational game!”

“…”

“Holy crap, the downloads for this single-player game have already broken three hundred thousand! My god!”

“Breaking three hundred thousand in less than four days… that’s something even Human Killing Machine didn’t manage!”

“Human Killing Machine has only just broken five hundred thousand downloads total!”

“Wait, why does the second-place game, Lone Island Gun God, with its two hundred thousand downloads, feel like a mere background character now?”

“Is this game about to break the records of single-player gaming myths?”

“God, it really might!”

“…”

“Guys, Zhang Yang is on Zhejiang TV’s Today program!”

“Brothers!”

“Holy crap, the music video for the other song in Common Jasmine Orange, Dream Chaser, was made by Zhang Yang’s Universe Technology. Everyone, come look…”

“My god, it really is!”

“Heavens!”

“…”

“…”

Across the internet!

A terrifying storm was frantically forming, sweeping through the entire Huaxia music and gaming industries…

(End of Chapter)

Translator’s Notes