Chapter 124 - Black Tide

On August 14, the “Singing China” tour team ended its competition in Tianfu.

Of the 10 singers on the tour team, three was eliminated from the competition, including Lin Lang.

Without suspense, Lu Chen defeated the challenger again and continued his national tour.

The competition rules of “Singing China” are originally created by Beijing Satellite TV. Because of its cruelty, the ones left from the first top 10 in Beijing singing area were Lu Chen, Mu Xiaochu and Zhang Junhua after the end of Hangzhou Station.

On the surface, such rules are very disadvantageous to the top singers in the singing area, especially in the Beijing singing area.

Because if they want to get to the top 10 in the country to take part in the final election, they have to overcome the challengers in the other six major singing areas all the way. If they lose any competition, they will lose the opportunity, and there will be no revival process.

But from another point of view, the contestant from Beijing singing area can theoretically have the most appearances, and the intensive itinerary competition is a great test of will and endurance, and as long as they stick to it, the popularity accumulated is still very strong.

In addition, there are bonuses in the competition. A win is 50,000. After the competition in Shengjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Tianfu, Lu Chen, Mu Xiaochu and Zhang Junhua all earn bonuses of up to 200,000.

Including the Beijing singing area top 10 champion bonus, Lu Chen has already received 300,000 after-tax reward.

Although the singing area contestants in the back position can wait for leisure, they also lose a lot of opportunities to win bonuses and show their faces. Whether the best choice is to win or lose depends entirely on their personal freedom.

It is believed that by the beginning of the second season of “Singing China” next year, choosing a singing area is going to be a big problem.

In the touring knockout competitions, Lu Chen is undoubtedly the most eye-catching contestant of “Singing China”, because all the songs he took out were original, and none of them were a cover song!

All his originals were easily acknowledged. What’s terrifying is that Lu Chen’s works are of high quality.

Not to mention that the song “In Spring” has become a big hit, just his own “You Who Sat Next To Me”, “Fly Higher”, “Love In The Wind”, “Those Flowers” and so on can be regarded as excellent or even classic works.

These excellent original songs have been loved by a large number of audiences, and the number of fans is increasing day by day.

In blogs, forums, and post bars, many fans praise Lu Chen as the leader of the new generation of singers.

More and more people in the pop music and entertainment circles are beginning to discuss his works.

Some even clamored that domestic original works is rising again. Lu Chen’s appearance is the best proof!

As a result, the ratings of “Singing China” have been continuously improved.

In contrast, Xiangnan Satellite TV’s “Super Singer” was undoubtedly overshadowed. Even though it entered the national final election earlier than “Singing China”, the ratings in recent issues have been only about 3%.

Some people joke that the real “Super Singer” is in “Singing China”. On the contrary, “Super Singer” only has a few good singers that appeared. That both sides took the wrong script.

On Inspur Blog, the number of fans of Lu Chen reached more than 5 million after the online battle. (TN: Original text was “Tianfu Battle” and since I have no clue what that means. I changed it.)

As an unknown newcomer, Lu Chen has risen by rapidly and successfully. He has been applauded by thousands of fans and viewers, but at the same time, he has also made some people hate him out of jealousy.

As a result, a black tide quietly rose.

August 18. The second day after the end of “Singing China” knockout competition in the Huacheng singing area.

At about 7 o’clock in the evening, a blog post was suddenly forwarded in large numbers and spread around in Inspur blog!

The title of the blog post is: My story and the story of “In Spring”. Blogger ID is: Wandering Singer Lao Hai.

The newly registered blogger wrote that he was a singer who had been wandering in Beijing for more than 20 years. When he was 19 years old, he left his hometown to develop in Beijing and pursuit his own musical dreams.

However, the reality is very cruel, and he was badly battered because of his dream. He wasn’t able to see any hope.

Over the past 20 years, Lao Hai has sung in bars, underground passages, and in People’s Square. In order to make ends meet, he has often worked in short-term jobs and worked hard for three meals a day.

But he never gave up his dream and struggled on the music road.

Lao Hai has written a lot of works, probably because of the lack of talent, his works have always been unpopular, but one of them is his favorite, and he firmly believe that it is valuable.

The name of this work is “In Spring”. After several years of writing and repeated revision, it was still not been finalized, and even the lyrics are not perfect, so it has not been taken out for copyright registration.

But he showed the draft to several of his friends, and they all said that it was a very good song.

He, therefore, became hopeful.

But to Lao Hai’s surprise, he suddenly heard his familiar melody in a bar some time ago. Only then did he know that a new song called “in Spring” was becoming very popular and was sung by many people.

And this song and his work, besides the lyrics, the melody is very similar!

At that time, Lao Hai felt like he was hit by a bolt of lightning out of the blue. He was completely shocked.

How did that happen?

Lao Hai could hardly believe this fact.

He could not let go of this heavy knot, so he had to talk to his friends.

But there is nothing his friends can do, because this song “In Spring” has been copyrighted by others, and his empty words are groundless. How can he prove that it was his own work?

So, just move on. There’s no need to shout around. People will just say you’re jealous and slanderous.

Lao Hai knows that what his friends are saying is also for his own good. He is just a Beijing drift singer with no power, no money, and no reputation. What qualifications do he have to fight with others? His best choice is to give up.

But he really didn’t want to give up.

Therefore, he applied for an account in the Inspur blog and told his story.

Lao Hai didn’t ask others whether they believe it or not, he just want to get the fairness he deserve!

This blog post is very long and very emotional, with skilled writing that vividly depicts a middle-aged singer struggling at the bottom, and presented to everyone.

The story that it told made passer-by who saw it couldn’t help but be filled with righteousness and indignation!

At the end of the blog post, Lao Hai also attached several photos of worn-out curly handwritten paper. The content of which was the composition of the song, and despite many traces of modification and smear, one can still see the dense notes clearly.

As a new blogger without any fans, the post by Wandering Singer Lao Hai went unnoticed at first, but it was quickly forwarded and @ a number of big Vs and celebrities in the industry.

Then, amazingly, in just a few hours the number of forwards has reached tens of thousands, which has been read by more and more people. The number of clicks and comments increased exponentially!

By 10 o’clock in the evening, the blog post was on the hot list on the home page of Inspur Blog.

110,000+ forwards, 350,000+ comments, and 500,000+ likes!

In the comments, many people expressed their support for the blogger, sympathized with his experience, and supported him to defend his rights and fight a lawsuit.

However, many people are skeptical about the authenticity of the story and think it is a malicious hype.

Although this blog post did not name names, but the one being pointed out is too obvious. So, after the blog post climbed to the hot list, Lu Chen’s blog post was blown out!

Those bloggers who don’t know the truth accused Lu Chen of plagiarizing Lao Hai, which is simply shameless.

Some people asked Lu Chen to apologize to Lao Hai and return the copyright of “In Spring” to the other party.

Some people told Lu Chen to get out of the entertainment industry!

If Lu Chen, who participated in “Singing China” before, was still an unknown little newcomer, then now he seems to be a rising star, bearing countless praise and glory.

In contrast, the wandering singer Lao Hai looks pitiful and will naturally make people sympathize with him.

These people who scold Lu Chen do not know the truth of the matter, nor do they care about the truth.

They were touched by the story of Lao Hai and felt great disgust for Lu Chen. Therefore, they spontaneously participated in the siege of Lu Chen in order to vent their emotions.

Some people went to Beijing Satellite TV, “Singing China” program group, and even Tan Hong, Chen Fei’er’s blog.

Requesting Lu Chen to be banned!

And some well-known bloggers are also contributing to this.

A person from the industry with V certification lamented that the domestic pop music industry was so corrupted that plagiarism became the usual hype without limits, which made many truly talented people unable to stand out.

He strongly appealed to Beijing Satellite TV to take the initiative to ban Lu Chen and not allow plagiarists to stand on the stage.

As if it was already determined that Lu Chen plagiarized the works of Lao Hai!

There are a lot of big V and small V in the blogging industry who hold similar views. While Inspur blog has set off to denounce Lu Chen’s black tide, this matter has quickly spread to posts, forums and even QQ groups.

Lu Chen seems to have suddenly become a falling dog that everyone is crying out for, and his plagiarism is already a sure thing!

But although there are a lot of people who don’t know the truth, there are also a lot of people who have discerning eyes.

A newly registered blog, a blog post without any real evidence besides a few photos and emotional words, has unexpectedly caused such a big storm in such a short period of time.

To say that there is no one is controlling this behind the scene is a complete insult to one’s IQ!

Who doesn’t know that those few big V who are actively promoting these are people who obey anyone that feeds them.

But it doesn’t mean that just because they see something strange doesn’t mean they’ll fight for Lu Chen.

Lu Chen has recently been in a strong limelight, and some time ago he also offended Xiangnan Satellite TV, making several people in the circle lose face.

Either they’re taking pleasure in others’ misfortunes or sharing a common hatred of an enemy, many people chose to stand idly by, and some even followed a small push, happy to see Lu Chen fall! (TN: Followed a small push = add fuel to the fire/make thing worst.)

This is how the entertainment circle works. Lu Chen is someone who has no roots and somewhat famous, suitable for stepping on a few feet. (TN: Suitable to be suppressed?)

Everyone is waiting to see how he will respond to such a fierce black tide!

TN: The title of the chapter “黑潮” is translated as Japan Current or Kuroshio, which is also known as “black tide”. After number of hours of reading and research, I was able to find out that Japan Current or Kuroshio is the strongest warm current in the western North Pacific Ocean. It is the north equatorial warm current that turns north on the east coast of the Philippine Islands. The mainstream flows northward along the east coast of Taiwan Island and the west side of the Ryukyu Islands to the southeastern coast of the Japanese archipelago. Because the sea water is blue and black, hence the name.

Now, you may ask what does it have to do with the story. And my answer is “Absolutely Nothing!”. I still don’t know specifically what it means as all I’m getting out from all the reading and research I did is the explanation above, but I think “Black Tide” means making derogatory or malicious allegations. Maybe closer to the saying “pouring dirty water”.