Entertainment: A whirlwind marriage with a fairy-like mother at the start!

"Ring ring—"

The shrill sound of the school bell shattered the tranquility of the teaching building.

Only a few students walked out of the corridor listlessly, leaning on the railings and gazing at the gloomy sky.

A steady and powerful piano prelude was broadcast over the loudspeaker and reached every corner of the campus.

In the classroom of Senior Three (2), the originally somber atmosphere seemed to be torn open by this sudden melody.

"If pride hadn't been coldly slapped down by the vast ocean of reality—"

Liu Qianqian's voice came through a slightly distorted loudspeaker, lacking the sophistication of a recording studio recording, but possessing a stubbornness that pierced through the noise.

The fat man, who had been lying face down on the table pretending to be dead, twitched his ears and pulled his head out of his arms.

The bespectacled man, who had been staring blankly out the window, stopped twirling his pen. The pen tip hovered in mid-air, and ink dripped onto the exam paper, spreading into a black stain.

How could they possibly understand how much effort it takes to reach the distant horizon?

The lyrics stimulated the tense nerves of these teenagers.

There was no preaching, no motivational slogans like "Study until you drop," only a near-monologue.

"The initial dream—will definitely be achieved—"

The moment the chorus burst forth, everyone in the classroom was jolted awake.

The fat man suddenly raised his head, his face still bearing the marks of the creases from his sleeves. The confusion in his small eyes, squeezed into slits by his fat, was gradually fading, replaced by a flame.

He grabbed the test paper with a score of 38, crumpled it into a ball, then unfolded it again and flattened it.

Pick up the pen.

Fight to the death!

The bespectacled man pushed up his glasses, which had slipped down his nose, picked up a pen, and forcefully wrote a formula on the draft paper.

Screw SARS.

Screw the school lockdown.

I'm going to get into a top university!

In the hallway, someone shouted, "Senior 3 (2) Class! Awesome!"

This then triggered a chain reaction.

"Senior 3 (5) Class! Go for it!"

"I'm going to get into Peking University!"

"I want to go to Wuhan University to see the cherry blossoms!"

"I want to go to the same university as xxx!"

The long-suppressed roars rose and fell, mixed with the song of never giving up on the radio, which forcefully dispersed much of the heavy gloom that shrouded the school.

The dean of students stood with his hands behind his back at the foot of the office building, listening to the deafening roar from upstairs. He wanted to go up and yell at them, but after taking half a step, he pulled his foot back.

He took off his glasses, wiped his eyes, and cursed, "These little brats, they're really loud."

In the broadcasting room, Chen Yu leaned against the door frame, listening to the deafening shouts outside, and let out a long breath.

.........

This trend started at Jiangcheng No. 3 High School and, with the help of the still somewhat clumsy Internet at that time, swept across the entire land of China overnight.

Sina Forum, Campus Section.

A post was selected as a featured post and pinned to the top by the administrator.

[Subject: Who else?! Our school has started playing "The First Dream" too!]

Main post: Located at Chengdu No. 7 Middle School, this song suddenly came on the loudspeaker during the morning exercise break today! All the senior students went crazy, belting it out together! The dean of students' faces turned green, but he didn't dare turn it off! Awesome!

[1L]: Holy crap! Us too! We're at the High School Affiliated to Shanghai High School! I thought only our school was this trendy!

[2L]: Our school is even more amazing! The principal personally recommended it during the flag-raising ceremony, saying it was the perfect battle song for our year's test takers! After listening to it, I immediately did two more sets of practice exams!

[3L]: Stop arguing upstairs! Our school just changed the school song and is using this one!

[4L]: Am I the only one curious about who sings this song? The voice is so clean and pleasant to listen to!

[5L]: Liu Yifei! She's Bai Xiuzhu from "The Story of a Noble Family"! She sang "Invisible Wings," and she also released an EP. Her other two songs, "Warm" and "A Little Happiness," are also incredibly good! Highly recommended!

[6L]: Bought it! My roommates and I chipped in to buy one, and now we're on repeat every day. It feels like we've been injected with some kind of mystical power! We'll crush the college entrance exam!

The thread below the post has been filled with thousands of comments.

Students from all over the country shared the shock and emotion brought by the same song in the simplest language.

In this spring shrouded in the shadow of SARS, this song became a shot in the arm, a ray of light piercing through the gloom.

........

A week has passed quietly.

Xinchang Great Buddha Temple, the film crew's guesthouse.

"Boss! Boss! It's blown up!"

The wooden door was slammed open by a strange force, nearly crashing against the wall and dying.

Yang Nuo burst into the room like a pink cannonball, waving an A4 sheet of paper in her hand.

Yu Le was lying in a rocking chair, holding a cucumber he had swiped from a fellow villager, and took a bite.

"Calm down. If the sky falls, Zhang Jizhong, that big guy, will hold it up. What are you panicking about?"

"It's not that the sky is falling, it's that we're about to ascend to the heavens!"

Yang Nuo smeared the paper on Yu Le's face.

"Second week's sales figures! Fresh off the press, still hot!"

Yu Le pulled the paper off her face and glanced at it.

First place: Yu Quan's "I Can't Live Without You", sales: 120,000 copies.

Second place: Xu Wei's "Rebirth from the Ashes", sales: 40,000 copies.

Third place: Liu Yifei's "Liu Yifei", sales: 38,000 copies.

..........

"Those two beasts from Yuquan are really fierce."

Yu Le pointed to the first line and clicked his tongue twice.

The album "I Can't Live Without You" is indeed of high quality. Coupled with the fact that the two had just won the Golden Melody Award and were at the peak of their popularity, weekly sales of 120,000 copies were standard practice and they were basically unstoppable.

Shift your gaze downwards.

Xu Wei, 40,000.

You should know that this woman sold 82,000 units in the first week.

The stock price plummeted by more than 50% in the second week.

This is a typical consequence of "marketing fraud." They lure people in with overwhelming hype and then exploit them. Once the first wave of customers is harvested and the reputation fails to hold, sales naturally plummet.

Then look at my own little cabbage.

The first week, 13,000; the second week, 38,000.

A reversal of the trend.

This is a trend that only truly critically acclaimed masterpieces can break through.

"Only two thousand more are needed..."

Liu Qianqian came over at some point, rested her head on Yu Le's shoulder, stared at the two numbers, and her voice trembled slightly.

"Yu Le, can I surpass her?"

The little girl's eyes were full of competitive spirit.

It seems she inherited it from her mother.

The frustration of being completely crushed by Xinghai Entertainment across all channels before is now surging up.

Who doesn't want to be number one?

Who wants to be constantly suppressed and beaten?

Remove "can or cannot".

Yu Le stuffed the remaining half of the cucumber into her mouth, silencing her anxiety.

"At this rate, by this time next week, you'll be able to climb over her head and take her place."

Yang Nuo stood to the side, a kind smile on her face.

"We call this 'encircling the cities from the countryside.' Those students are now our staunch supporters; one copy each and we've driven up sales. And..."

She paused, then pulled a calculator from her pocket and began typing rapidly.

"Furthermore, we signed a new revenue-sharing agreement, with a 70% split. In just these two weeks, we'll have nearly a million in revenue!"

"Wow!"

Liu Qianqian chewed on a cucumber, let out a muffled cheer, and jumped onto the sofa.

"Let's celebrate! I want Peking duck! I want a feast!"

Yu Le rolled her eyes.

"Promising."