The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

The night in Beijing was torn apart by a giant LED screen.

On the exterior wall of Sanlitun Taikoo Li, there is a poster that is five stories high.

The poster only shows one person's profile.

There was no extra text, just a date: Monday 00:00.

And that logo that symbolizes absolute hegemony: TME Exclusive First Release.

Young people passing by stopped and took photos with their phones.

Some enthusiastic fans even screamed at the poster.

……

……

Monday, 9:00 AM.

Microlight Technology Headquarters, Main Conference Room.

The projector beam shone on the whiteboard, illuminating the alarming red line.

"President Lin, the data... is very bad."

The operations director's voice was trembling.

He held a newly released monitoring report in his hand.

"Starting from midnight last night, the daily active users of TME's three major music platforms surged by 40%, and correspondingly..."

The operations director swallowed hard, avoiding Lin Che's gaze.

"Weiguang's user online time dropped precipitously this morning, especially among its core user group aged 18-35, where the churn rate reached as high as 15%."

"What are they doing?" Lin Che sat in the main seat, toying with a pen in his hand.

"They are...listening to music."

The operations director pulled up a screenshot.

That was a massive frenzy on social media.

Everyone is sharing that song, and everyone is discussing that familiar name.

"Mr. Lin, this is 'blood-sucking'."

Shen Nan sat to Lin Che's left, his face ashen.

"TME is serious this time. They're not just doing an exclusive premiere; they've also gone so far as to implement a 'complete internet ban'."

"Our review system can intercept 20,000 user-uploaded videos every minute. If a user wants to use this song as background music, it will be blocked by our own algorithm."

"Because TME's lawyer's letters have piled up on the legal department's desk, if you miss sending even one, they will demand 100,000 in compensation."

Shen Nan gritted his teeth and slammed his fist on the table.

"This is pushing us to our doom."

The conference room was deathly silent.

All the executives had their heads down.

"President Lin, how about... we back down?"

A vice president spoke cautiously.

"Should we talk to Peng Jiaxin? Even if it costs more money..."

Lin Che didn't speak.

He stood up and walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window.

The North Fourth Ring Road beneath my feet is bustling with traffic.

"Give in?"

Lin Che looked out the window, his voice soft, yet clearly reaching everyone's ears.

"Peng Jiaxin now wishes he could devour Weiguang alive; he's making an example of him."

Lin Che turned around.

"Since he is ruthless, don't blame me for being unjust."

"Shen Nan."

"exist."

"Initiate the 'Black Hole Project'."

The moment those two words were uttered, the air in the conference room seemed to freeze.

The CTO suddenly looked up, his face filled with horror: "President Lin, are we really going to... completely block him? That's Jay Chou! Users will be furious if they can't find him!"

"Can't find it?"

Lin Che's lips curled into a cold smile.

"Who said it can't be found?"

He walked up to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and drew a sharp cross on the red downward curve.

"Let users search if they want to."

"But the search results are up to us."

Lin Che threw the pen away; the marker rolled twice on the table and stopped at the edge.

"Wang Jian, the technology department should adjust the search ranking immediately."

"When users search for 'Jay Chou,' 'new song,' or 'new album,' we shouldn't see any other results; that would make us look guilty."

"Reject his singing, reject his impersonators, reject those strangers who look like him, and reject those internet celebrities whose singing style is similar to his."

"Direct all traffic to those 'alternatives' who are active on Weiguang and imitating him."

Wang Jian's mouth dropped open, and he felt cold sweat trickling down his back.

This is a tactic to wipe out any offspring.

This is using "piracy" to dilute "genuine" products.

"besides."

Lin Che's voice grew increasingly cold.

"The content distribution system will demote the entire site in search rankings."

"Any content containing that name in its video title, text, or speech recognition will have its recommendation weight reduced."

"I want to make him an 'invisible' ghost in the world of dim light."

"He doesn't exist in this app."

Lin Che looked around at everyone.

"TME thought they had a monopoly on the ears."

"Then we'll monopolize the eyes."

"implement."

……

……

Monday, 2 PM.

The break room of an office building in Shanghai.

Lily is a long-time Jay Chou fan.

She slacked off at work today, with earphones in her ears, listening to her idol's new song on repeat, feeling so happy she felt like she could fly.

She wanted to post a video to show off.

She opened the Weiguang APP, skillfully imported several handsome photos of her idol, and paired them with the chorus of the new song—of course, it was a "cam version" audio she recorded with her phone through the computer speakers, because it wasn't in Weiguang's music library.

Click Publish.

Caption: #JayChouNewSong# My youth is back! It's so good!

Sent successfully.

Lily put her phone away with satisfaction, waiting for the bombardment of likes and comments.

In the past, as long as you included this tag, even posting a bad picture could get you hundreds of likes.

Ten minutes have passed.

Half an hour has passed.

Lily turned on the dim light again.

Message bar: 0.

Likes: 0.

Views: 1.

"What the hell?"

Lily frowned.

She didn't believe it and posted another message.

This time, I recorded a scene from a music video.

The result was the same.

Stone sinks into the sea.

It's like throwing a pebble into the ocean; it doesn't even make a sound.

She opened the search box and typed in "Jay Chou's new song".

Press Enter.

The screen flickered.

The first video that popped up was of a chubby man with sunglasses and a thick beard, sitting on a tractor and yelling in an extremely off-key voice, "Use the nunchucks, hum hum ha hee!"

Likes: 120W.

The comments section was full of comments like, "Hahaha, this guy is so captivating!" and "This is the real Jay Chou!"

The second video features a barbecue vendor whose profile resembles Jay Chou, singing "Rice Fragrance" while sprinkling cumin.

The third one...

The fourth one...

Lily rowed for a full five minutes.

No.

There was no music video for the new song, no official promotional video, and no analysis from music critics.

It's all about all sorts of quirky, bizarre, and low-budget "peripheral content".

The real "god" seems to have vanished from the face of the earth within this app.

Lily felt a strange sense of panic.

She was clearly listening to that person's songs, but in the video apps she used most often, that person seemed to be non-existent.

Instead, the algorithm forced her to accept the image of the chubby guy driving a tractor.

After watching it three times.

Lily actually burst out laughing.

She casually gave it a like, then typed in the comments: "This guy is much more interesting than the original singer."

……

……

Tuesday, 10:00 AM.

TME Headquarters, President's Office.

Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the expensive carpet.

Peng Jiaxin stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, holding a glass of champagne, overlooking Shenzhen Bay.

"General Peng, the battle report is out."

The secretary pushed open the door and came in, her voice filled with joy.

"The new album sold over 500 million copies on its first day, generating over 1.5 million yuan in sales, setting a new record for digital album sales across the entire internet."

"Also, our stock price rose 8% at the opening this morning, increasing our market value by 20 billion."

Peng Jiaxin turned around and took a sip of champagne.

"very good."

He walked to his desk and looked at the red battle report.

"What's going on with Lin Che?" Peng Jiaxin asked casually, his tone as relaxed as if he were asking about the life or death of an ant.

"It's very quiet."

The secretary replied with a smile.

"Weiguang has not responded or issued a statement. They're probably stunned by the backlash and are busy dealing with user complaints right now."

"Ha ha ha ha."

Peng Jiaxin laughed out loud.

He held the champagne glass above his head, up to the sunlight.

"Young man, you don't know your own limitations."

"Do they think they can revolutionize the entire music industry with just a few algorithms and a few catchy pop songs?"

Peng Jiaxin shook his head, his eyes full of arrogance.

"In the face of true superstars, popularity is nothing but fleeting smoke."

"Go open another bottle of wine."

Peng Jiaxin drank the wine in his glass in one gulp.

"Notify the senior management that a celebration banquet will be held tonight."

"We need to let the entire industry know."

"Old ginger is spicier."

The office was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

And in places they can't see.

Within the massive traffic pool of Weiguang, which boasts 1.5 million daily active users.

The chubby guy driving the tractor just surpassed 200 million likes.

And regarding that record-breaking new album, it's trending on Weiguang's hot search list.

No such person found.