Huayu 2002, I'm going to dominate the music scene!

Xu Chao parked his car and walked into the familiar audio-visual store. The store was deserted, and the owner was dozing off at the counter.

"Old Wang," Xu Chao called out.

The shop owner groggily looked up, and after recognizing Xu Chao, he greeted him warmly, "Hey, it's been so long! Whose album are you looking to buy, Jay Chou's or David Tao's? Jolin Tsai's new album is also pretty good."

Xu Chao shook his head. "Old Wang, do you have that album that was playing on the radio just now? It's by a newcomer, something like Song Mo."

The boss looked up, startled, and asked, "What?"

"Song Mo, your new album was playing on the radio just now," Xu Chao said, sounding a little impatient.

"Song Mo." The name sounded familiar. The boss frowned. Suddenly, he remembered that it was the album that the distributor had sent over a few days ago, saying it was A-Du's junior brother's album.

Seeing that he was a newcomer, he only took five tickets and put them on the shelf in the far corner.

"This one?" The shopkeeper pulled out a bill and handed it over.

Xu Chao took it, glanced at the cover, quickly found "Happy Worship," and nodded. "How much?"

Thirty-five.

He took out his wallet, paid, and left with the album.

The boss watched his retreating figure and shook his head. "A newcomer's album, and people actually buy it?"

He walked to the shelf and glanced at the album cover again.

Dark gray with white space at the top and bottom, the design is quite distinctive, but it's just a newcomer's work.

He slumped back onto the counter and continued to doze off.

This week, Song Mo traveled to ten small and medium-sized cities in Central China and performed nearly fifty offline shows.

The performance venues have also expanded from Xinhua Bookstore and Audio-Visual World to universities, bars and other places.

Overall, the results were good, but it was really tiring. Every day, I would perform all over the place, and at night I might have to go to the radio station to do a program. Then I would travel to the next city at night, and I hardly had any time to rest.

Liu Yifei insisted on running with him. She found it novel for the first two days, but started to get tired on the third day, and by the fifth day she didn't want to talk anymore.

"Are singers this tired from doing promotions?" she asked listlessly, leaning against the window.

"I've never done any publicity before," Song Mo said. "This is my first time."

Liu Yifei glanced at him but didn't say anything more. She suddenly felt that being an actress was really quite good.

Soon, the sales figures for the first week came out.

When Bi Xiaoshi received the data, he remained silent for a long time.

Several thousand tickets were sold in ten cities in Central China, plus a small number of online pre-sales.

He made a phone call to Song Mo.

"Xiao Song, the data for the first week is in."

"How many?"

Bi Xiaoshi gave a number, then sighed: "Three thousand two hundred and seventeen. The purchasing power of small and medium-sized cities is still not good."

His感慨 (feelings of deep emotion) were not unfounded. After all, Lin Junjie's debut album sold over 50,000 copies overseas in its first week, and was expected to surpass 200,000 in its first month. If its subsequent release in mainland China were included, the final sales were estimated to reach the million-level.

Song Mo was silent for a few seconds before speaking, his tone calm: "Teacher Bi, have confidence in my album. It takes time for a song to gain traction; this is only the first week, and it will continue to rise."

Bi Xiaoshi understood this principle, of course. He tried to make his voice louder: "Okay, you guys just focus on the offline performances. I'll take care of the radio show promotions."

In the past few days, Bi Xiaoshi had also heard some rumors that Beijing was preparing for a full reopening, which greatly encouraged him.

This means that their previous plans are being realized step by step. Although the current sales figures are indeed not good, he believes that this is temporary.

With the release of Song Mo's album sales figures for the first week, those who were originally waiting to see what would happen were overjoyed.

The first to jump out was a "music critic" who frequents various music forums for many years. His ID was "Ears Blooming Flowers". He posted a long article on the Tianya Music section with the title: "Ocean Butterflies' newcomer Song Mo releases an album against the trend, and the 3,000 copies sold teach the industry a lesson."

The article is quite lengthy, discussing market dynamics, newcomer positioning, release timing, and consumer psychology, ultimately concluding: "The music industry can't be sustained by passion alone. Song Mo's courage is commendable, but the market's sales figures tell him, young man, you're not worthy yet." The article ends with a playful remark: "I suggest Ocean Butterflies should invest more in A-Du; only overseas newcomers represent the future of Chinese pop music."

The post quickly attracted a large number of onlookers.

"Isn't this the one who had a scandal with Gao Yuanyuan before? Her album is doing so badly? Tsk tsk, look how popular Gao Yuanyuan is now with Zhou Zhiruo."

"Isn't this just another gigolo? All he does is freeload. Three thousand copies sold? Who does he think he is?"

The post was quickly shared on Xici Hutong, where it was met with a chorus of positive comments.

"I told you long ago, for a newcomer to insist on going against the grain, what else is that but stupidity?"

"Ocean Butterflies is really bold, betting its fortune on a nineteen-year-old."

"That 'Brush, Ink, Paper and Inkstone' thing has a rather impressive name, but it sounds like a showy facade."

An editor from a music magazine publicly commented in a QQ group: "I listened to two of the main tracks on Song Mo's album, and to be honest, the production quality is decent. But in today's market, it's not a matter of quality, it's a matter of survival. Everyone else is crouching, and you insist on standing up; bullets don't have eyes."

Another record company planner, who claimed to have been in the industry for ten years, lamented in the comments: "These days, young people all want to be lone heroes. But being a hero is easy, making a living is hard. With 3,000 copies sold, Ocean Butterflies is probably going to suffer a huge loss this time."

Some even compared Song Mo and Lin Junjie, noting that Lin Junjie sold 50,000 copies overseas in his first week, while Song Mo sold 3,000 copies in mainland China in his first week, a difference of more than ten times.

"This is what a newcomer at Ocean Butterflies should be like," someone commented sarcastically in the comments section.

Even some industry insiders with good relationships with Ocean Butterflies called Bi Xiaoshi, their tone filled with the pity of someone who'd been through it all: "Old Bi, didn't you rush things this time? Look at the situation now, how are you going to clean it up?"

Bi Xiaoshi didn't make a fuss about these comments. Song Mo was already busy enough, and he didn't want to add to Song Mo's troubles.

In fact, Song Mo was not unaware of the rumors circulating online. He would occasionally see posts about An Ming running a ringtone service in East China, and An Ming would send him screenshots, asking if he should retaliate. However, Song Mo didn't care at all; the battlefield now wasn't online.

Moreover, he considered the sales volume of 3,000 copies in the first week to be quite high.

Without the consumer base of big cities and without massive advertising campaigns, relying solely on live performances to build a reputation, he managed to sell over three thousand copies. This shows that at least one-tenth of those who stopped to listen to him sing were willing to pay for his music.

This conversion rate is not low.

However, he underestimated the chain reaction brought about by the sale of these three thousand copies.

That evening, he had just finished a campus performance in Huangshi and returned to his hotel when his phone started vibrating incessantly.