She debuted after having a child with a celestial being.

On the day "Insomnia Flight" was released, the promotional scale provided by Taihe Entertainment made the entire Chinese music scene take notice.

Taihe Music just completed a 1 billion yuan financing round in June, and Hu Yiyou has a much larger pool of resources at his disposal than in previous years.

Hechao Music signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Taihe's distribution agency, not just some small deal where they just throw out a banner and call it a day. HF is Taihe's key independent label group that they are promoting throughout the year, with full promotional resources and all core channels open to them.

The four major platforms simultaneously launched pre-launch campaigns: QQ Music's boot screen, NetEase Cloud Music's homepage featured image, Kugou's pop-up recommendations, and Douyin's news feed.

Kugou's Rising Chart algorithm is sensitive to the data on the first day, and it immediately surged into the top 20 of the Rising Chart upon launch.

All the banner slots were booked by Taihe Music. It was featured on QQ Music's homepage carousel for three whole days, and NetEase Cloud Music's "Heartbeat Mode" put "Insomnia Flight" into its featured recommendation pool.

After the post went live, Chen Zhu sent a WeChat message: "This year, Taihe is only promoting one independent label, so don't waste it."

When the data from the first day of launch came out, Chen Zhu sent three exclamation marks in the work group.

The song received over a thousand comments on its first day and jumped from the trending chart to the top ten of the new song chart on its second day.

By the third day, the tone of the comments section had completely changed.

"I want to fly with you through insomnia, and collect oxygen with you everywhere."

This lyric seemed to have been enchanted, and it began to spread spontaneously on short video platforms.

First, several music bloggers with tens of thousands of followers made covers of the song, with titles like "HF's new song is so good".

Then, a relationship-focused account with over 100,000 followers used this song as background music for its videos, often accompanied by images of couples holding hands on trips, long-distance couples meeting, couples experiencing insomnia late at night, and encountering sunlight by the window.

Then, more and more people started doing cover versions: there were professional singers, amateurs, some recorded on their phones in their dorm rooms, and some covered in recording studios with professional equipment.

Several music bloggers on Douyin started imitating and covering the songs. Some played the piano, some sang with guitar, and some made DJ speed-up versions and slow rock versions—various versions spread like a virus.

On Bilibili, a content creator named "The Rain Is Still Falling" posted a cover video of a male-female duet version of "Insomnia Flight," titled "Covering the super popular HF group's new song!!!" The video garnered over a million views in three days.

The comment section of NetEase Cloud Music has turned into a giant wishing site.

Xiao He leaned back in the chair in the tour rehearsal room, scrolling through the comments one by one, and then sending screenshots of netizens' comments to Liu Yifei's WeChat.

The first screenshot is from the top-rated comment on NetEase Cloud Music.

"The lyrics, 'I want to fly low with you, and collect oxygen everywhere with you,' remind me of our first date. He picked me up at the airport, holding up a piece of paper with two crookedly drawn airplanes on it. Now we're married, and we have a drawer full of airplane tickets. Thank you, HF, for capturing the essence of love at its very beginning."

Xiao He replied to this comment with two heart emojis, which was screenshotted and forwarded by fans, garnering over 10,000 views.

The second screenshot is from the top-rated comment on KuGou Music.

"The time to heat up milk for you every night has passed, and the movie we didn't finish watching is still on the bedside table." This line is so heartbreaking. My ex and I broke up two years ago, and I still cried like a baby when I saw this. He used to heat up milk for me every night before bed, and there was always a movie we hadn't finished watching on the bedside table. After he left, I heat up the milk myself and watch the movie myself. But seeing this lyric still reminds me of him.

The third one.

"I want to fly with you through Greenwich and through time; I want to see you through churches and crowds to embrace you." Greenwich is the starting point of time. To cross Greenwich is to cross time itself. This lyric is written for the person I most want to see. It's written for that person across time zones, across crowds, across all the impossibilities, yet I still want to see them.

Xiao He forwarded this to Liu Yifei, adding the comment: "Netizens interpret this better than I do."

The fourth one.

"Even I, who never stays up late, have obvious dark circles under my eyes. Xiao He, tell me, why are you having trouble sleeping? Are you thinking about song lyrics, or are you thinking about someone?"

Xiao He didn't retweet this. But he took a screenshot and saved it in a folder called "HF" in his phone's photo album.

The fifth comment received over 20,000 likes.

"From noise to tranquility, from cloudy to sunny, I want to straighten your shirt and collect poems for you." Isn't this what love is all about? Thank you, HF, for making me believe again.

Xiao He texted with a laugh: "Just flipping through random stuff. There's something even more interesting—someone said this song was written for the two of us."

"It was originally written for the two of us." Liu Yifei's fingers paused for a moment in the cat fur. "Didn't you say the inspiration was me?"

Xiao He couldn't say it was Chao Ge, so he could only make it up: "Yes. So they were right."

Liu Yifei did not reply.

"Sis," Xiao He's message lit up again, "Two of our songs have made it into the top ten on the new song chart. Do you still stand by what you said?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then her soft laughter came through: "You little rascal, what did I say? I only said you're the best little brother."

"You said that if I pull you out of the abyss, you'll be my wife," Xu Yao pressed.

"I meant, can I be your girlfriend? Are you so desperate for a wife?" Liu Yifei immediately corrected her.

Xiao He was very satisfied with this answer, and he continued to reply: "Okay, dreams take time, I'm not in a hurry."

CP (couple) fans' analysis posts are going viral in the supertopic. One fan even broke down the lyrics line by line and created a document comparing them with the timeline of Liu Yifei and Xiao He's public interactions.

"‘It's past the time I give you warm milk every night’—Liu Yifei has mentioned in an interview that she has a habit of drinking warm milk before bed. How did Xiao He know this?"

"The movie we didn't finish watching is still written on the bedside table"—this indicates that the two people often watch movies together. What kind of relationship would involve watching movies together frequently, and then leaving a note on the bedside table halfway through?

"I, who never stays up late, have noticeable dark circles under my eyes"—insomnia. Why am I having insomnia? Think about it yourself.

"'I want to straighten your shirt'—the act of straightening a shirt is too intimate. It's not the older sister straightening the younger brother's shirt, it's you straightening it for her."

"Did you still suffer from insomnia after you left?" —Leaving? What do you mean by leaving? Does it refer to the tour period, or some other time?

"The doll you gave me is still with me"—a doll! They must have exchanged dolls! Has anyone figured out what this doll is?!

"'Passing by that coffee shop again, a familiar yet unfamiliar place'—this suggests they often go to coffee shops together. Do the siblings often go to coffee shops together? Yes. But would the siblings write lyrics for it and put it in a love song? No."

This long post was shared on Weibo with only one sentence in the caption: "Sisters, these lyrics are too obvious."

The post was quickly shared over 10,000 times, and the comment section erupted into a heated argument.

Some people are going crazy over it: "So HF is real after all."

"I knew these lyrics weren't written for ordinary friends."

"It's true from beginning to end."

Some people poured cold water on the idea, saying, "HF is a brother-sister duo, and writing sweeter lyrics is a commercial necessity."

"Stop shipping her, or you'll just bring more trouble to my sister."

Another passerby commented, "Whether they're telling the truth or not, this song is really good."

Immediately afterwards, music critic "Listening" posted a long Weibo post.

"When I wrote 'Wild Wolf Disco,' Xiao He was still using dragon painting to attract attention. With 'Qilin,' he blew up the entire talent show stage with his suona and fast-paced rap. But 'Insomnia Flight' is a completely different song, clean, gentle, and restrained, like a late-night flight cruising over the city. It's about wanting to fly low with you, collecting oxygen with you everywhere. It's not the rough street aesthetics of 'Wild Wolf Disco,' which has the feel of 90s nightclubs, nor is it the powerful and majestic Chinese-style rap of 'Qilin.' It's more personal and quieter. It's rare in the entire Chinese music scene for a singer-songwriter to be able to play two completely different musical styles so well in less than half a year since his debut."

That evening, Liu Yifei posted something on her WeChat Moments for the first time ever. No pictures, no links, just a few lines: "Sleepless Flight, from Noise to Peace. Thank you to everyone who likes this song. And thank you to the songwriter. @Xiao He."

Xiao He immediately replied with a single word in the comments section: "Sister."

Then he posted another message: "The next one will be even better."