Just because I wrote "Zhu Xian," the school beauty sent me razor blades.

The second day after "Suspended" was released.

A blogger who promotes the beach used the intro to "Suspended" to accompany a scene from the summer blockbuster "Twilight Romance" where the male and female leads embrace for the last time on the beach at sunset, slowed down to 0.8x speed and with a slightly overexposed warm-toned filter.

As soon as the video was released, the live chat was flooded with comments.

"With a thud, pure love begins."

"No one can resist pure love."

The number of views reached 400,000 overnight.

The second to follow was a video editing blogger who compiled a scene from the popular historical drama "The Long Ballad" where the male lead dies on the battlefield and the female lead gazes longingly at the horizon from the city wall, a moment of profound sorrow. The moment the first note of the video started, the comments section exploded—

"Suspended Drowsy only plays high-level matches."

"The drowning alarm sounds again, but it's a regrettable turn of events."

"A song of despair, yet all that remains is regret."

Within a week of its release, "Suspended" garnered over 300 million plays on NetEase Cloud Music, with comments soaring to 470,000, nearly crashing the servers due to the overwhelming volume of comments. Tencent Music and Shuaigou Music followed closely behind, with the combined plays across the four platforms approaching 900 million.

And the flywheel effect of all this is accelerating.

Because of the secondary dissemination on short video platforms, a large number of users who had never heard the new song before were hit by the intro after watching the mashup video, and spontaneously went to the music platform to search for "Suspended" - then listened to it, and then came back to watch the mashup again, and cried again.

A perfect closed loop.

At the end of September, the final rankings for the Nebula Chart for September were released.

The entire music industry's attention is focused on this list.

September Nebula Rankings Final Rankings:

First Place: "Suspended" - Lin Yuan (Singer/Lyricist and Music)

Second Place: "Lover" - Performed by Bo Laikun / Lyrics and Music by Qin Mu

Sixth place: "Autumn Wind" - Shen Wei (singer) / Chu Nan (lyrics and music)

20th Place: "Rebellion" - Zhou Ye (singer) / Chen Yu (lyrics and music)

Lin Yuan single-handedly wrote the lyrics, composed the music, and sang the song. Despite being caught between two major career paths, he managed to carve out a bloody path and pin "Suspended" to the top of the charts.

Although "The Lover" secured its second place on the charts thanks to the fan base of Bolaikun, the difference in viewership between it and "Suspended" was nearly double.

As for "Autumn Wind"—Shen Wei's first work after switching agencies, it ultimately only managed to finish sixth, failing to even reach the top five. The "top three" stipulated in the performance-based agreement was a full three places short of her goal.

When Shen Wei saw the rankings, she sat motionless in the dressing room chair, still wearing her makeup.

Chu Nan fared even worse. The sixth-place finish for "Autumn Wind" meant that this "former senior composer" had been thoroughly outshone by a university freshman in September. Discussions about "Chu Nan's creative talent running dry" had already begun to appear on industry forums.

Wu Liang smashed a teacup in his office.

Meanwhile, "Reverse" dropped from twelfth to twentieth in the rankings—Chen Yu and Zhou Ye did their best, but in this September of fierce competition among top artists, the genre of upbeat songs had become so tiresome in the market that no one cared about it anymore.

Zhao Heng stared at the final rankings, remained silent for half a minute, and then sent a message to Fei Zhao:

[Zhao Heng: President Fei, Tianxing won the September Star Rankings. Not a small win, but a big win.]

Fei Zhao did not reply to the message.

But Tianxing Entertainment's official Weibo account released its September battle report on time—

[Tianxing Entertainment V: In the September Star Chart, Tianxing Entertainment topped the list with "Suspended." "Suspended" lyrics, composition, and vocals by Lin Yuan. The September wind, suspended and unresolved, drowns in you, unwilling to let go, in every deep night.]

You don't even need to look at the comments section to know that it's a sea of ​​"Yuan Shen is awesome".

The term "Yuan Shen" originated from the bullet comments on Bilibili three days ago.

It all started when someone posted "Yuan Shen, my god" under the "Suspended" MV, which was repeated by a few people in the comments, and then quickly spread to Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, eventually becoming a universal term across the internet.

Lin Yuan's Weibo followers surged to 3.8 million within a week, and are still increasing by tens of thousands every day.

A fan club was spontaneously formed and named "Drowning Alliance"—Lin Yuan remained silent for a long time when he saw this, and finally only commented with four words:

"You're quite good at naming things."

The reaction from the Beijing Film Academy was even more direct.

For the first time, Lin Yuan experienced what it meant to be recognized on the street.

At the cafeteria, the lady serving him stared at him for five seconds, then asked tremblingly, "Aren't you... that guy who sings 'Suspended'?"

"Auntie, I just want a bowl of braised pork."

"I'll give you two extra scoops! No extra charge!" The auntie's hand trembled, and the braised pork in the spoon piled up into a small mountain. "After listening to your song, I was reminded of my youth... that person... never mind, just eat!"

Lin Yuan carried a full tray of food to find a seat, and he could hear whispers at every table he passed.

"Holy crap, it really is Lin Yuan!"

"He's even more handsome than in the video..."

"I heard he's still at our school? In the directing department? That's unbelievable!"

"I ran into him at the library the day before yesterday, but I didn't dare to say anything. I regret it so much now."

"Next time you see them, just go up and ask for a photo! What's the point of posting it on social media if you don't take a photo!"

Lin Yuan sat down expressionlessly and began to eat.

Zhou Zixuan sat down opposite him with his plate, shoveling rice into his mouth while scrutinizing him with the look of someone examining a rare animal: "Brother Yuan, you're a top star on campus now. Want me to be your bodyguard when you go out?"

"No need." Lin Yuan picked up a piece of braised pork. "You should first solve the problem of 'emotional transitions as easy as turning the pages of a book' from your skit class."

"Nothing's more important than watching Yuan Ge trend on social media!"

"Don't expect anyone in the audience to applaud you for your final presentation just because you've been following trending topics a lot."

Zhou Zixuan choked for a moment, then lowered his head and ate his food in a huff.

A girl at the next table mustered up her courage and walked over, holding her phone, her face as red as a tomato: "Um... Lin Yuan, could we take a picture together?"

Lin Yuan looked up and glanced at her.

The girl gasped, visibly tense to the point of almost melting away.

"Okay." Lin Yuan put down his chopsticks and gave a fairly friendly smile. "But don't post things like 'What did Lin Yuan eat in the cafeteria today' in the super topic. I'm not ready to be a food vlogger yet."

The girl exclaimed "Ah!" and hurriedly took a photo. After taking the photo, she covered her face and ran back to her roommate's table, letting out a suppressed scream.

Watching this scene, Zhou Zixuan silently shoveled a mouthful of rice into his mouth: "Brother Yuan, don't you feel like you've become a walking fan-generating machine?"

"No," Lin Yuan continued eating the braised pork. "I just think the braised pork in the cafeteria tastes especially good today. Maybe it's because the cafeteria lady's hands were shaking."

Even bigger changes occurred in Lin Yuan's bank account.

One afternoon in late September, Fei Zhao sent him a WeChat message with an attached electronic receipt.

[Fei Zhao: This is the revenue sharing settlement for "Suspended" this month. Take a look.]

Lin Yuan clicked on it and glanced at the numbers.

Then I scanned it again.

Then I scanned it a third time.

One million three hundred and seventy thousand.

The August revenue share from "Summer Breeze" hasn't been included yet—with that money added, his income from two songs over the summer is already close to three million.

A college freshman became a millionaire with just two songs.

Lin Yuan stared at his phone screen and remained silent for a full ten seconds.

Then he slowly turned his head and looked at Zhou Zixuan, who was playing games on the bed.

"Zixuan."

"Hmm?" Zhou Zixuan didn't even look up.

"Starting today, don't wake me up when you're playing games."

Why?

"Because I'm rich now." Lin Yuan lay back on the bed, his hands behind his head, his expression deep as if he were pondering the ultimate question of human civilization. "Rich people need to be awakened by nature, like—by sunlight, birdsong, and the gentle breeze outside the window."

Zhou Zixuan finally raised his head and looked at him as if he were mentally challenged.

"Are you asking for a beating again?"

"You should listen carefully to what rich people say."