Entertainment: A song that brought his deceased wife back to life.

Ma Dongteng hasn't slept well for three days.

In a secluded room on the 37th floor of Penguin Music's headquarters, a stack of printed offshore company structure diagrams lay on the table. Above the trust account in the Cayman Islands, there were four layers of shell companies, all pointing to a holding group registered in Bermuda.

The group's name is "Deep Sea Capital".

This name may not be well-known in the music industry, but in the global copyright acquisition field, it is a quietly lurking behemoth.

Over the past decade, Deepsea Capital, through its funds, has acquired the copyrights to more than 40,000 songs globally, covering pop, classical, jazz, and electronic genres. Its operating method is extremely simple and brutal—acquire at a premium, hoard copyrights, and then use those copyrights as a weapon to control others.

Ma Dongteng closed the architecture diagram, leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his temples.

"Xu Qing didn't just offend one person," he muttered to himself, "he offended an entire food chain."

He was about to call the security department again when the tablet on the table lit up.

Trending topic push.

Ma Dongteng glanced at the entry and sat up straight in his chair.

#Mingyue Qingfeng suspected of plagiarizing an anonymous overseas master's demo#

#Dispute over the ownership of the original copyright of the moon#

#Penguin Music's music library faces copyright lock-in#

He clicked on it.

The earliest post exposing the story was published on an overseas music forum. It was originally in English and was translated and reposted to Weibo two hours ago. The post included a 30-second audio clip—a snippet of the song "Moon," which was bought out for an exorbitant price.

The post's core argument is singular: several of Mingyue Qingfeng's most popular songs in recent years, including the song she will perform in the semi-finals of "Echoes from the Clouds," have chord progressions that are highly similar to this song, "Moon," thus constituting plagiarism.

The comments section has gone crazy.

The posts from influential figures, the secondary reposts by marketing accounts, and the frenzy of trolls—the entire chain of public opinion was executed cleanly and efficiently, clearly pre-arranged.

After reading the trending topics, Ma Dongteng picked up his phone and called the legal director.

"Issue an announcement immediately. Prepare all copyright files, creation timestamps, and original recording files for all of Mingyue Qingfeng's released songs."

"Mr. Ma, the other party has already made the first move." The general counsel's voice was tense. "The overseas law firm representing Deep Sea Capital sent us a lawyer's letter half an hour ago, suing Mingyue Qingfeng for allegedly plagiarizing six songs of 'Moon' in the name of the copyright holder, and demanding that Tencent Music immediately remove the relevant tracks and freeze the royalties."

"Six songs?"

"Including 'Coral Sea', 'Said Goodbye', and the semi-final song selection that Xu Qing submitted to the program team last week."

Ma Dongteng narrowed his eyes.

How did they know about the song selections for the semi-finals?

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

Ma Dongteng hung up the phone and sat alone for ten seconds.

Then he picked up another phone and dialed Xu Qing's number.

Xu Qing answered the phone very quickly.

"Did you see it?" Ma Dongteng asked.

"I've seen it."

"They registered the copyright for 'Moon' and are now suing you for plagiarism. Six songs. The lawyer's letter includes a forged manuscript and recording log, pushing back the completion date of 'Moon' by four years. If the court accepts this, all your songs will have to be removed from the Penguin Music library."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"A forged draft?"

"The format looks very professional. But our legal team has done a preliminary comparison, and the equipment model cited in the recording studio log was only released three years ago," Ma Dongteng said. "We can prove it's fake, but going through the legal process takes time. Their law firm has already applied to the court for a preliminary injunction. If the court grants a temporary injunction, your song will have to be taken down first, and we'll have to wait for the trial results—and once a lawsuit starts, it will at least drag on for a year and a half."

"The semi-final is tomorrow night," Xu Qing said.

"Yes," Ma Dongteng said, "so they timed it precisely at this point in time."

Silence again.

Ma Dongteng heard Luo Qianyu's voice on the other end of the phone: "What's wrong?"

Then Xu Qing switched the phone to speakerphone.

After listening to Ma Dongteng's brief summary, Luo Qianyu remained silent for a long time.

"So they first spent a fortune to buy a half-finished demo, and then went online and accused us of plagiarizing it?" Luo Qianyu's voice came from afar, her tone sharp and strained. "Isn't that just blatant extortion?"

"No normal person would do something like this to stage an accident on this scale," Ma Dongteng said.

"What about the production team?" Xu Qing asked.

"The production team held an emergency meeting this afternoon. There's some capital exerting pressure, demanding that songs involving copyright disputes not be performed on stage." Ma Dongteng paused for a moment, "Simply put—they want you to give up your song selection for the semi-finals."

"Then let's change to another song." Xu Qing's voice was calm.

The sound of Ma Dongteng's keyboard stopped.

"Change to what?"

"I'm writing a new one now."

Both ends of the phone went silent.

Luo Qianyu's voice rang out first: "What did you say?"

"Since they've blocked the old songs, let's give them a song that's never existed before," Xu Qing said. "A newly written one, with no copyright issues. Sing it out on the spot and let them eat their own shit."

Ma Dongteng remained silent for three seconds.

"We'll record it tomorrow night. You'll be writing, arranging, and rehearsing tonight—for over ten hours."

That's enough.

Ma Dongteng was silent for three seconds. Then he chuckled.

"Okay. I'll handle the legal department. You write the song."

The phone hangs up.

Luo Qianyu stood next to the sofa, looking at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing had already gotten up and walked towards the study.

"Xu Qing."

He stopped and turned to look at her.

"You really managed to write this in one night?"

"Have you forgotten how long it took me to finish writing 'Coral Sea'?"

Luo Qianyu opened her mouth, then closed it again.

She went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and rummaged through everything edible inside. She took two cans of iced cola, three packs of instant noodles, and a bag of frozen dumplings, piling them all on the table.

Then she carried a can of iced cola into the study and placed it next to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing was already sitting at the table, with her guitar across her lap.

Luo Qianyu sat down on the small sofa in the study, crossed her legs, and hugged a cushion.

"What are you doing?" Xu Qing asked without looking up.

"I'll stay with you. You can continue writing."

Aren't you sleepy?

"I'm tough."

Xu Qing plucked a string with her fingers, and a low chord resonated in the room.

Luo Qianyu hugged the pillow and looked at his profile.

The light from the table lamp shone from Xu Qing's left, casting a long shadow of him on the wall.

She suddenly remembered how he had smashed the cup yesterday. That was the first time she realized Xu Qing wasn't omnipotent. He too could be pierced by something, he too could tremble, he too could bleed.

But now he sits here, his fingers on the strings, ready to spend the whole night writing a song to give those people a real response.

Luo Qianyu buried her face in the cushion.

"Just call me if you're hungry, and I'll cook you some dumplings." The voice was muffled.

"Um."

Only the sound of Xu Qing tuning his instruments remained in the study.

-

Luo Tianxiong sat on the leather sofa in the living room of the villa, holding a cup of tea in his hand.

The TV was on, and the news channel was continuously broadcasting the trending topics in the entertainment section.

The words "Mingyue Qingfeng is suspected of plagiarism" flashed across the bottom of the screen.

The housekeeper, Old Zhou, stood to the side, holding a prepared briefing in his hand.

"Mr. Luo, the legal department has investigated and clarified the structure of Deepsea Capital's branches in mainland China. If needed, we can cut them off directly through commercial channels—"

"No rush."

Luo Tianxiong put down the teacup.

"This tactic of buying the copyright first and then turning around and filing a plagiarism lawsuit is nothing new. What's interesting is the timing of their attack—the day before the semi-finals."

Old Zhou hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Luo Tianxiong glanced at him.

"Say whatever you want to say."

"You really won't make a move? Deep Sea Capital's scale is not on the same level as Star Emperor's before."

Luo Tianxiong leaned back on the sofa, his gaze falling on the bottle of Moutai that Xu Qing hadn't opened last time on the coffee table.

"Last time I said I'd see how he handled it because his opponent was someone like Wang Jianguo. This time—" He paused, "this time I'm not watching whether he can win, but what he'll do when he can't win."

Old Zhou thought for a moment, then didn't reply.

Luo Tianxiong's lips twitched slightly.

"He can even eat my daughter's salt. It would be strange if he couldn't handle it."