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

Five days after the finals ended.

Xu Qing slept for forty-seven hours.

This is not an exaggeration, but an objective fact based on Luo Qianyu's precise timing.

Back in his rented apartment after the finals, Xu Qing slumped over three seconds after sitting down on the sofa.

Luo Qianyu dragged him to the bedroom with great effort, covered him with a blanket, and he slept straight from Saturday night to Monday afternoon.

In the middle of all this, Luo Qianyu lifted his eyelids, pinched his philtrum, and even searched online for "how long can a person sleep continuously before they die".

She only calmed down after the search results told her it wouldn't happen.

When Xu Qing woke up, Luo Qianyu was sitting cross-legged at the foot of the bed, holding her phone, with an extremely interesting expression—her mouth was agape, her eyes were wide open, and she exuded a bewildered aura of "Am I dreaming?"

"What's wrong?" Xu Qing's voice was hoarse.

Luo Qianyu shoved her phone into his face.

The screen displays a trending topic on Twitter.

#CantUnderstandButCrying

"I didn't understand, but I cried." Luo Qianyu translated, her voice trembling.

Xu Qing squinted for three seconds, then picked up her phone and swiped a few times.

Here's the thing.

The recording of the finale was uploaded to YouTube and TikTok by overseas students, originally just for their own enjoyment within the Chinese community. But when Luo Qianyu sang "Love always makes people cry, makes people feel unsatisfied" in the chorus of "Darkness" with pure piano accompaniment, the broken yet stubborn strength in her voice directly penetrated the language barrier.

A North American music reaction blogger with 23 million followers clicked on this video during a live stream.

He doesn't understand Chinese; he can't even read a single Chinese character.

But halfway through the chorus, he took off his headphones.

He took off his headphones not because the music was bad, but because he realized he was crying.

Three hundred thousand people in the live stream saw this scene at the same time.

“I don’t know what she’s singing about,” he said, rubbing his face with the back of his hand, his voice strained, “but it sounds like everything I’ve ever lost.”

This clip from the live stream was shared nine million times within forty-eight hours.

Following suit, a second blogger, a third blogger… like a chain reaction, music channels around the world began making reaction videos for "Darkness Falls." A Brazilian blogger listened to it and immediately burst into tears for two minutes. A German classical music critic, after professionally analyzing Xu Qing's piano arrangement, remarked, "This is the greatest minimalism I've heard this year."

"Unable to understand but still moved to tears" has become the biggest topic on social media worldwide.

Overseas netizens spontaneously started a cover challenge for "Tian Hei Hei" (Dark Sky), and the pronunciations were more and more outrageous than the last—"Tian Hei Hei" (Heavenly Hei Hei), "Tian Hei Hei" (Sweet Hei Hei), and an American uncle even sang "Yu Luo Yu" (Wanting to Rain) as "Yu Lu Yu" (Jade Dew Fish).

But the buzz is real.

Luo Qianyu stared at a page on her phone, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

Billboard Hot 100.

Eighth place.

"Darkness Falls" - Blue Bird & Flying Fish.

"Xu Qing."

"Um."

Am I seeing things?

"No flowers."

"Billboard? Top ten?"

"eighth."

Luo Qianyu slammed her phone on the bed, jumped up with a "whoosh," and pounced on Xu Qing, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"We're on the Billboard!!!"

Xu Qing rolled her eyes as she was being strangled.

"Relax. You're suffocating."

"I won't let go!" Luo Qianyu clung to him like a koala, her legs wrapped around him. "Xu Qing, you have to reward me!"

"What will I reward you with?"

"You decide! But it has to be a big reward!"

Xu Qing looked at the woman in his arms who was so excited she was practically floating on air, and reached out to tuck her wildly flying hair behind her ear.

"Wash your face first, the drool stains are all dry."

"Can't you have a little bit of a sense of ceremony?!"

Xu Qing didn't reply. His phone's email notifications went off in a row, all from Tencent Music's international department regarding overseas royalty sharing. He glanced at the numbers, then flipped his phone over and placed it face down on the bed.

Luo Qianyu, with her sharp eyes, asked, "How much?"

"Quite a few."

"Specifically?"

"Enough for you to eat Wagyu beef and king crab for a year."

Luo Qianyu's eyes lit up.

-

Across the Pacific Ocean.

Deepsea Capital North American Headquarters.

In front of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the forty-second floor, a middle-aged man in a bespoke suit stood beside a shattered desk. The desk was broken in two, with marble shards scattered all over the floor.

The assistant huddled in the corner, afraid to breathe.

The man held a phone in his hand, the screen displaying Billboard's real-time charts.

Eighth place.

He spent $30 million orchestrating copyright lawsuits, bribing experts, and manipulating public opinion, with the aim of completely erasing Xu Qing's songs from the garbage dump of the domestic internet.

As a result, Xu Qing used a song with Hokkien lyrics to flip over his head, step on his face, and jump to the top of the global streaming charts.

"Sir," the assistant asked cautiously, "Should we activate the overseas media platforms—"

"Shut up."

The man placed his phone on the windowsill and braced his hands firmly against the glass.

He stared at the Los Angeles night view outside the window, his facial muscles tightening.

"Tell the people in New York to activate all available channels."

"……all?"

"I want this song to disappear completely from all major North American platforms within a week."

The assistant swallowed hard, nodded, and left.

The moment the door closed, another encrypted phone in the office rang.

The man picked it up.

A very soft voice came from the other end, with a slightly lazy American accent.

"Marcus, your table broke again?"

The man's fingers stiffened for a moment.

"Adam."

The person on the other end of the phone chuckled softly.

"Let me guess, did that song at number eight on the Billboard charts make you really unhappy?"

"What's the meaning of this phone call?"

"It's nothing," Adam said, his voice carrying the delight of a hunter spotting his prey. "I just overheard an old friend's piano playing habit."

The man's pupils contracted sharply.

"Six years," Adam said. "He's finally decided to show himself."

The phone hangs up.

The only sound in the office was the hum of the air conditioner.

Marcus stared at the blacked-out phone screen, a small patch of cold sweat soaking the back of his suit jacket.

Adam.

A rock legend with over 300 million records sold worldwide.

If even this monster is starting to take an interest in Xu Qing.

That's a problem that can't be solved by throwing money at it.