Chapter 103: Reaching the Summit

Ear Emperor’s music review immediately drew widespread attention, for his following was already nearing ten million, which meant he could influence a vast number of people the moment he spoke.

Many who saw his review went at once to listen to Zhou Ran’s newly released song, their appetites thoroughly whetted by Ear Emperor’s praise.

Naturally, they wanted to hear it right away and find out what kind of song could move Ear Emperor to praise it so lavishly.

As a direct result, the play count and download count for Zhou Ran’s new song, "Proud Young Man," surged sharply. At first, Zhou Ran’s new release had been locked in a tight race with Chen Wenhua’s song, with neither side clearly pulling ahead.

But with Ear Emperor’s fresh wave of support added to the mix, the balance broke at once. "Proud Young Man" instantly opened a wide gap over Chen Wenhua’s "Return," surging far ahead in every respect.

Ten hours after Zhou Ran and Chen Wenhua released their new songs, under the gaze of everyone online, Zhou Ran’s "Proud Young Man" finally climbed to the number one spot on the new songs chart.

This meant, in plain terms, that Zhou Ran had turned the tables on Chen Wenhua. Chen Wenhua’s declaration that he would hold first place had been shattered, and Zhou Ran had successfully defended his own position.

The very moment "Proud Young Man" reached the top, the entire internet erupted in celebration, because this song had reached number one through the efforts of countless people.

Under normal circumstances, if Zhou Ran’s new song were to reach the top, it would have needed at least another day, even counting the fastest possible pace.

After all, the song sitting at number one on the new songs chart had real strength of its own; it would never be overtaken so easily.

The instant Zhou Ran took first place, his Weibo comment section was flooded with a torrent of messages.

"My Ran! You are my god!"

"Who else? I’m just asking!"

"An all-round original creator. No wonder he’s my wild little Ran! I was wondering whether you’d keep doing originals, and sure enough, just as expected, you really stuck with originality!"

"What is there that you can’t do? If it comes to it, you might as well handle every part of the music yourself. Let’s just not let anyone else make a dime off the songs we produce!"

"New song at number one! The hype is maxed out, all right!"

"Young people fear no challenge. They face every challenge head-on. If you dare come at me, I dare fight back. Absolutely amazing!"

As Zhou Ran reached the top and the comments section was overwhelmed with praise, his phone was also filled with messages of congratulations.

After opening them, Zhou Ran chose only the most important ones to reply to, sending a group thank-you to the rest. Otherwise, answering them one by one would have worn him out.

The first message he opened was from Zhang Xiaofeng, because she had sent her congratulations the very moment he reached number one. It was obvious she had been watching his new song’s performance closely at all times.

"Congratulations, little Ran! Your new song made it to number one, and you’ve defended the honor of the best male singer! Also, hurry up and come back after finishing this round of promotion to help me publicize it. I’ve been so busy lately, I’m about to go crazy with all these promotional events!" Her message carried a distinctly aggrieved tone, as if she had suffered some great injustice.

“Hahaha.” When Zhou Ran saw the message she had sent, he burst out laughing, because he could also sense the faint air of grievance in it.

Still, he understood Zhang Xiaofeng’s feelings. Promoting a film meant traveling to many cities and appearing at all kinds of events, which was exhausting work.

“Haha, all right. I’ll be back in the next couple of days to help you promote it,” Zhou Ran replied immediately after laughing.

At that moment, in another city, Zhang Xiaofeng was staring at the message Zhou Ran had sent, grinning stupidly to herself, because she had achieved her goal. The whole point of sending that message was simply to get Zhou Ran over there sooner.

In fact, to be the first to send it, she had drafted the wording in her phone ahead of time, just waiting for the moment Zhou Ran reached number one so she could fire it off at once.

To be honest, the thoroughness of Zhang Xiaofeng’s preparation was on par with some self-media public accounts.

After replying to Zhang Xiaofeng, Zhou Ran answered a few other important messages as well, including congratulatory notes from Director Ning Wei, his manager Li Mi, and Chef Huang.

What Zhou Ran had not expected at all was to see a congratulatory message from Chen Wenhua on his phone. He was genuinely stunned, because he had assumed that, since they were competitors, the other man would never send him a message. It would already have been enough if Chen Wenhua did not hate him.

Inside Chen Wenhua’s private villa, Chen Wenhua stared at the message showing Zhou Ran had reached the top of the music rankings, his expression helpless.

“Come on, Old Chen, it’s fine. We already did our best!”

“To be honest, the quality of your song wasn’t inferior to Zhou Ran’s this time. At most, you just lost out on the music video.”

“Winning and losing is just part of the game!”

A few of Chen Wenhua’s friends stood nearby, doing their best to console him, afraid that he might take this too hard and let his mentality break down. To be honest, the burden on Chen Wenhua’s shoulders was heavy; countless people had pinned all their hopes on him.

After staring blankly at the new songs chart for a while, Chen Wenhua suddenly laughed.

The people around him were unsettled by that laugh, worried he might be unable to handle the setback.

“Old Chen, are you all right?”

“It’s just a chart. It’s okay!”

“Don’t scare us like that. That laugh was terrifying!”

“I’m fine. It’s a small matter. I can still take it,” Chen Wenhua said, waving them off to show they need not worry.

In that moment, Chen Wenhua suddenly understood something, just as Zhou Ran had written in his song: as long as one gives everything, failure is no matter.

So what if he lost to Zhou Ran here? The road ahead was still long, and there would always be another chance for them to meet in battle again. Besides, Zhou Ran’s victory had reignited his own fighting spirit.

Chen Wenhua’s competitive fire had long since been dull, but this time Zhou Ran had successfully stirred it back to life.

After adjusting his mindset, Chen Wenhua chose to send Zhou Ran a congratulatory message of his own, looking forward to their next contest.

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Chapter 103: "Reaching the Top" Free Reading.