Chapter 128: The Fake Divine Album

On December 29th, Leon began his US tour, and Miss Luo Quan boarded a plane with her parents, though the three of them were not on the same flight.

Miss Luo Quan was returning to Tokyo to prepare for the start of the semester, while Aunt Luo Ni and Eric were going on a world tour, with their first stop being Switzerland.

After a brief reunion, the family of four parted ways again. Aunt Luo Ni was probably the most sentimental one, crying her eyes out when parting with her daughter at the airport.

Before boarding the plane, Miss Luo Quan had already released the remaining five songs of her new album.

She named this Chinese album "18," which was her age. The ten songs included:

"Pipa Xing"

"Not a Hero"

"I Love Him"

"Bubble"

"In the Name of the Father"

"Common Jasmine Orange"

"Blue and White Porcelain"

"Sunny Day"

"Chasing Dreams with a Red Heart"

"Herbalist Manual"

In her status update, she also posted a piece of text that could be considered a preface for her album:

"Eighteen is a beautiful age. We are in the prime of our lives, full of vigor, hoping to win an infinite future for ourselves with infinite energy."

"But at the same time, we love to fantasize, either longing for a grand and spectacular love, or thinking about becoming a world-shaking hero to marry that lover who only dares to appear in our dreams."

"But returning to reality, we are the flowers of the motherland, the hope for this country's future. To describe myself now using a poet's lines: 'I have wasted my youth, empty with exhaustion.' I dare not claim to be a poet who uses dreams as horses; I only hope to use my singing voice to do some small things within my power."

"This album has love, chivalry, depth, and thought. I won't talk about the deeper things; you can see them for yourselves."

As a singer who has achieved nothing, Miss Luo Quan always thinks about having the opportunity to spread positive energy.

Perhaps many Chinese people have the mindset of "helping the world when successful" deep in their bones. Although Miss Luo Quan is still far from being able to help the world, at least her words and deeds can spread correct values.

This preface was also Miss Luo Quan's expectation for her fans and listeners. The situation of worshiping foreign things appeared a long time ago, and at least in the fields she excels in, she will try every means to reverse all of this.

With this preface out, Miss Luo Quan also gained quite a lot of praise on the internet. GQT even praised her by name, but when Tuan Tuan prepared to @ Miss Luo Quan, she found that she couldn't find her account no matter what.

There were a large group of high-imitation accounts on Weibo bearing Miss Luo Quan's name, with only a few dozen fans each and no verification, which really left Tuan Tuan somewhat puzzled.

But regardless, an artist who can be praised by GQT is definitely a benchmark figure in the country. Regardless of professional ability, at least their character must be good.

As for professional ability, after the remaining songs of this album came out, both the click-through rate and the topics exploded.

Almost every type represented by each song was a top-tier work among domestic songs of the same type.

"Common Jasmine Orange," a slow love song with explosive melody and arrangement, topped the BGM list on Douyin as soon as it came out. It is already foreseeable that it will become ubiquitous in the near future.

"Blue and White Porcelain"—many people commented that this was the best-written lyric among national-style songs. It is hard to believe how Miss Luo Quan, who has studied abroad for many years, could use Chinese characters so exquisitely and skillfully. Many senior lyricists called out after seeing the lyrics that they couldn't write this well in their entire lives.

"Sunny Day" can be considered a masterpiece of campus love songs. In recent years, not many people have written campus love songs, and even if there were, the quality of the works wasn't very good. The appearance of this song perfectly filled the gap in this area.

And "Chasing Dreams with a Red Heart" belongs to the inspirational category of songs. The lyrics are positive and full of passion, suitable for use as BGM in most youth-themed film and television drama montages.

And the last song of the album, "Herbalist Manual," is completely a mainstream song promoting Chinese culture. The melody might not be as good as those previous songs, but the lyrics are definitely inspiring enough.

The first line of the lyrics directly points out the theme of the song: "If Hua Tuo were alive, worshiping foreign medicine, foreigners coming to learn Chinese characters, stimulating my democratic consciousness!"

In the past, many people used the fact that Miss Luo Quan only wrote Japanese and English songs as a black point, scolding her for not being patriotic and for worshiping foreign things. "Herbalist Manual" can be considered to have expressed her stance very straightforwardly.

It was precisely after seeing this song that GQT gave Miss Luo Quan high praise.

Finally, Miss Luo Quan's first Chinese album "18" was released across the entire network on the day before the end of 2016. In addition to uploading the MV with prohibited images on Bilibili, the entire album was also put on QQ Music.

Ten songs, the package price was only 2 yuan in total. Compared to the price of over 200 RMB for "Coming of Age" in Japan, the pricing of "18" was not much different from giving it away for free.

In addition, Miss Luo Quan also announced that all income from the album "18" would be used to fund poor students in mountainous areas, and she herself would not take any profit.

When fans asked why she was so generous, Miss Luo Quan replied in her status: "I don't need money to write songs!"

A group of fans were both respectful and ashamed. Geniuses are just different; such arrogant words spoken from her mouth sounded so confident.

People without ability, no matter how sincere their words are, sound like they are bragging, while people with ability, even if they are bragging, others will treat it as truth.

Miss Luo Quan's series of operations can be considered to have completely reversed her image in the country, which was not very good originally. Basically, you can no longer see people blackening her on Weibo, and many have even turned from black to fan.

However, one thing to say is that the habit of Chinese people paying to listen to songs is really not good. Even though the price has been set so cheaply, "18" was on the shelves for a day, and the sales only barely reached 100,000 copies.

Interestingly, on the day "18" was released, a domestic male idol also released a single "Light," priced at 5 yuan, and gained 1 million sales in half an hour.

Many of Miss Luo Quan's fans felt as uncomfortable as if they had eaten shit when they saw this scene.

In the Some Zhihu discussion about Miss Luo Quan, a fan directly started spraying:

"I'll say it, Chinese people don't deserve such a good singer, does anyone have any objections? The ten songs on Bilibili have nearly 2 million clicks, the sales of '18' on QQ Music just reached 110,000. Interestingly, the download volume of the pirated album on NetEase Cloud Music directly topped the list, reaching over 1 million!"

"If I were Miss Luo Quan, I would never write another Chinese song in my life. You can't even afford 2 yuan, yet you want to listen to good songs? Look at that male idol who released a new song at the same time; in less than an hour, damn, the sales went straight to 2 million!"

"The fake divine album—'18', the real divine album—'Light'. Our Li Feng is really too awesome!"

"This can also be considered one of Miss Luo Quan's great shames. 'Springwater', 'Coming of Age', including 'Full Fire' produced for the Lovemusic band, all three albums had explosive sales, and 'Faded' also had hundreds of millions of clicks on YouTube. I didn't expect to encounter Waterloo in her motherland. Out of 1.4 billion Chinese people, only 100,000 bought her album."

"I estimate there aren't that many. Many of Miss Luo Quan's female fans buy ten at a time; they are the main contributors to sales. A group of male fans shout fiercely, but they are all free-riders."

"After all, since you can listen for free on Bilibili and NetEase Cloud Music, why spend money?"

"You can spend a little on this kind of thing; it doesn't cost much. Is free-riding really that comfortable?"

"Although I bought the album, one thing to say is that free-riding is indeed happy. (Dog head)"

"Many years later, when Miss Luo Quan releases a Chinese album again and encounters Waterloo, she will definitely think of today, think of her first album in her life that was critically acclaimed but not commercially successful."

"Old hundred years of solitude..."

"To be honest, this is really a blow to the creator's enthusiasm. She put effort into preparing ten songs for everyone, satisfied so many difficult tasks, and the quality was so top-notch, but in the end, only a mere tens of thousands of people paid for her. If I were Miss Luo Quan, I guess my mentality would have exploded by now."

"If you want to make money with songs in China, unless you can get popular on Douyin or Kuaishou, I suggest Luo Quan write that kind of internet red song in the future. With her level, these songs are easy for her, right?"

"I just saw the hope of the Chinese music scene appear, but I didn't expect it to be a flash in the pan?"

Although many fans on the internet were speaking up for Miss Luo Quan, it only slightly stimulated the sales of "18," increasing it from 110,000 to 140,000.

To be honest, Miss Luo Quan never expected such a result.

She actually understood the psychology of Chinese people loving free-riding—greedy for small gains, right? Everyone in the world is a bit greedy, so she specifically set the album at a very low price.

Her original intention was not to make money, after all, all income was to be donated to poor students in mountainous areas, but even so, it still flopped.

If she had known this, she would have made all the songs free, saving herself from being embarrassed and angry.

However, although the results were not ideal, it would not dampen her enthusiasm for creation, and the situation fans were worried about—not writing Chinese songs anymore—would definitely not happen.

After all, just as she said before, she doesn't need money to write songs.

On her status, in order to comfort her fans, Miss Luo Quan even specifically posted a status: "Everyone should act according to their ability regarding paid albums; there is no need for moral kidnapping. You don't have to worry that I will stop writing Chinese songs because of this."

"The poor sales of the album also show that my songs might not be that outstanding. I will work harder in the future, striving to make the next album something that most people will pay for."

Saying she didn't care, Miss Luo Quan still started to be sarcastic. A 2-yuan thing, asking everyone to act according to their ability, and saying that no one paying meant the songs weren't that outstanding.

I don't know if those fans who listen to pirated versions will have a change of heart when they see this and go to pay for an album.

Anyway, the sales of Miss Luo Quan's album did not improve much, and the daily increase even decreased. Among so many paid albums this year, her results could be ranked at the bottom.

Others make people pay to listen to songs, but she released the free ones on the internet first and then charged. If she doesn't flop, who flops? ===== CHAPTER 129 =====