Chapter 373: He Defamed Me

In early 1998, an American young man named Xiao En, frustrated by his roommate's poor experience with online MP3 downloads, conceived the idea of creating his own MP3 software. After months of tinkering, a free MP3 search and download program named Napster was launched.

At first, major record companies paid it no mind.

But Napster soon swept across the entire United States at a speed no one anticipated—peaking with nearly forty million active users and a high of eighty million, delivering a devastating blow to the physical music industry in Europe and America.

Only belatedly did international giants like Warner, Sony, and EMI join forces to sue it, finally using legal means to curb Napster's momentum.

In February 2001, after more than a year of prolonged litigation, Napster was ultimately ruled infringing.

Yet although Napster lost the lawsuit, its founder Xiao En's actions seemed to have opened the lid of Pandora's box—various MP3 piracy methods began expanding at breakneck speed.

And it was precisely this that Jobs saw—

He intended to ride this internet tide and create a product that could save both the music industry and Apple itself: the iPod.

In his vision, since MP3 online downloads were inevitable, why not build an official, legitimate music store where everyone who bought his products could pay to download and listen to songs seamlessly.

Although the songs in the store were priced far lower than traditional albums, the volume would at least be massive!

Unfortunately, his vision was beautiful, but initially met with unanimous rejection from international giants like Warner, Sony, and EMI—they found such low pricing hard to accept, and still hesitated toward this internet wave—

After all, they were still physical record companies, supporting countless distribution channels; big ships turn slowly.

Even if they joined, it was uncertain whether their own singers would agree to have their albums converted into MP3s and placed on this so-called iTunes store.

The giants had thought themselves powerful, but the brutal piracy market soon taught them a lesson—

The opened Pandora's box could not be closed; after a year of piracy's devastation, they had no choice but to return to the negotiating table with Jobs, gritting their teeth.

From early 2002 through the end of the year, most terms for onboarding had been negotiated, but they were stuck on securing big-name artists—

Jobs's envisioned music store still lacked a single big-name singer willing to join and generate sufficient buzz.

Fans of veteran legends had already formed the habit of buying physical albums, so the artists themselves, if not outright contemptuous of MP3s, at least held a dislike for them;

He had privately approached mid-career kings and queens—those with high visibility and massive attention—but many were making outrageous demands.

Originally planning to keep negotiating, at least until Christmas to assess the situation, Jobs suddenly saw in the newspaper a report from Time Warner's media arm: Warner Records' singer Geshousi had broken new history in the global music scene—

Due to Eminem's diss track targeting Geshousi, the name, which had gradually faded, had reignited in popularity across America; combined with Warner's relentless promotion that painted him as unparalleled, Jobs was suddenly reminded of the musical storm this man had stirred in America—

Once, his English single "Yeah" topped the Billboard chart for twelve consecutive weeks, a miracle on par with Chen Long's in "Rush Hour 2," setting a new record in China's entertainment industry.

Now, in distant China, he had once again created a world record unprecedented in history and likely never to be repeated: single-handedly occupying the top ten spots on Hong Kong's number-one radio music chart!

Jobs was well aware of Hong Kong, this prosperous eastern city.

This world record undeniably moved Jobs—he needed exactly this kind of talent to collaborate with.

Moreover, Geshousi naturally carried another layer of buzz: he was a musician who wrote his own songs. If Eminem had written a song mocking him, then given Geshousi's demonstrated personality, he would surely write a reply track.

Even if he didn't want to write it or couldn't write it, Warner would secretly hire someone to write it and hand it to him—otherwise, it would contradict the persona he'd built in America.

More importantly, Jobs sensed a strong internet DNA in this man—

In the data he gathered, this man strongly believed in the internet's future, even as Chinese internet companies continued to lose money—he kept investing heavily.

Someone like this would accept internet music far faster than the people Jobs was currently negotiating with—

Times had changed.

What century is this, still clinging to traditional channels!

"I don't want to either, but I simply have no way to access internet channels."

In the capital, domestic, Aidajin's home.

After venting to his friend Song Ke on the phone, and realizing Song Ke was powerless to help, Aidajin truly felt the sky was collapsing.

November 15, 2002—a day that filled him with panic—

On this day, the mother of his deceased ex-girlfriend Junzi suddenly emerged to give media interviews, blaming him for her daughter's suicide and repeating Junzi's final words: "Aidajin sold me out."

With traditional media channels tightly controlled, the wildly growing, somewhat mature internet became the spark for this news—

Because a brother from Guangdong, after watching TVB's program, immediately pulled up Zhou Yi's view on the matter from the show: "I've heard something about it, vaguely."

One sentence sent ripples crashing across China's internet!

Outrage erupted!

Sohu, Zhou Yi's endorsed platform, acted as if prepared—immediately releasing a special topic, and placing it right on the homepage—with the headline in bold, capitalized, red letters.

Aidajin wanted to curse.

He couldn't touch Sohu—he'd been kicked out long ago. He tried reaching out to Sina, but Sina suddenly exploded with its own negative news about top executives, leaving his supporters caught off guard and scrambling to save themselves—

Yeah, it was NetEase that exposed it.

This was ridiculous.

Sina's previously rising stock trend was abruptly halted by this sudden wave of negative news; CEO Lao Duan furrowed his brow deeply.

"Isn't Zhou Yi afraid of going bankrupt? Doesn't he hold shares too?"

"Does Zhou Yi look like someone who cares about money? He's just fighting for pride—his personality has always been like this…"

"…"

Some rumors, whose origin was unknown, spread within circles; combined with Zhou Yi's current presence at a banquet in Hong Kong, appearing utterly unconcerned about events on the mainland, the rumors grew more believable with each retelling.

Former Sina founder Lao Wang, who had been ousted but still held shares, unexpectedly stepped forward to throw stones at certain executives—whether out of hatred for the board that ousted him or something else, no one knew.

This was ridiculous.

The wild, untamed internet channel didn't care about tradition—it did whatever attracted eyeballs—by nightfall, the claim "Aidajin drove his ex-girlfriend to suicide" dominated mainstream discourse…

The speed of this rumor's spread left Aidajin powerless to counter it, lacking any online defense mechanisms.

Especially as many of Zhou Yi's fans staked their idol's reputation to mock Aidajin—

"Zhou Yi's future is bright, his sales unmatched, and he just broke a new world record. If he hadn't heard the truth, why would he say he'd heard something? Does he have nothing better to do than smear someone?"

"True enough—Zhou Yi himself studied law. How could he break the law?"

"Exactly, exactly."

"…"

Never in his wildest dreams did "Shorty Big-Tight" — who had so quickly become a "murderer" in the online public opinion — expect this. Facing the reporters who had crowded to his home for an interview, his face was black as the bottom of a wok: "Utter nonsense! Slander! This is naked slander!

"He's libeling me! He's libeling me!"

………………………………………………

"Bullshit! Where did I slander anyone?"

On the way to the Peninsula Hotel where the celebration was being held, Zhou Yi, who was crossing his legs in the back seat of the car, curled his lip in disdain. Under Fan Xiaopang's stunned gaze, he declared with full justification: "All I said was that I'd vaguely heard about Junzi's suicide. Legally speaking, that statement of mine has no problem whatsoever.

"She was Wang Feng's ex-girlfriend — couldn't I have heard it from Wang Feng's mouth?

"At the same time, I had no intention whatsoever of steering public opinion, because I've been busy promoting my album on the charts, and right now I'm still attending the celebration. I have ample and sufficient alibi."

"……"

Fan Xiaopang opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end closed it again.

"If he really dares to say I'm slandering him, I'll send him a lawyer's letter first."

"???"

Fan Xiaopang was startled: "You're going to sue him?"

"No, let me educate you on a truth: a lawyer's letter, that thing, is basically no different from toilet paper to me. But in the public's eyes, it would instead be proof that I'm telling the truth. As for Shorty Big-Tight himself, believe it or not, he himself has a guilty conscience about whether he actually killed that person."

Before getting out of the car, Zhou Yi gave a slight smile and offered an answer that made Fan Xiaopang give him a thumbs-up.

"You're badass."

Hooking her arm through Zhou Yi's as she got out of the car, Fan Xiaopang skillfully faced a crowd of cameras and walked the red carpet, meeting head-on the camera flashes she had long grown accustomed to.

She had assumed that no matter what, she'd at least get one or two questions. But she never expected the reporters to swarm toward Zhou Yi instead — and every single question was the same one—

"Zhou Yi! Xie Tingfeng appeared at your celebration tonight — what's the situation between you two?"

"Zhou Yi, Xie Tingfeng's first public appearance after getting out is tonight…"

"Zhou Yi, Xie Tingfeng…"

Seven or eight questions in a row, all about tonight's encounter between these two former rivals at the victory banquet.

Logically speaking, tonight was Zhou Yi's home turf, his night of glory — there was no way his former rival Xie Tingfeng could possibly show up here.

The two of them, up to now in Hong Kong, had only ever appeared in the same frame once, at the Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards, where they joined forces to split up a pile of awards — that was also the starting point of the "Twin Prides" name.

"Xie Tingfeng?"

Zhou Yi slightly raised an eyebrow, his tone faintly surprised.

This guy gets out and doesn't go do community service — what is he doing here?

Gong xi fa cai?

(End of chapter)