Chapter 159: They’re Going to Make a Move on You! Be Careful!

Chapter 159: They’re Going to Make a Move on You! Be Careful!

Wu Chen had not missed.

The song had been tested on the public long ago, so everything unfolded exactly as he expected.

“Antidote for the Soul” had been online four hours, and it had already drawn enormous attention across the major platforms.

The first attention came from the music influencers. They provided the initial exposure.

But the later trend in the data had nothing to do with them.

That came down to the quality of the song and whether the public liked it.

And the trajectory of “Antidote for the Soul” had entirely outrun the expectations of every influencer who recommended it.

They had only taken a paid job—take the money, repost the song, recommend it, toss in a compliment or two.

Whether the song became a minor hit had nothing to do with them, and they did not care.

But “Antidote for the Soul” genuinely shocked them.

Wu Chen knew they had been shocked because the repost, comment, and like counts on their Weibo posts were wildly abnormal.

Abnormally high.

Some of them, having completed their paid “business cooperation,” had gone on to repost and recommend the song several more times on their own, interacting with listeners and replying in the comments.

Other major influencers Wu Chen had never contacted joined in as well, almost as though chasing the trend.

The song was heating up far too fast.

From the backend data on the major platforms, Wu Chen could see that around eight that evening “Antidote for the Soul” had broken into the top hundred on Penguin Music’s monthly rising chart.

At roughly the same time it entered the top hundred on Soyi Music’s original-song chart.

On Cool Cat Music it entered the top thirty on the weekly new-originals chart around eight-thirty.

Its climb was explosive.

Comparing the trends across the three highest-ranked platforms, “Antidote for the Soul” performed best on Penguin Music.

Penguin Music was also the largest platform, with the most traffic and the greatest number of listeners.

So its numbers were the most violent.

Four hours after release, the song had been played more than fifty thousand times.

At this stage raw play count did not mean a great deal.

A cluster of major influencers had recommended it, after all. People would click in and listen. If they listened once and never came back, the number meant nothing.

What mattered were reposts and comments.

More than a thousand reposts.

Over four hundred comments.

Comments carried the greatest weight.

Even when a superstar released a new song and it went on to become a genuine “phenomenon-level hit,” accumulating more than a hundred thousand comments during the song’s hottest period was no easy thing.

Some older songs surged back into popularity on the strength of a particular event and eventually gathered several hundred thousand comments—but those totals were built over years.

Wu Chen had released this song four hours ago.

The data would grow geometrically.

Which was to say: “Antidote for the Soul” might have four hundred comments now, but by tomorrow—

It could have several thousand.

Wu Chen watched the numbers a while, then shut down the computer.

Time to sleep.

He would see how violently the data exploded tomorrow.

—

A new day.

July 14, 2020.

At seven in the morning exactly, Wu Chen opened his eyes and looked up at the European-style ceiling worked with gold leaf.

He smiled.

As long as time kept moving forward normally, the way he wanted it to, he was content.

He got up, washed, and dressed.

Ready to go out for breakfast, he had just stepped into the living room when he stopped on instinct.

His eyes swept the villa’s lavish living room.

Something was wrong.

Someone had been in this room.

And they had come in after he went to sleep the night before.

Through the thousand-year loop, Wu Chen’s memory had improved with each reset until it reached a terrifying level.

Not quite total recall, but close.

Inside the loop he had never understood why his memory kept sharpening.

Only after the system appeared did he understand.

He had been undergoing a test.

Had his mind not been strong enough, he would have broken down and died long ago.

Anyone capable of enduring a thousand years of solitude naturally had to grow a mind of terrifying strength.

The test was the training.

And what it trained was his mind.

Before going to sleep the previous night, Wu Chen remembered the living room precisely. Every detail was printed in his mind like a photograph.

Which was why he saw at once what was wrong.

First, the decorative vase on the side table beside the sofa had been moved.

Its position had not changed, but the pattern faced a different direction, as though someone had turned it slightly.

Perhaps someone had lifted the vase and set it back—right place, wrong orientation.

Then there were the cushions on the sofa.

Their positions were wrong too. Someone had moved them, as if they had picked one up idly and set it a little farther to the side.

There were no other marks on the sofa.

But Wu Chen was certain.

Someone had sat there.

Someone had broken in yesterday.

Wu Chen went on scanning the living room. His expression was wrong for only an instant before it turned natural again.

He looked like a man searching for something. He walked farther in and picked up the television remote from the small cabinet beside the liquor cabinet.

He could be certain that Ding Ruilong had sent the intruder.

He could even guess that they had likely installed a pinhole camera or a listening device in his home.

The intruder had definitely not entered the master bedroom.

Otherwise, asleep or not, Wu Chen could not have failed to notice. He would have woken.

Probably they had been afraid of startling the snake in the grass.

So the camera or the bug should be in the living room.

More precisely, Wu Chen thought it was probably inside the decorative vase on the side table.

There might be others elsewhere.

For the moment he had no interest in examining the room closely.

If they wanted to play this game, then—

Wu Chen would give them their opportunity.

He had meant to go out for breakfast. He changed his mind.

He switched on the television.

He sat down on the sofa directly facing it, ordered takeout on his phone, then placed a call.

To Li Ruobing.

Beep… beep…

“You’re up early today,” Li Ruobing said when it connected. Her voice was fully alert; she had clearly been awake for a while.

“Not as early as you.” Wu Chen smiled. “My dear Miss Li Ruobing, is there nothing you need me for today?”

“Nothing such as?” She sounded puzzled.

“I’m asking you. Nothing today?”

“You—” It took her a moment to understand. It was true that on each of the last two days she had called him first thing and told him to come to the company. A little nettled, she said, “Am I bothering you? No, nothing today!”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure!” she answered at once.

“Then I won’t come to your company today. I’ll see to my own business.” Wu Chen smiled.

“Come or don’t, suit yourself. You—mm—wait!”

Halfway through she changed her mind.

“Come. I think you and I need to have a proper talk about Song Xuan.”

“Fine. I’ll be at your company before nine.” He agreed without hesitation.

He had made this call deliberately.

And he had said those words deliberately.

Not long after he hung up, the takeout arrived.

Wu Chen ate, then drove out of the Donghai Huafu complex.

On the way to Huancai Fashion, his phone rang.

Ring, ring…

Wu Chen picked it up, glanced at the screen, frowned slightly, and answered.

“Speak.”

“Mr. Wu, they’re going to make a move on you! Pull over right now and find somewhere to hide! Be careful!”

The voice was low and extremely tense.

Meng Junhao.