Chapter 26: The Class Gap

Chapter 26: The Class Gap

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Chen Feng knocked on the door with earth-shattering noise.

Zhong Lei was startled awake from her sleep. She didn’t even have time to put on her pajamas. Still groggy, she thought it was an earthquake. She hurriedly scrambled and tumbled out of bed, opened the door, and was about to rush out.

They bumped heads, crashing right into each other.

If it was the old Chen Feng, he probably would have been knocked down.

But now, after four months of military training in his dreams and persistent physical training, his body was very sturdy. Subconsciously bracing for the impact made his stance firm.

Not only did he not fall, he even caught Zhong Lei.

Well, now, her fair and soft body with a faint natural scent fell into his arms.

Feeling the impact against his chest, he slightly lowered his head.

White. Lace patterns.

Very impressive.

Usually, she covered herself up tightly, so Chen Feng hadn’t noticed.

You truly couldn’t judge a book by its cover. You couldn’t measure the sea with a bucket. She looked thin with clothes on, but had plenty of flesh without them.

“What are you doing! What on earth are you doing!”

Zhong Lei broke free from Chen Feng’s embrace and shouted nearly at the top of her lungs.

Chen Feng turned and ran downstairs. “I have something to discuss with you. Please get dressed first.”

Ten minutes later…

“So, you woke me up at this crack of dawn, scared me half to death, just because you slept one night and then told me out of the blue that you refuse to sign with KuGe?”

In Zhong Lei’s room, now wearing her pajamas, she stood with her hands on her hips, glaring angrily at Chen Feng, who sat upright on the sofa, his hands gripping his knees.

Originally, he didn’t think his actions were abrupt, but later events proved they were.

Very abrupt. Very, very abrupt.

Still feeling guilty, Chen Feng silently hung his head low, trying his best not to recall the scene from moments ago.

The flesh-toned white. The pure white.

He tried not to recall the intense, springy sensation.

Chen Feng stuffed his hands into his pants pockets, silently adjusting a certain very prominent part of himself to maintain a shred of dignity.

“I’m asking you a question. You have to give me an explanation today.”

Zhong Lei was really angry, like a live volcano on the verge of eruption.

This wasn’t her being unreasonable. Anyone would be furious in this situation, firmly believing the other person had bad intentions, deliberately banging on the door early in the morning just to see her in disarray and take advantage of her.

In the past, she probably would have already exploded at Chen Feng.

But now, their relationship was different from before. She also believed in Chen Feng’s talent and didn’t think he could be that kind of person.

“Yes.”

Chen Feng answered honestly.

Zhong Lei was stunned. “Yes, what?”

“I woke you up just to tell you I decided not to sign with KuGe. What else?”

Chen Feng continued speaking bluntly.

Zhong Lei was dumbfounded. “Are you crazy?”

Although the copyright for this song belonged entirely to him, and he held seventy percent of the rights, so technically he had the final say, his sudden, inexplicable demand was hard for Zhong Lei to accept.

“Are you messing with me? What was the point of me running back and forth to KuGe all these days? Now, at the final moment, you suddenly say you won’t sign?”

Zhong Lei couldn’t accept it mentally. It felt like her efforts over the past days were completely dismissed.

Seeing she absolutely wouldn’t agree, Chen Feng was in a tough spot.

Although according to their private contract, he had veto power.

But he couldn’t completely ignore Zhong Lei’s feelings either.

Chen Feng thought for a while and came up with an explanation.

“Alright, I actually didn’t want to tell you this, but if you insist on asking, then I can only say it.”

“Go ahead.”

Chen Feng wore a mysterious smile. “Don’t you think KuGe’s reaction is strange? Was their complete one-eighty shift in attitude towards you before or after they heard the DEMO?”

Zhong Lei thought carefully. “Their explanation was that the copyright department head listened to the DEMO, thought it was pretty good, was quite satisfied, so they offered a B-level contract.”

Chen Feng extended two fingers. “Two points of suspicion. First, just ‘pretty good’? Second, before, they didn’t even want to listen. They just told you to queue up and wait for notice, saying they had too many copyright submissions recently, right? So why did it suddenly get to the head and get listened to?”

Zhong Lei looked confused. Her intuition told her something was off, but she wasn’t a scheming, experienced person. Figuring out the twists and turns was a bit difficult for her.

Chen Feng smiled. “Can’t figure it out? Let me tell you. KuGe’s cold attitude before was normal; the big store bullies the customer. KuGe is somewhat better with newcomers than Q Music, but only a little. They get at least dozens, if not hundreds, of submissions from newcomers every day. Listening to them one by one, it would take at least ten days to half a month to get to ours.”

Zhong Lei nodded. “I can understand that part. But I don’t get the later change.”

“The reason they suddenly became so enthusiastic is actually because someone put in a good word for them.”

Zhong Lei was stunned. “Who would help us put in a word?”

“Help us? You think too highly of it. Their response to you was ‘pretty good, quite satisfied.’ It was these two inappropriate words that revealed a fact: they never listened to the song! You and I both know exactly how good this song is.”

Zhong Lei thought for a long time. “Although your analysis makes sense, it’s still just speculation. It wouldn’t hold up as evidence in court. Your speculation alone isn’t enough to dismiss my hard work over the past days, is it?”

Chen Feng then smiled wryly and shook his head. “I knew you’d say that. That’s why I didn’t want to mention it. You know about my line of work, right? I deal with all sorts of people. I have an informant who tipped me off a bit.”

“What tip?”

“Hanzhou is just a small place. Some people knowing each other is perfectly normal. The person who put in a word with KuGe’s copyright department head, Lin Youyi, was none other than Zhou A, the one we offended the other day! They want to dig us a huge pit!”

Zhong Lei was shocked. “What? Him? How do you know?”

Chen Feng snorted through his nose. “I already said it’s an undercover informant. Don’t ask too much. Just know that’s what happened.”

Zhong Lei pretended to suddenly understand. “Yesterday afternoon, when I came out of KuGe, I did run into Zhou A. But he didn’t bother me, and I ignored him. I didn’t think he’d pull a dirty trick on us.”

Chen Feng twitched at the corner of his mouth, feeling like cursing inside.

Such important information, and you didn’t tell me yesterday? If I hadn’t traveled a thousand years into the future and then meticulously studied your biographies from different versions, gradually piecing together the truth of this incident, we really would have fallen into a huge trap.

“Your encounter with Zhou A was probably just a coincidence. He went to KuGe for other business. But when he saw you coming out of KuGe, and considering he has many connections in that platform, he could easily find out we were trying to sell a song to KuGe. So then, according to Zhou A and Lin Youyi’s plan, they would probably first tempt us with a fake B-level contract to sign. But afterwards, I’m afraid we wouldn’t have a say anymore.”

Zhong Lei felt a sense of belated fear and nodded repeatedly. “That makes sense.”

Finally seeing her convinced, Chen felt relieved inside and wiped cold sweat from his forehead. “Then I’ll go downstairs to catch up on sleep. Later, we’ll find another way, maybe contact Q Music directly. Zhou A’s influence may be long, but it can’t reach Q Music’s headquarters in Yucheng. It’s okay to take a small loss upfront, better than being tricked into a pit and being shelved for years.”

With that, Chen Feng scurried away.

Recalling the next few years recorded in Zhong Lei’s biography, he couldn’t help but sigh.

Now Zhong Lei’s life had been changed by him once, counting the first time, making two versions.

In these two versions of the future, Zhong Lei suffered from Zhou A’s tricks both times, but the nature of the suffering was different.

The first time, Zhou A used his connections in major nightclubs across Hanzhou to severely suppress Zhong Lei, leaving her nearly homeless at her lowest point.

Out of desperation, Zhong Lei went to the streets to sing and play the Guitar, struggling until years later when she wrote “Dullness,” released it online, blew up overnight, and barely made it through the crisis.

This time, because Chen Feng changed history, making Zhong Lei sing “Dullness” a few years earlier, but she still only became famous in 2024.

In the following months, Zhong Lei wrote “Monotony” and also sang “Night Has Grown Deep,” with the release dates unchanged, both on the KuGe platform.

But these works were suppressed on the KuGe platform for a full five years before finally breaking free and shining with their deserved glory.

The reason was that the B-level contract Lin Youyi offered wasn’t the standard version; it contained two hidden pitfalls.

According to these hidden clauses, KuGe had a five-year priority right to Zhong Lei’s songs. This meant that for five years, all songs Zhong Lei created could only be signed to other platforms if KuGe didn’t want them.

But KuGe held them back every time, not only providing no promotional resources but also drastically lowering their algorithmic weight, reducing the songs’ exposure. If a song showed any signs of popularity, they would simply block it using technical means. No wonder they couldn’t become hits.

Chen Feng and Zhong Lei failed to notice this at the time, and they weren’t legally savvy enough, so they fell into the trap.

They struggled together for five full years. Only after the copyright contract expired and the songs were re-released on Q Music did they finally see the light of day.

Such a vicious scheme was just a petty trick for someone like Zhou A, but it truly and severely affected the fates of both Chen Feng and Zhong Lei.

And they were completely powerless to resist.

This was the class gap. It was like a menial servant from the immortal realm descending to the mortal world. Even a casual sneeze from him could blow away a mortal world’s top master.

But this time, Chen Feng still won, leaving the eagerly awaiting Zhou A, who was looking forward to a good show, waiting in vain.

Because Chen Feng cheated.