178 Enduring is the Only Choice
Yan Xingzhou finished writing the article that evening, sent it to Wang Heng, and after confirming there were no problems, uploaded it that night.
Waking up the next day, he saw that his article had indeed garnered a lot of views, and it was still climbing steadily. Looking at the transfer text message again, he was even more delighted.
After hesitating for a long time, he decided to make another call as after-sales service. Thirty-year-old Yan Xingzhou was a good writer, but after the call connected, he was rather clumsy with words: “The money has been received… Um, thank you, Brother Wang.”
Wang Heng: “It’s okay. We can cooperate again next time if there’s a chance. Your official account articles are very well written. Keep it up, there’s a bright future.”
Yan Xingzhou: “Thank you, Brother Wang. It’s not that I write well, it’s that your singer is amazing.”
Wang Heng: “No need to be so polite. We will cooperate again next time.”
Yan Xingzhou: “Yes, yes, next time… Then I won’t disturb you?”
“Mhm, goodbye.”
After speaking, Wang Heng heard a string of “Okay, okay, goodbye Brother Wang, goodbye!” from the other side.
Wang Heng hung up the phone, put it away, and knocked on the door in front of him.
When he answered the call just now, he had already arrived downstairs at Pei Ningle’s rental apartment. After the call, he happened to climb the stairs to the door.
But after the door opened, Wang Heng saw a girl with slightly red eyes.
“You’re here…” Pei Ningle’s voice was very low, with a hint of suppressed sobbing.
Wang Heng was startled. “What’s wrong?”
Pei Ningle grabbed his arm and dragged him to the sofa. “Look!”
Sitting on the sofa, Wang Heng soon saw what had caused the girl’s emotional change—on the computer screen was the NetEase Cloud Music player, full of new comments from last night to today.
“The song is very nice. Haven’t heard such a great voice in a long time…” Wang Heng read one of the comments and asked, “Isn’t this a positive review?”
But Pei Ningle pointed to the one below this comment. “Look at this one!”
【Came here from Yansheng’s recommendation, very disappointed. The voice is nothing special, just the common little girl voice in non-mainstream music, and the lyrics and music are even more mediocre. For Yansheng to praise it like that, he must have been paid off, right?】
Wang Heng had just finished reading this one and wanted to say something, but saw Pei Ningle scrolling down again. Soon, another negative review appeared.
【Boring, utterly boring. The meaning of this song is that making music isn’t easy, right? We are listeners, we want good songs, who cares if it’s easy or not?】
Scrolling down further, unceremonious negative reviews appeared again.
【Too boring. I downloaded the NetEase Cloud Music app just for your song, wasting my memory space.】
And below this comment, there was a reply: 【Me too, but it’s okay, I’ll delete it right away. I’m unfollowing Yansheng too. That guy definitely took money.】
Pei Ningle wanted to scroll down further, but Wang Heng suddenly pressed her hand.
He considered his words and said, “You saw it too. There are still more positive reviews than negative ones. Why do you have to fixate on those few negative reviews?”
Pei Ningle: “There are quite a few negative reviews, not just a few!”
Wang Heng: “But there are still more positive reviews. The key is that Yan Xingzhou’s article praised you quite hard, so some people’s expectations might indeed be quite high. And your song didn’t suit their taste, so it’s normal for them to give negative reviews.”
“Then why can’t we let him…” The girl bit her lower lip. “Let him not praise so hard?”
But Wang Heng shook his head. “No. If we’re going to praise, we should praise properly. Besides, you have to understand that only when people’s expectations are high enough will they specifically come to listen to your song. If you had to choose, would you choose a thousand people to listen and leave five negative reviews, or five thousand people to listen and leave fifty negative reviews?”
Pei Ningle lowered her head in silence, seeming not to know what to say.
After a long while, she asked in a low voice, “Can’t we have higher views and not have those negative reviews?”
Wang Heng sneered. “I advise you to dispel such thoughts as soon as possible. As long as you are still releasing songs and hope others will hear your songs, you cannot eliminate negative reviews. Only positive reviews without negative reviews is meaningless.”
“Impossible to eliminate negative reviews…” Pei Ningle murmured, sitting on the sofa with her head lowered.
Wang Heng sat beside her and continued, “It’s the same for any singer. As long as there are a few views, there will naturally be negative reviews. The difference between you and professional singers is just that they have professional management teams and won’t read the comments themselves.”
Pei Ningle suddenly raised her head and stared at him. “You are also my management team.”
“Yes, so now is the manager’s job.”
As he spoke, Wang Heng held the mouse, right-clicked on a negative review, and left-clicked report.
Then, he reported all the negative reviews with excessive language.
“NetEase Cloud Music doesn’t have settings to delete comments or block users, so we can only report to the officials. Statements claiming to uninstall the APP, the officials probably won’t ignore.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Pei Ningle couldn’t help but say, “Then, what if the officials don’t care?”
Wang Heng: “Then you can only endure it. Or, simply not reading comments is also a way.”
Pei Ningle said weakly, “I originally… liked reading comments very much.”
Originally, when she opened the door just now, her eyes were already red. But after talking to Wang Heng like this, the tears that were already swaying in her eyes were held back by her.
For this eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl, encountering dozens of negative reviews in a row like today was undoubtedly the first time in her life. But now, only one sentence from Wang Heng echoed in her mind, that is, ‘Only positive reviews without negative reviews is meaningless’.
As long as she wanted to continue singing, she had to face more negative reviews and endure them…
Wang Heng shrugged and suddenly asked, “By the way, what is the inspiration for your next song?”
Pei Ningle picked up the notebook next to her, opened it, and handed it over. “Still expressing my own feelings, this is it.”
Wang Heng took the notebook and saw the two big characters 【Dawn】.
So he said, “Isn’t this just right? If there is only dawn, such a song would be too thin. Only with night and dark clouds can the beauty and preciousness of dawn be highlighted.”
Pei Ningle: “Should negative feelings also be written in the song?”
Wang Heng: “Yes, remember this feeling and continue writing. I can’t say that negative reviews are another kind of wealth, but at least, for you, this is a new experience.”
Pei Ningle hugged her knees, lowered her head, and fell into deep thought.
And Wang Heng took out his own phone, opened NetEase Cloud Music, and commented under the first negative review:
【If you don’t need eardrums, you can donate them to people in need, thank you.】
He muttered to himself almost inaudibly, “She has to endure, but I don’t need to. Not using Zaun language on you is already very polite…”
***
T/N:
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Zaun language (祖安语法): Internet slang referring to extremely toxic and vulgar language, originating from the Zaun server in the Chinese version of League of Legends, known for its toxic player base.
