ECG -Chapter 126 Black Fox Logo

Lin Hao put the phone back into his pocket, and an indescribable feeling rose in his heart.

He didn’t know why, but after that phone call, it seemed as if a thin veil had suddenly appeared between him and Xia Yumeng. He couldn’t see it or touch it, but it truly existed.

He thought about it for a while and vaguely guessed what Xia Yumeng was worried about. He couldn’t help but shake his head with a bitter smile. This silly girl… Looks like he had to hurry up. If he really became a man who achieved nothing, then he truly wouldn’t have the face to be with Xia Yumeng.

His mental age was already over forty. It was impossible for him to be like a young man in his early twenties, imagining love to be so innocent and romantic.

The union of two people would never be just about the two of them. It would involve parents, relatives, careers, and all kinds of other things.

If the two families, as well as the man and woman’s outlook on life, values, and social status differed too greatly, then no matter how much the two people loved each other, their life together would eventually become a complete mess.

Unless the two of them left the world behind and hid away deep in the mountains, only then could they find peace.

After pushing those thoughts out of his mind, Lin Hao began thinking about this CD again.

Strictly speaking, this kind of CD didn’t even count as a pirated copy.

A genuine CD was one where the copyright of a musical work was obtained through proper channels, distribution approval was acquired from the relevant authorities, and then it was published and sold by a legitimate audio-visual publishing company.

In terms of sound quality, an original CD copied using EAC could, overall, come close to the quality of the original master disc.

A pirated copy wasn’t just different in sound quality and disc quality. More importantly, it lacked respect for intellectual property rights.

But the one in his hand wasn’t even worthy of being called pirated. It could only be considered a privately burned disc. The cost of making this kind of disc was extremely low. Usually, the contents were crude and poor, but the profits were definitely enormous.

Who was doing this?

He silently wondered to himself.

After returning to the dormitory, he opened his laptop and inserted the poor-quality disc.

The first song was Blue Lotus. It was obvious that the recording equipment had been placed near one of the speakers on the side of the stage. Since it was recorded in mono, there wasn’t much background noise, which meant it had probably gone through some simple post-processing.

Listening to the songs one by one, it seemed this person had really put a lot of effort into it. They should have often come to the Ferry Bar, recorded a lot of performances, and then carefully selected the best ones.

He thought back to the seats near the left and right speakers on the stage of the Ferry Bar. After a long while, he could only bitterly smile and shake his head. He couldn’t remember at all.

There were so many customers every day. Back then, he had no idea this kind of thing would happen, so how could he have paid attention to something like that?

Although it was mono, because it had been processed afterward, the sound quality was still acceptable. It wasn’t as unbearable as he had imagined.

The dormitory door was pushed open, and Wu Xiaozhou, Meng Fatty, and Cui Gang walked in.

“Why didn’t I see you when we went to eat?” Wu Xiaozhou’s loud voice rang out. He was still holding a roll of sketch paper in his hand.

Meng Fatty had sharp ears. “Eh, isn’t this Haozi singing? You released a CD? Holy crap, what the hell is this sound quality?”

Lin Hao handed him the CD case.

“Damn, what is this thing?” Meng Fatty cursed, and Cui Gang took the case from him.

Lin Hao then explained what had happened.

The three of them hadn’t expected someone to pull such a trick, and they immediately started discussing it heatedly.

Wu Xiaozhou said, “I have an idea!”

Lin Hao quickly said, “Tell me.”

“That shop owner said someone delivers the discs, right? Then we’ll just squat outside that audio store every day. I don’t believe we won’t catch that person!”

Meng Fatty immediately said it was a great idea, but Cui Gang shook his head.

“Bullshit. How do you know which person is the one delivering the discs?”

Lin Hao nodded. Cui Gang was right. If the audio store owner refused to cooperate, this matter would be difficult to handle!

Speaking of it, there really wasn’t any good solution. Lin Hao was helpless too. At this time, intellectual property rights were practically nonexistent. Even pirated copies couldn’t be dealt with. Even if he went to report it, it probably wouldn’t do much good!

Then he thought about it again. Although the money was being earned by someone else, his name was still on the CDs. In a way, it was helping him become famous. It might not necessarily be a bad thing.

No!

He suddenly remembered the story the shop owner had told him about being kept by Fourth Sister. He realized that the people distributing the albums in bulk must have taught them that story, with the purpose of adding a gimmick to the album.

It seemed that his name had indeed spread, but his reputation was going to become completely ruined!

Wu Xiaozhou suddenly remembered the sketch paper he had thrown onto the bed earlier and quickly picked it up. After opening it, he proudly showed it to Lin Hao.

“Come on, take a look. What do you think of our band’s logo?”

Lin Hao’s train of thought was interrupted, so he looked up. In the middle of the snow-white sketch paper was a very abstract fox design.

It was called abstract because only a fluffy, big tail had been drawn, while half of the fox’s face was hidden behind the tail. Only the upper half of its face was visible, with a pair of round, bright eyes that looked mischievous and adorable.

“Great! The design is amazing!” Lin Hao clapped his hands in admiration. This logo had completely hit the mark. It was exactly what he wanted.

“Who drew this? This is awesome!” he asked Wu Xiaozhou.

Wu Xiaozhou curled his lips. “Why do you care so much? Anyway, we didn’t spend any money on it! Do you want to change it?”

Lin Hao hurriedly shook his head. What a joke. Changing it now would only ruin it. This was already perfect.

Only then did he remember that he hadn’t eaten lunch yet. His stomach was already growling loudly, so he left Wu Xiaozhou and the others behind and rushed to the cafeteria.

After finishing his meal, he headed outside the school. While eating, he had already made up his mind—this matter had to be resolved immediately. It couldn’t be delayed!

If something like this wasn’t explained clearly, the rumors would only spread further. By then, trying to clear his name would be even harder!

He had thought of many solutions, but one by one he rejected them. The simplest and most direct way was to go straight to the audio shop owner.

The audio shop owner was sitting leisurely on a chair outside the store with a cigarette in his mouth, drinking tea. When he saw Lin Hao return again, he was surprised.

“Didn’t like it? Impossible, right?”

Lin Hao quickly shook his head and got straight to the point.

“Big brother, to tell you the truth, I’m actually that Lin Hao.”

“Who?”

The shop owner froze, not understanding what Lin Hao meant.

“I’m the Lin Hao who sings at Ferry Bar—the Lin Hao you were talking about, the one who was kept by Fourth Sister!”

“What?”

The shop owner was so shocked that the cigarette fell onto the front of his shirt. He hurriedly stood up and brushed it off with his hand. Then he said awkwardly:

“Brother, you can’t joke about something like this!”

“Big brother, do I look like I’m joking?”

Seeing that Lin Hao really didn’t seem to be joking, the shop owner thought for a moment and asked again:

“But how can you prove that you’re really this Lin Hao?”

Lin Hao smiled.

“Big brother, this is my ID card!”

After saying that, he handed over his ID card.

The shop owner took it and carefully examined it. He looked at Lin Hao a few more times, then nodded. The young man in front of him did look somewhat similar to the silhouette on the CD cover—especially that tall, straight nose.

“Big brother, don’t tell me I need to sing a song for you too?” Lin Hao asked with a smile.

The shop owner hurriedly waved his hands.

“No, no need!”

“Actually, I came here mainly because I wanted to trouble you with something…”

The shop owner didn’t even pay attention to what Lin Hao was saying. He suddenly became excited.

“Damn, brother, your singing is really good! Seriously, if it wasn’t for the poor sound quality, I’d want to play this CD every day and let everyone outside hear it. Could this be your own album?”

“Damn!”

He slapped his forehead, looking like he had suddenly realized something.

“I understand now. You came here to do market research, right? Brother, it’s not that I’m criticizing you, but you need to change recording studios. The sound quality is way too damn…”

Lin Hao helplessly raised his hand to stop him.

What was this guy even talking about?