These reviews were a source of encouragement and motivation for April. After parting ways with Jane, she immersed herself in intensive training and became even stricter with herself.
After several days of training, the company decided to sign April on. She had an amazing talent for music, and every time Marco gave her pointers, she immediately understood the methods and could apply them to herself.
Although the training was tough at times, it was effective thanks to April’s hard work.
“Sing it again for me,” Marco said as he clasped his hands together and adjusted his glasses on his nose while looking at April in front of him.
April had already overcome her inner difficulties after these days of training. She took a deep breath before slowly opening her mouth to sing that song that she had practiced over a hundred times before.
As soon as the song ended, there was silence around them. Nervously swallowing some saliva, April waited eagerly for everyone’s evaluation.
“Not bad,” Marco praised her with one sentence which made her heart relax slightly from its tense state.
“Very good!” Jane also gave a thumbs up to April. She couldn’t help but admit that compared to when they first started working together until now, April had improved significantly!
“Okay, since that’s the case, let’s go to the recording studio.”
With everyone’s approval, April gained more confidence. She nodded and followed Marco into the recording studio.
Once inside, Marco continued to guide April mentally, helping her with vocal tests and adjusting the volume. After some preparation, he nervously left the recording studio.
“Why do you look more nervous than April?” Jane couldn’t help but laugh as she looked at Marco. Although he was strict with April, he treated her quite well.
“This is her first album. How can I not be concerned?” Marco raised an eyebrow and then fell silent, observing the situation in the recording studio.
With Marco’s assistance, April released her debut album. As she looked at her identity as a “musician,” her eyes sparkled, and she was so excited that she didn’t know what to say.
As the number of plays on her album continued to increase, her heart became more and more anxious and excited.
“Relax, it’s just the beginning. It’s normal to have no immediate response. Besides, it’s your first album, so…” Marco comforted April, but suddenly, he noticed that more and more messages were popping up on April’s phone screen, all of them comments about the album.
He was taken aback, saying, “No way, it was just released, and there are already so many comments?”
April was also surprised. She almost trembled as she tapped into the comments. They kept increasing, and she couldn’t keep up with them all, but the words inside pierced her eyes.
“Copying others and claiming it as original, have some shame.”
“Is this ‘original’ label serious?”
All kinds of hurtful comments came crashing in. April’s eyes became slightly red, and she put down her phone, unable to look at it anymore.
Meanwhile, Marco fell into deep thought. He had co-written and composed this song with April. He had been there throughout the entire process. How could there be accusations of plagiarism?
“What’s going on?”
Just then, Jane walked in with a tablet in her hand.
April’s album had just been released, and she wanted to check the buzz on Twitter. However, the top trending topic was unexpectedly “April’s new song plagiarizes Zach.”
She immediately sensed that something was wrong and asked someone to control the situation. But the number of comments kept increasing, and the news quickly rose to the top.
Since April had signed with Star Entertainment, many journalists were messaging the company’s private account.
April blinked and looked at the overwhelming online criticism. She became so upset that tears welled up in her eyes.
“It’s okay, don’t panic.”
Jane hurriedly comforted her. This incident was strange, so she decided to listen to Zach’s new song. To her surprise, she found that aside from the melody, the lyrics were exactly the same.
“I really wrote this myself.”
April choked back her tears. She never expected such a thing to happen with her debut album.
“I know, don’t worry. Let me investigate.”
Jane’s expression immediately turned serious. She asked Marco to stay and monitor the situation online, while she went out to investigate the matter herself.
Jane mobilized the surveillance throughout the company. The lyrics were indeed created by April, and they had always been kept within the company. It had to be someone from within leaking them.
Jane’s eyes turned cold. It seemed she had been too lenient with them in the past.
In the surveillance room, Jane spent the whole day. It wasn’t until evening that she noticed a man entering the secret data room.
Jane’s eyes lit up. The person was none other than Andrei Poole, the head of the music department.
Andrei glanced around after entering the data room. In the dim lighting, he took out his phone and started recording April’s lyrics.
Jane widened her eyes, shocked that there was indeed a mole leaking company secrets.
She immediately saved this segment of surveillance footage, her eyes filled with determination. Now she could see that these people were doing bad things right under her nose!
She walked out of the room with the surveillance footage and instructed the security to bring Andrei to her office.
Andrei felt puzzled and kept shouting to be released as they walked. It was only when they arrived at Jane’s office that he gave up resistance.
“Tell me, what’s going on?”
Jane narrowed her eyes and pointed at the screen displaying the surveillance footage, questioning him.
“I… I really don’t know.”
Andrei initially wanted to deny it, but when he saw Jane about to dial 911, he quickly kneeled on the ground, pleading, “No, no, I’ll tell you!”
Then, Andrei’s regret-filled voice lowered, “I initially wanted to buy the rights to April’s songs at a low price, but the group around Zach secretly recorded the lyrics. I truly didn’t know about this until he released the song, but by then, it was too late…”
Andrei’s voice grew quieter, and Jane looked at the man before her, letting out a cold laugh. She had the security escort him out of the office.
Because of this incident, Jane realized that the company’s culture had deteriorated to such an extent. She started sending a few people to investigate the recent activities of those involved, in order to restore the company’s atmosphere.
Jane’s gaze became indifferent. Now she had more important things to do.
Earlier, when Andrei came, she had already started recording in advance. She had captured everything he said.
She opened Twitter and used the company’s account to post the surveillance video and the recording. This was the best way to prove their innocence!
Before long, public opinion on Twitter began to shift in April’s favor, while Zach found himself at the center of controversy.
Zach looked at the online comments with a headache, never expecting to be exposed so quickly.
Plagiarism was a major taboo in the industry. On the other hand, April gained a wave of popularity due to this incident.