Chapter 150: A Single Song Drives the Entire Internet Insane

Luo Ning's manager thought he must have misread the trending list.

He rubbed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and looked intently once again.

The trending search terms remained unchanged.

He hadn't read it wrong!

Yet the more that was the case, the more unsettled Luo Ning's state of mind became.

Because he could say with certainty that before tonight's finale of "Singer Style," the song "Garden Planting Flowers" definitely did not exist on Douyin.

Even if it had, it wouldn't have generated any traction.

So what on earth could have happened to allow this song, despite the massive attention surrounding "Singer Style," to claim the number one spot on Douyin's trending list in just a few short hours?

Fine... Let's say it took first place.

What on earth was going on with the number two trending search?!

Dig, dig, dig?

As a veteran golden manager, someone who knew the entertainment industry like the back of his hand, he simply failed to comprehend this trending topic.

He was utterly baffled.

How could participating in the finale of "Singer Style" make it feel like the entire world had changed overnight?

"Must be the work of Amon."

The manager muttered a nonsensical phrase.

After taking a few deep breaths, he clicked on the number one trending search.

The next second, a little girl wearing a cute little white rabbit eye mask appeared on screen, singing in a childish voice: "In the little garden, digging, digging, digging~~~"

Huh?

After watching for a few seconds, the manager's tightly furrowed brows gradually smoothed out, and he watched the video with rapt attention.

When it finished, instead of closing the app, he played it a second time, a third time...

"Digging, digging... Hehe, so this is what digging, digging is all about~~~"

Before he knew it, a doting smile bloomed on the manager's face. Immediately following, he dialed a phone call, speaking with an exceptionally gentle and smiling voice: "Xinxin, Daddy found a really, really fun song. Would you like to listen to it? ... Mmhmm, Daddy already sent it to Mommy's phone, go ask Mommy to play it for you. This is a gift from Daddy to you, so tonight when Daddy gets back, you have to reward me with three kisses, got it?"

With that said, the manager hung up the phone.

As soon as he looked up, he noticed everyone around him staring at him in utter astonishment.

He gave a dry cough. "That garden... No, that digging, digging... Also wrong. What I mean is, this children's song might actually be a little interesting, but its popularity is definitely temporary. It'll probably die down in a few hours. So there's no need to worry. When we wake up tomorrow morning, first place will definitely still be ours. Don't you all agree?"

Prompted by his words, an assistant also nodded. "Exactly. There are just too many short videos that go viral out of nowhere on Douyin like this, but their hype only lasts for a few hours, or at most a day. Songs like this basically have nothing to do with the music charts. They pose zero threat to us. So in terms of staying power, Brother Ning is guaranteed a complete victory."

"Precisely."

The manager praised, "That's the exact logic. Let this children's song occupy the top two trending spots for all I care; at the very least, we defeated Wuyan."

Hearing this, the others chimed in with agreement.

Indeed!

Who cares what nonsense occupies the number one trending spot? As long as Luo Ning wins the championship, takes first place on the new release chart, and defeats Wuyan, that's all that matters!

Upon hearing this, Luo Ning's expression, which had previously been rather unsightly, relaxed.

Originally, he had felt somewhat depressed internally, annoyed that his popularity had actually been overshadowed by a nursery rhyme.

Now, listening to their reasoning, it made complete sense.

What did any children's song matter? Did it have anything to do with him?

His mood became cheerful again, and he smiled. "That's right, everyone cheer up!"

Seeing this, the atmosphere at the scene returned to lighthearted banter and laughter.

"Haha, exactly, let's cheer up."

"What even is that nursery rhyme? Can it possibly compare to Brother Ning's song?"

"It's just a three-minute fad, just wait and see."

"..."

Upon hearing this, several fathers among the group breathed long sighs of relief.

Then, almost in unison, they all pulled out their phones and began making phone calls.

"Hello? An'an, Daddy found a fun song, do you want to listen to it?"

"Is that Chenchen? Haha, Daddy will go back and dig, dig, dig with you."

"Mengmeng, you're not asleep yet? Then Daddy will teach you a song tonight, okay? Mmhmm, you'll definitely like it. Let Daddy sing a line first: In the little garden..."

Luo Ning's expression, which had just relaxed, froze slightly, and a knot suddenly formed in his chest once more.

...

While Luo Ning and his entourage were agonizing over a nursery rhyme occupying the number one spot on Douyin's trending searches, huge waves had already been stirred up across the internet.

Of course.

This wasn't because of the finale of "Singer Style." Although the finale generated high viewership, it hadn't reached the level of universal appeal, spreading only among a specific demographic.

These giant waves had been whipped up by a children's song.

When Douyin began promoting "Garden Planting Flowers" to all users, many people who stumbled across the video were initially completely bewildered.

"Huh? Why am I being recommended a video of a little kid?"

"I'm pretty sure my algorithm is set to gaming."

"Is this a hint that I need to get married and have kids?"

"Putting aside everything else, this little girl is adorable."

"..."

However, after passing through that initial stage of skepticism and confusion, many people began to realize that this children's song actually had some charm to it.

Quite a few people found themselves unconsciously dancing along with the little girl in the video after just a single listen.

It was then that everyone discovered its hypnotic nature.

"Huh? What's going on? I only watched the video once, and now I'm singing along."

"Stranger still, I only heard this nursery rhyme once, and its melody is deeply etched into my brain."

"Yes, yes, yes, that's exactly the feeling."

"Me too, haha, digging, digging, digging in the garden, so much fun."

"It's over, my fast-asleep son just woke up and started dancing along with the video."

"Where are the parents pulling late-night baby-duty? Let's all go dig, dig, dig!"

"..."

In truth, the reason this short video caused such a massive reaction in such a short amount of time was twofold: first, the song's melody was irresistibly catchy, and second, the credit went primarily to Tongtong.

In her past life, Teacher Tao was the one who made the song famous, but Teacher Tao lacked the pure innocence and cuteness of Tongtong.

With little Tongtong, who was just over three years old, executing adorable movements in a tender voice, her charm when singing this song far surpassed that of Teacher Tao, making her almost impossible to resist.

Consequently, within a single night, a chain reaction had been triggered.

Naturally, all the netizens at that moment still only felt that the song had an inexplicable charm without thinking too much into it.

After all, hot topics popped up on Douyin almost every day, so even if "Garden Planting Flowers" seemed extremely popular right now, the hype would likely dissipate by dawn tomorrow.

Yet, they never dreamed in their wildest dreams that what would happen next would be sheer madness.

The next day.

When the clock struck eight in the morning, the entirety of China had awakened.

However, after a night's fermentation, not only did the trending momentum of the short video featuring Tongtong singing "Garden Planting Flowers" fail to drop, but the likes surged from over 500,000 in the early hours of the morning to an astonishing 1.38 million!

Comments soared to over 600,000.

And the share count even broke the two-million mark!

For an account with virtually zero followers and a video posted just yesterday evening to achieve over a million likes in a mere half-day, even Douyin's operations staff realized something extraordinary was happening.

Especially as time went on.

The curves tracking likes, comments, favorites, and shares for this video showed no sign of declining whatsoever; instead, they continued to climb upward in a bizarre trajectory.

"Isn't this too insane?"

"Oh my god, what is going on?"

"I've browsed Douyin for so long, and I've never seen a video blow up this fiercely."

"Could this song 'Garden Planting Flowers' possess some kind of magic?"

"Wuwuwu, the song I painstakingly recorded only got a dozen likes. This little girl casually sings a nursery rhyme and gets over a million likes. I can't go on!"

"I don't get it, I genuinely don't get it."

These were merely the cries of astonishment from netizens on Douyin.

In reality, however, tangible changes were beginning to unfold in the physical world.

At a certain kindergarten.

"Children, today we're going to learn a new dance song, okay?"

"Yay!"

"It's called 'Digging, Digging'."

"Teacher, you're wrong, it's 'Garden Planting Flowers', not 'Digging, Digging'."

"Tee-hee-hee, Teacher, you got it wrong."

"I can sing it too: In the little garden, digging, digging, digging."

"So everyone already knows it?"

At a certain primary school.

Right as the bell rang for the end of class, two girls started gesturing to each other.

"Come on, let's sing together."

"In the big garden, together digging, digging, digging."

"You got the movement wrong."

"Then let's check how the little sister in the video does it."

"This video is really too fun."

At a certain home.

Grandfather had just picked up his hoe and headed to the vegetable patch out back.

His granddaughter followed right behind him, standing at his back and singing: "In the little garden, digging, digging, digging..."

Grandfather felt a bit too embarrassed to dig the earth anymore.

He could only glare at his granddaughter.

Yet the granddaughter continued to call out cheerfully, "Grandpa, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig."

Scenes like this swept across the vast land of China at an almost unpredictable speed within a mere day or two.

When the next day arrived.

As everyone headed off to work, they were stunned to discover that children going to school, elementary students riding the subway, and even numerous university campuses and major corporations were all echoing with the sounds of "dig, dig, dig."

The spread was so rapid that it left people speechless.

The play count for the "Garden Planting Flowers" video sung by Tongtong had already surpassed one hundred million!

The like count had broken ten million!

Moreover, in the music section of Douyin, millions of people were already using the track as background music to film various entertaining "dig, dig, dig" short videos.

Across the internet, many netizens finally reached their breaking point and began speaking out.

"I'm about to have a mental breakdown."

"Good grief, everywhere I walk these past few days, it's all digging, digging, digging."

"I'm not exaggerating, I've gone insane."

"As a kindergarten teacher, my ears have grown calluses from listening to this song for the past two days."

"Ahhhhh, everywhere I look, the entire world is surrounded by this sound."

"What do I do? Can someone tell me how to escape this world?"

No one could figure out why such a simple children's song possessed such immense power.

Power to the extent that it swept across both the online and offline worlds.

Even the wildly popular trending songs on Douyin they had witnessed previously fell short of a tenth of its magnitude.

Yunhai Media.

On this day, just as Wang默 (Wang Mo) arrived at work, he saw Yuan Xiong walking over with a face full of gloom.

Wang Mo asked in surprise, "Brother Xiong, didn't you go home to reunite with your sister-in-law last night? Why do you still look so unhappy? Did you anger her?"

Because Yuan Xiong usually shared a bed and lived alongside Wang Mo, he hadn't returned home for a long time.

Thus, the previous night, Yuan Xiong finally made the trip home, preparing to enjoy some domestic bliss.

Originally, Wang Mo assumed Yuan Xiong would be beaming, but instead, the man looked thoroughly depressed.

"Crap!"

Yuan Xiong was exasperated. "I finally made a trip home, only to be pestered by my son all night to play the 'dig, dig, dig' game with him. That little brat, I swear his mind's been bewitched by this song. I just don't get it—how did such a pathetic song with zero depth and no melody ever blow up?

The music scene nowadays is truly getting more and out of hand!

Any piece of garbage can be written into a song.

And the crucial part is that it actually goes viral. Who can you even reason with about that?

Let me tell you, Wang Mo, you must put some real effort into this from now on. Write a few more good songs to correct the unhealthy trends currently plaguing the music industry. Otherwise, if trashy children's songs that can't even see the light of day like 'Garden Planting Flowers' can sweep the entire internet, it's an absolute disgrace to the music scene!"

Wang Mo swallowed hard. "Ahem."

Yuan Xiong raged on, "I really have no idea what uncultured bastard wrote this song."

Wang Mo: "Ahem, ahem."

Yuan Xiong: "Don't let me find out who he is, or I'll give him a piece of my mind for poisoning the flowers of our motherland and ruining the music industry!"

Wang Mo: "Ahem ahem, ahem ahem."

Yuan Xiong: "Tell me, am I right or am I right?"

Wang Mo: "Ahem ahem ahem ahem ahem."

After venting for a bit, Yuan Xiong felt much better inside.

He looked suspiciously at Wang Mo. "Why do you keep coughing? Catch a cold?"

Wang Mo: "No... no, my throat just feels a bit itchy."

Right at that moment, his phone rang urgently.

Looking down, two words were displayed on the screen: Elder He.

Holy shit!

"Ahem ahem, ahem ahem cough cough cough..."

As if struck by some intense shock, Wang Mo burst into a fit of violent coughing.

(End of this chapter)