Confronting the Campus Queen after Rebirth

I was an art student who, after graduating with honors, was accepted into the Music Academy. At the same time, I had gained a small online following for posting covers of songs. However, when I uploaded a song I wrote myself, the comments were filled with accusations of plagiarism. Even my classmates looked at me disapprovingly, urging me to apologize first. When I listened to the song in question, I discovered that the melody was identical to mine, but it had been released a day earlier. The person who posted it was from the same school as me, but she was a dance student. I tried to prove my innocence but couldn't explain why the two scores were exactly the same. Avid fans reported me to my school, and my kind teacher looked at me with disappointment in her eyes. They even found my home and sent wreaths to my parents, which angered them so much that they were hospitalized with heart attacks. My phone was bombarded with countless calls. In a daze, I fell into the water and drowned. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before the song was released... ... The river water stole my breath. Before the feeling of suffocation overwhelmed me, I instinctively opened my mouth wide, taking a sharp, terrified gasp of air as I opened my eyes. The dorm room was quiet, devoid of any sound. I slapped myself. It stung a little. This was not a dream. I was reborn. My roommate in the next bed heard the sound and looked over, staring at the slap mark on my face. She frowned and exclaimed, "Ali, were you sleepwalking? Why are you hitting yourself?" I opened my mouth and said lightly, "Mosquito." My roommate let out an "oh" and went back to watching her variety show. "By the way, didn't you say you were going to release a song? When are you releasing it? We'll cheer you on!" Releasing a song! I looked at my phone on the bedside table in horror. The finished music was saved on my phone; I hadn't finalized the lyrics yet. In my past life, it was today that I had a burst of inspiration. After writing the lyrics to go with the music, I excitedly posted the demo online. I thought it was the beginning of my music career. I didn't expect it to be the beginning of my nightmare. In just one hour, the topic of my plagiarism was trending online. Major marketing accounts caught wind of it, analyzing the music, the score, and all sorts of comparisons. For every person who praised Amanda, there were just as many who flooded my account with insults and abuse. I posted a video explanation, showing the entire process of me creating the song, but it was dismissed as a show. Amanda's teary-eyed smile in front of the camera made countless people see me as an enemy, photoshopping my face onto funeral portraits and sending wreaths to my parents. Even when I walked outside, I was splashed with milk tea, had vegetables and eggs thrown at me, and the stones hidden within them left me bleeding. The image of me covered in blood was captured and posted online, pushing the cyberbullying to its peak. After days and nights of phone harassment, I became mentally and physically exhausted and accidentally fell into the water. The pain of my death sent shivers down my spine. I opened Amanda's account. She had posted a new video an hour ago. She sat in front of the piano, playing a short piece of music elegantly and nobly. The caption read: "Surprise countdown." Amanda was a dance student. During military training, a classical dance she performed in camouflage uniform made countless people in the school worship her as a goddess. Even my childhood sweetheart, Tim, mentioned Amanda to me countless times. Every time Amanda was around, his eyes were glued to her. I dejectedly suppressed my feelings for him and only cared for him as a good friend. Online, her dance videos also attracted millions of fans. Every video she posted received millions of views and likes. And this piano video made her fans even more excited, exclaiming that their goddess could also play the piano. But I couldn't help but frown. This was clearly a passage from the song I wrote! From the composition to the production, I had done it all by myself. Even when I let others listen to it, it was only in segments. How did she get the complete score? Not to mention the identical lyrics... I clenched my phone, watching the video play over and over again. My anxious heart finally calmed down. No matter what, this time I had to find out the truth. I couldn't die******** I did in my past life. I went to the bathroom to wash my face, calming myself down. Sitting at my desk, listening to the song I wrote, I pondered the clues from my past life. Thinking over and over again, torturing my heart over and over again. Anxiety and irritability almost took over my mind. Suddenly, inspiration struck. Picking up the guitar by my side, I turned on the recording function on my phone. My fingers began to pluck the strings, from unconscious playing to a frenzy. Like a violent storm, it swept through my heart. The sound of the guitar led me into the palace of music. I could no longer hear the sounds of the world; only the music danced with me. I vented with all my might, pouring all my grievances and anger into the sound of the guitar, letting it know of my suppressed death and madness. The song ended. My fingers left the strings, but the guitar strings were still vibrating, as were my hands. I opened my eyes, my mood lifting. I saw my dumbfounded roommate but didn't speak to her. Instead, I turned and started working on my song on the computer. Inspiration surged through me as I opened the computer, recomposed, produced, and wrote lyrics. I grew up in an ordinary family. Studying music was both an accident and a matter of course in my life. When I was a child, my music teacher discovered my talent and taught me until high school. Later, at her suggestion, my parents and I carefully discussed and decided that I would pursue a career in music. The decision to make videos was to reduce the burden on my parents. It was really hard at first, but later I learned to shoot and edit by myself. The videos got better and better, and I made a lot of money from them, which not only reduced the burden on my parents but also allowed me to take more instrument lessons. When I was working on this song, it was the first time I tried to write by myself, connecting all the fragmented inspiration I had before and writing this song. But after all, it was my first time, so there were some flaws in the song. But this time, the burst of inspiration allowed me to completely build on the original melody and add more emotion and feeling. As the sky got darker and darker. In order not to disturb my roommate's rest, I took my computer and went to the piano room. I was busy all night. When the door of the piano room opened again, my refreshed classmate looked at me in shock. "Ali, you don't have to be so hardcore, do you? You're a big influencer now, give us little transparents a way to live!" Her expression was so exaggerated that I couldn't help but laugh. "I just had a burst of inspiration, so I wanted to finish it all at once." I knew she was just trying to cheer me up. The teacher had praised my talent more than once, but it also put pressure on me. This time, in order to make this song well, I had stayed up all night. I wanted to give myself and my fans a surprise on this special day of my third anniversary. Looking at the song I had recomposed and rewritten on my phone, I couldn't help but relax. My classmate clicked her tongue twice. "As expected of you. I've written down all my inspiration. I'll sit down and compose it slowly when I have time." Her words made me see the light, but in the next second, my mood turned gloomy. It wasn't like I hadn't organized these things in my past life, but those people were so caught up in their anger that they wouldn't believe me. I stared at the score on the computer, and a flash of inspiration came to me. I started to modify a section of the score into the popular music of short videos and saved it in a folder on the desktop. I deleted my original version and saved it on my USB drive. I didn't know how Amanda got my score, but I had to be prepared! If it was stolen from my computer, then she could only take this fake score. Relieved, I packed up my computer, said hello to my classmate, and left the piano room to go back to the dorm and catch up on sleep. But when I got back to the dorm, I heard my roommate say that Amanda had been plagiarized. My whole body stiffened. I hurriedly opened the video software and saw that Amanda had posted a video an hour ago. It was just an ordinary photo of a landscape, but the caption sent chills down my spine. [There are no two identical leaves in the world, and there are no two identical melodies. What is taken will always be found. The surprise will be a little late. I need to modify it before releasing it. Please wait a little longer.] The comment section was full of wailing and cursing. "What does she mean? Was Amanda plagiarized?" "Which bastard plagiarized Amanda? Let me know, and I'll kill him! [Angry] [Angry] [Angry]" "Hugging our baby. Those plagiarizers will definitely get what's coming to them! So baby, what surprise have you prepared for us?" "I guess it's a song? After all, baby played a tune yesterday. You're so talented, baby!" ... Below were all comments comforting and praising Amanda. Amanda didn't reply but liked the comment that said the surprise was a song and the one that mentioned plagiarism, implying that someone had indeed plagiarized her song. This news caused an uproar in the school. There were quite a few people who followed her account, not to mention that plagiarism was a big deal. People in the Music Academy paid more attention to copyright and couldn't stand this kind of thing. My roommate was furious and cursed the plagiarist in the dorm, but gradually, her voice became quieter and quieter, and finally, she spoke cautiously. "... Ali, have you been writing songs lately?" I looked up and saw that all my roommates were looking at me. They all knew that I was writing a song, and they had heard parts of it, but they hadn't heard the final complete version. I hummed in response and asked, "What's wrong?" My roommate sent me a link. I clicked on it and found that someone said they had heard the music Amanda played in the video, and I was the only one in the piano room at that time. As soon as this news came out, many people said that they had heard me play the same music. "It must be her, right? Why else would she go to the dance room to use the piano when there are so many other piano rooms available?" "I didn't expect that our little genius from the Music Academy would be such a person. I suggest a thorough investigation. What if she also plagiarized for the art exam? Wouldn't that ruin the reputation of the academy?" "Well, not necessarily? There are only so many notes. You can play any random notes and make a lot of songs. Maybe she just played it because it sounded good?" "Haha, she must be feeling guilty and doesn't dare to release it now, right? Ali has always been covering songs; she has never written a song before. Who knows if her so-called genius title is real or not." "Whatever it is, I'm waiting for solid evidence." ... I scrolled through the comments, glad that I hadn't released the new song, otherwise, it would have been solid evidence, and my fate would have been the same as in my past life. But I was also a little curious. Amanda didn't release a new song yesterday, and I didn't release mine either. How did she predict that I would 'plagiarize'? As I was thinking, my phone suddenly beeped. It was a video notification. A minute ago, Amanda posted another video. I clicked on it. Amanda, dressed beautifully, looked at the camera with a smile. "Hi everyone, we meet again~ I was planning to give you a surprise yesterday, but some unexpected things happened..." She bit her lip, her expression downcast. "I believe that every creator will encounter this kind of thing. I don't know how to adjust my mentality. After a night of reflection, I decided to face it directly! It's the plagiarist who is disgraceful, not me, the original creator." "So today, I'm giving you my new song!" Then, Amanda sat back in front of the piano, her slender, beautiful fingers hitting the black and white keys, and the music flowed slowly. As I listened to the notes, my expression grew stiffer and stiffer, and my eyes became flustered. No! This was wrong! How, how could she have the complete version of this song? I frantically looked for my bag and took out my computer. My bag had been on my desk since I got back, always in my sight. No one had touched it. How did Amanda get my new song? That's right! What Amanda was playing was the new song I had spent all day and night composing, the unmodified version! I sat on the bed with an ugly expression, my eyes fixed on the phone screen. It's impossible! I was composing in the piano room at night. Besides me, there was no one else there. How did Amanda know my score? Could it be surveillance? Ignoring my roommate's concern, I rushed out with my computer in my arms. I went to the school's repair shop and asked the technician to check my phone and computer. Only after confirming that there were no surveillance devices installed did I run to the piano room. My classmate was still practicing. He seemed surprised to see me and wanted to ask me something, but I didn't have time to chat with him. I searched the entire piano room but couldn't find any surveillance devices. Not only this piano room, but the two piano rooms next door didn't have them either. I slumped to the ground, my heart sinking. My classmate was startled and hurriedly asked me what was wrong. I didn't answer him. In fact, I couldn't even hear him. Countless guesses filled my mind, making it explode. Suddenly, I heard the sound of several people talking outside, and my childhood sweetheart Tim's voice was particularly clear. "Amanda, your new song is very nice. I and the people around me all like it." His voice was filled with smiles. "Look, in just one hour, so many people sent me messages asking me to tell you." "Don't praise me! Actually, I was so angry yesterday that I suddenly got inspired and wrote this song." Amanda sighed softly. "It's filled with my emotions. I just hope you don't dislike it." "How could we? We can't get enough of it." The two of them chatted and laughed as they walked into the piano room next door. Soon, the sound of flowing music could be heard. It was the new song I wrote yesterday. I gripped the door and forced myself up from the ground, my eyes fixed on the piano room where Amanda was. Slowly, I walked over. The two people in the piano room were immersed in Amanda's piano playing and didn't notice me until I walked in. It wasn't until I walked behind Amanda that she seemed to sense something and turned around with a scream, the piano music coming to an abrupt stop. "Ali! What are you doing?!" Tim's expression changed, and he pushed me away forcefully. I fell to the ground, the pain clearing my anger-clouded mind. Amanda was startled, then frowned and hurriedly helped me up from the ground, asking, "Ali? Are you okay? Why are you so pale?" I shook my head, forcing a smile. "Sorry, I was so absorbed in listening that I forgot to say hello." "It's okay." Amanda looked a little embarrassed. "Ali, are you sure you're okay? Please don't be mad at Tim. He was just startled and worried about me." Tim... I looked at Tim. He was glaring at me angrily. I don't know when, but my childhood sweetheart and Amanda had gotten closer and closer. I didn't say anything, just looked at the score. "Is this the new song you wrote? It sounds great." Amanda smiled, her eyes filled with pride. "Yes, a lot of people like it! Do you like it? I'll play it for you." As she spoke, she sat back in front of the piano and continued to play the song. Tim was once again immersed in her singing, gazing at her with deep affection. At this time, more people came in from outside, surrounding them, praising Amanda's talent and beauty. Amanda was flattered by the praise, and her smile became even brighter. I forced myself to keep listening, my eyes wandering over the things around her, finally landing on her computer. If there were any clues, they must be on her computer. I glanced at the surrounded Amanda and, seeing that she wasn't paying attention to me, picked up her computer and opened the audio production software inside...