My Song Has a Master, and Reality Is in Chaos

In 2026, BL takes over the airwaves, and it does so through songs. Nearly every hit background track comes from a BL audio drama, but most of the songs aren't original. They're obscure tracks and old songs scavenged from around the world. The original singers are drowned out, stories get stamped with CP labels, and no one listens when the creators speak up. Shen Zhiyu has been writing songs for seven years, yet she has fewer than five thousand fans. Her songs have been used in audio dramas three times. She put up with it the first two times. The third song stolen was "The Road Home," which she wrote for her late father. Later, it became the soundtrack to a male-male CP's story of separation and death, and the comments filled with claims that it was "made for them." She turned off the comments, opened the audio drama's theme song, listened to it over and over, and wrote down the melody. Audio dramas often use rewritten covers: they borrow a melody and give it new lyrics. Shen Zhiyu decides to do the opposite: use the melodies of audio drama theme songs, write her own lyrics, and sing her own stories. She doesn't curse anyone or call anyone out. She simply releases one song after another. Her first song goes live, and people accuse her of riding on the hype. She doesn't respond. The second, third, and fourth songs all use other people's melodies to tell her own stories. A month later, a new comment appears beneath the original song: "I came here from the audio drama, but I'd like to hear the original singer perform it once." Shen Zhiyu replies, "Sure." Those whose voices were stolen begin writing their names back in. From the cracks, the original singer's voice rings out.