Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

Xu Qingyan originally thought that Shen Jinyue was simply pestering Pei Muchan to go shopping together, pondering whether or not to join in on the fun.

"I am the King of Singers" airs at eight o'clock, and he had scheduled the post with the MV to be released at 8:40. The final three hours were too hard to wait for.

Luckily he was extra cautious, asking around if anyone was going to shop. Turns out Pei Muchan and Lin Wanzhou were both there, so he hastily withdrew from what could have been a bloody scene.

"Hahaha, Brother Xu, you don't realize how fortunate you are," Zhou Mian sent an envious emoticon, "Next door, Song Enya is starting a beauty business, and Nian Shuyu is already bringing in the goods."

"The male guests invited by our love reality show either faded into obscurity or disappeared without a trace. The only one still active is You Zijun, who just last month got hammered for showing off."

"Only you truly didn't go down the love reality show path, and you're still flaunting your daily life with two little divas. Please stop posting, or I really won't be able to fend off my defenses and will lose sleep tonight."

Zhou Mian, carefree as he was, declared his intention to ship couples and, after being told to scram, he took off.

He had some awareness of his own situation—what shipping couples, it was more like walking on thin ice. It was fine to interact with them separately, but he wouldn't dare go shopping with both Pei Muchan and Lin Wanzhou at the same time.

During the love reality show, only on camera, and only with great reluctance, would the three of them appear together.

But this actually wasn't something to brag about; on the contrary, it wasn't beneficial at all either for Xu Qingyan or for Pei Muchan or Lin Wanzhou.

All these were deliberate arrangements by the show's production team. He was well aware of Lin Wanzhou's temperament. With just a little guidance from the team, she agreed without caring for the consequences.

People are like this; unless there's absolutely no other choice, who would want to act as someone else's side dish on camera?

"Envious... not a single benefit to be had," Xu Qingyan sighed lightly, deciding not to think about it anymore and to deal with it another day.

Right now, he had no other worries in mind. This period was critical for the three of them to turn things around, and nothing could go wrong. If he could say he liked someone, he wished...

Glancing at his phone screen, he had left the love reality show hastily. He had set his sights on the production team behind the scenes and made a shallow friendship before leaving, without paying much attention to the whereabouts of the guests.

In the past two months, he had been practically working non-stop, with hardly any rest. Even when he did have some, he wouldn't think about the reality show. Now that Zhou Mian had brought it up, it actually piqued his curiosity.

With the thought that he was idle anyway, he sent Zhou Mian a message.

"Do you know what Bai Jinze is up to?"

"Seems like he's retired, went back to his hometown," Zhou Mian replied quickly, then added in two more messages, "I inquired about this guy, heard he went back to apply for a civil service exam."

"Apply for what?" he was stunned.

"A civil servant, man. He still hasn't terminated his contract. He signed for fifteen years," Zhou Mian typed, "But this moron actually settled all his debts."

"What about Chen Feiyu? I remember he was playing two-timing games."

"Hey, he switched to acting, went to act in web dramas."

"What's Liu Renzhi up to? He must be hard to clean up... good with people, but his partner is a gym's married woman," Xu Qingyan asked about them one by one.

"He didn't clean up, lost his job, I heard the production team gave him a sum of money to keep him from making trouble," Zhou Mian typed in reply, "He probably moved to another city, laying low for a while."

Looking at the shocking chat history, Xu Qingyan couldn't help but be a bit dumbfounded. With the banner of the love reality show, after airing, it turned out to be an entire cast of villains.

"With the show exploding like this, is there even a need to keep airing it?"

"Who cares about that, the director's team made money that will last them eight hundred years, and the investors made a lot during the live broadcast," Zhou Mian sent a scoffing emoticon.

"In this era of traffic, the winner takes all, and even the fire of hell is still fire. Besides, isn't there a TV station picking it up now? Whether to air it or not is entirely up to the TV station."

Experience new tales on empire

Goodness, Xu Qingyan exclaimed goodness.

TV station: Shaved, then bought into an explosive love reality show. Does the director have several mothers, playing such a big game? No wonder the suppression of negative posts seemed somewhat perfunctory before.

Turns out, the production team dumped all the risk on the TV station and just gave up on the show.

"Is there going to be another season of this show?" he asked.

Zhou Mian was typing, and his message almost instantly arrived.

"Nope, made money for five seasons in just one."

It figures, that had always been the love reality show's style of operation.

As time gradually passed.

At the same time, eight o'clock, Jianghan City.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Jiang Ling lay on the sofa at home, with not many lights on in the living room. Faint and broken yellow light fell gently, enveloping her mature and attractive body.

Approaching thirty, she radiated a vivid charm unknowingly. Her green dress added a touch of allure, sensual but not gaudy.

Her cheeks were beautifully fair, brows slightly furrowed, body full and lush. Her chest swelled, with clothes pushed high, looking somewhat abrupt, yet she had a pair of delicate feet.

She bought a house close to the riverbank, a sprawling flat that was eerily empty. If it were not for the recent bitter dispute with her agency and Sister Hong, she would not have returned to her hometown city.

Her parents used to run a martial arts studio but, sadly, passed away early. They left her a resettlement property, which had secured her financial independence even before she became famous.

However, for her, money was just a string of cold numbers lying in a bank account. Only singing and acting, being seen by people, gave her the feeling that she was alive.

But she was no longer popular, long past her prime.

Even though she attempted to switch to acting and spend money buying songs, or even paying to promote herself, it was futile. She had money but was not foolish; she knew her stardom had faded.

She had already given up hope and slowly accepted the reality that female singers, once they reached thirty, would gradually be weeded out. But then, against all odds, Pei Muchan made a comeback.

Pei Muchan, who had been even less popular than her, had made a comeback, and this news was undoubtedly a shot of adrenaline to Jiang Ling. If Pei Muchan could turn her fortunes around, then there was no reason why she couldn't!

But it turned out she really couldn't!

So, she began to inquire carefully and finally understood the key reason behind it. Pei Muchan had dug up a talented lyricist and composer who wrote her a song.

Before she could figure it out, Lin Wanzhou had run away from the company and after finding that person to write her a song, she too became popular.

Well...

There was no need for further analysis now, she was just one hit song away from her own comeback.

She had thought that newcomers to the industry would not resist the temptation of a lucrative offer, but Xu Qingyan's first response was a firm refusal to work with anyone from Yun Yi, which stunned her completely.

What was wrong with Yun Yi? Although it had fallen on hard times, she had just signed a ten-year binding contract.

Even though she swallowed her pride and tried the approach that Lin Chuan had taken, she was met with the same response; Xu Qingyan would not work with anyone from Yun Yi. He was impervious to coaxing or force.

It was not just imperviousness; Xu Qingyan's attitude was the toughest she had ever encountered. Since the polite and repeated requests had failed, Jiang Ling had no choice but to pursue a different strategy.

After returning to the company that day, she laid all her cards on the table with Sister Hong the next day.

The company naturally refused to terminate her contract. They had just signed her for ten years, how could they let her go so easily? Even though Jiang Ling argued with all her might, the senior management still did not budge.

Left with no choice, Jiang Ling wore a bright red dress and high heels the next day and approached the company executives again. She did not mention the contract termination but just sat there, silently staring at the bosses.

She glanced occasionally out of the window and then back at the executives, with a look in her eye that was truly unsettling.

At lunchtime, just before leaving, she suddenly blurted out a sentence.

"I don't want to live anymore."

As her words fell, the company executives instantly leapt from their chairs like a jack-in-the-box had been triggered, looking at Jiang Ling with faces full of horror.

After that, the company's attitude softened considerably.

They said it wasn't that she couldn't terminate the contract, but that having just signed it, they couldn't in principle allow termination. However, they would look into it and promised to have an explanation within half a month.

Frustrated with the company, she simply returned to her hometown.

After spending a few days there, feeling that life was tasteless, she just happened to remember that today was the broadcast day of "I Am the Song King" and decided to turn on the TV and give it a watch.

Jiang Ling remembered Pei Muchan and Lin Wanzhou had appeared on this show last time. Each had sung a song that reached second place in the rankings, and upon further search, the songs were written by Xu Qingyan.

She did not enjoy variety shows, and purely wished to hear what new song Xu Qingyan had written. She felt a twinge of regret in her heart, wishing she hadn't signed that ten-year servitude contract.

If she had been a free agent, could she too buy a song and then make a comeback?

She had considered breaking the bank to buy a hit song from Xu Qingyan. If one million wasn't enough, then two million, and if that didn't work, up the price to three million, and that should do it.

But after calming down, she abandoned this idea.

Great songs are priceless, not only because skilled songwriter-producers are rare, excellent lyricists and composers even more so. What's more important is that those capable of writing great songs have an innate noble pride in their bones.

If she threw money at the problem, it might backfire, and not only would she fail to secure a hit song but also risk alienating Xu Qingyan.

Thus, she withdrew from what would have been a million-dollar transaction.

"I Am the Song King" had already started, and the first ten minutes were filled with unengaging small talk.

It wasn't until twenty minutes in, after the first singer finished their cover song, that they started ranking each performance. None impressed her.

After all, they were all in the same industry, each performance a rendition or arrangement of someone else's work. Originality was scarce, and covers would only attract the audience's attention.

Finally, when Pei Muchan took the stage, Jiang Ling sat up straight at the sight of the word "original" on the screen. The prelude began, and as soon as the first line of the lyrics emerged,

A thought sparked in Jiang Ling's mind: Xu Qingyan, it must be him!