Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

Xu Qingyan had no idea someone had created a fan group for him, and if he had known, he would have just laughed it off.

He didn't need a fan group at all. From the moment people started admiring him, a collapse was inevitable. For him, having too high of a public persona wasn't a good thing.

Rumors of him playing the field would break his romantic prospects and relationship with the general public. But it seemed like he wasn't lacking in that department; after all, a hidden songwriter didn't need much from strangers.

Now spreading rumors that he was a street thug, a societal dreg, was pushing him towards a ban. But in reality, even with just a casual response, the impact on him wouldn't be too significant.

Yet he wasn't content with this. Going against the current to accomplish something was actually very difficult for a person. Whether self-defense or defending others, even if one won a lawsuit, who cared?

A well-known host defamed and then winning a legal battle would only result in sighs of regret. Then, the media would use it as material, loudly demanding an apology from us—xxx.

Would anyone really apologize?

People nowadays are too busy, not dwelling on a video for more than three seconds. Who would feel guilty for getting enraged and joining the crowd to attack someone?

The eyes of the masses are sharp, and it doesn't conflict with being an unruly mob.

Xu Qingyan was well aware that those discussing him had either never watched a romance reality show or had heard the songs he wrote. They just knew him through short videos and compilation messages in QQ group chats.

Those people were eager to express their emotions. Was Xu Qingyan a scumbag? It didn't matter! They just wanted to enjoy the spectacle and didn't care about the truth.

The nature of violence is bullying, and no matter how large the scale of netizens is, they're just tools for perpetrating violence. What's important are the people behind it.

There were chiefly two methods to break the situation. One was to have an influence much bigger than the hidden adversary, crushing them with multi-directional public opinion. The second was to leverage the situation and crush the adversary behind the scenes.

Xu Qingyan was neither capital nor could he borrow such clout and was left with no choice but to adapt. There wasn't only one male guest in the romance show, so why was he the only one being cyberbullied?

Since a water ghost couldn't come ashore, he could only pull everyone else down with him.

"Love Hunter" made so much money, it couldn't just be ignored, right? When the axe fell, who would be able to tell if it was Ji Chen's doing or someone else's.

After all, it wasn't Ji Chen's first time doing such things. To insist it was someone Ji Chen hired should do the trick, right?

All that was missing was a scapegoat, and Bai Jinze took the fall. As for evidence, that was just something Xu Qingyan made up on the fly. If Bai Jinze had just hung up directly—

Xu Qingyan wouldn't handle this matter himself, he would continue to trouble Bai Jinze, pressing him to death. Until Bai Jinze gave in and agreed to do the dirty work.

Luckily, Bai Jinze was bluffed and took on the dirty work.

Suddenly, Pei Muchan sent a message.

"'Always Been Quiet' releases tomorrow, the day after you fly to Jianye. That trending topic about you has died down. Aren't you going to respond? Or should I help you out?"

"No need, I'll handle it myself," Xu Qingyan walked towards the bathroom, looking down as he typed, "Just a brief response before bed is fine. Your show matters, keep a low profile."

The other party was typing for a long time before finally sending a message.

"You've really changed, that doesn't sound like something you'd say."

"Hm? What would I say?"

Pei Muchan replied, "If it were before, you'd have wanted to drag everyone into it, the more people the better, fearing you wouldn't stand out enough."

Xu Qingyan was rinsing, and seeing the long message, he paused for a moment. He was doing the same thing now, it's just that he and they had been excluded.

But Pei Muchan was right, he did want to keep a lower profile.

"Who would have a problem with money?"

Two seconds later, the other side sent a smiley cat emoji, "True that."

Lin Wanzhou sent over pictures of Feng Ling, taken against the setting sun in the afternoon, probably with nothing else to share, so she just sent the photos of Feng Ling to make do.

Their chat content was monotonous, mostly about what they ate for breakfast, what they ate for lunch. What they saw on their way and their bantering continued endlessly.

As for why they were tireless, it was probably because of a beautiful girl.

Both girls and mature ladies are rare treasures in the world. Mature women are common without much surprise, but sensible girls and youthful ladies are not often seen.

Pei Muchan said he had changed, perhaps yes.

It wasn't about suddenly realizing profound truths or understanding one's true self just by listening to the tides. If he had changed, it was certainly for someone important.

To say he wasn't looking forward to anything would definitely be a lie. With a beauty flitting about before him, where he used to drag himself to work, he now went with energy to spare, even overtime without complaints.

After washing up, Xu Qingyan went to bed early.

Perhaps because his mind lingered on things, he hardly slept well that night, experiencing several dreams in a row.

One moment he was catching cicadas in the summer of his childhood, just as he climbed a tree and looked down, he saw Pei Muchan as a little girl, smiling warmly at him. He wanted to speak but couldn't, and with a loose grip, he fell from the tree.

In a daze, he had several more dreams, so that when he woke up in the morning, his head was heavy, with the air conditioner blowing above the room.

"Damn, have I been too close to Pei Muchan recently, even dreaming of her?"

The day was already bright as he got ready and went to the studio.

By the time he arrived, Pei Muchan was already on the second floor. She turned her head at his fleeting gaze, her face painted with light makeup appearing puzzled.

"Didn't you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I went to bed early but still had a bunch of messy dreams," Xu Qingyan sat down next to his desk, sighing softly.

"Speaking of which, I dreamt about you last night."

Upon hearing this, Pei Muchan's finger trembled slightly on the white mouse, she lowered her gaze, trying to make her voice sound as indifferent as possible.

"What dream?"

"Nothing much, dreamed about climbing trees as a kid, and then I saw you," Xu Qingyan leaned back in their chair and pulled out their phone, "It was a mini version of you. Speaking of, were you this good-looking when you were a kid?"

"I don't know, I guess so," Pei Muchan said, "As a child, nobody really praised me. I was always in all sorts of cram schools or at regular school."

"Cram schools? Isn't that terribly boring?"

"Yes, I had no one to play with."

The conversation naturally ended there, and they both got back to their busy work until twelve noon. It was then that Pei Muchan notified him, "Always Very Quiet" is now released and on the shelves.

"Wasn't it supposed to be six in the afternoon?" He looked baffled.

"The timing can be changed, no need to wait until the afternoon," Pei Muchan looked at him, "Last night when I was chatting with you, I posted a teaser for the new song. Didn't you check it out?"

"I usually don't open that app, you know."

Pei Muchan's lips formed a straight line, suppressing the urge to laugh, "Are you really not going to respond? There's no need, it won't affect the new song much."

"Well, not exactly, let's see how it goes."

Finally, the afternoon brought a turn of events.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Pei Muchan was backstage monitoring the sales data for "Always Very Quiet." This time, it was not starting off cold like "Qing Tian."

After being featured on the front page of two websites, four hours had passed, and it had already sold eighty thousand copies.

Four hours had surpassed the total first-day sales of "Qing Tian." If all went well, the new song's daily sales would break half a million.

Compared to Lin Wanzhou's "What I Miss," it was a given that "Always Very Quiet" could not compete, but achieving half of that success was also a big win.

She looked up, wanting to share the good news with Xu Qingyan but noticed he wasn't in the office. After they had lunch together, he had gone straight into the composing room.

Until now, he had not come out, not even to use the restroom.

"He really can hold it, still not coming out," Pei Muchan rested her head on her hand, lips puckering slightly as she complained, "Pig, come out and see, we've broken eighty thousand."

As she grew restless, she took out her phone and started browsing around, accidentally noticing that the trending topics had changed.

"Love Hunter male guests collectively... expose secrets?"

At first glance, Pei Muchan was stunned for a moment, thinking she had read it wrong. Blinking, she realized the hot search with a red "explode" suffix was still there.

Her hand trembled as she clicked on it, reading through the very long post, which was not just one. It took a while to refresh and load, meanwhile the post went from fifth to first on the trending list.

The popularity came from "Love Hunter" crew airing two episodes two days in a row, which Pei Muchan was aware of, as they had added an extra episode the night before.

"Love Hunter" had a total of seven episodes, each corresponding to seven days of content. The third episode, that was aired last night, had guests out at sea, the one with Xu Qingyan holding an umbrella and fishing alone.

Pei Muchan knew about it, but she didn't watch it. No particular reason, just bored.

Meeting with Xu Qingyan every day, having seen Lin Wanzhou the night before last, even staying in the same house. What's there to watch in these reality shows, isn't it awkward?

However, she didn't expect that "Love Hunter" had such a loyal audience, pushing the subject to the top of the trending list.

Five male guests were implicated in the post with evidence, and nobody paid attention to the dirt on Xu Qingyan, which she had already seen.

The focus of gossip among netizens was on the dirt on the other four male guests.

You Zijun pretended to be a super-rich second generation, the car was his friend's, and the clothes were borrowed. Chen Feiyu was dating two women at once and broke up at lightning speed before going on the show.

Liu Renzhi had affairs with multiple married women and enjoyed attending very private acoustic parties with multiple people. He loved to play Fight the Landlord, especially the peasant role.

Bai Jinze sabotaged Chen Feiyu and Xu Qingyan, paying a hefty sum to leave the love reality show swiftly.

The support groups for the reality show immediately turned into chaos, and the fan clubs exploded, including a "Xu Qingyan Fan Group" with just two hundred members.

Comments from the female guest's side were full of sarcasm, pointing fingers at the male guests from a distance.

"I always knew men were no good; have the showrunners gone blind? Everyone they picked, what sort of people are these? And they go on a love reality show, yuck!"

"I feel like the sisters can be beautiful on their own, it would be great if there was a love reality show with only girls!"

"I thought the show was just a bad place, but I didn't expect it to be a swamp. What are all these stinky fish and rotten shrimp, they've totally shot me down!"

"That's just how Guo Nan is, they will be known as tyical naïve creatures from now on. Speaking of sad stories, ladies, the naive creature next to me is pretty much the same as these stinky men."

The ones fanning the flames were generally not the target audience of the love reality show. The worst-hit were the shippers of couple pairings, with all male guests having fallen from grace, directly blown away!

"It's over, how come not one is left standing? Hypoglycemic patients faint on the spot, where's the CP I was shipping? The male guest was dating two at the same time and even got blasted by Bai Jinze?"

"Can't bear to watch, what is this disaster?"

"With such a big issue, isn't anyone going to clarify? Also, this exposure seems to use the same method as the last time with Xu Qingyan, doesn't it?"

"Absolutely no one's handling it, damn it, why isn't the production crew responding yet?"

The entire love reality show was in total chaos, with countless onlookers and fans running around. Everyone was waiting for the production crew to give an explanation, except for a small group of less than two hundred, who breathed a sigh of relief.

The group owner, Zhou Lili, opened the chat and in the mood of celebration posted a message.

"Comrades, didn't I say Brother Xu was wronged?"

Someone immediately responded.

"Yeah, this accusation is way too fake, the method is too crude, fans are waiting for a turnaround."