Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

Zhou Lili spent the afternoon brushing up on the trending searches of a dating reality show, but Xu Qingyan's statement never came.

She chatted in the group chat with such intensity that her eyelids started fighting, and she accidentally fell asleep.

She'd planned to stay up late playing games to celebrate, having made plans to team up with her "verbally indecent but leading a bland life" roommates for a five-person ranked game session.

When she woke up, she realized it was already one o'clock in the morning.

She had stood them up, missed a bunch of calls, and upon checking the dorm chat group, she found herself, the guilty Zhou Lili, strung up and castigated, utterly disgraced.

"Sorry, sorry, I was too sleepy and overslept."

"Hurry up, log in!"

Those crazy girls were still battling in the canyon, clearly having blood in their eyes.

"Give me a few minutes, gotta pee."

"How inexcusable, delaying the military situation, you shall be beheaded!"

She made the excuse of needing to pee to hurriedly get out of bed, and on her way, casually checked Xu's homepage. She was shocked to see that Xu Qingyan had actually updated his status; he had not only clarified the situation but also hired a lawyer.

"Great! That's so relieving, sue them hard!"

She had once been the target of minor internet bullying herself after mentioning the amount of pocket money secondary students have in Xinghai, which led to an overwhelming number of abusive private messages.

There was all kind, from curse words aiming at ancestors to nonexistent descendants.

That period almost broke her, a person with a wild character until someone enlightened her. She learned to use burner accounts to mingle in circles and stack buffs for herself.

She would often revise the abstract six arts of the internet: to be quick-witted, filial, joyous, successful, to win, to enjoy a happy life.

That's why she was fervently enraged by the act of internet mobbing.

Seeing the posts claiming Xu Qingyan was broken, Zhou Lili believed it without thinking, her brain bypassed by the frustration from seeing too many smear posts over the past days.

"Those people are really evil, Brother Xu didn't do anything wrong."

Continuing to read, Zhou Lili was slightly startled. It seemed that Xu Qingyan had been engaging fervently in heated exchanges online, although it seemed there were no slanders or outright insults, likely due to the warning from the legal notice.

Heartbroken kitty: "You shouldn't be so unrelenting, holding onto people like that, showing no gentlemanly demeanor. You really are supporting Guo Nan's fan base, thumbs down!"

Xu's Chronicle: "Why should I relent when I'm in the right? Shouldn't one loudly refute when justified? Others bind their feet, but you've bound your undeveloped brain, haven't you?"

Nanyang Liuchuan Maple: "Enough talk already, she's a girl after all. How can you, as a man, be so eager to gain verbal advantage?"

Xu's Chronicle: "Notre Dame de Paris burned down, and you've nowhere to go, is that it? Stop licking, learn from the Teletubbies, install an antenna on your head, and get a grip on where you stand!"

Zhou Lili was confused when she saw that it was indeed past one in the morning.

Brother Xu was so... energetically involved?

After refreshing for a bit, the system notified her that Xu's Chronicle had replied to several new comments.

"Stir your brain before speaking, are you a QR code, that you can't talk without scanning? You get insulted and don't fight back? Eat less salt, you seem bored."

"Do I need to call the police to catch you? Let me look up the dog-catching squad's number. Showing filial piety again? Kneel and bow twice so I can see how filial you are. Don't keep agreeing, if you know Dad is right, hurry up and jot it down in your notebook."
Experience exclusive tales on empire

As she scrolled further down the comments, she was utterly dumbfounded. Xu Qingyan had blasted through over a hundred floors' worth of comments. Anyone who insulted him received a lawyer's letter warning in response.

The other side, no matter how provoked, could only delete their comments, unable to out-argue him and seething with frustration.

Many came to witness the spectacle, and the number of comments under the post soared ever higher. They presented facts and logic, driven by a desire to win, relentlessly trying to bring down Xu Qingyan.

But after half a day, Xu Qingyan ended the contest with a simple, "I'm going to sleep."

Zhou Lili scrolled down through several layers of comments, watching those people dissect every word. They played tricks, analyzing every frame against Xu Qingyan's smear campaign, and it made her furious.

She wanted to fight back, but then thought better of it. Without a legal notice, it was better not to attract trouble. Internet bullying was far too common these days, and only those with real wealth and backups could afford to fight it head-on.

Having money alone was futile; the process of accessing public information was a hassle, and ordinary people wouldn't bother with you.

She thought it over and let it be.

She shook her head in resignation and turned to play games instead. She stayed up all night gaming until she woke up at noon the next day, her head feeling so heavy it was almost splitting apart.

Groping for her phone by instinct, she habitually opened Weibo to see how badly Brother Xu had been attacked. She sighed while refreshing the network.

Then, a new post popped up.

Xu Qingyan had indeed gone to sleep the previous night and, upon waking up around eight o'clock the next morning, posted again, affirming he suffered from a "precious" condition and even presented proof from a dog lovers and pedigree home.

He hadn't engaged with the logic weirdos at all, bypassing the dilemma of self-proof and debate. Instead, he layered buff after buff on himself, breaking the defenses of the internet trolls.

If only we knew you were this good at stacking buffs, this abstract, who the hell would dare to mock you!

The comment section of "Xu's Chronicle" became even more abstract. Live show dynamics were explosive, and the comment section was comparable to the comedy people of Xia Country.

"Damn, if Xu turns out to be transgender, a lesbian, a cross-dresser, and an eco-friendly vegetarian, at this moment, he would ascend to the supreme unbeatable top tier T0 position."

"Who said there are no emperors among humans; Xu is truly abstract!"

"Just a bystander, but Xu's move was really satisfying. They kept attacking him even after his clarifications. If you have money and don't fight back, you're simply a fool, but look, he brought out the lawyer's letter."

Everyone thought he was an easy target, stepped down for days without uttering a word.

Now, he played his trump card like an ace, smashing the offline game. He flipped the table, preventing even the onlookers from mocking him. Lawyer's letters and human buffs were layered upon him.