Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

The studio was nothing out of the ordinary, spacious with good natural light, but most importantly, the sublease was cheap.

Wen Yun had secured the place for an unimaginably low price, yet she didn't take over the second-hand equipment from the previous tenant. The recording equipment hadn't arrived yet, so the place seemed somewhat empty for now.

There were only a few simple desks and empty shelves, and Qi Ting was dozing off on the office desk.

"Sister Yun went out in the afternoon, and had Ting Ting stay here with me," Lin Wanzhou whispered, "Do you need to sign the contract? I'll go and get it for you right now."

Without waiting for Xu Qingyan to speak again, Lin Wanzhou had already turned around and walked to the next office, carefully cradling the Liuli wind chime in her arms.

When she came back out, she no longer held the wind chime, probably for fear of breaking it. She said she was going to fetch the contract, but somehow came back with a manual instead.

"Ah, I got the wrong one," her face flushed, and she hurried back to exchange it.

He watched her from behind, slightly dazed, thinking how naive this girl could be. If he'd switched the contract for an indenture binding her for decades, would she have signed that too? Experience more tales on empire

During the wait, Xu Qingyan couldn't help but think about something—how would the New Year be handled? Given the state of their relationship, should he invite her over for the holidays, or act as if nothing had happened?

After all, they had lived in the same place and could be considered childhood sweethearts, so not bringing up the New Year would seem a bit too harsh.

After a while, Lin Wanzhou returned with a contract and took a pen out of her pocket to give to Xu Qingyan.

He motioned Lin Wanzhou to sit down, then carefully reviewed the contract. After making sure there were no problems, he looked up and repeated the same terms he had told Pei Muchan earlier in the day.

In summary, two words: lower the price, and pay up quickly.

"Won't you be taking a loss?" Lin Wanzhou seemed confused, seemingly even less able to accept this decision than Pei Muchan, "Don't you... want to write songs for me anymore?"

Her first reaction was that Xu Qingyan was planning to leave, offering a final cooperative discount as some kind of guilt-ridden compensation to her.

"Ever heard of going into battle light?" he explained, "If you weren't short on cash, I'd charge what I normally would, but getting the money would then take time."

"Recording fees aren't expensive, distribution costs aren't high. I'll take less, but I'll get the cash sooner, and your studio can start running earlier."

"I know you can afford it, but the time saved is valuable. This is just the price for now. Once you hit it big, I can charge more, right?"

Lin Wanzhou was convinced, yet stubbornly insisted that she would make it up to him later.

To this, Xu Qingyan just waved it off, not too concerned. He wondered to himself if he had been too harsh with the pricing, as it seemed like both of them were now feeling a bit conned.

....

When he got back to the apartment, it was exactly eight o'clock.

Xu Qingyan lay back on the sofa in the living room, watching a pop-up for the third installment of "Love Hunter," prompting an extra broadcast on his phone, his expression unchanging.

The production team said yesterday there would be an extra episode, and then out of nowhere, that smear post appeared, causing a stormy outrage all night. Last time they slandered him for juggling eight relationships at once, now they were labeling him a hoodlum.

It wasn't that he was unflappable; it was just that with Pei Muchan and Lin Wanzhou around, what could he do but control his emotions? He couldn't curse in the streets or show that he cared.

Now that he had calmed down both women and the schedule had been set, the songs selected, and the contract signed, everything had been taken care of.

"These people are real idiots," Xu Qingyan muttered to himself as he scrolled through his phone, "Attacking me time and again, what the hell do they want?"

After a brief scan, he noticed that public sentiment about him had shifted somewhat. Half the audience went to watch the video of his drive in the Panamera, beginning to question the smear post.

But the sheer volume of smear posts was overwhelming, with no end in sight.

The production team did take care of some, cleaning up those with more comments to a degree that wouldn't affect the regular course of the show, and then they stopped.

Zhou Mian had sent him many messages, which Xu Qingyan had replied to sporadically, with many going unanswered.

"Bro, it looks like the director's team isn't going to care anymore."

"You should make a statement. Otherwise, you're really going to be smeared as a scumbag. There are so many idiots on Weibo. The attackers, your black critics, could circle Xinghai if they gathered together."

Xu Qingyan stared at that message for a while, then logged into his own Weibo account. It took a while to buffer before the account showed as logged in.

The message list was endless, filled with various insults and doubts. Three posts in total, each with comments exceeding one hundred thousand.

This was the treatment of someone cyberbullied with no fame to their name; at least celebrities have teams to back them up. Fans and fan clubs would also come out in support, saving them from such a wretched situation.

Rumors were just the surface, a game of bullying the few by the many. The essence was harassment.

Aggressors wielded their keyboards behind anonymity, making money off the spectacle.

Netizens found a vent for their emotions, uncaring of the truth or if they'd end up the fools later. With legs propped up and sipping milk tea, they just moved on to the next piece of entertainment.

Conveniently, Xu Qingyan's lack of response meant he was a natural target for bullying.

He exited the screen, opened the call app, and scrolled down to find and dial Bai Jinze's number. After a brief wait, a tired voice came through the phone.

"Hello? Who's this?"

Bai Jinze's voice was significantly hoarser. Ever since being used as a pawn by Ji Chen and subsequently gutted by the backers behind the production team, he had lost his job and owed a significant amount of money.

"It's me, Xu Qingyan. I'm planning to sue you for defamation."