Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

Li Yang rarely spent money on songs, listening mostly to the free ones, but today proved an exception.

As soon as she purchased it, she first added "Fragrance of Rice" to her favorites and started a new category. After some thought, she changed the category name to Brother Xu.

Just as she was about to confirm, she suddenly heard Mei Mengqi's voice, so she hurriedly deleted the character for Xu. Your next read awaits at empire

"Are you listening to music? What song is this?"

"Um, this is....."

The school radio station.

The student worker glanced at the time, twelve twenty.

Relieved that she had eaten lunch early, otherwise she'd be competing with a bunch of first-year students undergoing military training for food. Otherwise, entering the cafeteria would mean not even finding a place to set foot, let alone a seat.

She opened the playlist, scanned through it, and still decided to transition with those same few songs.

Somehow, she thought of the song she had bought yesterday, "Fragrance of Rice," and her hand holding the mouse paused for a moment. She looked up at the window, where the sunlight had dried out the air.

September seemed to still carry the remnants of summer, with the breeze dry.

He suddenly felt that this moment oddly matched the song. Click clack, click clack, the sound of the keyboard arose, and after a search, he contributed another sale to "Fragrance of Rice."

On the screen appeared a vinyl record image, without a portrait of the singer, only a golden yellow rice field.

Overhead of the school, the introductory insect chirping of "Fragrance of Rice" began to play.

Following was a beautiful segment of clear chords, melodic rhythm accompanied by the scent of sun-dried grass and trees. It inevitably made the students on the road turn their heads toward the direction of the broadcast from the teaching building.

The sky was crystal clear and azure, cloudless.

Inside the chain-link fence, a dirt-yellow basketball traced a beautiful parabola in mid-air. Amidst roars of approval and shouts of "Got it," it swished through the net.

The music synced up, "To this world, if you have too many complaints, fall down..."

Li Yang had just walked out of the cafeteria with Mei Mengqi, with a sea of people still behind them.

The first-year students still had military training in the afternoon, and ordering takeout was both expensive and slow. Either they could choose to go back to the dormitory and fill their stomachs with bread and instant noodles, or they had to brave the crowded cafeteria.

Just stepping out of the second cafeteria's door, Li Yang suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"You shouldn't continue to walk forward, why....."

"Hey, Li Li, isn't that the song you were listening to this morning?" Mei Mengqi pulled on her arm and swayed, "Wouldn't have thought the radio station would play new songs either?"

"Yeah." Li Yang was a bit stunned and also felt a vague heartache, thinking that the money she spent was wasted.

....

Qin Jiangxue was a senior preparing for graduate school exams; she began studying for them since the second semester of her junior year. She toiled away all summer but discovered that her efficiency was getting worse and worse.

Her study plan was already tight enough, and not to mention the sudden drop in learning efficiency, the holes that needed patching seemed to be growing, leaving her incredibly anxious.

She had a breakdown last night studying, finding a quiet spot on campus to cry aloud by herself.

Her boyfriend had been by her side these days, planning their life after leaving school, wanting to have a go in Yangcheng. He had already picked out a company, planning to join it through campus recruitment with a starting salary of eight thousand.

She didn't know how to respond, and the frequency of missing his messages was increasing. The atmosphere between them was getting more and more tense, and her boyfriend had become increasingly silent.

His family was not well-off, and he was always thinking of making money to prove himself. Even though she never expressed any financial worries, it still couldn't dampen her boyfriend's determination.

She wanted to prepare for the exams together, to strive together for a better future. But she understood that reality didn't allow her boyfriend to make such a choice, and his pride would never accept that choice.

The library's traffic dwindled, and Qin Jiangxue walked out only to realize she had forgotten her umbrella.

Walking in the scorching sunlight, thinking about the person who used to stay up with her on the phone or chatting until dawn, sharing daily life, made her feel suffocated.

Some pain is like water dissolving in water, impossible to express.

Suddenly, the melodious singing from the campus broadcast carried over from afar.

"Still remember you said home is the only castle, following the fragrance of rice, the river flows on, a slight smile, the dreams of childhood I understand."

"Don't cry, let the fireflies take you away..."

Among the crowd, her footsteps suddenly halted. The imagery of the lyrics involuntarily stopped her in her tracks, as if she had been instantly frozen.

The line "The countryside ballad is your eternal support" had her in a daze for a long while. The thought "Go home, return to the original bliss" echoed in her mind.

Go home...

The song almost instantaneously pulled her back to her childhood memories. As a child, she would visit her grandparents in the countryside every summer, running barefoot through the fields at sunset.

The mimosa tree in the courtyard swayed gently, and the locust flowers were truly fragrant, filling the entire space with their aroma when the wind blew.

Grandpa's finished green beer bottles could be saved up to exchange for ice cream; carrying two bottles would get you a big Dae Jang Geum that cost thirty cents, or an ice mung bean.

Every running-mad afternoon, there would be watermelons in the metal bucket.

Grandma's backyard cucumbers were always a mix of sweet and tart, and I had to sneak tastes every evening. The sunset froze over the mountainside, and just like that, childhood never came back.

The song had finished playing, and Qin Jiangxue stood still for two minutes. Memories of her childhood began to well up, and for some reason, she suddenly felt very touched.

Her mood lightened considerably, maybe, as the lyrics suggest, if one dream is unattainable, simply switch to another and happiness will follow, that's what really matters.

There would be many difficult things in the future; she'd have to learn to reconcile with herself, wipe her tears, and keep moving forward.

Moved, she took out her phone and started to search for the lyrics.

....

"Xinghai University's freshman choir?" Xu Qingyan looked at the unfamiliar message, pausing for a moment—why did he seem so destined to cross paths with Xinghai University?

"That's right, we want to purchase the cover rights to perform at the new student welcome party and to record a video for online release," the student officer replied promptly.

Xiaguo takes copyright infringement seriously, with stiff penalties for violators.

"At the meeting, we unanimously agreed that your song has a calming effect on anxiety."

"Of course, considering your new song was just released, a cover could impact your earnings to some degree. However, it could also serve as promotion for your new song."

"If you're willing, we will compensate you both financially and with various promotions."

As Xu Qingyan read through the long message, the student officer's earnest yet somewhat naive words made the corners of his mouth twitch. Seeing that the other party was still typing, he mischievously sent back a message.

"Okay."

On the other end, the student officer cursed in surprise, eyes wide.

The three hundred-word message he hadn't yet sent came to an abrupt halt. He deleted the essay, then cautiously proposed a price, adding, "Do you think that's okay?"

The response was almost instant, "Okay."

"Damn, it's a deal!" The student officer almost jumped out of his chair, waving his phone and exclaiming to his peers, "Yes! I did it! It's done!"

"You beast, what did you accomplish?" His roommate pressed him back into the chair, leaning in to look.

"Damn, he actually replied to you?" another roommate said in surprise, "I've listened to Xu Qingyan's 'Qing Tian'; it's really not bad in terms of quality."

"Brother Zhao, you really did it?"

"Is Xu Qingyan that easy-going? Damn, he's not like the celebrities I have in mind," another roommate also leaned over, scrutinizing the screen.

This comment drew the boys from the neighboring dormitory over, who gasped after reading the chat history, and they began discussing it clamorously.

"He's kind of an internet star, right, but a bit above that level. I used to call him 'Cheap Xu' with nothing over five hundred bucks on him, but after seeing Palamela and her, I've got to say 'Teacher Xu.'"

"Damn, 'Cheap Xu' is pretty straightforward, and he's actually a pretty nice guy."

"Yeah, what's 'Daoxiang'?"

"Xu Qingyan sings it, it's pretty good quality, costs two bucks."

A chorus of exclamations echoed like monkeys frolicking on the Fruit and Flower Mountain.

.....

The next day, Xu Qingyan flew to Yangcheng to record "Ling Ting" alone, after giving Pei Muchan a heads-up.

He declined the offer to be accompanied, saying he would return the same day. If there were no flights, he'd take the high-speed train back; Pei Muchan didn't like taxis, and his presence would only add to the chaos.

End of the matter.

Just after getting off the plane, he received another message from an official account.

"We are Qingniao University, and we would like to purchase the cover rights for your song 'Daoxiang.'"

The operator at the other end didn't seem like a student, speaking like an adult. Their tone was neither humble nor haughty, and they listed all compensation conditions clearly.

Xu Qingyan didn't hesitate and agreed immediately.

The copyright fee was a mere formality; he hadn't actually planned to make money from that song. It was originally a gift for Lin Wanzhou, which he eventually gave to himself.

Rather than earning a million from a song, he preferred letting more people hear it. When the sentiment keeps passing on, that's when a gift truly gains significance.

He just hadn't noticed, right before he entered the recording studio and turned his phone on silent, another message popped up.