Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

She extinguished the cigarette butt on the ground and picked it up with her index finger, muttering,

"If my kid ever learns to smoke, I'll make sure they won't recognize their mom. This stuff's expensive and hard to smoke; the only upside is probably the buzz."

Qi Ting stored the cigarette butt in a small plastic bag and tossed two pieces of chewing gum into her mouth before turning around to head back. She thought she saw Sister Zhou Zhou practicing singing on her phone from a distance, but up close, it seemed like she was chatting instead.

As she opened the driver's side door, she happened to hear Lin Wanzhou playing a recording out loud.

"Sister Zhou Zhou, is that your new song? Sounds pretty good!"

"No, this is Pei Muchan's new song," Lin Wanzhou said while responding to messages, not even looking up.

"Oh, although it sounded not bad at first, upon closer listening, not so much," Qi Ting leaned against the driver's seat and blurted out, "Sister Zhou Zhou, you elevate the song to a whole new level, full of emotion."

Lin Wanzhou didn't take it seriously and replied,

"Ting Ting, this song was written by Xu Qingyan."

"Huh?" Qi Ting scratched her head, "Sister Zhou Zhou, so he sold a song to Pei Muchan and then turned around and sold another one to you?"

"Yeah."

Qi Ting: "Pfft! Scumbag!"

"What scumbag?" Lin Wanzhou felt her face heat up, "Don't talk nonsense, we are not in that kind of relationship, and... he's talented, and it was Pei Muchan who bought the song first." Read exclusive content at мѵʟ

"Such a pity," Qi Ting said, looking up at the car roof, "It would have been great if we could have bought that song, damn the crappy company, really not doing people's work."

Hearing this, Lin Wanzhou fell silent and took several seconds before speaking.

"It's coming soon, the contract is almost up,"

"I just don't get it, Sister Zhou Zhou, tell me," Qi Ting turned over, leaning on the steering wheel to talk to the back seat, "Are the folks at the company sick in the head, to have the nerve to suggest a ten-year deal?"

"Signing new artists for thirty years, Sister Zhou Zhou, you're already a little queen, not some newcomer shrimp. Really have no idea what goes through the executives' minds, and even more ridiculous is... "

"They even talk about a five-year training plan, promising to pour all resources within five years to ensure Sister Zhou Zhou becomes a true diva in the music industry."

"Just listen to that, doesn't that sound like scumbag talk? Spewing all this empty nonsense, do they really think they can fool everyone? It's truly a motherfucker."

The reasons they gave to persuade Lin Wanzhou to sign were absurd; if another little queen fostered by the company had signed, then you should as well.

Lin Wanzhou paid them no heed, which is why things had become so tense between the two parties. Wen Yun's advice was to drag things out since there were only two months left on the contract anyway.

Cloud Wing Entertainment's strategy was to squeeze the last bit of value out of Lin Wanzhou, making her attend low-grade commercial performances to tarnish her reputation; if they couldn't have her, they'd ruin her.

Recently, many articles smearing her had appeared online, and the company's PR department was doing nothing about it; it was Wen Yun who used her connections to suppress some of it.

Lin Wanzhou remained indifferent to this. Although she wasn't much of a talker, she was stubborn. If the commercial performances couldn't be declined, she'd go, preferring to lose goodwill than to continue until the contract ended.

Listening to Qi Ting's endless complaints, Lin Wanzhou's mood also began to drop.

"I'm not planning to sign, let's just drag it out for now."

For her, the most relaxing moment of the past half-month was probably holding her phone and replying to Xu Qingyan's messages. He was busy too, performing surgeries and staying up all night to accompany patients.

But he always replied to messages, even if it was just to an insignificant picture she shared. It's just that he often replied in the middle of the night, or at four-thirty in the morning.

She had casually asked once if she should visit his mother, and predictably she was turned down.

His reasons for refusing were straightforward: they had enough money, didn't lack help, and she didn't have time. It wasn't necessary, a waste of both parties' energy, and they would get to see each other every day until they were sick of it when she had the time.

"Don't worry, Sister Zhou Zhou, if you go solo, both Sister Yun and I will definitely stick with you," Qi Ting patted her flat chest, sounding enthusiastic.

"When we start a big company later on, let's crush that shitty Cloud Wing Entertainment!"

Yes, she was planning to terminate the contract anyway and didn't care anymore. Lin Wanzhou thought to herself when suddenly an idea popped into her head, and she turned to look at Qi Ting.

"Ting Ting, who's managing my Weibo account?"

Qi Ting became nervous, "It's me."

.....

"The story's little yellow flower..."

The clear and gentle female voice wafted through the room, the acapella singing surprisingly gave off a feeling of being stripped of all artifice.

"Does she sing better, or do I?" Pei Muchan, sitting opposite Xu Qingyan's desk, lifted her head and asked with a smile, "I saw you listen to it back and forth several times."

"Each has its own merits, you sing well, Lin Wanzhou sings well too." Xu Qingyan struggled to suppress a smile, for the first time finding that a girl's singing could be so sweet.

Unlike the artificial and cloying sweetness, there was no hint of artificial sweeteners. The singing was very serious, yet one could still detect an undertone of sweetness.

"Oh, then go and ask her to record the song." Pei Muchan turned her chair away.

"You might as well kill me, I haven't finished writing "The One I Miss" yet, how dare I face the investor?" Xu Qingyan immediately chickened out.

"Cough, cough, no more jokes, how is the sales data now?"

"Not so good, it's low." Pei Muchan's hand fiddled with the mouse, constantly refreshing the screen, and she let out a light sigh, "Most of it is data contributed by fans, the first hour was okay, but after that..."

Xu Qingyan wasn't too worried, a cold start was like this.

"Let's wait and see."

The two idled away on the second floor, time ticking away, until 9:30.

Pei Muchan suddenly sighed, stood up, and said.

"Let's go, time to get off work."

"The data's not rising anymore?" Xu Qingyan was taken aback and asked back.

"Yes, it's stalled, probably won't increase anymore today." Pei Muchan stood up, took the keys, and pulled out a black face mask from the drawer.

"I'm going downstairs to let them off work, will you wait for me here?"

Xu Qingyan thought for a moment and said, "Okay."

As she went downstairs, Xu Qingyan leaned back in the chair in the room, played with his phone, and enjoyed the air conditioning. He thought about taking the night off and digging into the score in the studio the next day.

While scrolling through his phone, he suddenly noticed Lin Wanzhou had sent him an inexplicable message.

"I want you to shine."

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He replied with two question marks and added, "Are you going to hang me in the sky? That seems excessive, the score is really almost finished, just the final touch."

As he spoke, Xu Qingyan glanced at the blank new document on the screen of the laptop he had brought.

"Soon, soon, I'll send it to you the day after tomorrow."

There was no further response from the other side, making Xu Qingyan somewhat uneasy, thinking it surely couldn't be that bad.

Almost moments later, his phone's background notifications popped up with a reminder: [The Lin Wanzhou you follow has posted a new Weibo, click to view.]

He looked puzzled, what had she posted?

Upon checking, he found that Lin Wanzhou's official account had shared a song, "Qing Tian." The accompanying text was just a short line, "I really like the lyrics and composition of this song."

In less than a minute, dozens of comments and hundreds of likes had appeared underneath the post. Xu Qingyan was amazed, marveling at the popularity of the up-and-coming singing sensation.

But her statement, "I really like the lyrics and composition of this song," wasn't that a bit too direct? It clearly meant that she did not like the person who sang the song.

He returned to the chat interface and sent another question mark to Lin Wanzhou.

"Using your official account for personal matters? Won't your company hold you accountable?"

The reply came swiftly, "No, this Weibo was posted by Ting Ting, I had no idea."

Xu Qingyan stared at the screen for a few seconds, dumbfounded. That statement seemed odd at first glance, and still odd upon another look. Was that really something Lin Wanzhou would say?

Who had she learned this from?

Footsteps came from the doorway, Pei Muchan knocked and then entered the room.

"Did you get Lin Wanzhou to help with the promotion?"

"No, I've just found out too." Xu Qingyan shook his head, "She said she's going to hang me in the sky."