Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

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"Is that so?... Let me check." Li Mingwei's rustling voice came through after a long silence. "Huh! It indeed has gone up, probably related to the dating show she's on."

"It premiered today, and it's trending on the search, with quite a few related entries." Li Mingwei seemed to be using another phone to search for the related entries, and soon the sound of guitar strumming and singing came through.

"Found the reason, it's that nobody you mentioned. He covered Pei Muchan's new song and got blasted for infringement, which made it trend on social media. So... by extension, Pei Muchan's new song sales surged."

"Should be no big problem, just a normal fluctuation in the data. When it goes off the trending list, the song will cool down too."

"Better be that way, remember what you promised me!" Ji Chen gritted his teeth.

"Fine, but young master, why are you so fixated on Pei Muchan? There are plenty of beautiful women in the entertainment industry, why cling to an out-of-favor diva?"

"If you actually like a diva, our company also debuted a fresh diva recently. Even if you want a real top star, if you, young master, are willing to set aside your pride, getting one wouldn't be impossible."

Ji Chen's frown deepened as he listened, and he said with displeasure.

"Our families know each other, and we are well matched in social status. My parents are quite pleased with her. I don't care whether she is a diva or not, nor do I care about her career."

"I want her studio to fail, her new songs to keep flopping, so she can only stand back up with my help."

On the other end of the call, Li Mingwei snickered.

"Young master, top stars can't date, surely you know that? The company still needs you to make money in the future, don't joke around. You'd better be careful even if you date in secret, best not to date at all."

"I'm not talking about dating, I just want a woman." Ji Chen said darkly, "Find a way to suppress that song, and while you're at it, teach that nobody a lesson."

Li Mingwei did not hesitate, speaking bluntly.

Chapter Find:

"Young master, are you not causing enough trouble for yourself? Hitting traffic police, assaulting people while drunk, the company has spent a lot of money for your image cleanup. A little more and you'll be on the blacklist of artists with bad records."

"Be sensible, when you asked me to check on Xu Qingyan, I had already made inquiries. This guy is not to be messed with; his hometown is a southern clan of earthy roots."

"Country bumpkins are used to being aggressively confrontational, he only has one mother, does your whole family also have just one left? Bad waters and bad lands breed troublemakers, why get worked up over a bunch of mud-legged bumpkins who stick together and fight to the death?"

Ji Chen: "....."

"Take it easy, young master, don't be so impulsive," Li Mingwei said, "It's just one song. Pei Muchan has been out of favor for so long, can she really turn it around with just one song?"

"As for that Xu Qingyan, a countryman is still a countryman, desperate to make money. His methods are too crude, he's still trending on social media."

"Got cyberbullied for being clever, that bumpkin probably thinks he's a star now that he's on a dating show. Got ahead of himself, doesn't even know what copyright is."

"Alright, I'm still busy here! Not going to talk more, hanging up."

In the dim soundproof booth, Ji Chen's face remained stiff as the busy signal came through the phone.

After several seconds, he slowly lowered his hand, and with a click turned off the phone screen.

He knew Li Mingwei was just shirking responsibility, that whole spiel about not getting upset with country bumpkins. It was just because his own fame had waned, not worth Li Mingwei's effort.

If Li Mingwei wouldn't do it, then he would do it himself.

He took out his phone and opened the comment section of the trending topic #Xu Qingyan Covers "Qing Tian"#, where people in the top comments were cursing him for being shameless, with a weak sense of copyright.

It was only before posting that Ji Chen remembered he hadn't even heard "Qing Tian," so he looked it up before posting. After listening to half of the song, his expression became complicated.

The melody failed to catch the ear initially, the tune seemed haphazard. It was not dazzling, and far from outstanding. It felt contrived, lacking in any distinctiveness, not trendy at all.

Even though Pei Muchan's standards had plummeted, it wasn't this bad... He checked the credits and, lo and behold, they were written by Xu Qingyan. That suddenly made sense.

Ji Chen almost instantly concocted his narrative: Xu Qingyan came up with a low-quality song, and Pei Muchan, in desperate need of help, spent money to buy the rights to "Qing Tian."

Having come off a dating show, Xu Qingyan noticed that Pei Muchan's new song was doing well. So taking advantage of the show's premiere, he covered Pei Muchan's new song, aiming to ride the hype and make money.

At one in the morning, the official account verified as "Ji Chen, lead singer of Xiliang Band" suddenly posted a long Weibo post.

In the end, it boiled down to eight words, respect copyright, don't be smart.

Even though it was late at night, Xiliang's die-hard fans reacted frighteningly fast, commenting in droves. Whatever the facts, their idol's word was the ironclad proof.

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Overnight, the trending search list quaked several times.

Due to the successful launch of "Love Hunter", at first, only Xu Qingyan got blasted in the trending searches. A wave of cover versions had also attracted quite a few keyboard warriors, but there was no hope of breaking into the top ten trending searches.

Yet Ji Chen personally took to the field in the dead of night, flesh and blood, calling out Xu Qingyan for copyright infringement.

Originally, Xu Qingyan posted the "Qing Tian" cover video just to bait netizen reactions and scheme against those jealous keyboard warriors, waiting for a twist to then use this wave of attention to market Pei Muchan's "Qing Tian".

Who would have thought he would not only hook some stupid netizens, but also Ji Chen?

With such a commotion, the fun finally escalated.

The next day.

When Xu Qingyan woke up, he reached for his phone first thing and noticed that Lin Wanzhou hadn't replied all day. He stared at the screen for a while, feeling vaguely worried about her.

He had no idea what had happened, suddenly there were no messages.

But Pei Muchan did send him several question marks early in the morning, leaving Xu Qingyan puzzled as he replied to her message while working out in the equipment group.

"????"

Soon after, a call from Pei Muchan came through.

"Did you mess with Ji Chen yesterday?"

"No," he answered, still gasping for breath as he was struggling with a set of dumbbell exercises. Gritting his teeth, he asked, "What happened? What did that crazy dog Ji Chen do?"

"You... you trended on more than a dozen searches last night; didn't you know?"

"Of course, I was asleep then, how could I possibly know?" Xu Qingyan wiped off his sweat, paused to rest, and said, "I just uploaded a singing video, didn't do anything else."

"Ji Chen is sick in the head, posting a long article about how you don't respect copyright, flagrantly infringing," said Pei Muchan with a sigh, sounding somewhat resigned. "I'll debunk it for you later."

"No rush, wait a bit longer," Xu Qingyan said, slipping on his slippers and heading towards the bathroom. "Let's not be in a hurry to dispel the rumors; they probably think you bought the rights to 'Qing Tian' outright."

"The issue isn't really big, let public opinion ferment a bit more. I reckon a lot of people didn't even check who the lyricist and composer are. They're too busy venting emotions, treating me like I'm invisible... ahem."

Pei Muchan: "....So, when should we address this?"

"Tonight."

"Oh, right, there's one more thing." Xu Qingyan put his phone in front of the bathroom mirror to use the speaker while he washed, "I'm planning to look for a place in the next couple of days, do you know of any monthly rentals around one to two thousand nearby?"

On the other end of the phone, Pei Muchan fell silent for a while.

"Did you finish the score?"

"Not yet, but I should be done by noon today," Xu Qingyan said as he showered, with the sound of water pouring continuously, "The money has been transferred, I'll just rent a single room to get by for now."

The money? Lin Wanzhou had prepaid for the song?

Pei Muchan didn't know what to say, clutching her phone in silence for a while.

"Mhm."

"What?"

"I said it's nothing. We'll talk more when you come over to the studio," Pei Muchan hung up the call, took a deep breath, picked up her bag, and walked straight out the door.

Ten o'clock, on the second floor of the studio.

The air conditioner's cold breeze blew steadily, and the clicking of mouse buttons echoed in the spacious office, as Pei Muchan's gaze shifted back and forth on the screen.

"The increase... what was it just now?"

"Twenty-three thousand....."

Pei Muchan suddenly let out a sigh, leaning back in her computer chair, looking at the steadily increasing figures on the screen. For some reason, even though they had met the expectations, she couldn't muster any happiness at all.