Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

Terminating the contract?

Just as he was about to ask, Lin Wanzhou sent over a string of messages. Before he had a chance to look at them, Pei Muchan's gaze landed on him and asked, "What's up?"

"Lin Wanzhou terminated her contract," he responded without any need for concealment, "I'm not sure of the specifics, but it's likely she had a falling out with the company."

"What about the song you wrote? She's not buying it?" Pei Muchan asked.

"Don't know, probably not," Xu Qingyan shook his head.

Just then, the food arrived, and they stopped discussing that topic.

He briefly glanced over the messages Lin Wanzhou had sent, which seemed to be dictated via voice input, and sounded quite urgent. The messages were essentially her thoughts as they occurred to her, totaling seventeen in all.

He gathered his thoughts and sorted out the key messages.

"There's an issue with the contract, can't terminate it in two months, have to drag it out to five years before gaining freedom again. Flew to Cloud Wing Entertainment's headquarters with Sister Yun, negotiated the whole day."

"We reached an agreement, giving up all future income from my works, compensating the company with twelve million yuan."

"I now have nothing, bearing a debt of nearly a million yuan."

Even though that's what she said, one could feel Lin Wanzhou's joy of relief between the lines. It was as if she was reborn, finally free again.

"Did you receive the termination news?"

The reply came very quickly, almost instantly, "Not yet, the termination contract is signed, and the announcement should come in a few days. Currently drafting the termination statement."

"Congratulations on regaining your freedom, a grand future awaits."

"Yeah!!"

He wasn't accustomed to playing with his phone while having meals with others, so after hurriedly sending a few messages, he didn't take out his phone again. Pei Muchan saw but didn't say anything.

Eating without talking, they spoke only two or three sentences to each other during the meal.

It wasn't until they were waiting for the car that she turned to ask.

"What do you think about issuing a clarification statement when we get back to the studio?"

"Just release it normally, it doesn't make much difference," Xu Qingyan buckled up his seatbelt and slowly started the car, "How are the sales figures for 'Qing Tian' doing?"

"When I checked this afternoon, it was at three hundred and sixty thousand, increased by nearly three hundred thousand in one day. This result is already very good."

"Indeed, 'Qing Tian' is gradually improving. I think it's about time to start on the next song," Xu Qingyan said as he drove towards the studio.

"You mentioned an album last time, any specific ideas?"

"Not at the moment, need to mull it over more," Pei Muchan replied lazily, the flickering night lights casting a lazy glow on her face, "When we have a few good songs..."

"For now, the studio's barely up and running, but it's all thanks to your hard work."

"It's not hard work, I've been paid," Xu Qingyan chuckled, the curve of his lips gradually falling, "'Qing Tian' is just the beginning, we have a long way to go."

"Got a new song?" she asked.

"Just an idea, so, sort of."

The car turned onto the main road, the entrance to the tech park was close by, and the dim orange light from the guardhouse shone faintly. The small sentry box was empty, utterly unattended.

"Isn't this place a bit unsafe for a studio?" Xu Qingyan asked casually as he drove in.

"We'll move once we have the money. We've been renting for almost two years; only one month is left," Pei Muchan's eyes fell on her phone as she responded nonchalantly.

"That's quite a coincidence, new beginnings in a new environment."

"Yeah."

Inside, Pei Muchan was far from calm, with too many things having happened in recent days.

It was better when he wasn't around, with a fire of anticipation building up inside her for the release of 'Qing Tian'. She had set herself a goal, resolving that she wouldn't accept anything less than its achievement.

His return provided a release for the pent-up fire inside her. The tension suddenly eased, and unexpectedly, she came down with a fever.

The song's release had its ups and downs, and she hadn't expected it to achieve sales of three hundred sixty thousand so quickly, a figure that would be considered above average on any major site.

And the terrifying thing was, this was just the beginning.

'Lian'ai Lieshou' had only aired one episode, with the production team revealing plans for a total of seven. In other words... each time there was a highlight in the show, it brought a wave of traffic to the song.

Even disregarding the inherent quality of 'Qing Tian', just the marketing momentum alone was frightening.

'Qing Tian's singer and songwriters were the center figures of the love reality show, and with the additional traffic from Xu Qingyan and Pei Muchan's appearances, it would be hard for the song not to soar in sales.

Initially, Pei Muchan had decided to participate in the love reality show out of curiosity, to see how Lin Wanzhou would react to her and Lin's highly regarded person appearing together on the show.

She hadn't expected to buy a song, let alone that a single song could hint at her becoming famous again, a feeling that grew stronger and stronger.

The outcome was good, but at the moment, it didn't make her happy at all.

The car stopped downstairs.

The two went upstairs, Pei Muchan to her office to release the denial statement. Xu Qingyan stood by the window, playing with his phone in the cold wind, which was actually him replying to Lin Wanzhou's messages.

"What do you plan to do after leaving the company? Open a studio?"

"Maybe... start by releasing songs," Lin Wanzhou replied immediately, "After my contract termination, my previous works will have nothing to do with me; I can't be without works."

Xu Qingyan responded with an "Oh," thinking that she was really going all in.

"Did you get the score?"

"Yes, got it!" Lin Wanzhou replied and displayed that she was typing, "Sister Yun said to take advantage of the contract termination news and the start of 'Lian'ai Lieshou' to release a song early."

The plan made sense, but what Xu Qingyan was more interested in was... it seemed like Wen Yun had left Cloud Wing Entertainment with her. Was this a move with her management team?

"Is Sister Yun planning to go solo with you?" he typed and asked.

"Yes, Sister Yun, along with Qi Ting, we will stick together for the time being." Lin Wanzhou replied swiftly, "Sister Yun still has one opportunity at hand, but it can only be utilized after the new song is released."

He hastily ended the chat, waiting for Pei Muchan to turn off the lights in the office and leave. Pei Muchan owned two apartments in completely different directions, so they both had to drive home separately.

"Be careful on the road."

"Yeah, you too, good night." Pei Muchan glanced at him before taking the lead to drive off, the rear lights of her car blinked a few times in the night before disappearing.

Xu Qingyan steered the wheel, pondering over moving overnight from the large flat to the newly rented apartment. He didn't have much luggage; everything could fit in one suitcase.

Although it was a rented place, it finally felt like having his own nest in Xinghai, without being so restrained. There was no need to buy toiletries; he would buy the rest of the stuff gradually tomorrow.

On the road, during a traffic light pause.

Xu Qingyan took the chance to check Weibo, only to find that he couldn't log into his account. The influx of derogatory messages had overloaded it, forcing him to switch to an alternate account.

He looked up Pei Muchan and sure enough, saw that both her personal account and the Mu Chan Studio had posted statements to refute the rumors, starting with three words.

"Special Clarification!"

Seeing those three words, Xu Qingyan outright laughed.

Fighting with heaven and earth is not as endlessly entertaining as fighting with people; probably only a few people would guess that he still held a tiny bit of copyright over "Qing Tian".

The interior light of the car was dim, and the eighty-second red light was reaching its end.

Lin Wanzhou suddenly sent a message, "Recording songs in Xinghai."

Huh? Where?

....

Xu Qingyan returned to the large flat and started cleaning laboriously, making sure to clean every spot he had frequented over the past few days, aiming for spotlessness and orderliness.

After all, it was someone else's house, so hiring a cleaner was inconvenient.

Fortunately, he only came back to sleep at night, so the cleaning wasn't too strenuous, but he didn't know what to do with the bedding set. Washing and drying it in the middle of the night didn't seem quite right either.

After thinking it over, he sent a message to Pei Muchan.

He informed her he planned to strip the bedding set and take it to the dry cleaners to get it cleaned before returning it, or he would buy her a brand-new identical set.

"Don't bother, just leave it."

Huh? What does she mean by don't bother?

He asked again, but Pei Muchan didn't reply this time, perhaps she was asleep. After thinking for a moment in the living room, he decided to pack up his things and leave anyway.

By the time he moved into the newly rented apartment, it was already one in the morning; he couldn't be bothered to clean, planning to hire a cleaning service tomorrow. Doing it himself was neither efficient nor worth the hassle.

Lying in an unfamiliar bed, Xu Qingyan couldn't fall asleep at all.

With nothing else to do, he used his alternate account to follow Pei Muchan, Lin Wanzhou, and Mu Chan Studio, and even followed himself.

His main account had been completely overtaken by now, with only two posts, each with over a hundred thousand comments, mostly filled with insults—unbearable to read.

As for Pei Muchan's clarification post, it was met with a barrage of skepticism. Even though Pei Muchan had shared part of the contract with redacted sections, there were still those who believed it was fake.

The greatest of principles can wear away, but not the stubbornness of these trolls.

Even more ridiculously, a few recruiting groups emerged in the comment section of the post, brazenly declaring that as long as you dislike Xu the dog, we can be friends and so on.

Xu Qingyan infiltrated these groups with two alternate accounts and dropped some bait.

The messages refreshed too quickly and were not retracted by the admins in time. He promptly took screenshots, then used another alternate account to report the group chat, attaching the screenshot evidence.

A few minutes passed, and the groups truly exploded.

He repeated the process, using his two accounts to play around and blast through seven or eight group chats in one night.

He eventually stopped, not from boredom, but because his ID got remembered by the troll group admins. He was outright denied before he could even join any more groups.

By then, Pei Muchan's clarification video had accumulated over ten thousand comments. Xu Qingyan estimated that with its level of discussion and exposure, reaching the trending searches was a sure thing.

He searched for Lin Wanzhou's account and noticed all her posts had been cleared, and the words Cloud Wing Entertainment had been removed from her verified identity.

Three in the morning.

Lin Wanzhou's official account suddenly released a "Termination Announcement" post, catching the night-owl entertainment journalists and netizens surfing online off guard.

Her fan groups immediately erupted, perplexingly lively despite it being the eerie hour of three in the morning, with messages flashing by rapidly.

"Holy shit! Zhouzhou terminated her contract!"

The announcement indicated that the rising pop diva had terminated her contract with her previous agency, Cloud Wing Entertainment, and had severed ties with all past works.

All copyrights and revenues were used to compensate for the losses incurred by Cloud Wing Technology, in addition to a staggering ten-million compensation, Lin Wanzhou would also personally pay 1.6 million in damages.

The Chinese music industry has seen its share of turmoil over contract disputes, but the departure of a star artist was quite rare. One reason was concern for their own career, the other was the inability to pay the breach of contract penalty.

Nobody knew what had happened; it was all too sudden. Everyone was even less prepared for Lin Wanzhou to tackle the astronomical compensation with such resolve.

Choosing to suffer a financial blow rather than continue working with her former agency, Cloud Wing Entertainment, without any signs beforehand, much like the late-night declaration of contract termination—it inevitably led to speculation. But before the exhausted journalists could even finish drafting their stories,

At three-thirty in the morning, Lin Wanzhou posted again, releasing another bombshell.

"The new song 'What I Miss' will be released on all platforms the day after tomorrow, please look forward to it. Thanks to Teacher Xu for the lyrics and composition, onwards to uncertain futures, through winter hoping for spring! @Xu's Spring and Autumn."

Xu Qingyan! It was that bastard Xu Qingyan again!

The netizens who were up late snacking on popcorn felt their faces turning green; the trending list for the past few days had almost been dominated by that scumbag Xu Qingyan, with several trending topics a day!

And it's coming again?