Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

Okay, let's have porridge.

In the afternoon, the sales data of "Qing Tian" and Pei Muchan's condition were alike, both listless. Xu Qingyan had been drinking porridge all day, his complexion grayer than cement.

"This growth will take off sooner or later," Xu Qingyan had little to say, leaving behind those words before he ran off to work on his composition, unable to bail any longer, lest it affect his reputation.

In the evening, for the first time, Pei Muchan had some free time. She lazily rested from noon until night, occasionally staring at the sales data for "Qing Tian."

She checked the sales and then the rankings, occasionally doing some stretches in the office. Time had never seemed so long before, and the work had never seemed so boring.

Outside the window, the night was thick, the people in the offices on the first floor had gone home early, leaving only the second floor of the small building still lit up. One person was in the composition room, and the other in the office.

Having a cold, she couldn't turn on the air conditioning and just felt so hot. There was air conditioning in the composition room; maybe she could go there and enjoy it for a bit, it was only a short walk after all.

She could also see what he was doing, what kind of composition he was working on...

Her thoughts, like ivy in high summer, quietly took over the whole room, inch by inch covering every space, preventing Pei Muchan from settling down to work.

Everything had been normal up until half a month before his arrival, which hadn't disrupted her work rhythm. Yet, now that he was away for half the day, it felt like something was missing without someone to discuss the data with, and it wasn't as interesting.

He had been the one to initiate contact half a month ago, so now it was her turn. There was no other purpose; it was just because she was sick and couldn't work, just an idle visit.

The studio was hers after all, and since he hadn't finished transcribing the music, she had been waiting here all along. It should be fine to take a look, to knock and take a peek before returning.

At that moment, the computer data surged inexplicably, rising by five thousand within a matter of minutes.

Pei Muchan immediately stood up and went outside. She felt it was necessary to discuss the data with Xu Qingyan; after all, he was the songwriter, and it would be good to inform him.

In the composition room, Xu Qingyan scratched his head, his mind smoking with urgency. The process of transcribing the music had been anything but smooth. Listening to his own vocal recording, he still couldn't understand several parts.

Worrying over this, Xu Qingyan suddenly heard footsteps outside. No one could enter the second floor, so it was probably Pei Muchan.

He simply got up and opened the door.

"Heading back?"

Pei Muchan was startled, intending to say the data had surged, asking if he wanted to come and see. But the words took an unexpected turn as they reached her lips...

"Just enjoying the air conditioning."

"Huh???" Xu Qingyan gave her a look.

Her face instantly turned red, thinking to herself if her brain had short-circuited. How could she utter such a nonsensical excuse? Couldn't she enjoy the air conditioning in the office? If he asked, she would dissolve the studio altogether.

Fortunately, Xu Qingyan didn't ask, merely saying, "Why are you turning on the air conditioning with a fever? Do you think getting injections is fun?"

Upon hearing the word "injections," Pei Muchan immediately tensed up, changing the topic.

"Just... coming to see, how are you doing with the transcription?

"Not so good, too many parts I don't understand, like..." He was about to continue when he suddenly felt the cold breeze of the air conditioning on his neck, and he walked out, closing the door behind him.

"Are you planning to go back? Then you should leave now."

"No, I want to look at the data a little longer." Pei Muchan turned her head to the side, "Continue using the composition room, I'll go back later."

"I'll take a look at the data in a bit, let's go to your office," Xu Qingyan sighed, "I can't figure it out on my own, I need to consult you."

Outside the small building, the sound of insects was constant. Upon hearing his words, Pei Muchan couldn't help but smile.

"Haven't you been guarding against me all this time? Afraid that I'll hear the love songs you wrote for her." She looked up slightly, her thick eyelashes gently resting down, slightly squinting her eyes.

"What's that now? You're not on guard anymore?"

"What are you talking about? The love songs I wrote for her? What nonsense is that?" Xu Qingyan was bewildered, suspecting that Pei Muchan was feverish again and not in her right mind.

"That time during the reality show, Lin Wanzhou asked me if she could listen to 'Qing Tian.' But by that time, I had already sold it to you, so of course, it was impossible, and I refused."

"So why are you willing to let me listen to it now?" she asked.

"Handing in the manuscript is important; we can't keep dragging it out. You know, I know, heaven knows, and earth knows," he said, massaging his forehead. "You will keep it a secret for me, right?"

In fact, he had already figured out most of the score; only a few fragments were eluding him. It was okay to sing them for Pei Muchan; the beginning and the end didn't connect at all.

"Maybe."

Huh??? What does "maybe" mean?

"Help?"

"Not help." Pei Muchan extended her finger, pointing seriously at herself. "I'm sick, remember what the doctor said today?"

Xu Qingyan felt a bit embarrassed. "Rest more."

"Unless..."

"What?" He was bewildered, realizing for the first time that Pei Muchan was quite good at manipulating people.

"Unless you give me the one you sang last time, 'Favoritism,' and sell that song to me." Pei Muchan turned back to him, looking up and making eye contact.

He thought about it. "Uh... I haven't finished writing it."

"Reserved." Pei Muchan smiled, then suddenly realized something. "You want to sing that song yourself, don't you?"

"No, I have no desire to sing." Xu Qingyan waved his hand. "It's just a bit frustrating. It's difficult to cram and become proficient in a hurry, especially with more complex melodies that I can't figure out."

"That's what being a normal person is, if you could do everything, that would be really scary," Pei Muchan consoled. "Don't worry, take it step by step."

The two turned and chatted as they walked back to the office together.

"Oh, by the way, we just had a data surge."

"Seriously?" Xu Qingyan was skeptical and walked over to the computer. Seeing the skyrocketing data, he exclaimed, "This data is a bit odd, it surged by five thousand in a few minutes."

Upon hearing this, Pei Muchan also froze. The data had been too smooth that day; she had just been preoccupied with seeing what he was doing and hadn't thought more deeply about it.

A spike of five thousand in a few minutes was usually not a good thing.

She took out her phone, opened a few music apps, and looked at them. Her expression immediately turned serious, her beautiful eyebrows furrowing as she took a deep breath.

All the complex thoughts in her head dissipated in an instant, and she was back to facing stern reality.

"We've been hit with negative reviews."

"I see it." Xu Qingyan was scrolling through Qing Tian's comment section on Penguin Music, reading all sorts of unflattering remarks, about poor quality and being unlistenable, which were rapidly increasing.

Comments were pouring in by the hundreds, and at a glance, it looked like he had stumbled into a forum.

"Can we delete them?"

"No, we can only provide feedback, but there's no way to deal with these subjective judgments." Pei Muchan's expression turned grim. "Qing Tian's" quality was already very high.

The spike of five thousand in sales in a few minutes, and the bulk of the negative reviews, were likely spread across different platforms. Since it was the first day of release, these comments would definitely have an impact on future sales.

If this song appeared on the homepage of the website's recommendations, these negative comments wouldn't matter much. Unfortunately for Pei Muchan, she hadn't signed an exclusive deal and had taken the approach of releasing on all platforms.

She couldn't possibly deal with each platform individually, unless she mobilized the fans to report. But Pei Muchan had never done such a thing, and she found herself in a dilemma.

"If these comments can't be dealt with, then let's not deal with them." Xu Qingyan suddenly said, "Actually, I had considered this possibility before, but I didn't expect it to really happen."

"Find the person behind it?" Pei Muchan asked.

"No, leave it." Xu Qingyan shook his head. "Remember you told me before that I could try covering a male version of 'Qing Tian,' right?"

"Yeah, what about it?" She was puzzled and didn't understand the correlation.

Was he implying that his own cover of a song that hadn't exploded in popularity could somehow drive up "Qing Tian's" sales and then use positive reactions to overshadow the comment section?

"It's nothing; Zhou Mian told me that tomorrow is the premiere of 'Love Hunter.'" Xu Qingyan turned to her and said, "I think I could give it a try."

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