Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

"The second episode? If we act quickly, we can make money for five episodes in these two days."

Chen Fufeng's yellowed fingers held a cigarette, a white mist enshrouding him. Already a quarter burned, one puff took away another half.

"In terms of the program, the original intention of making this show was innovation, to find a new path in the homogenized love variety theme. We outpace everyone on the live broadcast track, and after the show ends, we do precision editing and sell it to television stations. Perhaps we have already achieved that."

"When it comes to making money, my friends!"

Chen Fufeng roughly extinguished the cigarette in his hand, invigorated.

"Changing rules for gimmicks might not last long, but it lets us move faster than our peers! Making money from one episode that others would from eight, what if we don't do a second season later?"

"Do you want a mediocre work, or take a gamble and make this program unique throughout Xiaguo?"

The crowd exchanged glances. Shortly after, there were discussions, rebuttals, and approvals all at once.

"Old Chen, on the other hand," someone asked. "What's the relationship between Lin Wanzhou and the person you brought in? The little queen would rather not make money just to appear on our program?"

"Yeah, and she specified that she would only team up with Xu Qingyan for filming." A female screenwriter pinched her chin in thought. "This purpose seems unusual; where did you find such a wizard?"

"Could it be for a rivalry with Pei Muchan? The struggle between the new and old little queens from last year might not be over yet. They care not about the person themselves, but the ownership of that person."

"Give me a break, Pei Muchan probably isn't planning to compete anymore; she's likely about to semi-retire. Besides, Lin Wanzhou is the talk of the town right now. With one more hit album, her little queen title is secured. Why would she run here to fight over a nobody with Pei Muchan? Brain waterlogged, right? Don't joke around."

Assistant director Gao Changlin, hearing the increase in gossip inside, roughly understood that Chen Fufeng once again successfully persuaded them with his eloquence.

"Don't worry about where I found them; since there are no objections, let's proceed according to the process." Chen Fufeng produced another cigarette from nowhere and lit it with a snap.

Amidst the smoke, he leaned on the table and spoke.

"Screenwriting team, work overtime and get the plan out. We have to follow Lin Wanzhou's demands, but we also have to consider Pei Muchan's feelings; after all, she's the one we invited."

"In case she walks out on us, we'll be the ones losing big time in the end."

Late into the night.

The screenwriting team worked under lamplight, with cigarettes, alcohol, coffee all deployed, staring at the final six-hour countdown, revising the plan over and over, the monotonous sound of the printer lulling them to sleep.

All night till dawn, until it was light.

The dimly lit room.

The startling sound of WeChat's video call ring suddenly blared. Xu Qingyan's mind jolted; he reached out groggily to grab his phone. The piercing light of the screen hit his face, his eyes struggling to open, bloodshot.

Slept at four, up by seven, even the King of Hell would be handing out cigarettes.

After acclimating for a bit, he finally saw the name on the screen, "Shen Jinyue is inviting you to a video call..." His blood rushed to his head, regretting taking her off the blacklist.

"You motherf..." Xu Qingyan muttered, took a deep breath, then answered the video call, "Shen Jinyue, what is it? Speak quickly!"

On the other end of the video, Shen Jinyue appeared to still be in her room, wearing a puffy nightgown. The top button was undone, revealing her pale, full chest.

Unaware of this, she tapped the soft quilt, her voice cheerful.

"Hello hello! Xu Qingyan, take me for breakfast! I'm going to the other side!"

"Ah, get lost; I'm not going!" Xu Qingyan said irritably, turning over, "Whoever wants to go can go. Do you know what time I went to bed last night?"

"One o'clock?"

"Four o'clock! Go play by yourself!"

"Hurry up, what if I treat you to the most expensive breakfast? Go to the Island Town for the most luxurious buffet breakfast!" Shen Jinyue was still full of energy. "Are you going or not, going or not?"

He had wanted to refuse, but the moment he heard the words "most expensive," he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

"Where?"

"The island's breakfast buffet, over three hundred per person."

"Wait for me ten minutes, I'll be right there." Xu Qingyan suddenly wasn't sleepy at all, quickly got out of bed, "I'd snub a seafood feast without a second thought, but a breakfast buffet is irresistible."

He was curious about what a breakfast buffet costing over three hundred was like.

After washing up and heading out, he sent a message to Pei Muchan to ask if she wanted to join the breakfast buffet. In a few seconds, she replied that she wasn't fully awake yet.

She even attached a cute emoji.

Huh???

He had thought about asking if Pei Muchan wanted him to bring her breakfast, but then he reconsidered, realizing that female celebrities seemed quite strict with their carb intake, and abandoned the idea.

As he went downstairs, he scrolled through his phone and saw that Lin Wanzhou had sent him a picture of a nightscape last night at four in the morning, which looked somewhat familiar.

Still up at four in the morning probably meant attending a rush job. The poor diva has it tough, working nonstop to make money. He couldn't imagine how much she must be earning.

Just as he was about to take a closer look at the picture, Shen Jinyue suddenly called out to him.

"Hey, Xu Qingyan, can you drive?"

"Sure, I'm a seasoned driver." He put away his phone, "But I don't have a car, I would need to borrow one and it's not guaranteed I can find one."

"No need for that, I've got one!" She excitedly jingled the keys in her hand.

"Where did you get a car from?"

"Borrowed it, of course, got it yesterday." Shen Jinyue was in a rush, tossing the keys to Xu Qingyan on the stairs, "I'm so hungry, let's go quickly!"

"Don't rush me, or I'll kick you down the stairs," he said with visible impatience.

The car must have belonged to the show's crew, a run-of-the-mill car worth tens of thousands, seemingly with a few years on it.

Inside the car, the dashboard lit up, and with a press on the gas pedal, the engine roared dully. Moving with agility that belied its modest appearance, the car zipped out and drove steadily away from the lovers' cabin.

"Pei Jie told me you really wrote a song?" Shen Jinyue asked.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"For real? Don't lie to me!" Shen Jinyue was on edge, "The online course I gave you was meant to make you suffer through some studying, I didn't say you had to write a song immediately!"

"What's the song called?"

"Qing Tian." Xu Qingyan couldn't be bothered to argue with Shen Jinyue, "Don't be jealous, singing is naturally my talent, and songwriting is a hobby."

"Boo hoo, Pei Jie actually bought your song! It must be so good!" Shen Jinyue turned red with envy, twisting and squirming with jealousy as she kept whining.

"Get lost, stop going crazy!" Find unique content at m-vl-em-py-r

The car passed a narrow intersection, just brushing past a black Audi, Xu Qingyan glanced at the driver of the other car—a young woman with unremarkable looks.

She also glanced at him, a flicker of surprise in her eyes.

Whoosh, the two cars quickly passed each other by.

Xu Qingyan was baffled, driving while carefully recalling that the woman's expression was indeed one of surprise. Did she recognize him?