Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

"I think it might have been because we had a dinner together today, on the way back I felt relaxed, and that's how I managed to complete the song in my mind."

Pei Muchan rolled her eyes at his words.

When Xu Qingyan brought out the first song "Qing Tian," Pei Muchan believed his newcomer's rhetoric.

The second song "The One I Miss," okay, that could be luck. But when "Partiality" came out, she knew she had been duped.

He said he had no inspiration, then turned around and produced "Always Quiet." Is this a pure newcomer? Then what about her, with eight years in the industry, could she not even beat a newbie?

Claiming he was stuck, out of ideas, things he had pondered before. He produces a good song, then claims it's a coincidence, that it's just the afterglow of a pure newcomer's first songwriting experience.

Getting stuck and then suddenly coming up with good songs, whoever believes that is a pup!

Before entering the door.

Xu Qingyan took down a bag of slippers from the door handle, unisex. An hour earlier, he had reluctantly agreed to Pei Muchan's insistence on coming over, so he had bought them from a takeaway service on the spot.

To be safe, he bought four pairs.

Pei Muchan stood behind him, her gaze falling on the several unopened pairs of slippers, and she asked softly.

"Is someone else coming?"

"Ahem, supposed to be." Xu Qingyan said, "Lin Wanzhou said she would come by later with her assistant. You should remember, Qi Ting, the one who drives very smoothly."

"Hmm." Pei Muchan bent down to change her shoes.

She leaned against the tiled wall, standing on one leg as she took off her shoes. Xu Qingyan glanced over, then silently looked away.

It was now midnight, and while Lin Wanzhou had Qi Ting to drive her, Pei Muchan's… Well, he would drive her car back; he'd have no way to return.

No matter what car he'd drive, he'd still need to get up early tomorrow to pick her up. Just thinking about having to stay up late tonight and then drive her back... Xu Qingyan felt a bit uncomfortable.

After entering the house, Pei Muchan leaned on the sofa while Xu Qingyan busied himself warming milk.

She was accustomed to insomnia, never touching coffee after noon, and had the habit of drinking milk at night. During a casual conversation, she suggested Xu Qingyan should drink it too, as it might improve his insomnia.

It was just a casual remark at first, but she didn't expect he would actually listen.

She didn't notice before, but now seeing someone whose illness and habits were so closely aligned with hers, little details accumulated one by one, making Pei Muchan feel a bit itchy inside.

It was like discovering the only compatible soul in the world, and yet sometimes it felt a bit too much. They still maintained a distance between them, like a hand that could reach out and then immediately draw back.

It was precisely because they both had ambition in their careers that restraint was necessary.

Short relationships need fuel, to spark and then burn out completely. Long-term relationships need rationality and restraint, it's a matter of operation and completion.

At that moment, Xu Qingyan brought over a cup of milk for her, choosing cola for himself.

"Tea keeps me up at night, and I wasn't sure which milk you liked. I just grabbed this one from the supermarket; the taste is okay, just make do with it."

"Hmm." She took it and sipped it slowly.

The two sat across a white coffee table, chatting sporadically within the couches.

There really wasn't much to say, everything necessary had been clarified in the car. If not calling the police, then any issue could wait until tomorrow, no rush to clarify.

What remained was waiting for Lin Wanzhou to arrive, then repeating the explanations all over.

Then, going upstairs together for a sit-down, discussing a few words about the cover copyright issue. It was good timing having both concerned parties there, and Lin Wanzhou had mentioned wanting to cover "Qing Tian."

If they could reach a preliminary intention, it would save the trouble of seeking out another opportunity for contact.

He glanced at his phone, estimating that Qi Ting should be arriving soon. Suddenly, he heard Pei Muchan let out a light 'eh' from the sofa opposite and looked up.

"Did you say in the elevator earlier that you wrote a song? Can you sing it?"

At her words, Xu Qingyan thought carefully for a moment, then replied seriously.

"I can sing, but it might sound a bit odd without the accompaniment."

"It's all right," Pei Muchan shook her head.

She thought to herself that since she was free anyway, it would be good to listen. It was the perfect opportunity to decide which song to use first for the competition, "Qing Tian" was definitely not the right type.

In a singing competition like this, where a bunch of professionals vie for a ranking, it included top record artists with diverse styles. To win, the choice of song became extremely important.

Folk songs naturally came with a buff as long as one could grasp them, and singing them out loud. Then there was the old songs sung new. If one could sing in their own style, it was like winning half the battle.

"This song is called 'Late Marriage,' cough cough, I'll start now..."

The soundproofing in his rented duplex was good, and this song was more like a low chant, so he needn't worry about disturbing the neighbors.

Xu Qingyan's singing hovered between a studio singer and a bar singer, varying in pitch. In fact, for a lyricist and composer, it wasn't a big deal if the singing wasn't so pleasant to the ear.

What was fatal was that he was self-taught, creating melodies as he sang and transcribing them after. Apart from needing a solid foundation in music theory and arrangement, accurate singing was a must.

Over the past month, when Pei Muchan and Lin Wanzhou had free time, they almost always took him by the hand to correct his singing technique, and his skill had somehow muddled through to improvement.

The hard part of this song lay in the breath mixing, slow but needing a full breath, to bring out the delicate and sincere feeling.

Although the technique wasn't difficult, some still couldn't sing it. Without emotion to support it, it would seem naïve, with a contrived feeling of lamenting troubles that hadn't been known.

Sung like that, it resembled early marriage rather than late marriage.

He just happened to be holding a bottle of cola, so he took a swig before singing. It felt like a knife scraping down his throat, which gave him a momentary raspy texture to his voice.

"Love hurts the body, binding and confining even more."

As the singing started, Pei Muchan glanced at Xu Qingyan, a satisfied smile appeared on her face. It was as if she was saying, hey, you've improved, my effort wasn't wasted.

But upon hearing the third line, "Often loving someone comes with a thousand possibilities, the taste not necessarily better than a long, lonely night without company," Pei Muchan's smile faded.

She stared blankly at Xu Qingyan, biting her lower lip. From the standpoint of a singer-songwriter, she felt an inexplicable envy of his talent. How could he write such good lyrics!

The line about the taste not necessarily being better than a long, lonely night killed all those lyrics that talked about solitary midnight woes.

Then came, "When love knocks on the door, the echoes sound so deep." These two straightforward lines, she could have written them herself, but it would have taken a lot of pondering.

"I never want to be alone, yet I have a premonition of a late marriage. I am waiting for the one and only soul mate in this world."

She could still contemplate the previous lines of the lyrics in detail, but when the line "I never want to be alone" fell, Pei Muchan trembled all over.

Compared to "I Miss," this "Late Marriage" seemed to be about her own life.

She never thought about being alone, yet wasn't willing to settle. Waiting for that only soul mate in the world, for that person who could pull at her emotions to show up.

"Let me wipe off the makeup on my face, let him hear all the rumors."

Pei Muchan listened in a daze, her eyes blinking uncontrollably. In that moment, there was a tsunami in her heart. But she just sat there quietly, unable to utter a single word.

All those debates about her, like seeking refuge in silence for half a year. It was like waking from a long dream, having not seen daylight for a long time, in those days where she didn't want to reminisce, constantly draining herself.

How she wished for someone to quietly listen to all the rumors, yet still believe in her.

"If someone contends with me one day, I promise not to stay silent. Whether he can... whether he can."

After finishing the song, Xu Qingyan felt somewhat weak. Without that swallow of cola, he might not have been able to hold out that part of the song. Professional matters should still be left to professionals.

"How's the song?" he lifted his head and suddenly noticed Pei Muchan sitting there, lost in thought.

"Oh, it's good... very pleasant to hear," Pei Muchan abruptly came back to her senses, her emotions still in disarray, not knowing what to say.
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Luckily for Xu Qingyan, his phone rang. Lin Wanzhou had arrived.

"You go ahead, we'll talk more when you come up," she said opportunistically.

"Okay."

Xu Qingyan stood up and left the room, leaving Pei Muchan alone in the bright living room. She sat for a while, then stood up and walked to the balcony, gazing into the thick night.

After a pause, tears suddenly started to fall.