Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

The ceasefire zone and the guest assembly area were separated by some distance.

Lin Wanzhou watched the big screen intently, her eyes not blinking even once from the first line to the end of the song, with one thought in her mind.

...tailor-made.

If the song "In a Hurry That Year" was tailor-made for her, then this song "Late Marriage" was equally crafted to fit Pei Muchan perfectly— the lyrics were too fitting.

In the twenty-sixth year of life, one year younger would seem too naive to carry the weight of the song, and one year older would be a waste.

To say she wasn't envious would be a lie, but Lin Wanzhou didn't really want to be twenty-six either. Everyone has their own bloom time; rather than a better interpretation of the song, she preferred to be the same age as someone.

Xu Qingyan didn't react much; this trick was his own doing. The lyricist and composer who doesn't dabble in fine arts isn't a good one because there was no art director, so he had to take the field himself.

These snippets of thoughts were influenced by the stock of films in his head, merely casually borrowed.

What really surprised him was Pei Muchan's condition. They had agreed yesterday to hold back some emotion during rehearsal. But now, she wasn't holding back just a little, was she?

He had always known she sang well, but he never expected her to sing this well!

Her emotions were so brimming... as if she was truly speaking about herself, desperately trying to meld every line of the lyric with emotion. That urgency to express, so eager to speak, to tell everyone.

No high notes, no sorrow, the first half was calm, and the second half held back emotions continually. It was teetering on the verge of bursting, pressed into the marrow.

Pei Muchan sang out her own version with emotion, and that last line, "Can he, can I~" rendered one's chest sour and stuffy.

It was like seeing daylight for the first time in ages, awaking from a long dream. Standing gently in the doorway flooded with sunlight, her slender silhouette seemed as if it could be blown away by a mere gust of wind.

A tender smile that you'd never seen before appeared on her face as she said seriously,

"One day, you have to come and save me."

Just thinking of that scene made the audience feel heartache, their emotions subtly influenced. In these details, a gap was drawn; the level of the singer was apparent.

Backstage, Xu Qingyan belatedly realized and involuntarily inhaled a breath of cold air. True to being a professional singer, the emotional flow was smooth—it was the bearing of a queen of music.

The voting began.

Ji Chen stopped Guan Fengchen and glanced sideways at the big screen towards the stage.

"Where are you going? This song is good, but the tempo is too slow. In this type of competition, it's inevitable to be at a disadvantage, can't get more than five to seven hundred and eighty votes at most."

Guan Fengchen felt like dying and gave him a cold glance.

"Are you sure?"

Although Guan Fengchen was into rock, he didn't ignore other music. Pei Muchan had just performed on stage and burst with emotion; it was an extraordinary performance.

Even, he could vaguely sense a trace of queenly grace in her.

Ji Chen gave him a feeling of having something in his belly, but not much. What he said had some sense, but upon closer thought, it was complete nonsense.

He had theories aplenty, but eyes that failed to see.

"Even I, a rock singer, want to vote for her. How many votes do you think she'll get?" Guan Fengchen tilted his head slightly, trying hard not to show his emotions.

He couldn't afford to offend Ji Chen; he could even be accused of bullying the junior. If Ji Chen pulled out something like Jade Syndrome's medical history, he'd truly be finished.

No joke, with his current popularity, he would be utterly condemned.

These days, popularity was capital; you could do whatever you wanted. If you were popular enough, you could even secretly manipulate fans daily, and nothing would matter—there would always be someone to help suppress the matters.

The live vote count soared to five hundred and forty without any sign of slowing. In Ji Chen's astonished gaze, it easily broke through five hundred and eighty.

In the guest assembly hall, Qi Yingying heaved a sigh, resignedly closing her eyes.

The song was sung too well, written too well. She was thought to be a fading little star, re-entering the fray; the focus was on the word "little," meaning everyone should be on the same starting line.

Qi Yingying had held up for a few episodes of the show; if this episode's results were poor, it would simply be because she was out of work. Her own abilities were clear, and her personal accumulation could not withstand a protracted battle.

Originally, she thought as long as Pei Muchan was a faded little queen, even if just slightly below a queen, she wouldn't necessarily have the advantage on this stage.

Who knew that Pei Muchan would be like a demon king wiping out newbies, targeting the weak ones. Not only singing, but even her stage presence and aura—those incredibly ambiguous things—unfolded!

That emotion, those trembles in the voice, not enough to cry, but just uncomfortable to listen to. The chest felt heavy and hollow, as if a hole had been punched through it, whistling with every breath.

The vote count continued to climb, easily breaking six hundred.

Now it was Ji Chen's turn to be unable to sit still, watching the vote count slowly rise from six hundred to six hundred and fifteen, then pausing for two or three seconds.

A smile appeared on his face, before he could utter the words "See! I told you...".

The count moved again!

It jumped from six hundred and fifteen to six hundred and fifty-six in a surge. It left Ji Chen dumbfounded—so much for a maximum of five to seven hundred eighty votes.

Now over by nearly a hundred votes, she left everyone else far behind. Currently above her were only Jiang Jingsheng with six hundred and ninety-two votes and Hou Xueheng with seven hundred and ten.

At this moment, advancing to the next round was a certainty.

Compared to yesterday's competition, although the number of votes on stage remained the same, the other guests all had the added benefit of support roles. In a sense, the difficulty of the competition had increased.