Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

"The Central Meteorological Station predicts that a new strong cold wave is coming from tomorrow, which will be the strongest cold wave since the second half of the year."

Zhou Lili sat in front of her computer, so confused it numbed her mind.

The prelude to "In a Hurry That Year" was leisurely, and Lin Wanzhou's voice was as clear and piercing as winter. The first line sung made one's heart suddenly chill, inexplicably causing a bit of distress.

Line by line, the lyrics built up until it reached that line "If we meet again, let's not have red eyes." Suddenly, the feeling of a youth scar drama washed over so that Zhou Lili even went to check.

It turned out that this song was an original, not the theme song of some movie.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Upon checking the credits for the lyrics and music, it was indeed Xu Qingyan.

She was listening to half of it while scrolling on her phone when suddenly, during the interlude, a weather report sounded. Looking up, she saw the stage on the screen engulfed in darkness, lit only by a single beam of white light.

There stood Lin Wanzhou in a white dress, utterly still, as the sound of rain came pouring down. From afar, the sound of a car horn sounded faint and unclear.

This melody, together with the weather forecast and white noise, gave Zhou Lili the sensation that her mind was suddenly jolted, as all the sadness and pain surged into her heart at once.

If the first half felt like watching a movie, this interlude was like watching the male and female leads part ways, conjuring a faint thought at the bottom of her heart.

Unrequited love is just aimless searching, and then emotionlessly passing by each other.

"This is so distressing," she said, sitting in front of the computer, feeling waves of sadness in her heart, "Damn, I'm still single and have no thoughts of a relationship, but...."

After the interlude, Zhou Lili, listening to Lin Wanzhou's ethereal voice, still felt sad. The more she listened, the worse she felt, reminded of an unrequited love that ended without reason.

She vividly remembered being gently rejected by her high school crush after confessing her feelings. He pushed up his glasses with his middle finger and told her he didn't like girls.

Zhou Lili's mood plummeted to rock bottom, as she suddenly realized that her entire life seemed like a clown's growth history, always getting hurt as she went along.

Always caring too much about others' opinions, she pushed her best friend toward the person she liked, only to realize later that there was a circus show with her in it tonight.

Can't listen anymore, can't do it.

I'm really about to break down!

As the autumn night in Xinghai turned cooler, Zhou Lili walked to the window. The night breeze made her heart feel even more stifled, so she frowned and took out her phone to start posting in a Weibo topic group.

As she was typing away, Lin Wanzhou's song had already finished to unsurprisingly high scores.

The female host came on stage to engage in awkward banter, and when she mentioned feeling the stage, Lin Wanzhou suddenly said she wanted to thank someone. The host smoothly asked who it was.

Zhou Lili in front of the screen was dumbfounded, stopping her posting, intuiting that there was juicy gossip to be had.

"The lyricist and composer of this song, Xu Qingyan, without him, I wouldn't have been able to recover so quickly from the contract termination. Being able to stand on this stage today is thanks to the confidence he's given me."

What the hell?

....

"Mom, I have to hang up now; it's starting to rain outside, and I need to hail a cab back!"

Underneath Chuzhou TV station, a woman in her thirties dressed in business attire walked to the entrance. Facing the downpour, she couldn't help but sigh.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Ling took off the reporter badge hanging from her chest. She couldn't remember how many times her family had hurried her to get married using all sorts of excuses.

It was as if a woman not marrying by thirty was a shameful thing, but she couldn't blame herself. Who wouldn't want to be in love, who wouldn't hope for a good family?

But the underlying tone of this era is intense competition. Working is already exhausting. From a college graduate to an intern, and then from a firmly rooted workplace newcomer to a pivotal force.

The price paid is seven years of life, lush hair, but when she looks back, she no longer sees the path she came from. There isn't a large circle of peers left; most have already married.

The reality is that in this materialistic big city, you can't even live a decent life if you don't work. No matter what, you can't just marry for the sake of getting married, right?

The night intertwined with the misty rain, causing the lights in the tall buildings to appear slightly distorted.

Chen Ling opened the ride-hailing app and stepped back a few paces, out of the reach of the rain. It's hard to get a cab on a rainy day, and the screen just kept displaying "Waiting."

As she waited, she unwittingly recalled the words her mother had just said, sighing again.

Sometimes, she really felt like giving in.

To just find someone and marry, leading separate lives afterward. Continuing to work or even applying for an overseas job transfer. But ultimately, it was merely a thought, as she looked up and saw an approaching hired car one minute away.

She tilted her head back, her face still made up, watching the rain threads drift down through the lights.

Her phone vibrated with a buzz, and she thought it was the cab. Looking down, she found it was just a push notification from a video app running in the background.

"Pei Muchan debuts her single 'Late Marriage' at 'I Am a Singer', now streaming hot."

Chen Ling didn't usually listen to music, yet bizarrely, because of the words "late marriage," she clicked it open as if possessed. The internet was slow, and after seven or eight seconds without it loading, she was about to swipe it away when down below, a car honked its horn and its headlights flickered.

The ride had arrived.

The rain wasn't too heavy, and the distance from the main entrance to the roadside wasn't far. She raised her purse over her head and dove headfirst into the rain and mist without hesitation.

"8769," she said proficiently, reporting the last four digits.

Ten seconds later, the car slowly started.

Chen Ling leaned back in the rear seat, feeling her clothes a bit wet from the rain, her heart still beating furiously from the run.

The air inside the car wasn't great, filled with a faint, cold leather scent.