Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

"Let's go, let's go, consider this an apology for my earlier bluntness." Xu Qingyan waved his hand dismissively and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked downstairs on his own.

"Hmph, well then, I shall benevolently accept your apology..." Shen Jinyue's delicate nose wrinkled slightly, but before she could finish, Xu Qingyan cut her off.

"Keep freaking out, and you'll pay for it yourself."

"Whatever!"

"You don't need to go out of your way to make breakfast for me, You Zijun. I'll just eat out," Shen Jinyue didn't forget to smile at You Zijun and waved her hand, "Thanks, you really are a good guy."

You Zijun stood stiffly in the middle of the living room, watching the two bicker as they left, one after the other. He looked as awkward as could be, wishing he could just find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

Damn, hit with a Nice Guy card.

The audience in the chatroom at the main host desk in the living room laughed out loud at this scene.

"Batman's been looking everywhere, but the Joker apparently escaped from Gotham to here."

Behind the Heartbeat Photo Shoot villa was the coastline, and in front was a clean, wide road that led to the center of the seaside town. There were trams set up around the island for sightseeing tours.

Pei Muchan was nowhere to be found; it seemed she wasn't in Heartbeat Photo Shoot either.

After leaving the beach villa, Shen Jinyue hopped and skipped all the way, spilling the beans. Nobody asked her, yet she chattered away the entire route.

It seemed like the directorial team held an emergency meeting overnight, debating for a long while whether to lower the trending topic on social media, but in the end, they let it go.

The whole night was chaotic, and the originally planned Heartbeat Message segment from the evening before was also temporarily canceled.

However, the latest news that Xu Qingyan got from the director was that "Love Hunter" had successfully created buzz, and the scriptwriting team had worked overnight to add two new characters.

The rules of the game were to undergo some minor changes, with the aim of increasing the viewership retention rate.

Subtext: there was no need to add more dramatic elements to the show.

The script intended for him had been revised, with the main purpose of shifting the style more towards a conventional romance reality show to attract a loyal viewer base.

"Eh?" Shen Jinyue spotted a loophole. "Weren't you and Sister Pei chained together? Where's the chain?"

"I went nuts last night and have already put the silver chain up for sale on Idle Fish," Xu Qingyan replied casually. "After such a big incident yesterday, of course, they unchained me."

"That makes sense. I haven't really seen anyone around this morning," Shen Jinyue nodded.

The island wasn't densely populated, and life moved at a slower pace.

The two walked down the road for a while and sat down at a roadside stall under a big banyan tree not far from the seaside park. A camera crew was filming them, drawing curious looks from real passersby.

Partly it was the presence of the cameras, and partly people wanted to see what kind of extraordinary character would take a beautiful girl wearing a camisole to eat at a roadside stall.

The two sat opposite each other at a small table, each ordering a breakfast set.

Xu Qingyan sat with his back to the camera out of habit, simply because the "happy valley" across from him was rather glaring. He wasn't too worried about losing face but didn't want to get caught by the camera glancing over and earn a reputation as a pervert.

"Can I get another cup of soy milk?" Shen Jinyue asked cautiously.

"Sure, but if it's over three yuan, forget it."

"You are such a penny-pincher!" Shen Jinyue immediately got upset.

The sea breeze was blowing, the distant sky was a brilliant azure, and fluffy white clouds like pulled cotton candy were hanging. The sunlight was warm on the skin; it was a rare sunny Qing Tian.

"When you're my age, you'll understand that any soy milk over three yuan includes an idiot tax," Xu Qingyan didn't pamper her at all.

"Oh."

It wasn't long before Shen Jinyue came back with a big cup of soy milk, her mouth almost splitting with delight.

"What's up? You're so happy? Did the wind slap some cash on your face?"

"No way!" Shen Jinyue sat down, huffed, and proudly flaunted her soy milk, "This six-yuan soy milk, I bargained it down to three yuan. Impressive, huh?"

"Impressive." Xu Qingyan complimented her, then silently decided to go to a different place to eat tomorrow.

The barrage of live comments was full of sympathy, with a one-sided denunciation of Xu Qingyan. Words like 'poor ghost' and 'loser' crowded the screen. Thankfully, he wasn't looking at his phone at all.

Shen Jinyue, however, liked to sneak peeks at the live comments, because they usually were praising her. Except for this time—it seemed as soon as she got close to Xu Qingyan, the mood shifted.

"Moon, stay away from the loser. Can't even afford six-yuan soy milk; living too much for you?"

"That's a bit toxic, is this scripted?"

"I always feel like Moon likes staying with the loser too much, can't stand it, going to unfollow. Don't end up throwing yourself at trash men, okay!"

Xu Qingyan was eating his steamed buns with big bites when he looked up and saw Shen Jinyue, her head bent over her phone, wiping away tears. He immediately froze, the steamed bun forgotten, his expression shifting from confusion to respect in a flash.

Can tomb-sweeping go cyber too these days?

"What are you doing?" he asked, a little too curious.

Shen Jinyue didn't speak, just handed him her phone. On the screen was their live stream seen from a follower perspective, with aggressive comments scrolling non-stop.

He glanced at it, and suddenly couldn't hide his annoyance.

What was wrong with being young and broke? Not everyone is born rich. Don't mock the young for being poor. Just wait a few more years of hard work, then he wouldn't even be young anymore.

"Stop crying. Next time, don't hang out alone with me," said Xu Qingyan as he pushed the phone back to her, also passing her a tissue.

"I should take the blame too; I just wanted someone to join me for breakfast."

Shen Jinyue was still wiping her tears when she heard Xu Qingyan's words. She suddenly stopped crying, looked up at him defiantly, and said,

"It's not your fault; it was my own choice to sneak a look at the comments."

Xu Qingyan didn't say anything, just picked up a steamed bun and continued eating, "Next time, just keep your distance from me, and you won't get sprayed too."

"What about Sister Pei?" she asked, sniffling.

"What about her?"

"Isn't she also close to you? Why does it seem like Sister Pei doesn't care at all?" Shen Jinyue wiped her tears, turning over her phone to cover it up.

"Her? Maybe she never looks at the comments." Xu Qingyan gave a half-hearted response before suddenly recalling the small misunderstanding between him and Pei Muchan from the night before; he hadn't seen her in the morning either.

Now that Shen Jinyue mentioned it, he started to feel a bit nervous inside.

At that moment, a ding-dong sounded.

On the food stall, both their phones received a message from the production crew. They opened it to find that the crew had sent the latest task arrangements.

[Heartbeat Photo Shoot]

[Five male guests may invite a female guest of their liking to take part in a Heartbeat Photo Shoot, located around the coast. Please gather in the living room on the first floor of Love Cottage as soon as possible.]

Seeing this, the two of them could only lower their heads and rush to finish their breakfast. The leftover soy milk Shen Jinyue had brought with her. She drank it on the way, struggling to finish it with a bloated belly.

The two entered the living room together, only to find that everyone else had already arrived; they turned out to be the last ones.

Pei Muchan, looking like she'd just been out for a run, was sitting on the couch playing with her phone. It was only when she heard the noise that she looked up, casting a quick glance at Xu Qingyan standing beside Shen Jinyue.