Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

Chapter 195 Accumulate Thickly, Burst Forth in Popularity!!

After many years, when the past was brought up again, Xu Qingyan felt somewhat embarrassed.

He had almost forgotten about it, but her mentioning it suddenly brought everything back. The emotions of that time had long since blurred, leaving only the memory of a soft touch.

"Uh, I was young back then," he said, averting his gaze. We were all flowers of the motherland; it was just a touch of hands then.

The atmosphere in the rural middle school was polarized, conservative yet open at the same time. Some would blush for half a day from just brushing arms, while others would fool around in the graveyards behind the hills.

"Do you want to arm wrestle again?" she suddenly asked.

Huh?

Xu Qingyan turned to look at her. Her expression remained unchanged, her gaze fixed on the river under the setting sun. She didn't turn her head, but her eyes glanced over with intense scrutiny through her peripheral vision.

Her tone was as if she had mentioned something trivial, perhaps just a spur of the moment thought.

"You can't beat me anyway. Are you that strong?"

"Not strong!" Lin Wanzhou said with certainty, nearly making him think he had heard wrong.

"Alright then."

Xu Qingyan thought about it and then nodded in agreement. He didn't find it interesting; it wasn't as if he hadn't held her hand before. Last time, on the way to Pucheng District, when they were climbing the hill.

He had grabbed it lightly and hadn't felt much.

The railing wasn't high. The two propped their elbows on the railing and slowly joined hands.

A larger and a smaller palm pressed tightly together. When their skins rubbed against each other, she felt the calluses on his palm, ticklish and prickly. His hands were cold and pale, the veins clear, and when he opened his hands, the long bones were visible.

At this moment, their thumbs pressed close to each other, then clasped together.

...

Saturday, eight at night.

In a small studio called "The Bird Speaks Memes," a group of young people nestled inside under the bright lights. Some were slacking off, while others worked hard, and since few of them had partners, they had plenty of free time.

The studio had a good team atmosphere, with the young and approachable boss, Sun Mingyuan, who had a hint of introversion. Everyone in the team had mixed-up schedules, and their personalities were the cheerful and sillier kind.

"Where's the boss? Why isn't he here to help me with overtime?" Xiaoyan suddenly held up her phone camera close to capture her colleague Xiaoqing's reaction to the question.

Their studio was fairly small and sometimes relied on short videos of studio shenanigans for advertising or to attract traffic.

"You could just hurry him up; Sun always just sleeps at home anyway, he's idle." Xiaoqing was more reserved and didn't talk much, serving as the face of the group.

Xiaoyan had only recently started working, still fresh and without much of the work grind in her. A writer of sketches for the studio, she was also the main person for shooting videos and often appeared in front of the camera to run the studio's account.

The studio's initial purpose of creation was to record the imprints of an era's words, like the fleeting 'giving up literature' trend, or internet memes that resonated with specific groups.

The philosophy of the studio was that the words of the new era were just as significant as those of the past, and recording the evolution of their meanings was a romantic endeavor in itself.

People cling to the past because as life goes on, it tends to get harder, with most living not so smoothly.

Xiaoyan wasn't nostalgic. More accurately, everyone at the studio faced life actively. They recorded today's words and stored them in software for others to search.

"Then I'll call him. Sun always drags his feet, barely able to differentiate the big issues from the small." Xiaoyan dialed the phone, which after several tones, connected.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" Xiaoyan asked.

"On the road."

"Which road? I just saw you online in the game. You haven't come, have you?" Xiaoyan said with a giggle, "Which road? Top, mid, or bottom lane?"

"I've been offline a long time, I took a cab." A helpless voice came over the phone from Sun Mingyuan, "I'm in the cab, almost there, will arrive soon."

"Then pass the phone to the driver." Xiaoyan barely contained her laughter, swiftly panning the camera over Xiaoqing's face,

"Are you crazy? How can I give the phone to the driver from the back seat? That could get caught on camera and lead to a fine!"

Both were trying to keep from laughing. Xiaoyan, looking foolish with a smile, called out,

"Hurry up! Let the driver take the phone."

"Seriously, who gives a phone to a driver while taking a cab? Wait up." Sun Mingyuan rustled around on the other end of the phone for a bit, then a man's voice came through, "Is this Xiaoyan? Sun Mingyuan just left the house."

"Dad, that's not what you were supposed to say!"

"If Xiaoyan is looking for you, there must be something at the studio. As the boss, shouldn't you check it out, instead of being less proactive than Xiaoyan?"

"No, Dad, it's already eight in the evening. Why should she go to sleep while I work overtime?"

Listening to Sun Mingyuan's meltdown, the two girls burst into laughter. The work environment had always been like this: if someone had a breakup, the entire studio would drink beer together.

If the boss wanted to go to the amusement park on Monday, the whole staff went.

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After finishing the sketch, Xiaoyan sat down at the computer and launched a variety show. Editing the video material was tomorrow's task. Once Sun Mingyuan arrived, they still had to shoot another segment, so she decided to kill some time for now.

She had a preference for dating reality shows, and recently, she was following "The Romance Hunter."

The show bore a resemblance to Werewolf, with guests carrying identity cards. Every three days, they would eliminate someone, and each would try their best to hide their identities.

After watching for a few episodes, she had roughly guessed the guests' identities. She hadn't watched the fifth episode on Friday, the day they had off.

Xiaoyan occasionally came across news of male guests from the show leaking spoilers, but she never clicked to look at them, not caring who was leaking what.

She wasn't into shipping couples; she was just there for the entertainment and to pass the time.

Click, about half an hour later, Sun Mingyuan arrived. He walked into the office, a look of resignation on his face, yet he took a seat at Xiaoyan's desk to take over her work.