Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

"How long did you sleep this afternoon?"

"A little over half an hour, I couldn't really fall asleep." Xu Qingyan picked up the pork belly, dipped it in some sauce, and wrapped it in a lettuce leaf before stuffing it directly into his mouth.

The taste was indeed not bad, but it wasn't particularly amazing.

Although he wasn't very well-off, his part-time jobs had exposed him to various cuisines, so he had seen a bit of everything. The Western Eight restaurant was just average, good enough to make do with when eating instant noodles.

"I think I slept for three hours." Pei Muchan played with the brown cumin powder on her plate while eating the barbecue and chatting leisurely with Xu Qingyan.

"You don't usually sleep much, right? You knock out as soon as you have some alcohol."

"Yes, I've had insomnia before."

"Was it because of a breakup?" he asked.

"Why do you ask that?" Pei Muchan picked out a steak and with a sizzle, placed it onto the grill, "Do I look like someone who's been in a relationship?"

"That's hard to say, it's not like it's written on your face whether you've been in a relationship or not." He replied.

"How about you?" she countered.

"It's written on my payment QR code, you can try scanning it with your phone." Xu Qingyan's flirtatious move was so sudden that Pei Muchan paused for a moment.

With a sizzle, white smoke rose, and a small amount of hot oil splattered within a limited area. The summer night was quiet and lengthy, the chirping of insects came in waves from the rooftop, and occasionally, the booming conversation of Bai Jinze at the next table could be heard.

"Stop joking around." Pei Muchan brushed back the hair that had fallen beside her ear with her right hand, which was not bound by the silver chain, "Is it inconvenient for you to talk about it?"

"There's nothing inconvenient, but I have an idea, we can say it at the same time." Xu Qingyan said nonchalantly, "Have you heard of 'Sleeve Qiankun'?"

"Ah?" She looked up at him, hesitated for a moment, then tentatively asked, "The one that merchants use to propose a price?"

"Yeah." Xu Qingyan nodded, "It's about squeezing fingers inside the sleeve to negotiate a price, but that's too troublesome. Let's slightly modify the rules."

"If the answer is zero times, you squeeze my thumb. If it's once, you squeeze my index finger. And so on, what do you think?"

"Then who goes first, no, who squeezes first?" Pei Muchan asked.

Meanwhile, in the control room behind the scenes.

"Oh!!!! The data's exploded!!!!"

The place was in an uproar, watching the images on the monitors and the continuously rising curve of online viewership, everyone was excitedly red-faced and clapping each other on the back.

These were results, indeed, explosive results on the first day!

Are they squeezing fingers? No, it's the damn prize money, all the whooshing sounds of prize money!

The invisible staff in the control room clutched their mobile phones, weakly adjusted their round-framed glasses, and couldn't help revealing a thrilled smile on their faces.

The number of live viewers watching increased the moment Xu Qingyan led Pei Muchan to the rooftop, as if hitting the audience's G-spot, the data skyrocketed unceasingly.

Even more awesome was the fact that it was only eight o'clock in the evening, prime time for night broadcasts, and viewers were still flooding into the live stream!

The most popular live stream had initially only had six hundred thousand viewers online, but as soon as Xu Qingyan brought up the idea of squeezing fingers, the viewership suddenly surged by seventy thousand.

Mostly streaming in from other live channels, coupled with some viewers clicking in from the video website's homepage after seeing the big promotion, all adding up bit by bit.

As of now, the number of people online in the rooftop live streaming room is close to eight hundred thousand!

What does eight hundred thousand people mean? It's enough for Li Yunlong to fight his way from Ping'an County to the imperial Neon palace.

And this is just the first day's result, without the program team even having time to purchase trending searches. Thanks to Xu Qingyan, the program has already trended for free twice.

No one in the directorial team now doubts Xu Qingyan anymore; he's not a guest, he's like the God of Wealth.

"Damn, the data exploded on the first day! This guy is a talent!" Li Nan from the directorial team clenched his fist excitedly, then turned to Zhou Mian from the props team.

"Too powerful, looking forward to a bonus! I really don't know where the director found such talent, I'm genuinely impressed."

"Yeah." Zhou Mian tugged at the corner of his mouth, smiling awkwardly, not knowing how to continue the conversation.

Of course, he's also happy about the surge in the program's data, since it was linked to this year's bonus, and surviving the first season meant there could be a second one.

But to be honest, he knew that everyone, including himself, was just riding on Xu Qingyan's coattails.

The person who had gone against everyone's opinion and insisted on keeping Pei Muchan in the dark to sign Brother Xu for a million was none other than Director Chen himself. At that time, almost no one in the directorial team had faith in the amateur.

It was only the director who defied everyone, gave the script to Xu Qingyan, and let him run with it. Even when Xu Qingyan made various demands, the director alone supported him.

It was precisely because of this persistence that today's successful premiere of the show existed.

As for whether the program would explode tomorrow, or whether it would become a pioneer in creating a new era of romance reality live streaming, Zhou Mian was uncertain.

But he was clear that the 'amazing' mentioned by Lin Nan was limited to Xu Qingyan alone. Anyone else would be a loss even if they could get Little Empress Pei Muchan to glance an extra time.

It can only be said that the current achievements are thanks to the mutual help between the director and Brother Xu. As for others, including Zhou Mian himself, they were merely reaping the benefits.

Zhou Mian sighed, pulled out his phone, and looked at it—his cousin Zhou Lili had sent him up to twenty messages, and the number was still rising.

Looking at the blinking red dot, he could already imagine Zhou Lili sending several meaningless groundhog screaming memes. It seemed like they were really... on fire.

Rooftop, in front of the camera.

Since Xu Qingyan's right hand was tied to her left hand, Pei Muchan could only pick up the coat, adjust it, and then slide her right hand into the solitary sleeve through the collar.

"Here, stretch your hand in from that side." She lifted the sleeve, walked around the table, and handed it to Xu Qingyan.

"Okay, are your hands cold?" he asked, but his hands moved quickly.

"Cold, like a piece of ice. I'm going to hold onto your fingers and not let go, freeze you to death!" Pei Muchan glanced at him, a gentle smile in her eyes.

It seemed to be an illusion, but he could clearly see a teasing narrowness in her eyes. He internally exclaimed, realizing that even the demure Little Empress liked to play tricks on people.

"Then be gentle, I wasn't worried before, but now I'm really scared." He hissed, pretending to be frightened, and carefully slipped his hand in.

"Hurry up!" Pei Muchan commanded, like a girl who had the upper hand.

The comments were overflowing with jealousy, as eight hundred thousand people watched them thread their fingers through the sleeve. If heartbreak had a sound, the sound of the comments' heartbreak would be deafening.

This was no different from an old father standing upstairs with a teacup, watching a ruffian motorcycle gang flirt with his daughter below.

As their hands slowly reached into the coat sleeve, just as Pei Muchan was about to search for his fingers, she found her own fingers crossed and tightly held in a reverse grip the next second.