Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

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"An acquaintance?" Lin Wanzhou asked curiously.

"A broker, met once," said Xu Qingyan, slowly turning the steering wheel, and added, "He might have changed careers, probably makes videos now."

....

By the time Xu Qingyan returned to Cicada Studio, it was exactly five in the afternoon.

He carried a misty veil of rain on him as he headed upstairs and found Pei Muchan in the office, so he swiped his card and walked straight through the glass door.

Pei Muchan didn't look up at him, as if the office had only air in it.

She was slumped over the desk, her body rounded, propping up her head with her hand, clicking away at her mouse, lazily staring at her computer screen. Dressed as an office lady, she wore black stockings and high heels.

"Is your cold getting any better?" he asked.

"Mhm," she nodded, then ignored him and buried her head back into her computer.

By evening, the weather outside was rainy, and through the half-opened window, one could smell the strong scent of the rain. It also made the air in the office damp, creating a unique atmosphere.

The autumn rain was restrained, not arriving early, but unexpectedly, a short downpour occurred at the end of summer.

"Did you take your temperature?" He stopped half a meter away from Pei Muchan's desk, then suddenly turned back and fetched a thermometer from a drawer.

It must have been his vigorous arm swings that were too eye-catching, forcing Pei Muchan to finally raise her head and look directly at him, only to realize he was almost soaked through.

His hair was flattened on one side, the wet strands sticking to his forehead, making him look rather disheveled.

But he continued to shake the thermometer with all his might, not the electronic type that you place on your forehead, but an old-fashioned mercury thermometer.

There were so many oddities at once, Pei Muchan almost wanted to initiate a conversation.

"Whether you're better or not is not up for you to decide, the thermometer has the final say," he passed the thermometer to her, his long arm like a bridge, "Take your temperature."

She hesitated for a while but eventually, in silence, took the thermometer.

The thing had to be tucked inside her clothes, and Pei Muchan's attire was rather tight. She hesitated several times, not wanting to insert the thermometer into her armpit in front of him.

"Oh, sorry," said Xu Qingyan, tactfully turning away.

The office was spacious, but without much for cover, with a reception area outside. It was actually Pei Muchan's private office, simply furnished with an extra desk.

"There's a disposable towel over there. Wipe your hair with it," she finally couldn't help but speak.

"Okay."

Xu Qingyan walked over and indeed pulled out a box from the sofa's edge. It was full of assorted single-use toiletries, looking quite high-end.

He stood there wiping his hair, awkwardly repeating the motion, as if his head was about to rub raw. He looked pitiful, a spitting image of a stray dog.

Three to five minutes passed without a word spoken.

Pei Muchan was beginning to feel unsettled herself. Although unclear about what she was angry about since noon, she hadn't eaten anything, watching the time trickle slowly by.

There was a resentment, building up in her heart with nowhere to vent.

She had drafted the script in her mind, full of reasons to question or, from another angle, to complain. But once face to face with the person, all those words seemed to vanish.

Ever since Xu Qingyan started renting on his own, she knew he was slippery as an eel, not the staunchly upright sort of gentleman.

He was like those cunning, almost bewitching figures in movies, unwilling to trust everything about others, yet paradoxically willing to offer the utmost sincerity to others.

Always measuring his moves, there was a sense of readiness to retreat at any moment.

Five minutes had passed.

He approached her and stretched out his hand in a gesture of request.

"The thermometer, let me take a look," he said.

Pei Muchan: "...."

She hadn't expected that the sorry-looking figure who had dried his hair would return to his commanding presence. He wasn't exactly pompous, but rather had a certain unassuming dignity.

At times, he didn't treat her like a diva, nor as an older sister.

Did she look that easy to bully?

"Not giving," she said.

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"Then get an injection, I guess you haven't recovered fully," he said indifferently.

"Oh, here you go." Pei Muchan had intended to retort, but seeing his damp upper body, she suddenly softened, "I'm really not sick, my health has always been very good."

"Hmm, you don't get to decide that." His indifferent eyelids weighed down on his double eyelids, appearing rather perfunctory.

A single sentence almost made the little queen's blood run dry in her throat, and she could only silently chant to herself not to get angry. She couldn't afford to have her treasured collaborative partner snatched away.

"Tsk, if you want to see, I'll let you see it." Her words were ambiguous, but as soon as she realized they were inappropriate, her hand had already touched the thermometer, and she was caught in an awkward position.

Her chest rose and fell slightly, drawing together and looking rather spectacular.

Pei Muchan's face flushed for a moment, and in a fit of pique, she yanked out the thermometer and irritably handed it to him. Their eyes met, briefly heating the moment.

"Here you go."

"Hmm."

Xu Qingyan was already taller than her, and now that she was sitting, the height difference that came with a special emotional proximity brought a natural tension.

Ambiguity spread like wildfire in the shadows.

He looked down and couldn't see the reading clearly, so he raised it and looked for a while longer.

"Your temperature's a bit high."

"I'll just make you some medicine, and there's no need to go to the hospital," he said.

At that, Pei Muchan felt as if she had been granted a reprieve and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Then she wondered why she felt obliged to listen to him when she was clearly the older sister.

She lifted her eyes to glance at him. Xu Qingyan wasn't looking back, and he turned to boil some water instead.

It only takes half a minute to heat water on the tea table. Less than a minute later, he came back with a half-cup of brownish hot remedy and set it on the table. He pushed it towards her with the back of his hand raised like a mountain ridge.

She looked down, fixating her gaze on the back of Xu Qingyan's hand. Whenever he applied a slight force, blue veins would surface on his cool, pale hand.

That perfectly indulged one of her secret little quirks, greatly satisfying her inside.

"I never thought about leaving, you've been very kind to me, and we haven't completed the promised album yet." He suddenly voiced his feelings at that moment, catching her somewhat off guard.

Pei Muchan was slightly dazed but listened to every word.

Xu Qingyan said, "I'm not that easy to run off, either. We have a long road to walk together in the future, and I should be able to see the day you become the queen of pop."

From the beginning, she knew clearly that without Xu Qingyan, she might have already sold off her studio and left the music scene. Sometimes she was amazed at how low he could be.

But before Pei Muchan could respond, in the next second, he spoke again.

"Drink the medicine first."

"I didn't have lunch." She said uneasily, the agitation in her heart fading away, suddenly feeling hungry, "I'm so hungry, let's drink it in the evening."

"Then let's go eat, we can go together," Xu Qingyan said.

"Okay."

The two were preparing to leave, and Xu Qingyan casually drank half a cup of the cold remedy—this stuff isn't much different from syrup—while Pei Muchan's hunger made her anxious.

She glanced up and stared at the cup in Xu Qingyan's hand.

"Hungry," she muttered quietly.

"Let's go, we'll eat now." He put down the glass in his hand and said, looking at her, "I made reservations on the phone earlier, if we go now, we'll be able to eat right away."

"My legs are weak now, I can't walk," Pei Muchan muttered, her face starting to heat up, and she silently averted her gaze, "Do you have any sugar or something like that?"

"Sugar?" Xu Qingyan was slightly astonished.

Looking around, neither he nor Pei Muchan had the habit of snacking; their self-discipline was frightening. She drank her coffee almost without sugar, and he drank his tea without any either.

The only sweet thing in the studio was probably the cold remedy.

"Can the remedy do? I can make you another cup," he asked, "Although it's best to drink it after meals, but in a pinch, drinking a little should be fine."

"No need, I don't want to wait," her voice wavered slightly and diminished, "I'm so hungry, I'll just drink something and go..."

Her words drifted like a stone thrown into a lake, never reaching the bottom.

After speaking, she picked up the half-cup of remedy, flushed with embarrassment, gulped it down, and her body was nourished by the sugar. Now she couldn't even look straight at Xu Qingyan, and said, "Let's... let's go."