Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

"National calamity, family vendetta, I pledge unto the nation, unto you."

"Return home..."

The singing intertwined with the story of the MV, the camera constantly switching scenes. From childhood sweethearts to newlyweds, in the misty rain like smoke, the red bridal attire, and the army green uniform.

On the battlefield, the moment the red blaze ignited, the sound of the suona erupted.

Without any exaggeration, Chai Qingshan felt every pore on his body tremble incessantly. As if weeping blood, the world in the video changed its colors to nothing but... red.

The indistinct operatic singing suddenly joined in, "Leaving Xiliang Pass on horseback, rushing back to the cold kiln to see Bao Chuan. In the official residence, counting the grain, they ascend the hall, happily reunited once more."

The suona pressed forward once again, Pei Muchan's emotionally charged singing gradually weaving in.

"I ride my white horse through three passes! Changing into plain clothes, I return to the Central Plains..."

The suona, the operatic singing, the song—all melded together yet with clear distinctions. It was like a grand opera, slowly drawing to a close, leaving nothing but darkness.

Chai Qingshan remained in a dazed state for a long time, his hands still trembling lightly, not yet fully detached from the storyline depicted in the MV.

It's true you can't compare works, the Mid-Autumn Festival programs that had seemed passable before now felt utterly lackluster after Chai Qingshan watched the MV.

They hadn't really put any effort into it, just rearranging the music and following a template. Claiming to combine tradition with modernity as an excuse, but in essence, they were neglectful.

When he returned to the group chat, he found that the topic had changed several times. He had to scroll up a fair bit to find the link to the MV that Zhang Min sent, then replied to it personally.

"Impressive." Find your next read at empire

After replying, he didn't promote it in the group chat, as the scrolling messages wouldn't pay attention to his topic.

Lying in bed, Chai Qingshan stared at the white ceiling, his thoughts revolving around, still dominated by scenes from the MV. He couldn't help but hum the operatic part softly.

"Leaving Xiliang Pass on horseback, rushing back to the cold kiln....."

As he hummed, he sat up and went to sit in front of the computer, opened Premiere Pro, and started importing local files for editing, ready to make a video.

Mid-Autumn night.

As soon as the edited MV video was published, the viewership skyrocketed instantly. Followed by analysis threads, the number of satirical videos for Mid-Autumn Festival programs increased.

Netizens were astonished to find that the quality of the viral "Riding the White Horse" MV was better than all the programs of the Mid-Autumn festival, and it fitted the Mid-Autumn theme even more.

Overnight, the "Riding the White Horse" explainer post's likes soared to seven hundred thousand.

The next day, at noon.

Xu Qingyan had just finished transcribing "The Wind Rises" and was contemplating his next steps to produce the song when suddenly, Lin Chuan sent him a message.

"The MV is trending."

At first glance, he was a bit bewildered, working too hard, almost mistook it for AV.

"What do you mean?"

"Just search for 'Riding the White Horse' on Douhai and you'll see; someone made an appreciation post for the MV," Lin Chuan's voice message came straight through.

"The blogger must be a professional from the industry; the analysis is quite expert. Anyway... your MV is on fire, and so is the song that goes with it."

After listening, Xu Qingyan seemed to understand, opened the short video app, and saw it. Today's hot list, top trending search, "Riding the White Horse" MV.

He didn't click on it but instead exited to take a look at Weibo. Only Douhai hot search featured it; other places were quiet—this was a normal flash of fame.

Seeing this, he breathed a sigh of relief.

If "Riding the White Horse" was frantically trending everywhere, reaching the top of the hot search in such a short time, that would be a truly harrowing event.

He had been recently promoting Ji Chen and was afraid that others would use the same method against him.

The intention to keep a low profile after gaining fame was also part of his plan—after all, without a legitimate status, if interviews don't spark interest, he would have to change his tactics.

Xu Qingyan took the time to glance at the trending videos and left halfway through; the video was purely praise. The comments below were also very cordial, which made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"It's actually 'Riding the White Horse,' I've seen this MV before, and it was indeed stunning."

"Passing by as a fan of Love Variety shows, stating that this MV has already gone viral for the second time. Teacher Xu really knows how to shoot; after becoming famous, he quietly works on his projects."

"Mu Qiang fans are ecstatic, before I was a fan of Xu Qingyan but dared not speak out, fearing mockery. Now I can whisper that he truly exceeds expectations."

"Sister Pei is amazing as well, but this MV is really well shot. I'm a lifelong Xu critic, but now I have to concede, shout out to Director Xu, well done!"

"Traditional Chinese style mixed with opera, it's..."

He swiped away but suddenly felt an urge to laugh. He originally thought he'd have to wait for the interview to air to clear his name. Looking at it now, it seems the current situation had already washed away many labels from him.

Just then, Pei Muchan and Lin Wanzhou both sent messages asking about this matter; Xu Qingyan patiently replied one by one.

"Someone made a short video that went viral."

By the afternoon, Pei Muchan flew back to Xinghai.

Xu Qingyan drove to pick her up and took the opportunity to confirm the time to meet with Lin Chuan in the evening. He calculated that he would still have some time left after picking up Pei Muchan.

Meanwhile, Lin Wanzhou and Qi Ting were also planning to return to Xinghai today. Their schedules didn't coincide, and there was no arrangement to meet today, so they simply pushed it back.

Zhou Mian sent a message that the articles and short videos released by the marketing accounts were effective. A few articles breached one hundred thousand reads, and two videos broke five hundred thousand views.

The promotional effect was unexpectedly great, #JiChenPairsWithTaiTemple# had made it onto the hot search list.

Zhou Mian: "Brother Xu, I'm dying of laughter, your post seems to have been taken by Ji Chen's fan club to make a super topic."

Xu Qingyan: "Show a little respect for my geigei, loyalty!"