Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

In the middle of the night, Xu Qingyan drove home casually to sleep, feeling an unprecedented calm.

A rain fell at midnight, pitter-pattering in a way that lulled people to sleep.

He slept deeply until seven in the morning when the air conditioning chilled him awake.

With cold fronts often following autumn rains, he walked barefoot to the window and pulled back a corner of the curtain. It was still drizzling outside, as if the lights above the clouds had been turned off, casting a faint glow.

The world suddenly seemed bleak, and a few people with umbrellas moved slowly below, their colorful canopies drifting.

He stood at the window for a while, sniffing the rain's fishy smell. He held his breath, thinking he'd win if he could hold it until the black umbrella at the front disappeared from view.

Exhaling, he let the curtain fall and returned to the bed with a pleasant mood, picking up his phone.

Being at the center of controversy the day before, he had received too many calls and messages. His WeChat kept going off nonstop, so he silenced it and ignored it.

People were still calling in the morning, unknown numbers, which he didn't answer.

Glancing at the trending search, the top spot was occupied by #I am the Song King#, followed by a red "explosive" flag. Below, only one of the top ten trending topics was related to him.

#Riding on a White Horse MV#.

The rest were hot search titles he didn't understand, and he didn't click in to see. He clicked into the top trending post to see what the show's production team was up to this time.

Upon opening it, he found that the production team hadn't been up to their usual tricks.

The original post was from a minor blogger, claiming to be a decade-long fan of diva Zhang Yuqi. They shared several photos to prove they were part of the public Judicial Auditor group.

Up to this point, the tone of the post was rather mild.

But then the style changed dramatically, directly accusing the show's production team of manipulating the votes. They claimed that even inviting a top star was just for show, with no fairness in the process.

They detailed their experience, from being selected to excitedly flying to become an audience member. Due to security checks at the entrance, they couldn't take their phones inside.

"Each person only had paper, pen, and an electronic voting device. After sitting down, a stage director came out to boost the mood. They did a good job at that, but I found out that my votes didn't seem to count!"

"The live performance of 'Riding on a White Horse' was genuinely impressive. I liked it a lot, and so did people around me. It should have been, at worst, second place."

"But! Thinking about the production team tampering with the voting process! Pei Muchan's votes, which all the audience could see, got stuck in the four hundred range for a very long time!"

"This was clearly not normal! But the production team offered no explanation afterward and even cut that part of the footage. What's worse was that the live reaction to 'Riding on a White Horse' was genuinely positive!"

"To make their vote manipulation seem more justifiable, they even edited in reactions from other shows! They tried to erase the truth, thinking no one would pursue the matter."

"I was already angry when I saw the edited footage yesterday. The production team is really skilled at this. I wouldn't have stepped forward if there hadn't been evidence."

"It was when I saw the 'Riding on a White Horse' MV released by Xu Qingyan that I felt compelled to plug it here. It's probably the best MV I've seen this year, and Pei Muchan's operatic singing is top-notch!"

"But I didn't see any of these during the actual performance! This makes one suspect whether the production team is suppressing the talent. Now in retrospect, Pei Muchan didn't even have stage effects during her performance."

"Nevertheless, the performance was still stable and explosive. Why is such a good song ranked second to last? Should excellent singers be bullied like this?"

The post was long, a two-thousand-word rant. The narrative was disorganized, flattering the production team's attentive treatment of the Judicial Auditor group at one moment and criticizing vote manipulation the next.

Written in plain language, it quickly resonated with netizens.

The highest-rated comments under the post were nearly all from Judicial Auditor audience members who had been present. They weren't beta-testers but had legitimately qualified through tests.

This was a tradition of "I am the Song King." To be fair, the show was quite outstanding in its first season. It wasn't popular yet, and everyone from the directors to the staff took it seriously.

United in purpose to create a quality music program, they established the rigorous system of the Judicial Auditor. Anyone could apply, but there were tests.

Clearing the tests wasn't enough; there would be rounds and rounds of follow-up calls until they selected the most outstanding and qualified Judicial Auditors.

So much so that by the fifth season, despite many dark secrets, the show still hadn't changed its traditions regarding the Judicial Auditor selection, ensuring its quality.

Popeye Orange: "I saw a post yesterday cursing us 'country pigs' for not liking fine bran, /smile/, and I was totally triggered. Is there a chance that my votes mattered?"

True South: "Pei's song was really extraordinary, the only one in the entire show with traditional elements. The moment that Minnan opera singing came out was just brilliant! I voted too, and even when leaving the site, people were discussing it, utterly baffled why it ended up second to last."

Only Love Infantry: "Being at the site, the issues with the production team's counting of votes were obvious, a blatant setup. What surprised me was the MV made by Xu Qingyan, top-quality stuff indeed!"

The complaints from netizens below the post were also numerous, beginning to call out "I am the Song King."

Why Not Sell My Gutter: "I saw the MV before the variety show, and the show's production team is truly dark. Who's actually watching this, allowing it to survive up to the fifth season?"