invite

Lin Ting skillfully typed code, his expression calm, as he worked at his workstation.

He is a programmer. Although the company's work schedule is not as demanding as 996, overtime is still a common occurrence. The advantage is the considerable salary.

He worked overtime until after 10 p.m. today, packed up his things, turned off his computer, and rode his bike back to his rented apartment.

He rented a one-bedroom apartment in an older neighborhood. Although it looked old from the outside, the interior had been renovated and was clean and tidy. The biggest advantage of the apartment was its proximity to his workplace, which he could reach by bike in about ten minutes, passing a decent breakfast shop along the way.

After returning home, Lin Ting opened a video file and began editing it. The video contained pre-recorded audio, corresponding stage visuals and audio, and also included some illustrations.

This can be considered Lin Ting's hobby and side job. He usually finds some songs or performance stages he likes, makes videos, adds his own comments and reactions, and uploads them to video websites after editing.

This time, he only needed to do some final editing; the main content had already been completed in the past few working days after work. However, since it was already late when he left work, it was past midnight by the time he finished this part of the work.

Lin Ting had to go to work the next day, so she didn't linger and quickly washed up before lying in bed.

Before going to bed, he casually opened Weibo and glanced at the trending topics, only to see a very familiar sentence.

Why did Zhao Qinfeng lip-sync and play such poor audio? [Hot Topic]

He recognized the video because he said almost the exact same thing in the video he posted yesterday, so he clicked on the trending topic and saw a bunch of marketing accounts.

Lin Ting's videos were only posted on one specific video website and were not uploaded to Weibo. He discovered that these marketing accounts had cut out about ten seconds of video containing the trending topic from his full videos and then abruptly ended the clip.

He spent a long time scrolling through the comments section of this trending topic before he finally understood what was going on.

There was a music awards ceremony last night, and a huge number of celebrities, singers, and actors gathered together. The organizers arranged for it to be broadcast live, and Lin Ting happened to get off work early, so she joined in the fun and watched to find some material for her video.

Lin Ting has never had high expectations for live broadcasts in the Chinese entertainment industry. It is standard practice for actors to play pre-recorded and edited audio. The strength of boy groups and girl groups varies greatly, and there are often singers who lip-sync, including some well-known singers.

Lin Ting mainly focuses on the singers. After watching several shows, there weren't many surprises. Lip-syncing and live singing were about 50/50, and most of them weren't very good.

Lin Ting would often wonder while watching the live stream why she had to torture herself like this, but each time she would still hold onto a sliver of hope: maybe this time it would be better than before?

No way. The more Lin Ting looked, the more restless she became. Being tormented by work all day was bad enough, but listening to these performances was even more disheartening.

However, since the next guest performer on the show was Zhao Qinfeng, he calmed down a bit.

Zhao Qinfeng is a highly skilled singer, always guaranteeing live performances in his live broadcasts, and is also a professional sound system repairman. Lin Ting perked up, ready to listen carefully and cleanse her ears.

Lin Ting sat up straight and began to listen, but what she heard was a very strange singing. The voice was indeed Zhao Qinfeng's voice, but it was far from the quality of his usual singing. Even the lip movements were off, and the treatment of some embellishments was also very strange.

Lin Ting listened to the live stream in a state of near agony, and immediately exploded afterward. He didn't have time to deal with the remaining programs; he immediately turned off the live stream and started recording his rant.

He certainly wouldn't directly pin the blame on Zhao Qinfeng; he simply suspected that the organizers of the gala had directly played the audio recordings that Zhao Qinfeng had made during rehearsals.

"I really don't understand why so many performances at such a formal live broadcast are completely lip-synced. And why play such poor audio if they're lip-syncing? Listen to Zhao Qinfeng's performance; the execution is so weak. If you listen carefully, you can hear background noise. I thought they were showing some behind-the-scenes footage..."

Lin Ting's video was just an impromptu rant; he didn't put much effort into editing it like his usual videos. His intention was simply to complain about the arrangements of the gala.

He never expected that a blogger like himself, who only writes music reviews and has little influence, would be subjected to malicious editing and dissemination by marketing accounts, and even inexplicably become a trending topic.

He clicked on the video and glanced at the video he had posted yesterday, and was shocked by the number of views and online viewers.

Lin Ting thought for a moment and realized that someone was just using him as a pawn; it had nothing to do with him in essence. Those who had the patience to find and watch his original video would naturally understand what he was really trying to say, while those who easily believed that ten-second clip probably didn't have the patience to listen to his explanation. So he didn't bother to make any further explanation, plugged his phone into the charger, turned off the light, and went to sleep.

Zhao Qinfeng, a singer with considerable popularity, frequently trends on social media whenever he has a show or performance airing. The next day, Zhao Qinfeng trended again because of a small clip from a popular variety show. This trending topic happened to be adjacent to the one Lin Ting saw for a short while before moving away. However, while the two were adjacent, someone took a screenshot and posted it on Weibo, resulting in dozens of comments attacking Lin Ting.

Lin Ting uses his real name on the internet, so attacks from others don't have the barrier of his online name; they are directed directly at him.

Lin Ting turned a blind eye to this, because his style of music criticism is straightforward, honest in praise and concise in criticism. He does not consider himself a fan of anyone, and all his comments are about the issue, not the person. He always makes a clear distinction between these two.

Lin Ting knew that there were too many uncertainties in his life, like that cat that was neither alive nor dead; the outcome wouldn't be known until the moment of observation. But one thing was certain: he had to go to work.

On Monday morning at 7:29, the cell phone on the bedside table suddenly rang loudly—the chorus of a song. Lin Ting had a peculiar habit: he would choose the chorus of a song he didn't like as his ringtone, so that he would be in pain and quickly turn it off.

Lin Ting reached out and accurately turned off the alarm clock, then sat up, rubbing her messy short hair. Sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains into the unlit bedroom, casting a golden ribbon across the floor. Lin Ting stared at the light for a moment, then finally rolled out of bed.

He quickly washed up, changed into casual clothes, slung his bag over his shoulder, and left home. Many working-class people lived in this apartment building, so the elevators were especially busy at this time. Lin Ting was lucky today; he encountered the elevator that was about to arrive at his floor as soon as he stepped out.

The space inside an elevator is like water in a sponge; you can always squeeze in a few more people. It's also a bit like a bottle that can hold sand even after you've put in stones; it's never quite full.

Encountering an elevator like this, carefully squeezing in is only the first step. Lin Ting, standing inside, didn't dare to breathe, unsure of where to look, so she habitually closed her eyes.

With his vision deliberately blocked, his other senses became more sensitive. He could smell the aroma of breakfast, hear the notification sound of a message on his phone, and feel the friction between the clothes of the person next to him.

"First floor, we've arrived," the elevator announcement sounded.

Hearing the sound, Lin Ting opened her eyes and followed the people in the elevator out, finally able to breathe some fresh air.

Lin Ting was incredibly grateful that her company didn't require her to wear formal attire to get off work, as her casual clothes could be easily shaken out of place.

When he arrived at the company building with freshly baked buns, he felt a substance called "the smell of work" slowly seeping into him. Lin Ting took out his phone from his pocket and opened the work attendance interface.

Just as he was about to make his first payment of the week, a phone call suddenly came in.

It was an unknown number, but the number format didn't seem like a spam or sales call. He paused for a moment, then swiped his phone sharply to go back to the card-swiping screen, swipe the card, and then switched back to answer the call.

Lin Ting said, "Hello?"

A calm female voice came from the other end of the phone: "Hello, is this Teacher Jinglinting?"

"It's me. May I ask who you are?" Lin Ting replied.

Using your real name as your online name has a downside: when you receive a phone call, you're unsure which identity the caller is after.

"I'm Qiu Mingyue, a variety show director at Hunan TV. We're currently preparing a music variety show and would like to invite several senior music critics as regular guests. Would you be interested?" The other party made their intentions very clear.

Although the name "Qiu Mingyue" is not as well-known as some celebrities' names, Lin Ting knows this name. After all, several music variety shows that have been mentioned in the past five years were created by this director Qiu, making him a very popular variety show director in the industry.

"You flatter me. I'm not exactly a senior colleague. I have some things to attend to right now. Let's exchange contact information and talk later." Lin Ting had just clocked out and was about to go to work, so he didn't have time to have a detailed conversation with the other party at the moment.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Ting added the other party on WeChat, then went into the company and went to her workstation with ease.

After sitting down, Lin Ting began to recall the phone call he had just received. He had been writing music reviews for ten years and making videos for seven. In the past few years, he had received invitations to write music reviews or appear on variety shows. He would occasionally accept the former, but he had never accepted the latter. The person who invited him asked if he didn't want to appear on screen.

Lin Ting neither confirmed nor denied it. In fact, he hadn't thought about it in detail, but over time, no one invited him to appear on variety shows anymore.

Could this invitation be influenced by that trending topic from last time? Lin Ting decided to subtly inquire about it when she contacted Director Qiu later.

Lin Ting sent out the message, and Director Qiu on the other side opened it and burst out laughing at the people next to him.

Zhao Qinfeng sat next to her. He seemed quite used to Qiu Mingyue's exaggerated reactions.

After Qiu Mingyue finished laughing, she quickly replied to the message she received, and then handed the phone to Zhao Qinfeng.

"He's quite clever; he immediately thought of what happened a few days ago. I wonder what you, as the other party involved, think about that?"

Zhao Qinfeng looked at Qiu Mingyue's phone, which showed a message from Lin Ting asking if the variety show was also planning to invite Zhao Qinfeng. Qiu Mingyue frankly admitted that they had indeed invited him.

"Do you really need this much buzz? You probably won't be able to get him here with this kind of invitation," Zhao Qinfeng said, somewhat speechless.

“Sigh, you can never have too much buzz. It’s not easy to do variety shows these days, so I have to actively find a way out,” Qiu Mingyue said with a smile, putting her phone away. “Besides, I think his style is pretty good. He’s a rare music critic who speaks with reason. If we can invite him, we’ll have more buzz, and the quality of the critique segment will also be elevated.”

Zhao Qinfeng remained silent.

Qiu Mingyue glanced at him sideways and said teasingly, "What, you don't want to meet him?"

"No, I'd be happy to," Zhao Qinfeng replied.