fan
Lin Ting contacted Qiu Mingyue after get off work. He was worried that she would also leave work on time and only check her messages during normal working hours, but she replied very quickly.
He didn't expect Qiu Mingyue to be so frank, saying directly that Zhao Qinfeng would come.
However, she quickly explained that she genuinely valued his abilities, not just the publicity he generated. As if to demonstrate her sincerity, Qiu Mingyue even sent over a considerable amount of information.
Lin Ting was aware that the invitation was partly motivated by a desire to generate buzz, but he was also confident in the quality of his content. He sensed sincerity in Qiu Mingyue's reply, so after carefully reviewing the materials and clarifying his responsibilities, he accepted the invitation.
Although she had turned down many invitations in the past, Lin Ting did not have much of a resistance to appearing on camera or variety shows.
The reason for accepting this variety show was partly due to recognition of Qiu Mingyue's ability and philosophy as a director, and partly due to his work.
Lin Ting joined his current company right after graduating with his bachelor's degree and has worked there for five years. The workload has been increasing while the number of employees has been decreasing, and salary increases have been extremely slow. He feels that the company's business has recently encountered problems and that a wave of layoffs is likely to follow.
Because layoffs are a very mysterious issue, Lin Ting was completely unsure whether she would be one of the laid-off employees, so she wanted to find a way out for herself.
Even if he isn't laid off or doesn't actually enter the entertainment industry, he can still broaden his horizons and build connections through this opportunity to participate in variety show recordings, which will help him better develop his side business in the future.
Lin Ting formally signed the contract with Qiu Mingyue and awaited notification of work arrangements.
Coincidentally, Qiu Mingyue was also with Zhao Qinfeng at that time.
In fact, they were on the set of a music variety show. This wasn't a show Lin Ting had signed, but rather the fourth season of a series Qiu Mingyue had previously produced. Zhao Qinfeng was acquainted with Qiu Mingyue and had been brought in as a guest for two episodes.
"Lin Ting has decided to come to our variety show. I hope you two can get along well!" Qiu Mingyue said officially, but her smile was malicious.
Zhao Qinfeng knew she was joking, referring to the previous trending topic. This matter might confuse some outsiders, but it wouldn't leave them completely bewildered. While the issue appeared to be a conflict between Zhao Qinfeng and Lin Ting, it was actually a conflict between the capital behind the gala and other capital entities. In reality, the unexpected incident during Zhao Qinfeng's live performance was also caused by deliberate interference.
"I'm actually looking forward to his arrival, since he can always make sense, whether he's praising or criticizing," Zhao Qinfeng said without looking up, swiping his finger across his phone screen.
Qiu Mingyue glanced at him from afar, found him familiar, and asked, "Are you looking at some video blogger's homepage? He looks a bit like Lin Ting..."
"It's his. We just happened to mention it. Let me see if he's updated it."
Qiu Mingyue leaned closer to take a look and asked in surprise, "You've started following him. Is this some kind of 'know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated' strategy?"
Zhao Qinfeng said helplessly, "No, I've been following him for a long time, I'm a fan of his."
"I'm not a fan, I'm just a passerby. You can ask the other people in the live stream if you don't believe me. I have no grudge against him. I'll naturally post his videos when I come across suitable songs or performances in the future. The quality will determine whether it's good or bad, I won't target him," Lin Ting said helplessly.
He casually started a live stream tonight, not showing his face, just chatting with everyone. Someone kept spamming the chat asking why he hadn't posted any videos about Zhao Qinfeng lately, and whether that incident had caused him to turn from a fan to a hater.
Some people came to criticize him because of that trending topic, so he manually muted them one by one. After cleaning up for a while, he finally got a clean and civilized live stream room, which gave him a great sense of accomplishment.
"Okay, let's continue our conversation," he said happily.
His live streams mainly revolve around Chinese pop music, including songs he's listened to in the past, new and old songs that have recently caught his attention, various cover and adaptation performances, and his favorite lyricists, composers, arrangers, and producers, but he doesn't mention which singers he likes.
"I've criticized quite a few singers. If I were to actually say that I'm a fan of someone, the damage would probably be greater than that of a typical hater," Lin Ting frankly said.
After careful consideration, viewers of the live stream realized that this was indeed the case, and thus expressed their agreement.
In the end, he opened up some stages so that everyone could watch together.
Live streaming is different from regular videos. When making videos, Lin Ting usually writes a script. Although she may also show some reactions when listening to music, she mainly conveys the content that has already been organized. However, when doing live streaming, Lin Ting either chooses a stage she has never seen before or a classic stage that she has seen many times.
Those who are willing to watch his live stream are mostly long-time viewers who are familiar with his habits. The scrolling speed of messages on the interaction panel slowed down as everyone prepared to watch the stage with Lin Ting.
Whether Lin Ting did it intentionally or accidentally, the audience—especially those who had already been banned—watched Lin Ting click on the stage video posted on this platform by Zhao Qinfeng's studio account.
"Zhao Qinfeng has recently covered a lot of classic songs on this variety show. I haven't listened to them yet, but there's no time like the present, so I'll listen to them today."
The variety show Lin Ting mentioned is called "Heart-Fluttering Music 4". As the name suggests, it is already the fourth season, and it seems that Qiu Mingyue is also the director.
He listened slowly, pausing only a few times, but once he stopped, he would talk for a long time. After listening to the whole song and then dragging back the progress bar, he would talk even more.
“Listen to his pronunciation of the word ‘light’. He sings it softly with a breathy tone. His technique is superb. He suddenly stops the emotion abruptly, which is very catchy.”
"The breath control in that whole sentence was seamless, the pronunciation was excellent, and the melody flowed like a river, smooth and flowing, making it very pleasant to listen to."
He suddenly skipped to a part of the chorus, focusing on a single detail and listening to it repeatedly. This constant dragging and fragmented listening transformed the originally fine audio into something bizarre and absurd. Viewers left comments like, "Let's talk this out. This kind of fast-forwarding is making me carsick!"
Lin Ting didn't intend to make things difficult for the viewers in the live stream. After clearly understanding what she was curious about, she stopped her mischievous actions and asked, "Did you guys figure it out?"
This question naturally refers to the details of the place that was just played repeatedly, but everyone was completely confused and was basically asking questions.
A comment slowly floated by, with a fan badge preceding the username.
"The background sound here is simulated by human voices to mimic the timbre of musical instruments."
Lin Ting glanced at the comment, snapped her fingers, and exclaimed excitedly, "Bingo! That's it! Teacher Shuangye is right, it's about using the human voice to simulate the timbre of an instrument. This song itself incorporates many sounds from nature as part of its arrangement. This particular instrument sound appears here, but it's only in this one place in the entire song, which made me guess, so I listened to it a few more times. I'll play it again from the chorus, so those who didn't hear it can listen carefully!"
Lin Ting continued to drag the progress bar.
After Lin Ting's prompt, everyone finally noticed this interesting little detail. However, instead of paying attention to Lin Ting, they started posting comments to praise Shuangye.
Shuangye was a frequent commenter on Lin Ting's videos, often providing insightful additions that were repeatedly pinned to the top of the comments section, making her a familiar face to many. However, Lin Ting's interactions with Shuangye were limited to the public comment section and live stream interaction panel; he didn't know much more about her. He guessed that Shuangye might be an industry professional, possibly a rather experienced one.
Lin Ting ignored everyone's joking manner and decisively clicked on the next video.
The live stream ended early; Lin Ting logged off before 10 PM. After the broadcast, he casually opened one of his own videos and saw Shuang Ye's pinned comment. He then clicked on Shuang Ye's profile.
The homepage content is all displayed at a glance: username and numeric ID, default avatar and default birthday, and the number of followers shows "1". Lin Ting knows without clicking that the user corresponding to this "1" is himself.
He stared at the page for a while, then realized his behavior was a bit strange, so he simply closed all the web pages and software at once and shut down the computer.
On the other side, Zhao Qinfeng watched as Lin Ting's live stream interface went black, then silently swiped left to exit. The screen stopped right on his profile page, where his username was clearly displayed—"Shuangye".
At this moment, he and his assistant were sitting quietly in the waiting room. Their flight was delayed by two hours, so they were waiting here. It was during this delay that Zhao Qinfeng saw Lin Ting's live stream.
Qiu Mingyue had joked with him before, saying something like "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated." In reality, he probably knew more about Lin Ting than Lin Ting knew about him, since his alternate account only followed Lin Ting, while Lin Ting listened to many, many people's songs at the same time.
"Old Zhao, it's time to board. Let's go," his assistant reminded him.
"Okay, let's go." Zhao Qinfeng turned off his phone.
He had just finished recording a program in another city, and the plane he was about to board would take him more than a thousand kilometers away, eventually landing in the city where he lived—Haicheng.
It was already past midnight when we landed, but people were still coming up with their phones or small cameras; they were people offering to take photos for others.
He heard the staff around him sigh deeply, and he himself felt somewhat tired and irritable.
Zhao Qinfeng didn't give a hard time to those who were blocking his way and following him. He not only answered the questions they asked, but even took the time to look at the camera.
The lens seemed too deep, like a black hole, devouring the light that fell into it. Zhao Qinfeng quickly looked away.
He and his assistant left quickly.
The next morning, Lin Ting took the subway to Haicheng International Airport with a small carry-on suitcase. She met up with her colleagues listlessly and prepared to embark on her business trip.
"Hey, I heard that a celebrity was blocked by people waiting to pick him up at the airport last night. I think it was a singer," a colleague chatted about the entertainment news he'd seen that morning.
Lin Ting did a quick search and found it was Zhao Qinfeng. He had always known that he and Zhao Qinfeng lived in the same city. However, the city was enormous, and if the two were not destined to meet, they might never have met in their entire lives. Living in the same city or being thousands of miles apart made no difference.
However, they were destined to meet. Lin Ting was used to listening to songs, but he never understood or cared about the singers' personalities, so he wasn't sure if they would care about that trending topic.
However, everything will have to wait until they actually meet. Lin Ting just wants to get through the pre-boarding process as quickly as possible and then sit in the waiting room in a daze.
After he returned to Haicheng from his business trip, the staff member in charge of liaising with Lin Ting sent him the detailed arrangements for the first recording.
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