Speaking of the most anticipated variety show recently, it’s undoubtedly the first-ever celebrity romance show, “Love Game.”
This year has been hailed as the “Year of Celebrity Romance Shows,” with several major variety show teams launching their own versions of romance shows. While the formats may vary, they have all ignited a craze of shipping potential couples.
Unlike previous shows featuring unknown individuals dating on variety shows, the regular audience of “Love Game” was thrilled to hear that familiar celebrities could also form on-screen couples. Ever since news about the concept of this show broke out, fans have been eagerly looking forward to it.
Director Bu, though relatively new to the variety show realm, has a background in documentary filmmaking and has also directed several well-received films and TV shows. His expertise in portraying the subtle dynamics and ambiguity between two people makes him well-suited for a romance variety show, garnering attention from his existing audience.
Of course, in addition to the show’s inherent popularity, the powerful boost from Yan Chi’s surprise entry into the variety show world adds to its hype. After all, this marks the first time the usually low-profile Yan Chi has participated in an entertainment-oriented variety show, and it’s a celebrity romance show that has left everyone astonished.
Not only are Yan Chi’s fans eager to see her in a new light, but even casual viewers are also curious about how the aloof and self-possessed queen of the screen will perform on a variety show.
As for Gu Qingtong, this is her first regular variety show, and she finds herself both nervous and excited for the experience.
Since it is produced by Hua Yan, it naturally airs exclusively on their video streaming platform called uki-uki, also known as U Station.
Uki-uki, or U Station, has become popular among young people in the past two years as a danmaku1Online commentary system, such as barrage of comments video website. It is not only backed by Hua Yan with abundant resources but also offers a wide range of international film and variety show content compared to other platforms. Additionally, it provides a platform for individual creators to share their work.
No matter if it’s about lifestyle, beauty, games, or movies, U Station offers users a comprehensive one-stop experience.
Gu Qingtong also has an account on U Station, and her private account is at the fifth-level rank, as she can find many good things about Yan Chi there.
She has exclaimed multiple times about the teacher’s talents, as they can edit so many impressive compilation videos!
At this moment, she logged into U Station with her private account, even though it wasn’t time yet, and absent-mindedly refreshed the official account of “Love Game.”
Currently, the official account can only show personal preview clips of a few guests and replay the previous live broadcast for the show’s promotion.
Feeling somewhat helpless, Gu Qingtong decided to pass the time by searching for “Love Game” on U Station and watching videos uploaded by other individual creators.
Obviously, from the video views under the U Station entry, one can gauge the preheat situation of the CPs2Couple Pairing. Aside from Teacher Yan’s solo videos with high views, the hottest CP was Chu Yu and Wen Ziyao, also known as “Chu Wen CP.”
Since the two of them have previously collaborated as second male lead and second female lead in a movie, they have gained some popularity as a CP since then.
When netizens heard that they would participate in “Love Game” together, they went crazy with anticipation and feverishly watched their previous video compilations.
Seeing the audience’s excitement, Gu Qingtong couldn’t help but sigh. She knew very well that their CP was fake. Although Chu Yu had to pretend to be in a CP with Wen Ziyao during filming, the two lead actors were indeed cute and sweet at the time.
However, when she thought about the remarks Wen Ziyao made during a mission expressing his dissatisfaction and criticizing Chu Yu, she really couldn’t bring herself to support the two of them.
CPs don’t necessarily have to be real, but they shouldn’t be forced like this, right?
With these thoughts in mind, Gu Qingtong continued to scroll down, but what surprised her was that her and Yan Chi’s CP ranked second in popularity.
Although it was undoubtedly thanks to Yan Chi’s popularity, Gu Qingtong had never seen herself gain such a high level of popularity before.
With just a casual glance, she came across videos of her and Yan Chi’s CP, and the views and barrage comments were quite impressive.
#Yan Chi x Gu Qingtong | The Double Goddesses of White Moonlight and Red Roses, Beauty Admirers are Ecstatic!!#
The cover is a photo of the two of them together, obviously a combination of their individual photos.
Gu Qingtong immediately recognized it. The person in the picture wearing a white gown was none other than Yan Chi, even the same famous silhouette photo taken during her participation in the Youth Actor Development Program. Yan Chi, dressed in a white gown, under the lights during the rehearsal, became a true “White Moonlight.”
As for her own photo, it was a still from the TV drama where she played the crazy and critical supporting role, dressed in a red gown.
Enhanced by makeup filters, Gu Qingtong’s captivating and flamboyant face carried a strong sense of striking beauty, fiery red as if it was ready to burst into flames.
The contrasting temperament of the two individuals indeed had a strong impact, the collision of coolness and warmth, and yet, the similarity lay in the striking impact of their divine faces.
Though she found it rather embarrassing to watch her own CP compilation, curiosity led Gu Qingtong to click on it.
It turned out to be a compilation of their past roles in various TV dramas. Although it lacked a storyline, the focus was on their glorious beauty. Every frame was a treasure meticulously extracted by the creator from various scenes.
If it wasn’t for watching this compilation, Gu Qingtong would never have realized that her accumulated roles as small supporting characters and the variety of outfits she wore were so numerous.
However, this compilation creator seems to be a newcomer. This is her first submission, and she used a lot of filters and skin-smoothing in the video.
Excessive pursuit of vibrant colors actually makes the characters’ visuals lose authenticity, which is a bit regrettable.
As Gu Qingtong slowly shifted her gaze to the comments, she immediately understood why the video had such a high number of bullet comments.
It was probably because this video openly featured the names of the two individuals, attracting many die-hard fans of Yan Chi.
They clearly didn’t approve of the title and left comments like:
[Teacher Yan’s divine face has been tested on the big screen. Newcomer, please use fewer filters and skin-smoothing; the nose is almost gone…]
[Who bundled Teacher Yan’s divine faces with edited images? Taking away my Yan, all of you must be captivated by divine faces, huh.]
There were even comments like:
[I wasn’t planning to watch, but this cover image is from my favorite station sister TT. Did you get her permission to edit it into a CP video? I’m speechless. I’ve already sent TT a private message.]
Within the fan community, there’s an established rule that fan-taken photos, like the ones by “station sister TT,” should not be edited or used for commercial purposes without permission. Creating CP videos using these fan-taken images is a major taboo.
This comment received over a thousand likes and even had numerous replies below it, with everyone expressing their dissatisfaction.
[I knew this cover looked familiar! So it’s TT’s work; her fan-taken photos are always divine.]
[If TT knew her hard work in taking these photos was used without permission to create CP shippings, she’d be furious!]
Gu Qingtong casually watched a video and unexpectedly saw her two personas collaborating in a dreamy way, finding it quite absurd.
The new UP creator, seemingly unaware of this rule, promptly replied with an apology:
[I’m so sorry! I just happened to come across this photo and thought it perfectly suited the ambiance of ‘White Moonlight,’ so I used it directly. I had no idea about this major taboo. I tried to contact the station sister herself, but I haven’t received a response yet. I’ve already applied to change the cover, and once the platform approves the review, I’ll change it.]
Since receiving the invitation from Yan Chi’s studio last time, Gu Qingtong had been updating her photos but was too afraid to check her messages, fearing more invitations or suspicions.
No wonder she hadn’t seen any of those private messages.
Seeing this new creator being attacked so severely just because they edited a CP video, Gu Qingtong felt rare confidence.
Huh, so what? These are my own photos, what’s wrong with sharing them?
I’ll share them if I want to!
Moreover, because TT’s account has many exceptional works, it has gained some popularity among Yan Chi’s fandom. So, many people approach her to request permission for reposting and editing. But for Gu Qingtong, it didn’t bother her at all, she just opened everything up for use, even though they were often used by major fansites of Yan Chi without any acknowledgment, or even used for profit-making merchandise.
She never bothered to investigate or pursue it, thinking that it’s fine as long as they use them. So, when there were only a few minutes left before the variety show aired at 8 o’clock, she replied directly to that comment:
“Don’t mislead others, TT’s edits are all open for use, feel free to use them, UP creator! If you have time to warn others about shipping inappropriately, why not go and manage those fansites that are using TT’s images for profit-making merchandise?”
Before leaving that video page, she even left a like, comment, and share for the new UP creator.
However, she had no idea that the author of this video was Xiao Jun.
Xiao Jun was originally one of the earliest CP shippers of Gu Yan. When she searched for their ship, she found that there was no content available, so she took the initiative and used some basic video editing skills she learned in college to make a video. She intended to create some pre-show hype for their ship before the variety show aired.
She had been a fan of Gu Qingtong for a long time, secretly catching up on all of her roles and easily producing stunning edits with beautiful outfits.
Unfortunately, her video editing skills were not that great, and the quality of the movie and TV scenes of the two actors were different, so she had to use heavy filters to make them look like they belong in the same dimension.
As a result, she didn’t expect the title to attract ridicule from everyone, and even the cover was involved in copyright infringement.
Xiao Jun felt pitiful and wanted to delete the video due to all the criticism, but she couldn’t bear to part with the popularity it had gained, already ranking second on the ship ranking. So, she decided to keep it.
At this moment, while Xiao Jun was waiting on U station for the variety show to start, she unexpectedly received a reply defending her. She looked at it and couldn’t help but get teary-eyed.
The person who replied spoke with reason and evidence, making it very easy for others to believe, almost as if TT herself had come to clarify the situation.
“What did Tongtong eat today? With a name like this, she must be a devoted CP shipper!”
Xiao Jun couldn’t help but become curious, so she clicked on that account’s profile.
To her surprise, the user’s playlist was open, categorized into three sections: “Me”, “Her”, and “Default.”
The “Me” playlist was filled with videos of Gu Qingtong, ranging from low-view videos with double-digit views to popular gaming live streams with up to 300,000 views.
“Is she also a devoted fan of Tongmei? No wonder she came to my defense, but this is too exaggerated. She has watched so many videos! But why did she click on me? Could it be because of the abbreviation I used for my playlist?”
Xiao Jun was both excited and puzzled, speaking to herself in disbelief.
She didn’t rush to check the next video category; instead, she followed this playlist and found quite a few materials she hadn’t seen before. Satisfied with what she discovered, she exited the page.
Then, she clicked on the “Her” playlist, and to her surprise, it was filled with videos of Yan Chi!
The first few titles read something like “#MidnightEdition#,” “#Teacher Yan, stop teasing me with your sign!!#” and “#This is a serious Yan Chi finger compilation#.”
Xiao Jun was heavily impacted by this revelation, and she was almost speechless.
“She’s… still a Yan fan?”
Fine, not only a fan but also a fallen fan.
This was way too wild.
She didn’t need to scroll down to know that the entire playlist was dedicated to Yan Chi. She felt like looking at it any longer would be desecrating the pure image of the cold and reserved Teacher Yan, so she immediately retreated.
The third default playlist contained various videos related to daily life and some classic movies and TV shows. Since the content was quite diverse, Xiao Jun couldn’t extract any useful information. Besides, it was already 8 o’clock, so she decided to exit as she still had some tasks to complete.
In fact, if Xiao Jun had scrolled a bit further down, she would have stumbled upon several acting courses that Gu Qingtong had previously saved, which could have hinted at her true identity within the industry.
Having seen all this, Xiao Jun was now certain that this person, although having a complex fandom, was indeed a devoted Gu Yan CP shipper. Such devoted and stable fans were rare to come by. Even Xiao Jun, as Yan Chi’s assistant, couldn’t help but be a bit biased towards the adorable daughter, Tongmei.
Before leaving, Xiao Jun had thought about following this account, not to check out Yan Chi, of course, but just to collect some material related to Tongmei! However, she worried that suddenly following an account that hadn’t even posted any videos might scare the owner into closing their collection. So, she sneakily bookmarked the page, planning to check it out again when she had the chance.
Gu Qingtong had no idea about her nearly collapsing alt account, and instead, she rushed to watch the variety show as soon as it started at 8 o’clock.
As expected, the official release was punctual, with the video being uploaded right at zero seconds.
At this moment, the number of concurrent viewers showed an astonishing five-figure count, with the excitement rivaling that of a live broadcast. The video immediately shot up to the top of the real-time hot video rankings.
The barrage of comments kept updating in real-time.
Almost sixty percent of the comments were about Yan Chi, addressing her as “Teacher Yan.” Another twenty percent came from fans of the “ChuWen” CP and the popular idol Bai Jin’s fans, both showing their support. The last twenty percent were from casual viewers, expressing their excitement at finally seeing the show.
Three minutes into the show, there were not even ten comments about Gu Qingtong. Her comments were buried amid a pile of colorful messages, making her feel quite pitiful and lonely.
However, Gu Qingtong didn’t mind at all and was surprisingly ecstatic and in disbelief. She exclaimed: “Oh my! There are actually comments about me!”
After a brief introduction to the transition rules, the show finally settled on the scene where the guests entered the studio one by one.
Each guest had a personal introduction along with clips from their previous live broadcasts. Of course, Gu Qingtong, being a later addition, didn’t have a preview.
However, the production team wanted to compensate for her, so they edited together some of the popular moments from her live broadcasts.
#When a girl pouts her lips, it means she wants a kiss# and #The comfort of lying down after a Poker face Pentakill#
This finally brought Gu Qingtong some presence in the barrage of comments.
A row of premium danmaku messages floated down from the top one after another: “My heart already belongs to Tongmei!”
The following messages were surprisingly unanimous, all expressing affection in pink: “Tongmei, Mommy loves you!”
These were from the fans that Gu Qingtong had previously won over. They had already agreed in their group chat that they would show their support when she appeared on the show.
So, one of the senior fans used advanced danmaku code, and others flooded the chat with dozens of messages, creating such a lively scene.
Xiao Jun’s recent task was also about this.
Gu Qingtong stared at the barrage of comments, standing still in astonishment.
She never imagined that there would be so many people looking forward to her appearance.
