Chapter Fifty-Six: Standing Alone in Splendor

Xi Yun calmed herself before speaking. "You feel the same way, Director Lai? Perhaps you could help me arrange a meeting with Liao Yuan. I’d like to see him here, just the two of us."

Lai Yibai looked troubled, but after checking her watch, she finally nodded. "Alright, I’ll ask Liao Yuan what he thinks, but I can’t guarantee he’ll come."

"Just tell him I’m here. He’ll definitely come," Xi Yun said, her confidence unshaken.

When Lai Yibai entered Studio 3, she found Liao Yuan deeply engrossed in recording a show. She made a signal to Xiao Peng, who was sitting in the control room, and soon Liao Yuan stepped out of the studio, surprised. "Director Lai, is something the matter?"

Lai Yibai sized him up, puzzled. Liao Yuan didn’t look at all like someone nursing a broken heart.

But given the status of the director of the first program department, she couldn’t refuse, so she smiled. "Director Xi from Program One wants to meet you. Do you have time now?"

"Director Xi?" At that moment, Xiao Peng, sitting nearby, jumped up in excitement. "I told you—"

Before he could finish, he caught a fierce glare from Liao Yuan that nearly made him shrink into himself. He hurriedly covered his mouth, looking utterly innocent.

"Is there something important?" Liao Yuan frowned.

Lai Yibai cleared her throat. "It seems to be a personal matter?"

"I have nothing personal to discuss with her. Never had, don’t now, and never will." Liao Yuan was visibly annoyed and waved his hand. "Director Lai, I’d like you to promise me something. Please don’t let outsiders disrupt my work from now on. I’m busy, and I feel I don’t have much time left working here. I cherish everything here and don’t want irrelevant matters to end my time prematurely, okay?"

Lai Yibai was shaken, and quickly said, "Okay, okay, I understand. Don’t worry, Mr. Liao, I won’t let anyone disturb your work."

With that, she turned and left, closing the door behind her.

Xiao Peng stared, dumbfounded, and after a while, he exclaimed, "Wow, I really witnessed it! Yuan, you’re the first person I’ve seen who can stand up to a director-level boss and win. First it was Director Jiang, now Director Lai. Who’s next, the station manager?"

"Less chatter," Liao Yuan said, patting Xiao Peng’s shoulder. "Don’t slack off—get back to work."

"Yes, yes!" Xiao Peng replied, his face full of admiration.

To Liao Yuan, life wasn’t something that would fall apart just because someone was gone—especially someone who was already irrelevant.

He had no intention of digging into whatever relationship Xi Yun had with the person he used to be. In fact, he felt nothing for Xi Yun now, and after learning about how his former self had been abandoned, he even felt a hint of resentment toward her.

If they could remain indifferent to each other—she as the director, he as the host—Liao Yuan might still respect Xi Yun. But now, after all these years, she was knocking on his door once again.

If it was about work, she could just let her subordinates reach out. But if it was a personal matter, then he was sorry—he wouldn’t entertain it.

Evening.

Returning home, Liao Yuan turned on his computer, logged into U-Net, and voted for his sister. He then went to Banana Net and LeKan Net’s “Create 101” voting portals, registered new accounts, and voted again. Since VIPs could cast ten votes and ordinary users only one, Liao Yuan made sure to upgrade to VIP on all three sites.

Ever since the show began, Liao Yuan was determined to cast thirty votes for his sister every day.

But even so, against the massive tide of online traffic, his efforts were barely a drop in the bucket.

As time passed, the talent agencies behind the contestants began to mobilize. Liao Meiqi, who had held a steady third place, benefited from the joint push of her songs “Remembrance” and “The Rest of My Life” on the Weibo music chart, but it only kept her ranking for less than forty hours.

By the third day, agencies backing other contestants launched aggressive campaigns. Media outlets, both online and offline, engaged in PR blitzes, and touching backstories of the contestants flooded in, boosting their exposure dramatically.

Moreover, celebrities managed by these agencies reposted their own contestants’ voting links on Weibo. Some of the favored candidates even had top-tier stars supporting them.

So, after just three days, Liao Meiqi slipped from third place to seventeenth, with a total of 4.37 million likes.

Meanwhile, Xie Yuxin, the first place contestant, had already surpassed twenty million likes.

The gap was widening.

Liao Yuan glanced at the rankings and quietly closed the three video platforms.

“Create 101” was ruthlessly realistic; no matter how popular or talented a contestant was, if their votes didn’t hit the top eleven, debut was out of reach.

Did Liao Yuan have any solutions? Not for now. It was unfortunate that Liao Meiqi had carelessly signed with a small agency; naturally, it lacked the resources she needed. A small temple couldn’t accommodate a big Buddha.

Still, Liao Yuan wasn’t too worried about his sister’s future.

Even if she didn’t make the final group, with Meiqi’s talent and his help, she could easily carve out a place for herself in the entertainment world.

He then opened the official Jiligulu website to check the stats for his works, “Unravel” and “The Fact That You Left.”

Nearly five days had passed. “The Fact That You Left” had been played 390,000 times. “Unravel,” released just two days ago, had reached 170,000 plays.

As for the barrage comments—the numbers were staggering.

With “The Fact That You Left” released earlier and featured on the official cover, viewers streamed in endlessly. The track had over ten thousand comments, forty thousand orange rewards, and more than 110,000 coins tossed its way.

These were numbers typical of a top-tier creator.

“Unravel” wasn’t far behind. Even though it had been previewed, when Asdfghj performed the entire piece on the S-277 Steinway, its stats shot up: over 140,000 plays so far, more than 7,000 comments, 13,000 orange rewards, and over 70,000 coins.

Now, on the weekly music hot chart, the S-277 version of “Unravel” had overtaken the piano studio version, ranking fifth. “The Fact That You Left” was at number two.

The top spot belonged to “Ghost,” a new single released two days ago by the renowned music creator Lingling Monster.

Had “Ghost” not dropped suddenly, “The Fact That You Left” might have claimed the number one spot two days earlier.

“Ghost” was an entry for the “One Emperor, Four Kings” piano competition.

So, not only did it get a featured spot on the music page, but it also enjoyed high exposure thanks to its top ranking on the competition’s popularity chart.

Lingling Monster was a female pianist, initially famous for performing Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff pieces in the performance section of the music site. She later switched to original works, composing numerous piano pieces beloved by fans, some even purchased by musicians for concert performances. She was becoming known as the unofficial queen of the site’s music section.

Third, fourth, and other ranks were also occupied by new releases from well-known creators.

From sixth to tenth place, most were entries in the “One Emperor, Four Kings” competition.

Yet, only Liao Yuan’s “Unravel” and “The Fact That You Left” stood out on the hot chart without being part of the contest.

That was a remarkable achievement.