Latest Two Episodes

The story of the second unit of Young Bao Qingtian, titled "Blood Altar." The story takes place at Tianhong Academy where Bao Zheng, Gongsun Ce, and others are studying.

Zhan Zhao's elder brother, Zhan Jun, is found dead in his room, his body gruesomely mutilated. He was killed by a heavy blow to the chest from a large hammer. Gongsun Ce, having had a conflict with Zhan Jun and lacking an alibi, becomes the prime suspect. Gongsun Ce's father, Gongsun Zhen, personally visits Bao Zheng to plead for his son's innocence.

During the investigation, the group discovers a cave in the academy's back mountain. Inside the cave lies the Kuayi Tribe's Blood Altar.

The altar contains five stone statues, each depicting a horrifying manner of death.

One of the statues depicts a death identical to Zhan Jun's—killed by a heavy blow to the chest from a large hammer. The classmates who entered the cave with them were all utterly horrified.

In the afternoon, after lunch, Li Xun began to focus on writing the script for the second unit of Young Bao Qingtian, "Blood Altar."

This "Blood Altar" unit is considered one of Li Xun's childhood traumas.

"Meng Fang" beheaded; "Mu Dutong" appearing before everyone with his own head still on his horse; Bao Zheng, in a dream, following a Kuayi elder to find the tribe, only for the elder's face to suddenly turn into a skull.

Even after many years, Li Xun still remembers these scenes vividly.

At 6 PM, Li Xun finished writing the script for the first episode. He went out for dinner and returned to continue writing the script for the second episode.

Tonight, Young Bao Qingtian will release its third and fourth episodes. Li Xun has already seen them countless times and has no intention of watching them again. He plans to finish writing the script for the second episode of "Blood Altar" tonight.

Unknowingly, it was 7:30 PM again. Three web series were set to premiere their third and fourth episodes simultaneously: Mortuary, Young Bao Qingtian, and I Was a Detective in Ancient Times.

IQIYI Video Data Monitoring Center.

Xu Jun today was no longer as smug as he was yesterday.

The final data for Mortuary showed 32 million views in 24 hours. This was actually a very good result. According to Xu Jun's original projections, achieving 30 million views in the first 24 hours would have been considered a great success.

Now, the 24-hour data was 2 million views higher than the benchmark for great success. Logically, this should have been a figure that made him smile in his sleep. But who could blame him when the data for Young Bao Qingtian was even more astonishing?

39 million views in 24 hours!

This figure was so outrageous that Xu Jun's mouth twitched uncontrollably when he saw it.

"Jian Xue, do you think our Mortuary can make a comeback tonight?" Xu Jun asked.

Li Jianxue, the executive producer of Mortuary, had considerable authority regarding the overall quality of the series.

He hesitated for a moment before replying, "Manager, to be honest, I have confidence! I believe our Mortuary will eventually outperform Young Bao Qingtian!"

Xu Jun's interest was piqued. "Why do you say that? What's your basis? You know, on the premiere day, our Mortuary was a full 7 million views behind Young Bao Qingtian! What does 7 million mean? For 90% of web series, the highest daily viewership is only around 7 million."

Li Jianxue chuckled, "Manager, after I went home last night, I watched Young Bao Qingtian very carefully. I can say its quality is indeed quite good, but what amazed netizens the most wasn't the show's core strength as a mystery—the case settings—but rather the exceptionally brilliant couplets within it."

Hearing this, Xu Jun nodded.

Last night, after returning home, hadn't he also forced himself to stay awake to finish the first two episodes of Young Bao Qingtian?

When he saw those two couplets, his eyes did light up, but that was all.

Like most people, his first reaction was to assume these couplets were adaptations of works by some talented scholar from history. It was only when he read the netizens' comments that he realized these couplets and riddles, which clearly weren't the work of ordinary people, were actually original creations by the show's screenwriter.

"The skill of this unknown screenwriter is indeed not to be underestimated!"

This was his first thought after watching the first two episodes of Young Bao Qingtian.

At this point, Li Jianxue continued, "I anonymously asked many netizens online why they felt Young Bao Qingtian was superior to Mortuary, and the most frequent answer was those couplets and riddles."

"Manager, do you think the screenwriter of Young Bao Qingtian can come up with one or two such high-level couplets in every episode?"

Xu Jun shook his head slightly.

Li Jianxue continued, "Even if the screenwriter can, but is he making a detective drama or the most cliché romance drama? Audiences might find one or two clever couplets novel and impressive, but if every episode truly features couplet-matching scenes, won't the audience eventually get annoyed?"

Xu Jun continued to nod.

Li Jianxue went on, "The foundation of a mystery drama ultimately lies in the case settings and plot twists. Can it deliver that sense of being both logical and unexpected when the truth is revealed? These are the truly crucial elements! But when it comes to these aspects, is our Mortuary truly afraid of Young Bao Qingtian?"

"The reason Young Bao Qingtian managed to overtake us yesterday was that while our first two episodes were still setting up the case and planting clues, Young Bao Qingtian threw out a royal flush right from the start! With three or four stunning couplets, they instantly captured the audience's attention."

"However, starting from the third and fourth episodes, Mortuary will enter the main storyline of the case. The meticulously designed clues will begin to emerge in these two episodes, and by then, our Mortuary will surely surprise the audience and leave them thoroughly entertained!"

"In contrast, although Young Bao Qingtian also had cases in its first two episodes, one involving a pig trial and another a murder case where a master killed his wife, the cases, while having some highlights, were overall a bit too simple. Compared to the plot twists that will appear in Mortuary's third and fourth episodes, they are indeed insufficient."

"Therefore, I can confidently predict that our Mortuary will stage a dramatic comeback tonight!"

Listening to his subordinate's well-reasoned analysis, Xu Jun's mood gradually improved, and the pressure on his shoulders felt less heavy.

The filming budget for Mortuary reached an astonishing 3.2 million per episode. If it couldn't achieve results that satisfied the company's board of directors, let alone his ambition for the position of iQIYI Video Vice President, even his current position as General Manager of Qifeng Drama Studio might be unstable.

"Since Young Bao Qingtian has already been released, why don't we open it up and take a look now? We'll know its quality once we see it!" Xu Jun said, glancing at the time.

Two hours later, Li Jianxue stared at the computer screen, which had automatically paused after the playback finished. He was completely still, as if lost in thought.

Meanwhile, Xu Jun's forehead was covered in sweat.

From suspecting a female ghost killed the victim, to suspecting the Seventh Prince; from breaking the Seventh Prince's alibi, to the Seventh Prince's sudden murder; from exposing Minister Cui's lie to Bao Zheng believing Minister Cui was still not the mastermind. The plot was a chain of events, with one suspense leading to another.

Li Jianxue said Young Bao Qingtian threw out a royal flush at the beginning, and he agreed. But looking at these third and fourth episodes, they didn't seem like a scattered hand at all!

Xu Jun oscillated between thinking that Young Bao Qingtian's case design might be better and more stunning than his proud Mortuary, and then thinking that Mortuary's suspenseful setup was equally ingenious.

"It's not necessarily true that we'll lose to Young Bao Qingtian, right?" Xu Jun couldn't help but think.

He looked up at the big screen.

The data for Mortuary was even more impressive than yesterday, looking like it might even break 40 million daily views today.

Li Jianxue had said that starting from the third and fourth episodes, the story of Mortuary would become increasingly exciting, and it seemed he was absolutely right.

At this moment, Li Jianxue took out his phone, appearing to log into Eagle Eye Data to check the statistics for Young Bao Qingtian.

Xu Jun suddenly became extremely nervous, his mind filled with the plot of Young Bao Qingtian that he had just watched.