Li Jianxue opened Hawkeye Pro, and his heart started beating faster and faster despite himself.
He had just bragged to his boss that The Coroner would definitely overtake Young Bao Qingtian in the ratings! But after watching the latest two episodes of Young Bao Qingtian, the confidence he'd built up over the past day had crumbled in an instant.
Li Jianxue hesitated for two seconds, then decided not to open the web-series page just yet.
I hope there's a miracle, just like with The Coroner.
That's right, a miracle will happen! Because we're a team that can make miracles happen!
He clicked into the web-series page.
Real-time data for the most popular web series across the major platforms filled the screen. Updated by the second, each series' view count kept ticking upward.
And at that moment, Young Bao Qingtian was at the top of the web-series charts!
No surprises. No miracles.
Only cold reality.
"Jian Xue, who's at the top today?"
Looking at the hopeful expression on his boss's face, Li Jianxue knew what answer he wanted. And wasn't it the answer he wanted, too? But he couldn't give his boss the answer he wanted, because reality was reality.
Sometimes, no answer was an answer. Watching his subordinate remain silent, Xu Jun understood everything.
Li Jianxue stared at the numbers on Hawkeye, unable to tear his eyes away.
The figures kept ticking up, steadily approaching an important milestone.
"There's no way it'll reach that number, is there?"
Li Jianxue could hardly believe his eyes.
That number held a certain sacredness in his heart.
And yet this series, which no one had taken seriously before it aired, was barreling toward that figure on only its second day.
47 million!
47.5 million!
48 million!
48.8 million!
49.3 million!
50.1 million!
When the number finally crossed the 50-million mark, Li Jianxue suddenly felt calm.
The Coroner could no longer hope to match Young Bao Qingtian's numbers. Maybe it was only a matter of time before it broke the record he was so proud of, set by The Coroner.
"Manager, Young Bao Qingtian has passed 50 million views in a single day."
Strangely, Li Jianxue saw no surprise on his boss's face. Instead, the man seemed relieved.
"Let's go home. Tomorrow, have everyone in the studio watch Young Bao Qingtian. Learn from what they do well, and reflect on where we fell short!"
"Will do, Manager."
The manager who'd been worrying himself sick since yesterday was gone. The confident, wise manager was back!
At 1:35 a.m., Li Xun finally finished writing the script for the second episode. Before turning off his computer and going to bed, he habitually picked up his phone and opened WeChat.
"What? Young Bao Qingtian got over 50 million views in a single day?"
The main cast and crew group for Young Bao Qingtian had only just quieted down. Hundreds of unread messages perfectly captured how lively the chat had been earlier, reaching its peak around 10:35 p.m., when the series officially passed 50 million views in a single day.
Producer Tang Jiahe and director Kong Teng had both seen their share of big moments, but when the numbers crossed 50 million, they were so excited they could barely speak coherently.
They even began to question the accuracy of the third-party data. They'd known Young Bao Qingtian would be a hit, but weren't these numbers a little too outrageous?
In the end, Dai Ying, who rarely said much in the group, settled the matter with a single message.
"The first two episodes got 19 million views, and the third and fourth got 31 million. That makes 50 million views in one day. These are the backend figures from Penguin Video, so they're absolutely accurate!"
The crew group fell silent. Dai Ying's clear-cut figures told everyone that Young Bao Qingtian had become a hit—a massive one.
Li Xun opened Dou Miao Network again. Young Bao Qingtian's rating had stabilized at around 9.2. Looking through the comments, he saw that there'd been a wave of coordinated one-star ratings that day. The score had reportedly been dragged down to 9.0 for a short while, at which point ordinary viewers and TV fans had gotten furious. Did the people leaving one-star reviews so blatantly really think the public would just sit back and watch?
Then a flood of users who normally logged into Dou Miao only once every six months dug out accounts that had gathered dust for half a year and logged in just to give Young Bao Qingtian five-star reviews.
The rating bounced right back. For a while, it even reached a new high of 9.3, before gradually settling back to 9.2, where it finally stabilized.
Along with logging in to give the series five stars, many viewers also flocked to Dou Miao's official complaints page, demanding that the site investigate the malicious review-bombing.
At 1:55 a.m., Dou Miao officially responded to the complaints, announcing that it had permanently banned more than 300 malicious accounts and temporarily muted over 5,000 others.
Li Xun read the comments for a while longer. The vast majority were positive. There were negative reviews, of course, but he didn't need to do anything. Plenty of viewers were already rushing in to argue with the critics.
On the whole, the positive comments had a clear advantage.
At 2:15 a.m., Li Xun stretched and went to bed.
He'd written two episodes' worth of script in one go, and he was completely exhausted.
The next morning, his phone ringing woke him up. Groggy, he picked it up and saw that Chen Minghao was calling.
Li Xun sat up, rubbed his eyes, and answered.
"Hello, Uncle Ming."
"Li Xun, you rascal—you're more devious than I thought!"
"What makes you say that, Uncle Ming?"
"What makes me say that? Yesterday morning, I told you that if Young Bao Qingtian got 50 million views in a day, I'd treat you to a big meal. What did you say then?"
"What did I say? Let me think..."
"What, you forgot? I haven't. I remember it clearly. You said if I didn't want to treat you, I should just say so. You even told me to count on my fingers how many web series had ever gotten 50 million views in a single day. What, you've forgotten?"
"Oh, right. I think I did say that. I remember now!"
"You remember, huh? It hasn't even been 24 hours, and Young Bao Qingtian has already passed 50 million views in a single day. Were you pretending to be a harmless little tiger, waiting to pounce?"
"Uncle Ming, you're blaming me unfairly. Who could've known Young Bao Qingtian would suddenly become this popular?"
"All right, all right, stop making excuses. Eight tonight, Tian Yue Tower. We'll have a proper get-together, and I'll introduce you to a beautiful woman while we're at it."
"Uncle Ming, that's not right. You're my senior. If anyone should be treating the other, it ought to be me. How about this: once my commission comes through, I'll treat you at Tian Yue Tower. How does that sound? To be honest, I don't have much money on me right now."
"Actually, there's something I'd like to ask you. I have a daughter—you might know her, Chen Jiaqi. She doesn't have much talent for acting, and I wanted her to study something more practical, but she wouldn't listen. She insisted on studying acting. She's not exactly famous, but she hasn't faded into obscurity either. She's stuck in an awkward middle ground, and it's tough. I wanted to ask if you could find her a role in Young Bao Qingtian so she can get some experience. It doesn't need to be an important role. The Goryeo Princess or Xiao Ai in the first arc would have been perfect, but I don't know if there's anything like that in the second arc. I thought we could meet up, and I'd bring Chen Jiaqi along. It'd be a sort of informal audition. Of course, if that puts you in a difficult position, I won't bring her."
Now Li Xun really couldn't refuse. "Uncle Ming, I'm sure there'll be a suitable role, but you know I'm just a minor scriptwriter. Will my opinion really matter?"
A hearty laugh came from the other end of the line. "Li Xun, you are a scriptwriter, but you're not a minor one anymore. Everyone will take your opinion seriously! Besides, what I'm mainly asking is for you to recommend a suitable role. Whether she gets it will mostly depend on me working things out."
Before you continue