Chapter 153: The Sign of a Surge

When he got home at night, Li Luo specifically opened QQ Music on his computer and checked the comments for the song "Nianlun."

After reading them, his face twitched—he didn't know whether to be speechless or grateful and delighted to have such "adorable readers."

He thought for a moment, recalling the question Yan Zhusheng had asked him earlier that day: "Have more people been reading your book lately?"

Curious, Li Luo opened his author backend and brought up the data panel.

It clearly showed that the total collection count for his current book was 50,317.

That meant over fifty thousand people had added "I Am Really Not a Star" to their bookshelves.

But given his current average subscription of just over three thousand, only about one in every ten or so readers actually subscribed正版 and finished the entire book.

The rest either kept it on hold or went straight to pirated sites.

Even so, readers who knew to search for books on platforms like Qidian were still a minority.

A significant portion of online novel readers might not even know Qidian Chinese Website existed.

Some had always assumed online novels were free and had spent their entire reading lives on pirated sites.

Under these circumstances, Li Luo checked his work's daily report, where he could see his book's daily collection growth.

Starting December 1st, the collection growth suddenly surged from its usual daily increase of one or two hundred to 1,500.

Over the next three days, it was 2,800, 1,700, and 2,100 respectively.

This was what pushed his total collections from just over forty thousand to fifty thousand.

He glanced again at the average subscription and raised an eyebrow.

Before this, "I Am Really Not a Star" had stalled at 3,700 average subscriptions after climbing to that number.

In November, the editor Qianzhou had arranged a homepage promotion for him, successfully pushing his average subscriptions past 4,000—but then it stalled again.

Yet in just the past few days, his average subscriptions had jumped to over 4,500.

This surprised him somewhat.

But then he looked up information about "Yaochi Xianyuan."

First, he checked Weibo.

As the epicenter of traffic-driven business, when a TV drama premiered with a popular young idol as the lead, Weibo was undoubtedly the most critical platform for promotion.

Even before "Yaochi Xianyuan" premiered last month, the trending topic about the idol Tong Hua starring in "Yaochi Xianyuan" had remained on the trending list for quite some time.

On the day of its release, that topic topped the charts, and several other related topics about "Yaochi Xianyuan" also briefly appeared on the trending list.

Online discussion热度 was extremely high.

Although the QQ Music comment section was filled mostly with complaints about the plot,

Weibo was a completely different story.

Everywhere were girls screaming and fawning over Tong Hua, frantically cheering for their "brother," and finding every possible angle to praise the drama.

Li Luo didn't know whether these were real fans or water armies orchestrated by Huayue Film and Television—he suspected there was plenty of artificial inflation.

But at least from the raw data alone, sufficient preparation had clearly been made.

Still, if you searched carefully, you could find plenty of reviews from non-idol fans—ordinary viewers.

Especially some dedicated film and television reviewers, whose serious critiques mostly pointed out the drama's clichés.

For example, the classic female-audience issue—the story seemed to involve nation and family, revenge and hatred, but in the end, the plot always settled firmly on the romantic relationship between the female lead and several male leads.

The plot of "Yaochi Xianyuan" was actually very simple.

The female lead was originally an ordinary flower growing in the Jade Pool of Heaven; over time, she gained sentience and was enlightened by a deity who governed the Jade Pool, successfully transforming into human form.

Hmm, this deity was the second male lead.

Gentle, humble, skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

After her transformation, the female lead stayed by his side, living carefree days atop the Jade Pool.

Until one day, the Demon Realm invaded, the Jade Pool was cast down to the mortal world, and the female lead and the second male lead were forcibly separated.

The Demon Lord—the male lead portrayed by the idol Tong Hua—claimed his invasion of Heaven was due to the ancient feud between immortals and demons, but in truth, he targeted the Jade Pool specifically.

He sought the ten-thousand-year white lotus cultivated by the Jade Pool's divine water.

That lotus was the female lead's original form before her transformation.

The second male lead saw through the Demon Lord's goal and, as the Jade Pool fell to the mortal realm, used his power to send the female lead away.

The Demon Lord, determined to find the white lotus, chose to descend into the mortal world to search for her.

A tale of chase and escape, love and enmity, culminating in mutual affection—the Demon Lord, unable to use the female lead as a medicinal ingredient to cure his demonic sect's incurable ailment, chose to die in the end.

But the female lead, having fallen in love with the Demon Lord, willingly sacrificed her life to revive him.

The Demon Lord, holding the dead female lead, let out a deafening roar that overturned Heaven itself, demanding whether any divine medicine existed that could bring her back.

Hmm… the plot hadn't reached this point yet, but earlier, out of curiosity, Li Luo had asked Luo Fei about the episode outline of "Yaochi Xianyuan"; after reading it, he'd simply stared, speechless.

How to put it… it perfectly matched his stereotype of female-audience fiction.

Especially in this kind of xianxia drama, the romance between the leads was paramount—all moral distinctions, good and evil, were secondary to the leads' relationship.

But let's be honest, this kind of plot had tremendous appeal for naive young girls or middle-aged women.

Yet male viewers dragged to watch it by their female friends were filled with nothing but the urge to criticize.

The only real highlight of the entire drama was the song "Nianlun," sung by Yuan Wanqing.

So many people flocked to QQ Music for comfort—and ended up complaining along the way.

But few expected that "Nianlun" was originally written by a novelist?

And that it wasn't from the same novel as "Yaochi Xianyuan"?

This piqued considerable interest.

Yet most of these people still ended up on pirated sites; only the recent few hundred increase in average subscriptions came from genuine readers on Qidian Chinese Website.

Given this trend, it was unclear how long such growth could last.

After Li Luo figured out the logic behind all this, he couldn't help but laugh and sigh at once.

He never expected that, due to a twist of fate, the novel he'd written called "Annual Rings" would, just months later, unleash such energy—and even feed back into his own novel.

Thinking of this, Li Luo felt a flicker of interest.

After all, he still had several recorded songs in hand, like the two he'd sold to Yuan Wanqing; if the chance arose later, they might appear in her new album.

If luck held and similar traffic surged again, and he slipped those two songs into his novel, wouldn't he still make a profit?

But…

If he did this, the fact that he was writing a novel would likely no longer be hidden from those around him.

Li Luo sighed; he was truly caught between two difficult choices.

I'll take it one step at a time.

Right now, I'm not short on money anyway.

Last month's royalty payment had just come in—over twenty thousand yuan total.

Adding in his song sales, Li Luo now had over three hundred thousand yuan sitting in his bank account.

To be honest… in his past life, Li Luo had never once saved this much money all at once until he was thirty-five.

He never expected that, in this life, after only a few months had passed, he'd already achieved financial freedom as a Gao Zhongsheng.

As Li Luo pondered this, he heard a knock at the door behind him.

Ying Chanxi, just out of the shower, poked her head in, her long hair dripping wet, and said to Li Luo: "Dry my hair."

"Come sit down."

…

A private room in a restaurant downstairs from Huayue Film and Television.

Yuan Wanqing and Luo Fei went out for late-night snacks, Yuan Wanqing's face tinged with worry as she shared the day's meeting with her best friend.

"So Zhai Senlei wants you to stop inviting songs casually? Every invitation now needs his approval first?" Luo Fei sneered. "Like the contract doesn't exist?"

"Given how poorly my last album performed, I can understand why he'd say this," Yuan Wanqing said, shaking her head. "But…"

"What's your thought?"

"It's just… how do I put it?" Yuan Wanqing looked puzzled. "Didn't you just have me check the comments on 'Annual Rings' today?"

"Mm-hmm," Luo Fei nodded. "You even went to read Li Luo's novel."

"But that's not the point," Yuan Wanqing said with a helpless smile. "Check my Weibo."

"Before my new album dropped, I had just over 200,000 followers."

"After the album launched, the company boosted me to one million—but the real increase was only a few ten thousand."

"But since 'Jade Pool Immortal Affinity' premiered, less than a week has passed, and my follower count has jumped to 1.2 million."

"This time, no company promotion—pure organic growth."

"Huh?" Luo Fei blinked, momentarily stunned. "What do you mean? How did this happen?"

"Well… I didn't understand it at first, but then I realized it might be because of this video." Yuan Wanqing opened her phone and showed Luo Fei a screen recording of a variety show.

It showed Yuan Wanqing joining the cast of "Jade Pool Immortal Affinity" on a variety program.

Yuan Wanqing was merely a background figure, only singing two lines of the chorus climax of "Annual Rings" midway through.

Yet this tiny clip, when cut and uploaded by netizens, inexplicably went viral on Weibo.

One netizen summarized:

【This episode's entire content is trash—the only highlight is Yuan Wanqing's voice.】

【Compared to this, Sister Qing is pure refreshment.】

【What song is this? Pretty good.】

【The theme song of the new drama 'Jade Pool Immortal Affinity'—though I'm not recommending the drama, just listen to the song, don't watch the show!】

【Thanks—I checked it out out of curiosity and got hooked. I need Sister Qing's 'Annual Rings' to cure me.】

Luo Fei stared at these comments, blinking, still not quite processing.

After a long silence, Luo Fei looked at Yuan Wanqing and suddenly said: "Didn't I tell you before? Opportunities can come at any moment—this time, you've got to seize it."

"How do I seize it?"

The question Yuan Wanqing had raised that night.

The next day, it was answered.

"Sis."

The next morning, as Yuan Wanqing was happily browsing Li Luo's novel, her assistant rushed into the studio, excitedly telling her:

"Several variety shows want to invite you to appear."

"No other requirements—just sing 'Annual Rings' on stage."