Chapter 397: I Am an Honored Guest

The single line, "I want to choose you, Prince Jing," can be said to have brought all the preceding foreshadowing to a climax at this very moment.

The preceding content made people feel the most exhausted, confused, and lost in the fog, but it only boiled down to a few points.

Now, after this plot point appeared, the effect of the preceding foreshadowing was maximized.

All foreshadowing serves the subsequent moments of satisfaction.

In any case, when Xiao Cai learned that Mei Zhangsu was deliberately maneuvering between Prince Yu and the Crown Prince, while actually wanting to secretly help Prince Jing, Xiao Jingyan, she felt this segment was absolutely amazing!

"The word-of-mouth is definitely going to skyrocket!"

"I even want to make a video segment; this scene is definitely going to be a classic moment in the future!"

As a budding Drama Critic, Xiao Cai had already begun, for the sake of her work, to consider filming techniques and the screenwriter's writing style while watching dramas.

In her view, the reason this content was so gripping was that Prince Jing had previously mocked Mei Zhangsu repeatedly, feeling disdain because he thought Mei Zhangsu wanted to become a staffer for Prince Yu or the Crown Prince.

There is more to this than just a simple Reversal.

At the same time, it could be seen earlier that Prince Jing cared deeply about Tingsheng, so Mei Zhangsu rescuing Tingsheng was also equivalent to a welcoming gift for Prince Jing, while simultaneously showcasing his own capabilities.

"This is... how many birds with one stone?" Xiao Cai began counting on her fingers.

I would like to call him the "Bird-Exploding Demon"!

Besides this, Xiao Cai felt more and more at this moment that the preceding foreshadowing was truly meaningful.

"Many people watch dramas now just for the sake of instant gratification."

"In this Drama, if there hadn't been the preceding foreshadowing, and Xiao Jingyan had mocked Mei Zhangsu like that, only for Mei Zhangsu to still say he wanted to choose to assist him, a large number of viewers would definitely be clamoring to drop the show, feeling it was unsatisfying."

"Who knows, they might even curse him for being a bootlicker."

"But with the preceding foreshadowing, everything has a traceable path, and everyone can understand the reason Prince Jing said those words."

"He mocked Mei Zhangsu because he cares about Lin Shu."

"It's just that he doesn't know that Mei Zhangsu is Lin Shu."

The most brilliant part is that Prince Jing even stated directly that he dislikes people who are calculating at every step more than anything else in his life.

After all, Lin Shu, the Prince of Qi, and others died precisely because of schemes and plots.

And Mei Zhangsu's current identity, as well as what he does, is that of a strategist who plans every step and is deep in schemes.

This will also make more people look forward to the two of them recognizing each other, looking forward to the day his identity is exposed.

To put it simply, they Want to Watch him—drop his mask.

Xiao Cai felt that, barring any accidents, starting from tonight, countless people would be frantically recommending the show to those around them, shouting for everyone to hurry up and watch "Nirvana in Fire".

After finishing two episodes, she felt unsatisfied.

"I actually wish it had the 【Advanced On-Demand】 feature where you can pay 3 yuan to watch 1 episode in advance!"

"I want to spend money to watch it directly!"

She felt she had become obsessed.

Xiao Cai was indeed a little rich girl, but she had always disliked this practice by video websites and really wanted to ask: "Don't you think this looks very ugly?"

However, the Drama of "Nirvana in Fire" was too alluring, and she felt she had been seduced.

It was so good that it even made her ignore her own principles a little!

"Exquisite production, superb acting, alluring content..."

"Luo Mo relied on the 'Chinese Paladin' series to reverse everyone's attitude toward Xianxia dramas and changed everyone's aesthetic."

"This time, he is Afraid he is going to do it again!"

………

………

That night, "Nirvana in Fire" surged to the number one spot on the Hot Search.

I don't know if everyone has noticed, but recently there have been a few very strange terms on Weibo that have repeatedly climbed the Hot Search list.

—【Unpleasant to Hear】 and 【Unpleasant to Watch】.

You open the Hot Search list and can often see these two terms. The entries don't specify which song is unpleasant to hear or which drama is unpleasant to watch; you have to click in to find out.

These types of entries repeatedly climbing the Hot Search list are actually many listeners and viewers expressing their strong dissatisfaction with the current music scene and film and television industry.

There are too many rotten songs and too many rotten dramas.

Old dramas, on the contrary, never get old, while among the new dramas now, there are only a few worth watching in a year.

In the eyes of many netizens, the music scene is regressing, and the film and television industry is the same.

But today, a term that everyone found very novel climbed the Hot Search list—【Good to Watch】.

And you have to know, Weibo Hot Searches are often followed by a character to indicate the level of popularity, which is equivalent to grading them, for example: 【Hot】 and 【Boiling】.

But the grade label following the two words 【Good to Watch】 was—【Explosive】!

Many netizens who were incredibly curious about this clicked in one after another, and the content inside was all about "Nirvana in Fire".

"Nirvana in Fire" originally had a first-day rating of 9.2 on Penguin Video. It didn't seem low, but it was the lowest score among the dramas Luo Mo had filmed so far.

But in just one day, after the third and fourth episodes aired, the rating began a counterattack, rising directly to 9.4!

This kind of reverse growth can be said to be extremely rare, because generally, the first-day score of a major drama is its highest, and it will only drop afterward, not rise.

This involves many reasons such as fan manipulation of scores, subsequent plot direction, and the possibility of the drama having a poor ending.

The scene where "Nirvana in Fire" had such polarized word-of-mouth on the first day, only to have countless people applauding on the second day, made many passersby who hadn't watched the drama yet have a thought:

"Are these netizens suffering from split personalities?"

Yesterday they were cursing, today they are full of praise.

If this isn't schizophrenia, what is?

It's the same group of people going online.

In reality, among those who cursed yesterday and those who praised today, there is indeed an overlap.

There was even a hilarious entry that made it to sixth place on the Weibo Hot Search—【I want to apologize to Luo Mo】.

Director Zheng Guofeng really made a prophecy; everyone was too quick to criticize.

"Luo Mo, I'm sorry! Nirvana in Fire is damn good!"

"The drama is high-energy all the way through. The parts I was confused about earlier, I just kept watching, and somehow, I understood them!"

"I feel like when I first got married to my husband; his relatives were too numerous, which made me feel chaotic, but after staying for a long time, I naturally recognized them all. Watching Nirvana in Fire gives me that same feeling; I don't feel tired at all."

"Brother Mo, I am guilty! I absolutely rave about episodes three and four! I dare say, this drama is most likely the best of the year!"

"This is the benchmark for domestic dramas! Luo Mo, I was wrong. I've watched too many trashy dramas, and my heart was blinded by lard!"

Many Drama Critics saw the wind changing and immediately joined the ranks of those apologizing.

Quite a few Drama Critics earn their money from traffic, so of course, they have to cater to everyone.

Otherwise, no one will pay attention to your account; who are you writing for, and what are you earning money with?

Therefore, batches of Drama Critics and marketing accounts on major platforms followed the trend and joined the ranks of those apologizing.

Yet, these apology posts actually received a huge number of likes and comments.

Once this happened, the momentum became even more massive.

These types of updates left some netizens who had been discouraged yesterday and decided not to waste time watching Nirvana in Fire completely stunned.

"Why does it feel like they are playing with us?"

"One moment they tell us to get out, the next they tell us to come in."

"Ladies, are you playing some kind of game?"

But it must be said, this kind of scene, like a major Reversal, still made many people jump on the bandwagon.

"I want to see for myself if it's really that divine!"

A few hours later...

Damn! It really is divine!

………

………

Late at night, the Vice President of Penguin Video was once again unable to sleep.

He was very regretful, so regretful that he couldn't sleep.

"I shouldn't have agreed to Xu Guan's Requirement!" Cheng Wen was furious.

Have you noticed that Nirvana in Fire only updates two episodes a day, and there is no Member Early Access feature on Penguin Video?

In this day and age, the number of users on online video platforms is surging, while the number of users watching television stations is plummeting.

This also makes it so that after a production team films a good drama and sells it, the online video platform is the biggest benefactor; the money given by television stations cannot compare to the video platforms at all.

Whoever gives more money, whoever has a larger user base, is naturally the Ox.

Therefore, you can often find now that many dramas are broadcast faster online; after you activate a membership, you can watch several more episodes than on television.

However, these things are all based on multiple parties sitting down to negotiate.

For example, on Earth, there was an instance where Mango Tai was very tough and refused to adopt this model, causing the cooperation to collapse directly.

Although the local satellite station 【Octopus TV】 has developed very quickly in the last two years because of Luo Mo, it cannot be that tough.

In the end, the result negotiated was that for the first week of Nirvana in Fire's broadcast, everyone would update simultaneously, and starting the next week, Penguin Video could offer 【Member Early Access】.

Xu Guan just wanted a super high viewership rating for the first week and wanted to break the station's record.

For this, he made many promises and had resource transfers with Luo Mo Studio and Penguin Video.

After hesitating for a few days, Cheng Wen finally agreed.

It was only the first week, so it didn't matter.

Facts proved that how could a man not like it tight!?

Lying in bed, the more Cheng Wen thought about it, the more he regretted it: "The word-of-mouth exploded after the fourth episode finished airing, and the plot also started to go wild. If we had the 【Member Early Access】 feature now, and Nirvana in Fire was exclusively broadcast on our Penguin Video, how many people would have activated a membership directly!"

——So frustrating!

Nowadays, the competition among the four major video platforms has reached a white-hot stage.

The reason why Luo Mo decided to cross over and get into film and television so quickly, besides everyone looking forward to him acting, is also because he understands the situation.

The current Blue Star is a bit like the situation on Earth a few years ago.

On Earth, a certain video website announced in September 2017 that the number of paid members had exceeded 43 million.

By the end of February the following year, the number had surged directly to 62.59 million!

And by 2019 on Earth, one video platform's membership count had broken 100 million, and another platform followed closely behind, almost breaking 100 million!

This kind of explosive growth, in this era where traffic is king, has significance that is not just as simple as membership fees!

Luo Mo chose to enter the game at this time because the current situation is: all four major video websites feel that the explosive period is coming, and all want to be the first to break a total of 50 million paid members.

Break 50 million first, and then break 100 million a few years later!

Become a milestone in the industry!

Phenomenal hit works, whether they are variety shows, anime, television dramas, or movies... all have a huge contribution to activating memberships!

As long as you can produce good works, you are an honored guest of the video platform.

The benefits and advantages you can obtain will also be maximized.

Penguin Video's current total membership is 45.9 million, ranking third among the four major video platforms.

Pineapple TV ranks second, with 47.2 million.

Qiqu Video ranks first, with 48.1 million.

Because of the special nature of the large company Penguin, although Penguin Video is the one established for the shortest time among the four major video platforms and has the weakest foundation, it had the most vigorous early development!

However, after developing to a certain scale, once the bottleneck period arrives, there are many more problems.

Moreover, there have been too many S-Class Projects that flopped this year, and Cheng Wen is completely numb from the failures.

For one of those S-Class Projects, he was even one of the producers, which means Penguin Video also invested quite a lot of money into the production crew.

Originally, he had hoped to catch up and overtake Bolo Video this year.

Now look at this; it would be good enough if they don't drop to fourth place.

What Cheng Wen cares about most right now is the number of paid members, and he checks the data reports periodically.

When "Sword and Fairy: Jingtian Chapter" was airing, it did indeed surge.

Unfortunately, there were too many terrible shows afterward, so many of the new members didn't stay.

It's easy enough to deal with old members, but new members are relatively hard to retain.

Especially those who specifically signed up for a membership for a certain show; once the show is finished, if your subsequent content isn't what they love, they naturally won't waste their money.

"How many members have been missed because of this," Cheng Wen lamented.

At this stage, time is money.

The industry's explosive period has already arrived, and everyone is basically racing against the clock, striving to expand their early advantages.

In the end, Cheng Wen didn't even know how he fell asleep; after falling asleep, he was still looking at data reports in his dreams, watching the membership growth numbers, and cursing up a storm.

After waking up in the morning, Cheng Wen arrived at the company early.

As soon as he entered his office, his secretary walked in with the data reports.

Cheng Wen likes looking at printed data; his mind is clearer when he looks at things on paper. He feels uncomfortable staring at a screen for too long.

He sat down in his chair, took off his Glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand, and pointed at the secretary with the other, saying, "I didn't rest well, just read it to me directly."

The secretary acknowledged him and began to read the various data points.

She read them out one by one, and soon reached the daily increase and decrease in member users.

As Cheng Wen listened to the data for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, he became increasingly irritable.

"Just skip the Thursday stuff for me, actually, forget it, just tell me the data from yesterday," Cheng Wen said, putting his Glasses back on and frowning.

The secretary, wearing high heels and standing with her legs together, acknowledged him and then said, "Yesterday's membership data is an increase of 231,800."

"I knew it, we haven't even enabled Member Early Access yet, it definitely wouldn't..." Cheng Wen said halfway before suddenly looking up sharply.

"Wait, how much did you just say!?"

(PS: Asking for guaranteed monthly votes at the beginning of the month!

During these first few days of the year, I'm either out visiting relatives or hosting guests who come to visit, so updates might not be very stable. There is only one 4,000-word update today. Sigh, not having a backlog is really annoying!)

(End of this chapter)