Although she didn't really want to get involved, since she had already handed it over to the PR department and person in charge of publicity to deal with, Qin Wei still opened her computer to take a look at the hot search trends.
She had quickly watched a few episodes of the rival TV drama. Its advantages and disadvantages were extremely obvious:
The advantage was that the plot was exciting enough. The female lead went out on expeditions and left no grass growing wherever she went. Whoever mixed with her was destined to win, while whoever opposed her was doomed to fail in the end, from the nobility and gentry high above to the common people down below. This set of rules applied to everyone.
The shortcomings were also obvious. The female lead’s reckless face-slapping did not require her to take any responsibility. There were a bit too many places in the first few episodes where things happened just for the sake of excitement. Even a little puppy barking at her by the roadside was subject to retribution.
There were also some plot points that could not be logically explained. Besides that, the workmanship was really not meticulous enough, not only in terms of the storyline, but also the costumes, makeup and post-production...
She would definitely not participate in a TV drama of such quality, but Qin Wei had also thought that if she was really unfortunate enough to film something like this, she could still make the drama go viral through marketing - pretending to be pitiful, acting poor, playing with memes, and joking about herself, she might even gain some goodwill from passersby.
Therefore, relying solely on the storyline, it would be very difficult for this kind of TV drama to become popular. It needed corresponding synchronized marketing, and then many people would have to play along with the memes before it could go viral. On top of that, without people digging out too many bugs in the rapidly changing, face-slapping plot reversals, there might be a chance for it to catch on.
So what needed to be done now was to grab their hype and get more netizens on social media to pay attention to other things, so they would miss out on the synchronized meme-playing step. That would dampen the drama-viewing experience.
Let’s take another look at the recent hot search trends...
Hmm...it doesn't seem like I need to take any special action myself...
...
There weren't many things that could keep Su Yang up all night - she had stayed up all night browsing TikTok once, stayed up all night when a manga artist updated rapidly once, and this time, it was to read fanfiction.
She didn't know about it before, but she had expanded her knowledge this time. She realized that many netizens would spontaneously write fanfiction on social media platforms, and the later it got into the night, the more wonderful it became.
If she chased too many, it would be easy to get them mixed up, so Su Yang eventually chose a few of her favorite series to follow.
[The UnBesieged CP Being Abominable series]
[The love triangle but Su Yang is just a tool man series]
[The melodramatic revenge refreshing main female lead series]
[The pure smut series]
Just these four. The authors seemed to have reincarnated from typing machines, updating at lightning speed and the quality was also good. Moreover, none of these authors seemed tired at all, churning out a thousand words per hour continuously until dawn!
Awesome!
When dawn broke, Su Yang fell asleep on the sofa.
...
She was woken up by the phone call bombardment of Li Yao.
"Hello..."
"Yo, ancestress! Did you see the script I sent to your email?"
Li Yao asked her over the phone.
"Uh...didn't read it..."
Su Yang said, feeling a little hungry as she got up from the sofa and went to the fridge to take out some ready-to-eat food to put in the microwave.
"Go take a look quickly. Preparations for the movie have started, and casting has also begun. Although the producers have you slated for it, we still have to go through the proper procedures, right! I'm overseas now, I have a lot to tell you, let me finish up what I'm working on first, then we'll talk!"
Li Yao was probably really busy, not only managing her but also other artists. Plus Anxing was developing rapidly, so his workload was also huge. Some time ago when Su Yang's contract had expired, he had been sent abroad by the company to discuss projects with several artists, and he was still busy until now.
"Movie...casting...filming..."
Su Yang looked at the microwave that was running, carefully recalling Li Yao's words. She finally had something to do...
She picked up her phone and made a call.
...
"Sis, something up?"
Wang Dongdong was quite puzzled when she received a call from Su Yang asking if she was busy. After telling her boss, she was urged to go back and take a look, leaving the set to return to Yun Jing residential area. When she saw Su Yang, she didn't feel like anything was wrong with her.
"Have you eaten?"
Su Yang asked her.
Wang Dongdong shook her head, looking confused.
"Then have these xiaolongbao."
Just a moment ago still looking worried, hearing her words, the smile returned to Su Yang's face. She brought out a plate of piping hot xiaolongbao for little Wang to eat, then packed a lot of frozen food and put it on the table,
"Oh, I bought these thinking I wouldn't cook when she's not home during the short vacation, but didn't get a chance to eat them. Take them back to eat..."
Wang Dongdong looked shocked, but didn't dare voice her opinion.
[Wang Dongdong's Diary: The silly sweet girl bought a lot of xiaolongbao, dumplings, custard buns, spring rolls, fried radish cakes, wontons and dumplings. According to her, she didn't get to eat a single bag.
She gave them all to me because preparations for the new drama had started, and she couldn't indulge in eating and drinking anymore. What's more, my sis would definitely not eat them.
In fact, she was wrong. My sis wouldn't just not eat them, she wouldn't even allow the sight of these things in her home. The silly sweet girl was too gutsy, actually daring to put them in her fridge...
Ah, but I'm so happy. These weren't cheap, yet she gave them all to me. But I also won't have a chance to eat them recently, work is too busy.
Hmm... Li Liang will benefit instead.]
...
Su Yang took a look at the email Li Yao sent her. Apart from a small amount of script excerpts and the story outline, there was also the filming schedule and some key personnel, as well as some related materials that were, in Li Yao's words, "optional to look at or not".
【Su Yang: Read it, starting preparations, you focus on your work first, we'll talk later】
【Li Yao: Working hard, my little ancestress! I also bought a gift for you, wait a few more days until I'm done...】
After a simple exchange, Su Yang put down her phone and looked at the books on the table, having to motivate herself.
She recalled what Shen Qingqing said during the vacation:
"There'll be exams next week, Wei Wei, you must remember to study!"
Countdown to end of vacation, she had to diligently look at her books.
...
The next day when going to school, all sorts of entertainment journalists were already staking out the school gates to ambush Su Yang. The previous day's hot search trends were really too shocking. Weibo and the entertainment sections on other social media platforms were almost all discussing this matter. Marketing accounts and media outlets were also desperately trying to cash in on the hype. Everyone's after-meal gossip was about this incident.
The less the person involved responded, the more curious everyone became.
Apart from the incident itself, the various fanfiction was also wildly popular.
Right now, everyone on the internet was racking their brains to try and get an exclusive scoop, but both parties involved could not be contacted. Their respective agents and companies also did not provide any response.
It was as if the two sides had tacitly agreed to stay silent about this matter.
Su Yang was filming on set, virtually no chance to interview him. But Qin Wei was different - she had to go to school today, so they could definitely catch her here!
"Ah! Qin Wei's here! Quick!"
Qin Wei had just parked her car in the school's outdoor parking lot when the eagle-eyed reporters instantly spotted her. They shouted for their photographers to rush over, each wanting to be first!
She was this year's biggest traffic star! As long as they successfully cashed in on the hype, the traffic from just this one report might exceed the total traffic from all their articles combined this year!
Even if they were attacked by antis and water armies to the point of disappearing for a while, it didn't change the fact that "Qin Wei" was the password to traffic.
If they succeeded, their KPI would be hit, and they wouldn't need to desperately chase gossip for the rest of the year.
