Chapter 128: 《circulation》: The Old Me You Ignored, The New Me You Can’t Reach!
“When did you learn to be so bad? He’s already suffering enough.”
“Oh, really? I’m not bad, Aunt. Since he’s so suffering… I’ll call him personally.”
Jin Sui: “……”
What a caring little padded jacket.
The whole family burst into laughter.
Of course, while chatting with her little niece, Jin Sui was also very curious, surprised, and even eager about Circulation’s performance.
“Was Chi Ye writing the Circulation script at that time, and you were there on site?”
“Yeah… oh no, it was when he was talking with that director, I was there on site… um, but that counts as writing too, anyway, I witnessed it with my own eyes!”
“……So, Chi Ye really knows how to write scripts.”
Jin Sui muttered to herself, then brought up another matter: “Oh right, Aunt’s company recently received a few movie notebooks…”
The aunt and niece chatted for a while, with Chi Ye waiting nearby, even going to buy Empress Dowager a cup of milk tea and refilling the cola.
“Hanging up, hanging up. Remember to say hi to Little Uncle for me.”
Jin Xia saw Chi Ye return, holding milk tea, her favorite strawberry daifuku, and her peach blossom eyes curved into crescents.
“Done showing off?”
Chi Ye handed her the milk tea and pulled out an expensive glass straw from his bag.
“Thanks.”
Jin Xia took it and sucked hard on a big gulp, cheeks puffed: “No no, this isn’t showing off, this is just daily chatting with Aunt… um, this glass straw isn’t as good as the paper straw made from natural pulp… but as expected from Teacher Chi, it’s delicious!”
Chi Ye: “……”
He glanced at the time, saw it was still early, and waved: “Alright, let’s go, keep playing.”
“Play?” Jin Xia blinked her eyes, shaking her head: “No more playing.”
“Hm?”
Chi Ye was stunned: “Didn’t you just say you wanted to ride the roller coaster?”
“Tired.”
“……” Chi Ye looked at her suspiciously for a few moments.
“Really tired, no more playing.”
Empress Dowager huffed and turned around, hands behind her back, walking toward the exit: “Let’s go, we’ll go back and rest.”
Seeing her like this, Chi Ye didn’t say more and silently followed.
Only asking just before going out: “Are you afraid of delaying my work?”
“No.”
Jin Xia said so, but smugly lifted her little chin.
Praise me praise me!
Chi Ye felt a pang in his heart watching this.
Looks like Empress Dowager overheard when he was talking with Director Zhang earlier.
This first time accompanying Empress Dowager for her birthday, and it hadn’t even gone well.
He felt a bit “guilty”: “Next time it’s my birthday, you do the same to me.”
Jin Xia: “……”
“Haha, let’s go.”
Chi Ye was amused; seeing Empress Dowager’s expression always made him find it interesting.
The two didn’t really go back to rest just like that; Chi Ye took Empress Dowager to browse the mall a bit more, until it was almost dark, before returning to the hotel… two separate rooms, starting to contact the team.
……
Circulation’s breakout exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Ku Ying’s S+ “chasing investment” was fast, accurate, and fierce, so by the time the other two major platforms reacted, Circulation’s popularity had already taken off to a new level.
But competitors clearly wouldn’t just watch Circulation improve.
Penguin Platform was okay; their Meng Xi Yuan’s popularity had reached 30700 with the plot heating up, targeting a push to 32000 before the finale. If successful, Meng Xi Yuan would be the undisputed Drama King of this summer slot.
And Ku Ying decisively abandoned Deng Ji Feng Chui Qi, going all-in on Circulation, so even without personal grudges, Circulation would take over Deng Ji Feng Chui Qi’s previous position and “battle” the other two competitors.
Kiwifruit was the most hurt.
After 20 episodes of Deep Sea aired, the plot became increasingly abstract, with the male lead, female lead, second male lead, second female lead, even third male and third female—six people’s emotional lines surging, completely disjointed from the quality of the first 20 episodes.
Popularity fell from over 10000 to around 9900.
Seeing Circulation’s popularity about to rise, Deep Sea’s film producer thought it over and decided—peng ci him!
Yes, the once high-and-mighty S+ Deep Sea began actively peng ci-ing Circulation.
All sorts of marketing soft articles and hot searches mobilized; over the next two days, Deep Sea tried deep-binding with Circulation, even if the lead actor farted, they had to compare whose was stinkier.
But under these circumstances, Circulation’s side didn’t engage at all, and stated—you who the hell are you? You’re an S+, coming to peng ci my A+, where’s your face?
Once you ignored me, now you can’t climb high enough!
After several failed peng ci attempts, Deep Sea’s film producer grew irritable.
The next day at noon, during a Douyin sweep the building activity, Chu Han Zhou was asked how he evaluated the recently hot Circulation. He smiled without speaking, while a “certain fan” on site shouted: “Serious drama and idol drama aren’t the same genre, Deep Sea is a satellite drama, can’t compare to web series!”
Chu Han Zhou still didn’t speak, but that evening someone exposed that Shi Jinwei had privately mocked Chi Ye: “Catch up to Deep Sea’s popularity first.”
—That’s right, Deep Sea’s standout feature was split personality.
Under Teacher You’s helm, any normal plot progression was extremely captivating, with that unique spy war tension and sense of faith maxed out, ratings very good at those moments.
But such plots were too few in the latter half; once it hit “six people life-death abuse love sweet pet plot,” ratings started dropping sharply.
Coincidentally, the first night after their failed peng ci of Circulation, Deep Sea aired Teacher You’s scripted highlight again. Deep Sea’s team had found the pattern, so they were bolder.
But… this time the audience might have been triggered with PTSD. That night, not only did popularity not recover, it kept dropping from 9900 to 9850, far behind Circulation’s 10100.
—This was still because of Ku Ying’s crazy scheduling; Circulation’s popularity dropped some, otherwise it would be even higher.
Deep Sea’s entire cast was dumbfounded.
On the other side, Meng Xi Yuan quietly joined the battlefield amid Yue Na’s private grudges + Penguin and Ku Ying rivalry.
Their goal was clear—encirclement and suppression of Circulation.
And compared to Deep Sea’s “aboveboard” approach, Yue Na had no such scruples.
Toward Chi Ye, and Chi Ye toward Yue Na, both sides were as vicious as possible.
Yue Na’s strategy was direct public opinion “preemptive strike” on Circulation.
Preemptive strike, a popular industry term in recent years, meaning when someone’s traffic is about to ascend, fearing they’ll steal your resources, everyone teams up to sabotage them.
For example, when Lao Peng ascended, all young actors except Yue Na and his own management company preemptive striked him… but failed.
Specific tactics were exposing “scandals” of Circulation’s leads, like Ran Qiao being a delinquent girl, Chi Ye and Teacher Fang having an affair, Director Zhang doing drugs on set…
In short, splash as much dirty water as possible.
Of course, on plot content, they also made issues, not just Circulation, but also Deng Ji Feng Chui Qi and Deep Sea.
Because among the summer slot’s four “big series,” except Meng Xi Yuan which had opened at 7.0, the other three hadn’t opened scores yet.
Deng Ji Feng Chui Qi and Deep Sea locked scores out of guilt, Circulation just hadn’t aired long enough.
And by everyone’s impression, 7.0 was already a very good score for an ancient idol drama.
So in this aspect, Meng Xi Yuan had absolute strategic lead, AOE sweeping the other three opponents, four sides battling fiercely.
And right then, the night Circulation’s episode 8 aired after launch, their first business activity began.
Xing Ni film crew, in a certain room.
Chi Ye was just in simple sportswear, then pulled up by Empress Dowager to change into various luxury brands she carefully picked for him.
“This isn’t good, right?”
Chi Ye looked at his strikingly handsome self, hesitant: “Not leaving them any face?”
Jin Xia admiringly eyed Chi Ye, nodding: “No face for them!”
“You’re not going out? What if you’re photographed?”
“Hm… we’re filming together anyway, over-avoiding suspicion would be worse.”
Empress Dowager slyly said: “Besides, I’m not showing my face.”
“Alright.”
Chi Ye nodded, finished communicating with Director Zhang over there, and Circulation film crew’s connected live broadcast started.
This business live was on Weibo platform, connecting Circulation’s five leads: Chi Ye, Ran Qiao, Teacher Liu, Fang Min Teacher Fang, and the veteran actor driver uncle playing the killer, plus an on-site host.
Network connected successfully, six people’s pictures appeared. Due to recent Circulation popularity and all sorts of external feuds, live broadcast room viewers quickly broke 1 million.
Bullet comments instantly flooded the screen.
「Aaaah!! My Anti-Zha CP!!」
「Ran Ran and Teacher Chi together forever!」
「?????」
「#Chi Pan Xia Yu# all dead? Pretending we don’t exist?」
「Chi Pan Xia Yu is number one!」
A user ID 【I Don’t Gossip】, seeing the recent hot Circulation Anti-Zha CP heresy, angrily fired off ten big rockets.
“Turn off gifts, turn off gifts.”
Chi Ye saw and kindly reminded.
Host ashamed, quickly turned off gifts, then enthusiastically:
“Family, welcome to today’s live site!”
“After Circulation launched, everyone’s enthusiasm has been soaring, discussions nonstop. Today, we’ve invited several leads from the series to the live room to chat about the wonderful stories behind filming, diving deep into the series’ magical world.”
Sina girl finished opening, just about to follow process and have them introduce their roles.
But unexpectedly, Circulation’s group had already started chatting hotly!
“Teacher Liu, Teacher Fang, Teacher Zhou, long time no see.”
“Qiao Qiao, haha, even prettier.”
“Xiao Chi so handsome today?”
“Not bad, how’d you know I was fifth on Vlinkage chart?”
Teacher Liu: “……”
“Already dropped, Chi Ge, you’re seventh now.”
Ran Qiao sipped goji berry tea on camera, kindly reminding.
Chi Ye: “?”
“Then what’s your rank?”
“I fell out of top ten, Ku Ying’s scheduling is problematic…”
“Cough cough…”
Ku Ying staff who planned this business live today coughed lightly twice.
Bullet comments roared with laughter.
「hhh, Qiao-mei too cute.」
「Criticizing the platform in front of the platform?」
「Ku Ying: I’ll really thank you.」
「Ku Ying come out and get beaten! It’s already a crazy schedule, the worst among three major platforms!」
「My Anti-Zha CP!! Aaah! Dying from shipping!」
「Ship what? Heretics all die!!」
At a certain sweep the building site backstage, a certain unnamed business surname female star held her mobile phone, passionately arguing in bullet comments with other fans!
On the other side, Chi Ye glanced sideways at Empress Dowager not far away.
Found Empress Dowager intently watching Circulation film crew’s live… um, no, watching his live.
Because the other five small screens were blocked by her; right now, she stared at Chi Ye on screen, her fair little fingers poking poking poking.
“What are you doing?”
Taking advantage of host asking others questions, Chi Ye couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked softly.
Jin Xia turned back, glanced at him, said nothing, turned back and kept poking the screen huffily.
After a bit, Chi Ye’s WeChat rang; opening it, it was from Empress Dowager: 【Slim face off, big eyes off, skin smoothing to 2 is fine, I tested it, this is the handsomest!】
Chi Ye: “……”
He followed the “instructions” and operated.
Host also got to him: “Teacher Chi, do you know you and Teacher Ran Qiao now have the #Anti-Zha CP# title? There are many similar CP names, which do you like best?”
“This one, yeah I know. As for which I like… we only seem to have one CP name, right?” Chi Ye paused, said: “After all, we’re just one male female lead pair, too many isn’t good.”
Host crashed on the spot.
Other connected guests all dumbfounded.
Ah this…
Can I hear this?
Chi Ye hadn’t been short of blackening from these sides lately, so he had no intention of holding back, frankly nodding: “Didn’t Meng Xi Yuan form over a dozen CPs? We don’t have that many.”
“Uh… that… let’s ask Teacher Liu… eh, Teacher Liu?”
Host hurriedly shifted topic, but looking at Teacher Liu’s feed, found Teacher Liu might have nicotine craving; seeing the male lead question earlier, unexpectedly Chi Ye made host smoke with one sentence, and cut back to him.
The cigarette he’d pulled out was stuffed in his mouth, instantly petrified, guiltily covering the butt: “Ah… um… ask… ask away.”
He was the no-smoking ambassador!
Host: “……”
What demons and monsters are these in Circulation?
Started questioning.
But such standard business was boring; Weibo knew, so after leads answered questions, host said: “Here we have answering bullet comments; teachers pick and answer one by one, okay?”
“No problem.”
Everyone said no problem.
Chi Ye as male lead + top-billed, first to step up.
He scanned the fast-scrolling bullet comments, saw a question: “This netizen says… you couldn’t catch Deep Sea’s popularity in a lifetime.”
“Hm… yeah, can’t catch its dropping speed.”
Host: “？!”
「hhh, knew it, you pick these questions!」
「This isn’t a question, he picks black fans to reply to!」
「Dropping speed unbeatable, I’m done.」
「Deep Sea just dropped to 9800 tonight, how’d you know?!」
Bullet comments kept scrolling, Chi Ye kept picking questions.
「Don’t peng ci Meng Xi Yuan, we’re lonely at the top…」
Chi Ye paused, puzzled: “Lonely at the top… so high, can it heat up?”
Host’s face turned ashen.
Other guests covered faces.
Ku Ying thrilled and delighted!
As expected of you, Hu Ye! You say it so well! Say more, damn it, all the popularity is ours Circulation’s!
「Chi Ye don’t get cocky, Deep Sea’s reputation will ferment.」
Chi Ye nodded: “Hm, don’t worry, wait for reputation to make ’em laugh!”
