Chapter 116 1/2

“370 million?!”

The heads of the talent shows airing at the same time as “Crossing the Star Sea” were nearly pulling their hair out.

“Isn’t this the first day of the premiere, not the first week or month? Even if there are duplicate accounts and repeated clicks, nearly four billion views are too outrageous!”

It’s worth noting that China’s television program ratings were regulated by the government eight years ago. At that time, various entertainment programs exaggerated their ratings to attract attention, even claiming to have several billion views. When the government put an end to such practices, the subsequent program ratings quickly returned to normal levels. Even those who wanted better-looking data dared to buy fake clicks secretly.

Eight years ago, the previously exaggerated data from various programs became genuine overnight. A few hundred million views were considered “top ten in the industry” if we were talking about total views.

If someone had told the person in charge of this program a few months ago that a talent show had garnered 370 million views on the first day of its premiere, he would have laughed it off and swiftly distanced himself from the delusional lunatic.

However, now, the person in charge of “Vote 188” was in a state of madness:

“This is not the first time Starshine has organized a talent show, right?! Even with a holographic stage, there are only so many young people in the whole country. How can it have such high viewership?”

Ji Shan knew that whether it was a movie or a TV series, everyone would tacitly avoid releasing their works at the same time as Starshine, especially movies. After Starshine announced its schedule, many other movies that had already confirmed their release dates were rescheduled.

Logically, with the fierce competition from Starshine’s holographic stage this time, their company should try to avoid competing with “Beyond the Star Sea.”

Now, everyone gathering together was certainly not because the higher-ups at the company had lost their minds.

Although, in the eyes of the person in charge, it wasn’t much different from losing their minds.

The higher-ups simply wanted to take a gamble.

As everyone knew, Starshine had rarely failed before, and the first time they ventured into a stage production, they already stirred up immense anticipation among the audience.

However, those who had experience with talent shows knew that it was not an easy task.

In the current market trend, the allocation of screen time among contestants, especially in larger shows, is difficult to coordinate. It wasn’t as simple as gathering all the contestants together for a performance.

If “Beyond the Star Sea” encountered difficulties, other talent shows airing at the same time could attract a large audience and smoothly carry out a series of strategies to criticize “Beyond the Star Sea” while promoting their own show.

Naturally, this was a risky move, considering the rumored twenty billion investment by Sheng Quan into “Beyond the Star Sea.” Even if it were an ant, it could become a giant ant with such an investment.

But the allure of potential gains could make some people think, “What if?”

“What if it succeeds?”

Sheng Quan had excelled in TV dramas and dominated the film charts for years, but this was her first foray into the talent show industry. Sheng, the general manager of Sheng Corporation, couldn’t possibly excel at everything, right?

Surprisingly, Sheng Quan turned out to be good at everything.

And it went beyond everyone’s expectations.

Thinking about the imminent accountability from higher-ups, Ji Shan wished he could call an ambulance and go to the hospital for oxygen. It was how things worked for employees; when decisions were made, they had no say, but when decisions went wrong, they had to bear the blame.

He wanted to salvage his own career a bit. Dryly smiling, he said to his subordinates:

“It’s normal for the premiere to have high viewership. It’s a new program, and a lot of people will tune in out of curiosity. The first-day viewership doesn’t prove anything; let’s see how it goes on the second day.”

The next day, Ji Shan looked at the screen displaying “Beyond the Star Sea’s second-day viewership: 450 million.”

“…”

For a moment, he didn’t know whether to think, “This show actually looks pretty good; maybe I should start watching it too,” or to ponder, “Should I resign voluntarily or be forced to leave?”

Of course, these were just Ji Shan’s random thoughts. He took the blame, but it wasn’t to the extent of being dismissed. He endured a scolding during the meeting, lost a bonus, and was reassigned to another position.

After the meeting, his superior called him to the office, patted his shoulder, and said comforting words, essentially conveying that everyone knew the situation and his capabilities, and once the dust settled, they would bring him back.

What else could Ji Shan say? He could only smile and say, “Alright, I live and die for the company, and I bear the blame for the company without complaints.”

After leaving the office and looking into the eyes of colleagues—some sympathetic, some watching the show—no matter how much resentment and injustice he felt, he had to swallow it forcibly. Smiling, he pretended not to care, but only he knew how disappointed and bitter he felt inside.

Then, abruptly, just as he left the company, he received a call from an unknown number.

After hearing the content of the call, Ji Shan’s mind went blank:

“Inviting me to participate in the production of ‘Beyond the Star Sea’?! Are you serious?”

***

“You can come for an interview at the headquarters of ‘Beyond the Star Sea.’ Yes, I am Wu Ying.”

Holding a cup of coffee, Sheng Quan entered the office of Wu Ying, the head of the program. She lightly knocked on the open door, and Wu Ying, who was on the phone, was surprised to see her. He quickly gestured an “OK” while still on the call.

“Mr. Xing highly recommended you to me. We can discuss the details when you arrive at the venue. I’ll send you the address right away.”

After the call ended, Wu Ying put down her phone and took the coffee handed out by Sheng Quan. “Director Sheng, why are you delivering coffee?”

“I happened to be in the pantry, so I helped Xiaozhang run some errands.”

Xiaozhang was mainly responsible for various miscellaneous tasks for the program team. Delivering coffee to the staff naturally fell within his job scope.

Since the official broadcast of the program, Sheng Quan has watched as Xiaozhang went from delivering bags of coffee to pushing carts full of neatly arranged coffee.

It showed how much pressure all the staff at “Beyond the Star Sea” were under.

You see, these past few days were just the warm-up for the program, equivalent to opening a small door, and it already attracted so much attention, seemingly becoming the pillar of all talent shows in history.

Because it performed much better than expected, many planned points needed to be changed, and the workload instantly doubled. Wu Ying and the staff of the program team, led by her, were almost all busy with no time to spare.

So, they had to urgently hire more people.

Wu Ying forwarded Ji Shan’s information to Sheng Quan.

“Ji Shan is outstanding, and his personality is relatively stable. I’ve already scheduled an interview with him. It should be confirmed by this afternoon.”

Along with Ji Shan’s information, there were also profiles of several other personnel, all of whom were outstanding and had the ability to coordinate well in such a large-scale project.

Sheng Quan smiled and glanced at them. “You’re in charge; I trust your judgment.”

Wu Ying felt warm in her heart. “Thank you, Director Sheng, for your trust. I will do my best to arrange for the new important staff.”

In fact, when planning the “Beyond the Star Sea” project, the number of staff members approved by Sheng Quan initially seemed excessive to many.

This project, although large, actually has a maximum of only six hundred participants. There is no need for so many staff.

However, at Starlight, Director Sheng’s words have always carried weight. So, even though some people felt it was a bit of a waste of funds, since adjustments could be made once the formal proceedings began, the plan was smoothly approved.

As a result, not only was there no need to reduce the number of staff, but additional personnel were unexpectedly required.

Wu Ying never discussed these matters openly, but in her heart, she was increasingly admiring Director Sheng Quan.

Many of her friends and classmates envied her job’s salary, benefits, and growth potential. However, she felt that her luckiest aspect was having Director Sheng as her boss.

Although Director Sheng rarely intervened in the company’s operations, when it came to making decisions, she never made a mistake.

Sheng Quan: No, actually, I’m just rich and capricious.

She had a somewhat cautious personality. Having thorough preparations was always a good practice, and when needed, extensive preparations could prove beneficial.