Chapter 7

A big V account named “Riding a Little Donkey” posted a Weibo a few days ago: “What’s the most absurd thing you’ve ever encountered?”

This is a common tactic used by big V accounts to attract attention. Even if this topic doesn’t go viral, it can still attract fans to actively comment. When the number of comments on this Weibo reaches a certain level, the user will select the most absurd and eye-catching interesting comments, screenshot them to create a 3×3 grid, and then create a new post full of highlights.

This approach is flawless, but the problem is that “Riding a Little Donkey” has recently experienced a decline in Weibo traffic, with a sharp decrease in the number of fan comments. It’s been almost a week, and there are only a little over two thousand comments in total.

People tend to flock to hot topics, and the more explosive the Weibo, the higher everyone’s desire to comment. Conversely, for colder Weibo posts, even if someone happens to come across them, they are reluctant to engage by leaving a comment or hitting the like button.

This half-dead situation left “Riding a Little Donkey” feeling helpless, but he still opened the comment section, going through each comment one by one, trying to find the nine most explosive ones among these over two thousand comments.

The real name of “Riding a Little Donkey” in real life is Wu Yun, an ordinary name with an ordinary appearance. He doesn’t know how other big V accounts got their status, but he knows his own situation. He lacks humorous wit and doesn’t have the confidence of a well-read person. All he can do is strive to do his best, to improve the quality of his posts as much as possible, and to attract attention.

For example, at this moment, with over two thousand comments, Wu Yun is scrolling through them, taking screenshots and making detailed annotations. The annotations are categorized into factors such as popularity, attractiveness, potential humor, self-sustaining traffic, and whether the traffic is sufficient.

When his eyes start to ache, he takes a break and then continues, but due to the large number of annotations, Wu Yun ends up reading from nine in the evening until two in the morning, even though he’s used to staying up late as a freelancer.

But as is well known, staying up late to play games is quite different from staying up late to work.

Wu Yun is feeling utterly exhausted, and his state has transitioned from “I won’t sleep if the moon doesn’t sleep, I’m a diligent little baby” to “I want to cultivate immortality and end up in the ICU.” However, procrastination is a major taboo in his line of work. Although he really wants to take a break, he knows that if he stops, he’ll just end up goofing off instead of resting. So, Wu Yun chooses to grit his teeth and continue working.

It’s in this dazed state that he suddenly comes across a long comment with a picture.

Roadside Flower: “I have too much to say about this! I never leave comments, but today I must speak up! I said too much, and it exceeded the word limit, so I screenshotted it and put it in my notes! Once you see it, you’ll know! It’s really beyond belief!”

Screenshot contents: “Here’s the thing, I love reading novels, and there’s one novel I really like, so I joined the reader group. Everyone in the group chats happily every day, but this novel is being adapted into a TV series, and we’re worried it will ruin the original work. Our chat about the novel turned into crowdfunding for the adaptation. It’s the kind where each person contributes a small amount to choose the actors they want. There’s a lively girl in the group, let’s call her S.

S’s favorite character in this book is someone surnamed Qin, and she always calls him Brother Qin. The actor originally cast to play Brother Qin seems to have dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, which made S very worried because filming had already started. She was afraid the production team would randomly cast someone and ruin Brother Qin’s image.

The key point is this! One day, she said she saw a handsome guy selling pancakes who looked a lot like Brother Qin while buying pancakes. We encouraged her to ask for his WeChat. Two days later, when we were crowdfunding, S also said she had thrown in ten million. The production team agreed to let her decide who would play Brother Qin. We were all just chatting like this, and no one took it seriously.

Then, two days later, S suddenly posted a picture of a handsome guy and asked us if he looked like Brother Qin. She said this was the guy from the pancake stand, and she had signed him. We thought she had randomly found a picture online and just went along with it, saying he looked like Brother Qin. She said it with such confidence: ‘Then let him play. The director said the pancake guy has great acting skills. I don’t believe he can’t portray Brother Qin’s feeling.’

Sounds like a normal chat, right? The key is this!! That night!! The production team officially announced it! The person cast to play Brother Qin is indeed the guy from the pancake stand!!

What’s the big deal? The big deal is that before this, there was no record of the guy from the pancake stand anywhere, and no one knew him at all!! In other words, what S said must be true for her to get a picture!

We were all stunned, okay?!!

Everyone crazily mentioned S, and after she was mentioned, she was also stunned, saying she had been updating everyone on the progress all along, hadn’t she? She even said it was her first time signing someone and she had no experience, so she had been asking everyone.

Absurd, right? Absurd! We were all just chatting, and she made it happen for real!

And then, we were earnestly telling her how much salary she should give to the artist, saying she was paying the pancake guy too little. Ahhh! Is this the difference between a rich woman following a novel and me following a novel?!! I’m frantically typing on the keyboard, begging the director to film it properly and not ruin the show, while the rich woman is throwing ten million to get someone who matches the character’s temperament to play.

Ahhh, this might be the most absurd and enviable thing I’ve encountered! But thinking about it, I’m also lucky. At least my favorite book has S, this super original fan, to protect it. It’s absurd and satisfying, hahaha.”

This long comment is really long, even in a screenshot in the notes, it still appears much longer than other comments.

But Wu Yun’s eyes light up as he reads it. Perhaps he doesn’t naturally have the sensitivity to chase trends like some big V accounts do, but after reading this long screenshot, he empathizes with the satisfaction it brings.

Even if the protagonist isn’t “Roadside Flower,” he still feels refreshed.

He has a premonition that this comment will bring him huge traffic.

Thinking of this, Wu Yun perks up. There’s no trace of drowsiness. He puts down his phone and lies down to sleep.

Hot spots: entertainment industry, rich people

The point of attraction is that the reversal, the rich book fans maintain the original

Conflict: The conflict between fans of the original book and the adaptation

Comfort: 99%

Wu Yun put down the pen with a snap, his eyes lit up, according to his experience, no matter how you look at this message, it can attract the public, if he pushes it again……

“It’s done!!”

At twelve o’clock at noon the next day, during the prime traffic period, Wu Yun, who stayed up all night without sleep because he was too excited to make up for his brain, uploaded a new Weibo.

There is no nine-square grid, only this long comment.

Caption: I declare this to be the most outrageous of all the comments, just want to ask, is this melon real?

Under the temptation of traffic, he gave up winning steadily, and chose to gamble, losing is just a waste of a few days of time and some money, if he wins, such a topic that can explode can definitely bring him huge traffic.

After posting the blog, he clicked on the promotion blog post, gritted his teeth and charged coins to buy the promotion.

After everything settled, Wu Yun was not so nervous, he threw away his phone, lay down and began to sleep.

It’s not a good sleep. He even has a nightmare, dreaming that this post, which he had high hopes for, not only doesn’t catch fire but is also icy cold, with malicious comments below criticizing the declining quality of the blogger.

Wu Yun woke up at ten o’clock in the evening, feeling like he was still in a dream. After pausing for a second, he suddenly sat up and grabbed his phone, checking Weibo’s backstage for the first time.

A few seconds later, deafening laughter filled the room.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—”

Just as he burst into laughter, his mom’s voice, who maintained a regular schedule, came from the next room: “Wu Yun!!!! Are you crazy for not sleeping at this late hour!!!”

Wu Yun immediately covered his mouth in fear, then after a moment’s thought, he couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

While he chuckled, Sheng Quan was also looking at “Riding a Little Donkey” on Weibo. She couldn’t see the backend data, but the frontend was enough for her to gauge.

This was the fastest-rising post among all of “Riding a Little Donkey’s” posts. To have such a high click-through rate and comment rate in just ten hours, one could imagine how much more popular this post would become after fermenting for a few more days.

However, Sheng Quan tapped her phone and remarked, “The effect is slightly lower than I expected.”

In the wee hours, still working overtime, Yu Xiangwan was neatly dressed. Every part of his clothes was ironed flat, without a single wrinkle. Even his hair seemed meticulously groomed, making him appear even more refined.

He swiped the screen to the PowerPoint, where various solutions were listed: “If you want to further increase the popularity, perhaps considering buying reposts might help. I’ve asked ten big Vs related to this topic about the price for reposting, and here’s the price list.”

“The price list you asked for earlier is on this page. Based on the summary of past data, buying the fifteenth spot in hot searches for this type of topic might be more appropriate. It won’t seem deliberate, yet it can still attract a considerable amount of traffic.”

Yes, this was all directed by Sheng Quan.

Even “Roadside Flower” was picked out by Yu Xiangwan from his alternate account. As for why a refined and rigorous person like him had an alternate account named “Roadside Flower,” well, in this line of work, who didn’t have a few alternate accounts dedicated to leaving comments?

Perhaps because the entertainment industry’s ecosystem was slightly more harmonious than in Sheng Quan’s previous life, the methods used to hype and promote were relatively scarce. At least, the tactic Sheng Quan used had not appeared before.

Even though her previous job wasn’t in entertainment promotion, as a professional spectator, the marketing methods she had seen while spectating were sufficient.

She felt the effect was a bit low, but Yu Xiangwan believed the results were already beyond expectations. Who knew how ecstatic “Riding a Little Donkey” might be feeling right now?

There was a saying that something could become popular overnight in the entertainment industry, but that was only after a project had been created.

Building a skyscraper without a foundation was obviously difficult. Regardless of the field, being noticed and liked by people always had a reason, especially in the fiercely competitive and beauty-filled entertainment industry. Relying solely on looks was not enough.

But Sheng Quan wanted to promote Yan Hui, who hadn’t yet had a proper work. Yu Xiangwan, on the other hand, was fully committed to promoting him. He said, “The current development is already quite good. I suggest waiting for the heat to build up for a while before further promotion. The effect will be better.”

Sheng Quan smiled, “You’re right, it’s better to proceed step by step.”

She wasn’t in a hurry, but 006 was.

“[Host, you don’t have much time left.]”

Sheng Quan remained steady, “[Don’t worry, everything needs preparation. Do you want to watch a drama? I’ll turn on the TV for you.]”

How could she not worry? 006 really liked her as the host. It was also its first time being a system. All the information about the system was extracted from novels, but it had never seen a host like Sheng Quan.

She would chat with it, help it choose clothes, watch TV shows and movies with it, and sometimes even admire beauties together and curse the incompetent screenwriters on TV.

Sheng Quan even lent her account to it, giving it the authority to express its opinions on the internet.

So Sheng Quan wasn’t in a hurry, but 006 was. If it weren’t for 006’s inability to proceed to the next step, facing Sheng Quan’s decreasing lifespan day by day, it would have been itching to find a way to extend Sheng Quan’s life.

Unfortunately, Sheng Quan was the one doing the task, and 006 couldn’t understand the twists and turns of human behavior. In its view, why not just spend money directly? The host wasn’t lacking in funds!

Sheng Quan was good at calming 006 down. She took it out to watch the crew shoot night scenes, and soon 006 was immersed in the beauty of the actors and couldn’t extricate itself.

Don’t be fooled by Wan Bao’s scruffy appearance; his aesthetic sense was truly exceptional. It’s just that he hadn’t had the funds to manifest it before. Now that the funds were sufficient, the first thing he did was hire several makeup artists and stylists. All the costumes worn by the main characters were completely custom-made.

Don’t misunderstand; he wasn’t customizing them to look better, but to fit the character requirements. They not only had to fit the setting but also highlight the character’s charm as much as possible within that setting.

For example, the character Qin Heng, played by Yan Hui, was a police officer. The customized police uniform would generally be similar to those of the time in reality, but the details could be tailored to Wan Bao’s vision. Even though they might seem similar overall, when worn by Yan Hui, they looked exceptionally handsome, and they perfectly complemented the character’s righteousness.

Tonight’s scene was a farewell scene.

As Sheng Quan and the others approached, a man stood quietly in the dim yet soft light, wearing a standard police uniform. Willow catkins floated in the air, and the light cast gentle shadows on his face, conveying a tender sadness.

When he turned his head amidst the fluttering willow catkins, it almost touched everyone’s heart, including 006, who loved beauties.

Sheng Quan was also touched for a moment, but she was quickly pulled back to reality by Director Wan Bao’s gestures as he waved at the camera while trying to get more willow catkins to fall.

She: “…”

The scene was indeed beautiful. It would be even more perfect if there weren’t a few crew members standing on ladders, each with a bag, throwing down willow catkins.

“Cut!”

After Wan Bao happily called it a wrap, Qin Heng, who had just shown a combination of toughness and tenderness, sneezed and quickly ran out of the fluttering willow catkins, carefully taking off his police uniform before enduring a full-body scratch.

Seeing him busy and flustered, Sheng Quan quickly realized that the willow catkins had gotten into his clothes.

She stepped forward to help pat them off. However, the costume and makeup department, who were originally planning to help, immediately retreated.

The young investor in their crew was now their biggest client. Sheng Quan wanted to help personally, but he wouldn’t appreciate her being overly attentive. She had heard that Sheng was a fan of the original book, so who knew if he might develop feelings for the character.

Sheng Quan looked at Yan Hui’s quickly reddening arm and said, “No, it’s too much. You should go take a shower.”

Yan Hui shook his head, “Thank you, Mr. Sheng, but I’d rather not. We have another scene later, so I’m using this time to get into character.”

What a tough guy. With the way the crew was throwing those catkins, he must be itching all over, yet he could still endure it. He was truly a resilient person.

As Sheng Quan was thinking, a piece of catkin floated to her nose, and she couldn’t help but sneeze, which made her admire Yan Hui even more.

She had just sneezed from a little bit of catkin, but Yan Hui had been covered in them and still managed to finish the scene perfectly, sneezing only after the director called cut.

Yan Hui, feeling responsible for Sheng Quan’s sneeze, quickly stepped back a few steps. “Mr. Sheng, let me handle it myself. I don’t want to get catkins on you.”

Before Sheng Quan could reply, a tall figure appeared in front of her.

The silent and reserved driver said, “Miss Sheng, let me handle it.”

After saying this, he went straight forward and, faced with the stubborn catkins that would keep falling, he took out an obvious lint roller for pets and easily removed them from Yan Hui’s body.

Sheng Quan thought to herself, “The driver is as reliable as ever… But why does the tall, silent driver have a lint roller for pets?”

But speaking of which, she seemed to have forgotten to assign an assistant to Yan Hui. After all, her previous job wasn’t in this field, so she tended to overlook some small details.

Sheng Quan used to think it was impressive for actors to have assistants when she was young. But as she grew older and became a producer, she realized that most established actors had assistants. For those with a lot of scenes, it would be difficult to manage without one. For example, just now, Yan Hui would have struggled to deal with the catkins stuck in his clothes by himself.

This was just for modern dramas. In period dramas, with the heavy costumes and headgear, actors often couldn’t do many things by themselves. Moreover, filming scenes set in winter during the summer or vice versa, and managing their physique required different diets from the crew. At times like these, the presence of an assistant was crucial.

Although most actors would receive some care from the crew if they didn’t have an assistant, it wasn’t feasible for every crew to accommodate everyone. Even if they did, with everyone busy, it wouldn’t be right to burden them with additional tasks.

After understanding this, Sheng Quan immediately decided to get Yan Hui some assistants. She couldn’t let his career be affected by such trivial matters.

And she also needed to find him a manager. Although her company had just been established, as someone with financial support and plans to develop well in the entertainment industry, company growth was inevitable.

As for the specifics of the assistants and manager, their salaries, and benefits, she didn’t need to worry about those minor details.

Sheng Quan only needed to give the order, and Yu Xiangwan would take care of everything for her.

Yu Xiangwan’s efficiency was indeed high. Sheng Quan sent him a message in the evening, and since he had worked with many crews before and knew many people, finding several assistants who were qualified, suitable in character, and had appropriate salaries wasn’t difficult for him. By noon, he had already found three assistants, two men and one woman, each with their own responsibilities, and negotiated their salaries and benefits.

Moreover, perhaps considering Sheng Quan’s preferences, although the three assistants didn’t have exceptionally good looks, they were all quite pleasant-looking.

Because Sheng Quan’s requirement was to have good assistants, and salary wasn’t an issue, after signing the contracts, Yan Hui’s three assistants hurried over. The latest one arrived by nine in the evening, and upon arrival, they immediately got to work, taking care of Yan Hui attentively and enthusiastically as he filmed night scenes, both in front and behind the scenes.

Yan Hui was pleasantly surprised by the attention he was receiving. Even Lin Aike, the female lead, couldn’t help but envy him a bit. “Yan Hui, your company is really good to you, giving you so many assistants, and they’re all so thoughtful and careful.”

The three assistants thought to themselves, “With salaries twenty percent higher than their peers, how could we not be careful and meticulous?!”

And they weren’t assigned to Yan Hui personally; they were hired by Starlight Entertainment. Sheng Quan had also mentioned that they were still on probation, and after the probation period, their salaries would increase. There would also be bonuses at the end of the year, and all the standard benefits like social security and housing funds. In an industry where the pay was low and the work was hard, finding such a well-paying and stable job was simply lucky.

Realistically, wage earners were very practical. With good pay, good benefits, and room for advancement, only fools wouldn’t work hard.

Being taken care of by three people, Yan Hui, who had been struggling to keep up with his scenes due to their concentration in these few days, quickly felt the benefits of having assistants. At the same time, he was even more pleasantly surprised.

Yan Hui used to do everything by himself, even in situations like filming water scenes in winter, he would have to walk some distance to find clothes to wear after coming out of the water. In the summer, he would endure heat rashes until the end of filming. Even after being signed by Sheng Quan, he was already very grateful for the contract terms he had. He never expected to have assistants.

After all, even Lin Aike only had one assistant, but Sheng Quan had given him three at once.

To this, Sheng Quan’s answer was, “You have to know, you’re an actor, and your time should be spent on your profession. You don’t need to worry about these trivial matters; you just need to focus on improving yourself. The company will take care of the rest.”

—Concentrate on developing your career and don’t be distracted. Work hard and earn me career points, young man~

Yan Hui was taken aback for a moment, then his already soft eyes softened even more. Did Sheng Quan trust his abilities so much?

He replied warmly, feeling grateful deep down. “Okay, thank you, Mr. Sheng. I will work hard.”

How could there be such a good person?

No suppression, no pitfalls, just looking at ability. As long as actors focus on acting, everything else will be taken care of, almost like a dream entertainment company.

When he was on the phone with his mother at night, listening to her asking how he was doing on set, whether he was overworked again and not sleeping well, and reminding him to take care of his health, Yan Hui used to just say everything was fine. But today, he, who was usually steady, talked a lot.

Everyone on set was very friendly to him, his clothes were clean, and the company assigned three assistants to him. All he had to do every day was to enjoy performing, without worrying about anything else.

“Mr. Sheng said she arranged acting classes and physical training for me. After finishing this movie, I’ll be able to attend. The company is also planning the next movie for me. They want to cultivate me well. Mom, you don’t have to worry about money. Mr. Sheng said I can get my salary in advance, which should be enough.”

“Okay, okay…” Yan’s mother nodded repeatedly on the phone. “We’ve met a benefactor. If I had known, I wouldn’t have taken money from that pancake vendor that day. Yan Hui, since they’re nurturing you like this, you must remember to repay their kindness, you know? Don’t be like those stars in the news, hopping to another company as soon as they get famous. Mr. Sheng might not mind, but we must remember this favor.”

“Mom, don’t worry, I remember.”

Yan Hui didn’t say much to his mother. He was a very reserved person, and even if he felt grateful, he wouldn’t say it. Instead, he would respond with actions.

After hanging up the phone, Yan Hui’s nose felt a bit sour. He realized that his eyes were slightly red in the mirror.

In the past ten years, he had faced countless hardships and had endured despair without shedding a tear. But now, he cried.

Wiping his eyes with a smile, Yan Hui remembered Sheng Quan smiling as she brushed off the willow catkins for him today and continued to practice his lines in front of the mirror.

He urgently wanted to repay Mr. Sheng, to be able to help her like Producer Yu did. But as an actor, besides acting well, there wasn’t much else he could do.

Yan Hui forced himself to focus and immersed himself in his practice.

Take it slow, Yan Hui. As long as you work hard to improve yourself and play every role well, you can bring benefits to Mr. Sheng and repay her.

Sheng Quan, who was enjoying a massage comfortably with the driver, heard the system prompt:

“Ding! Yan Hui’s goodwill value has exceeded eighty. Please note that the system will no longer broadcast after the goodwill value exceeds eighty.”

Sheng Quan took off her eye mask. “Wow, it seems that Yan Hui really likes those three assistants. Not bad, not bad. Note to myself: give them bonuses at the end of the year.”

She enjoyed the massage while taking out her phone.

Indeed, it was a double blessing.

The hashtag “What’s it like to be a wealthy fan of the original work?” on Weibo has also started to ferment smoothly.