Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 44 New drama starts

The New Year's Day in 2014 was a little different from usual ones, because January st happened to fall on a Wednesday, and I couldn't connect to other places, so I had a rare opportunity to not take a day off.

Although there was no adjustment, we couldn’t have too many holidays, so we only had one day off on Wednesday.

But it must be said that many people on the Internet have given high praise to this "one-day holiday".

No need to go back home, no need to rush out for travel, no need to worry about wasting vacation. Just lie at home for a day, play with your phone, play games, watch TV series, and have a good rest.

"Oh, I really wish I could have a day off every Wednesday."

At 7:59 in the morning, Xiaolin was clocking in for work skillfully while sighing in his heart.

As a new entertainment reporter for a new entertainment media company, he has been under a lot of pressure since he started working. Not only does he have to work on weekdays, but he also has to keep busy with celebrities during holidays, and he always likes to create some big things for them.

Fortunately, this year's New Year's Day was uneventful. He got up early at two o'clock yesterday, played some games, had dinner, and then slept until this morning.

"Good morning, Xiao Chen."

As soon as he entered the company, he saw that the female colleague who worked at the next desk to him had arrived before him and greeted him as she sat down.

"Ah, good morning, Brother Lin." The girl named "Xiao Chen" was originally lying on the table. When she heard Xiao Lin's voice, she raised her head and responded weakly.

"Are you not feeling well?" Seeing that the other person was in a bad condition, Xiao Lin asked with concern.

"It's okay, I'm just too sleepy."

Xiao Lin was relieved and joked, "Why, are you tired from playing yesterday?"

"It's just one day off, who would go out?" Xiao Chen half-lay back on the chair, and said with a tired face: "I watched TV series too late last night and didn't sleep well."

"What drama is so addictive, your 'Professor Do'?"

At the end of last year, a Korean drama called "My Love from the Star" suddenly became a hit. Overnight, countless girls became fans of "Professor Do", and the "beer and fried chicken" set meal became the most popular midnight snack combination this winter.

"No, that drama only has two episodes a week, and domestic resources are updated slowly, so I plan to watch the entire series right after it's updated." Xiao Chen waved his hand and explained, "I'm watching an online drama that just came online the day before yesterday, a supernatural horror drama, five episodes in a row, and I watched it all in one go until after two o'clock."

"Online dramas..." Xiao Lin asked in confusion, "Aren't they all shoddy, borderline stuff? How can they be so good?"

"NoNoNo, young man, this drama is different." When Xiao Chen said this, she immediately perked up and said enthusiastically, "This drama has professional actors and a professional production. It's completely different from those lousy ones. Especially the plot, which is scary, funny, and profound. It feels a bit like American or British dramas."

"Is this true?" Xiao Lin said doubtfully, "It won't be another one of those stories where they explain it all and then say it's schizophrenia, right?"

"That's right, the first episode said there really are ghosts." Xiao Chen said a little embarrassedly, "The atmosphere is really scary. I watched the update at 2 o'clock, and then I didn't dare to turn off the lights. In the end, I slept with the lights on."

"That does sound interesting." Xiao Lin also became interested and asked, "Which website is it from? What's the name of the show?"

"It's from Leshi.com. The show is called Soul Ferry."

Xiao Lin was stunned when he heard this: "Soul ferry?"

"Yes." Xiao Chen asked curiously, "Why, have you seen it?"

Xiao Lin shook his head: "I haven't seen it, but when I first came to our company last year, I was arranged to interview the crew of a web drama. I remember it was called "Soul Ferry."

"Wow, it's true!" Xiao Chen's eyes lit up and he said in surprise, "Hey, do you have the contact information of their crew? Can you help me get an autographed photo of the male lead actor? I think this guy is so handsome!"

"It seems I didn't stay." Xiao Lin said helplessly: "I basically just went there for the formality, took a few photos of the heroine and came back."

"Oh, well..."

Kobayashi apologized for disappointing his colleagues, but he was still a newcomer in the industry at the time and did not think too much about it.

However, he became interested in the drama.

Looking around, he saw that most of his colleagues were still slacking off on the first day of work after the holiday, so he "felt at ease" and searched the name of the drama online, ready to watch it.

As soon as I clicked on the page of Leshi.com, a dark-style promotional pop-up window popped up.

In the middle of the pop-up window is the title "Soul Ferry", followed by the characters of the three main characters. Next to the title, there is a sentence in small, light-colored words that reads "Do you believe that there are really ghosts in this world?"

The publicity is quite strong, Xiao Lin thought, it seems that this drama is the main project promoted by Leshi.com recently.

Clicking on the promotional page, he went straight to the main drama section. He glanced at the "selected episodes" next to it. There were only five episodes so far, and the last two episodes had a "V" sign on their labels.

"Does this show require VIP?" Xiao Lin asked. "Oh, it uses the 'members first watch' model. Members can watch it all at once, while non-members have to wait a day to watch the next two episodes." Xiao Chen explained, and then said: "I bought a monthly card last night, I can lend it to you if you want to watch it."

Xiao Lin waved his hand: "No hurry, let me see the quality first." If it's not interesting, it doesn't matter if you see it sooner or later.

He clicked on the first episode and glanced at the data information out of professional habit while waiting for the commercial.

"Fuck! Twenty thousand people are watching online!"

Xiao Lin almost choked at this number. This was the morning of the first working day. Didn't everyone have to go to work?

Let’s take a look at the playback data - more than 10 million playbacks and more than 10,000 comments!
Has this drama really only been online for a day?
As an entertainment reporter, Xiao Lin is familiar with the data of these video websites. This is the time when various video platforms are growing wildly, and in order to grab traffic and advertising fees, each one has some "tricks" in the front-end data.

For example, regardless of whether the user is watching it or not, as long as they click on it, it will be counted as a play; if the website is stuck, it will also be counted as a play when the user refreshes the page; in addition, in addition to the main drama part, peripheral videos such as highlights, theme songs, and promotional videos are all counted in the total number of plays.

Therefore, the actual playback data often needs to be discounted.

But even taking the "discount" into account, the drama still had millions of views.

Moreover, those more than 10,000 reviews are genuine!

He took a quick glance at the comment section and saw that it was almost all positive reviews, with some of them being several hundred words long. They were obviously not posted by internet trolls or the like.

Is it really that good? Just as the commercial ended, Xiao Lin watched it carefully with 60% expectation and 30% doubt.

"It is recorded in the Buddhist scriptures that there are five kinds of eyes in this world: the heavenly eye, the wisdom eye, the Dharma eye, the Buddha eye, and the physical eye. The physical eye is dark and unclear. It can see what is near but not what is far, and what is in front but not what is behind..."

At the beginning, the first thing we heard was a male voice reciting a line. The voice sounded calm and distant, bringing people into the atmosphere immediately.

Along with the lines, the screen keeps switching between various city scenes, until the end, when the camera gives a close-up of a couple hugging each other.

Seeing this, Xiao Lin guessed that according to the conventional routine, the couple should be about to encounter some "supernatural scenes" as an opening.

Just as I was thinking this, I saw the girl in the couple who was originally facing away from the camera suddenly turned her head, and a face with blood and tears suddenly came into view.

"grass!"

Xiao Lin was frightened, but luckily he remembered that he was in the company and did not shout out.

It was only then that he finally understood the meaning of the comment with the highest number of likes in the comment section -

“There really are ghosts in this drama!”

After calming himself down, he continued reading, slowly sinking into the world of the plot.

After watching one episode, regardless of whether it is good or not, Xiaolin just feels a little unsatisfied.

After thinking about it, he took his phone and headphones and ran into the bathroom, intending to watch the remaining two free episodes in one go.

While locking the bathroom door, he thought to himself that those more than 20,000 "online viewers" might be slacking off in the bathroom like him.

An hour later, Xiaolin rubbed his sore legs and walked out of the bathroom.

As a web drama, each episode of "Soul Ferry" is not long, only about thirty to thirty-five minutes. The pace is quite tight and it is very enjoyable to watch.

Even when he returned to his workstation, Xiaolin was still immersed in the plot that had just happened.

"For the sake of beauty, I'm willing to turn into a monster that only lives at night. Really..."

Kobayashi sighed, and at the same time praised the plot in his heart, saying it was indeed exciting.

Really, if I had known earlier, I should have interviewed him more, at least leaving the contact information of that nice guy from the crew would be nice.

Or, talk to the boss and do another interview?
Damn, giving yourself workload, isn't this pure slave behavior?
Xiao Lin looked at the time and it was almost noon.

He had no intention of working at this time, and he was still thinking about the next two episodes.

I glanced at the workstation next to me and saw that my female colleague was not there, perhaps because she had gone out for an interview.

Clicking on the VIP page of Leshi.com and looking at the membership price of 15 yuan per month, Xiaolin gritted his teeth and chose to pay.

It’s just the money for a meal, and I’ve got a drama to enjoy with my lunch!
(End of this chapter)