Who said this top flow is crazy! This top flow is awesome!

Chapter 388 Two Days, the Birth of Two Top Stars
"Ok?"

Wang Ying noticed the puzzled look from her best friend, stopped what she was doing, and turned around: "Why aren't you watching anymore?"

"...Does it look good?"

Instead of answering, her best friend asked a question.

Wang Ying was taken aback, then nodded sincerely: "It's very captivating; I'm already drawn in."

The first episode of "Love O2O" cleverly blends the virtual game world with real campus life, unfolding in two parallel storylines: the large-scale martial arts online game "Dream of Jianghu" and a vibrant university campus.

Through dialogue and actions in the game, Bei Weiwei's independent and cheerful personality and Xiao Nai's (Xiao Nai) aloof and direct style are quickly established.

Meanwhile, in the real-life side story, the fates of the two collide once again.

It can be said that the first episode of "Love O2O" successfully captured the audience's attention with its brisk pace and novel online game theme, making everyone look forward to what kind of story will unfold between Bei Weiwei and Xiao Nai "from game to reality".

The screenwriter's skill is evident to the naked eye. What surprised Wang Ying was that Deng Ziman and Tao Cheng, who played Bei Weiwei and Xiao Nai, were also surprisingly photogenic.

Both are undeniably handsome and beautiful, especially Deng Ziman, whose elegant and refined demeanor caught Wang Ying's eye. Xiao Nai is also very handsome, but unfortunately, she already has someone else in her heart (Chi Ye).

"That's a lie. The first episode of a modern romance drama only introduces the characters and shows the costumes, props, and background music. How attractive can it be?"

My best friend pursed her lips.

Wang Ying remained noncommittal, but became even more curious about her state: "And what about you? Legendary historical romance is different; I've never even heard of this genre before."

"...I've never heard of it, and I'm still a bit unsure how to put it."

Her best friend's face fell, and she described it in a very abstract way: "It...it's like...like a piece of chocolate, but a little different."

"What's different?" Wang Ying asked curiously.

"It tastes different."

"Huh? What's that smell?"

"The feeling of a thesis defense."

Wang Ying: "???"

She was shocked: "Isn't Xiao Zhan your brother? You..."

"I just feel that everyone else is focusing on their dissertations, and it's holding my brother back!"

My best friend finally exploded: "Those second male and female leads, the third male and female leads... how much money did they spend to get them in? In a 45-minute episode, the supporting characters take up half an hour of the screen time. What kind of historical drama is this?!"

Wang Ying was greatly shocked: "Is it really that exaggerated?"

"What's even more outrageous is that I found myself not wanting to watch the next episode because of my brother's influence."

"Why don't you come watch 'Love O2O' with me? I'm not kidding, it's really good."

"I won't look. I won't slap myself in the face."

Her best friend shook her head.

ten minutes later.

My best friend turned off her computer, leaned over, and asked slyly, "Is it good?"

Wang Ying wasn't surprised at all. She shifted her body and let the other person snuggle into her arms: "It's alright, about the level of this year's drama king."

"King of Dramas?"

My best friend raised an eyebrow and nodded politely: "Praising Wang Ying."

Wang Ying: "?"

She didn't say much, because she was completely absorbed in the plot of "Love O2O".

The second episode of "Love O2O" is getting better and better.

After half an hour.

"Should we broadcast it? Why did you stop?"

When my best friend saw the end credits roll, she couldn't wait any longer: "Next episode? What are you dawdling about?"

"...I don't have VIP, I'm not watching."

Wang Ying honestly said, "Let's wait until tomorrow, we'll see then."

"No."

My best friend exclaimed anxiously, "You don't have VIP? I do! Log in to my account and keep watching, keep watching, I'm not satisfied!"

Wang Ying glanced at her: "Didn't you say you didn't like watching it?"

"I was just teasing you."

My best friend wasn't embarrassed at all, and said with a smile, "I have a new husband now."

"Chino?"

"Taocheng!"

"..."

……

A "new husband" has appeared. The bad news is that it's not Ikeno. The good news is that he's an artist under his company.

Actually, it's unrealistic to say that "Love O2O" will really do anything significant after just three episodes. However, Deng Ziman and Tao Cheng, two "complete newcomers" who had no prior fame in the Chinese entertainment industry, suddenly gained a lot of attention from audiences across the country.

Moreover, and most importantly, Deng Ziman and Tao Cheng are indeed good-looking and have great figures. Chi Ye's selection, coupled with the character designs of Bei Weiwei and Xiao Nai, has already begun to make a splash, arousing a small-scale discussion and attention.

That evening, "The Long Night" achieved a popularity score of 29500 on Tencent Video, which was 500 million less than the premiere score. This was a respectable result for the top-tier promotional campaign before the premiere.

What's baffling is that the premiere of "Love O2O" garnered a popularity score of 9800 on iQiyi (equivalent to 29400 on Tencent Video), only 100 points lower than "The Long Night," closely following behind it and ranking second across the entire internet.

In terms of ratings, "The Long Night" achieved a 1.034% rating on its first day of broadcast on Blueberry Channel, which is an explosive achievement in the current landscape of long-running dramas.

However, perhaps because it was backed by Hunan TV, "Love O2O" achieved a viewership rating of 1.103% on its first day, surpassing "The Long Night" and becoming the national viewership champion that night.

Everyone inside and outside the industry was stunned, because although the two dramas had been constantly criticizing each other before they aired, people still had their own opinions based on the cast and production values.

To put it bluntly, even if "The Long Night" is truly a piece of junk, it will still benefit from the idol drama effect (i.e., regardless of the quality of the series, at least on the first day of its premiere, the fans of top celebrities will manipulate the data to look impressive).

This applies not only to idol dramas, but also to other works, and even serious dramas.

There are often many great dramas in the industry that take three days to watch, but there are also too many slow-burn hits or works that have collapsed in terms of reputation, with the latter even making up the vast majority.

In this situation, the first-day viewership ratings of "Love O2O" actually surpassed those of "The Long Night," and the online streaming ratings were only slightly lower. This is...

Doesn't that mean Tao Cheng is even more popular than Xiao Zhan, and Deng Ziman is on par with the Best Actress?!
Off the charts!
This is the common reaction of all onlookers, both inside and outside the industry, after receiving the initial broadcast results from both sides.

Following this, a plethora of trending topics emerged and spread rapidly, like mushrooms after rain:
#The premiere of "Love O2O" achieved a viewership rating of over 1.#
#一LaughAlluringChiye#
#BeiWeiweiIsSoCool#
#Love O2O defeats The Moon in the opening#
#Xiao Zhan's fans#
#Xiao Zhan is not as red as Tao Cheng#
Various trending topics involving comparison and disparagement exploded, and while the general public was excited, some genuine viewers were also screaming with excitement.

"It's so good! Everyone should go watch 'Love O2O'!"

"I hereby declare that Chi Ye's position in my heart will be second only to my parents from now on. She's too amazing! It's not her looks or her works, but her talent!" "As soon as I saw that Coconut was the screenwriter of 'Love O2O,' I was relieved. I don't understand why anyone would question Coconut's storytelling ability."

"The master of modern romance dramas who can create 'My Love from the Star' and 'Goblin' can easily outshine 99% of the screenwriters on the market with any script he writes."

"The previous statement was an understatement; it's 99.9% certain that only Ikeno can defeat Ikeno!"

#OnlyIkenoCanDefeatIkeno# Soars to the top of the trending search list.

Some people also went to the official Weibo account of "The Long Moon" and even the official Weibo account of Tencent Video, which were full of tension before the premiere, to leave comments:

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince has also sent one."

"It was indeed sent."

"Le, is this the drama king you guys have been calling him?"

"The show is dead, you're not wrong, it really is dead."

"Tao Cheng is so handsome! I'm a fan of Xiao Zhan, and from today onwards, I'm switching allegiance to Tao Cheng!"

"Stop cutting in line! I've reported you!"

"@Tencent Video, @TV series 'The Long Moon', please come out and save the child! How come it didn't even make it past the first day?"

"..."

"I'll save your horse!"

Bang!
Late at night, on Penguin Video.

Zhang Qing didn't leave work today. In fact, a platform of Tencent Video's size doesn't need to make such a fuss over a certain "king of dramas".

The main reason for staying here is to enjoy the feeling of stepping on Chi Ye. After all, in the previous conflicts, although they did a lot of things, they were almost always the ones who suffered losses.

I thought that without Ikeno this time, we could completely cut off the opponent's escape route.

But unexpectedly...

Something unexpected happened.

To be precise, this doesn't seem like an "accident," because the premiere of "The Long Moon" didn't even perform as well as "Love O2O"... This is something even he himself can't explain away.

It's like I have a royal flush (Xiao Zhan, the movie queen), and I beat your pair of 3s (Tao Cheng + Deng Ziman), and you tell me that my royal flush can't even beat your pair of 3s.

Before this, they thought Xiao Zhan was a super top star who could rival Chi Ye!

It's not just within their own circle; under such terrifying marketing, almost everyone inside and outside the Chinese entertainment industry has subconsciously come to believe that Xiao Zhan is the closest to Chi Ye in terms of popularity in recent years.

There is another widely circulated saying: "Below Chi Ye and Xiao Zhan, there is no top-tier talent."

But this big star, who could rival the absolute top stars, and this drama, which spent so much on marketing, was actually less popular than a flop signed by Ikeno's company on its first day of broadcast...

Ah this...

Everyone suddenly felt a sense of temporal and spatial distortion. They felt that something must have gone wrong, but what exactly was wrong...?

Is Xiao Zhan too incompetent?

Tao Cheng is too strong; he is the true Ziwei Star.

still…

Is "Love O2O" really that good?
The following day, and the day after that, they received their answer.

On the second day after the broadcast of "The Moon Brightens for You" and "Love O2O", the online popularity of "The Moon Brightens for You" failed to break 30,000 as expected. Instead, it dropped from 29500 on the first day to around 29000.

"Love O2O" saw a slow but steady increase in popularity, reaching over 10000 views on iQiyi.com. Within 56 hours of its release, it officially surpassed 10,000 views, which is equivalent to breaking the 30,000 views mark on Tencent Video. It's guaranteed to be a minor hit, but given this trend, if the subsequent plot doesn't falter, it's highly likely to become a major hit.

In terms of ratings, "The Long Night" plummeted, dropping from over 1% on its first day to around 0.8%. "Love O2O" saw an even more dramatic increase in ratings, because while traditional television stations have declined, Hunan TV still retains its strong foundation.

With its massive audience base, the ever-exploding positive reviews of "Love O2O," and constant comparisons with the quality of "The Long Night," "Love O2O" achieved a viewership rating of 1.2% on its second day of release.

With such a surge in popularity, "The Long Night" is not much weaker than "Goblin" back then, let alone "The Long Night".

After all, it's only been two days since it went live!
Artists in the industry who wanted to reconsider were stunned, as were Tencent Video, Zhang Qing, and the investor behind him who hadn't taken the earlier release date change seriously.

Tao Cheng and Deng Ziman felt soft and limp, as if they were floating, as if they were floating in the clouds or in the air.

They believed that everything was predictable, yet everything was so sudden and unexpected.

It was like an ordinary day, the most ordinary day in the past twenty years. They were walking down the street when a five million lottery ticket fell from the sky, and then... they became rich.

They felt like they had struck it rich because in just two days, the two of them, who were once nobodys in the Chinese entertainment industry, had become hot celebrities.

Deng Ziman's excellent figure and looks have made her famous. Although she hasn't accumulated much popularity yet due to the plot, it's almost foreseeable that after "Love O2O" finishes airing, the Chinese entertainment industry will have another top-tier actress, one who suddenly appears out of nowhere.

Tao Cheng has been in the Chinese entertainment industry for many years. Before he got the role in "Love O2O", he worked as a production assistant, which meant doing manual labor for the crew.

After finishing each job, he would submit his resume to the production crew, hoping that when the crew started work again, they would remember him.

He was made difficult by the assistant director, ridiculed by the casting director, and even lectured by an artist who was more famous than him.

Never before had he stood in this position. He had always thought he had seen through the entertainment industry, but only now did he realize that he had never truly understood it.

This extreme thrill of going from life to death and from death to life, every second and every night, seems to bring about things that only happen in one's dreams.

"Taocheng! Taocheng!"

"Ahhh!! Chengcheng!!"

"Look over here! Look over here!!"

At the entrance of Hunan TV, Tao Cheng, Deng Ziman, and the main creators of "Love O2O" arrived at the Hunan TV building once again. This time, Hunan TV will record a special episode for them.

Tao Cheng turned around and looked at the fans crowded in the crowd. His lips twitched, and he gave a very stiff smile.

Deng Ziman is much more confident and composed than him. She has always been a confident person, both at school and after being signed by Chi Ye. Now, it is even less likely that she will end up like Tao Cheng.

In essence, she and Tao Cheng represent two extremes, two different lives.

At this moment, they all achieved the same result because of a TV series.

"hello."

Deng Ziman waved to the crowd in a generous manner, and the crowd erupted in excited screams and cheers.

"Manman is so cool!"

Deng Ziman blinked, not forgetting to advertise: "My boss is even cooler than me. He pays attention to coconut culture and Chiye Company. There are a dozen artists like us."

"Hahaha."

The crowd burst into laughter.

Seeing this, Teacher He, who was not far away, smiled slightly, and then felt a little dazed—was this effect enough to announce the result in advance, and that the rise of Chiye Company was already unstoppable?

(End of this chapter)