Bai Lu got scammed, but I became a superstar through e-commerce.

The posts on the campus network started to gain traction two days later.

A post titled "After watching a short film, I, a grown man, cried like a baby in my dorm" was pushed to the top ten trending topics.

The poster's ID was a string of letters. The post was short, but the comments section was filled with replies very quickly.

The title is "A short film starring a Taobao model made me cry."

One comment under the article read: "The female lead in this film is named Bai Lu. I think she previously acted in Taobao movies. I didn't expect her acting skills to be so good."

Someone replied to him: "What's wrong with shooting for Taobao? Being able to make people cry is a skill."

Someone else said, "Did you notice that the screenwriter and male lead of this short film are the same person, named Qing Xiao? I looked him up, and he's the owner of SUNSA women's clothing. What kind of amazing boss is this? He makes money from his Taobao store but doesn't buy a house or a car; instead, he spends money to make a short film for his own models?"

The post was forwarded around and eventually ended up on Weibo.

In 2014, Weibo was not as popular as it had been in the previous two years, while WeChat Moments was on the rise.

However, Weibo remains the core arena for public opinion. Once a topic becomes popular, it can spread across the entire internet overnight.

With the added boost of being featured on the Youku Tudou homepage, people started spontaneously recommending this short film on Weibo.

The first to post were a group of netizens who cried after watching the ending.

"I wanted to punch someone while watching the beginning, but I cried so much in the last three minutes that I couldn't see the screen clearly. Lin Xiao, this girl, hid all her gentleness under a knife."

"I criticized her in the entire screen of comments during the cafeteria scene. But in the end, she wrote: 'I gave him all the fatty meat. I know he was in pain. I just wanted to see him in pain so that when I was taking my medicine and undergoing chemotherapy, thinking about how he was in pain would make me feel a little better.'"

People started spontaneously recommending it: "Go watch it! Search 'My Girlfriend Is a Little Savage' on Youku. Watch the full movie for free. If you don't like it, come back and scold me."

One commenter wrote: "If you don't like it, you can come back and criticize me. I've finished watching it, and I can't bear to criticize Lin Xiao."

"Stop cursing Lin Xiao. This was her first time loving someone, but it was too late."

"Can anyone praise the male lead? This male lead is played by the screenwriter herself. A screenwriter who runs a Taobao shop acted in most of the show, was pushed into the water by her, was scolded by her, was bullied by her, and then sat behind the monitor editing for her."

"I declare that Lin Xiao is the most beautiful character I have seen this year. Her biggest regret is not being sick, but having to lose her temper with the person she loves most."

Bai Lu hunched over the computer, scrolling through the comments one by one, her face turning red to the roots of her ears.

He kept muttering to himself.

"So many people are talking about it? I'm going to be famous! I'm going to be famous!"

"Oh no, I have to be humble."

"Fine, I can't stand it anymore. Let's have some fun first."

The phrase "In this world, someone has loved you deeply, so you will never be alone" from Weibo was made into a poster, which Bai Lu downloaded and saved to her phone, and watched three hundred times.

Qing Xiao saw the revenue data from Youku's backend.

The platform's revenue sharing plus the advertising revenue sharing from Google Ads brought in a total of over 30,000 yuan.

The filming cost 75,000 yuan, labor cost 30,000 yuan, and post-production, including music and posters, cost nearly 10,000 yuan more. The previous campus promotion, which included giving away clothes, cost more than 20,000 yuan.

After making over 30,000 in income, and after adding and subtracting, the net loss exceeded 100,000.

However, Qingxiao discovered an abnormal traffic pattern in the data backend. He traced the source of the playback and found that someone did not come by searching for the movie title, but rather clicked through from the product details page on the SUNSA store homepage.

Qingxiao opened the SUNSA backend.

In the past week, the store's organic search traffic has increased by nearly 20%, the average order value has not dropped, and the conversion rate has actually increased by more than one percentage point.

These new traffic sources mainly come from searches for the brand name "SUNSA" and external redirects. Backend source tracking shows that orders coming from Youku and Weibo account for the highest proportion.

Almost all of the customers who placed orders were new customers.

"How did they find the shop after watching the short film?" Bai Lu asked.

Xiao Geng chimed in, "Someone asked about it. There was a comment on Youku saying that Lin Xiao's trench coat was nice and they wanted the same one. Then someone came back and said, 'Search SUNSA, the costumes for the crew are all sponsored by them,' and that comment got pushed to the top of the trending list."

Sister Su added the second half of the sentence: "That's probably how the orders came in. You filmed Lin Xiao's daily life so beautifully that viewers were placing orders while crying."

Qingxiao asked Xiao Geng to pull up a copy of the shipping records.

Since the short film was launched, more than a thousand new orders for the store have come from traffic generated by the short film, with a profit of about 50,000 yuan.

With a profit of over 50,000 plus platform revenue of over 30,000, the total income was over 80,000.

With a total cost of just over 100,000, after deducting more than 80,000 in revenue, the net loss narrowed to around 50,000.

We lost 50,000 yuan.

Bai Lu mentally calculated this number over and over again.

"A money-grubber? Doing the math makes you unhappy again?"

Qingxiao saw everything. He gently tapped Bai Lu's nose and continued, "How can a future superstar be thrown off balance by a few coins? Bai Mengyan, you only have dreams in your heart, not money."

"Only dreams, no money."

Bai Lu recounted it, as if making a vow, which was both funny and entertaining.

In the past, people would spend their own money to try and become celebrities, and they were willing to be scammed.

I feel so embarrassed spending Qingxiao's money now.

Is this what they mean by "he who eats another's food is bound to him"?

A few days later, the director of Cat's Tree sent Bai Lu a private message.

"We watched your performance in 'My Girlfriend is a Little Wild.' We were already following you, but after watching this, we're even more certain that your on-screen presence is even better than we expected. We'd like to formally invite you to audition at our studio, and we'll reserve the lead role for your next short film."

Bai Lu told Qing Xiao this private message, his tone both proud and smug.

It's truly a great sense of accomplishment to have my first work recognized by a professional studio in the industry.

Qingxiao thought for a moment, because after he invested money to shoot the first micro-movie, Bai Lu's debut time was brought forward.

Will you continue to make your own second short film?

Should we continue filming at Cat's Tree Studio?

"Bai Mengyan, go ahead."

"Huh? You're not writing the script for me this time?"

"I need to sell more clothes and save up some money so I can make a second movie for you."

Qingxiao chose to tell the truth: the money used to run the company could not be touched; only the profits could be used.

The company is still in a stage of rapid development and accumulation, with the number of employees exceeding 20. It is expanding rapidly, but profits are limited.

"All right."

Although it was somewhat regrettable, Bai Lu chose to accept reality. The regret was that if she accepted the invitation from Cat's Tree Studio, she would have to act with other actors.

"Cat's Tree has a mature style and a fixed audience in the industry. If you film a movie with them, you will have a heavyweight partner on your resume. The only role of our film and television company is to serve as a springboard."

Qingxiao really had no intention of starting a film and television company, like Chen Jingfei mentored Liu Yifei.

First, I don't have that much money, and second, I don't have connections or resources in the entertainment industry.

Qingxiao's film and television company is positioned to increase Bai Lu's exposure and build his public image.

Bai Lu stood up, took a deep breath, picked up his phone, and replied to Cat Tree with two words: Okay.