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

The debriefing meeting for the first online drama, "The Demon's Journey to Chang'an," was held in the conference room of Huanyu Film & Television.

Afei, the operations director of Tianmen Film and Television, stood in front of the projection screen, holding a laser pointer. A project settlement sheet was projected onto the screen.

"The Demon's Journey" has 12 episodes and is exclusively available on iQiyi.

It garnered over 10 million views within ten hours of its release and over 50 million clicks in five days, becoming a dark horse among suspense web dramas of the season.

When the trailer was released, it attracted a lot of attention for its special effects, which were created with a huge investment of tens of millions of yuan and took half a year to produce, in collaboration with a top domestic special effects team, and were worth more than "fifty yuan".

Afei switched the page to the next slide—a summary of investment returns.

Production cost was 4.5 million, with GG revenue share of over 1 million, click revenue share of 450 million, and total revenue share of over 100 million. The return on investment ratio reached 1600:2000, and the return on investment rate exceeded 400%.

It generates revenue continuously over a period of more than a year.

In 2015, among all revenue-sharing web dramas across all platforms, "The Demon's Journey" was rated A by iQiyi, making it the only A-rated work in the revenue-sharing web drama category that year.

The meeting room fell silent for a moment.

General Manager Zhou flipped back to the first page of the data sheet and looked at it again. Brother Chen picked up his strong tea cup, took a sip, and exchanged a glance with Director Sun.

Director Sun pushed up his glasses and couldn't help but ask, "Damn, a 400% return rate? Is the internet that scary these days?"

Yu Zheng smiled as he held up the purple clay cup.

President Zhou was the first to stand up, raising his glass to Qing Xiao: "President Qing, awesome. From now on, we're sticking with this web series project. You and your crew have unlimited budgets; we'll approve as much as you want."

The other executives showered him with praise, secretly rejoicing that they had met Qingxiao, the Midas touch.

The market you choose will be the market where you take off.

Isn't this a sure-fire money tree?

Ah Fei turned off the projector and distributed copies of the settlement sheet to everyone.

Qingxiao put the documents into his briefcase, said goodbye to Yu Zheng, and left the conference room. He didn't go home or to the hotel; instead, he had his driver take him directly to the Tianmen Film and Television BJ office.

The office has moved twice already, and it's now on the twelfth floor of an office building in Chaoyang District.

Outside the window is the night view of the East Fourth Ring Road. The traffic has not yet dispersed, and the taillights have dyed the road a flowing red.

Qingxiao didn't turn on the main lights, only leaving the table lamp on.

He placed his briefcase on the table, sat down in the chair, and closed his eyes.

Those numbers from the debriefing meeting are still swirling in my mind.

Leveraging 4.5 million to generate 20 million, the return rate is 400%.

That was the first shot fired in the revenue-sharing model for online dramas, and it was also the next battlefield that Tianmen Films wanted to seize.

Considering that all the established players in the online film industry have now entered the market with budgets exceeding ten million, smaller players simply cannot get in.

The same applies to online dramas—once the revenue-sharing model is validated, capital will flock in, and the window of opportunity will only last one or two years.

To grab a large share of the market during the window of opportunity, one cannot rely solely on "The Demon's Journey to Chang'an".

He needs to compile a list of all the potential blockbuster online drama projects that could be successful in the next few years.

He opened his eyes, turned on his computer, created a new folder, and named it "Web Series Project Library".

Then I leaned back in my chair, closed my eyes, and began searching my memory for those once-sensational web series.

Data streams converge in the darkness.

"The Chef in the Flower Garden," without a major IP or well-known actors, cost around 2000 million yuan for two seasons and accumulated over 7200 million yuan in revenue sharing, with a profit margin as high as 400%. It has a Douban rating of 7.9 and is a benchmark for a revenue-sharing web series that achieves both critical acclaim and market success.

"The Fake Phoenix and the Real Dragon" had a total investment and marketing budget of 4 million yuan, but generated over 10 million yuan in revenue, nearly three times its cost. It's a period comedy, requiring relatively small investments but appealing to a wide audience.

"Waiting for the Smoke to Clear and the Rain to Stop" grossed over 3500 million yuan in 2018, with a total gross of over 3000 million yuan across three seasons, pushing the box office ceiling for revenue-sharing dramas to a new level.

"The Peerless Lady," a period romance drama, surpassed 1000 million yuan in revenue sharing within four days of its release, accumulating over 5500 million yuan in revenue sharing, once again pushing the box office revenue ceiling. Its target audience was clearly defined—focusing on young female users, with precise marketing from material production to channel selection.

"My Neighbor Can't Sleep" is a sweet and romantic youth drama series on Youku, rated A by revenue sharing. With a production cost of around 800 million yuan, it surpassed 2000 million yuan in revenue sharing within three weeks of its release, ultimately exceeding 2600 million yuan. It has no established IP or celebrities, but its character design is exceptional—a healing story between an autistic genius pianist and a brave young woman.

"Day and Night," a hard-boiled suspense crime drama. It was the first online drama to successfully pass censorship and receive a license number from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, achieving a 9.0 rating on Douban and over 46 billion views. Netflix acquired the overseas distribution rights, planning to release it in over 190 countries and regions worldwide, making it the first Chinese online drama to be officially broadcast on a large international scale. Lead actor Pan Yueming experienced a career resurgence thanks to this series.

"Story of Yanxi Palace" is produced by Yu Zheng.

It topped Google's global TV series search rankings in 2018, garnered over 200 billion views on a single platform, sold its rights to more than 90 countries, and was named the best overseas TV series of 2018 by Variety magazine, the only Chinese TV series to be selected.

"The Longest Day in Chang'an," adapted from Ma Boyong's novel, is directed by Cao Dun and stars Lei Jiayin and Jackson Yee. The total investment was approximately 6 million yuan, with 70 acres of real-life sets built.

It scored 8.2 on Douban and became the most popular video on the entire internet within three days of its release. It was launched with zero promotion and relied entirely on word of mouth.

"The Hidden Corner," the second installment of iQiyi's Mist Theater in 2020, launched with a 9.0 rating on Douban, popularizing the "mountain climbing" and "little white boat" memes beyond its original niche. In the suspenseful short drama genre, with 12 episodes, it achieved both critical and commercial success, proving the commercial viability of high-quality short dramas.

"The Mystic Nine," a 2016 iQiyi self-produced drama, had a total production budget of 1.68 million yuan, with at least 70% allocated to actual production. It became the first self-produced drama to surpass 10 billion views online, and during its run on Dragon TV, it achieved an average viewership rating of 1.138%, breaking the 2016 record for weekly dramas on various satellite channels. The main cast included William Chan, Lay Zhang, and Zhao Liying.

"Yu Zui," released on iQiyi in 2016, garnered over 30 billion views across two seasons and received ratings of 8.3-8.6 on Douban. Zhang Yishan's initial fee was 300 million yuan, but it skyrocketed to 5000 million yuan after the series became a hit, more than ten times his initial salary. It's a benchmark case of how web dramas can launch a star's career.

"With You," produced by iQiyi in 2016, starring Liu Haoran and Tan Songyun, received an 8.5 rating on Douban and ultimately garnered 20 billion views. Its simple and realistic narrative of youth and campus life captivated countless viewers, making it one of the most rewarding works in the youth drama genre.

The scripts for the next three Qingxiao series could have been pre-approved and projects secured using the system.

Qingxiao opened his eyes.

The folder on the computer desktop, called "Web Series Project Library," already contains twelve neatly arranged project summaries.

Historical suspense, sweet romance and gourmet food, historical comedy, historical sweet romance, youth sweet romance, hard-boiled suspense, Qing Dynasty female lead, big-budget historical production, suspenseful short dramas—all nine categories are covered.

He didn't stop.

After compiling this data into a spreadsheet, he closed his eyes again and started the system.

The black background reappears, and the data stream begins to converge.

The original information of the twelve projects was broken down into hundreds of narrative units, and each paragraph was cross-referenced with current market data.

The entire script has been adapted to be faithful to its original form.

The system extracts, reassembles, and generates one after another: the dual narrative of food and suspense in "The Flower Garden," the shared identity of twin brothers in "Day and Night," the triple interweaving of revenge, romance, and palace intrigue in "Story of Yanxi Palace," and the youthful ensemble and college entrance exam countdown in "With You."

The system logged out three hours later.

Qingxiao opened his eyes and saw twelve new script files on his computer desktop.