Traffic Star Development Program

Chapter 59 Please Let Dilraba Go

"The comments on the behind-the-scenes footage of the new drama are out, and the first one is criticizing you."

Xu Wen turned his phone screen around, and the first comment in the screenshot had over 20,000 likes. The comment read: "Please, boss, let Dilraba go. Stop making her into these sweet romance dramas. She deserves better resources."

Zeng Hao glanced at the number and said, "Hmm."

"Then why keep it?"

"Um."

Xu Wen put his phone away, wrote something in his notebook, looked up, and said, "Hey, keep the one that insulted you. Can I ask why?"

"Because there are five thousand replies to this comment," Zeng Hao said. "Go and see what those five thousand replies are saying."

Xu Wen took out his phone again and scrolled down for about ten seconds. His expression changed. "Everyone is defending Teacher Di, saying she acted very well."

"right."

Xu Wen considered this for a moment, then slowly nodded, swiped down the screen, and said, "Oh," his tone suggesting he had just grasped the concept. He swiped down again, "Oh!"

This time he truly understood. Zeng Hao ignored him, picked up the notice board from the table, and asked, "Any new information from iQiyi last night?"

"Yes," Xu Wen turned to the next page of his notebook. "Last night around 11 p.m., iQiyi's business team sent an email saying they wanted to renegotiate the revenue sharing ratio for the upcoming 'Diamond Lover' project, saying it was 'based on current market feedback'."

Zeng Hao put down the notice.

iQiyi's use of "market feedback" means that after the behind-the-scenes footage was released, they saw the data in their backend and now want to change the terms back to their advantage before the series officially launches. This is standard practice for platforms: lower the price before the series gains popularity, and renegotiate once it does, always in their own direction.

"Reply to them," Zeng Hao said, "say that we can talk, and Xu Wen will decide the time."

Xu Wen wrote this down: "So, when is the time set?"

"Let's not decide yet," Zeng Hao said. "We'll decide after they urge us a second time."

Xu Wenbi paused, went through the logic, didn't say anything, circled it in his notebook, and turned to the next point.

Fang Qing printed out the outline of the script, which was quite illogical, and placed it on the table. It was a thick stack of pages, with her own annotations in red pen on the first page.

She sat down opposite Zeng Hao and pushed the stack of papers toward him. "I expanded it according to your framework. The main plot remains the same, but I added two subplots. Take a look at scenes 12 and 21. I think the original version lacked emotional depth."

Zeng Hao flipped to the twelfth scene, watched it for about two minutes, folded the corner of the page, and continued flipping through it to the twenty-first scene, which he watched again.

"Scene 12 is fine," he said. "But we should remove the subplot in scene 21, because the female lead isn't ready to make that choice at this point."

Fang Qing frowned slightly on the other side, "But if we remove it, the emotional build-up for the twenty-fifth scene will be lost."

"The setup for the 25th scene will be moved to the 18th scene," Zeng Hao said. "Use one scene to set it up, rather than a subplot."

Fang Qing wrote this down, her pen pausing on the paper. "Chu Ran, you asked me to send her the framework. She sent me a message yesterday, and Xu Wen forwarded it to me. Did you see it?"

"I've seen it."

"She only asked about the characters," Fang Qing said, her tone slightly surprised. "I thought the newcomer's first reaction would be to ask about the filming schedule or appearance fee, but she asked about the female lead's motivation in the seventh scene, the direction of the lines in the nineteenth scene, and the emotional conclusion of the final scene."

Zeng Hao did not respond to that sentence.

Fang Qing waited a moment, and when she realized he wasn't going to comment, she continued, "I think this girl is quite interesting. The third question she asked, about the emotional conclusion of the ending, I thought about it for a while, and actually I haven't figured it out myself, but she asked it first."

"Then think it through," Zeng Hao said. "Before finalizing the draft, make sure you understand the emotional logic of that scene."

Fang Qing closed the notebook, stood up, walked to the door, turned her head back, and asked, "Why did you choose her as the female lead?"

"Her face," Zeng Hao said, "is suitable for the emotions the script is trying to convey."

Fang Qing stood at the door, pondered the answer for a moment, her lips twitched as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she didn't, gently closed the door, and went out.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor, then silence fell.

The post from Dingsheng Media was published at noon. The account is called "Entertainment Real Intelligence Station" and has 80,000 followers. Its homepage is full of inside information from various production teams. It posts regularly, always at the peak of a particular drama or artist's popularity.

The post reads: "[Exclusive] Insider information from the 'Diamond Lover' production team: The male and female leads had multiple disagreements during filming. An assistant confirmed that the two barely interacted on set, and their supposed 'couple chemistry' relied entirely on post-production editing." The post includes two screenshots that appear to be chat logs, but the text is blurry and illegible.

When Xu Wen forwarded this to Zeng Hao, the post already had three thousand reposts.

Zeng Hao read through the post, put his phone back on the table, and said, "Compile the playback data, comment count, and repost count after the behind-the-scenes footage is released into a chart and send it to the industry intelligence account so they can compare and publish it. No text is needed, just the data."

Xu Wen noted this down, "Do I need to @ that account?"

"No need," Zeng Hao said. "Once the data is sent out, people will naturally compare it."

Xu Wen went to send it.

The data chart appeared on Weibo at 3 PM. The account belonged to an entertainment data blogger with just over 20,000 followers. The content consisted of only one screenshot: 18 hours after the behind-the-scenes footage was released, it had 6.3 million views, and the interaction rate in the comment section was 4.2 times that of similar content during the same period. There were also a large number of spontaneous derivative works in the reposts. There was no textual commentary, just these numbers.

By evening, the top comments section of Dingsheng Media's post was filled with people asking questions based on that data chart.

Xu Wen stared at his phone for a while, then looked up and said, "President Zeng, that intelligence station account just quietly deleted that post."

Zeng Hao was reading the script for "Three Lives Three Worlds" and didn't look up. He just said, "Hmm."

"That's it?" Xu Wen put down his phone. "Not going to pursue it anymore?"

"What are you chasing?" Zeng Hao turned a page. "He deleted it himself."

Xu Wen processed this information for a moment, then lowered his head again. After a while, he asked, "President Zeng, regarding Chu Ran's three questions, did you have Fang Qing answer them for her, or did you do it yourself—"

"Let her come once," Zeng Hao said without looking up. "Find an afternoon this week and have Xu Wen go in."

Xu Wen paused for a second, noting this down, then paused again, "What did you bring her here to discuss?"