You can read ahead up to 60 chapters on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395
Chen Fei'er had debuted many years ago and had long since become famous. On Langchao Blog alone, she had more than 20 million followers.
Fans who knew her well all understood that this Heavenly Queen of the music scene had never engaged in online mudslinging or public spats. The content on her blog was usually limited to everyday photos, sharing thoughts, reflections on life, and the like, quiet and gentle, completely different from those entertainment-industry celebrities who could stir up drama even out of nothing.
Take this blog post, for example. Everyone knew she was promoting 'Full House', yet this kind of promotion wasn't the annoying, shout-at-you, brainwashing style that made people resentful. Instead, it carried a subtle, "moistening things silently" quality.
A few simple lines of text, a video worth praising, a touching love song,
If this counted as hype, fans could only say: let the hype come even harder!
"I really love Lu Chen, love his songs!"
"If someone sang a love song to me like that, I'd definitely marry him!"
"My Fei is so lucky, blessings to you both!"
"No more talk, I'm definitely following 'Full House'!"
"Looking forward to the new works from both of you!"
Ninety-nine percent of the comments from blog users were positive. Although there were complaints like "my eyes are blinded by sweetness" or "got force-fed affection again," they were all good-natured jokes.
And just like many of Lu Chen's other works, Only For You quickly won over fans. There was no need for fan clubs to mobilize or big accounts to lead the charge; likes and shares spread naturally, drawing more and more people's interest toward 'Full House'.
By the next day, July 3rd, Chen Fei'er's post had surpassed 500,000 shares, over one million likes, and garnered hundreds of thousands of comments, firmly claiming the top spot on the blog's headlines.
Compared to the aggressive, large-scale marketing push driven by Xiangnan Satellite TV for its new drama, the effect of her single blog post was enough to rival, if not surpass, the opponent's piles of paid commenters and promotional machinery.
That same day, Capital City TV, Zhedong Satellite TV, Crown Film, as well as the official accounts of Lu Chen's and Chen Fei'er's studios, simultaneously announced that the new drama 'Full House' would premiere on the 22nd of this month, airing in prime time on the two satellite channels.
It would air consecutively on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with two episodes per day, for a total of twenty-five episodes.
This was an extremely dense broadcast schedule, clearly beneficial for boosting ratings. The entire run would finish within four weeks of the summer season, with reruns scheduled for early September.
And just after 'Full House' officially announced its broadcast date, Xiangnan Satellite TV, together with multiple media outlets, film and television companies, and celebrity studios, promptly followed up by announcing that its annual urban romance drama 'Vast Seas of Love' would premiere on July 15th, also airing three consecutive days each week with two episodes per day.
Just as everyone had expected, the two shows collided head-on.
Not only did Xiangnan Satellite TV show no intention of avoiding the confrontation, but it also made its stance clear; it was going after the same time slot ratings.
In fact, such situations were relatively rare. Normally, TV stations deliberately avoided direct clashes, staggering variety shows or big-budget dramas to safeguard ratings.
But during the two-month summer season, head-on collisions like this weren't unusual. What stood out, however, was how aggressively Xiangnan Satellite TV pressed forward, making everyone keenly feel the domineering force of this provincial TV powerhouse.
'Vast Seas of Love' wrapped filming earlier than 'Full House'. Its premiere date was announced later than 'Full House''s, yet it was deliberately scheduled after 'Full House' in the announcements, while the actual premiere time was set a full week earlier.
Besides 'Vast Seas of Love', several other dramas of the same genre also announced their premiere dates. They were far more prudent, deliberately avoiding the weekend prime-time slots and choosing to air on weekday evenings instead.
Everyone began showing their own divine abilities, and the promotional offensives instantly intensified.
Under such circumstances, Lu Chen naturally couldn't stay idle in the capital. Together with Chen Fei'er and the main members of the 'Full House' production team, he launched a two-week nationwide promotional tour.
The first stop was Haijin.
That night in Haijin, Lu Chen found some time at the hotel to log into Langchao Reading.
The novel he was writing, 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer', had been uploaded and officially opened for serialization on the night of May 27. More than a month had passed. With a steady daily update of 6,000 words, the total word count had exceeded 200,000.
Compared to the bleak situation when the book had just launched, the data was clearly much better now.
Clicks: 57,560
Recommendations: 10,260 votes
Bookmarks: 2,687 readers
Comments: 4,580
For a newcomer's debut novel, with no recommendations whatsoever, these results were already quite good. Moreover, the reader activity in the comment section was extremely high, even without the author's participation; discussions were still lively.
Of course, compared to the top-ranking popular works on Langchao Reading, these results were still nothing worth mentioning.
But in the readers' comments, Lu Chen could see how much they liked the subject matter, and many of the reviews were genuinely interesting, clearly written after careful reading.
That gave Lu Chen a small sense of satisfaction.
In fact, serializing 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' on Langchao Reading was essentially like cultivating a test field for him, quietly sowing seeds to see what kind of harvest he might reap in the end.
At the very least, it seemed he wouldn't walk away empty-handed, the total reader rewards had already exceeded 50,000 Reading Coins.
Of course, that amount of money was insignificant. But didn't it represent the readers' goodwill?
When Lu Chen logged into his author backend, he found an internal message waiting for him.
Opening it, he discovered it was from a site editor contacting him about signing a contract, complete with the editor's WeChat ID.
The message had been sent two days earlier. It was just that Lu Chen hadn't logged into Langchao Reading during that time, the chapters had been updating automatically from his saved drafts. He only noticed the message today when he logged in to add more drafts.
The data must have improved enough for the editor to offer a contract.
Out of curiosity, Lu Chen opened his alternate WeChat account and added the editor's number, noting the title of his work.
What he didn't expect was that the editor, whose nickname was "An Xin", approved his friend request almost immediately.
An Xin: Hello, are you Recalling Ancient Times, the author of 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'?
Lu Chen: Yes. Hello, Editor An. You work nights too?
An Xin: I'm on night duty. May I ask, are all the rights to 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' currently in your hands?
Lu Chen: Yes, all of them are mine.
An Xin: Great. The performance of 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' has been quite good, so we'd like to sign you. Please take a look at this contract first. If you have any opinions, let me know immediately.
She sent a contract file to Lu Chen.
For Lu Chen, signing a contract for a web novel was still a very new experience. He immediately opened the document.
He wanted to see exactly what kind of contract it was.
(End of Chapter)