CH 39.2

Time passed.

At 8 p.m. on the day that Mind Eyes aired, Feihong’s office was brightly lit and everyone was waiting, ready to stare at the feedback on the Internet. As a suspense drama, the audience in the current domestic market was limited. In order to avoid early hype and affect the reputation of the work, they didn’t use excessive marketing before the drama aired. They just mentioned it in the small suspense circle in a low-key manner in an attempt to make people curious and attract more viewers.

It was just that the capital behind Free and Unfettered was too strong. It almost dominated most social media in the first few days of airing. It had a luxurious crew, the male and female protagonists were first-time traffic stars and there were even young idols invited by small supporting actors to make cameos. In a sense, there was no shortage of topicality. Competing with such a work at the same time was a very big test for Mind Eyes.

Once the first episode was aired, most of the online discussion was still on Free and Unfettered, which was updated daily. Mind Eyes didn’t make a splash at all.

The office was silent…

“Were we expecting too much?” An employee in the office couldn’t hold back. “The data given by the online streaming platform shows that the playback volume is below our expectations. Did all the netizens run to watch Free and Unfettered?”

“Don’t talk about it. I saw that Free and Unfettered’s official Weibo added more yesterday. The trailer for today seems to be a small climax and our side might be overwhelmed.”

The person in charge looked at the data on the computer screen with a gloomy face and the refresh button was almost destroyed by him. “Look again. We have sufficient funds. Shouldn’t we buy a hot search to raise the heat of Mind Eyes? Have you contacted the crew? What did they say?”

The girl in charge of the liaison heard this. “The crew said it is up to us. They will cooperate with us to publicize it.”

The crew of Mind Eyes was too poor. All the investment of the crew was basically spent on the drama and there was none for the early publicity. This publicity was done by Second Young Master Chen, who invested the saved endorsement money into it. Feihong became a sponsor of the crew in disguise. However, this was the first time for the Chen Group to participate in this type of small online drama investment. It wasn’t known if it was a profit or a loss.

During this period, Second Young Master Chen had contacted the crew. Before the drama aired, they organized the actors to film many advertising short films for emergency review. They planned to use them in the drama to promote Feihong Electrical.

“The data on the first day is limited. We will look at the situation after tomorrow. If it really isn’t optimistic then we can only use Plan B.” The person in charge didn’t want to use Plan B. He had carefully watched the sample and the feature trailer of Mind Eyes was much better than expected. Director Li strove for perfection and the rhythm and delicacy of the plot was completely in line with public aesthetics. Plan B was to increase publicity but it might become saturated and arouse the disgust of others…

“Go back to rest tonight,” the person in charge ordered. “Get off work. The rest will be discussed tomorrow.”

In addition to Feihong, Chen Shiming’s PR team was also paying attention to Mind Eyes ever since the boss had asked them to focus on it. Sure enough, a few days before it aired, there were all types of trolls. It seemed that someone was really interfering from behind and couldn’t wait for Mind Eyes to be thoroughly smashed.

They first removed the black entries and related unfavorable remarks. Then they started a game with the unknown other party. In the seemingly silent network, they clashed several times in succession. In addition, they followed this line to check many people.

However, the other side was cautious. After noticing their movements, the other side restrained a bit, as if afraid they were exposing too many problems in this game.

“People dressed in Yicheng’s skin are muddying the waters but we checked carefully. They have only forwarded information about Yicheng in the past two days. It should be that someone asked a water army to pretend to be Yicheng to provoke a conflict between us.” Chen Shiming handed several documents to Chen Jianhong. “In this matter, we also found Chief Xu’s handwriting. There are indeed several old things in the group that have been eating it inside and out. It is only a matter of time before they are caught.”

Chen Jianhong frowned. “Do they have any follow-up actions now?”

“No, they don’t dare to show up as long as my team appears,” Chen Shiming replied. “They are very worried about what we will find. They even pretended to be Yicheng and spread rumors in the industry. The main reason is to provoke a conflict between us. They really want us to fight against Yicheng.”

Chen Jianhong’s finger stopped on the document. “I found out during the meeting that there might be more than one person. I’ll let Xiao Jiang…”

“Dad,” Chen Shiming suddenly interrupted. “I hope you can hand over this matter to me.”

Chen Jianhong frowned slightly. “What are you suspecting?”

“I believe that there are still people in the group who are leaking the news. I believe that with the shrewdness of the other party, there is no way they didn’t arrange people under your hands. Even if Assistant Jiang is credible, this matter will be passed on to two people, two people will become four and so on. We can’t guarantee that there will be no problems in any of the links,” Chen Shiming explained. “Judging from the last few actions, it is our side that got wind of the other side’s actions first. This suggests there is a lag in them receiving information from me. It might be better to leave it to me first.”

There were several cigarette butts piled up in the ashtray in the study. Chen Jianhong coughed and his face was a bit tired. “Your consideration isn’t unreasonable, but Shiming, the people in the group are staring at you. Now you are still dealing with Feihong’s matter. After so many incidents, the other person must be paying attention to your actions.”

“They won’t. During the period where the Feihong matter is still happening, they won’t notice a problem.” Chen Shiming continued, “Doesn’t the other party expect to see us confronting Yicheng? In fact, we have already confronted Yicheng. There is the competition for the spokesperson and the conflict between drama series. On the surface, we are indeed on the opposite side of Yicheng. This can paralyze the perception of the other party…”

The other party wanted them to make trouble with Yicheng so they could only ‘make trouble’ with Yicheng.

They couldn’t make real trouble but they could still put on an act.

The formation for such excellent external conditions was all the credit of Chen Qizhao.

The far-fetched reason quietly turned a potential conflict into a reckless gamble that wasn’t practical for anyone. However, Chen Qizhao had always been a good-for-nothing. Even he hadn’t doubted it at first.

If it wasn’t for Special Assistant Xu’s words, he might’ve just attributed this matter to Chen Qizhao’s impulsiveness. However, when linking the recent events together, it could invisibly be seen that this was an excellent counterattack environment.

Chen Shiming’s eyes slightly darkened. In addition, he had checked multiple management levels within the group. Some of the projects that went wrong didn’t seem to have much to do with Chen Jianhong on the surface, but there was more or less an indirect connection. He usually wouldn’t have doubted this. It was reasonable for Chen Jianhong to have people inspect the project… the key was the one who appeared at the previous meeting. Yu Jie, who was in charge of assisting Feihong’s Glory Series.

He appeared too coincidentally. Why was he at headquarters when there was a problem with the spokesperson?

It was a short period of time from when the Glory Series went wrong to when the news arrived at the meeting room. Yu Ji’s appearance and difficulties in the meeting room seemed to be a pre-planned cooperation.

If so, the problem was most likely with Chen Jianhong’s assistant group.

However, he currently had no evidence, which was the most passive thing.

Chen Jianhong narrowed his eyes. “I’ll leave it to you. Leave the shareholders’ side to me.”

He hesitated. “However, are you sure about Feihong’s side?”

“Dad, maybe you can try and trust Qizhao.”

—

Mind Eyes didn’t create too many waves in the early stages of airing and Feihong was depressed.

Just as the company decided to start a marketing plan to save the popularity of Mind Eyes, Chen Shiming came to Feihong for an inspection and Second Young Master Chen directly got into an argument with him! Second Young Master Chen asked the PR team to buy a black hot search to blacken Free and Unfettered and Fu Yanyu, while Che Shiming asked everyone to stay still and wait for more episodes to air.

This quarrel was very noisy but Assistant Yu was happy to see the current situation. During this time, Chen Shiming and Special Assistant Xu were always making trouble for them. He thought it wouldn’t be easy to act after the airing. Unexpectedly, Mind Eyes itself didn’t become popular and they didn’t need to act to influence it. Feihong’s investment in it was destined to be lost.

“Then we don’t need to do it. Try not to show up in front of Chen Shiming as much as possible. He should be watching very closely recently,” Jiang Yuze ordered. “What about Chen Qizhao? Why didn’t he increase the marketing to grab something from Yicheng? This isn’t like his style.”

“In fact, he wanted to increase the marketing but Special Assistant Xu was present. He seems to be acting under Chen Shiming’s orders. Chen Qizhao seems to be arguing with Chen Shiming recently and he hasn’t come to the company much.” Assistant Yu was speechless. “The brothers argue and Chen Qizhao still has no power in the end. He can’t make trouble for Chen Shiming so Feihong hasn’t made any moves recently.”

“Chen Shiming is still rational, which is in line with his behavior. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have needed to find a breakthrough from Chen Qizhao. Still, it doesn’t matter now. There are already rumors in the group saying that Chen Shiming is paying attention to Yicheng. The contradiction has probably arisen.” Jiang Yuze knew very well that in the current situation, Feihong’s project just needed to become cold. Then they could add fire to it and the matter could easily become the main conflict between the Chen Group and Yicheng.

Then their purpose would be achieved.

At Feihong’s headquarters, Special Assistant Xu looked at the dismal data and called Chen Qizhao in a complicated mood.

Chen Qizhao had gone home for the holiday after military training, but he was reluctant to come to the company due to the ‘quarreling.’ He was now staying at home every day to accompany Zhang Yazhi.

Chen Qizhao told him, “You look for Chen Shiming. He is the one who said not to add marketing. What is the use of looking for me? Let your boss decide.”

Special Assistant Xu said, “The boss told me that it was you who decided on this matter.”

“What did Chen Shiming tell me at that time?” Chen Qizhao stood in the kitchen and watched Zhang Yazhi cutting vegetables and making chicken soup. “Oh, he said that netizens might not have started to watch it yet. Are you starting to become anxious?”

Zhang Yazhi glanced at Chen Qizhao. “Are you arguing with your brother again?”

Chen Qizhao explained, “I didn’t quarrel with him.”

Special Assistant Xu: “……”

He felt like a leather ball who was being kicked around by the boss and the boss’ brother.

Chen Qizhao asked, “What is the episode that will be aired tonight?”

“Episode 5.” Zhang Yazhi looked up at Chen Qizhao. “It is too slow. They only air four episodes a week. It isn’t enough to watch.”

Special Assistant Xu explained, “Mind Eyes is a short drama and the airing period is only around a month.

Mind Eyes was a niche drama and forced marketing could easily spoil goodwill. What they were doing now was only 10-20% of marketing, which could increase the exposure of the drama. However, in the end, traffic was limited and they didn’t dare make it bigger. This was what they were anxious about. If the drama didn’t become popular after it aired then wouldn’t all their preparations be in vain?

Chen Qizhao snorted. He ignored Special Assistant Xu and asked Zhang Yazhi instead, “Do you want me to find someone to show you sample episodes?”

“That won’t work. I have to give you some views,” Zhang Yazhi said very seriously. “Don’t worry. I have posted about it in my circle of sisters and they have been watching it recently.”’

Chen Qizhao: “……”

This amount of views wasn’t necessary.

Special Assistant Xu’s tone was a bit sour. “Second Young Master?”

Could he save them first? In the end, the group of them were really anxious about whether to increase marketing or not.”

“Look at it tonight,” Chen Qizhao replied nonchalantly. “Maybe there will be more netizens watching tonight?”

Special Assistant Xu: “……”

That night, Zhang Yazhi pulled Chen Qizhao to watch Mind Eyes but Chen Qizhao was busy on his phone. He saw the dissatisfaction caused by the latest episode of Free and Unfettered on the Internet. Free and Unfettered seemed to be a big production but there were too many related people involved and the script had long become a mess. This side added more scenes and that side added CPs. The scriptwriter could save it at the beginning but the second half of the plot had long collapsed. This time, due to the long-term addition of episodes aired in a week, the collapsed plot appeared early.

[F*k, what is the plot of the episode tonight?]

[Isn’t it about the instructor’s school? I came to see the competition but half the plot was about four men and four women chatting?]

[@TV series Free and Unfettered, is there something wrong with your crew? Can the rhythm be changed? The fourth male lead has more scenes than the second female lead. Isn’t this outrageous?]

[The heroine didn’t speak. Honestly speaking, isn’t it too much to film Fu Yanyu with that face? He looks really ugly in ancient clothing.]

The fans of Free and Unfettered and the fans of the actors tore at each other on the Internet. The topic #Free and Unfettered plot collapse# went on the hot search that night and the two sides argued fiercely.

In the middle of the night, a post about Mind Eyes appeared on the homepage of a blogger in a certain audience circle on Weibo. The blogger wrote the piece on Mind Eyes excitedly and attached a grid of photos, passionately promoting it on his homepage.

[F*k, f*k! I was originally half angry at the plot of Free and Unfettered tonight so I went to watch other dramas. Then I found a treasure ! A domestic suspense drama! It is really suspenseful! Really frightening! However, the rhythm of the plot is really good! Sisters who are good at this can try it. Spoilers are mentioned below…]

[I also watched it! That eye at the end of the first episode scared me to death!]

[The protagonist group is handsome. Who is the man with glasses? He acts so well!]

[Nie Chenxiao! Woo woo, my old treasure! Old Nie can act!}

[In the late night, who is afraid but clicking on the next episode at the same time?]

—

A small wind started in this circle and spread all at once to the homepages of various netizens. In this short period of fermentation, the number of netizens paying attention to Mind Eyes suddenly increased. Finally, once Mind Eyes reached the fifth episode, the first small climax of the entire drama was reached and this online drama rushed to the hot search late at night for the first time. It completely entered the public’s field of view.

Mind Eyes suddenly exploded in popularity the 13th day after it started airing.