Translator: Ink Hub

Editor: Yoog

For more than half a month, Lin Ji’s daily routine consisted of zestily wolfing down the various industry scandals exposed by Xiao Cheng. He went through bag after bag of sunflower seeds, and in his spare time, he even managed to outline a new script set in the entertainment world.

Meanwhile, although the writers of Snow in Early May were tearing each other apart, none of them dared to drag the war toward Lin Ji.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried. But the one time they tagged him, Lin Ji simply pulled out that golden Buddha image he hadn’t posted in days and replied, “How about this? You all kowtow and admit your wrongs before the Buddha first.”

The other writers were speechless.

Can you stop posting that Buddha picture every five seconds?! If we were the type to actually kowtow and repent, would we still be fighting on the internet?

They deeply suspected that Lin Ji was mentally unstable.

As if the image wasn’t enough, Lin Ji started creating his own hashtags: #WorldsBestJuniorBrother, #HeartacheForLinJi, #LoyalAndRighteous. The netizens were utterly bewildered.

It took a long time for one clever user to decode the joke. “Wait… aren’t those the exact tags Xiao Cheng used before?”

Sure enough, just a few months ago, the tag #WorldsBestSeniorBrother had trended.

“Dying of laughter. Just how much of a grudge does Lin Ji hold?”

“Little Lin held onto this for months just to pay it back now. If this isn’t a sincere display of brotherly love, what is?”

In the end, the other Snow in Early May writers decided to leave Lin Ji alone. They focused their fire on Xiao Cheng, exposing every single detail that happened during the production.

* * *

Lin Ji had originally intended to remain a quiet spectator. After all, he was the one who started this. However, after finishing his latest serving of stale gossip, he realized something: it seemed he wasn’t getting any new work.

Half a month ago, multiple platforms were courting him, wanting him to guide their short drama scripts or conceive a new long-form series.

Lin Ji lacked connections in the screenwriting circle, so he asked Rice Grains Video to investigate on his behalf. After lurking on the screenwriting forum for two days, he found the reason: some people thought he was too much of a troublemaker and wanted to suppress him.

Lin Ji was offended. Me? A troublemaker? I’ve been incredibly low-key. I’m practically a model citizen of the new era.

Objectively speaking, the current chaos in the circle was Xiao Cheng’s fault. Yet, several industry big shots felt that if Lin Ji hadn’t poked the beehive, the other writers wouldn’t be in such a mess.

Lin Ji thought the silent agreement among platforms to stop hiring him was the extent of the punishment. But then, he received a sudden notification from Qike Video: Secretly in Love with You was set to premiere within the week.

Qike Video had originally been quite optimistic about the show. They had planned to launch it as a key project during the summer vacation. Preparation was still underway, but the platform suddenly chose to change the date, not even leaving Tian Yao any room for negotiation.

It was currently the end of April. Launching Secretly in Love with You in early May was a terrible slot. During this time, audience engagement was low, and platforms rarely allocated promotional resources to their shows.

“Why the sudden change?” Tian Yao asked.

Previously, Qike Video and Chaoxing TV had fought over the rights to Secretly in Love with You. To secure the deal, Qike had made many verbal promises: marketing the show as an A+ rank drama and scheduling it to follow the S-rank production Twenty Years of the Xiang River. Now, Qike Video had retracted every single promise.

Tian Yao went to the director of the platform to demand answers, but he only received a “no comment.”

Though Tian Yao had secured the partnership, he didn’t fully understand the internal politics of these video platforms. Lin Ji, having dealt with these platforms his entire previous life, did a quick search on Qike’s homepage and cross-referenced recent news. He compiled a set of screenshots and sent them to Tian Yao.

“New dramas from Gu Lenian and Zhao Jing? How? They usually only work with TV stations.

“Even Yan Wenyu’s drama is on Qike Video now?”

Looking at Qike’s summer schedule, Tian Yao’s brow furrowed. Based on the upcoming list, this was a lineup of unprecedented stars for the platform. Gu Lenian and Zhao Jing were the most sought-after writers today, with multiple massive hits to their names. In the past, writers of their caliber would never have bothered with a video platform.

Tian Yao finally understood.

The names Gu Lenian, Zhao Jing, and Yan Wenyu were familiar; they were all writers whose dark history had been briefly exposed by Xiao Cheng. However, Xiao Cheng had quickly deleted those posts, likely after some sort of deal was struck.

The fact that they were launching shows on Qike Video right after being exposed, combined with the sudden cold treatment of Secretly in Love with You, made the situation easy to read.

With such heavy hitters in their pocket, Qike Video found it easy to sacrifice a small production like Secretly in Love with You.

“This is too dirty!” Tian Yao fumed. “I’d rather not air it at all.”

Lin Ji remained calm. “The broadcasting rights were paid for. If they don’t air it, that money goes to waste. Besides, if the show doesn’t air, how will they have the chance to target me?”

Lin Ji was all too familiar with this playbook. Buying trolls to badmouth a show before it airs or having a rival platform suddenly launch an S+ blockbuster—these were standard methods of suppression. However, it was rare for a platform like Qike Video to sabotage its own content.

The reason behind everything was simple: someone didn’t want to see Lin Ji have another hit.

Therefore, Secretly in Love with You had to flop. It couldn’t just fail quietly; it had to fail as spectacularly as Snow in Early May. Only then would Lin Ji lose all the momentum he gained from God of War Returns Home.

When Chaoxing TV announced their own S+ rank drama, Currently in Love, for the same time slot, Lin Ji knew the pieces were all in place.

Secretly in Love with You was in a bad slot, and the show airing before it on Qike Video was a mediocre series with zero buzz. It wasn’t “infamously bad” like Snow in Early May; it was just forgettable. It provided absolutely no lead-in traffic for Lin Ji’s show.

Lin Ji had gained some fame through God of War Returns Home, but compared to veterans like Zhao Jing and Gu Lenian, he had very few chips to play. Qike Video’s choice was logical.

* * *

Secretly in Love with You launched quietly on a Tuesday night.

That day, Qike Video’s official Weibo was busy promoting a sports variety show. Not a single trace of Secretly in Love with You could be found on the homepage banners.

While Qike Video’s reputation couldn’t match the satellite stations, they were a favorite in the web drama sector. Their S+ productions, though not always classics, were generally accepted by fans. By ignoring this launch, the platform was essentially signaling to the audience that Secretly in Love with You was a trash drama.

In contrast, Chaoxing TV had been hyping Currently in Love for a week.

An S+ production on Chaoxing TV was designed to compete with satellite TV. Currently in Love targeted young viewers and featured the current “it girl,” Yu Muzi. She wasn’t a world-class beauty, but she was the public’s favorite “sweet girl-next-door.” This was her third youth drama, and her previous two had achieved massive ratings.

“Currently in Love! Sweet campus romance! I live for this!”

“Muzi’s new drama! And it’s her specialty genre! She’s so cute!”

Fans of the young actress were out in force. On the day of the premiere, Chaoxing TV bought the opening screen ads on Weibo, and marketing accounts followed suit. The homepage was plastered with behind-the-scenes clips of the leads’ interactions.

By comparison, unless one looked at the accounts of Tian Yao, Lin Ji, or the leads themselves, one wouldn’t even know Secretly in Love with You existed. Qike Video hadn’t even given it a direct link; viewers had to manually search for the title to find it.

Among the creators, Lin Ji had the most followers, having just surpassed 200,000. He posted the link to the show, but his fans were mostly there for the fast-paced “face-slapping” action of God of War Returns Home, not a sugary romance.

“I’ll go take a peek. If it’s interesting, I’ll watch.”

“I mean… can we just get more updates for God of War? I want to see the MC slap more people.”

“A new show? Why is there zero hype for this?”

“I thought it was that new show on Chaoxing TV. Is it not? The names are almost the same.”

Fans searched Weibo, but since Secretly in Love with You was a new production with no marketing, there was zero feedback. Instead, the internet was saturated with discussions about Currently in Love.

When the first episode finished airing, the numbers came out. Lin Ji received a message from Tian Yao: “We’ll try harder next time. There will be other opportunities.”

In terms of daily views, Currently in Love had over 8 million. Secretly in Love with You had barely 300,000.

It hadn’t even reached the figures of a single episode on Rice Grains Video.

As soon as the view counts were released, marketing accounts pounced.

“Currently in Love is already at nearly 10 million views in a single day. Another hit in the making?”

“Chaoxing TV has finally stepped out of the shadow of Silken Tresses. Yu Muzi’s ability to carry a show is real.”

“By the way, did Qike Video’s Secretly in Love with You just get buried? 300,000 views? That’s ridiculously low.”

“If you don’t look closely, you wouldn’t even know this is Lin Ji’s new show. It seems he can only write short dramas. When it comes to long-form series, he really doesn’t have it.”

To a certain extent, the screenwriters’ goal of targeting Secretly in Love with You had been achieved. By the time marketing accounts were done, Currently in Love had surpassed 10 million views. A thirty-fold difference was something that Secretly in Love with You—with its lack of stars, budget, and promotion—could never close.

“Lin Ji thinking he could replicate the success of God of War was impossible.”

“Long dramas are much harder to attract viewers than short ones. No matter how talented Lin Ji is, he’s powerless here.”

Though Lin Ji hadn’t been in the spotlight for long, his peers knew he was good at stirring things up. But viewership was a hard metric. God of War Returns Home was unique because it had no competition. Secretly in Love with You and Currently in Love were in the exact same genre, and the potential audience had already been snatched up by the latter.

The next day, the views for Secretly in Love with You remained stagnant. Qike Video estimated that the most Lin Ji would do was tag the platform’s official account to beg for more promotion.

…Lin Ji did tag an account.

But he didn’t tag Qike Video. He tagged Chaoxing TV.

Underneath Chaoxing TV’s post promoting Currently in Love, Lin Ji shared it with a one-word comment: “Unwatchable.”

Chaoxing TV: “?”

Is this guy insane?

Yu Muzi’s fans: “?”

Does he not value his life?

The data tells the story: before he shared Chaoxing TV’s post, Lin Ji’s own promotion for his show had only a few hundred comments. After he shared it, his comment section exploded, surpassing 10,000 in record time.

Yu Muzi’s fans were famous for their aggression. When they saw Lin Ji disparaging their idol’s work, they didn’t hold back.

Facing the torrent of abuse from Yu Muzi’s fans, Lin Ji transformed into a human repeater. He filled the screen with a single response: “Bounce back.”

And then, the search volume for Secretly in Love with You doubled. Then tripled. Quintupled. Tenfold.

Currently in Love was Yu Muzi’s third campus drama, the one meant to cement her status as the queen of sweet romance. But everyone knows the entertainment world doesn’t really have a “Queen.” There are always ten different actresses vying for the title of “Top Four.” The moment Currently in Love hit the top of the charts, her fans claimed, “From now on, every major sweet drama script in the industry has to pass through my Queen’s hands first.”

This statement naturally infuriated the fans of every other rival actress.

While a significant portion of Currently in Love’s views came from Yu Muzi’s fans, the fans of other actresses were looking for a reason to tear it down.

During Lin Ji’s “bounce back” war, the fans of rival actresses silently shifted their gaze to Secretly in Love with You.

After one episode…

This show… is actually good!

No, it’s really good!

There’s a chance!!

Watch this! We’re knocking Currently in Love off its pedestal!

NOTES

Bounce back (反弹): A playground-style retort (like “I’m rubber, you’re glue”). In Chinese internet slang, it’s a petty way to deflect insults.

Unwatchable (报看 – baokan): Slang for “unwatchable” or “looks bad.” It’s a purposeful misspelling/slang version of bu hao kan.

Little Flower / Flower (花旦 – Huadan): Terms for popular young actresses in the Chinese entertainment industry.

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