Translator: Ink Hub
Editor: Yoog

For drama fans, December marked the beginning of a viewing feast.

Historical war epics, urban romances, modern-period dramas, espionage thrillers… Various genres were launched one after another, leaving viewers dazzled.

During this slot, the various satellite stations had largely moved away from idol dramas led by traffic stars. Even Qinglan TV’s Winter Promise was no exception; the station’s marketing focused on the emotional tension between characters rather than the actors themselves.

In mid-December, Dajiang TV’s Shooting the Sirius was the first to air.

Shooting the Sirius boasted a powerful lineup, featuring a combination of a Best Actor and a Best Actress, with most supporting roles filled by A-list celebrities. It took over the slot from another champion drama on Dajiang TV that had concluded with a legendary television viewership milestone of 3.78%. After only its first two episodes, Shooting the Sirius parachuted into the second spot on the rankings with a 2.86% rating.

Currently, a hit drama on Qinglan TV was nearing its finale. According to industry estimates, once that show concluded, Shooting the Sirius would inevitably seize the top spot on the ratings chart.

“The second episode of Shooting the Sirius is already nearly matching the peak ratings of other stations. How can anyone compete?”

“Terrifying, truly terrifying.”

“Last year, Code 11 managed to snatch the annual championship from the jaws of the tiger, but there is no chance this year. It is already December.”

The word of mouth for the first two episodes of Shooting the Sirius was excellent. The special effects scenes were grand, and the historical foundation was solid. Aside from the male lead, Zhou Xiao, who played a character from the Song Dynasty camp, the actors representing the Western Xia camp were equally superb in their craft.

This type of historical drama often felt sluggish if not handled well, but Shooting the Sirius suffered from no such flaw.

Nearly a week after Shooting the Sirius began its run, Winter Promise and Records of the Bai’s Return premiered on the same day. Also airing in the same period were Maple Leaf TV’s Stormy Romance and Xiyuan TV’s The Amazing Cui Xiu. Although the titles of the latter two were unremarkable, they also possessed a group of loyal viewers.

On the day Winter Promise and Records of the Bai’s Return premiered, the ratings for Shooting the Sirius had already broken 3%, reaching 3.6%.

“Winter Promise still has a chance to make a push. Records of the Bai’s Return is hopeless; with three stations broadcasting it, the ratings will be spread too thin.”

This was a comment from a veteran viewer on a television drama forum.

Long-time fans were intimately familiar with the strength of the major satellite stations, and the ratings data matched their predictions. After the first and second episodes of Winter Promise aired, its ratings broke 2%, yet they still fell short of the debut numbers of Shooting the Sirius.

As for Records of the Bai’s Return, the three stations—Xingzhou, Daqin, and Sunrise—achieved ratings of 1.22%, 0.79%, and 0.96% respectively. If the three were combined, the total was passable, but viewed individually, this was nearly the worst opening for Xingzhou TV in the past six months. Among all the satellite stations, Xingzhou TV’s rating for the day ranked 8th, falling behind Maple Leaf TV and Xiyuan TV.

Last year, Maple Leaf TV had tried to compete with Lin Ji for ratings, only to lose both its viewership and reputation in the process. This year, they had purchased several high-priced dramas to somewhat salvage their standing.

Consequently, although the ratings for Stormy Romance were currently a notch above Records of the Bai’s Return, Maple Leaf TV did not dare to market aggressively.

The main reason was that Lin Ji’s dramas were far too capable of making a comeback.

In fact, for the crew of Records of the Bai’s Return, the premiere ratings were already far beyond expectations.

Xingzhou TV had broken 1%. Although Daqin and Sunrise had not, they were not far from the 1% mark. Furthermore, the combined ratings of the three stations were nearly 3%, and the ratings for the second episode had even seen a slight increase over the first.

Lin Ji and Hu Weiyi huddled together to search for keywords related to Records of the Bai’s Return:

“Huh… Records of the Bai’s Return is much better than I imagined! I saw it while flipping channels. Isn’t it filmed quite well?”

“The pacing of the first two episodes is super good!! It cut straight into the original plot, and the actors are doing a great job!”

“I can’t believe it… At this time two years ago, I was using the same Weibo account to curse Chen Cheng. This year, I’m actually starting to blow rainbow farts for her. When I read the original novel, the image that flashed in my mind was exactly this kind of gentle yet strong eldest daughter.”

“It’s really good. You can tell it was filmed with a lot of heart!”

“Good, good!”

The curve of Hu Weiyi’s lips never receded. “For this kind of adaptation, it is already good enough as long as it isn’t a flop. Don’t have such high expectations.”

Lin Ji gave him a silent look.

He’s being so humble now that people are praising it, but who was the one constantly hoping for high ratings before?

It was rare for several stations to broadcast good dramas simultaneously. Shortly after the ratings charts were released, a marketing account immediately conducted a survey: [Among the dramas recently aired, which one is your favorite?]

“Shooting the Sirius. Without a doubt, it is Shooting the Sirius. Zhou Xiao is the GOAT. He is far, far, far too good at mastering his roles!”

“+1 for Shooting the Sirius. A historical war film, passionate yet sorrowful. It makes me feel fired up and want to cry at the same time.”

“Hahaha, I guess I have tacky taste. I like The Amazing Cui Xiu. The big female lead farming and raising chickens is awesome!”

“Voting for Winter Promise. It looks great! How wonderful it is to just watch people fall in love sweetly.”

“My thoughts are a bit different from everyone else… I personally prefer Records of the Bai’s Return.”

In the comment section, the most lively discussions were undoubtedly about Shooting the Sirius and Winter Promise. Their ratings explained everything. However, the final result of the poll was somewhat unexpected: Records of the Bai’s Return actually received 30% of the votes, nearly 10% higher than Winter Promise.

“Ah, this…”

“It’s okay to say that Records of the Bai’s Return is filmed a bit better than Winter Promise, right?”

“+1. It might be because my expectations for Records of the Bai’s Return were too low. After the first two episodes, I found it a hundred times better than I expected. But Winter Promise… maybe my expectations were too high, and the broadcast only reached 70% of what I hoped for. Of course, it is true that both are good.”

By the second day of Records of the Bai’s Return’s broadcast, Shooting the Sirius remained number one on the ratings chart, with Winter Promise in second. However, Xingzhou TV’s rating had silently moved up two spots, reaching 6th place.

It wasn’t just Xingzhou TV that was rising; the ratings for Sunrise TV and Daqin TV were also climbing.

“Speaking of which, the combined ratings of the three stations for Records of the Bai’s Return are a bit scary. It’s almost catching up to Shooting the Sirius, isn’t it?”

“Is this drama really that good? This book fan is curious.”

“Curious. @BaiMeiIsMyDaughter, what does my girl say?”

“@BaiMeiIsMyDaughter @BaiMeiIsMyDaughter @BaiMeiIsMyDaughter.”

The tagged account belonged to one of the recognized experts among fans of the Records of the Bai’s Return novel. Since opening the Weibo account, she had tirelessly provided various educational posts related to the story. She could practically recite the descriptions from the original novel from memory. Not only that, she had even pursued a master’s and doctoral degree because of Records of the Bai’s Return and published several related papers. She was the ultimate leader among fans.

“I’ll watch it when I have time.”

Regarding the adaptation of Records of the Bai’s Return, “Bai Mei is My Daughter” appeared much calmer than other book fans. While many of her fellow fans on her homepage would vent their rage at the adaptation whenever they had the chance, she had never cursed it. To outsiders, this was because of her more tolerant personality.

In reality, she had simply drawn a clear boundary between the original work and the adaptation. In her view, an adaptation could never absorb the full essence of the original; it was more like a useless derivative product.

In other words, a trashy adaptation did not equal the original work. There was no need for her to get angry over something irrelevant.

However, she noticed that since the new version of Records of the Bai’s Return began airing, the voices cursing the show on her homepage had suddenly diminished. Several of her familiar friends had even begun spontaneously recommending the show.

“Is it really that good?”

She wanted to watch it, yet she was afraid of being poisoned by the plot.

After careful consideration, “Bai Mei is My Daughter” decided to see for herself.

Records of the Bai’s Return had already reached its sixth episode by now, but Daqin TV had reruns on weekday mornings. She happened to catch the first two episodes.

The first episode covered the beginning of the story.

The original novel used only a few strokes of description to thoroughly depict the conduct and character of the first generation of the Bai family. She found that the adaptation did the same. Although many characters appeared, none of their personalities were overlooked. As soon as the actors stood there and spoke a few lines, the characters from the book seemed to come to life.

For instance, in the scene where they hear about the family business’s deficit, Bai Cheng’s helplessness, Bai Xin’s indifference, Bai Tong’s reckless disregard, and Bai Mei’s worry and decisiveness were all restored to the original content through the actors’ excellent performances.

“Bai Mei is My Daughter” had once written a paper on the environmental descriptions in Records of the Bai’s Return, so she was particularly attentive to the scenes, costumes, and props.

She recalled the descriptions in the original novel and matched them one by one with the scenes in the first two episodes. Even the hat and jewelry worn by Bai Mei were exactly the same as in the book.

The drama had also made appropriate modifications to some of the long-winded segments of the novel. Thus, although it was a long drama, it did not feel sluggish. The plot had its ups and downs, and the grasp of the characters’ emotions was even more precise.

Chen Cheng, who played Bai Mei, was not the type of actress she usually liked. The actress’s appearance was too brilliant and vivid, not quite the heroic image of Bai Mei. However, her mastery of the role was unexpectedly good.

After the two episodes finished, she didn’t feel the passage of time at all.

Blinking, she saw her homepage was currently filled with people cursing Qiu Chengyi. She suddenly regretted not following the drama from the very first moment. The meeting between Bai Mei and Qiu Chengyi occurred in the third and fourth episodes, which she hadn’t seen yet.

Thus, “Bai Mei is My Daughter” opened her computer and wrote a blog post as if she were writing a thesis: [A Detailed Discussion on the Costumes and Props of the First Two Episodes of the Records of the Bai’s Return Reboot.]

This was all content she had written in her thesis. In essence, it was her own detailed analysis of the original work. But the point was that this version of Records of the Bai’s Return respected the original work so faithfully that her “detailed discussion” of the props in the first two episodes was equivalent to a recital of the book.

She couldn’t help but ask a question: [Are the tasseled emerald earrings Bai Mei is wearing the real deal? They look very much like the real thing. I need an expert to answer.]

Not long after, a genuine expert answered her: [They are real. Screenwriter Lin paid for them out of his own pocket.]

The bio for this “expert” was “Film and Television Costume Designer.”

Drama fans: “…”

Truly wealthy.

How envious.

NOTES
Rainbow farts (彩虹屁): Internet slang for exaggerated, flowery flattery or praise.

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