Translator: ink Hub
Editor: Yoog

While Code 11 and Records of the Bai’s Return were both quite low-key during their broadcasts, Qinglan TV was different. Shortly after the production of The Harem was completed, Qinglan TV forcibly squeezed out a previously scheduled drama to let The Harem air-drop into the summer slot.

The cast and fans of that romantic idol drama were exceptionally dissatisfied, but the broadcasting rights ultimately belonged to the station. The Harem taking the summer slot was already set in stone.

“It seems Qinglan TV has absolute confidence in this drama.”

“So what if the screenwriter is Lin Ji? Qinglan TV is going too far with this.”

In the same time slot, Dajiang TV and Xingzhou TV both had excellent works being released. Dajiang TV was launching the historical drama Years Without Regret, while Xingzhou TV had the ancient idol romance Flowers of a Lifetime. It was rare for three A-list satellite stations to release historical dramas at the same time.

Years Without Regret told the story of a diligent and thrifty emperor who ascended the throne after many hardships, leading his dynasty toward a golden age. Flowers of a Lifetime was a common ancient idol romantic comedy, featuring a princess hiding her identity who falls in love with a poor scholar and stays with him for life.

Strictly speaking, all three dramas touched upon palace life.

Among the three, Years Without Regret was the first to release a trailer. It shared the same director as Shooting the Sirius, though the cast was not quite as powerful. The trailer maintained the grand and atmospheric style Dajiang TV excelled at. The ambition of an emperor for his land, combined with majestic music, was enough to make the audience’s blood boil without needing any other reason.

Flowers of a Lifetime featured a pair of cute, bickering lovers: a sweet and lovely princess and a handsome, elegant, hardworking young man. The sweetness between them when they looked at each other was as sugary as it could be. Although the trailer hinted at a bit of angst, the ending was clearly going to be a happy one.

Xingzhou TV had set the schedule for Flowers of a Lifetime early on. Seeing The Harem suddenly air-drop in, Chu Tianzhou immediately called Hua Tai. “Are we brothers or not?”

“We are not,” Hua Tai answered decisively. “The Harem had to air eventually. It doesn’t matter which slot we choose.”

Chu Tianzhou: “…”

There was some logic to those words.

But based on his understanding of Hua Tai, for the man to be so eager to let The Harem air-drop, he must have absolute confidence in the show.

Chu Tianzhou specifically instructed his assistant to remind him to watch the trailer for The Harem. The assistant did as told.

A few minutes after watching the trailer, Chu Tianzhou sat in place for a moment. Then, using the most beautiful vocabulary he possessed, he enthusiastically greeted Hua Tai’s ancestors ten thousand times in his mind.

He had long known Hua Tai was a piece of work, but he hadn’t expected the man to be such a… massive piece of work.

Judging by the quality of The Harem trailer, Hua Tai clearly intended to harvest the entire summer market!

Eighty episodes in total? The entire summer vacation would be over by then!

* * *

When the trailers for Years Without Regret and Flowers of a Lifetime were released, there were already plenty of discussion threads on the television forums. However, once the trailer for The Harem came out, over a dozen discussion threads appeared on the front page alone, pushing the latest thread for Years Without Regret directly into a corner.

“Has anyone seen The Harem’s trailer?”

“Go watch it, go watch it now!!”

“It feels so intense! Is this what a palace intrigue drama is?”

“Someone give me a link!!”

“Check the official Weibo accounts for The Harem and Qinglan TV. If you’re lucky, you might even see it on the Qinglan TV channel.”

Drama fans were incited by the shouting of their fellow forum members. They silently hurried to The Harem’s official Weibo to catch a glimpse—

The first thing that met their eyes was a heavy palace gate. As the gate opened, what appeared were faces filled with shyness and trepidation.

“Since we have entered the palace gates, we are all sisters. Why must we distinguish between you and me?”

“In the depths of the palace, where are there any true sisters?”

“Your Majesty, you said you would favor this concubine for a lifetime. You said it with your own lips!”

Some had smiles in their eyes, some were heavy with worry, and some were as withered as dead wood.

“For today’s hatred, I want her to pay me back tenfold, a hundredfold!”

“I have a yesterday and a today, but I will not have a tomorrow. Let me use this lowly life of mine to fight her to the death!”

Guards dragged a disheveled yet glamorous figure into the night. “This concubine did not! This concubine is innocent!”

The camera shifted to the peaceful imperial garden. A crowd of beautiful women gathered to admire the flowers. Some were smiling brightly, while others spoke with hidden barbs.

Consort He sat with Wen Yiwan, sipping tea. “In this deep palace, I only have a confidante like you, Sister.”

It was still Consort He, gazing at the deep red palace walls. Her lips curled slightly. “Let her die.”

The music became heavier at that instant. The dense drumbeats made people’s hearts thud in a rhythmic thump-thump.

Eyes met with hidden meanings. Bronze mirrors reflected faces as beautiful as flowers, but the longer one looked, the more blurred the faces became, as if making one forget their original self.

Hatred and rage, cruelty and cunning, all dissolved into faint, lingering sighs.

The final scene showed two white-haired palace maids lamenting, “Every inch of this palace is buried with people.”

After a melody so long it was almost lingering, the words “The Harem” appeared in the center of the screen as if soaked in blood. Below them were the six words: “New Work by Screenwriter Lin Ji.”

“My heart has been thumping ever since I saw the trailer!”

“Am I the only one who feels this way? Every character’s lines are so meaningful.”

“I want to watch it, I want to watch it, I’m desperate to watch it! It feels so exciting!!”

“Aah, what kind of magic does Lin Ji have? Why do I want to watch every single one of his dramas so badly!”

“Tell me about it.”

As soon as the trailer for The Harem was released, it captured the attention of drama fans to the greatest extent.

The two-and-a-half-minute trailer gave off a dazzling, overwhelming feeling. Characters came and went, but the fans didn’t find it confusing. Instead, they felt a thrilling sense of tension.

Many fans had originally gone to watch the trailer for the actors, but after seeing it, they were drawn in by the pure plot.

“Why do we still have to wait a week?!!”

“I want spoilers so badly!!!”

In an instant, countless fans flooded the official Weibo accounts of The Harem crew and Qinglan TV. On the television forums, fans were seriously analyzing the identities of the concubines in the trailer, trying to match each character to their actress.

Although the summer slots for the major satellite stations hadn’t officially started yet, judging solely by the feedback from the trailer, the hype for The Harem was much higher than for Years Without Regret and Flowers of a Lifetime.

“It looks like we’re going to see another big show where Lin Ji single-handedly takes on Dajiang TV. [Dog head emoji] [Dog head emoji] [Dog head emoji]”

“Lin Ji’s genre shift was too fast. And… looking at the trailer, The Harem is indeed more attractive. Dajiang TV’s quality goes without saying, but sometimes everyone just loves to watch something stimulating.”

“I suddenly realized that for this year’s summer slot, the three major stations are: a man’s drama vs. a woman’s drama vs. a man-and-woman drama. Shouldn’t Xingzhou TV reflect on itself? Why are you the only one being conventional?”

“Starting to pre-emptively declare a ratings win for Qinglan TV. That way, Lin Ji can beat Dajiang TV three times.”

* * *

It wasn’t just Chu Tianzhou who saw the trailer for The Harem. Several high-level executives at Dajiang TV saw it as well.

When Lin Ji first proposed the concept of palace intrigue, Dajiang TV had paid attention for a while. But after Qinglan TV began casting, Dajiang TV slowly relaxed its guard against Lin Ji. If the male lead was Mu Yuanting, it meant those actresses would be falling in love with Mu Yuanting in the drama.

Mu Yuanting could have been called handsome in his youth, but now, dramas on A-list satellite stations basically wouldn’t consider him for a male lead. Mu Yuanting himself didn’t carry much ratings power, so Dajiang TV found it hard to imagine what kind of script Lin Ji would write.

As it turned out, Mu Yuanting only appeared for a fraction of a second in the trailer, showing only a silhouette.

But although there were no blades or guns between the female characters, the trailer already allowed people to smell the thick scent of blood.

In a sense, ratings were controlled by female viewers. The reason Dajiang TV’s male-centric historical dramas had high ratings was that Dajiang TV only promoted high-quality productions, garnering a fixed audience.

Losing to Code 11 and Records of the Bai’s Return previously was because Lin Ji had gathered those who weren’t part of Dajiang TV’s usual audience. Just because Lin Ji had this ability didn’t mean other screenwriters did.

This was the conclusion Dajiang TV reached after serious analysis.

However, this production of The Harem made Dajiang TV even more wary. The success of Code 11 and Records of the Bai’s Return also relied on exceptionally high production quality, which was the same path Dajiang TV had always insisted on.

A talent-type screenwriter like Lin Ji was a minority, after all. Dajiang TV couldn’t compete with a Lin Ji drama every time. They would encounter a Lin Ji drama at most once a year. At other times, the throne of the annual ratings champion was still firmly held by Dajiang TV.

The problem was that The Harem looked very unconventional.

Both Code 11 and Records of the Bai’s Return had beaten Dajiang TV, but not by too much. Yet The Harem gave Dajiang TV a premonition that it would win by a landslide.

There were too many unstable factors in the trailer, whether it was the fates of the different characters or their extraordinary expressions.

Dajiang TV had always been far ahead among the satellite stations. The only discordant factor in the past two years had been Lin Ji’s two dramas. But Lin Ji didn’t collaborate with any fixed station, so Dajiang TV had the same chance to work with him.

But since they were destined to meet The Harem head-on, worrying was meaningless. The quality of Years Without Regret was not bad. Dajiang TV firmly believed that the audience would not be entirely snatched away by Qinglan TV.

* * *

In early July, the hottest period of the summer began, and the battle for the summer slot among the major satellite stations officially kicked off.

Years Without Regret and The Harem were broadcast on the same day, while Flowers of a Lifetime would air a few days later.

Thinking of this, Chu Tianzhou sent several aggrieved emojis to Lin Ji. Lin Ji could only explain that a screenwriter couldn’t decide when a drama would air. Chu Tianzhou then secretly said a lot of bad things about Hua Tai, taking the opportunity to ask Lin Ji to write ten more scripts for him.

Lin Ji: “…There’s no need to give up so quickly.”

Chu Tianzhou asked him back, “What else can I do?”

Lin Ji tore people apart on Weibo every day, and the more he tore, the higher the hype became. The Harem looked like the kind of plot where characters tore into each other until the world went dark. Peng Fangfang and Qian Yuzhu had both appeared in the same crew against all odds. If it didn’t get popular, who would?

Chu Tianzhou thought to himself that perhaps it was because Xingzhou TV didn’t have Snow in Early May. Hua Tai must have used Snow in Early May to blackmail Lin Ji into giving him The Harem.

As a director, Chu Tianzhou had many ideas, and his subordinates at the station naturally had to suffer. That afternoon, the employees of Xingzhou TV all received a mass email. The contents were summarized as follows—

“How to trick Lin Ji into coming here?”

A day later, the votes were tallied. The top suggestion was: “Help Screenwriter Lin win his arguments.”

Ranked second was: “No Future Entertainment.”

Chu Tianzhou: “…Pass.”

Looking for a group of armchair strategists was useless. Chu Tianzhou silently turned on the television and tuned it to Qinglan TV before prime time. He wanted to personally appraise The Harem.

Lin Ji had already proven his strength. What impact this so-called palace intrigue drama would have on the station’s future genre choices was something Chu Tianzhou needed to analyze.

* * *

To Chu Tianzhou’s surprise, The Harem actually featured a soft and melodious theme song. The singer’s voice was very piercing, but for some reason, when the camera lingered on the palace walls for a long time, this beautiful tune made his heart feel a chill.

The story of the first episode was simple. During the prosperous Great Yong Dynasty, Emperor Jing held a draft to select candidates for the harem to continue the imperial bloodline. Empress Zheng Su strongly supported the draft, while Noble Consort Liu Qingmei could not hide her jealousy. “It is merely to divide my favor. The one in Changle Hall is still so unpresentable.”

The candidates lined up and entered the palace in turn under the guidance of the maids for the nobles to choose from.

The candidates had various appearances, but they were all as pure and beautiful as lotus flowers rising from the water. However, just as they entered the palace, secret struggles gradually began. Some bribed the palace maids and eunuchs, while others used backhanded compliments to make their rivals lose their heads, leading to them losing their composure before the emperor and having their nameplates discarded.

With just a few lines of dialogue, the feelings of the candidates were completely portrayed.

When the protagonist Wen Yiwan appeared, Chu Tianzhou’s gaze lingered on her for a long time.

Chu Tianzhou knew Li Weiran was beautiful. She had dramas broadcast on Xingzhou TV before. But her styling in The Harem seemed to have magic, making her look as if she had walked out of an ancient painting.

The colors were very light, yet she did not lose her elegance.

Chu Tianzhou had noticed when the drama first started that The Harem was very particular about the characters’ clothing, scenery, and objects. Everything must have been carefully arranged.

For example, the actress playing the empress, Peng Fangfang. She wasn’t an actress widely recognized for having classic beauty, but her look in this drama was very grand and dignified.

Wen Yiwan came from an excellent family background, and her appearance and conduct were both top-tier, so Emperor Jing kept her nameplate and selected her for the palace. However, just after being selected, Wen Yiwan faced a choice between the camps of the empress and the Noble Consort.

In the harem, when two tigers fight, those who do not wish to compete either become bait or become withered wood that does not hear, see, or ask.

Wen Yiwan was still young. She chose favor.

In the harem, she first befriended Consort He. Consort He’s father was the vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel. The Ministry of Personnel controlled the official positions of the empire. Aside from the minister, the vice minister was the most honorable. Even when meeting ministers of other departments, Consort He’s father was fearless.

…Unknowingly, Chu Tianzhou became immersed in the plot. He didn’t even understand why he, a man, would be so mesmerized by a woman’s drama.

But if he had to summarize The Harem, Chu Tianzhou would only give two words: good drama.

The rhythm, soundtrack, characters, and scenery were all just right. In just two short episodes, the clashes between different characters had already taken place several times in secret. Even some shots that seemed to flash by randomly were read by him as having deep meaning.

Just by watching the first two episodes, Chu Tianzhou made a judgment—the ratings for this drama would definitely not be bad.

The fact was—

On the ratings chart that came out the next day, The Harem, which had air-dropped into the summer slot, also air-dropped onto the top of the ratings chart.

First day! First two episodes! A 3.5% rating!

“Fuck!”

“Is The Harem going on a rampage?”

“Are you sure this is the result of only two episodes?!!!”

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