Translator: Ink Hub

Editor: Yoog

That day, Lin Ji was at home gathering online reviews for The Harem when Hua Tai suddenly called, inviting him to a celebratory feast.

“What celebratory feast?” Lin Ji asked, curious.

“A feast for The Harem, of course.”

Lin Ji paused. “…”

If he remembered correctly, The Harem had only been airing for… two days?

But Hua Tai told him quite seriously that it was indeed a celebratory feast for The Harem.

“A 4.3% rating is worth celebrating,” Hua Tai asserted. “To be honest, our station’s original expectation for the ratings was 4.5% by the grand finale. We would have been satisfied with that, but now…”

Publicly, Qinglan TV was acting very humble, claiming their expected rating for The Harem was 5%. In reality, though, Hua Tai’s heart had already soared past 6%.

Why shouldn’t it?

With Lin Ji around, anything was possible!

When the premiere rating of 3.5% came out, the senior executives at Qinglan TV were already speechless with shock. Now, after only four episodes, the ratings had soared directly above 4%.

And The Harem had a total of 80 episodes!

Hua Tai felt this celebration wasn’t early at all; it was exactly what Lin Ji deserved.

He felt extremely fortunate that he had decisively invited Lin Ji. His original intention was merely to salvage Qinglan TV’s declining momentum, much like how Xingzhou TV’s annual report looked much better thanks to Records of the Bai’s Return.

Qinglan TV didn’t aim to surpass Dajiang TV. Collaborating with Lin Ji to bring the station a drama with a rating above 4% was enough.

But Hua Tai never expected that the ratings for The Harem would be the explosive, grand-opening type. There was no so-called gradual climb—it started with a massive ultimate move right out of the gate.

Hua Tai realized he had still underestimated Lin Ji.

It was… terrifying.

Looking at the start of the entire summer slot, the most popular show was undoubtedly The Harem. Because of this drama, search volume for Qinglan TV had increased by 200%.

Although The Harem wasn’t a traditional, orthodox drama like Code 11 or Records of the Bai’s Return, it was undoubtedly the show that best fit Qinglan TV’s style. Hua Tai didn’t care about praise from superiors or leaving a name in television history. As long as there were ratings, it was enough!

What Hua Tai didn’t expect was that after The Harem aired, palace intrigue officially entered the audience’s field of vision as a major genre.

Before The Harem, there was no such thing as a palace intrigue drama. The Harem was the pioneering work of this genre. Even if it wasn’t as full of positive energy as Code 11, the influence it generated could not be ignored.

* * *

“When Code 11 and Records of the Bai’s Return reached their final acts, I always asked the same question: how much further can it go? That’s the doubt I have when a drama’s rating surpasses 4%. As for The Harem, unfortunately, I know it has a long way to go, but it reached a 4% rating so early that I cannot predict its trajectory using the logic of a conventional drama.”

On the third day of The Harem‘s broadcast, the ratings officially reached 4.5%.

This was a rating that conventional dramas only achieved during their grand finale.

A well-known drama critic commented on the show on Weibo:

“Too many fans have asked me about The Harem. I can only say that in terms of genre, it has presented me with the brand-new world of palace intrigue, letting me know that a female-centric show can be just as thrilling. In terms of data, although The Harem has yet to reveal its full scope, I know it is a drama that will inevitably change the landscape of the television circle.”

“Changing the landscape of the television circle… what high praise!”

“I personally agree. After watching The Harem, I’ve been desperately looking for similar content to consume, but! There isn’t a single one! Screenwriters and directors, please step up your game and film another palace intrigue drama!”

“I want to see it too +1 +1 +1.”

When the ratings for The Harem broke through the legendary television viewership milestone of 4.8%, the entire industry fell silent.

Code 11 had reached this rating during its grand finale, breaking several records at the time. Yet for The Harem, the plot was only just beginning to unfold.

The two elements required for Wen Yiwan’s white-to-black transformation were gradually being met: the deaths of Zhao Yulan and Consort Zheng.

After receiving the emperor’s favor, Zhao Yulan, who was merely the daughter of a minor official, enjoyed a few days of living like a high-ranking noble. The other concubines, despite all being higher in status than her, lowered themselves to speak with her affectionately. The empress was magnanimous, frequently bestowing rewards upon her, and the Noble Consort, though dissatisfied, occasionally sent people to check on her.

Yet this same Zhao Yulan suddenly went mad one day.

She claimed she saw ghosts at night, saying someone wanted to harm her, tie her up in a dungeon, and strangle her to death.

“There are no dungeons in the palace. Who would be so bold as to lay a hand on you, my lady?”

Seeing Zhao Yulan in this state, Emperor Jing sent orders for her to rest well, temporarily ceasing his visits. However, Zhao Yulan’s symptoms did not alleviate; instead, they grew more severe.

One night, taking advantage of a moment when no one was watching, she quietly threw herself into the only dry well in the palace.

When this plot point aired, drama fans went wild with discussion.

In the beginning, the conflict in The Harem remained within the scope of petty squabbles: the concubines were jealous of one another, trying to outshine each other at palace festivals, while the empress and the Noble Consort occasionally traded barbs to compete for favor. But since Zhao Yulan’s death, the cruelty of the harem began to fully present itself to the audience.

Perhaps, this was only the beginning.

“My number one beauty top pick actually died!”

“It’s only been this many episodes… There are more than sixty left until the finale, right? Zhao Yulan was really so beautiful and vibrant. When she stood next to the protagonist, I hoped she could live a bit longer. I didn’t expect her to be gone so soon.”

“The question is, who did it?”

Lin Ji had designed the plot of Zhao Yulan’s death to be full of twists and turns. It would take a long time before Wen Yiwan found the true culprit. The audience suspected the empress, they suspected the Noble Consort, but they never expected that Zhao Yulan’s death was the work of neither.

Wen Yiwan wanted to keep her original heart and avoid harming others, but the longer she stayed in the palace, the more she realized that staying true to one’s self was the hardest thing in the world.

To be harmed meant one could only harm others in return, because only by doing so could the other party experience the same pain, and only then could the hatred in one’s heart be soothed.

Moreover, the mastermind behind the scenes often didn’t target her personally but rather her sisters or her children.

Alienation, secret plots… everything was done without a trace.

* * *

Nie Ou recently joined a small discussion group for The Harem. One member was a webnovel writer who claimed they were going to start a palace intrigue novel, so they were dissecting the plot of The Harem with extreme vigor.

After listening to the other person’s analysis, Nie Ou felt as if her brain had been grown for nothing.

When Wen Yiwan went to confront the Noble Consort, the two of them spoke a series of cryptic words. Nie Ou felt she understood a bit while watching, but once the writer analyzed it, Nie Ou’s inner monologue was a constant stream of “Holy shit” and “It meant that too?”

She couldn’t help but wonder: was the other person over-analyzing, or was Lin Ji’s script really that complex?

However, Nie Ou was currently in desperate need of a substitute for The Harem. Since the other person wanted to write a palace intrigue novel, she was exceptionally interested. Every time the writer finished analyzing the plot, she couldn’t help but ask, “When are you starting the novel?”

“I’m preparing.”

“Starting next week.”

“Let me study it some more and save up some chapters first. I must write the most perfect plot.”

“Maybe I’ll start next month instead. The weather is too hot.”

Finally: “The Harem is so good, why bother writing a novel? Let’s just chase the drama first. How can writing be as fun as watching the show?”

Nie Ou: “…”

That actually makes sense.

As the plot of The Harem reached a fever pitch, the feedback from the ratings became even more obvious. By episode 10, the ratings for The Harem officially broke 5%.

“Can I say it? From the moment The Harem broke 5%, every other drama in this slot can be buried.”

“5%! Qinglan TV hasn’t seen a 5% in how many years!”

“The Divine Peng Lin Ji is truly terrifying. No wonder Qinglan TV rejected Records of the Bai’s Return one moment and then fought desperately to invite Lin Ji back the next.”

As the director of Qinglan TV, Hua Tai couldn’t even remember the last time the station had a drama break 5%.

Most importantly, just because The Harem broke 5% didn’t mean it would stay at that figure. Thinking of the even more exciting plot points later in the script, Hua Tai even suspected that the ratings for The Harem might break 6%, or even hit 7%.

In the era before the rise of the internet, satellite stations did have dramas that reached such ratings, but nowadays, let alone Qinglan TV, even Dajiang TV found it difficult.

While the ratings for The Harem were looking better and better, in contrast, the ratings for Years Without Regret remained stagnant around 3%. Flowers of a Lifetime was even more dismal. The Harem was thrilling, intense, and full of conflict, mobilizing the audience’s emotions. While the romance in Flowers of a Lifetime was sweet enough, compared to The Harem, it seemed far too cloying and sentimental.

Chu Tianzhou began to badmouth Hua Tai more frequently, saying things like Hua Tai was actually bald and his hair was a wig, and he sincerely invited Lin Ji to take action and yank Hua Tai’s wig off.

Lin Ji: “…Can’t you have some poise like me?”

Chu Tianzhou sent a question mark, but then unsent it at maximum speed.

Lin Ji: “…Don’t unsend it. I saw it.”

In fact, after the ratings for The Harem soared, the media began to explore the gains and losses of this drama.

The one who gained the most was naturally Qinglan TV. The word “crushing” could be used to describe how The Harem treated Years Without Regret.

The actors also gained plenty.

Li Weiran’s talent agency had made many concessions to Qinglan TV initially. Some within the company had questioned the decision, worrying that The Harem wouldn’t provide enough return for Li Weiran after it aired. Now, those voices of doubt had long since vanished.

Li Weiran’s value and status rose rapidly. Before taking the role of Wen Yiwan, the highest rating for a drama she starred in was only 2.7%. The Harem had directly doubled that.

Anyone with eyes could see that The Harem would not stop here.

Peng Fangfang, Qian Yuzhu, Yan Ling… As long as an actor played a character with a name in the drama, even if it was just a maid, they could attract significant attention.

The newcomers directly achieved the transition from students to actors. The audience might not know their names, but they knew which characters they played in The Harem.

As for the “losses” of The Harem, they were reflected externally. For example, Qinglan TV’s competitors, and even more so… Future Entertainment.

In the drama The Harem, the actors of Future Entertainment were completely nameless.

Lin Ji’s “No Future Entertainment” effect would only become more apparent after The Harem became a massive hit. More importantly, while Future Entertainment was good at cultivating traffic stars, The Harem was also a traffic-generating machine, pushing newcomers into the industry’s spotlight at an even faster pace.

What did it mean for a newcomer to participate in a massive hit drama shortly after their debut? No one understood better than Future Entertainment.

The Harem was churning out their competitors at a speed Future Entertainment couldn’t even estimate.

“Did Future Entertainment ever imagine this day would come?”

“In the idol drama circle, female traffic stars are more valuable than male ones. The usual route is for the female lead to carry the male lead to fame. Future Entertainment has cultivated more female traffic stars, but now, with Mo Xiaoyu gone, The Harem must have created over a dozen competitors for Future Entertainment, right?”

“Seriously, when Little Lin goes to war, not a blade of grass is left standing. You can’t even blame Future Entertainment; who could have guessed back then? Little Lin first gave us Records of the Bai’s Return and then The Harem. With these two dramas out, no opponent can hold their ground.”

“Go look at Future Entertainment’s official website. A lot of people have already jumped ship.”

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