Chapter 42.1 – But the audience’s attention became crooked again.

Proofreader: Lore

Captured by the camera, Su Chi’s black hair was a bit wet, still dripping with transparent beads of water. He was wiping his hair with the hotel’s white towel in one hand while holding the hairdryer in the other with a slightly stunned expression that also had a trace of embarrassment, seemingly from the predicament. He smiled as he asked, “…The recording is starting this early?”

“…The water heater in my room was out of order, so I came to borrow Xia Rong’s for a bit.”

Although he explained it like this, with how the scenes were cut and edited, along with how they deliberately placed this section at the end of the program to serve as this entire episode’s easter egg… It was sufficient to reveal the program group’s sinister intentions!

Xia Rong saw how Su Chi had been wearing his graffiti t-shirt. Because there was a difference between their figures, it seemed a bit narrow on the other person, which also just so happened to outline the other’s beautiful waist.

With his chin on the pillow, Xia Rong just stared, unable to take his eyes off the image for a while. Soon, the camera turned back to Xia Rong, where he and the director were discussing the matter of his suitcase. The director laughed and teased him, “You’ve been a bit ‘rough’ with this¹I’m more than 50% sure this was a tease because it could apply to Xia Rong being rough with Su Chi, which, if readers remember, the two agents had also mentioned this when the scene had actually occurred (back in the day)..”

The Xia Rong on the screen scratched at his hair and gave an embarrassed smile. Meanwhile, Su Chi, who was standing on the side, had also looked at them with a gentle smile.

The camera lost no time in getting a close-up of this smile, and they even photoshopped in two chibis during post-production: one in a white sleeveless shirt while the other was in a graffiti t-shirt – which was obviously a copy of the two of them. The two chibis hugging each other affectionately with the words “Such great relationship~” right beside them made the scene even more delightful to the eyes, bringing warmth to the heart.

Though the people on the screen were still talking, the list of staff and advertisements of the sponsors had already started to scroll through. The theme song also cut in at this time, which showed that this episode of 《Liang Shanbo and Romeo》 had truly come to its finish. Xia Rong waited until all the advertisements had come to an end and for the preview of the next episode to have started before finally moving to get the remote to turn off the TV.

He picked up the cell phone he had put aside. Originally, he wanted to scroll through Weibo first, but then Shu Yi’s message arrived through WeChat before he could start:

{Keyun Network’s real-time ratings are still okay, basically all above 1.4%. If the coefficient doesn’t change too much, the final ratings of the 52 cities should be able to break 2.”}

In fact, the statistics that went into ratings were separated into several kinds. Generally speaking, ratings would refer to that of the 52 cities, but there were also the national ratings and local ratings. However, the actual numbers of these ratings would only be released on workdays, which was to say, a variety show like 《Liang Ou》- which aired during the Saturday 10 PM bracket – would only be able to see their exact figures on Monday of the upcoming week.

However, the TV industry was always in constant, rapid development, especially in this age of the internet. From the TV stations and investors to the fans, they all simply could not wait to know what results had been attained at the earliest moment. And so, real-time rating websites like Keyun Network emerged using this opportunity. Keyun could calculate the real-time viewing rate of 35 cities and 52 cities, as well as the relevant market share. Then, they would be able to roughly estimate the final ratings of a piece of work by multiplying this basic value with the TV station’s relevant coefficient.

Seeing that the ratings were so gratifying, Xia Rong was also quite happy. {Not bad, better than the last episode.}

Shu Yi: {En, it was worth it choosing to accept this variety show. You should take care to perform well in the coming up, it’d be best for it not to end up like the first episode again, allowing the editing team to grab another opportunity to use against you.}

Xia Rong: {There wasn’t anything that I could’ve done with the first episode… Besides, hadn’t it turned over by now? You can already see that the program group made a good play at setting things up.}

{Ha ha, the character setting has been turned over.} Shu Yi was obviously not very satisfied. {But the audience’s attention has also grown crooked.}

{What?}

{You look at it yourself.} Shu Yi said, {In the meantime, do you really not want to explain to me why Su Chi appeared in your room so early in the morning? It wasn’t even six and he already found out his water heater was broken?”

Xia Rong: {…}

He was almost completely numb towards getting this kind of a question. {If I say I can’t explain it, but there’s nothing between me and him, would you believe it? [kitten_with_nothing_left_to_live_for_fell_into_a_spawl.jpg]}

Shu Yi: {Nowadays, even your sincerity when trying to deceive me is becoming less and less.}

Xia Rong: {…}

Shu Yi: {It’s up to you. Either way, your mother will be waiting for you at home the day after tomorrow. If you manage to get past her, you will be guaranteed free to fall in love however you want. [slight smile]}

Xia Rong already didn’t want to refute it anymore. {…Okay, thank you. [small_cat_with_dead_eyes.jpg]}

=====

With this heavy resentment, Xia Rong tapped open his own Weibo.

As a popular young actor, his Weibo would grow by tens of thousands of fans every day. Finding all the *ding-ding-ding* of notifications too annoying, he had long turned off both the sound and new fan notifications. So at the moment, he couldn’t tell exactly just how much the number of fans he had has grown. But judging from his rough impression from before he sent out the last microblog, between the start and the end of this episode which didn’t even reach two hours… He gained nearly 100,000 fans.

And this was just as the episode was being broadcasted. By the time the broadcast finishes on TV and the web version goes online, as more and more people fall in under all the promotion and watch this episode, the numbers will continue to flip exponentially.

The number of notifications had long reached +9999. When Xia Rong finally tapped into them at this time, he was almost completely shocked by the close to tangible enthusiasm and excitement of the comments—

【Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, isn’t this episode too exciting?!】

【Originally, I was already about to become a fan after seeing the beginning. But then, the me who had just reached and saw the easter egg, I just simply spun in place and exploded into ascension.】

【How could there be such a cute and beautiful boy like this? I’m declaring now, from today onwards, I will be a Xia Rong braindead fan!】

【Braindead fan +1!】

【You can all go and be braindead fans, but I want Xia Rong to be my boyfriend. [screen licking] [screen licking] [screen licking]】

【Rongrong’s girlfriend fans, raise your hands! This episode was truly a prosperous age of beauty, righhttttt?!?!?!】

【All of you are girlfriend fans, am I the only one who wants to be a boyfriend fan? [doge]】

【Upstairs, hurry up and stop speaking. When I saw the beginning of the episode how Rongrong-baby was being pressed against the tree, my heart was already struck by him. [face with tears streaming down] Really want to “tree”-don²Kabedon but with a tree instead of a wall. him, really want to possess³As in soul/demon ‘possession’. Su Chi!】

【Possess Su Chi +10086, I’m not demanding, it’s also okay if you let me possess that tree.】

…

YinYue has something to say:

Sorry! A bit backed up, so this chapter is a bit shorter than usual. The rest of this chapter will be in the next update.

• 1
  I’m more than 50% sure this was a tease because it could apply to Xia Rong being rough with Su Chi, which, if readers remember, the two agents had also mentioned this when the scene had actually occurred (back in the day).
• 2
  Kabedon but with a tree instead of a wall.
• 3
  As in soul/demon ‘possession’.