Chapter 168: The Magazine Was Sold Out

Translator: Zayn_

On the day of the release of Style.

Xu Qinian shut himself in his office, too lazy to listen to the gossip outside.

However, he glanced at his phone and landline from time to time, revealing his restless heart.

Before the magazine was released, more than half of the magazine’s staff objected to Song Qingyou being the candidate for the inside page, let alone letting her appear on the cover with Gu Xingchen.

The reason they gave was also very reasonable.

“If Song Qingyou gets on the cover, Gu Xingchen’s fans won’t buy it. Song Qingyou doesn’t have many fans, so who will buy the magazine?”

“It’s useless no matter how good the photos are. Once the magazine is released, the people who pirate the photos will immediately appear.”

“Song Qingyou is only ranked 8oth, and she’s not even a supermodel. Let alone the front cover, she shouldn’t even get a shot on the inside!”

These words were not pleasant to hear, but they were the truth.

After all, in the fashion industry, no matter how many shows you acted in, the famous ones were either famous top artistes like Gu Xingchen, designers, or supermodels.

As for Song Qingyou?

She had only become famous once during the fashion week as Kyushu’s highlight.

The opposition from the magazine agency was not without reason.

However, Xu Qinian really liked the photo of Song Qingyou and Gu Xingchen, so he once again went against everyone’s wishes and decided on the cover photo.

In a fit of anger, he even increased the number of copies of the magazine…

Because of this, many people were guessing what the relationship between Xu Qinian and Song Qingyou was.

Some of them had already secretly opened their champagne bottles, gloating that Xu Qinian was going to be in big trouble.

To be honest, Xu Qinian was a little regretful.

The damage caused by his impulsiveness might be irreparable.

At this moment, Xu Qinian really wanted Song Qingyou to create a miracle like what the internet said.

Just as his heart sank, the landline on his desk suddenly rang.

Xu Qinian instantly sat up and took a few deep breaths before answering the call.

“What is it?” His heart was beating like a drum, afraid that bad news would come from the other side.

“Chief editor, the magazine has been sold out. People from all over the country are calling the magazine agency to ask for more stock!”

“What?!”

Xu Qinian was stunned.

It was not until that person repeated it that he came back to his senses.

Immediately after, the magazine agency visibly got busy.

Xu Qinian went out for a walk, and the few higher-ups who were not convinced of him suddenly became bootlickers and praised the chief editor for having good taste.

Xu Qinian heaved a sigh of relief and happily transferred some pocket money to Xu Mingrui.

Only Song Qingyou’s fans were more excited than him.

Song Qingyou had started to become popular from Man vs. Wild 3, and she had been filming TV series since then. The new variety show had only been released for one episode, so it hadn’t been long since she became popular. She didn’t have too many fans, but she didn’t have too few fans either.

Therefore, Song Qingyou had only created a fan club under Chen Lan’s suggestion. She didn’t do anything else.

Moreover, she had even asked the management of the fan club to spread the word that they were not allowed to buy or sell non-official merchandise and support items.

It didn’t matter if the fans made and used it in private, but it couldn’t be sold.

It could be said that Song Qingyou had never thought of making money from her fans. She just wanted them to support her film and television works more.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t be so poor as to sign a gambling agreement.

Because of this, this issue of Style, whether it was the magazine or the poster, could be said to be Song Qingyou’s first official peripheral.

The fans who had always wanted to support Song Qingyou, but could only help promote the TV series, finally had a way to spend money.

Hence, someone bought a few hundred magazines at once.

By the time the magazine sold out for the second time, the relevant data was almost out.

When they saw that Song Qingyou’s fans were buying the magazine at a similar rate as Gu Xingchen’s fans, the people in the magazine agency were stunned.

They couldn’t understand why an artiste ranked 80th would have so many fans who were willing to spend money on her!

Even if they didn’t believe it, this matter was already set in stone.

The hashtag # Style is sold out# was even trending.

With Gu Xingchen’s popularity, the viewership rating of The Empress broke through 3% by the third episode.

Perhaps sensing the huge potential of this drama, several online broadcasting platforms wanted to buy the broadcasting rights, and their offers were not low.

Seeing that the viewership ratings of The Empress were getting higher and higher, and the ratings on Green Screenfl] were also very high, Shen Xiyan could not sit still anymore.

“Song Qingyou did it on purpose! She had deliberately aired her lousy drama at this time, then used the magazine and Gu Xingchen’s fame to raise the viewership ratings! If she has the ability, then she should fight me head-on!”

Tao Mi lowered her head and held back the ridicule in her heart.

Even if Song Qingyou did it on purpose, she was taking a huge risk.

As long as the sales of the magazine were not good, she would have to take the blame.

Moreover, shooting a magazine was also a positive publicity.

Why did it sound like an underhanded tactic coming from Shen Xiyan’s mouth?

Fortunately, Tao Mi was already used to Shen Xiyan’s character and did not say a word from beginning to end.

Shen Xiyan felt that she couldn’t sit still and wait for death after she finished cursing. She immediately contacted the director and the two of them discussed for nearly an hour.

After that, the viewership ratings of Chang1 an Elegancebegan to increase explosively, breaking through 10% at one point.

The number of views on the internet had even exceeded 10 billion[2] by the time the fifth episode was broadcast!

The popularity of this drama was also high.

The reversal of reputation was huge.

Some media outlets even said, “This is a monumental power play.”

In the group chat for the main cast of The Empress.

Lin Siya: [Did anyone watch Chang1 an Elegance? Their viewership ratings are almost 20%, and the online views are almost 20 million. Isn’t this too exaggerated?]

He Yuan: [There are only six billion humans in the world. Where did this 20 billion come from?]

Lin Siya replied: [Yes. You can buy both the viewership ratings and views.]

Lin Siya: [ It’s fine if they buy the data, but they’re still trying to drag us down. The viewership ratings of The Empress haven’t changed. 1 have a bad feeling about this.]

Jiang Xuyan said: [There is a big boss above our heads.]

He Yuan: [@Song Qingyou, did you watch that drama? What do you think?]

Song Qingyou replied: [ I did. It’s just so-so.]

The few of them discussed in the group for a while. They all thought that the data was definitely fake, but they could not come up with a solution.

Buying viewership ratings was a tacit agreement in the industry.

Song Qingyou also got a big piece of news from Lin Siya, saying that there was a drama that had earned more than 100 million, but spent 90 million to buy ratings.

Thinking about it, Chang’an Elegance should have done the same.

Looking at the promotional poster on Weibo with the words “20 billion views”, Song Qingyou found it funny.

However, the fans were still bragging about such an obvious fake number.

If she used the normal method to expose the fact that they had bought viewership and broadcast numbers, Song Qingyou felt that she would definitely be ostracized by the entire television industry.

This situation would not change.

Song Qingyou left the group chat and went to the internet cafe in disguise.

If the normal method did not work, then she could only take the unconventional path.

Otherwise, how was she going to settle the gambling agreement to earn 50 million?

Notes:

[1] Green Screen: In case you don’t remember, Green Screen was the online review platform, something like iMDb

[2] It says 10 billion and the characters even joke about it later “_(7)_/”