Chapter 169: Not Buying, No Money

Translator: Zayn_

On May 10th, the new books The Empress and City of Machinery were released.

Many people had become loyal readers of Qing Meng after reading Gate of the Tower.

As a result, Qing Meng’s new books attracted a lot of people to buy them.

Even The Empress had sold many copies.

However, there was a huge difference between the academic circle and the entertainment circle. Even though City ofMachinery was widely praised and the novel of the same name as the series, The Empress, was released, it did not bring much popularity to the TV series.

Shen Xiyan couldn’t help but laugh when she heard the news.

Fortunately, she was backstage preparing for an interview and was not seen by others.

“Song Qingyou is also helping to promote that book?”

Tao Mi nodded.

“Her plan is not bad, but it’s useless.”

Shen Xiyan sneered. “What screenwriter? What era is it now? The screenwriter is not important at all.”

“Since she’s a writer, she should just focus on writing her book. Why does she want to be a screenwriter? Do you really think that you can repeat the same reversal this time?”

Last time, she was careless and didn’t take Song Qingyou seriously.

She had spent so much money this time. There was no way Song Qingyou could turn the tables!

Tao Mi saw that her boss was happy and agreed with her.

After a while, a staff member informed Shen Xiyan to go on stage.

Shen Xiyan was participating in a talk show with high ratings.

As the host dared to ask any question, he was deeply loved by the audience.

At the beginning of the program, the host asked Shen Xiyan some basic questions as usual.

Then, the topic changed to Song Qingyou.

“After Man vs. Wild 3, the two IV series you filmed in succession seemed to be broadcast at the same time as Song Qingyou’s drama. The two of you are really fated.”

“I saw a lot of people on the internet saying that they’re looking forward to working with you two. Have you ever considered collaborating with Song Qingyou?”

At the mention of Song Qingyou, Shen Xiyan’s smile disappeared and her expression became a little reserved.

“I’ll listen to my manager, no matter who I work with. It depends on my manager’s arrangements.”

Although she said that, her expression clearly said, “Refuse to cooperate.”

The host liked to see the guests change their expressions, so he asked a few more questions about Song Qingyou.

Shen Xiyan’s expression became stiffer.

After the show aired, everyone would know that her relationship with Song Qingyou was terrible.

Just as she was about to lose control and ask the host to stop mentioning Song Qingyou, the director suddenly sent someone on stage and whispered something into the host’s ear.

Shen Xiyan’s heart skipped a beat and she felt a little uneasy.

The next second, she heard the host smile and ask, “There was news on the Internet that the viewership ratings and views of Chang1 an Elegance were fake. 1 want to know if this is true or not.”

“Of course it’s not true!”

Shen Xiyan answered without hesitation, “I would never do such a thing to deceive my fans and audience. I also hope that everyone will not be blinded by rumors.”

The host seemed to have accepted this answer and quickly changed the topic.

However, Shen Xiyan was absent-minded and her answer became more and more perfunctory.

As early as when she was recording the show, a post appeared on all major social media platforms.

The post was posted by a person with the username “X”, and the title was:

[It’s common for TV series viewership ratings to be falsified. Who’s the mastermind behind the scenes?]

The content under the title was neither a great theory nor news.

It was concrete evidence. All the TV series that had purchased viewership ratings in the past five years had been dug out.

The data analysis, the amount of money involved, as well as the chat and transfer records, all appeared clearly in the post and were traceable.

Among them, the most ridiculous was Chang’an Elegance.

In order to break the viewership rating of 20%, Chang’an Elegance even offered a price of 5 million per episode, allowing relevant companies to buy sample households and tamper with the data…

All social media platforms, such as Weibo, forums, etc., as long as someone clicked on it, that post would appear at the top. It was difficult not to see it.

Even the advertisement spot on WeChat’s Moments was replaced with this post.

This time, everyone inside and outside the circle exploded.

At Weibo’s company office.

Everyone in the technical department was in a terrible state.

Because the boss, whom they rarely saw in a year, was standing behind them and almost spitting saliva on their heads.

“Still not done?”

“Can’t we take down that post?”

“I hired you guys at a high price, but you didn’t even know that someone had hacked into the back-end?”

“Is this our company’s Weibo or the person who posted it?”

The boss of the Weibo company was anxious to death.

This post exposed the industry’s shady dealings. Its influence was definitely not ordinary, and it could only drive more and more traffic.

But the problem was that this would offend people!

At this time, they were like ants on a hot pan. It wasn’t just Weibo, but also other social media platforms.

However, no matter how anxious they were, it was useless. Even the top technical teams of the large companies could not delete that post.

Unless they shut down the server.

It was impossible for the server to be shut down!

It didn’t take long for hashtags like #90% TV Ratings Fake#, ttChang’an Elegance data falsification#, #xxx viewing volume falsification# to appear… Such topics dominated all the hot searches.

The celebrities involved comprised of almost half of the entertainment industry.

Chang’an Elegance, which had just been broadcast and had the most serious fraud, naturally became a target.

While this drama was being criticized, it also reminded many people of The Empress.

Some netizens directly asked Song Qingyou in the comment section if The Empress also bought the ratings.

Although it did not appear on the fake list.

Song Qingyou replied, [No, 1 don’t have money.]

She also posted the amount of investment, actors’ salaries, and so on.

After seeing that Lin Siya’s salary was only a few hundred thousand, no one questioned Song Qingyou about buying the viewership ratings.

This was because the salary of a top-rated artist could reach hundreds of millions.

Even the salaries for The Empress’s cast had been reduced to this extent, so how could they have any extra money to buy viewership ratings?

However, Time Media was not to be trifled with.

Since most of the leading actors in Chang’an Elegance were artistes from their own companies, they had to hurry up with public relations.

The first step of public relations was naturally to drag the production team of The Empress down with them.

The rest of the crew didn’t dare to make a sound, only Song Qingyou responded, which was just convenient for them to create a “reversal” to attract public attention.

As a result, some people started to question the idea. They said that even if The Empress did not have any money invested in the early stages, it should have earned quite a bit in the later stages. They could use the money they earned to buy viewership ratings.

For this reason, these people did not hesitate to use the internet rumor mill to tear open the industry’s insider information, saying that the purchase of viewership ratings was usually done with profits. Usually, it was split 70-30, and the production team’s profits were 30%.

So even if Song Qingyou didn’t have any money to invest in the early stages, it didn’t mean that she was “untainted”.

The public relations team of Time Media tried to make Song Qingyou replace Shen Xiyan as the new target.

Under Song Qingyou’s instructions, He Jun also accepted the order.

As soon as he received the money, he started to slander one of his bosses, Song Qingyou..