Chapter 381
“The big goal… If the total views exceed one billion…” Shen Yichong glanced at Yu Yaoyao when he said this.
While the producers appreciated his courage, but they didn’t think such a goal was possible at the moment. The show was expected to be 10 episodes long. Which would mean that a single episode would need to achieve at least 100 million views.
Such a goal did sound arrogant, but the show had only been on air for two weeks. With further promotion and word-of-mouth, the goal wasn’t impossible to achieve in the later weeks.
In fact, the results they had already garnered were a miracle for an online drama.
“Oh, only a billion? Darling, I thought you would say something more like 10 or 60 billion.” Yu Yaoyao did some calculations on her fingers and found that the goal was not in the least bit challenging.
Shen Yichong patted her head. “I purposely lowered the number. I am afraid that all this pride will get to your head, and you won’t take the next shooting as seriously.”
“You know me so well,” Yu Yaoyao said with a smile.
The producer was speechless. This couple really was confident.
But facts spoke louder than words. Yu Yaoyao’s web dramas had gone big, and the number of broadcasts were spiraling upward every day. Everyone was talking about it on Weibo and various other platforms. This attracted many new viewers every single day.
The producer of the web drama did not invest a lot in publicity, and the broadcast time was very rushed, but by word-of-mouth it had become a hit.
People who were waiting for the statistics of her drama to be released were shocked.
Many producers devoted themselves to researching the secret behind the success of ‘Youth Without Regrets’. Although only four episodes had been broadcasted, every minute of the drama was being carefully analyzed.
The final conclusion was that the work was targeted towards youth and inspiration. There was something very human and grounded about the heroine’s ridiculous lines, and the hints of materialism and laziness spoke to people. All this coupled with the heroine’s aggressive characteristics gave the audience a good laugh. The drama reminded them of their own youth and made their hearts race as if they were teens again.
Some clips of Yu Yaoyao in the drama were screenshotted and made into emoticons. These quickly became popular all over the net.
Yu Yaoyao herself was addicted to all the praise she was getting on the Internet. She even downloaded her own emoticon packs, and often sent them while she was chatting with others.
When she entered the crew again, she found that everyone, from the director to the staff, were beaming like they had won the lottery.
“Teacher Yu!”
“Sister Yu!”
“Yaoyao!”
All the staff greeted her with a smile, calling her by all sorts of nice names.
“Good morning!” Yu Yaoyao greeted everyone.
Zhu Junfei brought her a recliner. A brand-new recliner. “Teacher Yu, this is for you. The producer made it specially. Look what’s been stitched into it, ‘Goddess Yaoyao, great ratings forever’.”
The producer had done his homework and was very good at flattering her. Everyone knew she loved to lay around while others appreciated her beauty. The recliner was the perfect gift.
As expected, Yu Yaoyao was very satisfied. “Oh, this is too much!”
Zhu Junfei was also very happy. “We’ll be shooting an outdoor scene today. Teacher Yu, I’ll get a staff member to move the chair for you later. Just a sidenote, there might be fans around the shooting area today. All our other filming locations have been found out by the netizens.”
They did not want to shoot their outdoor scene in Studio City.
At the start, the heroine was only an intern who was not very good at cooking. After she got into college, she worked in the kitchen at night and skipped classes during the day to set up a stall. It was for this reason that the shooting location was an ordinary, old-fashioned alleyway restaurant with a stall set up by the roadside.
The trailer had only aired once, but the netizens had still found the actual location.
“It’s okay, my fans are reasonable.” Yu Yaoyao always boasted about and praised her fans. She wasn’t worried at all.
After she and Qiu Dajian finished the last shot for the school-era, they changed outfits and departed to shoot the outdoor shot.
“We’ll drive there and shoot as soon as we arrive. Let’s try and get it done in an hour,” Zhu Junfei said. “It’s the scene where you’re having a barbecue, he passes by and criticizes your business for being unlicensed and unhygienic.”
Yu Yaoyao smiled and gestured in the manner of her character. On the other hand, Qiu Dajian pulled a revolted expression.
In all his scenes in the first four episodes, he was always either being rescued by the heroine, or being pressed against the wall by her. Now he was spammed by the fans through an emoticon pack. Even his own fans were spamming him.
But that was the setting of the drama. Qian Duoduo was set to be a strong female, while he was the gentle, intelligent male who was oppressed by this female bully. And today, it was clearly another day for yet another scene of him being bullied!
“Sister Yao, can we talk? Can you maybe not push me against the wall later? Is there any way we can change that?” Qiu Dajian felt like his masculinity was starting to suffer.
Yu Yaoyao flipped through the script. “Okay, then what do you want me to push you against?”
Qiu Dajian blinked. He could only blame himself for this. He wouldn’t have had to put up with this if he’d won the competition. It was too late to change anything now.
This male protagonist had no basic rights.
When they arrived at the scene, just as they had expected, the previously cleared area was now surrounded by fans. Even Yu Yaoyao’s car was blocked by the crowds.
There were people screaming in excitement, and may passersby stopped to watch. The security stepped onto the scene to try and calm the crowds, but the fans couldn’t help that they were excited.
“Hello, babies,” Yu Yaoyao said as she opened the car window and made a few heart shapes with her hands.
This only excited the fans even more. “Husband”, “Handsome Yaoyao”, “Dayaoyao” a group of people screamed frantically.
Yu Yaoyao blew them kisses and waved. “We are heading in now! Please be safe and make room for the car. I won’t cry when we hit a flower or some grass, but I will very upset if you get hurt… Don’t make me sad, babies, okay?”
Those that were there were either just normal pedestrians or Yu Yaoyao super fans. The fans couldn’t bear the thought of her being upset, and they quickly became the ‘security’ of the place.
“Everyone, please make way. Yaoyao husband told us to back-up so we won’t get hurt.”
“Stop pushing. Do you want to make our husband angry?”
The real security guards at the scene were all dumbfounded. Even the crew was surprised.
While the male lead, Qiu Dajian, admired her, he also quickly realized that he was in deep trouble.
The fans were starting to say some crazy things.
“Dajian, are you a playboy in the drama? Did you mess around behind our husband’s back? What’s your relationship with the second female lead?”
“Do you have a kiss scene? Did you make use of the angle? Don’t tell me you really kissed our Yaoyao husband!”
Qiu Dajian felt like he wanted to cry.
Fortunately, Yu Yaoyao walked to stand in front of the camera. While she was getting her makeup touched up by the makeup artist, she realized that her male lead had disappeared. She glanced around and saw Qiu Dajian surrounded by the crowd of fans.
“Little Jian, why are you still standing there? Leave my lovely girls alone!” Yu Yaoyao called. Her words were enough to make the girls step away from him.
“Ah, my husband is jealous! I can’t talk to you anymore. Go away, Qiu Dajian!”
“My husband is angry, Dajian, stay away from me!”
Yu Yaoyao’s fans were also rather dramatic.
Qiu Dajian was quite confused by them. He touched his nose and waved at his own group of reasonable fans, who were standing at a distance. The fans holding the light-up sign with his name on it were very cute. He happily went to the director’s side. After checking the lines with Yu Yaoyao, he walked to the adjusted shooting position.