Chapter 55: Commercial Explosion

An ascending star in the entertainment industry has no holidays. As soon as Gu Jingyi stepped into the nanny van, Lin Ze sat down beside him with his briefcase, wasting no time to brief him on his recent commercial schedule.

"Jingyi, your traffic and popularity have skyrocketed lately. Following the broadcast of the first episode of *Idol Producer*, the check-in count on your Weibo Super Topic has reached a staggering 110,000. With *A Love So Beautiful* currently halfway through its run, the production team has set their sights on your immense current momentum, proposing that you and Shen Yue join together for a promotional office-visiting tour."

Merely after the broadcast of the very first episode of *Idol Producer*, the number of fans checking in on Gu Jingyi's Super Topic surged dramatically.

Tian Xiwei's documentary filtered out quite a number of "three-month drama fans," forging the remainder into fiercely loyal die-hards.

In the original timeline, Hu Yitian barely managed 10,000 check-ins even by the finale of *A Love So Beautiful*.

Around the same period, *Idol Producer* was just broadcasting its first round of public performances, and Kun-ge's Super Topic boasted over 130,000 check-ins. That directly blocked the growth trajectory of Hu Yitian, who was poised to enter the ranks of top-tier idols, thereby shattering the traffic landscape of the "four seniors and three juniors" that had remained stable for several years.

Unfortunately for him, ever since Gu Jingyi joined *Idol Producer*, Cai Xukun was destined to become mere background scenery, left to pick up whatever crumbs remained after Gu Jingyi siphoned off the vast majority of the popularity.

By now, the endorsement offers seeking out Gu Jingyi had piled up into a thick stack on the desk of Huace's CEO.

Huace once again congratulated themselves on having Gu Jingyi enter *Idol Producer* ahead of time to monopolize the traffic. Naturally, they had no intention of letting their cash cow rest at home during this rare break.

Lin Ze had been practically driven frantic with busywork these past few days, sifting through those endorsement offers and weaving them into a densely packed schedule.

However, promoting *A Love So Beautiful* remained the top priority, as this was the company's proprietary drama. Huace's top management would rather drop one or two dispensable endorsements than miss the chance to have Gu Jingyi drive promotional buzz and heighten his heat.

"An office visit? Don't they usually do that right when the show starts airing?"

Gu Jingyi raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

"Of course, it's because the moment you finished filming *A Love So Beautiful*, you went straight into *Idol Producer*. You barely participated in any of the early promotional activities, aside from the press conference and *Happy Camp*..."

Lin Ze smiled and pushed up his glasses, explaining in a gentle tone.

Over the past few days, he had also accepted two awards on Gu Jingyi's behalf: the Annual Potential TV Actor Award at Tencent Video's Tencent Star Awards, and the 2017 China TV Drama Awards Youth Web Generation Honor.

The gold content of these two awards was quite respectable; they could be counted as "popularity awards" rather than mere "consolation prizes."

Gu Jingyi had finally taken a solid, albeit small, step forward in the television domain.

"Actually, it's also related to the fact that you've frequently been trending on Weibo searches lately, which drew the attention of the Weibo team. They also want you to take part in this office visit to give back to the heat."

"Alright," Gu Jingyi nodded.

In the era of traffic, maintaining good relationships with the two major giants, Tencent and iQiyi, as well as Weibo, could only do good and no harm.

"Xiao Yi,"

Lin Ze hesitated for a moment before speaking out: "When I went to the Tencent Star Awards to accept the award for you, Tencent seemed a bit unhappy that you didn't go to *Produce 101* as a dance mentor, but instead went to iQiyi's *Idol Producer*..."

"I'm sure Brother Ze has handled it properly for me."

Gu Jingyi shot him an amused look. Lin Ze was a rising-star manager of considerable renown within the circle, possessing an all-around sociable personality and formidable methods.

"Naturally. Besides, I also think going to *Idol Producer* was the right move. *Produce 101* is a girl group survival show, and its focal point naturally rests on the female trainees. At best, the mentors just get some face time to leave an impression. How many people actually truly pick a mentor?"

"You not going was the right decision. No matter how you cozy up to Tencent, it's very difficult to lick your way to the top-tier resources behind them; you'd find it hard to compete with Yang Yang."

Lin Ze saw things very clearly. If Gu Jingyi had gone to *Produce 101*, the endorsement boost wouldn't have been significant...

The "top-tier gatekeeper" Teacher Yang Yang had spent years licking Tencent before finally trading it for a string of "S+" productions.

For Gu Jingyi to lick Tencent, unless he went down the path of starring in "Boys' Love adaptations"...

Yet Gu Jingyi was naturally stubborn-kneed and only wished to cooperate while standing tall. He had no intention of engaging in deliberate fan-service pairings with male actors just for the sake of fame...

iQiyi's sincerity had moved Huace, and it also patched up the final shortcoming Gu Jingyi had in historical romance dramas.

It wasn't that Gu Jingyi chose *Idol Producer*, but rather a case of mutual benefit between the two parties.

A brief period of dormancy was meant for a better takeoff.

Huace's internal drama *The Love Equations* was already scheduled to premiere in May 2018, though its internal rating in Tencent's estimations was not high.

In reality, its broadcast performance mirrored that prediction, failing to even reach the level of a "hit show."

Before *Idol Producer*, Huace had intended to send Gu Jingyi to "carry the newcomers"...

Just imagine: while *A Love So Beautiful* was a massive hit when it aired, the follow-up drama *The Love Equations* couldn't even manage hit status.

If that happened, the traffic momentum Gu Jingyi had worked so hard to build would likely be severely fractured, and his development speed would probably flatten out, which would be extremely detrimental for a young artist in a period of rapid ascent.

For a young actor, every single drama could be roughly equated to half a year of career development time. Gu Jingyi had no desire to waste his prime years on low-value television series that held no special significance for himself.

Better to wait until the formation of the group on *Idol Producer* in April, and then accept the "S+" projects that iQiyi would willingly serve right to his mouth.

"Still, there's no need to completely sour relations with Tencent. Their *Produce 101* also follows the South Korean *Produce 101* model, right? By the third elimination round, I could go as a 'senior' to take part in a collaboration stage or something."

Gu Jingyi glanced at Lin Ze and spoke candidly.

"Isn't that a coincidence? That's precisely what I said, too. By the time you debut from the group, you'll have plenty of time."

Lin Ze curved the corners of his lips, unable to suppress a smile as he said: "That's what I told them, and once Tencent Video heard you'd be appearing as a flying guest for an episode, they didn't say anything more. It's not a major issue; *Produce 101* isn't a male survival show after all. Tencent probably just deliberately brought up your stint on *Idol Producer* to give us room to negotiate. In the traffic era, we don't need to completely pledge allegiance to any single major corporate giant. Playing both sides and letting the winner take all is the ultimate rule of the game."

After discussing the dramas for a few moments, Lin Ze shared another piece of good news with Gu Jingyi.

Huace had sorted through all the scripts that had been sent their way, as well as the company's internal drama resources, and were simply waiting for whenever Gu Jingyi had the time to pick through them.

This degree of freedom was granted by Huace because every single choice Gu Jingyi had made since entering the industry had turned out to be the right answer.

Whether it was luck or destiny, the company's senior management was universally willing to give Gu Jingyi room to choose, placing absolute trust in his discernment.

"Alright, let's finish shooting the endorsements currently on our hands before we look into those."

Gu Jingyi nodded and spoke.

"That might be quite a few. Next up, we have endorsements for Molsion eyewear and Laiyifen. Peacebird will announce you as their ambassador tomorrow, and you'll need to attend the brand press conference and make an appearance. You'll also need to attend an event for One Leaf; they officially announced you as their spokesperson while you were recording *Idol Producer*."

"Alright, no problem."

After listing the new endorsements, Lin Ze brought up the topic of Litchi App with Gu Jingyi.

This was also the commercial Gu Jingyi was scheduled to shoot shortly, and he placed the compiled documents right in front of Gu Jingyi.