OBS Chapter 15 really contains something.
Chapter 15 really contains something.
Zhou Ming frowned. "President Zeng, your terms..."
"Mr. Zhou," Zeng Hao interrupted him, "you just watched twenty minutes of the finished product. Where would you rank this production in terms of quality compared to other productions with similar budgets?"
Zhou Ming did not answer immediately.
“You knew what was going on,” Zeng Hao said, “which is why you made the call instead of just seeing the guest off.”
Zhou Ming was silent for a few seconds, then sighed and said, "Okay, a minimum of 900,000, with a 30% split, and a minimum of 30 million. But there's one condition! We decide the launch schedule, and we don't accept any bundled conditions."
"No problem," Zeng Hao stood up, "It's a pleasure working with you."
The two shook hands.
They then discussed the details for another half hour.
Zhou Ming escorted him to the elevator, and before leaving, he said, "President Zeng, if this drama really becomes a hit, we can discuss the terms of our next collaboration."
"Of course," Zeng Hao pressed the elevator button, "I don't need to go to Penguin's place either."
He took out his phone and sent a text message to the contact person at Tencent: The project has been finalized, and we'll have the opportunity to cooperate again next time.
The elevator doors closed.
Zeng Hao took out another phone, deleted the text message he had just received, and walked out of the building.
A minimum guarantee of 900,000, with a 30% commission and a minimum of 30 million views.
In the context of the online drama market in 2015, this was already the upper limit he could obtain.
In reality, "Go Princess Go" had 2.7 billion views. The 30 million view threshold is nothing compared to the final number.
Zhou Ming's decision to sign this contract today is probably the most worthwhile deal of his career.
Zeng Hao yawned and went to find a place to eat.
The contract was signed four days later, and the release date for "Go Princess Go" was set for early April.
Peng Bing continued filming with the crew in Hengdian, while Zeng Hao returned to Qianhu City to handle company matters.
Sister Liu went through the accounts for this month with him. Yang Shanshan's appearance fee of 180,000 yuan had been received, and with the working capital in the account, the overall situation was still within a controllable range.
"Yang Shanshan has been quite emotional lately," Sister Liu said. "Her agent told me that her schedule is too packed and her health is not up to par."
"It's too much for her," Zeng Hao said, flipping through the ledger. "The latest contract clearly states the monthly number of announcements, which is what she signed back then."
"But……"
"Sister Liu," Zeng Hao looked up, "she's currently the only artist in the company who can reliably generate income. She can't stop working on 'Go Princess Go' until the payment arrives. Tell her agent that after this month's work is done, I'll personally arrange a bigger variety show opportunity for her next month, so she can get through this month first."
Sister Liu nodded and made a note in her notebook.
"What about Xu Kunkun?"
"Still at Huayi Training Center," Sister Liu flipped through the documents. "Last week's course evaluation: vocal B+, dance B, diction C+, physical performance B."
Zeng Hao glanced at it but didn't say anything.
His delivery of lines was C+, roughly in line with his memory. This kid needs time to really get the hang of his lines. But there's no rush. He's only eighteen, and there are still almost two years before he can truly deliver a convincing performance. That's enough time.
"Tell the training department to add an extra dialogue class," he said. "The cost will be covered by Xu Kunkun's training budget, with some adjustments made so the company doesn't have to pay extra."
Sister Liu hummed in agreement, then hesitated for a moment, "President Zeng, Xu Kunkun asked someone to pass on a message saying that one of his classmates, a trainee, wants to switch agencies and asked if we're interested..."
"Let's hold off for now," Zeng Hao said. "Now is not the time to expand. Let's wait until the revenue sharing from 'Go Princess Go' starts coming in before we talk about it."
Sister Liu closed the notebook. "Okay."
On April 3, the first two episodes of "Go Princess Go" were officially launched on iQiyi.
Without any promotion, without buying trending topics, without exchanging resources, Zhou Ming simply provided a small banner ad slot within the channel, as is customary, and that was all.
On its first day of release, it garnered 34,000 views.
Zeng Hao didn't react much when he saw the number, which was within his expectations.
In 2015, viewers had not yet developed the habit of watching web dramas. It was normal for low-budget dramas to have poor initial data when they started out. The key was how they were disseminated.
He opened Weibo and searched for "Go Princess Go". There were very few related entries. Only a few random people clicked in and read the short comments. Most of them were like "I didn't expect it to be so funny" or "This setting is interesting". There weren't many likes.
A discussion thread was started on Tieba by someone with the ID "Hengdian Undercover Detective". The post titled "Recommending a newly released web series, the male character dressed as a woman is hilarious". It received about twenty replies but didn't get much attention.
Zeng Hao saved the link to the post and sent it to the company's publicity intern, asking them to keep an eye on the discussion surrounding the post without interfering.
On the third day, the number of views rose to 90,000.
It remains lukewarm.
The key change occurred on the evening of the fifth day.
That day, Zeng Hao was staring blankly at the financial statements in his office when his phone vibrated. It was a message from the publicity intern.
"Mr. Zeng, that post on Tieba has suddenly gone viral. Many people are taking screenshots and sharing them on Weibo. Could you take a look?"
Zeng Hao opened Weibo, typed "Crown Princess" into the search bar, and the first result was—
"Crown Princess Emoji Pack".
He clicked on it, looked at it for three seconds, and his lips twitched slightly.
It's that detail from the first episode: after Zhang Tianai discovers she's transmigrated into a woman's body, she looks down and her expression flashes across her face—a mixture of astonishment, shock, and some indescribable, subtle emotion. The expression lasts for about two seconds before she suddenly raises her head, faces the bronze mirror, and says a line in an extremely upright and solemn voice.
That two seconds of silence was captured in a screenshot.
"His facial expressions in those two seconds were absolutely phenomenal!"
"I've already made it into an emoji and saved it."
"I understand that look now."
"Could you tell me which actor this is? I've never seen him before."
……
When he saw it, the number of reposts had already exceeded three thousand, and the comment section was still refreshing.
In less than two hours, the topic climbed to the seventeenth spot on Weibo's trending topics.
Zeng Hao glanced at the view count backend—
Real-time data for the day: 410,000, and still rising.
He put down his phone, took a sip of his now-cold tea, picked up the phone on the table, and dialed Zhou Ming's number.
The phone rang three times before it was answered.
The voice on the other end sounded urgent, "Mr. Zeng, your play is now—"
"I know," Zeng Hao said, "that's why I called to ask you, isn't the homepage recommendation spot good enough? Can we change to a bigger one today?"
There was a two-second silence on Zhou Ming's end. "I'll go coordinate now."
The phone hangs up.
Zeng Hao glanced out the window. In the night in Qianhu City, rows of office buildings were lit up, neat and peaceful.
He recalled how Zhang Tianai was in terrible condition on set those few days, with one NG after another, and Peng Bing was about to lose his temper.
Then I remembered those two seconds in that meme screenshot.
All the energy he had built up during the early lows was finally poured onto his face.
He stopped thinking about it, turned his attention back to his computer, and continued looking at the reports.
What happened next happened even faster than he had anticipated.
The topic remained on the trending list for nearly six hours, during which the number of searches for the name "Zhang Tianai" surged. Some people dug up her previous videos of playing minor roles from her Weibo homepage. Comparing the two, the comments section was filled with comments like "What kind of progress is this?" and "The female lead is really something."
On the sixth day, the number of views exceeded two million in a single day.
On the seventh day, the hashtag "Go Princess Go" reached ninth place on the trending searches. Zhou Ming called, his tone no longer showing the nonchalant air he had during the negotiations.
"Mr. Zeng, I'd like to discuss our future cooperation further."