13: Chapter 13 Shadow Channels
The weekend arrived a little faster than Qiao Yichen had anticipated.
Like the recent mornings, after waking up, he simply washed up, changed into his sportswear, and headed out.
He arrived at the open space behind the residential complex and started running around the track, fully engaging his body.
He had maintained this regular pace of life for almost a week now. It wasn't for any grand reason; he simply didn't want to die a third time because of his body.
After his run, he detoured to the breakfast shop on the street corner.
Steam billowed from the steamers, mixing with the aroma of flour and meat.
Qiao Yichen bought two meat buns and a cup of soy milk. He took a bite of a bun, his tongue slightly numb from the scorching heat, and then slowly walked back while sipping the warm soy milk.
...
By three in the afternoon, he received a message from Liu Yanran.
["The Channel Provider side has confirmed, permissions have been activated. We will switch the volume precisely at midnight on Monday."]
She didn't send any other superfluous words.
Qiao Yichen looked at his phone screen and replied with a single character.
["Okay."]
After sending the message, he didn't immediately put down his phone.
After thinking for a moment, he added another sentence.
["I will be watching."]
Liu Yanran quickly replied as well.
["Me too."]
Concise and clear; both of them knew what that meant.
...
Late Sunday night, eleven-thirty.
Qiao Yichen was not asleep.
The computer was on, and the interface was still paused on the backend monitoring page, but the data had not refreshed yet.
He pulled up the system interface.
The second piece of intelligence and the third piece of intelligence were the same as before.
No changes, and no disappearance.
Monday, midnight.
The computer screen was bright, and the backend page was fixed on the real-time monitoring interface.
The first exposure data popped up.
Very small.
Almost negligible.
But Qiao Yichen still stared at that line of numbers for a few seconds, confirming that the logical link, attribution path, and placement weight were all fine before slowly leaning back against the chair.
No problems; everything was normal.
⸻
An hour later.
Exposure began to climb.
It wasn't explosive, but rather an extremely healthy, staircase-like upward trend.
No abnormal peaks were detected, nor were there any obvious signs of artificial boosting.
That meant there was no interference from other abnormal factors.
The hit rate for the target audience tags was nearly eight percentage points higher than initially estimated.
Qiao Yichen tapped his finger lightly on the desk.
This proved one thing—
His initial choice was not wrong.
At this moment, his phone vibrated slightly.
It was from Liu Yanran.
["The data is out, how is it?"]
He replied very quickly.
["It's out. The first wave looks pretty good overall."]
A few seconds later, a reply came from the other side.
["Then get some rest early."]
Qiao Yichen looked at that line of text, and the corner of his mouth curved up unconsciously.
["You go to sleep first; I'll watch a bit longer."]
After replying, he sat up straight again, his gaze returning to the screen.
He knew—
This was just the beginning.
Whether this traffic window was truly effective would be determined not in the early morning, but during the day.
⸻
March 24, 2025, Monday, Sunny, 10 ~ 21 degrees. Nine in the morning.
Company Name Company.
Sporadic messages started popping up in the project group, all confirming aspects of the first official day of execution, and asking if there were any other issues or oversights.
Qiao Yichen did not participate in the discussion.
He sat at his workstation, his face expressionless.
But no one knew that before this, he had been running a 'Shadow Channel' for a full nine hours.
Then, as usual, he went to meetings, reviewed proposals, and replied to emails.
Like a perfectly normal project manager.
Only he knew that the backend page on his computer had been open the entire time.
Ten o'clock sharp.
The conversion curve began to rise.
It didn't shoot up suddenly, but maintained the reassuring, steady upward posture, showing no difference from the early morning.
The ROI steadily climbed from 1.3 at the start to 1.9.
Eleven twenty.
It broke through 2.4.
Twelve noon.
A system prompt popped up on the window's backend:
["The current ad group has entered the 'High-Quality Sample' range. We recommend extending the testing period."]
Qiao Yichen looked at that line of text and finally reached out to pick up his phone from the desk.
He sent a message to Liu Yanran:
["Do you have time to look at the data now?"]
The reply came almost instantly.
["Looking now."]
Immediately after, she sent another message:
["This effect is even better than what you said back then."]
Qiao Yichen looked at those words, the corner of his mouth lifting very slightly.
And it was confirmed.
⸻
By two in the afternoon.
Liu Yanran came directly to his location.
She didn't enter the conference room but stood next to his workstation, handing him her tablet.
"Look at this," she said in a low voice.
On the screen was the data chart after the Channel Provider breakdown.
The line for that test window looked as if it had been singled out.
Stable, clean, without a trace of noise.
"User dwell time is 27% higher than the average," Liu Yanran said. "And the revisit rate is abnormal."
"Abnormal?"
"Too high," she paused. "So high it doesn't look like a test slot."
Qiao Yichen nodded.
"Because it wasn't intended to be used as a test slot from the beginning."
Liu Yanran glanced at him.
"You never planned to run just a test from the start, did you?"
"Correct," Qiao Yichen admitted frankly. "I wouldn't spend this much money myself just to run a test for the project. I was just waiting for it to give me a reason—a suitable reason."
And now, the reason was there.
⸻
By the next day.
Tuesday, ten in the morning.
Forty-eight hours, exactly.
The backend data settled.
ROI: 3.1
Cost Per Conversion: 46% lower than regular channels
Key audience hit rate: Far exceeded expectations.
This data was no longer just 'running well.'
It was exceptionally outstanding.
Liu Yanran compiled this data into a brief report and sent it to Party A's project group.
She added no evaluative language.
There were only three sets of parallel data comparisons—
The main advertising channel, the backup channel, and that test slot which had not been officially launched.
This window essentially did not belong to any of Party A's resources.
The last line was an extremely restrained note:
"Under the same audience conditions, this test window performed significantly better than our current main advertising channel. Party A should assess for themselves whether to allocate additional budget going forward."
In less than twenty minutes, a call came directly from Party A.
"Was that test window just now also part of your project?"
Liu Yanran didn't answer immediately; she just flipped through her tablet.
"No, it came from a Channel Provider we have a long-term, unlisted cooperation with, who only provides short-term testing access," she said. "It wasn't in our original plan; it was just that we discovered the abnormal performance of this window during observation and monitoring."
The person on the other end of the line was silent for a few seconds.
"Then, if we want to use this test window?"
"That will require you to communicate directly with the third-party Channel Provider," Liu Yanran's tone remained steady. "We can only provide the data that has already been generated and execution experience suggestions."
The other end of the line fell into another brief silence.
Then, the person said:
"Alright, we want this window. We will communicate with that Channel Provider on our end then."
⸻
At the same time.
Director only heard a rumor on Tuesday afternoon.
Not from the Channel Provider side.
But from an acquaintance in Party A's project team.
"A competitor recently has some pretty fierce data," the acquaintance mentioned casually. "A test slot from a couple of days ago actually ended up being used as a main channel by them."
Director froze for a moment.
"Test slot?"
"Yeah, the one that ran for forty-eight hours."
This sentence was like a stone gently dropped into water.
No sound.
But ripples spread outwards in circles.
Director didn't speak.
Of course, he knew about that test window.
He knew it too well; he had been monitoring it for several days himself.
It was just that at the time, he felt he could wait a bit longer.
Or perhaps, it wouldn't be too late to take over after someone else helped run the data.
But the result—
Director leaned back against his chair and heavily slammed the hand resting on the desk.
"Damn it."
This wasn't anger; it was regret.
This time, he hadn't actually lost anything.
One, he hadn't lost money.
Two, he hadn't been scammed.
Three, he hadn't been targeted.
It was just that he hesitated at the very beginning, and once the opportunity was missed, it was gone.
⸻
At night.
Qiao Yichen stood by the window, looking at the brightly lit office buildings in the distance.
A message from Liu Yanran had just arrived:
["Party A wants to buy out the next five days for the test window, preparing to pay a premium."]
He watched for a while, not replying immediately.
Only when the screen dimmed did he light it up again.
He replied with only two words:
["Okay."]
Then he let out a long sigh.
At this moment, he was very clear: the chip had been secured.