27: I am afraid that my brother will suffer, but I am also afraid that he will drive a Land Rover.

The next day, it was eight in the morning.

The sunlight dispelled the morning mist of Qingtan Village, and the entire village was enveloped in the scent of human activity.

The film crew had already been busy, preparing for the nine o'clock shoot.

At the same time, a thousand miles away, in the Capital.

In the Kiwi Fruit company's parking lot, a man in his forties cheerfully opened his car door, stepped out, locked the car, and walked towards the company's main entrance.

As he walked, he spoke to the person on the other end of his earpiece: “Old Liu, I’ve been so busy lately. Last night, ‘Signals of Love’ filmed until midnight, and I was so tired I just collapsed into bed when I got back. This morning, the guests went to work, and only then did I find time to come to the company to meet someone. Oh, I’m so sleepy.”

“Old Xiang, you guys filmed that late? We finished work around 10 p.m.” On the other end of the phone, Director Liu Yang of ‘the adventures’ Third Group said.

“There’s more interaction in dating shows late at night. The hard work is worth it, though; on May 1st, our viewership ranked fifth among all variety shows of the same period, and yesterday, I estimate we were also in the top ten.” Xiang Hao, with his hands in his pockets, couldn't help but smile, “My judgment at the beginning of the year wasn’t wrong; dating shows are really popular this year.”

“I’m so envious.”

“Don’t be envious; your Third Group’s data on May 1st was also very impressive, ranked 12th, right?”

“Yes.”

“For a cultural theme to rank in that position, Old Liu, you’re not simple!” Xiang Hao laughed heartily, walking into the coffee shop next to the company’s main entrance. “However, you also need to be mentally prepared.”

Xiang Hao paused, pointed to the Americano on the menu, gestured to the barista, paid by scanning his phone, then sat at a table by the window and continued, “I’m not trying to discourage you, but we need to be mentally prepared. While using Chen Fang is a good thing – he has a large number of anti-fans now, and being infamous is still being famous – who has nothing better to do than curse him every day? So, if you see a drop in yesterday’s data later, it’s normal, and you don’t need to be too anxious.”

“It’s fine, I’m not anxious.” Director Liu’s somewhat indifferent voice came through the earpiece.

Xiang Hao speculated that he was feigning strength and continued to give him a heads-up, “Right? Being infamous doesn’t last long and ruins public perception. That’s why when He Xuantai contacted me, saying she wanted Chen Fang to continue participating in my ‘Peach Blossom Spring’ at the end of May as planned, I directly refused and advised you to refuse…”

Xiang Hao paused, suddenly realizing he might have put too much pressure on him, and changed the subject, laughing awkwardly, “However, ‘the adventures’ aired almost a month earlier than ‘Peach Blossom Spring,’ so getting to ride his popularity isn’t a loss.”

“Hmm, not a loss.” The voice in the earpiece was muffled; Director Liu seemed to be eating.

Xiang Hao leaned against the backrest, his hand resting on the armrest, “If you ask me, for your second episode, you could invite the successful couple from this dating show; it’s cheap and…” Halfway through his sentence, a message popped up on his screen.

Xiang Hao’s eyes lit up, “Oh, yesterday’s variety show viewership rankings are out.”

“I’m shoveling down rice; you take a look for me.”

“Alright, alright, take your time eating.” Xiang Hao opened the file sent by his assistant.

‘the adventures’ data on May 1st was 12th, so yesterday’s should be even lower.

Xiang Hao yawned, swiped his finger, directly scrolled to around the tenth place, and held the screen to stop the document from scrolling.

“Hey, your first and second groups did well. Bai Wenbin’s group’s face-changing actually ranked 13th, and Li Yitang’s group’s Sugar painting ranked 18th. It seems many people like a tranquil atmosphere.”

“Hmm, what about our Third Group?”

“Wait, let me find it.” Xiang Hao took the coffee from the staff member and re-examined the top ten, but didn’t find it, so he continued to scroll down.

From 20 to 29, still nothing.

Xiang Hao gradually became serious, sat upright, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter.

This is bad. He thought it would drop, but he didn’t expect it to be this bad.

Can his buddy handle it?

From 30 to 39, still nothing; from 40 to 49, still nothing.

He scrolled all the way to the last 54th place, and still nothing.

Xiang Hao breathed a sigh of relief, took a sip of coffee, “Did they miss your data? I almost died of fright scrolling down just now.”

“Huh? Missed?”

“I didn’t find you guys. Don’t worry, you focus on today’s live broadcast. I’ll have my assistant talk to the data center later. These people, they’re really getting more and more unreliable at their jobs.”

Xiang Hao snorted coldly and swiped the screen up.

After checking for Old Liu, it was time to see where his ‘Signals of Love’ ranked. And also to see which variety shows made it into the top five.

Xiang Hao scrolled up and immediately saw the familiar five big characters of ‘Signals of Love’ ranked eighth. Hmm, not bad; some weekly variety shows aired yesterday, so a drop is normal.

Xiang Hao scrolled to the top; first was Mango TV’s talent show ‘Idol New Era.’ This show was already first yesterday, and its momentum is really strong. The replacement of idols is so fast now; the old batch hasn’t been popular for long before a new one rises.

Second was the veteran outdoor competitive variety show, ‘Challenge Limit.’ This is a weekly variety show; yesterday, the celebrities played role-playing and deduced the truth, so high popularity is normal.

Third was the dance competitive variety show, ‘Dancing Youth Season 2: Ink and Wash Painting.’ The ancient-style dances were beautiful, it ranked second yesterday, and its momentum is still strong today.

Fourth was ‘the adventures’ Third Group, hmm.

Hmm?

Xiang Hao was slightly stunned, his neck craned forward, his eyes wide in disbelief.

What the—?

“No… you guys are fourth?” Xiang Hao said in disbelief.

“Eh? That high?” Director Liu’s voice, a mix of surprise and calm, came through the earpiece.

Xiang Hao dragged the screen with two fingers, zooming in and out, confirming several times before he was sure he hadn’t seen wrong.

How is this possible?

“Director Xiang, you’re here.” A voice came from above his head.

Xiang Hao looked up and saw a man in his thirties with a gentle and elegant demeanor walking towards him. This was Tang Chen, the Tianji Entertainment agent he was meeting today.

“Excuse me, Teacher Tang, please sit down, I’ll be off the phone in a moment.”

“I’ll go buy a coffee.” Tang Chen nodded to him and walked towards the ordering counter.

Xiang Hao smiled and said to Director Liu on the other end of the phone, “Old Liu, I have something here, so I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay.”

Xiang Hao hung up the phone, took off his earpiece, and was still filled with disbelief, and a hint of discomfort.

The disbelief was: a cultural program, its popularity climbed to fourth place? How is that possible?

The discomfort was: he didn’t want his good friend’s data to be bad, but he also didn’t want it to be better than his own. Uh… it would be best if it was just a little worse, ranking behind him.

How did it suddenly get so high?

“Teacher Xiang, what happened?” Tang Chen walked over from the ordering counter.

Xiang Hao took off his earpiece, “Old Tang, yesterday’s variety show popularity data is out, and ‘the adventures’ Third Group actually ranked fourth.”

Tang Chen sat opposite him with a calm expression, “You didn’t go online last night, did you?”

Xiang Hao asked doubtfully, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Did ‘the adventures’ have an accident or incident last night?

Tang Chen poked the straw into his iced coffee cup, “Chen Fang and Zhao Jin encountered a snake, Chen Fang caught the snake and sang his new song, and it became extremely popular.”

“Ah? Chen Fang?” Xiang Hao frowned in confusion.

“I listened to it, and he really sang very well. His singing skills, lyrics, and composition are all impeccable.” Tang Chen nodded, looking very satisfied.

Xiang Hao raised an eyebrow.

Old Tang was very picky and rarely praised anyone. Now he could praise a fallen young idol?

“You want to sign him? He’s full of scandals right now.”

Tang Chen smiled, “Scandals? The rumors aren’t necessarily true, but the work is solid.”

Xiang Hao put down his coffee and asked in surprise, “You really want to sign him?”

Tang Chen smiled and waved his hand, “No, no, those two brats I have keep causing trouble, I’m almost busy enough to split myself in two. How could I sign another artist? I was just making a comment.”