Caught in Affairs with Superstar-Chapter 217 - 184: Rising Phase: 20

The second day of the Lunar New Year, an important day.

This day, the web series "Eighth Heartbeat" premiered.

Zhou Yun posted on Weibo to promote the show, feeling somewhat excited but also somewhat uneasy.

She had not seen the final cut and didn’t know what the outcome of the show would be.

At ten in the morning, the episode went live.

Zhou Yun quietly opened Yuehai Network, and saw a carousel ad for the show on the homepage.

She clicked in, waited a moment for it to buffer, and then the theme song began to play.

...

A young and youthful girl appeared on screen.

It was Zhou Yun.

She walked through a crowd.

A voiceover started: "My name is Lin Xiaosu, I’ve just graduated. You might think this is a cliché start, but soon, I’m going to meet a man who will entangle with my future life."

Zhou Yun couldn’t help but contort her facial features.

This line of voiceover still made her skin crawl; it was too cringeworthy.

This was after she had fought to have it changed; before the changes, the line was even more awkward.

...

Suddenly, her phone chimed with a message.

Gu Huaichun asked her: Have you started watching?

Zhou Yun: ...I’m watching it right now, and I’m curling my toes.

Gu Huaichun: I feel the same, actually even worse than you.

Zhou Yun: Why?

Gu Huaichun: My mom invited all our relatives over to watch the premiere. She even set up a projector at home. Can you imagine over twenty of my family members watching this show together?

Zhou Yun gasped: Kudos to your mom.

Gu Huaichun: I want to die.

Zhou Yun: Tsk tsk tsk, don’t talk like that during the New Year, it’s bad luck.

Gu Huaichun: You sound exactly like my mom, unbelievable.

Zhou Yun continued watching.

Soon, it reached the first scene she shot with Gu Huaichun, where their characters met by chance and bumped into each other.

The editing pace was quick, but when the two characters collided, there was a close-up shot of their expressions.

One’s facial features in disarray, the other’s pupils shaking.

"..." Zhou Yun wished she could cover her eyes and not watch any further.

Suddenly, the camera used a slow motion effect.

The camera spun, Zhou Yun was embraced around the waist by Song Chi, and the two exchanged glances in such a pose.

Almost a staple scene in every romance drama.

Totally unoriginal, utterly unsurprising.

...

Today, two episodes premiered.

Zhou Yun curled up her feet and watched both episodes, feeling her brain might burn a hole.

She didn’t even dare to check Weibo for everyone’s comments. She held no hope, no miracle happened; the show was definitely going to be criticized.

At noon, Zhou Yun made herself some noodles to eat, in the afternoon, she hid in her bedroom reading, her phone on silent.

In the evening, the doorbell suddenly rang faintly.

Zhou Yun thought she was hallucinating, wondering who would ring her apartment bell at this time.

This apartment was rented by the company for artists, and the manager had gone home for the holiday.

But the doorbell kept ringing insistently, making Zhou Yun realize it wasn’t an illusion.

She went to the door in surprise and peered through the peephole, shocked to find Zhou Lan standing there.

"Sister Lan, why are you back already?" Zhou Yun asked in surprise.

Zhou Lan glared at her and said, "Do you know how many calls I made to you this afternoon? You didn’t answer any! And you didn’t reply to my messages either!"

Zhou Yun: "...I had my phone on silent."

"Why?" Zhou Lan entered the house with her luggage in hand, inspecting the place like she was evaluating a work site, and after scanning the room and seeing nothing particularly amiss, she nodded in satisfaction, "Have you just been alone in this room these few days?"

Zhou Yun nodded and said, "Yeah, just by myself, why?"

"’Eighth Heartbeat’ has very impressive viewership numbers. Yuehai Network contacted me, saying there’s a live stream event tonight to promote the show," Zhou Lan said.

Zhou Yun’s face was incredulous, asking, "Really? The viewership numbers are good?"

"It’s also because this is the only new show today, and you’ve been very popular recently. I just got the news that the viewership has already exceeded ten million," Zhou Lan said.

In domestic web dramas, popularity is generally measured by the number of views and the level of buzz, but internal statistics are often kept as well at the video websites.

Such as actual viewer counts and the number of new members brought in by the show.

These figures are typically only internally tracked and not released to the public.

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