Chapter 79: Outstanding Results

After a moment of stunned silence, the advertisers quickly collected themselves and dialed Xu Buyian’s number at lightning speed. They wanted to sponsor! They wanted to buy advertising slots!

Regret began to gnaw at them. If only they had known that Chen Qi’s advertisement would be so dazzling, they would have invested much earlier, rather than waiting until now. Fifty thousand for a slot and a creative ad idea—what a bargain!

But unfortunately, all the slots had long since been sold out.

Unwilling to give up, the advertisers set their sights on product placement within the show. As long as the embedded ads could achieve such remarkable effects, money was no object.

“Sorry, we have no intention of doing product placements in the show,” Xu Buyian politely declined, smiling as he refused, no matter how persuasively the advertisers pleaded.

Few realized that, after eight o’clock, Xu Buyian was almost constantly on the phone.

The callers weren’t just the new advertisers seeking sponsorship. Those who had already booked slots were calling anxiously as well. They couldn’t wait to sign the contracts.

Listening to their urgent voices, it was as if they feared Xu Buyian might change his mind at any moment.

Though they had already transferred part of the fee when reserving their spots, it had only been a verbal agreement with no legal binding. If someone wanted to back out, it could easily happen in an instant.

Now, having seen the quality of the second season, Chen Qi’s creative advertising, and the enthusiastic audience response, they genuinely worried that a competing advertiser might offer more money and snatch their reserved slots away.

After all, in this world, few problems can’t be solved by offering more money—and if there are, just offer even more!

“No problem, I’ll be waiting for you at the company tomorrow morning,” Xu Buyian readily agreed to the requests for immediate contract signing.

Were there advertisers offering extra money? Of course there were! Though most sponsors were small businesses, there were a few wealthy bosses as well.

Still, Xu Buyian refused them. A verbal promise was still a promise, and they had at least the basic spirit of integrity.

...

At eight thirty.

Zhao Qingqing, still at work, received a report from the technical department.

Their website’s traffic today was nearly twenty percent higher than the recent average!

It was obvious that the surge of users had come for “Never Expected.”

The technician who delivered the data also mentioned that, since today’s promotional push for “Never Expected,” the number of registered users had significantly increased.

Looking at this impressive report card, Zhao Qingqing’s face broke into a radiant smile.

A single-day traffic increase of twenty percent—such a surge hadn’t happened at Simple Video for a long time, so long that she couldn’t even recall the last time.

If all went well, she expected to receive praise from the company tomorrow.

She then checked the click count.

Barely half an hour since the launch of “Never Expected” Season Two, and it had already surpassed one million hits. At this rate, breaking ten million in twenty-four hours seemed entirely possible.

More important than the clicks was the audience’s positive reaction to the new season. Chen Qi’s shameless end-credit style had sparked tremendous interest among netizens.

Used to traditional advertising, viewers were suddenly met with something so unconventional that it felt like a breath of fresh air. These reactions were evident even in the dense barrage of comments.

Having carefully reviewed the outstanding report, Zhao Qingqing considered calling Chen Qi to share the good news. But just as she dialed, she paused.

Forget it. He was probably busy and exhausted—no need to bother him with such trivialities.

For him, achieving these results likely came as no surprise.

...

The next day, filming continued.

“All right, get ready!”

“Action!”

The dazzling success of the previous night seemed to have had no effect on Chen Qi. As soon as the clock struck nine, the day’s shooting began.

With the pressure of producing an episode each day, the crew started much earlier than during the first season. Makeup and styling staff were on set as early as six.

But thanks to Chen Qi’s generous pay, the staff cooperated enthusiastically, without a trace of complaint.

“Stop, stop! Your expression is too monotone. Make it a bit richer, like this...” Chen Qi demonstrated for Bai Xiaoke and resumed filming.

Though the pressure was intense, most of it rested on Chen Qi’s shoulders, so the atmosphere on set wasn’t particularly tense.

“All right, good! Next scene, please.”

“If you’re not busy, go grab some food first.”

After assigning tasks, Chen Qi handed off the footage from earlier to the post-production team, giving clear and detailed instructions on how to proceed.

With that done, he grabbed a self-heating meal prepared by the staff and ate quickly.

Only now did he have a moment to check his phone.

Zhao Qingqing had sent him a message around eight o’clock, containing just one line:

Five million clicks in twelve hours.

Five million?

Chen Qi murmured to himself, straining to recall the stats from the first season.

If memory served, the first season had about one million clicks in twelve hours. So the second season was five times higher?

He had little concept of what these numbers meant, so he didn’t know just how impressive the achievement was.

Just as he prepared to check online for audience feedback, Xu Buyian arrived at the set with a young actress.

She was there for a guest role, from a partner company.

Chen Qi, still eating, sized her up briefly. Decent figure, attractive, and her presence would certainly add some flair to the show.

“Here’s your script, take a moment to get familiar with it.” After a quick introduction, Chen Qi finished his meal and handed her a script.

A script, but really just an A4 sheet containing two lines.

“Thank you.” The actress took it politely with both hands, a little nervous, perhaps feeling the pressure from Chen Qi’s rising fame.

It was clear she didn’t have much recognition.

“She just graduated from the academy, not much experience,” Xu Buyian whispered.

“No problem, that doesn’t matter,” Chen Qi replied, shaking his head and heading straight to the next scene.

Seeing how busy he was, Xu Buyian swallowed his news about all the advertising contracts being signed.

He’d wait until Chen Qi had a free moment.

“All right, let’s get started!” Chen Qi called out, and filming continued.