Chapter 58: A Shift in Momentum

Chapter 58: A Shift in Momentum

"This... is actually happening?"

Lei Ai, having been in the director's circle for many years, rarely saw a crew like "The Empress" putting on such a big show, and for a moment, he was stunned.

"There are so many people," Kong Le thought, feeling that one name after another was trending on social media, but he couldn’t tell who was who.

"The fans don’t even care about the show’s popularity anymore," Lei Ai remarked. "What matters most is standing up for their own team."

This was something the director couldn’t wrap his head around.

Lu Xu knows how to clap back at people, but he always targets those outside "The Path of Bones" crew. During the promotion of "The Path of Bones," Lu Xu didn’t skip a single event and was particularly active on Weibo.

As Grape Film and Television put it, Lu Xu single-handedly saved the platform a ton on promo costs.

After all, "The Empress" is their main competition this season, so Lei Ai paid extra attention and even concluded that those actors were all about self-promotion, barely acknowledging anyone else.

When appearing on shows, they would "break the rumors of discord," but Lei Ai felt that the atmosphere in a big crew like "The Empress" was much worse than in their smaller crew.

They only put on an act when the cameras were rolling.

The director sighed, "Lu Xu’s still the better one."

Even though Lu Xu’s account suspension freaked him out, as a somewhat famous actor, Lu Xu was way too energetic. However, compared to those actors who wore their ambitions on their sleeves, to Lei Ai, Lu Xu seemed more genuine.

...

Honestly, Lei Ai was pretty shocked when he saw the popularity stats.

"The Empress" was trending way more often than when it first dropped—when both shows first launched, "The Empress" outperformed in every metric, so naturally, it was way more popular.

Logically, after the show had been running for a while, Di Yiyun, Xu Qingtian, and Rongsheng, the "on-the-verge-of-blowing-up" stars, had a presence on various platforms that was no less than that of top-tier actors. "The Empress" should have seen its popularity rise even higher, heading for a massive breakout.

But then—

In the latest episode, "The Empress" had a popularity score of 12774.

While "The Path of Bones" had a popularity score of—12330.

"Am I reading this right?"

"Ah, this..."

"Did 'The Empress' storyline fall apart? Or is Qiao Mengyao’s screen time too little? This isn’t how it’s supposed to go."

The onlookers were just as shocked when they saw the numbers.

They clearly remembered that when "The Path of Bones" first aired, it indeed had a significant presence, being Lu Xu’s first leading role after being nominated for the Starlight Award.

But as "The Empress" plot deepened, "The Path of Bones" seemed to be forgotten, only gaining some attention when Mu Qian confronted Lu Ding, but the trending topics and major forums were almost entirely dominated by "The Empress."

The fans of Xi Ling, Li Chengfeng, and Hu Feiyin were entangled in fights, and even using initials to refer to the opposing side would attract a barrage of insults from fans.

From this perspective, "The Empress" attention and presence were indeed unmatched.

Naturally, the clueless onlookers thought, "The Empress" is so hot, its popularity should be through the roof, right?

On the popularity chart, "The Empress" was indeed first, but the problem was—currently, "The Empress" was only 400+ points higher than "The Path of Bones."

"...Why is the search volume increasing across all platforms, but the popularity is dropping?"

"How is *The Path of Bones* almost surpassing it?"

"...It feels like we're reliving the *Watchmen* and *Nine Turns Decree* situation."

"Is it the same? Who doesn't know Qiao Mengyao's dominance in the female lead category?"

"Is it because Yu Yi from *The Path of Bones* has been performing exceptionally well recently? Don't worry, once this arc of *The Path of Bones* ends, *The Empress* will still win."

Both the fans of *The Empress* and the platform Deyi Film and Television are quite confident about the future direction of *The Empress*.

For the platform, popularity is not a bad thing. To say the least, *The Empress* alone has completed half of Deyi Film and Television's half-year advertising KPI, and its advertising spots are selling much better than other ancient idol dramas.

Even if *The Empress*'s popularity is nearly matching that of *The Path of Bones*, in the public's impression, *The Empress* is still the more popular one.

And the performance of *The Path of Bones* and *The Empress* in the next episode is—

*The Empress*, with a popularity score of 11939.

*The Path of Bones*, with a popularity score of 13266.

The tide has turned, and *The Path of Bones* has taken the top spot on the popularity chart.

"???"

"Damn!"

"What's going on?"

*The Empress*, which was thriving, was easily suppressed by *The Path of Bones*!

Not only that, the popularity gap between the two has actually exceeded 1000!

The onlookers were shocked, and so was Deyi Film and Television!

The fans of *The Empress*'s actors were not ashamed of being defeated by *The Path of Bones*. Instead, they took this opportunity to mock their rivals—

"I told you so, Yu Yi is a jinx. He had the most screen time in these two episodes, right? That's why the popularity dropped."

"It's just the karma of forcefully promoting an unlucky man. They thought they could challenge us, thinking Lingdi fans are easy to bully."

Lei Ai was impressed by this meticulous timing effort—he studied accounting in college and only stumbled into the director's path after losing his job.

But Lei Ai can confidently say that, except during his college days, he has never been so meticulous with numbers, even once calculating the number of people to three decimal places.

Yet, the fans went as far as calculating the screen time to three decimal places.

However, no matter what the fans did, the industry is still curious: how did *The Empress* get surpassed by *The Path of Bones*?

Searching for keywords on Weibo is bound to yield no answers—all real-time tags related to *The Empress* are dominated by fans arguing.

If you search for *The Path of Bones*, the top results are also occupied by *The Empress* fans fighting on *The Path of Bones*' turf.

Some fans even threw in a bunch of data to prove that *The Empress* is stronger than *The Path of Bones*.

Things like search volume across platforms, fanbase growth of main actors, commercial engagements of main actors, statistics from several minor websites...

Only the most authoritative platform was conveniently overlooked by the fans.

"Lu Xu's commercial conversion rate is significantly lower than Di Yiyun and Xu Qingtian's. He only secured three contracts after his Starlight Award nomination. Despite 'The Path of Bones' having aired for a while now, there's been no new commercial activity from him."

...

Only on TV drama forums can you find some clues.

TV drama forums primarily focus on promoting TV dramas, with many influential contributors. The most prominent drama critics and rising creators in recent years have all made their mark on these forums.

The February time slot wasn't initially very popular, but because both 'The Empress' and 'The Path of Bones' broke the 10,000 popularity mark, the number of discussions on the forums has significantly increased compared to previous years.

When you open the forum homepage, posts are still dominated by 'The Empress'.

"...The male lead's fans are going wild, arguing everywhere, and the comments are unbearable now."

"Unbelievable, some of the male lead's obsessive fans are now complaining that Qiao Mengyao is too old, questioning how their idol could work with her."

"My situation is even worse! Since 'The Empress' popularity has dropped, the male lead's fans are blaming Qiao Mengyao, as the main female lead, for the decline."

"On one hand, they blame Qiao Mengyao, and on the other, they go on about Hu Feiyin's troubled childhood? It's fine to cast a child actor, but why use Bai Yuyi's garlic-shaped face to play his younger self? Do the creators not understand what childhood looks like? Where did they find such a resourceful actor?"

Half of the posts about 'The Empress' are complaints about fan wars and the male actors' acting, while the other half criticize the show itself as a 'female-led drama'.

"What even is a female-led drama? Help!"

"The world is one big Ding, oh right, 'The Empress' didn't hire many top drama critics, but instead picked one with 'Ding' in their name."

"Don't blame us Dings; we're not at fault!"

"Sorry, didn't mean to offend, but Xi Rongyi's key moments, like the reading scene, were left out. It was in the original but not in the drama. Instead, they focused on Hu Feiyin's struggles as the top scholar. If you skip the reading scene, how can the female lead debate scholars and showcase her ambitions?"

"Honestly, I loved the reading scene; Xi Rongyi is such a clever and wise little princess!"

"You shouldn't compare, but the more you do, the worse Xi Rongyi seems. Just look at how 'The Path of Bones' was adapted!"

"Clicked into a 'The Path of Bones' thread, and honestly, I'm so jealous—no one's fighting, everyone's analyzing details, studying micro-expressions, and revisiting the original."

"Went over to check it out, and same—envy +1."

'The Path of Bones' just aired the episode where Yu Yi faces a crisis. The day before, after exacting revenge, Yu Yi was trapped behind a door, sweating from nerves, and the audience was on edge.

If the next episode didn't reveal the outcome, the audience would feel like they were being teased, unable to relax until they saw it through.

Book fans are fine since they've read the original and know what's coming, but those who haven't are on edge. Some couldn't wait and bought the book to find out, while others held out until the next episode.

It was because of this plot that 'The Path of Bones' popularity surged by nearly 1000.

Fortunately, Yu Yi eventually overcame the crisis. He hid in the pipes of the basement and left silently at dawn.

After that, Yu Yi continued his journey to uncover the mastermind behind the scenes.

As long as the identity of the person outside the door isn't revealed, the audience can't stop watching 'The Path of Bones'.

'The Path of Bones' was brought into the spotlight by Lu Ding, a 'bloody' and 'brutal' revenge drama that delivers a strong visual impact. The audience had to see it for themselves.

Plus, Lei Ai is quite good at setting up suspense. Apart from the slightly slower pace in the first two episodes, the subsequent pace of 'The Path of Bones' is actually faster than 'The Empress'.

After all, revenge can't be delayed or slowed down.

The slow pace of the first two episodes was just to highlight the change in Yu Yi's character.

For the fans of the show, it's no surprise that the popularity score of "The Path of Bones" has surged to over 13,000 points.

Of course, it's also no surprise that the popularity score of "The Empress" has dropped below 12,000 points.

The plot is already stuck in a love triangle trope.

If the production team had been a bit more ruthless and cut or altered the scenes of the male actors before the show aired, the problem wouldn't be as significant. But making changes now would be unwise—

The male leads are no longer "on the verge of stardom"; they've already made it big.

Just ask the production team, whose scenes should be cut?

The fans of the actor whose scenes are cut would surely curse the director's ancestors for generations, making him regret taking on "The Empress" this big opportunity.