Chapter 49: Your Stage Name Shall Be Egret

The administrator of the Crown Princess fan group’s little assistant posted a new task every day.

"Today's KPI: Turn the scene of the Princess Consort's menstruation into a meme. The reward for the post with the highest number of reposts will be the official production team's paper armor (genuine paper-mâché edition)."

The group members responded enthusiastically, and the results were immediate.

On Weibo, the hashtag #CrownPrincessMenstruationSeminar# garnered 80 million views.
On Bilibili, the total views for the "Princess Consort Glitch Edit" video exceeded 5 million.
On Taobao, search volume for "Princess Consort's Matching Sandals" skyrocketed by 300%.

The most exaggerated part was that a netizen edited the interaction between the Crown Prince and the Ninth Prince into a "pseudo-BL" video, set to the background music of *Coldness*, and the view count broke one million within two days.

Not only did the group administrator not delete it, but they pinned it to the top as a highlighted post: "Please increase your efforts!"

The official Weibo accounts of *Go Princess Go* and *Diors Man* were also locked in a fierce, deadlock-like battle...

The official Weibo of *Diors Man* posted an image: Da Peng wearing paper armor photoshopped onto the Princess Consort.
The caption read: "I heard cross-dressing is trendy now?"

The official Weibo of the Princess Consort fought back by posting a heavily edited photo of Meng Ziyi.
The caption read: "Teacher Da Peng, I heard your funds are tight as well. Would you like us to send you a set?"

During a live broadcast, Da Peng "accidentally" let slip: "We are considering adding a cross-dressing storyline in *Diors Man Season 4*..."

The group members of the Princess Consort collectively went to the *Diors Man* Tieba forum to post: "Teacher Da Peng, this is our KPI assessment sheet. Please check it."

Amidst the mutual mud-slinging between the fandoms of both sides, the popularity metrics of the official Weibo interactions soared higher and higher!

The topic #NewAndOldWebDramaShowdown# surpassed 100 million views.
The Baidu Index for both sides surged simultaneously!

...

One week after *Go Princess Go* began airing, the internet was practically filled with curses and criticism.

Yet amidst all the mockery, only the theme song *Coldness* received unanimous praise.

"The plot is thunderously absurd, but the song is genuinely amazing!"
"I endured this crappy show purely for this song!"
"A quintessential example of a terrible show producing a divine song."

On Weibo, under the topic #TerribleShowsProduceDivineSongs#, netizens started a chain game:

"When watching the Crown Princess, what the heck is this?"
"When listening to *Coldness*, what a divine composition!"
"I suggest playing the MV of *Coldness* and the main show side-by-side to experience schizophrenia."

In its first week online, the performance of *Coldness* on major music platforms was exceptionally brilliant!

On QQ Music, the play count reached 80 million, with 120,000 comments.
On Kugou Music, the play count reached 72 million, with 1.5 million favorites, topping the Film and Television Golden Melody Chart for five consecutive days.
On Kuwo Music, the play count reached 60 million, with 1.2 million downloads.
Bullet-screen comment count: 80,000.
The screens were completely flooded with "Check-in by the Princess Consort's Victims Alliance."
On NetEase Cloud Music, comment counts exceeded 80,000+, and a user-generated playlist titled "Listen to this song before going to curse the show" surpassed 500,000 favorites.

The explosive popularity of *Coldness* brought about astonishing traffic redirection.

The comment sections for the latest episodes were suddenly flooded with remarks:
"Came over from QQ Music, is this show really this thunderously bizarre?"
"I came to subject myself to torture just to understand the story within the song!"

Data from the Weibo Music Chart showed that among users who searched for "Coldness", 43% subsequently searched for *Go Princess Go*!

...

At eight o'clock in the morning, the door to Jiang Ye's office was pushed open with a loud bang.

"Boss! Boss!"

Bai Mengyan rushed in holding a tablet computer, her ponytail still swinging from running too fast. "Our show has blown up! It's genuinely blown up!"

Jiang Ye raised his head from the financial statements to see her cheeks flushed, her eyes sparkling as if they contained a pair of tiny stars.

The tablet displayed the data curve of *Go Princess Go*.
A steep, rising red line looked as arrogant as if it were about to pierce through the screen.

"Penguin's single-day view count has broken 6 million!"
Bai Mengyan thrust the tablet right into Jiang Ye's face. "Douban's rating has gone up from 3.9 to 5.2!"

Jiang Ye took the tablet, the corners of his mouth curving upward involuntarily.
Although he had confidence in the content of the show, it didn't mean that simply filming it guaranteed a hit!
Many things depended on the right time, the right place, and the harmony of people!

Throughout the entire month of December, a plethora of web dramas were airing, with every platform frantically fighting for viewership ratings.
Among the more popular ones were *Back in Time*, starring Bai Jingting and He Hongshan.
*Detective VS Sleuths*, starring the great photographer He Guanxi.
Coupled with *Darker*, adapted from Zhou Haohui's bestselling novel, and *Xie Wentong* Season 3, adapted from *How a Bad Boy is Formed*.
The production costs of these web dramas were already approaching those of regular television series!

There were also plenty of low-budget oddities, such as *Kidnapping an Emperor Back to Modern Times* and *Queen's Party*.
*Queen's Party* starred Wei Daxun...

Therefore, promotion and publicity were still crucial; no matter how bright a gem was, someone still had to bend down to pick it up.
How many S-class dramas quietly tanked on platforms every year?
If not for this unorthodox, unconventional marketing wave, a C-class low-budget production like theirs probably wouldn't even have had the chance to be cursed at.

"Not bad, I suppose," he said purposely in a casual tone, placing the tablet back on the desk. "It barely does justice to the wind machine I mortgaged."

Bai Mengyan let out a snort of laughter, then immediately straightened her face as if remembering something. "Boss, seriously, when you asked me to sing the theme song back then, had you already planned this out?"

Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow. "Planned what?"
"It's just... it's just..." She gestured with flailing hands and feet. "Using the song to drive the views of the show! Now the whole internet is saying that terrible shows produce divine songs, and so many people only started watching the show just to listen to *Coldness*!"

In a great mood, Jiang Ye didn't mind the girl calling his show a terrible one.
He suddenly sat up straight and assumed a serious posture. "Xiaobai, do you know why polar bears don't eat penguins?"

"Huh?" Bai Mengyan was dumbfounded.
"Because penguins live in the Antarctic," Jiang Ye said very earnestly. "How's that joke?"

"......" Bai Mengyan's mouth twitched as she forced out a fake smile. "Ha, ha. Hilarious."
"Let me test you with another one," Jiang Ye continued. "Why is a mathematics book always so depressed?"
"B-because it has too many problems?"
"Wrong," Jiang Ye held up an index finger. "Because it never truly smiles; all its smiles are fake—sine and cosine."

Bai Mengyan: "......"
Her expression at that moment looked as though she had been forced to swallow a whole lemon while pretending to enjoy it.

Jiang Ye finally stopped teasing her. "Alright, let's talk business. Do you have a Weibo account?"
"Yeah, I do," Bai Mengyan pulled out her phone. "It's just some daily life stuff..."

"Register a new one," Jiang Ye interrupted her. "The company will help you get verified as an artist account. You'll need to prepare a photocopy of your ID card, a brokerage company certificate, and shoot a set of promotional headshots. I'll have administration arrange those."

Bai Mengyan's eyes widened. "Can I really... get verified as an artist?"

"What else?" Jiang Ye twirled his pen. "You sang the theme song, still thinking of running away?"

Her eyes suddenly reddened, and her fingers nervously twisted the hem of her clothes. "Then... then do I need to change my stage name? It seems like a lot of celebrities have..."

"Bai Mengyan..."
Jiang Ye murmured thoughtfully, his gaze falling upon her face.
Morning light filtering through the blinds cast delicate, dappled shadows beneath her eyelashes, and those moist eyes reminded him of some sort of small animal.
Indeed, this name suited her very well!

"Just call yourself Bailu (White Deer)," he said suddenly.

"Bailu?" She blinked. "Why a deer..."
"Because they run fast," Jiang Ye shrugged. "In the entertainment industry, you either run faster than the hunter, or..."
He made a gesture slicing across his neck.

Bai Mengyan—now to be called Bailu—burst into sudden laughter.
Although this name sounded a bit strange, since it was given by the boss...

"Okay!" She nodded heavily, her eyes curving into crescent moons. "Starting today, I am Bailu!"

Looking at her energetic demeanor, Jiang Ye suddenly felt that the office had brightened up quite a bit.
He lowered his head to hide the smile at the corners of his lips and casually pushed the last little bear biscuit on the desk toward her. "Go prepare, future big star."

Bailu snatched up the biscuit and skipped toward the door, stopping and turning around abruptly just as she reached it.
"Boss?"
"Hmm?"
"That joke you told just now..." She made a playful face. "Was absolute—ly—terrible!"

With that, she scurried away like a little deer.

Jiang Ye shook his head, smiling helplessly as his gaze returned to the computer screen.
His joke was terrible???
What a silly roe deer!
Next time, he should just tell it to Dudu; she would actually get his humor...

The data for *Go Princess Go* continued to climb, and a new rising star named "Bailu" officially stepped into the entertainment circle.

Outside the window, the morning sun over Beijing was simply perfect.

...

In a residential neighborhood in Mountain City.

"Wow—! Hahaha!" The little girl's eyes widened round, her finger tapping on the screen as her voice rang out clear, crisp, and sweet.
"Look, look! I'm on screen!"

She swung her legs back and forth, her tone full of tiny, smug pride.
"Look at that, the unluckiest little maid in the whole series is me!"

She covered her mouth in secret amusement, her eyes curving into crescent moons, the tail end of her voice carrying a slightly playful, milky tone.
"Hehe..."