Chapter 53: Reaching Number One on the Trending Searches

The group exchanged pleasantries as they walked toward the sofa. Jiang Ye had just wanted to find a seat on the edge when Meng Ziyi reacted with lightning speed, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the center. "Director Jiang, sit here. The view is best in the middle."

With that, she efficiently settled down right next to Jiang Ye, shifting her skirt closer to him until her shoulder was almost touching his arm, a maneuver as natural as if it had been rehearsed eight hundred times.

That was simply what Sister Meng was like—her little schemes were always on full display, never hidden or masked.

If she wanted the center seat, she took it, and even dragged Jiang Ye along with her...

Ou Hao watched with great amusement from the side and, choosing not to contest it with the young actress, sat down smoothly on Meng Ziyi's other side. Nudging her slightly closer to Jiang Ye, he raised an eyebrow and teased, "Sitting right next to the female lead seems fair enough, right?"

Yu Menglong, standing nearby and catching sight of Bailu wringing her fingers anxiously in the corner, quickly stepped aside and gestured. "Teacher Bailu, why don't you sit on Director Jiang's other side? It's closer and makes chatting easier."

Bailu froze for a second, a slight flush dusting her cheeks, and whispered a soft "Thank you" before taking the seat beside Jiang Ye's other flank.

Yu Menglong settled into the outermost spot on the sofa, right next to Bailu.

The sofa was hardly spacious to begin with, and Jiang Ye suddenly felt completely hemmed in on both sides.

To his left, Meng Ziyi's sweet-scented hair brushed against his arm; to his right, Bailu's faint, delicate natural fragrance drifted over. The two young women sat exceptionally close, their knees nearly touching his.

He scarcely dared to move his arms casually, knowing he might bump into something at any second!

At exactly eight o'clock in the evening, the livestream countdown numbers flipped to "0."

In an instant, dense walls of comments flooded the screen. Backend data showed the online viewer count skyrocketing by thousands per second, breaking the one-million mark in barely ten minutes.

"It's starting, it's starting! My *Consort's* cast!"

"Ou Hao's muscles! Yu Menglong's historical costume! Meng Ziyi's savage clapback quotes! I want all of it!"

"Wait a minute... who is that handsome guy sitting in the center C-spot?! Zoom the camera in! Oh my god, that profile is lethal! Is he a new actor?"

"Adding +1 to the one above! His looks are even more lethal than the male lead's! Does anyone know who he is?"

"Is that... the director?! Jiang Ye? Did I read that right? The director looks like this? You should've told me sooner! I was just cursing him out earlier for making Ou Hao do that freezing rain scene, but I'm taking it back now! He's way more handsome than Ou Hao!"

"Wait, doesn't anyone else think... Jiang Ye and Meng Ziyi sitting together have way more chemistry than Ou Hao and Meng Ziyi?"

"+10086! I was just shipping the male and female leads a second ago, but now why does the director-and-lead pairing feel so much better?"

"Quick question for Director Jiang, when you kept using that single grape as a prop over and over, was it because you were too poor to buy a new one? Also, just asking out of curiosity, is the director single?"

Host Li Xiang glanced at the comments section, where the collective focus had suddenly veered wildly off-course, and laughed, raising a hand. "It seems everyone is paying a lot of attention to our Director Jiang's looks! Let me formally introduce everyone: the person sitting right in the center is Jiang Ye, the director of *The Crown Princess's Promotion*."

"Beside him are Meng Ziyi, our female lead; Ou Hao, our male lead; Yu Menglong, the second male lead; and Bailu, the singer who performed the theme song!"

"Let's ask the five of them: seeing so many netizens tuning in, are you feeling nervous?"

Meng Ziyi took the microphone, her voice crisp and bright. "Nervous? That concept doesn't exist! We've already been through the trenches together with our legendary durian-shell props, so what's a little scene like this?"

As soon as those words left her mouth, the comment feed was instantly flooded with rows of "Hahaha" and "Durian shells forever."

Ou Hao took the microphone next, a trademark bright and hearty smile on his face. "Me? I was actually a little nervous at first, but the moment I saw the comments all praising Director Jiang for being handsome, my pressure vanished!"

"Seriously though, on the day we filmed the rain scene, Director Jiang held a fire hydrant and blasted it right at me. He looked dead serious and told me, 'Ou Hao, you need to channel the vibe of someone who just got struck by lightning while still trying to look cool.' I was completely dumbfounded back then, but thinking about it now, this director's imagination is truly boundless!"

When Bailu took the microphone, her hands trembled uncontrollably, and her voice carried a trace of unmasked nervousness. "I... I'm a little nervous."

This was a livestream with an audience of millions; how could a newcomer who had just debuted have ever experienced anything like this?

She felt the stage lights were blindingly harsh, her heartbeat thundering deafeningly in her chest, making it difficult to even string together a complete sentence.

Suddenly, her hand resting beneath the table was gently enveloped by a large, warm palm.

That palm radiated steady heat, and its fingertips gave her knuckles a reassuring, grounding squeeze, as if transmitting silent strength.

Bailu started slightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Jiang Ye looking at her, his gaze calm and gentle, a reassuring smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

A wave of warmth traveled up from their joined hands, and her previously chaotic heartbeat miraculously steadied.

Her cheeks flushed bright red, the color creeping all the way from her earlobes down to her neck. Yet, as if suddenly infused with courage, she took a deep breath. Though her voice remained soft, it was far steadier than before. "Actually... I'm extremely happy to be able to join this livestream today. The fact that everyone loves this song is entirely thanks to Director Jiang... He was exceptionally patient when guiding me through it."

With that, she cast a shy, fleeting glance toward Jiang Ye, only to find he had already let go of her hand and was taking the microphone back with an air of complete nonchalance.

"I'm not nervous at all. I'm just afraid the few of you are going to expose all my deepest secrets today."

His remark drew a burst of cheerful laughter from everyone.

At that moment, Li Xiang read out a comment from the stream: "A netizen is asking: Director Jiang, what made you think of using curtain fabric for the costumes? Was it really just because you were broke?"

Jiang Ye tapped the microphone, let out a sudden chuckle, and replied with a hint of self-deprecating candor, "I won't lie to you—the inspiration was genuine, but being broke was just as real."

As soon as he said this, Meng Ziyi began nodding frantically beside him. "Yes! I can vouch for that! The production budget had completely hit rock bottom back then. Even buying decent fabric required careful budgeting down to the last penny. Director Jiang stared at those old curtain fabrics in the warehouse for an entire afternoon before suddenly slapping his thigh and declaring, 'That's the one!'"

Jiang Ye didn't object either. He spread his hands and said, "What else could we do? The whole crew had to pool our money just to budget for boxed lunches per head. But to be fair, once those curtain fabrics were washed and ironed, they actually had a rather ethereal flow when draped over the actors, and the final on-screen effect turned out even better than expected. Don't netizens call it the most cost-effective costume of the year now? I guess we just stumbled into it by accident."

Ou Hao chimed in with a playful jab, "I remember during an outdoor shoot, a gust of wind unraveled a loose thread on Meng Ziyi's skirt. She was running while desperately trying to pinch the curtain fabric together, terrified her skirt would literally fall apart mid-run. Thinking about that scene still makes me laugh."

The comment section was instantly flooded with waves of "Hahaha," interspersed with affectionate teasing like "Too real," "Broke with absolute pride," and "This crew is too endearingly poor." Even Li Xiang couldn't help laughing. "It seems poverty has truly become one of this drama's major trademarks."

As the livestream continued, the atmosphere grew increasingly lively.

The netizens' questions spanned a wide spectrum, ranging from "Which confrontation scene between the male and female leads was improvised on the spot?" to "Was Yu Menglong secretly terrified while hanging on the wire rig?" along with inquiries like "Did Bailu go off-key while recording the theme song and get scolded by Director Jiang?"

The main creators held nothing back, sharing behind-the-scenes anecdotes over one another's voices.

Ou Hao playfully complained about being forced to strip off his jacket during the dead of winter while filming fitness scenes, freezing until his lips turned purple while still having to force an imposing, overbearing-CEO aura.

Yu Menglong confessed that an arrow-hit scene had taken an entire afternoon to film, leaving him lying face down on the ground so long he nearly fell asleep, his entire lower half numb when he finally got back up.

Meng Ziyi revealed that to make her crying scenes look genuine, Jiang Ye intentionally told terrible dad jokes off-camera, causing her to laugh until tears streamed down her face—only for them to nail the take in a single try.

Bailu also blushed as she admitted that she kept cracking on the exact same high note while recording vocals, but instead of losing patience, Director Jiang stayed up late practicing with her and even bought her hot milk tea as a consolation prize.

Truth and fiction were delightfully intermingled in everyone's stories, though most had been polished and prepared in advance—a standard tactic for promotional tours.

During the broadcast, Tencent Video's President Zhang even made a special guest appearance on stage to present Meng Ziyi with the trophy for "Most Boyfriend-Material Female Lead of the Year," joking that her savage clapback scenes in the series had won her far more fans than the romantic plotlines.

As the livestream drew to a close, the five of them stood together and bowed to the camera, thanking the audience for their support.

Backend data showed peak concurrent viewership had shattered the two-million mark!

More importantly, following the broadcast, hashtags related to *The Crown Princess's Promotion* surged to the number one spot on the trending searches!

This drama had finally ignited like a fuse, exploding across the entire internet with its own brilliant spark.

The low-budget web drama that had once been mocked as "cheap" and "nonsensical" had completely shattered conventional boundaries, fueled by the buoyant energy of the livestream, the candid interactions of the cast, and the genuine stories hidden behind "curtain-cloth costumes" and "durian-shell props."

It had blown up! Not just moderately, but massively...