Chapter 57: Flowers and Applause

When the movie ended, it was already two in the morning. Yanjing was quietly blanketed by a sudden flurry of light snow, leaving a thin layer of silver on the streets.

The streetlights stretched their figures long, overlapping one behind the other on the snowy ground.

Jiang Ye walked with his hands in his pockets by Chen Duling's side, his boots making a soft crunching sound against the snow.

Passing a dessert shop that had yet to close, he stopped abruptly. "Wait for me."

Chen Duling stood beneath the streetlight, exhaling breaths of white mist, watching him trot into the shop. Moments later, he emerged holding a paper bag. "You have to eat an apple on Christmas Eve."

She took it, discovering an apple styled into a cute Santa Claus, its bright red surface adorned with a smiling face drawn in chocolate.

"Childish," she murmured softly, yet she cradled the paper bag warmly against her palms.

The bright lights at the hotel entrance grew closer, and Jiang Ye's pace gradually slowed.

"We're here." He gestured toward the revolving doors. "I'll walk you just this far."

Chen Duling nodded, but she stood still without moving.

A mist of breath hung between them like a fragile veil, and neither of them said goodbye.

"Um..." Jiang Ye began suddenly, pulling a small box from the inner pocket of his coat. "I actually prepared a gift for you. I originally planned to mail it to your school..."

A few unmelted snowflakes rested on the deep blue velvet surface of the box.

Chen Duling took it, her fingertips trembling slightly as she opened it.

It was a delicate pearl hairpin. Tiny, glittering diamonds encircled a smooth pearl to form half a briar rose, with exquisite silver-threaded tassels dangling along the edges of the petals, emitting a gentle, sophisticated glow under the hotel's warm yellow lights.

"I saw you always wearing that old hairpin back in Xiamen, so I wanted to get you a new one..."

Chen Duling abruptly raised her head.

"You..." Her voice tightened. "Even with all the criticism you've been facing, you still..."

"What does being criticized have to do with giving you a gift?" Jiang Ye interrupted with a smile. "Besides..."

He suddenly reached out, gently brushing a snowflake from the tips of her hair. "Being able to have you come here is the best Christmas Eve gift of all."

A group of tipsy guests emerged through the revolving doors, their cheerful laughter shattering the quiet moment.

Chen Duling hurriedly took a half-step back, gripping the gift box tightly in her hands.

"...Thank you." Her voice was as light as falling snow. "I'm going up now."

"Mmm." Jiang Ye stayed right where he was. "Goodnight."

She turned and walked into the revolving door, the glass reflecting the young man still standing alone in the snow behind her.

When she reached the elevator lobby, she suddenly turned back, pushed open the side door, and dashed back outside.

Jiang Ye was still standing in the same spot, looking noticeably startled as she returned. "Did you leave some..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a cool, bracing embrace.

Chen Duling buried her face in his shoulder, her voice muffled by her scarf. "...Merry Christmas."

Before he could react, she had already released her grip and run back into the hotel.

***

December 25th, Christmas Day!

When Jiang Ye was jolted awake by his phone alarm, a fine snow was still drifting outside the window.

He sleepily groped for his phone, the screen displaying seventeen missed calls from Bai Lu.

The latest WeChat message read bluntly: "Boss, our view count has crossed six hundred million!"

He jolted upright, instantly wide awake.

His phone vibrated in his palm again as Meng Ziyi's name popped up.

The moment he answered, an excited voice poured through the receiver: "A-Ye, my Weibo followers increased by three hundred thousand overnight!"

"What time did you get back yesterday? Why didn't you come see me?"

Jiang Ye opened his mouth to speak, but before any sound could escape, another incoming call cut in.

It was Bai Lu: "Boss, six media outlets are requesting exclusive interviews. We've occupied four spots in the top ten trending searches on Weibo, and our Douban score has jumped from 5.2 to 6.7!"

He stood barefoot on the concrete floor of the dormitory, the chilly touch snapping his mind into sharp focus. The explosive popularity belonging to this drama had finally arrived!

On the homepage of Penguin Video, the poster for *The Imperial Consort's Promotion* was edged in gold, occupying the most prominent recommendation slot.

Clicking on the latest episode, even with the bullet-comment density set to its lowest, the screen was still densely packed.

"Third rewatch checking in!"

"Props department, come out and get kissed for that durian shell!"

"Curtain-fabric imperial robes are forever the GOAT!"

Colorful bullet comments swept across the screen like a flood.

In the technical department of Penguin Video, the on-duty engineer stared at the suddenly soaring curve: "At the end of Episode 12 where the consort flips the table, the instantaneous volume of bullet comments has broken 500,000!"

On the monitoring screen, the red curve representing server load was dancing dangerously in the warning zone.

"Launch the backup servers!" shouted the technical director. "Route the bullet-comment traffic to the third data center!"

President Zhang wiped the sweat from his damp forehead and gave an order to the PR department: "Prepare the press releases immediately. Make the headline punchy enough: *Low-Budget Web Drama Defies the Odds, Creating Viewership Miracle on Christmas Eve!*"

On the homepage of the Douban group "Gossip Here," the posts from yesterday titled *Let's Dish About That Trashy Drama Using Curtains for Costumes* had already been replaced by *A Deep Dive Into the Narrative Revolution of The Imperial Consort's Promotion*.

The original poster, a film academy student, used three thousand words to argue the metaphorical significance of "durian shells symbolizing feudal ethics," garnering 5,687 likes.

On Weibo, prominent film critic "Dim Light" published a lengthy article:

"From Universal Mockery to Deification: How *The Imperial Consort's Promotion* Defeated Capital with Sincerity."

The most popular reply in the comment section read: "You were the one cursing it as brain-dead in the beginning, weren't you?"

It received 23,000 likes.

The most dramatic shift, however, happened on Zhihu.

Beneath the question *How to Evaluate the Shoddy Production of The Imperial Consort's Promotion?*, the newly added answers had unanimously transformed.

"Looking back now, the crew spent all their money where it mattered most."

"Being flat broke with such unashamed candor actually became its unique charm."

"History proves that a good script doesn't need a gold-plated toilet."

Both inside and outside the industry, intense discussions regarding the drama's explosive success began to unfold.

*China Film News* published a commentary on its front page, praising it for "leveraging a small budget to move a massive market, providing a new template for web-native content." The article affirmed "the precise capture of young audiences through anti-trope plotting," while also frankly stating that "crude costume and makeup design along with controversial lines exposed the shortcomings of certain web-native content eager for quick success."

*Film and Television Industry Observer* magazine focused on its market logic, analyzing: "From a universally mocked trashy drama to surpassing six hundred million views, *The Imperial Consort's Promotion* struck the password of internet dissemination."

"High-topic fragments are suited for secondary creation, gender-reversal tropes are convenient for social platform sharing, and this inherent traffic-driven physique allowed it to break away from traditional film and television promotional paths right from the start."

*Nandu Entertainment Weekly*: *Viewership Surpasses 600 Million! Hit Web Drama The Imperial Consort's Promotion Dominates Screens Throughout Its Broadcast.*

Sina Entertainment: *From "Roast-Worthy Drama" to Omnipresent Binge-Watching, Audiences Plead: New Episodes Are Not Enough.*

*Yanjing Youth Daily* Entertainment Section: *Commuting with It, Chatting About It During Lunch Breaks, Unable to Stop Triple-Viewing—Why Has The Imperial Consort's Promotion Become the Annual Blockbuster Web Drama?*

*West China Metropolis Daily*: *Who Isn't Watching The Imperial Consort's Promotion Yet? From Mocking Its "Poverty" to Begging for Updates, This Web Drama Has Taken Over Our Daily Winter Binge-Watching.*

Everything had changed!

Past doubts were completely overwhelmed by waves of flowers and applause.

The absurd plots that were wildly ridiculed when the show first premiered were now endowed with the academic title of deconstructive narrative by film critics.

The once-mocked "curtain imperial robes" were reinterpreted by fashion bloggers as a pioneering attempt at "post-modern minimalist style."

Even the durian props, which the crew admitted were only used to save money, inspired analytical essays about their "darkly humorous metaphor for feudal ethics."

Jiang Ye was not carried away by all this sudden glory; what he cared about much more right now was: exactly how much money would he get to take home?