“How did you feel when you found you got to work with your idol?”
Everyone seemed to be interested to hear Qi Le An’s answer, even Wei Chang Feng gazed at him, keen to find out the answer. Qi Le An tilted his head and said, “It’s just so wonderful!”
“As you all have noticed, like all the other fans, I always refer him as Wei Sama, he has been idol since always. I was kept in the dark about Wei Sama was going to be the Grandmaster, so I basically froze when I saw him on the set. One day I walked past his trailer in a complete daze and all of a sudden he walked out from his trailer and said hi to me.”
The way Qi Le An recounted their encounter had captured everyone’s attention, “And then Wei Sama asked his assistant Gary to get me one of his autographed photo, I swear I almost fainted.”
The fans chuckled, then Qi Le An cast a glimpse at Wei Chang Feng, “To be perfect honest with you, I still feel like I’m so starstruck that I’m gonna faint whenever I see Wei Sama till this day.”
That had tickled the fans, everyone nodded their heads and burst into laughter. Qi Le An now put on a serious face and added, “All jokes aside, I’ve learned so much from Wei Sama, he would just instruct and influence me to do better by setting up a good example.”
Such a perfect answer, the fan who asked Qi Le An the question now looked at Qi Le An with admiration.
The MC took opportunity of the great atmosphere and asked, “I guess we are all wondering how does our Wei Sama feel about this cooperation with your own fan?”
Wei Chang Feng smiled, “I’m impressed, he is such a talented young actor, and he’s got such a great work ethic, I’m definitely looking forward to working with him more.”
That was the first time Wei Chang Feng lavished praise on Qi Le An like this, Qi Le An blushed crimson and lowered his head. He hadn’t come to his sense until the MC changed the subject and started to banter with Hu Bin and Lin Xue.
The last roadshow was such a great success, the whole crew heaved a sigh of relief when the fans left with a big smile on their faces. However, the crew members were still anxious about the ratings except Qi Le An, because he knew their drama would become a hit and break a few records in just a few days.
Director. Cui hosted a dinner party after the roadshow, he made a toast and thanked everyone for their hard work during the past few months.
Tears brimmed in Director. Cui’s eyes as he was surrounded by his dear colleagues, “I’m so lucky to have the best team work with me in the industry, together we have tried a bold way of promotion as well, my confidence is sky high, I know we can make it!”
Qi Le An knew how much pressure Director. Cui was under, Director. Cui had invested everything he had into the show, but the TV stations would only pay him according to the audience ratings. Director. Cui would end up losing everything if the audience ratings couldn’t achieve the desired results.
Everyone was affected by Director. Cui’s speech, emotion started to well up in the room, Wei Chang Feng now raised his glass and shouted, “Tonight is the night, we have got this in the bag! Let’s drink a toast to Director. Cui’s vision and hard work!”
Director. Cui laughed and said, “Thank you, Chang Feng, thank you for joining us.”
With that everyone rose to their feet and toasted to Director. Cui, Qi Le An poured himself some juice because he was underage, “Director. Cui, To Perish Demons will hog all the limelight!”
Director. Cui got to know this young man more and more in the roadshow tour, he appreciated Qi Le An’s work ethic as well, he patted Qi Le An’s shoulder, “An, a star is born, I can’t wait to see what the future holds in store for you.”
Qi Le An smiled meekly and gulped down the juice in his glass.
The crew didn’t drink much for they needed to check the real-time ratings, they went back to the hall after dinner.
Wei Chang Feng and Qi Le An were seated next to each other, watching the crew members set up the computers in the front row.
The drama would be broadcast at eight o’clock sharp, Qi Le An looked more poised than in the afternoon for he knew the drama would be a huge hit.
The technician cast the ratings on the screen, Qi Le An’s eyes were glued on the chart, the increase was steady in the first ten minutes. However, the rating started to soar when Wei Chang Feng’s character showed up in the fifteenth minute. The technician exclaimed, “Ten percent! Director. Cui!”
That was such an auspicious start, the ratings kept surging as the plot went on, Director. Cui’s phone kept ringing, all the TV stations were calling him to share the good news. The technician shouted, “Twenty-five percent now!”
Qi Le An checked the time, the show was just on for about half an hour. Wei Chang Feng said, “Great, I think it will hit thirty percent before the closing credits.”
Qi Le An couldn’t agree more, and this was just the beginning, the drama would be record-breaking good!
The technician rose to his feet and shouted at the beginning of the second episode, “Guys, thirty-five percent now!”
Director. Cui had turned off his phone at this point, he just wanted to savour this moment to the fullest. Hu Bin murmured with disbelief, “Thirty-five percent, but this is just the second episode... ...”
Qi Le An and Wei Chang Feng exchanged a look as well, they both beamed with smiles. Qi Le An looked at the busy technicians in the front row and felt honored to be part of this huge success.
Hu Bin rose to his feet when the ratings was about to hit forty percent, even Wei Chang Feng looked a bit shocked when the numbers hit forty percent.
“Thirty-nine!”
“Forty!”
“Forty-one! Director. Cui! That’s a new record!”
What they didn’t know was they had kept the record for a whole decade, the average ratings for a great drama was twenty percent in the following five years.
To Perish Demons was definitely phenomenal!
Director. Cui had even wept tears of joy in the front row, the producer team kept calling the big boss to share the great news, the promotion team kept hugging each other and shedding tears of joy.
Hu Bin and Lin Xue’s phones kept ringing as well.
Wei Chang Feng’s phone vibrated, Qi Le An cast a glimpse and he saw Sheng Chang'an’s name on the screen, Qi Le An couldn’t help but hold his breath.
“Thanks, it’s forty-percent at the moment.”
“Yeah, a wise investment indeed.”
“Pardon? I can’t hear you, everyone in the room is clapping now, I will call you back soon.”
With that Wei Chang Feng hung up the phone.
Qi Le An pouted for he didn’t hear a word of what Sheng Chang'an had said over the phone.
Wei Chang Feng saw Qi Le An’s pouty lips and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Qi Le An shook his head and averted his gaze promptly. He pretended he was looking at the screen, the numbers started to drop after it had hit forty-one, but that was of little surprise.
The technicians calculated the average ratings of the two episodes, “It’s thirty-one percent across the four TV stations with thirty-five being the high.”
The announcement was greeted by a roar of applause, Qi Le An beamed with smiles, he felt so lucky that he was part of the success and somehow he felt like he was one more step closer to Wei Chang Feng who was standing right next to him.
Director. Cui decided to have a celebration party right after the technicians had calculated the average ratings. They crashed a karaoke bar and ordered rounds of drinks, Director. Cui and the producer team acted so wild in the booth like they were venting the stress that had been bottling up inside them for the past few months.
Wei Chang Feng ended up drinking quite a few glasses as well, he just kept laughing when he was tipsy. Wei Chang Feng took his leave after he took a phone call and he asked Qi Le An to leave with him because he didn’t want anything stupid happen to Qi Le An.
Qi Le An supported Wei Chang Feng and left with Jiao and Gary, Qi Le An’s assistant. Both Wei Chang Feng and Gary looked pretty drunk, the crew members got a bit carried away and urged the two to drink a bit more than they could handle.
A car flashed at them as soon as the group walked out of the karaoke bar, Wei Chang Feng noticed that and staggered towards the car with Qi Le An supporting him. It was Sheng Chang'an in the car, Sheng Chang'an looked displeased on seeing drunken Wei Chang Feng, he pulled a long face and supported Wei Chang Feng to get in the car.
Wei Chang Feng frowned and closed his eyes in the car.
Sheng Chang'an said hi to Qi Le An and asked him what they were heading, Qi Le An told Sheng Chang'an that Director. Cui had checked in for them in the hotel department of the karaoke bar.
All of a sudden, Wei Chang Feng opened his eyes and sat up straight, “Where is my sister!”
On hearing that, both Sheng Chang'an and Qi Le An turned around to look at him, Sheng Chang'an said gently, “She is at home, I don’t think she’s gonna be happy to see you this drunk.”
Wei Chang Feng closed his eyes and snickered, “You are wrong, sister is always happy to see me.”
“And she will take it out all on me.” Sheng Chang'an smiled.
With that Sheng Chang'an excused himself and got on the car, he said goodbye to Qi Le An and Gary who was resting on Jiao’s shoulder.
Qi Le An watched Sheng Chang'an’s car fading away in the empty street and he was lost in thought... ...