Chapter 732 - Self-Deception

“If you apply early tomorrow morning, our manager certainly can’t delay your work, right?” the employee said, “it will definitely be done for you right away.”

Seeing that he had no other choice, Manager Wu hung up the phone. He felt that he couldn’t even handle such a small matter. He didn’t have the pride to reply to Guo Qingchen now.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that they assumed his position in Kefeng was not secure. Thus, they rejected him so bluntly.

Otherwise, why would they not agree to his request?

Manager Wu thought so and called Manager Niu from the technology department.

“Manager Wu,” Manager Niu greeted politely.

“Manager Niu,” Manager Wu said with a smile, “I’m sorry for calling you at this time and disturbing your rest.”

‘If he knows it’s not a good time to call, then why call me?’ Manager Niu thought to himself.

‘Everyone in the technology department, both employees and managers, just want to rest after work without being disturbed. Why was this so hard?!’

“Sigh, it’s a life of toil. It’s not easy for me to come back early from work, so I have to quickly help my daughter with her homework. Recently, I haven’t had the time to catch up with my daughter’s studies, so my wife often scolds me for it. Manager Wu, what’s the matter?”

Manager Niu thought to himself, ‘If you have something to say, say it quickly. I still have to help my daughter with her homework.’

“It’s like this…” Manager Wu was too lazy to talk about anything else, he just wanted to get things done as soon as possible, “I’ve discussed it with Director Guo, and he wants to inflate the viewership data for Nine Heavens by a bit. We can charge according to Kefeng’s standards. This would help Kefeng generate some income as well.”

This was a tacit understanding within the industry, so it was naturally impossible for them to disclose it to the public.

However, the industry knew about this little trick, and they would all do it.

The platform was now the boss, the top of the food chain in the entertainment industry.

‘You want the platform to change the data just like that? Don’t you have to spend a lot of money?’

This was especially the case for some dramas. The results for those dramas were actually not that good.

However, they were willing to spend money on marketing. On one hand, they would promote it like crazy. On the other hand, they would inflate the viewership data. All these created the illusion that the drama was very popular.

Of course, this was not something that every drama could do.

Firstly, they had to see whether the platform would be willing to do it. Secondly, they had to see if the drama producers have the budget and were also willing to spend money on it.

Those dramas that had low budgets were naturally unwilling to do this.

Moreover, the production costs were already low, so it was relatively easy for them to break even. One could even earn quite a bit.

For Nine Heavens on the other hand, although the filming costs were not high, the actors’ salaries were high.

Because the filming costs were not high and the quality was not good enough, it would be easy for the drama to fail. On top of that, the actors’ salaries increased the production costs of the entire series.

Thus, it was even more difficult for them to break even.

If they bought and inflated the viewership data, the marketing cost would increase and make it more difficult to break even.

But if the viewership data did not look good, then they would be humiliated.

This was a very difficult decision.

Therefore, Guo Qingchen was going all out this time.

“How about this? You can submit an application tomorrow and send the price back to Director Guo based on the revised data figures,” said Manager Niu. “If he agrees, then we will change it for him.”

Manager Wu: “…”

“Manager Niu, we’re the producers of Nine Heavens,” Manager Wu reminded him. Had Manager Niu forgotten about this?

“If we send the pricing to Director Guo, won’t he still have to apply to us to pay for it? This is basically a case of the left pocket emptying the right pocket,” said Manager Wu. “We might as well just change it and be done with it.”

“That won’t do. We can’t leave out any of the procedures.” Manager Niu was very insistent, “Manager Wu, don’t put me in a difficult position. Otherwise, I won’t be able to explain myself when they try to pin the blame on someone. It’s better for us to follow the normal procedures. When that time comes, neither of us will have any problems, right?”

“Let’s say we submit the application tomorrow and then wait for you to record it down. And then I will have to contact Director Guo on the pricing. After that, he will have to apply to Kefeng for the funds. Won’t that be a waste of time?” Manager Wu said impatiently, “If we keep going back and forth like this, the second episode will be over before the viewership data is even changed. By the time we change it, the change in viewership data would be very noticeable, especially for the first episode. Won’t the netizens see through it at a glance?”

Manager Niu smiled and said, “Manager Wu, I’ll be honest. You might not like what I’m about to tell you.”

‘You might not like it, but I’ll say it anyway.’

Manager Wu: “…”

“With the number of viewers Nine Heavens is getting, no matter when you change the data, people will be able to tell.” when Manager Niu said this, he sounded rather embarrassed.

Manager Wu: “…”

Was Nine Heavens that bad?

“Manager Niu, how many views does Nine Heavens have right now?” Manager Wu asked.

Manager Niu said, “Just now, my colleague on duty sent me a screenshot of the background data. Nine Heavens has aired for half an hour, and the number of views has only just passed 1,000.”

Manager Wu’s heart sank, and he laughed dryly. “Didn’t the show just air? Moreover, it’s Monday, and everyone is busy. Some people have to work overtime. Even if they don’t work overtime, they would still come back late. It’s normal that they won’t be able to catch the show when it airs.”

“The viewership for Nine Heavens didn’t even reach one-twentieth of Broken Continent,” Manager Niu said mercilessly.

Manager Wu: “…”

“No…” Manager Wu racked his brain to find an excuse, “Don’t you see how many promotions Broken Continent has received? Kefeng gave the best promotional spot on the platform to Broken Continent. There is also a free membership event if people watched the show. So of course the viewership would be higher than Nine Heavens. At least half of the views came from people trying to fulfill the free membership event conditions. Maybe they just put the show on silent and don’t even watch the show at all.”

Manager Niu didn’t care about Manager Wu’s self-deception.

Half of it was due to the free membership event?

It was only four days of membership. How many would watch a show they didn’t like for four days of membership even if they put the show on silent?

Kefeng launched this event to let netizens try the first episode. If it was good, they would naturally continue to watch it.

It was a win-win situation since Broken Continent would get views and Kefeng would gain more members at the same time.

Even if they only watched the first episode and didn’t have the patience to continue watching the following episodes, they would have experienced the benefits of Kefeng’s membership. After gaining a day of membership and enjoying the membership perks, they would know how convenient it was. This might even make them subscribe to Kefeng and become an actual member.

This was Kefeng’s true purpose.

However, Manager Niu thought, ‘Did Manager Wu really not think of this?’

Even with the free membership event, Nine Heaven’s viewership was still less than one-twentieth that of Broken Continent. The figure was still a little exaggerated.

However, it was enough to prove that Nine Heavens was really inferior to Broken Continent.

It wasn’t that Manager Wu didn’t know about it, but he just didn’t want to admit it.

“Manager Niu, even if we have to apply, can we skip the procedures first? This drama was originally produced by Kefeng anyway, and the money that will be used to pay for the inflation of viewership data would also come from Kefeng..”