Chapter Eighty-Four: The Tallest Tree Draws the Strongest Wind, Yet Fears No Gale [First Update]

Everyone in the industry was praying, with near-religious fervor, for the debut ratings of the new singing contest to disappoint.

Better yet if they were an outright catastrophe.

Broadcast stations that had long been trampled under the juggernaut of Jiangnan Television were already waiting for the show to suffer a humiliating defeat.

If the results failed to match the week of publicity Jiangnan had poured into it, would that not be the perfect chance to rush in, stamp on it, and sneer a few words?

Such opportunities came once in a millennium.

You might not be able to beat them in open battle, but when they fell, the skill of running up and kicking them twice in the face was still very much within reach.

Kicking a drowned dog was far easier than racking your brains to create a program that could outshine Jiangnan Television in the ratings.

Still, before the final results were announced, no one dared to utter a single word of mockery. After all, openly tearing off the mask would be a bit much.

At that moment, the director of Sujin Television was sitting in his office, leisurely waiting for the result.

Although Sujin Television could not compete with Jiangnan Television in any respect, Jiangnan’s dominance had not been a one- or two-year affair.

Why exhaust himself searching for new programs?

It was enough to make the most of his authority and skim as many benefits as possible.

Padding his own pockets was the true path.

As for building a flagship show first, raising the ratings, and then using that to pull in even more money—he had never even considered it.

That would be far too tiring. By the time the show was finished, he would probably have been promoted anyway, and then what would there be left to skim?

Far better to take the winnings and stop while ahead.

In any case, once his term was up, so long as he made no serious blunders, promotion would surely be waiting for him.

So he was very free.

He patted the pretty model seated on his lap and had her change position. Only then did the director let out a long, satisfied sigh.

How pleasant it was to sit back and wait for Jiangnan Television to lose face, then mock them at will.

In truth, no one in the industry held much hope for the new singing show.

In their short-sighted view, expensive equipment, a superb band, and a high-level music director—all that behind-the-scenes hardware—were of little use.

Lavish was lavish, but the point was that the audience could not see it.

What the audience saw were the performances of a few singers.

So they believed Jiangnan Television had shown a reckless lack of judgment in making this program.

They had not even grasped what mattered, yet they rushed into filming; the outcome was bound to be miserable.

And what sort of performers had they invited?

Two washed-up old-timers, plus Zhang Nianwei, who could only just be called first-tier.

As for that Cai Chengyu, it would be a waste of breath to comment on him. With a surname like Cai, how impressive could he possibly be?

The biggest drag on the ratings was those three second-tier singers.

You could say Jiangnan Television had confidence, but they could not completely ignore what the market and viewers actually wanted.

If they had invited a whole slate of first-tier singers, there might have been some appeal. As things stood, there was basically no chance.

That was the reason every other station had joined in slandering it.

Yet, to everyone’s astonishment, the data released by Jiangnan Television claimed that the show’s ratings had risen like a tower from level ground, winning the opening battle with flying colors and breaking fifteen percent.

“For Jiangnan Broadcasting to care so much about its face that it would dare produce such obvious fabricated numbers—do they really think the powers above can cover for everything?”

“Jiangnan Television has thrown away even its reputation just to hide its mistakes! How shameless.”

That was the shared sentiment of all the spectators waiting for a good laugh. Anyone with even a little knowledge of the industry knew that reaching ten percent in ratings was harder than reaching the sky.

Even Jiangnan Television’s two prime-time hits had not broken eight percent. And now this newcomer of a program had supposedly doubled that? Who were they trying to fool?

If it was not fabricated, then what was it?

At the same time, many Weibo influencers with some connection to people inside the circle, having caught wind of the story, rose up to accuse it.

“There’s no need to say much. This show has absolutely nothing worth praising. It drags on, the singers are ordinary, and for one hundred and twenty minutes there is not a single point of interest.

“In short, it is rubbish among rubbish. I never expected that a show this trashy could be elevated to the heavens by Jiangnan Television.

“If Jiangnan Television’s ratings are not fake, I dare state that this program’s audience share can only be four percent. And that is only because of Jiangnan Television’s ad bombardment. I suspect hardly anyone will watch the second episode, and even two percent will be difficult.”

This lunatic, imagining himself able to predict the future, had clearly sunk beyond help. Who knew where he found the nerve to jump out and make noise?

...

Another Weibo influencer followed suit, posting the following:

“In these past few years, Jiangnan Television’s program quality has declined severely. I thought they would take the pain to heart and change course from their former lethargy.

“Never did I expect them to throw caution to the wind and let anything and everything onto the screen.

“It seems Jiangnan Television’s former glory is about to fade.

“Ridiculous though it may be, what on earth is this so-called singing show? I watched a few minutes and switched the channel. Such a tiny stage, and they still had the audacity to claim they wanted to bring music back to simplicity?

“Go stop any third-rate singer you find on the street, and he would not care about a stage of that scale.

“I am speechless.

“A television station blinded by arrogance, a group of singers blinded by arrogance. And you think you can restore music to simplicity? Are all the other first-tier singers and the kings and queens of pop just there to eat dirt?

“Let me tell you a harsh truth: why can first-tier singers become popular, while you remain unknown?

“Because you are far too exaggerated.

“If you want success, first adjust your mindset. There are no shortcuts to success. I hope you can understand that. I have said enough.”

With a tone laced with the smug superiority of a rustic bumpkin who had climbed onto a chair and believed himself to have touched the heavens, he attacked everything related to the new singing show with the same fervor one might use to denounce the darkness of feudal society. One had to say, it was rather deranged.

...

Then another Weibo influencer spoke up:

“In my view, anything meddled with by Ren Qian is dragged down in class.

“He makes music purely to challenge the public’s bottom line. He claims to be making Cantonese songs, but in truth it is nothing but vulgar slang that should never see daylight. That can be called a song? No one even knows what he is singing!

“And take something as simple as chatting. He manages to turn it into a vulgar meme: cheap, shoddy images with attention-seeking captions, yet it still spreads like wildfire. One has to say this is the sorrow of hundreds of millions of netizens.

“By that logic, we can tell just how disgraceful this so-called singing show really is.”

This influencer was even worse: his language was chaotic, his logic muddled, like a fool with an abnormal chromosome twenty-three.

...

Tall trees in the forest are bound to be felled by the wind.

Half an hour after the program aired, no fewer than ten Weibo influencers had already attacked Jiangnan Television’s new production.

As Weibo influencers, their posts would be pushed to the front page, meaning these remarks would reach even more eyes and draw in more like-minded haters.

Thus, beneath these posts gathered a large swarm of trolls—jealous of Ren Qian, jealous of Jiangnan Television, jealous of the new singing show.

They always chose the nastiest words possible, as though someone had cuckolded their fathers.

“See? The more famous you get, the more trouble comes with it...”

The young nurse worriedly touched Ren Qian’s face.

“It’s fine. Once I get a little more famous, no one will dare gossip anymore.”

Ren Qian caught the nurse’s smooth, jade-like hand in his own, and could not help but grow distracted by desire.

“Take your hand away.”

“No, no. Helping my girlfriend improve her figure is a man’s basic right, and also his basic duty...”

What sort of twisted logic was that? He was groping her and still had the nerve to sound so righteous?

The nurse reacted quickly and blocked Ren Qian’s shameless hand.

“Get lost. There’s no such theory.”

“It’s in the middle school civics textbook. Chapter Four, Section Three: the rights and duties of citizens. It is written there in black and white. I am a man well-versed in political principles!”

The nurse grabbed a pillow. “So you’re well-versed, are you? I’ll show you well-versed! I’ll show you well-versed! I’ll show you well-versed!”