Chapter 240: Scriptwriter Remains Secret
The tv series had its premiere, airing two episodes, and they had received amazing results already: in viewership and other audience measurement statistics. It was only going to get better, as long as the story’s quality remained the same.
The entire Tan Mansion was ecstatic with what they had achieved. It was past midnight, but no one was tired. They all stayed in the living room, where Tan Wenci was rewatching episode two of “Legend of Wei and Jin”.
Tan Jinyi was typing away on his phone, but no one knew what he was doing. After a while, he sent a couple of pictures to the family group chat.
Tan Mo clicked on them and saw tables displaying the audience measurements and viewership of “Legend of Wei and Jin”.
“I just did some research. Our show is, by far, for this entire year, the show with the highest amount of viewership. Not only that, other audience measurement statistics, such as the number of clicks into our show, prove that we are number one by a long stretch,” Tan Jinyi said. “And remember, our show just aired. All of those stats are just on the two-episode premiere. We have already surpassed the viewership of other hit series that are almost finished releasing.”
In just a little bit, Tan Mo received a call from Director Liu.
“Director Liu,” Tan Mo answered.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” Director Liu had seen the audience measurement statistics of his show, and he was ecstatic. Before he said anything, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud to express his joy.
Tan Mo lowered her gaze and scratched the tip of her nose nonchalantly. No one could hear it, but, honestly she was a bit embarrassed that she knew this person.
Had Director Liu gone mad with excitement, because of the good viewership?
“Tan Mo!” Director Liu was finally finished with laughing and was ready to talk now. “Were you sleeping? Am I disturbing you?”
Director Liu sounded much more friendly and polite than before.
“No, no one has gone to sleep here either. We’re all looking at the stats of “Legend of Wei and Jin”, and my dad is even re-watching the episode.”
“For real? I’m flattered! Thank your family for me, for loving the show,” Director Liu said.
“During the premiere, my dad was on Weibo in order to see the audience’s comments on the show, and my third brother has just researched the audience measurement statistics. He told me that we are number one.” Tan Mo made sure she referred to everyone in the family, then continued, “Director Liu, congratulations. The success belongs to you.”
“Same to you, same to you. You were the one who wrote the script.” Director Liu laughed heartily. “Honestly, this tv series is the best I’ve done so far. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”
Director Liu started laughing again.
Tan Mo looked resigned. She suspected that if someone didn’t stop him, Director Liu would go mad with excitement.
Obviously, there were dangers to creating something good as well… Like a director gone mad…
“Right now, everyone is wondering about the quality of the later episodes. They are worried because they haven’t seen them yet. But I am confident. The later episodes are even better than the ones that have been released. The plot only gets better toward the end.”
“By the way, congratulations beforehand for Tulip Awards best director, best producer, and best costume.” Director Liu liked what Tan Mo had just said. He was pretty certain that he would win.
He wasn’t being overconfident. Look at the great stats they’d already received. Anyone with eyes could tell that this show was of a very high quality and the plot was fascinating.
If their show didn’t receive those awards, then there was surely something fishy going on.
“Don’t forget about yourself, the best script award.” Director Liu reminded her. “If you are going to continue down this path of writing scripts, this award will help you get to the top of scriptwriters.”
“I am only doing this on the side. I’ve still got to attend school.” Tan Mo made an excuse.
If Director Liu asked her to write another script, she wouldn’t be able to rest anymore.
No one else in the Tan Mansion could hear what Director Liu was saying; they could only hear what Tan Mo was saying. They didn’t know that the two of them were taking turns flattering one another, and enjoying the flattery too.
Then Director Liu asked Tan Mo to pass Tan Jinqi the phone, and, after he spoke with Tan Jinqi for a while, he spoke with Tan Wenci.
He made sure to express his gratitude to Tan Wenci.
It was a double win for both of them. Tan Wenci was earning a lot of money because of this tv series.
In the following days, “Legend of Wei and Jin” did just as well as they’d expected, and they were getting even more of a viewership. The quality of the series didn’t decrease as it continued as many people had been worrying; the plot only got better and better, attracting more viewers.
But this series was going on television first before it became available online, so they sacrificed the chance to earn additional money through online memberships, VIP pass unlocked episodes, etc. They moaned about this poorly made decision, but they could not reverse it.
During the entire summer, Tan Mo listened as her classmates discussed “Legend of Wei and Jin”.
Professor Zhao started a group chat, and Shen Jingyi wasn’t in it any longer. The upperclassmen in the group chat were discussing “Legend of Wei and Jin”.
Yu Jianan said with admiration, “The scriptwriter for this series has a hardcore knowledge of history.”
“Wasn’t Tan Mo invited as a consultant? She put in a lot of work on this series also,” said Zhong Liusi.
COUGH! COUGH! Professor Zhao appeared. He didn’t appear on the group chat frequently, so everyone came to attention.
They all called, “Professor”. The word Professor soon filled the entire screen.
Tan Mo wasn’t planning on hiding. She said hello.
“The scriptwriter for this series was Tan Mo.” Professor Zhao didn’t plan on keeping it a secret. They were all a part of his team anyway. “She is both the consultant and the scriptwriter. Jianan is right. Tan Mo has a strong knowledge of history.”
The group chat exploded in conversation after what the Professor had said.
Zhong Liusi asked with astonishment, “Am I hearing what I’m hearing?”
Zhang Honghai: “Tan Mo, this is a huge deal, and lol you didn’t tell any of us.”
Professor Zhao: “I’m telling you guys because we are on the same team. If I kept it from you guys, when you found out about it later, you’d all blame Tan Mo for not telling you.”
Wu Xiaoye: “We aren’t so stingy. We’d just be happy for her.”
Professor Zhao: “Remember to just keep it to yourselves. Don’t let others know that Tan Mo was the scriptwriter.”
“I didn’t keep it from you guys on purpose.” Tan Mo told them what Tan Jinqi had told her, repeating it word for word, “If others know, something bad is going to happen.”
“We won’t tell anyone,” Zhong Liusi said sternly. “Rest assured, if anyone else finds out, then the culprit is definitely among us. We’ll make sure the culprit has a hard time.”
Everyone: “…”
So now they were getting threatened?
“I agree,” Wu Xiaoye was even more savage. “When we find the culprit, we’ll kick them out of Professor Zhao’s group chat. We don’t want any backstabbers here.”
“Yes, I agree,” Professor Zhao said. He had had plans to do so from the start.
The same thing was being discussed in Professor Guo’s group chat.
Actually, in comparison to Professor Zhao’s team, Tan Mo trusted Professor Guo’s team more.