radicalducati Chapter 64, Fans
Chapter 64, Fans
April 25th, Saturday, Beijing.
The sunlight streamed in through the window on the second day of the film's theatrical release, illuminating the entire room.
But the light on Weibo was more glaring than outside the window.
That's the data shining.
"Galaxy First Star" sat in front of his computer, with the Weibo web version on the screen, eight tabs open.
There are super topics, trending topics, real-time squares, two data sites she often visits, a long Weibo draft that she is currently editing, and a Douban movie page with ratings fluctuating between 8.1 and 8.2.
She refreshes the page every few minutes, and each refresh brings one or two new one-star reviews. When you click on the homepage, it's either Reed or Megan, with a few Bees and Wool mixed in occasionally.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard, like a machine that, once started, had no intention of stopping.
Clutching a cold piece of bread in her left hand, she didn't bite into it, nor did she even look down at it again.
The private message notification sound in the lower right corner of the screen went off every few seconds, and messages in the group chat were scrolling down like a waterfall.
She glanced at it; it was the data team calling for help: "The hashtag #GaoHuanXuYi# is about to surpass one billion views! Let's push it to the top of the trending topics!"
Without hesitation, "Galaxy's First Star" switched to the topic page and started forwarding it.
Her account has high authority; it's an old account that she's nurtured for over half a year. She consistently posts on Weibo, checks in, and interacts with others every day, and has never bought followers—it's as clean as a blank sheet of paper.
One repost from this account is equivalent to ten reposts from someone else.
She spun the numbers one by one, her fingers like clockwork, and after completing one round, she would start spinning again from the beginning. While spinning, she didn't forget to include hashtags, add compliments in the comments, and tag three friends.
Although she didn't know if those friends were real people, she was sure she could do the right thing by following the instructions from the data site.
Her pinned Weibo post is a carefully edited long article titled "Xu Yi, you are the person I am willing to wait for with my whole youth," accompanied by nine pictures, all stills of Gao Huan in the movie "The Left Ear."
A person in a white shirt or school uniform, standing at the entrance of a convenience store with their head slightly bowed.
Every single picture has been edited, with color tones adjusted and grain added, making them look like old photos, like memories, like the slightly yellowed, warm nostalgia one feels when flipping through an old photo album many years later.
That pinned post has been shared over 10,000 times, and the comments are full of "Sister, you wrote so well," "I cried," and "Huan Ge deserves it."
She would occasionally reply to a few messages, type a few words, send an emoji, and then switch back to the data battlefield.
"The First Star of the Galaxy" is not her real name; her real name is Liu Haocun.
She will turn seventeen in a few days and is a second-year student at the Affiliated Secondary School of Beijing Dance Academy. Her daily life consists of practicing, attending classes, browsing Weibo, and thinking about Gao Huan.
She doesn't consider herself an ordinary fan.
While ordinary fans would simply shout "My husband is so handsome" on Weibo, she would do data analysis, fight against online trolls, write long articles, and analyze the emotional journey of each of Gao Huan's characters.
She felt superior to those fans who only screamed, superior to her roommate who only knew how to watch Korean dramas all day, and superior to everyone who didn't treat idol worship as a career.
This is a sense of superiority.
But she won't admit it.
She would say, "I just want to do more for him."
When she woke up this morning, the first thing she did was reach for her phone.
Her heart started racing the moment the screen lit up.
It wasn't because she wasn't fully awake; it was because she was waiting for a number.
The Left Ear's opening day box office.
She refreshed the Maoyan page, and the number jumped. She refreshed it again, and it jumped again.
The numbers were rising so fast that she felt her phone was broken, her heart was racing, her fingers were trembling, and her eyes were burning.
First-day box office.
1.5 million.
This is nearly three times the 55 million earned on the opening day of "The Coffin in the Mountain".
Liu Haocun stared at the number for about ten seconds, then jumped up from the bed, almost falling to the ground.
Her roommate was brushing her teeth when she heard the noise and poked her head out of the bathroom. With a toothbrush still in her mouth and white foam dripping from the corner of her lips, she mumbled, "Are you crazy?"
She didn't answer.
I quickly washed my face, took a deep breath, sat down at the computer, and opened Weibo.
Weibo is exploding.
The hashtag #TheLeftEar'sFirstDayBoxOfficeExceeds100Million# was trending at number one, followed by a purple "Explosive" icon.
Clicking in, all I saw were fans celebrating. Some said, "Huan Ge deserves it," some said, "Xu Yi is my white moonlight," and some said, "I've already bought five tickets to take my whole family to see it tomorrow."
Liu Haocun did not rush to post a celebratory message on Weibo.
She first switched to the Super Topic.
Huanxing's super topic ranking has surged to the top of the celebrity super topic list, leaving Lu Han's super topic in second place by nearly 20,000 influence points.
The data team posted a pinned post in the super topic: "Sisters, 1.5 million on the first day, this is our shared achievement! Thank you to every star who bought tickets for Huan Ge, boosted the data, and fought against the negative publicity!"
But we can't stop. Today is only the second day, and the word-of-mouth marketing has only just begun. We need to get even more people into the cinema!
The comments below were unanimously "Go for it!", "Got it!", "Keep going!"
Liu Haocun did not reply.
She switched to the trending topics section and began patrolling.
In the square, some people were praising the movie, some were praising Gao Huan's good looks, and some were praising Chen Duling's unexpected acting skills.
But some people are nitpicking, some are being sarcastic, and some are predicting the worst.
The most eye-catching one came from a reed, which was forwarded over a thousand times and commented on over two thousand times.
The original post was a screenshot with statistics and the caption: "The Left Ear grossed 1.5 million yuan on its opening day, with a 32% screening rate."
"Back to 20" grossed 9800 million yuan on its opening day, with a screening rate of 28%.
For Lu Han's debut film, it's quite an achievement that a newcomer like him carried the box office.
What about Gao Huan? Which film was "The Left Ear"? His second one.
The first "The Coffin in the Mountain" only grossed 55 million on its opening day, and it only broke 600 million thanks to the delay.
If we're really comparing box office performance, Lu Han is just as good.
Liu Haocun's fingers hovered over the keyboard for about three seconds before he started typing.
She first presented the data: "The Left Ear" grossed 150 million yuan on its opening day, and pre-sales exceeded 50 million yuan on the second day, making it a certainty that it would gross over 200 million yuan in two days.
She further built her reputation: Douban score of 7.5, Maoyan score of 9.2, Taopiaopiao score of 9.1, and an overall positive review rate of 87%.
She further fueled the hype: the Weibo topic garnered over 3 billion views and over 20 million discussions, dominating the trending searches for two consecutive days.
After she finished explaining all this, she added one last sentence: "Instead of being sour here, Lu Han's fans should go back and buy more tickets, so that your brother's movie doesn't flop too badly."
After posting, she refreshed the page.
Within seconds, the number of reposts, comments, and likes skyrocketed. The comment section was full of Huanxing's messages like "Sisters, if you can talk, say more" and "Luwei is heartbroken, hahaha."
She didn't look at it anymore.
Switching to the trending topics list, I found a new topic that's climbing: #OuHao'sLeftEarBoxOffice#.
Liu Haocun frowned slightly.
She clicked on it and saw that Ou Hao's team had released a press release, the gist of which was "Ou Hao helped 'The Left Ear' achieve great box office success, a masterpiece of the new generation of actors," accompanied by photos of Ou Hao on set. The data looked impressive, with seven or eight marketing accounts posting about it, and the number of reposts, comments, and likes were all very high.
She recognized this tactic; it's called "stealing credit."
When a movie becomes a hit, all the teams want to claim credit and put the credit on their own artists.
Ou Hao's team clearly didn't want to let this opportunity slip by.
Liu Haocun's lips twitched downwards slightly.
She switched to the data station's group chat, which was already buzzing with activity.
"Sisters, Ou Hao's side is starting to hog the box office; there are tons of marketing accounts releasing press releases in his supertopic."
"Shameless! Joyful Star is the main audience, Xu Yi is the key figure, what right do they have to steal it?"
"This cannot be tolerated; we must retaliate."
"How do we retaliate? Tear them apart?"
"Tear it up, it's beneath you."
Let's try a different approach.
Showing off ticket stubs.
We posted our ticket stubs online, took selfies, and let everyone see whose fans were walking into the movie theater.
This suggestion caused a stir in the group chat.
Everyone thought it was a good idea; the facts speak for themselves.
Your team, Ou Hao, released a press release saying "Ou Hao is helping out," then I'll let everyone see whose fans are the main force buying tickets to the cinema.
Liu Haocun typed a message in the group: "I'll take the lead."
Without hesitation, she took out the ticket stub from yesterday's viewing of "The Left Ear" from the drawer, placed it on the table, and took a picture of it with her phone.
Then she took another selfie.
She wasn't wearing makeup, just a white T-shirt, her hair tied in a ponytail, holding a ticket stub in her hand, and smiled at the camera.
She put the two photos together and captioned it: "#ShowingOffTicketStubsForHuanGe# Second viewing complete, third viewing tomorrow. HuanGe is worth it."
After sending it, she refreshed the page.
The number of reposts exceeded 100 within minutes, and the comment section was full of comments such as "Sister, you are so beautiful", "I want to post one too", and "Huanxingchong".
Soon, other big fans followed suit.
Some people posted photos of their ticket stubs, some posted selfies, some posted photos of their whole family's ticket stubs together, and some posted photos of themselves and their best friends holding up their ticket stubs and taking pictures at the entrance of the movie theater.
The topic spread much faster in the super topic than Liu Haocun had imagined.
In less than half an hour, the spontaneous topic #ShowOffYourTicketStubForHuanGe# surged to the top of the trending topics list.
The data team reacted quickly, pinning the event post in the supertopic: "#ShowOffYourTicketStubForHuanGe# Let everyone see Huanxing's fighting power!"
The post details how to participate: Post a photo of your ticket stub along with a selfie/group photo on your Weibo account, with the hashtag #ShowOffYourTicketStubForHuanGe#, and tag Gao Huan Studio. For every 1,000 reposts, the data team will randomly select ten fans to receive limited edition "Left Ear" merchandise.
Liu Hao has devoted all his energy to this topic.
She reposted every post from Huanxing who shared their ticket stubs, praising them in the comments for being beautiful, loving, and the best fans.
Her account has high authority, and each repost can generate dozens of reposts, causing the topic's popularity to rise at a visible speed.
By noon, the hashtag #ShowOffYourTicketStubForHuanGe# had climbed to the twentieth spot on the trending topics list.
By the afternoon, it had broken into the top ten.
By evening, the topic had garnered over 100 million views and over 1 million discussions.
It's not just Huanxing that's involved.
Passersby also started joining in because they thought the activity was fun.
Someone commented, "I'm not a fan of Gao Huan, but I think this event is quite interesting," and then posted a picture of their movie ticket stub with the caption, "Supporting qualified domestic films."
A couple posted a picture of their ticket stubs in the comments, captioned "Just showing off on our date."
One older woman even posted a picture of her ticket stub with the caption, "My daughter and I watched it together, and the young man's performance was really good."
Liu Haocun's lips curled up as he looked at the reposts.
She felt it was a "victory," a victory of "our unity."
Huanxing are not those toxic fan groups that only know how to hurl insults; Huanxing are fans who let their work speak for itself, let their data speak for itself, and let their actions speak for themselves.
She is not alone in this circle.
She has many comrades-in-arms.
They worked together to boost rankings, control online comments, fight against negative publicity, and stay up late at night in front of their computers to update data, waiting for a number to jump from 100 million to 200 million, and from 200 million to 300 million.
That number isn't cold and impersonal; it's warm and real. It's built up by fans with movie tickets, Weibo posts, and countless late nights.
Looking at the number 1.5 million on the screen, Liu Haocun felt that it was more than just a number; it represented the connection between her and Gao Huan.
She spent money on him, boosted his online presence, argued with his haters, stayed up all night, cried and laughed.
This achievement reflects her hard work, even if it's just a tiny bit.
But even a little bit is still a little bit, and a grain of dust is still a grain of dust. Many grains of dust make a mountain, and many ticket stubs make a box office.
A high-end office building in Beijing.
Lu Han's agent, Yang Tianzhen, sat in the conference room with a data report spread out in front of her, her brows furrowed in worry.
Her assistant across from her kept her head down, not daring to speak, clutching a cup of coffee that had gone completely cold.
"1.5 million?" Yang Tianzhen looked at the numbers on the report again, as if to confirm that she hadn't misread them.
"Did 'The Left Ear' gross 1.5 million on its opening day?"
The assistant nodded, speaking softly: "32% of screenings, 68 attendees per show, 46% occupancy rate."
Yang Tianzhen slammed the report on the table, leaned back in her chair, and remained silent for a long while.
She recalled that Lu Han's "Back to 20" grossed 9800 million yuan on its opening day, with a screening rate of 28% and an average attendance of 42 people per screening.
At the time, she felt that the result was already very good. A newcomer carrying the box office, with nearly 100 million yuan on the first day, was a very impressive achievement in the entire industry.
But compared to Gao Huan's 1.5 million, it's far behind, by an entire order of magnitude!
Yang Tianzhen picked up her phone and sent a message to Lu Han: "The box office figures for 'The Left Ear' on its opening day are out: 1.5 million."
Lu Han was watching the English Premier League on set. About twenty minutes later, he replied: "I saw it."
Just three words.
Yang Tianzhen thought for a moment, then typed another line: "You made a game with him, are you still going?"
This time, Lu Han replied instantly: "Go."
Yang Tianzhen looked at the word and gave a wry smile.
She couldn't tell if she was relieved or something else, but she felt that Lu Han's reaction was better than she had expected.
Don't panic, don't be flustered, and don't be sour.
It's just "go," one word, crisp and clean.