Chapter 18

Friday night at 10 p.m., after numerous setbacks and having been taken off the air twice, Back to Hometown with My Bros was finally broadcasting again.

However, this time, the show had been moved from Saturday to Friday.

Why? Because it was already on the verge of cancellation.

Almost all the sponsors had pulled out, leaving just one last backer. Even the guest appearances had to be subsidized by the station. A show that couldn’t bring in revenue for the network would have been axed long ago if not for the old station director’s insistence on keeping it alive.

Yet, to the station executives’ bewilderment, even after being relegated to a Friday night slot, the ratings weren’t bad?

Wait.

Why was it trending on social media?

Who paid for it?

“It wasn’t me! I don’t have the money to buy trending topics!” The producer quickly defended himself.

“If he’s broke, then I’m even worse off!” The director was equally confused.

Their show was so poor that they had to borrow props from villagers—where would they get the money to buy trending spots?

“Tsk~ Some people are just born lucky!”

“This must be what they call a destiny child, a true rising star!”

Sometime during the discussion, Zhou Mingxing appeared beside the producer, Wang Yang.

“You? Old Zhou, do you know what’s going on?” Wang Yang immediately handed him a cigarette.

“Ahem! We’re striving to make this a smoke-free workplace!” Pu Xiangdong, who always found Zhou Mingxing’s laid-back attitude annoying, instantly “helpfully reminded” him.

Zhou Mingxing rolled his eyes, tucked the cigarette behind his ear, and pulled out his phone. He tapped a few times and showed Wang Yang a trending topic that had just been taken down.

“Holy sh*t! The ‘Perfect Husband’ cheated too?”

No wonder they’d gotten a high-ranking trending spot for free!

So the original trending topic in that slot had been forcibly removed, and their show had been used as a placeholder?

The removed topic was an explosive scandal—a famous paparazzo had caught a well-known actor cheating with a newcomer from the same production crew.

And judging by the details, their affair hadn’t started in the crew.

Otherwise, how could an unknown actress—who neither had breathtaking looks nor was a rich second-generation heiress—suddenly land a lead role as the second female lead?

It was obvious that the actor, who had been playing the role of the “perfect husband” for years, had already been involved with her long before.

To make their relationship more “legitimate,” he had arranged for her to join the production, giving them ample opportunities to rehearse and interact on set as an on-screen couple.

And the most outrageous part?

His wife had just given birth to their second child!

That meant while she was still recovering at home, the “perfect husband” had posted a sweet photo of himself cooking postpartum meals for her, playing up his devoted family-man image.

Then, the very same night he joined the film crew, he was caught red-handed checking into a hot spring hotel with his mistress.

“Now do you understand why someone bought your show a trending spot?” Zhou Mingxing smirked at Pu Xiangdong before deliberately adding a suggestion to annoy him—

“I bet they’ll have to buy several more trending topics to suppress this scandal. Your little Wei Sheng is pretty popular right now, right?”

“In my opinion, if your show wants to make a comeback, you should leverage Wei Sheng.”

“Since the ‘perfect husband’ scandal team will be spending money to control the narrative, why not spend a little yourself to boost Wei Sheng’s online presence? Once his trending status rises, other PR teams won’t dare to push him down. A trending spot featuring an unknown talent like him is both cheap and non-controversial—if I were the cheating actor’s PR team, I’d pick Wei Sheng to overshadow the scandal.”

Damn! This old fox, with 20 years in the industry, really knew his stuff~~

Wang Yang immediately turned his scorching gaze toward Pu Xiangdong.

So, boss?

You promised us before—if we managed to get Wei Sheng back, you’d approve more funding for the show, right?

Director Wang Qun also looked over eagerly.

Damn it!

That bastard Zhou Mingxing was definitely messing with him on purpose!

He knew perfectly well that Pu Xiangdong had been the one to kick Wei Sheng off the show in order to promote his own people.

And now, he had to fund Wei Sheng’s rise with network money?

Why the hell should he?!

But Wang Yang and Wang Qun were long-time veterans at the TV station. Pu Xiangdong was currently gunning for a promotion—he already had one foot in the station director’s office. This was no time to offend influential colleagues.

Grinding his teeth, Pu Xiangdong reluctantly approved an additional 300,000 yuan in marketing funds for Back to Hometown with My Bros.

Zhou Mingxing smirked at him in amusement, making Pu Xiangdong nearly explode in frustration.

What the hell are you looking at?!

He was still just the vice station director!

Vice!

He only had 300,000 yuan worth of discretionary funds!

But whatever—Wei Sheng was just an unknown talent. 300,000 yuan was more than enough.

Wang Yang, a seasoned industry veteran, immediately recognized Zhou Mingxing’s vast entertainment industry connections. Without hesitation, he roped him in.

“Brother! We owe you big time for the tip!”

“Since you’ve helped us out, why not see it through to the end?”

“What do you want?” Zhou Mingxing eyed him warily.

He had only come to enjoy Pu Xiangdong’s misfortune—he had zero intention of working for Wang Yang.

“How can you call it ‘working’ for me? Just take a look!” Wang Yang nudged his phone toward him. “Our little Wei Sheng is really something!”

“Clean background, no scandals, and most importantly, the kid looks sharp! Ever thought about signing him and grooming him as a rising star?”

“Yeah, Old Zhou, I think this kid Xiao Wei has a bit of that metaphysical luck for going viral,” Director Wang Qun couldn’t help but say a few good words for Wei Sheng.

“Think about it, how many artists has our station signed from outside over the years?”

“We’ve tried to groom them over and over, but in the end, only two or three have actually brought in revenue for the station, while the rest have been money pits, right?”

“Now look at our Xiao Wei! He hasn’t even debuted yet, but he’s already trending one after another—and we’re not even spending a dime on it!”

“If only Xiao Wei had signed with a company or had a manager to help him out. With this momentum, does he even need forced promotion? He could rise to fame just on his own merits!”

Zhou Mingxing’s mouth twitched slightly.

This Wei Sheng!

He wasn’t sure if the guy had real potential for stardom, but his ability to win people over was definitely top-notch.

He’d only filmed a few episodes—two of which had even been squeezed out by some connections—yet look at this crew, falling over themselves to plan his future and singing his praises. If someone walked in now, they’d think these two were his actual uncles.

But Wang Qun did have a point.

After all his years in showbiz, Zhou Mingxing knew this industry thrived on skill, but even more so on luck.

Back in school, teachers always fed them motivational speeches about how “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

Later, he learned the alternate quote: genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration—but that 1% inspiration is the most important, even more than the 99% effort.

In the entertainment industry, you had professionally trained actors, rich second-generation kids, people backed by capital, even those with god-given looks—

Yet how many of them actually made it?

In the end, it was all about luck.

Some of the veteran actors only got their breakthrough roles after decades of struggle, despite having top-tier skills.

With that in mind, this Wei Sheng might really be worth considering.

Now the question was—

“Where is Wei Sheng?”

Wang Yang and Wang Qun exchanged glances, looking a little embarrassed.

Ahem—They might have gotten a little carried away with the praise just now.

Because this kid Wei Sheng, well, he was great in every way, except for one tiny habit—he liked to use his downtime for side gigs.

Instead of resting at home after getting two days off from filming, he went back to Houzhai Village… to work on his side business.

Who would’ve thought that the money-making ideas he casually mentioned during filming would actually bring some life back to Houzhai Village?

Of course, in front of Zhou Mingxing, Wang Yang and Wang Qun weren’t about to admit that Wei Sheng was off making side money.

“Oh, come on, this Xiao Wei! I’ve never met a kid as kind-hearted as him!” Wang Yang laughed and immediately spun up a “kind and generous” persona for Wei Sheng.

“That’s right! Old Zhou, you don’t know this, but the folks in Houzhai Village have it really tough,” Wang Qun chimed in quickly. “The nearest town is nearly an hour away by bus! The elderly villagers, after saving up some homegrown goods, have to travel all that way just to sell them. But with their mobility issues, some of them can only make the trip once a year!”

“So, kind-hearted Xiao Wei saw this situation, and right after filming ended, he used his time off to help the villagers sell their products.”

“Pfft—” Zhou Mingxing, ever the sharp one, immediately saw through their cover-up.

But instead of being put off, it only made him more curious about this Wei Sheng.

Since he wasn’t around for now, and Zhou Mingxing had no plans that evening, he decided to stay in the office and watch the program with Wang Yang and the others.

“Hah, what’s so interesting about a show that’s already flopped?” he thought to himself.

Ten minutes later, he was completely slapped in the face by his own words.

Clearly, that “perfect husband” who got exposed for cheating was desperate to bury the scandal. He spent the whole night frantically buying and removing trending topics, trying to suppress the news.

And just as Zhou Mingxing had guessed, tonight’s trending topics were all either things the guy couldn’t suppress or topics he couldn’t afford to buy up.

That left Wei Sheng—an unsigned newcomer with no agency or industry backing— as the perfect scapegoat. The so-called “Perfect Husband” probably even thought he was doing Wei Sheng a favor by putting him on the trending list.

But what no one expected was—Wei Sheng stayed in the trending ranks for a full 48 hours!

What was going on?

Did another massive scandal break about the cheating guy?

Zhou Mingxing grew serious and called in a few subordinates to monitor online discussions.

And the more they looked, the more even the well-experienced Zhou Mingxing felt a twinge of jealousy.

Was this Wei Sheng… actually some kind of “Chosen One”?

Here’s what happened—

Since the show had been buried for so long and even had a break in airing, most casual viewers had moved on to other gossip.

But now, thanks to this random trending placement, lost viewers were flooding back.

That wasn’t even the most ridiculous part.

The real kicker was the backstage data—audiences clicking in from the trending list weren’t leaving.

Even during commercial breaks, they weren’t changing channels!

A group of industry bigwigs watched in shock as the ratings and online viewership numbers skyrocketed. By the time the episode reached the part where Wei Sheng was cooking for the guests, the graph had already turned into a near-vertical line…

“Boss, this show is actually pretty good…” murmured a colleague who had been temporarily assigned to assist with data analysis.

Zhou Mingxing: “…”

Alright, fine. The show might not have been well-known, but it was undeniably entertaining.

Because the production team was too broke, they didn’t even bother with an animated opening sequence. Instead, they simply used a set of travel shots taken when Chen Mengjie first entered the village.

And surprisingly, this first-person perspective added a fresh sense of immersion that instantly caught the audience’s attention!

Especially when they got off the car on the village road and saw the village chief arriving with three ox carts to pick them up. The camera zoomed straight into the wet, glistening eyes of an old ox.

Both the people and the ox had their pupils shaking in shock.

The video’s comment section instantly exploded with waves of “hahahaha.”

(End of Chapter)

—

—Edison’s original view – Genius is mostly hard work (99% perspiration), with only 1% inspiration needed to spark success.

—Alternative view – The 1% inspiration is actually the most important, as effort alone won’t lead to greatness without the right idea.