Depressive Screenwriter

After reaching third place in the April ratings this week,

a wave of casual viewers, similar to the later stages of 'To the Moon,' began joining in.

Most viewers have limited time.

But a regular drama fan will generally pay attention to the top three dramas of the season.

The moment 'April' climbed into the top three in ratings, regardless of the broadcasting platform, a massive amount of attention in Xia State shifted to this drama.

A drama broadcast by Qingkong TV Station achieving such results only proves that the quality of this drama must be exceptionally good, right?

On Raccoon Net, the average paid views per episode for 'April' surpassed 'Xia Fenghua' in just a few days, soaring to over eight million.

Many things that Su Yan wanted to say were said in advance by the Xia State media.

[The two A-level dramas of Zhongxia TV Station have been defeated by 'April.' Next, will 'April' aim to surpass 'The Simplest Love' and 'Xia Fenghua'?]

[After six years, a drama not from the three major TV stations has once again entered the top three in ratings. Su Yan's departure from Sakura TV Station did not lead to the downfall that many mocked, but instead gave the three major TV stations a resounding slap in the face.]

['April,' a touching drama that perfectly blends love and music, along with 'To the Moon,' are the writer's favorite and highest-rated dramas so far this year.]

[The difference between the works of a genius and a mediocre person lies in that little bit of inspiration! The plot of 'April' is not complicated; school, love, music—these elements, commonplace in many works, bring the audience the ultimate emotion in Su Yan's hands.]

[Many people in the music industry have praised the musical standards of 'April,' stating that screenwriter Su Yan's performance level is also considered top-notch in the Xia State music scene.]

[How can a twenty-one-year-old boy understand so many skills at such an age? The male lead Arima Kousei in 'April' seems to pale in comparison to Su Yan in the real world.]

[The miracle created by Su Yan continues. Can 'April' recreate the glory of 'To the Moon' and reach the top of the ratings in the summer season?]

Early morning.

Su Yan got up and looked at the reports on the internet, where the media were almost praising him to the heavens, and he felt a little embarrassed.

When buying breakfast at the breakfast shop downstairs to eat on the way, he was, as usual, recognized by a group of drama fans who asked to take photos and sign autographs.

After leaving the encirclement of fans in a bit of a panic, Su Yan drove onto the streets of Shanghai.

"I have to buy a house after making money. Otherwise, living in these ordinary neighborhoods, the possibility of being recognized and surrounded is too great. Also, the car should be replaced; this car is too old and uncomfortable to drive."

This was the unknown number of times Su Yan had thought this way while driving to the film crew.

The success of 'April' now left no room for him to be modest.

Several overseas TV stations had already contacted Su Yan's company to discuss importing the drama.

Of course, these copyright import fees of several hundred thousand or millions were just a small part.

In the internet age, online broadcasting platforms have actually transferred the revenue from the sale and rental of discs of TV dramas previously broadcast by TV stations.

Those are actually the bulk of a drama's revenue.

On Raccoon Net, the average paid views per episode of 'April' exceeded eight million.

Even if the current data remains unchanged, after the eleventh episode is broadcast, plus the paid revenue sharing from the online broadcasting platform, GG placement fees, and the tens of millions of import broadcasting fees given by Qingkong TV Station,

the expected revenue of 'April' is guaranteed to be over sixty million.

Compared to its investment of twenty million, this rate of return is definitely very exaggerated.

This is how film and television dramas are.

There are many cases where a drama fails, and investors, directors, and screenwriters collectively go bankrupt.

But similarly, there are countless examples of a drama's success directly leading to the financial freedom of the creators.

Su Yan parked the car outside the film crew, his expression confident.

"Starting with the next drama, I won't have to be so frugal."

Su Yan always arrived at the film crew very early, but Ayami Shinozaki would not be too late either.

Soon, she walked into the film crew while flipping through documents, and Su Yan quickly stopped her.

"Haven't had breakfast yet, right!"

"Yeah, deliberately kept my stomach empty. Just waiting for you to bring it to me. The buns near your house are really good; I don't get tired of eating them every day these past few days."

Ayami Shinozaki saw the fried dough sticks and buns that Su Yan was holding and smiled, quickly taking them and starting to eat.

"Su Yan, you're sure you're not changing the ending script of 'April,' right?"

Ayami Shinozaki asked while flipping through today's shooting schedule, her cheeks slightly bulging from chewing food.

"Yeah, no changes," Su Yan nodded.

"This drama will only be remembered by the audience with this ending."

Of course, Ayami Shinozaki had already discussed this topic with him for half an hour last night after seeing the script for the eleventh episode.

"I understand. Your previous dramas all had tragic endings and achieved very good results. Judging from this, the ending of 'April' is likely to be accepted by your fans. As a producer, I shouldn't interfere with your script creation. However..."

Ayami Shinozaki forcefully swallowed a piece of fried dough stick, then twisted open a bottle of mineral water and completely swallowed it, breathing a little rapidly as she said,

"However... you should always give your fans some hope. I admit that there are a lot of people in this world who like to watch depressing dramas, otherwise your works wouldn't have such high ratings."

"But you also need to understand... that there are also a lot of people who don't like depressing works. If you have four consecutive works with depressing endings, then your image in the eyes of Xia State drama fans will be completely solidified. In the future, those real fans of happy, pure love dramas will avoid you as soon as they see your name, no matter how high your work's ratings or reviews are, they will never watch your work."

Ayami Shinozaki looked up at Su Yan.

"This is definitely not a good thing for a genius screenwriter like you. If you want to become famous in the future and become the top screenwriter, you must never abandon any part of the audience!"

Su Yan's expression froze when he heard this.

He thought for a while, and it seemed that this was indeed the case.

In fact, Su Yan had vaguely noticed this.

Just like Gen Urobuchi in his previous life, friends who liked happy endings in Su Yan's previous life would turn around and leave as soon as they heard his name, and would never click to take a look, no matter how praised his works were.

"This is what I'm thinking. Su Yan, you may indeed be more inclined to depressing endings in your creations. But you should have one healing work out of every ten depressing works to leave your audience with some suspense, right?" Ayami Shinozaki smiled at Su Yan.

"Of course, this is just a suggestion; whether you accept it depends on you."

Although I liked depressing works in my previous life, I also watched ordinary genre works! But the system always gives me these super-tragic dramas, and I can't help it!

Su Yan complained in his heart, but he was also a little shaken.

However, the reason why 'April' was so popular in Su Yan's previous life was that this super-tragic ending was definitely an important factor.

Blindly changing it might be counterproductive.

But Ayami Shinozaki was indeed right.

Su Yan thought for a moment and said.

"Then how about this? The ending of 'April' broadcast on Qingkong TV Station will be filmed according to this script."

Ayami Shinozaki looked up at Su Yan.

"Then we can reshoot another ending where Kaori Miyazono's surgery is successful and she ultimately survives. But it will only be broadcast on Raccoon Net and will have to be delayed for a week before being broadcast as an independent if route, that is, a parallel world ending. Those audiences who like happy endings can then treat this as the final ending..." Su Yan paused and said.

In Su Yan's previous life, many works had similar operations.

For example, the classic movie 'The Butterfly Effect' had several other endings besides the theatrical ending, but those could only be seen by people who bought movie discs or watched on streaming media.

Another example is the classic Chinese movie 'SPL,' where the male lead did not die in the version released in mainland theaters.

But in the version released in Hong Kong and Taiwan, he fell to his death.

These operations in the film and television industry were common in Su Yan's previous life and also existed in Xia State.

Anyway, whether 'April' is ultimately a tragedy or a healing drama depends on the result of Kaori Miyazono's surgery.

The ending broadcast on TV stations is definitely the most orthodox ending, and Su Yan will define and name it.

But it's okay for viewers who are dissatisfied to find comfort in another ending broadcast on the online broadcasting platform.

Anyway, he will directly label it with if ending and other tags to distinguish it from the true ending.

"Yes, that's it!" Ayami Shinozaki's face showed an excited smile.

"Parallel world ending? You're really a genius! You should have done this with 'Rurouni Kenshin' and 'The Love of Hypnosis'!"

"That's different. In 'Rurouni Kenshin,' Tomoe Yukishiro's death is an important plot point for Kenshin to continue moving forward and grow spiritually, and it can't be changed. Similarly, in 'The Love of Hypnosis,' the setting is that history cannot be changed, and any if ending would be a setting collapse. But 'April' is better... Whether Kaori Miyazono's surgery is successful or not, maybe changing a chief surgeon in the plot would result in two outcomes, without involving the logic of the main line. Whether Kaori Miyazono dies or not, Arima Kousei has already been saved by her," Su Yan said.

"But why are you so excited all of a sudden?"

"Of course, it's because I can't stand it anymore! I'm your biggest drama fan in Xia State, and I'm already reaching my limit... If you keep making it so tragic, I won't dare to watch your dramas anymore," Ayami Shinozaki said with a long sigh.

"Teacher Su Yan, Producer Shinozaki."

At this time, Shen Liqian, who came to the film crew, handed him a carefully prepared lunch box. Of course, Ayami Shinozaki also had a copy.

She remembered her agent's words and used small details to capture the hearts of Su Yan and Ayami Shinozaki.

Now that 'April' has been filmed to the end, if she wants to cooperate with Su Yan in the next drama, she must not waste this opportunity.

"This is... breakfast I made myself. I made a little too much, so I brought a copy for you," Shen Liqian said with a shallow smile.

"What are you two talking about? So engrossed?"

"Some things about filming. Thank you, Shen Liqian."

For adult men like Su Yan, eating two breakfasts in the morning is easy.

Only Ayami Shinozaki looked a little uncomfortable.

How can I eat this! My stomach is full.

"You're welcome," Shen Liqian replied with a smile and walked towards the dressing room.

Ayami Shinozaki also responded with a smile.

After a while, Gu Qingyuan also came over with a pile of things.

Ayami Shinozaki and Su Yan's expressions changed.

And sure enough...

"Sister Yumi, Su Yan, this is the breakfast I brought for you."

Gu Qingyuan looked at the lunch boxes in Su Yan and Ayami Shinozaki's hands, but she didn't care. As a professional actress, how could you easily see the embarrassment on her face?

She directly ignored it and naturally handed the breakfast she brought to the two of them.

"Thank you, I'm just hungry," Su Yan said very naturally.

"Me too... I am too," Ayami Shinozaki squeezed out a stiff smile.

A few days later, the time came to Sunday.

The sixth episode of 'Xia Fenghua' premiered on Friday, with a rating of 4.58%.

The sixth episode ratings for 'Hopeful Person' and 'Single Men and Women' were 4.21% and 4.29%, respectively.

Even though Zhongxia TV Station had used every means this week to try to regain the ground lost to 'April's' ratings last week.

In the end, the sixth episode rating of 'Hopeful Person' was still not as good as the 4.33% rating of 'April's' fifth episode last week.

Unless there are flaws in the plot of 'April' this week...

Otherwise, no matter how you think about it, the ratings of 'April's' sixth episode cannot decline, right?

But compared to Zhongxia TV Station.

The most uncomfortable is undoubtedly Sakura TV Station.

Last week, the sixth episode of 'The Simplest Love' had a rating of 4.43%.

The difference in ratings from 'April's' fifth episode was exactly 0.1%.

With the situation developing to this point, how could Yoshiaki Akasaka, the director of the production department of Sakura TV Station, still maintain his composure on the surface?

If Su Yan plus Shen Liqian's 'April' surpasses the ratings of his department's number one drama this season, 'The Simplest Love,' then this joke will accompany him for the rest of his life.

What prestige will he have in the future?

On Sunday afternoon, Yoshiaki Akasaka stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, clenching his fists.

He really didn't expect that he, who had already climbed to such a position today, would still feel this sense of urgency from a young screenwriter.

Happy National Day, everyone.

Thank you for the reward from Super Electromagnetic Fireworks Light Music, thank you Fireworks Light Music for your daily support.

I will definitely have time to code during the National Day holiday.