Most people will never know the sheer bliss of being the first to try something new.
Ni Bingyan was fortunate enough to experience it firsthand.
*Children of the Mountains* was a low-budget art film with a small promotional budget. Setting up an official account was just a routine task. Unexpectedly, after posting a single livestream announcement, their follower count shot up by over three million!
The staff member in charge of the official account woke up, grabbed his phone before even getting out of bed, and was ecstatic to see the huge jump in followers. But when he opened the comment section, it was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on his head.
Even at the end of July, a chill shot through him from head to toe, leaving even the soles of his feet ice-cold.
'It's over,' he thought. 'I've really screwed up this time!'
If the movie actually got boycotted, the director would skin him alive!
It turned out that when he posted the announcement yesterday, although he included the link to the Wutong County Poverty Alleviation Office's livestream, the operator had secretly tried to be clever. He failed to mention that this charity sales stream was Ni Bingyan's personal initiative and would be carried out by her alone.
As a member of the movie's promotional team, it's normal to want to generate buzz for the film!
But he hadn't thought it through.
Ni Bingyan saw through his little scheme, but since it didn't cross any major ethical lines, she couldn't be bothered to argue with the production team about it. That didn't mean others would let it slide, however!
Ni Bingyan's fans were mostly casual admirers of her looks. Even if they saw she was doing a sales livestream, they would at most think she was selling out or heading down the wrong path and would quietly sigh in regret.
The few who bothered to click the link and take a look would, at most, leave a comment like, "Our Bingbing is as beautiful as she is kind." They wouldn't tune in to watch the stream, nor would they rush to the official account to voice any strong opinions.
The ones cursing the social media operator and his entire family tree were the fans of the male lead, Hu Zhenning.
Unlike Ni Bingyan, who was on a path to be a low-key actress, Hu Zhenning had debuted in a boy band. Since he didn't come from a formal trainee background and couldn't keep up with his peers in the cutthroat world of singing and dancing, his company arranged for him to act after the band's members went solo. They discovered he had a knack for it, so he transitioned into being a full-time actor.
In the first half of the year, Hu Zhenning starred in a drama based on a huge IP and became incredibly popular. However, his haters flamed him for his poor acting, practically chopping the series into pieces to create a massive collection of reaction memes that spread all over the internet.
He took this role not only to prove that he could actually act but also to use the prestige of being a movie's male lead to break into the film industry.
After all, in the entertainment industry's pecking order, film is always considered superior to television.
Furthermore, the male lead had very few scenes, so there was no risk of him being unable to carry the role. It also required filming in the countryside for a while, which his team could later spin to market him as a dedicated and hardworking professional.
For an idol like him, whose team would find a marketing angle even for something as simple as going out to eat, a "huge sacrifice" like this could be used to generate buzz for an entire year.
After some maneuvering, he became Ni Bingyan's co-star. However, because he had few scenes and wasn't feeling well, he was still resting in the county town and hadn't come to Lao Gua Village yet.
Ni Bingyan's sales stream was her own personal affair, and at first, Hu Zhenning's team had no intention of getting involved. But then his fans discovered the livestream announcement. Without understanding the full story, they immediately caused an uproar. They not only overran the *Children of the Mountains* official account but also flocked to Hu Zhenning's studio page to curse them out, accusing them of taking money and doing nothing while watching a third-rate production team bully their idol.
Since the team's formation, this was the most vicious verbal assault they had ever received!
After all, compared to minor issues like a bad red-carpet outfit or not getting the center spot in a group photo, someone messing with their idol and trying to ruin his future was simply unforgivable!
'The official account announced the female lead is doing a sales stream today,' they thought. 'Doesn't that mean they'll make the male lead do one tomorrow?'
'Ni Bingyan's agency is no pushover. How could they possibly let her do it without making the male lead do it too?'
'And what does Wutong County, that nationally-known poor backwater, even have?'
'Just piles and piles of potatoes!'
'The female lead is selling potatoes, are they going to have the male lead sell golden beans or something?'
'Our idol has tons of fangirls, eighty million followers, and is swamped with endorsement deals. How can he possibly be associated with selling potatoes?'
Idol stars generally have powerful marketing and publicity teams whose main job is to maintain their client's popularity and protect their public persona.
Suddenly getting cursed out so viciously, the publicity team felt deeply wronged.
They spent every day wracking their brains for ways to create hype. They had been worried about their star going off to the mountains, especially since the female lead wasn't the type they could link him with in a romantic scandal for publicity. But look, hadn't an opportunity just fallen into their laps?
So, when a fan leader contacted the studio to ask for information, the studio replied:
"Dear, regarding this matter, our Ningning hasn't received any notification yet. As for what the production team has planned, we're urgently looking into it. Once we have a clear picture, we'll let you all know tomorrow, okay?"
'Wait until tomorrow to clarify, and they'd get a huge wave of publicity out of it. Perfect!'
This was a standard tactic for management agencies, and not all the fans were fools. But this situation was simply intolerable!
Wait until tomorrow?
Hell no!
'I don't care who's in charge, we're shutting this down first!'
The furious fans quickly mobilized, first cursing out the production team, then their idol's own management team, and after that, Ni Bingyan.
They cursed her for caving so easily. Why was she so useless? How could she agree to something like this?
'It's no big deal if you agree, but if our idol doesn't, won't he be flamed to hell and back?'
The "eighty million" crazed fans raised a huge ruckus across multiple platforms overnight, and by that evening, they had pushed the matter to the number one spot on the trending topics list.
As a result, when Ni Bingyan started her stream the next day, the broadcast lagged so badly it looked like a PowerPoint presentation!
It couldn't be helped. There were just too many people!
At first, the livestream team thought it was a bad signal. The lead technician sent from the county to provide support was on the verge of tears from anxiety.
"Didn't they already bring in the mobile signal tower? Hurry up and call to find out what's going on!"
This was a time when everyone was united in the goal of escaping poverty. Anyone in the county who dared to drop the ball would face severe consequences!
'No wonder I was able to make a call from inside the house yesterday!'
The thought flashed through Ni Bingyan's mind. Without disturbing the crew, she went directly to the staff member sent by the streaming platform and had him call back to headquarters to check on the situation.
'The stream is lagging. It could be a signal issue here, but it could also be a problem on the platform's end!'
The crew contacted the telecommunications company, and after an investigation, they found the broadcast signal was fine. At the same time, Ni Bingyan got her answer.
It turned out there were too many people in the livestream room, and the servers had crashed.
By the time the emergency repairs were finished, they were already over half an hour past the scheduled start time!
The staff had assumed everyone would have gotten tired of waiting and left, and they felt a little disappointed. But the moment the stream went live, the comment feed scrolled by so fast you couldn't even read it!
Looking at the viewer count, it had already surpassed fifty million.
And so, the livestream that day went exceptionally smoothly. In this vast sea of people, a certain secondhand goods CEO's grand gesture didn't even make a tiny splash.
Ni Bingyan was focused on the livestream, but when she saw the staff from the Poverty Alleviation Office jumping up and down with excitement, she leaned over to see what was happening.
"How's it going? How much have we sold so far?"
In the chat, Hu Zhenning's fans saw her lean close to the camera, her voice tinged with apprehension, and they started flooding the screen with comments:
"Who do you think you're looking down on? Doesn't everyone know that I love potatoes more than anything?! Buy! Everyone, buy them all!"
Ni Bingyan was usually very low-key, so those in the idol fandom scene didn't really know her. But after coming to the livestream and learning the whole story, the anger in Hu Zhenning's fans dissipated, replaced by a mix of sympathy and admiration.
Before tuning in, they had thought she was a spineless person who had caved to the production team's tyranny. After, they discovered she was actually a kind-hearted and beautiful person.
So what if it was just buying some potatoes?
They mass-bought the luxury goods their idol endorsed all the time; there was no reason they couldn't afford to buy ten pounds of potatoes for just a few bucks.
An actress and a male idol weren't in direct competition, and she had a career with zero romantic scandals. The fans weren't worried about her trying to latch onto their idol for publicity, so it was easy for them to develop a good impression of her.
Besides this group of idol fans, many from the general public who had seen last night's trending topic now understood the risks Ni Bingyan was taking. They also developed a favorable impression of her. Moreover, since the potatoes were being sold through a government poverty alleviation program, the product was completely trustworthy, so they placed orders too.
"Miss Ni, we just restocked fifty thousand units, and they're gone again!"
The staff member was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes, his voice trembling.
They had set up two options, five-pound and ten-pound bags, but no matter how many times they restocked, everything was instantly sold out the moment it went online!
Miss Ni was amazing!
She was the golden phoenix Wutong County had been waiting for!
With this income, the lives of the local people would be much better this year!
Once these sales channels were established, they could expect many repeat customers when the autumn potatoes were harvested. Later, they could also sell other local specialties like mutton and goji berries. By next year, the county might even have a chance to be officially lifted out of poverty!
They had waited for this for so many years!