While "The Web" was attracting widespread attention, Shao Yichen remained completely oblivious.
She was intently focused on monitoring the film's real-time box office figures, attempting to observe any unusual trends from a statistical perspective.
Her previous film, "The Last Wish," had become an unexpected dark horse of its season, and Shao Yichen, as its director, naturally received a certain amount of attention. This attention wasn't apparent day-to-day, but became quite evident when filming her second movie—the screening ratio jumped from around 1% for "The Last Wish" to a direct 10%.
Of course, a 10% screening ratio wasn't particularly high and couldn't compare with major concurrent releases, but it at least ensured that audiences wanting to see "The Web" could generally purchase tickets at nearby theaters, avoiding situations where searching the app would yield no screenings in their entire city.
Shao Yichen was certainly not pleased with this screening ratio.
In her view, 10% was still too high—it would be better to keep it under 5%, with 1% being even more ideal.
Shao Yichen anxiously survived the first day, fearing the box office would give her a shock, and only breathed a sigh of relief when the day's official figures appeared at midnight.
First-day box office: less than ten million yuan!
Although several million was still not low enough, after splitting the revenue between theaters, cinemas, and distributors, and with the system taking half of her share with the distributor, these few million weren't particularly impressive.
Moreover, for films premiering on weekends, the first day's box office was typically the peak, with subsequent figures showing a downward trend.
By this measure, "The Web" would reach a maximum of just over ten million, right at the threshold of losing money.
As long as the box office didn't exceed twenty million, she should be able to lose money!
Having calculated this, Shao Yichen finally relaxed somewhat. She opened her game and continued her solitary ranked journey.
If one were to ask why the twin teammates couldn't join her for ranked matches even after filming had wrapped, Shao Yichen could only sigh helplessly.
Because after the film's release, the twins had discovered a brand new hobby—arguing with people on forums.
Of course, they didn't participate in every discussion, focusing solely on topics related to "The Web."
If someone criticized the film—especially comments about its "mediocre soundtrack" or "terrible lead acting"—they would immediately jump in to argue their case, several times nearly revealing their identities. Fortunately, forum users looking at their comments concluded that even the leads couldn't possibly be so foolish, assuming they must be critics pretending to be fans, laughing off their remarks and sparing them from exposure.
Conversely, whenever someone complimented them—whether about their appearance, costumes, or acting skills (though this last category was practically nonexistent)—they would excitedly like the comment and respond with a shameless "Yes, yes, I think so too."
Fortunately, real names weren't visible on internet accounts; otherwise, regardless of their film performance, these brothers could have gone viral purely for their endless narcissism.
If they had simply been secretly liking comments that praised them, Shao Yichen might not have minded, since confidence is a virtue, and it would be quite difficult for others to maintain the strong psychological resilience and self-confidence of these two, especially Nan Rongyu.
What Shao Yichen found truly unbearable was that they not only liked these comments but also constantly sent her screenshots of the relevant posts.
Wasn't this stabbing at the heart of Shao Yichen, the enthusiastic money-loser!
Although she was actively monitoring online comments about the film and knew the public opinion wasn't uniformly positive, seeing these high-scoring reviews still caused her chest to ache.
What was happening! How could they feel such genuine emotion for this terrible film! Even listing clues point by point and analyzing so much!
As the director, I didn't even know my screenplay implied all these things!
What implications about Yuan You being bullied at school—I never planted such foreshadowing! How can you analyze so seriously even the ad-libbed lines added during scene-stealing! And making a big deal about wearing long sleeves! What's wrong with wearing long sleeves? Can't someone just be cold-natured and feel chilly? It's not like you're the one wearing long sleeves in summer!
What implications about the diary's contents—the camera only directly showed the cover, and the diary's contents merely flashed by as the police officer flipped through it. As the director, I couldn't even make out what Li Xingyu and Qin Lu had written in it, so how do viewers know more clearly than I do? Are your eyes automatic cameras? Can your dynamic visual acuity really achieve that level?
What final implications about public opinion reversals—public opinion? What public opinion? Did I mention any public opinion in my screenplay? The art director casually added some Weibo screenshot images in his spare time, and this sparked so many associations for you!
Even regarding why the deceased and the police officer looked so similar, these film supporters could explain coherently, talking about "symbolic techniques," "reincarnation," and "spirit possession." No matter how unreliable the speculation, they could find some far-fetched evidence and gather supporters, not only increasing controversy but also inadvertently boosting the film's visibility.
To this, Shao Yichen could only say—what's wrong with your aesthetic judgment?
You mystery enthusiasts shouldn't believe everything you hear, always trying to make something big out of nothing!
Shao Yichen couldn't laugh; her tears flowed inwardly.
Strictly speaking, though, the South Polar Bear twins weren't sending screenshots exclusively to Shao Yichen, nor were they intentionally trying to hurt her—it was merely an accident.
—Because they had created a small group chat for the film's main creative team and were posting screenshots of positive reviews for "The Web" daily, like relentless Taobao review-boosting machines.
In fact, this group had initially been blocked by WeChat as a fake review group—after all, they only posted screenshots without any other content, the entire group was filled with screenshots, and all the screenshots were five-star reviews for "The Web." Anyone looking in would assume it was a paid review operation.
After the twins recreated the group, to prevent it from being flagged again as a fake review group in WeChat's eyes, they mandatorily required each group member to "spontaneously" reply with something after they posted screenshots, offering some flattery to make the group appear more normal.
So after the twins posted screenshots, the group's typical exchanges looked like this:
[Morning Starlight: .]
[Great River Oh You're All Water Water Water: Amazing! So exciting! So happy! [thumbs up]]
[Green Celery: +1]
Initially, Shao Yichen tried to pretend she hadn't seen the messages, but these brothers showed her no mercy when she didn't reply, immediately tagging her.
[South Polar Universe: @Lose All Million Director Shao, look, someone gave "The Web" a five-star review! Aren't you touched! [grinning]]
[South Polar Ark: [applause][applause][applause]]
Shao Yichen: ...I dare not move, I dare not move.
It truly demonstrated that shamelessness knows no bounds. Shao Yichen couldn't imagine openly soliciting praise like this, but the twins did it extremely naturally, embodying the principle that "if I'm not embarrassed, the other person will be."
Later, whenever this happened, Shao Yichen wisely responded by offering the twins an elderly-style "you're great.jpg" emoji, filling the group with a cheerful atmosphere.
By the film's second day of release, the twins' enthusiasm remained undiminished as they continued sending related screenshots to the group, and Shao Yichen gradually grew accustomed to their behavior.
Therefore, when they suddenly posted an article link in the group, Shao Yichen initially didn't notice anything unusual.
She assumed the article's content would be similar to the five-star screenshots they had been sharing, but perhaps too lengthy to capture in a screenshot, which was why they had posted a link instead. Thinking this, she hadn't even clicked on it and was about to respond with another elderly "Great job" emoji when she saw Li Xingyu's reply pop up beneath the link.
[Morning Starlight: This article's perspective is impressive.]
[Morning Starlight: It resolved my final question about the film; so that's what was happening.]
Shao Yichen: ?!!!
Xiao Li, what's wrong with you?!
Don't you usually respond to the brothers' screenshots with just a period, nobly and coldly indicating "I have seen this"?
Why are you genuinely praising it today? Did you take the wrong medication this morning?
Shao Yichen was startled, thinking something must be wrong—this link must contain something significant.
She withdrew the elderly emoji she was about to send and decided to first investigate the enemy's position by reading the content of the link.
With trembling hands, Shao Yichen opened the link and discovered it was a film review titled "Tearing Open the Web of Malice, What Kind of Deception Lies Behind..."
With "Web" in the title, it was clearly a review of her film.
"Recently, many people have been messaging Mint's public account, wanting Mint to discuss the same film."
"But the reasons for these messages vary greatly."
"Some people think this film's narrative is chaotic, failing to tell even a basic story with an unclear ending, and want Mint to criticize it; other viewers are very fond of this film, considering it another dark horse following 'The Last Wish' from earlier this year, an excellent work not to be missed."
"Initially, Mint didn't want to express an opinion on this film too early. The reason is simple—Mint had recently conducted a very detailed analysis of another work by the same director and feared that producing another review so quickly might seem like paid promotion [wiping sweat]."
"But yesterday, after watching this film in the theater and pondering for a long time, Mint decisively decided to publish this review as soon as possible!"
"Because if this review isn't written quickly, Mint fears more people will fall into the carefully constructed deception by the director!"
"To remind everyone to keep their eyes open and avoid being deceived, Mint has made this determination. Even at the risk of appearing to be a paid promoter, Mint wants to help everyone see through this deception! How about that? Isn't Mint so loving toward you all! Moved friends, don't forget to follow the public account Cat Mint to read more honest film reviews~"
Reading to this point, this wave of hardcore self-promotion led Shao Yichen to recognize that this film reviewer's name was "Cat Mint."
This name seemed somewhat familiar.
After extensive mental effort with her rusty brain, Shao Yichen had a sudden realization and slapped her thigh.
Isn't this the reviewer who initially set the trend by attracting people with criticism to read her column, then using a build-up-and-release technique to forcefully label "The Last Wish" as a "conscientious film"!
The reversal of "The Last Wish's" reputation in the forums had started with this Cat Mint!
Realizing this, alarm bells rang in Shao Yichen's mind.
If she could set a trend once, she might do it a second time. Could it be that she had set her sights on Shao Yichen's film again, wanting to create another wave of opinion?
How could this be! Even when taking advantage, you shouldn't target the same sheep twice!
Being fleeced once for profit was bad enough, but did she intend to make Shao Yichen profit again? This poor little lamb was already nearly bald from being fleeced!
But on second thought, one can't make bricks without straw, and forging iron requires quality material. This time, her film was so undeniably terrible that surely this person couldn't conjure up anything new?
Moreover, from the beginning, this person started with "a deception constructed by the director," which didn't seem aimed at making her earn money, but rather helping her lose it.
Perhaps this time, Cat Mint had finally seen through her chaotic scriptwriting and wanted to urge everyone not to be deceived?
That seemed entirely possible...
After reasoning this way and comforting herself not to worry unnecessarily, Shao Yichen relaxed a bit and continued reading.