Midday, the next day.
The viewership ratings for episode two of 'An Ancient Love Song' were released.
1.59%! It went up—it really went up!"
In the producer's office of the 'An Ancient Love Song' production crew, Shinozaki Ikumi, with dark circles under her eyes, broke into a radiant smile. Her previously tense expression instantly melted away.
After episode two aired last night, she had stayed up all night reading viewer comments on SakuraNet.
Throughout the entire night, there were barely any negative reviews.
"Su Yan, why do you look like you're not even happy?"
Shinozaki turned to Su Yan.
"I'm happy too—just… not that happy, I guess. After all, we're still a long way from the target we originally set," Su Yan replied.
"Mr. Su, don't be so rigid. Even if we haven't hit the final goal yet, this is definitely worth celebrating! Do you realize what 1.59% means? That's the highest single-episode rating this year for a midnight slot drama airing on one of the Big Three networks: Zhongxia TV, Hudu TV, or Sakura TV," said Shi Peihua, her normally serious face now beaming with joy.
"This shows that 'An Ancient Love Song' has at least earned the approval of late-night viewers."
"If this trend keeps up, 'An Ancient Love Song' might actually break the 2% mark in this so-called 'dead zone' midnight time slot!" Shinozaki Ikumi said, a bit dazed.
Indeed, she had come to agree with Su Yan's ambition: to surpass 'Night Sakura' and make it into the top ten of the season's viewership rankings.
Is there anything wrong with having a dream?
But even if your goals are lofty and your speeches passionate, the process of pursuing them usually feels quite empty.
Talk to someone broke about making a million dollars, and they'll chat enthusiastically with you.
Talk to them about a small concrete step, and they'll think you're insane—even if they secretly want the same thing.
It was the same for a producer like Shinozaki Ikumi. Only when your show's ratings go from 1% to something higher do you start to get truly excited about that 2% threshold.
And when it really hits 2%, that's when she'll genuinely start getting hyped for the 3% mark, for breaking into the season's top 10—and start losing sleep over how to make that happen.
Right now, Shinozaki could feel her heartbeat quickening.
Yes, it was an idealistic thought.
But the ratings from episode one to episode two had jumped by 0.2%.
"If we could get a 0.2% increase every episode—or even 0.1%—by the time the series finishes, we really might hit over 3%. Breaking into the seasonal top ten wouldn't just be a dream anymore!" she said excitedly.
"As if things go that ideally?" Su Yan replied.
"Real life doesn't work like an arithmetic sequence."
"True…" Shinozaki looked a little deflated.
If ratings really followed a clean arithmetic pattern like that, Xia's TV industry would be overflowing with hit shows.
"But since we jumped 0.2% from ep 1 to 2, maybe later we'll go up by 0.4%, or even 0.6%!" Su Yan said.
TV dramas often have a long stretch of flat ratings, then boom—one explosive episode hits, and suddenly the show goes viral. Ratings skyrocket.
Arithmetic sequences? Too slow.
"?" Shinozaki Ikumi.
"?" Shi Peihua.
The two of them already thought they were dreaming big. Su Yan was dreaming bigger.
'An Ancient Love Song' breaking the midnight slot record on Sakura TV sparked considerable buzz in both the writing and production departments.
By today, the first-week numbers for the Xia Nation TV market had all been released.
This season, the Big Three networks were all performing… mid.
The top-rated was 'The Painted One' from Zhongxia TV, with a 3.98% rating.
Second was 'Lone Doctor' on Hudu TV, whose first episode had just aired last night with a 3.91% rating.
Third was Sakura TV's A-tier drama 'The Gilded Ones', at 3.89%.
Because of the premiere of 'Lone Doctor', Kiyota Sanji's 'Night Sakura' was pushed out of the top ten, falling to 11th place with a 3.01% rating.
It was shaping up to be one of the weakest-performing TV drama seasons in the past two years.
Forget breakout hits or viral shows—there wasn't a single A-tier drama debuting above 4%.
Among the top ten highest-rated shows of the week, Sakura TV had only two entries.
In this kind of "if you flop, I flop too" market, 'An Ancient Love Song' securing the top spot in the Sunday midnight slot made its performance truly stand out.
The script department was abuzz.
"Shows airing in the same slot on Zhongxia TV and Hudu TV only got 0.87% and 0.76%, respectively. An Ancient Love Song is stomping them."
"Of course. Midnight viewers are a limited crowd. For 'Ancient Love Song' to get 1.59%, it had to steal viewers from other stations."
"Too bad it's airing at midnight. If this had a better slot, 2.3% would've been easily achievable. For a C-tier drama, that would be incredible."
"Not necessarily. Midnight has its bottom-tier competition. Prime and regular time slots have tougher shows to go up against. If 'Ancient Love Song' aired then, it might not have stood out."
"No point playing what-ifs now. Sure, I feel bad for Su Yan, but industry connections are powerful too. Kiyota Sanji's new show debuted at 3%—it's ranked 11th now, but it could climb. If he really gets a C-tier drama into the top ten, the network will probably go all-in on him."
"'C-tier'? C'mon. Everyone knows what's up. Saturday at 10 PM with a bunch of famous actors taking pay cuts? That drama isn't really C-tier."
"Exactly. Connections are power. If someone else had 15 million yuan, they still couldn't put together that cast. He could. Gotta respect that. TV networks only care about ROI."
Naturally, discussions from the script and production departments made their way to Kiyota Sanji.
Episode 2 of 'An Ancient Love Song', pulling a 1.59% rating, rattled him—but only a little.
"That's the ceiling of that time slot," he told himself.
Tuesday.
The first episodes of the new season's web dramas—including 'An Ancient Love Song'—started rolling out across the Big Four streaming platforms.
The benefit of streaming was that shows could pick up steam mid-season, and new viewers could binge everything up to the latest episode before catching up live on TV.
However, due to the lack of breakout hits this autumn season, none of the dramas made much of a splash even after releasing on streaming.
Time passed, and the weekend arrived again.
Friday and Saturday saw the second episodes of the A-tier dramas 'The Painted One' and 'The Gilded Ones' air, but their ratings remained largely unchanged—still under 4%.
'Night Sakura' ticked up slightly to 3.02% with episode two.
But its rank dropped from 11th to 12th, leaving Kiyota Sanji fuming on set. The next day, he lost his temper and yelled at both the second male and the second female leads.
On Sunday night, although the second episodes of shows like 'Lone Doctor' hadn't aired yet, their positions in the rankings were stable within the top fifteen, so they didn't affect 'An Ancient Love Song's rank.
Thus, the show's ranking for week two was finalized: it rose silently from 27th to 23rd place.
Still not in the top 20—still not drawing attention.
Just after midnight on Sunday—
Episode three of 'An Ancient Love Song' aired right on time on Sakura TV.
This episode marked a major turning point.
The focus shifted to the current military and political state of the Sheng Kingdom.
In episode two, assassins from Northern Lie Kingdom had attempted to assassinate Emperor Yuanqi of Sheng, and the critical stronghold Huofeng Fortress remained in enemy hands.
With the people enraged and public opinion boiling over, court officials demanded that General Lu Shi lead a campaign to retake the lost territory.
In the context of the show, Huofeng Fortress is akin to Hangu Pass from the Warring States period in Su Yan's past life—a strategic choke point.
In this episode, Lu Yuan displayed her extraordinary talent on the konghou(Chinese Harp).
But her performance wasn't just for show.
Only Shen Buyan—who had entered the palace using a token from the emperor—noticed that her konghou piece intentionally included "wrong notes" to encode a secret message.
While Prime Minister Li Yong was still discussing how to cover up the assassination attempt without angering the public, Lu Yuan used her music to deliver a hidden message to Yi Hua outside the palace.
Yi Hua then spread the truth—that Northern Lie Kingdom was behind the assassination—across the city using spies, generating massive public support for Lu Shi's campaign.
Why did Shen Buyan understand the code?
That was a small hint of what's to come.
He also realized Lu Yuan's apparent compliance with Li Yong was a façade.
She had seen through Li Yong long ago but had no choice but to play along—for now.
Her goal was to strengthen Sheng, even if it meant serving under a corrupt official temporarily.
Having seen her intent, Shen Buyan decided to change her fate using his knowledge of history.
He joined the military campaign to Huofeng Fortress with a single goal:
If he could stop Lu Shi from dying in battle and prevent Lu Yuan from entering the palace to become the mad emperor's empress…
Then Lu Yuan wouldn't die ten years later.
The logic was sound—and many viewers thought the same.
In fact, Shen Buyan's knowledge of the battle, down to key moments and environmental factors, allowed him to offer invaluable tactical advice.
Knowing Lu Shi would fall in the Battle of Liuli Valley, he suggested a decoy strategy: have someone wear the general's armor and act as bait to lure the enemy, while the real forces launch a flanking ambush.
And he offered to be the decoy.
It had to be someone trustworthy.
After all, if he died, maybe he'd just return to the modern world—not actually die.
He genuinely wanted to save Lu Shi—and change Lu Yuan's fate.
Episode three was steady and well-paced. Most viewers felt the plot development made perfect sense.
But near the middle-to-late part of the episode—
A twist.
Shen Buyan discovered that this 26-year-old Lu Yuan—after his second time-travel—had recognized him from the start.
Or rather, she revealed it herself.
Because she didn't want him to be the decoy, she wrote a letter explaining everything, drugged him, and went in his place—wearing the general's armor.
In the letter, she confessed she knew he was a time traveler and that everything he said was true.
She had pretended not to know him.
She didn't want him caught in her conflict with Li Yong.
This plot twist stunned late-night viewers sitting in front of their TVs.
Wait—what?
Lu Yuan… how much did she know?
(End of Chapter)