On Sunday night, new episodes of 'The Simplest Love!', 'Your Lie in April' and 'Scarlet Romance' aired one after another.
And when the ratings were released the next day—
'Your Lie in April' Episode 6 scored 4.41%, remaining in third place.
'The Simplest Love!' Episode 6 scored 4.48%, holding on to second place.
As for 'Scarlet Romance', which aired in the same time slot as 'Your Lie in April', its rating fell to 2.01%—barely clinging to the 2% threshold.
Episode 6 of 'Your Lie in April' had relatively smooth pacing. After all, Episode 5 had just wrapped up the piano competition.
This episode focused more on transitions and character development. There was no new musical performance—something many viewers were expecting.
Instead, it emphasized the emotional progression between Kaori Miyazono and Arima Kousei.
Under the moonlight, the two watched fireflies by the lake.
Kousei looked at the girl before him and finally understood his feelings—he wanted to walk alongside her.
Of course, at the end of the episode, due to Kaori's impressive performance at the previous concert, both she and Kousei received an invitation to perform at another competition.
But Episode 6 ended right as it was Kousei and Kaori's turn to perform—Kaori, however, had not shown up.
How dramatic a story is can directly affect its ratings.
When an episode is more relaxed, ratings naturally rise more slowly.
Still, the fact that 'Your Lie in April' held onto third place this week made many in the industry breathe a collective sigh of relief—
Especially employees of the Big Three TV networks.
They had always looked down on smaller networks like Aozora TV.
Su Yan's sudden rise had already made them jealous. In their eyes, Su Yan had been "self-destructive" to leave Sakura TV.
And yet, 'Your Lie in April'—airing on Aozora TV—was doing this well.
Su Yan didn't even target them directly, but they still felt humiliated.
The drama written by a man barely in his twenties had forced the execs at their own TV stations to use him as a benchmark—putting pressure on them during meetings.
And just like that, resentment was born.
"I told you, there's no way it's that insane!"
"No matter how good 'Your Lie in April' is, Aozora TV has a ceiling. The ratings can't just keep going up forever, right? It's already over 4.4%—no way it's climbing much more."
"It's just that Episode 6 held steady. What about Episode 7? Can 'The Simplest Love!' maintain its #2 ranking?"
"Never thought I'd live to see the day I'd worry about Sakura TV getting overtaken by Aozora."
"'The Simplest Love!', hang in there! Don't get overtaken by 'Your Lie in April'! It's already bad enough that one of the Big Three has been beaten—if two fall behind, that's pure shame."
"I'm from Zhongxia TV, and honestly, I want 'Your Lie in April' to take the top spot. If we're going down, let's all go down together!"
At recent industry dinners, Su Yan and 'Your Lie in April' were always the hottest topics among employees from the Big Three networks.
Even though 'Summer Splendor' technically had the highest ratings that season—
Viewers and media alike talked about 'Your Lie in April' way more.
Everyone admitted Aozora had limitations.
For a drama to break 4% ratings on Aozora was already miraculous.
Going beyond that—4.5%, 4.8%, even 5.0%? That was ridiculous.
Viewers' habits don't change that easily.
That kind of rating was something only the Big Three could pull off.
But somehow, 'Your Lie in April', 'Summer Splendor', and 'The Simplest Love!'—all three hovered in that range.
And 'Your Lie in April' felt like it was just one explosive episode away from shooting up again.
That turning point—
Came on another Sunday night, when Episode 7 of 'Your Lie in April' aired.
At the end of Episode 6, Kaori Miyazono hadn't shown up at the appointed time.
The planned violin-piano duet became a solo piano performance by Kousei.
Encouraged by Kaori, Kousei finally broke through his mental trauma.
From a friend of his late mother, he learned the truth:
His mother had forced him to practice piano not out of cruelty, but because piano was all she knew.
She wanted to pass it on to him before she died—so that even if she were gone, her son could survive in this world using music.
Overwhelming love had birthed extreme methods.
Her desperation to teach him everything had led to his breakdown.
But in this performance—
Kousei, having learned the truth, broke free from his inner demons.
He played a piece that warmed the hearts of viewers across Xia Nation.
It was, once again, one of those deeply moving piano performances.
Exactly what fans of the show had been looking forward to since Episode 1.
But that wasn't the only explosive moment in Episode 7.
The emotional flashbacks and music had already drawn tears.
Then came the second half—
Kaori Miyazono was hospitalized.
She lay in a hospital bed, giving Kousei a gentle smile and telling him she was fine.
And at that moment, a voiceover played—Kousei's inner thoughts:
"You're not going to leave me as my mom did… are you?"
That one line sent a chill down fans' spines.
Is she sick?
So that scene back in Episode 2—when Kaori collapsed after performing—
Wasn't it just exhaustion?
And that line from Kousei…
It sounded a lot like a death flag.
His mother had died from illness.
And now the girl he loved was in the hospital—because of illness?
This couldn't be a coincidence.
'Your Lie in April' fans were furious that night, flooding Su Yan's RaccoonNet profile with comments:
["Su Yan the Sadist! You're doing it again, aren't you?"]
["Please, I'm begging you—just say she has low blood sugar or something. If you do that, I'll still be your friend, Su Yan-sensei!"]
["Guys, I've got a bad feeling. He's gonna kill off Kaori, isn't he?"]
["No, no, no—this is a school romance musical drama! Does the female lead really need to die? Su Yan-sensei, no matter how crazy you are creatively, you wouldn't be that heartless, right? You created Kaori—don't you feel anything for her?"]
["Yukishiro Tomoe… Lu Yuan… River… weren't they all his creations too?"]
["."]
["."]
["Darn it, Su Yan! If you dare kill Kaori, I will show up at your house for a final duel!"]
["Anyone here actually know Su Yan? Go talk him out of it!"]
["He didn't even care about saving face for Akasaka Yoshitoki. Who's gonna change his mind now?"]
["Everyone, calm down. It's only Episode 7—Kaori's just in the hospital. She's not dead yet. There's still time to fix this."]
["But with Su Yan's track record, I don't trust anything! If another writer makes the female lead fall into a coma, I'd be confident she'd wake up. But with him? If her finger gets pricked by a nail, I'm worried she'll die from tetanus!"]
["Same here. I'm traumatized. Su Yan—if you let Kaori recover in Episode 8, I'll forgive you."]
["Forget Su Yan—we need to get to his collaborator, Shinozaki Ikumi. Surely she won't allow this, right?"]
["Oh, right! Also, Gu Qingyuan and Shen Liqian—everyone go spam their accounts too!"]
That night, Shinozaki Ikumi was online reading 'Your Lie in April' reactions.
Suddenly, her inbox on RaccoonNet exploded—
From hundreds, to thousands, to over ten thousand private messages and comments.
All demanding she use her power as producer to stop Su Yan from "playing with fire."
They wanted 'Your Lie in April' to end the way Episodes 1–6 had gone—a beautiful, romantic, musical coming-of-age drama.
Why did he have to throw in a "female lead gets sick" plotline?
"What can I even do?" she sighed.
"Back when I was just the producer, he was the writer—he'd at least pretend to care about my input. Now he's the CEO, and I'm just the GM. He doesn't even bother to pretend anymore."
But still, she felt a little relief—
"At least I convinced him to make a second ending."
Had Su Yan not agreed to that, she couldn't even imagine what chaos would erupt when the finale aired.
Su Yan had nerves of steel—he could take the hate.
But Shinozaki Ikumi? She was a bit more fragile.
The next day, lunchtime, in April.
The higher-ups on set had gathered around Shinozaki Ikumi.
They chatted casually, but their attention was locked on her phone.
After all, she was the one Aozora TV always sent the official ratings to.
Then, ding—her phone buzzed.
Everyone turned to look.
Shinozaki Ikumi was nervous as she opened the message.
When the top two lines appeared on screen, she froze—
Then spoke in a louder voice than usual:
"'Your Lie in April' Episode 7: 4.46%."
"Sakura TV's 'The Simplest Love!' Episode 7: 4.45%."
"'Summer Splendor' Episode 7: 4.59%."
"This week's top 3: First place—'Summer Splendor'. Second—'Your Lie in April'. Third—' The Simplest Love!'."
She turned to look at Su Yan, Shi Peihua, Gu Qingyuan, Shen Liqian, and the supporting actors playing Tsubaki Sawabe and Ryota Watari.
"We've moved up to second place for the season!"
The set erupted in cheers.
"I knew it!"
"Second place… It feels like a dream."
"We're actually in second place. On Aozora TV!"
"No one's going home after wrap tonight—we're celebrating!"
As company chairman, Su Yan's voice also carried joy.
He'd seen this coming, but it still felt surreal now that it was real.
"But let's not get too comfortable. This is just Episode 7. 'The Simplest Love!' could still catch up in the later episodes." Su Yan said seriously.
"Still, now that we've hit #2, just maintaining that spot isn't enough. I think we all know what our next goal is."
"In a competition, second place is the biggest loser."
"There are four episodes left in Your Lie in April. I want everyone to give it their all in these final scenes. Let's shake up the summer season—shake up the Big Three."
"We're going for first place."
Su Yan had given many speeches over the past few weeks.
But this time, when he said 'Your Lie in April' could reach #1—
No one thought it was ridiculous anymore.
It was… inevitable.
Seven weeks.
From sixth place at launch to second place in the season.
On Aozora TV, they'd taken down A-tier dramas from the Big Three—
If they didn't take #1 now, that would be the real surprise.
A dark horse…
Has to run the race all the way to the end.