Chapter 617 The Story of How Foliar Fertilizers Made Their Fortune (5200-word long chapter) Green Petals, Stir-fried Peanuts with Vegetables Group, Featured Posts Section.

[Highlights] A Deep Dive into the History of Foliar Fertilizers' "Blood-Sucking" Effect

[Many of you in this group have probably been attacked by that omnipresent Ye family maggot. But many of you are also baffled, wondering how this fat woman became so popular and how she suddenly became so incredibly popular (no offense to Ye family maggots). Compared to the growth rate of other fans at the same time, Ye family maggots seem to have appeared overnight, which is terrifying.]

To understand the state and causes of this situation, we must understand the basic logic of how fan circles operate in the Chinese entertainment industry, including processes such as attracting fans, manipulating fans, and consolidating fanbases. Ye Mianfei's team undoubtedly understands this operating principle perfectly. Having compiled Ye Mianfei's (and exploitative) history, I am horrified to discover that Ye Mianfei's team has mastered this system with almost terrifying skill, successfully creating the fastest-growing, most disgusting, and most brainwashed fan group in the Chinese entertainment industry.

The team behind foliar fertilizers is far more complex than it appears on the surface.

Don't be fooled by the constant attacks and blockades against Qingping Entertainment, which have nearly crippled the studio and company; it's all just playful banter. The achievements of Ye Mianfei's team during this process are worthy of being recorded in the history of the Chinese entertainment industry. It's no exaggeration to say that Ye Mianfei's team is the most ruthless and skillful in the industry. [Sweating from a soybean]

The setup was a bit long, so I'll start by analyzing the timeline from the beginning, showing how foliar fertilizers gradually sucked everyone's blood to get rich...

Let's dig deeper!

Ye Mianfei's first role with some recognition was as the courtesan Mianmian in "Tianji Tower." In fact, from this point on, Ye Mianfei's large-scale marketing strategy was already beginning to take shape. At this time, Ye had not yet signed with Qingpin Entertainment, and her marketing methods were still relatively immature, but they were already showing promise. Through video parlors and fan-made edits on Pi Station, she aggressively marketed herself as a "peerless beauty," "unparalleled in charm," "stunning," and "high-quality," planting a strong first impression on the audience.

[Movie screenshot]

[Movie screenshot]

[Movie screenshot]

[Video Link - This must be a woman from the water towns of Jiangnan!]

[Video Link - Remembering the Plum Blossoms of Xizhou, I plucked a plum blossom and sent it to Jiangbei. A single apricot-red robe, temples the color of a raven's chick.]

[Video Link - Tianjilou·Mianmian | A Beauty in the North]

Such a small amount of screen time, yet Pi Station edited it endlessly, almost to the point of polishing every single shot. [Sweating profusely] How can a relatively unknown newcomer with zero marketing mobilize so many high-quality editors? We've all been on Banana for so long; I don't need to explain the credibility of this claim, right?

In fact, if you look closely at Ye Qiandao's face at this time, you'll find that she was still in her 1.0 phase. Her face would have been just average for a woman in the Chinese entertainment industry. It was only thanks to the makeup and styling by CTS that she managed to stand out. In addition, Yang Huanyi in the same movie looked old and decrepit, and the other female characters were also middle-aged. She barely managed to outshine others this time by relying on her age advantage and the role's bonus.

[Comparison image of Ye Chu with other actresses.jpg]

Don't underestimate this marketing campaign. Although the main platform was Pi Station, a platform known for its limited resources and numerous problems, Pi Station, as a hub for young users, catered to the loudest voices on the internet. Leafy Fertilizer successfully captured this audience, achieving its first public opinion shift from portraying an ordinary woman to a beautiful one.

Because the movie "Tianji Tower" was such a flop, and Ye Qiandao herself was also a complete nobody at the time, no one cared about any hype. Therefore, no one stood up to ridicule or refute the claim that "Ye Qiandao is a beauty."

If you don't refute a claim when it first comes out, and then jump out to refute it after it has become rampant, you will inevitably be accused of being a Monday morning quarterback.

[Still blank.jpg]

This was Ye Qiandao's first successful marketing campaign, and the results were outstanding. To this day, when platforms like Green Petal, Weibo, and Pi Station hold polls for average and ugly women in the Chinese entertainment industry, Ye Qiandao manages to escape unscathed. Ultimately, this all stems from this successful brainwashing.

The marketing for Mianmian was just the foundation. What followed was the main event, and the starting point for many people's understanding of foliar fertilizer: Princess Pingzhao.

The significance of "Yun Qing Ji" is self-evident. Palace dramas and family dramas are the genres most likely to launch actresses' careers, and their long-tail effect is far more powerful than that of idol dramas.

Literature, like a mountain, dislikes flatness. Entertainment works aren't afraid of political incorrectness, but they are afraid of boredom. If everyone is harmonious and peaceful, with no mistakes, no competition, no conflict, everyone perfectly happy and affectionate, such works might not be criticized, but they also won't be very interesting. It's like perfectly blended, mushy food—not too salty, not too bland, not too tough, everyone can swallow it, and it's harmless to health, but no one will enjoy eating it all the time.

Regardless of the criticism leveled against palace intrigue and domestic power struggle dramas, it cannot be denied that the thrilling competition, intense conflicts, back-and-forth scheming, the survival of the fittest, the risky maneuvers, the use of leverage, and the life-or-death struggles for even the smallest gain or position—such plots greatly stimulate the audience's senses and emotions, arousing their interest. This applies not only to palace intrigue and domestic power struggle dramas, but also to spy dramas and political intrigue dramas. "The David Dynasty," "Three Kingdoms," "The Sky Half," and "The Cloud Chronicles" are essentially the same thing: people fighting people, factions fighting factions, the winner takes all, the loser is left to rot. Born as ordinary people, cynical and complacent, destined for a mundane life, experiencing the thrill of struggle in fictional works remains an enduring spiritual need for the audience.

[Screenshot of the table]

[Note: As shown in the image, among the top ten long-tail dramas, there are two palace intrigue dramas and four political intrigue dramas.]

The character of Princess Pingzhao is highly controversial, and the debate continues to this day. Was she a useless or wise ruler? Was she a dragon slayer or a dragon? Was patricide and fratricide too cruel? Was she even more indifferent to human life than her father? Many questions remain unresolved, which means she continues to generate endless discussion for Ye Qiandao.

There is no doubt that Ye Qiandao's rise to power began with Princess Pingzhao.

"If you don't discipline them for three days, they'll be climbing on the roof and tearing off the tiles; if you don't torture your fans, they'll only stay for three months." This is an ironclad rule. From the perspective of the sunk cost effect, the greater the sunk cost, the harder it is to let go. The sunk costs of time, emotion, and energy are also costs, and they are more terrifying, more enormous, and more frightening than visible monetary costs. If what I like is good, then I am noble, correct, and virtuous; if you belittle what I like, you belittle myself. To retaliate against this belittling, one must do everything in one's power to prove that what one likes is good, thus having to invest more resources to fight back—this is the principle behind fan manipulation.

Ye Qiandao understood this principle well. From the moment Princess Pingzhao appeared, she was met with a barrage of criticism online, seemingly causing Ye Mianfei a lot of injustice, but in reality, she reaped all the benefits.

[This is a very important matter, we'll discuss it later.jpg]

Those who admire Princess Pingzhao, in order to prove their own correctness and superiority, feel compelled to lavish praise on her, which in turn elevates Ye Mianfei (a nickname for a male celebrity). Ye's newly formed fanbase has faced an unprecedented, epic test from the very beginning, which is beneficial for the direct conversion of new fans, casual fans, and drama fans. Few entertainment circles have directly confronted widespread online criticism during their early fan base formation.

Furthermore, the subtle and nuanced filming of "Yun Qing Ji" forced Ye's fans to spontaneously learn editing, narration, commentary, comparative editing, and analytical writing skills in order to engage in debates and discussions. This directly honed, or rather elevated, the overall quality of the fanbase (I'm referring to their character in terms of idol worship, not their personal conduct; as everyone knows, Ye's fans have no manners whatsoever). Many of Ye's 2.08 million fans are envious of the many skilled editors and writers in the Ye fandom, but this is largely due to the foundation laid during this period.

[Screenshot: Comparison of the number of fan-edited videos of Ye Chu with those of other artists]

In the end, Princess Pingzhao's image was reversed, and the entire internet turned the tide, greatly satisfying the fans' sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Only those who have truly experienced winning against all odds can understand the exhilaration. At this crucial moment, Ye Qiandao stepped in at just the right time, expressing gratitude, love, and support for Princess Pingzhao, acting as a kind of reward mechanism, making Ye's fans feel that "their efforts have been recognized." Thus, everything fell into place, solidifying the newly formed fanbase.

[Screenshot of Ye Chu's Weibo post.jpg]

Princess Pingzhao laid a solid foundation for Ye Qiandao's fans, and from this point on, Ye Qiandao's later madness was already evident.

Next came the *Xiao Feng Que* series. Due to Yang Huan Yi's own self-destructive actions, Ye Qian Dao (Ye Qian Dao) landed the role of the protagonist. The *Xiao Feng Que* series primarily served to solidify her fanbase. As a protagonist in the traditional martial arts genre, Xiao Feng Que's character design was top-notch, indeed attracting a portion of Ye Qian Dao's female fans. However, the biggest boost this role brought to Ye Qian Dao was opening up access to the vast lower-tier market—the remote controls of grandparents and parents—and also opening up opportunities for her on CTS (China Television System). To this day, Ye Qian Dao's works continue to receive the green light on CTS; *The Mute Woman* and *Happiness Street, Please Come Inside!* have both aired on CTS Channel 6, and the *Xiao Feng Que* series has been rebroadcast multiple times. This makes it almost impossible for viewers with a television at home who have watched movie channels not to recognize her.