The film *The Mute Woman* was a relatively obscure production, offering little benefit to Ye Mianfei in terms of fan base. However, Qingpin Entertainment, riding the wave of popularity of *The Fierce Land*, managed to propel this rural film to a box office of 100 million yuan, making a huge profit and laying the foundation for many subsequent investments. It also earned Ye Mianfei a reputation for high-stakes success and box office dominance. This example has been discussed many times, so I won't go into detail here. The later Best Newcomer Award at the Ying Shi Awards is also a tangible achievement for Ye Mianfei. Actually, I think the biggest benefit of this award is that it allows Ye Mianfei's fans to silence criticisms of his acting skills.

Next up is the highly anticipated "Half of the Sky".

The work "Half a Day" can be considered a triple milestone in the entertainment industry, the film and television industry, and the career of Leafy Fertilizer. Its significance in film and television has been discussed to death, so I won't go into that. Let's mainly talk about the contributions the Virginia creeper group made to Leafy Fertilizer!

That's right, the ivy has absolutely played a crucial role in Ye Qiandao's rise to where she is today. I even once suspected that the ivy had actually been bribed by Qingpin Entertainment to specifically help Ye Qiandao manipulate her fans.

A careful analysis of the work "Tianban" reveals that it is a TV series aimed at the general public, but not at fan groups.

The so-called "targeting the general public but not the fandom" means a work that everyone likes, attracting a large number of fans, but without causing pain or consolidating the fanbase. This is quite simple: Li Yiming had too much fun in "Tianban." This is all Zheng Bohan's fault; he constantly made supporting characters act as stepping stones for his protagonist. The essence of "torturing" fans is, of course, the word "torture," but looking at Li Yiming's journey, what was there to torture? Li Ruhui treated her like a god, Lu Huaizhang cleaned up her messes every day, Diting was her close confidante, Cheng Daiqing respected her, and the Party trusted and valued her greatly… Except for the tragic ending, the rest of the episodes were incredibly enjoyable.

[Meme: Li Yiming is stealing a wallet from Di Ting's pocket, while Lu Huaizhang pulls out his own wallet and stuffs it into her pocket]

No matter how unwilling the male characters are to admit it, they can't deny this: competition, abuse, unfairness, and resentment are the four major weapons used to manipulate fans. The worse the work, the worse the treatment, and the more unjust the plot, the more loyal the fans will be. If you add in the more intense elements like female versus male rivalry, factional strife, isolation, and torment, fan loyalty will be further solidified! Conversely, a perfect work, perfect treatment, and a smooth life will only make most viewers forget about it after they've had their fun.

Li Yiming in "Half a Sky" possesses almost none of these advantages. For Zheng Bohan to treat his protagonist poorly and subject him to public criticism is worse than death for him. Therefore, "Half a Sky" is definitely not a work that can solidify fan loyalty.

However, someone has pointed out this flaw for Zheng Bohan!

That is... our magnificent Virginia creeper...

From the moment "Half a Sky" was conceived, the "Climbing Ivy" team began an endless online harassment and insult campaign against Ye Qiandao. I don't think I need to go into that history; there are still many ancient ruins to be found. Ye's fans were relentlessly attacked during that period, leaving them bloodied and screaming. During the early episodes of "Half a Sky," whenever Ye's name appeared on the official Weibo account, a barrage of insults with thousands or even hundreds of reposts would follow.

[screenshot]

[screenshot]

[screenshot]

…………

The abuse that wasn't in the drama was provided to Ye Qiandao outside of the drama; the competition and factional strife that weren't in the drama were provided to Ye Qiandao outside of the drama; the isolation and neglect that weren't in the drama were presented to Ye Qiandao by the ivy outside of the drama!

On one side is Li Yiming, the darling of the audience in the drama; on the other is Ye Qiandao, who is bullied mercilessly off-screen. Such a stark contrast makes it impossible for anyone with even a slight liking for Li Yiming not to feel pity...

What a stroke of luck! A huge gift of pink! The Virginia creeper is so generous to this leaf-fattening monster! [crying emoji]

It's hard to watch Zheng Bohan's works without feeling anything for his protagonists. The incredible feat of the climbing ivy directly led viewers who only had a slight liking for Li Yiming to skip the step of gradually getting to know Ye Mianfei himself and become die-hard fans.

The viewership and online streaming numbers of "Tianban" speak for themselves. We don't know how many people were directly or indirectly turned into leaf maggots by the ivy during this process.

Of course, the ivy wasn't always this foolish. After the huge success of "Tianban," these three clueless teammates finally realized their strategy was wrong and should have played the victim for Li Ruhui, tormenting the fans. Shi Laoshan was indeed wise; experience counts. He heavily promoted the real-life pairing of Li Ruhui and Ye Mianfei off-screen, dispelling much of the hostility. Add to that the variety show "Super Idol," and countless people were completely hooked on the Li Ruhui/Ye Mianfei pairing.

[Screenshot: Ye Chu stands on a tricycle, shouting, "I am the king of the world!"]

[The root of all evil: the story of my sister being eaten alive...]

Although the Yamaha pairing seems commonplace now, during the peak of Toki's popularity (when he was deleting posts), his personal influence was terrifying. The number of casual observers and fans of the Yamaha pairing was definitely much, much larger than those who were publicly known.

Normally, following the usual pattern, foliar fertilizer should have followed the tragic path of being leeched off by Shi Lao's deletions, clung to by persistent CP fans, and finally reconciled with the ivy. But just then—

The old man deleted the house.

The building collapsed in a way that will forever be remembered with infamy.

[Meme: A pile of ruins]

Although it's widely believed within the industry that Shi Lao's deleted posts were orchestrated by his old rival, Luan Laoqing, whether Ye Qiandao and her team were involved is another matter entirely. If you insist Ye Qiandao is innocent, then I can't argue with that. Even if it wasn't Ye Qiandao, it was definitely Ji Bapi; those two are practically inseparable, so it doesn't matter who did it. Only Ye Fen is still naively convinced they're irreconcilable enemies.

This collapse caused the heavens and earth to split apart, and the sun and moon to lose their light.

The collapse was devastating, with mountains roaring and seas crashing, and cries of despair filling the air.

This collapse... directly gifted all the fans of the Yamaha/Ya couple, casual fans, fans of the drama couple Leon Lai/Dawn, and countless other miscellaneous fans... to Ye. It also firmly nailed Ye Qiandao to the victim's seat, granting her an inexhaustible moral high ground...

Fans' favoritism, passersby's sympathy, drama fans' universal love...

I have never seen such a clean and efficient purification process!

This battle has definitively cemented Ye's position as a top-tier celebrity. His fans' loyalty has been tempered and refined to the point of near-steel-like fidelity; Shi Lao has been completely wiped out, while Ye Kenwo has embarked on that path to instant fame…

I wonder if these two people, now worlds apart, will ever remember the afternoon they spent singing together in a rickshaw...

Of course, judging *Tianban* solely from a fan-circle perspective is too narrow-minded. As the last universally acknowledged blockbuster TV series of its era, *Tianban* sparked a frenzy of short video parlor creations, leading the way in new-era film and television marketing and effectively helping Ye Mianfei penetrate both the mainstream and lower-tier markets. From then on, everyone knew him… [smoking]

As for the later *Happiness Street* series, from what I've observed, while it was quite successful, it didn't achieve the same level of popularity as *Tianban*. Of course, the various interpretations of *Happiness Street* have indeed been very popular, and I've heard they've even formed a "science of happiness." However, no one can say for sure how long this wave of interpretations will last.

It's rumored that this series will have a sequel. If the series doesn't deteriorate further, it might help keep this trend of interpretation alive, eventually becoming a new classic.

In conclusion, we can see that the capabilities of the foliar fertilizer team (and perhaps also her own cunning and malice) are terrifying. The online claims about "little white flower," "bitter baby," "little cabbage," and "good child" are nothing but illusions filtered through a distorted lens.

No one's success is a coincidence, especially not foliar fertilizers.

I have a feeling that her path to success might become a template that the Chinese entertainment industry will strive to emulate in the future...