Hongguo.com headquarters building.

The graph on the big screen had hit rock bottom half an hour earlier.

That was a double whammy of high user uninstall rates and a surge in complaints.

Zhou Tong stood in front of the screen,

The lid of the thermos in my hand was tightened and loosened repeatedly, making a grinding sound that made my teeth ache.

Red Fox slumped in the executive chair, staring blankly at the smoke detector on the ceiling.

It seemed as if they were calculating whether lighting a cigarette now would trigger an alarm and break the awkward silence.

"Editor-in-chief, the data... has changed."

The technician in charge of monitoring the backend spoke with a trembling voice.

Zhou Tong's hand trembled, and the thermos almost fell on his foot.

He suddenly leaned close to the screen; the forehead of the man with the receding hairline was covered in fine beads of sweat.

"Did it hit the daily limit down? Or did the server crash?"

No...no.

The technician swallowed hard.

My fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up the real-time retention rate interface.

"It's a rebound. And it's... a V-shaped rebound."

On the screen, the green downward curve that originally represented death...

After hitting bottom, it suddenly appeared from a perspective that defies the laws of physics...

It forcefully raised its head, transforming into a proud, upward-pointing red line.

"The completion rate of the first chapter of 'The Ferryman'..."

The technician raised his voice.

Ninety-eight percent!

Zhou Tong and Red Fox exchanged a glance, both seeing a look of utter disbelief in each other's eyes.

There's an ironclad rule in the online literature world: the golden three chapters.

If the first chapter has a completion rate of over 60%, it's considered a masterpiece; if it's over 80%, it's a divine work.

Ninety-eight percent?

This means that out of 100 people who clicked in to criticize,

Ninety-eight of them went in cursing and swearing, and came out kneeling.

What about the comments section?

Red Fox sat up abruptly, the chair creaking under its weight.

"It's changed too!"

The technicians switched to the public opinion monitoring chart.

"Just half an hour ago, the keywords were shameless, plagiarism, and extortion."

Now... it's all about "it smells so good," "Zhao Li," and "Number 444."

Red Fox grabbed the mouse and personally checked the backend data.

The donation rankings started flooded with messages from those long-time readers who had initially threatened to quit.

Right now, they are frantically expressing the pleasure of "being slapped in the face" with real money.

Just then, the red internal telephone on the table rang again.

Zhou Tong instinctively shrank his neck.

This was the phone call I made half an hour ago.

A cold ultimatum came from the group's Vice President Liu.

Red Fox took a deep breath, straightened his slightly wrinkled collar, and reached out to answer the phone.

"Hello, Mr. Liu."

She tried to keep her voice steady.

The person on the other end of the phone was no longer as cold as before.

Instead, a hearty, even somewhat affectionate, laugh filled the air.

"Red Fox, I just saw the latest data reported by the operations department."

"Excellent, truly excellent! It seems our 'dream weaver' is not only incredibly talented, but also possesses exceptional mental fortitude!"

The red fox rolled its eyes inwardly, but said respectfully:

"Yes, the dream architect has always been very opinionated."

"We should give strong support to authors with such strong opinions!"

Mr. Liu's voice revealed a shrewdness typical of capitalists.

"The previous... were all misunderstandings, it was all for work."

The group has decided to allocate an additional S-level marketing budget to Dream Makers.

Furthermore, if this incident is handled properly, your editorial department's bonus this month will be doubled.

By the way, I've also raised the issue of year-end stock option incentives for both Director Zhou and you.

"Thank you, Mr. Liu."

"besides."

Mr. Liu paused, his tone becoming meaningful.

"Now that the hype has already started, let's make it burn even brighter."

There's no need to clarify anything; even negative publicity is still publicity.

If the content is of high quality, readers will naturally buy it.

Your job is to keep the readers calm and prevent them from getting too agitated.

After hanging up the phone, Red Fox let out a long sigh of relief.

"Double?"

Zhou Tong leaned closer, his eyes gleaming with a thieving light.

"Double."

Red Fox pulled a pack of cigarettes from the drawer.

This time, I ignored the smoke detector and lit one directly.