HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 434 [434] Qi Yuan's cameo appearance doubles the ratings; what terrifying influence!

It was April 2001.

On the 11th of this month, a momentous event occurred that thrilled the entire nation.

On this day, China officially joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), becoming its 143rd member country.

From this day forward, the domestic economy will begin to take off.

A newspaper called *Qilu Evening News* published an article titled: "China's GDP is expected to surpass Japan's by 2050, ranking second in the world!"

As expected, the newspaper was heavily criticized.

Many people believe that the editor-in-chief drank too much fish head wine, which is pure wishful thinking.

Qi Yuan, who had already fled to Guangzhou, was at a loss for words when he saw the story reported by the Qilu Evening News.

At the beginning of the century, many people lacked confidence. They would be criticized for praising the country. It's no exaggeration to say that.

As someone who had seen the answer to the future, Qi Yuan knew how conservative this newspaper was!

On December 14th, Qi Yuan held a book signing in Guangzhou and also made a cameo appearance in the TV series "Wai Ju".

Liu Tao also came. The director told her that they had invited Qi Yuan, and she came over without saying a word.

If Qi Yuan is willing to be a regular cast member on "Foreign Drama", it wouldn't be impossible for her to return.

Unfortunately, such thoughts can only remain in my mind.

On set, Qi Yuan saw those familiar faces.

The actresses who played the roles of "bringing glory to one's ancestors," Uncle Kang, Aunt Kang, and the eldest and second sisters-in-law all greeted Qi Yuan.

What impressed Qi Yuan the most was Guo Chang, who played the second brother Kang Qizong.

This guy is quite interesting. Many people in Guangdong probably don't know that he's from Liaoning Province in Northeast China. He moved to Guangzhou with his mother when he was ten years old.

His life story, from rising from a member of the Guangzhou Workers' Amateur Performing Arts Troupe to becoming the "Stephen Chow of Guangdong Province," is quite remarkable.

Qi Yuan recalls that since Guo Chang passed away from illness in 06, the show "Foreign Drama" lost its true soul, and its ratings began to decline all the way down, with the quality of the plot plummeting.

From that point on, viewers started criticizing the show.

Also, Qi Yuan always felt that his sister-in-law was the second most beautiful person in the whole drama after Xingzi. Her rustic appearance was a bit of a disadvantage, and her beauty advantage was not fully utilized.

Qi Yuan's status is incredibly high, and he made a cameo appearance for free; even the deputy director of the station was present at the event.

Although Qi Yuan only appeared on screen for a few minutes, she received a lot of attention and acclaim.

This episode is called "A Superstar Arrives in Xiguan".

The general plot of this episode is that Sachiko returns with Kiyuan. They are spotted jogging in the morning by the neighbors, and the news reaches the ears of the Kang family. In the end, the Kang family becomes detectives and begins to search for Sachiko and her man.

In the previous episode, it was just a rumor that Sachiko met Kiyuan.

This episode is about to come true! In the last few minutes of the episode, Qi Yuan appears as Xingzi's boyfriend and interacts with the Kang family.

At Qi Yuan's suggestion, the second son of the Kang family got an extra line.

"It turns out that I only realized today that there are two kinds of handsome guys in Guangdong Province: one is called Qi Yuan, and the other is called everyone else."

This line sounded incredibly funny coming from Guo Chang; he truly lives up to his nickname, "Guangdong's Stephen Chow."

By the way, it's worth mentioning that Qi Yuan and Liu Tao wore Xtep sportswear during the running scene they filmed.

The shoes are a couple's style designed by Xtep for Qi Yuan and Liu Tao, named the "Yuan Chi" series of sports shoes.

After this episode of "Foreign Drama" airs, Xtep will take the opportunity to launch and sell these two couple's sneakers. As the spokesperson, Qi Yuan has always been very responsible.

Back then, he was a Pepsi spokesperson, and when he drank cola, he only drank Pepsi.

Now that he's a Coca-Cola spokesperson, he only drinks Coca-Cola.

Given that he is a shareholder of Xtep, it's reasonable for him to advertise his own shoes, right?
In short, the few minutes that Qi Yuan appeared in this episode became the climax of the episode.

After his cameo appearance, Liu Tao left the film crew and went to Qi Yuan's hotel room that night.

In the drama, he made a cameo appearance as Sachiko's current boyfriend, so it wouldn't be too much to make a cameo appearance in real life, right?
After the friendly match lasted for more than an hour, Liu Tao rolled his eyes at Qi Yuan: "You don't have any special hobbies, do you?"

Qi Yuan said with righteous indignation, "Defamation is forbidden! I am a gentleman."

Liu Tao chuckled: "Would a true gentleman make me wear Third Sister-in-law's clothes and call me Third Sister-in-law?"

Wait a minute… Liu Tao seemed to have thought of something, and his gaze towards Qi Yuan became even stranger.

She seemed to have discovered something incredible. She had asked Qi Yuan if she could be his girlfriend, but Qi Yuan ignored her.

She was a little frustrated at the time, but now she has finally figured out the problem.

It wasn't that she wasn't charming enough; it turned out that Qi Yuan preferred women who had boyfriends or husbands.

It must be because she doesn't have a boyfriend that Qi Yuan rejected her.

Qi Yuan didn't know what Liu Tao was thinking, but he didn't care.

He is upright and has nothing to fear, nor does he fear Liu Tao's misunderstanding.

……

This past Saturday, Pearl River Channel aired the latest episode of "Foreign Drama".

The TV station started promoting the show several days in advance, informing all viewers that Qi Yuan would appear in this episode.

During the broadcast, countless viewers in Guangdong Province watched it. Some friends from other provinces who had satellite dishes at home could also watch it. Those who didn't have either of those conditions could only wait for online resources.

A few days later, the ratings were released. The episode's peak rating reached an astonishing 63%, which was achieved when Qi Yuan appeared in the last few minutes. The average rating was 55.2%.

In other words, during the time slot when "The Foreign Drama" was airing, 55.2 out of 100 television sets in the entire Guangdong province were watching. When Qi Yuan appeared, 63 out of 100 television sets were watching.

It's worth noting that the highest viewership rating for foreign dramas is usually just over 40%, and the average viewership rating is only around 30%.

With Qi Yuan's arrival, the viewership ratings nearly doubled? What terrifying influence that is!

The Yuanchi series of matching sneakers worn by Qi Yuan and Liu Tao in the drama also became a focus of attention.

These couple shoes are quite affordable, costing just over 100 yuan, making them accessible to many people.

This resulted in 100,000 pairs of newly released shoes being snapped up by consumers.

The Xtep brand began to enter people's field of vision, and Qi Yuan's endorsement posters could be seen in merchants or directly operated stores that cooperated with Xtep.

Ding Shuibo, the head of Xtep, excitedly told senior management and shareholders at an internal meeting: "I was right to ask Qi Yuan to be the spokesperson. It was worthwhile to squeeze out 20% of the shares."

Now you should understand just how influential Qi Yuan, this global superstar, is, right? One hundred thousand pairs of shoes sold out in less than three days, with an average price of over one hundred yuan, directly bringing us over ten million yuan in revenue. And this is just the beginning.

With this perfect start, Ding Shuibo felt that defeating Anta and Li Ning was no longer a dream.

Previously, some fools actually thought that hiring Qi Yuan was too expensive and not worthwhile, and that they should have hired a Hong Kong superstar instead. Now, who dares to say that hiring Qi Yuan was a mistake? No one.

(End of this chapter)