Although 'Hikaru no Go' Season 1 had officially wrapped, its influence was still growing.
First off, Jing Yu's compensation as a writer had been calculated based on the show's performance. He received 9% as a screenwriter, 4% as a supporting actor, and a few hundred thousand yuan in music rights fees.
Based on the multiple rounds of funding added during production, his post-tax earnings totaled around six million Da Zhou yuan.
But beyond that, the intellectual property rights to 'Hikaru no Go' were proving extremely lucrative.
Less than a day after the finale, YunTeng TV's official website showed that pre-orders for the Season 1 Collector's Edition DVD had surpassed 2.5 million units, and the various types of merchandise—ranging from tens of thousands to over a million in orders—continued to flood in.
Naturally, Jing Yu had a 10% royalty share in all this, and if Season 2 performed even better, his percentage would increase accordingly.
Just from the current orders alone, Jing Yu estimated his revenue would exceed 20–30 million yuan.
When he finished calculating, even he had to sit in silence for a while.
He wasn't a man obsessed with wealth, but earning tens of millions in just a few months? That was hard to take lightly.
Of course, YunTeng TV was the real winner here.
Thanks to Hikaru no Go's unprecedented popularity, the returns had blown past all internal projections.
But the excitement only lasted a few days. By mid-March, Jing Yu was completely buried in work.
Writing scripts for 'Hikaru no Go' Season 2, 'Another', and 'Steins;Gate'.
Overseeing filming progress
Managing production quality
Personally, I acted in two of the three dramas.
Shooting promos and teasers...
In 'Hikaru no Go', he played the calm and intelligent Sai—a cool, moe archetype.
But in 'Steins;Gate', he had to play the role of the eccentric university student Zhou Gang.
Though the original name "Okabe Rintarou" had been adapted to a Great Zhou-sounding name, his chuuni nickname—"Phoenix Institute Hououin Kyouma"—remained gloriously intact.
Pure chuuni energy.
So much so that during filming, Yu Youqing and Xia Yining often couldn't keep a straight face.
Fortunately, both actresses were skilled, and the roles of Makise Kurisu and Shiina Mayuri weren't too demanding in terms of emotional complexity.
One was a calm and logical genius scientist; the other, an innocent and adorable airhead.
As long as they were visually appealing, audiences rarely asked for more.
The only problem was…
After a full week of filming, no one in the cast knew what the hell they were even filming.
The scripts handed out were disjointed, the scenes lacked obvious narrative structure, and compared to 'Hikaru no Go', this new drama felt... kind of boring.
Supposedly, it was a suspense drama—but where was the suspense?
The main character was just fiddling with a microwave, sending weird emails, and hanging out with other oddball characters.
Everyone trusted Jing Yu's skills—but still, the sluggish pacing worried the cast and crew.
No wonder he had to go on TV and warn people it was a slow burn.
Clearly, the concern was that viewers would bail before the good part even started.
Then there was 'Another'.
Jing Yu gave himself a small side role—a throwaway classmate who dies in the first few episodes.
Just a little fun cameo that wouldn't interfere with his responsibilities on the other two shows.
Yu Youqing and Xia Yining also played disposable roles in the drama.
Yu Youqing portrayed the girl who slips on the stairs and is impaled through the throat by her own umbrella tip.
Xia Yining played a nurse who gets trapped in an elevator and dies horribly after a phone call with the main characters.
That girl's death, in particular, served as the turning point—the moment Another began to show its true, terrifying nature.
The cast and crew of 'Another' were practically itching for more.
They had only received scripts for the first two episodes, but everyone was desperate to see episode 3.
"This show is going to do numbers."
"Jing Yu really gets Great Zhou viewers. Blood, violence, and senseless death—he knows what sells."
Meanwhile, back on the 'Hikaru no Go set', everything was business as usual.
With the increased budget for Season 2, the depiction of professional matches had become far more refined. To boost authenticity and draw even more viewers, the production had even brought in real-life Go professionals for cameo roles.
Big names like Li Le were returning (again), and even his mentor Zhou Zhengguang was invited to play a small part.
Of course, Zhou's real goal was to play Go with Jing Yu and improve his own game during breaks.
Late March.
Only one week left before April begins.
The major networks were now flooding the airwaves with promotions for their flagship summer dramas:
Xingtong TV: Investing over 100 million yuan into a fantasy horror drama called 'Black Cat'.
Imperial Capital TV: Betting 90 million on a suspense thriller titled 'Manual'.
Huanshi TV: Putting down a 116 million yuan production titled 'You, Under the Cliff'.
After the embarrassment of getting outperformed by 'Hikaru no Go', Huanshi TV was not holding back this time.
'You, Under the Cliff' featured three A-list film stars, all of whom used to be signed with Huanshi TV. Their combined salaries made up nearly half of the entire budget—even after giving "friendly discounts."
It was rare for actors of their status—now focused on film—to return to television. But Huanshi TV managed to bring them back.
Normally, Great Zhou's industry rule of thumb was that actors' salaries should take up no more than a third of the total budget, but when stars of this magnitude were involved, exceptions were made.
Compared to the spring season, all three Big Three networks had upped their stakes in the summer lineup.
'Hikaru no Go' had shaken the status quo, and none of them wanted to lose face again.
And it wasn't just about pride—lower ratings meant less ad revenue, unstable stock prices, and shaken investor confidence.
Even though 'Hikaru no Go' only had a 55-million yuan budget, many critics believed Season 2 would easily finish in the top two for summer viewership, and some bold analysts even predicted it might top the entire season.
Of course, others thought the opposite—saying Season 2 would flop, fall out of the top 20, or end in disaster.
Critics and media were just chasing clicks.
By the end of March, marketing for all the summer shows went into overdrive.
In Modo City, which had two of the six major networks, and with YunTeng TV as the wildcard, the competition was especially brutal.
Posters for 'Hikaru no Go' Season 2 and 'Black Cat' plastered every corner of the city—subways, buses, commercial districts, even movie theaters.
The ad war was intense.
As Cheng Lie had mentioned, 'Another' and 'Steins;Gate' received very little network support.
YunTeng TV was throwing all of its promo resources behind 'Hikaru no Go'.
'Another' and 'Steins;Gate' were basically left out in the cold, only getting a short teaser slot during YunTeng TV's own broadcast schedule.
Outside advertising? Non-existent.
Jing Yu couldn't do much about it either.
'Steins;Gate', especially, wasn't the kind of show you could sell upfront. It needed time to build momentum with word of mouth.
He did feel bad for 'Another', though. With just a bit of budget for promotion, it could've really popped. But if the network insisted on going all-in on 'Hikaru no Go', there wasn't much he could say.
At least the money stayed in the family, right?
March quietly passed. April arrived.
And right on cue, April 1st at 8 PM, the first episode of 'Another' aired—going head-to-head with Imperial Capital TV's mega-budget flagship suspense drama 'Manual'.
But all the attention?
Focused squarely on Manual's debut. Everyone in the industry was watching to see if it could break 6%.
As for 'Another'?
Barely anyone cared.
Small budget, no marketing, no big-name stars.
Even Jing Yu—normally a hype machine—wasn't acting in the lead role this time.
Despite sharing the same genre, people already labeled 'Another' as a flop in the making.
Everyone except…
'Hikaru no Go' fans.
Sure, Jing Yu wasn't a main character this time, but he had a cameo!
And after three whole weeks without him, no one could truly understand how deeply the Sai stans missed him.
All day, fan groups were buzzing:
"New Jing Yu drama tonight!"
"Even if it's just a cameo, we have to support it!"
"At least watch the first episode—he deserves that much!"
Whether they'd stick around or not...
Well, that depended on the quality of Episode 1.