That night, Jing Yu stared at his Qingyun Blog account.
It was a disaster—nearly ten thousand posts were bashing him.
However,
Seeing the fan points in the redemption panel skyrocket, he felt it was all worth it.
Getting flamed for a week could at least earn him millions in fan points, possibly even more.
With that thought, his heart settled, and he soon drifted into sleep.
The next day arrived.
After fans had pushed the ratings for 'Clannad' Season 1 and 2 back up from 7.7 to 9.0 the previous week, they plummeted overnight last night—
from 9.0 straight down to 6.6.
6.6—What did that even mean?
The six major TV stations were gloating.
They had never seen a screenwriter treat viewers with such disregard.
Did you think you could control everything?
How naïve.
Back when he was at Yunteng TV, higher-ups would review his scripts. Ridiculous plots were filtered out.
Now that he's left Yunteng TV, become a boss himself, and listens to no one—
He's really gone off the rails.
Building trust with the audience is incredibly difficult, yet it collapses so easily.
All those past series of Jing Yu's that sold well? It was the audience tolerating him.
It was the brilliance of the storylines that let viewers endure his tropes—cheating plots, killing off heroines…
But do it too many times? Well, even a clay statue has a temper.
If this drama was just another standard kill-off like before—say, just Nagisa Furukawa—it might have been tolerable.
But this time? He killed both the mother and daughter, whom fans adored.
Heh.
Youthful arrogance.
The six major TV stations have now made their move.
They had been suppressed by Jing Yu for three long years. But they knew an unshakable law of any industry—
No one stays on top forever.
Even someone like Jing Yu, hailed as the most talented screenwriter in Great Zhou's TV industry in recent decades, is no exception.
These stations had been waiting three years for a moment like this.
So starting Tuesday, the stations' review shows rolled out one heavyweight critic after another to take turns trashing 'Clannad'.
After all, casual complaints from the audience weren't cutting it. But when rival stations stepped in? That was a different story.
Even people who hadn't watched 'Clannad' were, after two days of media bombardment, convinced of one thing:
'Clannad' had a terrible ending.
Or rather, "terrible ending" might not even capture it.
Was the show bad?
Not at all!
How could a bad show have so many viewers mourning the deaths of Ushio Okazaki and Nagisa Furukawa on the forums?
So many are grieving over the protagonist Tomoya Okazaki.
Everyone's fury was focused squarely on the one who caused it all—the writer, Jing Yu.
The real issue with 'Clannad' was that Jing Yu didn't respect the audience.
In the final episodes of Season 2, it felt like the screenwriter was just being self-indulgent, doing whatever he wanted.
Once that narrative set in, the fallout was swift—
'Clannad''s reputation was in ruins.
And that 6.6 rating? In just two more days, it dropped another 0.2 points.
That evening, after finishing the latest scenes for 'Fate/Zero', Jing Yu quietly drove off from the film base by a small road.
"I told you—you really should've listened to Producer Cheng. Now you can't even leave the set without sneaking out. Those people outside yesterday were terrifying. If they'd caught you, you probably wouldn't have escaped easily."
Yu Youqing, sitting in the passenger seat beside Jing Yu, grumbled.
She recalled the day before, when over a hundred hardcore fans of 'Clannad' were protesting outside the base, holding banners.
Most absurd of all, someone brought black-and-white portraits of her characters—Nagisa Furukawa and her daughter Ushio Okazaki—and joined the protest.
It almost felt like she had actually died.
Of course, Jing Yu couldn't exactly explain that all this was part of a ploy to rake in more fan points.
"Don't bring it up. I'll be more careful next time. If I write a plot like that again, at least give viewers a hint of some alternate possibility at the end," Jing Yu said, rubbing his temples.
Episode 11's edit had indeed been harsh. Unlike the previous world's anime version, where the daughter's death was immediately followed by scenes of the girl in the lonely world with the robot, and flashbacks of Nagisa Furukawa at the end—
In this world's live-action version, Jing Yu edited it to maximize suspense and viewer agony.
Yu Youqing rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth slowly curled into a smile.
"What are you smiling at?" Jing Yu asked.
"I'm just happy, I guess. Even though my character, Nagisa Furukawa, was written off weeks ago, so many people are still defending her. When I first studied acting, my dream was to play roles that people would love. And now…"
"Now I realize, ever since I met you, every role I've played has been like that. So yeah—I'm happy," she said.
"Oh? So is it acting in my scripts that makes you happy, or being with me that makes you happy?" Jing Yu asked, still driving.
"At first, it was acting in your scripts. Now?" Yu Youqing looked at him.
"I'm happier being with you off-screen."
After filming, they went to a private room at a restaurant and were finally able to relax.
After all, both of them were now big-name celebrities. If they had eaten in the main hall, they probably wouldn't have gotten two bites in before being swarmed.
After dinner, they drove home.
"Hey... once 'Fate/Zero' wraps and enters post-production, let's go on a trip together," Jing Yu suggested.
"A trip? You and me?" Yu Youqing asked.
"Yeah."
"That's kind of sudden."
"No real reason. Just feels like... we've been dating for months now, but we're always either on set or rushing to set. It feels like…" Jing Yu paused, glancing at her.
"So? Wanna go? You pick the place."
"Hmm... I've been in the Modo City for years now, but never really gone back home. Once 'Fate/Zero' wraps, let's go back to Lan Province together," she said, taking his hand.
"Lan Province, huh?"
Jing Yu considered it. Though he had an ID and household registration there (as a transmigrator), he didn't have any special attachment to the place.
He hadn't gone back even once in the past three years.
Still—
"Sure. If you say go back, we'll go back," he replied.
The two strolled home from the parking lot, affectionately clinging to each other.
Even though they were neighbors and had been dating for months, and Xia Yining had already gone abroad out of boredom, Jing Yu had been so busy with work that their relationship hadn't progressed very fast.
Even if he had thoughts, he still held himself back.
"Good night," Jing Yu said, taking a deep breath.
"Good night." Yu Youqing smiled gently as she replied.
They each returned to their own homes.
Yu Youqing glanced around the empty apartment and sighed.
Looking down at her outfit—knee-length skirt, high heels, a soft red dress, and a freshly touched-up face thanks to the crew's makeup artist—
She stood in front of the bathroom mirror, evaluating her reflection. She was confident that among all the women Jing Yu could meet, she was undoubtedly the most beautiful.
But that guy… he was still such a blockhead.
Even after two or three months of dating… the progress bar was tragically slow.
He really was more of a gentleman than she'd imagined—
Even more upright than the male lead Shouta Kazehaya from 'Kimi ni Todoke'.
She shook her head.
After showering and changing into pajamas, she lay on the bed, scrolling through online comments about 'Clannad' Season 2. She spent the night fighting flame wars with random haters on Jing Yu's behalf, and eventually drifted off to sleep.
Two more days passed—it was the weekend again.
On Saturday, 'Kaiji' aired its eleventh episode, effectively wrapping up Season 2.
The entire second season had focused on how Kaiji beat the Swamp Pachinko Machine and won the 70-million-yen jackpot.
After replacing the steel bar spacing calibrators in the opponent's machine, using water tanks to tilt the building, and a series of back-and-forth cheating tactics, the story was finally heading into its final moments of victory.
Next week will be the final episode of 'Kaiji' Season 2.
And on Sunday—
'Clannad' would air its final episode.