[“The Legend of Medicine Maiden” had an average viewership rating of 1.52 on its first day, with a peak of 1.88, ranking second on the charts.
Note: This isn’t Wanshi Trending data—it’s from the official website, hehe.]
[Hehe what! You think just because you say “hehe,” I won’t praise you? Well done!]
[A 1.52 start is already very strong. These days, most dramas throw a victory lap with a poster just for breaking 1.00 on their premiere day, let alone getting close to 2.00 at peak.]
[Currently, first place is Crystal TV’s “To Be Continued,” with an average of 1.7 and a peak of 1.97. Feels like it’s about to be overtaken…]
[“To Be Continued” is already past its halfway point and has been fighting hard to break 2.00 Yesterday, it was just that close.]
[Aaah, is nobody mentioning this? Xia Wenxin’s acting is so good! I thought a quiet, reserved character like this would be the usual cold, expressionless type, but Sanxiu—though mature and steady—has such lively, beautiful eyes!]
[Actually, if you watch her daily interactions with A Xuan (the little turtle demon), you can tell she’s also quite playful. Every time she teases the little turtle, it’s so cute!!]
[A steady, upright person telling lies with a perfectly straight face, and the silly little A Xuan has no idea anything’s wrong, emmm.]
[Sanxiu insisted on going inside. A Xuan hesitated for a long time and finally decided to just stand on the door threshold. Laughing to death. The little turtle poked her head out cautiously, saw the ghostly messenger, and instinctively shrank back to run away.]
[Oh, that scholar was a ghostly messenger?]
[Zhang Jingsi plays the ghostly messenger Wang Yan (laughing crying).]
[So here, Sanxiu not only snatched a person away from the ghostly messenger but also talked back to him? O_o]
[I feel like Sanxiu is going to be snatching people from the ghostly messenger on a regular basis…]
Mu Yao scrolled through the online comments and finally felt relieved.
She had originally been a fan of Li Yinan. After his delusional fan stabbed someone offline, she watched the fans in the supertopic celebrate and cheer—and chose to leave the fan group.
Although this decision also made her the target of some attacks, Guanjun’s direct confrontations with Li Yinan’s fans had indirectly restrained those deranged followers, which meant her situation wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Naturally, Mu Yao began following Guanjun. She knew the blogger’s real name was Ying Shi—after all, Ying Shi Entertainment was named after her—but like many netizens, Mu Yao preferred to call her Guanjun or Mushroom.
The first drama produced by Guanjun’s company was “Little Sweetheart,” an ancient-style romance adapted from a web novel of the same name.
Mu Yao had followed this drama from the very first episode, watching each new episode on time until the series concluded.
While watching, she could feel the crew’s seriousness and dedication toward the production.
The script was created with respect for the original novel. The actors were chosen based on acting ability and suitability, setting aside all kinds of external interests. And that was without even mentioning the costumes, makeup, props, locations, and cinematography.
The crew treated the audience with sincerity, and the audience responded in kind.
But when she heard that Guanjun was planning to produce a mythological drama, Mu Yao couldn’t help but worry.
These days, production companies were all rushing to make xianxia romance dramas. There had to be a reason why mythological dramas were being avoided.
Mythological dramas were based on folk legends, which made adaptation inherently difficult.
Take historical dramas, which face a similar challenge. A few years ago, casually rewriting historical stories only drew criticism and backlash from a handful of historical researchers.
But with the spread of the internet these days, any drama that whitewashes or defames historical figures will be condemned by netizens across the board.
Mu Yao felt this was a good thing. At the same time, however, it also created creative difficulties for historical dramas.
Most screenwriters would abandon this kind of thankless, high-risk genre, and investors would prefer to put their money into web novels whose plots they could freely manipulate and whose public perception they could steer.
The adaptation challenges for mythological dramas weren’t as severe as those for historical dramas, but they were still considerable.
When Ying Shi Entertainment decided to produce a mythological drama, film and television bloggers across various platforms began organizing, posting various retrospectives and analyses of mythological dramas.
The debate over whether Guanjun could succeed in making a mythological drama was also raging. Most bloggers took a reserved stance, simply wishing Guanjun well in this endeavor.
Now, seeing the premiere feedback for “The Legend of Medicine Maiden,” the lingering unease finally settled, replaced by a feeling of “of course it turned out this way.”
Mu Yao happily discussed the plot with fellow fans online. But by evening, the online landscape had shifted dramatically.
Because “Calm Seas, Clear Rivers” had aired.
#CalmSeasClearRiversPremiere#
#FangKaiyunXueJingrong#
These were the standard trending topics.
#FangKaiyunBornKing#
#FangKaiyunHeroRegardlessOfBirth#
#FangKaiyunBreakingTheConceptOfLegitimacy#
These trending topics left people thoroughly puzzled.
How was Fang Kaiyun a “born king”? In the drama, he was still the weak, vulnerable young Xue Jingrong! Just throw out any random still and you can hype him as a born king?
The tag “Hero Regardless of Birth” did sound intriguing—until you clicked into it. Because the male lead, Xue Jingrong, was born to a palace maid, he was treated like a ghost in the palace. Fang Kaiyun mentioned this in an interview, saying that Xue Jingrong was a classic example of someone climbing from the bottom to the highest position, leading him to conclude that “a hero’s origins don’t matter—background means nothing” and similar sentiments.
Mu Yao: “…”
Do you even hear yourself? You’re the son of an emperor, and you’re calling that “the bottom”? What about the toiling masses outside the palace walls?
And “origins don’t matter”? The only reason you even have a shot at competing for the throne is because you’re the emperor’s son. If origins truly don’t matter, then make a drama about a founder emperor who rose up in rebellion during times of chaos.
“Breaking the concept of legitimacy”? Wasn’t Xue Jingrong adopted by the empress, using the title of legitimate son to gain leverage in his power struggles? Don’t try to fool her—she’d seen the trailers!
She also knew that in the later plot, the male lead schemed to get rid of his adoptive mother, the empress.
It was clearly about consolidating political power, but they had to frame it as “breaking the concept of legitimacy”? Maybe they should go back and reread the script. After hearing that interview, she was a bit worried about the male lead’s subsequent performance…
Of course, Mu Yao was merely complaining about Fang Kaiyun’s ever-intact “silent” persona. The drama hadn’t even shown him on screen yet, and already five or six trending topics had appeared.
The production quality of “Calm Seas, Clear Rivers” was still decent. She watched the first two episodes—the pacing was good, and it was clear the crew had put effort into it.
But the plot of “The Legend of Medicine Maiden” was no weaker.
As the drama continued to air, it became clear that “The Legend of Medicine Maiden” leaned toward an ensemble cast, yet the dramatic focus always remained on Sanxiu.
Sanxiu was like a small, glowing candle lit in a dark room. As long as she was there, a sense of peace and calm prevailed.
Sanxiu’s persistence and focus, her doubts and hesitations—healing the sick and saving lives was her pursuit, but it was also the trial she faced.
She rejoiced when the gravely ill recovered, and she felt disheartened when faced with unreasonable patients.
The greatest trial she faced was not the demons and monsters coveting her spiritual energy, but the myriad facets of human nature she encountered on her journey to heal others.
Contempt for a female healer, distrust in her medical skills, insults and abuse because the medicine took effect too slowly—all of these were far more terrifying than any demon.
As for how the two dramas compared in online viewership buzz, everyone had their own claims.
On Wanshi Trending, “The Legend of Medicine Maiden” sat firmly in first place, while “Calm Seas, Clear Rivers” only ranked fourth. But on the other three major trending charts, “Calm Seas, Clear Rivers” was first, while “The Legend of Medicine Maiden” hovered between seventh and eighth.
The three major charts were naturally mocked by netizens. “The Legend of Medicine Maiden” had topped the ratings chart on its second day of broadcast and was now on the verge of breaking a 3.0 share—yet its online buzz was only seventh or eighth?
The same thing had happened with the web drama “Little Sweetheart” back then. Now that it was a massive hit airing on television, even if its online viewership couldn’t reach the top, it shouldn’t be lagging this far behind.
But the three major charts seemed deaf to it all, continuing on their merry way.
Amid all this chaos, Mu Yao noticed that the main interface of Wanshi Entertainment had gained a new tab—Wanshi Editor?
“Wanshi Entertainment” was an entertainment platform developed by Ying Shi Entertainment, currently featuring two functions: video streaming and trending charts.
Initially, Wanshi Entertainment was just a website. Later, after developing the video streaming function, they launched a client version.
The software download page offered both desktop and mobile installation packages.
Mu Yao was a user of Wanshi Entertainment and decisively chose to update the software.
In fact, when “Little Sweetheart” had become a hit, many bloggers wanted to edit videos of the show. But aside from Wanshi TV itself, there was no platform where they could access the source material.
And Wanshi TV didn’t allow video downloads—it only supported caching for offline viewing.
Even rampant pirated resources had hit a wall with Wanshi TV. And since Wanshi TV didn’t require a membership, or even a software download—you could watch HD dramas directly on the web version—many casual free-riders gave up trying.
People were amazed by Ying Shi Entertainment’s anti-piracy measures, but at the same time, they were frustrated by their inability to create secondary edits.
But now, Wanshi Entertainment had launched an editing feature?
How did that even make sense?
When they discovered that the updated installation package was only 300 MB, this sense of bewilderment reached its peak.
A video editing software for computers—1 GB would be perfectly normal. Yet here was Wanshi Entertainment, with three features packed into just over 300 MB?
Once the update was complete, Mu Yao opened the “Editor” feature and immediately became hooked!
Wanshi Editor had two modes: “Chopping Wood” [1] and standard editing. The editing interface itself wasn’t vastly different from ordinary editing software.
The standout features were its asset library and the “Chopping Wood” mode.
The asset library contained songs for which permanent copyrights had been purchased—as long as they were used within Wanshi Entertainment, there was no risk of infringement.
There were also stock footage and filter libraries. The stock footage consisted of clips extracted from various documentaries, each with its source and copyright attribution. As for the one-click color grading filter templates—those were presumably created by the developers themselves. Currently, there were only ten presets, but the feature supported users sharing their own custom filters.
The only inconvenience, perhaps, was that it didn’t allow the use of external footage.
However, the asset library was already populated with quite a few user-created works—all character clips from “Little Sweetheart” and “The Legend of Medicine Maiden.” Several collections of stock footage from the two dramas had also appeared.
This was the result of the “Chopping Wood” mode. Users could import works from the Wanshi TV platform into the editing interface, perform preliminary editing and processing, select footage related to a specific character, and organize it into their own custom albums.
Mu Yao chose the most frequently updated clip album, edited together a Sanxiu-centered video, and successfully saved it. She was then presented with two options: upload to Wanshi TV or download to local storage.
Under the “download to local storage” button, it was clearly marked that if the video was uploaded to websites other than Wanshi Entertainment, Wanshi Entertainment would not be responsible for copyright issues.
Mu Yao naturally chose to upload to Wanshi TV. This was her first time editing a video—it was fair to say the whole thing was all emotion and no technique. But she didn’t care at all. The main point was: I’m happy, I want to do it!
Once she finished uploading, the video was approved almost instantly. After all, the only way to upload videos to Wanshi TV was through Wanshi Editor, and all the footage in the editor came from Wanshi TV itself—there was no chance of illegal content.
On Wanshi TV’s fan-edit channel, quite a few “The Legend of Medicine Maiden” related edits had already appeared. Mu Yao browsed through them with great enjoyment
There were ensemble edits, solo character edits, and CP-focused edits. Among them, Sanxiu-related ones were the most numerous—because in the main storyline, everyone revolved around Sanxiu!