The audition clip posted by DogTrip's official Weibo account was a half-hour edited version. The edited version did not include any scripted scenes; it only started from the performance itself.

Immediately, fans from various groups who participated in the auditions, as well as onlookers, flocked to DogTrip's official Weibo account, ready to see how each of them performed.

Xin Yu's fans were the most excited.

In their view, this film resource was a sure thing for Xin Yu, so how could it have been snatched away by the shameless Cen Yu?!

The editing was done entirely according to the audition order of all the participants.

Xin Yu was chatting with Sister Lin in the nanny van, praising her for her quick thinking... but as they talked, he noticed Sister Lin was looking at her phone and not at him. He was wondering what was going on when he saw Sister Lin calmly glance at him—

"You said your audition performance was very good, is that true?"

Her tone was calm, yet it inexplicably gave Xin Yu a premonition of an impending volcanic eruption.

Xin Yu suddenly panicked. He immediately pulled out his phone, guessing that something was definitely beyond his expectations—

Sure enough, the top trending topic at that moment was #DogJourneyAudition.

Even if he didn't search for it, all of this information was already delivered to him, because marketing accounts had taken screenshots of several performance clips with names and identities and turned them into GIFs, and started a poll.

The moment Xin Yu saw the screenshot, her vision went black.

In the video, he looks like a clueless goose, seemingly lost in thought, appearing quite wooden.

He knew he had performed poorly, but he had no idea he had performed this badly!

But when I opened that Weibo post, I found that my own followers were actually fanning the flames—

[Gu Hanyin is clearly bullying Xin Yu! Everyone else is just performing scenes, but Xin Yu is the only one who's actually thinking after reading the script!]

[Hilarious! A big director wants to promote his actors, so he has to step on other actors to make them look good?!]

[I heard every audition is 10 minutes long! Gu Hanyin deliberately chose Xin Yu's thought-provoking audition scene to use as his own audition clip?! Disgusting!]

[…No, why do I feel like this is already a performance? I didn't see a script in his hand??]

Unfortunately, that little bit of noise was quickly silenced by the fans... Xin Yu looked at Sister Lin sitting to the side, this decisive woman was also very calm at this moment, "Tell me the truth, how did your audition go?"

She looked at Xin Yu meaningfully, "I remember saying that the premise of good cooperation is that you don't lie to me."

Once an artist conceals something, it creates a potential problem, and it's impossible to know how it will explode later.

Xin Yu gripped his phone, unsure whether to admit his audition was truly awful, or gamble that Gu Hanyin wouldn't release everyone's clips. But now, Gu Hanyin had already released some...

Looking at his expression and reaction, Sister Lin sneered inwardly, already knowing the outcome.

If Xin Yu's performance hadn't been so bad, her first reaction upon seeing this clip would definitely have been to feel indignant on her behalf.

But now he's so insecure... The audition result is obvious.

She had initially thought this person was shrewd and capable, though impulsive and inexplicably arrogant, but still a promising talent. Now it seemed he was indeed a fraud.

"Alright," Sister Lin said, "that's fine then."

This effectively sealed Xin Yu's fate.

"If you don't want to continue offending Gu Hanyin, then shut up your fans."

...

Cen Yu was engrossed in gossiping in He Ci's office, saying, "I think Gu Hanyin went easy on me."

He commented scathingly, "If you release all of Xin Yu's clips, she'll look like a silly goose."

He Ci was keeping an eye on the online trends, and naturally noticed that Xin Yu's online supporters had calmed down after the audition clip came out. However, there were still some persistent fans who refused to believe that Xin Yu's audition was so bad that they doubted whether all of his previous roles were just hype.

"Xin Yu is probably begging her fans to shut up and stop Gu Hanyin from posting more right now," He Ci said.

He glanced at the online comments, which all said that the ruthlessness and indifference in Cen Yu's eyes when he looked at the camera were unbelievable.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, more audition footage was not released.

Aside from Xin Yu's fans, everyone else seemed to be having a good time. Some of the acting was decent, but it was clear they had tried their best, while others had shown significant improvement compared to their previous roles.

Xin Yu previously used the term "new acting talent" to put down many people, and now she's immediately being attacked back by other people's fans who hold grudges.

He Ci originally thought the farce was about to end.

Unexpectedly, DogJourney's official Weibo account posted a new message.

This means that they found that everyone was very interested in the audition clips, so they will release the audition clips of the three actors that everyone is interested in, according to the vote, so that everyone can feel the serious attitude of the actors during the audition and their different performance styles.

"Isn't this stirring up trouble?" Cen Yu immediately asked. "Gu Hanyin has changed her PR team?"

“This publicity campaign is probably related to Ji Hengyun,” He Ci said after thinking for a moment. “He invested in this movie, so of course he doesn’t want to lose money.”

In the past, Gu Hanyin's films almost never took this route of promoting and generating buzz on Weibo.

Some films don't even have an official Weibo account; they simply participate in international film festivals and then promote themselves through the media to generate attention—after all, those films are niche and they don't expect to be box office hits.

He Ci originally thought that Gu Hanyin would follow the same publicity route as before, and that movie stills would not be released until after filming was completed. He did not expect that this time the publicity would start right after the official announcement.

“Oh.” Cen Yu nodded.

In his eyes, Ji Hengyun was a smiling tiger, so it was not surprising that she had such methods.

...

In Gu Hanyin's studio, Ji Hengyun said, "It's a great success, Lao Gu."

“The topic came up right away,” Ji Hengyun said. When he originally said he wanted to promote it at the beginning of the official announcement, Gu Hanyin was not very willing, as if she felt it was inconsistent with his usual promotional style.

However, this movie is not a pure art film. Even though it is a niche road crime dark comedy, it still hopes to achieve big box office success with a small budget.

The entire film cost less than 40 million yuan. The salary of the biggest star, Ji Hengyun, was directly offset by an investment. If the film's box office exceeds 120 million yuan, it will break even. Furthermore, if the Blu-ray and other regional copyrights are sold later, it will be possible to break even for less than 120 million yuan. The rest is pure profit.

Since Ji Hengyun invested his film salary as shares and also set aside a separate sum of money, his purpose was obviously to make money. "Or are you feeling sorry for Xiaoyu?" Ji Hengyun propped his head up and looked at Gu Hanyin. "You can't bear to see others scold him."

Gu Hanyin stood on the terrace, looking at the view in the courtyard, and said, "Nonsense."