Chapter 99 Debunking the Rumors [VIP]
Chapter Summary: This is the grand finale, the main event!
Ji Binghe admitted: "The producer talked to me about the #CP hype# promotional plan before the show started."
I refused outright.
There was no room for negotiation with the production team.
So I didn't mention it to Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran.
Both of them are artists she manages. Ji Binghe is very clear about Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran's situation and, from the perspective of their acting careers, it is not suitable for them to create a CP (couple pairing).
Therefore, since the start of the show, Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran have not been allowed to engage in any promotional interactions, such as forwarding each other's Weibo posts, leaving comments on each other's Weibo posts, or mentioning each other in their own Weibo posts.
This was to distance themselves from any connection to the drama.
However, viewers couldn't resist the fact that Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran had great chemistry as a couple. The tango dance in the first episode alone garnered a large following of fans, making the show quite popular.
The production team is using a broad-based approach to promotion, meaning they will focus on promoting a few plot points from tonight's two episodes to see which one interests viewers the most.
This includes topics related to the male and female leads' romantic pairing. Even though the couple has few scenes together, the audience still likes it and buys into it. So, naturally, there are many topics related to the couple on the daily trending searches, and the combination of these topics generates even more buzz.
Therefore, during the live broadcast of the drama and Mu Zhi's personal interviews, she would be asked about topics related to the CP (couple pairing).
Ji Binghe said to Mu Zhi, "I will talk to the producer about the production team. They can promote the on-screen couple however they want, but don't drag your real-life relationship into it as a publicity gimmick."
Viewers are free to ship couples, and there's no reason to stop them from doing so, just as there's no reason to stop the production team from promoting the show.
Mu Zhi: "Okay."
I wonder if it's just my imagination? It seems like the agent doesn't want me to have any offline involvement with Teacher Yin.
Minmin was also puzzled by this: "Sister Zhizhi, actually you and Teacher Yin are both artists under Director Ji. You interact online, and netizens understand that it's all for the sake of the drama. The more you interact, the more they feel that there's nothing between you."
The lack of online interaction actually gives it a certain feel to it; they're deliberately avoiding any appearance of impropriety.
"I work for the same company as Teacher Yin. The company probably doesn't want its artists to be involved in dating rumors."
Ji Binghe saw that Yin Xiuran's personal data skyrocketed several times after "The Edge of the Blade" premiered.
He has appeared in many works, and even when he won the Best Actor award last time, he did not receive this much attention.
The new drama has only been airing for 3 days, but it has already garnered a lot of attention and buzz online.
I don't know if this is a good thing for Yin Xiuran.
Monday, August 13.
The average viewership ratings for Tomato TV and North City TV during the 19:32-21:10 time slot were 0.9% and 0.829% respectively, with market shares of approximately 8% and 7%.
Based on coefficients of 1.5 and 1, the calculated viewership ratings are 1.35% and 0.829%, respectively.
The viewership ratings have risen rather rapidly.
For the first time, the ratings for "The Edge of the Blade" on Dragon TV surpassed those for "Bread and Love," starring Liao Yaning.
Tuesday afternoon, August 14th.
The CVB ratings table is out.
During the first week of its broadcast, the ratings for "The Edge of the Blade" did not break 1 for the first two days. It broke 1 on Friday, but the ratings dropped back down on Saturday. The ratings only picked up on Sunday and Monday.
The average viewership ratings for Tomato TV and North City TV in the first week were 1.093% and 0.78%, respectively.
The average viewership rating for "Bread and Love" was 1.193%.
Currently, the average viewership rating of "Bread and Love" is slightly higher than that of "The Edge of the Blade".
However, the ratings on Monday had already been overtaken.
On Tuesday night, the latest ratings for "The Edge of the Blade" on Tomato TV and North City TV were 1.39% and 0.872% respectively, with Tomato TV's rating once again surpassing "Bread and Love"'s 1.25%.
According to netizens, the ratings battle between the two dramas is already decided in advance unless the plot of "The Edge of the Blade" collapses drastically.
"The Edge of the Blade" has a total of 46 episodes. It premiered on November 8th and 13 episodes have been aired so far.
The series finale will air on December 2nd.
It finished airing in about a month, which was quite fast.
The small goal of breaking 1 for a single unit has been achieved first. Breaking 2 for a single unit is more difficult. The next small goal for Muzhi fans is to make both units break 1!
Not only did the ratings rise, but "The Edge of the Blade" also rose from the top 5 to the top 3 in terms of viewership among dramas airing at the same time.
Mu Zhi's popularity ranking surpassed Liao Yaning's on the 5th day after the show premiered, and she topped the new media index for the show's characters, ranking 1st.
"The Edge of the Blade" ranks either 3rd or 2nd on various lists such as [TV series popularity across the internet], [TV series broadcast popularity index], and [TV series dehydrated viewership ranking].
The viewership ratings and online streaming performance are excellent, with no major weaknesses.
The promotional work for the new drama has come to an end.
Mu Zhi's next focus will be on reviewing scripts and finalizing her next project as soon as possible.
I don't want fame to bring trouble, and now there's another controversy online.
Three days later, paparazzi suddenly broke the news online about Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran's relationship.
The Weibo post from a paparazzi marketing account stated:
Recently, Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran were spotted having dinner together privately, chatting and laughing, seemingly having a good relationship. Their collaboration, "The Edge of the Blade," is currently airing, and many netizens are shipping this couple. Do you think there's something going on between them?
The person involved, Mu Zhi, was ranked 22nd on the overall trending list, and saw her own trending topic #MuZhiYinXiuran#.
I clicked in and saw photos and GIFs of me having dinner with Teacher Yin.
I recognized it as the time I went back to Beicheng in August to dub "The Edge of the Blade" and had dinner with Director Pan and the producer.
Recently? That was three months ago.
The photos of the gathering, taken several months ago, are only being released now.
Considering that the dinner party was suggested by the producer, and given that the production team has recently arranged trending topics to intentionally promote the on-screen couple, I can't help but wonder if they planted the seeds of a romance early on, waiting to hype it up after the show airs?
She knew that director Pan Yan wasn't that kind of person.
However, the production company and producers were unaware that Duomeili, the film and television company, was known for its exceptional marketing prowess, employing a relentless and aggressive marketing strategy.
The marketing was forced to create the impression of a "hit show".
Although Mu Zhi is the female lead in "The Edge of the Blade," to be honest, spy dramas are unlikely to achieve widespread popularity and success online without strong marketing.
"The Blade's Edge" has only aired less than a third of its episodes, yet it has already garnered so much popularity and buzz. This is not only due to its high quality and status as a truly excellent drama, but also inseparable from the strong promotional efforts behind the scenes.
In fact, the photos and GIFs released by the paparazzi deliberately only captured Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran together, but the two were separated by a distance and had no physical contact, not even an intimate look or a whispered conversation.
That's it? Trying to link it to a romantic relationship is completely unconvincing.
It trended on social media for less than 10 minutes.
Then someone dug up Yin Xiuran's sister's Weibo account.
The little girl's Weibo account follows her brother Yin Xiuran and Mu Zhi's supertopic, and she is a big fan of both of them.
Still a die-hard fan of Muzhi.
I've been a fan since the talent show, and most of my Weibo posts are related to Mu Zhi. I've posted pictures of Mu Zhi's autographs, and yesterday I even posted on Weibo to support my brother Yin Xiuran and Mu Zhi's new drama "The Edge of the Blade".
Netizens have concluded from this analysis that:
"Yin Xiuran and Mu Zhi knew each other long before they collaborated on 'The Edge of the Blade,' so they must have been quite close. It seems the rumors of their romance aren't unfounded?"
"Yin Xiuran's sister only follows her brother and Mu Zhi!! I'm currently watching 'The Edge of the Blade,' thanks, I'm totally shipping them!"
"Someone previously revealed that Mu Zhi was able to take on the role in 'The Edge of the Blade' because of Yin Xiuran's recommendation. Did the two of them use filming as a means to start a relationship on the company's dime? The lack of interaction during the promotional period for the new drama is probably to avoid suspicion."
"Yin Xiuran and Mu Zhi, one is a TV King and the other just won the Best Newcomer Award this year, both are talented actors, so we'd say they're a good match?"
......
Several marketing accounts seized the opportunity to come forward, making confident but not naming names, claiming they had received submissions stating that the male and female leads of a certain drama that was trending today were indeed dating, and that the female lead, as a popular actress, did not want the relationship to be exposed and did not intend to admit to it.
Fans of the couple who are following the drama: Did we actually get together?!
Although shipping couples is supposed to keep the characters separate from the real people, when fans get really into it, they inevitably extend their affection to the actors, projecting their emotions onto the actors themselves. They enrich the romantic scenes in the drama through behind-the-scenes footage and interactions between the actors in real life, thus gaining more satisfaction from shipping the couple.
After seeing the rumors, some fans who shipped the couple excitedly went to the Weibo accounts of Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran.
Mu Zhi's fans: Utterly speechless.
I don't believe in love!
I don't believe the brainwashing that my idol took on the role in "The Edge of the Blade" because of Yin Xiuran. This is simply a denigration and denial of Mu Zhi's abilities.
Both actors are managed by the same agent, and at most, they only got access to the drama's resources through the agent's connections. Whether or not they land a role definitely depends on the actor themselves, their company, their agent's efforts, and the production team's considerations.
The actors we work with don't have that much authority.
Originally, because Mu Zhi didn't have many scenes in "The Edge of the Blade," most of her scenes were related to the male lead, and her revenge plan also depended on the male lead's help.
In addition, fans have a good impression of Yin Xiuran; he is low-key, has no scandals, and the behind-the-scenes footage shows that he takes good care of his co-stars. Furthermore, he is from the same company as his idol and is his senior.
Therefore, while watching the drama, fans also enjoy shipping the characters' romantic pairings.
As soon as the gossip trended on Weibo today, Mu Zhi's fans rushed to the front lines to clarify, posting screenshots of Mu Zhi's interview from a couple of days ago where she said that she and Yin Xiu Ran were colleagues but rarely saw each other at the company and weren't very close in private, trying their best to distance Mu Zhi from Yin Xiu Ran's relationship...
Mu Zhi watched as the trending topic about herself and Yin Xiuran rose to the top of the trending list in less than half an hour.
Without a single intimate photo, forcing a relationship on someone? That's way too outrageous.
Be wary: suspect that someone is behind this, and it's not just a simple romantic rumor.
Ji Binghe called.
"I spoke with the producer and the production company's publicity team a couple of days ago..."
Therefore, the trending topics and promotional topics in the past two days have all featured the character names, without mentioning Mu Zhi and Yin Xiuran's real names.
"Today's top trending topic is probably not the work of the production team."
Yin Xiuran's younger sister is not yet an adult, yet she has been exposed and used as a tool; this is going too far.
If the production team, for the sake of promoting the show, drags in the artist's relatives without their consent, offending the artist and their company and causing a falling out, then according to the contract, the artist can refuse to cooperate with the subsequent promotion.
It's not worth the risk.
Ji Binghe suspected that someone else was behind this.
The purpose of the call was, "I've already had my staff prepare a statement, which will be released immediately. You should also quickly post a Weibo on your personal Weibo to clarify the relationship."
Mu Zhi felt that her agent's attitude and speed in denying the rumors were much more serious than when she was rumored to be dating Xie Chaoyun.
My intuition tells me that my agent might be hiding something from me.
However, now is not the time to ask further questions.
"good."
The two hung up the phone after less than a minute.
Mu Zhi reopened Weibo, and her studio's statement immediately appeared on the homepage. The statement explained that the gathering with Yin Xiuran that was exposed was three months ago, and that it was a dinner with the director, producer, and others from "The Edge of the Blade". The statement denied the relationship and dismissed the so-called dating rumors as completely unfounded.
One minute later.
Mu Zhi responded to the relationship with a Weibo post.
Muzhi V: I'm single.
The Weibo post was published and refreshed immediately, and many fans left comments instantly.
A fan named "Minister of Muzhi Business Department" typed very fast: Nobody is allowed to disturb my daughter's business!!! Get out of my way!
The next second, I saw a somewhat familiar account, which seemed to be a marketing account trying to ride the wave of popularity.
Comment: Good for you! Now, beautiful lady, focus on your career! (Clenched fist)
In just a few seconds, it garnered hundreds of likes.
Mu Zhi immediately deleted the comment from that marketing account.
He left a comment below his own comment section:
[All relationships are fake. I have been single since my debut.]
To avoid being forced to admit that she broke up with her boyfriend after their relationship was exposed, she directly stated that she had been single for the past few years.
After Mu Zhi posted on Weibo, Yin Xiuran also reposted the Weibo post from his personal studio to clarify the situation.
#Mu Zhi responds to relationship rumors# and #Yin Xiuran's studio clarifies relationship rumors# have both made it to the top of the trending searches...
In the entertainment industry, romantic rumors usually come to an end once they reach the point of being clarified and denied.
Mu Zhi was puzzled: Was this whole scandalous stunt to prevent the "Blade's Edge" CP fans from shipping the couple? Some netizens also subtly implied that this was a joint publicity stunt by the production team and the actors, which was very off-putting.
My intuition tells me that this isn't over yet, it's not that simple.
The result was completely unexpected.
They had just refuted the rumors when an insider came forward with a bombshell revelation: Yin Xiuran is already married.
Mu Zhi:? ? ? ? ? ?
So this is the highlight of today's show.
[Author's Note]
This is Teacher Yin's secret!
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