Chapter 17, the short drama aired.
Zhang Kaigang first thanked Juyu Entertainment in his post, then expressed his sincere feelings after filming ended, and posted several photos of himself with the main actors.
This post was like a giant bomb, startling everyone who was interested in the short drama before it even aired.
With the preconceived notion from that secretly filmed video, everyone assumed that Giant Entertainment had hired a fake director with the same name. Even Giant Entertainment's fans didn't expect that the person who came this time was actually the real Zhang Kaigang.
It's already astonishing that a top-tier, well-known film director would dedicate himself to making a web series, let alone a short drama on a completely new platform.
This understanding completely overturned the content of the previous secretly filmed video.
Since the director isn't the bald man with the same name, the so-called green cardboard headdress, LED screen, and plastic sword must all be fake.
[Aaaaaaah, I'm going crazy! I'm really going crazy now! Director Zhang, if your account has been hacked, just blink!]
[Are the haters still going to come and cause trouble? So many content creators have already exposed that the props were real. Now the director has also been officially confirmed. Can those who deliberately smeared us come out and apologize right now?]
[Where are the people who were clamoring for Teacher Zhang to send a lawyer's letter to sue for defamation yesterday? Where are those people who were selling health products? Why are they suddenly silent? Did their internet suddenly drop after seeing this post?^^]
[Sorry, Brother Fang is just that capable. He invited the real Director Zhang. No amount of sour grapes from the haters can change that fact.]
[Wow, so the film set that was secretly filmed wasn't actually the actual filming location for the Great Ancestor's character? ??? This is the biggest Mission: Impossible story of the year! The scandals surrounding Giant Entertainment are truly juicy and scandalous.]
[It's hard to imagine how much Juyu Entertainment paid to hire a top-tier film star like Zhang Kaigang... I worked with Director Zhang four years ago, and back then, their team's total budget for commercial films had already reached over 20 million yuan. To get him to take on this short drama, the asking price must have been several times higher than for a film...]
Now that you've calculated it that way, I suddenly realize the investment might be more than 300 million.
[Brother Fang, please stop throwing money into the entertainment industry. If you really can't spend it all, I can help you dispose of it for free.]
[So nobody's going to investigate where this fake film set actually came from? Don't tell me Brother Fang had the time to create a fake one; that just makes things more ridiculous.]
[Why is the comment section suddenly flooded with 800x speed whitewashing? There's no real plot twist... Hiring famous directors for a pittance is common practice at Xingyu Entertainment; who knows who's actually directing? The leaked videos already proved the production team was using two separate crews...]
[Let them have their way. These hype-mongers are at it again, blindly praising the show. They're already popping champagne halfway through before the actual episode even airs. They'll shut up when the actual thesis defense comes out.]
No, I'm starting to suspect you guys were paid to do this with your eyes closed.
We're supposed to wait for the official broadcast, right? Anyway, there's only half an hour left, let's wait together. I won't be the one who doesn't laugh after it starts broadcasting.
With her finger hovering over the comment that had criticized her, Zhou Yu felt a surge of resentment and wanted to immediately hurl insults back.
She didn't receive a single penny; she was simply disgusted by Giant Entertainment's various disgusting marketing tactics.
Their cunning boss is good at turning black into white. He even caused her favorite singer to have to take down a new song before. His so-called rich persona is probably just a publicity stunt created by hiring online trolls.
If they were really that rich, wouldn't they be able to easily acquire good artists and a good production team?
Why sign controversial artists like Qiao Ankuang and Tong Qinglu who are both obscure and have a lot of scandals? They're clearly stingy and pretentious.
Zhou Yu checked in at Chi Yingying's super topic, hesitated for a while, and finally downloaded the Giant Short Drama APP in advance.
She didn't believe this company could really produce anything good, but even if she was going to write a negative review, she wanted to have something to say, at least point out some logical flaws and production quality issues in the show.
She wanted to see what the final product looked like.
Anyway, she only planned to watch the first few episodes that were free, and was determined not to contribute a single penny to a black-hearted company like Giant Entertainment.
At noon, Zhou Yu opened the app on time, and the opening screen showed a large poster of his great-grandmother.
Tong Qinglu, dressed in a gorgeous and elaborate moon-white long dress, sits in the center of the picture, the hem of which trails on the ground and extends all the way to the bottom of the photo.
The poster features a deep composition, with three men of different ages standing behind her, followed by an intricately patterned openwork partition. Behind the partition are four open doors, leading to a pool of rippled hot spring water.
The opening screen is even an animated GIF, clearly showing the waterfall flowing down the opposite mountain and the bluebirds circling overhead.
Just as Zhou Yu was surprised, Tong Qinglu suddenly stretched out her right hand in the scene, and a long sword drew a clear arc before returning to her hand.
Then the surrounding screens and scrolls suddenly shook, and a long line of characters rose from the floor beneath everyone's feet—"Grandmother Taizu has arrived, all descendants of the Immortal Sect kneel down."
Zhou Yu was completely stunned.
She's watched countless dramas, but she's never seen such a stunning opening screen.
Such exquisite scenes, such supermodel-level special effects... is this the kind of setup that should appear in a short drama? If you changed the subject and said it was a blockbuster movie, she would believe it.
The quality of the splash screen was indeed impeccable, and she began to suspect that the boss of Giant Entertainment was indeed quite wealthy.
However, one poster doesn't prove anything; the entire budget may have been spent on this, deliberately designed to mislead the public.
Upon entering the main feature, as usual, Zhang Kaigang employed his signature long takes and multi-narrative style, gradually drawing Zhou Yu in and making her fascinated as she set aside her prejudices.
The scene where the female lead, Ling Che, is falsely accused of stealing spirit stones by the villain is particularly blood-raising, and she even left a comment filled with righteous indignation.
In the video, the villain whispers in Ling Che's ear: "Do you know who my mother is? My mother is the peak master of Jade Maiden Peak—Fairy Miyu. She is about to marry the head of the Sword Sect. I advise you to be more obedient, otherwise the next person to teach you a lesson will be Headmaster Xi."
"The person in charge?" Large beads of cold sweat poured from Ling Che's forehead due to the pain, but his expression remained stubborn: "Is it Xi Liling?"
A slap landed hard on her cheek, and the spot quickly turned bright red.
"How dare you address Sword Master Xi by his full name like that? The current head of the Sword Sect is Sword Master Xi's eldest son. Don't you even know that?"
Looking at the thoughtful expression on the female lead's face on the screen, Zhou Yu wished she could go in and slap the villain across the face.
This idiot villain is three generations removed from the female lead, and his whole family are adopted sons of the Sword Sect. They can act so arrogantly all the time because of their engagement to the female lead's grandson. What gives them the right to be so cocky?
Once the female lead regains her identity and returns, the villain will definitely be so terrified that he'll wet himself and kneel on the ground calling her "Grandma Great-Grandmother."
Zhou Yu was furious and couldn't wait to see the female lead slap the villain in the face, so she smoothly watched until the pay-to-play stage.
[Unlock the next episode with 10 diamonds]
[New users can enjoy a 15% discount on their first seven days of registration; a one-time recharge of 500 diamonds will get you an instant discount]
The blatantly tempting recharge button beckoned her; after watching another fifty episodes, she figured she'd finally see the heroine's triumphant return. Without hesitation, she bought 500 diamonds in one go.
Lying on the sofa, she had already forgotten her previous vow not to contribute any revenue to Juyu Entertainment, and all she could think about was when the female lead would get her revenge.
The subsequent plot twist far exceeded her expectations. Just before the arrogant villain was about to be thrown into the water dungeon, Fairy Miyu sacrificed half of her life's power to break through the guards' restraints and forcefully stormed to the entrance of the water dungeon.
"Let's see who dares to touch my son! He's the adopted son of the current head of the Sword Sect! Are you all insane?!"
At the bottom of the canyon, which is thousands of feet deep, only a faint beam of sunlight shines from the distant sky directly overhead.
The female protagonist, Ling Che, sat on the stone platform, coldly gazing at the seemingly deranged Fairy Mi Yu.
Ling Che was enveloped by that single ray of sunlight, looking as beautiful as an immortal who was untouched by worldly affairs.
This scene was too exaggerated, and Zhou Yu couldn't help but sit up straight on the sofa.
She had only watched about fifty episodes, and apart from everyday scenes, there were almost no repeated locations. Every background was extremely spectacular, and the entire filming process must have been completed at more than one base. The richness of the shots made it seem as if the entire film and television industry had been taken over.
The moment she considered this possibility, her first reaction was self-doubt.
S+'s investment in web dramas is merely renting the largest filming base in 45 Stars; she can hardly imagine how much it would cost to book the entire 45 Stars.
Ling Che's expression in the video was shockingly cold as she spoke, enunciating each word clearly:
“Your son slandered his classmate and intentionally injured someone. According to the rules, he should be punished by being sent to the water dungeon.”
"Furthermore, you are no longer the peak master of Jade Maiden Peak. From now on, the Sword Sect will have no place for you and your declining clan."
Fairy Miyu sneered, "On what grounds? Just because you can lightly touch your lips?"
"As long as my fiancé remains the head of this vast Sword Sect, my position at Jade Maiden Peak will never be shaken."
"You ask me why?" Ling Che repeated these words.
Zhou Yu held her breath as the low-angle perspective that had been maintained throughout the entire episode suddenly rose, and as the female lead reached out her hand upwards, the audience's perspective was also thrown from the abyss to a height of ten thousand meters.
Suddenly, the view opened up, overlooking flowing lakes, vast forests, and majestic mountains. The towering sect buildings gradually condensed into a small white dot.
Then, a breathtaking purple light flashed for a few seconds, and the ancient sword, tightly bound by light and electricity, was summoned from the horizon, rushing down and crossing a giant boulder thousands of feet high, before landing in the hands of the female protagonist, Ling Che.
Ling Che stood with his sword in hand: "Because I am now the head of the Sword Sect."
Fairy Miyu's pupils trembled, and she murmured repeatedly, "It's actually a sect token that no one has touched for a thousand years... Just who are you?"
The video abruptly ended as soon as he finished speaking.
Help! How could this episode end here? Zhou Yu hurriedly clicked on the next episode, but then a recharge UI popped up. This time, the price to unlock the next episode had changed from ten diamonds to fifteen diamonds.
Having experienced the cunning of the boss of Juyu Entertainment, she resigned herself to her fate and recharged a few more yuan, intending to watch all the remaining dozens of episodes in one go.
The computer froze for a moment on the payment screen, and Zhou Yu took the opportunity to stand up and stretch.
Her bones started making cracking sounds, and she realized that she had been sitting on the sofa watching a show for two whole hours.
It's not her fault; the quality and pacing of this short drama are just too good. In terms of cost alone, it far surpasses the S+ fantasy dramas that have aired in the past two years.
That incredibly wide-angle lens captured almost half the scenery of the planet, and she was now genuinely starting to suspect that the film crew had rented the entire film and television base of the planet 45.
After watching the first sixty episodes, Zhou Yu finally had to admit that President Fang was definitely not just someone with a little money; Juyu's cash flow was at least more abundant than half of Xingyu's distribution companies.
Where did this person come from?
Zhou Yu had completely forgotten the harm that the other party had caused to his goddess. He switched to the StarNet homepage, intending to see if anyone online had dug up Fang Zhuo's past.
This sight truly startled her. While she was engrossed in watching the drama, the short series "Grandma Taizu" completely dominated the trending topics on all Xingyu platforms, with over twenty related entries on the main page alone.
It's not just a minor hit, but a phenomenal hit drama that hasn't been seen in the last three years.
As Zhou Yu scrolled down the top trending topics, her gaze fell on the hashtag #ShortDramaGrandma'sReal or Fake Filming Set#, and she couldn't help but take a deep breath.
Since the costumes, props, and sets of this drama are visibly authentic, then the set that the paparazzi photographed before must be fake.
Who set up that fake film set? It couldn't have been built by the paparazzi themselves, could it?
Driven by intense curiosity, she clicked on the entry and discovered that the paparazzi who had initially broken the story had posted a new update just half an hour earlier—
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