FIMA Ch41: Accompanying You

Far away in the capital city, sitting at the venue of the newly concluded flagship phone release conference, Gu Siyuan sneezed softly.

Cheng Ou hurriedly motioned to the secretary beside him to pour a cup of hot water and handed it over: “Boss, you’ve been working too hard lately. Now is the time to sit back and reap the fruits of your labor; your body can’t drag you down.”

Taking the hot water, Gu Siyuan took a sip, shook his head, and scoffed: “Probably someone talking about me behind my back.”

Cheng Ou’s smile was radiant: “Haha, there’s probably more than one person talking about you behind your back. Everyone present is talking about you, and even more who aren’t present.”

The previous press conference could be described as a massive success. Although currently only this one major phone manufacturer had equipped their system and software, there was no doubt that collaborations would immediately come pouring in one after another.

The emergence of this technology had an impact on traditional mobile phones comparable to the shock of the Android smart system back in the day.

Gu Siyuan’s expression was composed as he said evenly: “Perhaps!”

Cheng Ou couldn’t help but sigh in his heart again. His boss’s naturally endowed “B-King” aura was truly something that couldn’t be learned even if one tried.

Just as he was thinking this, he saw Gu Siyuan put down the paper cup in his hand, stand up from his chair, and walk outward: “I’ll leave the rest to you. Don’t make any mistakes.”

Cheng Ou nodded helplessly.

Except when working on technology, his boss was always this willful at other times.

A major manufacturer’s flagship phone release conference was always highly anticipated, and this time the degree was even more intense.

Almost instantaneously, the popularity exploded. Wherever there were young people, everywhere you went, they were discussing the newly released flagship phone and the black-tech system equipped on it. The buzz was not a fraction less than a cheating scandal involving the most famous star in the entertainment circle.

The major official online stores instantly lagged and sold out.

The major offline physical stores, which were originally lifeless, surprisingly formed long queues and were packed with people in this bitter, freezing winter.

This was a scene that had never appeared again since the legend of people selling their kidneys to line up for a certain brand of phone back in the day.

Tech bloggers on various platforms continuously released all sorts of testing videos, and the evaluations given were all excellent.

Numerous internet-savvy celebrities and influencers also took to their social media accounts to complain about not being able to buy the phone. This disguised form of promotional praise drove wave after wave of purchasing frenzies.

In just half a month, the number of contracts signed by Yuanzhi Technology was innumerable. They were currently preparing for an IPO on the Hong Kong stock market.

And Gu Siyuan’s net worth was growing at an astonishing speed with every passing second.

In the midst of this busyness, Christmas Eve on December 24th arrived.

After nearly two months of filming, the movie Taste of Midsummer finally wrapped up successfully in a small town in Jiangnan.

On the night filming wrapped, Xie Jinzhao couldn’t wait a single moment, taking a flight back to the capital overnight.

Because during this period, his boyfriend had gotten busy again. It felt like they hadn’t had a proper conversation in a long time, let alone met in person.

Knowing he was coming back, Gu Siyuan also exceptionally left work early.

Opening the main door of his house, Xie Jinzhao threw his luggage to the side and directly bounded onto his boyfriend. His hands looped around his neck, and his legs tightly wrapped around his lean yet powerful waist, like a koala bear.

Gu Siyuan hitched the person up in his arms: “You’ve lost weight.”

“Because I missed you, and you didn’t even call me.” Resting his head on his shoulder, the moment Xie Jinzhao opened his mouth, faint hot breath puffed against his face. Because it was cold, his voice even carried a slightly breathy tone.

Hearing his soft tone, Gu Siyuan’s heart felt as if it were soaked in water. Holding the person just like that, he walked over to the sofa and sat down. He lowered his head and gently kissed his cold face and aggrieved eyes.

Although Xie Jinzhao felt aggrieved in his heart, he still obediently raised his chin to cooperate.

After the two shared a tender moment, Gu Siyuan tried to set the person down: “You definitely haven’t had dinner yet. I’ll call someone to deliver food.”

Xie Jinzhao hugged him tightly: “Not letting go.”

Rubbing the back of the person’s neck, Gu Siyuan said softly: “Aren’t you hungry? I’m hungry.”

Hearing this, Xie Jinzhao leaned forward, aimed at his lips, and bit lightly. Blinking his large, watery eyes, he said slyly: “What’s dinner? Is it as delicious as me?”

“…” Gu Siyuan.

Very well! This little fox spirit.

Would he still be a man if he backed down at this time? Without another word, Gu Siyuan directly carried the person and walked upstairs.

Since he wanted to act up like this, he shouldn’t blame him for showing no mercy later.

This time, the two truly tossed and turned thoroughly.

Even at the very end, when Xie Jinzhao cried and screamed, begging him, Gu Siyuan didn’t show a trace of soft-heartedness.

When it ended in the early hours of the morning, it was Gu Siyuan who ordered porridge, sat on the edge of the bed, and fed it bite by bite to Xie Jinzhao, who had already melted into a puddle of water.

The next day, when Xie Jinzhao opened his eyes, it was already noon. Outside the window, snow was fluttering down.

Tsk, it really fits the Christmas atmosphere.

Rubbing his waist, he recovered for a good while before slowly leaning against the headboard, feeling for his phone, and habitually logging into his Weibo burner account to scroll.

The first thing he saw was a trailer posted simultaneously half an hour ago by Green Fruit Video and the official Weibo of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital. This was the production crew’s first teaser since filming started last May, and it was also the scheduling announcement.

This Weibo post first stated that the drama would air exclusively on Green Fruit Video at 8 PM on January 1st, and finally tagged the main actors in the drama.

Although the production team of this drama was unknown and the original IP wasn’t too famous, because of the participation of the high-traffic star Xie Jinzhao, film and television KOLs on Weibo seeking heat still actively reposted it.

And those whose feelings were most conflicted were none other than Xie Jinzhao’s fans. On one hand, they were afraid this shoddy little crew had produced an earth-shatteringly terrible drama that would ruin Xie Jinzhao’s reputation, and they didn’t want to promote it at all. On the other hand, they felt a bit embarrassed, because the crew’s official Weibo had indeed been very attentive in flattering them lately.

As fans of a traffic star whom everyone else shouted to beat down, they had never been treated like this before.

Right at this moment, a fan ID that had frequently appeared over the past half-year suddenly said: “I am guilty. I just finished watching this three-minute trailer, and I feel like I’ve truly fallen in love with this drama. It’s truly filmed so well—the makeup, the dialogue, and the visuals. I even feel it might be better than That Year, Today.”

That Year, Today was the campus drama that made Xie Jinzhao explode in popularity three years ago. Since that drama, Xie Jinzhao basically never had a drama that possessed both good reviews and high popularity.

Therefore, this evaluation was considered extremely, extremely high within their fan circle.

“Really? You didn’t take money from the production crew, did you?” Some fans were still quite disbelieving.

“Didn’t we agree previously to pretend it doesn’t exist? If we fans don’t teach them a lesson this time, next time the studio will still dare to accept this kind of ‘three-nothings’ low-class crew for Jinzhao just for money.”

“Why are you big fans changing your minds every other moment… So annoying, are we watching or not? Are we promoting or not!”

The fans quickly split into two factions and started arguing.

Right at this moment, a steady stream of fan IDs popped up to speak.

“No… can I say, after finishing it, I truly feel it’s very good, extremely good. Although we all said we’d pretend it didn’t exist before, thinking about our cub filming for over three months, I… couldn’t resist opening the trailer to look. And the result… damn it, can I say this is the best-filmed costume drama I’ve seen this year?”
“I want to say it too. The trailer is edited so well, and our cub’s acting is super good too. That look in his eyes when he appeared made me swoon to death! And the fight scenes are real punches to the flesh, not slow motion!”
“Yes, yes! And our cub’s headpiece and makeup this time are super exquisite. I feel it’s the best styling and costumes among his several costume dramas. It’s welfare for face-lovers! Plus, all the lines use his original voice, so swoon-worthy!”
“Although our cub is good too, I also want to praise the production crew. Not only did they film the people beautifully, but the atmosphere rendering is also very good. Joyful when it should be joyful, scary when it should be scary. And it’s absolutely not the kind that creates suspense just for the sake of suspense. From the trailer, you can see the plot is very rich and the pacing is super fast.”
“Right, after watching it the first time, I wanted to praise the plot’s pacing as truly very good. Amidst all those S+ huge costume idols that inject a massive amount of water (filler), it’s simply a breath of fresh air!”

At this time, a fan saw the ID of the person who posted above and exclaimed: “Hey, why did you watch it too? Weren’t you the one scolding this drama the harshest before?”
That ID was a bit embarrassed: “Well, it is our cub’s costume drama after all. I clicked on it just wanting to lick his face (admire his looks). Who knew that a shoddy little crew would actually have such good quality…”
“You wavering traitor.”
“…”

Right then, the most popular big fan in Xie Jinzhao’s fan circle spoke: “How about this: those who want to watch, watch. Those who feel it’s filmed well, go promote it. Everyone do their own thing, let’s not try to convince each other, lest we end up with infighting again.”

This proposal basically gained everyone’s unanimous approval.

Then, all the fans silently opened the trailer and watched it once, and still left wanting more, watched it again.

Finally, aside from a few emotionally radical fans, the majority forwarded this official scheduling announcement Weibo to their own homepages and pinned it for promotion.

At the same time, under the comment sections of major film and television KOLs on Weibo, users with avatars related to Brocade Robes and Jade Capital‘s scheduled broadcast could be seen speaking everywhere.

On a certain short video platform, editors also began to take the short three-minute footage and make all sorts of fancy edits.

Well, in short, just one phrase: “True Fragrance!” (Initially rejecting something but eventually loving it).

Fans were also viewers. Actually, they were clearer than anyone else in their hearts about whether a drama’s quality was good or bad. However, in order to maintain their idols, they often had to speak against their conscience.

Now, with their own idol finally filming such a wonderful, high-quality drama, who cared what it was like before? Now it was their biggest treasure. Even Xie Jinzhao’s ranking had to step back.

On the other hand, although most KOLs on Weibo looked towards money, to maintain long-term reputations, they would usually still express relatively fair insights. After watching the three-minute trailer of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital, these KOLs rarely gave almost unanimously one-sided praise for the drama.

There were also a few more conservative ones who expressed that perhaps the essence of the entire drama was in this three-minute trailer, hoping that it could maintain this standard once the actual drama aired.

Regarding this, even if haters claimed they took money to praise it, they were quickly drowned out by the good reviews from Xie Jinzhao’s fans and the book fans.

Although the original novel of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital wasn’t a massive IP, the fact that its copyright was sold showed it was already quite good among its peers. There were still a number of original book fans. After watching the trailer, these fans were obviously very satisfied and completely became a wave of ‘tap water’ (spontaneous, unpaid promoters).

Seeing everything proceed exactly as his boyfriend predicted, Xie Jinzhao couldn’t help but sigh. A person like Gu Siyuan, who predicted things like a god, would truly succeed in whatever he did.

Pushing the door open while carrying lunch, Gu Siyuan met a pair of eyes full of stars and couldn’t help but narrow his own: “Thinking of bad ideas again? It seems I still didn’t feed you enough last night?”

“…” Xie Jinzhao couldn’t help but rub his waist. This… better not.

He thought for a moment, obediently half-opening his mouth: “I’m very full. I only want to eat lunch right now. Hubby, feed me.”

“…” Gu Siyuan.

Young people nowadays, truly… just calling ‘hubby’ casually?

Although… it’s quite cute.

Over the next few days, the promotion plan Gu Siyuan had long arranged officially launched.

Brocade Robes and Jade Capital basically had two to three trending searches every day—from the protagonists’ makeup photos, to plot science popularization, to episodic trailers—colorful and diverse.

The purpose was nothing else but to let people know this drama was about to air. In the country, the status of costume dramas had always been the most special. For decades, they had always possessed a large group of loyal viewers.

Once the popularity for the broadcast was built up, as long as the quality was good, the spontaneous ‘tap water’ audience would flow endlessly.

However, right on December 31st, the day before the official broadcast of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital…

Red Flower Video and Record of Snowy Clearance suddenly also released their scheduling trailer—set for January 3rd, airing only two days later than them.

The original novel of Record of Snowy Clearance was a top-tier massive IP with countless fans. The male and female leads were popular first-tier stars with their own built-in audience bases. From the start of the project, it had always been highly anticipated by millions.

Once this trailer was released, it instantly rushed onto seven or eight trending searches. Not only Weibo, but other major platforms were also instantaneously filled with information related to this drama.

Various classic lines from the book and aesthetically beautiful stills of the male and female leads were innumerable, instantly spreading to every corner of the internet.

The fiery momentum Brocade Robes and Jade Capital had built up over the previous few days was suppressed in one fell swoop.

Inside the warm living room of Xie Jinzhao’s house.

Seeing the great situation completely scattered, Tu Ning couldn’t help but feel a bit angry: “Record of Snowy Clearance is really something, deliberately pressing the time so close?”

Sitting cross-legged on the sofa, Xie Jinzhao peeled a honey tangerine and popped it into his mouth. He also conveniently handed one to his executive manager. His phoenix eyes narrowed into a smile: “At least it’s not airing on the same day, they still left us a little way out.”

Looking at him full of spring breeze, surrounded by an aura of everything going his way, Tu Ning couldn’t help but say: “Looking like you do right now, you better not go out and meet people. It’s too obvious.”

Xie Jinzhao blinked: “What’s wrong? What’s obvious?”

Tu Ning rolled her eyes: “The aura of being in love is too obvious.”

“…” Xie Jinzhao.

Alright, the manager is in a bad mood right now and probably finds looking at me very annoying.

He spoke up to comfort her: “You don’t need to worry. I am very confident in the quality of our drama. Look at the fans who were previously shouting to beat and kill it. After watching the trailer, aren’t they all looking forward to the drama immensely now?”

“That’s true,” Tu Ning nodded. She had the deepest experience of this point.

Previously, the fans wished they could pretend the drama didn’t exist. Now, under the drama’s official Weibo, every day it was full of fans commenting, discussing and analyzing the plot, and even teaching them how to promote and market it.

She asked again: “What has the big boss been busy with lately? Has he made any judgments regarding this current situation?”

Xie Jinzhao nodded: “He told me not to worry about Record of Snowy Clearance. Just one look at the drama’s lofty, top-tier ink-wash painting style, and its eerie, ghost-like textured lighting, and you know the drama has already flopped more than half. He expressed that he hopes Record of Snowy Clearance airs the earlier the better, so we might even be able to step on it for a wave of marketing.”

“…” Tu Ning.

It’s truly ‘people who aren’t from the same family don’t enter the same door’ (birds of a feather flock together). You two are both so confident!

On New Year’s Day, January 1st, most people were on holiday.

Starting from the morning, netizens who opened Green Fruit Video to watch dramas would catch sight of the information about Brocade Robes and Jade Capital airing tonight at 8 PM on the homepage recommendation slot at first glance.

On the cover, Xie Jinzhao was clad in flying fish robes holding an embroidered spring blade, his face cold, handsome, and beautiful. The female lead, Lu Ruowen, was in plain everyday clothes carrying a coroner’s toolbox, her smile elegant and cute.

Handsome man and beautiful woman, the impact was extremely strong.

For ordinary viewers who always loved costume idols but had been tormented by ugly men for a long time, they simply couldn’t resist clicking in.

At this time, the episodes hadn’t officially been uploaded yet. They could only see a few behind-the-scenes clips, leaving them wanting more.

Soon, 8 PM arrived.

Xie Jinzhao pulled Gu Siyuan along, and the two sat on the sofa at home, watching earnestly.

Actually, after the drama finished editing and was sent for censorship, Xie Jinzhao had already watched it right away. But watching it again now, together with the netizens and with the bullet screen turned on, was a completely different experience.

The very beginning of the drama was in the dark Imperial Prison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard (Jinyiwei), with a bloody, mangled mass of a person tied to the torture rack.

Instantly, the bullet screen flashed: “So scared, this person is so fierce!”
Or else: “So thrilling, so bloody right from the start, I like it!”

After editing, Brocade Robes and Jade Capital had a total of 36 episodes. The entire drama had five cases, averaging about seven episodes per case.

To stir up popularity on the first day, the video website allowed VIP members to watch six episodes all at once. Brocade Robes and Jade Capital was naturally no exception.

But before all six episodes were finished, at around 9:30 PM, after two episodes had been watched, discussions about the drama slowly unfolded across various platforms.

First were the drama-chasing bloggers on Weibo, who began screenshotting and promoting it. The recommendations given were basically all positive reviews.

The comments contained some of Xie Jinzhao’s fans, but also quite a few passerby viewers. Unanimously, the evaluations given were: strong CP sense between the handsome man and beautiful woman, perfect case settings, and super-fast plot pacing. Good-looking and thrilling!

For those who watched dramas quickly, by past 11 PM, all six episodes had been finished, and the first case was basically coming to an end. To maintain suspense and stimulate the viewers’ passion to chase the drama, the producers abruptly stopped right at the final moment when the male and female leads were about to expose the truth.

Thus, on Weibo and in WeChat Moments, there was a sea of cursing everywhere—cursing the production team for their masterful use of a cliffhanger.

And this kind of behavior was the best promotion. Today was New Year’s Day, and most people were bored at home. Therefore, people kept asking in the comments: What drama is this? Is it good? Is it worth chasing?

No matter how brilliant the promotion, nothing was as effective as the spontaneous ‘tap water’ in WeChat Moments.

When the first day ended, the four-hour playback data for the drama was over ten million.

This was basically the fundamental baseline brought in by Xie Jinzhao and the costume idol genre. In this world, whether it was platform online views or television viewership ratings, all were supervised by the National Viewership Center. Water injection (faking numbers) was absolutely not allowed.

For an A-level investment drama, this data was already considered a pretty good start.

But naturally, this was not Gu Siyuan’s goal.

At 8 AM the next morning, Gu Siyuan’s marketing across various platforms officially launched.

There were no trending searches with the actors’ personal names, nor were there any embarrassing trending searches about acting skills or lines. All of them were discussions about the plot.

Viewers who had watched the drama last night clicked on the trending searches, saw that it was good and interesting, and since there were no fans mechanically controlling the comments, they all participated very actively.

Whether it was a genuine recommendation or fake praise, everyone actually saw things clearly.

In today’s internet era, the effect feedback of a drama, whether good or bad, was astonishingly fast. In just one daytime, the playback volume of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital ushered in a leap of growth, surging to over forty million in a single day.

When 8 PM arrived and the latest two episodes updated, paired with the trending search discussions, it brought in a new wave of drama-chasing viewers.

When the second day ended, the single-day playback volume approached seventy million.

On the third day, the playback volume was over ninety million, just short of breaking 100 million. This was completely the trajectory of a smash-hit drama. And this day was also the broadcast day of the super massive drama of the same genre, Record of Snowy Clearance.

However, exactly as Gu Siyuan had predicted, the broadcast of Record of Snowy Clearance not only failed to cause half a point of suppression on their drama, but instead delivered a large batch of viewers to them.

Record of Snowy Clearance‘s costumes, makeup, and props seemed ancient but were actually Japanese-styled. A single fight scene involved half a day of slow motion. The gray, dusty lighting, and the frequent, lengthy dialogue scenes just showing off skills—all made the ordinary viewers who had come with expectations leave in disappointment. Many book fans were even so angry that they directly started cursing under the drama’s Weibo.

And while cursing, they would naturally and spontaneously compare this drama to Brocade Robes and Jade Capital, which was of the same genre.

Not to mention, after airing for three days, Brocade Robes and Jade Capital had also accumulated a portion of drama fans. Drama fans had a very strong sense of honor, and they couldn’t help but secretly step on the other to elevate their own.

Thus, on the fourth day, the playback volume of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital ushered in explosive growth, surging directly from ninety million the previous day to 140 million.

Generally speaking, the further it went, the slower the data growth would be.

On the fifth day, Brocade Robes and Jade Capital also officially opened for ratings on a certain platform. The drama fans and Xie Jinzhao’s fans were very active, swarming over right away.

Number of raters: 130,000. Opening score: 8.1.

With this, not only was Xie Jinzhao so happy he clung to Gu Siyuan and wouldn’t come down, but their industry peers were also shocked.

An 8.1 score might not seem high compared to those foreign movies that frequently scored above 9.0.

But a drama’s rating had a huge relationship with its genre. Realistic dramas, historical orthodox dramas, and some niche dramas generally scored high naturally.

As for costume idols, no matter how hotly they aired, very few could even get a passing score. As for those scoring over 7.0, sometimes not even one would appear in a year.

Therefore, this 8.1 score could completely be called a high-quality drama.

With such a high score, Gu Siyuan naturally wouldn’t be stingy about buying a trending search to boast about it.

Following that came yet another wave of viewers.

They would think: I seem to have heard this drama’s name frequently lately. Is it really that good? The rating is so high? I just happen to be experiencing a drama drought recently, might as well go take a look.

After four days of continuous broadcasting, Brocade Robes and Jade Capital had to halt broadcasting for three days.

But during these three days, the popularity surrounding Brocade Robes and Jade Capital didn’t stop at all. The accumulated viewers grew more and more, and many people even rewatched it. The playback volume steadily broke 100 million every day.

Three days passed. On January 8th, Brocade Robes and Jade Capital updated two episodes again, and the playback volume reached 170 million. There was no doubt that tomorrow, this drama’s playback volume would probably break 200 million.

As expected, on January 9th, the final single-day playback volume for this drama was 203 million.

After that, as long as it was an update day, this drama steadily broke 200 million every day, and even on non-update days it could get over 100 million. It simply sucked dry the entire winter vacation market pool.

Meanwhile, regarding the other side’s Record of Snowy Clearance, from the platform to the production company personnel, no one could understand or accept this result.

Qi Run was even less able to accept it.

In recent years, he had been circling in the film industry. But the highest-grossing movies in recent years were lower-tier comedies and war films; his image didn’t match, and his commercial value had somewhat declined.

To maintain his national recognition and fan popularity, he had decided to descend to the mortal realm to film television dramas. Record of Snowy Clearance was a script he had meticulously chosen.

However, even if he acted in a TV drama, he couldn’t lower his prestige.

Therefore, he brought in a film crew for photography, costumes, and makeup. He even added many male lead scenes and lengthy court dialogue scenes based on the original work, greatly elevating the entire drama’s texture.

But who knew that it would end up like this? He lost to Xie Jinzhao—this person he had always looked down upon.

The current playback volume of Record of Snowy Clearance was merely a fraction of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital‘s. It was simply too laughable. Did people nowadays even know what a good drama was?

Unlike the madness of the Record of Snowy Clearance crew, everyone in the Brocade Robes and Jade Capital crew was brimming with a joyful atmosphere.

That afternoon, Director Wang called over, extremely excited, to congratulate Gu Siyuan and Xie Jinzhao, and also to congratulate himself.

He had sold this drama to Green Fruit Video on a revenue-sharing basis. This meant that the increased quotes for commercial advertisements later would be split equally between the company and the platform.

Gu Siyuan calmly hung up the phone.

To him, this was merely small change. The only thing he cared about was the benefit this result brought to Xie Jinzhao’s career.

He turned back and stroked the person in his arms: “Happy?”

Xie Jinzhao didn’t answer; he merely tilted his head back and kissed Gu Siyuan’s chin.

The gaze he used to look at him was incredibly pious, as if looking at his own god or Buddha.

No, Gu Siyuan is my god, and also my lover.

Thinking back to eight months ago, at that time, he was still someone full of doubts about his acting career, even inexplicably afraid of joining a production crew.

If I hadn’t met Gu Siyuan in the hotel that night.
If Gu Siyuan hadn’t decided to become my manager.
If Gu Siyuan didn’t love me.

At the thought of this, Xie Jinzhao’s heart seemed to stop, and his eye sockets instantly turned red.

He stretched out his slender arms and tightly hugged the person in front of him, as if wanting to embed himself into his body, directly becoming one with that person.

Gu Siyuan seemed to feel his emotions. He lowered his head slightly to kiss his eyelids: “I will always stay by your side, watching you stand at the pinnacle of the world.”

Support me on Ko-fi