Chapter 126: Miracles, We Are Not Worthy (Seeking Monthly Votes)

Lin Xing did not miss a single opportunity to promote *Portrait Homicide*.

Compared to the other hosts of *Tonight's Drama Show*, Yao Xue and Fang Xue were relatively polite to Lin Xing during the recording.

Not to mention that Minnie brought Yao Xue out to dinner with Lin Xing tonight.

This proved that Yao Xue belonged to Minnie's camp.

Therefore, Lin Xing did not stand on ceremony.

From then on, the two stopped addressing each other formally as "Teacher."

"Brother Xing, let me add you on WeChat," Yao Xue said with a smile. "When the show airs, send me the promotional copy, and I will definitely help you promote it."

"Alright, then thank you, Xiaoxue," Lin Xing said with a chuckle.

"A-xing, this episode airs on March 30th, and your drama also premieres on March 30th..." Minnie said to Lin Xing. "I also hope this episode can help promote your show a bit more."

"No problem at all. As long as they don't edit Brother Xing out, his high-light moments will definitely spark discussions among everyone," Yao Xue said with great confidence, recalling Lin Xing's go-getter attitude during today's recording.

"What on earth are you thinking?" Minnie looked somewhat speechless. "The focus of this episode is *The Correct Way to Stay Single*, starring Zhao Yining and Xu Tong. The editing will definitely revolve around them..."

Yao Xue frowned. "No way, are Brother Xing's iconic moments really going to be completely edited out?"

"Yao Xue, where is your brain?" Minnie said, slightly irritated. "Asking a question like that makes me think it's something a newbie would say."

Yao Xue quickly defended herself, "Sister Mi, you know my brain isn't great to begin with, right?"

"You..." Minnie was instantly defeated. She shook her wayward head and said, "I think you'd better honestly stay put on *Tonight's Drama Show* in the future. Don't participate in interview-style or emotional variety shows, lest you get scolded."

Yao Xue nodded gently. "Okay, I'll listen to Sister Mi."

Listening to the conversation between Minnie and Yao Xue, Lin Xing had a sudden realization. Although Yao Xue was somewhat naive and air-headed, her primary trait was obedience.

In many cases, people being foolish wasn't terrifying; what was most terrifying was someone being foolish yet unaware of it, constantly brushing off other people's advice and jumping into deep pits over and over again.

The reason Minnie was willing to take Yao Xue under her wing was probably because, despite Yao Xue's air-headed nature, she genuinely took advice.

She did whatever she was told.

In Yao Xue's own words: Sister Mi has eaten more salt than I've eaten rice; she definitely won't harm me, so I just do whatever she says.

And thus, Minnie single-handedly molded Yao Xue into who she was.

"Based on my understanding of the show, those high-light moments will probably end up in the previews or behind-the-scenes clips. The main episode will definitely feature a few iconic moments, but certainly not many," Minnie told Lin Xing. "You'd better mentally prepare yourself."

"That's already good enough," Lin Xing laughed. "We're basically just tagging along for the ride as side dishes. To have this kind of treatment already makes me quite content."

Minnie turned to Yao Xue and said, "See that? Learn from A-xing's mindset. Having a good mentality is the most important thing in the entertainment industry."

Yao Xue said, "I'll try my best!"

For the next half hour, Lin Xing felt as though Minnie and Yao Xue were performing a crosstalk routine, while he was merely the punchline of their act.

One would say, "Look at Lin Xing," and the other would reply, "Oh?"

One would say, "Look at Lin Xing," and the other would chime in, "That's true."

My goodness.

They genuinely acted like the straight man and the comic foil in a crosstalk pair.

"A-xing, we'll get together again when there's a chance," Minnie said with a smile after they finished. "Who knows, I might just pop over to Hong Kong to visit your set one of these days."

Lin Xing replied, "That would be my honor. Let's make plans when the time comes."

After exchanging a few more words with Yao Xue, Lin Xing took his leave.

"Sister Mi, do you really think Lin Xing's drama *Portrait Homicide* will do well?" Yao Xue asked Minnie on their way back.

Minnie shook her head. "I don't know."

Yao Xue was puzzled. "If you don't know, why are you helping Lin Xing like this?"

"Use your brain," Minnie said once more. "If I only wanted to help *Portrait Homicide*, would I have invited just Lin Xing out to dinner today? I said it right from the start: what I'm betting on is Lin Xing himself. Did you really think I was joking when I said he's guaranteed a spot in the entertainment industry within ten years?"

Yao Xue let out an "Ah." "I thought you were just feigning a rivalry with Shang Wei!"

"What rivalry is there to feign?" Minnie shook her head slightly and said, "My view on Lin Xing's *Portrait Homicide* is similar to everyone else's. For a web drama with such a small cast, achieving a minor breakout would already be considered a success—not to mention that investigative themes aren't that easy to pull off."

Yao Xue was stunned. "Then why did you..."

"Still help Lin Xing, you mean? Let me ask you, in all these years, which guest coming onto our *Tonight's Drama Show* has ever been like Lin Xing?" Minnie smiled as she spoke. "Just like Lin Xing said, he merely considers this a job. But why do we all feel like he's risking his life for it?"

Yao Xue answered without missing a beat, "It's all thanks to the comparison with his peers."

Indeed.

It was entirely thanks to the comparison with his peers.

Zhou Wei had called Ma Wen to brief him on the recording session, saying, "Director Ma, you didn't see how hard A-xing pushed himself. And I've been in the entertainment industry for so long, but dammit, I've never seen an actor who actually prepares his homework in advance for a variety show."

Ma Wen was similarly taken aback. "A-xing actually discussed things with you guys beforehand?"

"Not just discussed," Zhou Wei said, still in awe. "The rules of *Tonight's Drama Show*, the gaming segments, potential situations that might arise during recording, and even where the three of us should find our comedic or emotional beats—A-xing laid all of that out completely..."

Zhou Wei sighed as he spoke, "My feeling right now is that it would truly go against natural justice if A-xing doesn't become a massive star. He's actually able to execute things to such a meticulous, almost obsessive degree."

"The most crucial part is that A-xing never takes the credit. He genuinely feels he's just doing his job."

By the end, Zhou Wei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "If we went by A-xing's standards, ninety-nine percent of the people in this damn entertainment industry would fail at their jobs."

Ma Wen agreed, "Yeah, and A-xing didn't even need to push himself this hard. Honestly, our crew doesn't really deserve someone like A-xing."

"I told A-xing the exact same thing, and guess what he said?"

Zhou Wei suddenly chuckled.

Ma Wen was startled. "What did he say?"

"A-xing said he's extremely grateful to have met the right crew at the right time..."

Zhou Wei said, "I could tell that A-xing meant those words from the bottom of his heart."

To put it bluntly, a film crew and an actor are sometimes just like a blind date.

People are only introduced to each other when their strength is comparable.

So from Lin Xing's perspective, talking about how the crew didn't deserve him?

That would be overestimating him by quite a bit.

At the time, if Lin Xing hadn't earned recognition through the sales of *Fashion Men's Style*, *Portrait Homicide* would never have handed their script over to him.

You can't just gain a tiny bit of popularity now and then decide that the role you accepted back then was unsuitable.

Isn't that the behavior of a manipulative player?

Furthermore, Lin Xing had always believed that the script for *Portrait Homicide* was good. Especially after watching the rough cut, he became even more convinced that there was nothing wrong with this drama.

Whether it was those who had mocked Lin Xing in the past, or those who thought he only took the male lead role for the sake of his perceived social status, Lin Xing genuinely didn't care about these opinions.

It was meaningless.

In the entertainment industry, getting into internet flame wars was the most pointless thing one could do.

Much like certain directors who refuse to admit it after making a terrible film, and instead go out of their way to post on social media about how much effort they put into the project, blaming the audience for misunderstanding it, followed by a bunch of celebrities reposting and showing solidarity.

Did that have any meaning?

Aside from making the audience despise them more, it accomplished nothing.

Currently, the premiere date of *Portrait Homicide* was drawing closer and closer. Even up to this point, most people still viewed it as a rather cliché investigative drama, with nothing more than some romance tossed in.

However, when the dual-male-lead trailer for *Portrait Homicide* was released, people found it even less appealing.

Playing up homoerotic subtext for fans, are we?

Staging CP (couple pairing) marketing stunts again?

Many current dramas were just like this, basically relying on dual male leads to generate a shipping fandom—and this kind of shipping wasn't restricted to inside the show; it spilled over into real life as well.

Much like the mega-hit urban drama *I Love Him* from three years ago, which was essentially the most successful example of shipping-driven marketing.

It featured a dual-male-lead setup, and both actors possessed decent acting skills. Inside the show, the two characters shared a subtle vibe, engaging in extreme emotional tension. As for real life, during interviews, they interacted as if overflowing with affection for each other.

Yet last year, one of the male actors was exposed for sleeping with fans, and the other CP actor swiftly severed ties, leading to a public feud where everyone finally realized that those interviews had all been scripted from the start.

Still, it made no difference.

How should one put it?

Even if it was fake, even if it was industrial saccharine, the audience was still willing to consume it. After all, getting fake sweetness was better than having no sugar at all, right?

Anyway, nowadays everything could be fake as long as the audience was entertained.

Precisely because of this, many marketing accounts' immediate reaction upon seeing the promotional material for *Portrait Homicide* was to label it as manufactured homoerotic pandering.

Some even mocked it: "What era is this, and they're still pulling that stunt?"

Earlier, when *Portrait Homicide* wrapped filming, many people had unilaterally criticized Lin Xing, feeling that an idol actor was entirely unsuited for an investigative thriller.

Added to that, Zhou Wei was a minor figure with only 800,000 followers and usually generated no talking points, so nobody bothered to criticize him—leaving all the vicious comments to be dumped solely on Lin Xing.

Lin Xing accepted all of this in stride.

After *Portrait Homicide* released its dual-male-lead mystery-solving trailer, Lin Xing reposted it on social media as well.

Being criticized was a good thing.

For a drama, if not a single person was scolding it, then that meant the show wasn't just close to flopping—it was guaranteed to flop.

The current entertainment industry operated entirely on data. Under the weight of big data, even the finest wine feared having a deep alleyway.

For this reason, having zero early attention was definitely unacceptable.

However, knowing the A+ evaluation rating assigned to *Portrait Homicide* made it clear that people were not optimistic about the series.

Aside from Lin Xing, who possessed some traffic value, the rest of the cast lacked major fame.

The screenwriter was tackling an investigative drama for the first time, and while director Liu Zhou had previously directed investigative series, several of his recent projects had flopped.

From the initial sneers and jeers when *Portrait Homicide* wrapped up filming, to the total radio silence during the promotional phase, and finally to drawing a tiny shred of public attention—even if it was still drowned in criticism.

Optimistically speaking, this still counted as attention.

The next day, Lin Xing returned to Beijing and had a gathering with Ma Wen, Liu Zhou, Wei Fei, and Wang Yi.

"A-xing, you've worked hard," Ma Wen said with a smile, looking at Lin Xing. "I already heard from Zhou Wei about how tough you had it during the recording."

Wei Fei also chimed in, "A-xing, for a drama like this, just managing to air is already a victory. Why did you have to push yourself so hard? What would you have done if something had gone wrong?"

"Director Ma, Sister Fei, it wasn't that dramatic," Lin Xing chuckled. "The games on *Tonight's Drama Show* were relatively safe; I was just trying to master the game rules as best as I could. Speaking of pushing oneself, I think Ning Rong was the one who truly went all out—he threw away all his dignity just to promote our *Portrait Homicide*, and Brother Zhou as well..."

"A-xing, you really..."

Looking at Lin Xing, Liu Zhou genuinely didn't know what else to say.

He truly considered every single aspect.

More importantly, he never once acted like a bigshot. From the moment *Portrait Homicide* started filming, wrapped up, and secured its premiere date, Lin Xing's popularity had been steadily rising.

Yet Lin Xing's attitude had never changed.

Even when it came to promotions, Lin Xing didn't really need to put in this much effort. After all, creators like Ma Wen, Liu Zhou, and Wang Yi were already immensely grateful to him.

They felt that Lin Xing agreeing to participate in *Tonight's Drama Show* was already giving them plenty of face.

Who could have anticipated that Lin Xing would push himself to such lengths to promote *Portrait Homicide*?

"A-xing, when are you leaving?" Wei Fei asked Lin Xing. "Are you getting ready to join the new crew?"

"Yeah, I'm heading to Hong Kong tomorrow. The web drama *Bad Kids* starts filming tomorrow," Lin Xing said with a gentle nod. "I should be based in Hong Kong for a while."

At this point, Lin Xing paused before adding, "If *Portrait Homicide* needs me to cooperate with anything later on, just say the word. Whatever I can do, I will definitely do."

"For now, there really isn't much left," Ma Wen said with a bitter smile. "Our drama has neither a premiere press conference nor a corporate office tour event. As for live-streaming, the timing isn't quite right, and our promotional resources are basically depleted. At best, Tencent Video will give us a Level-2 recommendation when it premieres."

"Level-2 recommendation?"

Lin Xing was slightly stunned. "Weren't they talking about the possibility of a splash-screen recommendation before?"

"No chance. There are two S-grade dramas launching in April, and Tencent Video needs to rely on those two to compete with other video platforms," Ma Wen shook his head slightly. "Shows like ours are treated as cannon fodder, and cannon fodder isn't worth allocating extra resources to."

Lin Xing replied, "Ah, well, that's quite reasonable."

"If you ask me, Lao Ma, Lao Wang, you guys are just overthinking things," Wei Fei reiterated her stance. "I said it when we wrapped filming—as long as our show manages to air, that's already a victory. Then we worked hard through the Spring Festival to finally lock in the premiere date for March 30th. Isn't that already a win?"

"Feifei, words are easy to say like that," Ma Wen wryly smiled. "But who doesn't want to go a step further?"

Wang Yi added, "Forget about the two of us, just ask Director Liu if he doesn't have extra ambitions?"

"I certainly do. I'm even hoping our show can leap straight to S-grade," Liu Zhou said with a chuckle.

"Lao Liu, since you're daydreaming, why not just dream about our show becoming S+?" Wei Fei teased lightly. "Who knows, maybe it could become an S++ phenomenon like *Anti-Corruption Storm*?"

"I'm talking about dreams. What if a dream actually comes true?" Liu Zhou retorted playfully. "That S++ tier you mentioned is already delusional fantasy."

In the industry, S+ was already considered a massive breakout hit. As for an unprecedented, phenomenal breakout hit like *Anti-Corruption Storm* reaching S++ tier directly, it truly required the alignment of favorable weather, advantageous terrain, and harmonious human relations.

Besides, how many phenomenal hits like *Anti-Corruption Storm* could be produced in a single year?

Look at how much dividends every single person reaped from that show—not just the three leading actors Ren Yi, Song Wen, and Wang Fei, but even main cast members like Shang Xia, Wu Jun, Cao Xiang, and Lin Xing, down to Zhao Lili, Xu Rong, and Cai Ying.

That was a phenomenal hit; essentially, even the supporting cast got to share the dividends.

Aside from Feng Qing, who got cursed at relentlessly, every single actor in *Anti-Corruption Storm* gained a certain degree of public acclaim.

For Liu Zhou to feel confident that *Portrait Homicide* could reach those heights—he wouldn't even have any self-awareness left if he thought that.

As a veteran director, he had confidence in *Portrait Homicide*; he believed it was definitely not a bad film.

Whether it could avoid flopping, and whether it could succeed, however, was truly hard to say.

A terrible show didn't necessarily flop; just look at many critically reviled dramas that still pulled in high viewership ratings and massive streaming numbers.

By the same token, a good show didn't necessarily avoid flopping. Some good dramas might suffer from low ratings and poor streaming numbers upon release, only to be rediscovered by audiences a year or two later, eventually becoming the king of dramas.

So it all came back to that age-old cliché: the entertainment industry is a place where miracles happen, and anything is possible.

"Just heard from *Tonight's Drama Show* that this episode will air on March 30th," Ma Wen said to Lin Xing. "My thought is that we should step up our publicity as much as possible, and simultaneously release the final trailer on the 31st. What do you think?"

"Sounds good. But when *Tonight's Drama Show* airs, there's really no telling how they're going to edit us..." Lin Xing thought for a moment and said, "So I think it would be best if we release a few short clips every week leading up to it..."

"That goes without saying," Ma Wen nodded gently. "We've already prepared them."

After all, although *Portrait Homicide* didn't have a massive amount of promotional resources, they still had some—an A+ rating was, after all, vastly superior to a B-grade rating.

This dinner served as both a small gathering for everyone and a banquet of gratitude hosted by the producer, screenwriter, director, and supervisor of *Portrait Homicide* to thank Lin Xing.

"A-xing, wishing you smooth filming in Hong Kong. We'll throw you a welcome-back banquet when you return to Beijing," Wei Fei said, raising a glass of wine.

From her perspective, as far as *Portrait Homicide* was concerned, everything that could be done had been done, and Lin Xing had already given his utmost.

Going forward, the premiere of *Portrait Homicide* would probably just pass by quietly and unremarkably.

At best, Lin Xing could help out by doing some live-streaming.

Did anyone seriously expect Lin Xing to go tour the Sina/Sina-Weibo headquarters like he did for *Anti-Corruption Storm*?

Don't get her wrong.

Wei Fei didn't mean that Lin Xing wasn't worthy; she simply felt that *Portrait Homicide* definitely wouldn't get that kind of opportunity.

The entertainment industry was indeed a place where miracles happened, but the very reason they were called miracles was that they rarely ever occurred.

Putting everything else aside, did *Portrait Homicide* look like a project destined for a miracle?

......

......

(End of this chapter)