Chapter 133: Word-of-Mouth Conquers the Trending Lists—Blazing Hot to an Absurd Degree

The Portrait Detective had only 20 episodes in total, meaning that half of the series had already been broadcast within just three days of its premiere. The first 10 episodes featured five distinct cases: the Plastic Surgery Clinic Murder Case, the Campus Corpse Burial Case, the Marriage Fraud Murder Case, the Screenwriter Murder Case, and the Facial Disguise Kidnapping Case.

Among these five cases, the Campus Corpse Burial Case generated the highest buzz and popularity.

Many viewers felt a lingering sense of melancholy over this case. The vast majority felt distressed over the death of Li Yahui and heartbroken that Liu Zitong had failed to save her.

Over the past three days, viewers across platforms like Bilibili, Weishi, Xiaohongshu, and Douban were enthusiastically recommending the show to others.

How should one put it?

You could tell at a single glance the difference between paid promotions and organic, unpaid recommendations.

Just look at the somewhat rough production sets during the filming of The Portrait Detective, and the fact that apart from Lin Xing, there wasn't a single heavy-hitting actor in the cast—it was instantly clear that this production crew had no money.

Furthermore, judging by the promotional efforts when The Portrait Detective first premiered, it was obvious that the crew's marketing budget was dismal.

Therefore, these promotions could only be spontaneous and driven by the audience.

"I watched the first two episodes of The Portrait Detective earlier, and I felt it was just so-so. Is it really that good?"

"It's all right. I couldn't really connect with that overly hyped Campus Corpse Burial Case, but this show is still better than others."

"I was originally going to give The Portrait Detective a 6 out of 10, but after watching The Correct Way to Be Independent, I've decided to give The Portrait Detective a 7."

...

"It's down-to-earth, features realistic themes, and the case-solving doesn't have any of those cliché, melodramatic plots. Most importantly, it's a dual-male-lead format without any romance. Isn't that enough?"

"Exactly. I'm not trying to tear down The Correct Way to Be Independent, but it flies the banner of being a voice for women, yet is there a single thing about it that feels grounded in reality? The female protagonist is a top student who graduated from university to become a full-time housewife, living in a villa and driving a luxury car, and yet she claims she's the aggrieved one?"

"The Correct Way to Be Independent has also aired ten episodes, but the plot is padded to the absolute extreme."

...

Today, The Portrait Detective once again climbed the trending search charts, but this spot on the trending list wasn't bought with money; instead, it was propelled upward entirely by word-of-mouth promotion from organic fans.

Last night—or more precisely, at 1 AM this morning—Zhao Zi finished watching the first 10 episodes of The Portrait Detective and immediately sat down to write a review.

If a drama this good wasn't promoted, it would truly be a crying shame.

Just like her best friend had told her: you can't go around crying about a drought of good shows while simultaneously refusing to support a great series when you finally encounter one.

When you encounter a bad show, you must have the courage to speak up and refuse to be gaslighted by directors and screenwriters. Bad is bad.

Similarly, when you encounter a good show, you must also have the courage to speak up. If a good drama is buried, no one will ever be willing to produce content with genuine dedication again.

Zhao Zi spent an hour writing her review for The Portrait Detective. She acknowledged that the drama indeed had some shortcomings; the beginning was a bit flat, unlike some shows that drag the audience in immediately from the first scene.

However, the drama's greatest strength lay in its steady pacing and lasting impact. The main storyline remained consistently clear, while the subplots delivered a new case every two episodes. Moreover, the highlights within these subplots were massive, and every single case ultimately explored the depths of human nature.

A truly great drama must be both entertaining and enlightening. Most domestic dramas nowadays are purely designed for trending searches and short video platforms; the most exciting parts always live on the trending lists, confined to those few brief minutes.

Once the TV series ends, the audience has zero desire to ever watch it a second time.

Even criminal investigation dramas are frequently nothing more than idol dramas masquerading under the guise of solving crimes.

Yet The Portrait Detective was different. The cases chosen for this show all addressed sharp, cutting-edge issues in contemporary society.

Do women have the right to pursue beauty?

How on earth should campus bullying be resolved?

How should one deal with marriage fraud in reality?

Can well-educated, high-achieving women also become victims of domestic abuse?

Should college entrance examination identity theft that ruins a person's entire life go unpunished?

Throughout the first five cases, the word "love" was never once explicitly uttered, and the drama left ample room for interpretation at every turn.

Take the Facial Disguise Kidnapping Case, for example: did the kidnapped wealthy heiress truly love the suspect? Did she love the young man whose identity was stolen, who had to work as a food delivery driver simply because of his low educational background?

Of course not. The wealthy heiress loved a prince—she loved the prince whom the suspect disguised himself as, portraying a sophisticated, well-educated elite.

This was reality.

If the suspect had approached the wealthy heiress as a delivery driver from the very beginning, she probably wouldn't even have spared him a single glance.

Why are so many women easily scammed by pig-killing romance scams?

I remember a question on Zhihu that asked, "Why do jerkish men always easily win women's affections? Why don't honest men learn from them?"

The core idea behind most of the answers boiled down to just one thing: jerks succeed through shameless deception and irresponsible flirting, where everything is done purely to sleep with you or even to swindle you out of your money.

After all, a jerk never intended to build a life with you in the first place; he just wanted a free ride.

How could an honest man learn that?

An honest man simply wants to find a woman and live a steadfast, down-to-earth life together.

In the Facial Disguise Kidnapping Case, the ambiguity left at the very end was precisely a reflection of human nature.

In contrast, The Correct Way to Be Independent possessed neither reality nor human nature. The female protagonist actually ended up shaking hands and making peace with the mistresses—if they had truly teamed up to beat up the scumbag husband together, that would be one thing.

Instead, they suddenly started talking about how divorce is bad for the children, and then suggested that if things really didn't work out, they should just have a second child.

While that might be realistic in an ordinary family—where many women loudly complain about wanting a divorce from their husbands, only to end up pregnant with a second child anyway—what was the educational level of those women?

What was the educational level of the female protagonist in your show?

Therefore, compared to the fierce, organic word-of-mouth promotion driving The Portrait Detective today, The Correct Way to Be Independent continued to be ruthlessly criticized.

Its public reputation had collapsed right from the start.

The problem was that The Correct Way to Be Independent wasn't one of those shows that traded reputation for viewership ratings; the lead actors—Zhao Yining and Xu Tong—as well as major co-stars like Han Long, Lin Yu, and Wei Hai, all cared deeply about their reputations.

Zhao Yining, in particular, had seen her previous drama bomb. The female artists in the domestic entertainment industry were caught in a viciously competitive rat race. A single failed project might be forgivable, but if another one flopped, who would ever dare to cast you again?

Lead actors have to carry the shows on their shoulders.

Furthermore, there were simply far too many male and female artists of the same type in the entertainment circle. In the exact same race track, countless people were eyeing the top spots.

Back then, Zhao Yining and her manager had carefully deliberated for a long time before selecting The Correct Way to Be Independent.

Because independent, self-reliant feminist artists were currently all the rage in the entertainment industry.

How to put it?

People in the entertainment industry basically produced whatever the market demanded.

Over the past two years, Zhao Yining's cultivated public persona had always been that of an independent, self-reliant female artist who spoke up for vulnerable groups—someone praised with headlines like "How daring of her!" and the like.

Her fans ate that up completely.

Some clueless casual viewers also bought into it.

As for the marketing accounts, it went without saying—they frequently praised Zhao Yining for how boldly she spoke up for women, how independent and self-reliant she was, and how forthright her personality was.

In short, this kind of marketing eventually made even Zhao Yining herself believe it.

Her manager was a seasoned expert in packaging artists. This time, the manager and Zhao Yining chose The Correct Way to Be Independent precisely to continue cashing in on feminist dividends.

Therefore, from the very day The Correct Way to Be Independent officially announced its release, the promotional narrative surrounding Zhao Yining had already been set in stone.

While the drama was ostensibly billed as having dual female leads, Zhao Yining held the primary top billing. Xu Tong herself was well aware of this; in terms of popularity and resources, she still fell somewhat short compared to Zhao Yining.

In other words, if The Correct Way to Be Independent succeeded, the primary dividends would belong to Zhao Yining.

This was also the main reason Zhao Yining accepted the role.

Before April 1st, neither she nor her manager had ever imagined that this drama would flop.

The screenwriter was Xiao Li, the director was also a well-known name, it was broadcast simultaneously on Tan Province TV and Yikan Video, and its internal platform rating was S+. Under such favorable conditions, how could it possibly fail?

Events proved that while The Correct Way to Be Independent suffered a blow to its reputation on its premiere day, its real-time viewership ratings ranked first, and its popularity score ranked first. It hadn't truly flopped in terms of numbers.

Yet its public reputation had collapsed.

The problem was that Zhao Yining needed this drama to win acclaim; a female artist of her caliber desperately required a good reputation.

Consequently, yesterday, after the ratings and data came out, Zhao Yining's team hurriedly stepped up their promotional efforts, with Xu Tong following closely behind.

The trending keywords on social media regarding The Correct Way to Be Independent were basically things like "Dealing with a scumbag husband in one second," "A woman's best form of revenge," and "A woman's greatest confidence comes from her job."

These promotional angles were not inherently problematic because, theoretically speaking, The Correct Way to Be Independent was supposed to be a grand female-centric revenge drama. Everyone assumed the plot would revolve around a "housewife's revenge."

Much like American or Korean thrillers, it would showcase a woman's retaliatory actions after discovering her husband's infidelity.

Yet, as it turned out, this drama—which flaunted the banner of women's awakening—was still agonizing over whether to have a second child by the tenth episode.

The sheer melodrama was almost on par with a certain Korean drama where the female protagonist's method of taking revenge on her cheating husband was sleeping with the husband of her husband's mistress.

It had been broadcasting for two days, moving along quite quickly, but what on earth had these ten episodes actually shown?

Just petty, trivial household squabbles repeated back and forth endlessly.

This was nothing short of swindling the audience's time and money.

An audience's patience is finite. Xiao Li had published a post on the premiere day explaining that a drama required proper foreshadowing, but by the second day, that foreshadowing still hadn't ended. Now, it was the third day, and if today's updates continued in the same vein, the viewers would likely lose their tolerance entirely.

You can trick me once, but you cannot trick me twice in a row.

The trending keywords for The Correct Way to Be Independent were all hyped up, with marketing accounts praising it as "the absolute ceiling for urban drama heroines," but the comment sections under those topics were filled with harsh curses.

"Elder Sister, what should we do?"

Zhao Yining asked with a hint of anxiety, "Can't we push the promotional efforts a bit harder?"

"I've already applied for more resources from the company. Don't worry too much. Even though the current public reputation of The Correct Way to Be Independent isn't great, that doesn't mean we can't still reap the benefits."

Zhao Yining's manager was the industry-renowned Ding Chunling, an expert supreme at hyping up and packaging female artists.

Back in the day, Zuo Qiuzhi had been embroiled in negative press with very few acting credits to her name. She was frequently upstaged by supporting actors, and besides frequently crashing major award ceremonies just to walk the red carpet, she even flew abroad to gatecrash foreign red carpets.

For those two years, Zuo Qiuzhi's career truly stagnated, and her public reputation plummeted straight down.

Then, Ding Chunling became Zuo Qiuzhi's manager and single-handedly propelled her into the ranks of top-tier A-list stars, achieving instant fame in a single battle.

To Ding Chunling, everything could be marketed; an artist needed acting skills not only on screen but off screen as well.

In Ding Chunling's eyes, an actor was simply a commodity. If you wanted to sell this commodity at a high price, you had to package it as flawlessly as possible—and not only did you have to package it well, you had to know how to shout from the rooftops to hawk it.

This was precisely what her job as a manager entailed.

In reality, Zhao Yining had originally been a rebellious, ill-tempered troublemaker on the set, prone to dropping profanities at the drop of a hat and frequently berating her assistants.

Yet now, after being meticulously packaged by Ding Chunling, Zhao Yining had been transformed into a courageous, righteous older sister who spoke up for women.

This time, Ding Chunling was also the one who secured the role in The Correct Way to Be Independent for Zhao Yining.

"For your upcoming schedule, do your livestreams as planned, and handle the promotion for this drama as we discussed. You must remember that both the viewership ratings and popularity score of The Correct Way to Be Independent are the highest for this broadcast period."

Seeing Zhao Yining's worried expression, Ding Chunling offered words of reassurance: "Think about Chu Chen's drama Live to Wait for You last year—even though it was cursed at like a stray dog, its popularity remained stubbornly at the peak, and Lin Xing reaped all the dividends. So, for this project, we can replicate Lin Xing's exact route."

When it came to packaging, Ding Chunling was a certified professional.

Besides, what did the poor script of The Correct Way to Be Independent have to do with the actors?

What did the slow pacing of The Correct Way to Be Independent have to do with the actors?

Furthermore, the protagonist played by Zhao Yining still possessed a certain level of acting ability, and that alone was enough for Ding Chunling to work with and launch a promotional campaign.

In Ding Chunling's view, Lin Xing's success could be replicated.

However, she overlooked one crucial detail: in the case of Live to Wait for You, the reason the character Du Fei was so universally loved was that his character design was incredibly endearing, and the performances of Chu Chen and Li Jingjing made Lin Xing's acting skills look exceptionally strong by comparison.

There was an even more critical point: Du Fei's screen time was limited, and audiences tended to be much more forgiving toward supporting characters.

Unless a supporting character's personality was specifically designed to be repulsive, nobody would ever feel that a drama's failure or the collapse of its reputation should be blamed on the supporting cast.

But Zhao Yining was the protagonist—she held the primary top billing!

Out of the entire show, Zhao Yining had the most screen time by far.

And now you wanted to shift the blame, claiming that the collapse of the reputation of The Correct Way to Be Independent had nothing to do with you, that you were merely an actor performing conscientiously, trying to tell women that marriage and children are not life necessities and that women must live for themselves?

Place your hand over your surgically enhanced chest and ask yourself:

Does that make any sense?

However, because The Correct Way to Be Independent had only premiered two days ago, the audience still retained a sliver of patience. Moreover, The Correct Way to Be Independent had a total of 40 episodes.

Based on the star-studded cast and various promotional highlight clips, many viewers actually still held a sense of expectation.

In recent years, people disliked watching overly tragic or bitter dramas. The old tropes where the female protagonist was abused by her husband and mother-in-law, endured all sorts of hardships, and finally arrived at a forced happy ending were things nobody wanted to see anymore.

Nowadays, audiences loved fast-paced, satisfying revenge dramas.

Therefore, the viewers were still giving The Correct Way to Be Independent a chance.

Meanwhile, at 3 PM, Lao Zhong published a long microblog post.

The main purpose of this post was to promote The Portrait Detective.

Ever since The Portrait Detective premiered, Lao Zhong hadn't published a single post or promoted the show in any way.

One had to remember that before the premiere, Lao Zhong had specifically published a post advising everyone to wait until The Portrait Detective actually aired before rushing to conclusions, because Lin Xing possessed a profound understanding of scripts and would surely choose suitable projects.

At the time, that post had even been mocked by a reviewer known as "Old Wang Watches Movies."

He suspected that this "Lao Zhong" must be a marketing account hired by Lin Xing.

In fact, throughout the first three days of The Portrait Detective's broadcast, "Old Wang Watches Movies" released two video rants tearing into the show, while continuing to throw passive-aggressive jabs at Lao Zhong.

After all, since Lao Zhong had remained silent for the first three days, Old Wang and several others assumed that Lao Zhong must have realized The Portrait Detective had bombed and didn't dare to show her face anymore.

In reality, however, Lao Zhong had spent the past few days attending her younger cousin's wedding, helping out behind the scenes for three straight days. She only had time to finally watch The Portrait Detective after the wedding concluded yesterday.

And after watching it, Lao Zhong knew her initial judgment had been entirely correct.

Criminal investigation dramas were often, at their core, explorations of human nature—examining the motives behind crimes, the triggers for wrongdoing, and even the intricate relationships between suspects and victims.

Twenty years ago, when the quality of detective dramas was at its peak, the variety of cases was truly kaleidoscopic: there were daughters murdered by mothers driven by jealousy over losing their husbands' affection, alongside other cases that were simultaneously realistic, cruel, and surreal.

Because reality is often far more surreal than any scripted television drama.

Yet most modern detective dramas merely wore a police procedural skin while operating as idol dramas at their core.

The Portrait Detective was an exception.

Lao Zhong also conducted a brief analysis of the first five cases:

The Plastic Surgery Clinic Murder Case touched upon appearance anxiety and gender discrimination; the Campus Corpse Burial Case tackled campus bullying and homosexuality; the Marriage Fraud Case exposed scam artistry; the Screenwriter Murder Case highlighted domestic abuse suffered by high-achieving women; and the Facial Disguise Kidnapping Case explored the unchecked arrogance of the privileged class.

Human nature was vividly and thoroughly laid bare across all of them.

Even the Facial Disguise Kidnapping Case, updated yesterday, featured a suspect who had broken the law yet remained a victim in his own right.

Simply because he was an ordinary person devoid of power and influence, his entire life had been stolen by someone else.

Yet even when carrying out his crime, he retained the innate kindness of the working class: because the wealthy heiress possessed the delicate hands of a pianist, he couldn't bear to tie her hands tightly for fear of injuring her, which ultimately led to the failure of his otherwise flawless plan.

The cascading paragraphs ultimately boiled down to a singular, emphatic recommendation: go watch The Portrait Detective.

At the end of the post, Lao Zhong even tagged "@RubbishStar" and "Old Wang Watches Movies," writing: "It's time to settle your debts!"

"Hahaha, I knew Lao Zhong wouldn't just disappear."

"I'm dying of laughter, Lao Zhong is finally back. The much-anticipated face-slapping segment is about to begin."

"I told you so, how could Lao Zhong possibly stay silent?"

"Turns out she went to attend a wedding. Totally understandable; helping out at a wedding, especially doing physical labor, is genuinely exhausting."

...

"@Old Wang Watches Movies, it's your turn."

"@Old Wang Watches Movies, your turn now."

"@Old Wang Watches Movies, Lao Zhong has responded. Step up."

...

What is a major internet influencer?

What is true popularity and buzz?

This was it.

In particular, Lao Zhong even created her own trending topic hashtag: `#OrganicFansBoostThePortraitDetective#`.

Since yesterday, the organic fan base for The Portrait Detective had already been swelling. Now, with Lao Zhong—a renowned influencer on Weibo—launching such a hashtag, it prompted countless others to leap into the fray and join the movement.

Zhao Zi immediately added the `#OrganicFansBoostThePortraitDetective#` tag to her new post.

Just imagine: a girl who never watched domestic TV dramas was suddenly out there exerting herself to promote The Portrait Detective.

Her dedication left Zeng Li slightly stunned.

She turned to Zhao Zi and asked, "Do you want to take a break?"

"Rest? What for?"

Zhao Zi retorted indignantly, "If a drama this good can't surge to the top of the trending lists and claim the number one spot in popularity, it would practically be an absolute disgrace."

As she spoke, Zhao Zi added yet another hashtag: `#PortraitDetectiveOrganicFansCrushTheTrendingList#`.

Passion can conquer everything.

Currently, the ranks of organic fans supporting The Portrait Detective were growing exponentially, acting almost as if they were shareholders of the production itself.

Countless individuals were spontaneously promoting the show.

More importantly, the drama had won the validation of female viewers, with the vast majority of women exclaiming: "Damn it, this is the kind of show we actually want to watch!"

The true climax, however, arrived with the two episodes broadcast tonight:

The Jewelry Store Robbery Case.

This case initially appeared quite ordinary—nothing more than a street jewelry store being held up. However, the modus operandi was identical to a robbery from seven years ago, with the single exception of an extra drop of blood left at the scene.

This droplet of blood belonged to a man named Su Qing.

Before the police could even track down Su Qing, a woman named Qiao Hong came to the station to report that her husband had been missing for two days. Her husband's name was just Su Qing.

At this point, the police initially assumed that Su Qing was attempting to abandon his wife and child so he could run off and enjoy stolen wealth by himself.

The first twist arrived when Qiao Hong displayed an eerie calmness regarding her husband's disappearance. The second twist came when Guan Feng—played by Lin Xing—noticed Su Qing's computer wallpaper and deduced that he was red-green colorblind. Since the actual robber had crossed the street directly on a green traffic light, the robber could not possibly be colorblind.

Tonight's two episodes concluded right before the climax.

Popularly known as an abrupt cut-off right at the edge of excitement.

"Damn it, what on earth is the truth here? Holy crap, the husband isn't really the husband, the mother isn't really the mother, and the daughter isn't really the daughter? The amount of information dropped just now is insane!"

"Seriously, I'm dying to know what the final ending is!"

"Since the owner of the neighboring shop is the child's real father, what about the child's mother?"

"Damn it, don't cut off right at the climax! Hurry up and release another episode!"

...

Being cut off right at the edge of a climax is sometimes the most agonizing feeling in the world.

Especially for a criminal deduction drama like this, coupled with the sheer density of revelations packed into The Jewelry Store Robbery Case.

What originally seemed like a straightforward robbery case had unraveled to implicate a husband-murder case, followed closely by a potential identity-theft case, and finally hints pointing toward human trafficking.

Some viewers declared: "My brain's CPU has completely burned out trying to process all of this."

What on earth was the truth?

Episodes 11 and 12 broadcast today didn't reveal the truth; viewers only learned that Qiao Hong was an impostor using a stolen identity, while the police had also come under ambush.

And then, it cut to black abruptly.

Unlike The Correct Way to Be Independent, The Portrait Detective genuinely boasted rapid pacing. Most importantly, fueled by the explosive word-of-mouth momentum built over the past three consecutive days of broadcast, its popularity score surged straight into the top five today.

The top five!

For a drama with virtually no resources, a project rated merely as A+, it had managed to forcefully catapult its popularity score directly into the top five purely on the back of word-of-mouth praise and organic fan promotion.

Overnight, yet another trending search topic for The Portrait Detective appeared on the charts.

Release more episodes!

A multitude of viewers flooded the comment section of The Portrait Detective, begging for extra episode drops.

It left the official social media editor of The Portrait Detective completely bewildered.

The metrics suddenly exploded like a runaway roller coaster.

Yesterday's comment and repost sections had already shown a modest uptick in data, but it was evidently nowhere near the scale of today's tidal wave.

Today, countless people were shouting: "Give us more episodes!"

"Damn it, why cut off right at the climax?"

"I advise you not to be ungrateful—hurry up and drop another episode right now!"

"Do you have any conscience toward us organic fans?"

"Hurry up and release more episodes! More episodes, more episodes!"

...

The official social media editor of The Portrait Detective was genuinely stunned out of their wits.

Ever since the official account was created, the metrics had basically been carried entirely by Lin Xing, and the traffic belonged solely to him.

If Lin Xing shared a post, their repost count would easily surpass a thousand; if Lin Xing didn't share it, their repost count would dwindle to a paltry few hundred.

Yesterday, however, was entirely different—every single newly updated post easily sailed past a thousand reposts.

At the time, the editor had stared at that phenomenon in sheer bewilderment.

Didn't the company run out of money?

How on earth were they affording to buy fake engagement data now?

As it turned out, holy crap, these were genuinely organic passersby showing up spontaneously.

Yesterday was already shocking enough, but today felt as though everyone had completely lost their minds.

Over the course of a single night, The Portrait Detective had truly broken through mainstream circles.

On the 4th, at 9:10 AM.

"What does everyone think?"

Ma Wen asked the assembled team.

The head of PR and marketing spoke up: "President Ma, I believe the company should seize this momentum and increase our investment in publicity. Over the past four days, The Portrait Detective has proven its quality, and right now we need to escalate our promotional efforts even further."

The official account editor chimed in: "President Ma, our metrics have already jumped by a massive margin. The latest post from yesterday has already surpassed 20,000 reposts."

"President Ma, Tencent Video has just reached out to let us know they are preparing to increase promotional support for us."

"Oh, right, Sina Weibo also sent an invitation for us to do an office tour visit."

"Beijing TV's Starry Night Interview wants our entire production crew to appear as guests."

...

The mood of everyone in the conference room was diametrically opposed to how they felt just days prior.

"All right, I've already applied for increased resources from the company. As for Sina Weibo's office tour, we can coordinate the dates with them, while the other variety shows can be scheduled gradually,"

Ma Wen said with a gentle nod. "I'll make a phone call to Lin Xing first. Right now, what we need to nail down is Lin Xing's schedule."

More often than not, when your drama fails to gain traction, you have to beg and plead just to get onto variety shows or television programs.

And even then, you are mostly treated as mere filler.

Ma Wen had experienced this harsh reality firsthand before the premiere of The Portrait Detective.

Everyone assumed it was a dead-on-arrival drama destined to bomb, and nobody wanted them participating in anything.

He had to pull every string imaginable just to get Tan Province TV's Tonight Drama has Play to agree to have them, yet The Portrait Detective team was only allowed to send three people, and they were still treated as mere padding.

Even Lin Xing had very few highlight moments on Tonight Drama has Play because the standout footage Lin Xing had fought tooth and nail to record ended up being heavily edited out.

Back then, when Ma Wen had tried negotiating with Sina Weibo about whether they could visit for an office tour,

the platform hadn't flat-out rejected them, but stated they had to wait in line for an opening slot, adding that Lin Xing had to be present, with at most one other actor accompanying him.

Obviously, Lin Xing's previous office tour at Sina Weibo had yielded phenomenal results, and Sina Weibo's willingness to host The Portrait Detective was solely due to Lin Xing's personal drawing power.

Even so, they would have had to queue up.

By the time their turn actually arrived, The Portrait Detective would likely have long since finished broadcasting.

But now? Sina Weibo was actively inviting the entire production crew of The Portrait Detective for an office tour, letting the crew decide the date, and requesting as many cast members to attend as possible.

Sina Weibo even expressed a desire for The Portrait Detective to hold an official press conference event right at their headquarters, since the drama hadn't held a premiere press conference, and many people within the industry were eager to ask questions.

Venue arrangements, stage design, and all associated logistics would be fully handled by Sina Weibo.

Look at that.

In the entertainment industry, it's not just people who achieve stardom and change their treatment overnight; if your drama explodes in popularity, your treatment changes just as drastically.

Especially after a drama hits it big, the standing and treatment of screenwriters, directors, and actors alike all ascend to an entirely new tier.

Whether it was Ma Wen, Wang Yi, or Liu Zhou, their emotional states over the past few days had felt like riding a roller coaster. On the 30th, 1st, and 2nd, they had languished at the very bottom of the valley, only to begin climbing out starting from the night of the 2nd.

And now, having climbed all the way to today, the 4th, it felt as though they were soaring straight up into the heavens.

Popularity scores were skyrocketing.

Discussion volume on Weibo was surging exponentially.

"Ah Xing, are you busy?"

Ma Wen called Lin Xing around noon. "I hope I'm not interrupting your filming."

"Not at all."

Lin Xing laughed. "We just finished shooting a scene, and I was about to grab lunch."

"Hahaha, Ah Xing, I genuinely never expected our drama to make such a miraculous comeback..."

Ma Wen exclaimed with a hearty laugh.

Lin Xing nodded gently. "Yeah, I didn't expect it either."

"Haha, I was telling Old Wang yesterday that all of this must have been within your calculations, otherwise why would you have remained so calm?"

Ma Wen recalled how, from the moment The Portrait Detective started pre-production, through filming, wrapping up, and finally premiering, Lin Xing's emotional composure had been as steady as if he firmly believed the drama was destined to be a massive hit.

"President Ma, if I possessed that kind of foresight, what would I even be acting for?"

Lin Xing joked with a smile. "Wouldn't it be much easier for me to just set up shop as a fortune-teller in the entertainment circle?"

Ma Wen chuckled. He had merely been joking, after all; who on earth could have truly predicted that The Portrait Detective would actually explode in popularity?

Keep in mind that their initial ambition had merely been "surviving the premiere day is a victory."

Today, Wei Fei even posted on her WeChat Moments: "A great drama will never be buried!"

Clearly, Wei Fei's state of mind was far from calm either.

After all, who in the world actually enjoys being publicly mocked and ridiculed?

That refreshing sensation of having your face-slapped vindication delivered was still intensely satisfying.

"An office tour?"

Lin Xing asked when he heard Ma Wen's mention of it. "When is it?"

...

...

(End of this chapter)