I became famous in the entertainment industry by burning incense

Chapter 686 Goes Viral Online: The Deadly Smile That Turned Around
The second trailer has already been released, so how far away can the third trailer be?

As it turns out, it really is quite far.

Director Xu chooses when to release the trailer based on the level of discussion online.

The time interval between the release of the first and second bills was only three days.

It was because he discovered that the first trailer only attracted a niche audience, generating a lot of discussion within that niche, but it didn't break out of the mainstream.

That's why he quickly released the second trailer.

We'll observe the market's reaction after it goes live.

Surprisingly, the general public preferred the trailer.

This trailer was specially edited for the supporting characters, focusing less on the plot and more on吐槽 (tu cao, a form of humorous commentary).

This trailer looks like it has a lot of content edited out, but it actually doesn't; it mostly just shows the trailer's own reactions.

As for their struggles and how they fought, very little information has been revealed.

Director Xu wanted netizens to explore how ordinary people could transform themselves into eugenics.
When netizens are interested in a character's story, they will contribute a movie ticket with their feet.

Moreover, the second trailer spread very quickly after it was released, expanding its reach and even propelling the drama "Counterattack" into the top ten trending searches.

Director Xu did not buy any publicity; this trending topic rose to the top through organic traffic.

Since this trailer has the potential to expand its reach, Director Xu decided to let it fly for a while to see how many netizens it can ultimately attract, and suppress the third trailer for now.

The first trailer focuses on the female protagonist's awakening of consciousness and her struggle for self-improvement.

The second trailer focuses on the perspective of a friend, who is forced into a competitive environment that leads to significant changes in his life, ultimately resulting in a remarkable turnaround.

As a youth campus film, it not only needs to have career storylines, family storylines, and friendship storylines, but also a love storyline.

Of course, the depiction of love in youth campus themes is often very vague and ambiguous.

Unlike melodramatic romance dramas, in this story set against a backdrop of striving and inspiration, love is merely an embellishment.

Therefore, this third trailer focuses on romance, specifically the love story between the male and female leads.

Director Xu knew that Jinli and Gu Cheng had a huge fanbase who shipped them as a couple. Their CP hashtag was always among the top on the blog, either number one or number two.

Millions of people check in every day.

There are countless film and television clips featuring the two of them.

Director Xu had specifically watched the campus drama "Assassination" that the two had previously filmed. It was clearly a campus drama that satirized school bullying and had a sad undertone, but there was actually no love story in the drama.

If there is love, it will only be a distorted kind of love, a manipulative attempt to control the other person's life.

This is a desire for control, not love.

Therefore, in Director Xu's eyes, this is not love, but a disease.

But the audience is not.

Strong CP fans have learned how to find sweetness amidst heartbreak; the more angst there is, the more sweetness they crave.

Many bloggers have edited "Assassination" twice, making it seem like they've turned it into a completely different show.

Director Xu also took a special trip to check it out and was surprised to find that there were so many talented people among the CP fans who could even edit this together.

Meanwhile, netizens love watching these edits, with each short video garnering millions or even tens of millions of views.

Since then, Director Xu has realized that CP fans are a huge and loyal group.

As long as they can capture the hearts of CP fans, then there will be secondary derivative works after the TV series, related merchandise planned for release, and even the possible release of "Counterattack 2" in the future...

No problem!
This is the power of a huge fanbase for couples who ship their characters.

Director Xu had high expectations for the final trailer, which is why he didn't release it easily.

He worried that if it were released now, the huge CP (couple) fans would quickly take over the internet, making it impossible for other netizens who were interested in the second trailer to find it.

Because the new third trailer will spread rapidly across the internet, overshadowing the first and second trailers.

Despite this concern, and despite many netizens urging him to release the third trailer, he remained unmoved and steadfast.

It wasn't until the hype surrounding the second trailer had been building for a full week, and the daily increase in discussion had begun to decline, that Director Xu released the third, blockbuster trailer.

At this time, there were only 10 days left before "Counterattack" was released in major cinemas.

The third trailer for "Counterattack" is here!

This trailer is the shortest; the others are at least two or three minutes long, but this one is only one and a half minutes long.

Moreover, the trailer features many beautiful scenes and atmospheres, with more scenery than characters.

But it has to be said, that youthful vibe really comes through.

Well, who hasn't been on a bus, listening to music while gazing out the window at the scenery?

My imagined version of myself: I am melancholy and sad about my youth.

How others perceive him: This person is so dull and stupid.

After deciding to work hard, Jin Xiaoli decided to seek help from another neighbor.

This neighbor has a good relationship with the parents, but their son is too outstanding. He is the same age as Jin Xiaoli, and they all attend the same school, but they are always in different classes.

the reason is simple.

The neighbor's son is always in the top class, while Jin Xiaoli is naturally free-spirited and easily distracted, so her grades have always been in the middle to lower range.

In high school, he struggled with his studies, and his grades plummeted to the bottom.

When she was little, she was close friends with another neighbor's older brother, who was much older than Gu Ziming and whose grades were average.

There isn't that much distance between academic underachievers.

Who would have thought that this older brother, who only got into a vocational college, would turn out to be so degenerate?

So Jin Xiaoli didn't want to end up like that, so she mustered up her courage and asked Gu Ziming for help.

At first, she was worried that Gu Ziming would ignore her and wouldn't want to talk to a bad student, so she visited him as a neighbor and then interacted with him more in daily life.

After getting to know Gu Ziming better, Jin Xiaoli discovered that he was a person who was tough on the outside but soft on the inside.

He appears aloof and doesn't speak much, but when he does, he can be incredibly sarcastic. However, he is actually very kind and gentle, and he feeds the stray cats near the school every day.

Knowing Gu Ziming's softer side, Jin Xiaoli felt it was time and asked if she could ask him to teach her, promising to reward her handsomely if she succeeded.

Gu Ziming: "Why not thank me now?"

Jin Xiaoli said shyly, "I didn't tell my parents, so I don't have any money. If I can get into a decent university, I'll go out to work during the holidays, and I'll give you half of the money I earn."

Gu Ziming thought about it and then agreed.

The trailer has been playing for almost a minute now.

The next ten seconds or so were all footage of Gu Ziming supervising Jin Xiaoli.

[Jin Xiaoli, wake up!]

[Jin Xiaoli, copy this problem ten times!]

[Jin Xiaoli, you can't go out to play today. You have to copy down all the questions you got wrong.]

[Jin Xiaoli...] [Jin Xiaoli...]

Jin Xiaoli...

The screen suddenly went dark.

When netizens saw this, they all thought the trailer was over.

If some people hadn't specifically checked the progress bar and noticed there were still three or four seconds left, they probably would have just clicked the "X" and left.

It was precisely because some netizens noticed that the progress bar hadn't reached the end that they sent bullet comments to remind those people not to close it, as there was more to come.

Netizens patiently waited.

After a three-second pause, the screen suddenly brightened.

Gu Ziming, dressed in his high school uniform, sat in a seat by the window in the classroom. Sunlight filtered through the dappled leaves, casting shimmering light on him.

Gu Ziming suddenly noticed something, turned his head to look over, and smiled gently.

"Jin Xiaoli, come here."

That final glance back, the background, the outfit, the atmosphere—it instantly went viral online.

Many netizens have taken a screenshot of Gu Cheng's final glance and gentle smile and used it as their screensaver.

Ah, I have to go see this! I've never seen such a clean-cut and refreshing guy before!

I have to say, this is exactly what I imagine a campus heartthrob should look like.

In *Assassination*, Gu Cheng is unruly and arrogant. In *Counterattack*, Gu Cheng is aloof, noble, and gentle.

[Ahhh, no wonder he's a guy who can be in a boy band! I feel like this is the first time I've really noticed how handsome Gu Cheng is. I used to prefer Yan Xingdong's type!]

All four members of the group "March Sky" are great, each handsome in their own way, but Gu Cheng's looks and charisma are top-notch. Since starting his own business, he's received the most film and television scripts!

What a magnificent face! What a photogenic face!

……

Director Xu logged into his blog and saw netizens praising Gu Cheng's looks, which made him smile with satisfaction.

That's exactly the kind of lethality we're looking for.

The first and second trailers weren't actually that difficult to edit.

Only the third trailer truly stumped him.

He initially wanted to focus on Jinli, since "Counterattack" needed her to carry the show.

However, in videos made by fans of the CP (couple pairing), it was found that Gu Cheng appeared for a much longer time than Jin Li.

Therefore, he believes that even among CP fans, netizens have their own preferences.

Some people prefer watching male actors fall in love, while others prefer watching female actors fall in love.

Within the vast group of "Vitamins," Director Xu, relying on his keen intuition and analysis of each character's screen time, believed that Vitamins would prefer to watch Gu Cheng as the dominant character.

So he edited out a version of the love story centered on Gu Cheng.

As we all know, that was the result.

If the second trailer helped "Counterattack" break into the mainstream, then the third trailer, with Gu Cheng's final smile, made "Counterattack" a hit across the entire internet.

Whether you're interested in "Counterattack" or not, whether you're a fan of Gu Cheng or a hater of Gu Cheng, or a hater of March Sky...

Everyone has seen this photo.

This is a match made possible by good looks!
If Gu Cheng didn't have this level of good looks, he really wouldn't have been able to withstand this sudden surge in popularity.

But he just happens to have this good looks, and Director Xu also filmed this trailer very beautifully, especially the final smile as he looked back, which made many people's hearts flutter.

Therefore, Gu Cheng capitalized on this wave of popularity, and "Counterattack" soared to new heights thanks to it.

With the release of the first two trailers, "Counterattack" ranked third in pre-sale box office among all films released during the summer season.

Although the gap between them and the second place is not large, they cannot pull away.

The difference between them and the first place is like heaven and earth.

As a result, Gu Cheng's divine photo went viral, and needless to say, the pre-sales of "Counterattack" skyrocketed, with the number of pre-orders exceeding the peak on the second day, soaring to the number one spot.

However, the difference between the two is not significant.

The production team that was originally ranked first was suddenly pushed down to second place, which made them feel a little confused, but they reacted quickly and put in a lot of effort.

That drama used an all-star cast, and it was precisely because of its strong cast that it was able to lead the pre-sales.

Now that the show is being suppressed, the production team immediately invited the male and female leads to do a live stream to boost its popularity.

The production team originally thought that the pre-sales for the second day would surpass those for "Counterattack".

But who could have imagined that the gap between the two sides would widen even further when the pre-sale data was released the next day?

Now, forget about overtaking them; the gap is so big that it's impossible to catch up unless the production team pulls off a major stunt.

But how do you prepare all the ingredients in such a rush?

The production team can't just deliberately expose a celebrity's negative news. That might generate buzz, but it would jeopardize the film's reputation and might even prevent it from being released online.

As for Director Xu, he couldn't stop smiling after seeing the pre-sale data for "Counterattack" soar to number one and maintain that number.

Alas, what a miscalculation.

They should have asked Chenxi Entertainment for marketing fees back then.

Even spending tens of millions wouldn't guarantee the same marketing results!

Just as everyone was focused on the pre-sale results of "Counterattack", two days before the film's release, Director Xu quietly used the media to release a bombshell.

This time, the protagonist is Jinli.

He wanted all netizens to know that Jinli had gone to great lengths to exchange resources with Yiyi Media for this drama, so that "Counterattack" could be simultaneously distributed in dozens of Southeast Asian countries.

Therefore, the day "Counterattack" was released can be said to be a simultaneous global release.

This time, even Hong Kong Island wasn't left out; it was released simultaneously!

Because this was done through a major media outlet, the news spread very quickly, but not all the information was revealed.

There is still a lot of crucial information left for netizens to guess.

At this point, "insiders," "industry insiders," and "a friend of mine" will step in, revealing to netizens the extent to which Jinli went to work for this drama.

[Breaking news! Jin Li and Yiyi Media have engaged in a resource exchange for film and television dramas. She agreed to film a TV series invested in by Yiyi Media in exchange for the overseas distribution of "Counterattack"!]

Netizens followed suit—

[Yiyi Media? That company that produces a lot of bad movies?]

I have a feeling that Jinli made a pretty big sacrifice this time...

Jinli actually went to such lengths for "Counterattack"! I'm really curious to know how the movie turned out. It must be really good, otherwise she wouldn't have put in so much effort.

Jin Li really loves every drama she stars in. She puts a lot of effort into promoting any drama she's in. This time, she even went so far as to secure overseas distribution channels for "Counterattack." The investors should really give her a bonus.

Am I the only one worried that Jinli will make a bad drama? Yiyi Media's dramas in recent years have been unwatchable (facepalm)