Chapter 27: Preference Premieres

[Comment 11]

It's not just my roommate — even my mom is watching this drama and pushing me to watch it too.

[Comment 17]

Middle-aged women really are the main drama-watching demographic, but can the people above stop hyping like everyone else is brain-dead? "Pushing"?

Chinese parents only push you to study, everyone knows that. If you've got a fandom bias, keep it zipped.

[Comment 19]

Replying to 17: ? Here we go again with the classic combo — "if I haven't seen it, it doesn't exist" plus "accusing people of fandom bias." Speechless.

You do know my mom made me write a reflection essay after watching, right? Should I be furious or what?

[Comment 23]

Maybe 17 doesn't have Douyin? The meme about parents making their kids write review essays for *Pian'ai* (Favored Love) is blowing up — middle-aged people are all sharing it.

[Comment 28]

My dad too, I'm dying of laughter...

[Comment 31]

Huh?! What's going on?

[Comment 38]

That meme "whenever CEO Sang appears, we think of our parents" — the people who won the car raffle really achieved filial piety in a whole new form.

And for those who didn't win, it's back to the familiar "look at other people's kids."

Someone goes online and gets their parents a car — my parents told me to learn from them.

[Comment 42]

The specific way to learn: watch *Pian'ai* and write a review — an 800-word positive one — in case CEO Sang decides to scatter money...

[Comment 42]

Throwback to student days. No wait, it's more like "get to work early, clean the boss's office, serve tea, and the boss will value you."

[Comment 48]

I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe...

[Comment 52]

It's really broken out of the circle now, so the drama's momentum is great.

[Comment 56]

The momentum was good before too — over six million reservations in a single month... a record in the industry.

If they ride this wave of heat steadily, it might really blow up.

[Comment 61]

I'll stick with my original take: a moderate hit is guaranteed, but a massive explosion is hard.

The earlier version by clq (*Chen Liqi) was disliked by the original novel fans, but the plot was good and audiences back then ate it up.

[Comment 69]

Today's audiences eat it up too — the Douyin bloggers doing archaeology-style analysis are getting great numbers.

[Comment 73]

The only weak leg of *Pian'ai* is that the original was already filmed before — a big chunk of viewers won't rewatch.

[Comment 78]

Actually there are people like me who never saw the original. It's a drama from eight years ago — without the trending-topic bombardment I wouldn't even know it existed.

[Comment 82]

Let's see the premiere heat — whether it can break ten thousand.

[Comment 95]

The cloud-booked sessions* are terrifyingly numerous. Given the sheer money power, plenty of people will probably watch for the free membership.

(Cloud-booking: celebrities or fan circles pay to buy a set number of monthly memberships. Viewers who watch the drama without dragging the progress bar, for the required time — thirty minutes or one episode — get a free month of membership. A common heat-boosting tactic for new dramas in the industry.)

[Comment 99]

Tired... fans of actors who star in genuinely good dramas have it so easy... no crowdfunding cloud-bookings, no working as data laborers — just lying back and watching.

[Comment 108]

Back then everyone thought the big three platforms wouldn't want this drama, but now it's three out of four — capital really does attract capital like magnets.

I don't get it, but let me dream — CEO Sang, please take a look at my fave's S+ drama?!

[Comment 111]

S-tier dramas are actually closer to SB-tier dramas — the B is just silent. Apart from recognizable actors, the whole drama is worthless.

[Comment 119]

Tearing up.

That trash script couldn't be saved by anyone — if it flops, the actor gets mocked.

[Comment 120]

I hope the trailer isn't the whole show. Fine clothes and jade meals, mansions and luxury cars, gorgeous outfits and jewels one after another — that kind of visual opulence is so satisfying.

It feels like peeking at what high society really looks like.

[Comment 125]

I'm a basic mutt and I love it. Watching while self-inserting — the ultimate pleasure.

...

...

[Comment 769]

So many people.JPG

We've actually built this many floors?!

[Comment 772]

Ever since that CEO Sang entered the industry, our forum's daily activity has shot up. Hilarious.

[Comment 778]

Ah, it's almost time. Maohu, judgment time — !

[Comment 790]

5 seconds left.

[Comment 793]

3 seconds.

[Comment 805]

2, 1...

[Comment 811]

I'm in!

[Comment 812]

So many ads — but that's platform ads for you.

[Comment 814]

The ad count in episode one isn't meaningful — watch what follows. If sponsors keep adding ads later instead of pulling out, that's what proves the heat is real.

...

[Comment 818]

Nobody talking?

[Comment 820]

Shook...

What's the opposite of "goods don't match the listing" again?

[Comment 821]

That opening aerial shot made my heart skip — it was the same shot from the trailer. I thought the trailer was all the highlights and we were about to get scammed again...

[Comment 826]

It crushes the original version.

No wait — if the actors hold up, I'm willing to call THIS one the original...

[Comment 831]

Suddenly I have a metaphor for the gap between the first version and this one.

If this one is "Tales of the Aisin Gioro Clan," then that one filmed "Tales of My Luo Family Village."

[Comment 845]

Pfft.

[Comment 856]

My eyes are going blind...

Such a lavish, aristocratic atmosphere... it feels like the air itself is steeped in that rich-people smell, enough to soak you soft.

I don't know cars, but my first reaction to those cars was "astronomically expensive."

[Comment 856]

I always thought Jiang Wanyin's character was too inconsistent — so petty in the first half, cowering at the sight of the male lead's family's rural self-built house (disclaimer: my family also lives in a rural self-built house), always weighing the gap between her and the man, hesitant and annoying.

I thought, how humble can you be — his mom didn't even pull out the "five million to leave my son" check.

So she was stunned by THAT kind of scene... now I get it...

Gu Ye is just too rich. He deserves to have trouble winning his wife back (he's gotta lose something, or my heart can't stay balanced).

[Comment 862]

*Jiang Wanyin: Reputation Unjustly Ruined*

[Comment 865]

In this kind of atmosphere, nobody even needs to speak — just a gaze carries weight, makes you squirm in your seat...

[Comment 867]

I love that shot revolving around the crystal chandelier — the light-spot design is so clever, hazy and extravagant.

[Comment 870]

It's exactly my stereotypical image of old-money wealth...

A living room with a ceiling over ten meters high, famous oil paintings, antique ornaments, custom sculptures, a walk-in closet the size of a department store counter.

[Comment 881]

I feel like every character, male or female, young or old, radiates "successful person" energy — all dressed in high luxury, with makeup, hair, even fingers showing traces of meticulous care.

[Comment 890]

Ahhh! This color grading finally looks like the human world again — soft-focus yet gorgeous.

[Comment 895]

Finally a drama admits Chinese people are yellow-skinned, instead of everyone looking like a sheet of A4 paper come to life — white and flat. Moved.

[Comment 901]

Watching other dramas I used to think they filmed underground — everyone's faces were white like ghosts performing for me.

[Comment 904]

Actually "paper effigies" (upvote) — because during scenes they barely move, and even when they move there's no sense of motion, basically gliding.

[Comment 911]

The silicone faction disagrees!

[Comment 917]

A4 paper, ghosts, silicone people, paper effigies — anything but human.

The entertainment industry is so useful, contributing its share to the evolution of Earth's species (universal love! Fist pump!).

[Comment 923]

...This camerawork is so silky smooth — for a moment I felt transported back fifteen, twenty years, watching K-dramas and Taiwanese idol dramas.

And it's actually not big-head close-ups — the camera moves WITH the leads, ahhh.

[Comment 928]

Even K-dramas don't have that flavor anymore.

[Comment 931]

Domestic dramas' cameras also move with the leads, but it has a strong pre-made flavor (can I describe it that way?), I don't know why.

I know it's acting, but the moment I see the deliberately left blocking space I get yanked out of it.

[Comment 934]

Summary of the three great domestic camera tropes:

Two people talking — the camera ping-pongs left and right like table tennis. Both leads filtered white as peeled eggs, faces so blurred you can barely see their noses — watch long enough and your eyesight drops and you get astigmatism.

The female lead, supposedly a peerless beauty, enters with: slow motion + big-head close-up + BGM, wearing Chanel styled like actual grandma's taste — hopelessly tacky.

The male lead is supposed to be tall, rich, and handsome, but actually fails on all three counts, lacking everywhere — worse than an adult-male cosplayer; at least cosplayers know to pad their shoulders.

So far *Pian'ai* hasn't hit a single one.

[Comment 952]

Feel like there are fewer comments in the thread?

[Comment 960]

Everyone's watching the drama...

[Comment 972]

That vibe of everyone in the social scene being unhurried and nonchalant is so strong, so on point — I'm shipping the CP and hating the rich at the same time.

[Comment 980]

The first version's Gu Ye was all "I don't want money, I want love" — I thought he was a poser faking melancholy.

This one is also a poser, but the crew genuinely captured that gorgeous, indulgent, languid, hollow feeling. Tsk.

[Comment 987]

Probably because his build is better, the clothes actually fill out — not the usual idol-drama "size-S menswear runway show."

[Comment 991]

My poor belly...

[Comment 983]

The male lead's hair is finally not that Korean 3:7 part plus comma bangs — honestly, I've endured that for so long...

Doesn't it look like an alpaca? When the leads kiss I feel like it could poke the female lead's eyelid.

[Comment 992]

A new-era concealed weapon debuts.

THAT is true love-hate romance.

So gripping!

[Comment 997]

No wonder domestic leads compete over who's prettier, who outshines whom in the same frame.

Turns out the gender-equality problem was solved long ago in the industry — actors have evolved into hermaphrodites; everyone's a competitor.

[Comment 1005]

666, bisexual literature.

[Comment 1009]

I can't, I really can't...

[Comment 1007]

Random interjection — Yu Zhitao is such perfect casting. She lives up to her name, truly like a honey peach, sweet and sexy at once.

[Comment 1012]

Certified gold content by the original-novel fans.

In clq's (*Chen Liqi) version the actress was pretty too, but... it's like pointing at a banana and calling it an orangutan.

Looks somewhat related at a glance, but on closer inspection — no relation at all.

[Comment 1018]

yzt's acting is more natural than expected.

[Comment 1020]

A beauty only needs the simplest camerawork — hair blown messy, yet the first things you notice are her nose and lips.

Petal lips?

Seduced...

[Comment 1025]

The acting exceeded expectations.

She didn't play it like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden.

Shallower breathing, fingers unconsciously rubbing the bag strap, eyes not daring to wander but peripheral vision scanning... such detail, not overdone.

[Comment 1034]

The normal reaction of "strong self-esteem but awed by the environment" — it actually comes off cute.

[Comment 1040]

"The domineering CEO falls for me," or the frog-prince-falls-for-the-commoner-princess story, always has a market — the reason it films badly

is that what they cast isn't a prince, isn't even a frog — it's a toad.

Kissing it won't make a prince; it'll just poison you to the ground, foaming at the mouth.

[Comment 1052]

And the princess isn't a princess either. Honestly, some crews aren't filming dramas at all — they're running a massive cosplay event.

[Comment 1061]

That's an insult to cosplayers.

Cosplayers work hard to close the physical gap to match their characters.

[Comment 1077]

CP chemistry really is metaphysics...

[Comment 1090]

The line between love at first sight and lust at first sight is delicate, but the way yzt plays it, it becomes totally convincing — so feminine, so beautiful, so alluring.

[Comment 1102]

That height difference, I'm feasting.

[Comment 1115]

This gy (*Gu Ye) is deliberately gy (*seducing) — don't think I didn't catch that clipped coquettish voice! Ahh!

[Comment 1119]

They didn't even lock eyes, yet somehow fastening a cufflink is sweeter than tying a tie... I'm grinning like a fool...

[Comment 1123]

Seduction Bro.

[Comment 1140]

Because the pulse is an extension of the heartbeat.

[Comment 1156]

This marriage-before-love setup is so satisfying — extending his hand for his freshly minted fiancée to fasten his cufflinks, not speaking, just looking down and watching her.

Who else is savoring this...

That big hand enveloping the small hand.

[Comment 1169]

Three hands faintly tangled together, that ambiguity of almost-but-not-quite holding — that "not quite familiar yet intimate" atmosphere is the tastiest.

[Comment 1176]

I saw that Douyin trending line — "more lively than gemstones are her eyes" — and it fits here perfectly.

[Comment 1174]

gy is totally flexing his veins on purpose, too bad the cutie Jiang Wanyin completely doesn't get it — she's just adorably wondering how much his ring costs.

[Comment 1185]

Seduction Bro's peacock display fails, but the more he's frustrated the harder he tries, continuing his great seduction enterprise.

[Comment 1190]

?!

It's over?

[Comment 1207]

I just saw my own silly grin reflected on the screen.

[Comment 1218]

...?!

[Comment 1223]

I got too absorbed and forgot to grab a cloud-booked session, ahhh — the free membership flew away, ahhh.

[Comment 1300]

No, you didn't forget — you never stood a chance of grabbing one.

[Comment 1278]

I bought a membership already — damn platform, VIP gets one extra episode, SVIP gets two extra! Impulse purchase again...

[Comment 1283]

CEO Sang gave away one million cloud-booked spots [cracked face]. That means at least a million people are watching... no way...