112: The platform treats Zhang differently.
Fans quickly clicked on the video. Unlike the first ensemble trailer, this one only featured the male and female leads.
Through post-production, exquisite transitions, and an aesthetic art style, it may have lacked the grand scenes of the first trailer, but it gained a sense of realism.
The first ten seconds featured original soundtrack audio and the scene where the leads first meet. Viewers clicked in with interest, expecting a sweet little romance, but the moment the ten seconds were up and the prelude began, everyone knew something was off.
"Damn, is that instrument in the prelude that makes you want to cry a Chinese double-reed woodwind instrument?!"
As everyone knows, of all instruments, the Chinese double-reed woodwind instrument is king; it's either for ascending to heaven or for a wedding ceremony.
There wasn't a hint of red in the visuals; instead, they were dominated by blue and green tones, giving everyone a bad feeling.
"The wild grass is so vast, and the poplars are rustling."
"The frost comes in the ninth month, sending me to the distant outskirts."
The lyrics were sung with a theatrical flair, bringing out a sense of sorrow.
Then, it continued in a lyrical manner:
"Vague, oh vague, leaving without a word, returning without a trace."
"The splendor of the previous dynasty bows before our eyes."
"The dream is not yet over, how can I go to the distant clouds alone?"
"Who will talk and laugh with me in the future?"
"Swaying, oh swaying, the green robe, rushing towards the clouds."
"The world shakes you, my heart has nowhere to hide."
"The red light shines on the long road, twilight clouds drift, the clear wind howls."
"Heaven be my witness, even if I die ten thousand times, this love cannot be extinguished."
Lu Qingyu's voice carried intense emotion, with the nostalgia, regret, and suppressed feelings in the lyrics surging forth.
Especially when that line, "Though this love may lead to death, it cannot be erased," came out, everyone got goosebumps.
Every transition in the trailer was short, with each scene only having two or three lines of dialogue. Viewers didn't know the specific plot and could only guess the backstory based on the music, but there was no doubt that everyone was now curious about this Zhu Xian.
In the chorus, the emotion suddenly intensified.
"Sighing at the love in this world, which has made people old since ancient times."
"Too late to be with you, in the past life or this morning."
"Looking up to the sky, my soul breaks, pulling you into my embrace."
"My life has long been entered into your Book of Life and Death."
"To the ends of the earth and the corners of the sea, engraved in my heart and carved into my bones."
Many people were stunned; they really hadn't expected a promotional song for a film and television drama to be this good.
"I wasn't interested in Zhu Xian before, but after listening to this ballad of the green robe, I really want to watch it."
"The female lead looks very good. Although she isn't very famous, her image is very good."
"Lu Qingyu is so handsome; the white outfit is killing me."
"This song makes me want to cry. What kind of plot is it to use such a sad song?"
Everyone had great trust in Lu Qingyu's ability to make songs; many who weren't interested in the Zhu Xian production were convinced to watch it because they heard this song and were recommended by others.
After ballad of the green robe went live, Wang Ning and the others kept their eyes on the backend data, not daring to miss a beat. Su Jixing also refreshed the page every so often to check how the data was doing.
The two of them had an idea of Lu Qingyu's popularity and estimated about 500,000 views in an hour, but the result shocked them both.
Within an hour of ballad of the green robe going live, the view count broke one million, and the reservation count for the Zhu Xian film increased by over 500,000.
Wang Ning, Xu Dalong, and Su Jixing couldn't hide their excitement; they were almost crazy with joy when they saw these numbers.
Wang Ning never imagined that a song from his boss could bring so much traffic to the film.
After Wang Ning categorized Lu Qingyu as his boss, he would sometimes subconsciously forget that Lu Qingyu also had the identity of an artist, and a very popular one at that!
Looking at the reservation data for Zhu Xian, Wang Ning felt much more at ease. They hadn't spent money on promotion, yet they had more than doubled the number of reservations. The pressure was much lower now.
Lin Qiu was particularly fond of xianxia novels. In recent years, she had watched every xianxia drama aired on television, but none of them had satisfied her.
The xianxia dramas on the market either had terrible costumes, a weak plot, or laughable special effects, lacking any sense of immersion; in short, they were indescribable.
When Zhu Xian first announced its project, she was happy to see online that it was an s+ project, thinking that she, who was suffering from a drama drought, finally had something to look forward to.
Normally, the male and female leads of an s+ project are at least quasi-first-tier actors or above. Lin Qiu thought the production team would find veteran actors or popular young actresses to star in it, and she followed the production team every day. As a result, the final cast list disappointed her greatly; apart from Lu Qingyu, there wasn't a single person she recognized.
Looking at this cast, Lin Qiu immediately put a big cross next to this drama in her heart, thinking it must be false advertising again.
Forget it, the palace drama palace lock was also being released on the same day; she might as well watch palace lock.
She had already made up her mind, but today, after hearing this song and the trailer, Lin Qiu was immediately excited.
"Sighing at the love in this world, which has made people old since ancient times."
"Too late to be with you, in the past life or this morning."
"Looking up to the sky, my soul breaks, pulling you into my embrace."
"My life has long been entered into your Book of Life and Death."
"To the ends of the earth and the corners of the sea, engraved in my heart and carved into my bones."
When the song finished, Lin Qiu was still left wanting more. She loved this type too much. Just by listening to this song, she had a feeling that this film would not be bad. She immediately downloaded the song to play on loop, and then clicked "reserve" on the Zhu Xian page on the video software; she had to watch it tomorrow.
ballad of the green robe caused the reservation count for Zhu Xian to more than double. When Meng Wei's assistant reported this to him, Meng Wei looked disdainful.
"Lu Qingyu has that much traffic, sure, but what can it do to increase the reservation count for Zhu Xian? If the plot doesn't pass muster, the number of people who watch it will be equal to the number of people who curse them."
The assistant nodded from the side: "Then boss, don't we need to take any measures?"
Meng Wei looked confident: "Tomorrow, both palace lock and this Zhu Xian will be released. The audience will compare the two and find out which film is actually good. Don't worry about them; they aren't worth us spending any money on."
At the end of ballad of the green robe, the logo of Qingcheng Entertainment appeared. Meng Wei looked at this logo with contempt in his eyes. Once he acquired Qingcheng Entertainment in the future, this logo would be replaced by Xiangwan Entertainment.
The next day, at 8:00 PM, Penguin released both palace lock and Zhu Xian at the same time, but the treatment of the two dramas was completely different.
Opening Penguin Entertainment, the advertisement space occupying one-third of the screen was for palace lock, while Zhu Xian was just one in a row of second-tier ad spots in the drama section.
The row of advertisements was all for obscure, small productions. Putting an S+ film here made everyone almost think it was just another web drama.
With such a huge disparity in treatment, it was self-evident which one people entering the Penguin software would choose to watch first.
Wang Ning was a little angry when he saw Zhu Xian in this section. Isn't this bullying?
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