Chapter 139: Official Broadcast
Yin Chengjue: "Are you joking?"
Rong Yu blinked innocently: "I'm not."
Yin Chengjue: "Then why did you recommend him?"
"Just thought this role should suit him, so I recommended him," Rong Yu narrowed his eyes slightly: "Why are you so resistant? Could it be that you and he really have some unspeakable secret?"
Yin Chengjue: "It's because of that last incident! His motives are impure, and he has repeatedly encouraged and indulged his fans to attack you online."
Rong Yu nodded. "Exactly. Since he's been so... generous with his 'gifts,' it's only right that I return the courtesy. It's basic manners to reciprocate, after all." He smiled sweetly.
Yet, watching that smiling face, Yin Chengjue felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine.
Three days later, the official Weibo account of "Don't Look Back in the Dark" released the official recording guest lineup and promotional trailer.
Seeing three people suddenly missing from the trial broadcast lineup, new fans were somewhat unhappy, after all, most people came for the familiar faces.
Hua Yun's status as the heir to Hua Enterprises naturally drew attention. Combined with his striking looks, composed demeanor, and confident ease when analyzing cases, he had firmly amassed a considerable fanbase during the trial broadcast. When they saw he wasn't included in the official guest list, many fans who had tuned in specifically for him promptly declared they were done with the show.
Xiao Xiao and Qin Ke's performances, while not as outstanding, also had their merits. Xiao Xiao liked to occasionally crack a cold joke, and Qin Ke always held his camera, snapping pictures, and he constantly spoke about freedom and artistic expression, which gave him a certain charm and positioned him as something of the comic relief.
The departure of these three made fans who followed "Don't Look Back in the Dark" variety show very reluctant.
However, this disappointment was quickly overshadowed by the buzz surrounding the three newly added celebrity guests, with Wei Lu's fanbase being the most vocal.
Her new drama was currently airing. While its premiere ratings were slightly lower than her previous works, her personal fame and influence remained strong. As a popular young star, she possessed a fresh, youthful vibrancy and natural beauty that her fans frequently praised.
In comparison, Guan Haifeng and Ling Ting had slightly smaller fanbases than Wei Lu, though they were still significantly more popular than the other remaining cast members.
Their primary reason for joining the show was due to the three main sponsors—Xiao's, Qin's, and Lei's corporations—who also endorsed the products they represented. They were essentially placed on the program by these corporate backers to seamlessly incorporate product placements and promote their upcoming dramas.
Initially confused viewers came to understand that, with the exception of Hua Yun who wasn't directly replaced, the departed members were all succeeded by their brands' new endorsers. This clarified that there was no foul play involved, the original participants had simply chosen to leave.
To maintain the tone of the trial episodes, the official trailer was also cut with a dark and unsettlingly eerie atmosphere.
The opening of this short one-and-a-half-minute promotional trailer featured a heavy door opening, followed by Liu Qingling, dressed in a tailcoat, standing by the door, slightly leaning forward, making a welcoming gesture inside.
When the camera followed Liu Qingling's hand looking inside, it revealed a dimly colored rose garden, behind which stood an overly solemn and majestic villa.
Clearly a sprawling villa, it gave off a dark, oppressive, suffocating feeling. Even through the camera lens, one could feel a sense of discomfort.
The guests, each with their own identities, entered the villa one after another and, led by Liu Qingling, passed through the garden and arrived at the villa's main hall.
The specific order in which they entered the villa was deliberately varied, a detail that would later become a crucial clue for solving the case.
Likely aiming to shield their idols from any negative comments, the fans of the three new guests flooded the screen with supportive bullet comments the moment each one appeared. They spammed the feed so intensely that the entire screen transformed into a wall of adoration and praise.
It wasn't until Yin Chengjue and Rong Yu appeared together that the bullet comments momentarily went blank.
But only for a moment.
Because, Yin Chengjue and Rong Yu were wearing matching long coats!
The difference was, Rong Yu's outer coat was a dark blue, paired with a white turtleneck and a silver vest. His pants were slim-fit, perfectly accentuating his straight, long legs.
Yin Chengjue's outer coat was deep black, paired with a burgundy turtleneck.
Although they wore identical outfits, they each carried them with a distinct flair—one projecting a tall, imposing coolness, while the other exuded an elegant and refined gentleness.
For a single second, the barrage of viewer comments went completely still. Then it exploded. The number of comments that instantly flooded the screen surpassed the combined total for all the previous celebrity guests. The entire comment section became an impenetrable, densely packed wall of text, completely obscuring the view.
—Matching outfits! What's going on? Couple clothes?
—I'm shocked! I suddenly contracted a disease where my eyes can't leave the screen!
—Cool! Just one word, don't want to say it a second time!
—Why are two clothes hangers walking towards me? Why? Why is this?
—I already thought President Yin was very handsome when I watched the trial broadcast, but I didn't expect to see him even handsomer today. But can anyone tell me what's with their matching outfits?
Soon, the bullet comments' confusion was explained, because Rong Yu quickly introduced himself to Liu Qingling's character: "Hello, you can call me Younger Brother Rong, and this is my older brother, Brother Yin."
To make it easier to remember identities, everyone used their surname + identity as their name.
Liu Qingling bowed deeply: "Young Master, Second Young Master, long time no see, I have missed you very much." After saying this, Liu Qingling meaningfully wiped the corner of his eye.
Bullet Comments:
—So they're brothers!
—You scared me! I thought they were going to officially announce their relationship on the show!
—Actually, two handsome guys, double the happiness! I'm back on board! Any sisters want to join me?
As the plot progressed, the bullet comment spam gradually decreased. Qin Linlin's designed game mode was too brain-burning, those who were genuinely engrossed in the complex plot had no attention to spare for posting comments. Only a small, dedicated contingent of Wei Lu and Guan Haifeng's fans remained, diligently spamming their idols' names with messages of love in a persistent effort to keep them trending.
Drama fans who watched with bullet comments found it annoying and simply turned them off, quietly analyzing the plot with the guests.
This time, the program chose to follow the plot from Rong Yu's perspective, because he was the MVP of the trial period.
Thus, viewers following Rong Yu's perspective were treated to another masterclass in what could only be described as a thorough, methodical search—or perhaps more accurately, a scouring of every last inch.
The concept of maintaining a cool image was completely abandoned. It simply didn't exist for him.
Rong Yu didn't hesitate to crawl directly under a bed, emerging moments later with his hair in complete disarray. He would simply run a hand through it to smooth it down roughly, and then continue his investigation, energetically searching high and low without a pause.
Because the plot was followed from his perspective, the audience knew he was on the treasure hunt route, and also the team leader, with two lives.
Compared to the previous episode, Rong Yu this time clearly understood better how to use the following camera.
For example, when he found a clue, he would first read it quickly himself, take a picture, and then hand it to the camera to see. If it was something like a letter, he would read it out loud.
If he saw something delicious while searching, he would first offer it to the camera and the following cameraman, giving a feeling of sharing with the fans.
Of course, the most important thing was that he was good at analysis. After the kitchen scene, Rong Yu took his cameraman to the side, his eyes vigilantly scanning the surroundings. After confirming no one else was there, he pinched his microphone with one hand, slapped his thigh while laughing at the camera, and said, "Did you notice? Cousin Wei gave himself away! Only people on the detective route would constantly care about the progress of the case! He and Guan the Illegitimate Son are being too obvious! They are definitely on the detective route. If they're not, I'll live stream handstanding and biting a keyboard when I get back!"
Pausing, Rong Yu held up five fingers: "For five minutes!"
After Rong Yu's boast, fans immediately started laughing and posting bullet comments:
—Then I suddenly really hope they aren't!
—Same, I've never seen anyone handstand and bite a keyboard!
—Forget handstanding, you might not even bite it steadily standing upright.
—But honestly, if everyone replays it, they'll find that Wei Shu and Guan Haifeng's performances are indeed very obvious. Put yourself in their shoes: if you held escape clues, would you care about the case happening in this house? You'd only be thinking about how to escape from here.
One by one, clues were discovered and pieced together, leading everyone to a chilling conclusion: all nine of them had died long ago. The white bones they had found were their own corpses. Bound by powerful resentment, their souls were trapped in the villa, forced to endlessly reenact the final days leading up to their deaths.
This realization kicked the episode's reasoning segment into high gear.
"So the real escape isn't about leaving this villa," Yang Ji declared, "but finding the root of the resentment, resolving the grievances, and obtaining salvation. So the escape route players this round shouldn't be called 'escape,' but 'transcendence'!"
The moment Yang Ji finished speaking, the bullet comment section erupted.
The few comments still dutifully spamming praises for the celebrity guests were instantly washed away by a massive wave of stunned and excited "AHHHHHs!"
No one had expected that the escape route was meant to be escaped this way; because they had become ghosts, they could leave as long as they eliminated the resentment in their hearts.
However, this method sounded quite simple, but through everyone's analysis, they realized that there was more than one murderer, so everyone's resentment also differed. To find the murderer who killed them, they needed to temporarily cooperate with the detective route.
At that moment, the camera feed, which had been closely following Rong Yu, abruptly cut away, showing everyone the team leaders of the escape route and the detective route shaking hands, confirming their cooperative relationship.
They agreed to work together to deal with the treasure hunt route.
Watching these two shake hands while letting out exaggerated laughter, the bullet comments also started laughing.
Well, except for Wei Lu's fans.
After Wei Lu was eliminated for opening the door at night, her fanbase was furious.
No comments:
Post a Comment