Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore Chapter 289: First Investment in a Web Drama — The Emperor’s

Ding Wanyu actually didn't show much embarrassnt. Instead, she examined Xiao He seriously, her gaze calm and composed. After a long silence, she finally said, "Indeed, the perfect man in this world can be acted out. He simply doesn't exist in reality."

Shu Yuxiu was an act, and Xiao He was also an act.

Xiao He: …

Xiao He didn't even know how to respond to Ding Wanyu's statent.

After saying this, Ding Wanyu was the first to let out a soft chuckle. "Sorry, I got too deep into the role recently and thought about so of my own past. I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable."

Xiao He quickly waved his hand. "It's fine, it's fine, not at all."

At most, he just felt a bit guilty.

"Shu Yuxiu is truly scum."

Ding Wanyu murmured softly, then asked Xiao He with so curiosity, "What is Shu Yuxiu's final outco? Can you tell ?"

Xiao He, however, shook his head. "Sorry, I don't know either."

"That's right, Director Ning does love creating this kind of suspense."

Ding Wanyu nodded thoughtfully, then gave a light laugh.

Xiao He had an intuition that this senior had so unspeakable, sorrowful past.

"It seems I'll have to go to the cinema to find out the answer then."

Ding Wanyu tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her expression gentle. When she looked at Xiao He again, she had returned to how she was during their first eting—carrying the amiable and carefree deanor of a senior, her tone warm. "Well then, goodbye, Xiao He."

"Goodbye, Teacher Ding."

Soon, Ding Wanyu also left the island.

Xiao He continued to imrse himself in the filming of the following plot.

…

In the blink of an eye, ti had already reached July.

During this period, Xiao He returned to the country again to participate in several other well-known star-studded events and award ceremonies.

Last year, Xiao He had quite a few standout roles. Apart from ng Zetian, there were also Mu Ze and Shen Jue. These roles also earned Xiao He several awards at other ceremonies, though these awards were far less prestigious than the White Magnolia Awards.

Of course, with these activities, Xiao He's reputation as a skilled actor, a new-generation talent, and a rising star with significant traffic was thoroughly established. His fanbase visibly grew, and the script invitations and other promotional offers that had previously decreased gradually recovered and began to increase again.

By the end of July, most of the filming for *No Bait* was basically complete, with only the final few versions of the grand finale remaining.

Thinking that he would soon finish filming here, Xiao He couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

Shu Yuxiu was truly the most ntally exhausting character he had ever portrayed.

It was strange, really. When playing a lunatic or a serial killer, he never had this feeling. Only when playing Shu Yuxiu did he feel a sense of being drawn into the character's world.

Logically, playing Shu Yuxiu shouldn't have been as pressuring on his acting skills as playing Yin Qi. After all, Shu Yuxiu's state of mind in many situations was quite similar to Xiao He's own... But upon careful thought, that was actually sowhat terrifying. He and Shu Yuxiu were in a state of like attracting like.

Thinking about the *Record of Chasing the Wind* production team he was about to join next, Xiao He actually felt a bit impatient.

He urgently needed the righteous aura of Song Chenye to counterbalance Shu Yuxiu's influence.

Also, during the sumr season at the end of July, a web palace intrigue drama titled *Imperial Decree* officially announced its broadcast date: August 12th.

This year's sumr season, breaking from tradition, did not revolve around immortal romance dramas but instead focused on grand female-led palace intrigue and household power struggles.

It was unclear whether the various platforms were deliberately competing or if the copyrights for this type of the from the sa period had all been sold out. Anyway, when netizens counted carefully, they discovered that this sumr season, from start to finish, there were actually four works of the sa genre preparing to air.

Two were household intrigue dramas, and two were palace intrigue dramas, each distributed across four major video platforms for broadcast. Among them, the deep-pocketed Penguin Video was heavily promoting its major investnt project, the palace intrigue drama *The Legend of Zhaohua*. anwhile, the usually more low-key Cozy Video held the small-budget investnt web drama *Imperial Decree*, produced by Linghui Studio.

Among these, *The Legend of Zhaohua* was undoubtedly the most eye-catching. It boasted a star-studded cast with nurous veteran actors. It was said to be adapted from another novel by the sa author of that classic, massively popular palace intrigue drama from years past, giving it a solid fanbase and high recognition.

The other two household intrigue dramas were also adaptations of major IP novels. One was a rebirth the, and the other was a ti-travel the. Furthermore, both dramas featured currently very popular traffic stars—rising male and female idols—in pairings that felt like relationship swaps, with massive fanbases. Long before the dramas officially announced their broadcast dates, waves of argunts had already erupted online, foreshadowing the "bloody storms" that would sweep the internet in August.

Only the web drama *Imperial Decree*, produced by Linghui Studio, was stacked with debuffs: unknown director, unknown script, unknown team, unknown leads.

Although the casting was quite good, and the female lead Pan Yuerou's natural willow-leaf eyebrows were quite morable, with her looks not being a drawback, this drama was simply too obscure. Apart from being produced by Xiao He's studio, it had no other highlights or advantages whatsoever. It was terrifyingly under-the-radar.

Moreover, it wasn't even Cozy Video's main promotional drama for the sumr season.

Cozy's main promotion this year was a suspense-thed cri investigation series. So, they had practically forgotten they even had a palace intrigue drama in their sumr lineup. It was the netizens who dug up *Imperial Decree* and placed it alongside the dramas from other platforms, conveniently stirring up so heat and fanning the flas for the sumr season competition.

After all, it was very normal for the major platforms to clash every sumr season. Even if they didn't fight directly, countless marketing accounts and bloggers would analyze the popularity and revenue situations of the works airing in the sa period.

Resourceful netizens could always dig up approximate data, analyze which drama would be the most profitable hit, incidentally shatter the fragile glass hearts of various fanbases, and once again ignite a wave of online fla wars, successfully generating new heat.

This was just the basic operation of the internet.

Cozy Video was also pragmatic. Since *Imperial Decree* had beco their representative work in this genre amidst this commotion, they didn't hesitate to give it a small promotional spot on their main page.

—Basically, after you clicked into the video platform and scrolled a few pages through the frequently changing main page recomndation bar, you could see *Imperial Decree*.

How to put it… Better than nothing. At least Cozy was being sowhat decent this ti and didn't completely abandon it.

But don't expect more. Capitalists wouldn't set their sights on such a tiny speck.

Fortunately, both Xiao He and Shu Han now had so influence. When *Imperial Decree* officially announced its broadcast date, they also helped promote it on Weibo.

Many fans were still willing to show their support for them.

-

Beijing.

"Ah! Yue Rou, look! Brother Xiao and the others are all helping to repost and promote it! So many people have already set reminders!"

Fu ihua excitedly shook her friend's arm.

"Mmm, I see it."

Pan Yuerou also lowered her head, scrolling through the comnts online, her eyes filled with both anticipation and nervousness.

"I'm so happy! This is your first drama as the female lead! I'm so looking forward to the finished product!"

Fu ihua rubbed her hands together, then placed her elbows on the table, propping her chin in thought. "I just don't know when *The Legend of Zhaohua* will announce its broadcast date. I really hope it doesn't end up airing at the sa ti as ours."

Even though their *Imperial Decree* production team was in no way comparable to a major production like *The Legend of Zhaohua*, the thought that Pan Yuerou had turned down a supporting role in *The Legend of Zhaohua* to play the female lead in *Imperial Decree* made Fu ihua privately hope that *The Legend of Zhaohua* would be less successful than *Imperial Decree*.

Besides, to put it bluntly, they were competitors now.

However, as soon as Fu ihua finished speaking, Pan Yuerou refreshed and saw the official Weibo account of *The Legend of Zhaohua*.

She then slightly furrowed her brows.

"*The Legend of Zhaohua* has also announced its broadcast date. It's the sa day as ours."

"What?!"

Fu ihua was shocked.

"Oh no! How can they air on the sa day as us?!"