[4k Nutrient Solution Bonus Update]

The internet absolutely lost it.

I came online for THIS.

Please, just give me one chance to judge (evaluate, with a hint of subtle malice) a rich person's appearance.

It's not like there's anyone else left to roast — damn rich people! Huh?!

Pixelated?!

Mosaic applied frame-by-frame from the neck up, stickers layered on, not a single pixel exposed.

Voice processed too — came out buzzing and electric, impossible to tell young from old.

Probably outdoors, dressed warm: black windbreaker on top, matching dark trousers below, thoroughly covered.

What was there even to see?

But the internet, working with what little they had, reached a consensus: judging purely by the silhouette... not a big frame, definitely lean.

Then the person rested a hand on the car window, leaned slightly, and spoke to Jiang Yang inside. Viewers immediately zeroed in — the hand —

No rings, but a sapphire-blue watch.

Unlike Jiang Yang's hands, all veins and tension and somehow kind of sexy, this one only showed a faint trace of pale-blue veins.

Nails trimmed clean and neat. No hangnails. No calluses.

It instantly called to mind the wealthy characters in The Favored One — rich people really do seem to maintain every inch of themselves.

Compared to Xi Xingfa, another young-generation elite, this person seemed taller, less oily, way more clean-cut.

So curious what they actually looked like...

Everyone's attention had already been hijacked by the burning need to see Sang Ying's face — wait, not Sang Ying, the mysterious boss — when the person said, casual as anything: 'Bought it for fun. Drive it, don't worry.'

The internet: '...'

I hate this.

I am genuinely about to riot.

Before anyone could storm over to Sang Ying's — no wait, the boss's — page to throw a tantrum, or rather, to beg cutely, another gold coin dropped: a supporting actor's voice cut in —

'Hey, uh... is there maybe a cheaper car?'

...

People are always hunting for budget alternatives. Rarely do they go hunting for the pricier upgrade. This randomly dropped behind-the-scenes clip just redefined what it means to swim against the current.

The whole 'rented car' witch hunt? Blazing hot one second, then — snap — dead.

Replaced by a total victory lap from the fans who'd been defending The Favored One all along.

Sang Ying, for one.

?!

(Okay fine, she had a personal stake — The Favored One was genuinely good, so of course she'd been looking for reasons to dismiss the hate.)

Sang Ying had originally planned to forward the clip to her brother as a joke — something like 'we share a surname with that boss, time to step it up.' Classic sibling ribbing, since he was always trash-talking her diet.

Though honestly, when he wasn't being annoying, he was pretty decent to her.

Oh right — next time she talked to Sang Ying's boss, she should push for a dog park instead of another property. Way more useful. Heh.

The drama blew over. Sang Ying filed it away and moved on, and so did most people.

Everyone was busy debating what the mysterious boss actually looked like, spinning theories from that one blurry silhouette.

Endlessly curious.

Curious fans flooded the social media accounts of The Demolition Office and The Favored One's creative teams, asking:

Is the boss actually good-looking?

No one replied, obviously.

But a small pocket of people hadn't turned the page on the luxury car drama — still stuck in it.

In recent years, online discourse had developed this one nasty habit: splitting everything into two poles —

Black or white. No in-between.

Two sides argue, two viewpoints clash, you have to pick a lane, you have to figure out who's right and who's wrong — the middle ground is basically Schrödinger's opinion.

Normal people watched the clip and immediately got it: debunked.

Maybe they wouldn't go back and unlike their original comment, but they knew the score — they'd quietly like a self-deprecating post, something like: [We got played again] or [The internet did a 180 and didn't even invite me].

But a chunk of the people who'd backed the 'exposed' narrative — having picked the wrong side — felt something closer to... embarrassed rage?

So they kept deflecting, hunting for new things to nitpick in The Favored One, running their own little self-defense 'rebuttal round.'

Proving they weren't wrong.

When the show itself didn't give them much to work with, they swiveled — go for the soft target —

The source novel, which had wrapped up ten years ago, got dragged out and picked apart.

Shu Mucheng: ?

Shu Mucheng: Can't be bothered. JPG

Absolutely iconic.

The Favored One was still mid-production, moving faster than expected — still had over a dozen episodes left to shoot.

Looking at what had come out so far, not a single thing to complain about. Search the keywords and no annoying faces popped up.

Sang Ying had already started drafting her first-week recap post.

Call it The Favored One Weekly or whatever — didn't matter, she was writing it, pen already moving.

Might need some tweaks later, depending on exactly how high The Favored One's premiere numbers landed.

Tomorrow...

She should be able to drop the first battle report, right?

Already hyped for the first-week wrap-up.

The Demolition Office crew was even more hyped.

They had a live example right in front of them.

Watching two leads blow up like that in real time — how could anyone not be excited? Not be a little envious?

Now that The Favored One had planted its flag, audiences would start anticipating The Demolition Office too.

There'd definitely be a ripple effect.

·

The Favored One had premiered at 8 p.m. the night before. By midnight — barely four hours of accumulated heat — the numbers were already insane.

Platform heat index broke ten thousand within the first hour, still had room to push toward twenty thousand.

Both leads' Weibo accounts went into freefall — upward freefall — gaining a million followers each within an hour.

Yuanshang TV's monthly membership subscriptions spiked hard. They scrambled to swap every ad channel over to The Favored One's poster.

After episode one, when the heat index cracked ten thousand, three more ad buys dropped. After episodes three and four, you couldn't count them on two hands.

The certified industry platform clocked it: twenty-four hours post-premiere, average per-episode views hit fifty million, adjusted.

The bottom four spots in the top five rankings combined couldn't touch it — The Favored One was basically vacuuming up the entire market.

In-site bullet comments crossed ten million.

Every controversy, every wave of discourse — all of it just piled more flowers on The Favored One's altar.

Aurora Entertainment, a company not even six months old, dropped its first project and won the opening battle — loud and clean.

Sang Ying's boss...

Had officially become a wishing well.

Not just for audiences — a few platform executives lurking in the shadows were watching too.

The work itself was the most powerful endorsement.

Data can be faked, but audience wallets are votes. Whether something's good? Check the heat index. Check the new VIP memberships.

When every single metric points the same direction — up — then yeah. It's good.

The Favored One was a drama with no deep message, mostly a romance-heavy idol show.

On paper, how was it pulling numbers this high?

Actually, it's simple.

Easy to get into. No barrier to entry. No 'give it a few episodes and it gets good.'

Leads are attractive. Acting holds up. Plot holds up. You can relax, eat while watching, ship the couple, get your dopamine hit.

There's actual science behind it.

For some people, the dopamine from shipping a fictional couple genuinely beats the dopamine from dating in real life. Wild, but true.

In a downturn economy, with tech accelerating and life pressure accelerating right alongside it — everyone's exhausted.

You turn on the TV or go to the movies and get a face full of garbage.

Worse, you get lectured: 'audiences just don't have the culture to understand it' — and you've wasted your time and money when you could've stayed home and made hot pot.

The Favored One had none of that nonsense.

The creative team never once played the sympathy card — 'please give us a chance' — and instead gave away hundreds of thousands of memberships.

They never treated audiences like idiots, never butchered the source material, never snuck in their own agenda.

That felt good.

Unlike certain directors.

Audiences didn't care about being polite — if they wanted to compare, they'd compare.

Some thin-skinned directors immediately took it personally and started posting passive-aggressive shade.

['Winning over the mass market isn't hard. Strong data isn't hard either.

I have no intention of belittling audiences' taste —

Audiences have always been innocent. They've just been fed fast food for so long they've forgotten what real flavor tastes like.

The people in the kitchen can't just serve instant noodles as the signature dish and smile while the crowd cheers 'best meal of my life.'

I don't deny The Favored One's success.

But — I find myself, perhaps unfashionably, missing the era when audiences would slow down and savor something with real craft.

Of course, today's discourse has no room for 'buts' — post this and I'll be labeled 'sour grapes.'

Still. Watching a bubble drama get elevated to godhood is more disheartening than the long winter hanging over Domestic Entertainment.

Nevermind. I'll just sigh once — for the aesthetic sensibility of this era.']

Wow.

So artistic.

So sincere.

If their own work hadn't won a Golden Broom Award, maybe people would've bought it. So what exactly are you performing — artistry, or a pity party? Bro?!

An entertainment blogger with no agency affiliation, built entirely on wit, dropped the real take —

['In short: cannon fodder #2 is having a meltdown.

Yes, the industry is in a winter. But audiences still want to watch dramas — it's one of the cheaper forms of entertainment.

No need to leave the house. No need to plan anything. Just grab your phone.

So the industry winter keeps going, but every now and then — a few times a year — something hits, and the market thaws a little.

Audiences are the ones doing the warming.

So The Favored One got warmed. Other dramas? Forget it, nobody cares.

Oh wait — there is one more: A Demolition Office Is Not Ordinary, also from Aurora Entertainment. Worth keeping an eye on.']

The blogger's followers nearly choked laughing.

['Mm-hmm, sure, other dramas can go back to their winter. I only know The Favored One's spring is warm and cozy. Appreciate it.']

['So who exactly gave those people the delusion that without The Favored One, audiences would flock to their shows?']

['It was never an either/or situation.']

['Plain and simple: Aurora Entertainment was willing to spend money AND respected the source material. Is that so hard to understand?']

['Those people are so arrogant... they think they understand audiences better than audiences understand themselves, like they can just puppet everyone around']

['Who even cares about them?!']

['Who hasn't watched a drama?? When it's good you binge six episodes in one night, then you're doom-scrolling Douyin, and suddenly you hear birds chirping...']

['In the drama department, we finally have something better than what the older generation had']

['Being called 'older generation' at twenty is genuinely messing with my head...']

['Huh?! Sorry sorry, not sure why I always feel like it's been forever, maybe I'm mixing it up with Taiwanese idol dramas (sliding on knees)']

['I have a feeling Yu Zhitao is about to level up, and Jiang Yang is finally graduating from 'about to blow up' to 'actually blown up' — double win']

['The guy is definitely leveling up, but Yu Zhitao needs another project first']

['...I genuinely can't with Domestic Entertainment — why can't they treat female stars the same way they treat male stars']

['Yu Zhitao's only disadvantage is age, not sure if her bone structure can hold up... if she can stretch it three more years, her shot gets way bigger']

['But her Weibo gained more followers than the male lead?']

['Probably because she was so under the radar before']

['Not necessarily — Jiang Wanyin isn't a camera-type female lead, she's got soul, might pull in even more fans than expected']

['Honestly whether they blow up or not doesn't matter — if I were Yu Zhitao's fan, I'd be pushing her to lock down Aurora Entertainment for the next project']

['+1 +1, ahhhh!']

['Does that boss have another project coming... please say yes']

['Wait, does anyone remember — from the shores of the great lake (yes I know it's an old meme) — The Diary?']

['Oh right, almost forgot']