Today was the premiere of the first episode of White Robe.
Because Cheng Ying had made the decision to delete most of her scenes, Jiang Hanguang was currently in the kitchen of an apartment in the Xingwang Residential Area of the old city district. The old-fashioned kitchen still used a gas stove, and a clay pot on it was bubbling away. Jiang Hanguang ladled a little of the milky-white fish soup into a small saucer to taste. She frowned, added a bit more salt, then turned off the heat. Donning oven mitts, she carried the clay pot, which held a portion for two, into the living room.
Although the small living room had been cleaned spotless by its temporary resident, fine cracks in the plaster in the corners still revealed its age.
On the sofa, a tall, long-legged Omega woman in shorts and a tank top was holding half a chilled watermelon, scooping large mouthfuls into her mouth. On the coffee table in front of her sat two opened bottles of cold beer, one of which was already empty and lying askew.
“Let’s eat first.” Jiang Hanguang placed the clay pot on a trivet on the small table, reminding her. She took off her mitts, casually tossed the empty bottle into the trash, and then turned to look at the screen.
As Cheng’s Media’s flagship production of the season, White Robe had naturally been heavily promoted from the start. They had even applied for a dedicated live broadcast interface from the online film and television administration. Coupled with Hua Ran and Lang Wenxing’s popularity, the live broadcast room was bustling, with comments scrolling endlessly on the side.
Comment 1: Wenxing, Mama’s here.
Comment 2: Does the person above have any manners? Our family has the top billing in this drama.
Comment 3: Heh, isn’t yours just someone with a bit of dirty money? Her acting is not much different from a lunatic’s, is it?
Comment 4: Still better than your family’s Wenxing’s stone-faced acting!
Comment 5: Just a passerby watching the shrews above curse each other out.
Comment 6: Everything else is fine, I just hope our Wenxing doesn’t have scenes with that Jiang woman. A worn-out shoe daring to have ideas about Wenxing, she should take a look in the mirror.
The Omega on the sofa, who had been happily enjoying the drama, suddenly stopped. She looked at Jiang Hanguang beside her, who was giving a wry, helpless smile at being suddenly called out, and asked indistinctly, “Are they talking about you?”
Jiang Hanguang wanted to hide it, but seeing the Omega’s burning gaze, she could only nod. “I suppose so.”
The Omega put down the watermelon, casually picked up the remote keyboard beside her, and her fingers flew across it.
Jiang Hanguang subconsciously covered her eyes.
Why Not Return: What’s with the foul mouth on that idiot above? By your logic, anyone who’s been married is a ‘worn-out shoe.’ Go home and tell your parents that, see if they don’t beat the crap out of an unfilial brat like you. Oh, I forgot, you don’t have parents. Only an orphan would talk like that.
Comment 7: You, who are you? Why is your mouth so filthy? What business is it of yours if I curse Jiang Hanguang?
Why Not Return: No matter how filthy I am, I’m not as filthy as you. Using you to scrub a toilet would be bad luck! Who am I? I’m the president of the Jiang Hanguang Fan Club. If you keep spouting shit, I’ll curse you to death, understand?
The live comments in the broadcast room paused for a few seconds. No one had expected that Jiang Hanguang, a has-been so far down the Z-list she was practically off it, still had fans, and such arrogant ones at that.
After a moment’s pause, an even greater uproar erupted, but it was mostly aimed at Why Not Return. No one was cursing Jiang Hanguang anymore.
The Omega tossed the keyboard aside, fuming, “A bunch of idiots.”
Jiang Hanguang ladled a small bowl of fish from the clay pot and placed it in front of her. “…You really didn’t have to close up shop just to watch the live broadcast. I don’t have many scenes.”
“How could that be?” The Omega picked up the original novel of White Robe from beside her. “I specifically read it. Mo Yan’s role is quite significant.”
“…” Jiang Hanguang thought that if she told the truth now, they probably wouldn’t be able to watch TV today, so she remained silent.
At this moment, Cheng Ying was sitting cross-legged in a pitch-black screening room, watching the live broadcast on a massive screen that took up an entire wall, and was fortunate enough to witness this classic scene.
She burst out laughing. “Who’s that? Her mouth is as sweet as honey, huh?”
In less than two minutes, Mantou had dug up all the information on that person. “ID trace complete. The user’s real name is Lu Sigui, owner of Dream Bar in the old district of Yunjing City. She was Miss Jiang’s classmate from middle school through university. However, the two lost contact after Miss Jiang got married. It wasn’t until a month ago, after Miss Jiang moved out of the Feng residence, that she eventually moved into her place after some difficulty.”
“Wow, childhood friends,” Cheng Ying remarked, and with a casual gesture, she slapped a bad luck halo on the people who had been snidely remarking about Jiang Hanguang.
She didn’t have the time to get into a flame war with these people, but making them get stuck with terrible teammates in games for a while, never win any lotteries, and get detected, muted, and have their accounts deleted the moment they said anything foul—that, she could do.
She had more important things to do now.
The process of setting a trap and waiting for people to fall into it was the most exciting part.
Cheng Ying stared at the countdown on the screen, leaning back against her chair, and asked Mantou, “Is the data monitoring program deployed?”
“OK.” Cheng Mantou made a gesture on the screen. “It’s just monitoring the flow of negative sentiment. Piece of cake.”
While they were talking, White Robe had already started. Cheng Ying glanced at the stiff, major close-up of Hua Ran at the beginning of the theme song and decisively blocked the main screen, leaving only the endlessly scrolling comment section.
Her nerves, in the end, were not tough enough. Even having seen it once, she couldn’t bear it.
Cheng Ying looked at the fans frantically spamming comments and once again felt that ignorance was an unexpected form of bliss.
But the bliss of ignorance was ultimately fleeting, especially for the fans who had been looking forward to White Robe.
Less than ten minutes into the broadcast, some viewers started to notice something was wrong.
Comment 1: Has this part of the plot been changed? Where’s Mo Yan?
Comment 2: It’s better without that Jiang woman. Saves me the disgust.
Why Not Return: Not as disgusting as the brain of the person above, because it’s full of trash.
Comment 3: The person above has such strong mental fortitude and fighting power, respect. 2nd floor, you’re too extreme. Even if you hate Jiang Hanguang, you can’t say deleting Mo Yan’s scenes is a good thing. The plot doesn’t even feel coherent now.
Comment 4: And the acting of the male and female leads… is this the legendary life-and-death showdown between the spastic school and the stone-faced school of acting?
Comment 5: My eyes! They spent so much money to film this crap, isn’t anyone going to do something about it?
At first, the confusion and criticism in the comment section were just a few scattered remarks, drowned in the enthusiastic spamming of the fans, like a cup of water poured into the desert, evaporating in an instant.
But the overwhelming promotion before White Robe‘s premiere had already determined that fans would not be the main audience.
As more and more people suffered this mental pollution, the negative reviews turned from a trickle into a flood of rage, completely overwhelming the entire comment section.
Comment 1: Is this the Film and Television Administration? I want to report a fraud! To hell with this epic xianxia romance. Am I not fucking watching a feature-length personal music video for Hua Ran? And the ugliest kind at that.
Comment 2: Is Lang Wenxing the latest model of intelligent robot? Did he come out to scam people before his expression system was even fully loaded?
Comment 3: Book fans are furious! My White Robe, my Shizun, ruined by these two morons, ahhh! And the plot, it’s as shattered as my heart right now. Hua Ran, Lang Wenxing, how will you ever repay me for this!
Soon, the news that White Robe had crashed and burned spread like a torrential downpour, drenching everyone surfing the web.
Many people who hadn’t been watching the live broadcast were hit full in the face by the overwhelming complaints. Their curiosity piqued, they went to take a look, and then decisively joined the crusade against the creators of White Robe.
The absurdity of the situation was equivalent to going to a top-tier restaurant, spending a fortune on a signature dish, and before it’s served, the waiter gives you a vivid and emotional explanation of the dish’s long history, cooking method, and exquisite taste.
And finally, famished, you are served a plate of moldy stinky tofu.
This was simply intolerable.
You can insult my intelligence, but you can’t deceive my emotions.
On Flying Pigeon’s trending list, the hashtag #WhiteRobeFraud took the top spot with astonishing popularity.
Angry viewers attacked the Flying Pigeon channels of Hua Ran, Lang Wenxing, the original director, and others one after another. In the end, even the fans of the idol-turned-actor Lang Wenxing couldn’t control the comments anymore.
Jiang Hanguang, as a nobody whose scenes had been completely cut, was lucky enough to escape the disaster. However, her comment section was already filled with Lang Wenxing’s fans who were just looking for trouble. Besides, Jiang Hanguang had no time to pay attention to it right now.
Just stopping the furious Lu Sigui from smashing the scalding hot clay pot against the screen was enough to keep her busy.
“What the hell was that acting from those two! And all your hard work, leaving early and coming back late every day, resulted in just a shot of your back? Don’t stop me, I’m going to go curse those idiots to death!”
Jiang Hanguang’s ears were filled with Lu Sigui’s roars, and she could only give a helpless, wry smile. She knew, of course, that this would be the result, but there was nothing she could do to change it. For a minor actress left to fend for herself by her agent, staying quiet was the best choice.
Speaking of her agent, Cheng Ying’s nonchalant, smiling face appeared in her mind again.
Ever since Cheng Ying had communicated with the original director a few days ago, deleted most of her scenes, and told her to go home and rest, she hadn’t appeared again.
She’s probably busy with other things, right?
Jiang Hanguang recalled Cheng Ying’s impassioned speech about making money, shook her head with a smile, and had no intention of contacting her.
Meanwhile, Cheng Ying had already composed a Flying Pigeon post and was waiting for news from Cheng Mantou.
Cards may have ranks, but the timing of when you play them is also crucial.
Cheng Ying had always been a patient card player.
After a while, Cheng Mantou’s voice came from the speakers, “Negative sentiment is nearing saturation. One hundred thirty-seven million, eight hundred thousand users have posted critical comments about White Robe. In contrast, supporters of White Robe are only in the millions, with a ratio of about zero point seven percent.”
“That’s about right.” Cheng Ying clicked the send button. “Start hyping it up. Keep the heat low, don’t let anyone see what we’re doing.”
“You got it,” Cheng Mantou replied cheerfully. This was one of her favorite activities. As a supercomputer living on the internet, Cheng Mantou had a natural love for traffic. She controlled a bunch of accounts with millions of followers in various fields, including but not limited to science popularization, film and television, and food. Even on a normal day, she would stir up some trouble just for fun, let alone now, when she was hyping things up under official orders.
Under the seemingly casual reposts of several large accounts from different fields, a net designed to catch the eyes of the majority of netizens was quietly cast.
The vast majority of angry viewers, upon seeing any Flying Pigeon post related to White Robe, would first think of jumping in to furiously flame it.
While flaming, driven by morbid curiosity, they would also watch the video attached to Cheng Ying’s Flying Pigeon post.
After all, if the main show was such a disaster, how good could the deleted scenes be?
Under such preconceived notions, the shock the video delivered to people was multiplied exponentially.
Before long, the hashtag #WhiteRobeDeletedScenes surfaced on the Flying Pigeon homepage.
Clicking on it, the first post was Cheng Ying’s: “Let’s show everyone the Mo Yan who didn’t get to appear in the final cut~”
The Flying Pigeon post was attached with a video titled—Difficult to Walk in the World.
Clicking into it, Mo Yan’s face, so beautiful it would make gods and men alike indignant, appeared on the screen, accompanied by a BGM that was both tragic and rousing.
In the short span of a single song, the video concisely and clearly told the story of Mo Yan’s journey from entering the immortal sect to being expelled from it.
Jiang Hanguang’s textbook-perfect performance, Mo Yan’s inherently dramatic storyline, and the editor’s compassion and understanding of the character gave this short video immense vitality.
As a video compiled from deleted scenes, its beauty, in stark contrast to the disastrous final cut of “White Robe,” created an effect like a comedic skit.
Jiang Hanguang’s exclusive Mo Yan short film—Difficult to Walk in the World—blew up.
