Chapter 336: Sword Comes

Director Zheng, full name Zheng Guofeng, is one of the three great directors of the older generation in the film and television circle.

The world background of Blue Star is that among the Four Great Classical Novels, there is *Journey to the West* and *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, but no *Water Margin* or *Dream of the Red Chamber*.

The *Three Kingdoms* TV series of this world was directed by Director Zheng.

Over the years, there have been remakes like *New Three Kingdoms* or other TV series with Three Kingdoms themes, but the audience still feels that the *Three Kingdoms* directed by Zheng Guofeng is the classic among classics!

Besides *Three Kingdoms*, he has also directed several major historical dramas or power-struggle dramas set in fictionalized history.

Most of them are the kind that are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, with not only good word-of-mouth but also high ratings.

This gentleman once broke the ratings record of CCTV in his early years.

Later, with the rise of video platforms, his *National War* became the second TV series in the history of Blue Star Huaxia to have its online views exceed 100 million on the first day many years ago.

It is said that Zheng Guofeng has not filmed for nearly six years and is almost in a semi-retired state.

The reason why he has come out of retirement to film *Feudatory King* now is very simple.

——His son is incompetent.

His son also messes around in the entertainment industry, opening companies, making various investments, and even learning from others to sign gambling agreements, eventually ending up with a mountain of debt.

Bolo is one of the creditors.

At the same time, the second female lead of this drama is his daughter-in-law, which is equivalent to promoting his own family member.

The reason why this actress married into the family in the first place was not because she took a fancy to Zheng Guofeng's son, but because of Zheng Guofeng!

Filming is actually hard labor, and coming out at his age to pay off debts for his son is truly somewhat bitter.

The reason why Luo Mo thought of his master Tong Qinglin after hearing Director Zheng's name is that there was a past story between the two.

Zheng Guofeng is an Opera fan, but the one he was a fan of was not Tong Qinglin, but the old rival of Old Master Tong, named Qi Tingfang.

Later, CCTV assigned him a task to film a TV series promoting Opera culture and asked him to invite Tong Qinglin or Qi Tingfang to perform in it.

Director Zheng naturally invited Qi Tingfang without even thinking.

But because of some special reasons, this drama was filmed incredibly slowly; the preparation alone took a year, and it was even suspended for half a year in the middle.

Old Master Qi's health was not that robust, and he did not survive until the end of this drama.

It is said that if the Four Great Grandmasters of the Opera world were to be rated back then, Old Master Tong should have been ranked as: the fifth person of the Four Great Grandmasters.

The reason why he has become a titan of the Opera world today is entirely due to his longevity!

In the end, it was CCTV that acted as a go-between and invited Tong Qinglin to participate.

Two proud old men, each more reluctant than the other.

Fortunately, among the older generation, many still have impeccable professional ethics, but in private, they absolutely looked down on each other.

After this drama was filmed, the response was mediocre, and both of them felt it was the other person's fault.

"The play is not good, what does it have to do with me, the one singing?" Tong Qinglin.

"If Qi Tingfang were still here, with the rapport between him and me, it would have been at least fifty percent better!" Zheng Guofeng.

It cannot be said that the two old men had a feud; it can only be said to be a past story of two proud old men.

As time passed, disciples like Luo Mo just listened to these as interesting stories.

When Old Master Tong mentioned this himself, he would only puff his beard and glare, mutter a few words softly, and his anger had long since dissipated.

However, anger is anger.

As soon as Tong Qinglin heard that Luo Mo's new drama was going to clash with Zheng Guofeng's, he instantly became spirited.

A few days ago, he was still coughing suddenly, but these past few days, he really got better!

"I will wait and see."

……..

……..

The major historical drama *Feudatory King* will be broadcast on the 6th of next month, one week earlier than *Sword Fairy: Jingtian Arc*.

This drama is broadcast on CCTV, so everyone will not compare ratings with it.

Comparing this has little meaning.

If one must compare, one can only compare online views and other popularity metrics.

On Blue Star, except for the view algorithm of Little Rotten Station which is quite special, platforms like Bolo Video and Penguin Video use the same algorithm, so they can be compared across platforms.

The cast of *Feudatory King* can be said to be incomparably powerful.

Compared to it, *Sword Fairy* is like a dwarf standing before a giant.

Any fourth male lead pulled out from it could be considered quasi-first-tier in the TV drama circle.

Therefore, once the Poster was released, one could see a galaxy of stars.

Only the second female lead, who is the strongest nepotism hire, namely Zheng Guofeng's daughter-in-law, makes people feel a bit uncomfortable looking at her.

It must be said that although Director Zheng has not filmed for so many years, as soon as he made a comeback, TV actors almost swarmed over, leaving him to choose.

Once many promotions were released, they immediately sparked the anticipation of many drama fans.

Of course, there are also some young viewers who do not know Zheng Guofeng.

"Zheng Guofeng, who is that? Never heard of him!"

Once such remarks came out, many people would pop up to educate them.

Once the trailer for this *Feudatory King* was released, the evaluation on the internet was: "The old blade is still sharp!"

Some dramas have a very good feel just by watching the trailer.

"Cinema-level quality!"

"The war scenes are as shocking as ever!"

"The details are done too well!"

"If not for his daughter-in-law, I would give this trailer a full score."

Looking at Luo Mo Studio, because their broadcast date is later than "Feudatory King," they haven't released a trailer yet, only a new set of character posters for initial pre-heating.

In this set of character posters, it is no longer just the character names; brief character introductions have been added.

For example, for Xu Zhangqing, it is written: First Disciple of the Shushan Sect.

Very quickly, some more knowledgeable people on the internet spotted something off.

"I'm a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine; the names of this lead cast are all traditional Chinese medicines!"

Once this was said, it immediately sparked the interest of netizens.

You have to know, Luo Mo is recognized as—a naming failure.

Many netizens immediately went online to search the names of the lead cast, and as a result, they discovered they really were all traditional Chinese medicines!

"The male lead is named Jingtian; Jingtian is a type of traditional Chinese medicine, alias 'Great Red Seven'."

"Xu Zhangqing is also a type of traditional Chinese medicine, possessing effects such as dispelling wind and dampness, promoting Qi and blood circulation, relieving pain and itching, and detoxifying and reducing swelling. This name looks completely natural; it feels exactly like a person's name!"

"Who's to say it isn't! I initially thought the female lead's name, Xuejian, was very poetic and had a great atmosphere; I never expected it to be a medicinal herb too!"

"Long Kui, Chonglou, Zixuan... these names all have such a great feel!"

"Our ancestors were truly invincible at naming things; it looks so pleasant to name medicinal herbs, Chinese culture is profound and vast!"

"Hey! I originally thought that naming failure Luo Mo had evolved, but I didn't expect that this time he just stopped naming them altogether and went straight to copying names!"

"He has attained enlightenment! He knows he's no good!"

On the internet, there was quite a lot of discussion regarding these character names.

They have not yet discovered that there is actually a deeper meaning within these names.

Choosing these medicinal herbs as character names wasn't done randomly; naturally, they weren't just picked because they sounded good.

There is a lot of significance inside!

This relates to the relationships between the characters, and also has a bit to do with the grand finale.

And all of this, once the drama airs, many netizens might be able to discover the mystery within!

The broadcast time for "Feudatory King" arrived very quickly.

At eight o'clock in the evening, CCTV and Bolo Video would broadcast two episodes back-to-back.

Like on Earth, even for CCTV dramas, many are played faster on internet video platforms, and there is still the Member Early Access feature.

But on Blue Star, CCTV still has its dominance, and Bolo Video doesn't dare to provoke CCTV, so they update simultaneously.

There isn't even a Member Early Access feature, so the 3-yuan-per-episode Advanced On-Demand feature is even less likely to exist.

This made the two brothers, Wang Shisong and Wang Shibai, feel like their hearts were dripping blood, yet they were helpless.

This pain could only be filled by dampening Luo Mo's spirit!

And the premiere performance of "Feudatory King" indeed did not disappoint everyone's expectations.

The first-day online viewership volume broke two hundred million directly!

This result is truly awesome.

The reviews for this drama on the internet were also not bad, mostly words of praise.

Negative reviews were nothing more than things like "feels the pacing is a bit dragging" or "there are too many characters appearing, can't remember them."

It is very obvious that the first two episodes of "Feudatory King" were mainly to introduce characters and lay the groundwork for the story.

Quite a few people joked that if this wasn't Director Zheng's drama, and if it wasn't performed by this group of people, it would be afraid of flopping, and they wouldn't have the patience to keep watching.

Yes, modern people have a fast pace of life; many people watch serial dramas by skipping or playing at double speed.

Many people have even become the type who rarely finish an entire drama; they watch for a while and then suddenly stop watching.

It's not that the drama isn't good; they just don't want to watch it anymore.

The slow pacing at the beginning of "Feudatory King" is a deterrent for a portion of the audience.

Fortunately, two more episodes were broadcast the next day; starting from the third episode, the story entered the main plot, many subplots began to unfold, and the character relationships had a preliminary framework, making it easier for everyone to get into it.

"Feudatory King" only updates 4 episodes a week, and the fourth episode just happened to be stuck at a critical point, leaving many viewers feeling unsatisfied and looking forward to the unfolding of the story and the next week's update.

A new week arrived very quickly, and the final version of the trailer for "Legend of Sword and Fairy: Jingtian Arc" was finally released.

The handsome men and beautiful women were very pleasing to the eye.

After watching, many netizens expressed that they couldn't wait and excitedly rubbed their little hands.

But on the internet, it still sparked a war of words.

Don't forget, many people also have a sense of superiority when watching dramas; in television dramas, there is also a hierarchy of contempt.

"Heh, there's no sense of historical weight at all; it doesn't have the sense of realism that 'Feudatory King' has."

"Please, you're talking to me about realism in a Xianxia drama? Did your ancestors know Sword Flight?"

"It's meaningless; you can't learn anything from watching this kind of drama; it misleads the youth."

"Yo, you're trying to learn something just from watching a trailer? Did you rely on reading the table of contents of your textbooks to get into Tsinghua or Peking University back when you were in school?"

"'Legend of Sword and Fairy 1' was obviously filmed by Guan Fei; Luo Mo is just an impostor. He's a singer; what the hell does he know about filming?"

"You know again? Did Guan Fei tell you that in your ear?"

"A bunch of little brats, you can only watch this kind of stuff; there are some dramas that I'm afraid you wouldn't even understand."

"I thought this speaking format only existed during the non-mainstream era, when middle school students were scolding elementary school students on Penguin Space; you're quite old-school!"

Having discussions isn't a bad thing, after all, only flop dramas have no one discussing them, right?

As for whether someone is stirring up trouble, Luo Mo doesn't care. If Bolo wants to play some crooked tricks, then let them play.

And amidst the heated discussions of netizens, "Legend of Sword and Fairy: Jingtian Arc" ushered in its weekend premiere.

"Sword," it's coming!

……

(PS: The second update, asking for double monthly votes at the end of the month! If you don't vote now, they'll expire, aw!)

(End of this chapter)