Chapter 13: Is It That You Don’t Want To?

Chapter 13: Is It That You Don’t Want To?

After *The Noble Son* was moved to a prime-time slot, industry insiders predicted that the drama's popularity would reach a new level.

However, the latest data shocked everyone in the industry.

10,000+!

What did this mean?

For a big-budget, high-production drama like *Watchmen*, breaking 10,000 in popularity was not surprising. But such data would never be associated with a low-budget web drama.

Despite insider skepticism, it was indeed *The Noble Son* that occupied the top spot on the popularity charts.

Upon closer observation, although *The Noble Son* wasn't dominating the trending searches like *Watchmen*, discussions about its plot and characters remained high after ten episodes. Keyword searches showed that most discussions were from genuine viewers, not just fans manipulating the data.

In stark contrast, *Watchmen*’s data looked far worse.

Although Gu Sinian's fans tirelessly promoted *Watchmen* in the comment sections of various social media influencers' posts, and the drama's popularity gradually stabilized in the later stages, it hovered around just over 8,000.

After unfollowing the other three members of Verse, Lu Xu’s Weibo followers plummeted to the hundreds of thousands, while Xie Qingyang, Gu Sinian, and Meng Qin each maintained millions of followers. After the popularity of *The Noble Son* surged, Lu Xu's Weibo followers officially exceeded one million.

For the first time, his Weibo comments featured fans defending him.

Gu Sinian’s fans continued to mock him for acting in low-quality web dramas, but their mockery had lost its edge.

"Yes, yes, yes, my favorite can only act in low-quality web dramas, but unfortunately, your big-budget serious drama has lower popularity than his."

"All day long, it's low-quality web dramas, low-quality web dramas. So why isn't your high-end drama breaking records?"

"To be honest, even if it's a low-quality web drama, isn't Lu Xu's acting crushing Gu Sinian's?"

Lu Xu smiled and liked the flattering comments.

After *The Noble Son* claimed the top spot on the popularity charts, his WeChat became lively again.

Industry friends from his Verse days started reaching out again, and agents who had previously contacted him seemed to suddenly remember that they wanted to sign him.

Lu Xu had already purged most contacts, and this new wave of messages was just another round of deletions.

…

Lu Xu had always firmly believed that an actor should let their work speak for them.

Despite its flaws in cast, production, and plot, *The Noble Son*’s viewership and popularity couldn’t be ignored.

After Chenxi TV moved it to a prime-time slot, *The Noble Son*’s popularity consistently stayed above 10,000. Fans especially engaged during episodes where they debated whether Pan Lingfeng or Yu Wei was Zhong Baobei’s brother, creating lengthy discussion threads on forums.

In the episode that ruled out Pan Lingfeng, fans of the "Storm" couple celebrated all day, and fans of the "Finally" couple were not to be outdone, keeping the term "sibling romance" on the forum’s front page for a long time, keeping the moderators busy deleting posts repeatedly.

The cheerful, sunny male lead was endearing, while the brooding, intense second male lead added depth to the love triangle.

For Chenxi TV, the explosive popularity of *The Noble Son* was like a pie falling from the sky, leaving the entire platform dizzy.

As a second-tier platform, Chenxi TV had always been at the mercy of Grape Film and Television and Dei Film and Television. Being able to enter the top 10 of the popularity charts was considered good performance, and entering the top five would warrant a special appearance by the platform’s senior executives to celebrate.

No one understood the struggles of a second-tier platform.

Grape Film and Television could bring in actors like Yue Hui and Ren Ningyi, who were at the level of movie kings, to support Gu Sinian, whereas Chenxi TV, even if they offered high prices, couldn’t get those big names to collaborate with them.

Chenxi TV lacks the clout to bring in big-name directors and scriptwriters, and over time, the platform's visibility kept dwindling, naturally attracting fewer viewers.

Not exaggerating, for Chenxi TV to climb to the top of the popularity chart, they would need a lineup comparable to *Watchmen*, and their executives would need to light the first incense stick at temples every day, praying for good luck to fall upon them.

It sounds ridiculous, but this is the reality Chenxi TV faces.

The breakout success of *The Noble Son* was so effortless that when it actually reached the top of the popularity chart, the platform's executives didn’t even react in time.

"...Am I seeing things?"

"...Is this really our series with a budget of less than 10 million?"

The success of *The Noble Son* made the executives of Chenxi TV understand what it means to achieve big results with small investments.

The VIP revenue brought in by the series had the executives grinning ear to ear, along with the massive advertising revenue during the broadcast period—before that, Chenxi TV's advertising revenue was virtually nonexistent.

Thanks to the platform purchasing the copyrights of several classic older series when they separated from Dei Film and Television years ago, otherwise Chenxi TV might have gone bankrupt in a few more years.

After only a small portion of *The Noble Son* was aired, the show’s costs were fully recouped, and as the plot deepened, Chenxi TV saw its largest income since its establishment after staying at the top of the popularity chart for over ten days.

With an investment of only a few million, but earnings in the hundreds of millions, the profit margin was so high that it made everyone envious.

*Watchmen*, despite its flop, claimed to have broken even, and *A Candy's Sweet* from Yunxi Film and Television also announced big profits, but the profits of these two series aren't in the same league as *The Noble Son*.

*The Noble Son* was essentially zero-cost.

This summer season, all major platforms were envious of Chenxi TV.

Lu Xu also benefited greatly from this series.

The role of Yu Wei gave him a presence in the acting circle, his Weibo followers increased significantly, and he even appeared on a couple of new actors' charts.

During his time in Verse, Lu Xu's presence wasn't very strong. His personality was relatively quiet, he had fewer fans, and due to his makeup, he wasn’t the standout member in terms of appearance.

But now, more people know his name than before.

For a period before *The Noble Son*, Lu Xu had been approaching various production teams, trying to recommend himself for roles he wanted to play, but those teams didn’t even give him a chance to audition.

But now, Lu Xu has five or six audition invitations, giving him more options.

After the rise in popularity of *The Noble Son*, Lu Xu also received some collaboration invitations, including interviews, commercials, and fashion magazine covers, but to be honest, although the character Yu Wei is quite popular, the quality of the commercial opportunities he’s received is still just average.

He’s not interested in accepting them.

It's not that Lu Xu is being pretentious, but in his view, his acting career has only just begun. He wants to wait until his identity as an actor is more widely recognized and his fame is high enough before taking on commercials.

Becoming a commercial darling was never his goal.

...

Lu Xu is studying the audition invitations in his hand.

Because he played the role of Yu Wei, most of the roles that have come his way recently are similar to Yu Wei's character, a brooding and deeply emotional second male lead. Lu Xu didn’t even think about it and put them aside.

At least in the short term, he won’t consider similar roles.

Upon careful consideration, the number of scripts he can choose from has significantly decreased.

One is a historical costume drama, and the role he would audition for is the youthful period of a crown prince who was in power for forty years.

The production team didn’t spell it out, but Lu Xu gathered that they hadn’t decided whether he would only portray the character's youth or both the youth and adulthood, depending on his performance during the audition.

The other project tells the story of a generation that grew up in a special era. This group of people set great ambitions in their youth, dedicating themselves to studying and working hard to save their country.

Lu Xu leans toward the second script since he hasn’t done many historical dramas, and the prince’s role feels too weak and pathetic to him. With a dominant emperor father, the prince has to speak cautiously.

Lu Xu guesses that if he auditions for the former script, he’d have an easier time getting the prince role.

The crew is looking for actors of his age, but typically, young actors usually avoid pitiful roles and would rather play villains.

For the latter script, the character’s age is closer to his, and Lu Xu has experience playing similar roles.

The audition date for the latter drama has been set. Lu Xu is auditioning for the second male lead, and he has a section of the script where the second male lead appears. While *The Noble Son* was still airing, Lu Xu had already begun preparing for this role.

When it comes to auditions, Lu Xu always prepares with full focus.

Early in his career, he attended numerous auditions, but later, as he became more popular, he became the type of actor who was considered for specific roles. The number of script offers became countless, and directors often requested him specifically, so auditions were a thing of the past.

However, whether through auditions or director requests, Lu Xu can confidently say that he has never let down any character he has portrayed.

Although the crew provided very little of the script, Lu Xu read it carefully and looked up a lot of written and visual materials from that era.

Currently without an agent, he has to prepare everything himself. He’d rather stay busy than risk misinterpreting the character due to incomplete prep.

After a busy period, the audition day finally arrived.

The audition location was quite far from Lu Xu’s home, but since they were both in City C, it took about an hour and a half to drive there in the morning, so Lu Xu made sure to wake up extra early.

He dozed off in the car for a bit and had just opened Weibo when he saw that the top three trending topics were all related to *The Noble Son*—

#Song Zhong Slams "My Baby, The Noble Son"#

#*The Noble Son* is Trash from Low-Level Fantasy#

#Song Zhong Criticizes Lu Xu#

Lu Xu: "?"

The issue was, why would anyone name their kid "Song Zhong," which sounds like "attending a funeral"?

He clicked on the trending hashtags and learned that Song Zhong was a well-known drama critic, a judge for certain awards, and a famous industry insider. This busy individual expressed despair over the fact that *The Noble Son* was topping the charts. He considered it shameful that a "trashy web drama" topped the charts, calling it a shame for the entire television industry.

He first criticized the awfulness of *The Noble Son*, from the clichéd plot to the overly dramatic actors, and then attacked Chenxi TV for moving *The Noble Son* to prime time and being self-satisfied about it (?). Lu Xu was specifically called out and criticized for relying on his looks to act, which was deemed unsustainable.

While criticizing Lu Xu, Song Zhong took the opportunity to praise Gu Sinian, saying that he worked hard in *Watchmen* and resisted the temptation of idol dramas, insisting on relying on his acting skills.

Song Zhong’s sharp tongue is famous in the industry, and most production teams dare not provoke him. In this critique of *The Noble Son*, he went all out, tossing out words like "shame," "degradation," and "disgrace" as if they cost nothing.

In the comments section of his review, accounts with Gu Sinian’s profile pictures were cheering him on, and people kept tagging Lu Xu, making it impossible for him to ignore.

Lu Xu sighed.

He really wasn’t the type to be sharp-tongued and didn’t want to give off the impression that he loved to argue.

His close friends knew he was the kind of person who spoke his mind whenever he had something to say.

So, he genuinely wondered—

"Is it that *Watchmen* didn’t top the charts because they didn’t want to?"

"Why is he taking a roundabout way to insult people?"

Gu Sinian fans who were delighted to see him criticize Lu Xu: "...Is this guy sick?"