Chapter 56: Criticized
Qiao Mengyao herself was quite laid-back. Her position in the entertainment industry had long been solidified. Even if The Empress became a massive hit once again, it would merely be the cherry on top for her career.
Whether it was acting fees or endorsement deals, she stood at the pinnacle of television actresses. Her commercial value even surpassed several film actresses, leaving little room for further growth. If The Empress could surpass her previous records, it would simply add another glorious achievement to her illustrious career.
However, The Empress didn’t feature only her as the female lead; there were also several up-and-coming male actors in the cast.
At present, the popularity score of The Empress was nearing 14,000, and its buzz was at an all-time high. Even though several male characters from the drama had yet to appear, they should have been stirring up discussions by now.
But what was trending on the hot search list instead?
“Lu Xu and Yu Yi,” “The Path of Bones breaks 10,000 in popularity score,” “Lu Xu’s acting skills”… Lu Xu had clearly become the most talked-about male actor of this release period.
This was all because The Path of Bones had garnered such high popularity score.
Amid the overwhelming momentum of The Empress, The Path of Bones had also managed to assert its presence. The main reason for this was largely due to Lu Xu’s portrayal of the character Yu Yi.
Lu Xu stealing the spotlight was something the male leads of The Empress were not happy to see.
The Empress had been strategically scheduled for this release period precisely to overshadow Lu Xu. After all, the male actors who joined The Empress did so with the hope of becoming breakout stars.
Did they really think being the male lead alongside Qiao Mengyao was an easy feat?
To secure an important role in The Empress, these male actors had put in extraordinary effort. The production team had auditioned countless actors of varying levels of fame before finally settling on them.
After months of hard work, exchanging resources, and signing commercial deals in advance, all their efforts seemed wasted as Lu Xu stole the limelight. So, what was the point of them acting in The Empress?
They didn’t have to pay such a high price just to make The Empress and The Path of Bones equally popular.
…
Two days after the dramas premiered, the popularity score of The Empress remained steady at 13,000+, but The Path of Bones was no weak contender either, with its popularity score also surpassing 10,000.
This situation was rare enough to spark industry speculation: would this February slot turn out to be as lively as the summer season?
However, since the dramas had only just begun airing, celebrating prematurely often led to disappointing outcomes. As a result, when it came to expressing expectations for The Empress and The Path of Bones, the industry remained collectively restrained.
On the third day, both dramas introduced minor plot twists.
The childhood storyline of the empress concluded, and Qiao Mengyao’s portrayal of the young Xi Rongyi officially made its debut.
Xi Rongyi grew up as childhood friends with the young general Li Chengfeng, but her father, the emperor, intended for her to follow in the footsteps of the eldest princess and send her to the northern border for a political marriage.
The empire was weak, while the northern powers were steadily growing. As a result, in the imperial court, while princes were favored, the status of princesses was no longer as low as it had been during Xi Rongyi’s childhood. Princesses were groomed as tools for political alliances, raised in luxury so they could offer their loyalty to the empire through strategic marriages.
Xi Rongyi was faced with a choice.
Li Chengfeng was deeply in love with her, but she regarded him as an older brother. While the young general was wracked with pain and inner conflict, she was unable to reciprocate his feelings.
In Episode 6, Li Chengfeng’s clear and heartfelt gaze was almost frozen in time on the screen.
Xu Qingtian, who played Li Chengfeng, was Ningshi Entertainment’s rising star. Before The Empress, he had taken on both leading and supporting roles in various projects backed by Ningshi Entertainment, but none had gained significant attention.
Landing the role of Li Chengfeng, he became widely regarded as a “soon-to-explode” talent by numerous marketing accounts.
Xu Qingtian didn’t mind being labeled as “soon-to-explode.” After all, there were countless actors in the entertainment industry waiting for their big break. Being included in the “soon-to-explode” category meant that he had already achieved significant recognition.
On the day Li Chengfeng made his debut, Xu Qingtian enjoyed a wave of attention.
One trending topic after another appeared on the hot search list, with countless fans silently screaming over Li Chengfeng’s heartfelt and broken gaze.
[This is exactly what hopeless love feels like.]
[Poor Li Chengfeng. Just open a harem already—then he wouldn’t have to feel so hopeless.]
[I’ll always cry and scream for Li Chengfeng. Xu Qingtian’s acting is phenomenal!]
[Finally, my bias Xu Qingtian is being recognized! He’s played so many great roles before but never got this kind of attention.]
Even Qiao Mengyao’s trending topics couldn’t compare to Xu Qingtian’s. Her popularity on the hot search list was less than half of his, and even when they both trended simultaneously, her name ranked below his.
Xu Qingtian’s fans justified this by saying his performance as Li Chengfeng was so exceptional that the attention was well-deserved.
…
“It’s not that great…” Tan Qi quietly complained to her friends. “I think his acting is just average.”
Tan Qi bore no ill will toward Xu Qingtian. Her issue was simply that, in her view, Li Chengfeng wasn’t a role that truly tested an actor’s skills. The character was very conventional—a young general fresh out of training, honest, passionate, and sentimental. It was only after experiencing the flames of war that he would truly mature.
Tan Qi specifically opened the hot search to find like-minded people who shared her admiration for Lu Xu.
In Episode 6 of The Path of Bones, Yu Yi k*lled his first enemy.
In the confined space of that house, it was as if he were performing a solemn surgical procedure, slitting his enemy’s throat and letting the blood drain completely.
Everything the team had suffered, Yu Yi was determined to make his enemies experience in turn.
In this scene, the production team focused on Yu Yi’s movements—his dodges were swift and agile. Amid the external chaos, he silently closed in on his target with equal precision. During his act of revenge, aside from the clean, decisive motion of driving the blade into his enemy’s thr*at, Yu Yi remained cold and merciless, silently witnessing the death of his foe.
Throughout most of his revenge, Yu Yi was indifferent. Only in that moment did his eyes brim with an intense, bloody resolve.
It was the gaze of a true avenger.
Yu Yi had changed.
The cold and brutal aura around him was no longer the same as before. Yet through his movements and expressions, observers could clearly feel the boundless hatred that consumed him.
After k*lling his first enemy, there was no excitement surrounding Yu Yi. His world felt utterly hollow.
Although the director captured the scene in its entirety—with the bloodthirsty imagery designed to make adrenaline surge—Yu Yi’s presence in this brutal tableau remained impossible to ignore.
At this moment, Tan Qi couldn’t help but grumble about how bland her words were. All she could manage to say about Lu Xu was “great performance” or “amazing work.”
But when she opened the trending topics, the screen was filled with endless praise for Xu Qingtian’s acting: terms like “heavenly talent,” “the man who saved Qiao Mengyao,” and “top-tier acting in costume dramas” dominated the list. While Lu Xu’s topics were present, they were buried far behind.
Even Grape Film, a powerhouse in marketing, hadn’t managed to outdo Ningshi Entertainment this time.
However, in Tan Qi’s opinion, it didn’t matter whether the trending topics recognized Lu Xu. What truly mattered was the audience’s recognition.
She couldn’t write dozens of words of praise for Lu Xu or use flowery language to describe his performance.
But… anyone with eyes could see it, right?
Tan Qi was sure of one thing: Xu Qingtian probably needed the popularity boost from The Empress.
“It’s fine. Our Path of Bones is still doing pretty well,” her friend comforted her. “The numbers are steady, always above 10,000.”
While The Empress seemed to have exceptionally high popularity, The Path of Bones wasn’t far behind.
Besides, Lu Xu was trending too.
When Tan Qi clicked into topics related to Lu Xu, she noticed that most of the discussions about The Path of Bones came from real people rather than copy-pasted comments.
“Still, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like The Empress’s trending topics skyrocketed all of a sudden—by several times,” her friend remarked.
On its premiere day, The Empress primarily featured child actors, and while its trending topics were numerous, they weren’t overwhelming. However, now that Qiao Mengyao and Xu Qingtian’s characters had debuted, the hot search list seemed to explode. There were even two terms marked as “viral,” making it feel as though some major scandal—infidelity, crime, or divorce—had rocked the entertainment industry.
“It’s probably not just your imagination…” Tan Qi agreed. “I think so too.”
But Tan Qi had a hunch that the current peaceful coexistence of The Empress and The Path of Bones wouldn’t last much longer.
Perhaps it was because of a rumor she’d seen a few days ago, suggesting that The Empress’s rescheduled premiere date was deliberate.
…
Both The Empress and The Path of Bones continued to progress steadily in terms of their storylines. The ratings for both shows dipped slightly—The Path of Bones was now at 9.3, and The Empress at 9.1. For dramas released in the past two years, these were still exceptional scores.
In addition, both shows saw minor declines in popularity score, but the fluctuations were insignificant.
Then, just as Tan Qi had predicted, one morning, The Path of Bones was criticized by an industry insider.
The industry insider had no particular complaints about Lei Ai’s adaptation of the source material. As for Lu Xu’s performance, while the insider didn’t offer praise, they also refrained from criticism. After all, Lu Xu had been a Stellar Awards nominee, and the insider had previously been involved with the awards—criticizing him would be akin to contradicting their past judgment.
Instead, the critique of The Path of Bones focused on the show itself, accusing it of being too violent and gory, supposedly at odds with contemporary values.
“Sure, viewers might feel the thrill of revenge after watching, but what does it teach them? Indiscriminate k*lling or bloody vengeance?”
“It’s nothing more than visceral c*rnage meant to shock.”
“Such scenes offer no value to society, no genuine joy—only endless emptiness.”
Lei Ai, the director, could only mutter, “…Nonsense.”
Within hours of the critique being posted, it had soared to the top of the trending list, even overshadowing Xu Qingtian’s trending topics.
The production team of The Path of Bones immediately recognized what was happening.
Grape Film reached out to the critic, requesting a retraction, but the response they received was dripping with self-righteousness. The critic claimed their statements stemmed from a sense of duty to express concerns about the future of television drama, asserting that even under pressure from the platform, they would stand by their “principles.”
The critic even issued a warning: Grape Film should stop trying to change their opinion.
[Ah, it’s rare to see someone in the industry speak the truth these days.]
[Tsk, tsk, tsk. Grape Film even tried to remove the trending topic? They’re really fighting tooth and nail to keep Path of Bones popular. Probably scared stiff after Watchers flopped.]
[Under normal circumstances, The Path of Bones has done pretty well, but it’s just unlucky to be up against The Empress. The outcome is obvious.]
[Please ensure that industry insiders who speak the truth have a proper platform for their voices. Thank you.]
With a growing number of supporters, the critic’s statements became increasingly extreme, throwing terms like “cruel,” “twisted,” and “soul-crushing” at the production team of The Path of Bones.
Lu Xu began to suspect he might have inadvertently starred in an R-rated cult film.
So, when trending topics such as “Lu Ding’s Two Questions for The Path of Bones” and “Lu Ding’s Three Questions for The Path of Bones” dominated the charts—
Lu Xu simply shared a link:
Lu Xu: [X Pleasure House] – Reposted
Shortly after, Lu Xu’s account was banned by the platform.
The official reason? Sharing explicit adult content.
The issue? X Pleasure House was an early work by none other than Lu Ding—the very critic now lambasting The Path of Bones.
This “masterpiece” was infamous for its depictions of graphic scenes involving explicit acts, debauchery, and pitch-black themes. Unfortunately for Lu Ding, it had failed to gain any traction back then, leaving him lamenting that audiences lacked the depth to appreciate his “great artistic vision.”
Since X Pleasure House, Lu Ding had seemingly “turned over a new leaf” and rebranded himself as a respectable industry figure. The film had been buried so thoroughly that younger professionals in the industry hadn’t even heard of it.
Lu Xu: “?”
Even Mu Qian, who had remained silent online since the drama of Rising Sun, couldn’t resist commenting:
[Shouldn’t the one getting banned be @Lu Ding? Why ban Lu Xu?]
Netizens: “…”
The scent of impending drama filled the air.
