Chapter 59: The Ending
[By the way, am I the only one who realized that Lu Xu has another show surpassing 10,000 in popularity score?]
[!!!]
[Suddenly noticed that The Path of Bones has maintained a popularity score above 10,000 ever since it aired, but it feels like everyone just takes this for granted. Is it because The Empress has such a strong presence?]
[Or rather… people have just gotten used to it.]
[So, does this mean… The Empress failed to overshadow The Path of Bones?]
The rumors about The Empress deliberately advancing its release date to clash with The Path of Bones might have been just hearsay, but on the day both dramas premiered, half the entertainment industry shared Qiao Mengyao’s Weibo post. Among them were several celebrities who either didn’t get along with Lu Xu or had overlapping career trajectories with him.
The timing of their reposts was already highly suggestive.
Weibo accounts for celebrities often serve as their professional image, so why did those young actors feel the need to openly side with The Empress?
Still, rumors were just rumors—no one could provide concrete evidence.
However, as The Path of Bones continued to air and its popularity kept climbing, it became clear that whatever malice those people harbored against Lu Xu, their wishes were destined to go unfulfilled.
[Let’s borrow some of Lu Xu’s career luck!]
[By the way, has Lu Xu, since transitioning to acting, ever been in a show with a popularity score below 10,000?]
[Uh… that’s actually true.]
The popularity score of The Path of Bones surpassed 13,000, making it the best-performing drama for Grape Film in the past two years. Unlike The Watchers or Rising Sun, which started strong but fizzled out, The Path of Bones maintained steady momentum. While its buzz wasn’t as explosive as The Empress, its score had never dipped.
It was clearly a drama that balanced critical acclaim and widespread appeal.
Grape Film was pleased with the success, though they couldn’t help but feel it came up short in one aspect.
It was evident that The Path of Bones hadn’t been marketed aggressively enough. Even with minimal promotion, the show managed to hold its popularity based on quality alone. If they had launched a full-scale marketing campaign, wouldn’t its popularity have skyrocketed?
Of course, they were also wary of over-marketing, which had backfired with The Watchers. Having learned that lesson, Grape Film didn’t dare to overdo it this time.
Still, doing nothing wasn’t exactly in line with the platform’s usual style.
At the moment, there was a perfect marketing opportunity—
The entire entertainment industry must know: The Path of Bones is number one on the popularity charts!
If anyone remained unaware of this fact, it could only mean Grape Film hadn’t done enough to promote it.
By now, The Empress was beginning to lose its ability to suppress The Path of Bones.
In many cases, when a show flops, the production team resorts to excuses like “the show was overshadowed,” “the platform didn’t give it a chance,” or “our rivals bought smear campaigns against us.” However, a truly successful show cannot be suppressed.
Although The Path of Bones appeared on trending topics less frequently than The Empress, the rankings clearly showed the truth. Anyone paying attention could see that during this time slot, viewers were clearly more drawn to The Path of Bones.
What’s more, The Empress’s audience had long harbored a great deal of dissatisfaction.
When The Empress was at the top of the popularity rankings, its issues were obscured by its hype. But now that The Path of Bones had overtaken it, fans of the various actors in The Empress were busy pointing fingers, and the discontent among viewers finally erupted.
Not every viewer following a drama is a fan of the actors.
To be precise, fans make up only a small fraction of the drama’s audience.
Yet because of the vocal presence of fans, ordinary viewers with genuine opinions found it hard to speak out. All they wanted was to watch a straightforward, female-led drama.
The protagonist didn’t need to be loved by so many people, nor did she need to love so many people. It would have been enough for her to have a grand and heroic life of her own.
Their expectations were just that simple.
And yet, even such a simple expectation had become unattainable.
[Xi Rongyi isn’t quite how I imagined her.]
[I wanted to see the female lead govern the nation, bring peace and prosperity, and become a wise ruler. But with these men around her, I feel like her country is bound to collapse.]
[Collapse +1. A nation isn’t something you can obtain through childish efforts.]
[And… has Qiao Mengyao even realized what kind of drama she signed up for?]
No matter how fiercely the fans fought, the ultimate determinant of success or failure was still the content itself.
Fans of the show were genuinely disappointed.
From the moment Qiao Mengyao decided to take on The Empress, it became the most anticipated female-led drama in recent years. With the original novel as its foundation, audiences were eager to see a Xi Rongyi who was intelligent, wise, and bold enough to challenge imperial power as a woman.
Unfortunately, that Xi Rongyi never appeared.
The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
As the male characters were introduced one after another, fans of the show had hoped the plot would improve. After all, it was a historical romance drama, and it was unrealistic to expect no romantic storylines. A well-written romance could even enrich Xi Rongyi’s character. A balance of compelling plot and meaningful relationships would have made The Empress a success.
Regrettably, not only did Xi Rongyi’s character fail to become more well-rounded, but the male characters completely stole the spotlight.
Fans of the show had their limits. It was well-known in the industry that some actors demanded extra screen time, often blatantly. While adding scenes might be acceptable if done tastefully, it should never disrupt the original pacing of the story. Any additional content should bring interest to the narrative, not drag it down like a dull and stinky old woman’s bound feet—long-winded and unbearable.
How could audiences possibly enjoy such a mess?
…
The popularity of The Empress ultimately continued to decline. Although fan arguments boosted the drama’s “notoriety” beyond its actual popularity, they also completely ruined its reputation.
Even viewers who were initially interested in the content of the drama found themselves taking several steps back when faced with such chaos.
The viewing experience mattered just as much.
In contrast, the popularity of The Path of Bones kept rising.
Many viewers who had been following The Empress began switching over to The Path of Bones.
To some extent, the monopoly-like scenario that The Empress’s production team had hoped for was now happening with The Path of Bones.
With the drama’s soaring popularity and Lu Xu, a nominee for the Stellar Award, as its lead, Lu Xu received an invitation to appear on a trending variety show during the week leading up to The Path of Bones’ finale.
“You just need to play some games and follow the host’s lead,” Xu Wen said. “Getting on this show is a mark of being at the top.”
“None of those ‘exploded’ male leads from The Empress have been on it yet.”
Lu Xu frowned. “I don’t have any punchlines.”
Xu Wen: “…”
“Just don’t repost anything from X Pleasure House,” Xu Wen replied.
Lu Xu: “…The bar is so low.”
Xu Wen chose silence as his response.
The manager had never imagined a day when the phrase “I don’t have any punchlines” would come out of Lu Xu’s mouth.
Excuse me? This guy’s antics had already gotten him banned by a platform!
“All you need to do is show your whole face on camera and smile. That’s enough,” the manager advised. “Don’t waste your face.”
“Once this show wraps up, you can start considering new scripts,” Xu Wen added. “The number of scripts coming in recently is beyond your imagination.”
Lu Xu’s career development far exceeded Xu Wen’s expectations and even surpassed those of Feiyang Entertainment’s.
It was just so steady.
Since the airing of The Path of Bones, almost no negative reviews about Lu Xu’s portrayal of Yu Yi could be found online.
The scripts now being sent to Lu Xu were no longer as limited as before, spanning both period dramas and modern settings. Lu Xu had once mentioned to Xu Wen that for his next role, he wanted something less emotionally taxing. A romantic storyline would be fine, but even without one, he just wanted to play a character living a somewhat normal life.
Looking back at the roles he had played, the best outcome any of his characters had achieved was Yu Wei.
Xu Wen had previously thought this type of script would be hard to find, mainly because Lu Xu’s acting skills were outstanding—among the best of young actors. Naturally, directors preferred to cast him in more challenging roles.
In other words, if Lu Xu didn’t take the tough roles, who else could?
After the success of The Path of Bones, Lu Xu received more offers for lead roles. Typically, the protagonist of a drama was the most “normal” character in the story. After careful selection, Xu Wen managed to find a few scripts that suited him.
…
Extraordinary Night was a flagship variety show under Huayu Media, having aired for nearly 20 years.
Its broadcast time was every Friday at 8:30 PM, and each episode invited a group of celebrities to participate. The invited stars were at least trending or relevant at the time. Lesser-known actors rarely made it onto the show. If there wasn’t a breakout drama during a particular cycle, the production team would opt for more established stars.
Before Lu Xu’s guest appearance, Extraordinary Night began its pre-show promotion.
The show’s official social media account released teaser silhouettes of the upcoming guests. One of the figures bore a strong resemblance to Lu Xu, but fans didn’t dare to get their hopes up.
Since the disbandment of Verse, Lu Xu hadn’t participated in any variety shows on any platform.
Some of Lu Xu’s fans speculated, only to deny their own guesses:
[If they showed a silhouette of a puppy riding a bike, maybe I’d recognize it.]
[Even if it’s not Lu Xu this time, please invite him next time!]
[Lu Puppy is definitely getting on the show!]
[I want to see a show where they invite the entire Verse group, and Lu Puppy wins a 1v3!]
[Aren’t shows like that happening every day?]
Fans debated endlessly but still couldn’t determine the next guest’s identity from the silhouette. In the end, it was the Extraordinary Night production team that revealed the truth first.
It really was Lu Xu—his “Yu Yi” version.
The team directly posted a still from The Path of Bones!
[Next Friday is The Path of Bones finale. Lu Puppy, you’re really bold!]
[LOL, everyone knows that on the day Extraordinary Night airs, TV dramas lose a bit of their buzz. Only Lu Xu could keep pulling stunts like this.]
It wasn’t that Lu Xu had deliberately chosen that day to appear on the show. The finale date for The Path of Bones had been set long ago. Since Extraordinary Night was airing anyway, why not use the opportunity to promote The Path of Bones?
Once again, he saved Grape Film a bit of marketing money. When he saw the higher-ups next time, he might as well ask for a raise.
With Lu Xu confirmed to appear on Extraordinary Night, his fans found themselves torn: should they watch the variety show or the finale of The Path of Bones?
[Do both at the same time.]
[Tablet + TV, I’m ready.]
Of course, there were some jealous remarks suggesting that Lu Xu was trying to engineer a “double explosion” of popularity that night.
[Let’s hope Extraordinary Night doesn’t flop in ratings or drag down The Path of Bones’ popularity score.]
The result—
On Friday night, Extraordinary Night and The Path of Bones became the happiest existence in the entire entertainment industry.
Extraordinary Night broke its highest viewership record since last year, while the finale of The Path of Bones reached an astounding popularity score of 14,000+.
This was the achievement that The Empress had long sought but never attained.
In the finale, Yu Yi’s fate was sealed.
The cold executioner ultimately shed tears in the embrace of a young girl.
This warmth represented the life Yu Yi should have had but never did.
Viewers couldn’t hold back their tears either.
To align with the promotion of The Path of Bones, Extraordinary Night recreated this emotional scene with Lu Xu on the show.
One moment, the young man was laughing cheerfully; the next, his gaze shifted, his eyes reddened slightly, unable to bear the softness and warmth of the embrace.
It wasn’t the coldness of revenge but the pure, unguarded version of himself.
Yu Yi, after all, was still so young.
He could have had a warm and joyful life.
Though he fulfilled his revenge, he had become an empty shell.
That hug brought him back.
His shy smile showed he wasn’t used to being embraced, yet it was genuine and untainted.
It felt as if all the events in The Path of Bones were insignificant, and this moment of embrace was the only thing that truly mattered.
Whether standing at the dim prison gates or under the bright lights of the variety show, the moment viewers saw Lu Xu’s expression, they felt as if they were looking at Yu Yi himself.
Even this brief performance on the variety show prompted many viewers to start watching The Path of Bones.