Chapter 132: A New Schedule
Lu Xu attended the C-brand and G-brand fashion shows one after another, then participated in a banquet organized by the brand before finally flying back to the country.
Relatively speaking, Lu Xu did not collaborate with many brands. Although he had received several invitations to fashion shows, he still chose to attend those of the brands he endorsed.
After returning, Reverse City had yet to start filming, but Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry was about to premiere.
When Liu Chunfeng informed Lu Xu of this news, Lu Xu glanced at the calendar—the wrap-up for Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry had not been long ago, and the speed of the premiere far exceeded his expectations.
“It’s not that fast,” Liu Chunfeng said. “Negotiations with the platform took quite a long time.”
With Lu Xu as the lead and his second collaboration with Shao Yao, Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry was naturally not difficult to sell. However, Liu Chunfeng couldn’t help but complain to Lu Xu—despite Son of Heaven having once set a record-breaking trend, historical dramas still struggled to gain a solid market foothold.
“It’s because you’re the lead that the drama sells well.”
Any project starring Lu Xu naturally received exceptional treatment, but historical dramas in general continued to hover around the survival line.
Perhaps it was because the production quality of historical dramas had declined in recent years. Based on feedback from various platforms, older historical dramas still performed decently in terms of viewership, with audiences occasionally revisiting them.
Even Son of Heaven had good rebroadcast numbers on the Yunduo Films platform.
Liu Chunfeng was merely expressing his thoughts. Both he and Qin Yu felt deeply disappointed by the current state of historical dramas.
When filming Son of Heaven, he hadn’t been able to secure any A-list actors, but fortunately, the drama had revitalized the careers of longtime supporting actors like Cheng Yun and Guo Yining. If not for Lu Xu joining the cast, the lineup of Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry might have been significantly weaker.
After the drama’s release date was set, Lu Xu and Shao Yao began promoting it on their respective Weibo accounts.
At the exact moment Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry announced its premiere date, Zheng Xiao sent both of them a tap on WeChat.
[Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry is airing in early March?]
After receiving a confirmation, Zheng Xiao immediately sent an image: [What do we do? I’m starting to feel nervous.]
It turned out that the drama he starred in, Flames of War, was scheduled for the exact same time slot as Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry.
Zheng Xiao followed up with a meme of someone realizing, ‘This is more complicated than I thought’, to which Lu Xu responded with another meme: ‘One of us is a traitor.’
Zheng Xiao: […Hey, this isn’t my fault! It’s because you guys didn’t invite me to be in Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry!]
Lu Xu: [Didn’t we leave a eunuch role for you?]
Zheng Xiao: [Too handsome. I couldn’t pull it off.]
The three of them exchanged memes for a while, expanding their meme collections in the process. Then, Zheng Xiao remarked, [Honestly, we don’t need to worry. The real heavyweight in this time slot is Qiao Mengyao’s drama.]
Lu Xu: “…”
This time slot was turning out to be surprisingly competitive.
Of course, even though Qiao Mengyao’s Phantom Realm had a theme that appealed more to younger audiences, Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry was widely recognized within the industry as the only drama in this slot with a real chance of surpassing it.
After all—its lead actor was Lu Xu.
In some ways, Lu Xu’s achievements in television were no less impressive than Qiao Mengyao’s. Just by looking at the prestigious Stellar Award, he had already outperformed her.
Lu Xu’s only shortcoming was the number of projects he had done. But when it came to popularity, every single one of the three dramas he had starred in had been a massive hit.
Historical dramas might be a niche genre, but as long as they carried the “Lu Xu” label, they seemed to have a real shot at winning.
Since Phantom Realm and Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry were set to premiere at the same time—and their lead actors had a long history of competing—both sides remained notably restrained this time.
“Phantom Realm didn’t have too many external constraints,” Xu Wen explained. “Qiao Mengyao invested in it herself, so the cast isn’t overloaded with unnecessary additions. After the disaster that was The Empress, she’s more cautious now.”
The Empress was undeniably the worst flop of Qiao Mengyao’s career. But more than the flop itself, what made it infamous was the sheer number of behind-the-scenes conflicts it generated. Even now, long after its release, phrases like “rising star in waiting” and “hyped on credit” still ranked high in industry gossip, ensuring that The Empress remained a frequent topic in marketing accounts’ discussions.
Despite her good relationship with Wei Fangfei, Qiao Mengyao was far less high-profile than her.
After repaying a favor by starring in The Empress, Qiao Mengyao gradually distanced herself from Wei Fangfei.
She had a pretty good idea of what Wei Fangfei was up to. Having spent years in the industry, she was far from naive.
While Wei Fangfei hadn’t hit rock bottom yet, Qiao Mengyao knew that day wasn’t too far off.
Back then, The Empress had clashed with The Path of Bones, just as Phantom Realm was now inevitably being compared to Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry. Most of these comparisons, however, were manufactured by marketing accounts trying to generate engagement. Neither production team actively participated in the rivalry.
For one, both dramas had solid production quality. A cutthroat fight between them wouldn’t necessarily be beneficial. The Empress and The Path of Bones had both exceeded ten thousand in trending index at their peak. If The Empress hadn’t suffered a narrative collapse in the later episodes, the two dramas could have lifted the entire market together.
Secondly, Lu Xu was no longer the same as before. Even if Phantom Realm’s team wanted to stir up drama with him, they might not come out on top.
“Our Flames of War is pretty good too, you know. Why is nobody talking about us?” Zheng Xiao spammed a few “frustrated” emojis before sighing. “Whatever. I’ll just be zen about it.”
…
Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry was the first of the three dramas to release a trailer.
Fans had long known that Lu Xu would be playing Nie Yunzhang, a character who was far from unfamiliar. Nie Yunzhang had been portrayed in many film and television adaptations before.
But that didn’t dampen their excitement for Lu Xu’s version.
After filming two movies, Lu Xu was finally returning to television—this time in a historical drama. Nie Yunzhang had made his mark on history at a young age, achieving great military success, only to die tragically early, leaving behind a legacy of legendary tales.
The word regret alone could inspire countless stories.
Nie Yunzhang himself already had a devoted fan base.
The trailer for Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry used a reverse chronology format.
It opened with Nie Yunzhang’s final conversation with the emperor, his life nearing its end.
Lying on his sickbed, he no longer had the carefree arrogance of his youth. Yet, the sharpness in his gaze remained, making one wonder—if not for his illness, just how striking a young man he must have been?
But fate was cruel. He was destined to die.
The emperor begged him not to, but Nie Yunzhang already knew—his path had reached its conclusion.
There was regret, and there was longing. But he had said everything he needed to say to his ruler.
And in the end, his life had not been in vain—
The white bedding beneath him was soaked with the emperor’s tears. Nie Yunzhang hadn’t wept at first, but upon seeing his sovereign, his closest friend, and his childhood companion in such sorrow, he couldn’t help but shed a single tear.
The music swelled. The scene shifted, as though the grand curtain of a play was being drawn open.
The camera revealed a young face—youthful, yet radiating an undeniable heroism.
A white horse and a silver spear, moving like poetry—
A young warrior in bright robes, riding with the wind.
In the capital, he protected the crown prince, trained tirelessly, and shared camaraderie with his sworn friends.
On the battlefield, he fought ten men at once, never knowing fear.
“This empire, Your Majesty—however much you desire, I shall seize it for you!”
“Wherever my soldiers and I set foot, that land belongs to our empire!”
“If we retreat today, we lose ground tomorrow!”
“I will not stand for it!”
The frontier was harsh, and many warriors met their end wrapped in horsehide, but Nie Yunzhang remained unwavering in his vow until his final breath.
The trailer’s closing scene featured a crisp, melodic opera voice: “And so it was said, that Nie Yunzhang, at the tender age of twenty…”
Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry maintained the same weighty, grand atmosphere as Son of Heaven. Though the protagonist, Nie Yunzhang, was just a young man, the cinematography carried an undeniable sense of depth and gravitas.
Fortunately, the fates of Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry’s characters were not as tragic as those in Son of Heaven, where every step felt like an inevitable descent into destiny. Nie Yunzhang never lived to grow old, but at least he was spared from witnessing his trusted ministers succumb to greed, his loyal subordinates fall one by one, and his descendants turn on each other in a ruthless battle for the throne.
He died at the peak of his glory, buried with honor and remembrance.
—
[I just watched the trailer for Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry, and it immediately pulled me back to my Son of Heaven era. T_T]
[Lu Xu is so perfect as Nie Yunzhang—reckless, unrestrained, a warrior in bright robes riding with the wind!]
[Lively when he needs to be, heavy when the moment calls for it—this is the Nie Yunzhang I imagined! He’s not some love-drunk fool who abandoned the border for a beauty!]
[Honestly, Lu Xu was already insanely handsome in Son of Heaven, but now that he’s even more famous? That saying about fame making a person glow is real—he looks a hundred times more stunning!]
[+1 +1 +1.]
[That final death scene got me so bad. I usually avoid tragedies, but after watching this trailer—I have to witness Nie Yunzhang’s brilliant life, even knowing how it ends.]
—
The hashtags #Lives Beyond Death the Chivalry and #Nie Yunzhang were skyrocketing in real-time. Even the streaming platform, Yunduo Media, hadn’t anticipated this level of discussion for the trailer.
At least Son of Heaven only gained traction after it started airing.
Among the three dramas premiering in the same period, Phantom Realm was a xianxia drama about a heartbreaking, entangled love story between a mortal and an immortal. It tore at the heartstrings, making audiences sob in anguish yet also weep cathartic tears.
Lu Xu had no bias against different genres—he didn’t see historical dramas as inherently superior or xianxia as inherently inferior. Both had their fair share of masterpieces and disasters. What mattered most was whether the drama itself could truly move the audience.
Flames of War, on the other hand, was a wartime drama about ordinary people saving each other and themselves, based on a true story.
From the trailers alone, Lu Xu felt that all three dramas had strong appeal.
This time, Zheng Xiao had stepped out of his comfort zone, playing the son of a farmer. His family sheltered injured soldiers, and no matter how much the enemy threatened or tortured him, he never gave them up.
The core of Flames of War was a story of warmth and resilience—amidst the cruelty and chaos of war, ordinary people still held onto their longing for freedom and the end of suffering. Each fought in their own way, and though the road ahead remained shrouded in darkness, hope never left their hearts.
[It’s a 2v1. If I win, you two have to treat me to a meal.] Zheng Xiao declared. [Victory deserves a feast.]
[And if you lose?]
[You still have to treat me. Wouldn’t that be the decent thing to do, given how tragic my loss would be?] Zheng Xiao sent a question mark emoji. [In short, you both must buy me dinner.]
Lu Xu: […Go away.]
Shao Yao was even more direct: [No money.]
And so, this drama season began with an air of calm—at least on the surface.
But within the industry, it was clear that with three strong dramas competing head-to-head and leads who were far from unknown, this period was destined to be anything but quiet.
Would they create a new industry legend, or would it turn into a brutal, bloody battle?
No one could predict the outcome.