At 2:00 PM, the official Weibo for 《The Grand Game》 released the first teaser right on time.
At 2:05 PM, Jiang Yue's Weibo was updated.
The copy was brief.
【The wind rises in the Southern Realm, and Chu Yan enters the game. See you this summer.】
Attached below was precisely the one-minute behind-the-scenes video edited by Chen Fei.
Within ten minutes of the Weibo post going live, some netizens followed the official account's mention to find his homepage.
The comment section count began to jump up.
【The missing person has finally returned! I thought you left the industry to go back to writing code!】
【Holy crap, who edited this video? Give them a raise! It's ten thousand times better than those dry posters!】
【Wait a second, is that sword twirl at normal speed? It wasn't sped up?】
【He snapped out of character way too fast. One second he looks like he's going to murder someone, and the next second he's thanking the staff for their hard work.】
An hour later.
On Doubanban, the country's largest entertainment gossip forum, a post was bumped to the trending section of the homepage.
The title read:
《【Rational Discussion】 Jiang Yue, who came out of nowhere to play Chu Yan in 〈The Grand Game〉—what is this guy's deal?》
Original Post:
【Ten-year novel fan here. When they first announced Jiang Yue as Chu Yan, I really thought he was just another wooden beauty forced in by corporate backing, but today's teaser and his behind-the-scenes action video have completely made me eat my words. Who on earth is this guy?】
The replies below quickly built up a tall thread.
Floor 2: 【Agree with OP. Just crawled back from his Weibo, and that action sequence was incredibly crisp with no slow-motion shortcuts. That kind of physical skill is rare among today's young idols.】
Floor 10: 【Wait, isn't this Shen Xu from 《Manhunt》? No wonder he looks so familiar.】
Floor 54: 【Just pure curiosity, how did he land the role of Chu Yan? Countless people would break their heads to get into Xu Pingqiu's productions, yet a newcomer gets cast straight as the fourth male lead. I find it hard to believe he has absolutely no background.】
Floor 105 (Anonymous): 【Just a crew worker here, staying anonymous. The role of Chu Yan indeed went through auditions, and his performance on set was amazing. I can't say much else, except that Director Xu made the final call incredibly fast.】
Floor 106: 【Bro from the crew upstairs, don't leave! Spill some more tea! Can he actually fight? Or was it just clever editing?】
Floor 107 (Anonymous): 【I'm not from 《The Grand Game》 crew, but I know a stuntman from 《Sharp Blade》. He told me that Jiang Yue went there to save the day as a last-minute replacement, and when he was running through choreography with the action director, he almost swept him off his feet. Word is he actually used Baji Quan, so it definitely wasn't just for show.】
Floor 160: 【Holy crap?! Seriously? Baji Quan? The deeper we dig, the more ridiculous this gets... Are there really newcomers with this kind of background in the domestic entertainment industry nowadays?】
Floor 189: 【Donghai University School of Computer Science passing by. You guys are discussing whether he can fight, but I just want to say, this guy's brain is terrifying. He spoke fluent French during his graduation defense, correcting translation errors in his thesis on the spot and completely flooding our department group chat back then.】
Floor 201: 【Wait, Donghai University? French? I remember now! In the anti-fraud short film by the Donghai Police, wasn't he the guy wearing pink cat ears who got pinned down while coding?】
Floor 311: 【It's him, it's him, it's definitely him! Oh my god... I'm starting to want to stan him.】
Floor 412: 【Brothers and sisters, let me summarize: Academic God of computer science from Donghai University, anti-fraud publicity ambassador for the police, the crazy villain Shen Xu in 《Manhunt》, the hidden master in 《Sharp Blade》 who defeated his opponent in one move, and the chosen Chu Yan in 《The Grand Game》 who excels in both pen and sword. Someone pinch me, does this kind of resume actually exist?】
Floor 413: 【I think I understand why Xu Pingqiu chose him now. Setting aside premature praise for his acting skills, at the very least, his ability to play Chu Yan is clearly visible in the teaser.】
Floor 429: 【Just a quiet question: is the man wearing dark armor at the end of the teaser, shown only from behind, him?!】
Floor 520 (Anonymous): 【Yes.】
A concise reply brought an end to all speculation and pushed anticipation to its absolute peak.
The heat continued to ferment.
#Jiang Yue Chu Yan Action Scene#
#Jiang Yue The Grand Game Fourth Male Lead#
These two hashtags firmly hung at the lower ranks of Weibo's trending topics, and their popularity was climbing rapidly.
Inside Yuchuan Media Studio.
Chen Fei stared at the Weibo data, his eyes shining like two small lamps.
“Boss, the publicity for 《The Grand Game》 has really taken off this time. Under the hashtags related to Chu Yan, there's far more praise than criticism.”
Su Qing, with spreadsheets and a calculator spread out in front of her, also looked up.
“The business email received eight more inquiries today. Although I haven't finished filtering through them, they're all opportunities that can turn into actual contract money.”
Jiang Yue looked at the rising curve on the screen, not rushing to celebrate.
Rapidly rising popularity was a good thing, but fame was a double-edged sword that could easily backfire.
He turned to look at Chen Fei.
“Keep an eye on all the platforms. If there's any coordinated smearing or malicious editing, take screenshots first and save a copy of the backend data.”
Chen Fei switched back to his monitoring screen, his fingers tapping on the keyboard as he quickly entered work mode.
Jiang Yue turned back to Su Qing.
“No need to rush on business collaborations. We won't touch anything with unclear qualifications or short-term fan-milking schemes.”
Su Qing nodded and dragged several invitations from sketchy, unverified online merchants into the blacklist. She only kept a few physical brands with traceable reputations, preparing to conduct further background checks on them.
The office fell quiet.
The hum of computer fans, the clatter of keyboards, and the clicks of mice blended together.
Yuchuan was still just a ragtag crew. Their setup wasn't luxurious, and they didn't have many people.
But everyone was running forward.
In the afternoon, at the second-floor coffee corner.
Su Qing walked in holding three bound folders and placed them on the coffee table in front of Jiang Yue.
“Boss, the initial screening is done.”
“Out of the eight expressions of interest, I cut three online merchants and two small brands with incomplete qualifications.”
“The remaining three are all common physical brands on the market.”
She pushed the folders forward one by one.
“One is Daily Fresh Yogurt, one is Fireline Self-Heating Hotpot, and the other is a nut gift box.”
“The offers are all in the seven-figure range, bundled as Weibo promotion plus one offline promotional event appearance.”
Jiang Yue flipped open a few pages; the materials were prepared in great detail.
Brand background checks, legal risk assessments, competitor analysis—even the public information of the other party's contact person was listed.
It was clear that Su Qing had indeed put in a lot of effort.
He closed the folders and tapped his knuckles twice on the table.
“Good job.”
Su Qing's shoulders relaxed slightly, and her eyes brightened.
“So which one should we accept? The yogurt brand has the highest offer, and its target audience is very broad.”
“None of them.”
Jiang Yue pushed the folders back.
Su Qing was stunned. “Huh? Why? There's nothing wrong with these products.”
Jiang Kaiwen and Chen Fei also stopped what they were doing and looked over in unison.
Seven figures.
To the newly opened Yuchuan, this wasn't just a number; it was solid, cold hard cash flow.
Jiang Yue leaned back in his chair, looking in the direction of the three of them.
“I admit, I'm still learning the rules of the entertainment industry.”
This opening line caught them off guard.
Jiang Yue pointed at the three documents on the coffee table.
“But there's a principle that applies to every single industry.”
“Scarcity creates value.”
The others looked at each other and pricked up their ears.
“The audience has only just gotten to know me through the characters of Shen Xu and Chu Yan. Their curiosity about me comes from the sense of mystery and distance that these characters bring.”
“If I immediately turn around to endorse yogurt or sell self-heating hotpot, that illusion will wear thin.”
Jiang Yue's gaze fell back onto Su Qing.
“Next time I play another role, when the audience sees my face, their first reaction won't be the performance.”
“They'll think, ‘Oh, that's the guy who sells nuts.’
“By then, do you think they'll still be able to immerse themselves in the story?”
Rate on N.U.
