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After filming, Cai Jinbai looked through the photos on his phone as he walked back to sit beside Xuan Yu. "How could that be? Can't you tell whether I was sincere or not?"

Xuan Yu thought about it. Mm, every word had been true.

He set down the paper blessing character and leaned over to look at the photos with Jinbai.

There was a pile of finished paper-cut window decorations on the table, probably more than a dozen in total.

They had taken normal photos in human form earlier. For some reason, Jinbai had become interested in this and had even asked him to reveal his dragon horns and tail for a few shots.

In the photos, Xuan Yu lounged against one side of the sofa in a domineering yet casual pose, his dragon tail winding around him and his horns stretching out in rugged curves. But the funny part was that Cai Jinbai had hung quite a few New Year decorations from his horns. The tiny, adorable ornaments made even the imposing, fearsome dragon seem a little warmer.

Seeing those photos, Cai Jinbai saved them to his private album with one tap, then uploaded the ordinary ones to Weibo.

Ever since getting a Weibo account, aside from occasionally posting company-related content, this was the first time he had posted relatively personal photos.

As soon as he posted them, the Weibo comments section instantly exploded.

[Holy shit, holy shit, what am I seeing during the New Year? A handsome guy! Photos of a handsome guy taken by another handsome guy!]

[Vice President Xuan is so handsome! Is his smile really this gentle?]

[Haha, that depends on who took the photos. It was President Cai, right?]

[President Cai, President Cai, where are your photos?!]

[Although Vice President Xuan is really handsome, I still want President Cai's New Year photos! Please grant me this New Year wish!]

[The comments are nothing but cries of amazement. Same here, wow wow wow!]

[They're spending the New Year together.]

[Such a good ship, such an amazing ship! Are you two together?!]

[The person above, you really know how to ask dangerous questions.]

Looking at the later comments, Cai Jinbai couldn't help raising his brows. He and Xuan were together?

They had always been together, but that person apparently hadn't meant it that way. Such a good ship... Did that mean shipping a couple?

Cai Jinbai absentmindedly pondered it. It seemed people online liked pairing two men together, then getting extremely excited about it.

Although there had been cases in his former world of men forming bonds with one another, Cai Jinbai had never entertained thoughts of romance. His heart had been set on wealth, and attaining the true path as soon as possible had been the serious matter. But now...

For some reason, Cai Jinbai felt like exploring the subject. He would search up related content when he had time.

Putting the matter aside, Cai Jinbai posted another photo in the comments.

Xuan Yu had caught this one candidly. Cai Jinbai was lowering his head at the table, cutting paper window decorations, while the table was already piled high with them.

[Wow, President Cai actually cuts blessing characters and window decorations himself?]

[So the one Vice President Xuan was holding was cut by President Cai. Wow, even more shippable.]

[You two are such a perfect match, hehe. You even spend the New Year together.]

[I want the blessing characters President Cai cut, hehe. Starry-eyed jpg.]

[I want President Cai's blessing characters too. Can I ask for one?]

Cai Jinbai smiled and replied that he could, and that he would give away blessing characters and window decorations through a lottery.

He did not need to handle that personally. Yuan Guangjin and Jinbao could carry it out.

So after replying, Cai Jinbai set down his phone, intending to tidy up the things on the table first.

Xuan Yu pressed down with one large hand. "You're giving them all away?"

Cai Jinbai said, "I'll leave two for you."

"Two isn't enough."

"Then three?"

"Hmph."

Cai Jinbai smacked Xuan Yu's hand. "So stingy. Whatever you want, I can cut it for you anytime. Xuan, haven't I always been by your side?"

If you wanted them, wasn't that convenient enough?

Only then did Xuan Yu release his hand in satisfaction.

When had he ever wanted those things? He merely wanted to hear those words.

Behind them, Auntie Cai could not help exchanging a look with Butler Ding. The two shook their heads together. Sigh, they saw conversations like that several times a day.

Amid such a lively atmosphere, the two highly anticipated idol dramas finally premiered.

On the first day of release, the click count for the idol drama produced by Star Universe Entertainment far surpassed Jinbai Entertainment's "Glory."

Gao Su was beaming at home. He even opened a bottle of wine to celebrate that night. "Hmph. Young people really lack experience. They're just fooling around. Did they really think idol dramas were so easy to make?"

But by the second day, "Glory" had overtaken Starlight's drama in ratings and clicks by a huge margin.

Before the third day even arrived, "Glory" suddenly surged past the idol drama produced by Starlight that same night.

Gao Su's expression instantly darkened again. He cursed at his subordinates, demanding to know what they were good for. Why were they not marketing it already, getting the fans to support it, and dragging "Glory" down?

Unfortunately, Cai Jinbai's side had not been unprepared either.

You knew how to market. Did I not?

Drag it down? Haha, after looking at the quality of Starlight's idol drama, who exactly was dragging whom down?

["Your Sweetness" is good! Everyone, go watch it! Support our brother! A cold, cool, domineering CEO!]

["Your Sweetness" really is so sweet. It's good, really good.]

[It gave me exactly the feeling I wanted. I recommend "Your Sweetness." As for "Glory," what even is that thing? I can't understand it.]

These were comments from paid posters hired to speak for Starlight and attack Jinbai Entertainment.

But netizens had sharp eyes. After being tortured by so many cheaply made idol dramas, they could tell as soon as a show premiered which dramas were good and which were terrible. So when some netizens who had been eagerly anticipating Starlight's idol drama opened

the first episode, they were instantly—

[My face is full of question marks. What the hell is this? No, why is an idol drama using cutout backgrounds? The novel had a romantic, beautiful foreign country. What is this place, some rural garden?]

[...The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment. The casting was already bad and didn't match the novel's male and female leads, but the acting is this awful too.]

[Holy shit, female lead, stop smiling already. You look like an idiot.]

[Forget the female lead, look at your domineering CEO male lead. What the hell did he turn into? When he isn't flirting with the female lead, he talks like a wooden block and his pronunciation isn't even clear. If there weren't subtitles, I couldn't understand what he was saying. Whenever he's with the female lead, wow, the stiffness is gone, but he becomes so greasy and disgusting. Is this really the charming CEO from the novel? Sorry, I didn't see the restrained, profound, cold feeling he was supposed to have, the sense that only the female lead was special to him. All I saw was a greasy man and a female lead who looked like a sweet innocent fool but was actually written as an idiot having a low-IQ romance.]

[What era are we in? Do they really think we still like those sweet, innocent fool female leads?]

[Wait, it's another story where several men like one woman? As I recall, the second male lead in the original novel didn't like the female lead at all. Their relationship was pure friendship. Did they shove the second male lead's romantic storyline onto the female lead? The second male lead in the original novel didn't even have a romantic storyline!]

[Trash plot. I'm going to see what "Glory" is like.]

The idol drama "Your Sweetness," produced by Star Universe Entertainment, was met with fierce ridicule from netizens as soon as it aired. Not even hiring paid posters or urging fans to save it could salvage it. After watching

the first episode, most netizens went to watch "Glory" to compare the two.

If "Glory" was no good either,

they declared that both shows deserved to be eliminated.

However, the first wave of netizens who watched "Glory" even came back to recommend it of their own accord.

[Everyone!! Go watch "Glory"!!!]

"Glory"

What was "Glory" about? As an idol drama, it naturally had romance, but it was not only about romance.

First of all, the director of "Glory" had been specially invited by Cai Jinbai. She was He Rong, a female director known for her delicate, gentle style and especially skilled at filming beautiful emotional storylines.

Unfortunately, the industry stuck together in cliques, and sometimes men were even more petty and narrow-minded than women.

Back then, an idol drama directed by He Rong premiered at the same time as one directed by another male director. At the time, He Rong was still a little-known minor director, while that male director was already fairly famous in the industry. Moreover, he had connections and backing, so he had been certain his drama would become a hit.

Yet the result was that the small-budget idol drama directed by He Rong utterly crushed his idol drama. His show was slammed from every direction, its ratings were dismal and kept falling, and the two dramas were constantly compared, making the criticism all the more piercing and unpleasant.

That made the male director resent He Rong. From then on, he openly manipulated things within the industry, snatching He Rong's scripts away from her. Even scripts that were nearly in her hands were often taken by him instead.

He Rong's family background could not rival his, and she had entered the industry later. She had spent these years swallowing her frustrations.

Therefore, when Cai Jinbai extended an olive branch, He Rong accepted without hesitation.

What a coincidence. The male director Star Universe Entertainment had hired to film "Your Sweetness" this time was the very man who had been suppressing He Rong all along.

At first, that male director had no idea He Rong was directing Jinbai Entertainment's "Glory." After preparations for "Glory" began, whether it was training the actors before joining the production or the filming preparations themselves, most of the work had taken place abroad. When that male director saw how pitifully "small" the cast on the other side was, he did not take it seriously at all.

Furthermore, because Gao Su attached great importance to this idol drama project, the funding he allocated was abundant. The male director had been brimming with confidence, thinking his side would definitely win no matter how he filmed it. Then the two dramas premiered at the same time, and when he looked, he discovered that the director of "Glory" was actually He Rong.

With old grudges and new piled together, the male director hated He Rong even more and began considering how to drive her out of the directing industry.