With only a month left until the official voting day of the US presidential election.
Previous elections had the "October surprise."
This year, with such colorful characters, October hadn't even reached halfway, yet it was already full of explosive material, leaving people overwhelmed.
Before, Hillary, plagued by pneumonia, had been overtaken by Trump in several polls and lost her post-convention leads in key states.
Then, the race deadlocked again.
But after the first presidential debate, Hillary's polls rebounded, pulling ahead of Trump once more.
Clinton's moves were effective; after the "tape gate," US voters—especially female voters—saw Trump's approval plummet rapidly.
Trump never imagined that an eleven-year-old remark insulting women would, eleven years later, trigger a media and intraparty crusade, massively impacting his political path.
So the second debate was crucial; he had to find a way to shatter the public's impression of him as sexist or make up ground elsewhere.
Time came to October 10.
Tens of millions of politically attuned North Americans sat in front of their TVs, waiting for 9:00.
The 2016 US presidential election would usher in its second TV debate at that moment.
This debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, wasn't just watched by North Americans—it drew massive global attention.
According to US news site Quartz on October 8, unlike the first TV debate and the VP debate, the second would adopt a "town hall" format.
In this debate, not only did the moderators have questioning rights, but audience members did too, and Hillary and Trump wouldn't stand behind podiums but roam the stage freely, interacting with the live audience.
This would maximize the interaction between candidates and voters.
The second debate would still last 90 minutes. According to the organizers, the two candidates would each have 2 minutes to answer each question from moderators and audience.
Per the debate rules, candidates wouldn't question each other, but from the first debate, their verbal sparring seemed unbound by rules.
According to US news station VOX on October 8, the 40 live audience members were selected by Gallup, the pollster, from voters who hadn't decided their candidate leanings.
Commission on Presidential Debates member Janet Brown said in a media interview that the moderators' questions would cover all major topics to the greatest extent, and at least 8 of the 40 audience members would get to ask questions.
US news site VOX analyzed on October 8 that compared to her opponent, Hillary had participated in more similar formats before, but Trump's team believed he'd have the edge in such a setup.
To better prepare, Trump held a special "town hall" meeting on Thursday as prep.
When Martin saw this news, he smiled.
In the first TV debate, Trump's arrogance led to no mock debates, resulting in him being suppressed by Hillary.
Looks like he learned his lesson this time.
According to pre-debate organizer info, the second debate would be co-moderated by ABC's Martha Raddatz and CNN's Anderson Cooper.
The two moderators would directly control the main questioning power in this debate.
Their questions would be selected from over a million submitted on the debate's official site.
Half an hour before the TV debate began, "WikiLeaks" released 2,060 emails allegedly from Hillary's campaign team, including what was said to be Hillary's unpublished Wall Street speeches.
Hillary's team's counterattack was swift; just 5 minutes after the emails surfaced, another 2017 video of Trump insulting women in an interview surfaced.
This newly leaked video was Trump in 2017 participating in US celebrity Howard Stern's show.
The remarks were even more vulgar than before, even joking about his own daughter's figure...
The masses said they were very satisfied with this election—living well, with tons of dramas—various heavyweight scandals overwhelming them.
That evening, Martin sat on the sofa in his Beverly Hills manor, surrounded by beauties like stars around the moon, waiting for the debate show to start.
At that moment, a call came in.
It was Jiang Wen. [TL/N: His ching chong friend.]
Since Gone in 60 Seconds flopped, the guy had been somewhat reclusive, rarely contacting the outside world, and less with Martin.
Martin was curious what prompted this sudden call.
"Hello, Jiang Wen, what's up?"
"Huh?"
"Zhang Yimou? What does he want with me?"
"Wants Matt Damon for his project?"
"What project?"
The Great Wall?
"Alright, alright, I'll mention it to him, but specifics like pay—let them negotiate; I won't interfere."
"Relax, definitely plenty; the investors aren't short on cash." Jiang Wen patted his chest on the other end.
After hanging up, Martin searched his memories.
In his other memories he had seen The Great Wall—could only say the visuals were decent, Zhang Yimou's cinematographic aesthetic always on point; the story, though...
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[GodOfReader: Deleted the last few paragraphs here since it's reeks chingchongnalism.]