"Huh? Did I say that? What 'Zero' storyline?" Jing Yu kept his expression calm, but his heart sank with a jolt.
He'd slipped.
"'Zero'... Just from the name, it sounds like something distinct from the main 'Steins;Gate' storyline, doesn't it?" Cheng Lie's eyes gleamed with curiosity. His large frame carried a subtle sense of pressure.
"I'm just really curious."
He stared wide-eyed like Chitanda Eru from that old anime.
Except… the art style was way too weird.
Jing Yu actually got goosebumps.
"So, are you saying you already have a sequel in mind for 'Steins;Gate', Teacher Jing Yu?"
"Ahaha—Producer Cheng, you're overthinking it."
Jing Yu waved it off, trying to smooth things over.
This summer season had nearly killed him. He'd gone into it fueled by a grudge from last season, when 'Hikaru no Go' was ruthlessly sniped by the Big Three. He wanted to return the favor using their own tactics.
But now, two months in, his anger had mostly subsided—what remained was just fatigue.
Two whole months of nonstop work, with every day scheduled to the brim. Who could understand the pain of being woken up at 5:30 AM every morning by his assistant, Zhong Xiang, for filming?
Since coming to Yunteng TV, he'd done two seasons of 'Hikaru no Go', Steins;Gate, and 'Another'—even a farm mule wouldn't have worked this hard. And yet Cheng Lie still thought he wasn't doing enough, even asking earlier if he wanted to squeeze in a few short dramas this quarter.
Jing Yu wasn't about to die on set. You need to stay alive to enjoy the money, after all.
Now, 'Steins;Gate 0' truly did have strong potential for adaptation—many fans even considered it equal to or better than the original.
But even if there were a chance to shoot a sequel, he needed a breather. Otherwise, he could already predict what would happen: for the next two weeks, Cheng Lie would subtly keep dropping hints for him to get the Zero script ready, and then capitalize on the momentum in the fall season, blah blah blah…
Which meant another few months trapped in production, no time to even touch a game.
"Got it," Cheng Lie said, eyes narrowing as he watched Jing Yu, then broke into a knowing smile.
"Really, I get it. It's been tough, Teacher Jing Yu. Everyone needs rest. I'm just glad to know that you have such a plan in mind."
He looked like someone saying, "Say no more, I understand everything."
"Oh, and I'm a gamer too, by the way," he added with a grin. "Next time you're buying a new game, invite me along, yeah?"
Jing Yu gave him a long, silent look.
Forget it. The more he explained, the more excited Cheng Lie got.
This guy might look like a brute, but he was sharp—really sharp. He understood everything, just didn't show it.
In the following week, the final episode of 'Another', Episode 7 of 'Steins;Gate', and Episode 6 of 'Hikaru no Go' Season 2 all aired.
The last episode of 'Another' was a complete free-for-all. Class 3-3 finally discovered how to break the curse: eliminate the "person who doesn't exist" in their class.
But—who was the one who "didn't exist"?
That's where the guessing game began. Distrust and paranoia consumed the students, leading to a horrific massacre of "you kill me, I kill you" chaos.
Yes, the visuals were very bloody and disturbing. During filming, they ran out of fake blood multiple times.
The ending followed classic misdirection used in suspense thrillers. The show led the audience to believe the "nonexistent person" was one of the students…
But no one guessed—it was actually the homeroom teacher who shouldn't have existed.
The show ended with the protagonists, Misaki Mei and Koichi, teaming up to kill the female teacher.
A lot of viewers came away feeling a faint sense of incompletion. Like, there was still room for the story to continue—but nope, that was the finale.
'Another' ended with an average rating of 4.30% for Episode 6. Meanwhile, 'Manual' was still crawling upward in ratings, reaching 6.19%.
In 'Steins;Gate' Episode 9, the oppressive tone finally eased a little. After learning that part-time warrior Suzuha couldn't bring back the old computer from the past—a result of the worldline convergence—Okabe realized he had to think differently.
He had once obtained the computer, after all. It was only after all the lab members sent D-mails that the worldline shifted and the computer disappeared.
So now, he had to find a way to negate the effects of those D-mails and return to the worldline where the computer was still within reach.
Which also meant:
Ruka, who had finally found happiness as a girl, would have to return to the world where she was male.
Faris would go from a world where her father was alive... back to the world where he'd died.
Episode 9 ended with a rating of 4.96%, continuing its fast upward climb.
Meanwhile, despite Huanshi TV ramping up promotion for 'You, Under the Cliff', its ratings remained flat at 6.85%.
This essentially locked 'Steins;Gate' and 'You, Under the Cliff' in a weird deadlock—neither could break free, dragging each other down in the rankings.
But because of that, 'Hikaru no Go' Season 2's Episode 6 jumped to 6.79%, and the Big Three panicked.
Even though 'Hikaru no Go' was still in second place for the summer season, it was now less than 0.1% behind 'You, Under the Cliff'.
Summer was already halfway over, and at this point, the top five shows were clear:
'Hikaru no Go', 'You, Under the Cliff', 'Manual', 'Black Cat', and 'Steins;Gate'.
But which of them would end up as the season's ratings king? That was anyone's guess.
[Entertainment Headlines of the Week]
📰 "With the finale of 'Another', Imperial Capital TV's flagship drama 'Manual' finally gets a chance to shine. But whether it can rebound in the second half of the summer depends on how many viewers it can poach from 'Another'."
📰 "Among the Big Three's summer blockbusters, the only one with no serious competitor is Black Cat. Its growth continues to accelerate in Week 6, threatening to overtake 'Hikaru no Go' for second place."
📰 "'You, Under the Cliff' may be feeling pressure from 'Steins;Gate', but it's held the #1 spot since Week 1. Even with 'Hikaru no Go' coming in hot, I still believe 'Hikaru no Go' won't surpass 'You, Under the Cliff'."
📰 "The summer's biggest disrupter, 'Steins;Gate', may only be in fifth place in ratings, but it's ranked first in viewer ratings. Many believe that if it weren't airing head-to-head against 'You, Under the Cliff', it might already be at 6%."
With all the media coverage and online discussion, Jing Yu—whose name was attached to two of the season's top five shows—was becoming a household name among Great Zhou drama fans.
At his old network, JinHui TV, DVD sales for 'White Album 2', 'My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday', and 'Your Lie in April' were surging again, even a year after release. In just one month, each of those shows had sold another million copies.
JinHui TV and Chu You were both stunned.
They'd never seen anything like it.
Jing Yu, Xia Yining, and Yu Youqing were stunned too. Even though they had left, they still held varying shares in the copyrights of their past works.
Waking up and realizing they'd just passively earned another million or more overnight... this must be what success felt like.
Jing Yu's fanbase was also exploding in size.
Ratings may vary depending on platform—but audience scores do not. And when viewers looked back on his body of work, they realized:
The lowest-rated show he'd ever made… was the just-finished, nearly 4.9%-rated 'Another' — with an audience score of 8.9.
Every other show—'White Album 2', 'My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday', 'Hikaru no Go', 'Steins;Gate', 'Your Lie in April'—had audience scores above 9.0.
That was insane.
On Yindou Net, the country's most respected review site, a show with over 100,000 ratings and a score above 8.5 was considered a masterpiece.
Now there was a screenwriter whose only "low-score" show was 8.9—everything else was above 9.0.
And his shows were airing on a second-tier network like Yunteng TV, yet still coming this close to topping the quarterly charts.
What kind of monster was this guy?