A few days after Yuchuan Studio signed the contract for 《The Pivot Bone》, just as Su Qing finished archiving the supplementary agreement, the drama market, which had been quiet in the run-up to the National Day holiday slot, was suddenly disrupted by a release date announcement.
The competition for the National Day holiday slot had always been brutal. Top productions from various companies would start rallying their forces and building up hype months in advance.
Yet 《The Hidden Sentry》, a Republican-era spy drama directed by Xu Pingqiu that had received almost zero promotion prior to this, dropped out of nowhere with an almost overbearing presence.
This was precisely the source of Jiang Yue's calm confidence when facing Alexander, Lamerd's global vice president.
As early as half a month ago, Xu Pingqiu had told him over the phone, “The editing is finished. The platform watched the preview and, without a second thought, immediately set it for the National Day holiday slot. Kid, get ready to make your move.”
September 20th, exactly 10:00 AM.
Right on the second, the official Weibo account for 《The Hidden Sentry》 dropped its first wave of major promotional materials across the entire internet.
The official poster, a sixty-second story trailer, and the broadcast schedule—the classic trio was released simultaneously without any delay.
The poster had the rich texture of an oil painting, with the sharp contrast of light and shadow seemingly foreshadowing the fracturing of human nature.
Best Actor Chen Jiaming, playing Lu Cheng, Chief of the Secret Service, sat squarely on a leather sofa in the center. His face was as calm as still water, his eyes reflecting the cold majesty of someone steeped in power for years.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yue's character, Zhou Jinnan, wore a crisp, dark gray three-piece suit. Half of his body was hidden in the play of light and shadow filtering through shutter-like blinds, while he casually toyed with a brass lighter in his hand.
The flame flickered, reflecting a casual indifference in his eyes that nonetheless concealed a chilling sharpness and calculation.
A line of highly tense copy ran across the poster: 【Ask not of right or wrong, ask only of your heart.】
Jiang Yue immediately switched to his main account and reposted it with a concise message: 【Zhou Jinnan, see you on October 1st. @TheHiddenSentryOfficial】
At almost the exact same time, the main cast members, including Chen Jiaming and Han Song, reposted the announcement in unison. The platform's partner accounts and the media resources coordinated by the production team followed suit, forming a massive promotional matrix.
As the exclusive broadcasting platform, Penguin Video pulled out all the stops, giving the drama top-tier S+-Tier treatment.
Splash screen recommendations on the homepage, app launch pop-ups, and rotating banner ads—every single traffic gateway that could reach users was fully activated.
The reservation numbers in the backend soared, rapidly climbing from hundreds of thousands to over a million. Screenshots of the growing numbers flooded the promotional group chat, one after another without pause.
On the trending topics list, tags like #TheHiddenSentryNationalDayRelease, #JiangYueChenJiamingDuel, and #RuthlessCastSpyDrama instantly shot to the top, accompanied by a bright red “Trending” label.
This was only the beginning. Over the next few days, the marketing team's output could only be described as a saturation campaign.
A thirty-second story teaser and a fifteen-second vertical clip for Douyin cross-cut between Zhou Jinnan's ruthless moments—snatching a gun barehanded and conducting a deal on a rainy night—and Lu Cheng's strategic masterclasses, where a single glance silenced his subordinates. The tension was palpable.
Solo character features, 《Zhou Jinnan: Hunting in the Shadows》 and 《Lu Cheng: Chessmaster of Power》, were released in succession, offering deep dives into the characters' psyches.
In interviews, Xu Pingqiu spared no praise, calling Jiang Yue “a natural-born actor” and describing his dynamic with Chen Jiaming as “a true clash of equals.”
The soundtrack was announced in batches. The music video for the theme song, performed by a gold-medal vocalist, dominated major music charts as soon as it went live.
On short video platforms, clips of Zhou Jinnan snatching someone while eating a mandarin orange and cracking open a safe with his bare hands, set to rhythmic background music, easily surpassed ten million views.
On Xiaohongshu, the vibe shifted. Posts like "Zhou Jinnan's Republican-Era Trench Coat Styling Guide" and "Big Boss Lu Cheng's Aesthetics of Power" attracted a massive following of female netizens of all ages.
“Jiang Yue's Republican-era look is god-tier! Teacher Chen Jiaming's presence is absolutely suffocating! I could watch a hundred episodes of this duel!”
“Who gets it? This tension of being frenemies, testing each other while secretly respecting one another—it's so thrilling!”
“I seriously suspect Jiang Yue spent his four years of college training in Juntong! His acting isn't overshadowed by the Best Actor at all. His aura is so strong!”
September 26th, a crisp and clear autumn day.
Donghai City, the headquarters of Penguin Video.
Today was an important part of the promotion for 《The Hidden Sentry》: the office sweep.
The so-called “office sweep” was currently the most down-to-earth and effective way to generate buzz among the general public.
The main cast and crew would visit the broadcasting platform's office building, interacting closely with the “benefactor” employees floor by floor, livestreaming, taking photos, and distributing merchandise.
Its biggest advantage was the ability to quickly attract massive amounts of public traffic and produce a wealth of internet-friendly short video materials for secondary sharing.
As the pair with the strongest “rivalry” selling point in 《The Hidden Sentry》's marketing campaign, Jiang Yue and Chen Jiaming were naturally scheduled to do the office sweep together.
The car arranged by the platform stopped in front of the building, where livestream cameras had already been set up in advance.
Jiang Yue wore a loose beige hoodie under a dark blue denim jacket. He looked fresh and clean, exuding a strong youthful vibe.
Beside him, Chen Jiaming wore a well-fitted, dark gray casual suit, looking gentle, elegant, and reserved.
As soon as the two stepped out of the car, the livestream's bullet comments started scrolling rapidly.
【It's already broadcasting? I thought we had to wait until they entered the building!】
【Jiang Yue looks so youthful today! Zhou Jinnan, how did you turn into a college student after clocking out?】
【Teacher Chen is in such great shape! I'm totally shipping this power duo!】
“Xiao Jiang, nervous?”
Chen Jiaming smiled and patted Jiang Yue on the shoulder. He highly appreciated this junior, who was focused during filming and humble off-camera.
“I'm alright, Brother Chen. It's just that I heard there's a game segment later. I'm worried my brain won't keep up and I'll drag you down.”
Jiang Yue said half-jokingly.
Chen Jiaming glanced at him, his smile widening. “If even you can't keep up, I'll have to retire on the spot today.”
The videographer in charge of the livestream immediately zoomed in.
The bullet comments continued to refresh.
【Teacher Chen, don't retire! Lu Cheng hasn't even gone online yet!】
【Hahahahaha! Jiang Yue: I was just being modest, why did my senior start self-deprecating?】
【Don't edit this out in post-production! I want to watch this raw interaction again!】
Holding his black mask and acting as both agent and assistant, Jiang Kaiwen stood nearby and whispered a reminder, “Teacher Chen, should we not put this segment in the behind-the-scenes footage?”
Chen Jiaming said unhurriedly, “We can cut it.”
Holding his camera, the videographer took half a step back and said sincerely, “Teacher Chen, the viewers in the livestream already heard it. We really can't cut this.”
Audiences loved watching this kind of behind-the-scenes interaction between lead actors; how could they possibly let it go?
Besides, this was a livestream, so there was no way to edit out any part of it anyway.
The group walked into the office area in a grand procession. The quiet floor, which had previously only echoed with the sound of keyboard clicks, was soon filled with suppressed but uncontrollable gasps.
“Ahhh! Jiang Yue and Chen Jiaming! In the flesh!”
“What kind of heavenly benefit is this? I don't want to go home today!”
“A live Zhou Jinnan and Lu Cheng! Quick! Where's my phone?”
Jiang Yue and Chen Jiaming smiled and waved. One was sunny and the other was composed, making for an exceptionally harmonious picture.
Jiang Kaiwen and Chen Jiaming's assistant pulled stacks of custom playing cards and signed photos from their bags and began distributing them.
Some employees took the playing cards and realized that the Ace of Spades was a still of Zhou Jinnan lowering his head to light a cigarette, the King of Hearts was Lu Cheng's profile sitting in his office, and the Jack of Diamonds was printed with the “Oriole Plan” file folder.
“This merchandise is so well thought out!”
“I declare that starting today, I'm not using sticky notes anymore. I'm going to use Zhou Jinnan as a bookmark.”
“Wake up, that's a playing card, not a bookmark.”
As he passed by the cubicle of a male employee wearing black-rimmed glasses and sporting a precariously thinning hairline, Jiang Yue stopped, his gaze falling on the dense lines of code filling his computer screen.
“Python?”
Jiang Yue asked casually.
The male employee froze, then whipped his head up. Seeing it was Jiang Yue, he almost leaped out of his chair. “B-Brother Yue? You... you understand this?”
Wearing his mask, Jiang Kaiwen paused half a step behind him, his eyes immediately darting over.
As an agent who doubled as an assistant, he was all too familiar with this form of address.
Currently, those who would call Jiang Yue “Brother Yue” were either fans or people who closely followed him. However, he had no intention of voicing this speculation aloud; it would be rather awkward if he guessed wrong.
Rate on N.U.
