Yuanyuanzi

FH achieved S+ results even though its budget was only at an A+ level, with no promotion, no purchased trending searches during its airing and only four songs in the entire drama!
The production team didn’t even have enough budget for a proper OST lineup, man!! The same four songs kept playing over and over, while some other dramas have ten or more songs 😅 and tons of trending searches on Chinese social media. They were really strapped for cash 😂
iQIYI wasn’t even optimistic about it and only announced the drama 3 days before it aired just to fill the gap of the big major drama, if I remember correctly. There was no fixed banner placement on iQIYI during its airing either. I still remember fans of the drama cursing iQIYI nonstop.
And despite all that, it still ended up being one of iQIYI’s better-performing dramas in Q4 🙂

The reason I’m bringing this up is because some people compare his dramas with others that had S or S+ budgets, as if they should achieve the same results without considering the budget as a major factor at all.

TWOT is also among the top three on iQIYI for download volume. Despite the many controversies surrounding the drama such as the directing, slow pacing and BE, it still achieved this result on iQIYI which is quite good.

Top 3 TV dramas by download volume on four major platforms in 2025:
https://weibo.com/7735366409/Qfs0F5Oc5

It’s not on his official schedule yet. Let’s wait and see.

Yeah, before this I hadn’t really noticed this kind of thing, but it happens so often now that it feels like data is being fabricated or selectively presented purely for marketing purposes for someone else. Some people may say we’re overreacting but from my observation, this genuinely happens.

For example, when some YXH accounts post about metrics such as average views per episode, they often manipulate or cherry-pick the numbers when it comes to CZY. They exclude HL, which had over 40+ million average views per episode during its peak period, as well as DNAD, which also recorded over 40 million average views per episode, achieved a CVB rating of 2+, and even hit 100 million views in a single day. This doesn’t even take into account that DNAD has already aired on TV and satellite channels across China for 36 rounds within a year, yet they still claim he doesn’t perform well. With these CVB achievements and 100 million views in a single day, if this had happened to some other traffic star, there would have been countless trending searches on Weibo to brag about it but CZY had none of that during DNAD’s peak airing period.

It feels like whenever one of his dramas does well, it gets buried, as if he never acted in it at all. I usually don’t care much about these statistics anyway, since there are many factors behind them. But when this keeps happening, it really becomes too much, he’s just an actor who worked his ass off to achieve these results, only for them to suddenly not “count” as his work. 😑

if it’s that male-centric costume drama, it’s just a rumor anyway and it’s likely to be a Tencent project with YY as the male lead, based on what people are saying. There were also some leaked photos of YY’s agency meeting with the director. Honestly, if it’s true, it would be good for YY, I kind of like the storyline, so it is okay 😉 peace!

As for CZY, I’m still hoping he’ll take on a modern drama my wish 😆
It wouldn’t require as much physical strain or fight scenes compared to male-centric costume dramas, so it might be a better choice for him overall.

This drama made me respect him even more. It wasn’t a mainstream project and acting alongside veteran actors like that meant he could easily be criticized. Because he wanted to improve and challenge himself by trying a different genre and role, he auditioned for the drama. Since it was a CCTV production, he went through auditions and eventually got the role.

During filming, he mentioned in an interview that he felt really sad because he couldn’t perform at the same level as the veteran actors and sometimes didn’t even know how to act anymore. He openly admitted that he still had a lot to improve. That’s another reason I like Yuanyuan, he’s not full of himself. He doesn’t rely on marketing, but focuses on challenging himself and improving his acting.
The drama’s results were very good, and I’m so happy that all of his efforts paid off.

That’s also the same reason he chose to act in Light the Dark too.

Talking about it! I want to rewatch Lin Shao Bai again 🤣

Yes, many Yuanyuan fans want him to take a modern drama as his next project 🙂

Exactly!!!

I think we should give him some time. I hope the agency finds the right project for him before he jumps into another crew like before.

💖💓💕

Count me in! 😓 I’m going back to watching K-drama while waiting for Yuanyuan’s new dramas 😊

Please look forward to his new dramas this year too 😊

Thank you for liking him! 😭

This is so funny, whenever there’s a ranking or list, they seem to leave CZY out because he’s too hard to beat 🤣

CZY opened his IG in February last year and gained 3.6 million followers within a year, yet he still wasn’t counted in the list of accounts with the most followers last year 🤣🤣🤣

https://weibo.com/6988872399/QmTgwjI5b

Because this drama was so low-key and didn’t receive much hype before it aired either in China or internationally including MDL 🤣
It went largely unnoticed at first. However, it received good reviews after it aired. Many people might not have even known it was released, as there was almost no promotion or trending topics on social media. With proper promotion, the results could have been even better 🥺

Just to go off topic for a moment, CZY is expected to have two more costume dramas airing this year with him as the male lead. If you’re interested, you can find the details on his profile page 😊

We hope so too. Unfortunately, he hasn’t acted in many costume dramas with strong scripts and good production quality in the past.
This drama is only A+ production, it had almost no promotion or publicity and wasn’t really cherished by the platform. Still, the quality turned out to be excellent.
As a CZY fan, I’m really glad he chose to act in this drama.

The ML character who isn’t controlled by the court or the emperor is quite rare in C-dramas. I’ve only watched Joy of Life where the ML isn’t afraid of anything and is very smart. It’s a masterpiece, you should give it a try if you haven’t watched it yet.
https://kisskh.at/28674-joy-of-life

Sorry if this doesn’t help much.

He’s like a cute boy with that bare face and messy hair 😄

TikTok drama tags.
In the second picture:

HL: 12 billion views overall
Our Secret: 3.3 billion views overall
TWOT: 2.3 billion views overall

https://weibo.com/1971506011/QjL3N2WM8

To be honest, he still looks quite youthful outside of dramas, based on the clips I’ve watched recently. Even though he’s already 29, he’s built that way with those facial features and physique but he can appear much more mature or look like a teenager depending on the role.