Silver Linings

Chapter Eight - Men In Black

[2 JUNE 2020]

⁂ ZHANG ZHE HAN ⁂

"The opening ceremony is first thing tomorrow morning and the first social media announcements will be posted after that. Remember, no photos are to be posted without running them through Li Meiling. You can post general things behind the scenes, but nothing that shows any costumes or the set." The executive producer, Yang Han Yu, looked around the room where the core team of the production had gathered along with the representative from Youku's PR team, Li Meiling.

Everyone around the table was nodding—they were all in agreement. Not that there really was a lot to agree about. Youku had decided that this drama was not going to be promoted at all—not by comparison anyway. By not promoting it, it would give the production a bit more leeway during filming and most importantly—when it was time to pass the censoring board to get license to air.

If there were no promotions done prior to airing, as in not appearing on the streaming platform and that the viewers had to go searching for the drama themselves, then the script they had might actually work. Emphasis on might. They still had to work through some details as they were filming—just like all productions had to do. It was just that a danmei had to go through a more rigorous censorship review than a 'standard' drama.

Li Meiling looked at the two teams that were sitting on opposite sides of the square table, "Gong Jun, Zhang Zhe Han, will you or your teams be ready to post tomorrow at the same time as the announcement will be made? The Youku posts will go up at the same time, and you will just follow on that first post. We will do the first around 1 p.m. and then the second one around 5 p.m. Let's hope it all goes smoothly tomorrow."

"Yes, we are ready. I will do both posts tomorrow." Gong Jun's voice was deep but clear and he was nodding, both towards Li Meiling and towards Yang Han Yu for confirmation.

Zhang Zhe Han looked at Gong Jun and smiled. When Gong Jun's eyes wandered to meet his, they nodded towards each other in a silent agreement. This was it, it was officially starting now—well, tomorrow. Zhang Zhe Han was excited. But he was also a bit nervous. It was after all his first danmei and he wasn't sure how his fans would react. Just because he was excited didn't mean that they would be. Even some of his friends had lots of questions when he had told them he had signed on for this project. In the end, they had all been convinced it was a good move for his career, so he was just going to have to win over his current fans or gain new fans.

He wasn't doing this for them anyway. He was doing this for himself and he had come around to loving Zhou Zi Shu. He had to admit that meeting Gong Jun had calmed his nerves a bit about Wen Ke Xing. When he flicked on his internal switch, he could see Wen Ke Xing in those eyes. It had especially been visible during that photoshoot a few days ago. The man could perform in front of the camera and Zhang Zhe Han was eager to see if they would match on the video screen as well.

Gong Jun's smile grew wider and he kept the eye contact. Zhang Zhe Han wondered how the man could always be in such a good mood. No matter the long hours or how much effort he had to put in, he always did it with a smile. And the poor guy had required to put in a lot of effort during the past few days during the martial arts training. It was clear that it didn't come natural for him, but whatever he did—it had been effective, because he was getting better. It was like he absorbed criticism to improve himself. He had an ability to observe the instructors or his body double down to how the fingertips where moving during a movement or pose.

"Zhang Zhe Han?" Li Meiling's voice brough him out of his daze and he realized that his mind had momentarily sidetracked for some reason.

"Yes, I will do both posts tomorrow as well."