'Di Lei Fen', or 'Thunderbolt Powder', was the code name for Jiang Yu Lei's fans.
Originally, they wanted to call themselves 'Thunderbolt Fireline', but that moniker sounded too imposing and sharp, lacking warmth and approachability.
After much deliberation, they settled on 'Di Lei', or 'Thunderbolt'.
Thunderbolts explode when stepped on, and fans chose this code name hoping that after the drama aired, Jiang Yu Lei's popularity would explode like a thunderbolt, soaring to new heights.
Amidst the chatter, it was unnoticed that it had turned eight o'clock sharp.
"Tian Jian Qun Xia" ("Heroes of the Heavenly Sword") began broadcasting precisely on time.
After the opening theme song, the plot officially commenced.
Qin Shi Huang dreamt of the demise of the Qin Empire and wished to forge the Heavenly Sword, using its divine power to stabilize the realm.
However, on the very day the Heavenly Sword was forged, Qin Shi Huang passed away.
With the death of Qin Shi Huang, the Heavenly Sword vanished without a trace.
Centuries flew by. Abhiraja, the king of the Blood Moon Divine Cult, learned that the five noble titles of the Heavenly Sword were with the Tang family and dispatched Hei Qi Ling to seize them.
[To be honest, this plot feels quite cliché, reminiscent of old treasure map quests. It's nothing special. Why would Guan Su Yi agree to this drama?]
[It's only just started. What do you know? Jiang Ling has excellent taste in scripts. Look at what she's acted in over the past two years; every single one was a hit!]
[That makes sense. Even if the plot isn't great, just seeing Jiang Yu Lei and Jiang Ling, this handsome man and beautiful woman, makes the show worth watching!]
Perhaps due to overly high expectations, as soon as the drama began, the audience felt the familiar formulaic nature of historical dramas and found it hard to get invested, idly typing comments.
Jiang Ling was also watching the drama by her computer, seeing the dense barrage of comments complaining that the show was too cliché. She thought to herself that the real excitement was yet to come.
Undeniably, the story of "Tian Jian Qun Xia" was cliché.
But within the framework of this old-fashioned plot, the screenwriter used their masterful pen to create an unconventional male lead, Abhiraja.
The uniqueness of this character reminded Jiang Ling of Agatha Christie's mystery novel "The Roger Ackroyd Affair," which she had read years ago.
She was fortunate that she had read the novel before watching the TV adaptation.
At the time, while reading the novel, she thought it was well-written and up to Christie's standard, but she couldn't quite grasp why it was so good.
After all, Christie had so many excellent works: "And Then There Were None," "Murder on the Orient Express," "The ABC Murders" were all classics among classics.
Why was "The Roger Ackroyd Affair" rated so highly?
Some mystery fans even considered it better than "Murder on the Orient Express."
It wasn't until she reached the ending, where the truth was meticulously unveiled and the murderer exposed, that Jiang Ling exclaimed she had been tricked.
Christie employed a narrative trick, creating an unexpected killer who played the readers for fools.
The biggest highlight of "Tian Jian Qun Xia" also lay in its creation of an unforeseeable villainous male lead.
When the truth is revealed, the stark contrast and the immense impact of the female lead's eventual mutual destruction with him would undoubtedly leave every viewer who watched the entire series unforgettable.
And the earlier the plot is, the greater the shock of the later reversal.
Just as a breathtakingly beautiful historical drama heroine might deliberately disguise herself as ugly; the more unkempt she appears initially, the more stunning she becomes when her true beauty is revealed.
Two minutes later, Tang Ruoxuan, played by Jiang Ling, made her appearance.
In her previous life, the actress who played Tang Ruoxuan was past her prime, had offended the stylist, and her appearance was both haggard and ugly.