July 7th, the day when all major summer films officially hit theaters, and by noon, cinema entrances across Great Zhou were already packed with people.
Office workers might have had to suffer through some weekend overtime, but students? They were completely free.
As a seasoned moviegoer, An Min had a rule: if a film had a score of 7.5 or higher, he would make the effort to see it in theaters.
After all, in Great Zhou — where intellectual property laws were taken seriously — if you didn't catch a film during its theatrical run, your only options were to rent it from a DVD shop or buy it outright. There were no free streaming or pirated copies floating around.
With so many high-quality movies releasing this summer, An Min could hardly concentrate at work. All day, he kept refreshing his phone to check the real-time box office numbers.
And just as expected, ever since theaters opened at 10 a.m., the box office rankings had gone exactly as the public predicted.
By 2 p.m., 'Original Sin' had already crossed 100 million yuan — and that was just the afternoon. Everyone knew the evening showings were when the real box office spikes happened. Considering 'Original Sin' had 80 million in presales, a first-day total over 150 million was almost a given, even accounting for shady practices like inflated ticket sales by the production team.
Trailing behind were:
'Torchlight', with 80 million real-time revenue
'Mirror Fish', at 54 million
So far, the top three box office films were exactly what everyone had expected.
But there was one movie that puzzled An Min — 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal'.
An Min wasn't into TV dramas. He had heard people around him mention Jing Yu, but he had never paid him much attention.
It was like how many guys in Jing Yu's past life felt about certain flashy idols — just because someone was famous didn't mean you had to care.
So from An Min's perspective, it was genuinely surprising to see 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' breaking 43 million by 2 p.m..
Since when did a newcomer to the film world have this kind of pull?
Sure, the 30 million in presales could've been manipulated — collusion between the production studio, distributors, and theaters wasn't unheard of. It's a known trick: use inflated presales to climb the charts, tricking casual moviegoers into following the hype.
But 43 million was not a small number. If they had faked that, the cost would've been massive.
Still, An Min didn't think much of it at the time. He noted it and returned to work.
At 7 p.m., he finally got off the clock.
"Finally done!" An Min let out a long breath.
As someone constantly stuck in overtime, he barely had time to see a single movie these days.
In the past, he would've binged 'Mirror Fish', 'Torchlight', and 'Original Sin' all in one day.
Now? He only had time for one.
And with work lined up for the next few days, An Min had planned to watch all three films over three nights.
But before choosing tonight's movie, he opened his phone and checked the latest data.
Real-time box office:
'Original Sin' – 122 million
'Torchlight' – 96 million
But what shocked him was the third-place title:
'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' – 67 million
Wait, what?
Where was 'Mirror Fish'?
He looked again. The film that had reached 54 million by 2 p.m. had only climbed to 63 million by 7 p.m.
That kind of sluggish rise usually meant one thing: bad word of mouth. And with 'Original Sin' and 'Torchlight' pulling attention, 'Mirror Fish' was getting crushed.
But the real question was:
Why the hell was 'Trust & Betrayal' overtaking 'Mirror Fish'?!
Its marketing wasn't impressive. Its budget was average. There were no high-profile actors from the film industry involved.
Still undecided on what to watch, An Min logged into Yindou Net, the leading audience review site in Great Zhou.
Even though 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' had only been in theaters for a day, early ratings might already be live if the site updated fast enough.
'Mirror Fish' – 5.9/10
Yindou Net only shows the most-liked review by default:
"Trash. I just donated 49 yuan to the screenwriter so he can buy meds for his brain damage."
👍 37,892 likes
Damn. That bad?
An over-100-million investment, and it was already sitting at 5.9?
An Min decided he could skip 'Mirror Fish' and save himself the ticket money.
Next up:
'Torchlight' – 7.8/10, with over 100,000 ratings
He skimmed the comments — all positive. He didn't dare read too much, in case of spoilers. But overall, it seemed solid.
Then:
'Original Sin' – 8.2/10, over 130,000 ratings
The comment section was filled with:
"Unpredictable ending!"
"Huge production value!"
"Incredible acting!"
"Absolutely worth the ticket price!"
Yindou Net was generally reliable. The platform had sophisticated systems to detect review bombing or score manipulation. Not that faking wasn't possible — just that it was expensive, and few studios would bother. And even if you did fake it, the truth would come out quickly.
Here's the general rule for Yindou scores:
<6.0 = Garbage
6.0–6.9 = Passable
7.0–7.9 = Worth seeing
8.0+ = Excellent
9.0+ = You'll never regret watching this
So when An Min searched 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' and saw a 9.4, he blinked in disbelief.
9.4?
He remembered clearly — it had been almost two years since any movie scored that high in Great Zhou!
What was going on?
Was it fake?
Then he saw the number of reviews — 140,000.
An Min blinked again. Wait a second — 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' had half the box office of 'Original Sin', but more user ratings?
That meant audience engagement was off the charts. Stronger than even 'Original Sin'.
At this scale, faking a 9.4 score was practically impossible.
Think about it: if the movie was trash, just a few people giving it a 1-star would destroy your average, and it would take ten 10-star reviews to balance one bad rating. Not worth the cost.
He glanced at the ticket app.
Then, just to be sure, he checked his fan group chat.
Instant screen flood:
"My Yukishiro 😭😭😭"
"I cried like a baby."
"Why the hell did I bring my girlfriend to 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal'? Now she wants me to tattoo a cross-shaped scar on my face!"
"Broooo, I'm watching it for the third time!"
"How could the writer do us dirty like that in the ending?"
"Why is the Yindou Net score only 9.4?! Someone didn't give it 10 stars — go fix it!"
"I'm crying again."
Every message for the past 30 seconds was about 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal'.
Could it really be that good?
An Min was now completely hooked.
Even if the production studio wanted to fake buzz, they wouldn't have infiltrated a random fan group like his.
Within minutes, he made up his mind:
Bought a ticket for the 8:00 p.m. showing of 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal'.