It was now mid-July, and 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' was set to premiere in early August — just over two weeks away.
Though promotional efforts for the film had long begun, all the marketing done by the rest of the cast, director, and producers could only go so far.
To make the film truly explode in popularity, they still had to rely on Jing Yu's influence.
After Jing Yu returned to Modo City, BlueStar Media & Films quickly shot a promo video featuring him.
On July 19th, this special feature — along with the final trailer for 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' — was released simultaneously on Yunteng TV and Qingyun Video.
As always, the trailer leaned into mystery and suspense — the ominous downhill slope, the eerie multiple camera angles on the bike, the girl leaping through time again and again to save her friend, and the boy she gradually comes to know and understand through this process.
In many ways, 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' shared thematic elements with 'Your Name'.
Love, time distortion, salvation.
And truthfully, in Jing Yu's eyes, 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' wasn't rated any lower than 'Your Name' in his past life.
But the latter became a phenomenon, while the former remained relatively unknown — all because of timing and opportunity.
Just like 'Demon Slayer: Mugen Train' overtook 'Spirited Away' to become the highest-grossing film in Japan.
In a country of only 100 million people, an animated film earning over 40 billion yen — more than 2 billion yuan — was just insane.
It's not that 'Spirited Away' was flawless. In fact, by comparison, it had a superior story, animation, and music.
But it didn't matter — 'Demon Slayer' won the box office through sheer fan power. That's just how wild fan-driven economics could get.
So while 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' was excellent, it never got the opportunity — and thus remained obscure in Jing Yu's previous life.
This final trailer left audiences confused, but also incredibly curious.
Then came the special promo video starring Jing Yu himself.
"Hi everyone, I'm Jing Yu."
As soon as the video began, there was Jing Yu's handsome face, smiling earnestly as he introduced the film.
His tone was sometimes exaggerated, but the message was clear.
Though he didn't appear in the film, it didn't mean he wasn't invested. He simply felt he wasn't suitable for any of the roles.
"So Old Thief actually took the script for this one seriously, too?"
"A romance story with time travel? Sounds like 'My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday'."
"Whatever! If you're not taking your girlfriend to watch 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' on Qixi, what are you doing?"
"I'm just scared. What if Old Thief pulls another emotional gut punch like 'Love Letter' or 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal'?"
"Didn't he say in the promo that no one dies in this one? The whole film is upbeat with no sad scenes. A happy ending, guaranteed."
"...You believe that?"
"."
"Come on, even if Old Thief is heartless, he wouldn't lie again, right? Think about it — he still has 'Your Name' and 'Castle in the Sky' coming out later this year. Tanking his own reputation now would be dumb."
"And judging by the trailer, it doesn't seem too tragic. Just a girl who keeps time-traveling to save her friend. At most, it'll be emotionally intense like 'Steins;Gate' — heartbreaking at times, but touching in the end. I can handle that."
"Ugh, don't even mention 'Steins;Gate'. It's been years, and besides Old Thief, no one in Great Zhou has made anything as smart and emotionally powerful. But he's too busy doing flashy action dramas now. Still no word on Season 2."
"Anyway, I'm going to the theater. Gotta see for myself whether this is the next 'Steins;Gate'."
"The trailer got me. I'll trust Old Thief one more time. He said it's happy — no tears."
"Yeah, let's believe him. One more time."
Thanks to Jing Yu's massive fanbase and social media push, the final promotional trailer for 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time', released across Yunteng Video, and Qingyun, quickly exploded in visibility.
Even regular citizens of Great Zhou, who weren't clear on the film's details, had subconsciously absorbed three key pieces of info:
Written by Jing Yu
Releasing on August 13th, the Qixi Festival
Title: 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time'
Jing Yu didn't even spend much on marketing — yet the results were better than campaigns that cost tens of millions.
That's the kind of traffic and influence he had now.
But for other production companies releasing their films during Qixi, this was a nightmare.
Jing Yu's 'Love Letter' still held the all-time Qixi box office record in Great Zhou with 960 million.
And now he was even more popular and influential than he was back then.
Back when 'Love Letter' was released, he didn't even have the funds to promote properly — yet the film still crushed.
Now, 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' had smarter marketing than even the established studios — no wonder the competition felt the pressure.
Still, these were all high-investment productions with tens or even hundreds of millions spent. They couldn't just give up.
So the rest of the companies launched their own marketing campaigns in full force.
And just as this Qixi season promo war ignited, 'Fate/stay night' aired Episode 4.
However, unlike 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', which saw steadily climbing ratings, 'Fate/stay night' plateaued at around 12%.
Despite the momentum of its predecessor and Jing Yu's massive influence, the show's ratings hovered between 11.5% and 12.3% — that was its ceiling.
By Episode 4, all the major characters had either fully debuted or been teased:
The prideful and arrogant Gilgamesh
The brave and noble Artoria
Kotomine Kirei, obsessed with mapo tofu
The insecure yet arrogant Matou Shinji
The adorable loli Illyasviel
And of course, their respective Servants.
If you were a sharp-eyed viewer, you'd realize that 'Fate/Zero' primarily focused on the Servants — viewers easily became emotionally invested in their pasts and fates.
Iskandar, Gilgamesh, Artoria — their life stories often moved viewers to tears.
But 'Fate/stay night' leaned more into the Masters — expanding the stories of Matou Sakura, Matou Shinji, and Illyasviel.
Some 'Fate/Zero' fans found this shift hard to adjust to. They had hoped that Jing Yu would use the Fifth Holy Grail War to craft even more vivid alternate-history Heroic Spirits.
But aside from Artoria and Gilgamesh, most of the Servants only received brief background touches — leaving viewers wanting more.
Still, the production quality was undeniable — the show held a high rating of 9.6.
By late July, both the TV and film industries were feeling the overwhelming presence of Jing Yu.
Between the red-hot broadcast of 'Fate/stay night' and the near-billion-level buzz around 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time', Jing Yu had successfully taken over both domains.
Open any media forum, and all you'd see are threads about those two works.