[Beeeeeep—]
[Beeeeeep—]
The beeping sound of a hospital heart monitor echoed faintly.
On a pitch-black screen, a heartbeat line flickered steadily.
The shot zoomed in—
A wooden cottage perched on a seaside cliff, beside a lonely lighthouse.
A strikingly handsome man and a beautiful, graceful woman, both wearing doctor's lab coats and carrying strange instruments, walked into the house.
Inside—
An elderly man lay unconscious, hooked up to countless machines, tubes, and electrodes.
A soft, faintly sorrowful melody began to play.
The screen shifted.
"Can you... Take me to the moon?"
By the lighthouse on the cliff, the old man asked hopefully.
"Why do you want to go there?"
The woman in the doctor's coat asked gently.
"Do you want fame? Wealth? You must have a reason."
"I'm sorry... I don't know."
The old man's expression held a trace of confusion.
There was pain in his eyes—as if he were trying to remember something—but in the end, he remembered nothing.
"I just... want to go."
Cut to the next scene.
A beautiful woman, her face lined with age, held up a paper rabbit with two different colors and questioned the old man.
He showed no reaction at all.
The camera zoomed out—
Now, under a starlit sky, a little boy and a little girl sat on a tree stump at the top of a mountain.
The boy pointed at the stars, then at the moon.
He looked at the girl beside him. Though her face was obscured, she seemed to be smiling.
"To the moon!"
January 11th
9:00 PM
Three lines of large text slowly appeared and then faded away.
The trailer, less than twenty seconds long, gave away nothing.
And yet—the tone, the visuals, the music—were unmistakably sorrowful.
Unlike other dramas of the season, which crammed their trailers with plot points, afraid audiences wouldn't understand what made them worth watching...
'To the Moon' simply showed a few scenes, shared a few lines, and clearly delivered its main message:
The old man, Johnny, wants to go to the moon.
In his final days, this wish consumed him so deeply that without fulfilling it, he couldn't die in peace.
But why did he have that wish?
Even he didn't know.
As the trailer ended in prime time, a flood of confused viewers rushed to SakuraNet, landing in the comment section of 'An Ancient Love Song'.
As of January 6th, the show's average paid streaming views had reached 9.65 million, just a step away from crossing the 10 million mark.
This forum was still the central hub for Su Yan × Gu Qingyuan fans.
These were the same fans who, just last month, swore to boycott Su Yan's next drama—vowing they'd be "dogs" if they ever watched it again.
But now, in January, all that dramatic talk had vanished like smoke.
All that remained was the lingering regret from 'An Ancient Love Song'...
And a deep, undeniable curiosity for Su Yan's new drama—' To the Moon'.
[Is this another tearjerker?]
[No clue, honestly.]
[Takezawa Kayano is so beautiful. Almost 60 and still a goddess.]
[Of course! That's why she was the dream star of an entire generation in Xia.]
[And Qiu Junlin as Johnny is way too handsome!]
[Is it just me, or is anyone else focused on Su Yan and Gu Qingyuan playing Eva and Neil again? Are we getting another tragic love story between them?]
[Stop speculating. Johnny is clearly the main lead, and his background's already confirmed—he's a dying old man. I mean, he dies in the end... so what? That's just natural, right? How bad can it hurt?]
[Fair point. Johnny is the main character. I checked the cast list on SakuraNet. Johnny and River are the male and female leads, and both have actors for elderly, young adult, and childhood versions. As long as Su Yan and Gu Qingyuan aren't doing another tragic romance, I don't care how sad the others get. I've built up immunity.]
[Come on. Su Yan is only in his early twenties. He can't possibly think about tragedy all the time. He's so handsome—you'd think he'd create something more sunny and cheerful, right?]
[Let's hope.]
[Even if I'm wrong, after surviving 'An Ancient Love Song', I'm a max-level boss now. No drama can hurt me again. Hah.]
[Exactly. That show raised my emotional pain tolerance. I'm now immune to heartbreak.]
[If Su Yan dares drop another super-tragic twist this season, I'll film myself laughing out loud at his "most devastating moment" just to spite him.]
Once bitten, twice shy.
Su Yan's fans were now jumpy, nervous, and full of suspicion toward 'To the Moon'.
They didn't understand the trailer. They couldn't figure out how "going to the moon" could form the backbone of a drama.
But still—trust first, doubt later.
The quality of 'An Ancient Love Song' and 'Rurouni Kenshin' had built up enough goodwill for fans to give Su Yan the benefit of the doubt.
In the 'To the Moon' production office—
Shinozaki Ikumi sat nervously, scrolling through fan comments on SakuraNet.
As she saw that most comments were just speculating about the story and setting, her anxiety eased.
If not for Su Yan's strong fanbase and the hundreds of millions-plus profits he had brought the network—
A script like 'To the Moon's early episodes never would've passed through the review board.
The pacing was slow. The characters all spoke in riddles.
But after reading Su Yan's script through to episodes four and five, Shinozaki Ikumi, and even the cast and crew, began to understand what made this show special.
On set, they were filming a flashback scene between elderly River and elderly Johnny.
Takezawa Kayano's portrayal of River, a character with autism, was deeply immersive. Her expression radiated that specific feeling of wanting to say so much, but not knowing how.
Qiu Junlin, playing Johnny, gazed at her in quiet confusion, his eyes filled with unspoken emotion.
Standing nearby, Su Yan and Gu Qingyuan watched with their mouths slightly open.
This was what it meant to be Xia's legendary acting couple.
There was so much to learn.
Their performances were so good that they made Su Yan and Gu Qingyuan feel humbled.
That afternoon, filming wrapped. As everyone began packing up to leave...
The production coordinator walked in and handed a few black envelopes to Su Yan and the other lead team members.
Su Yan received three.
Gu Qingyuan received one.
Shinozaki Ikumi received one as well.
"What's this?" Su Yan asked, looking at the gold-embossed text on the invitations.
—Nomination for Best New Screenwriter
—Nomination for Best New Actor
—Nomination for Best Original Music in a Drama
Gu Qingyuan's envelope read:
—Nomination for Best New Actress
Shinozaki Ikumi's:
—Nomination for Best New Producer
Not far away, Takezawa Kayano and Qiu Junlin, noticing the envelopes, walked over curiously.
As they glanced at the nomination cards, nostalgia filled their faces.
"Impressive, Mr. Su Yan," Qiu Junlin said with a warm smile.
"The first time I received an invitation to the Xia Flame Awards was when I was 27."
"I was 23," Takezawa Kayano added with a smile of her own.
"Didn't expect three members of our team to be nominated this year."
"Genius really is everywhere."
It was obvious the two veteran actors were just being polite.
After all, Qiu Junlin had been nominated for Best Actor five times and had won three.
These newcomer-level nominations couldn't compare to what he'd achieved.
But what they meant to him was different from what they meant to Shinozaki Ikumi.
As she held the nomination card, her expression turned dazed.
She had expected a nomination… but now that the invitation was actually in her hands, it felt surreal.
It confirmed that 'An Ancient Love Song' and 'Rurouni Kenshin' had been recognized by the mainstream television industry.
And Su Yan...
Receiving three nomination letters all on his own—
That was unbelievable.
All eyes turned to Su Yan, who remained calm and composed.