Although "Corner Also" follows the female protagonist's perspective, contains no romantic plotlines, and has no so-called male lead, the main team members each have their own sequence for joining the group, which basically determines the screen time allocation for all characters.
As the character who appears from the very beginning and accompanies the female protagonist until the end, Yin Qi undoubtedly has the most screen time, essentially serving as half of the male lead—even though in many early plotlines, he's merely a background character, present on screen but not responsible for speaking or advancing the storyline.
Yet this still doesn't change the fact that he appears frequently! Moreover, many people genuinely love this character—his complexity, diversity, dual nature, and sister complex... all represent highly popular character archetypes in current trends.
Xiao He wanting to play this role meant he was destined to endure pressure all the way to the end—
The very day public opinion erupted, Liu Rulan came directly to find Xiao He, telling him to mentally prepare himself at all times.
"Just focus on filming properly, don't take their words to heart."
Xiao He had already grown indifferent to such matters, shrugging his shoulders: "Sister Liu, don't worry, you already gave me a heads-up before, I can handle this level of public opinion."
Before concrete results emerge, all explanations and clarifications remain utterly feeble and ineffective.
As an actor, one ultimately has to let their skills do the talking.
...
However, perhaps even Xiao He hadn't anticipated that the causes he'd unknowingly planted earlier would actually bear fruit in corners he never knew about, as if guided by some unseen force.
Just as the public opinion surrounding the highly popular major IP "Corner Also" was intensifying, Xu Youyou encountered trouble.
—To be more precise, Kemingen encountered trouble.
The next day, what hung on the Hot Search was no longer ["Corner Also" Xiao He replacement] but [Xu Youyou selling fake medicine]—
[Xu Youyou selling fake medicine]
[Kemingen domestic vs international drug efficacy differences]
[Kemingen Xu Youyou exploiting fans]
At this moment, no one was discussing Xiao He's matter anymore, instead swarming en masse to the relevant topics on this side.
[Damn, has Xu Youyou gone crazy? A female celebrity leading the charge in selling fake medicine?]
[Oh my god, what's happened to her lately? Since that relationship exposure, I feel like she hasn't been quite normal.]
[Is Xu Youyou that desperate for money? Why would she go sell fake medicine! I really don't understand!]
[But looking more carefully, she was probably deceived too, right? Just helping with introductions, getting some referral fees, but who would have thought Kemingen, such a large pharmaceutical company, would produce substandard drugs?]
[Yes, she wanted to make money, but does that mean her customers deserved to be cheated? When will netizens stop sympathizing with capitalists? Although "Clear Light Like Dawn" flopped spectacularly, she didn't miss a single penny, still getting high acting fees, earning in one day what ordinary people make in a year, and some people are still speaking up for her—did that money end up in your pockets? Laughing to death.]
[I don't believe someone selling medicine wouldn't know it was fake.]
[Wait, I think everyone's being misled by marketing accounts now. The medicine Xu Youyou sold indeed didn't meet efficacy standards, but she sold substandard drugs, not fake medicine. The medicine just didn't reach standard efficacy levels—this is different from selling counterfeit drugs.]
[They're both problematic regardless! Recommend strict investigation!]
Even many bloggers and video creators who focus on traffic began speaking out online one after another.
Some more knowledgeable people also seized this opportunity to create related videos explaining the differences between substandard drugs and counterfeit drugs.
Actually, many people currently have a misconception, thinking substandard drugs are the same as fake drugs, since "substandard" and "fake" both seem to imply "inferior" and "false" meanings. But in relevant legal regulations, there are actually distinctions and interpretations for "substandard drugs."
Simply put, substandard drugs refer to medications where the component content doesn't comply with national drug standards, and the efficacy fails to meet requirements, though they generally still contain the corresponding ingredients.
The more despicable counterfeit drugs, however, use non-pharmaceutical substances or other drugs to disguise themselves, replacing original components with false advertising. The most typical example would be using starch disguised as special-effect capsules to deceive elderly people into purchasing for profit.
Although counterfeit drugs are widely known nowadays, in real life, substandard drugs are also quite common. They often quietly enter the market through legitimate pharmaceutical company packaging, batch numbers, or by exploiting loopholes in regular channels, superficially "complying" with some testing standards while actually evading inspection. Ordinary people find it even harder to distinguish—after all, drug efficacy varies from person to person, making comparisons basically impossible, so people don't directly suspect drug efficacy issues.
Some shameless merchants even directly use slogans like "mild efficacy" and "natural with no side effects," deliberately reducing drug efficacy as a matter of course, transforming it into a major selling point for their products.
Meanwhile, when such substandard drug reports emerge, a significant portion of related media intentionally blur the distinctions between the two to grab attention, uniformly labeling them as "fake drugs," leading to public cognitive bias and lack of conceptual understanding about these drug types, making precise rights protection difficult.
This results in substandard drugs being long accepted in the market, forming hidden circulation channels.
Additionally, there's another point: if such substandard drugs haven't caused serious harm, the penalties are mostly lighter than for counterfeit drugs.
"Based on the information circulating online so far, if Xu Youyou genuinely didn't know about the substandard drug situation, she'll probably only face administrative penalties. However, Kemingen's drugs have always been expensive, and the amount Xu Youyou earned from sales within the industry this past year isn't low. According to standard management regulations, fines are generally between ten to twenty times the drug's value. Calculating from this, she'll likely face astronomical fines."
A lawyer in a suit sat before the camera speaking confidently, while bullet comments scrolled rapidly across the screen. Xiao He picked out a few interesting comments to like, then exited the Bilibili video.
Liu Rulan also pushed the door open: "Did you see that news about Xu Youyou?"
"Saw it, just closed it," Xiao He replied.
"Really quite surprising—" Liu Rulan spread her hands, "With her and Kemingen's related hot search topics, almost no one's paying attention to your matter anymore. I originally planned some PR measures, but looking at it now, it seems we've saved the trouble."
After all, those commenting under the official "Corner Also" account ultimately represent just one segment of people, whereas when it involves society-related topics, it attracts netizens from across the entire social spectrum to participate in discussions.
Thus, the previously quite popular "Corner Also" hot search quickly fell off the hot search rankings completely, vanishing without a trace.
If Xiao He weren't certain he hadn't planned this in advance, he might have suspected this was pre-arranged, having Xu Youyou and them come out to take the heat for him.
But thinking back to when Xu Youyou and them had tried to pull Xiao He out to help deflect the relationship scandal, now with karma coming full circle, Xu Youyou emerging to help Xiao He suppress the Hot Search—how could this not be considered coming full circle, having both beginning and end?
Liu Rulan sighed: "I just don't understand why she'd do this when she had it so good."
Xu Youyou could be said to have thoroughly ruined an excellent hand she was dealt.