Original Sin reveals Chi Zhen's ending and hints at season 2

The recent ending of crime thriller drama Original Sin 原生之罪 left viewers mourning when the main character Chi Zhen, played by Zhai Tianlin, was last seen on a train gravely wounded and presumably dead. The character's death trended on social media the next day for being too tragic and many demanding that Chi Zhen not be killed off. It looks like their prayers have been answered now that the show has dropped an easter egg to reveal the real ending. 

Chi Zhen looks directly into the camera... alive!

The first season left many unanswered questions like the mystery behind Chi Zhen's older sister's killer. According to Director WaiMan Yip, if the viewers like the drama, they would very much like to continue filming a second season. He also reveals that many of the cast and crew members have called him to ask that they continue. 

Zhai Tianlin dropped the biggest hint yet as he thanked everyone for their anticipation for a second season. He said that he felt everyone's love for the characters Chi Zhen and Lu Li (played by Yin Zheng). He then shared a picture with iQIYI CEO Gong Yu and iQIYI VP Dai Ying and told everyone to wait for their updates. It looks like season 2 is practically confirmed. 

Lastly, a picture behind the scenes of Zhai Tianlin, Cherry Ngan, WaiMan Yip and Yin Zheng. No goodbyes. 

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Why iQiyi Replaced Its View Count Feature With The Popularity Index

Chinese video streaming giant iQiyi hit the jackpot this year with Story Of Yanxi Palace's meteoric success measured through online views. However, iQiYi is also the first to drop its view count feature on all of its videos.  This was done back in September to combat "click farming" which is a method to bloat the view count of selected videos by constantly replaying the said videos.  

For example, I see a video of Actor A.  Since I'm a fan and want him to be more popular, I will watch his video over and over again to increase view count, giving the impression that he is gaining more popularity. This isn't an accurate system of measurement at all since it can be doctored to favor a certain series, actor or video.  

iQiyi has since adopted a new, more comprehensive evaluation system to gauge a video's popularity.  Liu Wenfeng, iQiyi's chief tech officer, called this new system the "heat index."  This system is based not on how many views a certain video has gotten, but instead, focuses on how many shares the video had, how many comments and likes it had.  Basically, the heat index utilizes the user's interactions and shares on social media to come up with a more accurate method of gauging popularity. It has been months since this has been implemented and a look at iQiYi's top dramas shows the current top three to be 1) Like A Flowing River heat index 7485 2) The Story of Minglan heat index 7464 3) Original Sin head index 6620 

Personally, I think this is a good thing as it's a bit harder to manipulate than the usual click farming.  It may also be a more reliable way of gauging the public's tastes in stories they want to see on TV, which actors are more bankable,  how long a series should ideally be, etc. It is by no means foolproof though, as some would most probably point out.  But it is a step forward, albeit a small one..  Ultimately, what I'm hoping for is being able to see better content.  Hopefully, this heat index plays a part in making that happen. 

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