Translator: Ink Hub

Editor: Yoog

“In drama, there must be elements that create conflict and reveal tension… originating from the infinite consequences of a character’s actions, originating from…” (Note 1)

Secretly in Love with You was waiting for a broadcast slot. According to Tian Yao, Qike Video wanted to schedule it during the summer vacation. Lin Ji only had one script, God of War Returns Home, to work on, so he simply returned to the screenwriting forum to answer questions in various threads.

Although the “Big Rooster” account was registered recently, the profundity of his theory was recognized within the forum. Only veteran users who had been registered for many years could contend with him. Even so, in the eyes of the observing screenwriters, “Big Rooster’s” answers were still more instructive.

“Who exactly is Big Rooster?”

“Could it be Gu Lenian? Doesn’t feel like him.”

Although the screenwriters on the forum all wore “vests” (pseudonyms), everyone had a rough idea of who was who. Only this “Big Rooster” account seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Being proficient in theory was one thing, but his guidance on scene breakdowns was incredibly systematic and practical.

“When I was writing the interaction between the male and female leads, Chicken God gave me a pointer, and the plot immediately became smooth. Who understands? My version was very stiff; the plot he came up with was super, super silky.”

“Mine is a historical genre… Suddenly discovered, how come he knows everything?”

“Captured a Chicken Brother jumping up and down on the forum. He’s introducing several major elements of script creation in a new thread.”

“Send the link quickly!”

At first, the screenwriters weren’t that curious about “Big Rooster’s” identity. But gradually, they discovered that “Big Rooster” could be found in every corner of the forum. Any type of script—long dramas, currently popular short dramas, conflict points, emotional climaxes, angst points, tear-jerkers—there was nothing the other party wasn’t good at.

If such a great god appeared in the industry, others would have guessed his identity long ago. Yet “Big Rooster” had been answering questions for so long, and still, no one had fished out his identity. Mainly because the other party didn’t participate in screenwriters’ offline gatherings. He went online and offline at a fixed time every day. His life was much more regular than that of the average screenwriter.

The group of screenwriters could only try to match “Big Rooster’s” identity with those long-established, famous screenwriters. But the genres those screenwriters excelled in weren’t this diverse. Moreover, judging from the details revealed in “Big Rooster’s” words, the other party knew how to grasp the audience’s taste very well. Not only long dramas, but even the currently hot short dramas were a familiar field to him.

“Knowing short dramas so well, could it be Lin Ji?”

A screenwriter tentatively mentioned it and immediately triggered rebuttals from others, “Lin Ji? Impossible.”

“Lin Ji indeed knows short dramas quite well, but his seniority is still too shallow, alright? I don’t think it’s him.”

“I understand Lin Ji gained fans with God of War Returns Home, but saying he’s Big Rooster, emmm… isn’t that overestimating his level a bit? To praise him, wait until his long drama becomes a hit first.”

The explosive popularity of God of War Returns Home was indeed enviable. However, peers were always enemies. In the eyes of the vast majority of screenwriters on the forum, short dramas weren’t considered serious dramas. Lin Ji becoming popular with this show was nothing more than taking a shortcut through a market gap.

Besides that, many screenwriters felt Lin Ji was too harsh on Xiao Cheng.

Xiao Cheng was certainly wrong, but there were plenty of screenwriters in the circle with worse reputations than Xiao Cheng. Peers were mostly tolerant of each other; those like Lin Ji who pushed a peer to a dead end were the extreme minority.

“Lin Ji better pray he can stay popular forever. Just got a little fame and he doesn’t know his own weight anymore.”

“He barely managed to get popular this once. If he’s not arrogant now, when will he have the chance in the future?”

Seeing the discussion content of a group of screenwriters, Tian Yao, who wanted to secretly reveal that he was very close to “Big Rooster”: “…”

Forget it, forget it. Let them guess, let them be envious, jealous, and hateful.

Tian Yao considered himself a normal person. From a normal person’s perspective, Lin Ji’s actions weren’t excessive at all.

Accurately speaking, Lin Ji actually did nothing. It couldn’t even be considered revenge on Xiao Cheng. He just wrote a short drama called God of War Returns Home, and this drama happened to become a hit.

Was it Lin Ji who dumped the blame on rookie screenwriters and exploited them? No, it was Xiao Cheng.

Was it Lin Ji who paid people five thousand yuan to write an episode? No, it was Xiao Cheng.

Was it Lin Ji who fell into a plagiarism cloud? Naturally, it wasn’t either.

However, the person who was driven to a dead end went to major TV stations to find opportunities and finally turned over by finding the short drama track—that person was Lin Ji.

After God of War Returns Home became popular, photos of Lin Ji trying his luck at TV stations were also exposed by the media. Outsiders only saw the good luck of Lin Ji’s explosive comeback, but they never thought this: What if Rice Grains Video didn’t accept short dramas? What if God of War Returns Home didn’t even have a chance to air?

Just because they used Lin Ji, Secretly in Love with You was almost returned by Qike Video. At that time, Lin Ji almost couldn’t see any hope.

Tian Yao had an account on the forum. He directly posted a thread, telling that group of people on the forum to restrain their sourness and not be too jealous. After a large group of people came online to spray him, Tian Yao silently threw out another line:

【Post actual results (receipts). As long as your single-episode view count exceeds the results of God of War Returns Home, you can spray. This requirement is very low, right?】

The area below the post instantly became clean.

Tian Yao knew very well that the reason the group of screenwriters on the forum loved to be sour about Lin Ji was entirely because their actual results were a huge chunk worse than Lin Ji’s. In fact, screenwriters with so many projects they couldn’t finish wouldn’t spend all day soaking in the forum, let alone targeting only Lin Ji to spray.

Purely because they were idle.

Lin Ji already belonged to the type of screenwriter with vigorous energy, but during the filming of Secretly in Love with You, he only occasionally went on the forum. Those few IDs that bubbled up year-round on the screenwriting forum looked familiar to Tian Yao; one look and he knew they spent too little time on set.

* * *

The next day, upon opening his eyes, the first thing Tian Yao did was open the thread to see how far that group had sprayed.

As a result, the thread was updated halfway when the discussion content changed completely—

“No, is Xiao Cheng… crazy?”

“Even smashing a broken jar (giving up completely) shouldn’t look like this!”

“Is the loophole in the compensation money too big that he can’t plug it?”

Tian Yao followed the content of the thread and flipped through Weibo, only to see Xiao Cheng’s name claiming the top three spots on the trending search list. He hurriedly messaged Lin Ji.

This was probably the moment of highest heat in Xiao Cheng’s entire screenwriting career. Before this, even if his traffic wasn’t low, there was still a gap compared to celebrities. Climbing into the top three of the trending list wasn’t easy.

Now there was no need for Lin Ji to pretend to be a passerby. The voices cursing Xiao Cheng on the trending list were much fiercer than those cursing Lin Ji back then, because Xiao Cheng was babbling nonsense like a madman.

In his Weibo, Xiao Cheng exposed every screenwriter he knew in the circle who operated on the same model as him—from those opening studios to teach disciples where disciples wrote scripts and they collected money, to those taking projects everywhere to cheat deposits. He exposed them all.

The list he revealed covered a small half of the screenwriting circle. Several highly respected seniors in the circle didn’t escape disaster.

Xiao Cheng didn’t even spare the teachers at the National Film Academy, saying the other party was responsible for introducing students to him and taking a referral fee from it. This scared the National Film Academy into issuing a statement overnight, claiming that the teacher was only teaching temporarily at the Academy and had long since terminated the contract.

As for the other screenwriters of Snow in Early May, Xiao Cheng didn’t let them off either.

“Is it possible for it to be manipulated by me alone? Screenwriter Zhao, the script you wrote for the Ranger crew didn’t pass. Not only did you take their deposit, but you also demanded attribution rights and cheated them out of 3 million. This is something you did, right? Stop pretending to be innocent.

“You guys didn’t tell Lin Ji because you are seniors with prestige in the circle and didn’t want to ruin your image as seniors, so you arranged for me to tell him. Who asked me to be Lin Ji’s senior brother?”

Netizens only needed to camp on Xiao Cheng’s Weibo for a while to refresh a new message every ten minutes.

Even Lin Ji was silently camping.

To this day, news related to Snow in Early May could hardly stir waves in Lin Ji’s heart, and neither could Xiao Cheng. What he cared about most was gossip—the more exciting, the better. He could watch while cracking sunflower seeds.

“A bit exciting…”

“Can only use four words to describe my mood right now—Your Circle Really Messy.”

Lin Ji silently asked the two, Tian Yao and Wen Qing, “How much does he owe exactly?”

With Xiao Cheng’s personality, he wouldn’t be this… straightforward.

In Lin Ji’s impression, Xiao Cheng was the type to do bad things secretly. He rarely charged to the front; he always stirred up trouble behind the scenes.

“Nine figures? Xiao Cheng can get about 10 million in screenwriting fees for one drama, plus profit sharing. His pending dramas plus un-aired ones add up to about this number.”

Lin Ji: “…”

As a fellow famous screenwriter, Xiao Cheng’s income was much higher than his in his previous life.

Tian Yao and Wen Qing analyzed for Lin Ji that Xiao Cheng probably saw no hope of a comeback. He had taken on too many projects before. Just the pending dramas he participated in numbered several, plus those currently filming. As a screenwriter, if the crew’s interests were damaged due to his ruined reputation, the crew had the right to seek compensation from him.

Xiao Cheng’s asking price in the circle had always been high, so the compensation would inevitably not be low. If ten dramas sought compensation from him simultaneously, with his financial power, he simply couldn’t afford to pay.

“You really can’t see a person’s true nature until the final moment.” Tian Yao sighed with emotion. “How glorious Xiao Cheng used to be.”

During the period when his dramas aired, Xiao Cheng’s limelight was even greater than the male lead’s. He always maintained the demeanor of an elite screenwriter in front of the camera. When Snow in Early May failed, he tearfully apologized on behalf of Lin Ji. But now…

That appearance of biting anyone he caught up with—where was the look of an A-list screenwriter?

“I understand now. Only money can make a person go crazy…”

Xiao Cheng’s intention was easy to understand: nothing more than diverting attention.

If he bit out screenwriters big and small in the circle, someone would always be willing to pay to shut him up. And for those unwilling to pay, they would inevitably think of various ways to alleviate the pressure on him from the crews—for example, no longer demanding compensation, or negotiating a better solution with him.

Just like right now, the entire screenwriting circle was in chaos because of him. The screenwriters active on the forum were all jumping at shadows, terrified that Xiao Cheng had once caught hold of their leverage.

Dragging everyone into the water was the best choice. In this situation, the voices of industry peers criticizing him became much quieter.

Lin Ji had never thought Xiao Cheng would choose the “fish dies and the net breaks” (mutual destruction) path so quickly. The impression Xiao Cheng left on people had always been smooth and worldly, having good relationships with many peers in the circle. He thought the other party could at least hold on for a while.

“It’s because he was too greedy,” Tian Yao remarked. “If he had focused on making one good drama, even if he had to compensate, it would only be the money for one drama. But now he has to compensate for ten. Who can afford to pay that?”

NOTES

Quote: This refers to Robert McKee’s Story, a definitive guide to screenwriting.

Smash a broken jar: Idiom meaning “to give up on oneself because things are already bad,” or “since the jar is broken, just smash it completely.”

Fish dies and the net breaks: Idiom meaning a struggle to the death where both sides suffer; mutual destruction.

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