“Is he out of his mind?”

“Follow him? Does he really think there’s nobody left at the National Film Academy?”

Lin Ji’s reply was screenshotted and posted into the National Film Academy alumni group, immediately triggering a chorus of mocking laughter.

“Lin Ji used to be so low-key. Why has he suddenly started acting like he’s lost his marbles?”

“He’s gone crazy from flopping, obviously.”

If Snow in Early May had been a massive ratings hit, Lin Ji could have relied on the credit to land a few lead writer gigs for low-budget dramas. There was always a chance he could have blown up, and then he could have brought along his classmates who were struggling in the screenwriting circle.

Competition in the screenwriting world was fierce. Although everyone graduated from the National Film Academy, when Lin Ji landed Snow in Early May, plenty of people were seething with envy, jealousy, and hate.

Among the twenty-something people in their class, Lin Ji definitely wasn’t considered one of the successful ones. But Snow in Early May was a major project for Qinglan TV; it was very possible Lin Ji would ascend to stardom through this show.

Now that Lin Ji had left the group and was destined never to recover, the group mocked him without restraint. Someone even posted his reply directly to their WeChat Moments: “The grace of a great screenwriter is truly extraordinary.”

Lin Ji just happened to see it.

The person who posted on Moments was named Lou Yangyang, Lin Ji’s college roommate. The two didn’t get along back in school; Lou Yangyang loved to posture and pretend, while Lin Ji was too serious and didn’t buy into his act.

Lou Yangyang had relatives in the Cultural Bureau. After graduation, he specialised in making “main melody” (patriotic/propaganda) films to sell to local governments. His dad directed, he wrote, and then they sent the films to participate in various awards the public had never heard of.

Although he wasn’t exactly famous, Lou Yangyang was mixing like a fish in water back on his home turf.

When Lin Ji got the credit for Snow in Early May, Lou Yangyang spent all day making sour remarks in the group chat, telling Lin Ji to take him along when he got famous. Once Snow in Early May flopped, he wished he could post eight hundred media analyses of the show’s failure every day.

Lin Ji couldn’t understand why this person was still in his WeChat friends list. He decisively clicked delete, then proceeded to remove every single classmate from his contacts. The world was instantly peaceful.

…

Lin Ji was reading the script Tian Yao sent him.

Lin Ji wrote more original scripts, historical dramas, detective dramas, occupational dramas… he had dabbled in all types. The stack of scripts Tian Yao sent was simply too messy; one look and you could tell it was pieced together by several different writers.

Fortunately, the main line of a sweet romance drama was clear and the content straightforward. Lin Ji didn’t need to rack his brains thinking about scene transitions or complex psychological changes in characters; he just needed to write straight down the line of “sweetness” in one breath.

When it came to character interactions, Lin Ji could write them with his eyes closed. Before long, he had finished rewriting two episodes.

Tian Yao was pressing for time, so they agreed to meet the next morning. While riding the bus, Lin Ji chatted with him, getting a thorough understanding of the crew’s situation.

They agreed to meet at a nearby coffee shop. Lin Ji arrived only a few minutes early. Only two men were sitting in the corner of the shop. The moment Lin Ji walked in, the men exchanged a glance.

“That… is Lin Ji, right?”

A sudden flash of realisation hit Tian Yao’s brain: “Teacher Big Rooster couldn’t be…”

The ratings of Snow in Early May were known to everyone in the industry, and consequently, Lin Ji’s face had become a familiar one in screenwriting circles.

Tian Yao didn’t dare to imagine the scene if he replaced his screenwriter with Lin Ji. But what if Lin Ji really was the “Big Rooster” he had been talking to…

Tian Yao was very satisfied with the script adapted by “Big Rooster.” He had sent it to Director Wen Qing immediately. Wen Qing voted in favour with the fastest speed possible and even accompanied Tian Yao on this trip just to meet the crew’s new screenwriter.

Both of them were praying Lin Ji wouldn’t walk toward them, but Lin Ji’s steps in their direction became increasingly firm. The moment he sat down, he slapped a script cover onto the table. Boldly printed on it was their new drama: Secretly in Love with You.

“You are…” Tian Yao still wouldn’t give up hope.

Lin Ji’s words shattered his last delusion: “I am Big Rooster from the forum.”

Tian Yao: “…”

No… If Lin Ji can bring ‘Secretly in Love with You’ back from the dead, how could he have written a peerless trash drama like ‘Snow in Early May’?

Tian Yao had specifically gone to inspect Snow in Early May. It was safe to say the logic of the entire show was so chaotic that Tian Yao felt the title should be changed to Agent Mission: I Fell in Love with Hello Kitty.

Now it was Tian Yao’s turn to be conflicted.

If he used the current script, Secretly in Love with You would inevitably flop. But if he used Lin Ji as the head writer, the audience might change the channel the moment they saw his name.

As if understanding Tian Yao’s thoughts, Lin Ji silently pushed forward the two episodes of the script he had newly revised.

Both Tian Yao and Wen Qing leaned in to look.

Secretly in Love with You was a campus sweet romance. The reason the previous script dissatisfied them both was that, aside from the chaotic plot and unclear hierarchy, all the sweet content felt like industrial saccharine, a forced, artificial sweetness.

But under Lin Ji’s pen, even though the scenes and content were similar, he wrote them with a refreshing sense of youth.

What Tian Yao wanted to lead was a clean, refreshing youth drama.

He silently looked at Wen Qing.

Wen Qing looked back at him.

Having communicated with “Big Rooster” up to this point, Tian Yao had a rough idea. If Lin Ji himself was at this level, then the failure of Snow in Early May likely had little to do with him.

If he was going to flop either way, he’d rather flop after filming a show that satisfied him.

Tian Yao stood up and solemnly extended his hand to Lin Ji: “Teacher Lin, I entrust the script to you.”

For some reason, the moment he shook Lin Ji’s hand, he suddenly had a strong premonition that Secretly in Love with You would succeed.

Perhaps it was because Lin Ji appeared too calm.

Or maybe, in the moment the other party looked him straight in the eye, his gaze reminded Tian Yao of those seniors who dominated the screenwriting world.

…

The production cost of Secretly in Love with You wasn’t high. The male and female leads were both newcomers. The filming crew was from Tian Yao’s previous drama, and the funds also basically came from the earnings of that previous show.

The filming location was a high school in the suburbs of Beijing. High schools in the city centre were more expensive to rent. Keeping the crew in the suburbs also meant hotel costs were much cheaper.

Tian Yao’s expectations for Secretly in Love with You weren’t high. He planned to shoot 20 episodes, and as long as it could air smoothly on Qike Video, that was enough.

Lin Ji arrived at the crew the same day he met the two men.

Adding the few pages he gave Tian Yao earlier to the two episodes he rushed out, Tian Yao felt the show could start filming.

“In such a hurry?” Lin Ji asked.

Tian Yao sighed and revealed the current state of the crew’s suspension to Lin Ji. “Back when you first gave me the script, I already wanted to start filming.”

“Alright.” Lin Ji nodded.

Tian Yao didn’t understand what Lin Ji meant by that nod until he saw him whispering with Wen Qing for a while, and then Lin Ji started clacking away at his keyboard.

Early the next morning, filming for Secretly in Love with You officially began. Tian Yao and Wen Qing were stopped by Lin Ji, who shoved several sheets of paper into each of their arms.

Tian Yao flipped through them, his jaw dropping so low it couldn’t close.

In one day, Lin Ji had actually written another two episodes. It had only been a few days since he communicated with Lin Ji on the forum. Back then, Tian Yao was anxious enough to catch fire, thinking he’d have to wait at least three months for a new script.

Generally speaking, for a 20-episode drama, it took about a year and a half from polishing the script to it being used. One episode’s script was about 10,000 words, containing around 30 scenes.

Lin Ji’s speed was like he was riding a rocket.

The key point was, both he and Wen Qing determined that what Lin Ji wrote was usable. At the very least, it was much stronger than the screenwriter of Tian Yao’s previous show.

Although Lin Ji emphasised that he was just sorting out the existing script, in Tian Yao’s view, his so-called “sorting” lifted a 60-point script directly to a 90.

There really were genius-type screenwriters in the industry;  whatever they wrote felt right. Directors dared to take what they just wrote and film it immediately, and the resulting show could even create a generation’s classic.

But that kind of screenwriter had nothing to do with Tian Yao. Of course, he had dreams of his show exploding overnight, but dreams were dreams and reality was reality; he could tell the difference between the two.

Lin Ji had always been famous for writing fast. It was no exaggeration to say that screenwriters with a higher level than him didn’t have as many works as him. Many people quit the circle after writing two shows. Screenwriters with many works weren’t at his level. In the screenwriting circle, Lin Ji was absolutely top-tier.

His writing was very coherent. Once he was in the zone, he could write day and night without stopping. Besides, the materials for Secretly in Love with You were ready-made, so writing it wasn’t troublesome.

He turned in three episodes on the first day. In the following days, his speed slowed down, mainly because he discovered that the crew’s filming speed couldn’t keep up with his writing speed at all.

Hearing his thoughts, Tian Yao: “…Is Your Excellency perhaps unwell?”

What kind of audacious words are these!

Without needing to rush, Lin Ji wrote the later episodes while refining the previously written content. After the filming started, he also moved a stool to the studio to watch.

The crew of Secretly in Love with You had naturally heard of his infamous name. But this show wasn’t a big production. The female lead was even still in college; having a role to film before graduation was like a pie falling from the sky. Who the screenwriter was didn’t matter at all.

The producer and director had no objections to Lin Ji, so others naturally wouldn’t either.

Director Wen Qing’s mood was simply indescribable.

He and Tian Yao were old partners. Secretly in Love with You had only filmed the first few scenes of the first episode, yet he keenly realised the difference between this show and the previous one; filming was too smooth.

Lin Ji wrote no nonsense. The transition between scenes was incredibly natural. The actors were mostly novices, but with a glance, Lin Ji could point out the flaws in their performance.

Of course, he wouldn’t overstep the director. Although screenwriters had no less power than directors in a crew, Wen Qing felt that Lin Ji didn’t seem like a rookie screenwriter at all. Instead, he seemed like an old veteran who had handled dozens of plays.

Lin Ji didn’t like to talk on set, but camera angles, lighting, shooting techniques, lines… as long as Wen Qing asked for his input, he could give very pertinent advice.

Collaborating with such a screenwriter only made him feel comfortable.

Although filming was his responsibility, Wen Qing had a premonition that everything about the shoot seemed to be under Lin Ji’s control. What surprised him most was that after finishing the first episode, because the pacing of the script was so good, Wen Qing had already envisioned how to edit it.

He could be certain that the rhythm of this drama would be the most appropriate, neither too fast nor too slow, with sweetness just right. Coupled with improvements to the shooting based on Lin Ji’s suggestions, Wen Qing seemed to have found his own form as a director.

The further filming went, the more the entire crew of Secretly in Love with You realised: Lin Ji = Useful. Lin Ji was thus dragged to every corner to play a role. Even after a day’s filming ended, Wen Qing would drag him along to discuss the script.

Just like that, Lin Ji’s scriptwriting speed gradually dropped from one episode every three days to one every five days. But even so, his speed was still very fast.

Since he sorted out the script alone, there would be no differences between different writing styles, and no sense of incongruity would exist.

Lin Ji had stayed with the Secretly in Love with You crew for almost a month when he suddenly received a call.

“Is this Teacher Big Rooster? We are Rice Grains Video. Your short drama script has been selected. We plan to film it. Do you have time to come over and negotiate?”

At this moment, inside the crew group chat:

“Is Teacher Big Rooster going to run away?”

“Rice Grains Video and Big Rooster, a perfect match.”

“Damn it, actually trying to steal Teacher Rooster from me!”

In an instant, various “Catching the Chicken” memes flew chaotically in the group chat.

A few minutes later, in order to keep Lin Ji, the group members tagged Wen Qing one after another, demanding he dance with Lin Ji.

Because of the idiom Wen Ji Qi Wu (Rooster crows, rise and dance).

Wen Qing: “…”

The dance in ‘Wen Ji Qi Wu’ refers to sword dancing, thank you very much.

NOTES

Wen Ji Qi Wu: An idiom meaning “rising at the cock’s crow to practice swordplay,” symbolising diligence and ambition. The pun here is on Director Wen Qing’s surname (Wen) and Lin Ji’s nickname (Rooster/Ji). The crew is jokingly asking Wen (Director) to dance with Ji (Lin Ji).

Main melody: Refers to state-sanctioned, patriotic, or propaganda media in China.

Industrial saccharine: Slang for forced, fake, or clichéd romantic moments in dramas that feel manufactured rather than earned.

Translator’s Note: Enjoy, and drop feedback, it sharpens my Translations.