Translator: Ink Hub

Editor: Yoog

“No Future Entertainment! Hahahaha! How did Little Lin suddenly start acting all cool with Western lingo?”

“His petty streak is officially confirmed. This is hilarious! As expected of a great screenwriter, his memory is truly exceptional. Our Little Lin will probably remember this grudge until he’s ninety!”

“Future Entertainment, did you hear that? Our Screenwriter Lin is asking you a question! [Dog head] [Dog head] [Dog head]”

“Back then, you ignored Little Lin; now, Little Lin is someone you can’t even dream of approaching. I can already imagine the scene of Little Lin going to the Future Entertainment official website just to memorize names for his blacklist.”

“I am sincerely willing to provide a list of all actors signed to Future Entertainment. No need to thank me, Screenwriter Lin.”

Future Entertainment: “…”

Just like that, the old story of Qi Sui refusing to play the role of Bai Mei was dug up by netizens once again.

“Records of the Bai’s Return has broken a 3% rating on all three stations. Bai Mei is practically the soul of the female lead. Just look at Chen Cheng now, then look at Qi Sui…”

“I don’t even know what to say. Let me just wish everyone a Happy New Year in advance.”

“First it was Qin Yi, now it’s Qi Sui. I think we’re about to see another performance of someone regretting until their guts turn green, 23333.”

Qi Sui was, naturally, drowning in regret. If she had known Bai Mei would become this popular, she would never have let the company manipulate the Records of the Bai’s Return crew.

In fact, it wasn’t just Qi Sui; the management at Future Entertainment was also deeply regretful.

Future Entertainment had been hoping for Records of the Bai’s Return to flop. If it had, Lin Ji’s influence with the satellite stations would have diminished significantly. But not only did the drama fail to flop as they expected, it also became a massive hit.

“What does it even mean for three stations to break a 3% rating simultaneously? Is Lin Ji even human?”

The vice president gritted his teeth, unable to stop himself from cursing.

During the filming of Records of the Bai’s Return, Future Entertainment had negotiated many collaborations with various satellite stations. Since Lin Ji hadn’t said anything more or publicly called out Future Entertainment during that time, the focus of public opinion hadn’t been on him.

But now, things were different. The combined viewership of Records of the Bai’s Return across the three stations had surpassed 10%. Xingzhou, Sunrise, and Daqin TV were making so much money from advertisements that their hands were going numb. It could be said that at this moment, the eyes of every television station were focused solely on Lin Ji.

Who would reject such a genius screenwriter? Who could reject him?

Even Dajiang TV couldn’t.

Code 11 had suppressed Dajiang TV; Records of the Bai’s Return continued to suppress Dajiang TV. Although Dajiang TV had Shooting the Sirius to save some face, that was only because Records of the Bai’s Return had chosen a simultaneous broadcast model on three stations. In the eyes of industry insiders, the winner was still Records of the Bai’s Return.

And at this moment, this genius screenwriter announced that he refused to work with Future Entertainment. The impact of this on the company was easy to imagine.

Previously, Lin Ji only had one hit, Code 11. But now, he had two massive hits on major satellite stations. He could explode ratings and make stars.

First, it was Wang Ruoqiang and Cheng Yuan, and now it was Chen Cheng. After acting in his dramas, actors always seemed to ascend to the top at the fastest possible speed.

* * *

When Lin Ji first announced he wouldn’t use Future Entertainment’s actors, it did make things difficult for the low-to-mid-tier actors at the agency to find work, but the famous ones continued as usual.

Just when Future Entertainment thought the impact this time would be larger but not catastrophic, their 90s-born top-tier star, Mo Xiaoyu, suddenly announced she wanted to terminate her contract.

Mo Xiaoyu was currently at a bottleneck in her career. Her situation was similar to Chen Cheng’s: the traffic she possessed was constantly being eroded by the new generation of Little Flowers, yet her acting skills weren’t sufficient to break through the predicament.

When Code 11 allowed Chen Cheng to make a comeback, Mo Xiaoyu had considered collaborating with Lin Ji. However, Future Entertainment’s maneuvers had disrupted her plans. As far as she knew, several of her rivals were currently doing everything possible to get close to Lin Ji, hoping he would consider them for his next project.

Her rivals had a chance, yet she was excluded by Lin Ji. Naturally, Mo Xiaoyu was not happy.

“How much magic can Lin Ji really have? He’s only proven himself a few times…”

As the vice president spoke, his voice unconsciously lowered.

If they counted from God of War Returns Home, there were five dramas already.

Secretly in Love with You went viral first, and the industry said Lin Ji wasn’t good at satellite dramas. Later, Code 11 became a hit, and they said it was just luck. Records of the Bai’s Return was universally recognized as a difficult adaptation to film, yet Lin Ji had single-handedly turned it into a classic for the ages.

No matter how much the vice president tried to persuade her, Mo Xiaoyu remained unmoved. “I can’t gamble my acting career against a screenwriter who has a forty-year creative peak. I might not be able to film until I’m sixty, but Lin Ji can definitely write until he’s sixty.”

Future Entertainment was good at marketing and fighting for resources, and Mo Xiaoyu had indeed relied on the company a lot when she first debuted.

But once her status had risen, she had traffic, but other actors had traffic too. Any company that signed A-list stars had its own set of tricks.

The highest quality resources were always the scarcest.

It would be fine if everyone was at the same starting line, but now, Mo Xiaoyu had a very obvious disadvantage.

When an actor wanted to leave, a company couldn’t always stop them. For a big star like Mo Xiaoyu, Future Entertainment didn’t want the split to turn too ugly, as it would affect the company’s ability to sign new talent later. Since Mo Xiaoyu had already expressed her willingness to pay the liquidation damages to leave, they could only let her go.

However, what the vice president didn’t expect was that in a single afternoon, he received a total of five phone calls. Even Qi Sui said she wanted to terminate her contract.

“What is she regretting? She’s the one person who has the least right to regret anything!”

The vice president had previously felt that Qi Sui was quite cooperative for letting the company decide on a lead role for her, but now he felt she was too indecisive. Why couldn’t she have just insisted on taking the role of Bai Mei back then?

* * *

Lin Ji finished posting his Weibo with great satisfaction, only to see his fans holding a “group building” event in his comments section: “Shouldn’t we also say ‘No Qin Yi’?”

“No Maple Leaf TV.”

“No Gu Lenian, thank you.”

“Qin Yi is signed to Future Entertainment. Qin Yi is a subset of Future Entertainment. No Future Entertainment implies No Qin Yi.”

Netizens witnessing this scene: “…”

Lin Ji’s fans were just like him; their brains might have a few screws loose.

“Screenwriter Lin, what are you writing for your next drama?”

“Curious +1! There are only about a dozen episodes left of Records of the Bai’s Return!”

“Same here, curious.”

Lin Ji didn’t reply immediately, but this comment was being watched by major talent agencies and numerous stars at the same time.

Code 11 allowed Cheng Yuan and Chen Cheng to reap massive benefits. The actors who participated in Records of the Bai’s Return, regardless of their previous fame, had seen their market value rise significantly. Whether they could get a role in Lin Ji’s next drama was very important to these actors.

By the time Lin Ji logged back in, the comments section was filled with voices congratulating Xingzhou TV for breaking a 4% rating.

When Records of the Bai’s Return reached its 50th episode, Xingzhou TV’s viewership finally exceeded 4%. It was now January, and the number of viewers was gradually increasing, causing Xingzhou TV’s ratings to climb steadily.

“Congratulations, Screenwriter Lin!”

“Little Lin is simply a ratings demon lord!”

“Awesome!!!!”

After a long while, Lin Ji finally saw the comment asking what his next project would be.

Lin Ji answered honestly: [It should be a palace intrigue drama or a transmigration drama.]

“Palace intrigue??? Transmigration???”

“These two genres seem… very new?”

“Curious. Palace intrigue and transmigration dramas feel like the kind of novel things that no one has ever filmed before. Are these genres you created yourself, Screenwriter Lin?”

Lin Ji: “…”

He had forgotten. It seemed this world didn’t have the transmigration genre yet.

Lin Ji naturally wasn’t thick-skinned enough to say these two genres were his original creations, but he really couldn’t answer the question.

Therefore, after mentioning his future creative plans, Lin Ji silently went lurker mode.

Shortly after transmigrating into the original host’s body, Lin Ji had researched the popular genres of this era. The two genres that would become explosive in the future, transmigration and palace intrigue, truly did not exist. The popular dramas of this era were more traditional and conventional. Even webnovels were the same.

Code 11 and Records of the Bai’s Return were both a bit too formal. Lin Ji wanted to write something slightly different for his next project.

* * *

“Does anyone know about transmigration and palace intrigue dramas? Lin Ji posted about them on Weibo today.”

When it came to creative genres, the first to pay attention was naturally the screenwriting forum.

Although the screenwriters on the forum would occasionally feel sour about Lin Ji’s ratings, they were very willing to learn from the strengths shown in his works.

After Code 11 and Records of the Bai’s Return aired, several massive threads were built on the screenwriting forum specifically to analyze Lin Ji’s creative techniques. The screenwriters dissected everything starting from God of War Returns Home, analyzing the pacing, the dialogue, and the scenes, wishing they could dig out Lin Ji’s brain to see how it was constructed.

As soon as Lin Ji mentioned the two completely unfamiliar concepts of “transmigration” and “palace intrigue,” some screenwriters couldn’t sit still.

“Could it be something he made up just to mislead people?”

“He’s probably just seeking attention, right? Young screenwriters always love to invent new terms. Does Lin Ji want to create a Lin Ji Universe or something?”

“…Isn’t the Records of the Bai’s Return universe enough?”

The screenwriters in the thread fell silent for several minutes.

Indeed, among the screenwriters replying, there were those whose new dramas had coincided with the broadcast of Records of the Bai’s Return. They really wanted to complain; the viewership charts after the finale of Shooting the Sirius were nothing but a one-sided, naked bullying of all of them by Lin Ji!

It was simply… hateful.

“If these aren’t fictional concepts he made up, does it mean the creative field for everyone will expand?”

“!!”

“That’s an angle I never considered. Actually, it’s true, there weren’t so many campus-themed ‘sweet pet’ dramas before. Then someone wrote one, and the genre exploded.”

“Palace intrigue and transmigration should both be historical themes, right? Has Lin Ji ever written a historical drama before?”

“…As a historical genre specialist, I used to just watch the chaos from the sidelines. Am I about to be abused by Lin Ji just like the rest of you?”

The screenwriters pondered deeply. They scrolled through Lin Ji’s Weibo and looked for old comments from “Big Rooster” on the forum, but they couldn’t find a single clue.

The satellite stations were even faster than the screenwriters. As soon as Lin Ji showed an intention to write a new script, the olive branches from the stations were already extended toward him, each offering more generous terms than the last.

Lin Ji really wanted to ask Qinglan TV something. It was one thing to offer him a house to live in, but why did they specifically emphasize “overseas imported toilets” and how much screenwriters praised them?

What did they mean by “solving the problems caused by long periods of sitting and writing”?

Qinglan TV was using a two-pronged approach of material and spiritual incentives.

Materially, they gave plenty of money, offering Lin Ji the highest price ever for a collaborating screenwriter.

Spiritually, the director of Qinglan TV wrote a letter, the contents of which could be summarized as follows: [Screenwriter Lin, with whom I once shared profound memories, you’ve written hit dramas for other stations one after another, yet your only collaboration with us was Snow in Early May. I feel wronged and heartbroken. Is it that I, Qinglan TV, am not worthy?]

Lin Ji: “…”

He had an impulse to throw the letter into a furnace and burn it.

He never thought that after decades of roaming the world, someone would successfully make him want to rip their mouth apart!

NOTES

Regretting until their guts turn green (肠子都悔青了): A Chinese idiom meaning to be filled with extreme regret. 

23333: Chinese internet slang for laughter, similar to “LOL.”

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