Translator: Ink Hub

Editor: Yoog

In fact, Xiao Cheng’s days were far less comfortable than others imagined.

The failure of Snow in Early May had already caused his reputation to slide considerably. He could still get work entirely because he knew how to conduct himself. Originally, he only needed to wait out the period the audience still remembered Snow in Early May to pass. But Lin Ji just had to keep jumping out repeatedly, making it difficult for the audience to forget Snow in Early May even if they wanted to.

In the past, Xiao Cheng could have said Lin Ji was leeching off his popularity. But now, the results of God of War Returns Home were right there for everyone inside and outside the circle to see.

Lin Ji’s weight in the industry had increased significantly. Even if Xiao Cheng wanted to accuse him, public opinion wouldn’t one-sidedly support him anymore.

Those posts about him online were gaining more and more heat. Some said he exploited assistant screenwriters and stole credit for projects; others said he loved marketing too much. Unfortunately, Xiao Cheng couldn’t refute all of them, because eighty percent of the content in those posts was true.

Xiao Cheng could only spend a large sum of money to suppress the trending searches. Recently, getting work hadn’t been as easy as before, so naturally, he wouldn’t allow his reputation to continue rotting.

He wanted to minimize the issue until it disappeared, but Lin Ji insisted on jumping up and down in every post. The figure of “8,000 yuan” was revealed by Lin Ji. If Xiao Cheng hadn’t discovered it early, Lin Ji would probably have shaken out all the inside stories of the Snow in Early May filming.

Xiao Cheng had no choice but to approach the other screenwriters of Snow in Early May, hoping they would think of a solution. But they responded with sarcastic tones, “Deal with Lin Ji? Are you dreaming? He’s Rice Grains Video’s life-saving straw right now. He’s not airing on satellite TV, nor is he begging for your connections and resources. What can you do to him? At worst, he films short dramas for the rest of his life.”

“Rice Grains Video wishes they could lock him down forever!”

Xiao Cheng could tolerate a couple of mocking sentences, but the other party just had to bring up old history, “Back then, the idea to push Lin Ji out as the scapegoat was yours.”

Hearing this, Xiao Cheng gripped his phone tightly, his palm turning red from the pressure.

It was true that the idea was his, but at the time, none of the others had objected.

“As expected, none of them is reliable,” Xiao Cheng grumbled hatefully.

“There’s nothing we can do; the view count for God of War Returns Home is just too high.” The moment the agent mentioned God of War Returns Home, he realized something was wrong. Sure enough, Xiao Cheng’s expression instantly darkened.

Recently, he couldn’t stand hearing those five words. If anyone even slightly mentioned it, ghost fire would rage in his heart. But he couldn’t avoid it at all; wherever he went, people were discussing the explosive popularity of God of War Returns Home and discussing Lin Ji, the rising star of the screenwriting world.

“Some rising star, he just wrote a trashy short drama, that’s all.”

In Xiao Cheng’s view, the reason God of War Returns Home could become popular was purely because the subject matter had an advantage, attracting a wave of tasteless viewers.

But cursing was just cursing. The screenwriting circle always looked at results, and it was a hard fact that God of War Returns Home had exploded.

“I have an idea.” The agent looked at Xiao Cheng. “If Lin Ji can make short dramas, why can’t we?”

God of War Returns Home was so hot that its view count suppressed both Chaoxing TV and Qike Video. These two platforms originally didn’t value short dramas, but with God of War Returns Home as an example, they inevitably felt somewhat tempted.

Original short dramas were bland and tasteless, a synthesis of various bad movie elements. But the sudden emergence of God of War Returns Home made the platforms realize that short dramas could actually be filmed like this.

Audiences didn’t care about the prestige of a series; being entertaining was the primary factor.

Right now, Rice Grains Video had locked up Lin Ji early on. Chaoxing TV and Qike Video naturally wanted to cultivate their own short drama teams.

In any case, even if they looked down on the short drama market, they wouldn’t just hand over the market share to Rice Grains Video.

“It’s not that we can’t try.” Xiao Cheng’s thoughts shifted. “God of War Returns Home is only so hot because they have no competing products in the market.”

He actually somewhat regretted being too harsh on Lin Ji back then. If the Snow in Early May incident hadn’t happened, Lin Ji would still be the diligent little screenwriter under him, and none of these troublesome matters would have occurred.

* * *

The National Film Academy’s 90th Anniversary Celebration was big news. Lin Ji also received an email. Every graduate could return to visit during the celebration week, but identities differed. Some were invited back as distinguished alumni, while others were just ordinary graduates. Lin Ji belonged to the latter.

Lin Ji didn’t take that email seriously.

The filming for Secretly in Love with You was reaching its end, and he really couldn’t get away. But even if he had time, Lin Ji wouldn’t go back. He had left the class group chat and deleted most of his classmates’ contacts. Since people were calling him the “Disgrace of the National Film Academy,” why would he go back just to find unhappiness?

Lin Ji’s Weibo bio originally had a line saying “Graduated from National Film Academy Screenwriting Department, Class of XX,” but he deleted it very decisively.

Last week, when the media came to interview him, Lin Ji only mentioned his optimism for the short drama format and didn’t say a single word about his study experience at the National Film Academy.

He held grudges just like that.

“Little Lin who never leaves revenge overnight 23333.”

“It’s because those people from the National Film Academy are really annoying! Every single one of them sides with Xiao Cheng. Can’t they use their little brains to consider the perspective of a powerless screenwriter?”

“Little Lin should come to our A Film Academy for a master’s degree. In the future, just introduce yourself as an A Film person.”

“Upstairs, your abacus beads are about to hit me in the face. Come to C Film Academy; our school just opened a short drama training class.”

“Dying of laughter. Lin Ji, who wrote God of War Returns Home, is the Disgrace of the National Film Academy, while the ‘famous’ screenwriter who makes his junior brother take the blame when things go wrong is the Light of the National Film Academy. As expected of the National Film Academy, truly admirable.”

The National Film Academy’s anniversary celebration this time was massive. As a newly popular figure in the screenwriting circle, Lin Ji actually qualified to be invited. However, since the start of the event, screenwriters big and small from the National Film Academy had sent sincere blessings to their alma mater, yet Lin Ji’s homepage alone remained silent.

“Does Lin Ji really not plan to mix in the screenwriting circle anymore?”

“Is there really such a deep hatred? God of War Returns Home has good results recently, but Lin Ji can’t guarantee his next one will definitely explode, right? It’s better to leave a way out when conducting oneself.”

On the day before the anniversary celebration, Lin Ji’s Weibo homepage finally had some movement.

【Beautiful and kind-hearted you, come help me out.】

Drama fans who thought he encountered a difficult problem in his creation curiously clicked the link, only to find the page redirected directly to the “Assist Him” event for Anipop (Happy Match-3).

Drama fans: “…”

“Hurry up and go write the 30-episode script! We’re waiting to watch!”

“Anipop, the spiritual harbor for the middle-aged and elderly… wait, no, after assisting, I found out you’re only level 200. Little Lin, how can you be such a noob?”

“I’m dying of laughter. Others can attend the anniversary celebration, you only deserve to play Anipop. Hurry up and reflect on yourself! (pointing fingers)”

“Even the production team’s donkeys wouldn’t dare to rest like this!”

Lin Ji didn’t do it on purpose. Anipop had several sharing options; he just accidentally clicked into Weibo. He didn’t mean to stir up trouble.

Besides, even if the National Film Academy overthought it, Lin Ji didn’t care.

Between Lin Ji and Xiao Cheng, most of his teachers and classmates chose Xiao Cheng. For the original host, what crushed him wasn’t necessarily just the failure of Snow in Early May—it was this obvious bias from the people around him.

In his previous life, Lin Ji didn’t have many friends. He didn’t need these friends of the original host either.

Lin Ji hadn’t thought about face-slapping the National Film Academy. After all, the Academy was huge and powerful, with an unrivaled status in the screenwriting circle. It was just that some people were used to standing on high ground; if others didn’t bow their heads, it seemed like disrespect to them.

Lin Ji thought this matter had passed. Who knew that the next day, a fairly well-known screenwriter in the industry would publish an article in his column, criticizing God of War Returns Home for disrupting the industry ecology and manufacturing “electronic opium.”

“…God of War Returns Home cannot even be called a drama series. It is merely a patchwork of trash. The screenwriter kneaded various face-slapping elements into it, one face-slap linking to another. However, apart from face-slapping and momentary pleasure, what can the audience gain?

“The reason God of War Returns Home is presented to the audience in the form of a short drama is that the screenwriter doesn’t know how to craft a long drama at all. Its dialogue is shallow and straightforward, completely unrelated to art, merely mobilizing the audience’s viewing enthusiasm in the most primitive way…

“Many people think the screenwriter Lin Ji is very talented. In my opinion, it is quite the opposite. This short drama God of War Returns Home is merely a projection of his reality. He wants to use this drama to express his resentment over unrecognized talent. Many plots in the drama, such as ‘Let the Zhou Group go bankrupt when the weather gets cold’ and ‘Commanding thousands of troops with a single phone call,’ are Lin Ji’s personal fantasies (YY), unfit for the Hall of Elegance.

“One can tell from Lin Ji’s attitude towards the National Film Academy…”

Frowning, Lin Ji finished reading this famous screenwriter’s column. An article of nearly three thousand words; one-third criticized God of War Returns Home, and the remaining two thousand words criticized Lin Ji’s character and creative standards, incidentally promoting the National Film Academy’s anniversary celebration.

Lin Ji searched online. This screenwriter was impressively an “Outstanding Alumnus” of the National Film Academy.

The other party became famous very early on and hadn’t written a script for quite a few years. His main job now was writing columns and expressing opinions in magazines like Screenwriter and Dramatist. He also had his own online column. His daily routine could be summarized in one word: spraying (trolling/criticizing).

The other party sprayed heartily. This article went straight to the Weibo trending list. With this senior industry figure taking the lead, those screenwriters who couldn’t stand God of War Returns Home jumped out one after another, constantly picking faults with the show.

“Screenwriters should have a sense of social responsibility. Creation shouldn’t only look at ratings and view counts.”

“If we allow scripts like God of War Returns Home to survive, we will only manufacture a pile of visual garbage.”

“The explosive popularity of God of War Returns Home is a disaster for the screenwriting world.”

Anyone with eyes could see that this was simply because some people couldn’t stand that the data for God of War Returns Home was too good.

God of War Returns Home looked like it was on a rhythm to make hundreds of episodes. After it aired, the first to suffer were Silken Tresses and A Lifetime of Peace. But the TV station ratings were also somewhat affected. TV stations were not happy to see the emergence of excellent web dramas. After the view count for God of War Returns Home exploded repeatedly, an advertiser for Qinglan TV switched to invest in Rice Grains Video instead.

However, the speeches of this group of screenwriters stood on the moral high ground. With hats like “social responsibility” and “guiding the youth” slapped down, Rice Grains Video’s official account and drama fans couldn’t help but be more careful in their interactions.

“Now Lin Ji has nothing to say, right…”

“There’s no need to criticize God of War Returns Home like this; it’s just a short drama.”

Drama fans thought Lin Ji would temporarily retreat. But just after the various screenwriters spoke up, Lin Ji silently went online.

【When writing the script for God of War Returns Home, I didn’t consider the issue of view counts. It just accidentally exploded; blame me, then?】

【Next, I invite the screenwriters who have neither social responsibility nor view counts to speak @Screenwriter Qin Leilei @Screenwriter Xia Mo.】

Qin Leilei and Xia Mo were precisely the authors of Silken Tresses and A Lifetime of Peace. The two were mixed in the group of screenwriters pointing fingers at Lin Ji, only to be singled out individually by him.

We’re all competitors here; what are you pretending to be passersby for?

NOTES

Abacus beads… face: An idiom/meme meaning someone’s scheming or hidden agenda is so obvious that it’s practically hitting the listener in the face.

YY: Abbreviation for “Yi Yin” (Mental Masturbation/Fantasy). Refers to indulging in unrealistic fantasies of power or success.

Hall of Elegance: Refers to high culture, refined society, or prestigious standing.

23333: Internet slang for laughter (LOL). Derived from the emote code #233 on the Mop forum, which was a laughter emoji.

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