History

At 11:30 a.m., Li Xun rubbed his aching wrist, saved the document, and leaned back in his chair to rest.

In less than half a day, he had finished writing the script for the first episode of Young Bao Qingtian, including several thousand words of synopsis, outline, and character biographies.

Young Bao Qingtian was already a twenty-year-old series to Li Xun. When it first aired, he had been very young and could only vaguely remember that it was a classic, terrifying, and hugely popular. Today, as he went over the script, he revisited the series in his mind. To his surprise, he noticed many details he had completely missed as a child—or had seen without understanding.

For example, there was the couplet Gongsun Ce answered when he was challenged at Spring Breeze Full Moon Tower:

"The sounds of wind, rain, and reading—all ring in my ears."

And the reply:

"Family affairs, state affairs, all affairs under heaven—I care about them all."

Wasn't that the couplet from the Donglin Academy in the Ming dynasty?

And the couplet whose answer was the Xinwei top scholar—wasn't that the one Zhu Ziliu used to test Huang Rong in The Legend of the Condor Heroes?

Wasn't its source even earlier, in some book from the Ming dynasty?

Actually, it was perfectly normal for TV dramas to borrow and repurpose material to show off a character's scholarly talent. Expecting a screenwriter to come up with riddles and couplets brilliant enough to astonish the world was asking a bit much. It was just that, as a child, he hadn't understood any of this. He had simply thought, Wow, that's amazing! What an incredible couplet! Gongsun Ce is brilliant!

But now, looking back, he thought, Oh! So they borrowed someone else's work!

The drama he had once thought so divine didn't seem quite so divine anymore. Could it really compete with The Coroner's sister series, The House of the Dead?

Maybe he should first see how good The Coroner really was.

Li Xun typed The Coroner into a search engine, clicked the play button, and put on his headphones.

The image faded in, and the narration began:

"In the eighteenth year of Emperor Taizu of Han's reign, 1380 AD. Jiangnan..."

Li Xun immediately hit pause.

He rubbed his face. The information from the two different timelines was colliding in his mind, giving him a headache.

In this timeline, history had diverged at the end of the Yuan dynasty. The victor in the wars among the various powers had not been Zhu Yuanzhang, the former cowherd, but Chen Youliang, the fisherman.

After taking a moment to recover, Li Xun continued watching.

After skimming through the first episode, he couldn't help wondering:

That's it?!

This set the whole internet on fire???

At 11:50 a.m., Wang Hai saved his script and stretched luxuriously.

He had written about two thousand words of the story that morning. He figured he'd been in pretty good form today.

He turned his chair and saw the new guy, Li Xun, watching The Coroner. Wang Hai couldn't help smirking.

He had thought it would take the kid at least two or three days to suddenly realize his writing wasn't any good. He hadn't expected Li Xun's confidence to start wavering in less than half a day.

If his confidence hadn't wavered, why else would he be watching The Coroner for pointers?

"Hey, Xiao Li, why are you watching The Coroner?" Wang Hai asked, sure he'd seen right through him.

Li Xun glanced back and smiled. "Since our project is meant to rival The Coroner's sister series, I figured I should know the competition."

"You've been writing all morning. How do you feel?" Wang Hai asked.

Li Xun answered honestly, "Before I started, I thought it was great. But after writing it, I realized it wasn't quite as good as I remembered."

It was true. The series was twenty years old, and his childhood memories had made it seem better than it was. Watching it again now, it really wasn't as amazing as he remembered.

Wang Hai gave a knowing smile, stood up, and put a hand on Li Xun's shoulder. "That's normal. Every screenwriter goes through that stage. By the way, I saw you hammering away at the keyboard. How many words did you write this morning?"

Li Xun thought for a moment. "About twelve thousand."

Wang Hai choked a little. But then he remembered that his own two thousand words were more or less ready to submit, while ninety-nine percent of Li Xun's twelve thousand would have to be scrapped. That made him feel better.

Li Xun added, "Including the synopsis, outline, and character biographies, it's about fourteen thousand words altogether."

"Cough, cough!"

Wang Hai coughed twice and stopped dwelling on the subject. Patting Li Xun on the shoulder, he said, "It's time. Let's go eat."

The cafeteria was on the twelfth floor, so they had to take the elevator. The first one was full, so they rode up in the second.

Once inside, Wang Hai pointed out where to get the communal utensils, then told Li Xun to help himself to whatever he wanted. He had things to discuss with some of the other coworkers, so Li Xun could find a seat and eat on his own.

Li Xun picked up a stainless-steel tray. The cafeteria was huge, with plenty of dishes to choose from. He got tomato and egg stir-fry, hot-and-sour shredded potatoes, red-braised ribs, a marinated egg, and some greens, then found a seat and started eating.

Eating alone felt a little lonely.

The other two newcomers, Han Qiaoling and Zhou Hongsu, were sitting not far away, chatting and laughing. They had clearly already gotten to know each other.

After lunch, he returned to his desk for a break, then went back to writing in the afternoon.

Although he was getting more practiced at transcribing the script and writing faster and faster, he still hadn't finished the third episode by the time work ended. He copied the script onto his USB drive, planning to continue at home that night.

When work was over, he said goodbye to Wang Hai and left Penguin Innovation Building. He walked straight to the subway, rode for forty minutes, then walked for another half hour before finally reaching home: a basement room of less than ten square meters, with no sunlight but its own bathroom.

His predecessor had lived there for a full seven years.

Once the rights transfer fee for Predestination came through, he would be able to move out of that cramped, damp place. He could also send some money to his parents.

His predecessor had spent seven years struggling in the capital, yet had never sent a single cent home. It was something he had been unable to forgive himself for, right up until his death.

It wasn't that he hadn't made any money during those seven years. Most of it had gone to his ex-girlfriend.

His predecessor's ex-girlfriend was named Xia Qing. Their families had been neighbors, and the two of them had played together since they were toddlers in split-crotch pants. As they grew up, they were practically inseparable.

Xia Qing's family had never been well-off. When she was very young, her father injured his back while working away from home. He had been bedridden ever since, relying on her mother for everything. Their family had suddenly lost most of its income, and they could barely get by on the few acres of land her mother tended.

Xia Qing naturally dropped out of school. By then, his predecessor had already fallen for her and couldn't bear to let his childhood sweetheart go to the city to work all alone at such a young age. So he begged his parents to cover Xia Qing's tuition too. His family was much better off than hers, but they still weren't wealthy, and his parents were, of course, unwilling.

Then, one night—he remembered it had been pouring—Xia Qing came running into the Li family's house alone, with no umbrella, soaked to the skin. His family had been eating dinner, and when they saw how bedraggled she was, they thought something terrible must have happened at home. They were all startled. But as soon as Xia Qing came inside, she dropped to her knees and began kowtowing to his parents.

His whole family was completely taken aback.

As his predecessor's family stared in shock, Xia Qing wiped the rain and tears from her face and cried, "Uncle, Auntie, could you pay for Li Xun and me to go to school together? I'll marry Li Xun and be your daughter-in-law when I grow up. I'll repay you that way. Will you?"

A surge of emotion rushed through his predecessor. He immediately knelt before his parents too, shouting, "If you won't pay for Xia Qing's schooling, then I won't go to school either!"

Xia Qing glanced at him kneeling beside her and continued, "Uncle, Auntie, if you're worried I might change my mind, I'll ask my mother to put her fingerprint on an agreement. We can get the village officials to witness it. Would that make you feel better?"

Even now, Li Xun could still see the scene in his predecessor's fragmented memories: a girl of thirteen or fourteen, soaked through, raindrops falling from her hair onto her face and mixing with her tears as they dripped to the floor. She wouldn't get up until his predecessor's parents agreed.

And so, his predecessor's family supported Xia Qing all the way through university.

By high school, Xia Qing had already shown remarkable talent for acting and singing. Many of her teachers urged her to try for the Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama. But the Li family was paying for her schooling. How could she make that decision herself? His predecessor knew Xia Qing dreamed of joining the entertainment industry, so he personally tried to persuade his parents. Naturally, they didn't want her to go. They spoke to their son earnestly:

"Son, Xia Qing's got too much ambition. If she doesn't become a star, your father and I are already worried you won't be able to hold on to her. If she really does become a star, why would she ever be content to become a daughter-in-law in our family?"

His predecessor wouldn't listen to them. Then, after failing the college entrance exam, he simply stopped studying too. He went to the capital with Xia Qing and started working as a delivery driver. When his family refused to support her, he earned the money himself and paid her way. So after covering his own bare necessities, he gave almost everything he made to Xia Qing.

His predecessor's parents saw that their son had made up his mind, so they stopped trying to talk him out of it. To make sure he wouldn't have too hard a time in the capital, they began sending him money from time to time.

Xia Qing did get into the Beijing Film Academy, but they admitted so many students every year. How many of them actually became stars?

So, for the first two years after Xia Qing graduated, she barely earned anything. Most of her living expenses still fell on his predecessor's shoulders.

His predecessor had always thought that was only right.

Then, a year ago, Xia Qing entered a singing competition, and suddenly became a sensation.

Word was, she had earned her agency more than ten million yuan in just this year.

The gap between them had become enormous, so their breakup had felt inevitable.

Then, one night, his predecessor—who could barely hold his liquor—drank an entire bottle of baijiu in one go. The next day, this Li Xun had become that Li Xun.