Chapter 494: Catching Fire Layer by Layer (7,000-word update!)

"Lu Yan He has written another script!"

"Writing a script in one night—I finally understand why Lu Yan He's output is so high."

"He finished a screenwriter's year of work in a single night."

"I wonder if it's a movie script or a TV drama script."

"To the person above, even a human word-processing machine couldn't finish a TV drama script in one night."

"Lu Yan He really is the heaven-sent Ziwei star of the domestic entertainment industry. I really can't condemn this damn industry with one broad stroke anymore."

……

Lu Yan He was sleeping groggily. After waking up, he felt as miserable as if he were about to die suddenly; his head felt as heavy as lead, and he lacked any of that satisfaction one feels after a full night's sleep, ready to stretch under the sun.

He lay on the bed like a dead fish, taking nearly ten minutes just to pull his soul back together before he finally regained enough strength to crawl out of bed.

As for what it means to be a walking corpse, Lu Yan He didn't even need to look in a mirror; he could state outright that he was the very definition of a walking corpse.

"Yo, you're awake?" Li Zhibai was sitting at the living room coffee table eating; he was the only one there.

Lu Yan He felt as if his eyes were swollen shut.

"Where's Yan Liang?"

"Zhou Ping'an came looking for him, so he went to the company," Li Zhibai said. "Though, I think that was just an excuse."

"What's wrong?" Lu Yan He asked, confused. "Is there some kind of problem?"

As he spoke, he let out a long yawn.

Li Zhibai said with an unruffled expression, "You should check Weibo."

Lu Yan He was shocked wide awake.

"Did something happen to Yan Liang that got him on the trending list? Your reaction is pretty scary; what's going on?"

Li Zhibai glanced at him and smiled.

Lu Yan He was even more puzzled.

Because he saw a hint of mockery in the smile Li Zhibai had just worn.

Lu Yan He didn't even bother going to the bathroom; he turned around, went back to his room to grab his phone, and upon looking, saw a photo of himself sleeping like the dead.

"……"

Of course, many people were praising him, feeling sorry for him, and saying all sorts of nice things.

But the first high-ranking comment Lu Yan He saw in the comment section was from Li Zhibai: You made him look too much like a pig that's been dazed by sleep.

Attached was a comparison photo of Lu Yan He sleeping next to a little pink pig, and they had even specifically found one with the exact same sleeping posture...

Lu Yan He: "……"

He threw his phone onto the bed and collapsed back down himself.

He muttered under his breath, "None of them are any good!"

Li Zhibai walked over.

"You're going to sleep again?" he asked, standing at the doorway with one hand propped against the door frame.

Lu Yan He said listlessly, "Get lost, quickly, or I'll throw the slipper on my foot right at your face."

Li Zhibai: "Yan Liang said he's on his way back from the company and will be here in about twenty minutes. He asked if you're up, and if you are, we'll go eat together."

Lu Yan He: "You guys haven't had lunch yet?"

"Big brother, it's already four in the afternoon; we're about to have dinner," Li Zhibai said, speechless.

Lu Yan He sat up in disbelief.

"What?" Only then did he notice the time. "I actually slept for this long!"

Nearly nine hours.

Li Zhibai: "Stop staying up late."

Lu Yan He let out a long sigh. "So tired."

Li Zhibai crossed his arms. "Stop whining, get up, brush your teeth, and wash your face. Yan Liang will be here soon."

"Doesn't he still have twenty minutes?" Lu Yan He lay back down.

Li Zhibai: "Can you go out with that bird's nest on your head without washing it?"

"I'll just wear a hat. Let me sleep for ten more minutes, then call me again." Lu Yan He really felt so sleepy, so tired.

Forty minutes later, the three of them were sitting in a private room at a restaurant by the river that specialized in fish. It was on the third floor, overlooking the river, with a bleak expanse of white and black outside.

There was no sunset; night was already about to fall.

Lu Yan He really didn't have much life experience where it became dark so soon after opening his eyes.

He took off his hat, sporting a head of bird-like hair, his expression still dazed.

"You haven't recovered after all this time; you aren't sick, are you?" Li Zhibai asked.

Lu Yan He: "I don't think so. I don't feel uncomfortable; maybe it's just that finishing the script in one go last night drained all my energy and spirit."

Li Zhibai clicked his tongue twice. "Weak."

Yan Liang said with a smile, "You're being too exaggerated, writing an entire script in one night."

"The story had already been thought out; I just hadn't written it down yet," Lu Yan He said.

Li Zhibai asked, "Are there any roles we can play?"

"Uh..." Lu Yan He thought for a moment. "The only one suitable for your age is the role of a eunuch."

Li Zhibai immediately shot Lu Yan He a sideways glance and said, "Go play it yourself."

Yan Liang asked in surprise, "You actually wrote a period piece?"

Before this, the only period piece Lu Yan He had written was *My Own Swordsman*, and that show wasn't actually a traditional period piece; its primary positioning was comedy.

Lu Yan He nodded and said, "It's a Wu Xia film."

"Eh? A Wu Xia film?" Yan Liang was somewhat surprised. "You really wrote one."

"Yeah, I told you, I really do have many Wu Xia stories I want to write," Lu Yan He said.

For Chinese people, almost everyone has a Wu Xia dream in their childhood.

Even if there were no Jin Yong or Gu Long in this world, Wu Xia film and television dramas were still never absent from anyone's childhood.

In this world, the weight of the two characters "Wu Xia" was no less than in the timeline where those two men existed.

And just like in that world, after entering the new century, Wu Xia stories—and not just film and television—were slowly declining.

It was no longer mainstream.

It seemed that fewer and fewer people were interested in this subject matter.

But still, every year or two, like a cultural renaissance, one or two Wu Xia works would emerge that made everyone's eyes light up, sparking widespread discussion.

Just like Director Ning Zhiyuan's *Nine Yin*, which grossed 700 million.

Just like in the world before Lu Yan He transmigrated: 2010's *Reign of Assassins*, 2011's *Flying Swords of Dragon Gate*, 2013's *The Grandmaster*, 2014's *Brotherhood of Blades* and *Kung Fu Jungle*, and 2018's *Hidden Man*.

Whether they were big-name directors, famous directors, or unknown small directors, everyone held a Wu Xia dream in their hearts.

Of course, a decline is a decline.

Lu Yan He had been an actor for so long, and he had already reached the top position for his age, yet in a year, he could barely receive one or two Wu Xia film scripts.

"But there really are very few Wu Xia-themed film and television dramas now," Yan Liang said. "Yan He, perhaps after your *My Own Swordsman* airs, everyone will turn their attention back to the Wu Xia genre."

Lu Yan He shook his head and said, "That's not necessarily true. *My Own Swordsman* is primarily a comedy; the audience that likes it might overlap with those who like *Friends*. It's also a story about a group of people living in one place, using many small unit stories to comment on the present through the past; Wu Xia is just a shell."

He said, "However, regardless of whether the industry turns its attention back to the Wu Xia genre, I will keep writing them anyway."

Yan Liang: "Then when will you write one we can act in?"

Lu Yan He said with a smile, "Wait until I find the feeling; there will be one."

He had to wait for a moment like last night, as if helped by the gods.

A story that has lingered in the mind for a long time—that is not a story you created yourself; you just know it. You have to write it out, and there are a thousand ways to do so.

If you can't truly grasp the feeling of that moment and just force the writing, the story will certainly still be good, but in the end, it will be missing that certain something.

Wu Xia is never just about flashing blades and swords; it is about the love, hate, and grudges in that Jianghu of blades and swords. It is fate, the colorful variety of people in that Jianghu, the "great hero who acts for the country and the people" when facing foreign threats, and the "I insist on forcing it" when refusing to compromise on feelings. The people in it are passionate and true, with heroic bones and tender hearts. He would say, "A-Zhu is A-Zhu. Across the four seas and all nations, through the ages, there is only one A-Zhu." Therefore, Wu Xia is never just Wu Xia; it is the Jianghu of millions, and it is the world in the hearts of millions in another world.

Lu Yan He said with a smile, "Mainly, we're all too young right now. Let's wait until we're a few years older. Let's film *Chinese Paladin* first."

"Have you heard? Lu Yan He wrote a Wu Xia film script."

This news spread like wildfire through the entertainment industry.

"He really does like the Wu Xia genre," someone said. "Not to mention he finished filming *My Own Swordsman*, he's written another script."

"Aren't there hardly any people watching the Wu Xia genre now?"

"Did you forget *Nine Yin*? It took 700 million at the box office last summer!"

"That was only 700 million; look at how high the ceiling for movie box office is now."

"I don't know what to say; 700 million at the box office is actually 'only' in your mouth."

……

Lu Yan He's new script was highly anticipated.

Many people came looking for him.

Because there were simply too many people coming, Lu Yan He had to post on his Moments, stating that this film script was only a first draft, not yet finalized, and would not be made public for the time being.

Chen Ziyan was one of the very few people who saw the script.

Lu Yan He asked Chen Ziyan, "What do you think?"

Chen Ziyan smiled, shook her head, and said, "Every time I finish reading a script you've written, I'm annoyed by one thing."

"What thing?" Lu Yan He asked.

Chen Ziyan said, "Why are there so few roles in the scripts you write that are suitable for you to play yourself? And they are all roles older than you. I really wasn't wrong at all; there's an aged soul living inside your body, mature beyond your years."

Lu Yan He thought to himself, no, it's not that there's an aged soul living in his body; if you put it that way, there are many aged souls living in his body.

However, Lu Yan He also understood what Chen Ziyan meant.

Indeed, many good scripts might be ones he could act in eight or nine years from now, but as he was now, in terms of age, it was too inappropriate.

Just like when he gave up on acting in *Rouge*, it was for the same reason.

An actor playing a character must always meet some basic conditions.

Chen Ziyan said, "However, looking at this script, I really can't find actors in the entertainment industry who can play these characters for the time being."

These characters had a filter in Lu Yan He's heart.

Therefore, when Lu Yan He wrote them, he poured a lot of his own partiality into them.

Especially Jin Xiangyu.

This was the character Lu Yan He favored most in the story of *Dragon Inn*, and also one of the most representative characters in the Wu Xia world in Lu Yan He's mind.

How many innkeepers in the Jianghu that followed had referenced this character?

Lu Yan He said, "Let's leave the script here for now and find the actors slowly."

He believed that he would definitely find suitable actors. This kind of thing requires fate.

"Male actors and female actors are really different," Chen Ziyan said. "The best time for male actors is after thirty, because the best roles are concentrated in the thirty to fifty age range, but the best roles for female actors are all before thirty-five. If you can't emerge before thirty-five, it's basically very difficult."

"Why are you suddenly so sentimental?" Lu Yan He asked. "Did something happen with Wen Minglan?"

"No," Chen Ziyan shook her head. "I've just been looking at the roster of artists the company is planning to sign, and this point is very prominent."

Lu Yan He thought for a moment. "It's mainly because in the market, absolute female-led dramas are mostly TV series. In movies, there aren't actually many female leads with real weight. Except for Bige, who can get a real lead role every time she acts, in fact, other actresses, including Yuqian, the movie *After the Golden Clothes* she took is still a male-led drama. I read an article before that talked about female leads in domestic movies; most of them are 'border' leads. It was described very incisively."

"Hmm," Chen Ziyan nodded. "So, I quite like watching the dramas you write. Your dramas have very strong ensemble casts. Even in shows like *Squid Game* and *Rouge*, which are clearly male-led and female-led, the other lead's role is equally weighty; it's not that kind of 'border' character."

Lu Yan He: "Except for some specific themes, I really like writing dramas about different people. Only with different people can different stories be produced and sparks fly."

Chen Ziyan: "That's just you. Many screenwriters in China can't write scripts according to their own ideas at all. You don't know how many people want to interfere, and in the end, a perfectly good story starts out and turns into something neither fish nor fowl."

Lu Yan He nodded. "Many people have told me that. Actually, Bai Jingnian told me before that it was only because I wrote the script for *Friends*, and at the time, the show was being used by the Beijing Station as an experiment, so basically no one from the Beijing Station participated in the script for the first season. I wrote it exactly how it was filmed. By the second season, I wasn't there, and I don't know how many people offered opinions on the script; he couldn't make the decisions. I just felt stunned. If a director can't make the decisions, then who can?"

Chen Ziyan smiled.

"The situation now is that anyone can make the decisions."

Lu Yan He: "Too bizarre."

Chen Ziyan nodded. "If it weren't bizarre, there wouldn't be so many bad dramas. However, fortunately, the situation is improving now, especially since the several dramas you wrote as a screenwriter have all exploded, letting many people see the importance of a good script. Probably influenced by you, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang have also publicly mentioned several times that when they are choosing projects, the script is always the first priority. This trend of public opinion has played a big role in everyone valuing scripts."

"Can the few of us talking about it really play a big role?" Lu Yan He was surprised.

"In this industry, whoever succeeds is who people listen to," Chen Ziyan also smiled. "People are particularly superstitious about success. Of course, everyone actually knows that the script is important. What's terrible is not that no one knows the script is important; what's terrible is that everyone thinks their own opinion can make the script better. You guys have said in many interviews that you would never casually offer modification suggestions on a script; either you refuse to take it, or if you take it, it means you definitely recognize its quality. Especially your 'neither fish nor fowl' description, it's deeply rooted in people's hearts. Many people say your description is incisive."

"I thought this was a consensus."

"Consensus is consensus, but being a good person and not adding trouble to others is also a consensus," Chen Ziyan said. "Don't ever think that a consensus is a rule that everyone will follow; a consensus is just a consensus. There are gods three feet above one's head, but no one thinks of the gods when they are about to commit a crime."

"……"

Chen Ziyan's linguistic art sometimes has a strong personal style.

On the twelfth day, *Squid Game* reached its finale, and at the same time, it welcomed its broadcast day on the Maxine platform.

Maxine gave it enough space, putting it directly on the website's homepage with a large promotional image, and also used their connections to find a large group of stars and artists in Asian countries to promote it.

It was grand and spectacular.

Such a lineup was something Chinese-language dramas had never had before.

The reason was none other than the three characters "Lu Yan He" appearing in the center of the promotional image; that was the reason it could be given such a lineup by Maxine.

After all, *Friends*, written by Lu Yan He, was one of the dramas with the strongest long-tail effect on Maxine.

Overseas, the promotional keyword for *Squid Game* was also "another screenwriting masterpiece by *Friends* screenwriter Lu Yan He."

Major media outlets reported on this drama differently than in China; they habitually listed Lu Yan He's past screenwriting masterpieces and the honors he had received.

Thus, finally, outside of his identity as an actor, Lu Yan He's screenwriting works received a large-scale, concentrated promotion.

The sitcom *Friends*, the most popular sitcom work in Asia in the last three years.

The movie *Rouge*, which won the Audience Choice Award at the Xitu'er International Film Festival, one of the international big four film festivals; South Korea and Thailand have already confirmed remakes.

The movie *Lost on Journey*, with a global box office exceeding 130 million USD.

This time, his new screenwriting work *Squid Game* has already broken many viewing records in mainland China and is one of the hottest dramas in mainland China this year.

Lu Yan He accepted an exclusive interview with Maxine.

Speaking of his identity as a screenwriter, he said, "I will keep creating. In fact, I have several screenwriting works in progress. I can give everyone a preview: the movie *Love Letter*, which I wrote and directed, has finished filming the summer parts and will soon start filming the winter parts. Besides that, the movie *The Call* will be starred by two actresses from *Squid Game*, Jiang Yuqian and Wang Jing, and is currently in pre-production. The Wu Xia-themed movie *Dragon Inn* has finished its script and is being revised. There is also a Xianxia-themed TV drama that the three of us—Li Zhibai, Yan Liang, and I—will star in, *Chinese Paladin*, which has now finished the script creation for eleven episodes. Oh, right, there are also several completed scripts that are not public for the time being because I am looking for partners."

By the time Lu Yan He finished talking about these projects one by one, the Thai actress Cai Na, who was specially invited by Maxine to be the host, had eyes that were shining.

"Although I know I shouldn't recommend myself to you today because I am the host, I still want to say that I am also an actress," Cai Na said with a smile. "I am also very popular in Thailand."

Lu Yan He nodded and said, "I know, Ms. Cai Na, you are also very popular in China, and many people like you very much."

He was not flattering Cai Na.

Cai Na was indeed one of the few Thai actors with name recognition in China.

She was a bit like that Thai actress in another world who was called "Little Water" by Chinese fans because she became popular for *First Love*. Cai Na also became popular in Asia because of a Thai youth romance movie. However, her international path was also quite bumpy; although she stabilized her popularity in Thailand by relying on a series of Thai dramas, she never produced another work that was popular throughout Asia.

Interviews, well, although Cai Na was the host and Lu Yan He was the interviewee, in such an occasion, commercial mutual flattery was certainly not a bad thing.

Sure enough, Cai Na's eyes were glowing, and she gently covered her shy smile with both hands. "Really? Do I have many fans in China too?"

"Of course," Lu Yan He nodded.

Cai Na: "I really hope that one day I will have the opportunity to act in a work you wrote, and even more, I hope to act with you."

For Cai Na, Lu Yan He's international popularity and status now were far from what Cai Na, who debuted earlier, could compare to. She also kept her posture relatively low, constantly praising Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He actually quite liked Cai Na. She was different from many actresses; she actually had a kind of girl-next-door beauty. This quality was too rare in the entertainment industry. Even Zhang Ruozhi, whom he found from a non-professional state, didn't have this girl-next-door feeling.

Perhaps, add a Thai female character in *Squid Game*?

Anyway, under the worldview of *Squid Game*, the appearance of a foreigner would not be abrupt at all, just like that Indian guy in the first season.

Lu Yan He said with a smile, "There will definitely be an opportunity."

Lu Yan He really wanted to see what kind of results *Squid Game* could achieve on the Maxine platform, and whether it could replicate the success of the original version globally.

The benefit of a streaming platform like Maxine is that you can see its data at any time.

No need to wait.

How many people watched this drama and how many people were interested were all quantified into numbers on the front page.

One hour after launch, the number of on-demand users for *Squid Game* (viewing time exceeding 2 minutes) exceeded one million.

And at this time, the influence of *Squid Game* on social media was only slowly spreading.

After watching the first episode, the first batch of viewers, who were already accustomed to sharing everything on the internet, all posted their impressions of the drama one after another.

And besides the viewers, Lu Yan He also had a group of media practitioners and film critics who were very concerned about him.

Lu Yan He's other works might have to be launched in mainland China for a period of time before going overseas, and it might not necessarily be launched globally at the same time; different countries and regions might have time differences due to different distributors.

But *Squid Game* was on Maxine, launched globally at the same time.

This allowed everyone to see this drama at the same time.

What kind of drama did Lu Yan He write?

The situation of *Squid Game* being reported by media in various countries broke many people's expectations.

Even Maxine itself did not expect that the media exposure of this drama would be so great.

Why do we say that any drama needs heat?

Because after film and television dramas have developed for so many years, major companies have understood a truth: no matter how famous a person is, how many fans they have, or how high the stickiness is, it is far less than the size of the general public.

In such an era, there are always more people who don't follow stars than those who do.

It's just that because most people don't speak out, it makes many people mistakenly think that data can represent everything.

How many movies have flopped at the box office, and how many big dramas have crashed? However, even so, it must be admitted that no drama would not use a star if it could. Because this is not an era where "the wine is not afraid of the deep alley"; any work needs to be seen first before it is possible for more people to see it.

You want to be an orchid in an empty valley, waiting for people to discover it—

That might wait until you, this orchid in the empty valley, have withered, and no one has come to you.

Therefore, heat means the opportunity to be known by more people and seen by more people, meaning it can cover a wider range of the general public, making the audience base of this work larger.

Media, in essence, is the same truth for a film or television drama.

It affects the heat of a film or television drama.

No matter how many people scold film critics for taking money to speak, or how few people care, or how many people satirize things like "how many people still read those media magazines now," those who work in this industry know that although the direct audience of film critics and media magazines may be small, in the background of the internet where one person spreads to another, how great is the power that these people who can initiate a discussion topic can stir up.

What you like, what you scold, what you satirize, what you look down on... everything you see in this era is actually made by individuals.

The topics on the internet are the same. You think you don't read those media magazines, but the problem is, how many of those discussions about film and television dramas, topics, and viewpoints are truly generated naturally, rather than coming from those traditional media magazine circles?

The first wave of momentum stirred up by *Squid Game* on social media came from the first batch of viewers and the media circle.

Several of the world's largest and most influential rating websites opened their scores one day after launch, and all received evaluations that were mostly positive.

Some media commented that the plot of this drama is simple and doesn't have much thinking value; compared with works like *Rouge*, it is a bit superficial, and it doesn't even resonate hugely among young people like *Friends*.

However, more media simply evaluated it as "good-looking, exciting, and cool" based on the viewing effect.

You walk past a restaurant, and you might just walk past it. But when you walk past a restaurant and hear someone say "this restaurant is rated as delicious by xxx," maybe you will stop and go in to taste it.

Media commentary plays exactly such a role.

And if more people have been there and all say it's delicious, then it changes from "delicious" in the mouths of professionals to "delicious" spread by word of mouth.

*Squid Game* is how it caught fire layer by layer. ===== CHAPTER 495 =====