Chapter 536: Luo Mo's Magically Revised Ending

As night fell, a large number of viewers opened Penguin Video on time to watch the grand finale of "Reset".

For a web drama with a short episode count, its ability to attract new members was off the charts, breaking the record for member sign-ups for short-form web dramas on Penguin Video; its popularity was evident.

Moreover, there are different ways to break a record.

Someone like Luo Mo belongs to the category of raising the bar by a significant margin.

The up-and-coming Drama Critic Xiao Cai began to camp out on time to watch, gathering material for her upcoming drama review.

In the days when "Reset" wasn't updated, she had already watched it three times.

During her third watch, she discovered many details she hadn't noticed before and gained many new moving insights, which she wrote into a drama review.

For example, earlier, Lu Di asked Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun: "In those 【Loop】s where I am lost, what will happen to my cat?"

This question had struck Xiao Cai's heart deeply at the time.

However, during her second watch, she found the answer.

Lu Di's father knew about his Secret Base and likely knew he was secretly keeping a cat.

So, rest assured. In those 【Loop】s where you are gone, Dad will take good care of them for you.

This technique is very clever and is highly beneficial to a drama's word-of-mouth.

Many viewers don't realize it while watching, but then, when they are pointed out by others online, they suddenly have a moment of realization and find the drama even more impressive.

In fact, tonight's grand finale of "Reset", after Luo Mo's magical revision, also adopted some of the techniques commonly used earlier in the drama.

It's just that he himself had no idea how the effect would be.

In episode fourteen, it first explained that the "Pot Aunt," who was originally a teacher, discovered while teaching that a student was playing on a mobile phone, and was even watching the video of her daughter being hit and killed.

She watched helplessly as a bunch of netizens in the comments section cursed wildly, saying things like "it serves her right" and "it's gratifying," because her daughter had grabbed the driver's steering wheel on the bus, smashed the door frantically, and died accidentally after getting off.

There were even people who specifically turned the footage of her grabbing the steering wheel and smashing the door into those kinds of addictive, constantly looping videos.

For a mother, this would cause a mental breakdown.

One reason after another contributed to the distortion of her personality, and she began to develop extreme ideas of taking revenge on society.

As for the driver Wang Xingde, his guilt lay in the fact that his daughter had called him repeatedly before the incident, but he hadn't answered for various reasons.

The most ironic part was that when Wang Xingde went to the bus company to apply for a job, wanting to drive the 45 route, even though only a year had passed, the company leadership had already forgotten him—forgotten the father of the girl who had met him and met with an accident.

I am sitting right in front of you, yet you don't remember that I am the family member of the victim.

Immediately following this, returning to the reality of the Drama, was the iconic scene where the male lead Xiao Heyun confesses to the female lead Li Shiqing.

Through the repeated 【Loop】s, the two's feelings had been completely established.

In psychology, there is actually a basis for this.

In the repeated 【Loop】s, Xiao Heyun's body began to grow increasingly weak, and he spoke to Li Shiqing as if he were arranging his affairs.

Finally, he explained himself: "I actually... am just too afraid of losing you."

A very straightforward expression of emotion, yet it struck Xiao Cai's heart.

"Ah, I'm dead!"

"But is it okay to ship them? The younger sister is already an adult, at least in the Drama it's okay to ship them, right?"

Li Shiqing looked at Xiao Heyun and voiced her own worry; she was afraid that after the 【Loop】 ended completely, the two would wake up and forget each other.

Wearing a hospital gown and looking very weak, Xiao Heyun said: "I will definitely remember you anyway. Even if you forget me, I will take the initiative to find you, knock on your door, and then say to you..."

He stood up, reached out a hand, and said: "Hello, my name is Xiao Heyun, would you be willing to be my girlfriend?"

Li Shiqing stared at him with wide eyes, and after a long while, she shook his hand and said: "I am willing."

Episode fourteen ended there.

Xiao Cai couldn't help but laugh out loud while looking at the comments.

"About the time my roommate said she was going out to buy books and came back saying she was in a relationship."

Haha, for the friends of Xiao Heyun and Li Shiqing, only one day had passed.

Episode fifteen, the final episode.

The two finally returned to the bus and entered the last 【Loop】.

This time, the two gathered all the power they could utilize, including Officer Zhang, Lao Jiao, Lu Di, and others.

It's just that this time, Xiao Heyun didn't wake up immediately; he was still trapped in a "standby" state, and it was Li Shiqing who deployed everything alone.

At the most critical moment, he finally woke up and grabbed the Pot Aunt.

Everything progressed very smoothly, and they received help from everyone on the bus.

Facts proved that this was the only way to solve the problem on the bus.

The Police also arrived in time to set up a perimeter and threw the bomb into the river.

However, those "keyboard warrior" Drama scenes were mostly deleted by Luo Mo.

It turned into relying on rhetoric to create opportunities to save the lives of everyone on the bus.

The progress bar was already more than halfway through.

What remained to be explained was the cause of Wang Mengmeng's death.

The content that followed was almost entirely Luo Mo's magical revision.

That year, there was a pervert on the bus Wang Mengmeng was riding; this was also the first time the Pot Aunt and Wang Xingde learned of this.

"Ah? Was Wang Mengmeng in such a hurry to get off the bus and did she make such an extreme move because she encountered a pervert?"

"Then she is too pitiful," Xiao Cai thought to herself.

At the same time, this triggered another social issue.

That is, many people who suffer persecution dare not speak out.

For the sake of their own reputation, for the sake of their own innocence.

Based on clues provided by a girl who summoned the courage, the Police brought the pervert to justice.

As it stands, it feels as if the grand finale has already been declared.

However, the Reversal happens at this very moment!

According to the girl's words and the molester's own confession, Wang Mengmeng was not one of the victims.

The molester only laid hands on that girl; Wang Mengmeng merely stood up bravely to help resolve the problem.

This leaves Xiao Cai feeling conflicted.

"For the sake of her own reputation, this girl watched as another girl died for her, watched as she was subjected to cyberbullying, while the bad guy remained at large!"

Human nature, indeed!

Xiao Cai feels there is so much here worth writing about; she feels she could write a drama review of at least five thousand words.

Within a single short episode, too many social issues were exposed, which will definitely trigger heated discussions across the entire internet again.

The Loop has ended here.

Night falls; Li Shiqing returns to university, and Xiao Heyun returns home and begins to sleep.

"You must remember each other!" Xiao Cai prays in her heart.

Dawn breaks, and they do not reappear on the bus!

At the same time, they still remember each other, remember everything the two of them experienced, remember everything.

The scene cuts to the police station, where everyone on the bus is being commended.

Lao Jiao also gets his wish and receives the 30,000 yuan award for acting with courage and righteousness.

Their families sit in the audience, acknowledging them.

The melon farmer's son accepts his father and can finally eat his father's watermelons.

Lu Di's parents no longer think their son is a strange two-dimensional fan; he is an excellent, good child.

The passengers on the bus all have good outcomes.

This is like a perfect ending.

However, Xiao Cai still feels something is off, still feels something was not explained well.

She feels this ending did not meet her initial expectations.

Fortunately, the progress bar has not ended; this episode still has five minutes of content left.

After leaving the police station, Xiao Heyun and Li Shiqing go on their first date.

The young couple sits in a Coffee shop, chatting about everything that happened during the repeated Loops.

The kind Li Shiqing expresses regret over Wang Mengmeng's death.

Xiao Cai doesn't know what to say for a moment.

If that victim girl had actually been a bit braver, if she hadn't just wanted to maintain her own innocence, everything that followed would not have happened.

There would not have been the cyberbullying that stood on the moral high ground without seeing the full picture or knowing the truth.

And there would not have been everything that Auntie Pot and Wang Xingde did later.

Even if they still harbored hatred, that would be a different kind of hatred.

"With another Reversal and a portrayal of human nature, the dramatic tension of this half-episode is actually maxed out," Xiao Cai evaluates in her heart.

But why does she still feel she hasn't been satisfied enough?

She still feels it's a tiny bit of a rushed ending.

Xiao Cai glances at the progress bar; Luo Mo's heavily adapted finale of "Beginning" has three minutes left.

Xiao Heyun listens to Li Shiqing's regretful words and says, "Wang Mengmeng didn't actually do anything wrong; she just used a method that was a little bit impulsive while helping someone."

He is referring to things like grabbing the steering wheel.

Li Shiqing says, "Actually, when I was in the Loop, didn't I also try to grab Uncle Wang's steering wheel?"

Xiao Heyun looks at her and says, "But you knew you were in the Loop, right? Everything we did was an attempt, and attempts are inevitably impulsive. Anyway, everything would start over, so..."

Saying this, Xiao Heyun suddenly stops, his eyes widening abruptly.

Scene after scene continues to emerge and generate in his mind!

He recalls the scene of Wang Mengmeng grabbing the steering wheel.

He thinks of the scene where Li Shiqing also tried to grab the steering wheel.

Then he thinks of that line Lu Di said: "In the Loops where I died, what happens to my Cat?"

By the same logic, in the loops where we died, what happens to our friends and family?

They must be very painful too, right?

In the previous drama, the reactions of the passengers' families after the bus exploded time and again were shown.

They didn't know the truth either, did they?

Perhaps the world doesn't even know what Li Shiqing and I are actually doing, what we are fighting against, or what we have experienced and faced.

At the same time, he thinks of various wild theories like parallel universes.

In the previous drama, some seemingly unimportant scenes now look like small puzzle pieces.

These scenes are pieced together in the form of memories.

"What's wrong?" Li Shiqing asks with concern.

Xiao Heyun looks at Li Shiqing and gives a stiff smile.

"Is it possible that Wang Mengmeng was also in the Loop back then?"

"The world we are in now is actually a world where one of her Loops ended in failure!"

As Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun stare at each other, the progress bar declares its demise, and the final episode ends here.

Xiao Cai only feels a chill down her spine, and goosebumps rise on her skin.

The screen goes dark, and two large characters appear once again.

It's just that this time, even though it appeared at the very end, it gave the audience a different, wonderful feeling.

——The Beginning.

(PS: First update, requesting monthly tickets!

Also, to clarify, if any traditional Chinese characters appear in the chapters now, that is random on the part of Qidian.)

(End of this chapter)