Thriller Paradise

Chapter 553: I am a Writer- Night of Revival (6)

“What do you mean by that?!” Fire in the Night exploded and roared back loudly. Because he heard the underlining meaning in Brother Jue’s words. The man knew better than anyone else that the fact that he ‘was the most popular writer on the online pole’ was done only through vote manipulation… to put it frankly—he bought it with money. Just like how some ReadNovelFullists would pay to hire people to buy their own books so that their writing would appear on the front page, Fire in the Night had done something similar to make himself placed first on the online pole. Other than that, he had pulled some strings, through the direct pressure from the sponsor to the higher up at the tv station, he had ensured his road to the final. When Feng Bujue used his own term of ‘sacred’ to insinuate at what he had done, naturally it was like throwing a lit match into a pool of oil.

“I do not mean anything like that. I was just rambling. If you do not prefer to listen to that, I can say something else.” Feng Bujue suddenly put on a smile, turned easily around and sauntered back to his seat. The audience were as stunned as they possibly could be and did not know how to respond….

Seeing the situation had slowly died down, Oscar quickly came forth to make peace. “Ah… ha ha ha ha ha… Bujue is still such a joker…” he tried to use laughter to wash away this scary and intense moment, and the next step was to change the subject, “By the way… Bujue, your writing this time, actually has some brilliant points to them. Well, or at least it has as many of that as there are things to detract from it.”

“Why would you say that?” Feng Bujue though was busy undermining himself. “I already told you the story is wholly based on the story of the hare and the tortoise, if there is anything good about it, I guess you can say it’s the effort in paraphrasing.”

“Erm…” Oscar really did not know how to continue anymore. He sighed and ignored making the situation better (at this point, there was really nothing he could have done. This mess he would leave to post edit to fix) and the atmosphere, he said directly, “Bujue… to be honest, I am quite surprised. Your whole performance today… actually what are you planning to do?”

“Hah… when the recording is over, you will naturally understand everything…” Feng Bujue once again planted his arms behind his head and replied in a casual tone. “For now… just assume I have failed to rise to my normal standard.”

“Hmph… that is assuming you have a standard to begin with…” Fire in the Night next to him chided.

Feng Bujue let this comment brush off him like a sluice of water. He did not even turn to give Fire in the Night a glance. He merely commented in a smile, “you can call me any names you want, I do not wish for anyone to understand me, as long as I can sleep with my conscience clear.”

…

After the ‘interlude’ between Feng Bujue and Fire in the Night, Oscar said a few random words to forcibly change the subject and push the show forward…

Therefore, according to the number that appeared on screen, the contestants recited their works respectively. As Feng Bujue expected, the second to take the stage was Soda… The director had indeed tried his best to separate Soda as far from Fire in the Night as he could and he even placed Soda second, the director really had tried his best. But Soda’s story still managed to shine, he wrote a short story about the camaraderie of two brothers walking the path of Jiang Hu, there were some tears in the crowd.

The third to be called up was Spring Breeze. The story that he came up with was the rather rare modern story, it had the message regarding the very realistic problem of the natural habitat being destroyed by human activity… this kind of topic unfortunately would have a hard time finding a resonance with the audience, combine that with the rather lengthy story, it only made the audience want to sleep. Even though his bravery and his intention to write such a story on this stage was admirable, undeniably… the chance of him getting a high mark for close to zero.

The fourth was General Fei. The story that he came up with was also a wuxia story. But… as they say, when there was no comparison, there was no damage. To have come up with almost the same story as Soda, it was the man’s bad luck. Rose was the fifth to take the stage, to everyone’s surprise, she wrote a boy’s love story… time moved from dusk to midnight, the process was filled with sickness and drama, the ending was a pack suicide… After hearing he story, the audience’s response was extremely divisive. Oscar really did not know what to say so he gave a few harmless comments and quickly moved on…

Yamcha was the second to last to say his piece, when his number appeared on the screen, Brother Jue’s prediction was confirmed… Fire in the Night naturally got the advantage to appear last and the two contestants who came before him… would not have come up with good enough stories to shake his own. But… accidents still happened. Perhaps it was due to his conflict with Brother Jue, Fire in the Night’s emotion was clearly distraught and that caused him to perform less than stellar…

Even though Fire in the Night could not be considered an actual first rate writer, at least he was better than those amateurs. After all, if he did not have this bit of talent, he would not gotten popular to begin with. But unfortunately, tonight he performed so poorly that even his own fans had trouble cheering for his story. Without even waiting to see the voting result, Fire in the Night knew that… he had been tripped during this round and that happened when he had all the advantages lined up for him, that only made him want to kick himself even more.

“Okay, all of our seven contestants have finished their recitation, so now… we will enter the nerve-wrecking voting period.” After Fire in the Night had his chance to ‘shine’, Oscar randomly said a few words before moving on with, “At this point, I have to clarify, this episode’s voting procedure for A Stroke of Genius will still be rather different from those in the past.” He paused for a second, “First, in this round, our 700 live studio audience still only has one vote. And secondly… our professional judges will join in the voting in this round. Their opinions will take up 30 percent of the ratio.”

[Oh… so they have prepared this as well…] Feng Bujue thought to himself. [I should expect nothing less from Director Pei, he has thought of all the contingency. This way, even if Fire in the Night’s victory in this round was questioned on the internet, they could not question the fairness of the voting process itself…] Not only Brother Jue, the other contestants also noticed something from this voting format… but of the seven seated there, only Fire in the Night was that concerned about the final, the other five contestants either did not care that much or they did not think they have a chance anyway, so they did not have much hope. Therefore, no one said anything about this sudden change in the rules.

“And now I will have to ask our audience member in the studio to cast your most important vote using the monitor in front of you.” Oscar finished it up with this. Following his monologue, the second round of voting had begun. The live Dj and the many cameramen started to get busy… the highly intense and palpitating background music; the convulsing camera angle that kept switching to induce headache… would definitely be a nightmare for the post production. Of course, that was to be dealt by Pei Ran and the editors…

About 3 minutes later, Oscar once again announced, “We still have 30 minuets left to the voting time. Please cast your vote to the constantan that you believe has done the best during this round of A Stroke of Genius.” He looked at the audience and said seriously, “If you have not cast your vote within the time limit, you will be considered as abandoning your vote…” Actually this was just a perfunctory run through, basically… 90 percent of the audience (not including already chased away by Feng Bujue) had already made their decision within the first minute of the voting. By this point, of the 600 plus audience member, there was none who had not cast their vote.

“Time’s up!” 30 seconds later, Oscar still professional announced the end of the voting time and added it with, “But…” He dragged this out. “…Our professional judges behind the scene still need some time to conduct their discussion so…” he turned around to walk towards the contestants’ seat. “before the result for the second round is announced, we shall enter earlier than normal… the segment for Questions and Answers!” Then he reached into his suit’s breast pocket and took out a card. Oscar took a deep breath and looked at the contestants and said, “Today, our Q and A segment similarly will be rather different…”

Ding—On the stage, this rather strange sound effect rang out, it seemed to represent… the drop of the contestants’ hearts.

“Previously, our three main editors from the production crew would pick three questions from the online forum of the show and have our seven contestants answer them but today I only have one question in my hand.” At this point, Oscar paused for a long five seconds before he continued, “But after I ask this question…” That strange sound effect occurred again. The cameraman Xiao Wu already carried his camera and jogged to the contestants’ side.

“…every one of our contestant can ask any one question that they want towards another contestant.” When Oscar said that, the cold sweat was already sliding down his sideburn because once he imagined what might happen next, the pressure on his shoulders was unbearable. “Ha ha… of course, this segment has nothing to do with the overall voting result.” Oscar forced himself to smile and add, “So please be as relaxed as you can be during this q and a segment.”

Even though that was what he said… everyone knew that this unassuming small little segment was actually one of the most important moment on the show. This segment was very beneficial to improve a writer’s popularity. Those who reacted quickly and showed great confidence would be able to increase the audience’s good impression of them and that was crucial outside of the show.

“Alright… without wasting any more time, let us…” Oscar purposely paused for a minute. “…enter the commercial first!”

After he said that, he quickly turned around and used the handkerchief in his pocket to wipe away the sweat on his face. And then he put on a different expression and turned back to face the camera. “Welcome back! You are currently tuning in to I am a Writer—Night of Revival! Now we are at the relaxing segment of Questions and Answers.” Oscar used an easy tone to turn to face the contestants. “And the first question for today is…” He raised the card that he had to his eyes and read out loud, “I wish to ask dear authors, normally you have come up with so many impressive names in your works, then what kind of name will you give your own children? Ps. It is a boy.” After reading the question, Oscar said with a laugh, “Ha ha ha ha… this internet user has asked a rather interesting question today.” He walked to stand before Soda. “Well, Soda, what do you think? What name should it be?”

“Hah?” Soda was startled. “erm… about this…” he was really stumbling. “My son is already 2 years old already and he already has a name.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Then do you mind sharing with us the name of your son?” Oscar continued with a smile.

“Erm…” Soda hesitated. “About that… I do not think I have the permission to share such private information. I do not think my wife will approve of me sharing my family permission to the national audience without asking her first.”

“hmm… indeed, for those with a family, this question will infringe into their privacy.” As Oscar said that, he tossed a glance at the director beside the stage. Pei Ran instantly gave the command through the ear mic. Oscar understood it and continued with. “…How about this, of the contestants present, those who already has a son can choose to forfeit to answer this question.” Then he walked to the seat of the second contestant. He used a rather wicked smile to address Yamcha, “Yamcha, you are not going to surprise me by telling us that you are also a father already, right?”

“How is that possible…” Yamcha to everyone’s surprise blushed, looks like this 19 year old young man was quite shy. “But… if you want me to come up with a name so suddenly… it is not that easy. A problem like naming a son… that is not something that can be done by a stranger’s opinion on his own right?”

“Don’t treat the question so seriously. Just thinking of it as a situation in the story that you are writing.” Oscar said, “It is just a question, there is no certainty that the online user will use the name given by you.”

“Oh… in that case…” Yamcha hesitated for a few seconds, “Then how about Ah Qiang?”

“hey! Have you really considered that before you answered? I bet even a random name generator can come up with something better!” It was finally time for Oscar to really say what was in his mind, “Will this really be your own son’s name?” A raucous laughter came from the audience and the live dj saw the timing and inputted a rather commonly used jokey music.

“How about we move onto to ask Uncle Spring Breeze.” Oscar then moved to the third seat. But before he even got close, Uncle Spring Breeze sprang on the host, “My son is already in high school already, please do not come and get him into trouble…” Oscar froze in his motion, he turned to make a sad face at the camera and that elicited another rowdy laugh from the audience.

“Alright then…” Oscar then moved on to the fourth contestant’s seat. “…Rose, as the only female contestant we have with us today, I believe everyone will be very interested in the answer that you will give.” Rose did not answer immediately, instead she lit herself a cigarette. Then she slowly lifted her head back and adjusted the bang before her forehead. After a temporary silence, she then opened her mouth to say, “Phew—Edward Anthony Masen Cullen.”

“ha… ha ha ha ha ha…” Oscar’s mouth was twitching. “Isn’t that…”

“Yes, it is the name of that vampire.” Rose cut her off, “Do you have any problem with that?”

“No… of course not…” Oscar really did not want to get into any altercation with this girl in the issue of twilight or else he was afraid he might need the security guards to pull him back.

“How about we hear what answer General Fei might give.” Oscar practically escaped with his tail between his legs to the fifth contestant’s seat, and began, “General Fei, of all the characters in your books, they have very memorable and interesting name… I wonder… what kind of name will you give your own son in the future.”

“A son, is it… I prefer a singular name, how about just the character Fei [飞]?” General Fei answered.

“Oh… it represents a vision for height and to soar above all difficulties, it is indeed a good name.” Oscar quickly gave some random praises. That was not he really thought but there was nothing he could do… of the four earlier contestants, two had passed and two could not give him any material to work with.

“Actually…” General Fei tossed in another explanation. “If you give me some more time to consider, I should be able to come up with a better name.”

“Hmm, indeed, this question is rather difficult to answer.” Oscar conceded. “But since this is a return special, naturally we have to select a more difficult answer to challenge our contestants, right? Ha ha ha ha ha….” His laughter disappeared like cloud blown by a harsh wind from the short trip he took from the seat of the fifth contestant to the sixth contestant. In just few steps and a few seconds, it was enough to make Oscar highly intense…

“Bujue, and your answer is…” Oscar asked nervously.

“Hmm…” Feng Bujue hummed to himself, “Actually in the time you took to walk over here, I have come up with quite a few already…”

“Oh?” Oscar relaxed instantly, “if you don’t mind, why don’t you share with us all of them?”

“Oh.” Brother Jue answered, “Since you have asked for it, sure, why not… I have names like Shunichi, Takumi, Gohan, Ryoma, Xiao Jie…”

[Has this man lost his mind completely…] Oscar screamed in his mind. [Even in this simple Q and A session, he will not resist the urge to offend other people and keep on with his plagiarism! Will you please stop infringing on the rights of other people! Even a simple Ah Yong or Ah Ping is much better than what you are doing!]

“Boo—” The booing came from the audience again, it was as palpable as a tsunami. During the Q and A segment, this had never happened before.

“Ah, I am so sorry…” Suddenly Feng Bujue stopped his rambling and apologized. At that moment, everyone at the studio thought he was going to add a statement like ‘I was just kidding,’ and then gave a serious answer.

But, like usual…

“… I am so sorry, my phone is vibrating, I think I just got a message, give me some time to take a look at it.” Brother Jue said as before everyone else, he took out his phone that he placed at the back of his jeans pocket. He touched on the screen twice and looked at the content of the message. 3 seconds later, he tutted and then showed a rather curious smile. He proceeded to shake his head lightly and then placed his phone back.

The others would naturally not know that Feng Bujue had just received a message from Li Ruoyu and the content of the message was, “The names are so horrible!”

“He he he… I am sorry.” Brother Jue continued like this was nothing out of the ordinary, “I forgot to switch off my phone, you will cut this part out, right?”

…

Due to the heavy dissent from the live audience, after Fire in the Night gave his unimportant answer, Pei Ran had to stop the recording and announced for everyone to take a break for 15 minutes. During this break, Fire in the Night was singled out and led away by Pei Ran to the side to discuss something about the background manipulation. Pei Ran was a clever person, he knew that if he left Fire in the Night at the contestants’ seat, it would only cause further friction between him and Feng Bujue. Since Fire in the Night did not have a good relationship with the other writers anyway, it was better for him to get secluded alone at his side.

And thus at the contestants’ seats… the remaining six contestants had gathered around Brother Jue and started to chat among themselves.

“Bujue, I believe I know what you are trying to do.” General Fei said at his own seat and told Brother Jue next to him. “I already heard of the rumours about your arrogance before I come on the show but I did not expect you would go to such extent… You plan to use this method to muddle the situation and drag Fire in the Night into hell with you, right?”

“Hah…” Feng Bujue laughed instead of giving a concrete answer.

“Bujue is not that kind of person.” Soda turned to correct General Fei, “There has to be a reason… why he is doing something like this.”

“Phew…” Rose puffed out a ring of smoke and told Brother Jue, “I am actually quite envious of you…” She said with great condescension and sense of narcissism. “I personally think this show is rather tedious but my fans cried and begged for me to come so I had no choice.” She took another drag of the smoke. “Aiz… unfortunately… my fans are not like yours. Even if I repeat everything that you have done earlier, they would not abandon me so easily.”

“Dear lady, if you really wish to drop your number of fans, I can provide you with a very simple solution.” Feng Bujue turned around and raised three fingers. “This solution only requires three steps, they are respectively… one, open your social media account, log into your main page; two, remove that thick layer of cement from your face; and three, upload a selfie.” When he was done, he put his fingers and shrugged. “I call this method… Dropping fans like flies, triple combo.”

“Phew… are you challenging me to write you into my next story and give you the most horrible death imaginable?” Rose narrowed her eyes and shot back with great annoyance.

Uncle Spring Breeze chuckled to make peace. “Bujue, that is not a way to speak to a lady. You will be hated.” He paused for a minute. “Speaking of which, I see that you are almost 26 already, right? Do you have a girlfriend? I happen to have a relative…”

“I do!” Feng Bujue quickly stopped Uncle Spring Breeze. His landlady, Auntie Liu had dragged him into this topic for so many times that now whenever someone brought it up, he would feel chills go all over his body.

“brother Jue, can you sign me an autograph?” It was unclear where yamcha got a pen and paper and offered it to Feng Bujue, “I am your fan!”

“Sure.” Feng Bujue accepted the pen and paper with a smile. “Just a signature?”

“Erm… if you can give me a few words of encouragement or advise, naturally it will be better.” Yamcha answered.

“Oh…” Feng Bujue thought for a few seconds and then he lifted his eyes to look at Yamcha. “How old are you… Less than 20, right?”

“yes, I am only 19.” Yamcha nodded.

“And you plan to become a full writer in the future?” Brother Jue asked.

“Yes.” A serious expression appeared on Yamcha’s youthful face. “I will continue to keep on right and hopefully one day reach the level of professionalism of all my great seniors!”

Feng Bujue accepted the praise with nary a twitch to his expression. At this point, he started to scribble.

“In the future, you will run into many troubles, many allures and many choices…” Feng Bujue said as he wrote. “When you are lost, remember to turn back and think… remember what compelled you to start writing in the first place.” Then he was done.

Yamcha accepted the paper that was given back to him by Brother Jue. Other than the signature… as the readers must have expected by now, there was another song lyric, “His soul’s escaping, through this hole that is gaping

This world is mine for the taking

Make me king, as we move toward a New World Order

A normal life is borin’, but super stardom’s close to post mortem

It only grows harder, only grows hotter

He blows, it’s all over, these hoes is all on him

Coast to coast shows, he’s known as the Globetrotter

Lonely roads, God only knows, he’s grown farther from home, he’s no father

He goes home and barely knows his own daughter

But hold your nose ’cause here goes the cold water

These hoes don’t want him no mo’, he’s cold product

They moved on to the next schmo who flows, he nose dove and sold nada

So the soap opera is told and unfolds, I suppose it’s old partna, but the beat goes on

Da-da-dum, da-dum, da-da

…

You can do anything you set your mind to, man”