Chapter 44

Li Shuoxing calmly typed, “Are you trying to threaten me?” He sneered. “Do you think I can be threatened?”

Si Buqun also calmly typed, “Not at all.” He said bitterly, “Ximu, you should know that your Silent Sonata and my One Sword are produced by the same production company.”

Li Shuoxing: “I do know that.”

Counting the current Nine Crossings , Li Shuoxing had written a total of seven books. Silent Sonata was his second book, much earlier than Si Buqun’s One Sword . It had been sold very, very early, probably just as novels were beginning to be adapted into TV series.

But maybe the book’s world outlook of the combination of Chinese and Western wasn’t easy to adapt, so that it changed hands several times midway and nothing had come of it yet. The last Li Shuoxing heard about the book was that it was in the hands of the production company of One Sword .

Si Buqun: “You’ve basically seen how my one turned out, completely ridiculous.”

Li Shuoxing: “It really is ridiculous.”

Si Buqun: “That’s not all. Because I signed a promotion clause when I signed the contract, I have to write a small thesis and post it on the Paper Forum and Weibo. It goes without saying I’ll get a lot of grief on Weibo. On the Paper Forum side, I still have to disperse wealth… vomit blood, disperse wealth…”

Dispersing wealth was the currency of the Paper Forum.

It was also a convention in the Paper Forum.

Once a poster opened a post to announce good news or advertise something, they would disperse wealth to paper pasters who entered and followed the post, which was considered sharing joy.

Li Shuoxing felt sympathy. “It’s not easy for you.”

Si Buqun quietly said, “In more difficult times in life, success is hard to come by. If I’d known they would make it so lazily, I would’ve sold it to another company. I envy you platinum guys for being able to decide who to sell to and who not to. It’s been two years since I’ve sold this one, and I just learned that there was another party bidding on it at the time…”

Li Shuoxing felt slightly numb on his scalp.

The various authors in the food group had their own little chatting habits.

For example, Six Flavour Monk was inseparable from “Almsgiver” and “monk”. For example, Soren never said three words when he could say two. For example, he was too lazy to chat and liked to send ellipses.

But there were basically no habits as aggressive as Si Buqun’s…

This guy’s habit was to recite a line of poetry to express his feelings every third sentence.

“Brother Buqun, restrain yourself.” Li Shuoxing then consoled, “Even if I can decide who to sell it to, I can’t decide what it’s made into. Writing a book depends on the pen, adapting it depends on fate. Just accept it.”

Si Buqun: “You’re right. But I’m afraid you don’t know yet that the production company has decided to use the same team that made One Sword to continue writing the score for Silent Sonata .”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

Si Buqun said in a deep voice, “We are both strangers wandering faraway, so why ask if we’ve met before when we meet today!”

He really didn’t come to threaten Li Shuoxing. He came to cry in Li Shuoxing’s arms!

Li Shuoxing: “…”

He couldn’t help but start recalling if he had signed a promotion clause when he signed this contract… Shit, it was too long ago, all he could remember was how much he sold it for at the time!

He sorted out his thoughts and said, “Didn’t you just say that you’re writing the script? I believe in your strength. I can rest assured with you on the project.”

“Speaking of this…” Si Buqun decided to start from the beginning. “Actually, the project started two months ago. When they came to invite me, they had your book. I thought, I’m familiar with your book, there’s content and characters, it’s too easy to adapt, and it might even blow up if done well. I agreed without further ado.”

Li Shuoxing: “Thank you for the compliment…”

Si Buqun: “Then I spent five days stringing together a few classic plots from your novel and wrote an episode outline to hand in. The producer personally contacted me and was very kind. He said to me, Buqun, you’ve written it very well, there’s just one thing we think needs to be changed.”

Si Buqun was worthy of being a storyteller.

Li Shuoxing’s curiosity was piqued. “What?”

Si Buqun: “We think we should add a second male lead, an original one.”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

Si Buqun: “My hands were shaking. But could this little thing bother me? I thought, since the screenwriter didn’t like your original second male lead, I’d mix up some loose threads and personalities from your third, fourth and fifth male leads. That way, although it’s not the second male lead you actually wrote, the subsequent plot can still use the original plot of your book.”

Li Shuoxing saw him in a new light. “Good brother!”

Si Buqun was resounding and forceful. “You and I are good friends, let us join hands and go together!”

He continued, “After I handed in the second version, the producer responded again and was still very kind. He said as usual, Buqun, you’ve written it really well, but I think there’s still one little thing we need to change.”

Li Shuoxing began to hesitate. “What?”

Si Buqun: “In Silent Sonata , the female lead has too few scenes and her character isn’t three-dimensional enough. We should add some twists and turns between the male and female leads to make the story more dramatic.”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

Si Buqun: “My stomach was shaking with my hands. But I thought it wasn’t too much to ask. TV series did require more drama. So I added two more plots. One where the male lead is in danger and the female lead saves him, and one where the female lead is in danger and the male lead saves her. Once per person is fairer. Then I handed in the outline for the third time, and the producer was still very kind.”

Li Shuoxing already had a bad feeling. “…”

Si Buqun: “This time, we finally had a script meeting. At the table, the producer said to me, you’ve written it very well, but we think there’s one more little thing that needs to be changed. It’s that we think we need to add a second female lead, an original one.”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

Si Buqun: “This second female lead has to be connected to the main male lead, the second male lead and the third male lead.”

Li Shuoxing: “[sudden profanity].jpg”

Si Buqun lamented, “The sorrow of this lovesickness cannot be dispelled, and just as it disappears from my frowning brow, it comes back to haunt my heart! Hearing this, my heart was shaking. Eunuch, at that time, I fought tooth and nail and managed to turn the emotional line of the entanglement between the second female lead and the third male lead into a plotline. Then, learning from Brother Deer’s seemingly ambiguous yet not ambiguous, seemingly brothers yet not brothers writing style, I inserted the second female lead and then handed it over the fourth time.”

Li Shuoxing got very tired listening to this. He was incredibly glad he didn’t get involved in the screenwriting. “It should be over, right?”

Si Buqun laughed grimly. “Then the producer approached me a fifth time with a very nice attitude. They said, you’ve already done an excellent job, we’re all very satisfied, but—”

He added, “When I heard that word, my liver shook.”

Li Shuoxing’s internal organs shook too.

Si Buqun: “But, we think there are too many characters earlier on and the subsequent threads are too complicated. Before I could say anything, they added, so we had an internal discussion and thought that the male lead has the most threads. In order to balance the weight between the various characters, we’re going to split the male lead’s thread in two, keeping half himself and splitting half onto the second male lead.”

Si Buqun finished telling the situation.

He summed it all up with a poem: “Even if the spring river turns to tears, flowing endlessly, there will still be sorrow in my heart. Eunuch, I really tried my best. I don’t know why a good big male lead drama ended up becoming a big second male lead drama.”

Li Shuoxing sent back many ellipses to Si Buqun.

Si Buqun: “Then I resigned. When I resigned, I received good news. The chief screenwriter for my One Sword is confirmed to be working on your Silent Sonata . Eunuch, are you happy?”

Li Shuoxing: “Get outta here!”

Si Buqun was still full of tender feelings. “So Eunuch, come help me write a small thesis. You write it for me now, and I’ll write it for you next year. Flowers wither and fall again in powerlessness, the seemingly familiar swallows return…”

Li Shuoxing hurriedly closed QQ to escape, his heart a bit terrified by what Si Buqun said.

He looked carefully in his study and finally found the film and television contract he had signed back then. Then he started searching whether there was a clause in it that said the author must cooperate with the film and television company to promote…

That night.

Li Shuoxing had a dream.

In the dream, he signed the copyright contract of Nine Crossings , and then somehow, the book he wrote suddenly turned into the little person in the game, still wearing the beautiful clothes he just bought for him. Then, this little person was taken away by the copyright holder.

Not only was he taken away, but the copyright holder also forbade the little person to look at pink things, saying that pink was very girly and wouldn’t be liked by the audience.

…

Then Li Shuoxing woke up with a start.

It was still dark.

It was only 5am. He stared blankly for a while, rolled over, and fell back asleep full of exhaustion.

Then he was woken up by a QQ message.

The message came from Night Tour.

This night owl seldom got up in the morning.

He didn’t talk nonsense, getting straight to the point. “Ximu, someone has come to contact us about the film and TV series rights for your Great Dispute , and I think the price they gave is pretty good. If you have thoughts about it, we’ll go to the film and television company to talk in detail about our views of the novel. If there’s no problem, we’ll sign the contract.”

Li Shuoxing got up from his bed with a start. “No!”

Night Tour: “No?”

Li Shuoxing wiped his face and woke up. “Why has a film and television company suddenly come?”

Night Tour was puzzled. “Isn’t it a good thing to have a film and television company come? And you’ve always had film and television companies coming for your copyright. It was just that they weren’t sincere enough before, so I didn’t tell you. You still have to be choosy about who to develop the copyright. As long as the copyright is developed well, it’s a very rare help for you.”

Li Shuoxing: “It’s not a help if it’s made into a ridiculous drama.”

“Oh… You mean One Sword ?” Night Tour said with a smile, “Ximu, don’t look at all the complaints online. In fact, from my backend, the subscriptions to One Sword are now 10 times more than they were before the TV series was launched. This number is just the beginning and will certainly increase with the airing of the TV series. From the perspective of interests, there is only profit, no loss. It’s making money, let others curse it if they want.”

Li Shuoxing felt that this was reasonable. He changed his perspective. “Then ask them if they can reserve for me the right to suggest. If they can, then I’ll go to the film and television company.”

Night Tour was surprised. “You want the right to suggest?”

Li Shuoxing: “As the original author, I can follow along with the project, right?”

Night Tour: “I can propose this for you, but if you want this right, the price must be compromised. And if you think about it, is it necessary? If you have the right to suggest, it doesn’t mean you can decide what a TV series will end up being made into. Writing a book is the job of you alone, a TV series is the job of a team of thirty to fifty people. Even if you hold ten loudspeakers by yourself, you can’t shout at the other thirty to fifty people, can you? You take the right to suggest, lose the copyright fee, spend so much time and effort on it, and the work that comes out in the end is still cursed by fans, and it delays you from writing to make money, so why bother?”

He hit the nail on the head. “If you can make money writing novels, why bother with television dramas?”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

Li Shuoxing: “You make a lot of sense.”

Night Tour was speechless. “Five years ago, I asked you if you wanted to participate in the screenwriting and be reserved the right to suggest. You said no, and spilled all the above words. What, five years go by and you’ve lost your memory?”