317 It Would Definitely be a Masterpiece!
The judge had his own bungalow, and he could bring girls out in the day. The female protagonist had already seen a more beautiful world. That was why she did not care to live in the cramped, two-man capsule together with the male protagonist.
She had wanted to come clean with the male protagonist earlier and get together with the judge, but the judge had suddenly stopped contacting her a few days ago. She had not heard a peep from him.
The male protagonist knew that the female had already been dumped. Perhaps the judge just wanted to try something new; he probably did not plan to spend the rest of his life with the female protagonist.
After calming down, the male protagonist decided to accept her.
However, the female turned him down and left.
From that moment on, the male protagonist's life seemed to lose all its color. He used the sum of money he had saved to rent a bigger space for himself. He also paid to get rid of the advertisements in his television programs, purchased more forms of entertainment, and bought a bunch of junk food to cheer himself up. With what was left of his money, he tipped the female host of the television program he had been watching in exchange for a 'thank you'.
He went back to living a blurry life. Instead of carefully taking part in quizzes, he chose to pour all his money into quizzes with high rewards. Sometimes, he won big and went on shopping sprees. Other times, he lost everything and lay in his bed like a corpse for several days.
This went on for five years.
One day, the muddle-headed male protagonist had been watching television programs as he normally did.
All of a sudden, he realized he had won a quiz that he had staked everything on. He received more than ten times the money he had put in!
His bank account now had much more money than it did before; one could say that he had become an ordinary citizen!
The male protagonist was overjoyed at this turn of events. He could not wait to share this good news with the female protagonist.
However, he could not find her. He had no choice but to search high and low for her during his allocated three hours, in the hopes that the female protagonist had not left the city.
Just like that, the male protagonist spent more than a month searching for her. At last, he still could not find any traces of the female protagonist.
Since he had no other choice, the male protagonist thought of an idea. He decided to spend some money to take part in a talent show. There, he would profess his love for the female protagonist and tell her that he had been waiting for her this entire time… and that he hoped she would return to his side.
Talent shows had a wide reach. Once the show aired, the female protagonist would probably see his message.
Thus, the male protagonist ended up on the stage of a talent show.
As he stood in the spotlight, the male protagonist stared at the ruthless judge who stole his girlfriend and then dumped her.
The male protagonist's only intention had been to profess his love for the female protagonist and tell everyone how much he missed her. He had only wanted to talk about all the beautiful memories they shared. However, after seeing the judge's sanctimonious expression, the male protagonist lost all control.
He picked up his microphone and ranted to the audience about how sanctimonious the judge was. He accused the latter of being a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing and explained how the judge had shamelessly stolen the male protagonist's beloved before dumping the kind-hearted girl.
He cursed and swore at the judge with the ugliest language that he knew, releasing pent-up feelings of indignance, regret, and rage.
The entire place grew silent.
After that short silence, everyone burst out with applause!
Even the judge who had just been cursed and sworn at clapped as he laughed and held up his thumb towards the male protagonist.
The female judge next to him looked deeply moved. Wiping her tears, she immediately hit the button in front of her to express her approval of the male protagonist.
Four circles lit up in front of the judges.
That was four votes. The male protagonist had made it.
The lights immediately began to flash, and multi-colored smoke appeared on the stage, along with other special effects.
This meant that many people watching online had been moved by the male protagonist's performance and were tipping him from where they were.
The male protagonist looked at the dazzling numbers on stage. Thanks to these tips, he had earned much more in the past few minutes than he had in the past few years.
The judge whom he cursed and swore at highly praised his performance. The former explained how it had been a long time since he had watched such a satisfying talk show.
The judge extended a symbol of peace to the male protagonist, expressing his wishes to help the male protagonist create a television program.
The male protagonist knew very well what this would mean.
It would mean that he would have unimaginable wealth and fame as his television program reached hundreds of thousands, or possibly even millions, of people!
He could live like the other rich folk. He could roam around outside during the daytime and live in a huge bungalow. He could wait as his female servants knelt beside him and fed him freshly-picked grapes.
The male protagonist thanked the judge profusely, savoring the moment.
At that very moment, he was the main star on stage.
That night, after the television program ended, the male protagonist was served very well by two hot, fair, and young ladies.
He moved into a bungalow, drove a luxurious car, and lived the life that he had always dreamed about.
One day, someone requested to meet him. The female protagonist had really watched his television program and expressed her hopes to meet the male protagonist again and pick up where they had left off.
The male protagonist immediately invited the female to his house.
He was now a rich man. He could invite anyone to his bungalow at any time in the day to meet him.
When the female protagonist saw him, her eyes welled up.
However, with one young girl in each of his arms, the male protagonist coolly mocked the female for having the cheek to turn up at his bungalow.
She crumbled, knelt on the ground, and begged for the male protagonist to give her some money so that she could raise her son up.
The male protagonist felt even more irritated when he heard the word 'son', but he refrained from kicking her out immediately.
After some consideration, he decided to transfer a sum of money to her and asked her to stop looking for him.
After dealing with this matter once and for all, the male protagonist leaned back on the sofa, sipped his red wine, and heaved a sigh of relief.
He had not transferred her the sum of money because he felt bad or because he still had feelings for her.
Instead, he did it because he still had to film his television program that night and emotionally narrate his and the female protagonist's love story.
He knew that the audience did not really care who the female protagonist was. If they managed to find her, they might quickly lose interest in the television program.
The female protagonist would look the most beautiful as a question mark in the audience's mind.
If the audience was allowed to see how haggard she really looked, the image of the 'dream woman' that the male protagonist had worked so hard to create would fall apart at once.
Before stepping onto the stage, the male protagonist saw the judge.
He had once hated the judge to the core. However, the latter was now his financial backer and his Bole. He had given the male protagonist a new lease of life.
Thus, the male protagonist now respected him immensely.
The judge congratulated him, telling him that today's episode would be extremely important and that he hoped the male protagonist would perform well.
The judge also said that he had prepared a surprise for the male protagonist.
The male protagonist tried to recall what the occasion was and realized that it seemed to be his birthday.
When he stepped onto stage, the male protagonist began to speak in a tearful voice. He described his and the female protagonist's love story and chatted with a couple of lucky fans, to whom he explained the true meaning of love.
Then, the connection broke, and the image of the male protagonist mocking the female in his living room appeared on the screen.
The male protagonist began to panic. He kept trying to block the screen, but it proved to be useless during the livestream because the video was being fed directly to the audience's screens. The male protagonist's panicky behavior was only making him look more like a joke.
The audience began to get worked up. Many angry viewers scolded and cursed at the male protagonist in the channel's column.
The male protagonist's reputation and image were completely destroyed.
The judge showed no intention of helping him out of his predicament. Instead, he instructed a lawyer to retrieve the contract they had signed at the beginning. The male protagonist's behavior had gravely affected the company's image. Thus, he had to compensate the company with a sum that he would spend his entire life trying to pay.
As he looked at the male protagonist who had just lost everything, the judge smiled treacherously.
Not only had he taken revenge for the time that the male protagonist cursed and swore at him on stage, but he had also increased his television program's viewership and rose to fame in the process.
He pulled the beautiful, young woman beside him closer and arranged for her host the next episode of the program.
The camera panned. The male protagonist was lying in bed in a tiny capsule, looking at the ceiling, which he could reach out and touch. He looked just like a zombie.
…
…
After he finished writing the script, Pei Qian read it once through. It looked quite good, considering that this was his first time writing a script.
The story was complete, at least! He had achieved all the goals that he had set in the beginning.
Take the male protagonist for example. His life was pitiful at first. He was lucky to chance upon a lady that he fancied. Then, he began his brown-nosing journey. In the end, the female protagonist's heart was stolen by the judge, making a cuckold of the male protagonist.
The male protagonist continued brown-nosing until the female protagonist completely gave up on him and asked for a clean break.
Subsequently, the male protagonist won a huge sum of money and tried looking for the female protagonist once more. While on stage, he lashed out at the judge and released his pent-up frustrations.
However, the judge soon managed to buy him over. The male protagonist willingly cheapened himself for money and behaved in a completely opposite manner compared to before. He became despicable.
When the female protagonist finally returned, the male protagonist threw away every last bit of warmth and kindness left in him. He mocked her and gave her money in exchange for her promise never to look for him again.
In the end, the male protagonist fell for the judge's trap. The wealthy, blissful life he had always dreamed about had been right under his nose, but it was reduced to dust in an instant. Not only did he become penniless like before, but he also owed a huge debt now. His life was devoid of all hope.
Wasn't that absolutely miserable?! Wasn't that absolutely cruel?!
Even Pei Qian felt that the plot was extremely toxic. It was so tragic!
The male protagonist was not just a brown-noser, but he was also a coward and a despicable man. The female protagonist was not any better. They deserved to live with each other for the rest of their lives.
All in all, this plot would definitely disgust the movie's viewers.
It housed all toxic points!
Pei Qian read his script again and again and found one last flaw—it was not long enough.
He pondered for a moment and then added one more line at the end of the script.
'If the script is too short, lengthen the part where the male protagonist watches television programs and advertisements in his room.'
By doing this, Pei Qian would have no problems diluting the plot until the movie lasted two and a half hours, much less one and a half!
It worked!
Of course, Boss Pei was a benevolent man. He only wanted to dissuade the audience from buying tickets. He did not really want them to develop hatred for the movie.
Thus, he decided to be kind to them and limit the movie's duration to an hour and a half.
Pei Qian had no intention to come up with the other contents, like the characters' names, the exact lines, actions, backdrops, and transitions. He decided to leave these things to Huang Sibo and the others completely.
As long as they did not mess up the story, there should not be any problems!
Pei Qian had just completed his task and earned a hundred thousand yuan!
He could not help but feel moved. It was getting easier and easier for him to earn money!
…
…
At Fei Huang Workspace…
Huang Sibo had just received the script from Boss Pei.
"Boss Pei is so efficient!"
Huang Sibo was filled with respect once again.
Other scriptwriters normally took three to five months to write scripts, even if it was urgent. If they were aiming to produce an excellent movie, they could even take up to a year and a half.
Of course, this did not include scriptwriters who were full of stunts and who improvised during filming.
Yet, Boss Pei had written an entire script in just two to three days!
Strictly speaking, what Boss Pei had written was merely an outline of the story. It was a long way from being a perfect script.
Still, coming up with a story outline was no easy task!
Huang Sibo quickly called Zhu Xiaoce over, and they read the script together.
After seeing the script's unconventional format, Zhu Xiaoce became slightly light-headed.
Huang Sibo quickly said, "Boss Pei works in the game industry. Naturally, he wouldn't know the format for movie scripts. That's understandable.
"The format isn't important. What's important is that we draw what we need from Boss Pei's idea."
Zhu Xiaoce pondered for a moment, realized what Huang Sibo had said was true, and then quickly adjusted his attitude.
Both of them read the script once through, from beginning to end.
Huang Sibo felt slightly dizzy. "This… why do I feel like this story would depress the audience?
"The male protagonist is a penniless brown-noser. He works hard throughout the movie and almost attains bliss, but then he is immediately thrown from heaven to hell.
"The female protagonist is equally miserable. She's dumped by the judge and has a tough time raising her child. She works hard to locate the male protagonist but then is shamed.
"The most infuriating thing is that both of them practically asked for it. They had their chance to live a better life, but they wasted it.
"How can that be?"
He turned to face Zhu Xiaoce.
Zhu Xiaoce did not respond immediately. Instead, he remained quiet for a long time before he suddenly held up his thumb and shouted, "It can!
"This script is great!
"The story is deeply moving and invokes deep reflection. It criticizes how consumerism leads to exploitation, how the bourgeoisie suppresses humanity, and how wealth alienates people. It's extremely deep!
"The events in the story are unexpected but reasonable. The twists and turns would make the audience applaud the movie in the end!
"Boss Pei could actually come up with such an exciting story in just two or three days…?
"I can only say that Boss Pei is extremely gifted. No matter which industry he's placed in, he shows that he's entirely worthy of honor!"
Huang Sibo looked slightly confused. He had not expected Zhu Xiaoce to have such high praises for the script.
"Until now, we have only produced jocular and humorous short videos. Are you sure our audience would like this story?"
Zhu Xiaoce nodded confidently. "I'm very sure!
"After reading this script, I feel like I have a telepathic connection with Boss Pei. I think I can see what Boss Pei is truly driving at. The audience might not like it, and that would mean the movie might not sell very well.
"However, in the eyes of people who can understand it, the movie would definitely be a masterpiece!"
