The next morning, as soon as Qi Cong woke up, he reached for his phone on the bedside table.

The WeChat icon was still clean and Gu Xun still hadn’t replied to his messages.

He stared at his phone for two seconds before he put it down and got up.

Today, Shen Jia’s scheduled work was to go to Nancheng to attend a music festival held by a big music platform. In order to avoid traffic jams, they gathered at the entrance of the Shenjia district before seven o’clock, then the group divided into two cars and drove to the airport together.

When Shen Jia got into the car, he immediately took out his mobile phone and opened Weibo, concentrating on browsing it intently.

Qi Cong didn’t disturb Shen Jia and asked Xiao Han for some advice on what to pay attention to when they attended this kind of music festival.

He didn’t know how long it took, but Shen Jia suddenly sat up and shouted. The crowd in the car became frightened and turned their heads to look at him.

Shen Jia, on the other hand, looked at Qi Cong and said excitedly, “Brother Cong, you become hot again – mm-hmm.”

Qi Cong knew what he was going to say when he saw Shen Jia’s expression, so he quickly reached out to cover his mouth and smiled calmly at Xiao Han. Xiao Han looked back curiously, as did Yuan Yuan, and Jiang Meng, who was awakened in the back seat. Qi Cong looked at Shen Jia and hinted, “Are you hungry? I made sandwiches, they are in the lunch box.”

“…” 

Shen Jia’s eyes tilted in the direction of Xiao Han and others, then he looked at Qi Cong and blinked twice.

Qi Cong let him go.

“… Brother Cong, do you have anything to eat? I’m hungry.” Shen Jia changes his tune obediently.

Satisfied, Qi Cong took out the box of sandwiches, removed the biggest one inside and gave it to Shen Jia, then asked the others in the car if they wanted to eat.

Everyone held out their hands, and the box full of sandwiches was quickly distributed. Everyone was eating and kissing the ass of the breakfast maker, Qi Cong. Shen Jia’s strange shout was quickly forgotten – except for Zhao Zhenxun.

Zhao Zhenxun, who was sitting in the front row, looked back at Shen Jia and warned, “Don’t browse Weibo, the water army is dancing lively now.”

“But they can’t dance anymore.” Shen Jia was still excited, eating the sandwich and spoke vaguely, while stealing glances at the back row of people who were also gathering to talk about something. He leaned over the back of Zhao Zhenxun’s seat and pointed to his mobile phone. “Some people have recognized the trumpet of Wu Heng’s girlfriend, Lin Xiaozhi, which used to be called Gouache. Also yesterday, Gu Xun mentioned  that Hui Nantian also posted a Weibo, revealing the original…” 

Speaking of this, he looked back and spoke in an even lower tone, “Back then Brother Cong didn’t have the evidence that he and Wu Heng met on the forum. But now with Hui Nantian’s revelation, everyone is scolding Wu Heng.”

Qi Cong was surprised and moved closer to him. “Hui Nantian posted the evidence?”

“Yeah, look at it, Brother Cong.” Shen Jia handed his phone to Qi Cong who took it and looked at the still-lit screen.

A Weibo sent in the early morning was shown in the middle of the screen.

Hui Nantian V: I also didn’t think that the post I made on a whim after the reopening of the old site on Jiangwan.com would lead to this series of things. I should be responsible for what I said, as well as the post I made. Yesterday, I went through the chat records and finally found some evidence that I didn’t tell a lie. See for yourselves.

Attached below were three screenshots of a penguin chat record. The two sides of the conversation in these pictures were Hui Nantian himself and a person named “Brother Dao” by Hui Nantian.

In the first chat record.

Hui Nantian: I saw a post from a newcomer asking for advice on the forum. As soon as I saw his writing style, I knew that the newcomer must be a screenwriter major. His writing style is the same as yours. How about that? Do you want to pick up an apprentice? The newcomer’s opening storyline is very clever.

Brother Dao (replied after a while): Which post?

Hui Nantian: ‘rolling eyes emoji’ Too late, the newcomer’s post is gone. There was something wrong with the format of the newcomer’s post so it was deleted by the administrator.

Brother Dao (came back after a long time): Newcomer’s pseudonym?

Hui Nantian: Some kind of water? I forgot.

Brother Dao returned with a row of ellipses.

Hui Nantian: Look at your behavior, I didn’t forget it on purpose. That newcomer might even post another post, and then I will find out and poke you at that time.

The first chat was over.

The second chat record was a few days later. Brother Dao took the initiative to write to Nantian.

Brother Dao: Have you found it?

Hui Nantian: No.

Brother Dao: …

Hui Nantian: Why do I want to hit you so much?.

Hui Nantian: I remember that the old author who always picks up newcomers in the forum, named Water Without a Trace left his contact information for this newcomer. If you really care, I can ask someone to help you ask Without a Trace if he has added this newcomer or not.

Brother Dao: Forget it. I’m busy. Don’t talk anymore.

The second chat record was over.

The third chat record was a year after the first two. It was Hui Nantian who poked Brother Dao.

Hui Nantian: Brother Dao, are you there? Do you remember the newcomer I mentioned to you before?

Brother Dao (replied in seconds): I don’t remember.

This time it was Hui Nantian that sent a row of ellipsis, then he pasted  past chat records about this matter, and said: The beginning of the novel written by Water Without a Trace is starting to look more and more like that of that newcomer. The name of the protagonist also seems to be the same, but I don’t remember if the title of the novel is also the same. Say…. What is Water Without a Trace doing?

Brother Dao: Is there any evidence to prove that Water Without a Trace copied the beginning of someone’s work?

Hui Nantian sent back a sigh expression meme: Fart ah, the old website is closed. Wait a moment, Water Without a Trace wouldn’t wait for the old website to close specially just to publish this. I’m drunk, I’m drunk, I hope I remembered wrong.

Qi Cong was in a daze for a moment.

Unexpectedly, it really left a trace, although it was not a direct trace.

He looked at the three chat records over and over again, and finally fixed his eyes on the first sentence written by Hui Nantian.

What did he mean, “As soon as I saw his writing style, I knew that the newcomer must be a screenwriter major”. Was his style really professional? He hadn’t noticed it before.

He casually clicked on the comments section.

The polarization in the comment section was extremely serious. Half of them were scolding Water Without a Trace and the other half shouted at Brother Dao. A few people remembered in hindsight that it was no wonder that Brother Dao doesn’t seem to like Water Without a Trace very much. Brother Dao was very kind to other writers on Jiangwan,com and only ignored Wu Heng.

Qi Cong became more and more confused.

Brother Dao seems to be a very powerful man?

“Qi Cong.”

Qi Cong snapped back to reality and looked at Zhao Zhenxun, who kept calling him. 

“When we get on the plane let’s sit together, I have something to tell you.”

Qi Cong returned cell phone to Shen Jia and nodded.

After getting on the plane, Qi Cong sat next to Zhao Zhenxun, and Shen Jia was thrown away to sit with Xiao Han.

After sitting down, Zhao Zhenxun lowered his voice and said directly, “Last night’s confrontation impact will need at least two days to spread before the final shape could be determined. I will tell you in advance that the filming of the second installment of “Chivalrous Bones” is very likely to be stopped. Wu Heng, as the party at fault for concealing the information of this work, will probably need to pay a large amount of breach of contract fees to East Film. In addition, the directors, screenwriters and actors who spoke in support of Wu Heng have all deleted their comments, and most of them already hold a grudge against Wu Heng. Coupled with the influence of Gu Xun, for a period of time in the future, it is very  likely that there will be a wave of resistance to plagiarism in the film and television circle. Wu Heng’s career as screenwriter won’t continue.”

Qi Cong was silent for a few seconds and then calmly answered, “If you do something wrong, you have to pay the price.”

Zhen Zhenxun glanced at Qi Cong and asked, “I heard you unpublished the content of your novel?”

Qi Cong was stunned for a moment before he nodded. “That’s right”

“What do you want to do?”

There was nothing to hide, so Qi Cong replied, “I want to rewrite “Chivalrous Bones”.”

When the two looked at each other, Zhao Zhenxun was the first to look away. “Don’t worry, whether you rewrite “Chivalrous Bones” or not is your own private matter, I won’t interfere. But I would like to remind you that there are definitely more people who don’t want you to rewrite “Chivalrous Bones” than there are people who will support you to rewrite it.”

It’s a very frustrating and disempowering fact.

The “Chivalrous Bones” series has been popular for two years and has also been adapted into a TV series, and has managed to make a number of new actors popular, accumulating a huge number of fans and passers-by. In view of the fact that Qi Cong’s version of “Chivalrous Bones” will end with the death of Liu Fengyue, there will definitely be many people who will not only not support or even resist Qi Cong rewriting the novel.

The public will support the original creator’s rights but will subtly not want anyone to “ruin the classic”.

Even if the public won’t think of boycotting Qi Cong’s “Chivalrous Bones” because of the current “rights protection” trend, Wu Heng or Wu Heng’s girlfriend, Lin Xiaozhi, would definitely try to find a water army to influence a boycott later.

Qi Cong understood what Zhao Zhenxun meant and he himself considered all these things last night so he replied, “I understand. But I still want to rewrite it. I don’t want others to mention “Chivalrous Bones” in the future and only think of the work of Wu Heng.”

Zhao Zhenxun didn’t seem surprised by Qi Cong’s decision. Hearing this, he immediately said, “Then there’s one more thing I want you to understand. Writing novels, selling copyrights, and turning to screenwriting is indeed a pretty good path. Now that you have the support of public opinion and a fan base, success can be much easier. But if you write “Chivalrous Bones” worse than Wu Heng, what you have now will quickly be lost again. Even if you write “Chivalrous Bones” better than Wu Heng, it will be controversial since the previous work was so successful that it has already accumulated a fanbase. It will likely face the situation that no one would dare to take it on for the screen. Of course, you can write another novel, but the online environment is changing rapidly, and writing one work is very energy-intensive and time-consuming. It takes a long time to gamble on an uncertain success that only those with capital and preparation can choose. That’s why I’d prefer that you focus your current life on preparing for your debut. “Chivalrous Bones” may not help you solve your current difficulties, but your debut certainly will.”

After saying this, Zhao Zhenxun closed his eyes and leaned against the back of his seat to get some sleep.

It took a while for Qi Cong to move and he whispered back, “I understand that too.”

He never thought of relying on “Chivalrous Bones” to make money, he just wanted to fulfill his dream.

 

……

 

When he got off the plane, Qi Cong realized for the first time that Shen Jia’s career was as a star that was sought after by thousands of people.

Before, he wondered why Zhao Zhenxun brought so many bodyguards for Shen Jia. When they were surrounded by excited fans, he understood that without these bodyguards, they might not even be able to walk out of the airport hall.

“Jia Jia! Jia Jia, look here!”

“Jia Jia, thank you for your hard work! Cheer up on the stage tonight!

“Jia Jia, look over here!”

Fans shouted excitedly. Shen Jia, who was protected by bodyguards, waved to his fans from time to time with a very kind attitude. Qi Cong followed behind Shen Jia, helping him by holding his backpack.

Shen Jia, who was greeting his fans, suddenly turned around and pulled Qi Cong by the arm to his side.

Qi Cong was puzzled, stood still and looked at Shen Jia. “What’s the matter?”

Shen Jia grinned. Suddenly he raised his hand and removed the crown pendant he was wearing around his neck and put it around Qi Cong’s neck. Then he put an arm around Qi Cong’s shoulder, and created a V with his hand for a fan holding a camera.

Qi Cong was confused.

Fans screamed even more intensely after a pause.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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