Chapter 1 After the Break

After the break, the recording resumed.

In those ten-plus minutes, the head director, Fei Ran, came up with another great idea. He decided to save the second part of the Q&A session for the final round of scoring. That way… even if something unexpected happened, it wouldn’t matter. At most, they could cut that segment along with Oscar’s earlier remarks.

“Alright, thank you to all the contestants for your brilliant answers.” Oscar immediately picked up where he left off, starting his speech. “After this time, our panel of expert judges has also reached a conclusion. We have now added the scores from the first round, ‘Penning Chapters,’ and the second round, ‘Stroke of Genius,’ and listed them in order. Everyone… please look at the big screen.”

As Oscar spoke, he raised his arm and pointed to the big screen on the side of the stage. The main camera’s lens also shifted over.

On the screen, the pen names of the seven writers were listed from top to bottom, each with an Arabic numeral circled before it. The specific content was as follows: 1 Night Blaze, 2 Warlord Fei, 3 Chainsaw Rose, 4 Soda Pop, 5 Reform Spring Breeze Blows Across the Land, ⑥ Yamucha, 7 Unaware.

“Hmm… it’s all set, is it…” Feng Bujue thought to himself, “In the rankings announced in the first round, the first, second, fifth, and sixth places were all hidden. And this second round has added the judges’ behind-the-scenes manipulation. In that case… how many votes the audience cast doesn’t really matter anymore. Presumably, the relevant vote counts and percentage data and other surface accounts have all been cleaned up during this time, so they confidently revealed the rankings…”

“Above, is the current ranking of the contestants in the resurrection match. Is this what you expected…” Oscar said to the camera lens, “Of course, this is not the final ranking. Because…”

At this point, the stage lights suddenly dimmed, and a beam of light descended from the sky, focusing on Oscar.

“…we still have one last round of ultimate competition.” Oscar continued the first half of his sentence, raising his hand and pointing at the camera, “The third round – The Finishing Touch!”

Oscar then read out the rules of the third round.

As with Brother Jue’s previous participation, the rules for The Finishing Touch had not changed. The program team would randomly (though it now seemed not so random) give each writer an envelope containing a stack of A4 paper. These papers were printed with a roughly 100,000-word, unfinished novel. Also included was a summary of the existing plot by the *I Am a Writer* editorial team, including characters, settings, overall plot, and so on. The writers had ninety minutes to read the summary and the main text, and then write an ending for the book.

The basic idea of this round was… to absorb the summary as quickly as possible, then become familiar with the original author’s writing style through the main text. Then, imitate this writing style and, after the existing last chapter, continue with a reasonably sound final chapter.

Frankly, this was indeed the most difficult round. The previous “Penning Chapters” tested writing skills; “Stroke of Genius” tested creativity; and this third round… tested far more than just those two skills.

In a limited time, writers had to read, understand, think, write, be fast, be good, and the key was… the writing style had to resemble the original author’s.

Finishing someone else’s article was perhaps the most difficult thing. Not to mention extreme examples like *Dream of the Red Chamber*… even for a novel with mediocre writing and ordinary creativity, who had the confidence to continue it properly? The original author couldn’t even continue writing, but you had to write it, and write it seamlessly, as if it were the original. That was harder than ascending to heaven.

So, we should be tolerant of works like *Dragon Ball GT*.

Hmm… it seems like I’ve gone too far.

Back to the topic…

“…the scoring standards will be the same as before. The Finishing Touch score will account for 40% of the total score, while the previous two rounds add up to 60%…” Oscar finished explaining the rules, then explained the scoring standards, “In this round, our friends in the audience can still only cast their first-choice votes, not their second-choice votes. Our panel of expert judges will naturally also participate in this round of judging. Their opinions will account for one-third of the weight, and the remaining two-thirds…” He turned to the audience, solemnly saying, “Will depend on your choice…”

Next, Oscar said a routine series of lines that he would say in almost every episode, such as the scoring standards of the judging teachers, their professional qualities, and the hard work they put in when organizing the summaries of these books. The audience also cooperated with applause.

While this rambling was going on, several staff members walked onto the stage under the cover of darkness, and handed seven envelopes to the seven writers respectively.

A few minutes later, Oscar finished saying what he needed to say, and finally announced, “Okay… I guess everyone is getting impatient, so I won’t ramble anymore. The third round, The Finishing Touch… now…” He paused for his usual two seconds before saying, “Begin!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a countdown appeared on the big screen, with a duration of 89:59; at the same time, a workable window appeared on the voting screens in front of the audience, where they could see which novels each of the seven contestants had drawn, as well as the corresponding outlines.

This was a new policy that the production team had implemented in the previous few episodes… because many viewers had complained that the one-and-a-half-hour wait was too long and felt like they had nothing to do. In previous episodes, the seven writers’ topics were displayed one by one on the big screen, but it turned out that this was not effective. So… it was changed to the current format. Audience members could freely browse the novels and view the summaries during these ninety minutes. This kept them in sync with the writers’ information and also helped them pass the time.

…………

Ten minutes after the start of the third round, in the backstage, Feng Bujue’s “family and friends group” resting room.

Due to the production needs of the program, contestants had to be filmed and interviewed separately in a dedicated resting room, so the program also arranged resting rooms for each contestant’s entourage (assistants, bodyguards, drivers, family and friends, etc.).

Knock knock—Feng Bujue knocked on the door twice.

No one answered in the room, but someone opened the door directly.

“Why did you sneak out instead of competing properly?” An Yueqin seemed to know that the person outside the door was Brother Jue before she even opened it, and immediately questioned him.

“What’s the rush… I’ll go back in the last twenty minutes.” Feng Bujue shrugged in response.

“If I had known you’d be fooling around like this the whole time…” Li Ruoyu’s voice came from behind An Yueqin, “…I wouldn’t have come.”

Feng Bujue’s family and friends group resting room only had these two people in it. Ruoyu used the reason of “I decided to return a favor” to drive Brother Jue to the TV station, and then just stayed there. As for An Yueqin, she was here on official business. After all, she was Brother Jue’s editor, and after seeing Feng Bujue’s performance in the previous round, she didn’t feel right not being here to oversee things…

Earlier, the two of them had been watching the situation live on the time-controlled TV in the resting room, and they naturally saw Brother Jue leave his seat and head backstage.

“Hey, hey… don’t go back by yourself.” Feng Bujue tilted his head and said to Ruoyu on the sofa through An Yueqin, “Today, you suddenly drove over to pick me up, causing me to leave in too much of a hurry, and I didn’t bring my transportation card or wallet.”

“Is this the time to worry about that?” An Yueqin also tilted her head, blocking Brother Jue’s view, “You’re at least a special guest writer for our magazine, have you considered the chain reaction that this kind of performance on this show will cause later?”

Feng Bujue didn’t answer directly. He first looked around to confirm that he wasn’t being followed by a cameraman, then stepped into the room sideways, and then closed the door behind him… Finally, he lowered his voice and replied, “What are you shouting for… I know what I’m doing.”

“What do you know?” An Yueqin said in a slightly reproachful tone, “Do you think I don’t know? You saw through in advance that Night Blaze was already internally selected to advance, so you wanted to mess with him, right?” As she spoke, she returned to the sofa and sat down next to Ruoyu.

“Ha! Do I look like such a boring person?” Feng Bujue spread his hands, replying with an innocent expression.

“Of course, you do.” The two on the sofa replied in unison.

“Hmm… ladies… we’ve only known each other for a few hours, but I didn’t expect you to already be in cahoots, targeting me…” Feng Bujue made a strange expression and took half a step back.

Ruoyu raised her phone: “We’ve already exchanged email addresses…”

An Yueqin also raised her phone: “…and some information about you…”

The two of them had very calm expressions, but their aura was as steady as a mountain, and their intentions were clear, causing Feng Bujue to instantly have a very ominous premonition…

“Hmm… as long as you give me a way out, we can still be friends…” Brother Jue replied quite seriously.

“Sigh, alright, stop being glib, I know you must have some plan.” Ruoyu sighed, “But you better not mess it up.”

“If you can’t salvage your image and popularity by the time the show is over,” An Yueqin also added, “Then I can’t help you either, you can wash your neck and wait for our editor-in-chief and higher-ups to come looking for you.”

“Ah… don’t worry…” Feng Bujue leisurely came to the sofa on the other side of the room and sat down, looking at the TV screen on the wall, “I will give everyone a satisfactory answer…”

…………

When there were only twenty minutes left of the “Finishing Touch” creation time, Feng Bujue leisurely strolled back from the resting room.

During this time, he had basically been playing on his phone and chatting. Everyone else was desperately reading and writing furiously. To be honest… everyone had already given up on him cooperating with the recording. So, when he greeted the director earlier, saying that he was going to the backstage to rest for a while, Fei Ran didn’t stop him at all…

“Yo, Oscar, is the audience interaction segment all done?” After Feng Bujue returned to the stage, he still didn’t return to his seat, but ran to the side of the stage and started chatting with Oscar, who was touching up his makeup.

“Yeah, even the commercials and a few post-production monologues have been recorded.” Oscar, under the manipulation of a stylist, didn’t dare to move while sitting, and had to seize every opportunity to take a sip of water, “Eh? Where did you go?”

“I chatted with two friends for a while, and took a rest.” Feng Bujue said, “It’s too hot on the stage, those lights are roasting…” He leaned forward, taking a close look at Oscar, “I’m telling you… the makeup on your face could be used as a mask after being roasted by the lights for a while, right?”

“Tell me about it…” Oscar replied, “Hey… who told us to be in this business.” He paused, “By the way, Brother Jue… even if you don’t care too much about the results, but what you’re doing now… isn’t very good…” His expression changed slightly, “Last time you came, you used the reason ‘I don’t like that book’ and didn’t write a single word in the third round. This time you didn’t even bother to look…”

“I looked at it.” Feng Bujue interrupted, “No need to look at it again.”

“Huh?” Oscar was stunned upon hearing this.

Feng Bujue immediately smiled and explained, “Heh… it’s like this, I read the novel I got a long time ago. An hour ago, I spent ten minutes recalling the contents of the entire book through the outline, and conceived a final chapter.” He shrugged, “According to my estimate, I can finish this chapter in fifteen minutes. So… I decided to go backstage to get some air, clear my thoughts, and then come back and write it.”

“Ha…” Oscar also laughed, “That really sounds like your style.”

“In the eyes of people who don’t understand, it would become a very arrogant act, right…” Feng Bujue said.

“Of course, who knows what you’re doing?” Oscar replied.

“Oh, right, there’s something I want to ask you.” Feng Bujue then said, “After the process here is recorded, can you record that ‘voice-over interview’ for me first?” He paused for a second, adding, “Because I want to go back earlier.”

“Oh~ small thing.” Oscar said, “I’ll say hello to the director later.”

“That’s good, thank you.” Feng Bujue said quite politely, “Then I’ll go back to my seat.”

“Hurry up and go, be careful not to mess it up.” Oscar said.

Brother Jue smiled and turned to leave.

Oscar watched his back, thinking: One moment he’s aggressive, the next he’s amiable… I really can’t figure you out…

…………

“Welcome back to, *I Am a Writer*—Night of Resurrection!” After the countdown ended, Oscar came to the stage again, performing energetically for the camera, “Without further ado, let’s welcome the moment of unveiling the Finishing Touch!”

He quickly went to the number one contestant’s seat, adding, “As usual, we will start with number one…”

The subsequent announcement process proceeded in an orderly manner. The chapters written by the contestants appeared on the big screen in turn, along with the outlines of the works being continued.

Oscar made jokes along the way, and also offered lavish praise. He was indeed a good hand at stirring up the atmosphere, and there was hardly a minute of dead air in this climax of the show.

And the articles written by the writers were indeed of a fairly high standard. Of course… compared to the level of that episode of *I Am a Writer—Feel Free to Complain*, it was still a bit lacking. After all, this was a resurrection match. In terms of writer strength, it naturally couldn’t compare with the lineup of great gods in that episode.

About twenty minutes later, finally, Oscar arrived at Feng Bujue’s number six contestant seat…

“So… let’s see, the performance of contestant Unaware in this round.” As Oscar said this, the content that Brother Jue had written in fifteen minutes was already displayed on the big screen.

【Our protagonist is dead, just like that…】

This was the first sentence of the final chapter written by Feng Bujue.

Many people immediately wanted to curse after seeing this sentence, because it was difficult for them to imagine what the content behind this chapter would be…

But in fact… this was not Brother Jue’s fault. The book he was continuing was essentially a half-assed work. The original author had indeed written the protagonist to death in the previous chapter. Although that author’s writing was good, and the process of the protagonist’s death was described as quite tragic and touching, it could not hide the essence of it being a “sudden death.” Because after he finished writing the part where the protagonist died, he abruptly ended that chapter and then stopped writing.

It has to be said… the envelope that Feng Bujue “randomly” received was truly terrifying. The novels that the others drew were either plots that were lukewarm and halfway developed; or settings that were huge, so that the original author couldn’t control them after writing for a while; only his was… the author didn’t forget to give the protagonist a knife before abandoning it. Strictly speaking, this was no longer considered an abandoned novel, it was a half-abandoned, half-eunuch article with no chapter to continue…

However, Feng Bujue still managed to successfully continue a chapter that looked decent in twenty minutes.

【As the protagonist of a novel, he is truly pathetic, even making people want to laugh a little. He still has many things he hasn’t done, many ideals he hasn’t realized, but he ended so pointlessly…】

Seeing this, the audience still maintained a suspicious attitude, unable to guess what would come next.

【But… maybe this is his fate.

Along the way, he brought us a lot of laughter and tears, his success made us cheer, his failure made us sympathize. His courage made us admire him, his cowardice made us reflect on ourselves.

He struggled in pain, grew in adversity; he swayed like a clown, groaned like a patient, thought like a saint, and was greedy like a beast. He was noble and unbearable, smart and foolish, devoted and amorous… He lived like a self-contradictory madman, just to make us smile.

And looking past those appearances… he is just a person, a person living in our imaginary world. The meaning of his existence is only to provide us with temporary entertainment. One day, we will forget him, just like we forget many other characters.

Death is not his ending, his ending is no different from that of other protagonists… being forgotten.】

At this point, a paragraph break appeared.

【Do you know salmon? When they are still eggs, humans and some large birds turn them into delicious meals.

And those who are lucky enough to survive drift and grow in the ocean currents…

When they mature, they will migrate upstream, trekking thousands of kilometers, back to the waters where they were born.

They cross waterfalls, dams, jumping and advancing in the opposite direction. Escaping the claws of predators, passing through endless currents. Scarred, but moving forward courageously.

After experiencing layers of difficulties, they finally arrive at a calm lake, to the place where their mother laid her eggs. Then, they use the last of their energy to lay their offspring, ending their lives. That is a life of hardship, brief and difficult.

Their corpses will become food for other animals, and their remains will be transformed into nutrients for trees. And their offspring… will follow in the footsteps of their parents, going back to complete this mission in life. Knowing that the final result is death, they still follow this process.

Just like those countless novel protagonists, they come and go, performing scene after scene of bumpy and wonderful dramas in front of us, but in the end, they will still be like salmon. In just a few years… they will complete this short life.

For them, the days in front of us are everything.

The death of a character is not the end, the end of the story is their cessation.

Therefore, although our protagonist still has many things he hasn’t done, many ideals he hasn’t realized, as long as we still remember him, remember the feelings he once brought us, he will not have lived in vain. Even when facing death, he will be dauntless and have no regrets.】