Thriller Paradise

[Hey… this is a song lyric, right…] There were practically thousands of beast running through Oscar's heart but he resisted the urge to say anything on his mouth, he could not voice his real thoughts out loud, [And you have not even changed a single word… This is full plagiarism plain and simple! Even if it is an old song, I am sure there are people who have heard of it already… Even if somehow the audience member in the studio has not heard of it, after the broadcast, once the viewers get online and search, they will discover the origin of this writing eventually… won't they?!]

"What's wrong? Is anything a problem?" Feng Bujue looked at Oscar and asked like there was nothing of the matter.

"Erm… Bujue, my friend…" Oscar said, "Are you sure… you want to hand in this content?" Because the audience and viewer had not seen what Feng bujue wrote so Oscar felt there was still chance for him to redeem himself. He tried to make as much eye contact with Brother Jue and used his tone to emphasize the words unsaid, "The thing that you wrote… they look quite familiar to me…" He then glanced back at the camera. "There are still quite more than enough time left… are you sure you do not want to edit your writing anymore?" The hidden meaning of his words was, [I already know what you have written is not your original, there is still time for you to edit it.] But Feng Bujue did not intent to accept his kindness at all.

"Of course, it will be familiar to you." Brother Jue replied as casually as possible, "This is a song lyric."

[O my god, you admitted it?! And you say it out loud so readily in front of the camera?!] Oscar basically was roaring inside his heart. [Does this really not matter at all?] He quickly turned his head around to toss a pleading gaze at the director, waiting for his next direction.

"it's fine, continue the recording." Pei Ran said in the ear mic, "After all, that is not forbidden in the rules."

"Ah ha ha ha ha… Bujue, you sure are quite honest, I have to say." Well, in that case, there was nothing for Oscar to do but to find a praise within his mind. But… our Brother Jue still refused to accept this olive branch.

"I was just too lazy to figure something out." Feng Bujue replied instantly, "So I randomly copied a song that believed matches the keywords and the theme quite well." Once he said that, even the audience did not know how to react…

[What is this kid really planning?] Oscar thought to himself, [you are not only digging your own grave, but you seem to be rather enjoying this process…] At that moment, Oscar already turned his face away from the camera. As a person who was familiar with the camera, he naturally had his reason for doing something like this. This was because he did not want his current expression to appear on screen.

"After all, this is allowed by the rules right?" Feng Bujue picked that moment to continue. With his hands still cushioned behind his head, he said in a rather arrogant tone, "Actually if you think about it, what I have done is not that different from quoting the classic is there?"

[There is a huge difference, okay…] Oscar countered inside his mind. [People normally quote the classic to support their own points but you have fully plagiarized another person's work, without any original contribution of your own…]

"Erm… Ha ha ha ha…" Oscar laughed awkwardly. "Alright then… I guess we will find out how this result will be in a bit." All he could do then was to wrap this part up as fast as he could. The cameraman, Xiao Wu was quite astute. Seeing this, he quickly moved the camera away to focus on the other writers. Oscar noticed this and cleverly collaborated with Xiao Wu. He moved away from the seat of the sixth contestant and recited in a loud voice, "Time… is ticking away second by second. Other than contestant Bujue, our other six writers are still working on their writing. Perhaps we can see from their facial expression, what is currently going on in their mind…" he worked well with Xiao Wu's camera work and with this sentence, he successfully directed the audience's attention away from Feng Bujue.

…

The time of 7 minutes soon ended and more and more writers moved to press the submit button. Oscar did not sit idle during this period. He had been trying to find topics that were somehow related to the show but when you really dissected them, you would realize they were nothing but fillers. But even so… the period of silence between the individual moments he opened his mouth would not be longer than 10 seconds… and ladies and gentlemen, that was what we call professionalism.

"We do not have much remaining time left… Let us begin the final 10 second countdown…" When the timer on the big monitor showed that there was only 10 seconds left, Oscar picked the right timing to say, "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3…" He followed the number on the screen and read them out loud one by one and ended it with a booming, "… Time's up!"

A common Background music that was normally used in this kind of show that lasted for five seconds was used and the lights on the stage also flickered madly for a while. Cameraman Xiao Wu adjusted his position and prepared to move along with the host.

"Alright… it is time to reveal the writings of our contestants." As Oscar listened to the information relayed to him through the ear mic, he said, "The clever members among us will have already realized the order with which we will reveal the work of our contestants." He paused for a moment, "I will not try to delay this further… We will start from the contestant who submitted their work first…" he turned around. "… and start with contestant Bujue." Then, he led the camera to stop before Brother Jue. At the same time, what Feng Bujue wrote also appeared on the big screen. There were plenty of whispering and comments from the audience but the only thing that was lacking was the applause…

After Oscar read the whole song lyric from start to finish, he then said, "Hmm… It is indeed well written." He then turned to Brother Jue, "And it does fit both the keywords, 'love' and 'time'." His tone shifted and he said with a smile, "But unfortunately… this does not appear to be your own original, is it…" The last sentence was not Oscar purposely trying to undermine Feng Bujue but it was something Pei Ran ordered him to say on the ear mic. Looks like… the director planned to cooperate with Brother Jue for him to lose in the first round.

"Yes…" Feng Bujue admitted with an expression that said pretty plainly, 'so what'. "It is a well known song by Etta James."

"But… if you just copied the whole song just like that…" Oscar said, "The audience member might be persuaded by your capability as a writer."

"It does not matter." Feng Bujue very calmly replied with the following. Hearing that, Oscar widened his eyes and made a helpless expression at the camera and shrugged. Then he walked to the seat of the fourth contestant. "Alright… then moving on… we will see what has Rose written with 5 minutes and 11 seconds in her record."

The atmosphere inside the studio dropped down to below freezing point in that previous 1 minute. Many fans who came to support Feng Bujue were silenced beyond words, they had no idea what was happening and did not know what to say in that moment… And for Oscar, he had already followed the procedure and started to reveal the writing of the other writers…

Other than Feng Bujue, the other contestants naturally handed in their own original writing. First it was Rose, the work that she handed in was undeniably had a very 'gothic' style to it, it was permeated with despair, darkness, death, loneliness… and a heavy mist of Sophomore Syndrome. But to everyone's surprise, her writing matched the themes of 'love' and 'time' quite well so she got quite a resounding applause from the audience.

Following her was Yamcha. Compared to the other writers on the stage, his writing was the least anticipated upon but at least he was able to have a smooth transition in his writing and they were easy to digest and understand. Furthermore, the young man was surprisingly fast at typing. Using the full Pin yin typing style provided by the control panel, he managed to finish 500 words in 6 minutes. Therefore… he had practically written a short story to match this episode's theme. Unfortunately, his story's plot was rather idealized and juvenile and his writing ability was not that good to cover up these negative points. So overall, the effect was less than satisfactory.

Then it was Soda. He was a very good story teller and he had the skill to back it up. In terms of writer type, he was closest to Feng Bujue. He too wrote a short story to express the dual themes of 'love' and 'time' but he did not jot down as much characters as Yamcha, but… with his experience and skill, the effect that he got from the audience was much greater than Yamcha's.

About the remaining 3… Fire in the Night and General Fei both reached for the submit button at 6 minutes 40 plus seconds; while due to unfamiliarity with the writing system of the control panel, Spring Breeze was obviously the one who was held back the most by the technological restriction. He wrote until the final countdown and was forced to finish his writing because the time was already up. Oscar also respectively read out their writing one by one… General Fei's descriptive writing was not bad, it was just alright, no big loss but nothing interesting either; For Spring Breeze… the ending was rushed, it was clear that he did not have the time to finish. But after all, he was the oldest among the contestants and had the most reading experience, his writing skill was undeniable. With just the part that he was written was enough to receive some resonance from the audience.

And the person that showcased their ability the least was Fire in the Night… Since the first minute, he was distracted by the sudden action done by Brother Jue. Fire in the Night intended to write in the first person view to further draw the readers into his perspective and evoke their emotions but the author himself had lost control of his own emotions… The more he wrote, the more nervous he became and the more nervous he was, the more mistakes he made… in the end, the writing that he gave was incomprehensible; there was no sincerity of love, nor a flashy showcase of skill. Thankfully his fans in the studio threw their best support behind him, after his writing was shown… they had practically screamed at the top of their lungs non stop and that had raised the neutral audience's impression of the man's writing by that little bit…

"Alright, we have all seen the performance of all of our seven contestant in this round of Spinning a Tale…" After interviewing all contestant, Oscar turned to head back to the centre of the stage. "And the time to tell their fate, the time of nervousness… has descended upon us again…" The camera fixed at the top of the studio made a large circuit movement and took a roaming shot of all the contestants. Oscar continued to say , "We have 700 live studio audience with us today and dear audience members, the fate of the contestants are once again left in your hands…" he paused for that to sink today, "Today, we will cancel the rules where there will be 'first pick vote' and 'second pick vote'… you only have one valuable vote, so in other words, you can only throw your support behind… one contestant." He focused his attention. "The voting time will be 2 minutes, please think carefully before you cast your very important and singular vote… And the voting… starts now!"

The next second, the intense background music filled up the studio. Xiao Wu carried the camera and rushed forward to give the seven contestants each an individual close up.

"Friends who have just opened your television, website or the radio, you are currently tuning into I am a Writer—Night of Revival!" after a short silence, Oscar directly followed it up with this introduction. This sudden segue naturally was an order by the director as well. Obviously… the post editing would add a very long pre-recorded segment or advertisement before this. "The voting for the first round is still going on. Who will be the lucky contestant who will win the first round and gain the lead away from the rest…" Oscar used a rhetorical question and a few more meaningless words to delay it for another minute.

"Time's up!" Finally Oscar once again perfectly completed his task and he added a long sigh. "Okay, today… I will…" He turned to the big screen. "Announce the ranking… from the seventh place."

The cameramen at the studio all started to get busy again, they took shots of the audience, the contestants and the host from various angles…

"The contestant… who got the seventh place… on today's I am a Writer—Night of Revival… is…" Whenever he reached this part, Oscar would drag out every syllable as long as he could, to fill in as many intense moment as he could. The live DJ cooperated with him very well and filled in the blanks with sound effect that had rapid tempo to increase the hype and mystery.

"Bujue." When Oscar read out Brother Jue's penname, his voice and tone were both rather low. There was some murmuring from the audience and it was mixed with some booing sound as well. Oscar turned around to face the camera and look at Brother Jue in his eyes. "Bujue, do you have anything that you want to say?'

Feng bujue smiled wickedly and said, "No! No regrets

No! I will have no regrets

All the things

That went wrong

For at last I have learned to be strong

No! No regrets

No! I will have no regrets

For the grief doesn't last

It is gone

I've forgotten the past."

[Just how arrogant can a person be…] Oscar mocked internally. [After your blatant plagiarism has been exposed, you have no intention of showing any regret or shame and somehow reply with this kind of shameless statement… wait a minute… Why does this also sound so familiar… this is yet another song lyric, isn't it?]

"Boo---" At that moment, among the live studio audience, Fire in the Night's fans had already responded with a unified and unfiltered booing. And the audience who supported Brother Jue and those who remained neutral were all keeping silent.

"Ha ha ha… Bujue is still as unique as the last time we met." Oscar said with an awkward smile on his face and swiftly moved away from the ticking time bomb. "Then… moving on, the next contestant that I will announce is…" To distract the audience's attention, this time he could not afford to drag the suspense out for too long so he quickly reveal, "The writer who got the fourth place is…"

His announcement successfully stunned the audience because based on previous rules, the round for Spinning a Tale, only those in the first, second and last place would be announced.

"Just as I have been stressing over and over, tonight… many rules that we are familiar with in the past will all be changed." Oscar smiled mysteriously. "The placement that I will announce today are… respectively, the third place, the fourth place… and the last place." He paused for a second, "And the writer ranked first, second, fifth and sixth… will be kept temporarily a secret…"

[Hmm… this looks on the surface is to add to the overall suspense of the show…] Feng Bujue reacted very quickly. Once he heard Oscar's announcement, he figured it out internally, [But in reality it was to make the vote manipulation even more convenient from behind the scene.]

"Today, the writer who got the fourth place during this first round is…" Oscar was still continuing, "…Our Uncle Spring Breeze… who will bring anarchy." A splattering of applause came from the audience. Oscar also hurried to the seat of the fourth contestant and said with a smile. "Brother Spring Breeze, I am honestly quite impressed by you… Previously we have not seen anyone who has managed to get into the top 4 in the round of Spinning a Tale with an uncompleted writing before."

"Ha ha ha… This is all thanks to the audience members' support." Spring Breeze pushed on his black-rimmed glasses and replied rather pleasantly.

"Hmm, our Brother Sping Breeze's humility is quite inspiring as well." Oscar commented with a smile. Then he turned back to the camera and said, "Okay… next we will proceed to announce the contestant who is ranked third in our first round tonight…" he looked at the camera with an expression that said, 'I am not going to tell you now, what can you do about it, how about you reach through the screen to come and hit me?'. He stared at the screen for 10 seconds before adding, "that contestant is… Soda…"

There was another cheer from the audience… but overall, the people who cheered for Soda and Spring Breeze, their combination was not even higher than the fans for just one Fire in the Night…

This was a rather regrettable situation. The majority of the reader base for these two contestants were mostly working males over 30. Even though in the online pole, their numbers were quite high and among the fans that came to the studio in person to support them were also the least. (Of course, there were also audience manipulation from the side of the production crew as well).

"Speaking of the person with uncompleted writing." Oscar walked towards Soda. "I was just saying how there were contestants in the round of Spinning a Tale who could not manage to finish their writing in the time limit…"

"ha ha ha ha…" Soda naturally understood the host was referring to his performance in one of the previous episodes. "But I have finished it this time."

"yes, and whenever you have finished it, you are always found in the top 3." Oscar said.

"No, no. You flatter me too much." Soda waved his hands and said.

"I am not just blowing hot air here." Oscar turned to face the audience and said, "Now… I have the set of data that I can announce…" He returned to the centre of the stage. "Among the past 20 episodes of I am a Writer, Soda was part of 16 episodes…" At this point, he purposely paused for a second. The audience understood the host's intention, so they responded with reasonable cheer and applause.

"And he has maintained a record that no one has been able to break until this day and that is…" Oscar waved his arm to refer to soda. "In the round for Spinning a Tale, like what I have said earlier, it is true that whenever Soda manages to finish his writing, he has been able to find his place among the top 3 writers of the week."

Applause rang from the audience again but this time Oscar cut them off with, "And…" he said loudly, "In the second round, A Stroke of Genius, Soda is also the writer with the most first place placements." Then he was done with what he wanted to say. And the audience also gave the loudest cheer that could be heard since the start of the recording. The other writers also stood up from their seat to give Soda a standing ovation. Of course some of them were really impressed by his record, others were just doing it for the show…

"Oscar, that is enough. Do not forget the actual business that we are supposed to do today." Pei Ran's voice suddenly came from his ear mic. Once Oscar heard that, he understood immediately. The director wanted him to stop with the compliments already and do not heap too much praises on Soda. After all… the purpose of tonight's show was to highlight Fire in the Night and the other contestants were just there essentially to support his rise to the top.

To be perfectly honest… it was hard for Oscar to not have his personal preference. He might not have read many books and he might not be familiar with the literary circle but in the entertainment business, he had seen so many different type of people. Who are the true gentlemen, who are the backstabber, who are real, who are fake, who really has the literary talent and who are just hyped… he naturally had his own yardstick in his heart.

If you ask for his personal honest opinion, Oscar indeed would have preferred for Oscar to get into the finals but ultimately he was just a hired employee, due to the need of the production crew… he would have to bend his back as well.

"Okay… After chatting for so long, I am sure the audience also cannot wait any longer. Let us now continue to the next round now…" Oscar smoothly transitioned into the segue. "A stroke of genius!"

[Hmm… here comes the most troublesome segment…] Feng Bujue narrowed his eyes and thought silently to himself. [The consequence from the random writing that I did last time was quite serious…. This time I have to come up with a better solution to deal with this problem…]

"Please look at… the big screen." Oscar followed it up from what he said earlier and turned around to announce. At the same second, on the big screen next to eh stage, and on the small panel before each contestants, the contents as follows appeared. "Zhang San, Li Si, Dusk, Field, Duel."

"As everyone has noted today, the rules for tonight's episode has changed. In the past, the request of this round… was for each contestant to design a descriptive content and come up with the frame of a story and combine them to form a relatively complete story through narration." Oscar explained. "But today, we have already given… the characters, the time, the location and the event." At this point, the cameraman swept the contestants' seat for a take of their expression again. Other than Brother Jue… everyone's expression had changed slightly.

"But the rules of this round will still be the same as before…" Oscar instantly constantly. "At this moment, all the control panels before our seven writers have been changed into free writing mode. Be it wording, drafting, doodling or drawing… you can do whatever you like to help create your story." He paused. "And the time limit for this round will be still the same as before, 10 minutes."

Then, he turned to the constestant's seat and said in a rapid tone, "And now… the second round officially begins!"

Tick tok tick tok…

Just as Oscar finished, the sound effect of a ticking clock echoed through the recording studio. This was another arrangement by the director… it was to evoke a sense of nervousness. This night of revival had used many similar method to create this kind of effect.