You were asked to write a political intrigue drama, but you wrote "Da Ming 1566".

Chapter 28: The Conversion of Rice Paddy to Mulberry Trees Begins! Explosive Plot! (Part 2)

If the audience's expectations are raised so high in the early stages, and the subsequent plot fails to live up to those expectations, the feedback from viewers whose appetites have already been whetted will likely be exceptionally strong.

From this point of view alone, this high-starting approach is not even as good as those scripts with mediocre beginnings. After all, as long as the latter's subsequent plot is strong and breaks through the circle, the audience who did not have high expectations will be easily amazed and will naturally accumulate excellent word-of-mouth.

As for the sequel to "Ming Dynasty", will it be possible to write a plot that is more captivating and dramatic than the Imperial Court Debate?

Recalling the discussions among the film industry executives and the words of the top screenwriter in the industry group, Mr. Li felt increasingly relieved and breathed a sigh of relief.

Even the top screenwriters in the industry said that even with his years of experience, he couldn't write such an opening, let alone Chen Yu, a new screenwriter who came from online novel writing.

Thinking of this, Mr. Li raised his hand and dialed the shop that had been contacted before to make flower baskets and banners. "Arrange for the production of the flower baskets and banners I ordered to be made immediately. Make them as large as possible, the more impressive the better." "Urgent, you must expedite the work for me, I need them right away!" Not only him, but at this moment, the representatives of the top film and television companies on the recording site of the "Creator Competition" all had the exact same thought in mind.

According to the show's fixed schedule, starting from the second day after the show aired, the contestants would stay behind closed doors to create their scripts. Whenever they reached a key plot twist, the production team would invite film industry representatives to appear on camera to give their comments in order to maximize the show's appeal.

At this moment, Chen Yu's script had reached the seventh act. It was clear to everyone that this was bound to be a crucial turning point in the entire plot.

The unprecedentedly solemn and thoughtful expression on Chen Yu's face alone revealed that the plot of this scene was definitely not simple. It was precisely for this reason that the "Creator Competition" program team specifically sought out the film industry representative who had publicly asserted yesterday that the commercial value of "The Ming Dynasty" would quickly collapse, and conducted another interview with him.

"Hello, representative. Yesterday you stated that the commercial value of 'Ming Dynasty' is at most 300,000."

""

"But today we can clearly see that the audience response to 'Da Ming Dynasty' is extremely enthusiastic, with the amount of money donated by fans alone reaching an astonishing figure."

"Chen Yu seems to be working on a brand new core storyline. Would you readjust your valuation and evaluation of 'Ming Dynasty'?"

The film industry representative slowly smiled faintly, glancing sideways at Qin Lan not far away, his expression as if he had already seen through her little trick of secretly giving Chen Yu tips to support him.

Then, he began to speak in a slow, leisurely tone.

"There's no need to bring up the matter of fan donations, haha. I think everyone here knows the truth and has their own scale." "As for your question about whether I will adjust my evaluation of 'Ming Dynasty,' I can only say that no matter how much money is spent on promotion and marketing, if the work itself has no potential, it simply has no potential."

"Judging from Chen Yu's troubled look, he probably already realized that the appeal of the subsequent plot has plummeted, right?" "I dare say here that the commercial value of 'Da Ming Dynasty' will completely crash today, and President Qin Lan will definitely regret her desperate gamble yesterday."

The moment he finished speaking, before the viewers in Chen Yu's live stream could even start typing their criticisms, they saw Chen Yu, who had been deep in thought with his eyes closed for a long time, suddenly open his eyes.

The next second, the sound of rapid keyboard typing filled the live stream room, and line after line of text flew across the creation screen. [The Ming Dynasty, Act VII—Converting Rice Paddy to Mulberry Fields.] [Location: A rice paddy in Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province.] [Characters: Ma Ningyuan, Prefect of Hangzhou; Chang Boxi, Magistrate of Chun'an County; Zhang Zhiliang, Magistrate of Jiande County; Qi Dazhu, a commoner.]

When the introductions of the characters appearing in Act VII appeared on the screen, the audience, who had been full of anticipation, were instantly overwhelmed with an unconcealable sense of disappointment.

"This scene is surprisingly devoid of Grand Secretary Yan and the Junior Grand Secretary, not even the Jiajing Emperor appeared, nor did Prince Yu or any of the upright officials show up." "All those who appeared were new characters I'd never seen before. Just looking at their official titles, they don't seem to carry much weight. They're not even in the same league as the big shots in the court before."

"I was really looking forward to seeing a more exciting drama of court intrigue, but instead the scene has been changed to a rice paddy. What kind of production can they possibly make with this?"

On stage, in the judges' panel, Professor Shuping, who had been frowning and looking worried, suddenly felt his heart leap into his throat. The situation he feared most had finally come to pass.

The court debates in the Golden Palace, the power struggles and verbal battles among the top echelons of the Ming Dynasty, could not possibly be a recurring theme throughout the entire series of "The Ming Dynasty."

It now seems that the plot is going to fall into a lower level of narrative. But can the audience, whose aesthetic threshold has been raised by the high-quality plot, really accept such a big difference?

One second you're watching the empire's top power players vying for power and killing each other, and the next you're stuck in the fields? If they can't pull the plot back in its grip, then "Ming Dynasty" is truly in danger!

In stark contrast to Professor Shuping's deep concern, the film company representative who had just been interviewed in the audience already wore an undisguised look of smugness, as if everything before him was exactly what he had expected.

He picked up the microphone, looking confident, and slowly uttered two words: "What a pity."

"I originally thought that 'Ming Dynasty' would at least hold out until the final bidding stage before the plot collapsed. Now it seems that the collapse happened much earlier than I expected." "I also hope that President Qin can learn a lesson from this mistake and make a good investment decision."

These sarcastic words caused Qin Lan's fingers to clench slightly involuntarily. However, her face remained unchanged, still bearing a calm and confident smile as she gazed at the creative screen in front of her and spoke calmly, "Is that so?"

"I don't think we need to jump to conclusions so quickly. Let's see what happens in the plot first."

A moment later, whether they were gloating or worried, everyone's gaze fell on the screen, eager to see what kind of story this seventh act of "The Ming Dynasty" would tell.

The moment Chen Yu's flowing prose caught everyone's eye, they were all stunned. They had all assumed that a national policy like converting rice paddies to mulberry fields—benefiting the country and its people, and allowing them to earn more money—would be met with enthusiastic support from the populace.

The scene before us should have been one of harmony and joy between officials and the people, right? But who would have thought that what appeared on the screen was a screen full of murderous intent! Ma Ningyuan came with Chang Boxi and Zhang Zhiliang, not to have a friendly talk with the people, but with a large troop of soldiers following behind them.

First, they cut off the water supply to the people's rice paddies, then they allowed their soldiers to ride horses and trample the seedlings! This sudden turn of events left the viewers in the live stream wide-eyed. "What, what's going on?"

"Wasn't the plan to convert rice paddies to mulberry fields? How did it turn out like this? This is too domineering and unreasonable!" "It was clearly a great national policy that would benefit the country and its people, how did it turn into a situation where officials and the people are irreconcilable?"

Before the audience could recover from their shock, the rice farmers in the fields could no longer bear it and rushed into the paddy fields to protect the crops under the horses' hooves with their own bodies.

Amidst the chaos, a burly man, his eyes blazing with fury, let out a deafening roar.

【Fight them!】

The next second, the audience was stunned to see several lines of text appear on the script. [Upon hearing this roar, Zhang Zhiliang, the magistrate of Jiande, stomped his foot angrily and hissed in a low voice: "You unruly people!"] [But a glint of joy flashed in the eyes of Chang Boxi, the magistrate of Chun'an, who quickly approached Ma Ningyuan, the prefect of Hangzhou, and said:] ["Not unruly people, but rebellious people!!"] ["Just now, someone openly shouted that they were rebelling, that they wanted to gather a crowd to revolt. I heard it clearly!"]

Ma Ningyuan's face instantly darkened, a barely perceptible glint of something unusual flashing in his eyes. He thought to himself, "Did someone really say they wanted to rebel? But it doesn't matter; if it's confirmed as a rebellion, that's even better!"

[In a short while, the burly man who had been shouting that he was going to fight to the death was pinned to the ground by Ma Ningyuan's soldiers.] [Ma Ningyuan looked at him coldly and asked, "What's your name? What do you do for a living?"] [The burly man stubbornly replied that his name was Qi Dazhu, and he was a local mulberry farmer. He had led rice farmers to block the soldiers today because he couldn't swallow this insult.]

The next second, Ma Ningyuan suddenly sneered, raising his voice sharply as he demanded, "What kind of leader were you under the Japanese pirate Wang Zhi?" Qi Dazhu was immediately stunned. Wang Zhi? Who was Wang Zhi? Ma Ningyuan's sneer deepened, and he said, word by word, "Wang Zhi, the leader of the Japanese pirates!" Qi Dazhu hurriedly shook his head in denial, "What Wang Zhi? I don't know this person at all!"

Ma Ningyuan glanced at him coldly, his tone flat yet chilling: "Once we get to the yamen, you'll naturally say you know him." Then, Ma Ningyuan turned and shouted sternly at the surrounding crowd.

[Converting rice paddies into mulberry fields would benefit the nation and its people! Such a great thing, yet it just won't go through with! And today you even dare to gather and defy the government! Now I finally understand, it turns out that Japanese pirates are instigating your rebellion!]

When the entire script appeared on the screen, the entire recording studio fell into a deathly silence. Just seconds later, the live stream chat erupted with a deluge of comments, like a volcanic eruption! "Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap!"

"This is fucking mind-blowing!"

"Qi Dazhu clearly shouted 'Let's fight them to the death,' he never said he wanted to rebel, right?" "The magistrate of Jiande initially only called him a troublemaker, he didn't even mention rebellion." "But this magistrate of Chun'an, with just a few words, labeled a troublemaker as a rebel?" "The prefect of Hangzhou was even more ruthless, directly slapping the death penalty label of colluding with Japanese pirates on him." "They clearly know in their hearts that Qi Dazhu has absolutely no connection with the Japanese pirates; this is purely finding a pretext to suppress the matter, directly slapping him with the grave charge of confiscating his property and exterminating his entire family!"

"Isn't this the legendary 'if you can't solve the problem, solve the person who raised it'? If you want to find fault, you can always find a pretext?"

After watching this shocking scene, within seconds, countless people in the live stream chat started spamming the same sentence.

"Where are the people who said the plot of 'Ming Dynasty' was going to fall apart? Come out and apologize!"

The methods Ma Ningyuan and the two county magistrates used to deal with Qi Dazhu truly shocked the audience's values. While the previous court debate in the Golden Palace featured high-ranking characters and intense exchanges, for most ordinary viewers, aside from exclaiming "666!" and lamenting their own low intelligence, it didn't resonate much with them.

However, the beginning of this storyline about converting rice paddies to mulberry fields, and the methods used by a prefect and two county magistrates to deal with ordinary people, truly shocked the audience.

As long as you cause trouble, even if you are the one being bullied, the government can easily pin a serious charge on you and then deal with you!

This could even be described as...resonance for some viewers!

Because some people have experienced similar feelings! This kind of realistic storyline is what makes it so moving.

At this moment, viewers who had left disappointed because characters like Yan Song and Yan Shifan hadn't appeared returned to the live stream. The popularity in Chen Yu's live stream, which had just dipped slightly, immediately rebounded and surged even higher than its previous peak!

Looking at the soaring popularity in the live stream, and the barrage of comments—"Those who said the plot of 'Da Ming Dynasty' was going to collapse, come out and apologize!"

Qin Lan loosened her clenched fist, her face revealing an undisguised look of surprise. To be honest, although she had acted as if she had a lot of confidence in Chen Yu, she was actually quite unsure of herself. But now, Qin Lan let out a long breath, her expression becoming even brighter, and she smiled radiantly.

"Just now, some people seemed to be confidently saying that 'Da Ming Dynasty' is going to fall apart from here on out. Now I want to ask, where exactly is it going to fall apart?" "I'm not very good at seeing things, I can't see it."

"So many viewers didn't seem to notice, and the reaction was quite enthusiastic. How come it doesn't seem to have collapsed?" At this moment, all eyes fell on the representative of the top-tier film company. His face was pale, and his cheeks were slightly distorted, as if he had been slapped hard across the face. However, he still gritted his teeth and insisted on his analysis.

"This is just a minor fluctuation, not even a plot point, let alone a major turning point in the story."

"If Chen Yu is using the characters' Machiavellianism and conspiracies to maintain the script's popularity, but there's no breakthrough in the plot, I'll stick to my judgment."

"The storyline of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields will soon plummet."