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

Just then, Chen Yu changed his writing style and began to write a new chapter.

The chief eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial were planning to go out to enjoy the snow, intending to report this auspicious sign of "a good snow promises a bumper harvest" to the emperor before attending court.

The young eunuch who had been on duty quietly approached Lü Fang and whispered, "Your Majesty, I heard that Eunuch Feng was telling everyone not to make a sound, but he went ahead and reported the auspicious omen to the Emperor!"

Lü Fang's long, snow-white eyebrows trembled slightly, her expression as indifferent as morning mist: "Is that so?"

Standing to his left was Chen Hong, the chief eunuch in charge of drafting imperial edicts. His voice was shrill and cold, like an icy ridge pricking one's heart: "Brilliant! You rushed to report this good news, and the Emperor is overjoyed. Perhaps tomorrow he'll let Feng Bao take our place!"

Lu Fang remained expressionless and said slowly, "Then let's wait a little longer—after he reports the good news to the Emperor, he should come here to make a formality."

The viewers in the live stream stared at these few lines of text, watching the back-and-forth conversation between the Grand Eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial, and suddenly felt a chill run down their spines.

The oppressive feeling came without warning—there wasn't a single swear word, not a single roar, yet it sent chills down your spine.

"Feng Baowei! Don't come back!"

"If you ask me, it's better for Feng Bao to come back—if he doesn't, his fate might be even worse."

"Chen Hong's words really sent chills down my spine..."

"Lu Fangcai is even more chilling! It seems like every step Feng Bao takes is part of his calculations."

"I used to think that someone of Feng Bao's caliber should be a major villain, and that Chen Yu's decision to eliminate him was too hasty. Now I understand—so far, among the named characters, Feng Bao's caliber is only slightly higher than the deceased Zhou Yunyi!"

As the audience held their breath, new words flowed from Chen Yu's pen—

Before he finished speaking, Feng Bao, enveloped in the wind and snow, stepped into the courtyard and knelt down on the steps in front of Lü Fang.

"Godfather already knows? Congratulations, Godfather—this snow has made your work even smoother!"

After kowtowing, he stood up and looked at Lü Fang with a respectful expression.

With a forced smile, Lü Fang asked, "Has His Majesty learned of the auspicious snowfall?"

Feng Bao hurriedly replied, "Reporting to my godfather, I have already reported the auspicious omen to the Emperor on your behalf."

Lü Fang pressed further, "What did the Emperor say after hearing this?"

Feng Bao paused, then said in a low voice, "My son knelt outside the palace to announce the good news, and we heard a sound from the bronze bell inside—His Majesty…"

Lü Fang interrupted with a smile, "I thought the Emperor was overjoyed and would reward you with a position in the Directorate of Ceremonial."

Chen Hong immediately chimed in, "Yes, it's time for us to move over a bit."

Feng Bao knelt down with a thud and slapped himself hard across the face, but Lü Fang didn't even look at him. He and the four eunuchs in charge of writing boarded a palanquin and headed straight for the Ministry of Personnel.

The second act has ended.

When Chen Yu typed "End of Act Two," the live stream chat exploded with comments like "terrifying," "chilling," and "suffocating."

"I used to think it was awful when leaders scolded people, but now I understand—it really means 'killing without shedding blood'!"

"Lu Fang, Chen Hong, and the others are all like old foxes. Feng Bao is like a little white rabbit in front of them, completely under their control."

"Feng Bao is actually quite formidable; in any other drama, he would have been a major villain. But in 'Ming Dynasty,' his opponents are all ancient demons..."

Viewers who previously doubted Feng Bao's "hasty exit" are now filled with admiration—how could there be any "hasty" in every step of this power struggle?

The judges' panel on stage was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

After a long while, Teacher Shuping gently shook his head and let out a low sigh.

"These young people are truly formidable..."

He pointed to the stage, his tone tinged with emotion: "Chen Yu's skill in character creation and atmosphere rendering is already comparable to that of top screenwriters in the industry."

"When I was his age, I was far from it!"

"If 'Ming Dynasty' can maintain this level of quality—even if it declines slightly later on—Chen Yu is already deserving of legendary status based on this script alone!"

These words, when they reached the ears of the other judges and the production team, immediately caused a stir. The speaker was none other than Professor Shu Ping—a titan of Chinese literature and a pillar of strength in the screenwriting world. Since the inception of the "Creators Competition" three seasons ago, although he had served as a judge three times, he had never given such high praise to any contestant before!

The production team was not about to let this sudden surge of popularity pass them by. They immediately pulled up the clip of Teacher Shuping's exclamation, along with shots of the audience holding their breath and sweating profusely, and quickly edited it into a short video, which was then frantically released on platforms such as Weibo and Douyin.

This move immediately went viral online. Viewers who had originally planned to "wait for the episodes to finish before watching" could no longer contain themselves—

"Why is this season of the Creator Competition so much more exciting than previous seasons? It's already dominating the trending topics on the first day?"

"Don't these things usually start trending on the third day? This time it exploded like this on the first day?"

"What's even more incredible is that Teacher Shuping himself said Chen Yu could be considered a god! How amazing must this script be?"

"No, no, we have to go see her right away!"

Meanwhile, viewers who have already finished watching the second act of "Ming Dynasty" are busy recommending it to everyone.

"Missing this round would be a huge loss!"

"Who would have thought that Feng Bao, the villain who was so brilliant in the first act, would be completely crushed and eliminated in the second act?"

"This is incredible! Let me tell you, this plot twist is absolutely amazing!"

This "spoiler" only confused casual viewers even more.

"Huh? Wasn't the trending topic saying Feng Bao was a top-tier villain? How come he's already gone after such a short time?"

Who exactly is the villain in "Ming Dynasty" now?

The longtime viewers smiled mysteriously and whispered, "According to the unanimous confirmation of our viewers, the number one villain in the Ming Dynasty is now Lü Fang—the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial!"

"The second villain is Chen Hong—the chief eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial!"

"This story is probably about eunuchs bewitching the emperor, disrupting the court, and finally, loyal ministers eliminating the eunuchs' power!"

This wave of "spoiler-style recommendations" drew even more viewers to Chen Yu's live stream. However, Chen Yu, who had just finished two scenes of the script, suddenly requested a pause in the live stream—

According to the rules of the "Creator Competition", in order to prevent participants from seeking outside help, the use of personal electronic devices is prohibited in the initial stage. Participants can only access information through closed equipment provided by the organizer.

However, after the contestants complete two acts of the script and the judges confirm that their style is stable, they can check the audience feedback after each act is completed—after all, for creators, the audience's voice is crucial, and even great scriptwriters cannot escape the fate of "market testing".

Chen Yu naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity. After all, although he was very confident in the script of "The Ming Dynasty", it was still uncertain whether it would be accepted in a parallel world.

He immediately opened the live stream, his eyes scanning the dense discussion comments on the screen, and then browsing the trending topics and promotions on Weibo and Douyin. Only then did his anxiety subside.

Judging from this popularity, the script of "Da Ming Dynasty" has indeed stood out and become the most watched script at present - worthy of being recognized as the number one domestic drama in the past!

However, when Chen Yu checked the audience chat, he was suddenly stunned: "What's going on? Now the audience unanimously believes that the ancestor Lü Fang is the number one villain of the Ming Dynasty, and Chen Hong is second?"

He hadn't expected this interpretation at all, but upon reflection, it seemed he couldn't entirely blame the audience—after all, dramas with such complex characters and depth as "Ming Dynasty" are extremely rare. Didn't many viewers in his past life also use traditional television drama thinking to distinguish between loyalty and treachery, leaving them completely confused while watching "Ming Dynasty"?

Seeing the audience's enthusiastic discussion, Chen Yu smiled and said, "Save your energy. What's the point of discussing such a low-level game where the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs crushed Feng Bao? The real highlight is coming up—the first court debate in the Golden Palace, where eunuchs, the upright officials, the Yan faction, and Jiajing himself will all be on stage. That's what you call a truly high-level game!"

Recalling the shock he felt when he first watched the imperial court meeting in the Ming Dynasty, exclaiming "Holy crap!", Chen Yu's smile deepened.

However, in order for viewers who are not familiar with the official system during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty to have a clearer understanding of the undercurrents in this court discussion, some prior explanations are necessary—otherwise, viewers may not be able to distinguish who is who or what each person is responsible for, and the effect of the play will be greatly reduced.

He also noticed the netizens' speculations and interpretations of the second act: some were quite reasonable, but many others were either completely missed or simply misunderstood. He needed to clarify these points.

After a moment's thought, Chen Yu started his live stream again. The viewers instantly erupted in excitement: "Here he comes! Chen Yu is live streaming again!"

"If he doesn't come soon, I'm going to send him razor blades to urge him to update!" The first two acts of "Ming Dynasty" were indeed well-written, and the characters were outstanding, but even the best works are only two acts. After reading them over and over again, there's nothing new to figure out. Everyone is urging him to start the next part of the story as soon as possible.

To their disappointment, Chen Yu typed out not the third act, but rather "[The Ming Dynasty Act II Script Explanation and Background Introduction]". This greatly disappointed many viewers, who realized they wouldn't be seeing the third act anytime soon. Many complained about the format of this segment of the "Creator Competition"—they wanted to follow the plot, but instead received a "background lesson" first.

The idea was to enhance the audience's viewing experience by inserting a commentary segment after each play, but this design has been criticized countless times by contestants and audiences.

"We, the audience, aren't stupid. It's one thing if we can't write a script, but do you think we can't even understand what we're reading? Do you really think we're idiots?"

"The Ming Dynasty is indeed profound. The beginning completely baffled people, but after watching the first act, I felt that I had completely grasped the intricacies of power struggles within it."

"This explanation is unbearable to watch, let's skip it!"

Just as the audience was making their comments, Chen Yu's keyboard started clicking away again, and lines of new text appeared on the screen one by one.

Feng Bao is now the Grand Eunuch in charge of the Eastern Depot, a high-ranking eunuch in the Ming Dynasty.

If he wanted to advance further, he could only be called an "ancestor" if he entered the Directorate of Ceremonial.

[Furthermore, he believed he had just done a dirty job for Jiajing, and by taking advantage of the opportunity to report auspicious omens, he could meet with Jiajing and perhaps Jiajing would promote him to the Directorate of Ceremonial.]

But Feng Bao was ultimately too young. Besides risking reporting directly to his superiors, he made a fatal mistake—he simply didn't understand the Jiajing Emperor!

When the first few lines of text appeared, the audience's reaction was lukewarm. After all, the big shots in the live stream had already clearly analyzed the implications of Feng Baowei's bypassing of his superiors to report to his superiors. Chen Yu's first few lines, however, made them all smile with a sense of "I saw it all along."

But when the last two lines appeared, the entire live stream went silent instantly—the experts had never analyzed this before!

What puzzled them even more was why the "reporting to higher authorities" that the bigwigs had written so much about was glossed over here. What exactly was going on? And how could Feng Bao claim that he didn't understand the Jiajing Emperor?

Even the big shots in the live stream were stunned.

"what?"

"With so many of us analyzing this, how could we have missed something? Really?"

Behind the screen, several CEOs of listed companies unconsciously frowned. They considered themselves astute, having only come to watch "The Ming Dynasty" because they heard it was worth watching, and even couldn't resist offering their own analysis. They thought they had dissected almost all the current plot points, but there were still some omissions?

As they stared at the screen with skepticism, Chen Yu's next words made their eyes widen in disbelief.

The Jiajing Emperor did not attend court for forty years, devoting himself to Taoist practice, yet he still managed to manipulate the political situation at will. Would such a person, who cares most about his reputation, really meet with Feng Bao, who killed Zhou Yunyi, during a period of fasting and prayer for snow?

[Especially since the mastermind behind Zhou Yunyi has not yet been identified, and the court officials are quite resentful of Zhou Yunyi's death, Jiajing will never give the mastermind another opportunity to exploit the situation.]

Therefore, Feng Bao had no chance of meeting Jiajing, and Jiajing would certainly not allow Feng Bao to enter the Directorate of Ceremonial at this critical juncture, but Feng Bao was completely unaware of this.

Furthermore, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs is filled with senior eunuchs who have been loyal to Jiajing for many years, each with great merit and hard work. If Feng Bao were to enter so easily, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs would likely descend into chaos, and the court would be thrown into disarray.

The Jiajing Emperor was a master of imperial balance and would never allow the Directorate of Ceremonial to become unbalanced. Therefore, it was impossible for Feng Bao to enter the Directorate of Ceremonial, yet he failed to see this.

【…】

Upon seeing these analyses, the CEOs of several listed companies were all horrified.

"Holy crap..."

"There's a deeper meaning behind this?!"

They stared at Chen Yu's script for "The Ming Dynasty" and gasped.

"This script is incredibly deep, absolutely incredibly deep."

"I thought I had figured it all out just now, but now I realize I'm way behind!"

"If Chen Yu can maintain this level of performance, he could truly become a legend!"

After a moment of sighing, the heads of several listed companies unanimously felt a sense of shared sorrow.

Because Feng Bao couldn't understand the Jiajing Emperor's temperament, he rashly reported the matter to his superiors, a risky move that was destined to fail from the very beginning.

This made them realize something – if you can't even figure out how your boss works, it's better to play it safe than to force your way in; better safe than sorry!

At this moment, they looked at the young Chen Yu in the live broadcast room with amazement in their eyes.

"To write such a profound script at such a young age is simply phenomenal!"

No sooner had they finished speaking than they all simultaneously sent a message in their company's executive group chat:

"If you haven't watched this season of the 'Creators Competition' yet, hurry up and check out Chen Yu's script for 'The Ming Dynasty' that he's currently working on."

"It will be of great benefit to your way of dealing with people."

The group chat exploded instantly, and the executives looked at each other in bewilderment—who would have thought that the bosses would suddenly recommend a variety show? And what's with all this talk about "way of life"?

They're all shrewd people who've climbed to high-level positions; what haven't they seen?

What kind of script can teach them how to be human?

Is this really that weird?!

At this moment, not only were the CEOs' hearts pounding, but the millions of viewers in the live broadcast room were also feeling a chill run down their spines.

"My goodness! I thought the experts had analyzed it thoroughly, but I never imagined there was a deeper meaning behind it!"

"Now I'm finally realizing how effective it is. The Jiajing Emperor could maintain his grip on the court for forty years without attending court; his methods were truly remarkable!"

"What's even more absurd is that Emperor Jiajing didn't even show his face to someone like Feng Bao who had just finished doing dirty work—he knew perfectly well that Feng Bao had gone over his superiors to report and he wouldn't see what would happen to him. The imperial family is indeed the most ruthless!"

"After seeing Chen Yu's analysis, I finally understood that imperial aura of 'treating all officials as mere pawns'!"

"Wonderful! Absolutely amazing!"

As he spoke, Chen Yu's fingers flew across the keyboard again...