1991: The Era of Hong Kong Dramas

Hong Kong, 1991.

Cars were already backed up in long lines on Lockhart Road, honking their horns incessantly, while pedestrians hurried along like ants.

Huo Sheng took tram number 6, got off at Fleming Road station, walked through the Chiu On Centre, and joined the bustling crowd.

He has been living in Hong Kong for almost two months, but he still can't get used to everything about this huge city.

Even though this place is rapidly developing in this era, for Huo Sheng, who was born in Generation Z, it is still just a land full of backwardness.

In his previous life, Huo Sheng lived to be over thirty years old.

After graduating from a prestigious university with a degree in directing, he joined a film and television production company in the capital, where he was responsible for writing television drama scripts.

By 2026, self-media was all the rage, the long-form drama market was sluggish, while the short-form drama market was booming. Making money at the company was becoming increasingly difficult. One mild afternoon, after a few words of concern from HR, he was fired.

Feeling depressed, he drank some alcohol and when he opened his eyes again, he unexpectedly found himself in this city in its golden age, forced to become a Hong Kong drifter.

Huo Sheng, 19 years old, whose parents are both from Shunde, Guangdong, drifted across the coast in 78 with his fellow villagers, crammed into snakeskin bags.

The couple, introduced by a fellow villager, worked on a cargo ship on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen route. Unfortunately, they were caught in Typhoon Ellen, which carried the No. 10 hurricane signal, and were swept into the sea like duckweed.

The original owner of this body became an orphan and dropped out of school before finishing junior high to work odd jobs.

Having finally saved up some money for his wife, like many young people who see the stock market as a stage to realize their dreams, he threw all his savings into it, turning it into stacks of transaction slips, hoping to soar to great heights.

Unfortunately, the Gulf War broke out.

The Hong Kong stock market experienced a widespread economic collapse, with the previously soaring Hang Seng Tech stock plummeting, causing hard-earned savings to vanish.

He was heartbroken and simply went with his parents.

His life ended abruptly, which allowed Huo Sheng, an outsider from more than thirty years in the future, to have a new life.

"Clang—"

A sharp crack interrupted his reverie.

The stray cats by the roadside, unafraid of people, darted into the trash cans in twos and threes to rummage for food.

Huo Sheng withdrew his gaze and slowly climbed up the iron staircase welded to the outside of the building to the second floor, entering a storefront called "Golden Sparrow Tower".

This place is ostensibly a bar, but if you just enter and order a glass of salt water, you can experience special items that aren't on the menu.

It's not time for "Golden Sparrow Tower" to officially open for business yet.

The waiters huddled together in a corner chatting, the sofas were reserved for the head waitresses and madams, and the hostesses were still in bed.

Huo Sheng changed into his waiter uniform, adjusted his vest and tie, and then mingled into the boring pile of salted fish in the corner.

A group of people were idling around when someone saw him and called out, "Ah Sheng, you're here so late?"

"I overslept."

"No way, he must have brought home those hostesses he didn't pay yesterday and stayed out all night—"

Before Huo Sheng could reply, several ambiguous, lewd laughs rang out from among the waiters.

"Where would I get the money to give to these beautiful women?"

He was used to these kinds of jokes; it was common for girls who picked up leftovers at the Golden Sparrow Tower to go home without getting any orders.

Moreover, Huo Sheng has a face that looks very much like Qin Han, and he is usually favored by the hostesses at the bar.

"whispering sound--"

Seeing that he didn't seem like someone who had only been out for a night, the others lost interest and began to whisper among themselves: "Have you heard? This morning, another manager jumped off the roof of the stock exchange."

"Nonsense, this stock market is really harmful."

"The stock market crash happened, and I think even the old lady at the market has suffered this time, shifting the risk onto us ordinary citizens. A head of bok choy has gone up to 10 yuan!"

"Damn it, those two foreign guys at the docks charging me twenty dollars for delivering food!"

A group of people started up the hottest topic of the moment, chattering away about their complaints about the recent soaring prices.

Huo Sheng listened absentmindedly from the side.

He had been living in Hong Kong for almost two months, and had also been working at the Golden Sparrow Tower for almost two months.

In his past life, he worked as a waiter in a restaurant, a shelf maker in a supermarket, and a summer job at a barbecue stand, enduring a month of smoke and flames.

Until I officially started working, I did a lot of jobs, both respectable and disreputable.

However, this is my first time working in a nightclub.

Despite this, Huo Sheng performed well. Perhaps due to his sense of responsibility towards every job, he completed his duties as a waiter efficiently, maintained good relationships with his colleagues, and was well-liked by the guests.

No one would disagree that he is the restaurant's top waiter.

If things continue like this, I might even become a supervisor at the Golden Sparrow Tower...

However, this is too embarrassing for time travelers.

In fact, when he first came to Hong Kong, Huo Sheng was full of confidence, thinking that with his more than 30 years of forward-thinking, it would not be difficult to find a decent job.

Unfortunately, reality is a wall without any gaps.

A decent job requires an alumni network, social credibility, or at the very least, a diploma. He, however, had none of these recognized qualifications.

Even simple jobs like office building logistics and warehouse moving require you to first establish connections. Otherwise, without a guarantor, the boss will worry that you don't know the rules, might steal, and won't last long.

Given his education and background, it's virtually impossible for him to get a decent job.

As someone who can recognize reality and has clear goals, Huo Sheng changed his strategy after only three minutes of consideration after understanding his current situation. He decided to find a place to work while picking up his old profession of writing scripts.

After all, Hong Kong still has a lot of good TV dramas that haven't been filmed yet, and now they've all become his property.

Otherwise, how can a Form Three dropout with no capital or connections learn from others and start from scratch?

I should focus on supporting myself first; I don't even know where I'll be staying next month.

But there's a problem: even if a waiter writes a script that's absolutely brilliant, TVB might not even read it. And even if they do, it won't be the main producer personally reviewing it; they only look at scripts that have been selected by their staff. If he happens to encounter a screenwriter with no aesthetic sense who throws it straight into the trash, that would be truly heartbreaking.

Now, the key is to find a way to get him into TVB.

Fortunately, the Golden Sparrow Bar was doing well, considered one of the top bars in Lan Kwai Fong. After staying there for about two months, he actually found a familiar face.

Huo Sheng looked up at the doorway.

The waiters' chatter subsided, like a pot of boiling water slowly cooling down. Some were dozing in the corner, while others were idly flipping through yesterday's horse racing report.

The lights in the Golden Sparrow Tower weren't lit yet, the music hadn't started, and the air was filled with a mixture of disinfectant and cheap perfume.

"jingle--"

The wind chimes on the door swayed as a regular customer walked in.

Huo Sheng quickly stood up, poured himself a glass of whiskey, walked over, and greeted him:

Good evening, Mr. Liu.