Just because I wrote "Zhu Xian," the school beauty sent me razor blades.

12:47 a.m.

The smoke of the Spring Festival film season hasn't completely dissipated yet.

The news that "Initial D" has officially surpassed 4.2 billion yuan in total box office revenue remains firmly at the top of the trending searches.

Over the past few days, online discussions about Lin Yuan have been almost nonstop.

Nineteen years old.

Four billion.2 billion.

The champion of the Spring Festival film season.

If you take any one of these three words out of context, it would be enough for the media to keep hyping it up for half a month.

Unfortunately, they are all crammed onto one person.

So from the day "Initial D" won the championship, the media seemed to have suddenly discovered a human gold mine, digging into everything from Lin Yuan Elementary School's art performances to university final exams.

The titles are getting more and more outrageous.

The 19-Year-Old Director with 4.2 Billion Yuan in Profits

From "Suspended" to "Initial D," how many more possibilities does Lin Yuan have?

After winning the Huabiao Award, he once again topped the Spring Festival film box office; where is his limit?

One self-media outlet even wrote a lengthy article of 8,000 words with great seriousness:

Lin Yuan's Success Philosophy: Can Ordinary People Replicate It?

The most upvoted comment in the comment section was only six words long.

[Step 1: Travel through time.]

It received 270,000 likes.

The second point follows immediately.

[Step Two: Growing into a Forest.]

The third one is even more outrageous.

I quit after seeing the second step.

It was as joyful as a large-scale cyber team-building event.

Just when everyone thought that tonight would be another few hours of pleasantly wasted time discussing the topic of "a 19-year-old director with 4.2 billion yuan in box office revenue"—

A trending topic quietly climbed to the bottom of the list.

#The real identity of the old man from Mount Akina may have been confirmed#

At first, nobody cared.

After all, this name has been trending on social media more than once or twice.

I was on TV when "Zhu Xian" ended.

It was shown when "Murder on the Orient Express" was a bestseller.

It was featured when "Dragon Raja" was released.

When "The Rural Teacher" received a Galaxy Award reader nomination, it even made it into the top three trending topics.

But the problem is-

Every time a work becomes popular, everyone asks the same question.

Who exactly is that old scoundrel from Mount Akina?

And then I couldn't find it every time.

Some people guessed he was a university professor.

Some people guess that he is a traditional literary writer who has been retired for many years.

Some people even claimed with certainty that their uncle's classmate's cousin worked at Red Eggplant. In reality, the old man was a middle-aged man in his forties who had been divorced twice and currently lived in Northeast China.

Later, the official Red Eggplant website stepped in to refute the rumors.

They are not divorced.

Netizens from Northeast China expressed their regret.

As for the author himself?

He never showed his face from beginning to end.

I have never participated in offline events.

I've never held a book signing event.

If an interview can be conducted in text format, it should be conducted in text format; if an interview can be conducted in text format, it should be conducted in video format.

It's as mysterious as a ghost that only exists on an internet server.

Over time, readers got used to it.

That old scoundrel.

Alive.

It can be updated.

Occasionally, I'll come out and get scolded.

enough.

As for who the real person is?

Is it important?

Until tonight.

A self-media account called "Entertainment Microscope" suddenly published an article.

The title is very short.

"The old scoundrel of Mount Akina might be Lin Yuan."

The article was published three minutes ago.

Comment area:

【? 】

five minutes.

【? ? ? 】

ten minutes.

How much did you drink?

Fifteen minutes later, the comment section completely turned into a sea of ​​joy.

[Dude, have you guys really gone this far in your attempts to ride the wave of trending topics? You've completely disregarded basic principles!]

[Lin Yuan: I just finished running on Mount Akina, and you're turning around and telling me Mount Akina is mine too?]

[I announce tomorrow's news is out—Shocking! Qian Xuesen was actually Lin Yuan.]

[The person upstairs is being conservative; they'll reveal Lin Yuan's involvement in the moon landing program the day after tomorrow.]

[Next time, I suggest directly revealing that Lin Yuan can build rockets.]

[That makes sense, since there are aliens in "The Rural Teacher," so Lin Yuan is actually an alien. It's a logical loop.]

This last post quickly garnered 30,000 likes.

The author of the article seemed to have not expected this reaction from netizens.

He had originally written over four thousand words.

As a result, very few people actually read the main text.

Everyone was already laughing hysterically just from the title.

the reason is simple.

It's not that Lin Yuan isn't good enough.

Quite the opposite.

He's already too outstanding.

Nineteen years old.

A student majoring in directing at Jinghua Film Academy.

Senior composer.

singer.

The youngest Best Director at the Huabiao Awards.

"Qian Xuesen" made a comeback during the Spring Festival.

"Secret" was a critical and commercial success during the Qixi Festival.

This year, they plunged headlong into the racing genre, taking a group of actors to film on Japanese mountain roads for more than two months, and managed to turn a racing movie that only grossed 120 million yuan on its opening day and ranked at the bottom of the Spring Festival film season into a movie with 4.2 billion yuan.

Now you tell everyone—

Oh.

correct.

He writes novels when he has free time.

Not much was written.

"Zhu Xian"

Murder on the Orient Express.

Dragon Raja.

"The Rural Teacher"

Only.

The first reaction of netizens was not even shock.

It's absurd.

That's utterly absurd.

It's so absurd it's like someone suddenly telling you that the neighbor next door who gets up at six every morning to run, works during the day, works out at night, and even takes three certification exams on weekends, actually delivers takeout for four hours every morning.

No.

How many hours are there in your day?

Soon, someone dug up Lin Yuan's public schedule over the past year.

Then the comments section erupted in even louder laughter.

[Last September, "Suspended".]

[Preparations for "Qian Xuesen" will begin after the National Day holiday.]

The film "Qian Xuesen" will be released during the Spring Festival season.

[Later, they filmed "Secret".]

[In between, there were classes, exams, songwriting, and a New Year's Eve concert.]

[This year I spent two months filming "Initial D" in Japan, on location in the mountains.]

Someone asked below:

【Then what?】

Original Poster's Reply:

[The whistleblower then said that after returning to his hotel, he would turn on his computer to write "Dragon Raja".]

The comment section was silent for two seconds.

Then—

Hahahaha!

[After a day of filming drifting movies, Director Lin returned to his hotel at 11 PM: Okay, I still owe my readers 4,000 words today.]

[Chen Yu: Director Lin, what time do we start filming tomorrow?]

[Lin Yuan: Wait a minute, let me finish writing about Lu Mingfei slaying the dragon first.]

[Zhao Duo: Director, how should we position the cameras on the mountain road?]

[Lin Yuan: Wait a moment, I need to go to the Milky Way to rescue the village teacher first.]

[Stop talking, I can already picture it in my mind.]

Some people even did the math.

According to publicly available information, during the filming of "Initial D" in Japan, Lin Yuan worked at least twelve hours a day.

Meanwhile, Dragon Raja is still being serialized.

The creation time of "The Rural Teacher" also partially overlapped with the preparation period of his film.

get conclusion:

[Unless Lin Yuan doesn't need to sleep.]

Someone immediately replied:

[It's also possible that the directing department secretly taught them shadow clone techniques.]

[Jinghua Film Academy: This is a rumor; there is no such course.]

So let's call it a day; this is clearly just riding the coattails of a trending topic.

Even as a fan of Lin Yuan, I wouldn't dare praise him like that.

This statement resonated with many of Lin Yuan's fans.

Soon, the fan community even took the initiative to post a thread.

[While we know Lin Yuan is very popular lately, we still hope that some marketing accounts won't try to associate everything with him. His publicly released works and achievements are excellent enough; there's no need to create buzz by associating him with other prominent figures in various fields.]

The following comments are overwhelmingly in agreement.

【support.】

There's really no need for that.

Everyone knows what kind of status the old man holds in literary circles.

Respect Lin Yuan, and also respect the old man.

Both of them are very talented, but don't force them together.

Even readers of "Old Man Akina" came.

For the first time under such bizarre circumstances, the two sides reached a high degree of consensus.

Lin Yuan's fans:

Don't try to take advantage of that old scoundrel.

Old Man Book Fans:

Don't try to take advantage of Lin Yuan.

A scene of joy and harmony.

Until someone timidly asked:

Is there any possibility...?

I mean, maybe.

What if it really is true?

Nobody paid any attention to them.

The post quickly sank to the bottom.

……

1:20 a.m.

Beijing.

An editorial group from a publishing house.

An editor who had just finished working overtime forwarded the trending topic to the group chat.

[Today's joke.]

Soon someone chimed in.

[I see, these marketing accounts are desperate for traffic.]

If Lin Yuan is a scoundrel, I'll go to work on my head tomorrow.

[Screenshot taken.]

【roll.】

But someone in the group quickly posted a message:

[Actually...did you guys even read that article carefully?]

No one replied.

A few seconds later.

The person then sent:

Don't just look at the title.

There are a few strange points in the timeline in the latter half.

The group chat was quiet for a moment.

Someone finally read the article from beginning to end.

The first half of the article is mostly the author's speculation.

Work concept.

The range of themes.

Word usage habits in certain interviews.

These things are not very convincing.

It's perfectly normal for creators to have conflicting viewpoints.

What's truly interesting are the sets of dates listed at the end of the article.

Someone stared at those few lines of text for a while.

Then a question mark was sent.

【? 】

Then the second person:

【etc.】

The third person:

Isn't this timing a bit too coincidental?

The editor in the group who had just said "working upside down" remained silent for half a minute.

It's just a coincidence.

No one responded.

……

the other side.

A university dormitory.

A boy wearing black-rimmed glasses was just getting ready for bed when he habitually glanced at his phone before falling asleep.

He is a long-time reader of "Zhu Xian".

I followed the book from its initial recommendation slot all the way to its completion.

Later, books like "Murder on the Orient Express," "Dragon Raja," and "The Village Teacher" all fell out of favor.

He's the kind of seasoned victim who can predict what kind of book to write next just by reading a fart from an old scoundrel.

So when he saw the trending topic, his first reaction was to laugh.

Lin Yuan?

How could that be?

He clicked on it casually.

The article is very long.

He kept yawning while reading the first two thousand words.

Until you reach the very end.

There was no literary analysis there.

There was only one very simple form.

left.

Lin Yuan.

right.

Old scoundrel of Mount Akina.

The boy's finger stopped.

He looked down.

first row.

time.

second line.

time.

Third line.

It's still about time.

My eyes, which were so sleepy I could barely keep them open, gradually opened wider.

He sat up.

Swipe up again.

I watched it again.

wrong.

He frowned.

I picked up my glasses from the table, put them on, and turned on the computer.

search.

"Zhu Xian" update log.

Search again.

Lin Yuan's public schedule.

Then there's "Murder on the Orient Express".

Dragon Raja.

"The Rural Teacher"

A webpage.

Two web pages.

Five web pages.

A dozen or so web pages.

2:07 AM.

My roommate is already fast asleep.

The boy sat in front of the computer, staring at the two timelines he had just created.

He didn't speak.

The cold, white light from the screen fell on my face.

On the left is the 19-year-old young director who just won 4.2 billion yuan at the box office.

On the right is that old scoundrel from Mount Akina who has never shown his face but has already turned the literary world upside down.

These two people should never have been related.

On the timeline.

Little by little.

They overlapped.

The boy stared at it for a long time.

Finally, open the forum.

Create a new post.

The cursor in the title bar blinked a few times.

He slowly typed out a line of text.

Stop laughing, I've dug up the timeline of Lin Yuan and that old bastard from Mount Akina.

pause.

Then he added another sentence.

Something seems really wrong.

Click.

release.

2:09 AM.

The post sank into the night.

At this time, most people were still unaware of this.

A few hours later—

This timeline will be shared over a million times.