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

2:09 AM.

A post appeared quietly on the literature forum.

The title is very long.

Stop laughing. I've gone through the timelines of Lin Yuan and that old bastard from Mount Akina, and something really does seem off.

When it was first posted, no one even replied to the comments.

Two o'clock in the morning.

Normal people are already asleep.

Abnormal people are still online.

Even more unusual people are investigating whether a 19-year-old director and a novelist who never shows his face are the same person.

The original poster clearly belongs to the last category.

The post body does not analyze the writing style.

There was no talk of "highly consistent creative core".

They didn't use the fact that both interviewees used words like "but" or "so" as evidence.

There are only two timelines.

left.

Lin Yuan.

right.

Old scoundrel of Mount Akina.

The top one is from last summer.

Lin Yuan: Eighteen years old, after graduating from the college entrance examination, he was admitted to the Directing Department of Jinghua Film Academy.

[Old Man of Mount Akina: Account registration, "Zhu Xian" released.]

down.

[Lin Yuan: Joined Tianxing Entertainment and began to get involved in the music industry.]

[Old Man of Mount Akina: "Zhu Xian" is being updated regularly.]

Next, continue.

[Lin Yuan: Preparing a musical piece.]

[Old Man of Mount Akina: Update speed experienced a brief fluctuation.]

[Lin Yuan: "Suspended" is now available online.]

[Old Man of Mount Akina: Update restored.]

carry on.

Qian Xuesen.

Murder on the Orient Express.

Secret.

Dragon Raja.

New Year's Eve concert.

"The Rural Teacher"

Initial D.

Viewed on its own.

There were no problems at any point in time.

They even seem to have nothing to do with each other.

A person jumps back and forth between the music industry and the film industry.

Another person in the literary circle is frantically changing their subject matter.

Fantasy/fantasy genre.

Suspense.

Youthful fantasies.

Science fiction.

They have absolutely nothing in common.

But when the two timelines are laid out side by side—

A problem has arisen.

What a coincidence!

It wasn't a coincidence at a particular point in time.

Instead, whenever Lin Yuan enters a noticeably busy phase, the update frequency, public events, or work schedule of the old man from Mount Akina will change accordingly.

And when Lin Yuan finished one of his projects.

There are always new developments from that old scoundrel's side.

It was a coincidence.

Both times.

Three times is still explainable.

But when you put more than a dozen time points together, things start to look a bit strange.

Five minutes after the post was published.

The first reply has appeared.

Holy crap, you actually did dig it up?!

The original poster replied instantly.

[I originally wanted to prove that the marketing accounts were talking nonsense.]

【Then what?】

And now I'm having trouble sleeping.

Second reply:

Is it possible that you reached a conclusion first and then rigidly applied the timeline?

Yes, that's why I didn't say they were definitely the same person.

But look at the last three time points.

soon.

Someone scrolled to the end of the post.

"The Rural Teacher"

Initial D.

There was also an update milestone for "Dragon Raja".

The three sets of dates were highlighted in red.

The comment section was quiet for a while.

【…】

【Grass.】

Why do I suddenly feel like something's not right?

No, don't scare yourselves. What does an overlapping timeline prove? Hundreds of thousands of people are born every day across the country—does that mean they all have the same mother?

[While the analogy above makes a lot of sense, why does something about it feel off to me?]

[At first I thought it was just riding the wave of popularity, but after reading the post, all I want to ask now is—is there anyone inside Red Eggplant here?]

This sentence was like flipping a switch.

2:30 a.m.

The post was reposted to the "Zhu Xian" book club.

Then came the Dragon Raja fan group.

Then there are mystery novel forums.

Eventually, someone even took a screenshot and posted it on Weibo.

The topic, which had fallen to the bottom of the trending searches, started to climb back up little by little.

Forty-seven.

Thirty-nine.

Twenty-eight.

nineteen.

More and more people clicked in.

Attitudes also began to undergo a very subtle change.

At the very beginning:

【fake. 】

Ten minutes later:

The timeline is indeed quite coincidental.

Twenty minutes later:

[Anyone know this?]

Half an hour later:

Where's the person with the red eggplant? Come out and say something!

of course.

Many people still don't believe it.

Especially in the literary world.

A veteran book reviewer with hundreds of thousands of followers directly forwarded the post.

The evaluation consisted of only four words.

You're overthinking it.

Someone asked:

Why?

He replied quickly:

[Because you probably don't even realize what level of author "Old Man Akina" is.]

Upon hearing this, many longtime readers fell silent.

Yes.

That old scoundrel has been causing too much trouble these past two years.

Today, Dragon Raja is giving its readers a taste of its own medicine.

I'm going to write science fiction tomorrow.

The track might change again the day after tomorrow.

Coupled with that pen name that looks so frivolous, people are used to calling him "Old Thief" or "Old Scoundrel," so they easily overlook something.

His portfolio, taken out of context, is already outrageously absurd.

"Zhu Xian"

This book rewrote the Xianxia (fantasy martial arts) market.

The scene where Biyao blocks the sword is still being criticized by readers to this day.

Murder on the Orient Express.

Sales in the tens of millions.

The discussion on "legal principles versus human sentiment" even extended beyond literary circles.

Dragon Raja.

Physical books are selling like hotcakes.

The phrase "bad kid" once became a popular internet term among young people.

"The Rural Teacher"

It broke into the science fiction community and then into the education community.

The Galaxy Award reader nomination votes are far ahead.

Then a truly absurd scene unfolded.

Before yesterday, if someone asked:

Is that old scoundrel from Mount Akina any badass?

The literary world will tell you:

Great.

If someone asks:

Is Lin Yuanli powerful?

People will also tell you:

Great.

But now someone suddenly comes out and says:

These two might be the same person.

The literary circle's first reaction was:

Can you please stop bragging?

Soon after, the book reviewer added another comment.

[It's not that I look down on Lin Yuan.]

On the contrary, I really enjoyed "Qian Xuesen," and I also bought two tickets for "Initial D."

But achieving this level of success at nineteen is already outrageous enough.

[And then attribute all of that old scoundrel's works to him...]

It paused for a few seconds.

He seemed unsure how to describe it.

In the end, only one sentence was sent:

[A day has 24 hours.]

There has to be some basic principle to follow, right?

The number of likes quickly exceeded 10,000.

The following comments are overwhelmingly in agreement.

Finally, someone is speaking human language.

Lin Yuan is already amazing enough; there's really no need to give him this absurd character design.

[Fans on both sides, please stop arguing and wait for the official announcement.]

[Red Eggplant is probably asleep.]

Editors are human too; who checks your backend system in the middle of the night?

……