funbook-pk Chapter 65 The Troubles of an Old Boy
Chapter 65 The Troubles of an Old Boy
Ren Pingsheng stared at the Weibo page for a long time without moving.
Bai Ke stood there for a while, and finally couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Brother Pingsheng, should we take advantage of this momentum and say a few words in their defense?"
"What did you say?"
"Just like last time, let's give those professors a piece of our mind."
Ren Pingsheng moved the mouse to the side and leaned back in his chair.
"Back then, the insults were a tactic to stir up trouble for 'The Loser 2.' This time? Who will it target? NetEase? The State Administration of Press and Publication?"
Bai Ke opened his mouth, then closed it again.
"I won't do anything that involves wrestling with power."
"The reason why 'The War on Internet Addiction' became a hit is because these post-80s generation have been holding back their anger for ten years. It doesn't matter who vents this anger; they will find an outlet for themselves sooner or later. What I want to do is not to shout slogans for them, but to turn this anger into money."
Bai Ke's expression was somewhat complicated, and he remained silent.
Ren Pingsheng ignored him, closed the webpage, and opened a blank document.
At the top of the document, he typed three words.
Old Boys
Bai Ke leaned over for a glance. "A new drama?"
"It's not a play, it's a movie."
"A movie?" Bai Ke's voice jumped up immediately. "We can make movies?"
"Online short films, about forty minutes long, are not shown in theaters, but only streamed online."
Bai Ke's mind went blank for a moment, completely unable to process what was happening.
2010 was the year of the micro-film, but the term didn't even exist then. Releasing a movie on the internet sounded as absurd as holding a concert in a bathhouse.
"Brother Pingsheng, everyone's online for fun, who'd go watch a 40-minute movie that hasn't even been shown in theaters?"
"People who have read 'The War on Internet Addiction' are patient."
Bai Ke was stunned.
"Sixty-four minutes long, entirely game engine-driven graphics, no live actors, no professional voice acting, the production is extremely rough. Do you know how many views it got in three days?"
"How many?"
"More than five million."
Bai Ke fell silent.
"Five million people sat in front of their computers and watched an hour-long amateur movie," Ren Pingsheng turned his chair around. "It's not that the audience lacked patience, it's that the content beforehand wasn't worth their patience."
After saying that, he turned back and began pounding his fingers on the keyboard.
The story is divided into two lines: the present and the past, which are edited in parallel and intersected.
Two childhood friends who grew up together were obsessed with Michael Jackson in their youth, and tried to imitate his dance moves at the school's arts festival... but failed.
As adults, one became a wedding emcee, applauding other people's happiness every day. The other became a hairdresser, washing people's hair with his head down every day.
Their dreams shattered into pieces, so shattered that they themselves forgot that they had such dreams when they were young.
Twenty years later, a talent show gave them the opportunity to stand on the stage again.
In the end, they did not win.
But they stood on it.
Bai Ke, watching from behind, felt a lump in his throat and was about to say something when Ren Pingsheng suddenly stopped.
The cursor was stuck on the section about youthful memories, flashing for several seconds.
Ren Pingsheng frowned, selected the entire paragraph he had already written, and pressed the delete key.
"What's wrong?"
Ren Pingsheng did not answer.
Just now, he discovered a major flaw in the script of "Old Boys".
The original Xiao Dabao, after failing to win the heart of the school beauty, degenerated into a school bully, not only bullying his classmates but also bullying the second male lead, Wang Xiaoshuai.
Are you kidding me?
In this era of gradually awakening national consciousness, let's create a protagonist in a school bullying story.
Is he trying to kill himself?
More importantly, this setup simply fails to resonate with the "silent majority."
How many of those born in the 80s and 90s were not notorious school bullies during their youth?
Most people are just ordinary people sitting in the back of the classroom, ignored by teachers, tortured by reality, and not even daring to hand over a love letter.
What they need is a hapless guy who "has his own shadow," not a thug.
Moreover, both female characters are too one-dimensional; they're essentially just background figures.
Who hasn't longed for beautiful love during their youth?
Ren Pingsheng stroked his chin. Since he was going to harvest tears, he had to make the regrets go to the extreme.
What is the element that makes people most vulnerable during their youth?
It is unrequited love, the unattainable white moonlight.
She's an ordinary female classmate who silently follows behind you, copies your homework, and covers for you, but you've never even glanced at her.
He's that conspicuous rich kid who doesn't do well in school but comes from a wealthy family and always tries to outdo you.
He was that effeminate, clumsy, four-eyed guy in the class who was always teased by everyone.
When these elements collide in your mind, a scene emerges.
"Charlotte Annoyance"
Ren Pingsheng's eyes lit up.
If we were to perfectly transplant the mature high school student ensemble from "Goodbye Mr. Loser" into the youthful flashbacks of "Old Boys"...
The plot is going to explode!
The growth story of these two childhood friends is no longer a simple tale of idol worship and disappointment, but a complete campus epic that encapsulates the collective memories of all those born in the 80s.
There are unrequited loves, regrets, the humiliation of being publicly shamed by a teacher, the frustration of competing with a rich second-generation for a girl, and the loyalty between brothers who would risk their lives to protect each other.
Most importantly, there are villains!
Ren Pingsheng's lips curled up slightly.
Who is the biggest villain of adolescence?
Of course, it's that snobbish "Teacher Wang" who defines who is a good student and who is a bad kid, and who receives so many gifts during holidays that he can't even count them all.
The protagonist's resistance and pursuit of dreams only become more precious because of the villain's oppression.
Just like those "bad kids" defined by professors, the more you say I'm sick, the more I want to prove I'm not sick.
The sound of keyboards clattering in the studio lasted for over an hour.
The screen was covered with character biographies, scene outlines, and key lines of dialogue.
The last line is a script annotation, highlighted in bold.
Every person born in the 80s has a dream that has been killed by reality. They don't need anyone to tell them that perseverance will lead to success.
All they need is for someone to say, "You once had a dream," and that's enough.
Bai Ke stared at the line of text, his Adam's apple bobbing.
Ren Pingsheng saved the document and sent it to everyone's QQ.
"Give me your feedback after you've reviewed it. We'll have a meeting tomorrow to prepare to call in people for auditions."
Bai Ke muttered something as he walked back to his workstation, sat down, opened the document, read two pages, and then fell silent.
Ren Pingsheng ignored him, closed the background page, and browsed Weibo again.
MJ.
Last March, having just been reborn, he entered the game by predicting MJ's death.
Now, he wants to use the youth that MJ embodied to harvest the tears of a generation.
Food is passing by your door; only a fool wouldn't eat it.
The number of fans following his life story has exceeded 32.
This number is abnormal for an ordinary account that has only posted three blog posts.
Yao Chen, the current queen of Weibo, has 89 followers, just one step away from becoming the first account to reach one million followers.
Following closely behind are Zhao Wei with 76, Kai-Fu Lee with 54, and Bingbing Li with 43.
A grassroots account that doesn't show its face, doesn't do any promotion, and relies on just three blog posts has managed to break into the top twenty in terms of followers.
There was an official private message from Xinlang's Weibo account in his private message list, inviting him to participate in the first batch of "Opinion Leader" certification program.
Get verified, get featured placement, and get more traffic.
Ren Pingsheng read it but did not reply.
NetEase Weibo has just launched, Sohu Weibo is under construction, and Tencent's Taotao is also secretly undergoing a redesign.
With a four-way battle imminent, it's too early to choose sides.
It's important to understand that early KOLs are core assets for each company.
This scarcity becomes less valuable over time, but in the present, it can be exchanged for real money.
Xinlang's offer is indeed good, but the price is highest when everyone is vying for it.
What's more, he also holds three Weibo domain names.