Depressive Screenwriter

At midnight, the real-time viewership of Sakura TV was steadily increasing. Even before the premiere of the fourteenth episode of 'Gu Xiang Si Qu,' the TV station's viewership had already climbed above 3%.

Normally, this level of viewership would only be seen during the 8 or 9 PM time slots.

Akasaka Yoshitoki, the producer of the 'Gilded' drama, couldn't sleep a wink all night.

In particular, Matsumoto Jun, the producer of 'Gilded,' was stationed at the TV station, monitoring the real-time viewership.

His usual composed expression was replaced by anxiety, and he kept twirling his mustache to relieve his inner turmoil.

"Please don't rise anymore..."

He muttered silently.

Just after midnight, the TV screen paused.

The theme song of 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' slowly began to play.

Chu Haosen heard this song on television for the last time, and an inexplicable sense of melancholy arose in his heart.

[Episode 14: The Song Ends, But People Don't Scatter.]

The title of the fourteenth episode appeared. From Lu Yan's timeline, this was indeed the place where she first dreamed.

But for Shen Buyan, this was the end of her and Lu Yan's story.

The scene shifted back to modern times, showing Shen Buyan standing by the window in his home.

He gently played the flute.

The melody created by Lu Yan a thousand years ago was played by his flute.

The drama's title, 'Gu Xiang Si Qu,' was thus highlighted.

A piece of music composed by Lu Yan a thousand years ago was only known by Shen Buyan a thousand years later.

[That jade pendant traveled through a thousand years to reach my hands, and I traveled through a thousand years to give it to Lu Yan, completing this cycle of cause and effect. Is that the sole purpose of this journey?] Shen Buyan looked lonely as he arrived at the ancient tree by Nanmeng Lake.

This tree was just a sapling when Lu Yan and Shen Buyan confessed their feelings to each other in ancient times.

But now, it had become a towering tree.

Hanging on it were strings of small wooden plaques, the wishes of modern people based on the customs of the ancient Sheng Kingdom.

Chu Haosen became somewhat anxious.

"Shen Buyan, what are you doing?"

"Hurry up and find a way to return to ancient times!"

"If you are content to stay in modern times, then Lu Yan's fate in history will be sealed!"

But at this moment, the old woman who had sold the jade pendant to Shen Buyan reappeared.

Shen Buyan anxiously chased after her, asking about the jade pendant.

[This jade was passed down from my ancestors. They said it should be given to someone named Shen Buyan.]

The old woman's words revealed the biggest foreshadowing in the drama.

She was a descendant of Chu Tongshang, Lu Yan's adopted son who unified the nine kingdoms.

And Lu Yan's fate...

Was revealed by her.

[Lu Yan did not die in the Yuanqi Rebellion.]

Chu Haosen's eyes narrowed. "Huh?"

He was a little confused.

The story went back to the scene in the first episode.

Lu Yan blocked an arrow for Shen Buyan in the first episode, falling into his arms.

Including the 36-year-old Lu Yan, who thought she would definitely die because of the future information she heard from Shen Buyan at 26.

But Shen Buyan was summoned back to modern times by the jade pendant at that time. He thought Lu Yan died at 36, so he told this information to the 26-year-old Lu Yan.

This was a loop!

But in reality, the 36-year-old Lu Yan was eventually saved...

It's just that Shen Buyan didn't know. He thought his time travel led to Lu Yan's fate in history changing from being purged by Chu Tongshang to dying at 36.

And because these wrong ideas guided him to time travel a second and third time...

But his time travel, from beginning to end, did not change history. On the contrary, his time travel was indeed a part of history.

Chu Haosen's eyes widened, and his blood pressure rose a little.

"How is this plot different from what I imagined?"

If history cannot be changed, then how can Shen Buyan and Lu Yan, one a modern person and the other an ancient person, stay together forever?

"Writer, are you messing with us again?"

The scene shifted to the perspective of Lu Yan in ancient times.

The 21-year-old Lu Yan encountered the despair of Shen Buyan breaking his promise to her after being summoned back to modern times.

She decided not to recognize Shen Buyan when she met him again at 26, so as not to involve him in this fruitless relationship.

The 26-year-old Lu Yan could not change the fate of her brother's death and her becoming empress. She finally understood that fate could not be changed and accepted everything in the future.

But...

Lu Yan was born a person who did not believe in fate!

For ten years, she had been planning the Shangsi Festival night at 36.

She wanted to save the Sheng Kingdom.

Knowing that Li Yong wanted to steal the city defense map, she relied on her adopted son Chu Tongshang to replace the real one with a fake one, deliberately letting Li Yong betray the country and leave.

The Northern Lie attacked the Sheng Kingdom according to the fake military intelligence, and naturally suffered a great defeat.

Li Yong was killed by the Northern Lie army after he understood everything, and Lu Yan, in order to stabilize the hearts of the Sheng people, did not reveal Li Yong's true colors. Instead, she packaged Li Yong's act of betraying the country as a scheme by the Sheng Kingdom's prime minister to enter the game and lure the Northern Lie into a trap, which inspired the hearts of the people across the country.

And she was called a demon queen because she had been opposing Sheng Kingdom hero Li Yong for a long time and offended the gentry class through internal reforms.

The more Chu Haosen watched, the more depressed he felt.

"So that's how it is?"

Actually, he didn't care about what happened to the Sheng Kingdom in the end.

What he cared about was Lu Yan's ending.

"So, she just waited like this from the age of 36 until she died, without ever seeing Shen Buyan again?"

"What kind of plot is this?"

"Writer, what's wrong with your brain? Are you really heartless?"

The scene flickered.

It came to Lu Yan's period at the age of 41.

She hung a wooden plaque under the tree in Nanmeng Lake.

This tree appeared too often in the drama.

Her wish was written on the wooden plaque.

[See Shen Buyan one more time!]

This was Lu Yan's wish to the tree at the age of 41.

Chu Haosen couldn't help it at this moment, and tears blurred his eyes.

[I also want to tell him that I am still alive. Every day, every hour, every moment, I am thinking of him.

Do you think he still misses me?] Lu Yan said to Yihua, looking at the wishing plaques on the tree.

After Shen Buyan in modern times knew everything.

He also hung a wooden plaque on the tree in Nanmeng Lake in modern times.

[See Lu Yan one more time.]

The wishes of the two coincided.

It wasn't until this moment that the truth of the dream Shen Buyan had in the first episode was finally revealed.

The scene where Shen Buyan was surrounded by a group of people, watching a dignified and luxurious woman being executed.

During the time when the demon queen Lu Yan was in power, she carried out vigorous reforms in the Sheng Kingdom, offending a large number of dignitaries from top to bottom in the Sheng Kingdom.

Just like Shang Yang of the Qin Kingdom.

What Chu Tongshang obtained after he came to power was a prosperous and strong Sheng Kingdom, but in order to gain the support of the people, he could only purge Lu Yan, who had framed the "virtuous minister" Li Yong.

And this was what Lu Yan herself agreed to.

The dream Shen Buyan had in the first episode.

The woman he saw being executed was Lu Yan.

"So, that dream was not a dream, but Lu Yan saw Shen Buyan for the last time before she died," Chu Haosen already felt a stomach ache.

That was the real Shen Buyan who did not know her at all.

That was Lu Yan, who had loved Shen Buyan her whole life, Lu Yan, who had waited for him her whole life from the age of 26, the last look she gave him before she truly died.

Chu Haosen's chest was blocked, and he couldn't say a word.

At this moment, a group of viewers in Xia Kingdom who were watching the drama in front of Sakura TV were dumbfounded.

What about the promised happy ending?

What about the promised happy ending?

Why are there so many depressing plots one after another?

Have you considered whether our fans can bear it?

In the drama, time passed.

Shen Buyan in modern times could only keep committing crimes for Lu Yan and working hard to clear her historical infamy.

Finally, many years later, Lu Yan's mausoleum was excavated.

A precious konghou was unearthed inside.

But a few strings of the konghou were broken.

That was the konghou that Shen Buyan sold the jade pendant for and gave to Lu Yan when she was 18 years old.

In the museum, Shen Buyan looked at this konghou that spanned thousands of years and played the melody created by Lu Yan on the flute.

He once taught Lu Yan the knack of transmitting information codes through the wrong notes of the music in ancient times.

The position of the broken strings on this konghou, if corresponding to the knowledge Shen Buyan taught Lu Yan.

The true meaning of this broken string wrong note is a sentence that Lu Yan transmitted to Shen Buyan across thousands of years.

[I miss you.]

Chu Haosen's hand trembled, and a strong sense of sadness quickly gathered in his heart.

Grievances were rising.

Emotional values were generated one after another!

Writer, I wish you, like Shen Buyan, meet a girl like Lu Yan and be unable to be with her for the rest of your life.

Shen Buyan's flute sound rose softly, as if responding to Lu Yan's overtones of the ancient konghou.

Gu Xiang Si Qu came to the final and most regrettable episode.

The ancient tree fulfilled Shen Buyan's wish.

Let him see Lu Yan for the sixth time.