Depressive Screenwriter

On Sakura Online, people were waiting for the 9 PM broadcast time.

"I'm kind of excited!"

"I wonder what style Su Yan's new drama will be."

"His 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' and 'Rurouni Kenshin' are both historical dramas. Will this modern drama have any new innovations?"

"Anyway, I've already defaulted to it being depressing. No matter how sad he makes it, he can't make me cry."

"You're watching it even though you expect it to be depressing? Aren't you just looking for trouble?"

"I can't help it! Su Yan's dramas are truly depressing, but they're also truly moving! Watching other dramas doesn't bring me as much emotion as Su Yan's works do."

"Anyway, my whole family is sitting in front of the TV right now. My parents and I are watching it together. I'm following Su Yan and Gu Qingyuan's CP, and my parents are following Qiu Junlin and Takezawa Kayono, their idols from their youth. Everyone is happy."

On Sakura Online, a large group of people had high expectations for the drama 'To the Moon'.

But as the 9 PM broadcast time approached...

The online discussion gradually died down.

The viewership ratings for Sakura TV, however, continued to rise, even exceeding 3.3% before the broadcast.

Lu Zheng'an ate his late-night snack while watching Sakura TV's commercials. At 9 PM, the TV screen paused for a moment.

A bright moon over the sea, a lighthouse, a tombstone next to the lighthouse, a wooden house under the lighthouse, and a picture of a cliff by the sea came into view.

A soothing BGM with a hint of sadness began to play.

The names of the main creators, such as the director, actors, producers, and screenwriters, appeared on the screen.

The theme song had no lyrics; it was purely instrumental.

Lu Zheng'an's mood gradually calmed down.

He began to wonder.

What kind of drama would it be?

The camera angle changed, looking down from high above.

In the deep night, a car drove along the road to the seaside cliff, heading towards the lighthouse and the wooden house.

But suddenly, the car flipped over and crashed into a tree by the side of the road.

A man and a woman wearing white medical coats got out of the car, looking at the squirrel that had been crushed into a pulp on the side of the road.

"What were you looking at while driving, Cheng Li?"

Gu Qingyuan, playing Shen Yi, asked somewhat angrily.

"Sorry, I was just trying to avoid that poor mouse," Su Yan, playing Cheng Li, said apologetically, raising his hand.

Lu Zheng'an was a little unaccustomed to seeing these two in modern clothing.

However...

It seems like people with good looks look good in anything.

God is so unfair!

To save time, Cheng Li and Shen Yi hurriedly grabbed their equipment from the car and took a shortcut up the mountain slope next to the road.

There...

Was a wooden house on top of the mountain, where a maid and her two children had been waiting for a long time.

The two children were playing a piece on the piano in the room.

The sheet music was placed on the piano.

The piece was called "To the Brook."

As the plot progressed, Lu Zheng'an understood that Shen Yi and Cheng Li were doctoral employees of a high-tech company.

The purpose of their visit here was to help a terminally ill old man named Xu Han fulfill his dying wish: to go to the moon.

The maid didn't know why the old man had this wish.

She only knew that after the old man's wife, Xiaoxi, passed away, the old man became increasingly lonely and even developed this impossible wish.

Not to mention an ordinary middle-class old man, even Xia Guo doesn't have the technology to land people on the moon right now.

His wish could not possibly be realized, so the method Cheng Li and the others used to fulfill the old man's wish was to use the equipment to help the old man construct a dream, a completely new dream of a virtual life, so that he could realize his dream of going to the moon in his dream before he died.

After this setting was revealed, Lu Zheng'an became interested.

A science fiction drama?

But in a fake dream...

Would that be considered truly fulfilling a dream?

However, considering that this was the wish of a terminally ill old man, it was understandable. As long as he believed it was real before he died, it didn't matter whether it was a dream or not.

Although the early plot of "To the Moon" was slow-paced and mostly foreshadowing, Lu Zheng'an still enjoyed watching it, thanks to the excellent production and the superb performances of the participating actors.

In order to help the old man Xu Han construct a new life, the two brain doctors, Cheng Li and Shen Yi, needed to understand the old man's past and the root of his desire to go to the moon. They needed to prescribe the right medicine and enter key information and parameters into the instrument in order to restart the old man's dream life.

So, the two of them searched through many of the old man's belongings in his wooden house.

In addition to finding a pile of paper rabbits in the utility room, especially a yellow and blue paper rabbit that the old man treasured.

They also found a pile of paper rabbits and some platypus dolls in the lighthouse on the cliff outside the wooden house.

"Paper rabbits?" Lu Zheng'an was a little puzzled.

What connection could paper rabbits have with the wish to go to the moon?

If they couldn't find the information in the real world, they could only look for it in the old man's memory.

Through the instrument, the two doctors entered the terminally ill old man's memory world.

They arrived at the old man's memory timeline before he fell ill.

Here, the Xu Han memory persona constructed by the instrument was very surprised by the arrival of the two.

"I was just about to call your company to place a business request. How did you arrive so quickly?"

Qiu Junlin's performance as Xu Han was very realistic. The sadness in his expression, the confusion in his eyes, and the sense of loneliness beside his wife "Xiaoxi's" grave permeated directly from the screen.

The BGM became lyrical, the sea crashed against the cliff, the full moon hung high in the sky, the lighthouse had been abandoned, the old man Xu Han, and Cheng Li and Shen Yi in his memory world stood facing each other.

"In fact, you have already made that call and placed the task request," Cheng Li said to Xu Han.

"We are now in the memory world of your terminally ill body. You are just a memory body, a Xu Han persona simulated by a program."

Lu Zheng'an blinked, what a novel setting.

Xu Han vaguely understood something.

He wasn't afraid of the fact that he was dying.

He didn't even care about the fact that he was just a virtual persona simulated by the instrument, and that the real Xu Han had fallen into a coma, unconscious, waiting for death to arrive with an oxygen tube attached.

The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes relaxed, and a glimmer of hope flashed in his eyes.

"You... are here to send me to the moon, right?" Xu Han's voice trembled with longing.

"Yes, Xu Han," Shen Yi said calmly.

"Then, can you do it?" Xu Han asked expectantly.

"Take me... to the moon."

"If you want to go to the moon, you have to answer us a question. Why do you want to go to the moon?" Cheng Li asked.

"I..."

A trace of pain and reminiscence flashed in Xu Han's eyes, but ultimately, it turned into confusion.

Although Lu Zheng'an couldn't understand the plot, Qiu Junlin's acting was too explosive.

The cooperation of the picture and music made his heart tremble slightly.

The old man's struggle was fully embodied.

He had something more important than life to do.

But he didn't know why he had to do it.

But even if he had completely forgotten the reason...

Some things would remain deep in his soul, allowing him to complete this task even when he was dying.

Go... to the moon!

This was the answer that Qiu Junlin's performance told Lu Zheng'an.

"You must tell us the reason. Do you want to go to the moon to become famous? Or to get rich? You must have a motive..." Shen Yi pressed Xu Han.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't know. I just..."

"Must go."

Xu Han raised his head and said to Lu Zheng'an, who was watching TV outside the screen, with the most serious and firm expression.

I forgot the reason why I wanted to go to the moon.

But I must go.

The ending song of 'To the Moon' started playing.

Lu Zheng'an's heart was a little touched.