A writer has arrived in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Before the emergence of "The Scroll of Taiwu," the genre of domestic sandbox martial arts games was virtually nonexistent. For a long time, players' impressions of domestic games were trapped in the trap of "poorly made, pay-to-win" mentality. The last glorious era of "domestic single-player games" probably dates back twenty years.

Undeniably, when Taiwu first appeared, it was riddled with the limitations and shortcomings of a small-scale production. However, its highly free sandbox gameplay, rich Chinese martial arts core, and unique generational inheritance mechanism made it an undisputed classic among domestic games.

How free is this game? Let's put it this way: some people are pregnant for three years and give birth to a cricket... others are reincarnated as women, and end up mating with their teammates every day, constantly on the road to pregnancy...

Early on, the programmer ran away, so the producer, Eggplant, had to teach himself programming for a month. As a result, after several iterations of the game, he discovered that his mountain of code had limited the game's potential.

Eggplant is a tough guy; he immediately decided to delete all the code and start over.

Due to early design flaws and numerous bugs, its reputation plummeted. However, the development team accepted all the player criticism and quietly continued to update the game version after version for eight years...

Its inspirational nature is comparable to that of the No Man's Sky production team.

"...I'll invest."

After Su Liu said that, Qiezi didn't show the excitement of "her dream is finally about to come true." Instead, the whole group fell silent. Everyone seemed stunned by Su Liu's words and didn't know how to organize their thoughts.

After a long while, Su Liu even began to wonder if it was a network problem that prevented him from seeing the message, before Eggplant finally appeared.

Eggplant: Detective, are you serious?

It's actually quite normal. If someone suddenly pops up online saying they want to invest in you, anyone would be skeptical. Especially when it's about investing in a domestically produced single-player game—a project that's almost impossible to make money in the current market.

"Hey, what's going on?" Su Liu thought to himself. He was a god descended to earth, yet he was being suspected. But it seemed that Eggplant and the others had no idea about his identity. Sigh, in that case, it was hard not to believe.

Okay, I originally wanted to interact with them as an ordinary person, but now I'm not pretending anymore, I'm coming clean.

Detective: My real name is Su Liu. You can search for my information online.

After this message was sent, the group chat went silent instantly. No one even sent a punctuation mark; they probably all went online to search for it.

Before long, the silence was broken, and shock and confusion filled the chat box like water released from a dam.

Tyrannosaurus Rex: Holy crap! A great writer?

Eggplant: The link says you're the mystery novelist whose single work has sold over three million copies worldwide.

Wooden Bucket: Is that really you?! Damn! How can there be such a big shot hiding in our group?!

Looking at the screen full of exclamation marks, Su Liu had to admit that his vanity was greatly soothed at that moment.

Ultimately, isn't this what he wrote and made money for? Perhaps it started as a means of livelihood, but as things have progressed, he's earned enough to live a life of variety in food and drink.

If it weren't for An Wenxiu constantly whipping him from behind like a madman, he probably would have found a comfortable position and lay down completely long ago.

But right now, this feeling of "showing off in front of others" isn't bad.

Detective: That's right, it's me.

Unfortunately, these people were all hiding behind their phone screens at the moment. If it were an offline gathering, Su Liu would have picked up his water glass, taken a sip, and given an expression that said, "We're all adults here, why make such a fuss?"

Eggplant, wooden barrel, Tyrannosaurus Rex: Holy crap!!!

Eggplant: Are you really willing to invest in this game?

Detective: Of course it's true. Eggplant, you can come to Shanghai when you have time, and we can talk in person.

Eggplant: Okay, that's great! How about this weekend? I'll come over on Saturday.

Su Liu calculated the days; today was Tuesday. The most important thing next was to discuss the investment for "Knives Out." He didn't need to worry about the production team's preparations; Shanghai Film Studio had a ready-made team. Casting wasn't urgent either, so the weekend should be uneventful.

Detective: No problem.

So Su Liu and Qiezi exchanged phone numbers, so that Qiezi could contact him when he arrived in Shanghai.

......

An Wenxiu returned to Shanghai on Wednesday.

Su Liu arrived at the company early that day to avoid being scolded by his sister Wenxiu again. At this moment, he was lying flat on the desk, his chest pressed against the surface, looking like a flattened salted fish.

On the phone screen, Chen Duling's messages were popping up restlessly.

"Haha, someone like you actually has to get up early?"

Although she couldn't see her face through the screen, Su Liu had a feeling that she must be looking gloating right now.

Are you happy?

"No, I didn't have class this morning, so I could sleep in."

"What? Someone asked you to be a model again, the school beauty?"

"...Don't be sarcastic! I missed two CAD classes because I spent the whole day taking you out, and I need to find someone to help me catch up!"

Su Liu shifted her position, pressing her face against the cold table. "Tutoring, huh? Is the other person male or female?"

"...What are you doing?"

"Just asking."

"I just asked for help in the class group chat to see who was free."

"Wow, the line of people responding could probably stretch from the cafeteria all the way to the school gate."

"It's alright, my classmates are all pretty nice."

"Huh? You're dodging my question. You're a guy, right?"

"Speechless. What do I have to avoid? We're just ordinary classmates."

"Oh, being the school beauty is great! Everyone's eager to help you."

"Speak properly, and I also need to treat them to a meal to express my gratitude, okay?"

Just then, there was a knock on the office door. Xiao Liu pushed the door open a crack and poked half his head in: "Teacher Su, President An is back."

"Okay, I'll be right there."

Su Liu responded and sent a message on her phone: "I'm busy, I'll talk to you later." Then she went to An Wenxiu's office.

As soon as he entered the office, he found that besides An Wenxiu, there was a man and a woman sitting on the sofa, talking quietly about something.

The woman appeared to be around thirty years old, wearing a black leather jacket with a fur collar. Her hair was simply tied back, giving her a neat look. Her appearance was distinctive, possessing an indescribable air of heroism, yet her features softened when she smiled.

The man next to him was a bit older, around forty or fifty years old, with a striking red sweater peeking out from under his long down jacket. Although his hair was somewhat thinning, he looked to be in good spirits.

"Sister Wenxiu," Su Liu greeted first, then looked at the other two: "And who are these two?"

An Wenxiu stood up and introduced, "This is Ms. Chen Zhixi, a producer I met at the Hengdian Film and Television Industry Forum last year." Then she pointed to another man with her palm up, "This is Mr. Liu Tong, the vice president of Enlight Media."

"Hello Ms. Chen, hello Mr. Liu."

Su Liu politely stepped forward and shook hands with each of them.

Chen Zhixi glanced at Su Liu and jokingly said to An Wenxiu beside him, "Wenxiu, I didn't expect your great writer to be such a handsome young man."

Mr. Liu also joined in the fun, nodding in agreement, "Yes, with Teacher Su's looks, it's a pity she's not in the spotlight and could be a star."

"I think so too," Su Liu replied without changing his expression. "However, if I became a star, it would be too much of a bully."

The two were taken aback and didn't immediately understand what "bullying" meant.

An Wenxiu chuckled and shook her head, finishing his sentence for him, "What he meant was that he could have made a living with his talent, and with that face, how could anyone else survive as a star?"

Hahahaha.

The office was silent for a second, then Liu Tong and Chen Zhixi couldn't help but laugh, and the atmosphere became much more cheerful.

"Alright, stop joking." An Wenxiu stopped laughing, glanced at her watch, and said, "I've already made an appointment with General Manager Li from Shanghai Film Studio. Let's go over there now."

"Okay." The group stood up one after another.