Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

A month after "Tales of Wonder" finished airing, Luo Jinnian received a document that he never expected.

That day, he was revising the second draft of the outline for "The Long Goodbye" in his rented room when his phone rang. It was a document forwarded by Director Mo, titled "Preliminary Report on the Tourism Development Plan for the Filming Locations of 'Tales of the Strange'". He opened it, scanned a few lines, then put down his phone, remained silent for a while, and then picked it up again to read it from beginning to end.

The report states that the abandoned factory area in a county in Sichuan where the filming took place has been transformed into a themed cultural tourism project.

The county's Culture and Tourism Bureau's plan states:

All the original scenes will be preserved, interactive experience facilities will be added, and an immersive exhibition themed "Upside Down World" will be developed. Combined with the surrounding guesthouses and restaurants, it is expected to receive a considerable number of tourists annually.

The plan included a map at the end, which labeled the factory buildings in the industrial area as themed pavilions, the apartment buildings in the residential area as guesthouses, and the wooded area as an "outdoor exploration area".

Luo Jinnian stared at the picture for a while, then sent a message to Director Mo: "Who approved this plan?"

Director Mo replied, "At the provincial level. CCTV even did a report on it."

Luo Jinnian opened a short video platform and searched for "filming location of Wonderful Story".

Search results popped up in a whole bunch—some people were standing in front of a tenement building making the same hand gesture as in the show, and some people were recording a video in front of the iron gate of an abandoned warehouse imitating Eleven running out, with the background music changed to the classic soundtrack from the show "Stranger Things".

Some travel bloggers have created detailed travel guide videos, explaining everything from transportation routes to the best photo spots in detail.

Someone in the comments section said, "I went there. There was even a comparison board with stills from the show, so you could pose for photos in the same way."

Some curious individuals even asked, "So, is there really an open underground laboratory in that place?"

Luo Jinnian saw that the first travel guide video he watched had over a million views, more than the combined views of several other short videos he had recently watched.

Director Mo later sent a few more messages, saying that the town had repaired the railway, paved it with gravel, and set up several "photo spots" along the line, which attract many people every weekend.

After reading it, Luo Jinnian replied, "It's good." He didn't say anything more, but it was sincere—when he left, that place was just an abandoned factory, but now it has become something else, a place that can be renamed, revisited, and rediscovered because of their play.

Three days later, Luo Jinnian received a more formal invitation from a city he had never heard of before—a county in Guizhou. They said that they had well-preserved karst landforms and underground caves there, and wanted to invite Luo Jinnian to "inspect" them to see if they could be considered as a filming location for his next drama.

The sender, identified as the director of the county's Culture and Tourism Bureau, used very polite language: "We have undeveloped underground rivers, ancient villages dating back thousands of years, and well-preserved traditional villages here, and we can provide comprehensive support for the project. We understand the brand value of Early Spring Culture and are willing to offer the most favorable policies for the project's implementation."

Luo Jinnian looked at the place name on the screen and opened a map to search for it. The place was in the mountainous region of southern Guizhou, nearly two hours' drive from the nearest county. The satellite map showed varying shades of green, with ridgelines that looked as if they had been cut cleanly by something, and thin rivers, as fine as hair, winding through the valleys in some of the folds. He closed the map, neither replying to the invitation immediately nor deleting it.

He sat at his desk for a while, thinking. What moved him about the invitation wasn't the fact that it was a place where he could film, but that the place hadn't been named yet. There were no short videos, no travel guides, no comparison charts of film stills—it was just a place, a place surrounded by mountains, a place that hadn't yet been occupied by any stories.

That evening, he called Jiabei: "Could you check which county in Guizhou for me? See what the transportation and accommodation conditions are like there." Jiabei didn't ask why, only saying, "I'll get back to you tomorrow." The next evening, Jiabei sent him a compiled list of information: transportation methods and approximate travel time from the provincial capital's airport to the county seat, a list of hotels in the county seat, and the distribution of the main local natural landscapes. Looking at the information, Luo Jinnian knew he would most likely have to go to that place. Not because it was a place for filming, but because he saw in the information a story that hadn't yet been written down, a story that had been waiting for him for a long time.

The invitation sat in Luo Jinnian's inbox for three days.

On the third night, he called back the director of the county's culture and tourism bureau and said that he would go there in a week. He said that he didn't need to be received or accompanied; he could just go and see the area on his own.

The director paused for a moment on the other end of the phone, then had his assistant say, "I'll send you the information and contact person." Luo Jinnian replied, "Okay."

After hanging up the phone, he booked a high-speed rail ticket from Zhanjiang to Guiyang, which takes more than five hours. Then he would take a bus from Guiyang to that county, and with the transfer time, the whole trip would take nearly ten hours.

The day of departure was a Saturday. Luo Jinnian carried a backpack containing a blank notebook and a few changes of clothes, and took the earliest high-speed train.

After the train started moving, he lowered his seat a little and leaned against the window to watch the scenery outside change from the city to fields, from fields to hills, and then from hills to rolling mountains.

When he arrived in Guiyang in the afternoon, the sky was clear. He transferred to a bus and traveled through the mountainous region of southern Guizhou. The mountains outside the window became increasingly dense, and the roads became narrower and narrower. He arrived at his destination in the evening. The county town's bus station was very small, with only one street outside the exit.

Luo Jinnian stayed overnight in the county town. The next morning, he found the entrance to the underground cavern according to the address given to him by the bureau chief.

The cave is located about 20 kilometers north of the county town, about a half-hour drive away. The cave entrance is a rock wall half-hidden among bushes and vines, and the entrance is so narrow that only one person can pass through sideways.

After he squeezed in sideways and walked about a dozen steps, the passage suddenly widened, and he saw the underground space unfolding before him, and he froze.

The cave ceiling is about 20 meters above the ground, and stalactites hang down from the top, reflecting a moist, porcelain-like glow under the light of a flashlight.

An underground river flows through the center of the cave, its sound not loud, but a continuous, low murmur like a kind of breathing.

The rock walls on both sides were covered with a thin layer of moss, which gave off a deep color that looked like a mixture of dark green and gray.

Luo Jinnian stood in that space for a long time until the flashlight beam flickered slightly due to low battery before he turned around and walked out.

On the third day, he went to the ancient village.

The ancient village is built on the gentle slopes of several mountains, in a layered, upward shape. The roofs are covered with dark tiles, and elderly people sit on benches in the drying yard, basking in the sun.

Luo Jinnian walked around the stone path, sat down at the highest point of the village, and watched the distant mountain ridgeline darken layer by layer in the twilight, changing from deep green to gray-blue to black, as if someone was slowly drawing a curtain on the horizon.

On the fourth day, they waited until he returned by the same route.

The bus swayed and rattled along the mountain road for more than three hours. On the bus, he took out his blank notebook and wrote a line on the second page:

"The spatial depth and sense of enclosure inside the cave can be used to create a story about being 'trapped underground.' The entrance and exit are in the same place, and everyone who enters will return to the same place. This structure is like a circular track without an end, which is naturally suitable for works with a cyclical theme."

After he finished writing, he closed the notebook and watched the mountain shadows outside the window recede into the distance, row after row.

I returned to Langya City on Monday evening.

Chu Qingning waited for him at the school gate. When she saw him, she didn't ask anything, but simply handed him the bottle of yogurt she was holding. Luo Jinnian took it, opened it, took a sip, and the two walked home side by side.

"How's Guizhou?"

There are many mountains.

"Is the location you visited suitable for filming?"

Luo Jinnian thought for a moment, "Yes, I can. But I haven't decided how to film it or what to film yet."

Chu Qingning nodded and did not ask any further questions.

Luo Jinnian finished the bottle of yogurt, threw the empty bottle into the roadside trash can, and quickened his pace to catch up with her.

The story is still waiting to be written down; let's wait and see, it will come when it's time.