Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

Chapter 138 received a flood of submissions.

In the third week since the competition started, the number of submissions has already exceeded Luo Jinnian's expectations. Data from Lin Yiming's side indicates that submissions have come from over twenty countries and regions, covering languages ​​such as English and Japanese.

Spanish, French, Korean, and some other languages ​​that Lin Yiming marked as "to be confirmed" in the email. He said that the submission categories are also diversifying—some lean towards pure visual editing, some towards narrative reconstruction, and some are almost self-contained experimental short films.

After reading the briefing, Luo Jinnian added a small line of text under the "Competition Submission" label in the folder: "Global Editing Competition Phase 1, number of submissions exceeded expectations."

What truly transformed the competition from an "industry event" into a "cultural phenomenon" was the combination of music and visuals that emerged in the submissions.

During this period, some edited works began to include specific background music—both the official soundtrack and songs added by the contestants themselves. Of course, most videos still prefer to combine the opening sequence of "The Magpie Murder Case" with the original music.

In the editor's eyes, there was no theme song more suitable than the original drama. The chorus of this song is slow and long, and it is matched with the changes in light and shadow of the old Shikumen building. At a certain point, the first line of the chorus and the action of the window being pushed open in the scene are pushed open at the same time.

These videos were shared thousands of times within days of being released, and in the comments section, some people asked, "What song is this?" and others answered with the song title, which received countless likes.

Luo Jinnian did not use the identity of "early spring tea" when writing the song.

He came forward himself.

He also composed "Ode to Young China" for a previous arts festival, which is still the school song of many schools.

So it's perfectly normal to write an English song.

In fact, netizens are no longer focused on who wrote the song; they are simply in love with "The Other Side of Paradise."

Especially the pause after the climax, I wonder how many people are waiting for that "bye-bye babyblue".

The song "The Other Side of Paradise" quickly gained popularity after its release, with search volume increasing significantly after the same day, and it quietly climbed nearly fifty places on the daily charts of music platforms.

The second widely circulated submission combined a clip from "Low IQ Crime" with a catchy song, the rhythm of which perfectly matched the beat of Ye Jun's frantic steps.

The comments section was filled with remarks like, "I never imagined that one day I would search for a song because of a video clip."

In the third week, Luo Jinnian noticed a phenomenon—the background music of many entries gradually began to use the opening theme song of the original drama.

Different creators, different editing styles, different narrative rhythms, but the background music all coincidentally falls on the same song. This caused "The Other Side of Paradise" to jump directly from outside the top 100 to the top 20 on the music platform's rising charts, and comments began to appear saying, "I came from that edited video," and "This song is absolutely perfect with that visual."

Those comments were like a batch of message bottles thrown into the same sea, drifting with the tide to different shores.

Lin Yiming called one weekend night, his voice carrying an unusual confidence: "Did you see that trending chart? The soundtrack you wrote was an obscure song a month ago, but now it's become a real hit single that's being played repeatedly on your show."

Luo Jinnian naturally saw it, and it was exactly what he wanted to see.

Lin Yiming smiled and said, "This cycle is very interesting—a contestant uses your footage to edit, the audience discovers the song because of the editing, the song's popularity attracts more people to pay attention to your footage, and then more people come to participate." Luo Jinnian did not answer, but he flipped through several data reports and noticed the increase in song-related search volume, the number of submitted works, and the changes in platform search terms—these curves all curved upwards synchronously during the same period, with different rhythms but the same direction.

In the week leading up to the competition's end, several more songs saw a surge in popularity due to submitted video edits. One of them remained at the top of the music platform's popularity charts for nearly two weeks, with comments in different languages ​​discussing the same thing—"I found this song because of that edited video." One comment repeatedly said the same thing: "I originally wanted to see what materials Early Spring Culture had to edit, and then I was captivated by this music."

A story about how images and sounds meet, find their new shape across different languages ​​and time zones, and are transported to farther places until they are heard again around the next corner.

As the competition entered its final week, in the last few hours before the submission channel closed, the server continued to receive dozens of new entries. Lin Yiming's team worked through the night to conduct a preliminary screening, compiling the entries that met the competition criteria into an internal candidate pool, which they then sent to the judging committee. Luo Jinnian did not participate in the judging, but on the night he received the candidate pool list, he took some time to look at several works marked as "high-scoring candidates."

One submission from the UK left a deep impression on him, comparing "The Magpie Murders" and "The Long Season."

The footage was edited together and the background music was a variation of "The Other Side of Paradise".

The visuals seamlessly switch between two stories set in different time periods, yet the transitions don't feel jarring. Another submission from Brazil used footage from *Saw* and *Stranger Things*, piecing together Jigsaw and the children in the same frame, as if two worlds that had never met before had found each other on the editing table. A comment jokingly remarked, "Even in my wildest dreams, this is more chaotic than this," and it quickly became a trending topic.

I don't know how skilled this editor is, but he really understands the nuances of a human-centered society.

Luo Jinnian was quite satisfied with the video, because it helped many overseas netizens gain a better understanding of the production of "Early Spring Culture".

His purpose in organizing the editing competition was precisely for this purpose.

The judging results were announced a week later. First place went to a submission from South Korea—the author montaged footage from four works: *The Hidden Corner*, *The Long Season*, *The Silent Truth*, and *The Magpie Murder Case*, and added a wordless, purely vocal rendition of "The Other Side of..."

In "Paradise," the figures in the scene, gazing at the same sky in different stories, are illuminated by the same beam of light in different seasons. The entire process is done without transition effects, relying solely on the rhythm of the visuals and the changes in the direction of the light source to achieve a smooth transition, slow and restrained, like a silent train smoothly passing through changing fields.

After watching the film, Luo Jinnian wrote a line in his notes: "Put people from different stories in the same shot, but don't let them meet."

It should be called — misleading editing. Luo Jinnian saw similar videos on Bilibili for a while.

After the winners were announced, the South Korean creator posted a message on social media, roughly saying, "I just put together things that I found similar in those works, and I never expected to actually win an award."

It was at this time that people realized that there were quite a few fans of early spring culture in South Korea.

In his comment section, someone posted posters of different works from Early Spring Culture. When they were placed side by side in one picture, they looked like prints that had been cut by the same person and arranged with the same margins.

The posters come from different years, different stories, and different times, but when they are put together, their common tone is like a set of chimes that have been repeatedly tuned to the same pitch, resonating in a similar way every time they are struck.

After the competition, the winning and shortlisted works were compiled into a curated collection and uploaded to Early Spring Culture's official overseas channel. The collection saw a steady increase in views after its release, and new comments began appearing in the comment sections of several works—"I only watched 'The Magpie Murder Case' because of this collection," and "After watching 'The Magpie Murder Case,' I came back to find this edit and discovered that it captured the feeling I'd been having after watching it."

Luo Jinnian read through the entire compilation late one night. Those works came from different countries...

Creators from different languages ​​and cultural backgrounds are all contributing to the wider appeal of his great stories.

He turned off the player and stopped looking at the screen. The night outside the window had sunk deep into darkness.

Occasionally, a car would pass by in the distance, its engine sound growing louder as it approached, then gradually fading away and disappearing at some intersection.