Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

In September, as the summer heat gradually subsides, Hong Kong welcomes the start of the new school year.

Lin Ying, carrying a backpack, officially entered the second year of junior high school at Boya Academy. The school uniform was still the same blue and white pleated skirt and white shirt, except that the classrooms had been moved from the second floor to the third floor.

On the first day of school, during morning self-study, the homeroom teacher, Zhou Yawen, walked into the classroom in high heels.

"Don't think you can relax just because you're in Form 2." Zhou Yawen was as strict as ever: "This year, make sure you solidify your foundation in English, math, and science. Next year, in Form 3, physics and chemistry will be added, and the school will be holding elimination tests. If your grades don't keep up and you get eliminated, it won't be for you to cry!"

Lin Ying opened her brand-new English textbook, and what Zhou Yawen said was exactly what she had been thinking.

The workload in Form 3 will increase exponentially, and her future goal is to study mathematics at Cambridge University, so she absolutely cannot afford to slack off in basic science subjects. In addition, the elimination exams at elite secondary schools like Liberal Arts College are absolutely ruthless, so by next year she definitely won't have any energy left for anything else.

Therefore, this year's second year of junior high school is a window of opportunity for her to easily extract commercial surplus value.

After school in the afternoon, Lin Ying went straight to her bedroom in Taikoo Shing and turned on her computer.

Everyone knows that Lin Ying stopped writing for a year to avoid the film companies and shady producers who swarmed her like flies. But she had to divide the spoils with Peng Xuebin and Su Zhihao, the two bosses with whom she already had a stake in the business.

"Give the next script to Uncle Peng first." Lin Ying quickly sorted out her thoughts in her mind.

Peng Xuebin has access to theater distribution channels in Southeast Asia and overseas. He made a fortune overseas with his last film, "The Magic Academy Exchange Student." Now the overseas market is thirsty for Hong Kong films, so he needs to strike while the iron is hot and provide a script that is easy to understand and has low barriers to entry.

Lin Ying's fingers fell, typing out a line of text: 【New Project Direction: Incorporating humor, Eastern fantasy, and family-friendly elements.】

We can't go down the heavy route of gangster films anymore, nor can we make the suspense too profound; we need to make foreigners laugh out loud just by watching the visuals and actions, even if they don't understand Cantonese.

A few minutes later, the four main characters emerged: the unlucky Taoist priest, the greedy translator, the foreign swindler, and a broken copper bell that could attract evil spirits.

The plot is simple: a group of people who cheat and swindle each other, thinking the others are all acting, only to find themselves genuinely cursed and forced to band together for survival. It's packed with laughs, exaggerated action, and requires no brainpower.

This is what we call tailor-made.

In the following September and October, Lin Ying went to school in the morning, attended extracurricular classes after school in the afternoon, and did her homework first when she got home in the evening. Then, without fail, she would spend an hour and a half typing on the keyboard.

By early November, Lin Ying had finished typing the last line and clicked print.

Lin Ying first called Lawyer Shen across the hall.

Half an hour later, Shen Yanwen sat in the Lin family's living room, quickly flipping through the script and authorization letter; "Another new idea? I thought you really hadn't written anything for a year."

"There's no need to broadcast your quiet, money-making schemes to the whole of Hong Kong." Lin Ying handed over a cup of tea. "Attorney Shen, as usual, copyright ownership, restrictions on overseas distribution buyouts, and my core authorship rights will all be filed through the proper channels."

"Understood." Shen Yanwen put the documents into his briefcase. "I'll take care of it this afternoon. But you're going to directly invest in Boss Peng for this film, without inviting Su Zhihao? If your Uncle Su finds out, he'll probably be furious."

Lin Ying smiled and replied, "Uncle Peng's channels can handle this. I know my second uncle's temperament, and I have my own arrangements."

Three days later, Peng Xuebin personally arrived at Taikoo City.

He sat on the sofa, holding the script in both hands: "Great! The jokes are absolutely brilliant! Writer Kobayashi, this script is tailor-made for the foreign and videotape markets! This kind of brainless, joke-filled comedy will definitely be understood by foreigners!"

Lin Ying, sitting opposite him, knew from Boss Peng's expression that things were going well: "Uncle Peng thinks it's okay, then let's talk about profit sharing."

"No problem!" Peng Xuebin waved his hand. "I know the rules. I'm taking over this film entirely! Overseas buyout plus full local theatrical release—I'll still give you face, 20% of the net profit, it's all in black and white!"

Peng Xuebin added, "This time, I'm not going to include Su Lao Er in this lucrative deal."

The contract was signed very smoothly.

Just as Attorney Shen had predicted, no sooner had Boss Peng left than Su Zhihao called Taikoo Shing the very next day.

"Ah Ying! You're being unfair!" Su Zhihao shouted on the other end of the phone. "You have a new script and you went straight to that old fox Peng Xuebin, bypassing me! Are you looking down on the money your second uncle has?"

Lin Ying held the phone receiver a little further away, waiting for him to finish speaking before saying, "Second Uncle, 'The Bell Rings' is aimed at the action fantasy and overseas videotape market. It has high costs and requires a very strong distribution channel. Uncle Peng isn't giving you his 20% cut right now because he thinks he can cover the costs of this script himself."

"Then I can cover the cost myself!"

"Don't rush, I'll schedule a separate meeting with you in mid-December; I have a new project in hand. It's extremely low-cost, doesn't require any big-scale setup, but is specifically targeting the Asian market."

Su Zhihao on the other end of the phone immediately became interested: "What genre? Police or gangster? Gambling movie?"

"Idol drama movies".

"What do you mean by looking like me?" Su Zhihao was stunned.

"Something shallow." Lin Ying thought for a moment and gave the most accurate assessment, "But... it's addictive."

December, two weeks before final exams.

Su Zhihao arrived, and he brought Zhou Yawen with him today. Their relationship is now stable. Although Zhou Yawen is still the strict teacher at Boya Academy, she occasionally acts as a literary consultant for Su Zhihao's film business.

As soon as Su Zhihao entered the room, he asked, "Ah Ying, that notebook you mentioned on the phone last month, hurry up and let me take a look at it!"

Lin Ying placed the file bag in front of the two of them.

The cover prominently displays the three words "Heart Exchange Pact".

Zhou Yawen hadn't paid much attention at first, casually picking up the document and flipping to the first page. She was a traditional writer of suspenseful logic novels, and what she valued most in her life was the plausibility of the story, the character arcs, and the foreshadowing plot.

However, when she saw the story outline on the first page...?

A poor girl saves a rich young man from a car accident. The young man suffers amnesia and mistakes the poor girl for his savior and fiancée. His real fiancée returns home and slaps the poor girl in public. The poor girl suffers in silence, while the rich young man regains his memory but then embarks on a tumultuous pursuit of his former lover…

Zhou Yawen looked at Lin Ying in disbelief.

"Lin Ying," Zhou Yawen pointed at the script, "this is the new script you churned out? You write this kind of brainless stuff? It's not only shallow, the logic is a complete sieve! What, amnesia just happens to save someone? Why a car accident of all times?"

Su Zhihao peeked over from the side and also found it a bit strange: "Ah Ying, isn't this plot a bit too cliché?"

Lin Ying calmly said, "Teacher Zhou, please continue turning the page."

Zhou Yawen reluctantly turned to the second page of the script.

Scene 1: The female lead is walking through the banquet hall with a wine glass in her hand. She trips over her own feet and falls forward, spilling the red wine all over the cold-faced male lead's white haute couture suit. Then the male lead grabs her waist, and the two look into each other's eyes and spin around three times.

"Ridiculous!" Zhou Yawen couldn't help but exclaim. "In real life, if you fell, you'd have smashed your chin long ago. How could you possibly catch yourself? And why the slow-motion eye contact while they were spinning around? This is outrageous!"

"Because the audience likes to watch it." Lin Ying knew that writers of suspense would never accept this kind of plot.

Zhou Yawen gritted her teeth and continued flipping through the pages.

Scene 3: The real fiancée storms into the company with four bodyguards, tears the female lead's cheap business attire in front of everyone, and points at her, calling her a "slut." At this critical moment, the male lead, like a god descending to earth, kicks open the door, takes off his still-warm suit jacket, and in front of the entire company, forcefully wraps it around the female lead.

Zhou Yawen was stunned, her worldview profoundly shaken. As a traditional intellectual, her moral compass was being repeatedly tested by this insane script.

"Lin Ying, what exactly is this? The misunderstanding was just cleared up, and the next second the male lead's father comes out and throws five million at the female lead and tells her to get lost? Why is this five million in a suitcase and slammed on the table? Don't you know how much five million weighs?! What would your math teacher think if he saw this?" Zhou Yawen was practically slamming her hand on the coffee table as she asked the question.

After Zhou Yawen had finished her tirade, Lin Ying said, "Teacher Zhou, don't you think this book is utterly vulgar?"

"Not only is it tacky, it's incredibly melodramatic! How could a good student like you write something like this?!"

Lin Ying asked with a smile, "Then why... is your hand still tightly gripping the script, and why have you unknowingly turned to page fifteen? Don't you want to know if the female lead eventually discovers that she is actually the orphan of the benefactor that the male lead's father was searching for all those years ago?"

Zhou Yawen then realized that although she had been verbally criticizing the script, her eyes and fingers had indeed been following the rhythm of the plot.

Every time the female supporting character gets slapped in the face, the male lead inevitably fiercely protects her; every time the male lead misunderstands, she inevitably kneels in the pouring rain, filled with remorse. The plot is incredibly dense, and the pace is so fast that it leaves no room for the brain to think logically.

It lacks depth.

But the thief was caught up in the moment.

Zhou Yawen remained silent for a long time before finally throwing the script in her hand onto the coffee table. "I give up. This script is toxic. On one hand, I find it absurd and mindless, but on the other hand, I'm actually curious to see how the real heiress's identity is revealed and how the male lead relentlessly pursues her."

Su Zhihao, who had been watching from the sidelines, picked up the "Heart Exchange Agreement".

Su Zhihao is a businessman; he doesn't need artistic depth, he only smells money. Even a suspense writer like Zhou Yawen, who demands extremely high logical standards, was ensnared by this stuff. So what if this play were adapted for the big screen and shown in Hong Kong theaters…?

"Ah Ying," Su Zhihao asked excitedly, "Is this film made for female factory workers, office workers, and housewives with children in public housing estates?"

Lin Ying snapped her fingers: "The entire female audience in Hong Kong is the core audience for this film. There are no special effects or grand scenes, no need to hire kung fu stars, just mansions, sports cars, banquet halls, and kneeling in the rain. Just find two good-looking young people, keep the pace fast, with a small plot twist every ten minutes and a major face-slapping moment every half hour. The cost will be no more than a million."

Su Zhihao understood: it was a money-printing machine with extremely low cost, targeting the lower-tier market!

"I want it! I'll take this movie!" Su Zhihao exclaimed excitedly. "Ah Ying, the usual deal, no need to ask about profit sharing! I'll keep 20% of the net profit for you, not a penny less! Next February, I'm going to have all the women in Hong Kong cursing this movie in theaters, and then paying to see it a second time!"

Lin Ying smiled slightly: "Then I wish Second Uncle a great box office success."

Zhou Yawen sat to the side, watching the two people skillfully conduct their business transaction, and helplessly rubbed her temples. This female writer who teaches English and writes traditional suspense novels had truly experienced the power of melodramatic soap opera tonight.