Early in the morning, Xiao He groggily got up from bed and answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"This morning I actually found you a righteous protagonist role, want to take a look?"
"So fast? There really is one?"
Xiao He himself was stunned.
He had just mentioned it last night, and there were already results this morning. Sister Liu's speed truly shocked him.
"That's right, this script has been around for a while, but when you mentioned it last night, I remembered it."
Liu Rulan looked at the script in front of her and slightly raised her eyebrows. "He kills more people in the entire show than the villains do. His character is unclear, his actions are rampant - a protagonist so righteous it's borderline sinister. I think you'll definitely like him."
Xiao He: "?"
What kind of nonsense is this.
"Send it over."
Xiao He immediately said this.
Righteous characters didn't interest him in the slightest, but a character so righteous it turned sinister - he absolutely had to take a look at that.
"Okay, I've already sent it to your email."
"Good, thank you."
Xiao He immediately got out of bed to turn on his computer.
Soon, he found the script Liu Rulan had sent in his email.
"Record of Chasing the Wind."
When he first saw the name, Xiao He didn't think much of it. This type of script name was quite common in the market, nothing particularly special.
However, after carefully reading the plot, Xiao He was shocked again.
This was a wuxia story background that downplayed the imperial court's presence, focusing instead on the martial arts world, blending multiple elements like suspense, detective work, grudges, and revenge.
The protagonist Song Chenye was originally the son of the martial arts alliance leader, born into a privileged family with a happy life. His father was highly skilled in martial arts, helped the weak against the strong, and was widely respected. His mother was also an outstanding heroine in the martial arts world, a female knight, and even held the title of the most beautiful woman in the martial arts world.
He should have become a winner in life, gradually becoming a martial arts master under his father's guidance, possibly even succeeding his father as the martial arts alliance leader in the future, becoming a great hero praised by everyone in the martial arts world.
However, the tragedy of a massacred family was always the turning point for such favored children.
As expected, Song Chenye experienced the massacre of his family when he was eight years old. The Song family, originally the leading martial arts family, with over a hundred members from top to bottom, all died tragically overnight.
His parents' deaths were particularly gruesome - skinned and hung at the entrance of the Song family manor, intimidating all the heroes in the martial arts world.
Only Song Chenye barely survived, following a strange master up the mountain to learn skills, vowing to take revenge.
And this story begins with his descent from the mountain.
The fact that the Song family, as the largest martial arts family at the time, could be massacred overnight indicated that their enemies' strength was not to be underestimated.
Those capable of such deeds were most likely from the other seven great families and forces.
So revolving around the Song family massacre case from back then, Song Chenye launched a series of investigations, finding clues from several strange cases, eventually piecing together the truth from that time, successfully killing his enemies with his own hands, completing his mission, and achieving his great revenge.
After reading the entire plot, Xiao He looked back at the script's name and twitched the corner of his mouth slightly.
The protagonist's real name was Song Chenye, with the courtesy name Zhufeng, meaning that the script's title actually referred to him personally.
What made Xiao He's feelings even more complicated was that by the end of the script, Song Chenye had killed so many people that only the script title remained alive.
Well, well, well. He had seen plots where villains killed until only the drama title survived, but damn, now here comes a protagonist who kills until only he himself survives.
Xiao He was greatly shocked.
Moreover, the protagonist truly had extremely firm determination, carrying his revenge resolve through to the end.
A friend he befriended turned out to be the enemy's son?
— I will definitely kill your father. If you try to stop me, then according to martial arts rules, we'll have a fair duel. Between you and me, one must live and one must die. If you win, I'll die and go meet the hundreds of deceased souls of my Song family, kowtowing to atone. If I win, your father's head will definitely be placed before my parents' grave.
A female knight who secretly loved him suddenly betrayed him, pleading for her father's mercy?
— Your father and I are mortal enemies! Even if I forgive him, would he stop trying to kill me? Betrayal is betrayal. Your father dies, and you die too!
There was no "lay down the butcher's knife and forgive enemies" compassion in Song Chenye, only the satisfaction of personally killing all his enemies.
By the end, even the villains feared him, turning and running when they heard his name. Both righteous and evil paths had to respectfully address him as "Great Hero Song," not daring to act presumptuously before him, showing Song Chenye's power.
And Song Chenye wasn't completely the kind of madman who killed indiscriminately in a frenzy. He practiced "repay kindness, avenge grievances, cut off relationships." This person had his own set of principles for handling affairs from beginning to end. His revenge actions were open and aboveboard, honorable and upright. For those who showed him kindness, he would repay them a hundredfold; for those who held grudges against him, he would definitely draw his sword and cut them down.
Even when taking revenge, he didn't actually kill all several hundred members of his enemy's family. Instead, he carried the person's head, directly went to the enemy's doorstep, clearly explained the grievances and history between him and this enemy, and immediately let the enemy's relatives and friends come to him directly if they had any grudges or complaints. Now that he had delivered himself to their doorstep, anyone wanting to counter-attack for revenge, he could satisfy them right then and there—
So those who were unconvinced and wanted revenge, Song Chenye killed them all too, then carried the enemy's head and left triumphantly.
Seeing this, Xiao He almost laughed angrily at Song Chenye's outrageous operation.
What decent person carries a head around to explain things? Are you sure this isn't just provocation?
But Song Chenye felt that rights and wrongs, grievances and debts, had all been clearly explained. The enemy was at fault first, so naturally he demanded blood debt payment in blood. Anyone with thinking and discernment abilities should know who was right and who was wrong.
However, with loyalty and filial piety being difficult to balance, he also gave these people from the enemy's family one chance for revenge, satisfying their "loyalty" or "filial duty." But if they didn't step forward at that time, yet came for revenge later, or continued promoting the enemy's glorious and righteous image from when they were alive, then they were enemies who couldn't distinguish right from wrong, couldn't tell straight from crooked, acted hypocritically, and were stubbornly unrepentant - irreconcilable enemies standing against him.
To be honest, seeing this, Xiao He also felt that Song Chenye was somewhat... bizarrely unconventional.
This wasn't a derogatory term, nor was it a compliment, it's just... Xiao He didn't know how to describe it. Let's use that phrase again - he's so righteous it's borderline sinister.
His revenge was open and aboveboard, grievances and debts clearly defined. While taking revenge, he didn't forget to act chivalrously, helping the weak against the strong. These behaviors sounded quite crazy, but when you put yourself in his position, you felt he was particularly principled.
And actually, it quite matched the current mental state of audiences. Compared to forgiving enemies and bearing the blood debt of an entire clan while suffering alone, people nowadays preferred exacting revenge for grievances, repaying debts with debts.
— Are you saying that brothers and women I've known for a few months are far more important than the parents and clansmen who raised me for eight years?
Hehe, Song Chenye would directly draw his sword and show you the result with practical action.
What Xiao He admired most was that Song Chenye never internally consumed himself with worry or hesitated. He had his own firm beliefs. Even when poisoned and betrayed by the female lead, he only paused for five seconds to circulate his energy and expel the poison, then fought the female lead to the death.
To be honest, Song Chenye's character design and some behaviors might indeed cause significant controversy if actually performed.
After all, human nature is complex. Midway through many revenge dramas, audiences had already forgiven the protagonist's enemies on their behalf, even feeling the protagonist's methods were too cold-blooded and cruel.
Many people started watching just for the sweet moments, looking for that kind of tragic, deep love where "the protagonist falls in love with the enemy's descendant."
But when it actually came to the end, if the protagonist chose to forgive the enemy and stop the cycle of revenge, some audiences would feel frustrated, thinking the protagonist had problems.
So these kinds of plots had different interpretations and views, and would definitely generate some controversy after broadcast.
But... it's so satisfying! The protagonist's semi-invincible martial prowess, plus his clear and intelligent detective mind - he truly bulldozed his way through, chasing people down to kill them throughout the entire journey!
Xiao He temporarily didn't want to consider whether this protagonist's ideology was right or wrong. Just watching the protagonist's kill-kill-kill journey throughout the plot already made his heart race with excitement.
How could he not accept this? Wasn't this the perfect script tailor-made for him?
Where did Sister Liu find this? It's simply too perfect for him!