"An Ancient Love Song?"
Shinozaki Ikumi looked curiously at the three-episode script Su Yan placed before her.
"What a strange name."
"What kind of story is it?"
"Historical drama. Romance. And…" Su Yan replied.
"…a bit of national sentiment as well."
"Isn't that kind of similar to 'Rurouni Kenshin'? Also, a period piece set in ancient Sakura Island?" Shinozaki Ikumi perked up.
After all, Su Yan made his name with Rurouni Kenshin. If his next work shared some of its elements, it would naturally draw attention from Kenshin fans.
"It's a costume drama, but not set in Sakura Island. It's a traditional Xia Nation period piece. And the male lead isn't a powerhouse swordsman like Himura Kenshin—" Su Yan paused to think.
"He's more of a courageous, clever guy—smarter than Kenshin, perhaps—but at his core, still just an ordinary person."
"A non-action drama?" Shinozaki Ikumi frowned slightly at that.
Sure, 'Rurouni Kenshin' took off thanks to its emotionally devastating fourth episode, but its early martial arts action was also critical. Without action scenes, would the Kenshin fanbase really go for it?
"So… does this story have a tragic ending?" Shinozaki Ikumi suddenly recalled being yelled at by furious Kenshin fans for half a month straight over the ending, and asked cautiously.
"Not really," Su Yan thought about it. Both the male and female leads achieve their greatest wish:
Before dying, they get to see each other one last time.
They fulfilled their dreams—how could that be a tragedy?
"Good." Shinozaki Ikumi's face lit up with a smile.
"I knew it. You're a normal person, Su Yan. That gut-wrenching stuff was just a one-time thing. Honestly, the market still leans toward feel-good stories with truth, goodness, and beautiful happy endings."
Su Yan gave her a strange look.
If you're going to ask that, why not just come out and ask if the story is emotionally devastating?
One is a modern-day man.
The other—a woman who died a thousand years ago in history.
Separated by over a thousand years of time, the two fall in love. Due to the male lead's irregular time travel, they only meet six times in their entire lives—but each remembers the other for a lifetime.
Wouldn't you call that emotionally devastating?
After asking, Shinozaki Ikumi sat upright across from Su Yan, took a deep breath, and picked up the script.
The story began…
In an ancient dynasty.
In the capital, at a large-scale public execution—
Citizens gathered to witness the sentencing of the infamous "demon empress" of the previous regime. This woman, who had ruled the country for decades, had waged endless wars, plunging the people into misery. As she was about to be executed, she turned to glance at a man in the crowd—the male lead, Shen Buyan.
Her gaze held surprise… complexity… and finally, sorrow.
Then—a man named Shen Buyan, a novelist who specialized in writing historical fiction—woke up from this vivid dream.
The dream felt so real, it was as if he'd lived it himself. It sparked an intense interest in the fictional Sheng Dynasty, and he set out to write a novel chronicling its rise and fall.
From there, the story began laying its groundwork:
A legendary ancient tree said to grant wishes.
An old woman is selling mysterious jade fragments.
After speaking a string of bizarre riddles, the woman convinced Shen Buyan to buy the broken jade.
Later that night, while he was researching Sheng Dynasty history and pondering his novel's structure—
He time-traveled.
He was transported back to that very Sheng Dynasty—to a time when the "demon empress" Lu Yuan was still alive.
Shinozaki Ikumi's eyes widened.
Time travel? That kind of plot was virtually nonexistent in the Xia Nation's TV industry.
In Su Yan's previous life, in China's web novel market, it was beyond overused.
In the film and television world, the concept of time travel only caught fire after 2010, thanks to dramas like 'Scarlet Heart' and 'Palace'.
But in the Xia Nation—before those—it didn't exist at all.
One world's tired cliché is another world's fresh innovation.
Shinozaki Ikumi was already intrigued.
She kept reading.
The protagonist, Shen Buyan, a man of the modern era, had traveled to a time when Lu Yuan was in her thirties.
And he appeared inside the palace.
At this time, the Sheng Dynasty faced a national crisis. Enemy armies were at the gates. The Grand Chancellor, Li Yong, was preparing to betray the country.
Lu Yuan, as the young emperor's mother, was the acting ruler—but was also known as the "demon empress."
This kind of historical setup was nothing new.
In Su Yan's previous life, figures like Zhao Feiyan and Sun Ruowei had been dubbed "demon empresses."
Powerful dowager rulers like Empress Lü and Empress Dowager Cixi were everywhere in history.
So Shinozaki Ikumi didn't find this background jarring—it was totally acceptable.
Even the Sheng Dynasty setting didn't raise eyebrows. Xia's history was full of vague, short-lived dynasties—nothing to complain about.
But what got really weird…
Was it upon his first arrival in ancient times that Shen Buyan encountered a palace maid who seemed to know him?
She led him to a stunningly beautiful woman—Lu Yuan herself.
And she, too, seemed to have known Shen Buyan for a long time. It was as if she had known he would arrive that day, in that palace.
She had prepared clothes and a ceremonial crown for him, and performed traditional rituals for him—blessings, disaster warding…
Then—when Chancellor Li Yong launched a surprise attack—Lu Yuan threw herself in front of Shen Buyan to block a fatal blow, sacrificing her life to protect him.
Shen Buyan watched this woman, in her thirties, die for him.
Why would she give her life for a stranger she had only just met?
With those questions lingering in his mind, Shen Buyan's first time-travel ended.
Two of the five broken jade fragments he had bought had now fused.
By the end of Episode 1, Shinozaki Ikumi was feeling dizzy.
What was Lu Yuan up to?
Was she really dead? Why would she give her life for a man she had just met?
Why did the script make it seem like she had spent a long time preparing for this very night, this meeting with the male lead?
Su Yan had said the story wasn't a tragedy, right?
Shinozaki Ikumi couldn't resist and immediately picked up Episode 2.
Then came a plot twist that shook her entire worldview—
After returning to the modern world, Shen Buyan couldn't forget the Sheng Dynasty or Lu Yuan, who had saved his life.
So, for the second time, he activated the jade… and traveled back again.
But this time, he traveled ten years earlier than the first time—to a time when Lu Yuan was only in her twenties, still a court lady, not yet Empress Dowager.
…Huh?
Shinozaki Ikumi was even more confused.
How was the plot supposed to develop now?
It had gone from a time-travel story to a full-blown mind-bender.
First time: he meets thirty-something Lu Yuan.
Second time: he meets twenty-something Lu Yuan?
What about the Lu Yuan who saved him and died?
She gave her life for him… and now what? He just moves on?
This was when the main storyline became clear.
After meeting the younger Lu Yuan, Shen Buyan began uncovering the hidden truth—that the Sheng Dynasty wasn't recorded in official history.
And to prevent the fate where Lu Yuan dies in her thirties, he started taking action ten years earlier, hoping to rewrite history.
After reading all three episodes, Shinozaki Ikumi blinked at Su Yan.
"…Is there more?"
"Nope. Just three episodes for now," Su Yan said.
"What do you think? Interesting?"
"Of course!" Shinozaki Ikumi instantly got excited.
"What's the deal with Lu Yuan? Did she know Shen Buyan all along?"
"And that Chancellor Li Yong—he's clearly a traitor. Why does history call him a wise and virtuous minister? Why did he go absolutely berserk the moment he saw Shen Buyan during the first time travel, acting like he was facing a mortal enemy and ordering his men to kill him on sight?"
"And Lu Yuan… did she really die in her thirties?" Her voice lowered at the end.
"…I haven't figured all that out yet," Su Yan said calmly.
He didn't like giving spoilers. Spoiling the plot for producer Shinozaki Ikumi served no purpose. He wouldn't change the script for her anyway. So—"I haven't figured it out"—was the cleanest answer.
"What do you think? If we submit these three episodes to the TV station's production department, will they approve the project?"
"Absolutely." Shinozaki Ikumi answered confidently.
"This script is way more interesting than all those cliché workplace dramas or school rom-coms on TV. Just the time-travel concept alone—I can't imagine the production department turning it down."
"…But,"
She suddenly remembered Kiyota Sanji's uncle.
Heh.
Writing a great script—that's Su Yan's job.
Solving these problems—that's my responsibility.
She stood up and looked at Su Yan.
"Leave these three episodes to me. I'll make sure the production department greenlights the project and allocates funding."