Chapter Three: The Debut

Midnight. Fu Yuntao had just wrapped up a long day's work. After bidding his colleagues goodnight, he was the first to reach his car, driving alone toward the hotel where he was staying.

Barely past thirty, Fu Yuntao was renowned for his exceptional talent in the world of domestic variety shows. Admired throughout the industry, his production team was likewise well-respected and famous. Several programs developed by Fu Yuntao’s team consistently achieved astonishingly high ratings and viewership across major platforms and television networks.

Currently, Fu Yuntao was stationed at the Donghai International Film and Television Base, filming his latest endeavor—"Produce 101." This was the country’s very first youth-oriented girl group competition show, co-produced by three leading online video platforms: YouNet, BananaTV, and LeKan. The domestic broadcast rights had been exclusively acquired by Donghai Satellite TV, while overseas rights had been sold in nearly a dozen countries and regions. It was the first time in the history of domestic variety shows that an online and offline collaborative live-streamed girl group program would be launched, boasting the ambition to create a “world-class supergroup” with a final lineup of eleven members.

Because the show was being broadcast live, the preparatory work had to be flawless. Over two months ago, upon taking on this project, Fu Yuntao immediately assembled a filming team, activated the vast networks of the three investors, and meticulously screened nearly twenty thousand eligible young female artists from over a thousand agencies across Asia, with the daunting task of selecting the best one hundred and one idols within a limited timeframe.

Now, as the selection process drew to a close and the program’s official launch approached, Fu Yuntao found himself less elated than he might have imagined. Despite his reputation as the country’s most gifted variety show director, Fu Yuntao’s original dream, from the moment he first picked up a camera, was simply to direct a complete television drama or film. If not for the overwhelming publicity surrounding "Produce 101," which had captured attention throughout Asia—and the earnest invitations from the three major video platforms—his first drama or film project of the year might already have begun.

“Still not bold enough...” Fu Yuntao sighed heavily.

As he drove, he absently turned on the car’s radio, tuning it to Baoshan Radio, intending to catch "Midnight Storytelling," a program he listened to habitually in the quiet hours before sleep.

Fu Yuntao was fond of the stories told by the program’s host, Mi Maodian. With a broad perspective and a unique narration style that set him apart among all the broadcasters in Donghai, Mi Maodian had distinguished himself by purchasing the audio rights to several high-quality web novels and narrating them personally, while others persisted in retelling tired, overused tales. With his talent for vocal effects and those eerie, atmospheric stories, Mi Maodian’s program quickly became a midnight sensation throughout Donghai.

For the past two or three months working at the Donghai Film and Television Base, Fu Yuntao had almost never missed an episode, making it part of his nightly ritual.

But tonight...

Listening to the female voice on the radio and glancing at his watch, Fu Yuntao frowned. “They changed the host?”

He listened for a while, quickly losing interest. The new host’s voice was dry, her narration plagued by slip-ups, and, most importantly, her stories lacked the intrigue of her predecessor's.

Switching from one frequency to the next, Fu Yuntao searched for something better as he continued driving.

“Grave robbing isn’t sightseeing, nor composing poetry, nor painting embroidery—it can’t be that refined, that leisurely...”

“Damn those high beams!” Fu Yuntao cursed as he flicked his own headlights, signaling the oncoming car to dim theirs. Fortunately, the other driver complied in time, or Fu Yuntao wasn’t sure whether his hot temper would have made headlines that night.

“My grandfather’s name was Hu Guohua. The Hu family was once the wealthiest for miles around. At its peak, they owned over forty connected homes in three alleyways in the city...”

In the quiet of his car, Fu Yuntao continued along the empty asphalt road on the outskirts of Donghai. With about ten kilometers to go before reaching his hotel, he mulled over work while listening to the radio.

“A few days later, my uncle came by, bringing some treats and colorful cloth for his niece-in-law. Hu Guohua, following a prearranged excuse, insisted his wife was unwell and couldn’t see guests, letting the uncle merely lift the doorway curtain for a glimpse before lowering it again.”

At some point, Fu Yuntao’s work plans faded from his mind, replaced by the vivid scenes conjured by the male narrator’s measured, urgent storytelling.

“Hu Guohua blocked his uncle from entering, but the more he resisted, the more suspicious his uncle became. They argued until the uncle burst into the inner room, glanced at the bed, and nearly gave the old man a heart attack!”

“There lay a woman’s pale face, rouged cheeks, eyes wide open, staring straight at the ceiling—a paper effigy of a woman!”

A chill surged through Fu Yuntao’s body. He slammed on the brakes, shivering involuntarily.

Snapping back to reality, his heart pounding, he immediately slowed the car to a crawl.

Even that didn’t feel safe enough; finally, he pulled over to the roadside. He switched on the hazard lights, opened the sunroof, lit a cigarette, and turned up the radio’s volume.

“This must’ve been an old mouse, its whiskers white, the size of a cat, sitting beside Hu Guohua, greedily inhaling the opium smoke from his pipe, as if it too knew the pleasures of the drug...”

Time slipped by, and still Fu Yuntao listened, utterly absorbed. Reaching for another cigarette, he found the pack empty. Confused, he stared at it in disbelief.

How had most of the cigarettes disappeared so quickly?

Something was wrong.

Glancing at his watch, Fu Yuntao drew a sharp breath. It was almost two in the morning! He’d been parked at the roadside for two hours.

Remembering the heavy workload awaiting him the next day, Fu Yuntao hurried to start the car and head for the hotel.

Just then, the program’s closing words came through the speakers:

“Dear listeners, that’s all for tonight’s program. To find out what happens next, tune in tomorrow at the same time. Don’t miss it.”

“I am A Yuan, your host for ‘Strange Tales of the Human World.’”

Meanwhile, at Donghai Radio, Studio 3—

Liao Yuan took off his headphones, drank from a bottle of water by the control panel to soothe his parched throat, then stood to carefully tidy up his script.

Outside the studio, Xiao Peng sat at the director’s console, holding his phone in both hands, staring blankly at Liao Yuan the entire time...