"Teacher Jing Yu, aren't you maybe... pushing yourself a bit too hard? Handling three dramas at once—I've done something similar before, and I nearly worked myself to death." Cheng Lie still felt the need to give a gentle reminder.
"Don't worry," Jing Yu replied calmly.
In the following days, aside from filming 'Hikaru no Go's scenes involving Sai, Jing Yu spent all his other time diving into Steins;Gate and Another.
He remembered Steins;Gate vividly. When he'd first watched it in his past life, the slow-burning early episodes almost made him drop the series. The plot was so deliberately vague in the beginning that it was hard to even grasp what kind of story it was trying to tell.
But thankfully, Jing Yu had been a patient viewer. Though he initially found 'Steins;Gate' dull, he stuck with it—and once the story hit its midpoint, when side character Mayuri died...
He couldn't stop watching.
It became a masterclass in brain-bending storytelling—with parallel timelines shifting constantly, and the protagonist Okabe jumping between worldlines again and again, all to save his friends and find the one timeline where they could all survive.
By the time the story came full circle at the finale, that exhilarating sense of beginning and ending being one was something few other works could replicate.
That said, the show's early pacing was undeniably slow. Jing Yu wasn't worried it would flop in Great Zhou, but if he wanted it to hit the expected ratings, he'd have to speed up the setup a bit. That meant making some script adjustments.
As for 'Another'—
It was the complete opposite of 'Steins;Gate'. A horror-suspense story with no room to breathe: a female lead ignored and ostracized by her classmates as if she didn't exist, a series of horrifying student deaths, and the eerie premise of long-dead people mysteriously returning to life—without even knowing they'd died.
Some of these "revived" individuals—and even the ones still living—had their memories altered, truly believing they were real and alive. But unless the "nonexistent" person was found and eliminated, the entire class would die.
With this setup, Another was practically non-stop suspense and terror. The only downside was its short length—adapted to live-action, it would only span about six episodes.
But since Cheng Lie had already said the network was open to mid-length dramas, Jing Yu didn't dwell too much on that.
He began drafting the scripts for both dramas during his spare time.
The next day, Jing Yu's request for a screenwriting assistant team was granted.
"Hello, Teacher Jing Yu, I'm Li Jun."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Liu He."
"I'm Meng Xiao—Director Meng Yu's niece."
"I'm Zhong Xiang. Nice to see you again, Teacher Jing Yu."
Jing Yu looked at Zhong Xiang—she was the one who had taken care of him during the Go exhibition event a few weeks prior.
"You're here too? I thought you didn't work in screenwriting," he said, surprised.
"Well, I didn't have a choice," she smiled, tucking her hair behind her ear. "The station thinks your plan to write three dramas at once is too much, and they're afraid you'll burn out. So, they sent me to help you with daily life—logistics, errands, all that."
"Given your status at the station now, you should've had a support team long ago. But you always turned it down, citing privacy."
"Alright, got it," Jing Yu quickly cut off her long-winded explanation.
He then looked at the rest of the group.
"Alright, let's go around. Tell me what kind of work you specialize in."
Half an hour later, Jing Yu had a good understanding of the team's capabilities and structure.
Honestly, it would definitely slow things down a bit at first. He wasn't used to working with a team. But considering a drama takes months to produce, once everyone got into a rhythm, this setup would boost overall efficiency significantly.
"Well then, let's get started."
In his writing office on the 'Hikaru no Go' set, Jing Yu began briefing the new assistants on the overall style, themes, and foundational plot outlines of the three projects: 'Hikaru no Go', Another (which he renamed Stand-In), and Steins;Gate.
Most of the assistants had been in the industry for years—some even longer than Jing Yu himself. So once he laid out the general vision, he encouraged them to ask questions or offer suggestions as needed.
"Teacher Jing Yu," Liu He spoke first, "how many episodes do you estimate the Steins;Gate setup will take?"
"At least three to four episodes," Jing Yu paused and replied.
That was already the result of significant compression.
"In that case... I'd suggest applying to air Steins;Gate in two-episode weekly batches for the beginning. Long setup isn't the problem—drawn-out setup is. If we stretch those slow episodes over a month, most viewers will probably lose interest before the main plot starts. But if we air two episodes per week at first, we can quickly get through the slow part. Then once we hit the exciting core of the story, we can switch back to one episode per week."
"Hm... that's actually a great idea." Jing Yu's eyes lit up.
It reminded him of how the anime Fate/Zero opened with a one-hour-long premiere, just to finish the Hero Summoning arc. If they'd followed a normal 20-minute-per-episode pace, viewers would've had to wait three weeks just to see Saber summoned. That's enough time for a frustrated audience to completely lose interest.
Instead, FZ blew everyone away in Episode 1.
In the script office, the atmosphere was becoming more and more collaborative.
Of course, story direction remained firmly in Jing Yu's hands, but the assistants helped with dialogue, setting adjustments, and even visual breakdowns and scene transitions.
A few days later, Episode 9 of 'Hikaru no Go' aired.
The plot had now fully shifted to Hikaru entering a Go dojo, beginning his journey toward becoming a professional player.
Some fans online grumbled that Sai's screen time was shrinking, and his Go matches had become rarer. But that didn't affect the ratings at all.
'Hikaru no Go' Episode 9 scored an average rating of 5.81%.
Still slightly below 'EndBlade'—by 0.12%—but after two weeks of slowed growth, this was the second time 'Hikaru no Go' had come close to catching up.
There were three episodes left, and 'Hikaru no Go' Season 1 had been planned for 12 episodes from the start.
Three more weeks to close the gap.
Though the Big Three's sneaky tactics had hurt 'Hikaru no Go''s ratings growth during those two crucial weeks, keeping it out of the Top 3, public attention was now firmly back on the show.
Many media outlets were waiting for the moment 'Hikaru no Go' surpassed 'EndBlade'—ready to pounce on Huanshi TV with headlines and criticism.
That kind of drama always drew massive clicks.
At the same time, Jing Yu officially submitted the scripts for 'Another (Stand-In)' and 'Steins;Gate' to the network's production department for review.
The meeting to discuss whether to approve two additional shows for Jing Yu next season faced widespread opposition within the station.
But after several grueling hours, the outcome was decided—
Cheng Lie's determined arguments won the day.