Justice Bao

Chen Qi took stock of the tasks on his plate. First was the script for the *Romance on Mount Lu* comic strip; that was the easiest and could be knocked out in a single day. Next was a television script, followed by a new screenplay for a film, plus his ongoing responsibilities for *Tai Chi*. He decided to tackle the television drama first. Domestically, television genres were scarce at the moment. Nobody knew where political landmines might be hidden, so creators strictly played it safe. And what counted as safe? Revolutionary themes were the safest, followed by literary classics, scar literature, slices of ordinary urban life, and classical historical romances. Chen Qi briefly weighed revolutionary stories before discarding the idea. His head was filled with classic television hits from future decades, but if those "revolutionary dramas" from the future were screened right now, they would be branded counter-revolutionary. After all, old revolutionaries who had fought on the front lines and run underground intelligence networks were still very much alive—and holding high offices. If you portrayed Eighth Route Army officers like bandits, Nationalist secret agents as honorable and full of heart, Communist intelligence operatives agonizing over their humanity, and everyone flirting and falling in love while waging revolution... weren't you practically begging to be banned? Ideological liberation was not achieved overnight; times were simply different. He skipped classical masterworks entirely, had no desire to write scar literature, and as for ordinary urban life... Wait. Chen Qi's eyes lit up. What if he adapted *The Love of Courtyard* and cast Zhu Lin as Qin Huairu? Future fan-fiction forums would lose their collective minds! Tsk tsk! Suppressing his wild burst of imagination, he brought his pen down and made a decisive checkmark next to classical historical romances. Tales like *The Legend of Yue Fei*, *Generals of the Yang Clan*, *Generals of the Hu Clan*, and *Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee* had been among the earliest to be cleared. They promoted loyalty to the sovereign, patriotism, honest governance, and the punishment of evil—the thematic core was impeccably upright. "What should I write?" "He told me to write three episodes, so I should just write three episodes? Am I really that obedient?" Chen Qi pondered for a moment. Suddenly, thoughts welled up like a spring, and inspiration gushed forth in an uncontrollable flood. He set pen to paper, writing furiously. *Justice Bao*! *** Chen Qi planned to write an episodic series, with each major case serving as a self-contained unit and retaining a relatively independent storyline. Television production conditions were poor these days, making it impractical to shoot anything too long. He aimed for six episodes, and the first case would naturally be the illustrious "Execution of Chen Shimei"! The story had been told for ages, so to make Wang Fulin hand over the script fee with a smile, Chen Qi sprinkled in some extra material. Television dramas of this era differed starkly from those of later years; in density and pacing, they ran circles around modern productions. When he was a boy, *Journey to the West* had felt endlessly long, something he could never finish watching. Only later did he realize it was just twenty-five episodes. Take Episode Eight, "Three Trials on a Rough Road"—a single episode covered three major incidents: battling the Yellow Wind Monster, subduing Sha Wujing, and several Bodhisattvas testing Zhu Bajie... Nowadays, television crews could stretch that into twenty filler episodes! With six episodes of *Justice Bao*, Chen Qi could pack in an enormous amount of story. The writing flowed with tremendous ease. Averaging one episode every three days, he had the whole thing wrapped up in less than two weeks. When he contacted Wang Fulin, the director was stunned and rushed over to the guesthouse. "*Justice Bao*?" Upon seeing the subject matter, Wang Fulin offered no immediate opinion. Glancing at the opening, he asked, "Qin Xianglian?" He frowned slightly. Was this young man just rehashing a classical folk tale to pocket the fee? The story of Qin Xianglian and the execution of Chen Shimei had been sung in Chinese operas for generations—who didn't already know it? Yet he kept his reservations to himself and continued reading without a word. Qin Xianglian travels to the capital with her two children in search of her husband. Chen Shimei, having already become the imperial son-in-law, refuses to recognize them. Hearing that Bao Zheng is an incorruptible judge of absolute impartiality, Qin Xianglian files a complaint, enumerating Chen Shimei's cardinal crimes. Bao Zheng confirms her identity and states that if the evidence is ironclad, Chen Shimei will face the execution blade in the end. However, all she wants is her husband back; she has no desire to see him killed. Withdrawing her complaint, she settles down with the children in a nearby township. By coincidence, a bizarre mystery occurs in that very town, falling under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture. This subplot was lifted straight from *Young Justice Bao*—the mystery of the dried corpses in Yinyi Village, a source of childhood nightmares for countless viewers. The core gimmick was that pieces cut from six corpses had been stitched together to assemble a seventh corpse, leading investigators to believe seven people had died... A trick originally lifted from the Japanese manga *The Kindaichi Case Files*. *Young Justice Bao* had plagiarized it anyway. Chen Qi transplanted the mystery here as a case within a case, showing off Bao Zheng's brilliant deductive mind. Otherwise, merely executing Chen Shimei would showcase integrity and defiance of high office, but little actual intellectual deduction. And the rascal had brought Wang Fulin only three episodes. Director Wang was reading with rapt fascination. He had just reached the moment where Bao Zheng solved the dried corpse mystery and was about to reveal the truth, when—snap—it cut off! Good grief! The forty-nine-year-old director felt on the verge of a heart attack. "Where's the rest?" he urged. "That's all of it!" "How can that be all?" "A three-episode script only goes so far. It ends where it ends!" "You... this... this won't do at all!" Wang Fulin's mind turned quickly, and he caught on. Resigned, he said, "As long as the story is good, we can easily negotiate. But you can't just leave me hanging like this! Take it out and let me see." "..." Chen Qi curled his lip and playfully pulled out the remaining three episodes. It felt just like a serialized web novel abruptly halting right at the climax and then suddenly resuming. Riding the dramatic highs and lows, Wang Fulin read on to see how Bao Zheng exposed the truth of how six bodies had become seven, and he could not help but slap the table in admiration. "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" He tapped the desk repeatedly, singing his praises. "I knew I had to seek out a young man! You really are different from us old fogies. How on earth did you come up with this?" With that case solved, Chen Shimei happened to send assassins to the township to murder Qin Xianglian. Zhan Zhao rescued her in the nick of time, and Bao Zheng brought her back to Kaifeng Prefecture. Seeing her husband's callous brutality—stopping at nothing, even attempting to slaughter his own children—Qin Xianglian resolved to press her charges. Then the princess burst in, playing the villainous secondary female lead to the hilt, yet Chen Shimei was still hauled before the court. The princess brought in the Empress Dowager to intervene, and the Empress Dowager spoke to Qin Xianglian directly. Qin Xianglian had no choice but to back down. Yet the princess pushed her luck, demanding that Qin Xianglian's children be forbidden from bearing the surname Chen. Her insolence pushed Bao Zheng beyond his limit, solidifying his resolve: Chen Shimei had to be executed. What was the ultimate climax of *Justice Bao*? It was the moment when powerful nobles and royal kin frantically tried to obstruct justice, and Bao Zheng cast aside his official hat, presented the Imperial Sword of Authority, and bellowed at the top of his lungs: "Open—the blade—!" "Wonderful!" Wang Fulin leapt to his feet, thoroughly thrilled by the read. Yet once the exhilaration subsided, a sliver of hesitation crept back in. "Xiao Chen, do you think this approach is a bit too... commercialized? Too entertaining?" "If you were left to film Bao Zheng on your own, how would you approach it?" "We would naturally gather historical materials and make it as realistic as possible. There are plenty of historical records about Bao Zheng from antiquity." "If you shoot it strictly according to historical records, I've got nothing to say. But if you turn to *The Cases of Judge Bao* or *The Three Heroes and Five Gallants*, those are popular vernacular novels to begin with. In other words, they're entertainment fiction. You're adapting entertainment fiction, yet demanding gritty realism? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?" Chen Qi paused, then continued, "In my view, realism belongs in the costumes, props, and sets. There's no need to elevate everything to lofty political doctrines in the thematic core. It's meant to be popular entertainment from the start." "..." Wang Fulin pondered for a moment, then declared, "I want this script. Whether the station shoots it or not, we're taking it. I'll head back and discuss it with the management, and I'll let you know once a decision is made." "Sounds good to me." Chen Qi saw Wang Fulin out and stretched lazily. Six hundred yuan in the bag! Television dramas carried very little prestige or reach right now; the Golden Eagle Awards hadn't even been founded, leaving only the Feitian Awards. Television wouldn't hit its stride until the mid-1980s and sweep the country by the early 1990s, when television sets finally proliferated across households. By that time, the film industry was in decline, creating a stark contrast where movie stars gradually lost ground to television stars. And after that came the era of coal-baron investors... Chen Qi didn't care much for television dramas at this stage; he was simply after quick script fees. Nor did he want Gong Xue to act in them—it would be beneath her status. *Actresses like He Qing, Tao Huimin, and He Saifei could all come give it a try. And then there's Gong Xue's younger sister, Gong Ying... She becomes an actress later on too...* Chen Qi stroked his chin, then suddenly knit his brows. *Damn it, her younger sister is older than me!*