After a day's work, Laila returned home with a somewhat stiff neck. As soon as she entered the door, she saw Zeni engaged in a lively conversation with a cleaning lady in the living room.
"When are you going back?" It had been several days already. Did he plan to stay at her place forever?
Zeni looked at the cleaning lady who hurriedly left, looked at Laila with regret and reproach, and said, "You've extinguished the flames of my new romance."
Laila's eye twitched. It was him being all flirtatious; there was no romantic flame to talk about!
"That's great then. If you move out quickly, you can cultivate your flame into a fire!"
"Come on." Zeni grinned and pushed her into a chair, then poured her a cup of coffee. "Had a tough day at work? Need a massage?"
Laila looked at the coffee cup in front of her with suspicion, then shifted her gaze to him. "Isn't it said that giving undue attention is either adulterous or thieving? What do you want?"
Zeni almost choked on his saliva. "That's slander! I protest!"
"Protest denied." Laila took a sip of the coffee, wrinkled her brow, and put it back down. She didn't like the taste of coffee. It smelled good, but you had to add so many things to it to drink it, and it didn't taste the way it smelled. "I'm heading upstairs."
As she was about to get up, Zeni pressed her back into the chair.
"Wait, don't rush!" he said, like performing magic, pulling out a thick printed manuscript from behind him. "Take a look at this, and give me your opinion."
Laila took the manuscript in her hand. "What's this?"
"Hehe, you'll find out when you read it."
"Fine." Laila opened the first page and saw that the first line explained a term: "autopsy."
By the second page, she had realized it was a novel. It started with a case, a very eye-catching one. Unseen methods of murder, and elaborate scenes of death, all exude the charm that captivated people to keep reading.
Then the main character appeared, a forensic expert solving clues the criminal had overlooked and bringing them to justice with sharp medical expertise. The story included some forensic knowledge and introduced various forensic tools. Even Laila, who wasn't well-versed in forensics, couldn't help but get excited and read on.
The next day, she returned the manuscript to Zeni with dark circles under her eyes.
"You read it all night?" Zeni was surprised at first, then burst into laughter. "I guess I did a good job."
"You wrote it?" While she had guessed it, she still found it a bit hard to believe.
Zeni flicked the manuscript. "Other than me, who could write something so exciting? Don't think the United States has only one genius, which is you."
Laila nodded. "Though it's quite audacious to say so, it's somewhat convincing."
Zeni paused. "You seem to haven't agreed with me for a long time. Suddenly, I'm a bit moved. What should I do?"
Laila didn't bother with his nonsense and pointed at his manuscript. "What's your plan? Are you going to publish it?"
"Of course, otherwise, why would I show it to you?"
Right, Laila suddenly remembered that her grandpa had a publishing company. The Morlan family started with a printing factory, and the publishing industry was one of the areas Oswald Morlan had ventured into. Over the decades, they had published numerous outstanding works, but in recent years, it seemed to have shown signs of decline due to the rise of the internet.
"Give it to me. I'll be back in New York this weekend. I'll hand the manuscript to Grandpa to take a look." She was happy to help him. It was just a small favor for her. Moreover, the appearance of this book also gave her a fantastic inspiration.
"By the way, why did you suddenly think of writing such a work?" She was curious. It seemed that someone like him should be more interested in beautiful women and wrestling.
Zeni shrugged. "Isn't it because of those two movies of yours? They made all sorts of weird death scenes pop into my head. Then I couldn't help but think about how I would solve a case like that if it were real. So, that's how this book came about."
"I think the angles covered in this book are interesting. It's way more captivating than the trendy detective novels. If you haven't exhausted your inspiration, you could try turning it into a series. Perhaps shortly, you'll become the next Sherlock Holmes." Laila chuckled.
"Do you think there's too much professionalism in this story? Won't it be difficult for readers to read?" Zeni wasn't entirely sure. He had only started writing out of curiosity, and aside from academic papers, he hadn't written anything similar before. He was concerned that readers might shy away from something too professionally oriented.
Laila smiled faintly. "Don't worry, don't underestimate your readers. They might not understand everything you're saying, but as long as they realize how capable your protagonist is, that's all that matters."
"What do you mean?" Zeni didn't understand.
Laila thought for a moment. "Why do readers like the protagonists in novels?"
"Because they're cool?"
"Exactly." Laila nodded. "The plot, the appearance of supporting characters, and other elements are usually designed to highlight the protagonist's brilliance. Take your protagonist for instance; he possesses incredibly impressive forensic skills and a talent for deductive reasoning. Although some of his professional knowledge might be a bit abstruse, the more difficult it is, the more readers will feel how capable and cool he is. Trust me, readers will love a character like that."
Perhaps it's hard for people nowadays to understand, but in the future, there will be many stories about clever individuals. Think of shows like "Prison Break" or "The Big Bang Theory." Didn't people love the cool and entertaining characters in them?
Zeni looked at her with astonishment, much like he did when he first met her. "I finally understand why those big brands are crying and begging you to help them with their publicity strategies. It turns out that what you see is indeed different from what ordinary people see." What he saw was that the complex professional knowledge might make readers find it hard to understand, but what she saw was that readers would be impressed by a protagonist who seemed to understand those things.
This had to do with perspective, right? He pondered over it; it wasn't such a simple matter. It was like two people playing chess, where one could see the outcome of the next move, and the other could foresee the next ten moves. When two people like this competed, the results couldn't be clearer.
At this moment, Laila felt just like that. It seemed she could see further and deeper than he could. Perhaps this was why she was successful in everything she did.
With these thoughts in mind, Zeni became interested in her new movie. From her description, he knew it was a rare female action film involving elements like fights, revenge, and the underworld, things that weren't typically associated with female-led movies.
Initially, he thought a movie like this might be risky and could become her first failure. But what if he was just not looking far enough? Maybe Laila saw something farther ahead, which made her decide to make this movie. Could it mean that she would create another amazing record in a new field shortly?