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Chapter 119: A Work That's Hard to Leave Behind
Chapter 118: A Work That's Hard to Leave Behind
Luo Jinnian began writing "Final Destination" on the third night after filming of "Tales of Wonder" wrapped up.
That day, he had just returned to Langya City from Sichuan. His luggage was not yet fully unpacked. He was sitting at his desk with the desk lamp on and a glass of water that had gone cold in front of the keyboard.
The trees outside the window rustled in the wind. Langya City was no longer so hot at this time of year. The night breeze slipped in through the cracks in the window, carrying a faint scent of grass, wood, and dust—a unique aroma of the city.
Luo Jinnian stared at the empty document for about two minutes, then typed four words in the header: "Final Destination".
This will be the new flagship work of "Story Club".
The opening of the story was written very quickly, so quickly that there was no need for hesitation.
"He saw that the plane was going to explode."
The very first sentence he wrote determined the tone of the entire story.
The protagonist, Lin Shaoyuan, sat in the waiting hall, looking out the window at the flight that was about to take off. Suddenly, a very clear image flashed into his mind: shortly after the plane took off, a burst of fire erupted in the cabin, the fuselage broke apart, and the wreckage fell with flames, scattering fragments on the runway. Thick smoke rose from the tail of the plane, obscuring half of the sky.
The images were so vivid that he could even "hear" the sound of the explosion.
He jumped up and shouted, "The plane is going to crash!"
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People around him stared at him as if he were crazy; some frowned, some sneered, and some moved to the side.
The passengers sitting diagonally opposite him were startled by his words; they could clearly see the genuine fear on his face.
A staff member came over and politely but firmly led him out of the waiting area.
He struggled in the hallway, shouting "You believe me," but his voice was blocked by the glass door.
The sense of suspense and the unknown is established from the very beginning.
The other people then followed them out and were detained in the terminal by staff under the pretext of cooperating with an investigation.
They stood in the corridor, looking each other up and down, as if trying to confirm whether they really believed the plane was going to crash.
Then a loud bang came from outside the window.
The glass was shaking, the ground was shaking, and everyone was turning their heads to look out the window amidst the tremors—the plane had exploded shortly after takeoff, and the orange-red flames were reflected in everyone's pupils, like a firework magnified countless times.
Lin Shaoyuan stood there looking out the window at the burning sky. Everyone's faces were illuminated by the firelight. He saw something else in those eyes that had just questioned him—not gratitude and trust, but a more complex emotion: fear brought about by the unknown.
Although they survived by accident, death was also correcting this mistake one by one.
Luo Jinnian spent two nights writing the novella of "Final Destination," which was a little over 40,000 words long and had a faster pace than "Saw."
Because it doesn't have much psychological description or atmosphere building, it almost immediately presents a murder case, pushing the reader forward.
At the end of each chapter, a character dies in a way that seems unexpected but upon closer inspection, makes one wonder why it always happens in the same way. Each death is related to the omen of the previous survivor.
And that omen is often hidden in some inconspicuous, everyday detail that would never be noticed.
After reading the manuscript, Jiabei exclaimed, "After reading this, I might not dare to fly anymore."
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Then it was featured as the headline of the new monthly magazine, Duku.
On the day the August issue went on sale, Luo Jinnian was still in Sichuan filming several establishing shots for "Tales of Wonder." He received a message from Meng Zhaoming on set, saying that the first-day sales of the August issue were much higher than those of the July issue, thanks to the tagline from "Final Destination," "They shouldn't be alive," and the reputation of early spring tea.
The announcement had already attracted many readers to pre-order. After reading the message, Luo Jinnian put his phone back in his pocket and continued watching Director Mo adjust the lighting in front of the monitor without replying.
What truly set "Final Destination" apart was the repeated sharing of the story online in the days following its completion, which propelled it to wider popularity.
The forum discussion quickly shifted from "Isn't it too formulaic for someone to die every chapter?" to "Who will be next to die?" and then abruptly changed to "Is there any chance these people will survive?"
Someone wrote in the post: "The terror of early spring tea is the kind of terror you keep thinking about even after you've closed the book. It's not about being scary, it's about thinking about how to deal with a situation like 'Final Destination'."
The final answer is: a dead end, there is no solution.
Another netizen offered a more sober analysis in a longer comment: "The horror of 'Final Destination' lies not in the fact that someone will die, but in the fact that only the protagonist witnessed the disaster, and at the same time, he became part of the disaster."
No one will thank him anymore, because he forced those who should have died on the plane to remain on the ground.
Every second they survived was stolen, and death was simply taking back what was rightfully theirs.
When Luo Jinnian saw the last comment, he remembered that someone had said something similar after the first "Final Destination" movie was released in his previous life—"The protagonist saved six people, but he didn't give them their lives; he stole them from Death. What's stolen must be returned sooner or later."
""
He didn't leave a comment on that post.
In another discussion, someone compared Final Destination and Saw, saying that both works explore the same question: "If being alive is a kind of luck, how should we treat this luck?"
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Jigsaw makes people re-examine their lives in extreme situations, while Lin Shaoyuan in Final Destination is the one who makes everyone realize that "living is inherently a matter of luck."
"Jigsaw's game at least has rules, but Death has no rules. He is like a list that will never be empty, and everyone who goes on it will die."
,
This post was featured on the homepage and received over three hundred replies.
After reading it, Luo Jinnian neither liked nor shared it; he simply closed the page and continued revising the manuscript for the next issue of "Story Club."
He knew that the value of this work lay not in how enthusiastically it was discussed, but in the "what if it were me" assumption it planted in the minds of readers.
That assumption will surface from time to time over a long period of time, suddenly appearing in the reader's mind when they are on a plane, crossing the street, or looking down from a high place, like a thorn that has not been pulled out.
Anyone who has seen "Final Destination" will have this nightmare planted in their mind, and they will constantly recall the plot of this story in their lives.
It's comparable to the most difficult works of art to adapt to.