The Front Wave

The Front Wave is a long urban entertainment novel by Dao Yigeng, a star author of Yuewen Group, serialized on Qidian Chinese from August 15, 2020 to May 6, 2021, about 1.68 million characters and over 400 chapters. The protagonist, Peng Xiangming, lies in a hospital bed for nine years, passing the days with movies and music, almost turning the rest of his life into a long stretch of watching from the sidelines. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a parallel world, back at age 21 as a film directing student. This world's entertainment industry is similar to Earth's yet different: many works and ideas familiar from his memory do not exist here, or have not yet appeared. Peng Xiangming's first reaction is not grand — make some money and get out, and enjoy a second life. He tries his hand using things from his "front wave" memories, and unexpectedly those old works and ideas, long outdated on Earth and consigned to a bygone era, prove hugely popular in this parallel world, with ratings, box office, and critical acclaim raining down on him. A man who wants to bow out quietly is pushed forward — from campus auditions and screen tests to signing contracts, assembling teams, raising investment, and shooting films — step by step driven by the times and by himself onto the path of a director, becoming "the front wave that never sinks" amid the noise. Set against the urban entertainment world, the book revolves around project preparation, industry rules, capital maneuvering, and public opinion, focusing not on "copying" specific works but on how experts, passersby, and the market react once the works appear. In a steady, slightly wry tone, the author writes about how a protagonist who understands human nature and knows when to advance and retreat seeks freedom in the world of fame and profit, and about the subtle mismatch when old classics meet a new era.