In the "No Heartburn Universe" of AI short dramas, even Qin Shi Huang would have to sell steamed buns after arriving.

Overnight, all people in southern China are sincerely asking: What on earth does "heartburn" mean here?

In the context of northern Chinese people, heartburn refers to the burning sensation in the esophagus after eating irritating food, commonly known as gastric reflux.

But in the current booming era of Red Fruit short dramas, "heartburn" refers to a self-evident shared emotion, the anger after receiving unlicensed, unlabeled and unqualified products from unscrupulous merchants, and the pent-up frustration after being beaten down by life.

01. From Small Vendors to Qin Shi Huang: The History of the No-Heartburn Universe

How to fight against heartburn? Welcome to the world of AI short dramas.

Everything originated from an ordinary steamed stuffed bun shop.

A stubborn shop owner insisted on using the best ingredients, so his steamed stuffed buns were more expensive than those of other shops, and he was willing to accept it even if his business went bankrupt.

Then another shop owner showed up to compete for customers, selling cheaper buns and giving free soy milk, so all customers flocked to the new steamed stuffed bun shop in droves.

Only an elderly old man stayed, insisting on eating the original expensive buns, because the buns from the old shop "won't give you heartburn".

Later, everyone found out that the owner of the cheap bun shop was an unscrupulous merchant who used spoiled meat filling to make buns, making all dirty money.

At the end of the story, the honest shop owner's business thrived again, and the upright man left several resounding golden lines for the short drama industry:

"The rules cannot be broken."

"Set the rules first, and the road will become wider and wider."

"Aren't you afraid of losing money? I am afraid, but I am more afraid of unclear accounts."

The plot of the Heartburn Steamed Stuffed Bun Shop became a hit during the National Day holiday, and reached its peak on the two days when people returned to work after the holiday.

Going to work is so heartburning, A-share market is so heartburning, preparing for postgraduate entrance examination is so heartburning, endless homework is so heartburning... But fortunately, we still have the world of short dramas, and the No-Heartburn Universe has thus unfolded.

Since then, no matter it is steamed stuffed bun stalls, pork knuckle rice, snail noodles, or spicy soup, all of them can be adapted to this heartburn-themed script.

The villain is responsible for cutting prices and making troubles, the protagonist sticks to principles, customers are first attracted by low prices and soon recognize the reality, and finally the honest shop owner wins the market.

The simplest inspirational story went viral in a short time because of the sense of satisfaction it brings, and at the same time laid the foundation for short dramas to embrace AI - to reject heartburn.

Some people are not satisfied with repetition, and start to create "pure heartburn" plots, letting the unscrupulous shop owner do all kinds of bad things and amass money desperately.

It is totally normal to feel heartburn after eating the food, although the price is cheap, the meat is leftover from the day before, and the unsold ones can be put in the refrigerator and sold the next day.

You ask the shop owner if he has a conscience, and he says: "If I lose my conscience, I can grow it back, but if I can't make money, I really lose."

If the spoiled food tastes too bad, you can add more flavorings and sell them to naive college students, who will thank you after eating: "The meal is a bit heartburning, but it doesn't cost much."

Even with such plots, the audience still won't feel heartburn, after all, there are college students taking the fall.

The Heartburn Universe is still spreading continuously.

Starting from breakfast stalls, historical figures starting businesses, farming and land reclamation, doomsday survival, overbearing CEO counterattack... All kinds of themes can be adapted into similar plot formulas, and AI short dramas have quickly developed into a full-category no-heartburn feast.

In Qin Shi Huang: I Have the All-Star Lineup of China, an ordinary medical student Lu Hao travels back to the Qin Dynasty, with the buff of a time machine to help Qin Shi Huang unify the whole world, he will call for reinforcements crazily when he can't beat the enemies.

Zhuge Liang offers strategies, Huo Qubing sweeps across Eurasia, Han Xin marches straight to Rome, all the well-known ancestors of China gather across time and space.

Helping the First Emperor unify the world and making everyone speak Chinese, this drama is not heartburning at all.

In Traveling to the Past as a Farm Grandmother, I Lead My Four Children to Get Rich, a contemporary dog trainer Jiang Luoluo accidentally travels to ancient times, and becomes a poor farm grandmother with a bad reputation.

She leads the whole family to open up wasteland and farm, work hard to get rich, gradually expand the small business, the whole family works together, from a poor farmer to a well-off family, and wins the recognition of the villagers again.

No intrigues, only plain and beautiful idyllic life, this drama is not heartburning at all.

In In the Doomsday of Natural Disasters, I Become Invincible After Stockpiling Full Supplies, Han Qingxia in her previous life was betrayed by her closest relatives and died unjustly after the natural disaster struck.

After being reborn, she returns to the time before the doomsday comes, accidentally activates the super lord system, immediately sells her house to raise money, stockpiles goods crazily, builds a base, takes revenge while rebuilding her home.

The heroine is decisive in killing, not overly kind and not procrastinating, she turns doomsday survival into an infrastructure game, this drama is not heartburning at all.

The plots are varied and the settings are changing constantly, but the core is always stable.

As long as the audience enjoys watching, history can be rearranged, and the doomsday can also be lived as a satisfying story. As for whether the logic is strict and the plots are repeated, it doesn't seem that important.

After watching too many short dramas, you can't help but want to have a satisfying experience in real life too.

Many routines that originally only existed on the small screen are now spilling out of the mobile phone little by little. The no-heartburn AI short dramas have brought the "fire" to the three-dimensional world.

02. When Real People Start to Imitate AI, The Dreamlike Communication Closed Loop of Short Dramas

Just in the past two days, Hengdian held a Micro Short Drama Night, inviting many real-life short drama actors to walk the red carpet and present awards.

After seeing the red carpet photos, netizens were very confused, I haven't watched real-life short dramas for only more than half a year, how could the quality decline so sharply?

The quality of real-life short dramas has declined seriously, on the other hand, the momentum of AI short dramas is advancing triumphantly.

In just this short half year, AI short dramas with low cost, fast output and excellent character modeling have quickly become popular.

Many doomsday, time-travel and disaster themes that cannot be easily realized in real-life films and television works are easily handled with AI technology, not to mention the melodramatic revenge and "golden finger" plots that short dramas are better at, several post-2000s young people can produce a whole season in just one week.

What's more magical is that before AI learns how to behave more like humans, humans have already started to imitate AI.

At first, AI short dramas started by imitating the narrative methods of real-life films and television, but now the situation is reversed, people begin to imitate the stiff expressions and distorted movements of AI actors in turn.

You must pout when speaking, your expression must be exaggerated, the emotion transition must be earth-shattering, and the most important thing is that you must look at the camera when speaking lines.

Image source: Douyin @Li Luoluo

Some people are too deep into the drama, and even recreate the short drama plot in real life, as soon as the BGM plays, they immediately "connect via Bluetooth successfully", and speak lines more smoothly than professional actors.

Image source: Xiaohongshu @Beer Cap

Small commodity bosses in Yiwu smelled the business opportunity and entered the market, developing a short drama BGM sounding pendant, with six buttons matching six kinds of sound effects, you can click wherever you need, and ordinary people can also appear on the scene with their own sound effects.