“Let me see! Which little demon are you chatting with? Lin Ci or Wen Wen?” Qin Sheng snapped.
She scurried closer: “I can barely accept Wen Wen, but if it’s Lin Ci, I’m going to curse you! Don’t hate me for having a sharp tongue!!”
Shen Xiyan pressed a hand to her forehead and shoved her away: “What’s it got to do with you?!”
“Shen Xiyan! You’re biting the hand that feeds you!! If you don’t even care about me, why should you care about anyone else?!”
Qin Sheng angrily challenged him to a PK, and Shen Xiyan met it head-on without hesitation.
Unsurprisingly, Qin Sheng was instantly overwhelmed, knocked flat with a single slap.
In the end, she could only squat on the chair, puffing her cheeks and muttering complaints.
“When you used to watch the moon with me, you called me Little Sweetie. Now that the Newcomer beats the old guard, you’re calling me Madame Niu.”
Damn, this girl was possessed by the Goddess of Acting again.
What was today’s drama? I couldn’t get into it at all.
So
“Scram!”
Shen Xiyan slapped her again, completely unfamiliar with the meaning of “cherishing.”
Qin Sheng rolled a gorgeous and coquettish eye: “Wah wah wah, you’re so mean. I’m just a Caged Bird little woman, and you actually laid hands on me? How could you? Men who hit women are pathetic!”
“You’re the Caged Bird?”
“Really!”
“I heard when girls have little strength, they can’t even open bottle caps… When they’re strong, they can open their boyfriend’s Heavenly Cap.”
Shen Xiyan squinted at her and snorted coldly: “When you just tried to hit me, you weren’t exactly weak. Why were you so eager to undo my belt?”
“Because I wanted to bind the chicken…”
Qin Sheng’s eyes flickered as she glanced at Shen Xiyan’s crotch, her right hand pretending to fumble in midair.
“Guess why I’m undoing your belt? If I don’t bully the little chick when it’s small, am I supposed to let it grow into a big rooster pecking at me? I heard Black-bone Chicken Soup is very nourishing. When are you going to take a bath?”
Shen Xiyan:
After spending so much time with Qin Sheng, he truly started to get Fire Qi.
He wanted nothing more than to strip her naked, throw her on the bed, and give her a good lesson.
“It was Su Jin who introduced me to the author…”
“I already told you to cut ties with her! Why won’t you listen? What does she want introducing authors to you?”
Shen Xiyan refused to answer, silently taking out his phone.
Yi Jin Ye Xing: 【I looked over your outline. For a Newcomer to be so thorough before starting a book, that’s pretty rare. How long have you been thinking about this?】
Shen Xiyan: 【Not long.】
Yi Jin Ye Xing: 【Then you’re very talented!】
Ordinary people, before their creative desires explode, usually go through a long fantasy phase, like imagining themselves as the protagonist before sleep.
So interesting people often write interesting novels, while the emo ones are the opposite.
Novels are fantasy worlds; where would a pessimist get wonderful fantasies?
Yi Jin Ye Xing: 【You probably won’t believe this, but my new book is in the same genre as yours, even the characters and story direction are very similar. I’m starting to wonder if I’m copying you.】
Su Jin’s teasing tone made Shen Xiyan’s heart skip a beat.
Shen Xiyan: 【That actually happens… haha… So, is there anything I need to change?】
Yi Jin Ye Xing: 【Your phrasing isn’t fun enough. Since your protagonist is decided to be “promiscuous,” you have to set the character from the start to filter readers… You seem pretty serious in personality, how did you come up with such a cheeky story?】
Shen Xiyan: 【…】
Yi Jin Ye Xing: 【I tweaked the first chapter a bit. Not for you to copy me, just skim through and get the idea.】
Shen Xiyan: 【Thanks, I’ll take another look.】
“You’re writing a novel?”
Qin Sheng glanced at the screen, immediately realizing Shen Xiyan wasn’t a Red Apricot Out the Wall type. Her tone softened slightly.
“Is there a problem?”
“You’re crazy!” Qin Sheng’s face Beauty Fades as she pounced, grabbing Shen Xiyan’s arm.
Shen Xiyan rolled his eyes.
Su Jin was at least someone who had been through this, so Shen Xiyan could somewhat take her advice. What valuable suggestions could Qin Sheng possibly have?
“Writers can’t rest all year! How will we go on dates? Summer break’s coming! Don’t you want to spend a pink summer with me?”
“… Never planned to.”
Shen Xiyan’s expression was blank, determined to be an emotionless pigeon.
“Xiyan~~”
The most painful thing about a crush is summer break.
Even if you barely spoke at school, just seeing them made you happy.
But when summer break comes, there’s no reason to meet.
You can’t just go knock on their door, right?
That’s basically confessing.
So adolescence summers often feel endlessly long, forcing you to stay home, lie on the floor with the air conditioner on, stare at the sky outside the balcony, wondering what they’re doing.
Even a chance encounter lifts your whole day.
But if you ever found out they were dating someone else, that would really be the World’s End.
Qin Sheng wasn’t afraid now… She had always looked down on “crushes.”
Right! Lin Ci… I’m talking about you, get lost!
“If possible, I hope you call me Shen Xiyan…”
“Nope Nope Writing novels is so tiring. I’ll support you… You just need to sleep with me every day and take good care of me…”
“The ‘take good care’ you’re talking about—is it the same as what I’m thinking?”
“No idea.”
Qin Sheng bit her finger, feigning innocence: “What kind of ‘good care’ are you thinking about?”
“Smart” Shen Xiyan wasn’t falling for it.
Seeing that, Qin Sheng puffed up angrily and threatened: “I’ll tell Little Sweetie you’re neglecting your work!”
“You dare?!”
“I don’t care! You can do whatever, just don’t write novels.” Qin Sheng hugged Shen Xiyan’s arm, looking pitiful like a wronged little wife: “Your mind’s got a problem. How about I change your brain for you?”
“How do you change it?”
“How many days are there in a week?”
“Dumb! Seven days… What family is Confucius?”
“Dumb! Ru Jia… What’s that super popular racing movie recently?”
“Dumb! Speed 8. Seven days, Ru Jia, Speed 8. Which one do you pick?”
“There are so many fun things with me, why waste time on boring stuff… Studies show that pinching breasts hard reduces 70% of negative emotions.”
“The remaining 30% comes from police interrogations?”
“Aiya! I’m serious. If you really have nothing to do, think about my snow-white chest and buttocks, don’t think about all that nonsense…”
“Get lost.” Shen Xiyan asked grumpily: “Then tell me, what’s a proper way to make money?”
Qin Sheng bit her lip, silent, but her moist, pitiful eyes gazed pleadingly at Shen Xiyan: “Why do you have to earn money? I don’t need you to make much; my family’s rich… When we get to college, we’ll live it up~~”
… That sentence’s problematic.
“What’s problematic?”
“You’re not family or close friends, so how can you say ‘I don’t need you to make much money’ like that?”
“Xiyan~~”
“Don’t act cute! If you could make money, maybe you’d just pay back your surgery fees.”
Qin Sheng was so shocked she gaped: “What a responsible good man!”
Her rosy cherry lips made one want to kiss her right then.
“You’re not mad?”
“Why should I be?” Qin Sheng bit her finger, acting like a little girl, eyes sparkling:
“If you freeload off my feelings, that’d be pathetic, wouldn’t it? I really didn’t misjudge you… Xiyan! I support you! If you become rich, don’t forget me—the devoted wife won’t leave!”
Shen Xiyan frowned and asked tentatively: “What if I freeload?”
“Then I’ll get pregnant! You don’t think I could not like you, right? I’ll love you for one lifetime isn’t enough—I’ll love you for two!”
Honestly, Qin Sheng was very supportive of Shen Xiyan writing novels.
Yes!
Writing novels year-round with no breaks, but compared to the nine-to-nine jobs in her previous life, it had one incomparable advantage—staying home.
That was so important to Qin Sheng.
She could even imagine the scene: the two of them homebodies, Shen Xiyan working in the study, she tidying up outside and cooking.
Whenever she wanted to see him, she could just peek in, pout a little, and Shen Xiyan would come kiss her.
At night, when free, they could snuggle on the sofa watching variety shows, while playfully touching each other.
Sometimes when Shen Xiyan hit writer’s block, they could “research” by traveling, signing a leave slip and being carefree.
As for the extra fun…
Imagine this: Shen Xiyan sitting in a chair typing, wearing only a T-shirt, and Qin Sheng squatting under the desk…
Just thinking about it was amusing!
“Do whatever you want…”
Qin Sheng cautiously leaned on his arm and whispered, “I want the person I love to be happy. I won’t force him to do things he doesn’t want or make him be someone he’s not. So just be yourself, everything else is unimportant.”
Shen Xiyan: “???”
Is that something Qin Sheng would say?
Is she out of her mind?
***
Outside the operating room, all sorts of things happened daily in this little hallway. Only when standing here, waiting for hours on end, could one truly understand the unbearable feeling.
Over an hour later, Shen Xiyan checked the time, ready to leave, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the crack in the operating room door.
Just as he had to turn away, the door finally moved.
He stood up on instinct, his legs a little numb, and started toward it, only to be steadied by Qin Sheng’s sudden grasp.
“Doctor, did the surgery go well?”
“Pretty smoothly.”
A flash of joy suddenly lit Shen Xiyan’s almost vacant pupils. He took a deep breath: “Thank you, Doctor!!”
“You’re welcome. It’s what we should do.”
The doctor just came out to inform them and then turned back inside.
Shen Xiyan felt relieved, while Qin Sheng stared out the window in a daze.
“What are you looking at?”
Qin Sheng happily pointed: “Xiyan! Look, a butterfly!”
Shen Xiyan followed her finger’s direction.
The butterfly flapped its wings, flying into the clear blue sky.
Why does it feel so fulfilling?
So full, it’s overflowing…