The next day, at first light, Chu Ge — who had not slept well — woke early, and groggily got up to wash and use the toilet.
There was no way anyone sat on the toilet without playing on the phone...
At this hour he would normally have been shooting the breeze with the Fratricide group chat, but he hadn't opened the group these past two days. He'd taken leave, after all... opening the group usually just got him nagged for updates. What fun was that?
The leave had covered yesterday only, though. Today he had to update.
He hesitated, then simply opened the document app on his phone, synced over what he'd written last night, and kept writing on the phone, aiming to get it posted first thing that morning so he'd have nothing hanging over him.
As a writer on the rise with expectations for his numbers, he wanted to get words down even while squatting on the toilet.
The big-shot authors had it easy — leave a note saying "no chapter tonight" and off to video games they went...
Chu Ge thought about himself: he hadn't played a game in two or three years. Whatever they chatted about — Genshin Impact, Naraka: Bladepoint — he hadn't even played Honor of Kings. His memories were still stuck back on World of Warcraft and DOTA...
It wasn't that he had no time for a quick round or two; he was afraid that once he sank in, it would eat up too much time and energy.
Chu Ge was fairly self-disciplined; in fact Zhang Qiren was more disciplined still. Chu Ge would at least watch DOTA matches and curse about why they hadn't banned Magnus; Zhang Qiren, at most, drifted through livestreams in his spare minutes to look at pretty girls. But Zhang Qiren had faded quietly from the scene, and Chu Ge no longer knew how much meaning there was in this so-called self-discipline.
He sat on the toilet a full half hour, until his crap had dried, and at last the chapter was done. He clicked publish.
Satisfied, Chu Ge cleaned himself up, washed his hands, and even smoothed his hair on the way. Mm, more handsome than ever today. I wonder if Qiu Wuji will see me and feel her heart flutter?
But when he opened the bathroom door, he saw Qiu Wuji planted right outside, staring at him with a look that seemed calm — except her eyes plainly hid shame and fury, and her face was faintly red from holding it all in.
Puzzled, Chu Ge asked, "What are you standing here for?"
Qiu Wuji: "..."
The two of them stared at each other for a good long while before it hit Chu Ge. "You need the bathroom?"
No. Promise me — immortal fairies don't poop, all right? They just don't.
How does an ascended big shot still need this? Oh, wait, no — this body of hers is only Qi Refining stage... and looking closely, there's even gunk in the corner of her eye... Right, she had beef noodles last night. It has to digest...
Uh. This...
Unable to endure his stare, Qiu Wuji squeezed a few words out through her teeth: "Are you going to move?"
"Um..." Chu Ge said carefully. "There's only my towel and toothbrush in here."
Holding in the three urges of nature, legs awkwardly pressed together, Qiu Wuji managed, "What is a toothbrush?"
"That thing there." Chu Ge pointed at the cup and toothbrush on the washstand and mimed brushing his teeth. "For cleaning your mouth. Like your willow twig dipped in salt — uh, though you probably haven't used that in a few thousand years."
"You want to put something you shoved in your mouth into mine?" Qiu Wuji, at the end of her patience, seized Chu Ge by the collar.
"Holy shit..." Chu Ge flew up as if riding the clouds, crashed hard into the living room sofa, and got angry himself. "I was only telling you those were already used and that I'd buy you new ones. Where's all this morning temper coming from?"
Qiu Wuji opened her mouth, a flush rising over her face once more, and in the end said nothing at all — she slammed the bathroom door shut with a bang.
Chu Ge rolled up off the sofa, feeling a headache coming on.
Annoyed as he was, he could understand her shame and fury at a time like this — but this was a pain in the ass for him too... A towel and toothbrush were easy enough to buy her, but then what?
Is she going to wear ancient dress forever? Do I need to buy her modern clothes?
And if I do, how am I supposed to bring up underwear?
Right, does she even get a period? Does she need sanitary pads?
Holy hell!
"The female lead ran out of the book" had sounded like fun, but once that first haze of unreality wore off, you found out how many thoroughly real things you had to deal with.
This is life, not a story.
Chu Ge went out wearing a constipated expression. The books could wait to be mailed; daily necessities had to be bought right now.
He felt his whole rhythm of life had been thrown into chaos. At this hour he should have been reading the comments under the new chapter, hunting for inspiration in the feedback, then shooting the breeze with the readers in his fan group and trading boasts with the writers in the author group.
Instead, here he was at the little supermarket by the compound gate, buying a towel and a toothbrush, picking out a plastic cup printed with chibi xianxia figures, and then standing frozen in front of the women's underwear counter.
Under the supermarket clerk's I-am-looking-at-a-pervert gaze, Chu Ge finally broke; clutching the towel, toothbrush and cup, he fled.
At the compound gate he remembered something else, bought soy milk and steamed buns from a roadside stall, and carried them upstairs.
Back at the rented apartment, Qiu Wuji had already come out of the bathroom and was sitting on the sofa, staring into space. She looked nothing like a female sect master who made the world tremble — she looked more and more like a stray cat.
Chu Ge couldn't even work up his anger. He handed her the things and said coldly, "Eat something."
Qiu Wuji took them, looked at the chibi xianxia girl printed on the cup, then at the steaming buns and soy milk, pressed her lips together, and lowered her eyes slightly.
Chu Ge sat down to one side, started gnawing a bun himself, and mumbled around it, "My Qiu Wuji has always been a very reasonable person, never one to use her strength to bully others. I think it's time we laid a few things out on the table..."
Qiu Wuji raised her head and looked at him.
"You don't want your fate in someone else's hands. I understand that, I respect it, and I'm willing to work with you. You want to understand this world, and I feel it's my responsibility to help you. And you think I'm after your body — I won't deny it; after all, when I wrote you, I did mean it that way." Chu Ge spoke calmly. "But that doesn't mean you get to treat hitting me as your natural right. Living in my house, using my things, eating my food, and still landing a blow on me at the slightest thing..."
He paused, set down his soy milk, and turned to look at Qiu Wuji. "In a sense, your life can be called something I gave you. I'm not asking for a creator's reverence from you. But if I treat you with goodwill, shouldn't you return the same attitude to me?"
Qiu Wuji pressed her lips together. She had goodwill too, honestly, but how to put it... some of those reactions were simply a stress response to this "lecherous Creator" — self-protection, nothing more.
Put plainly, it was a sense of peril.
This, in the end, was a man who could manipulate her thoughts and actions — not in the same category as other men.
But he had a point... Cradling the soy milk, Qiu Wuji was silent for a good while, then said quietly, "Perhaps my appearing has troubled you. Maybe your life has been turned upside down."
"No. I told you — you came at just the right time. Thank you." Chu Ge smiled. "Only we need to get used to each other, wear each other in. For example... I need you to believe me first: some of the things I say may make you feel terribly awkward, but that's completely normal."
Qiu Wuji was taken aback. "For example?"
"For example, going out in ancient hanfu is perfectly normal these days, but nobody does it long-term. Wearing ancient dress wherever you go — that's a sickness. So if you're staying here a long while, you'll have to wear modern clothes. And modern clothes mean short sleeves and short skirts — and the underthings you have to wear beneath light, thin clothing. Would you consider it?"
Qiu Wuji looked blank. "What is that?"
Chu Ge opened his phone, searched up a lingerie ad offhandedly, and tossed the phone to Qiu Wuji. "See for yourself."
With that, he went straight into his room and got to writing.
Qiu Wuji stared at the woman on the screen, in a three-point getup, posing and preening, utterly dumbstruck.