The next morning, Chu Ge did his usual meditation cultivation, then went on to his run, his squats, his push-ups; and when he came out of the shower, it was still only just past eight.
My body clock is getting more normal by the day.
We were at it pretty late last night, and I still woke up this early — and I feel great besides.
Cultivation may not be good for much else, but when it comes to keeping in shape, it is absolutely top-notch.
Which was why a ten-thousand-year-old monster had cheeks pink and soft and glowing; that languid mature beauty lounging back on the sofa, idly reading, was a feast for the eyes.
The only shame is that she's reading on a phone app instead of a real paper book. It's missing some of the flavor.
Why is her face getting redder the longer I look?
"This author is absolute garbage!" The beautiful sect master gripped her phone and shook her fist in fury. "What kind of person is this? Is that how you use 'cast enough whips to dam the river'?"
Chu Ge had no idea what she was reading, so he tossed out a casual bit of banter: "Damn right. Plenty of authors misuse idioms. Read enough and you stop caring. Speaking of which, your history's coming along nicely — you even know the correct origin of 'cast enough whips to dam the river'?"
Qiu Wuji sneered. "I'm not so sure about the exact origin myself, but I do know that phrase isn't used for that business between a man and a woman!"
"..." Chu Ge suddenly found all this a little familiar. His eyes rolled, and he quietly began edging backward.
The next moment Qiu Wuji hauled him through the air to her. "Care to know who this garbage author who misuses idioms is, Great Author Chu Ge?"
Chu Ge: "...This author is absolutely handsome, dashing, elegant as jade in the wind, and that precisely-worded, masterful way with a dirty metaphor — what would a noob like you know about it?"
"Thunk!" The driver showing off his skills crashed spectacularly; limbs twitching, he was pinned to the sofa and went still.
Qiu Wuji's aura flared. "And 'the female sect master and her female disciple servicing him together'... Great Author Chu Ge has quite the imagination, doesn't he? Why don't you go die, Chu Ge?"
Chu Ge clutched his head. "That's just a fantasy, it's not real... no, wait — why are you reading my old books anyway? Studying my writing style?"
"Who wants to study your filthy writing style?"
"Emmm, we need to broaden our view, look further out — for instance, you should look at my beautiful prose and my delicate expression. Don't stare at those other bits. That's not what you need to learn..."
"Your lousy prose, beautiful? I think you've got the wrong idea about yourself. Is 'cast enough whips to dam the river' beautiful? Or is 'Jade Rabbit Pounds the Elixir' full of poetic imagery? Or 'the female sect master serves him as if in paradise'? Broaden, is it? What exactly is big about you?"
"Goddamn it... why can't I get anything through to you..."
"Ding-dong!" In the middle of the squabbling, the doorbell rang.
Both of them froze. Qiu Wuji hadn't extended her divine sense; assuming Yueying had come up with some business, she released Chu Ge and got up to answer the door.
The door opened, and Qiu Wuji stared. Who is this woman?
Warily, she turned to look at Chu Ge. He'd sensed something off too and come over from the sofa; when he saw the woman outside, he was even more stunned than she was.
Gu... Ruoyan?
Gu Ruoyan was just as stunned. Seeing a peerless beauty answer the door had already thrown her; then Chu Ge appeared behind the beauty, the two of them in identical pajamas, one in a crying-face pattern and one in a smiling face, like performance art.
He was on a blind date not so long ago, and now he's already living with someone? Are writers really that much of a player?
Qiu Wuji's eyes went to Chu Ge, dangerous, the meaning plain: Who is this woman?
Chu Ge came to his senses and said hurriedly: "Miss Gu, what brings you..."
Gu Ruoyan came back to herself as well. She took a step back, looked up at the door plate, decided the gesture was pointless, and tapped her own head with a laugh. "Wrong door. It's probably the one across the hall..."
She's looking for Yueying?
Sure enough, Gu Ruoyan went on: "Is there a young woman living across the hall? Wears black a lot, doesn't like to talk."
Since she'd found her way here already, hiding it was probably pointless. Chu Ge said flatly: "You weren't even sure anyone like that lives across the hall — so how did you find this place?"
Gu Ruoyan smiled. "What I was told was that she's on this floor, but... I looked into it, and the unit across is a single room while this one's a two-bedroom, so I got it wrong. I assumed she'd live somewhere nicer."
Underground fighters usually still have money. Nobody would have guessed that Yueying, winning fight after fight, could be this broke, in this sorry a state. No wonder both the wall-walker and Gu Ruoyan made the same first guess and went for the bigger unit.
Chu Ge worked that out, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the reason he'd been caught in the crossfire. Then he tensed a little: Gu Ruoyan's "what I was told" — it sounded like what she'd been told came from the wall-walker. With his later memories wiped by Qiu Wuji, the wall-walker's understanding should be exactly that. But hadn't he been taken away by the police?
As if casually, he asked: "What do you want with her? Visiting relatives?"
Gu Ruoyan smiled slightly. "Auntie Wu and I are colleagues, of a sort — we'd even planned to... ha. So you can rest easy about my identity. There's no need to be so guarded."
Colleagues...
A classified agency?
With his mother brought up, Chu Ge's guard really did come down. He did recall his mother saying that the one she was introducing this time around was a civil servant. Civil servants were of course trustworthy; and if Yueying could get in with the official side, that was obviously much better than the state she was in now.
Who'd have thought. What a coincidence.
Qiu Wuji, who had been standing there all this while, finally caught a faint off note in that, and couldn't hold back any longer: "Chu Ge, who is this?"
Chu Ge smiled awkwardly. "An old acquaintance. She should be trustworthy."
Gu Ruoyan blinked, amused. "And this beautiful lady is?"
For some reason, a powerful impulse surged up in Chu Ge — one he had never felt even when Qiu Wuji had just stepped out of the bath at her most alluring. He suddenly reached out and put his arm around Qiu Wuji's waist, and said, word by word, seriously: "This is my girlfriend."
A man with no proper job?
My girlfriend is prettier than you, more otherworldly than you, and more capable than you.
Even if she isn't really my girlfriend... don't be difficult, help me save face here, and I'll let you beat me up afterward.
The instant his hand settled on her waist, Qiu Wuji went rigid, but her first reaction was to hold herself in, to bear it rather than fling Chu Ge across the room.
She could sense Chu Ge's intent to show off... was that the word? Not quite — something along those lines.
Whatever it meant, it definitely didn't mean wanting to get all sticky and sweet with this woman — that much she was sure of!
Which makes it a good thing!
Enduring the discomfort of being held, she smiled faintly. "Miss... would you like to come in and sit? Have a cup of tea?"
Gu Ruoyan smiled back. "No need. I'm still on duty. Carry on, you two."
Gu Ruoyan turned with an easy grace and knocked on the door across the hall. Yueying opened it, looking surprised, then saw what Gu Ruoyan held up in her hand, fell silent again, and invited her inside.
Qiu Wuji's voice transmission reached him: "I saw an ID with an emblem on it — very like the emblems on those constables' hats."
"The national emblem," Chu Ge said quietly. "She really is official. That's a good thing for Yueying. We stay out of it."
Qiu Wuji smiled without smiling. "When are you going to take your dog paw off my waist?"
Chu Ge pulled his hand back as if shocked and offered an apologetic grin. "Just saving face..."
"But the other party didn't seem to care."
Chu Ge: "..."
"Showing someone who doesn't care that you're doing well is a childish thing to do, and meaningless." Qiu Wuji turned to look at him and smiled faintly. "You're not usually like this. Is there some reason you got provoked?"
"Not really. It's just that we went on a blind date, and she wasn't impressed..."
"As long as you think well of yourself, it doesn't matter how others see you. Don't be so childish in the future... uh, wait. Blind date?" Qiu Wuji's expression turned serious, and she nodded. "Then you did exactly the right thing."
Chu Ge: "..."
Qiu Wuji: "..."
That felt like a slip of the tongue...
Why is doing that to a blind date 'exactly the right thing'?
The atmosphere turned strange.
Under Chu Ge's gaze, which had turned blazing, Qiu Wuji began to stammer: "I— I mean, there's a saying on your internet — 'Yesterday you wouldn't give me the time of day; tomorrow you won't be able to reach me.' Right, that's the spirit you need! I— this Sect Master's Father God, of course no one can reach him! Now go write your book. So what if she's from the yamen? A world-famous bestselling author is respected too, isn't he?"
"Mm." Chu Ge cut off her nervous rambling with a smile. "Don't call it the yamen anymore — the term sounds too weird. Different departments in this world all have their own names. Look it up online."
Qiu Wuji let out a breath. "Then what department is hers?"
"No idea. It's classified."
"She was reading our minds just now. Did you know that?"
"Huh?"
Qiu Wuji huffed. "Of course. I shut away the important information; she could only see the surface."
Yueying looked at Gu Ruoyan's ID, her face pale. "Are you... here to arrest me?"
Gu Ruoyan smiled. "I don't arrest people."
Inwardly, she was astonished.
Yueying's power was so formidable, and yet her thoughts were transparent as day, readable at a glance.
But the woman beside Chu Ge just now — beyond a bellyful of What does this woman want? Is she an old flame of Chu Ge's? Should I just kill her? — had nothing about her identity that could be seen.
Chu Ge was the same: his thoughts laid bare thread by thread — so she wasn't really his girlfriend... In fact, whether she was or not, it felt like she soon would be; that didn't matter. But what his girlfriend's identity was, still couldn't be seen.
Is it because none of them were thinking along those lines? Hmm... that's possible too. Either way, that family's son can't possibly have any kind of problem; it wouldn't do to ask more...
Name: Gu Ruoyan.
Position: Chief of Information Division II, Special Affairs Department, National Security Bureau; Deputy Director and Editor-in-Chief of the National Power Information Collection and Compilation Agency.
Power: Mind reading.
Development level: Medium.
Type: Multi-category.
Potential: S.