Watching Qiu Wuji bounce into the kitchen full of energy, Chu Ge's mouth twitched. He very much wanted to say, "Mom, this woman is flirting with me."
Asking me a question like that — isn't that flirting with me?
Yeah, fine, I'm worrying too much because I care. You know I care about you.
And then what? You go cook... oh. Right, nothing wrong with that. That's good, actually.
The corners of Chu Ge's mouth crept up on their own, and he went back to his room to keep writing.
Qiu Wuji had known from the very beginning that he was craving her. Before, he'd found that disgusting and off-putting; and now here he was, actually flirting back at a cool older sister.
So what? I am craving her, I do care about her — am I not allowed to say it?
Flirt all you like, who's scared? Just don't go panicking and swinging a sword at me afterward — as if I don't know you.
Speaking of which, does this cultivation of yours include cultivating feelings?
Then again, Qiu Wuji's behavior really had matched this path of cultivation from the start. She had never been in a frantic rush to go do this or that; she had quietly begun by understanding a single room, taking an avid interest even in laundry and cooking, and from there the circle had gradually widened toward the whole world.
Her frame of mind might be far beyond his comprehension — even if it was all his own design. Setting something down and truly understanding it were, he was finding, two very different things.
"Ding." The washing machine out on the balcony chimed: the laundry was done. He decided he shouldn't bother Qiu Wuji while she was cooking, in case she burned something, so he set aside the draft he had gotten all of three characters into and went out to hang the clothes.
Household chores are the greatest enemy of writing. Confirmed!
He reached in, and the very first thing that came out was a lampshade.
Chu Ge: "..."
Is this thing even machine-washable? No idea...
So soft... no, I mean — it smells so good.
No, that's not it either. Laundry detergent doesn't have a good or bad smell. It smells good because the person who used to wear it smells good.
The image rose in Chu Ge's mind unbidden — only yesterday this thing had been cupped over Qiu Wuji... Mm... okay, stop, I'm not a pervert. It was on my own head earlier and I didn't think twice about it, so what's wrong with me today?
Glancing toward the kitchen like a thief, Chu Ge moved to hang the lampshade up on the line.
That one glance froze him solid: Qiu Wuji was leaning in the doorway with her arms folded, and from the look of it she had been sizing him up and down for quite a while...
"Uh... this isn't what it looks like..." Chu Ge fumbled, not even knowing where to put his hands. "Go back to your stir-frying!"
Qiu Wuji's tone was frosty. "It's fine. I wasn't around before, so heaven knows what happened to my things. What's a while longer? Go on, keep holding it."
Chu Ge: "..."
"I find this sort of thing completely incomprehensible, but since it's you, I suppose it's normal." Qiu Wuji kept right on roasting him. "After all, you're a pervert who fantasizes about doing this and that with people from books. Hardly a surprise."
"Where did you learn to roast people like that?" Chu Ge ground out through his teeth.
"I saw someone posting screenshots in a video's comment section. I figured I'd get to use that line on you sooner or later — and sure enough." Qiu Wuji drifted into her room, and soon came back dragging a box of stockings, which she set down in front of Chu Ge. "Is this enough? If not, I'll buy more."
"What would I want these for?" Chu Ge demanded.
"Oh? So you need the 'original flavor' — worn?"
"What exactly are you looking at online?" Chu Ge asked, stunned.
"Sorry, that one I read in your novel's comment section. So what exactly am I looking at?"
Chu Ge very much wanted to die.
Smiling sweetly, Qiu Wuji plucked the lampshade out of his hands. "How much longer were you planning to hold on to that?"
Chu Ge obediently let go and let her take it.
The instant it was in her hands, Qiu Wuji's expression changed. "Let me tell you something, Chu Ge — if you ever sneak my things away to do weird stuff with them again, I'll stuff your head in the washing machine and tip every last pair of stockings in there to churn along with you!"
With that, huffing and puffing, she carried the lampshade and the box of stockings back to her room.
From start to finish Chu Ge stood there like a wooden dummy, not knowing what on earth to say.
She didn't really seem angry at being falsely accused; it felt more like flirting, and he honestly couldn't tell whether she was truly mad.
Honestly... He was supposed to be the person who knew her best, yet lately he was discovering that a woman's heart is a needle at the bottom of the sea. The more vivid and real she became, the less he could read her the way he used to; he couldn't even interpret what she had just done.
The one thing I can be sure of: if I really try to cross that line, I probably really will get cut down.
Chu Ge sat back down in front of the computer with his hands tucked away, only to find he couldn't write at all. His head was a mess.
Yep, women are the greatest enemy of writing. Confirmed!
"Time to eat."
He had no idea how long he'd been at it, but he'd somehow wrestled out another chapter, and then Qiu Wuji's voice drifted over, neither warm nor cold.
Every single time, those three words melted Chu Ge to the bone; the moment he heard them he felt a rush of inexhaustible strength.
Yep, women are not the enemy of writing. Confirmed.
"What are you sitting there like a quail for?" Qiu Wuji sat across from him like a stern parent while Chu Ge ate in silence, and she said with a straight face, "Aren't you usually quite the talker?"
"No talking at meals," Chu Ge said woodenly.
"Don't give me that." Qiu Wuji said, "How many days until that class reunion of yours?"
"Today's Wednesday. The dinner's in three days."
Qiu Wuji lifted her head and thought it over. "Rough estimate, I should still be able to stay until then. But if you've got your own things to do, there's no need for me to stick around; I can go back to my side and take care of a few matters too."
"Mm." The reunion had never been about bringing family or girlfriends anyway; Chu Ge hadn't planned on bringing her, and it would be good for her to go handle some business. Still, her words gave him a sense that she had made progress — she had gone from being reluctantly forced to return to being able to go back whenever she liked.
Put in a bit more effort, get her to where she comes and goes as she pleases, and we'll probably be about there for her true body to come out?
"You're thinking about my true body?" Qiu Wuji guessed what was on his mind and sneered. "If my true body came out, one smack from me would probably turn you to ash. You looking forward to that?"
"Urk..." So this is a barrier I can't break through, huh?
Unspeakable, unspeakable. All Chu Ge could do was offer a placating smile. "To me, it's all you either way. Avatar or true body, there's no difference. With your kind of control, would you really beat me to death?"
Qiu Wuji looked him over, and a note of surprise entered her eyes. "This cultivation of yours... how many days have you been at it, again?"
"Three days, I think," Chu Ge said after a moment. "One sitting in the morning, one in the evening. Why?"
Qiu Wuji choked something back and lowered her head to her food.
She was afraid she wouldn't be able to keep herself from hitting him.
Because cultivation was long and dull. For anyone else, three days was barely enough to get through the door and find a sense of qi — and that already marked them as a genius. Even for someone like Chu Ge, who had her own qi flow injected into him to guide him along, converting it into his own was not the work of a single day and night; she had estimated a month at the least.
Yet he had already converted it into his own completely, and his first layer of the Qi Refining stage was quite solid — solid enough to use some simple techniques.
Who cheats like that? So what if you're Father God? How are the rest of us, who slaved away for ten thousand years, supposed to feel about this? And this world's spiritual energy is so thin — by all rights you should be even slower...
And she couldn't very well say it outright, because Chu Ge knew nothing about any of this himself; he thought it was just ordinary meditation, convenient for falling asleep besides. Which, funnily enough, put him in the clear, still mind of "acting without acting." The moment he had too clear a goal, that state would be ruined.
"What? What is it?" Chu Ge was still pressing her.
"Nothing." Qiu Wuji put on a look of pure contempt. "I assumed Father God would be shockingly brilliant. Turns out he's pretty ordinary."
Chu Ge didn't mind at all. He laughed. "My constitution was short on natural aptitude for cultivation to begin with; you're the one who fixed that. It's only normal that I don't progress fast. Anyway, I've got plenty of energy and I sleep like a baby, so I'm satisfied."
Qiu Wuji said, seemingly offhandedly, "Ordinary as you are, you're still good enough to practice some simple techniques. Which one do you plan to learn first?"
Chu Ge's eyes lit up. "Invisibility, X-ray vision!"
"Thunk!" Half a bowl of rice landed on his head, and Qiu Wuji shot to her feet in a fury and fled. "Go learn them yourself!"