Chapter 52 Zhang Qiren

The living room.

The two of them sat facing each other across the coffee table.

The durians that had been rolling over Chu Ge's belly and back had been cleared away, but the ones perched on his head and shoulders were still there. He sat with his hands tucked in his sleeves, looking severely constipated.

Zhang Qiren looked this way and that, clucking his tongue.

He knew his way around the stuff in this place, and seeing that Chu Ge was in no shape to do it, he simply made the tea himself, no different from being half the owner of the apartment.

After all, how long had he even been gone? Not even a month. Anyone back home from a slightly long business trip would act about the same.

Qiu Wuji had gone straight into the inner room and stayed out of sight; she had no interest in entertaining a mortal — and this mortal would most likely open with "Hi there, sister-in-law!" Like I want to hear that.

Not that she hadn't noticed this mortal was a bit interesting; he seemed to have become the focal point where all the recent stories converged. If he hadn't shown up, Chu Ge would most likely have gone looking for him anyway, so his coming here saved everyone the trouble.

From outside came Zhang Qiren's voice: "So, uh, Brother Chu, that stay-at-home look of yours is pretty creative, huh..."

"It's this year's fashion. You wouldn't get it." Chu Ge said, "Oh, right — the key. Just leave it, will you..."

Zhang Qiren said, "Of course, it's only right. Sister-in-law can use it anyway..."

I knew it!

Who's your sister-in-law?

What made it worse was that Chu Ge didn't even argue; he just accepted it: "Yeah, she was saying a couple days ago she wanted to get a key made, but she got busy and forgot..."

Pfft! Qiu Wuji indignantly turned on the computer and went off to watch shows.

Outside, the two men fell into a brief silence, broken only by the trickle of Zhang Qiren pouring tea.

This time Chu Ge spoke first: "Can you still stomach this ten-yuan-a-big-bag tea these days?"

Zhang Qiren didn't raise his head: "I've only had a good life for less than a month. I'm not that delicate yet."

"So how did you survive that half year you spent here as a roommate? That's real 'from luxury to frugality,' isn't it?" Chu Ge sucked in air through his teeth like he had a toothache. "Weird. I never got the sense you were all that pampered back then. You put on a pretty good act."

"Because I was never pampered in the first place." Zhang Qiren finished pouring, handed Chu Ge a cup, and smiled. "The food delivery was real, and the writing was real. I'm not some second-generation heir who inherited a fortune. Well... second-gen, sure, but I'm a son by a concubine — the kind they can't bring in through the front gate."

Chu Ge blanked: "That's still a thing these days?"

"It's completely normal. My mother was the other woman and I was born out of wedlock, and the legal wife is a force to be reckoned with, so there you go."

Zhang Qiren smiled. "Except that legitimate son, my brother... he's a waste, and he disappointed my dad badly. Two years ago, when I graduated from college, Dad meant to let me manage a few things and see how I did. But I wasn't willing."

"Because you wanted to make it on your own?" Chu Ge asked.

"Not that noble. Who doesn't want money and power? Even if it's for my mother's sake, I want to take over that household." Zhang Qiren said calmly, "The reason I wasn't willing is that the double standard makes me sick. See, when it comes to managing some lousy nightclub, my waste of a brother's name was hidden so well even a dog couldn't sniff it out. But when it's my turn, suddenly I have to be the legal representative, standing out in the open dealing with every faction under the sun, and they call it 'training.'"

Chu Ge said nothing.

Zhang Qiren spread his hands. "I didn't expect Lin Wuyang to be your classmate. He investigated me, so naturally he knows we were roommates, and he'll most likely have told you something... So I won't hide it. That nightclub really isn't clean. At the very least, it does have club hostesses."

Chu Ge laughed despite himself: "So when you said if you didn't get popular you'd be a club hostess, you meant the boss of the club hostesses?"

Zhang Qiren laughed too: "That's what they call a prophecy come true."

Pausing, he went on: "Anyway, since it isn't clean, I don't know whether they're really 'training' me, or whether they figure my status makes me a perfect fall guy — once something blows up, look, I've thrown my own son out for you to arrest, isn't that the end of it?"

Chu Ge said, "Father and son, though... surely it wouldn't go that far..."

"Heaven knows. Maybe it's a show put on for the tigress at home. Or maybe I'm being paranoid and it really is just training. Either way, I can't guess all their reasons and I can't be bothered to. No matter how much I want money, I don't want to be the fall guy, right?"

Chu Ge nodded. He wouldn't be willing in that position either: "Right. It's not like you can't make your own way."

Zhang Qiren slapped his thigh. "That's exactly what I think. I love writing, and it just so happens that writing is one of those rare careers... that costs nothing but could send you shooting into the sky. Maybe no matter how high I fly, they'd still turn their noses up at it, but it's enough for me."

Chu Ge said, "It's really tough. If I'd known you back then, I might have tried to talk you out of thinking that way."

Zhang Qiren laughed. "Ha... every newbie comes in bursting with confidence, sure they're going to slay gods and prove the Dao. Back then, even if you had tried, I probably wouldn't have listened. Though now I know writing really is a dead end."

Chu Ge shook his head and smiled too.

Zhang Qiren said with a smile, "Brother Chu, you know, when I first started writing, I was a total newbie. Knew nothing. I'd written tens of thousands of words, and only one reader was voting for me every single day. I was so encouraged. I thought, even if it's just for that one reader, I have to finish this book properly."

Chu Ge said, "I had that same thought when I started... Just don't tell me that reader was a vote bot..."

"Not a bot..." A tender look surfaced in Zhang Qiren's eyes. "Later, once, my mother asked me how the writing was going, and she let something slip. That's when I found out that my one and only reader... was my mom."

Chu Ge: "..."

Even Qiu Wuji in the other room put down her mouse and listened quietly.

"Back then I thought, I am definitely going to make something of myself in this industry. Definitely." Zhang Qiren let out a long breath. "Half a year ago, my brother egged a few guys on to come push me around. But my ability awakened and I beat them all down instead. Now they all answer to me. Don't look at me like that — I know you know about powers."

Chu Ge said nothing and kept listening.

"After that awakening, my dad wanted me to shoulder responsibility even more. I wasn't willing, we had a huge fight, and I moved out. You know the rest." Zhang Qiren's expression turned a little strange. "But I never once noticed that you have a power too. Strange... by all rights I should have sensed it..."

Zhang Qiren shook his head slightly. "No. They wouldn't, and there'd be no need — too low-class. My dad's intention was to let me feel for myself how hard money is to earn and how hard things are to do, not to have me catch him tripping me up. That would only make me dig my heels in harder. That report — that was genuinely some petty bastard screwing me over."

Chu Ge sighed: "So in the end you took on the 'unclean' thing you yourself see as unclean — even as the fall guy."

"There was an agreement in place to begin with... And besides, I've woken up." Zhang Qiren's smile slowly faded, and a cold, underworld hardness came into his face. "If you don't harm others, others will harm you. Thinking we could just quietly do our own thing — that was our naivety."

Chu Ge pressed his lips together, at a loss for how to argue against this reason for going dark that sounded as self-evident as the order of heaven itself.

If you haven't tasted a man's bitterness, don't preach kindness to him. Zhang Qiren's despair and pain back then — Chu Ge was the one who understood them most clearly.

Zhang Qiren's smile suddenly returned. "Still, Brother Chu, a lot of your writing style after that is very much like mine. I'm glad. Well, it's mostly your own ability — that sharp ensemble cast, I could never manage it. But a part of me got blended in there too, right? Watching you slowly head toward success, it's like that part of me got its validation too."

Chu Ge said seriously, "You should have been validated all along."

Delighted, Zhang Qiren raised his teacup, toasting with tea in place of wine, and clinked it against Chu Ge's. "Keep it up, Brother Chu. I feel like you're about to become a god. Just thinking that I have a share in that godhood makes me happy."

Chu Ge looked into his eyes and felt a very strong disconnect between this guileless heart and the underground-fighting boss of the Miracle Nightclub. He couldn't even tell how much of Zhang Qiren's manner was an act.

But he was still willing to believe the smile Zhang Qiren wore right now, so he raised his cup and drained it. "Thanks, brother. Now I finally know who was funneling traffic to me when I first switched genres."

Zhang Qiren laughed heartily. "That was just a few hits' worth of traffic, not worth mentioning. The big recommendation afterward was the real key."

"It's the thought that counts most." Chu Ge smiled. "Don't tell me you even leaned on the site to get me that featured recommendation?"

"...Hey, what do you take me for, some big boss? Where would I get that kind of influence?" Zhang Qiren laughed in spite of himself. "Though I know that in your eyes I am a boss, because you know the Miracle Nightclub has more than just hostesses. A while back you took a man out of the underground boxing elevator. This boss saw it — and didn't come after you."

Chu Ge's pupils contracted slightly.

No wonder nobody came after me back then.

In fact, this was what today was really supposed to be about.