Chapter 55 A Leisurely Stroll

Chu Ge nearly blurted it out: What I want is you...

But the words reached his lips and he forced them back down again.

Qiu Wuji was thinner-skinned than she let on. If he actually said that out loud, it would not be a matter of a few durians — he would get beaten to death.

Their relationship was a strange thing. On the surface the two of them already lived together like a boyfriend and girlfriend, but in fact they were not, and there was plainly a thick wall between them that could not be crossed — so much so that even a reckless, teasing remark like this could not be said lightly.

Apart from that one time he had screwed up his courage and put an arm around her waist to show off in front of Gu Ruoyan, he normally did not dare so much as touch her hand. What kind of boyfriend and girlfriend were like that?

Chu Ge could not help wondering: the way she had slipped so easily into this "living together" state — apart from her own belief that she was being "bright wind and clear moon" about the whole thing, was it really because that sentence was working on her?

But... that sentence was only "if you are going to look for someone, look for the Creator God." It did not say she had to look, and it certainly did not say she had to fall in love. If she did not want to look at all, then the sentence was pure nonsense — could its influence really reach that far?

So was the way she acted that sentence's doing, or her own heart — or had she really started wanting to look, and that was what made it work on her... Could she even tell them apart?

Right. She could not tell.

Which... seemed like a good thing?

Chu Ge lifted his head to the night sky and suddenly smiled. "What I want... before, I would have said I want you to become a person who exists independently. Now maybe I would add half a sentence — and that you can always appear at my side, this vividly."

Qiu Wuji was a little startled by that answer, and tilted her head to study him.

Chu Ge turned his head and blinked. "We have never taken a walk at night, have we? And Qiren has just supplied us the perfect backdrop. Shall we?"

Qiu Wuji laughed despite herself. "If Zhang Qiren knew, would he die of rage? He tells you something so serious he is practically weeping with pain, and then you use it to hit on—"

She cut herself off mid-sentence and turned her head slightly away, not looking at him.

"Right." Chu Ge said instead, "Maybe 'hit on' is not a very nice word. Let me rephrase... Fair maiden, modest and mild, a gentleman's fit mate — Chu Ge wishes to court Qiu Wuji. It is not as if this is the first day she has known it."

"You—" Qiu Wuji's eyes went wide.

"I am just a sick pervert who fantasizes about dating a paper character from his own book." Chu Ge walked on unhurried. "I have only ever been watching to see whether the paper girl gives me a chance."

"I am not a paper character!" Qiu Wuji hurried after him indignantly.

"More like: the goal for both of us is to stop being paper characters." Chu Ge smiled. "Though maybe by now you do not really count as one anymore. Hmm... so, not a paper character — are you giving me a chance?"

"No!" Qiu Wuji snapped. "You lecher! You sick pervert! Who on earth is like you?"

"Shh... keep it down. The night is so quiet — talk like that and the buildings on both sides will hear you..."

Qiu Wuji said loudly, "Sick pervert!"

Her voice, wrapped in spiritual power, was delivered straight into his ear.

Chu Ge muttered, "Such a tsundere."

Qiu Wuji glared at him.

Chu Ge changed the subject. "You say Qiren is in pain... that is exactly what reminded me of something."

Qiu Wuji did not follow. "What?" she said, none too kindly.

"I was thinking — if the honest Zhang Qiren back then had not been so shy, if he had just gone up to Yueying and struck up a conversation, even confessed, would the story have taken a different turn?" Chu Ge looked up at the moon and lowered his voice. "So say it when it ought to be said, and you will not miss your chance... What is so shameful about liking someone?"

Qiu Wuji honestly could not tell whether she ought to say he was right or wrong. If I say he is right, does that not amount to accepting his confession?

How is this sort of thing so much trouble? It is far more trouble than cultivation.

Chu Ge did not speak again for a while either, and Qiu Wuji walked silently along beside him with a sour face. The night was soundless; only their two sets of footsteps sounded softly on the empty street, as though each step struck a note of something sweet and ambiguous.

A lone man and a lone woman — that is the trouble with it. Whatever they did, somehow it always turned awkward without anyone meaning it to.

Even walking felt strange.

At last Qiu Wuji could not take it anymore and spoke up. "Let's go back. What is there to walk about?"

"Just keep me company while I clear my head." Chu Ge's voice was low. "Watching Qiren change like that left me feeling stuffed up inside, and I do not even know how to begin to say it, so walking it off will do me good. You say this is the world's sordid business, and you are right — but it comes back to the same thing: I have not become an immortal."

Qiu Wuji said, "Speaking of which, you people are strange. In the books you write, someone like Zhang Qiren is perfectly normal, is he not? Some of them could even be protagonists. Your lives look comfortable and peaceful, and yet there is a violent, rebellious streak in you, and it comes out in your books."

Chu Ge paused, then laughed. "Maybe. There is more and more hostility online every day. Novels are a projection of reality."

Qiu Wuji seized the chance to pull the mood back to serious business. "When I asked you before what it is you want, I was not asking for that lecherous talk. What I actually meant was... what kind of world do you want to create?"

Chu Ge's steps slowed.

Qiu Wuji said, "Is it only to gratify your own fantasies, or is there something you want to tell people?"

Chu Ge thought about it absently for a good while, then shook his head.

"If you mean that literature carries the Way — no, I cannot claim that. But if you say it is only for fantasy... that is not quite it either.

The original impulse of a writer, at the very least, is to put the world in his heart out where people can see it — 'let me tell you an interesting story.' Qiren said the same thing: showing the story in your heart to everyone is a wonderful thing...

That is the urge that made us open a blank document and bury our heads in it ever since. I think a lot of writers feel the same."

"And now?" Qiu Wuji nodded.

"Now... the pressure of life bent me over long ago. What I want to present now is just the story other people want to read." Chu Ge said, "Are you telling me to find my original intention again?"

Qiu Wuji said, "What is wrong with writing stories people want to read? If you do not make money, how are you going to feed... yourself?"

Chu Ge: ?

Qiu Wuji snorted. "I was the first one to make you change your plot. So what is the big deal?"

Chu Ge: ...

"I am only telling you that your true original intention is to create the world inside your book. The richer, the finer, the more real that world is, the more qualified a Creator God you become. As for the million different stories that world can hold — you simply picked the one experienced by a man named Chu Tiange to tell in detail. That is all."

Something stirred in Chu Ge's heart; something seemed to flash through him, but he could not quite catch hold of it.

Qiu Wuji said lightly, "You told me before that the characters come first and the world comes second — that once Chu Tiange and I were gone, the world would collapse. I do not agree... or rather, maybe that is how it is so far, because you think up the story first and build the world around it.

But I think what you need to achieve is this: even if Chu Tiange and I both die, that world is still that world. When you reach that point, you will be a god, and then what difficulty would my existing independently pose?"

Chu Ge suddenly felt that the switch to an ensemble cast he was making now was walking down precisely this road. Back when there was a single protagonist, everything ran on the protagonist; if the protagonist died there would be no damn book left, so of course the world collapsed. But once the ensemble cast was established, anyone could count as a protagonist — he could stick the knife into any one of them. Like A Song of Ice and Fire?

But that was far too challenging. What passed for an ensemble cast right now was nowhere near that level; there was still a clear protagonist. Never mind whether his skill was up to it — the very nature of web fiction made writing it that way impossible...

Still, building a complete world that could run without resting on its protagonist did not necessarily require that method... For instance, the story of this generation's protagonist could simply come to an end. That would work too...

Wait... Chu Ge caught up, and his tone turned displeased. "What is with you today, saying 'die' twice in a row! Whatever you mean by it, from now on you are not allowed to think in that direction again!"

Qiu Wuji was startled by that commanding tone, then half annoyed and half amused. "Are you giving me orders?"

"You know what I mean!" Chu Ge said furiously.

The corner of Qiu Wuji's mouth quirked up. She folded her arms. "But you do not know what I mean."

Chu Ge's thoughts raced, and he suddenly smiled. "I have got it... Someone keeps considering what that world would be like without her, which essentially means she is considering the possibility of staying here forever once her original body comes out..."

Qiu Wuji's leisurely air vanished in an instant. "Who says that is what I mean!" she cried, flustered and furious.

Chu Ge turned and ran. "That is exactly what you mean!"

Qiu Wuji gave chase at a dead sprint. "Who said I want to stay in this stinking place? You stop right there!"

"Since when do you get to police what I think?"

"You are not allowed to think it!"

"Are you giving me orders?"

"I will beat you to death!"

The two figures fled and chased, their noisy voices slowly receding into the night. Faintly came the sound of someone being grabbed and thoroughly pummeled, and of the master's instruction: "With that movement technique of yours, you thought you could outrun this Sect Master?"