So the Father God who had disrespected his own master — and his own fan — spent a wretched night balancing durians on his head.
Durians balanced while he sat in meditation; durians rolling over his belly even while he slept.
But Chu Ge seemed to have gotten used to it. He barely felt them anymore and slept right through.
Before turning in, he had tried to eavesdrop on the room next door, and instead caught the sound of Qiu Wuji sneaking out of her room toward the bathroom, followed by a patter of water from inside.
The corners of Chu Ge's mouth curved up again.
This feels really good.
In fact, it was only when a durian started rolling across his belly again that it dawned on Chu Ge that today's conversation seemed to have skipped something pretty important...
Earlier, when Zhang Qiren was nearly assassinated, he had instinctively blocked the blow. Shouldn't discussing that have been the main point?
What power the attacker had, what level that block put him at, guesses about what Zhang Qiren's power really was, and so on and so forth...
It was as if none of it mattered in the slightest anymore — as if it mattered less than teasing her a couple of times.
Well, it really didn't matter. The Qiu Wuji who had once secretly searched the wall-walker's soul and tried to shake him off and go it alone, all just to probe this world's powers, was now saying, "If he causes us any trouble, I won't call him a brother."
Living a decent life really did seem more important than all of that.
Listening to the sounds from the bathroom, Chu Ge fell asleep with the durians on his head.
In his dream he seemed to see Qiu Wuji, appearing at the bedside with a shy smile, leaning down to kiss him: "Good night, hubby."
Chu Ge pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard.
Indescribable.
And then a certain spot got jabbed by a durian and woke him up.
Chu Ge's eyes bulged, his back arched, and he curled into a ball clutching himself.
So the Golden Bell Shield really hasn't reached even minor mastery yet...
"Huh? You look a little wilted today." First thing the next morning, Qiu Wuji, brushing her teeth, sized up Chu Ge on the treadmill. "Didn't sleep well last night?"
Chu Ge ran with his head down, huffing and puffing. "Nope. Slept great. Slept great."
With her mouth full of foam and her toothbrush pumping in and out, Qiu Wuji looked him up and down suspiciously, but couldn't spot anything.
In the end she gave a "hmph" and went back into the bathroom.
When she finished brushing and set the cup down on the counter, her gaze drifted a little out of focus.
Matching toothbrush cups printed with chibi xianxia characters, one male and one female, one blue cup and one pink cup.
The toothbrushes were identical too. So were the towels.
Yueying had said "you two, husband and wife." Zhang Qiren had called her "sister-in-law."
The face in the mirror was flushed bright pink.
What would these mortals know? Who said anything about husband and wife?
This is just fellow sect members sharing quarters and sharing household goods. Completely normal!
Qiu Wuji gave another "hmph" and went out to make breakfast.
Fried eggs today!
"Breakfast!"
With a zip, Chu Ge arrived at the table in an instant, trailing a faint afterimage.
A flicker of genuine admiration crossed Qiu Wuji's eyes. "This movement technique of yours — you've trained it quite... hmm. So-so."
Chu Ge grinned. "I was thinking — if someone with a strength- or speed-type power went into professional sports, what kind of template would they be? If ability awakeners keep multiplying day by day, won't the whole landscape of this world change? The old ways of thinking just won't apply anymore."
Qiu Wuji asked, "What is 'professional sports'?"
"...Never mind." Chu Ge sat down and started eating.
The moment he laid eyes on the fried eggs, Chu Ge's cheek twitched twice, and he unconsciously hunched over a little.
"What's with you now?"
"Ah, nothing, nothing." Chu Ge changed the subject. "Am I balancing durians again today?"
Qiu Wuji said, "You think I'm doing that to torment you? The training really does have a point. Once you've got your balance down, that thing can go."
"Fine, but I can't exactly write with that thing on my head."
"Why not? When you write, you sit up straight and steady — steadier than walking. If you can do it while walking, why not while writing..."
"Because writing needs absolute quiet and total concentration. I can't have that stuff distracting me."
Qiu Wuji accepted that, rubbing her chin. "That's a bit of a shame. You spend so long writing. If you could circulate your qi while you write, it'd be like training around the clock — much better than once in the morning and once at night."
Chu Ge blinked. "Can that be done?"
Qiu Wuji said, "It probably takes splitting your attention in two... Ordinary people can't. Especially since the slightest deviation in circulating your power has serious consequences. But you could try. Your soul sea is vigorous, so with a special technique to split your attention like that, you should be able to manage it."
Chu Ge said, "I never wrote a technique like that. Do we need to add a patch?"
Qiu Wuji shook her head. "You did write one... because splitting your attention is nothing but the prerequisite for the split-soul technique."
"Like right now — you're splitting your attention? Your true body is in seclusion, meditating?"
"Yes."
"Idle-game cultivation." Chu Ge was a little envious. "I wish I could do that too."
"Forget the split soul. That's impossible without a few hundred years. Splitting your attention you can try right now, but be careful — the instant anything feels off, stop at once."
Chu Ge straightened up and snapped off a Young Pioneer salute. "Yes, Master."
Qiu Wuji touched a finger to his forehead and passed him the method for splitting his attention, then her lovely eyes shifted and she said with a soft laugh, "As your fan, it's my duty to hurry you off to write now, Chu Ge-dada."
This role-play was getting more entertaining by the minute, and Chu Ge felt a pleasant itch in his heart. Then something occurred to him, and he grinned. "Hey, why don't you get yourself a QQ and join my group as an admin? Or be my operations manager."
A lady fan and a lady assistant — both covered.
He knew other authors whose girlfriends ran their operations for them, souring a whole pack of single writing dogs to death — and who'd have thought that today yours truly would have one too!
Qiu Wuji had no idea about those lewd thoughts of his; she was rather taken with the idea of the female lead personally serving as operations manager. "How does that work?"
"Mostly you moderate the comment section, organize monthly-ticket events and the like — you've been reading lately, so you've probably seen it... Now and then you get in touch with the platform to coordinate special events, and you handle things like character icons and character cards..."
"Character cards?"
"Yeah. Back when we were flops, we didn't have that stuff. Now we do. See that character Star Value? Once it hits a certain star level, you can get a card made, have a birthday celebration..."
"A birthday..." Qiu Wuji asked tentatively. "The readers celebrate a birthday for me?"
"Right, for the characters in the book... oh, right, for you. And it's not just our readers — if it's done well, readers all across the platform can open the app and see your birthday on the splash screen."
Qiu Wuji's lovely eyes glittered. "How much Star Value does it take?"
"...We were talking about how to be an operations manager..."
"How much Star Value for a birthday?"
Chu Ge didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "It's way too early. You don't even have an icon yet, so can we hold off on the birthday?... If you want it to come sooner, then do the operations job well."
Qiu Wuji asked, "Would my icon be a photo of me?"
Chu Ge nearly spat out his food. "No... That's also done by the platform's artists. You can follow along, and if you're not happy with the drawing, it can be changed."
"I'll take the job!" Qiu Wuji was brimming with energy. "I won't let them draw me ugly!"
The "Fratricide" group suddenly found that an admin had dropped in from out of nowhere, with a very primitive avatar: just the default female penguin wearing a flower. That was the placeholder Qiu Wuji meant to keep until the exclusive avatar was drawn for her.
Once in the group, she hardly said a word — no one could tell whether she typed slowly or was simply being aloof. Meanwhile the operations managers gained one more, with the same ID as her QQ, an ID any fan of this book would easily have picked. It read:
Qiu Wuji.