Chu Ge felt he'd handled himself with real poise and presence this time. If he'd put on that kind of badass display at his blind date with Gu Ruoyan, they might be together by now...
What a shame.
Gu Ruoyan was a real person, but he knew nothing about her, and years without social contact had left him with no idea how to talk to a stranger properly. Qiu Wuji had appeared out of an illusion, yet in his own heart she was like family — as though they'd already kept each other company for many years.
At the very least, she'd kept him company through every day and night of this book, from the first spark of an idea to this moment.
She was the most familiar stranger there was.
But Chu Ge had forgotten that Qiu Wuji had no idea what a handshake was.
Qiu Wuji stared coldly at the hand he held out. Her face went from calm to flushed red, then to ashen iron.
With a bang, Chu Ge was flipped flat onto the floor, chair and all.
"You lecher! You think you can start groping me just like that? What do you take me, Qiu Wuji, for!"
What does he mean, the woman he wrote out of all his beautiful fantasies?
What is he thinking?
His whole reason for writing this woman was to get off on her in his imagination — how utterly filthy!
Chu Ge crouched with his arms over his head. "Fuck, it was just a handshake... I—I need to add a patch. Qiu Wuji has to understand this stuff first!"
Qiu Wuji gave him a vicious kick. "Before any so-called patch, shouldn't you explain what you meant by 'if she wants a man, it should be the Father God of Creation'?"
I'm done for. There's no getting past this one.
Paired with this "hand-groping," his reputation as a filthy pervert was clearly carved in stone and never coming off.
Chu Ge could only keep his head covered and talk. "Since you don't want any entanglement with Chu Tiange, I had to find some way to make that earlier thought of yours track, and a turn of the brush like that was the most reasonable option. If Qiu Wuji were going to want a man, naturally it'd have to be at Creator God level. If you don't believe me, go read the reviews — they're all praising it!"
The reviews that had soured his mood earlier had actually turned out useful!
But Qiu Wuji wouldn't look at any reviews. "Why on earth would I want a man? That thought shouldn't have been born in me at all! Change it back!"
Chu Ge held his head and said nothing.
"Speak up. Weren't you just running off at the mouth? Gone mute?"
"...Seems I can't change it."
"It's final and published already — how am I supposed to change it? Anyway, all that line says is that if you were to want a man, it'd have to be that caliber. It doesn't say you have to want one. Or what, have you taken a fancy to me already? No, right? So what are you getting so worked up about?"
Qiu Wuji was so angry her chest heaved.
So he gets the last word on everything?
And I never had the slightest thought of wanting a man in the first place — why would I! Besides, doesn't that line basically say that if I ever took it into my head to find one, the target would be you?
Whether I've taken a fancy to anyone is my business — does that whitewash your own filthy intentions?
Infuriating. I can't kill him, and I'm afraid to hit him in case I use too much force and beat him to death, and editing the draft myself does nothing. What am I supposed to do?
And honestly, why is the woman of his most beautiful fantasies a woman who could beat him to death at any moment? Is this man secretly a masochist?
Qiu Wuji's look turned a little strange.
Chu Ge was of course no masochist.
It was simply the thrill of a certain setup — "conquering a woman who stands far above you." You can't get that in real life, so is a man not even allowed a little fantasy in his own book?
And the result was that, possibly precisely because he'd set her so high, a heroine on the verge of ascension had broken through the dimensional wall and come running out...
This time I'm in for a beating for sure... wait, hold on, why am I even thinking about domestic violence?
All in all, Chu Ge could foresee his future days of pitch-dark misery. That whole speech before, delivered with such presence, had been meant to seize the initiative — but with a gap in fighting strength this wide, how was he supposed to win the initiative with nothing but hot air? And now that he'd been branded a pervert, what was he going to do?
Chu Ge kept his head in his hands and stealthily raised his eyes, and got an eyeful of surging waves.
That jade belt at the slender waist, the magnificent billows, the delicate nose and small mouth, skin like congealed cream, cheeks faintly flushed, eyes sharp and solemn, an aura of mature authority.
God, she hit every single one of his kinks...
As expected of the perfect woman from his fantasies — perfect figure, perfect face, perfect bearing; there wasn't a single part of her that didn't pierce straight into his dreams.
"What are you looking at?" Qiu Wuji's voice seemed to come from the Nine Nether Hells. "Do you really think I don't dare kill you?"
Chu Ge finally sighed and spoke. "Judge the deed, not the heart. In your world, the people who've fantasized about you number ten thousand if not eight thousand — there's a whole pile of sect disciples who can't even look you straight in the eye. Would you kill them all?"
"How can they compare to you?"
Your purpose in writing me was filthy from the start, and you might keep forcing thoughts on me — what if you really write that I fall in love with you? Qiu Wuji didn't say it aloud; she was afraid that if the wretch hadn't thought of it yet, she'd only be putting the idea in his head.
Chu Ge said, "Actually, even if my original intent in writing you wasn't pure, so what? I didn't know you'd become a real person — is pure fantasy a crime...? Like I said before, maybe it was before, but from now on I'll respect you as a real person. The thing you're worried about... won't happen."
Great. And I was worried about putting ideas in his head — he sees it all clear as a mirror; he's known all along exactly what I'm afraid of.
It suddenly struck Qiu Wuji that this man didn't merely understand her; he was clever, with a mind that saw straight through to the bottom of things.
Chu Ge stole another glance at her, unsure whether he'd passed. In truth, his words had dodged one implication: I do have an interest in you. Treat you as a real person? Then I don't have to write it — I can just make a move on you.
Chu Ge himself wasn't sure whether he had any intention of making a move. Maybe it was just what Zhang Qiren called being hungry for it, which was only normal — who could say clearly whether it was like or not? And really, seriously pursuing someone he'd written himself was as absurd as those guys who called a paper character their wife; Chu Ge didn't even know whether that counted as a perversion.
Seeing that Qiu Wuji seemed to have nothing more to say, Chu Ge finally climbed cautiously to his feet and checked the time: eight in the evening.
He hadn't eaten all day! Chu Ge's stomach was growling with hunger, and he said helplessly, "I don't know whether you need to eat in your current state, but I can't hold out — I've got to eat. Do you want to come along... and go see this brand-new world?"
Qiu Wuji said nothing; she opened the door and walked out.
Apart from making sure this bastard doesn't write me falling in love with a man, what should I be paying most attention to, having broken through the boundary to come here?
Getting to know this brand-new world, of course.
This grid-boxed magical treasure, this strange glowing screen, these buildings of unknown construction, Chu Ge's bizarre attire.
For a seeker of the Dao who meant to roam the myriad worlds and pierce through to the truth, these were exactly the things that mattered most. Was she supposed to shrink into one tiny room and get tangled up with a man?
Chu Ge silently pressed the elevator button and watched the floor numbers tick slowly upward. Qiu Wuji was the first to speak. "My attire is very different from yours. Will people interrogate me once we're outside?"
Chu Ge shook his head indifferently. "These days plenty of people walk around in hanfu. What you need to watch out for is someone asking where you bought an outfit that gorgeous... On second thought, forget it. The person's too gorgeous too — that, you can't buy anywhere."
Qiu Wuji: "..."
Inside the elevator, a flicker of small surprise came into Qiu Wuji's eyes, though she said nothing. Artisan winches hauling goods up and down — she'd seen such things before... though the energy this one used was rather strange.
Walking through the residential compound, Qiu Wuji looked all around at the towering buildings; the enclosed, stifling feeling of it made her uncomfortable. This world was strange in other ways too: spiritual energy was extremely thin, and nothing around her — people or implements — showed the slightest sign of using it.
No spiritual energy — is this merely the mundane world? Is the endpoint of my boundary-breaking ascension nothing but a paltry mortal realm?
As they came out of the compound, Qiu Wuji suddenly stopped in her tracks.
It was like opening a window in a sealed meditation chamber: the clouds parted, the moon came through, and the whole sky's glory bloomed before her.
Neon lights lit the entire city until the night was like day. On the broad avenue, iron-skinned cars wove swiftly back and forth; a great bridge spanned the river, arching from north to south; and high at the limits of the sky, some sort of flying craft glided onward.
Someone held a little square block and seemed to be talking with another person. Sending a voice ten thousand li?
Someone went click, taking a photo with the food from a street stall. Seizing the soul to fix an image?
Someone snapped a spark and lit the paper roll dangling from his lips. Fire-controlling arts?
But...
There was no spiritual energy.
No spiritual energy.
A crowd of worldly mortals, doing the things only immortals should be able to do?
No... it's doubtful immortals even exist. That was only a story the man beside me made up.
This place... is what's real.
Qiu Wuji looked blankly at everything unfamiliar; there was nothing she recognized, and nearly every single thing defied understanding.
Even the girls passing by, long legs exposed white and bare as a demonic path witch's — and the passersby didn't bat an eye.
What sort of underworld is this place?
She suddenly felt... that she did not belong here at all.
"A stranger in a strange land — are you at a loss? Are you backing away? If so, how will you ever explore the myriad heavens?" Chu Ge's voice came from beside her. "Experience it... this heaven of yours."