During the meal, Chu Ge still felt his scrambled eggs weren't much — too little salt, too bland. Not that they were bad, exactly, but a far cry from what Qiu Wuji usually turned out.
He barely touched them himself, mostly working on the twice-cooked pork and the pan-fried fish that Qiu Wuji had taken over and finished.
Qiu Wuji, though, kept going at that plate of scrambled eggs, and within a few bites she had nearly cleared it.
It's like I'm eating yours and you're eating mine...
Chu Ge couldn't hold back. "These eggs aren't much... have more meat."
Qiu Wuji smiled faintly. "I think they're good. I had too much sugar today, maybe — something light hits the spot."
Chu Ge tilted his head and studied her for a long while, unable to make sense of it.
Qiu Wuji only smiled and bent her head to her rice.
He isn't nearly as smooth as the characters in his own books — and that's a good thing.
Any man he'd written would have taken that opening and run with it, teasing her without missing a beat. But that isn't what I want — if he did that, it would shatter the whole mood. That dopey, puzzled head-tilt of his was adorable.
She spoke slowly. "Seems you can cook after all. If helping me counts as work, then doesn't coming in to lend a hand with meals count too?"
A little apologetic, Chu Ge said, "Honestly, my time's really tight right now. I'm afraid it could only be now and then."
Qiu Wuji thought it over, and though she was a little disappointed, she nodded in agreement.
Between cultivation and writing, his time really was tight. It had always been that way, and her going out to shop and cook was precisely so he wouldn't be bothered by trifles and could write with a quiet mind.
To the two of them, Chu Ge's work really did come above everything — not just as a way to earn a living, but carrying far too much meaning for that. Qiu Wuji felt that in this one respect, at least, she had to support him well.
What? In the early days I wanted to just cut him down with one sword and be done with it?
Did that really happen?
Chu Ge was still making his declarations. "When I have time I'll go shopping and cook with you. Once I've banked enough chapters, I can take you to see more places too — there's plenty of fun stuff you haven't been to yet. Mm, right, bring the laptop. Actually we could even think about traveling. You have an ID card now..."
Qiu Wuji couldn't help laughing. "Travel? With the pandemic? We'll see."
"There are still plenty of places we could go," Chu Ge said. "Also, I checked earlier — the royalties came in today. Counting Zhang Qiren's Golden Alliance and all, this month's income is very respectable. Add the bonus landing in a few days, and I've never had this much to my name... so if there's anything you like, you can start looking into it..."
Watching him show off like a child presenting a treasure, Qiu Wuji shook her head and stood to clear the dishes. "That Golden Alliance and the bounty aren't regular income. How many Zhang Qirens and Rong Fus do you think there are? Calm yourself and go write. You haven't finished your ten thousand words today, have you, Master?"
Chu Ge went back to his room to write, puzzled. Qiu Wuji's attitude today is really weird... though I can't put my finger on exactly how.
But he had no attention to spare for it. Too much had happened today and he really was behind on his quota; he even meant to write a little extra, since his book was on the recommendation list today.
On top of that, he now held a place on the combat-power leaderboard. The rankings weighted word count and performance together, so although his ten-thousand-word updates were far behind the tentacle monsters churning out twenty or thirty thousand, his rank was decent and his exposure fine. Chu Ge meant to keep it up.
The big Bestseller Picks feature and the tidy sum that had landed today were shot after shot of the purest hype, more than enough to send a man charging in howling.
Chu Ge quickly threw himself into the plot, and this time he didn't keep slipping off every few minutes to chat with Qiu Wuji... He couldn't make a habit of that; it broke his train of thought far too easily. He was doing his best.
Qiu Wuji finished the dishes and wiped down the kitchen, but she didn't go back to typing her autobiography.
She leaned in the doorway and quietly watched Chu Ge lose himself in his work. The keyboard clattered fast and rhythmic; now and then he would stall, slump back in his chair thinking, and unconsciously snatch up the cola by his desk for a drink.
One sip and the ideas seemed to come back; he'd hurriedly set it down and go back to hammering the keys.
People said a man at serious work was at his most attractive. Qiu Wuji didn't feel that — she only felt how hard he worked. Having tried writing herself, she understood it that much more deeply.
She thought for a moment, then suddenly turned and went to boil a kettle of water.
Chu Ge was typing away when a fragrant breeze brushed past him and a cup of tea was set at the edge of the desk, steam curling up from it.
Chu Ge turned, startled, and met Qiu Wuji's smiling face. "Drink less cola — tea's better for you. Tomorrow I'll go to the tea shop and get something decent. This ten-yuan-a-bag stuff really doesn't cut it..."
Chu Ge still looked utterly lost. She'd gone all this time without ever pouring him tea on her own...
"What's with that face?" Qiu Wuji snorted and turned to leave. "Your apprentice, employee, assistant... isn't this what I'm supposed to do? Oh, right — Panda got hurt, so I need to go push him on the avatar again. How long has it been now..."
Chu Ge's mouth hung half open. And she says I'm the one hooked on stacking buffs — her addiction to cosplaying employee and assistant is just as bad.
Pity she was in pajamas. If she'd put on that early office-lady skirt and black stockings, it would have looked the part even more.
Hmm... is there any chance it's not cosplay?
Hers, at least, wasn't cosplay — not where the avatar was concerned! Qiu Wuji marched back to the computer in high dudgeon, opened QQ, and prepared to give Dianniang's character meow a piece of her mind. How many days had it been now? One avatar, that was all! Other people had figurines made in that time, for heaven's sake! And if a single avatar took this long, what about birthdays and cards later?
No sooner had she opened QQ than a message flashed by in the pinned group chat:
Blue Little Pill: "Does my new avatar look badass?"
Group member: "Ass, mostly."
Blue Little Pill: "?"
Blue Little Pill: "This is a fucking chibi avatar of our Qiuqiu!"
Group member: "Holy shit? Abusing your authority for personal gain! It's not even updated in the app yet and you're already using it?"
Panda sent a hands-on-hips sticker: "I'm working through injury — I'm in the hospital and still beating up character meow. A little personal gain is only fair, wouldn't you say?"
Nobody paid the slightest attention to his being hospitalized, and nobody knew that his so-called "beating up" was literal. They all just went on judging the avatar: "Isn't it a bit too cute? Sect Master Qiu's domineering air doesn't come through at all."
Others objected: "How domineering can you make a chibi, really? Push the domineering and you lose my Qiuqiu's intellectual grace!"
"Get lost — since when is she your Qiuqiu?"
"My Qiuqiu is plenty cute too. That pose when she rammed her head into the stone gate is still branded on my heart..."
The group chat began to derail.
Qiu Wuji: "......"
She clicked on Panda's avatar, and sure enough the old Panda Head had been replaced by a chibi woman in ancient dress, a long sword on her back, a big head and big eyes. It was clearly straining for domineering, but it came off as a petulant little pout — very cute.
Is this me?
Qiu Wuji felt a little dazed.
Such an adorable me.
Beep-beep-beep — a private message. Qiu Wuji clicked it open in a daze and found Panda asking for approval: "Sect Master Qiu, what do you think of this avatar?"
Qiu Wuji watched her own fingers move: "It's nice. Let's go with this one."
"You got it!" Panda said gleefully. "I told you — Sect Master Qiu is exactly this cute!"
Qiu Wuji typed: "How's your injury?" Then she caught herself, deleted it, and typed instead: "Why are you in the hospital?"
"Woo woo woo, Sect Master Qiu is the only good one, asking about my hospital stay — that bunch of heartless..."
Qiu Wuji: "It's only natural. Are you all right?"
Panda said: "I'm fine, just a scratch. Yours truly here has Huluwa helping him fight monsters — crossing water like flat ground."
Qiu Wuji: "?"
"Does Qiuqiu want to come comfort me a little..." Red exclamation mark. Message failed to send. Please add this person as a friend first.
Panda: "?"
In his hospital bed, Panda sat utterly baffled. How did I get blocked? I was just making her avatar for her. One line she's asking how I'm doing, the next I'm blocked...
Face set, Qiu Wuji saved the avatar image, changed it in the author backend first, then swapped it in for all her QQ and WeChat avatars.
Finally, a person with an avatar. As if I'd ever want to use that lady penguin.
Blocked? You want to play Huluwa's grandpa, and I'm the Sixth Brother, for fuck's sake! Like I'd wait for New Year to block you!