Meanwhile, over on his side, Chu Ge typed and typed until he began to fidget.
What's taking her so long just to buy groceries? It's almost noon.
He forced out the new chapter and posted it, then couldn't sit still any longer. He got up and started pacing the living room, wondering whether he ought to give her a call.
He had just turned toward the door when it clicked open. Qiu Wuji stared in surprise at Chu Ge as he buzzed around like a headless fly, then realized why, and her eyes quickly curved into crescents: "I'm back."
Chu Ge let out a breath, then his eyes went fixed: "Why are you wearing the OL outfit again?"
It's been ages since I've seen her looking this intellectual. She really is gorgeous.
His eyes drifted downward of their own accord, checking for black stockings and high heels.
They actually are!
Qiu Wuji's face was blank. "Are you done looking?"
"That's just..." Chu Ge put on an apologetic grin. "It's been a long time since you dressed like this."
"I'm your little assistant now. This is the most fitting thing to wear."
Chu Ge lit up. "Yes, yes, exactly!"
Qiu Wuji stepped out of her high heels and into the room, her small feet in black stockings pressing against the floor. "Where are my slippers?"
Chu Ge bent, picked up the slippers, and trotted over eagerly. "Your disciple will change Master's shoes..."
A little foot in black stockings kicked at him. "Get lost!"
Chu Ge rolled back up, grinning, and reached for the things in her hands. "Let's see what you bought today... Huh? A zisha pot? This big..."
Qiu Wuji snatched the pot back, hugged it, and pattered off to the kitchen. "This is good stuff! I'll brew you some tea and show you."
Chu Ge followed with the other big bag of tea leaves and poked his head in to watch her rinse the pot. "How much did this set cost?"
"Not much. Just over four thousand."
Chu Ge: "???"
Is this woman starting to burn through my money?
But then Qiu Wuji said, "This one has the best spiritual energy of all the pots in the shop. I don't think the seller even knows it has any — they just took it for good zisha that's healthy to use. Otherwise there's no way they'd leave it sitting out on display like that."
Spiritual energy!
Chu Ge's thoughts turned serious. No wonder Qiu Wuji had been willing to lay out that money — this kind of thing couldn't be measured by price at all. How much it helped with training a power was impossible to say, but for a cultivator, he suspected they'd pay ten times over without blinking.
So things like this really do exist in the world?
Qiu Wuji went on, "That young proprietress is a lot of fun. I made friends with her. Ha — I finally have a first WeChat friend besides you!"
Chu Ge's hackles shot up. "Young proprietress! What young proprietress! How old is she?"
Qiu Wuji blinked and turned to look at him oddly. Seeing how tense he was, she couldn't help but burst out laughing. "A woman."
Chu Ge relaxed all over and laughed it off. "Ah, making friends, that's the way it should be. It's a good thing, a good thing..."
"You're impossible." Qiu Wuji shot him a look and finished rinsing the pot, then started filling it with water. "It took this for me to realize I have no friends... Everyone on QQ is your reader. I don't have a single friend of my own."
Chu Ge hurried to say, "Your readers are your friends too."
"I suppose so, but it's not quite the same thing," Qiu Wuji said with a smile. "Mengmeng's a nice person. I'm happy to have made my first friend."
"'Mengmeng'? What, is that Zhou Yu's horse?"
"...It's the young proprietress of Mountain Stream Teahouse! Her name is Zhu Mengmeng."
Chu Ge hugged the bag of tea leaves and thought to himself: Why does every person she runs into have a name that cute?
He still felt a small twinge of sourness, as if he were no longer the only one, and said sourly, "Don't just hear a cute name and get a discount and decide the person's nice... They don't know about the spiritual energy, so this stuff probably costs them a few dozen at most, and you're paying them a few thousand and happy about it."
"But if it really does have spiritual energy, then we're the ones coming out ahead, aren't we?" Qiu Wuji put the kettle on with a smile. "Everyone thinks they got a good deal, so that makes them friends."
Chu Ge: "..."
What kind of bizarre friendship theory is that?
"The bag of tea in your hand is from Mengmeng — she said it's the tea they use at work, a little over two hundred a jin. I can't tell if it's good, but it's better than your ten-yuan-a-bag stuff. Anyway, what we're drinking is the spiritual water, not the tea." Qiu Wuji's eyes shone. "Chu Ge, you were short on aids for your cultivation before, and I assumed this world had none. Now I know it does. From now on I'll pay attention to that sort of thing and make your cultivation as easy as I can."
Looking into her shining eyes, Chu Ge felt something stir in his chest, and he said softly, "You don't have to go to that much trouble. Training on my own feels fine..."
"Bah." Qiu Wuji sniffed. "A disciple of mine — two months in and still in this same sorry state. An embarrassment. How am I supposed to show my face before the heroes of the world!"
Chu Ge: "Huh?"
And here I was, actually touched.
Qiu Wuji grabbed the bag of tea leaves out of his hands. "Go write your words. Brewing tea and cooking are none of your business."
Only then did Chu Ge notice that a basket of groceries had appeared in the kitchen at some point.
He felt Qiu Wuji had been getting stranger and stranger ever since she started writing her autobiography, but on second thought nothing really seemed wrong with it — she'd even pour tea for her boss like a little secretary now. That was nice...
Forget it. Back to writing. Why am I even thinking about this? A woman's heart — no figuring it out.
Watching Chu Ge scratch his head and leave, Qiu Wuji smiled a little.
Chu Ge still didn't understand how extraordinary his own cultivation was.
In a world with spiritual energy this thin, and with no aids at all for cultivation, this fellow had relied on daily meditation and on splitting his attention to cultivate while he typed, and had actually reached the fifth layer of Qi Refining within two months. After beating Rong Fu, his Golden Bell Shield had come close to minor mastery as well, with only a small bottleneck left; one push would break through.
In that world, this speed might not be stunning — merely average.
But given Chu Ge's conditions, Qiu Wuji dared say no one could possibly be faster than him. Herself included.
The Creator God was the Creator God. He was simply too well suited to that world's cultivation methods.
Qiu Wuji was eager to see just how much bigger a surprise Chu Ge could give her once he had items to aid his cultivation.
Would there come a day when he really could go in as he pleased?
Chu Ge settled back down to write in peace. This stretch didn't actually have much to it — a small dungeon scenario that Chu Tiange ran into. Later it would tie into certain of Yan Qianlie's maneuvers being unexpectedly undone, but for now it was just him bickering with a pack of bit players; not much to think through.
His cultivation by splitting his attention in two did come more and more naturally, though, and vaguely he kept feeling that he was standing just outside the dungeon's door, watching Chu Tiange talk with other people.
He could almost make out their faces now...
As he typed away, the aroma of tea rose around him without his noticing.
Chu Ge pulled himself out of that bird's-eye sensation and turned his head toward the beauty beside him.
She was studying the document with some curiosity; it seemed that since she'd started writing her own book, she had gained a fresh sense and understanding of her master Chu Ge's writing.
So she was reading the document, and Chu Ge was looking at her.
Having a "lady secretary" in an OL skirt and black stockings set my tea down beside me... it really is wonderful.
Whether the tea held spiritual energy mattered a great deal, but compared with this, it wasn't worth mentioning.
"What, are, you, looking, at?" Qiu Wuji ground her teeth. "I told you to drink the tea, not to stare at me. Look again and I'll pour it over your head!"
Chu Ge hastily lowered his head and drank.
The tea wasn't hot — Qiu Wuji had prepared it specially, at just the temperature that best drew out the spiritual energy.
One sip, and a faint, clean fragrance went straight to his lungs; it was as if a thread of sweetness scattered through his limbs and flowed into his heart.
"How is it?" Qiu Wuji asked, a little eager.
Chu Ge answered honestly: "Sweet."
"?" Qiu Wuji said, puzzled. "That can't be. Tea isn't sweet... Is this the so-called sweet aftertaste? Is it really that obvious?"
"No..." Chu Ge answered honestly again. "It's just because you brewed it."
"Thunk!" Another lump sprouted on Chu Ge's head, and he clutched it and crouched down to guard himself.
Qiu Wuji stormed out of the room in a huff, fists clenched, and went to cook.
Honestly, how can the Creator God be this incorrigible? You're supposed to be cultivating! Your head only ever thinks about sweet things!
Next time I'll throw in a handful of salt. Then let's see how sweet it is!