Wearing a shoeprint on his face, Chu Ge gloomily inspected the floor.
The floorboard wasn't pierced... but it had actually left a shallow friction mark. The Golden Bell Shield was terrifying.
Good thing this was the bedroom, where the original owner had laid bamboo-wood flooring. Over in the living room and the bathroom it was all tile — what would taking that blow there have done?
Chu Ge didn't dare imagine.
Qiu Wuji dared imagine even less. Y-you-you... what were you planning to do with a lethal weapon like that?
Seeing how her chest was heaving with fury, Chu Ge wriggled, and wriggled, and quietly slipped out along the side.
Lie here and I just get hit again. Better to let her cool off and go heat up some food myself. I'm starving...
I've thoroughly offended Qiu Wuji today... but honestly, worth it.
I saw everything...
Cloud Edge Mountain's snow is so white. Cloud Edge Mountain's peaks are so big.
Hmm... but she's furious this time. I need to figure out how to coax her.
He pulled out his phone and had a look. Pinned at the top of his review section was still the leave notice Qiu Wuji had posted for him.
Now that's a fine helpmeet.
Hmm... since the leave is already posted, shouldn't I take her out somewhere today? Make it up to her?
Meanwhile Qiu Wuji was stewing in the bedroom, and the more she looked at the leave notice she'd written for him, the angrier she got.
If I'd known you'd be done this fast, why on earth would I have asked for leave for you? And on top of that, for no reason at all, I nearly exposed the fact that a female fan is living with you.
No, wait, I'm not a female fan, and I'm not living with him!
Qiu Wuji nearly flipped the table.
And I got looked at for free, and I don't know how much he saw. So what now? What can I even do? I can't beat him to death, I can't gouge out his eyes, and I don't want to run away from home.
So what do I do?
Puffing with anger, Qiu Wuji fished out her phone and consulted her new friend: "Mengmeng, got something to ask you... someone saw me. What do I do?"
"?" A single question mark came back. "Saw you how? People look at your face all the time, that's normal. I like looking at it too."
"No — it's that kind of..."
"Your body?"
"Mm..."
"Beat him up, obviously. Can't take him? Want me to round up a vanload of goons to help?"
"I already hit him. But I don't dare beat him to death. So what do I do?"
"If you can take him, that's easy — just drag him down to the police station."
"...Can't do that."
Zhu Mengmeng got it in a second: "Don't tell me it's your boss?"
"...Mm. Yeah."
"That's workplace sexual harassment!" Zhu Mengmeng was righteously indignant. "Quit now — what, are you waiting for New Year? Qiuqiu, listen to me, come sell tea at my shop. Your whole vibe is perfect for it — put you in period costume and those costume-drama actors have nothing on you."
Qiu Wuji: "...I can't quit."
"?" Zhu Mengmeng understood once more. "Oh. He's got something on you, doesn't he?"
Qiu Wuji thought about it. "I don't think so."
He'd love to put his "leverage" in my hand, all right. Pah. Disgusting.
This time Zhu Mengmeng really understood: "You like him."
Qiu Wuji: "?"
Zhu Mengmeng: "How old's your boss? Married? If he's got a wife, the girls and I can help you plan a coup..."
"Stop, stop, stop. Where are you even going with this?"
"So. Married or not?"
"...No."
"Holy crap, a diamond bachelor!" Zhu Mengmeng was exasperated at her for not seizing the prize. "At this point, just go along with it. Being the boss's wife beats being some lousy assistant or secretary, doesn't it?"
Qiu Wuji was struck dumb. "No — Mengmeng, I think you've got the wrong idea..."
"What idea have I got wrong? You're the one who said it. Someone saw you, you won't quit, you won't call the cops, and you're asking me what to do. I'm the one who should be asking you what to do. Young, rich and unmarried — introduce me to one of those, why don't you?"
"...He doesn't have money!"
"Oh. Never mind, then," Zhu Mengmeng said. "A broke little boss. He saw you and you still won't leave him? If that isn't liking him, then you tell me what liking someone is."
Qiu Wuji: "I! Don't! Like! Him!"
"Okay, okay, okay. Since you don't like him, quit and come sell tea with me. What future is there in some broke little boss's startup..."
Qiu Wuji felt like the two of them were holding a conversation from two different worlds. "How do you people even end up with that attitude about something like this..."
"What attitude should I have? You're with a man — what else is there to think about? Oh, right, is he handsome? If he's too ugly, forget it."
Qiu Wuji decided this conversation could not go on. "Forget it, I won't ask you."
Zhu Mengmeng said, "I'm the one who's depressed here. Why don't you teach me what to do?"
"What?"
"My beloved, my husband, my child's father..."
"What happened to him?"
"They met today."
Qiu Wuji: "???"
I really am not from the same world as you people.
"Boohoo, Qiuqiu, what do I do..." Zhu Mengmeng sent a crying emoji.
Face blank, Qiu Wuji closed WeChat.
Deal with it cold, then.
Chu Ge's head cautiously poked around the door frame. "Um..."
Qiu Wuji put on a stony face. "Get lost. I don't talk to perverts. Say one more word and I'll kill you!"
"I didn't do it on purpose either. Master knows that was passive meditation — all I could do was visualize..."
Qiu Wuji's willow brows shot straight up and she was about to explode when Chu Ge hurried on: "Besides, I saw nothing at all. Master knows I only get a blurry look, and Cloud Edge Mountain is wrapped in drifting mist and clouds anyway, so what could I possibly see..."
Who do you think you're fooling? You turned into a phantom and lunged right at me!
Qiu Wuji swallowed the retort before it left her mouth. On second thought, this confession of his was a decent ladder down: He saw nothing, so nothing happened, right? What good would it do her to force the truth out and admit that he had seen it?
Having thought that far, she forced herself to hold it in and said coldly, "I hit you to snap you out of it. That kind of lecherous behavior is not allowed! If you ever dare try to peep at this Sect Master again, I'll gouge out your eyes!"
"Yes, yes, yes, I've got it." Chu Ge cleared his throat twice and finally came a little further out, then humbly asked for guidance: "Master, enlighten me — what exactly was my situation today?"
Qiu Wuji paused, frowning in thought.
I let this idiot derail me completely — I actually forgot how important that was.
He could see people clearly now — he could even put on a drooling face.
The Heavenly Dao was taking on an ever more concrete form.
But honestly, Qiu Wuji didn't know what that meant either. All she could judge was his cultivation level: "Your Golden Bell Shield has reached minor mastery, and your Qi Refining stage has come along with it to the late stage. As things stand, you should already be making preparations for Foundation Establishment. I don't know whether the interaction between the two worlds will become more obvious once you truly establish your foundation."
"Huh? I'm about to reach Foundation Establishment already?" Chu Ge really had no idea what each sign in his training corresponded to; he'd always assumed he was just a beginner. "I've been at this less than two months, haven't I?"
Qiu Wuji said with a straight face, "It's a long way off. Late Qi Refining isn't Great Perfection. Never mind how wide the gap still is between the seventh, eighth and ninth layers — even at Great Perfection, you've written so much of that 'half-step from Great Perfection, peak of the peak' stuff yourself. Don't you have any sense of it?"
"...I phased that concept out of my books ages ago."
"Same difference. It'll still be a long time before you push your cultivation to Qi Refining Great Perfection. When I say you can start preparing, it's only because this world has no telling where to find ingredients for refining pills... we need to prepare ahead of time," Qiu Wuji said. "Speaking of which, I could browse the Chinese medicine shops on your side when I have the time. Who knows, there might be something..."
"Emmmm... isn't that harder than winning the lottery?"
Qiu Wuji sighed. "We still have to try. What else is there?"
"Let nature take its course. Think too much and you get attached," Chu Ge said with a smile. "Speaking of which — you've been cooped up in this house so long, aren't you bored? Since we've taken the day off, why don't we go out and have some fun?"
Something stirred in Qiu Wuji's heart.
His attitude toward cultivation really was excellent; that might be a big part of why he advanced so fast... Of course, it was also because it matched the Dao he'd written out of his own personality.
"Hey, I'm talking to you. We've got plenty of time today — want to go out?"
Qiu Wuji, still mulling things over, answered offhandedly: "Go where?"
"Like a museum, or the Undersea World, or a science museum, that kind of thing. Can't promise it's fun, but it'd help you understand this world and broaden your horizons."
Qiu Wuji snapped back to the present, surprised. "There's a sea to see here?"
Chu Ge blinked. He'd only meant an aquarium-type Undersea World — what else was there to do in a city? He hadn't expected Qiu Wuji to jump straight to seeing the actual sea.
Still, it didn't seem like much of a problem: "Nanjiang is a coastal city, though to actually reach the shore you have to go out to a neighboring district... but it's close, and we've got time today."
"Then I want to see the sea." Qiu Wuji's eyes were shining. "Cooped up in the city all this time, I've gained too little."
Chu Ge clenched his fist in a silent yes! "Let's go — let's see the sea!"
So the whole "saw everything" business just... blew over like that? Who knows... Whatever. As long as we're not in a cold war. Never mind seeing the sea — if she wanted me to swim it, yours truly would swim it!