The starry sky was the abyss... This was not the first time Qin Luming had heard Zuozuo and Caicai talk about the other world, but they could not say too much. Once people in this world learned too much about another world, the two worlds would become connected.
That connection could be detected by certain divine arts practitioners, who could then build a passage between the two worlds. For a world like Earth, that was obviously not a good thing.
The stronger the other world's presence became in this world, the easier it was to construct a passage—and the more stable that passage would be.
This sort of divine art was probably related to quantum effects, theories about how the same quantum could appear in two places, and so on... Qin Luming understood neither divine arts nor quantum theory, so he had no way of understanding it. He was merely guessing.
Zuozuo and Caicai did not understand it either. Their powers were more like instinct. Qin Luming had no intention of digging too deeply into them; to him, it was more important that they lived simple lives and were carefree and happy every day. At most, they could offer him a little inspiration when he was researching certain things.
There was nothing to be done about it. Zuozuo was manageable enough—at worst, while talking about serious matters, she would suddenly remember that she needed to go eat meat. Caicai, on the other hand, was harder to communicate with properly. If you talked serious business with her, she thought you were telling a story; if you joked with her, she would most likely take it as the truth.
Maybe it had only been a dream... Qin Luming did not keep worrying about it. He had encountered plenty of strange things, but none of them had ultimately caused him to transmigrate, be reborn, or suffer any such consequences. He was still living idly in the real world.
After breakfast, Caicai suggested going back to sleep, and Zuozuo agreed. After brushing their teeth, the two girls patted their little bellies and headed back to their room to sleep.
Watching the two little girls, Qin Luming smiled and shook his head. They were his right and left hands, and he also treated them as adorable little sisters... He could accept everything about them, but clearly, he did not want his future girlfriend to be like this.
Qin Luming had high standards for a girlfriend. He would rather stay single than compromise. He even felt that the type of girl he liked might not exist in real life.
That was perfectly normal. For instance, many shut-ins' wives existed in the two-dimensional world, not in reality.
But most of those people were probably just talking. If they really had the chance to find a decent enough girlfriend in real life, they would put their two-dimensional wives out of mind... After all, two-dimensional girls had countless husbands. One more or one fewer made no difference.
Qin Luming was not like that. Nor did he use two-dimensional girls to satisfy his emotional needs. He simply lived quietly with Zuozuo and Caicai, waiting for the girl he liked to appear.
She should have long hair, preferably reaching her butt, with neat ends and no split ends.
She did not need to be very tall. When she stood before him, she should have to stand on tiptoe to kiss him. When he gently wrapped an arm around her, she would curl up in his embrace like a cute little animal.
She should be very talented, or at least enjoy reading as much as Qin Luming did. Whether she had talents in music, chess, calligraphy, or painting did not really matter.
She should be proud, possessed of incomparable confidence and not easily swayed. Yet sometimes, she would compromise for him. Of course, he would do the same for her.
She could be a little awkward, unwilling to casually reveal her feelings because she thought that would be frivolous. But when they were intimate, she would act spoiled too.
She should get jealous easily. That was a sign that a girl cared deeply about her boyfriend. If she took it to the extreme and even got jealous of herself, that would be the cutest thing of all.
Her cooking and housekeeping could be pretty terrible. That way, he could teach her. When she clumsily fumbled about in the kitchen, he would gently hold her from behind and teach her hand in hand.
He would not mind if she turned the kitchen into a complete mess. With Caicai around—someone who had once converted an entire wall-sized Gaggenau refrigerator into an automatic cooking machine—how much worse could anyone else make the kitchen?
At that thought, Qin Luming finally felt motivated. While Zuozuo and Caicai were asleep and would not disturb him, he decided to do some writing before heading out... The heroine of his novel had been written according to his ideal girlfriend's specifications.
It would be nice if this girlfriend character he had created could come to reality like Zhou Nan had... But it was only a thought. This was not something he could simply make happen, and the first requirement alone stumped Qin Luming.
My Wife Is the Empress of Zhou was a contracted novel, had been published behind a paywall, and had a certain foundation of readers and fans. Generally, only novels like that had a chance.
Secondly, for a novel that had been abandoned, there was some principle involved that Qin Luming still could not understand... But this was essential. When an abandoned novel inexplicably became unsearchable on its original publishing website one day—blocked and vanished without anyone manually setting up a 404 page—that was the sign that the world constructed by that novel had formed a passage to the real world.
Qin Luming's novel had not even been contracted. He could not even clear that threshold... His dream was to write one popular novel after another and then abandon them, because he wanted to try bringing the characters he created into reality, not because of some twisted hobby.
Qin Luming did not become disappointed or depressed because of this. He still stubbornly persisted with his niche writing style.
Qin Luming wrote for an hour and a half, choosing his words and revising over and over. He produced a little over a thousand words in total, but he was already satisfied. At least he had actually written today, unlike the past two days when he had not touched the keyboard at all.
Zuozuo and Caicai slept for a while as well. After waking, they came to the study and followed Qin Luming step for step, worried that he would go to the other world without taking them along.
Qin Luming put on his gloves, and the two little girls merged with him once more. Grid-like patches of light, like translucent jade, flickered over the gloves before the entire pair vanished into his skin.
Qin Luming clenched his fist, looked at his skin and the lines of muscle on his arm, then went to the walk-in closet to change clothes before leaving.
The weather was decent today. It was not raining, and a patch of clouds in the east had scattered, revealing a blaze-like streak of red, bright and fiery.
As usual, Qin Luming was about to scan a code and rent an electric bike to ride to school when he saw a middle-aged man in a heavy felt wide-brimmed hat and a long duffle coat smiling at him with an obvious I have business with you expression as he walked over.
The man was around six foot one, with slightly raised eyebrows, a high nose, and a small mustache. He had the air of a successful middle-aged man living a refined life.
"Mr. Qin?" the middle-aged man asked. He took out his phone and displayed an electronic business card to reveal his identity. "I'm a private detective."
"Oh." Qin Luming nodded, scanned the code to unlock the bike, got on, and rode away.
The middle-aged man froze for a moment. It was the first time he had ever met someone who, after hearing his identity, simply ignored him and left.
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