After watching the local news, Qin Luming switched sources. The television began cycling through programs, online videos, social media posts, and other information saved according to the keywords he had set.
"Long, 28, had been dating his 23-year-old girlfriend for less than three months when he discovered that she was deeply obsessed with online novels. Not only did she often stay up late reading them, she also constantly used Mary Sue lines from novels in daily conversation, demanded that Long play along, judged her boyfriend by the image of a novel's male lead, and insisted that he kiss her awake every morning. Long consequently discovered that his girlfriend had exceptionally foul breath and suspected she had a serious gastrointestinal illness. At Long's urging, she went to the hospital, where a gastrointestinal tumor was discovered early. After she was cured, she broke up with Long. Long, meanwhile, developed a side business: smelling other people's bad breath to diagnose whether they showed symptoms of cancer, earning over ten thousand a month."
It was a news story with bad breath, and there was no unusual information in it. The possibility that this "girlfriend" was a character transmigrator was very low.
Qin Luming did gain some inspiration from it, though, and came up with a young male protagonist for an urban doctor novel who could diagnose people by smelling their breath.
The protagonist could come from a mountain village. That would give him a rustic, pure aura that contrasted with other people's breath and lent credibility to his ability.
The protagonist first took a train... no, that had been the mode of transportation used by protagonists leaving the mountains in earlier years. Now it should be high-speed rail.
The protagonist took the high-speed rail. Given his mountain-village background and the thousand yuan in travel money left behind by his deceased old master, he probably could not afford a business-class seat. So how would he meet the fair, rich, beautiful eldest miss in business class?
Perhaps some cute author would set it up so that business class happened to have an empty seat, and the protagonist went to sit there... Qin Luming was not that cute, so he could only arrange for a passenger in business class to suddenly fall ill. The high-speed rail broadcast would search for a doctor who could help, and the protagonist would naturally arrive in business class.
The passenger who fell ill could be described as somewhat older, making it convenient to give him an identity tied to the greater background and use him as foreshadowing. Such foreshadowing could be casually planted, then used or not used depending on how the plot developed later... The protagonist cured the passenger, who was grateful to him. The protagonist declined everything else but accepted the passenger's help in upgrading his seat. Then the protagonist would have a seat, just beside the fair, rich, beautiful eldest miss.
The fair, rich, beautiful eldest miss could be related to that passenger, or unrelated, or merely acquainted with him... Still to casually plant some foreshadowing, the eldest miss spoke to the protagonist. He smelled sweet osmanthus in her mouth... no, he smelled a strange odor, so he warned her that she might have a gynecological condition and needed timely treatment.
As for why smelling someone's breath could reveal a gynecological disease so miraculously, was there any problem with that? No.
The eldest miss was still a virgin. Shouldn't what the protagonist smelled have been something absurd like a "maiden's delicate fragrance"? So the eldest miss flew into a rage and came into conflict with the protagonist.
Readers liked this kind of plot, where they started out opposed to each other and then gradually developed affection and romantic tension, right?
After the protagonist arrived in the city, he would attend university. It just so happened that he and the eldest miss went to the same school, and she was his senior.
Why did she have to be his senior? Because many things required balance. The protagonist had an advantage over the eldest miss in medical ability, while as a senior, she could hold a guiding position over him at school. It was all simply to make it easier to create conflicts, contradictions, and plot developments.
At that point, Qin Luming stopped. He was only casually coming up with ideas; he was not really going to write this kind of story.
"Brother Qin, dinner's ready." Zuozuo walked over and stepped on Qin Luming's toes.
The little girl's toes were soft as well. They left faint little footprints across the plush carpet as she came over, lively as a little rabbit skipping through winter snow without fearing either the big bad wolf or the hunter.
Qin Luming went to the small dining room closest to the kitchen. Caicai lifted the covers from the plates, revealing blanched spinach with minced garlic, lobster and sea urchin orecchiette, and beef tenderloin with foie gras and black truffle. The three simple dishes had been portioned onto three plates.
Qin Luming still had sparkling water with his meal. Zuozuo wanted rice wine, while Caicai took out a flask of sake. There was a peach blossom missing one petal on the flask. Right Caicai looked at it for ten seconds, then said that the peach blossom resembled Zuozuo.
Zuozuo held her rice wine in both hands and carefully took little sips. She ignored Caicai's provocation. She was only losing baby teeth; she had merely lost one tooth, and it would grow back tomorrow.
After dinner, Qin Luming watched television for a while longer before going to bathe.
The hot water had already been drawn. Qin Luming wore swim trunks as he stepped into the bathtub. When he crouched down, the hot water surged around him and soaked his skin, its warmth seeming to burrow into his pores. He could not help letting out a long breath. Comfortable.
"Brother Luming, I'll come scrub your back," Caicai said from outside the bathroom.
"Come in."
Caicai pushed open the door. Qin Luming did not turn around. Locking the door meant little in this household. The two little girls had certain special abilities, and they were not girls who had grown up in an ordinary family with ordinary family education. As a boy, Qin Luming needed to stay vigilant and protect himself at all times.
That was why he had wisely put on swim trunks. He would be taking a shower later anyway, and he could simply rinse the traditional three key areas of a man's bath in the shower stall afterward.
Caicai entered the bathroom and began scrubbing Qin Luming's back.
"What are you using to scrub my back?" Qin Luming sensed that something was wrong.
"A newly bought broom!"
"Get out."
"I washed the broom clean!" Caicai emphasized loudly.
"Out!"
"Oh."
Qin Luming continued soaking in the bath, already accustomed to such things. He did not treat Zuozuo and Right Caicai like maids... Although they often handled the housework, Qin Luming found it difficult to have any lecherous thoughts or desires toward them, since the two little girls were part of his body. He regarded them more as younger sisters.
The sort of scene where a beautiful young girl attended him while he bathed was something he could only imagine... They would not actually refuse to scrub his back, but Qin Luming had no such need in the first place, and their thought processes often jumped all over the place. Just like Right Caicai bringing in a broom to scrub his back earlier—what exactly had she been thinking? Qin Luming no longer tried to understand.
After Qin Luming finished bathing, washed his hair, rinsed off again, and came out wearing shorts and a bathrobe, he glanced at the downstairs living room. The two little girls were sitting side by side on the sofa, wearing identical expressions of astonishment as they watched television. Qin Luming then headed toward the study.
He had not lied to Ma Shilong. He really was an online novel writer, except that his purpose in writing was not to make money... He only wanted to investigate the bizarre things happening to himself and around him, things that could not be explained by known Earth science.
Before you continue