Habit

Shanghai.

Wang Siyi walked out of the airport wearing a mask and sunglasses, a small suitcase in hand.

After all, she was a popular singer in a second-tier market. Although she'd fallen out with her company a few months ago, there were always paparazzi or fans waiting around at Shanghai's airport.

Wang Siyi hated trouble. She'd be very uncomfortable if they spotted her.

"Sister Wanjun! Over here!!!"

Wang Siyi looked up and saw Xiuxiu waving wildly at her, looking thrilled.

Of course Xiuxiu was happy. She'd spent the past month or two slacking off at New Art, constantly being ordered around by other people. She'd had more than enough.

If Sister Baozhu hadn't told her last week that Sister Wanjun would be coming back to release an album, she would've been ready to pack up and quit.

Besides, she really liked being around Sister Wanjun. She'd only ever met one artist like her in her entire life. Sister Wanjun was just so good to her.

She wasn't fussy or fake, and she didn't order people around as if she were better than them.

Unlike some celebrities, who weren't even third-tier but still acted arrogantly, as if they were afraid people might not realize they were famous.

They were fussy, too. A tiny cut on a finger, and they'd start screaming.

Xiuxiu even felt that if they hadn't gone to the hospital so quickly, the wound would've healed on its own.

But Sister Wanjun was strange, too. She used to be decisive, always leaving as soon as she said she would. This time, though, she'd delayed coming back for a whole week after arriving in Yangcheng.

Xiuxiu wondered what had held her up. Could it have been the matter involving that friend Sister Wanjun had told her about last time?

Thinking back to the question Sister Wanjun had asked her over the phone, Xiuxiu suddenly remembered that one of her friends supposedly liked a guy but didn't dare reveal how she felt.

Xiuxiu had given Sister Wanjun a good idea, but she didn't know how things were going between her friend and the guy she liked. She'd have to ask Sister Wanjun later.

While Xiuxiu was thinking, Wang Siyi had already reached them.

Xiuxiu went straight in for a hug.

"I missed you so much, Sister Wanjun!"

After the hug, she told Wang Siyi how she really felt, then took the suitcase from her hand.

Xiuxiu paused, then hefted the suitcase up and down.

It was way too light. She remembered Wang Siyi leaving Shanghai with most of her belongings last time, in bag after bag.

"Sister Wanjun, your suitcase is so light. Is this all you brought back?"

Chen Baozhu looked just as incredulous. She'd spent seven days getting ready, and this was it?

Was Wang Siyi here on vacation?

"Mm. There was too much stuff to bring. I can just buy anything I don't have here."

Wang Siyi replied expressionlessly, without batting an eye.

"Hehe, then let's go. I've missed you so much, Sister Wanjun. It's been ages."

With that, Xiuxiu stuffed the suitcase into the car.

They all got in, and Xiuxiu drove toward the villa they'd rented in Shanghai.

There was no way they'd go back to the place provided by the company.

Xiuxiu chattered away the whole ride. Wang Siyi occasionally responded, but most of the time she was lost in thought.

She was staring at her phone. The screen was open to her WeChat conversation with Li Changle. Should she reply to him or not?

Xiuxiu had said not to contact him for a month, to see if he would reach out to her first.

Wang Siyi wrestled with it for quite a while before finally deciding to send him a reply.

"I've arrived safely in Shanghai."

She'd only just come from Yangcheng today. Surely that didn't count as the first day?

She'd start counting from tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the first day...

Wang Siyi reassured herself.

But after waiting ten minutes without seeing a reply from Li Changle, she couldn't help frowning.

What was that guy doing? How could he not reply? Was he chatting with some other girl?

Seeing Wang Siyi frown without looking away from her phone, Chen Baozhu grew worried and asked:

"Wanjun, what's wrong? You look so troubled."

"Nothing. Something just crossed my mind."

Wang Siyi brushed it off with an excuse, still frowning as she stared unblinkingly at her WeChat conversation.

Annoyed, she locked her screen and decided to stop looking at her phone.

If that guy didn't reply within an hour, she wouldn't speak to him again for the rest of the day.

"By the way, Sister Wanjun, how's that friend of yours doing?"

Xiuxiu was driving when she remembered what she'd been thinking about while waiting for Wang Siyi earlier. She hurriedly asked.

"What friend?"

Wang Siyi froze, caught off guard.

"The one you told me about on the phone last time. Your friend liked a guy, right? How are things going between her and him now?"

Xiuxiu thought Sister Wanjun seemed a little odd today. She'd been distracted ever since getting off the plane, and kept glancing at her phone.

She'd never liked looking at her phone before. They'd only been apart for a little over a month, but now she seemed completely different.

"They're... doing okay."

Wang Siyi answered, forcing the words out. She glanced at Chen Baozhu, who was sitting beside her, looking uncertain. Oh no. Had Sister Baozhu figured something out?

"What friend?"

Chen Baozhu was indeed curious about the matter.

"Sister Wanjun called me last time and said her friend had a relationship problem. She'd fallen for a guy but didn't know whether he liked her, so I suggested that her friend try keeping her distance from him for a while and see how he reacted..."

Xiuxiu perked right up at the subject and launched into an analysis of their situation, practically turning herself into a relationship expert.

Chen Baozhu spent ten minutes listening to Xiuxiu's analysis. Then she asked, puzzled:

"Wanjun, where did this friend of yours come from? Did you just meet her?"

Chen Baozhu knew Wang Siyi all too well. With her cool personality, she didn't have many friends in the entertainment industry or at Xinyi Huyou.

She'd never heard Wang Siyi mention having any especially close friends in Yangcheng, either. A relationship problem was so private—would someone she'd only known for a month really confide in her about it?

"Mm... She's a friend I get along with really well."

"Let's not talk about that. Sister Baozhu, I have some ideas for 'Red Bean.' When we get back, let's find someone to discuss them with..."

Wang Siyi answered Chen Baozhu with some difficulty, then quickly changed the subject. She clearly didn't want Chen Baozhu paying too much attention to the matter.

"Sure. Actually, there's something I wanted to tell you. You know Director Huang Wenchuan, right? He likes the song 'Red Bean' and wants to use it as the theme song for his new movie..."

"Really? That's great!"

Wang Siyi was clearly pleased, too. She'd been worried that New Art wouldn't give her any promotional resources, but now the problem was solved.

Huang Wenchuan's new movie was a promotional draw in itself. If things went well, "Red Bean" could become a hit right away.

"There's one more thing. Director Huang Wenchuan is interested in the person who wrote the lyrics and music for this song. He hopes we can introduce the two of them when the time comes. If there's an opportunity, he'd like this songwriter to write the theme song for his next movie, too."

"Oh, right. The movie's theme song needs the songwriter's authorization, so let me know when you're free to invite your friend to Shanghai. Then we can meet with Director Huang and the others and sign the authorization agreement."

Wang Siyi had been reluctant when Chen Baozhu first said she should introduce Li Changle to Huang Wenchuan. But when she heard about the music authorization, her eyes lit up.

If she invited him over, she'd get to see him, wouldn't she? But Xiuxiu had said to try not contacting him for a while. Should she ask him to come or not?

"When do we have to sign the authorization agreement?"

Wang Siyi asked.

"At the very least, we'll have to wait until you've recorded 'Red Bean' and released it on a music platform."

Chen Baozhu thought it over. They had to record the song first, see how it turned out, and then show it to Huang Wenchuan before signing the authorization agreement.

That meant it would be at least half a month from now. So she wouldn't be able to go a whole month without contacting him first?

In that case... she could wait until half a month from now before she stopped contacting him. That meant she could reach out to him whenever she wanted until then.

Wang Siyi gave herself a pat on the back for her cleverness. She really was brilliant.

That way, she could talk to him every day. Once he got used to chatting with her on WeChat every day, she could suddenly stop replying. Wouldn't he be at a loss?

"Then I'll talk to him about it and see what he says."

Wang Siyi nodded, sounding pleased. She'd get to see him again. How wonderful.

"Wanjun, where did you meet this Li Xiaoyao? How come I've never heard of a songwriter like him in the music industry? I even looked him up, and it seems he hasn't written any other songs besides 'Red Bean.'"

Unable to contain her curiosity, Chen Baozhu asked Wang Siyi directly.

"He's not a professional musician. He just writes for fun. He saw that I was short one song, so he gave it to me."

Wang Siyi replied calmly. That seemed to be exactly what that guy had said.

He wrote for fun? Chen Baozhu was stunned. A casual song from him was a classic on the level of "Red Bean"! Then she thought of something and hurriedly said to Wang Siyi:

"Are you close with him? You need to build a good relationship with him. Judging from this song, he's definitely a songwriting genius. If you get on good terms with him, you'll never have to worry about the songs on your future albums."

Chen Baozhu said this happily. If he was willing to give Wang Siyi a song, they must have a pretty good relationship.

If he could give her one or two songs for every new album, how could Wang Siyi not become a Diva?

But Wang Siyi felt uncomfortable with such a utilitarian motive. He'd written the song for her, and she wasn't getting close to him for his songs.

She frowned and didn't say anything more about it. All she said was, "We'll see," then fell silent.

Two hours after Wang Siyi's flight took off, Li Changle sat in the empty hall, feeling a little unaccustomed to it.

For more than a month, a lovely figure had always been sitting in the spot where he was now.

But Wang Siyi had left. He didn't know how long she'd be gone, and she might never come back. He felt a little bored.

He was tired today, so Li Changle stretched out on the sofa instead of sitting up. Before he knew it, he'd fallen asleep.

He'd gotten up too early that morning and hadn't slept well the night before. When he woke from his nap, he checked the time. It was almost dark, and time to make dinner.

"I'm going to buy groceries. What would you like to eat?"

He called out as usual, then realized no one answered.

Oh, Wang Siyi had already left.

Li Changle sighed, suddenly losing all desire to cook. He picked up his phone.

He was about to order takeout when he saw the WeChat message Wang Siyi had sent that afternoon.

He didn't order takeout. Instead, he replied, "I fell asleep this afternoon and just woke up. I didn't see your message."

After waiting a long while without seeing a reply from Wang Siyi, he gave up on checking WeChat. He ordered some takeout and sat in the hall, staring blankly into space.

He thought of the hug that afternoon and the words Wang Siyi had whispered in his ear.

"Remember to think of me once every day."

Her words still rang in his ears. Her voice had been gentle, but Li Changle's heart wouldn't settle down again.

"You insolent demon! You've thrown my Daoist heart into chaos! I'll cut you down!"

Li Changle drew the Demon Slaying Saber he'd been sharpening for two lifetimes and roared.

He decided to write. He'd work on the saved chapters of The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Before Wang Siyi came along, his life had been very relaxed. It made no sense for him to feel unsettled just because she'd stayed here for two months.

Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

He must have had too much free time and been overthinking things. He just hadn't been working hard enough. He needed to put in extra hours.

So Li Changle decided to start a new book, The Legend of the Condor Heroes, and publish it tomorrow!

It had been quite some time since Legend of Sword and Fairy ended. Readers had been flooding the book's review section every day, urging him to start a new book. Li Changle hadn't checked before, but now he opened the Chinese Web Novel Platform's author dashboard, which he hadn't visited in ages, and took a look at the reviews. Good grief, they were all asking for a new book. He really couldn't let his dear readers down.

The readers couldn't help themselves. Sure, this guy's books had tragic endings, but they were so good! Plenty of readers said they hadn't read a novel this good in ages.

There were no formulaic plots, no leveling up and killing monsters, and no harem or womanizing protagonist. It seemed to avoid every single ingredient online novels needed to become hits.

And yet it was so good, with a setting that made people's eyes light up, a winding and surprising plot, and characters who all felt so real and alive.

Even a minor supporting character like Caiyi had left a deep impression.

And villains like Baiyue had plenty of supporters, too.

Baiyue just wanted everyone to know that the Earth was round and to believe in science. What had he done wrong? The world was the one at fault.

Then there was Elder Shi, a righteous man by any measure. But when it came to Baiyue and Tang Yu Xiaobao's upbringing, he was less a strict father than an extremist.

Because Baiyue killed someone who deserved no mercy, Elder Shi wanted to kill him. That was what planted the seed that would lead Baiyue to destroy the world and rebuild it according to a new order.

Readers might shout, "Screw this! Give us our money back!"

But in truth, they were thinking, "This is so good!"

"What a lovely bunch of readers."

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