Weekend

After figuring out the reward the system had given him, Chu Yu left the System Space.

Although he'd earned a Lucky Draw Chance for a B-Class Work, he wasn't planning to use it right away.

Even Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal had only reached the halfway point. If he drew another work now, he'd be making himself even busier!

Chu Yu took a deep breath and glanced at the pitch-black sky outside the window. He wasn't sleepy anymore. Instead, he was starting to feel hungry.

At six thirty in the morning, Zhao Qinyin woke up right on time.

Years of habit had trained her body clock to wake her automatically at that hour.

Beside her, Su Ruo had spent the whole night clinging to her like an octopus, gravitating toward wherever it was warm.

Perhaps the noise Zhao Qinyin made getting out of bed had woken Su Ruo. She sat up groggily too.

Su Ruo looked at the pitch-black sky outside. She still wanted to go back to sleep, but seeing that even Zhao Qinyin was already up, she felt too embarrassed to keep lazing around.

When they opened the bedroom door, they were surprised to find that Chu Yu had gotten up even earlier than they had. A pot of steaming porridge was already on the table. After cooking and eating, Chu Yu had even started putting the finishing touches on Chapter Nine of Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal at his work desk.

"You're up too?" Chu Yu glanced at them.

Zhao Qinyin looked as cool and composed as ever. Su Ruo, on the other hand, was clearly still half asleep.

"I got hungry earlier, so I cooked something simple. There's plenty left. If you're hungry, have some for breakfast!"

Half an hour later, after finishing their breakfast and washing the dishes, the two of them noticed that Chu Yu had also finished working.

Now that Chu Yu and Zhao Qinyin worked together with increasing ease, their manga production had gotten faster and faster. If Su Ruo hadn't dragged them out to celebrate with drinks yesterday, they would have finished Chapter Nine of Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal last night.

But they weren't late. Su Ruo wasn't due to submit the chapter to Mo Yu until Monday, and it was only Saturday.

Once he'd finished working, Chu Yu neatly organized the pages and handed them to Su Ruo.

This time, however, Su Ruo didn't just give the work a casual glance before accepting it. Instead, she carefully turned through Chapter Nine, page by page.

Chu Yu and Zhao Qinyin were the least troublesome team she'd ever managed in all her years in the industry.

They'd never missed a deadline because of a lack of inspiration, and she never had to discuss the story's direction with Chu Yu. How to make the story exciting, how to arrange the panels to give the images more impact—Chu Yu seemed like a born genius who'd taught himself everything.

But this chapter was different. Su Ruo had already known the story of the first eight chapters from the serialization meetings. After all, she'd carefully read all nine chapters' worth of manga storyboards at the time, even though only eight installments had actually been serialized in Man Ying.

Starting with this chapter, even she had no idea what would happen next.

So Su Ruo read it with particular care...

After a long while, she let out a deep breath.

To be honest, the cliffhanger at the end of Chu Yu's ninth storyboard had been driving her crazy for two whole months.

That chapter had ended just as Xuedai Ba remembered that her fiancé had died in Kyoto. Su Ruo had a vivid imagination, and the first possibility that came to mind was... He'd died in Kyoto—could Kenshin have killed him?

Sure enough!

In Chapter Nine, Xuedai Ba's brother found her. From their conversation, along with the foreshadowing in the earlier chapters and Xuedai Ba's words to Kenshin that night—that she'd come to Kyoto because of the way her fiancé had died there—the answer became clear.

Thinking back to the first chapter, when Kenshin appeared and killed a samurai with a sword through the throat, the man had cried out "Ba" just before he died...

The conclusion was obvious: Kenshin was the one who'd killed Xuedai Ba's fiancé.

But now, after pretending to be husband and wife for so long, the two had grown attached to each other. What would happen next?

One cliffhanger ended, and another began.

Every chapter of this work ended at the most exciting moment.

Su Ruo looked at Chu Yu. Was this his talent?

Not only was he good at drawing manga; he was good at cliffhangers too.

After reading the chapter, though, Su Ruo finally felt her worries ease.

At first, she'd been a little concerned that the story might lose steam. But the opposite was true.

She could feel that the story was about to reach a climax.

It was now the first week of January, and Chapter Seven of Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal had begun the work's Third Section, Yoshioka.

All four chapters serialized in January covered this section.

Yesterday, thanks to the strength of Chapter Seven, Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal had climbed to the top of Man Ying's rankings.

But if Chu Yu wanted to compete for a place in the Dragon Star Award, he needed to secure first place in the weekly Popularity Poll three times out of the four weeks this month.

Otherwise, if it only won first place last night and Tian Shu posed no threat, then either Secret Girl or Magic Realm would inevitably take first place twice over the next three weeks. By then, Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal would be much further from qualifying for the Dragon Star Award.

But if Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal only took first place in the Popularity Poll twice, and Magic Realm or Secret Girl also won first place in the remaining two weeks, the score would be tied two to two. By convention, the work by the more established author would be chosen to compete. And in terms of seniority, how could Chu Yu compare with Dong Yun or Shen Xin?

So, after winning first place once in the first week, Chu Yu needed Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal to win the Popularity Poll twice more over the next three weeks to secure a place in the Dragon Star Award.

To make that happen, the quality of his upcoming chapters was crucial.

The eighth chapter, due out next week, and the ninth and tenth chapters, due out in two and three weeks, had to be exciting. They absolutely couldn't spend that stretch on transitional chapters.

But judging by what she'd just read, it seemed Su Ruo had worried for nothing.

"So, have you got any ideas for Chapter Ten's storyboard?" Zhao Qinyin asked.

The weekend was coming up, and as usual, the two of them would spend both days drawing manga instead of going to school.

In fact, they did half of their weekly manga work over the weekend.

"Let's take this weekend off," Chu Yu said, shaking his head.

"Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal has been serialized for almost two months now. We haven't taken a single day off. Every day, it's school and manga; on weekends, it's nothing but manga. I think we should take this weekend off and rest for two days. We can get back to it next week." Chu Yu looked at Zhao Qinyin.

"You must be tired too, right?"

"I..." Zhao Qinyin thought it over, then finally nodded.

She didn't feel tired, but it had been a long time since she'd spent time with her grandmother.

"All right..." Zhao Qinyin said.