Outside the Barbecue Restaurant.
"Hello, is this Kyushu Designated Driving?"
"Uh-huh, yes, this is..."
In the car.
"Hey, little brother, is that your girlfriend? Impressive..."
"Big brother, what are you thinking? I'm just a student. She's my older sister!"
It was nearly one in the morning when Chu Yu struggled to carry the drunk Su Ruo, limp as a rag doll, up to his second-floor home.
Chu Yu had also asked the designated driver to park Su Ruo's car in a spot downstairs.
Chu Yu lived alone, but luckily, he cleaned regularly, so the Guest Room was still quite neat and tidy.
After carrying Su Ruo to the bed, taking off her shoes, and covering her with a blanket, Chu Yu was so exhausted he nearly collapsed. Drunk people were really heavy.
Su Ruo's face was still red, and it looked like the alcohol hadn't worn off at all.
He had just gotten her settled when her head tilted, and she slipped off the pillow.
"You're a terrible sleeper." Chu Yu was at a loss for words.
He bent down to put her head back on the pillow so she wouldn't wake up with a stiff neck.
The moment his hand touched the side of Su Ruo's face, Chu Yu saw a dark shadow rapidly loom larger.
Thud!
A dull sound rang through the room.
Chu Yu crashed heavily onto his back.
"Stay away from me, you disgusting pervert, Song Jiayu! You eunuch! You twisted bastard! Even if every man in the world died, I still wouldn't go out with you..."
Su Ruo suddenly sat up in bed, wildly swinging her fists at the air in front of her and shouting with her eyes closed...
Chu Yu was completely stunned. Only the pain in his face told him what had happened!
Poor Chu Yu. He'd only been trying to help her with the pillow, but she'd suddenly sat up and headbutted him. Then she'd flailed her fists around in Wild Punches, landing one blow on his nose, one on his left cheek, and two on his right.
"W-what kind of person is this?!" Chu Yu had been hit in the nose, and tears welled in his eyes.
"She's a terrible sleeper, and she's awful when she's drunk, too. Whoever marries her is in for a lifetime of bad luck!"
Su Ruo shouted for about half a minute, then suddenly threw herself backward and collapsed. Her breathing soon grew even.
After all that flailing, she'd kicked off the blanket, and one strap of her dress had slipped down to her arm. She lay sprawled across the bed.
Chu Yu hadn't wanted to bother with her anymore, but he was still worried she'd catch a cold.
He fought through the pain in his face, turned his eyes away, and did his best not to look at anything he shouldn't. Then he picked up the blanket and carefully covered her, keeping an eye out in case she started swinging her fists again. He let out a long sigh.
What kind of editor had he gotten himself mixed up with? Weren't manga editors supposed to help manga artists solve their problems?
Why was he the one who had to drink with her, eat with her, and get beaten up by her?
Su Ruo slept soundly, but her blows had chased the last traces of drunkenness from Chu Yu's mind. His face throbbed, and he had no idea when he'd be able to fall asleep.
Chu Yu shook his head, turned off the light, and left the room.
The next morning.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky. It was as if a hole had opened above them, and torrential rain poured down without pause.
Thunder and rain roared without end!
Su Ruo furrowed her brows as consciousness slowly returned.
"Ow... My head... My head hurts!"
"Where... am I?"
Su Ruo's heart lurched. She hurriedly looked around, then checked to make sure her clothes were intact.
"Thank goodness..."
Su Ruo let out a long breath.
A pair of slippers sat beside the bed.
A faint aroma of food filled the air.
Grrr!
Her stomach was protesting.
Su Ruo got out of bed and opened the door.
In the living room, Chu Yu was busy making breakfast.
Two bowls of noodles, served with stir-fried shredded pork, cabbage, and bean sprouts, plus a fried egg and a cup of warm milk.
"Impressive, kid!" Su Ruo had now remembered having dinner and drinks with Chu Yu the night before.
If so, then this had to be Chu Yu's home!
She wasn't at all embarrassed that Chu Yu had looked after her when she got drunk. She walked right over to the table and picked up a bowl of noodles.
Time to eat!
This woman really had no sense of propriety.
Su Ruo must have been starving. She ate the whole bowl without saying a word.
Then she downed the entire cup of warm milk in one gulp.
Like she'd been starving for ages.
Chu Yu watched from across the table, speechless.
Still, he had to admit that the same eating habits might seem a little uncouth coming from an ordinary girl.
But on Su Ruo, they somehow looked kind of cute. Maybe that was the effect of being good-looking.
When Su Ruo finished, she gave Chu Yu an approving look and glanced around the room.
"Not bad, kid. Your place is clean, and you're a great cook. Whoever marries you will be living the dream!"
Pfft!
Chu Yu spat out a mouthful of milk and stared at Su Ruo!
Were you trying to flirt with me?
As soon as the words left Su Ruo's mouth, she realized how they sounded. Her face turned a little red, and she didn't say anything more on the subject.
Su Ruo checked her phone. It was already 9:20 in the morning.
"Wow, it's already this late?"
"Chu Yu, don't you have class?"
Chu Yu looked at Su Ruo and replied irritably,
"You got drunk at my place. I couldn't very well leave you alone, so I'm skipping class today!"
"What about you? Why aren't you in a hurry?"
"It's past nine, but being late is still better than skipping work, right?"
Su Ruo looked completely unconcerned.
"You can skip class, so why can't I skip work? I'll just write up a report saying I went out to discuss a manga's plot with an artist and hand it in. I doubt they'll dock my pay."
"Come to think of it, we've chatted on WeChat lots of times, but we've only met in person when you first came to our company and yesterday."
"If I remember right, you skipped class both times! Your parents..."
Su Ruo's gaze had been wandering around the room, but now it finally landed on the memorial portraits of a young couple in Chu Yu's living room. Her words abruptly stopped.
The atmosphere grew awkward.
Su Ruo was quick-witted, though, and forcefully changed the subject.
"No wonder you were able to create a work like The Garden of Words."
"What do you mean?" Chu Yu asked, confused.
"Think about it! The male lead in The Garden of Words is a high school student who likes to skip class on rainy days and dreams of becoming a shoemaker."
"You're a high school student, too. You like to skip class, and you dream of becoming a manga artist."
"So the male lead in The Garden of Words is based on you..."
"Huh?" Chu Yu's mouth fell open.
Hey, hey, weren't you reading way too much into it and forcing the comparison? I'd only copied the original from the system. How did you manage to read so much into it?
"What's the matter? Can't think of a reply?"
Su Ruo looked smug.
"If the male lead, Qiu Yue, in The Garden of Words is based on you, the author, then that means the things that happen to Qiu Yue in the manga are things you'd want to happen to you!"
"I never expected you to be this kind of person, kid!" Su Ruo teased Chu Yu.
"I... What kind of person do you think I am?" Chu Yu found it a little funny.
"Think about it. The male lead likes the heroine, Yukino, who's several years older than him in the manga..."
"Didn't I tell you? The things that happen to the male lead are really things you want to happen to you!"
"From that, I can tell you're actually a Sister Complex!"
Cough, cough, cough!
Chu Yu nearly choked. What did that even have to do with anything?
Your imagination was way too wild!
Su Ruo continued.
The boy across from her looked so flustered that she found it incredibly amusing. She couldn't resist teasing him!
"Let me think. Since Yukino is the heroine, that means everything about her reflects your fantasies about the women you're attracted to."
"And all the key scenes throughout the story take place in the rain."
"The male lead, Qiu Yue, confesses to the heroine, Yukino, on a rainy day."
"That means that, to you, a rainy day is the perfect backdrop for a confession."
"A boy skipping class on a rainy day..."
"Meeting a beautiful woman who's skipping work on a rainy day because she's having a hard time at her job..."
"The two meet and fall for each other..."
The more Su Ruo said, the more something seemed off, but she couldn't figure out what.
Then she noticed the strange look in Chu Yu's eyes, along with the patter of rain and the deafening thunder outside.
It finally clicked.
A boy skipping class on a rainy day...
A beautiful woman skipping work because she's miserable at her job on a rainy day...
Rainy weather...
Why did it sound more and more like her and Chu Yu?
Before you continue