Su Ruo sprang to her feet, hugged herself, and retreated two steps.
Chu Yu was completely stunned. Su Ruo really was a conversation genius.
Also, was she seriously retreating two steps?
Did she really think he was the kind of guy she'd imagined, someone who had feelings for her?
"Ah, haha!" Su Ruo seemed to realize that her instinctive reaction had been a bit over the top.
"Chu Yu, I was just joking. Forget what I said!" Su Ruo sat down again. Her expression had returned to normal, but who knew whether she felt calm inside?
The conversation had already veered in a strange direction, though, and for the moment, the awkward atmosphere wasn't going anywhere.
"Oh, right. Here are your car keys. Last night, I hired a designated driver to take us both home. I'll give the keys back to you now." Chu Yu couldn't think of anything else to say, either.
"Is my car downstairs?" Su Ruo's eyes lit up at that.
"Yeah, that's right!" Chu Yu nodded.
"What, are you planning to drive to work?"
"Of course not!" Su Ruo glanced around.
"Can I borrow an umbrella?" She picked one up from the cabinet, grabbed her car keys, and dashed downstairs.
Three minutes later, Su Ruo came back carrying a bag. Though she'd used an umbrella, she was still half-soaked.
Chu Yu looked at her in confusion. What was going on?
"Can I use your bathroom?" Su Ruo didn't bother explaining.
Holding the bag, she headed straight for the bathroom.
Before long, the sound of running water came from inside.
Judging by the situation, she was taking a shower.
This woman really didn't stand on ceremony!
Chu Yu shook his head. He had nothing else to do, anyway.
He grabbed some tea leaves, put them in the teapot, added water, and turned on the stove.
While the water boiled, he washed the dishes they'd used for breakfast.
By the time Su Ruo finished showering and came out, Chu Yu was already sitting at the table, leisurely sipping tea.
"You really know how to enjoy yourself!"
Su Ruo had changed into a different outfit.
She'd taken off the emerald green skirt and changed into a pure white shirt on top and a black knee-length skirt below.
After eating barbecue last night, Su Ruo had been fed up with the smell of smoke and alcohol clinging to her clothes.
When Chu Yu told her that her car was parked downstairs, she'd realized she could grab a change of clothes she kept in the car and take a shower while she was at it.
Su Ruo poured herself a cup of tea without asking, took a sip, and praised it.
"Excellent tea!"
Suddenly, she seemed to realize something and stared blankly at the teacup in her hand.
After a long moment, she said, "You really are something, young man."
"If you like the tea, you can get it at Yong Hui Supermarket downstairs. It's twenty-five yuan a bag, and there's a pound in each one. That's enough to last half a year." Chu Yu didn't bat an eye.
"But you said I was something. What's so special about me?"
"You really know how to hold a conversation! Do you think I was talking about the tea?" Su Ruo shot him a look.
After a moment, she continued, "We've only known each other for a few weeks, right?"
"Yeah." Chu Yu nodded.
"But it just hit me that even though we've only known each other for a few weeks, I somehow feel a lot less pressure around you."
"At the very least, I wouldn't speak this freely around many friends I've known for years. And I wouldn't feel this comfortable eating and drinking at someone else's home, let alone borrowing their bathroom."
"That's why I said you're something!" Su Ruo looked at Chu Yu, clearly puzzled herself.
Su Ruo thought it over, then said thoughtfully, "Could you be one of those guys they talk about—the kind who can easily get women to lower their guard and trust him, then take advantage of and deceive their innocent feelings? You've got the makings of a scumbag."
Are you insulting me in a roundabout way?
Chu Yu didn't know how to respond to Su Ruo. He almost didn't want to bother with her.
The two fell silent.
Outside the window, the rain stopped.
After eating and drinking her fill, Su Ruo picked up her change of clothes and left Chu Yu's home.
A few minutes later.
Ding!
Chu Yu's phone chimed.
A WeChat transfer notification from Su Ruo popped up.
"Money for last night's meal and the designated driver!"
Before they knew it, The Garden of Words had reached Chapter Five in its serialization on Ink Shadow.
Compared to its third-place reader-vote ranking in the first episode, The Garden of Words had risen to second place in Ink Shadow's rankings by the second episode.
By the third episode, it had taken first place.
And it had stayed in first place for both the fourth and fifth episodes.
In votes, The Garden of Words led the second-place entry by more than double, with over 2,400 votes compared to just over 1,100.
In terms of reader support alone, The Garden of Words had even drawn more votes than several works serialized in Man Ying.
But Ink Shadow and Man Ying couldn't be compared. One had only tens of thousands of readers, while the other had hundreds of thousands.
What's more, over the past few issues, Ink Shadow had changed only one thing—the addition of the new series The Garden of Words—and its sales had risen by nearly ten percent.
Anyone with a keen eye could tell which work was responsible.
Gradually, the name Shui Xin, author of The Garden of Words, was being mentioned more and more by editors at Ink Fish Manga Company.
Even manga artists whose works appeared in other magazines had begun to hear that Ink Shadow had gained a promising newcomer.
Ink Fish Manga Company published dozens of magazines of various sizes, including more than ten dedicated to serialized manga, and it had a large roster of authors.
Still, anyone who could reach the top of the reader-vote rankings in a magazine—and hold that lead by a wide margin—was undeniably talented.
And it wasn't just the manga company.
Shui Xin's name was gradually spreading among students at various schools.
After all, students made up the largest audience for manga.
This was especially true of middle and high school students, since they had developed basic reasoning skills and enough pocket money to buy manga magazines.
Even Chu Yu's class had students talking about the series.
"Liu Jie, don't you like buying Ink Shadow? I've already caught up on the series in Man Ying, Fire Dragon Comics, and Tian Yin Comics. I'm so bored. Could you lend me some of your Ink Shadow issues?"
"I don't mind." Liu Jie was an unremarkable-looking girl with average grades. Like Chu Yu, she was easy to overlook in class.
After she spoke, she pulled a stack of manga magazines from her desk.
"Here are the latest issues of Ink Shadow. Take whichever ones you want!"
"There are so many series in here. Which one's good?" the student borrowing them asked casually.
"Um, personally, I think the best one is a manga called The Garden of Words."
"Let me see. Yeah, if you want to read it, start with Ink Shadow issue 396. That's where the first episode of The Garden of Words was published."
The speaker hadn't meant anything by it, but the listener took notice.
Chu Yu, sitting in the back row, glanced at his two classmates. He was naturally happy that people in class were discussing his work, but he didn't want them to know he was drawing manga.
That would only bring trouble.
His original reason for drawing manga had been to read more works from the Different Dimension, and making a little money on the side was a bonus.
Compared to becoming a famous manga artist and running into crowds of fans wherever he went, he preferred staying unnoticed, quietly drawing manga at home in his own little corner, where no one paid him any attention.
So he only glanced at the two classmates for three seconds before turning away and going back to sleep with his head on his desk.
But Qin Qianyv, sitting in the front row, couldn't shake the feeling that she recognized the words The Garden of Words when she heard Liu Jie mention them behind her.
As a top student, she had a good memory.
It took her only a minute to remember why the title sounded familiar.
Wasn't that the name of the manga she'd found in Chu Yu's desk over a month ago, when she'd asked him for some notes?
She'd only managed to read a little before Chu Yu had driven her off with a few words.
Qin Qianyv remembered that incident vividly.
"Excuse me!"
While Liu Jie and the student borrowing the manga chatted happily, Qin Qianyv turned around and interrupted them.
"Could I borrow that issue 396 of Ink Shadow?"
"Um, sure." Liu Jie paused, then readily agreed.
Qin Qianyv picked up the magazine and followed the table of contents to the pages for The Garden of Words.
She opened it.
The familiar scene greeted her: a pavilion in the rain, with a boy and a woman inside.
And the familiar short poem in the manga.
Qin Qianyv turned around and looked at Chu Yu, who hadn't spoken more than ten words to her in the two months since school started.
He was making up for lost sleep during break.
It really was that series.
How could this be?
Could it be that Chu Yu had submitted the series to Ink Shadow, and they'd accepted it?
Before you continue