Ark Simulator, Aren't I Intangible?

Xi's hand paused. She looked down at Su Rui, who was fast asleep on her lap. His newly grown dragon horns gleamed softly in the sunset, and the smile from when the photo was taken still lingered on his lips.

"... I need to review the script first." Finally, she whispered, "Delete all intimate scenes."

Nian grinned, triumphantly raising his teacup. "Deal!"

That night, when she sent the rough cut to Xi for "review," she never expected to receive three whole pages of revisions, let alone that Xi would secretly back up all the footage to her private Painted World —including the cut "outtakes."

At the heart of this Scroll World, a new scene is taking shape: a miniature film museum, its inaugural exhibition titled "The Birth of a Dragonkin Movie Star." The introduction at the entrance reads:

He may not be the best actor, but he's mine.

... Then, after some time, the video was released, and the reviews were received.

"Terrible! Another terrible movie!" Nian's roar nearly shattered the glass doors of the Rhodes Island entertainment room. Waving a stack of newly delivered film review newspapers, her dragon horns gleaming a dangerous red with rage, she shouted, "Do these people even know what artistic innovation is?!"

Inside the entertainment room, Xi was comfortably nestled on the sofa, her tail wrapped around Su Rui's waist, while the screen in front of her displayed the audience comment section for "Furnace Welcomes the Year". In stark contrast to Nian's rage, a rare smile played on her lips.

"This is well-written," Xi said, pointing to a comment. "'The worst director of the year has encountered a once-in-a-millennium amateur actor. I suggest Ms. Nian let Su Rui improvise next time, don't waste such a promising talent.'"

Su Rui leaned closer to the screen with curiosity, her nose almost touching the light. "Huh? Was my acting really that good? Everyone says I'm the 'only highlight of the whole movie'..."

"Because they have good taste." Xi casually ruffled his hair, the gesture as natural as if she'd done it her whole life. "As for Nian's part..." She glanced at her sister, who was still hopping mad in the hallway, "... a very fair assessment."

Nian burst into the room, his tail sweeping over a row of magazine shelves. "Little Su! We need to hold a press conference to clarify! It's clearly because you followed my instructions that you were able to act so well!"

Before Su Rui could answer, Xi sneered, "Guidance? Your so-called guidance is 'imagining yourself as an overcooked rice cake'?"

"That's method acting!" Nian argued, squeezing onto the sofa and making room between the two of them. "Look at this fight scene! Without my special effects design, would his dragon form be so majestic?"

The screen was playing a clip of Su Rui transforming into a dragon and soaring into the sky—it was indeed magnificent and spectacular, but the next scene was him suddenly starting a rap duel with the villain, the lines of which were so awkward that Su Rui himself covered his face.

"I said this part was illogical back then..." he muttered to himself.

Xi's tail wagged happily. "The audience seems to really 'like' this part." She deliberately clicked on a highly-rated comment. "'When I saw the Dragonkin rap, I laughed so hard the audience next to me called the police. How did Su Rui manage to keep a serious face? So cute!'"

Nian, puffing out her cheeks, seized control and flipped to the box office page. "At least we made it into the top ten in our opening week! And..." she narrowed her eyes, "Su Rui's fan club already has over ten thousand members."

This number made Su Rui choke on her tea. "What club?"

"You don't know?" Nian quickly opened a community called "Su Rui's Dragon Scale Research Society," and the homepage was filled with various screenshots of him from the movie—some even photoshopped with cat ears or bow ties. "Look! Someone even wrote a 20,000-word analysis of the arrangement of your tail scales!"

Xi suddenly sat up straight, her tail unconsciously tightening. "Where did this photo come from?" She pointed to a photo that was clearly taken on set, showing Su Rui sleeping, her dragon horns gleaming softly in the sunlight.

"Wow~" the young man chuckled mischievously, "Is someone jealous?"

Xi threw a cushion at him, but the tips of his ears were already red. Su Rui quickly tried to smooth things over. "These are all movie scenes... wait, this isn't!" He was surprised to see a casual photo of himself in the Rhodes Island corridor.

Nian quickly switched the page. "Ahem! In short, the audience response has been enthusiastic! I'm already preparing for the sequel, and this time Su Rui will definitely be the male lead!"

"Don't even think about it." Xi refused decisively.

"Double the pay!"

"No."

"Let's add a cameo scene featuring you!"

"... Let me see the script."

Su Rui watched the two haggling, both amused and exasperated, while his various emojis continued to play automatically on the screen. The most popular one was the moment he accidentally tripped over a prop sword during filming, captioned "Disqualification of the Dragonkin," and had already been shared over 10,000 times.

"Should I issue a statement or something...?" he asked tentatively.

Xi and Nian turned to look at him at the same time, then said in unison, "No need!"

"Keep it mysterious!" Nian explained excitedly, "The audience loves your naturally naive charm!"

"Keep your profile down." Xi was even more direct, pulling him closer with her tail. "Just look at things online."

Finally, she was called away by a producer's phone call. Before leaving, she secretly took a picture of the two people on the sofa—Xi was teaching Su Rui how to block keywords, while Su Rui's tail was unconsciously wrapped around her wrist. This photo later became a famous sweet moment in the fan circle, titled "Feeding".

Volume 9, Chapter 553: The Little Movie

When the room finally quieted down, Su Rui leaned against Xi's shoulder, relaxing. "Actually... I'm quite happy."

"Because of being praised?" Xi turned off the screen, her fingers unconsciously playing with the ends of his hair.

"Because we're watching these together." Su Rui looked up, meeting Xi's lowered gaze. "You never cared about what others thought before."

Xi was silent for a moment, then suddenly gently bit his dragon horn. "... Shut up."

This was her way of saying, "I'm happy too, but I don't want to admit it." Su Rui was already familiar with this code and smiled as she nuzzled her cheek.

Outside the window, the Rhodes Island sunset cast their shadows on the wall, overlapping with the movie poster frozen on the screen—the poster, which insisted on using the exaggerated font of the previous year, proclaimed "Blockbuster of the Year," while the audience covered the director's name with stickers and wrote "Only see the Su Rui version" next to it.

Watching this scene, Xi suddenly felt that occasionally checking external opinions... wasn't so bad after all. At least now, she had a new, legitimate reason to keep Su Rui by her side.

"Oh, right," Su Rui suddenly remembered something, "The sequel that Sister Nian mentioned..."

"Don't even think about it." Xi said decisively.

But that very evening, when the new script outline was secretly sent over, Xi still opened the file. The cover read "Legend of Ink Souls: Dragon in the Painting," and the screenwriter section prominently featured "Special Consultant: Xi."

"Action!"

As the clapperboard sounded, Xi stood stiffly in front of the camera, feeling as if the scales on her body were about to stand on end. She was wearing a costume—a modified dark-colored cheongsam with a slit revealing the same scale pattern as Su Rui's —this was the limit of her compromise.

"Words! Words!" Nian jumped up and down behind the monitor. "Xiao Xi, you should be reciting your lines now!"

Xi took a deep breath and mechanically recited, "'Ever since I met you by the lava lake, my dragon core has never been whole...' What kind of nonsense is this! What is a dragon core? And you die if your heart breaks!"

A hush fell over the set. The makeup artist hid behind the prop box, and the lighting technician pretended to adjust the equipment. Everyone knew the consequences of challenging the director's authority—except for Xi.

"Artistic embellishment! Don't you understand artistic embellishment?!" Nian charged at him, waving the script. "You need to express that... that feeling of your soul being torn apart!"

"I feel like my IQ has been ripped apart," Xi replied coldly, slapping the ground in frustration with her tail.

Just then, Su Rui walked out of the dressing room. He was playing a Dragonkin scholar who had lost his memory, and his appearance was much more refined than in the previous movie—silver threads were wrapped around his dragon horns, and his robes were embroidered with faint star maps.

Seeing the two locked in a stalemate, he trotted over, his tail wagging happily behind him.

"What happened? Did I miss my turn to enter?"

Nian's expression instantly brightened. "Perfect! Let me demonstrate to your wife what professional acting looks like!"

"Who's his wife!" Xi's dragon scales exploded, but Su Rui had already naturally stood beside her. Their horns accidentally touched, producing a pleasant resonance.

"Wow!" Nian's ears perked up. "That's great! Script supervisor! Write this down! Add a scene with corner resonance!"

Xi was about to object when Su Rui gently touched her finger. "Give it a try? Just think of it as playing along with me." His eyes shone with a rare gold under the special effects lights, like some kind of mineral pigment that Xi loved most. "I promise I'll revise your lines after this scene is filmed."

Xi's tail unconsciously hooked onto Su Rui's. She turned her face away, her voice barely audible. "... Whatever."

And so, filming resumed. Surprisingly, when Su Rui stood opposite her, looking at her with that focused gaze, Xi's performance suddenly became natural.

She no longer memorized the awkward lines from the previous year, but interpreted the role in her own way—when the script required her to be "tearful," she changed it to slightly trembling dragon horns; when she needed to "make a heartfelt confession," she used her tail to draw ancient Dragonkin runes on the ground.

"Cut! Perfect!" Nian jumped up in surprise, "I knew you two had chemistry!"

Xi gave a soft hum, but didn't deny it. She noticed that Su Rui's ear tips were red—someone who was usually so lively was actually more shy than her when filming intimate scenes. This discovery made Xi inexplicably happy.

During lunch break, the two hid in the dressing room to share the lunchbox Xi had brought. Su Rui curiously flipped through the script. "Sister Nian changed tomorrow's main scene, adding a double dragon dance..."

"I saw it." Xi picked up a piece of fish and stuffed it into his mouth. "At least it makes more sense than the original 'lava love token'."

Su Rui chewed her food, something suddenly occurred to her. "Speaking of which, have you ever drawn a double dragon theme?"

"Of course," Xi answered subconsciously, "<Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl>, <Cloud Dragons Gathering>... etc." She narrowed her eyes, "You wouldn't be thinking of..."

"Replace the designs from that year with those classic moves!" Su Rui excitedly grabbed her hand. "She doesn't understand real Dragonkin aesthetics anyway!"

Xi pondered for a moment, then suddenly revealed a rare sly smile. She pulled out a sheet of Xuan paper and quickly sketched several poses of two dragons interacting—elegant, noble, and full of the understated beauty of ancient East Asia. "These... are indeed much better than the 'triple axe in the air' designed by Nian."

That afternoon, when she saw the sample video of the "Double Dragons Dancing" designed by the two of them, her jaw almost dropped to the ground.

In the footage, the figures of two dragons appear and disappear in the sea of clouds, and every contact between their horns and tails creates ripples of light, more stunning than any special effects.

"... Okay." Nian reluctantly admitted, "This part can be used. But the lines still have to be from the script!"

Xi frowned, and Su Rui whispered in her ear, "It's okay, we can add voice-over later."

Filming lasted for two whole weeks. Xi gradually found her rhythm—during the day she reluctantly complied with Nian's exaggerated demands, and at night when she returned to the Scroll World, she would immediately "remake" the day's scenes into a version that satisfied her.

She even created a separate subworld specifically to store these "director's cuts," which she named <The Real Footage>.

On the day filming wrapped, Nian opened champagne to celebrate. Xi took a symbolic sip and retreated to a corner, but Su Rui pulled her into the group photo.

"Smile~" Su Rui nuzzled her lightly with her corner of her hand, a gesture that had become their secret signal. "Think about watching our own movies at home someday."

Xi couldn't help but smile. The photographer captured this moment perfectly—a precious image of the usually aloof painter being amused by Xiaolong. This photo later became a movie poster, captioned "For whom does the thousand-year-old frost melt?"

That night, in the Scroll World.

Xi Shu nestled comfortably on the specially made viewing couch, her tail wrapped around Su Rui's waist. The water screen in front of her was playing her meticulously reconstructed version of "The Legend of Ink Souls"—without the exaggerated special effects of "Year," without awkward lines, only the genuine interaction between two dragons amidst the mountains and rivers.

"Here..." Xi pointed to one section, "I changed the background to your favorite starry night."

Su Rui looked at herself in the video dancing under the Milky Way, her dragon horns leaving glittering star trails in their wake. "This is so much more beautiful than Sister Nian's version!"

"Of course," Xi said proudly, raising her head. "I even added this part."

A scene that wasn't in the script appeared on the water screen—two dragons coiled atop a mountain, together creating a long ink-wash scroll. This was behind-the-scenes footage that Xi secretly filmed, and after her artistic processing, it became the most moving part of the entire film.

Su Rui suddenly turned around and hugged Xi: "How about we make one every year from now on?"

"Dream on." Xi immediately refused, but her tail tugged even tighter, "... unless Nian can write a decent script."

The light from the water curtain shone on the two of them, casting their shadows on the wall and overlapping with the image of the two dragons in the movie. In this world completely controlled by Xi, there are no bad movies, no exaggerated directors, only her and her dragons, and countless moments worth treasuring.

Volume 9, Chapter 554: Drinking?

As a result, after filming the movie, Nian did not take Su Rui and Xi to the party.

So... there was no family gathering at all?

Xi's voice turned dangerously low, and the tip of her tail tapped rhythmically on the ground—a prelude to her anger.

The three were standing on Rhodes Island's helipad, where the small Rhodes Island aircraft had already warmed up.

Nian waved her hand dismissively. "Details aren't important~ The important thing is to introduce Little Su to the family!" She put her arm around Su Rui's shoulder, "First stop, eldest sister, that is, your older sister! I guarantee it'll be fun!"

Su Rui blinked curiously. "It's that... the Wine Fairy Sister?"

"A drunkard," Xi Lengleng corrected, "She could pickle you in a jar of liquor."

The aircraft landed in a small mountain town on the border of Yan. From the air, there was a house surrounded by peach trees on the mountainside. Strangely, even though it was the height of summer, the peach blossoms there were in full bloom.

"Your sister's ' Drunken Peach Grove '," Nian explained, ""The wine she brews can alter the local climate."

As soon as they stepped into the courtyard, the rich aroma of wine wafted towards them. Su Rui's dragon scales immediately turned pink, like the face of a slightly tipsy person.

In the stone pavilion in the center of the courtyard, a woman in blue was drinking heartily, her long hair casually tied up, a few strands of it clinging to her cheeks with wine stains. Hearing footsteps, she lazily raised her eyes—

"Oh, a rare guest." Ling's voice was like silk soaked in wine, husky yet soft. "Xiao Nian brought her boyfriend back?"

"It's Xi's!" Nian laughed, shoving Su Rui forward. "A freshly baked Dragonkin prince!"

Xi immediately pulled Su Rui behind her. "Sister Ling, you've been drinking during the day again."

Ling shook the white jade cup in her hand. "If you don't drink during the day, are you waiting for the moon to rise to quench your thirst?" Her gaze fell on Su Rui, and suddenly lit up, "This little friend... a newborn dragon?"

Before Xi could answer, Ling had already floated over—she really did "float," her toes barely touching the ground. Before Su Rui could react, a glass of amber liquid was shoved into her hand.

"The first rule of the family," Ling's breath carried the intoxicating scent of wine, "Is to drink three cups upon entering."

Xi was about to stop him when Su Rui tilted his head back and drank it all. The moment the liquid entered his throat, he seemed to see thousands of peach blossoms blooming before his eyes, and dragon horns appeared uncontrollably, their tips turning a lovely pink.

"Good wine!" he blurted out, then swayed, only to be caught by Xi.

Ling laughed with satisfaction, "Good taste! Much better than that girl who can't hold her liquor!" She then magically produced two more cups, "Xiao Xi, are you joining us too?"

"No..."

"What's there to be afraid of?" Nian, already sitting comfortably on the stone bench, said, "If you get drunk, let your little dragon carry you home~"

Fifteen minutes later, the situation was completely out of control.

Xi curled up in Su Rui's arms, suspicious steam rising from her head, her entire dragon as red as a boiled shrimp—she had only taken a sip of Ling's special brew "Peach Blossom" and had become like this.

"Su Rui..." she mumbled sleepily, nuzzling against Su Rui's neck, "Your horns... are beautiful..."

Nian slammed his fist on the table and laughed wildly, "Hahaha! Xi's alcohol tolerance is still so poor!"

Ling and Nian had already started their second round of drinking games, exchanging poems in the ancient language of the Dragonkin, with Ling drinking a cup after each loss. The peach blossoms in the courtyard bloomed and faded with their drinking game, like the seasons in fast-forward.