"You don't need to tell me about these little things." Shen Jin lowered her head and took small bites of the crayfish Yun Xiaoran had peeled, looking as though she couldn't care less what he did.
"They're for you. I have a mouth ulcer." Yun Xiaoran smiled and opened his mouth to show her why he couldn't eat them, then placed the crayfish he had peeled in front of Shen Jin.
"Why are you suddenly in the mood to peel crayfish for me?" Shen Jin turned to give Yun Xiaoran a curious look, puzzling over it as she chewed the springy crayfish.
"Because I feel guilty about not being able to see you the day after tomorrow, of course." Cooking had improved Yun Xiaoran's withdrawn mood. He lounged on the sofa with his eyes half closed, looking at Shen Jin with renewed interest as he spoke.
As Shen Jin gradually grew accustomed to having Yun Xiaoran in her life, he was growing accustomed to her, too.
"What's there to feel guilty about? I only have twenty days left with you anyway." Shen Jin brought up the divorce again, looking smug, as though she had scored a point.
That's right. Our marriage is only for appearances. I'll be leaving in another month.
Yun Xiaoran nodded thoughtfully at her words, then stood up. "I'll head back to my room. Once you're done eating, I'll wash up..."
Yun Xiaoran hadn't suddenly decided to work hard out of nowhere. What had hurt him most was Li Qingxi saying, "We're no longer people from the same world."
"Even if we only have twenty days, we can still enjoy our time together, can't we?" Seemingly realizing her mistake, Shen Jin hurried to make amends from the sofa, only to make things worse.
She had wanted to chat with Yun Xiaoran a little longer. Even if they couldn't end up together, becoming good friends would have been nice.
"If the ending is the same, what does it matter how beautiful the journey is?" Clearly unwilling to continue the topic, Yun Xiaoran spoke slowly as he rose and headed toward his room.
Watching Yun Xiaoran's retreating back, Shen Jin opened her mouth without making a sound. She seemed to have so much to say, but all she could manage was:
"You're right."
Their dinner conversation ultimately died an abrupt death because of a few unexpected words. What might have been a night of getting to know each other instead became a night of silence.
The editor Kong Bai had signed the novel. The challenge with political bureaucracy fiction was knowing how far to push things. Go too far, and the novel would be banned and its editor punished along with it, possibly even affecting his KPI for the month. Play it too safe, and readers wouldn't buy it, leaving another novel to gather dust in the catalog.
Yet this newly released book by the newcomer Yun Bai had genuinely surprised Kong Bai. It gave just the right amount of detail where it should and only touched lightly on what it shouldn't. The opening alone made it clear this was a good novel.
That was why Kong Bai was also keeping a close eye on the quality of the subsequent chapters.
Since Yun Xiaoran hadn't created the novel himself, he could easily produce at least fifteen thousand characters a day. When Shen Jin wasn't interrupting his routine, he could even write twenty thousand.
During his routine quality check of the books under his care, Kong Bai cut those that needed cutting and raised the rates for those that deserved it. Scrolling with his mouse, he came to Yun Bai's book.
Despite being a new book that had only just entered the bookstore and had a mere fifty thousand characters, it had achieved the staggering feat of ranking first in both bookmarks and tips on the Newcomer Rankings.
This was a new book on a pure revenue-sharing contract, yet it had sparked heated discussion the moment it entered the bookstore:
"This author has what it takes to become a top Platinum author. More chapters, now!"
"Please, author, I'm begging you. Give us one more chapter. I feel like bugs are crawling all over me."
The number-one search term was Wild Rush!
Yun Xiaoran turned on his computer and began writing as usual, opening the fiction website. The top search term was actually his own novel!
Reading the comments, Yun Xiaoran could only marvel at how witty people online were these days.
Motivated by the readers' comments, Yun Xiaoran put the earlier unpleasantness behind him and threw himself into writing. He still needed to free up time for the day after tomorrow.
He was writing twenty thousand characters a day now, and not one character less.
While Yun Xiaoran wrote, Shen Jin's sprained ankle had improved enough after applications of Honghua Oil and ointment that she could walk a little.
Wearing loose pajamas and gray slippers that exposed her toes, she sat on the edge of the bed with an indifferent expression, strands of hair falling beside her temples. She had intended to pass the time on her phone, but her lovely eyes landed on Yun Xiaoran's pillow.
To make things look more convincing and keep Yun Xiaoran's parents from noticing anything amiss, they had taken that pillow from his room.
It lay quietly to the right of Shen Jin's pillow. Hers was pink and white, while Yun Xiaoran's stood out in gray-blue.
Should I take it over now? Shen Jin hesitated. How could she enter Yun Xiaoran's room dressed so lightly?
Besides, it's his pillow. He won't come get it himself, and he expects me to bring it over? Isn't he doing this on purpose? Gazing at the pillow, Shen Jin had already begun a secret contest with Yun Xiaoran in her mind. This was the perfect chance to reclaim the dignity she had lost the last time she got drunk.
Who would enter the other person's room?
Young men and women in love could easily turn a trivial matter into a contest, from who would text first after a cold war to who would bring a gift or enter the other's room. It became a battle with their dignity at stake.
Now, the pillow had become the opening move in that battle!
Although Shen Jin and Yun Xiaoran had no romantic feelings for each other, they were still legally married.
But it all depended on what role Shen Jin assigned herself in this household-a woman hailed as the Top Diva of Chinese Entertainment and the National Goddess, who had been single all her twenty-odd years and now publicly declared that her heart was closed to love.
Your move, Yun Xiaoran!
"My pillow seems to still be in her room." Having finished writing, Yun Xiaoran noticed that one of the two pillows on his bed was missing.
He opened the door.
Seeing that Shen Jin's room on the second floor was still brightly lit, Yun Xiaoran hesitated. Forget it. It's not as though I don't have a pillow.
The pillow was a small matter. Having Shen Jin get the wrong idea would be a much bigger one.
Time for bed.
At eleven, Shen Jin opened her door on the second floor and stared expressionlessly at Yun Xiaoran's door. His lights were already off, which meant he had gone to sleep. He didn't want his pillow back at all...
After closing the door, Shen Jin gazed at Yun Xiaoran's gray-white pillow in her brightly lit room. It still lay quietly on the bed, waiting for its owner.
And, of course, Fu Bao, the cat who rarely made an appearance and shamelessly sided with an outsider, was in Yun Xiaoran's room too...
"Fine. It's not like this is my first time going to his room to look for the cat."
Before you continue