Adaptation doesn't mean making things up

Chu Ge thought he was hearing things.

The female lead had stepped out of his book?

And she had held a sword to the author's neck, threatening him not to write her falling in love with the male lead...

Had too much masturbation messed up his head and sent him into a psychotic episode?

But the door was firmly shut, and he hadn't heard it open or close. She had simply appeared behind him out of nowhere...

How on earth had she gotten here?

Calling her a burglar who had sneaked in made even less sense. What burglar broke into someone's home to demand revisions to a novel? A master hacker deciding his writing was garbage, hacking his computer, and writing it for him would have been more logical than this!

Besides, this woman was far too beautiful...

Chu Ge had thought Gu Ruoyan was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in real life. Yet mere hours later, the woman before him had shattered that belief. Her looks were one thing, but her bearing was truly hard to describe. Though her glare was fierce, she seemed strangely ethereal and dreamlike, giving him the illusion that she might ascend at any moment and merge with the rosy clouds.

Could anyone in the modern world have that kind of presence?

Her looks, her bearing, even her clothes matched the descriptions in his book perfectly. Where could anyone find a woman like this to cosplay for him?

Had she really come out of the book?

But he wasn't some immortal. How could he have made the world in his book real?

At least he was a writer accustomed to roaming through all sorts of imaginary worlds, which gave him a relatively high tolerance for bizarre events. Chu Ge managed not to become completely incoherent and said with some difficulty, "Let's talk this through. Could you put the sword down first...?"

Qiu Wuji stared at his neck, her expression shifting as unknown thoughts passed through her mind. Then the sword suddenly vanished into thin air. "I don't need a sword to kill you."

Chu Ge: "..."

Never mind not needing a sword. If you're really Qiu Wuji, you're a powerhouse on the verge of ascension. Your aura alone could kill me...

But the feeling she's giving me... the pressure isn't that overwhelming...

Or is that just because she doesn't want to kill anyone?

"Get up!" Qiu Wuji lifted Chu Ge out of his chair like a chick, then took his seat for herself.

Then...

She got stuck.

Chu Ge stood to one side with his hands tucked together, watching sidelong as those flawless, delicate fingers hovered above the keyboard. She paused for ages, unable to type the words she wanted.

"Are you... trying to write it yourself?" Chu Ge finally couldn't resist asking.

If she really was Qiu Wuji, having the female lead personally write her own actions would be quite an amusing experience... Chu Ge really wanted to see how this would play out.

This was literally handing her the pen and telling her to write it herself.

Qiu Wuji fell silent for a moment, then lightly pressed a finger against the keyboard.

Bzzzt... A strange electrical sound came from the USB port.

Qiu Wuji frowned and withdrew her hand.

Chu Ge: "...Don't tell me you're injecting spiritual energy into it to analyze how this magical artifact works..."

Qiu Wuji: "..."

Now Chu Ge genuinely believed she was Qiu Wuji. Could a normal person have done that?

After an awkward silence, Qiu Wuji finally spoke. "How do you use this magical artifact? Why can I sense no spiritual energy circulating within it...? The electrical energy here seems unrelated to your words. How do you enter words into this crystal screen?"

Chu Ge's cheek twitched.

I can't explain that to you. I'm just a lowly humanities guy...

He thought for a moment, then said cautiously, "Tell me what you want to write, and I'll type it."

He also wanted to test what exactly was going on... If he wove the female lead's future according to her own wishes, what would change?

Qiu Wuji turned to look at Chu Ge, a little surprised. "You were bewildered and panicking earlier. You've calmed down quickly."

Chu Ge smiled. "Anyone would panic with a sword at their throat. I'm not a cultivator who's waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood like you-if you really are Qiu Wuji."

Qiu Wuji asked, "Why aren't you panicking now?" "Because panicking won't help... Right now, I want to figure out what's going on even more than you do." Chu Ge reached out and tapped the keyboard, checking that it still worked. "Go on. What do you want me to write?"

Qiu Wuji studied him again, then said without hesitation, "Write that I gain sudden enlightenment and ascend, breaking through the barrier between mortals and immortals."

"I don't think that'll work, because it violates the world's fundamental rules. If I wrote that an ordinary mortal suddenly ascended, that couldn't happen either."

Qiu Wuji understood what Chu Ge meant and narrowed her eyes slightly. "Under your rules, I cannot ascend?"

Sensing the killing intent beneath Qiu Wuji's anger, Chu Ge hurried to explain. "You can't suddenly ascend at this point. There's a lot of plot coming up involving you in this realm, with connections to plenty of other characters. If the female lead suddenly disappeared, the whole story framework would collapse. You could say the characters form the foundation of the novel's world. Chu Tiange and Qiu Wuji came first, and then this world."

Qiu Wuji was silent for a moment, but still moved aside and insisted, "Write what I told you."

Chu Ge shook his head, sat down, and typed. "...As Qiu Wuji's spirits lifted, she suddenly sensed the gates of heaven opening. The sensation of ascending amid radiant clouds gradually spread through her... Tribulation clouds gathered in the sky-a great heavenly tribulation!"

Qiu Wuji silently felt for a change for a while, then shook her head slightly. "It didn't work."

Chu Ge let out a breath and smiled. "I knew it wouldn't work. It has to be logically consistent within the world's framework."

Qiu Wuji looked up and thought for a moment, then sighed softly, almost to herself. "I never imagined that our 'Father God of creation' was merely a scholar too weak to truss a chicken, or that the truth behind our world was nothing more than a book... All our joys and sorrows lie in someone else's hands. Our future destinies are merely paths laid out in advance... Even my feelings change constantly with the movements of a pen."

There was a wistfulness in Qiu Wuji's voice, along with the dawning clarity of someone who had unraveled everything, an emotion too complex to fully describe. Chu Ge stared at her expression in a daze. If she really is a person from the book, discovering the truth like this must be painful, right? It could shatter her entire worldview and drive her mad.

Of course, if she was the Qiu Wuji he had written, she wouldn't fall apart. With her iron will, she would only seek a way to turn the tables and take control of her own fate...

That's right. Isn't that exactly what she's doing?

She had become intensely wary and resistant when she suddenly found herself thinking of a disciple's smiling face. Somehow, that had awakened an unknown potential and allowed her to break through the boundary between worlds...

Most likely, that was it.

Once he truly accepted that, the fear of having a sword at his neck gradually faded. Instead, he felt a certain closeness to her, along with a little sympathy... How should he put it? She was a character he had created, like a daughter?

For him, this was only a story. To put it generously, it embodied his literary aspirations. To put it bluntly, it was just a way to make money.

But for her, it was her entire life being arranged by someone else.

Qiu Wuji frowned at him and suddenly asked, "Do you pity me?"

Chu Ge pressed his lips together without answering, then changed the subject. "When you say everything lies in someone else's hands, that's not entirely true... Just as I can't casually write that you ascend on the spot, because there needs to be consistent logic. Every action a character takes and every word they say has to fit what that character would do or say. At most, I choose one of several possible options-and those are choices you yourself might make. I can't have you act against your established character."

He paused, then gave a wry smile. "Some people say that once a character is written, the author can no longer control them. Your appearance is the strongest possible proof of that."

Qiu Wuji watched him quietly. Her beautiful eyes were like deep pools, still and fathomless, giving no hint of her thoughts.

Only after a long while did she say coldly, "You're saying that if I were to fall for that man, it would be my own choice?"

Chu Ge's face turned green.

Of course it couldn't be her choice. Qiu Wuji stood unrivaled in her age, with extraordinary pride and lofty standards. Even setting aside whether her heart was perfectly still-even if she developed worldly feelings as he had deliberately laid the groundwork for-the object of those feelings could never be a disciple who had only just joined. The gap was far too great.

But I'm writing a harem novel! Even if the conditions aren't there, I have to create them and make it happen. Winning a woman you could never possibly win is the whole appeal of a harem novel! Who would read it otherwise?

Yet she truly was a woman who could never be won, which meant this really wasn't a choice Qiu Wuji would make herself. It was the author imposing a deus ex machina.

She had resisted it so fiercely that she had run right out of the book, hadn't she?

Qiu Wuji said coldly, "That is absolutely not a choice I would make... Which means you can at least influence this so-called consistency to some degree. As storytellers would put it, even if you leave a hole in the tale, you can patch it over."

Chu Ge deeply regretted making her so intelligent. All he could do was wipe away his cold sweat and say, "Yes... I can make small adjustments... to smooth things over."

Qiu Wuji was about to say something when her expression suddenly changed slightly.

Before Chu Ge's eyes, her figure began to blur, as though her solid body were turning into a transparent ghost.

Then she grew fainter and fainter, like a phantom image, until she disappeared altogether.

Her final words drifted through the air. "Whatever method you use, you are not to keep writing any romantic entanglement between me and that Chu Tiange. I may come out again at any time. If you keep writing this nonsense... you will never write again."

Her voice faded into the distance. She was gone.

Chu Ge stared at the empty room, feeling as though he had been dreaming.

(End of chapter)