Watching Qiu Wuji head into the kitchen, brimming with energy, Chu Ge's mouth twitched. He desperately wanted to say, "Mom, this woman's flirting with me."
How could you ask me that and say you weren't flirting?
Yes, I worry so much about you that I lose my head. You know I care about you.
And then? You go cook... Oh, nothing wrong with that, actually. Pretty nice.
An involuntary smile crept onto Chu Ge's lips as he went back to his room to keep writing.
Qiu Wuji had known from the start that he lusted after her. She used to find it disgusting and repulsive, but now she was actually flirting like a confident older woman.
So what? I lust after you and care about you. Am I not allowed to say it?
Flirt away. Who's afraid of whom? Just don't get flustered and come at me with a sword afterward, as if I don't know what you're like.
Speaking of which, does this cultivation of yours include cultivating romantic feelings?
Come to think of it, Qiu Wuji's behavior really had been consistent with this path of cultivation all along. From the very beginning, she had never been impatiently bent on doing one thing or another. She had always quietly started by understanding a single home, taking a keen interest even in laundry and cooking, then gradually extending her reach to the wider world.
Her state of mind might be far beyond his understanding, even if he had written it into her character. Being able to write something and truly understanding it were indeed two different things.
A ding from the washing machine out on the balcony reminded Chu Ge that the laundry was done. Deciding he shouldn't interrupt Qiu Wuji's cooking lest she burn something, he put down the draft he had only added three words to and went out to hang up the clothes.
Household chores are writing's greatest enemy. Confirmed!
He reached in and pulled something out. The first item was a lampshade.
Chu Ge: "..."
Can this thing go in the washing machine? No idea...
Hmm... Forget it. I'm not a pervert. I never thought anything of it before, so what am I doing today?
Like a thief, Chu Ge stole a glance toward the kitchen just as he was about to hang up the lampshade.
That one glance left him dumbfounded. Qiu Wuji was leaning against the doorway with her arms folded, and had apparently been looking him up and down for quite a while...
"Uh... This is a misunderstanding..." Flustered, Chu Ge didn't even know where to put it. "Go back to cooking!"
Qiu Wuji's tone was chilly. "It's fine. Who knows what happened to my things when I wasn't here? What's a little longer in your hands? Go ahead and hold it."
Chu Ge: "..."
"Though I find this sort of thing incomprehensible, I suppose it makes sense if it's you." Qiu Wuji kept roasting him. "You are, after all, a pervert who can fantasize about doing all sorts of things with a character in a book. No surprise there."
Chu Ge gritted his teeth. "Who taught you to roast people like that?"
"Someone posted an image in a video's comment section. I thought I'd be able to use that line on you sooner or later, and sure enough." Qiu Wuji strolled into her room and soon dragged out a box of stockings, setting it before Chu Ge. "Enough? If not, I'll buy more."
Chu Ge snapped, "What would I want these for?"
"Oh? Not worn enough for you?"
Chu Ge was utterly dumbfounded. "What the hell have you been looking at online?"
"Sorry, I saw that in your novel's comment section. What do you think I've been looking at?"
Chu Ge wanted to die.
Smiling, Qiu Wuji took the lampshade from his hands. "How much longer were you planning to hold this?"
Chu Ge obediently let go and allowed her to take it.
The moment she had it in her hands, Qiu Wuji's expression changed. "I'm warning you, Chu Ge. If you sneak off with my things to do something weird again, I'll shove your head into the washing machine and dump all the stockings in to wash together!"
With that, she huffily carried the lampshade and the box of stockings back to her room.
Chu Ge stood like a wooden dummy the whole time, not knowing what to say.
He didn't really feel much anger at being falsely accused. It felt a little more like flirting, and he couldn't even tell whether she was genuinely angry.
Really... He was supposedly the person who understood her best, but now he was gradually discovering that a woman's heart was an unfathomable mystery. As she grew ever more vivid and real, he could no longer understand her as he once had. He couldn't even interpret this behavior.
The only thing he could be sure of was that if he really tried to cross the line, he would probably get slashed. Chu Ge tucked his hands together and sat back down at his computer, only to discover that he had forgotten how to write. His mind was a complete mess.
Yep, women are writing's greatest enemy. Confirmed!
"Time to eat."
He had no idea how long he had been writing, but he had at least managed to wrestle another chapter into shape when Qiu Wuji's cool voice reached him.
Every time Chu Ge heard those words, they sent a wonderful tingle through him, filling him with seemingly endless energy.
Yep, women aren't writing's enemy. Confirmed.
"Why are you cowering like a quail?" As they ate, Chu Ge silently shoveled down his rice while Qiu Wuji sat across from him like a parent, her face stern. "Aren't you usually full of things to say?"
"One shouldn't talk while eating," Chu Ge said woodenly.
"Don't give me that." Qiu Wuji asked, "How many days until that class reunion of yours?"
"Today's Wednesday. Dinner three days from now."
Qiu Wuji looked up and thought for a moment. "By my estimate, I should be able to stay until then. But if you have your own things to do, there's no need for me to insist on staying. I can go back and handle some things on my side then."
"Mm." The reunion had never said anything about bringing family or girlfriends, and Chu Ge hadn't planned to take her anyway. It would be good for her to go back and handle some affairs. Her words did give him a sense of "progress," though. She had gone from being forced to return against her will to returning whenever she wanted.
With a little more effort, once she could come and go as she pleased, would she be close to bringing her true body out too?
"Thinking about my true body?" Qiu Wuji guessed what was on his mind and sneered. "If my true body came out, one smack would probably turn you to ash. Looking forward to that?"
"Uh..." Would I be unable to get it in?
Can't say that. Absolutely can't. Chu Ge could only smile placatingly. "As far as I'm concerned, they're both you. There's no difference between your avatar and your true body. With your control over your strength, surely you wouldn't actually beat me to death?"
Qiu Wuji looked him over, and a hint of surprise appeared in her eyes. "Your cultivation... How many days have you been practicing again?"
Chu Ge thought for a moment. "Three days, I think. I meditate once every morning and evening. Why?"
Qiu Wuji held something back and lowered her head to eat.
She was afraid she wouldn't be able to resist hitting him.
Cultivation was a long, tedious process. In three days, other people would at most have only just gotten started and found a sense of qi, and even that would make them geniuses. Even with someone like Chu Ge, into whom she had personally channeled qi to guide him, converting it into his own was not something that could happen overnight. She had expected it to take a month.
Yet he had already converted it entirely into his own. His first level of the Qi Refining Stage was already quite stable, enough for him to use some simple mystic arts.
Who gets to cheat like this? Is being the Father God so impressive? How are those of us who spent ten thousand years painstakingly cultivating supposed to feel? And this world's spiritual energy is clearly sparse. You ought to be progressing even more slowly...
She couldn't very well tell him outright, either. Chu Ge didn't understand any of this yet. He merely thought he was doing ordinary meditation, which also helped him sleep, and that actually suited the tranquil mindset of "acting without striving." Once he had too definite a goal, it would instead destroy his current state.
"What? What is it?" Chu Ge was still pressing her.
"Nothing." Qiu Wuji put on a disdainful expression. "I thought the Father God would be some astonishing prodigy. Turns out you're nothing special."
Chu Ge didn't mind. He smiled. "My physique didn't even have quite the aptitude needed for cultivation to begin with. You improved it, so it's perfectly normal that I'm not progressing quickly. Anyway, I feel great and I'm sleeping well. I'm happy with that."
Seemingly offhandedly, Qiu Wuji said, "Though you're nothing special, you can start learning some simple mystic arts now. Which would you like to learn first?"
Chu Ge's eyes lit up. "Invisibility! X-ray vision!"
Thump! Half a bowl of rice landed upside down on his head. Qiu Wuji stood up angrily and stormed off. "Go learn them yourself!"
Thanks to Xianfei for the 10,000 tip. By the way, could you leave your QQ contact? I need to talk to you...
Thanks to Choose, for the 6,000 tip, Aomr for the 2,000 tip, Call Me Uncle Gua for the 1,000 tip, Sword Sweeps the Clouds for the 1,500 tip, Chen Guangda for the 1,000 tip, and Si'an for the 2,000 tip...
Please forgive me if I missed anyone...
(End of chapter)
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