The Road Is Hard

Qiu Wuji was so furious she nearly blew up her meditation chamber, but she really had no way to break through the boundary again anytime soon.

"Attend me!" Qiu Wuji's furious voice echoed faintly through the sect's mountains. "Go to the sect's secret treasury! Bring me the Black Tortoise Phosphor Crystal and the Void-Scrambling Shuttle, and prepare the Heaven and Earth Return-Misdirection Formation!"

The sect elders went white with fright. "Sect Master, a-are you preparing to undergo your heavenly tribulation? B-but it isn't time yet!"

Qiu Wuji gritted her teeth. "Who says it isn't time? I intend to undergo it now!"

Wasn't it all ascension, anyway?

Was there any difference between the Immortal Realm and that strange world with its square typing artifact?

While Qiu Wuji busily prepared to break through the boundary, Chu Ge, unsurprisingly, spent that night sleepless too.

He had no idea whether his writing could still influence Qiu Wuji's thoughts now that she had "seen through reality."

Whether it could or not, she would probably notice, wouldn't she?

Publishing that sentence had felt like opening Pandora's Box. Nervous and exhilarated, he kept imagining Qiu Wuji emerging in a murderous rage, and tossed and turned without managing to close his eyes.

The slightest gust of night wind made him wonder if Qiu Wuji had appeared. He would look over in a cold sweat, only to find nothing there.

Thank goodness. She probably couldn't come out whenever she liked. That would be the death of me!

He lasted until sometime after two in the morning. Unable to stay in bed any longer, he simply got up to write.

He had published that last chapter in such a hurry that he hadn't even checked for typos, much less remembered to recommend Zhang Qiren's book at the end. Zhang Qiren's book was going premium at noon today. As a friend, he ought to give it a boost. Ideally, he would publish another chapter in the morning and put the recommendation at the end.

But after turning on his computer, he sat there blankly for ages. His mind was mush, and he had no idea how to continue the story.

The entire outline had fallen apart. What the hell was he supposed to write?

After a moment's hesitation, Chu Ge opened the book's review section. He hadn't dared look before, convinced that such a sudden change in the heroine's thoughts would get him torn apart. What he saw left him dumbfounded.

Most of the reviews were actually positive... though these particular compliments left him feeling rather uncomfortable.

"Now that's more like it! A woman like Qiu Wuji thinking about some low-ranking disciple? I thought her characterization was falling apart. Thank goodness he pulled it back."

"Exactly. You can't build our harem that fast. Slowly winning them over is what makes it good."

Chu Ge couldn't resist switching to an alternate account to reply. "How is it too fast? Even without that last twist, merely thinking about the protagonist would only have been a bit of setup, right? It's not like she's already in love. Nothing's even started yet."

"Well, sure... but the author started out writing harem novels. When he writes something like that, it feels like the deal's practically sealed. She's going to join the harem anyway."

"Right. It just feels too fast."

Chu Ge's temper flared. "Assuming something that hasn't happened already has, then complaining it happened too fast? You people are something else. What if she never joins?"

"How could she not? Haven't you read the author's last book? Want to bet on whether she joins?"

Chu Ge: "..."

Before this, Chu Ge would never have dared take that bet.

Of course she had originally been meant to join...

But now...

He looked up and thought for a long while, then suddenly chuckled.

It suddenly occurred to him that writing Qiu Wuji out of any romantic entanglement with the protagonist might actually be a good thing... perhaps his earlier thinking had gone astray somewhere.

Wasn't suspense supposed to be the most important part of storytelling-keeping readers from guessing what came next? Now everyone had already decided what would happen. They had practically added her to the harem on credit. Where was the suspense in that?

The main plot might still be fine, but at least on the romantic front, there was no suspense left. All that remained was the appeal of the process. That wasn't necessarily unacceptable, but it wasn't sound either. It was like limping along on one good leg.

Since Qiu Wuji wouldn't let him write according to the original plan anyway, he might as well redo the outline and escape everyone's predictions. It wasn't as though he couldn't come up with another story.

The worst that could happen was that the book flopped. It wasn't like he'd never had a flop before.

The frustration that had plagued him for half the night vanished. Chu Ge laughed and replied, "You're on."

Without waiting for an answer, he went offline.

The stakes didn't matter.

What mattered was escaping the prison he had drawn around himself.

-Just as Qiu Wuji had escaped her own sky. Chu Ge simply posted a standalone announcement: "Taking a day off to revise the outline. Also, a book recommendation."

With his promise to Zhang Qiren fulfilled, his last lingering concern disappeared. Completely relaxed now, Chu Ge stretched his stiff limbs and stepped out of his room.

The door next door was shut tight, with a faint glow seeping through the gap.

Sure enough, Zhang Qiren was still awake too.

Chu Ge understood perfectly... his book was going premium later today. The pressure right now must have been immense. Being too nervous to sleep was only natural.

Besides, writers like them habitually stayed up late. The stillness of the night often made it easier to immerse themselves and find inspiration. Writing past midnight was perfectly normal.

He knocked on the door. "Want to go out for a bite?"

Zhang Qiren's muffled voice answered, "I just had instant noodles... want some? Hey, come in. Why are you standing out there?"

Chu Ge pushed the door open and immediately saw Zhang Qiren chatting with someone on QQ.

"You're pretty relaxed. I thought you were writing, but you're just shooting the shit." Chu Ge walked over and glanced at Zhang Qiren's screen. The chat window had a girl's profile picture. "Holy shit, you even have the energy to flirt?"

"Who knows whether that's a guy or a girl?" Zhang Qiren said casually. "You lose the moment you take it seriously. I'm just unwinding. What else am I supposed to do, stare at my document?"

"Fair enough." Chu Ge watched Zhang Qiren unwind.

The girl on the other end was saying, "My mom died."

Throwing My Weight Around: "Want me to come over and keep you company?"

"I have a boyfriend."

"I have a mom." Zhang Qiren sent the message and blocked the account in one smooth sequence.

Chu Ge: "..."

Zhang Qiren turned around. "Don't look at me like that. I know you just want a white chicken... no, wait, you want a late-night snack. How about white-cut chicken?"

"Where the hell are we going to find white-cut chicken at this hour? Let's just get a bowl of wontons." Chu Ge headed out, laughing. "Didn't you just eat instant noodles?"

Zhang Qiren chuckled. "You've got something on your mind. Forget instant noodles-even if I'd just eaten eighteen baskets of steamed buns, I'd still go have another bite with you."

Chu Ge was a little surprised. "Well, who knew? You can read minds too?"

"What mind reading? I saw your announcement. Everything was fine this evening, then suddenly you needed to revise your outline. Did you run into trouble with the story's direction? Why else would you knock on my door right now, if not to talk it through?"

Indeed, Chu Ge had come over to discuss the story's direction with a fellow writer. That had been the original point of sharing a place with a writer friend. Yet, aside from exchanging opinions on their new books, this might have been the first time in six months that they had actually done it.

Zhang Qiren seemed to think of the same thing and found it rather funny too. Walking with an arm around Chu Ge's shoulders, he said, "Having a friend who remembers to recommend my book even when he's taking a day off... I think that makes sharing a place more worthwhile than any discussion about writing."

Chu Ge felt the same way. Having a friend who was anxious about his own book going premium yet still willing to come out in the middle of the night for a snack and help him talk through his story-that was what mattered most.

They reached a roadside stall outside their apartment complex. Instead of wontons, they ordered some grilled skewers and a bottle of beer each.

"If you ask me, even though I suck at this, I really do think your book could use a change in direction." Zhang Qiren clinked bottles with him and smiled. "Including that sister threesome we talked about before. Sure, I'd enjoy reading it if you wrote it, but in the end, that would be all I remembered. With this book, all I want to see is when you'll bed that female sect master. I skip every bit about the protagonist's struggles. Is that what you want?"

Chu Ge gazed at the foam in his beer. "And if it flops? Does that make me a hot young model?"

Zhang Qiren pressed his lips together, feeling the same apprehension.

It was easy to joke: if this didn't take off, he was a hot young model.

But after so many grueling days and nights, spending over ten hours a day at the computer, wearing themselves down with neck problems, tendonitis, and sciatica, who would willingly watch all that work end in pitiful numbers and total indifference?

Wasn't Zhang Qiren just as anxious with his book about to go premium? Who could be that carefree? And Chu Ge's book was already showing signs of taking off. Could he bear to throw that away?

All he could manage was, "Look at me. My books flop so hard even dogs won't read them, and I'm still sticking to no female lead."

Chu Ge glanced at him.

In truth, Chu Ge knew Zhang Qiren couldn't afford another flop this time.

(End of chapter)