Traveling in Qiongzhou (Five): Lamplighter

"Well..."

After an unknown amount of time, poor Jing Ran finally woke up from his coma.

Then, he propped himself up and immediately felt a sharp pain in his head, as if he had been hit twice by something.

"Oh, you're awake, Jing! The surgery was a success. You're a sweet and soft little girl now."

When Jing Ran woke up and heard these words, his heart skipped a beat, and he had a bad feeling. He quickly began to check his body to see if he was missing any important parts.

Phew... thankfully, I'm perfectly fine.

"Brother Xiao, there's a limit to how much we can joke around," he said, still shaken. "You sounded so certain, like you actually saw me turn into a girl."

"I actually wish you were a girl," Xiao Ling joked calmly.

"That won't do..." Jing Ran subconsciously moved back a couple of steps.

"Alright, enough joking." Xiao Ling waved her hand. "You really deleted that photo?"

"Of course—" Jing Ran kept everyone in suspense.

"Certainly?"

"Of course we can't delete it! It's such great material, it would be a huge loss if I just deleted it!" Jing said seriously.

"But I remember you used to write supernatural and ghost stories, didn't you? What, you had no other options and switched to writing romantic comedies?"

"Nonsense! My book is pretty competitive even in this world!" Jing Ran immediately defended his book, "It's just that writing the same kind of thing all the time gets boring, so I'm planning to challenge myself and write about some topics I haven't written before."

"So, that's why your novel on Tomato magazine went on hiatus for two months?"

Fearing that Jing Ran her, Xiao Ling immediately took out her phone and searched for his author name on Tomato Novel.

Lamplighter.

"My goodness, Mr. Lamplighter, your work is now receiving a flood of negative reviews, and the reason is remarkably consistent: you stopped updating." Xiao Ling exclaimed in amazement, "Do you think I should give you a good talking-to on behalf of those readers?"

"Oh dear... you know how writing is, it's very much dependent on inspiration. When I have an idea, I can write a dozen chapters in a flash, but when I don't have any ideas, I can't put pen to paper for days..."

These words truly resonated with Xiao Ling. He was in the same state when he wrote; when he had inspiration, he would frantically type, but when he had no inspiration, he would stare at a Blank document and not be able to squeeze out a single word.

"I understand you, brother. It's really painful to experience writer's block." Xiao Ling patted Jing Ran on the shoulder. "But that's no excuse for you to keep standing people up. Logically speaking, you haven't updated for two months and went out to gather material. You should have learned something by now, right?"

"Or are you saying that after two months of research, you've decided to abandon this project and start a new one?"

"I had no choice but to do this, after all, I also have to manage my own social media account, which keeps me very busy," Jing Ran explained. "These past two months, I've been so focused on figuring out what to do for my fans that I naturally forgot about the book. By the time I remembered it, it was too late, so I just gave up."

So, do you have any ideas for your new book yet?

"To be honest, I haven't even created a new document yet."

"Then why the hell are you still making empty promises?!"

"There's a saying that goes, 'Writing takes time; haste makes waste.'" Jing Ran laughed heartily. "If you rush things, the writing will lose its spirit and won't be a good piece."

"If you have no ideas, just admit it honestly!"

While Xiao Ling and Jing Ran exchanging barbs, Dumpling stayed on a branch out of their sight, silently recording the whole process before flapping its wings and flying away.

Finally, after a heartwarming exchange between good buddies, Jing Ran immediately ran off to find inspiration for his new book.

"Hmm... that won't work, we still don't have enough materials."

He had already decided to make Hajiling the new protagonist of his next book, but the problem was that he had very little material on hand. If he fabricated something out of thin air, the other party would stand up and expose it severely, which would be a heavy blow to a writer. Therefore, he needed to collect enough material before he started writing.

(Actually, it's just a natural progression for him to become Gu Gu Gu.)

"Hmm? Lamplighter?"

Jing Ran, who was suddenly called by his online name, immediately stopped in his tracks and found that Suisui was walking gracefully toward him.

"Ms. Chongming Plucks Flowers Lady?" Jing Ran smiled. "What a coincidence, I never expected to run into you here."

"I never expected that you'd have your house smashed all the way by the enraged Sentinel," Suisui teased with a smile.

"Actually, it was an accident..."

After chuckling twice, Suisui revealed her true purpose to Jing Ran.

"Getting back to the main point, I actually have a business opportunity here, and I wonder if Mr. Lamplighter would be willing to take it?"

"Oh?" Jing Ran immediately became interested. "What kind of deal is it?"

"Then please, sir, let's speak privately for a moment. This way, please."

"Hey, hey, hey, things like exorcising evil spirits are my specialty, but what do you mean I should help you, Ms. Chongming Plucks Flowers, matchmake Miss Yangyang and Brother Xiao?" Jing Ran asked repeatedly, "That's the job of the Matchmaker, it's not my place to interfere."

"Sigh, if there really were a god in this world who governs marriage, then I wouldn't have to worry about this." Suisui rubbed her forehead, looking quite troubled by the matter. "To be honest, Yangyang is shy and not good at taking the initiative, yet she suffers from lovesickness day and night. If I, as her older sister, cannot share her burden, I'm afraid I'll fall ill with lovesickness myself."

"Is it that serious?"

"Exactly, otherwise I wouldn't have sought help from others."

"The problem is, I'm not good at matters of marriage either. If I were to play matchmaker haphazardly, I'm afraid I'd be punished by heaven."

"It's alright, they're already in love, it's just a matter of time before things fall into place," Suisui explained with a faint smile.

"So all I have to do is help them kick that door open?"

"No, that's not it. I just hope you can help them in your own way," Suisui revealed her true purpose. "Isn't that how it's always written in romance novels? Behind every shy, hesitant couple, there's always a strategist."

"In that case, perhaps you can find new inspiration for your romance novel."

How did you know I was thinking that?

"I have my own channels for obtaining information."

"Hmm... that sounds like a sure-fire way to make money." Jing Ran stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment before asking, "What about the reward?"

"As for compensation, name your price."

"Money isn't that important to me anymore. What I need more right now is some writing material." Jing Ran took out paper and pen, looking every bit like a reporter.

"If Lady Chongming Plucks Flowers truly wishes to reward me, how about exchanging Brother Xiao's information for it?"