Chapter 31: Pt.1

Murong Shi had received a reminder to go to bed from her mother before eleven o'clock. However, after giving a perfunctory reply and shutting the door, she promptly began staying up late again.

Murong Shi had never been honest.

Murong Shi had long since gotten used to reading Xu Chuanchuan's novels before bedtime, which was also the case now.

Even though she had been sleep-deprived because of work recently, she didn't wish to spend her weekend sleeping.

And although she didn't know whether her recent insomnia was caused by her not reading novels for the past few days, she decided to redownload the reading application on her phone.

…

I Love Malatang: "[Image] Edited a part. It's not integral to the story, so everyone can ignore it if you can't be bothered to read it."

Despite it being in the middle of the night, the group was still active, and the night owls started appearing one after another.

—Ooh! Breast smothering is good! I want to do it as well! Lord, I want to dive into yours!

—The precondition is that the Lord needs to have breasts.

Xu Chuanchuan looked down at the barren plain that had formed after removing her bra: ...

—Lord, you're horrible. Since you've already written breast smothering, why don't you just continue with the scene?

—That's right, that's right! Attack the breast first, then follow it up with a kiss, and end it with a bed scene!

—Hahaha, you guys are all perverts, but I like it. I think Guaiguai needs a little brother or sister. What do you think, Lord?

I Love Malatang: "...You guys are amazing. You managed to make up so many scenes from just one action. You're even more perverted than a certain someone."

—What an ambiguous line. Who's this "certain someone"?

—What?! Lord, did you secretly get into a relationship?!

—Lord started a relationship? Does that mean you have a boyfriend now? Tsk, I can already smell the stench of love.

—What boyfriend? Shouldn't it be a girlfriend?

—Pft, the Lord is as straight as a steel pipe. She's already clarified it N times.

—It seems we have another new girl to tease.

—Lord, you're straight? I'm so disappointed _(:з」∠)_

I Love Malatang: "I'm straight, but you guys are overthinking things! I haven't gotten into a relationship, and I don't have a boyfriend!"

Xu Chuanchuan could never handle getting teased, and she would instantly cave and reveal everything after getting pressured a little bit. And because of her straightforward and boring reply, the girls in the group immediately lost interest in the topic.

…

Before joining Xu Chuanchuan's reader group, Murong Shi had already left her QQ account idle for the past two or three years. If not for Xu Chuanchuan bringing up the reader group that day, Murong Shi wouldn't have remembered this account even existed. Fortunately, her phone still stored the relevant login information. Only, due to her long-term inactivity, the system required her to set a new password for the account.

If it were in the past, Murong Shi would've never bothered doing such a troublesome task. In fact, even she felt puzzled as to why she agreed to join Xu Chuanchuan's reader group.

Before joining the reader group, though, Murong Shi recalled the several attempts Xu Chuanchuan had made to probe into her identity, so she decided to set her QQ space to private.

Murong Shi would rarely find herself engrossed in a matter or person. The novels Xu Chuanchuan wrote weren't particularly to her liking, so she found it surprising she could keep reading them for so long.

Murong Shi naturally knew that the "certain someone" Xu Chuanchuan mentioned in the reader group referred to herself. However, she didn't make any comments about it. Meanwhile, after reading the last message Xu Chuanchuan had sent in the group, Murong Shi pondered for some time before clicking on a certain someone's private chat. A moment later, though, she closed the private chat without typing anything.

Why was Xu Chuanchuan writing yuri novels despite not being a lesbian?

Murong Shi had long since wondered about Xu Chuanchuan's sexual orientation. However, she never bothered asking for clarification the first time she wondered about this question, and this time was also the same. In any case, whether Xu Chuanchuan liked men or women had nothing to do with her.

The time jumped to eleven o'clock, and Murong Shi let out a yawn. Just as she was about to head to bed, her phone vibrated.

Thinking that Xu Chuanchuan was looking for her, Murong Shi sent a glance at her phone. However, what she saw surprised her.

A familiar yet unfamiliar avatar followed by an unread message had appeared in the first column of her chat list.

Fang Qin: "Murong? Is it you? Or did your account get stolen?"

Murong Shi was surprised to find that Fang Qin, who was living in distant England, was still using QQ.

Murong Shi: "It's me."

Fang Qin: "OMG! Are you kidding me, Murong? You stopped coming on QQ for so many years that I thought you went missing!"

Murong Shi: "I'm still in China while you're living abroad. If anyone's missing, it's you."

Murong Shi was used to talking in person or talking through the phone when conversing with her real-life friends, so she found it awkward and uncomfortable to chat with Fang Qin through messages. However, the following sentence Fang Qin sent immediately let her experience a sense of familiarity.

Fang Qin: "What a cold-hearted person you are. It's been so many years since we talked, yet you can't even be bothered to ask how I am doing. I'm cutting off ties with you."

Murong Shi: "You went abroad for three years and never returned even once to celebrate New Years with your parents, yet you call me cold-hearted?"

Fang Qin: "Hey, you know exactly what kind of problems your big sister is going through. After I went abroad, my parents immediately severed relations with me. I don't dare to return at all."

After a slight pause, Murong Shi asked: "Is it still that person?"

Fang Qin: "What person?"

Murong Shi: "Your first love."

Fang Qin: "You mean her? We broke up half a year ago. Her parents disagreed with us being together, and her mother used suicide as a threat. In the end, she dumped me and went back home first. Look at how filial she is, and look at how pitiful I am."

Murong Shi fell silent.

Fang Qin's first love was a girl much younger than herself. To follow after her girlfriend, Fang Qin had given up her domestic job and accompanied her girlfriend, who was going abroad for further studies. Back then, Murong Shi had personally sent the couple off at the airport. She had felt relieved when she saw her best friend finding love. She had even given them an expensive gift that time.

However, Murong Shi never thought that the two would break up for such an absurd reason.

Fang Qin must've gone through a difficult time after being dumped by her sweetheart in a foreign country, yet Murong Shi was wholly unaware of this situation.

Murong Shi: "I'm sorry."

Fang Qin: "It's not like you were the one who dumped me. Actually, it doesn't really matter. It's been half a year already, and probably neither of us remembers each other. By the way, I'm dealing with my handover procedures right now, and I'll be returning to the country in a while. I might have to bother you again when that time comes."

Murong Shi wasn't good with words of consolation. She was more willing to lend her shoulder to Fang Qin. Unfortunately, neither of them were dramatic people.

Murong Shi: "Alright. Give me a call before you come back. My number is 138********"

Murong Shi's sleepiness vanished without a trace after her short conversation with Fang Qin. After idly staring at her phone for a brief moment, she suddenly recalled Xu Chuanchuan's novels.

Every one of Xu Chuanchuan's novels talked about a beautiful romance. Even if misunderstandings and arguments occurred during the process, the two main characters of every book would still end up living happily ever after with each other. Their lives were smooth and happy. They even received the blessings of their friends and family. One of the characters would say, "I love you," while her partner would follow up with, "I'll be with you until you leave me." The situations in these stories were no different than a fairy tale.

However, there was no such thing as a perfect love in the real world. Reality was fragile and cruel. Even relationships between heterosexuals were filled with pain and difficulties, let alone homosexual relationships.

When Murong Shi first started reading Xu Chuanchuan's novels, she found that Xu Chuanchuan's writing was very unrealistic. It was also the reason why she had never been able to immerse herself into these stories. However, after listening to Fang Qin's words, Murong Shi realized that these unrealistic situations might not be bad after all.

Everyone aspired to experience pure and beautiful love. Maybe this was one of the reasons why Xu Chuanchuan's novels were so popular with readers.

For the next several days, Xu Chuanchuan would always receive a Deep-water Torpedo plus a comment from Passerby Shi every day. Xu Chuanchuan felt quite happy that this capricious tycoon was willing to "lower herself" and write comments.

The only problem Xu Chuanchuan had was that Passerby Shi's every comment would have "astonishing" content. Other readers recognized Passerby Shi's ID, so they liked to interact under her comment. As a result, she would always find a group of people badgering her for passionate and explicit scenes every day for the past few days…

Xu Chuanchuan was rendered speechless by this situation. Just by looking at how capable Passerby Shi was at fanning the other readers' emotions, Xu Chuanchuan felt that Passerby Shi had the qualities of being a pyramid scheme leader. Though, the reality was that Passerby Shi wasn't consciously inciting the other readers.

Meanwhile, whenever Xu Chuanchuan received a Deep-water Torpedo from Passerby Shi, she would always return a big red packet out of courtesy.

However, a certain someone eventually grew annoyed by it and said: "I'll stop commenting if you keep this up."

I Love Malatang: "I know you don't lack money, but I'm not a stingy author. Since you are giving me donations, I have to give you a red packet out of courtesy."

Passerby Shi: "Are you very generous?"

I Love Malatang: "Am I not generous? I've given away so many physical books for free. I printed those using my own money, and each book costs me around 20 yuan. Printing over a hundred of those books cost a lot of money!"

Passerby Shi: "Alright, I now know you're generous."

Why do I get the feeling that this isn't a sincere compliment?

At the mention of physical books, Xu Chuanchuan grew curious again, and she couldn't help herself from asking whether Passerby Shi wanted them.

However, Passerby Shi remained unrelenting and replied: "I don't need them."

After getting rejected for the second time, Xu Chuanchuan felt a little depressed.

It was difficult for homosexual novels to get physical publications, while privately printed books didn't come with a book number and were considered illegal goods, so Xu Chuanchuan never dared to sell the physical copies she printed. Fortunately, many of her loyal readers wished to keep a physical copy of her books, so she occasionally held giveaways on Weibo. However, while other readers were frantically fighting to own these physical books, Passerby Shi showed no interest in them whatsoever.

If Passerby Shi isn't Murong Shi, why would she refuse my goodwill time and again?

If she's worried about exposing her address…