"Right, dream." Qili saw that Zhou Yuan was supporting him, although he did not wholly understand Zhou Yuan's explanation, he felt quite at ease and justified as long as Zhou Yuan was on his side.
"But…" Zhou Yuan changed his tone and tilted his head as he looked at Qili, "Could you describe in detail what happened before you were dreaming?"
"Before I dreamed?" Qili's initially excited face froze. It was clear that Zhou Yuan had reached a critical point.
At the same time, Hao Ning was eighty percent sure that there had been some changes on Zhou Yuan since he had first met Zhang Chihang. As for what this change was, Hao Ning was unable to summarize it. He only felt that Zhou Yuan's gaze was even "sharp" now, and in this period, Zhou Yuan had noticed many things that even Hao Ning could not.
"How do you know …" Qili muttered softly. He raised his head and saw the others looking at him, so he hurriedly continued, "Speaking of that, it's quite embarrassing, I was reading a novel at that time. There was an extremely intense fighting scene. It almost made my blood boil. I couldn't help but feel that I would like to die if I could be such awesome."
"You were reading a fighting scene in a novel?" Hao Ning immediately asked, "What exactly is that?"
"Huh?" Qili was recalling, and upon hearing Hao Ning's question, he seemed to feel strange. "It's just an ordinary online novel plot. The main character pretended to be modest. He went to a restaurant, and the supervisor there judged him lowly because he thought the main character had no money or status, then the main character kicked him up."
"What?" Zhou Yuan rubbed his forehead and interrupted, "Why would there be such a boring plot? If the supervisor judged the main character for having no money or status, he could have complained to the manager. Does that supervisor have lots of contacts in the catering industry that no one can replace him?" When Zhou Yuan said that, he felt that he was too wordy and had digressed from the topic, hence he smiled embarrassedly, "About that — what novel is it? I'm going to look as well."
"Hehe, did you transcend over from the Republic of China period …?" Hao Ning and Liu Shuai looked at Zhou Yuan as if they were looking at a freak.
"Why?" Zhou Yuan looked at himself. He did not see anything strange, so he asked, "Did I say anything wrong?"
"Pal, don't you read online novels?" Hao Ning looked at Zhou Yuan with a sad face. It seemed that this moment god seemed to have some mana, but his knowledge level had not improved at all. "You should not ask which novel it is."
"Why?" Zhou Yuan did not know what the problem was.
"You should ask which tens of thousands of novels they are..." Liu Shuai was overjoyed and glanced at Qili who also laughed embarrassedly and nodded.
"This kind of plot has become a standard part of novels today, okay?" Hao Ning laughed and said, "As long as it's a reversion story, there will be someone pretending to be modest, some idiots coming to provoke him, and the main character fixing him under an 'extremely reasonable' circumstance then showing off his glorious image."
"That's right," Qili happily said," There are many uncanny reversion plots. Such reversions may occur anywhere, like a restaurant, a shopping mall, a public square, an office, a hospital, in Japan, in the States, the hell, the heaven, Tianwaitian, Doushuai Palace, or anywhere else in the universe."
"Enough, you are vulgar," Liu Shuai said. Upon hearing these words, he became turned up while feeling uncomfortable. "Those who know it understands that you are talking about reversion scenes, but those who don't may think you just came back from a Japanese porn factory."
When Zhou Yuan heard their conversation, he could roughly understand, but he kept waving his hand to express his disbelief, "Such unrealistic plots should not have readers. Though it's not too late for a gentleman to take revenge in ten years, a man who keeps showing off his kung fu is not a gentleman."
"Your life is incomplete …" Hao Ning laughed as he looked at Zhou Yuan. He thought that he and Zhou Yuan were like living in two space-time. However, after he thought for a while, he realized that Zhou Yuan, even when he lost his soul, read Journey to the West for entertainment. It was likely that he had never read a novel like this before.
When they mentioned novels, Qili became extremely excited, and answered Zhou Yuan's questions for the others, while flaunting his "knowledge". "You don't know about this. It's not that they have some readers. They have lots of readers. The main characters may know martial arts, or can see through stones in jade-gambling, or are capable urban doctors who treat illnesses."
"Eh? You also read novels about jade-gambling. Which one did you read? " Hao Ning had read similar stories, so he hurriedly communicated with Qili in excitement. "Have you read the Super Gold Finger?"
"Of course, I have!" Qili said excitedly, "How many versions of this book have you read? I've read sixteen, and they all have different names but very similar plots."
"Uh, could you two zealous readers stop for a moment?" Liu Shuai laughed and waved at the two of them. To be honest, Hao Ning was unbelievable since he chatted with Qili about novels at that moment. Qili always made mistakes in his work, but he could read sixteen similar versions of one story. What would it be if he put such a spirit in his work?
However, Liu Shuai was not willing to blame Qili anymore. He also read these novels in free time, so he knew that these kinds of topics could not be stopped, and they might not be able to talk about anything else today. Hence, he immediately interrupted them," We can talk about the jade-gambling issues later. Now we should let Qili continue to talk about what happened last night."
"Ah, yes," Only now did Hao Ning realize that he had been brought away. He inwardly laughed bitterly to himself, that the vitality of these novels was robust. He was not familiar with Qili at all, but they could find the same topics from these novels, which revealed how profound their influence was.
"What happened last night?" Qili was startled. He also realized that he was not to talk about the Super Golden Finger, so he quickly said, "Right. I said I would like to die if I could be such awesome. Suddenly there was a voice in my ear, a voice that seemed very far away, but I could hear it very clearly. It asked me, ‘Do you want to be like this?' I didn't know why, but I was confused and didn't feel weird, and then I replied subconsciously, Of course. Look, this thing is bizarre. There was a pervert in the bathroom asking me if I want to be like that. Now I know that maybe it's a pervert, but at that time I was so calm. I didn't know that I am so bold!"
Liu Shuai was impressed by Qili since he could find such a tiny detail to praise himself. After what happened just now, Liu Shuai felt a little thirsty, so he took a one-time cup and poured some water. As he drank, he asked, "What happened next?"
"After that, I fell asleep and had that dream." Qili said as he looked at Zhou Yuan, "But although these plots seem to happen before my dream when I think back, I feel that they were all illusions and were quite unbelievable. By the way, Zhou Yuan, why did you suddenly ask me about that?"
Zhou Yuan frowned. He did not answer Qili's question at all, but instead asked a question that only Hao Ning and Liu Shuai could understand, "Did the voice give you something to drink and draw a strange array or talisman after that?"
Hao Ning knew that all these things that Zhou Yuan had said were what Lan Ruo did when Zhou Yuan lost his soul. It was not strange, because those people became vegetable since they had no souls, while Qili's condition was similar to them to a certain extent, so there was likely to be a problem with Qili's soul, and that's why Zhou Yuan asked about these details.
"What are you talking about? It's in a bathroom. There's only a toilet on the floor! How could anyone draw arrays? Besides, there was no one else but a voice at that time. How could a voice draw some arrays or talisman? "Qili ridiculed Zhou Yuan after hearing his question, "You must have read too many fantasy novels, right? Ha-ha, array and talisman, why don't you mention the Life and Death Extermination Two Elements Dust Array, or a real-life friend of Master Yun Zhong and the Shan Cai Tong Zi, a disciple of Avalokiteshvara fighting with Jiang Ziya's army and conferring their friend to be the god of WeChat moment?"
"Pfft —" Liu Shuai sprayed a mouthful of water as he heard Qili's tease him. Zhou Yuan was also dumbfounded. He immediately asked Qili, "How did you know about this?"
"About what?" Qili retorted, "Are you talking about what I just said? Those things are not facts, but plots in a new, weird novel called Legends of Gods."
So that was the case. Only now did Liu Shuai recalled that Hao Ning showed him this novel earlier today. He noticed that Hao Ning was pretty satisfied when he heard that Qili had also read his book, so he laughed and ridiculed, "The author is wasting his time to write all this nonsense. It is not reliable."
"What's wrong with it?" Hao Ning could easily understand the meaning behind Liu Shuai's words, that he was ridiculing him. "I think that the author wrote quite well. Not only that, he has great, fantastic imaginations. It's apparent that his stories were not copied from others, but his original works. "
Liu Shuai laughed when he heard Hao Ning's shameless praise for his novel. Indeed, the story was not only Hao Ning's original works but also his own experience!
Uncharacteristically, Qili curled his lips, disagreeing with Hao Ning's praise of this novel. "Who knows if it's good or bad now. It's only written six hundred thousand words, not even enough to fill the gaps between my shifts. However, this novel is truly uncommon."
"Oh?" Hao Ning looked at Qili with a serious face, as if he was interviewing a reader, "What's uncommon about that?"
"No reversion, no main character pretending to be modest, no upgrading system, no mana academies, no soldier kings, no CEOs or beauties. The main characters are all poor losers. They are still living off their wages. At least they should go to Macao and beat some gambling gods, or find some jade mine in Burma and make tens of millions…" Qili counted on his fingers, but his comments made Hao Ning's face down, "Look, this one has no essential element that a good novel should have…"
"That's because..." Hao Ning wanted to say that it was because he did not encounter that, but he held back and said in distress, "It's probably because this author doesn't know how to write jade-gambling."
"How is this possible? It's easy to copy that from others." Qili laughed and said to Hao Ning, "Think about it, we have read so many novels that you might be able to write a jade-gambling novel on yourself. However, then again, the stories are interesting to me. It would be better if the Avalokiteshvara were a little more coquettish." Qili laughed and said, "I like those scenes where he blamed others the most. If the Avalokiteshvara can scold others fiercely in the following stories, it would fit more with the image of the Avalokiteshvara in my mind! Yes, he should scold others fiercely. That makes me feel good!"
"He even cursed loudly today..." Hao Ning laughed bitterly, "But you may get retribution for your words. Furthermore, your life values are too schizophrenic. …"
"So, in short," Zhou Yuan ignored the messy conversation between Qili and Hao Ning, and calmly concluded, "Does it mean that you make a wish unintentionally when you read the novel last night, and the wish was unwittingly realized?"
"Made a wish?" Qili felt a sense of novelty upon seeing Zhou Yuan's question. Was that also considered a wish? However, after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it made sense. When the other party asked him if he wanted to become like that, he admitted, so that should be a simple version of wish-making. However, that wish was made so sloppily that he did not even know where to appreciate. Thus, he nodded and said, "Yes, that's making a wish."
"..." Hao Ning still had no clue, so he asked Liu Shuai in a low voice, "Has Qili's soul been compromised? He just made a wish, nothing more. How could his soul be compromised? "
"Bullshit." Liu Shuai rolled his eyes at Hao Ning, "How can a soul be so weak? It's not that simple."
"That bastard, who the hell are you talking about!" A light voice came from outside the door. After hearing it, Liu Shuai and Hao Ning's expression changed dramatically.