Chapter 40: Without Qualms
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
D*rn!
Xiang Wan couldn’t even stay there for another second.
If she was to stay at Bai Muchuan’s place for the night, she would despise herself, and she would be too ashamed to continue living.
Hence, she collected her thoughts, threw the pajamas onto his bed, grabbed her laptop bag, and ran down the stairs without saying goodbye.
Only Nanny Li was downstairs and no one else.
Fortunately, Bai Lu and her mom were not there.
Xiang Wan heaved a sigh a relief that she was lucky enough her sorry plight was not witnessed by many.
…
Too embarra.s.sing!
Go for wool and come home shorn!
She felt that her face was being slapped with loud crisp sounds.
Xiang Wan felt so shameful that she rushed out of the neighborhood in agitation. When she was out in the streets where the cold winds blew, she was much more clear-headed.
Forget it! It’s my own fault, who can I blame?
She quickly calmed down and called for a cab, going directly to Fang Yuanyuan’s house.
The street lights were blurred, and vehicles and pedestrians were scarce.
The cab driver seemed to be a romantic person. The music playing inside the cab belonged to the song “Never Settle”.
“You ask me why I’m stubborn and single-minded. The world is vast, and there’s always someone better than you. In fact, I think this is not worth it, but there is no way to choose. The moment you appear, all others are nothing more…”
Xiang Wan listened to the song and looked at her reflection on the gla.s.s window. At that moment, she suddenly felt like laughing.
Bai Muchuan.
Bai Muchuan.
She used her finger to swipe across the window.
Remember this, Xiang Wan, she told herself.
Here in the dust, flowers do not grow from it.
We are not from the same social cla.s.s.
…
That night, Xiang Wan did not sleep well.
The second day, she popped out of Fang Yuanyuan’s bed with a messy head, picked up her mobile phone, and looked at the time. She was scared out of her wits!
Oh no, it’s already 12:00 noon!
No time to grieve over the advent of spring and autumn! She didn’t update for that day, and that was what’s important.
After a night, her relationship with Bai Muchuan had been separated by a galaxy.
She was an easygoing person. If she could have what she wanted, she would go for it. If she couldn’t have what she wanted, she would just let it go.
Fang Yuanyuan had gone to work early in the morning. Xiang Wan’s eldest aunt and uncle were not at home either, however, they had prepared breakfast for her.
Last night when she arrived without warning, Fang Yuanyuan was half asleep and asked a question or two in a muddled state and Xiang Wan got off the hook easily.
Xiang Wan was glad that she had a cousin and her eldest aunt in the city. They could provide her a shelter from the wind and rain.
While she was having breakfast, she was holding her phone and looking through the news.
In her reviews and comment area, there was a group of unhappy female readers urging her to update. There was also a group of sweet female readers who were consoling her as well as a group of professional critics.
The remaining group, however, were feeling sorry for her.
Just that morning at 9:00 a.m., the police released the latest news of the 720 case.
Of course, that was the conclusive statement which Xiang Wan already knew.
There were no good or bad people, only human nature and their insatiable choices.
Mr. and Mrs. Zhao lost their lives for that, while w.a.n.g Tongsheng and Tian Xiaoya, who was alive, regardless of the legal punishment that they would receive, would not be living at ease for the rest of their lives.
In this story, there was no real winner.
… Even Xiang Wan, who got dragged into the story did not win, either.
There was a huge disparity between the final verdict of the case in her novel and the final outcome of the case in reality. This was a great blow to the enthusiasm of the netizens who were purely there to marvel at her “supernatural” ability as well as to spectate what would happen next.
To put it fashionably, they were having a great time, but she splashed cold water on them…
Thus, everyone awakened.
A supernatural writer who could foresee criminal cases? What a load of cr*p!
A gifted mystery writer? What a joke!
The mysterious force present in the suddenly popular novel “Murder The Dream Guy” was gone. That alone made a large part of people who had read the novel due to following the trend lost interest in the book…
These people expressed their regrets in the reviews and comment section. They also gave their own original opinion about the story, criticized the author, dropped the novel, and went away.
The mystic aura of “Murder The Dream Guy” was gone.
Xiang Wan sat in front of her laptop. She was neither surprised nor upset about it.
In fact, when she knew the inside story of the 720 case, she could have written her story toward that way instead of following her main outline.
She knew that the public would prefer to read something dramatic like “reality meets fiction”. They were more willing to follow an author with mysterious powers than to accept her mediocrity.
Even Bai Muchuan had reminded her last night—that she needed to update her story.
However, she did not do just that.
She had self-esteem as well as the most basic pride and integrity of fiction writers.
Come on! So what if it’s unpopular?
She didn’t bother to reply nor argue with the readers. She directly created a new doc.u.ment to start writing her update for the day.
…
That was the end of a story arc.
Her novel had now entered the next story arc.
In order to connect the two story arcs, she wrote a little romance plot where her female lead Rong Xiaonuan also had an unpleasant experience with Detective Fang Yelan.
Finally, at the end of the chapter, she wrote, “In the dust, it is true that flowers do not grow from it. She would rather keep her lonely heart till old age than keep insisting on a hopeless love. ”
…
For the next two days, Xiang Wan stayed at Fang Yuanyuan’s house.
She was waiting for her heart to overcome that hurdle.
Of course, she was also waiting for the royalties of her novels.
An author who was so poor that she might be eating soil was relying on the little amount of royalties to stay alive. Therefore, she naturally demanded that the editor have to support her before she gets her royalties.
Fang Yuanyuan scoffed at her statement, but she did not loathe her for occupying half of her bed.
“Who asked you to be my cousin? Treat it as I’m doing a kind deed!”
“I treat you as my real sister. Biological sister.”
“Nah! If you really treat me as your biological sister, then don’t get me into trouble. Hurry up and update, I’ll break your leg if you fail to update consistently, do you believe me?”
“Haha!”
Actually Xiang Wan had 20,000 dollars with her.
Yes, cash. It was the amount of compensation Bai Musi gave her which was inside her bag.
The money was gotten in a perfectly justifiable manner. She could totally buy a laptop with that, but somehow, she didn’t want to spend it.
Why was she conflicted about this? She couldn’t understand, either.
Everytime when she felt like using the money, she would be reminded of Bai Musi’s haughty face and look of disgust, as well as her act of throwing down the money as if she was a beggar!
“Xiang Wan, why are you in a daze? It’s almost ten o’clock.”
It was already 10 p.m., and if she didn’t update for the day, it would be another count of failing to update her novel again.
Yes, she had failed to update her novel the previous day.
However, she was unable to write, and even if she was to die of suffocation, she would still be unable to write anything. What should she do?
Looking at Fang Yuanyuan’s eyes which were blazing with anger, Xiang Wan started to feel cramps in her heart.
“For goodness sake, stop rushing me! Don’t you know that writing a story requires a peaceful and quiet environment? I can’t update properly these two days is exactly because I’m staying in your house, watched by you everyday…”
“Hah! I’ll give you full marks for this reason, but why do I feel like giving you a whack instead?”
“If so, may I know if my Lord Editor wants to whack my left or my right face? This humble one shall offer to you!”
“…” Fang Yuanyuan saw Xiang Wan leaning over with her face—she was really offering her face to receive a whack. When she saw that, she was unable to continue joking with her.
She grabbed Xiang Wan’s arm over and examined her closely. “Sis, something’s off about you these two days!”
“Is there?” Xiang Wan glanced at her lazily before leaning on the chair feebly. “It’s the writer’s block! I feel like dying.”
“No, it’s not writer’s block. If it’s writer’s block you should have lost control of your emotions and you’ll hit me instead earlier. But now you’re actually willing to get hit, this is abnormal.”
“…” Xiang Wan glanced at her, “Crazy.”
Fang Yuanyuan narrowed her eyes and murmured to herself as if she suddenly gained enlightenment. “Not only did you fail to update daily, you’re like a dying duck in a thunderstorm… you’re not on that time of the month, either, could it be falling out of love? By the way, where’s your Detective Bai? After sleeping there for so many days, the two of you didn’t get into a collision that sent sparks flying?”
This woman! What sleeping there? retorted Xiang Wan in her head.
And she had to pick the topic that Xiang Wan didn’t want to talk about!
Xiang Wan scratched her head and brushed her aside. “Stop that! I’m trying to write.”
Fang Yuanyuan peered at her supposedly serious side profile which was clearly a pretense. She shrugged her shoulders and pulled her cool blanket till her stomach.
“Oh yes, Sis!” exclaimed Fang Yuanyuan with a lazy smile, “there’s something I almost forgot to tell you.”
“What?” Xiang Wan did not lift her head, but instead continued typing on the keyboard. “If it’s not important, don’t interfere with my writing. I’m so close to reaching the ranks of my idol —a celebrity expert author!”
“Why are you so optimistic?” Fang Yuanyuan gave a sneer.
Suddenly, she got out of the blanket and came to Xiang Wan speedily.
Fang Yuanyuan’s reflection on the laptop screen showed a mysterious smile.
“Sis, youngest aunt wants me to tell you that she’s treating us to a meal tomorrow at her place, and you must be there!”
Xiang Wan turned around and looked at her in confusion.
“Second aunt will be there too!” added Fang Yuanyuan.
Xiang Wan’s spine felt cold at the thought of her mom. “Are you kidding me?”
“Not only second aunt, there’s also…” Fang Yuanyuan deliberately gave a pause, “an important person will be coming too!”
“Who’s that?” Looking at her evil smile, Xiang Wan felt her scalp going numb.
“Heheh, you wanna know?”
Xiang Wan nodded her head heavily.
This time, Fang Yuanyuan finally found a chance to exact her vengeance.
“I’m not telling you. I’m going to leave you hanging in the air!”
There was a big exclamation mark in Xiang Wan’s head. Somehow, she got a general idea about it.
She gave a cough and composed herself. “You know, I’m after all someone who needs to write the story earnestly,” she coaxed Fang Yuanyuan with a poker-face. “I’ll devote my youth and enthusiasm to internet literature without qualms. Lord Editor, do you think you can…”
“No! Little thing, you want to make use of me again?”
“You’ll also have a taste of being urged to get married when you’re twenty-six years old.”
Xiang Wan tried to talk reason as well as tried to move her emotionally. However, Fang Yuanyuan was a tough nut to crack.
“Rest a.s.sured, my dear cousin, when I’m twenty-six years old, my boyfriends would have formed a long queue by then—don’t you worry about me!”
“… Moron!”
…