The question of how to make fanwork was an important one.
Su Mingqian was in a bit of a dilemma. His first thought was to write a paper. The last time the matter of Calm Egg broke out, he wrote a paper to prove that âXing Su is realâ.
Now, should he reproduce it?
Su Mingqian pondered and did some research. He soon found that his scientific report style papers werenât popular with everyone, and even if they were written, they wouldnât get much attention.
Low attention = wonât be seen by a lot of people = less chance of the target seeing them.
What about a different approach?
Su Mingqian, whoâd been watching Li Shuoxing write, naturally thought:
Instead of writing a paper, should I write a novel similar to a paper? It doesnât have to be as long as Ximuâs; just three to five thousand words was fine. Ximuâs previous short story, The Boy and the Star Magician , is short and engaging.
After his analysis, Su Mingqian thought it was a good idea.
He decided to try it out. He closed QQ, went back to his place, took out a pen and paper, and started thinking of a storyâ
A short period of time passed.
All sorts of thoughts swirled in Su Mingqianâs mind. He had a lot he wanted to say, but it came out completely differently when he put it down in writing.
Su Mingqian didnât simply give up.
He felt that he had a story, but just didnât know how to write it.
At this point, what he needed was a little information.
He pondered for a moment, then opened a webpage, went to Lofter <sup>1</sup> Lofter is a microblogging platform used largely in China. It is similar to Tumblr. It mostly consists of fanfiction and fanart. , which he had heard about in the group before, and began to search for Nine Crossings fanfiction novels.
***
Li Shuoxing was writing his novel when suddenly, a line of narration, which hadnât appeared for a long time, flashed across his computer screen.
[Su Mingqian reads a story about Cunxing and Su Mingqian and laughs very hard.]
What was⌠âa story about Cunxing and Su Mingqianâ?
Moreover, the description, âSu Mingqian reads a story about Cunxing and Su Mingqian,â also seemed very strange.
Li Shuoxing felt a little concerned.
He stopped his hands from typing, looked down a little towards Su Mingqianâs position, and saw Su Mingqian, wearing a kimono, seriously reading a book that had been converted from webpages in his hand.
Li Shuoxing had made some adjustments to Su Mingqianâs clothing since he had returned to his original form.
Those too cute clothes had been temporarily packed away to the depths of the wardrobe and had been replaced with more distinctive clothes, such as a little lazy and casual haori <sup>2</sup> The haori (çž˝çš) is a traditional Japanese hip- or thigh-length jacket worn over a kimono. , which went well with Su Mingqianâs curly hair, and was Li Shuoxingâs new favourite.
The cub, dressed in a crane pattern haori, was sitting on a long couch with a small table beside him. The small table had an incense burner on top of it. Behind the incense burner, there was a screen with a flower and bird pattern.
This small corner was filled with flowers and curls of smoke. No matter whether Su Mingqian was sitting or standing, it was always a landscape painting that looked very pleasing to the eye.
Li Shuoxing looked back and forth several times with admiration, not disturbing the cub who was absorbed in reading.
He touched his phone, entered the game, and openly observed the situation from the system narration.
Today, 10:00am
[Su Mingqian enters the group chat.]
[Su Mingqian closes the group chat.]
[Su Mingqian contemplates for a long time with a blank paper.]
[Su Mingqian scribbles a few lines, then crosses them out.]
[Su Mingqian crumples the paper into a ball and throws it into the trash.]
[Su Mingqian opens LofterâŚ]
There was no need to look any further.
Seeing this, Li Shuoxing suddenly became enlightened and understood all the causes and consequences.
It turned out that the cub was reading fanfiction. No wonder the description was so strange!
But reading fanfiction was reading fanfiction. It was a normal thing to do. Li Shuoxing was relieved when he decrypted it. He was ready to exit the game and continue writing, but then saw three new messages from the narration.
[Su Mingqian reads a story about Cunxing and Su Mingqian, a story of abusive love.]
[Su Mingqianâs eyes redden.]
[Su Mingqian wipes his eyes with his sleeve.]
[Su Mingqian secretly cries.]
Li Shuoxing: ââŚâ
Li Shuoxing was in a trance.
Cub, what are you reading? Is it really that cruel? Whoever wrote that abuse, come forward quickly. I want to give you a compliment. Itâs so well written that it made my cub cry!
ButâŚ
Li Shuoxing put down his phone and turned to look at the desktop again.
Su Mingqian was still in the same posture as before, in the lower right corner of the desktop. He was still holding the book in his hand and was still reading it. It was just that heâd lower his head a little from time to time, as if he was tired of reading, and was rubbing his eyes to rest.
Li Shuoxing looked at him silently for a while, and also lowered his head, but didnât rub his eyes. He held back his smile.
He cries when he eats white rice.
He cries in anger when I ignore him.
Now he even cries when he reads a book.
From the past to the present, the cub is really the same cub.
The cute him isnât even his chibi form from before; the cute him is clearly the real him who lives inside Su Mingqianâs heart!
Of course, although the past and present Su Mingqian were the same, the difference in his appearance still brought some different feelings.
For example, when the cubâs eyes were red in the past, Li Shuoxing just wanted to pat, rub and comfort him.
But when Su Mingqianâs eyes were red now, Li Shuoxing also kind of wanted to bully him even moreâŚ
Li Shuoxing realised that he was generating a lot of waste ideas.
He repented for a few seconds, collected his thoughts, then continued writing.
He didnât disturb Su Mingqian from beginning to end.
This was how he secretly observed and quietly recorded in order to experience the deepest joy of raising a cub!
Li Shuoxing spent the morning writing in the narration of [Su Mingqian is happy] and [Su Mingqian is sad]. Then, a line of garbled code appeared on Li Shuoxingâs screen.
Li Shuoxing was startled.
The garbled code didnât stop at Li Shuoxingâs surprise.
After the first line flashed across the screen, a series of garbled code lined up and appeared directly in the centre of Li Shuoxingâs screen, blocking half of it.
Li Shuoxing: â???â
What, whatâs going on here?
Li Shuoxing became confused. He took his usual glance at the lower right corner of his computer, but found that nothing was there. He didnât know when Su Mingqian had left the desktop.
âŚWhere did the cub go?
Li Shuoxingâs first thought was the Love Bar app.
He opened the app, swiped back and forth, and found Su Mingqian on the bed in his bedroom.
Li Shuoxing was a little stunned when he found Su Mingqian.
The blanket on the small bed in front of him had bulged into the shape of a small bundle. Su Mingqian was hiding inside, covering himself tightly, not even a single hair exposed.
Whyâs he suddenly hiding under the blanket in the middle of the day?
Thereâs also a lot of garbled narrationâŚ
Li Shuoxing got a little worried. He stretched out his hand and poked the blanket. âMingqian?â
As soon as his fingers had touched the bulging blanket, it shook violently with wave-like oscillations. Then, a head popped out from under the blanket. Su Mingqianâs face was flushed as he stammered, âXi, Xi, Ximu? What are you doing here?â
Li Shuoxing asked, âI was a little worried when I saw you come back all of a sudden, so I came over to have a look. Why did you run back to bed in the middle of the day? Do you feel uncomfortable?â
Su Mingqian: âIâm okay. I was just⌠a little tired!â
Li Shuoxing: âTired?â
Su Mingqian: âYes, I was a little tired, so I came back for a nap.â
Li Shuoxing: âBut itâs almost time for lunchâŚâ
Su Mingqian: âIâll take a little nap and then get up for lunch.â
Li Shuoxing: âThere really isnât a problem?â
Su Mingqian: âNo, absolutely not. Ximu, you donât have to worry about it. Just go and write your article!â
Su Mingqian didnât seem to want to talk to Li Shuoxing after that. He lifted up the blanket, covered his head, and shrank back in again.
Li Shuoxing was filled with suspicion. His intuition felt that there was something wrong.
The cub is acting really weird.
Iâll read the narration and see what exactly is wrongâŚ
Li Shuoxing re-opened the system narration and skimmed through it.
Unfortunately, the narration didnât make any additional records this time. The first part was Su Mingqian reading the novel, and the second part became garbled. The garbling was still going on, but it seemed to have calmed down quite a bit compared to the previous spamming, from full-on garbling to intermittent garbling.
[âŚ%*âŚ&âŚ*,âŚ#%ÂĽâŚ]
Li Shuoxing was at a loss. He wanted to understand what exactly was going on, but couldnât find a way to cut in. He could only keep the worries on his mind and go offline for now, and decided to come back later.
An hour later.
Li Shuoxing came back online, went straight to the bedroom, and immediately saw Su Mingqian.
The person who had been hiding under the blanket in the bedroom had gotten up at some point.
He was sitting loosely at the edge of the bed, his head raised, staring at the picture of the two of them kissing that hung on the wall. An inexplicable emptiness and exhaustion hung over his entire body.
Li Shuoxing became even more worried. âCub, are you really okay? If you come across anything, you can talk to me, and Iâll go over it with you. Two people are better than one, no matter what it is.â
Su Mingqian suddenly came back to his senses. He looked in the direction of Li Shuoxingâs voice. âXimu?â
Li Shuoxing: âIâm here.â
Su Mingqian: ââŚXimu, can you come in and be with me for a moment?â
How can I not!
The moment Su Mingqian asked, Li Shuoxing went to the machine, put on the helmet, and entered the game.
When his body had actually appeared in the bedroom, Su Mingqian nestled into his arms.
More than that.
Todayâs Su Mingqian was very active.
He grabbed Li Shuoxingâs hands, pulled them around his own waist, then lifted his arms and hooked them around Li Shuoxingâs neck.
With that gentle pressure on his neck, Li Shuoxing couldnât hold on any longer.
He bowed his head, as if he had been bewitched, and kissed the welcoming lips.
The warmth brought by the breaths gently embraced his body, and the sweet taste spread on his lips and teeth. It was as if Li Shuoxing had plucked the most delicious fruit from a branch and couldnât wait to devour it the moment he first tasted it.
Their kiss was so long that they only parted when their chests had no air left.
When their kiss was over, Su Mingqian continued to nestle in Li Shuoxingâs arms, rubbing them little.
He asked, âXimu, you can only stay here for half an hour, right?â
Li Shuoxing: âThatâs right. But I can stay for a total of one and a half hours in a whole day, just not continuously.â
Su Mingqian: âOhâŚâ
He looked up at Li Shuoxing.
His look was a bit depressing.
He let out a long sigh and gave Li Shuoxing a sweet, sweet chirp, then pushed him out of the room. âOkay Ximu, Iâm all right now. Go back to writing. Donât be lazy, you have to write a lot. Iâll be waiting. Ximu, go for it!â
Li Shuoxing: â??????â
He was inexplicably called online, inexplicably kissed, inexplicably encouraged, and inexplicably pushed offline.
At this moment, black question marks surrounded and attacked his whole body.
In the app, Su Mingqian saw that Li Shuoxing had left, and then asked Ask in a low voice, âAsk, is there some special meaning to limiting Ximuâs access time to the game to half an hour? You really canât give him a little more time?â
Ask: ââŚâ
The system chose to play dead.
But Su Mingqian continued to look at the light screen grudgingly.
Ask couldnât resist and finally spoke up.
[System: Itâs a problem with the helmet. It needs to be upgraded.]
The author has something to say:
Today, Ximu doesnât know what he has lost.
1
Lofter is a microblogging platform used largely in China. It is similar to Tumblr. It mostly consists of fanfiction and fanart. 2
The haori (çž˝çš) is a traditional Japanese hip- or thigh-length jacket worn over a kimono.