Chapter 70

Li Shuoxing’s finger on the screen began to heat up and itch.

He noticed.

Once the cub did something intimate to him, his nerves would tense and his senses would sharpen. Although he was never actually touched, his body would always have some stress response.

But that was normal too.

Who could say no to such a cub?

Li Shuoxing took back his hand, quietly rubbed his numb fingertips and then looked at the cub on the screen.

After the little person on the flying carpet greeted Li Shuoxing, he lifted his head to look around, then saw all kinds of software and documents occupying two-thirds of the screen.

There wasn’t a lot of software, but a lot of documents.

One document after another was scattered on the screen, some on the left and quite a few on the right, squeezing together to occupy almost two-thirds of the desktop.

He said, “Ximu.”

Li Shuoxing: “Huh?”

Su Mingqian: “I’ll bring some stuff out and put them in the bottom right corner of the screen, is that okay?”

Li Shuoxing had no reason to object. “Sure, do what you want.”

So Su Mingqian drove the blanket to his destination.

There was already a recycle bin at the destination, but it was no problem for Su Mingqian. He pressed his hand on the icon, gave it a little push, and then, once he confirmed that he could move it smoothly, calmly moved the recycle bin to the left side of the screen.

Then, he came back to the empty bottom right corner, put down his backpack, took out the inflatable sofa, inflated it and took out books and fruits. A small and cosy lounge area was beginning to take shape.

Seeing this, Li Shuoxing felt like a breath of life had been added to his desktop. It was really a “new home”.

But then, Su Mingqian looked at the book in his hand and froze.

A big question mark slowly popped up on his head. Although he didn’t say anything directly, Li Shuoxing could still guess his thoughts without any difficulty.

Where’s my book?

Where are my domineering professor quotations?

Li Shuoxing relaxed, leaned back against the computer chair and crossed his long legs, just short of a whistle.

This was the situation…

Since Li Shuoxing found out in the game that the cub’s domineering professor mode relied on sentence excerpts, he had an evil idea.

While Su Mingqian was browsing the mobility tools, he secretly replaced the sentence excerpts book under Su Mingqian’s arm with another book with a similar cover. He watched Su Mingqian directly put the new book into his backpack without checking it after buying the small flying carpet.

And then it was now.

Li Shuoxing’s gaze was light, watching the big question mark bobbing around on Su Mingqian’s head and finally slowly disappearing.

Maybe I took the wrong thing when I was packing. It doesn’t matter. I’ll just bring it out next time.

Su Mingqian thought. He put down the book, turned around to knock on the screen and called out, “Ximu, help me.”

These two knocks seemed to hit Li Shuoxing’s heart.

Without the domineering boss quotations, the cub was really back to his everyday self.

I have to make good use of this time to think of a way to turn the domineering boss cub back.

A domineering boss is fun, but not every day…

He silently made a V-sign behind his back and quickly responded, “What?”

Su Mingqian manoeuvred the blanket again to fly to the centre of the screen and pointed to the camera image. “Can you shrink the image?”

Li Shuoxing didn’t think much of it and adjusted the size of the image, shrinking it all the way down.

When the huge image became similar to his body size, Su Mingqian satisfactorily called him to stop. “Alright, that’s it.”

Then, Li Shuoxing watched as Su Mingqian took the image away from under his mouse, carried it under his arm, brought it all the way to the lounge area and placed it next to his eyes, before saying, “Now I can watch you write in real-time, Ximu.”

Li Shuoxing suddenly woke up. “???”

Wait a minute.

Isn’t there something wrong?

He was alarmed. “Cub, why do you… want to watch me write in real-time?”

Su Mingqian had already flipped open his book and started reading. When he heard this, he was slightly surprised. “Ximu, didn’t you pay me to supervise your writing?”

Li Shuoxing: “Even so…”

Su Mingqian even explained to Li Shuoxing, “Before when I was in the phone app, I couldn’t keep track of your progress and felt a bit irresponsible. Now it’s alright. We can observe your progress through video connection throughout and then analyse the time of day when you’re most productive. Our next step is to try to schedule your work at the times you’re most in the zone.”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

The cub was so serious that he didn’t know how to refute it.

Su Mingqian added, “Alright, it’s 8am, just about time to start the day’s work. Ximu, I’ll see you in an hour.”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

He felt like everything had been said and he had nothing to say.

What else could he do if he had nothing to say? Of course, he could only start…

Li Shuoxing opened the document in a depressed mood and stared blankly at the black letters on the white background.

Could it be that from now on, I have to write under the supervision of the cub without a minute wasted?

No.

With the seriousness of the cub.

It may well not be a minute that can’t be wasted, but a second.

Come to think of it, it really is a life without meaning.

But where there is oppression, there is resistance.

Li Shuoxing, who was staring at the camera in a daze, suddenly came up with a brilliant idea.

He stole a glance at the cub in the lower right corner to make sure he was reading attentively and not paying attention to the video screen before he quietly reached out his hand and silently raised the position of the camera.

But he didn’t raise it too high, just enough to get a shot of his hands and wrists on the keyboard, nothing more, so one couldn’t be sure if he was actually typing.

He quietly did all this.

Li Shuoxing silently wiped the sweat from his forehead and mentally praised himself.

Then, he took out his phone, placed it in the blind spot of the camera, lit up the screen and read novels.

Shh.

Quiet.

Don’t disturb him.

After fifteen minutes of silence.

Su Mingqian: “Ximu?”

Li Shuoxing woke up. “What?”

Su Mingqian: “Are you writing?”

Li Shuoxing was unflustered. “Of course I am.”

Su Mingqian had a faint doubt. “Then why don’t I hear you typing?”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

Yeah, why!

The witty man gave an answer. “Because I’m writing the outline.”

Su Mingqian understood and looked back down at his book. “Okay, you can continue.”

Li Shuoxing breathed out quietly.

He still didn’t work, still lit up the screen and continued reading novels.

Another fifteen minutes passed.

Su Mingqian: “Ximu, have you thought out the outline?”

Li Shuoxing: “…Almost, just one more part to go.”

As he said that, he couldn’t help glancing at his phone.

Almost finished, just three more chapters to go.

Su Mingqian asked with concern, “Which part is it? Is it logical or emotional, or is it the structure of the next big scene?”

Since he started being paid, Su Mingqian had read a lot of writing books in his free time to keep up with Li Shuoxing on all fronts and was no longer in the dark about writing.

Li Shuoxing: “…”

Yeah, which part is it!

The wise man didn’t continue to be stubborn. “No need, you can keep reading, cub. I suddenly got inspired again and I think I can start writing!”

Su Mingqian didn’t doubt him, made another “mm” and continued reading.

Li Shuoxing relaxed.

Half an hour had passed. It’d be hard to explain if he didn’t start writing soon…

Of course, the point wasn’t that it was hard to explain, but hard to skimp through.

After all, the cub wasn’t easy to fool.

That said, he didn’t know if it was possible to stuff the cub back into his phone now.

If I’d known that I’d be monitored like this if I got the cub on the computer, I never would’ve dug myself into a hole—

Oh, alright.

Even if I did see a big hole, deep and full of thorns, I’d still jump in.

Who let the cub be in there.

Li Shuoxing thought sadly.

Life is really hard.

Although he was about to start writing, starting the day’s work at eight in the morning really wasn’t Li Shuoxing’s working time.

Li Shuoxing’s thoughts drifted as he faced the document, and he lost focus every few lines he typed.

And whenever he lost focus and started slacking for ten minutes, Su Mingqian’s voice would ring out.

After repeating this a few times, Li Shuoxing had taught himself a new way of slacking.

He wrote very seriously.

But every half hour of writing, he got up from his seat, walked aside with his phone and slacked for fifteen minutes.

When the cub on the screen asked, he had a reason.

For example:

“My spine is starting to break.”

“My old back can’t support me.”

“My head! Aiya! My head!”

At this moment, Li Shuoxing was suffering from various illnesses and his days were numbered.

Su Mingqian: “…”

He thought about it and, upholding an attitude of believing it was true rather than assuming it wasn’t, stopped urging and let Li Shuoxing take a fifteen-minute break every half hour and a half-hour break every hour.

Time was in such a hare and tortoise race in this tug-of-war with writing progress.

The former the hare, the latter the tortoise.

Writing and slacking, Li Shuoxing finally got into the zone at about 10:30am.

He stopped talking.

He was sitting on the chair, his eyes fixed on the screen, and lines of text appeared on the document, like ink splashing on white paper and snaking underneath.

And the sound of the keyboard.

Tap tap tap.

The rhythm sharp and the momentum high.

After Su Mingqian confirmed Li Shuoxing was focused on his writing, he stopped disturbing him.

He quietly put down the book in his hand, stood up from the inflatable sofa and silently flew to the screen on the small flying carpet.

He paid careful attention to his flight path, sticking to the side to make a slow detour so as to avoid disturbing Li Shuoxing’s gaze at the document.

Then, he grabbed a document.

Another document.

And another.

The documents scattered randomly on the desktop were dragged and filed by Su Mingqian, re-exposing the originally barely visible wallpaper. The various piles of software also consciously partitioned themselves according to their functions, laid out in a way that was easy for the owner to use.

If someone were to look at the computer screen from the perspective of an onlooker, they’d find—

The screen had become smart.

It could organise its cluttered desktop on its own!

Although Su Mingqian’s movements were small, how could Li Shuoxing not notice a tiny cub constantly moving around on his desktop.

His typing hands slowed down a bit, and his eyes, which had been focused on the document, turned to his snail boy ¹ This refers to the folktale ‘Snail Girl’. An alone young farmer picked up a snail and took it home. The snail turned into a girl when he was working and cleaned the house and cooked food for him. .

He saw that the randomly placed documents had been sorted to the very last one, a series of yellow folders lined up regularly at the top of the screen. Even the various icons on the desktop hadn’t been spared. They were all partitioned by function, arranged in the most convenient way.

“Beep beep beep.”

The QQ icon in the bottom right corner of the screen suddenly popped up, alerting Li Shuoxing that he had a new message.

Su Mingqian, who was focused on sorting the desktop, was distracted by the sound and turned his head to the bottom right corner.

Li Shuoxing took back his hand nonchalantly and pretended he was still writing seriously.

He instructed the little person, “Cub, help hang it up.”

Su Mingqian: “Okay.”

He drove the small flying carpet back and slapped the icon with his hand. He had intended to close it, but instead he slapped the pop-up window out, making it pop up right in the middle of Li Shuoxing’s screen.

Su Mingqian, whose movements still weren’t very skilled: “Oops…”

Li Shuoxing: “It’s fine. I’ll do it.”

As he said that, he stopped his typing hands and touched the mouse to close QQ.

But before he closed it, he saw the popped up content.

The pop-up window was of the Terminal Food Group.

In the group, Interfinger Storm @All members.

Interfinger Storm: “Who’s geographically close to Calm Egg? Calm Egg has disappeared.”

What the hell is this?

Li Shuoxing stopped his hand about to close QQ and asked with a face full of confusion, “What’s going on?”

As he said that, he guessed that the chat wouldn’t end in a short time and that he wouldn’t be able to get back into writing right away. Li Shuoxing simply got up from his computer chair, went into the kitchen, poured a glass of water and grabbed an energy bar to pad his stomach.

When he sat back down at his computer desk, the group was flashing with messages, while Su Mingqian was alone in his small corner, glancing at the video image from time to time, probably searching for his figure. He looked empty and lonely.

Li Shuoxing put his hand on the mouse. With a flick of the mouse, he moved Su Mingqian, together with the couch, onto the chat box.

Su Mingqian was startled. “Ximu?”

Li Shuoxing: “Wanna see my friends? The ones who often pop up in this group, Calm Egg, Interfinger Storm, Soren, Ten Zero Ling, Six Flavour Monk, Deer Over Fragrant Grass and Si Buqun, are my friends and colleagues. My relationship with them is just like yours with your researcher colleagues.”

Su Mingqian: “Mm…”

His curiosity was piqued and he couldn’t help turning his head to the chat box in front of him.

Li Shuoxing was still chatting. “It’s not just these people. There are others in the group that I had a good time with. But maybe stuff happened in reality. They gradually didn’t go online much, or if they did, they no longer spoke in the group.”

At this moment, a few more sentences popped up in the group. It wasn’t Interfinger Storm who spoke up, but Soren.

Soren: “Calm Egg hasn’t shown up in the group for three days.”

Soren: “He hasn’t answered the phone either.”

Soren: “His novel has also stopped updating for three days without a word.”

Three sentences in a row. Everyone who was summoned by the Great Summoning Technique understood.

It was possible to not show up in the group. If he didn’t answer the phone, it might be that he missed the call. But missing updates without a word, for three days in a row at that, wasn’t right by any stretch of the imagination.

However, even though something isn’t right, isn’t it a bit much to go find him in reality?

As Li Shuoxing was thinking this question, someone in the group had spoken up for him.

Ten Zero Ling questioned, “Although we can’t contact him at the moment, we don’t have to go to his city, do we? What if Calm Egg is just tired of writing and wants to take a break?”

Interfinger Storm: “I don’t rule out this possibility. But Eggy lives alone.”

Everyone understood.

Better safe than sorry. It was better to spend some time and money to go and have a look than to regret later if something did happen.

Interfinger Storm added, “I’m personally inclined to go and have a look. Is there anyone in the group close to him who is prepared to go? If there’s no one, I’ll go. It’ll take me half a day to get to Calm Egg’s city.”

Soren: “I’m about the same as you.”

Ten Zero Ling: “I’ll take eight hours, a little closer than you.” But he was helpless. “But I have closed training with the team these two days and can’t run away.”

Six Flavour Monk appeared timely. “The monk only needs six hours to get to Almsgiver Eggy’s city. Saving a life is better than creating a seven-level pagoda. The monk will go do good deeds.”

Almost at the same time as Six Flavour Monk, Li Shuoxing’s message was also sent.

“I’ll go,” Li Shuoxing said. After sending a line, he added slowly, “It’s an hour’s journey from my place to Calm Egg’s city. The train runs every twenty minutes.”

This advantage was so great that no one in the group could rob Li Shuoxing.

They all urged, “Ximu, this heavy duty of visiting Eggy will be entrusted to you. There’s something very wrong with Eggy this time, breaking his nearly two years of daily updates. It’s likely that he’s become withdrawn from writing. If you meet, you mustn’t arouse Eggy’s withdrawal, nor let Eggy arouse your withdrawal.”

Li Shuoxing could understand the first half, but not the second half. “Why would I let Eggy arouse my withdrawal? How could I be withdrawn?”

Soren’s mouth was the quickest. “How couldn’t you? Didn’t you go crazy a while ago—”

Ten Zero Ling: “[first ever sand sculpture funny picture].gif”

Although the former had a quick mouth, the latter took over from behind. A gif that could attract all eyes pushed Soren’s message out of the chat box.

By the time Li Shuoxing noticed something was wrong and scrolled back to look, Soren had silently withdrawn his message, leaving only a system prompt.

Li Shuoxing: “…?”

He asked, “Is there something you guys are hiding from me?”

Everyone denied, “How could it be? There’s really nothing! Don’t get any ideas!”

Li Shuoxing stared at everyone for three seconds and let it go. “Forget it, I’m gonna buy a ticket for this afternoon. I’ll contact you guys when I find Eggy.”

After he sent that, he got offline and began preparing his travel items.

While preparing his things, he didn’t forget to talk to the cub. “Cub, something may have happened with Eggy. I have to go over and take a look. I’ll also take you out on a tour around. How about it?”

Su Mingqian kept one thing in mind. “It’s right to go see your friend. But a tour isn’t necessary, is it? Your novel…”

Li Shuoxing was righteous. “As long as I have a computer and an internet connection, where can’t I write and work?”

That made a lot of sense.

Su Mingqian thought about it and couldn’t refute it.

Li Shuoxing added, “Alright, cub. It’s rare that you can see around through the camera, so why don’t you see more of your home country? Maybe you’ll be back in the United States soon?”

Su Mingqian: “…When I get back to the United States, Ximu.”

Li Shuoxing: “What?”

Su Mingqian’s voice was soft, like a little hook enticing him. “You should also come over and play with me. I’ll show you around interesting places in the United States.”

Li Shuoxing agreed in a breath, “No problem!”

With that, he had rummaged out all his power banks and charging cables from his home.

He used to be a man who only needed a backpack for a week’s trip to Beijing, but obviously that wouldn’t do now.

Now he was a successful person with a family to feed. If he wanted to go out, he had to think about the cub. Three fully charged power banks were the cub’s essential travelling equipment!

Li Shuoxing nodded in satisfaction and continued packing.

But when all his things were packed, Li Shuoxing, a successful person, still went out with the same bag as last time, and even the weight wasn’t much different.

Because after packing the electronic equipment, Li Shuoxing got lazy and went straight out without even packing any underwear for himself…

He had a plan.

First, go to Calm Egg. If there was no problem, he’d buy a ticket for the same day and go back that day.

If there was a problem… then he’d act according to circumstances and analyse the specific problem.

He took a taxi from his community to the high-speed railway station, then took a taxi from the high-speed railway station to Calm Egg’s home.

Modern society had convenient transportation. Li Shuoxing didn’t procrastinate this time and quickly transferred between various modes of transportation. By the time he reached his destination, it’d taken only two hours in total. He could even have lunch at Calm Egg’s place.

When he arrived at the bottom of the building, the downstairs door was open. Li Shuoxing didn’t ring the corridor bell, took the elevator straight to Calm Egg’s home and knocked on the door.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Five minutes.

The sound of knocking changed from quiet to loud, slow to fast, and finally to pounding.

Li Shuoxing’s fingers hurt from knocking, but no one came to the door.

What bad luck…

Li Shuoxing couldn’t help but start pondering a new question. Just as he went on a trip to visit on a whim, what if Calm Egg also went on a trip for pleasure on a whim? What should he do then…

Wait?

Not wait?

Make another phone call?

Or ask the neighbour to see if they know what’s going on?

“Click”.

Li Shuoxing’s wish came true.

Calm Egg’s door wasn’t knocked open by him, but the neighbour’s door opened amidst the persistent noise.

A middle-aged man came out from the opposite door. He looked out at Li Shuoxing and said in a bad mood, “Who are you? What are you knocking for? The owner isn’t inside. He was towed away by the ambulance three days ago.”

1

This refers to the folktale ‘Snail Girl’. An alone young farmer picked up a snail and took it home. The snail turned into a girl when he was working and cleaned the house and cooked food for him.