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Chapter 71




Li Shuoxing: “???”
Li Shuoxing was frightened.
He rushed to the hospital with the news given by the middle-aged man. When he looked for Calm Egg at the service desk, he even blurted out his name as “Eggy”. Fortunately, after some twists and turns, he finally gave Calm Egg’s correct name and got his ward number.
When he went upstairs for a look.
This guy was dressed in a hospital gown, leaning against the bed in a single room, staring at the TV, and drinking a glass of fruit juice in his hands. Next to the hospital bed, a person in a nursing uniform was massaging his shoulders and legs.
He seemed to be living a leisurely life.
Li Shuoxing: “
”
Calm Egg: “
”
The man on the bed was taken aback. “Ximu, how come you’re here?”
Li Shuoxing: “That’s not important. What’s important is how’d you end up in the hospital?”
Calm Egg: “Well, it’s a long story
”
Li Shuoxing carefully observed Calm Egg’s eyes.
In fact, he looked fine. Apart from his pale face, he was full of energy, his eyes were bright and his limbs were sound. In that case

Li Shuoxing recalled that Calm Egg was staying in the Cardiology Department and made a blind guess. “Staying up late and excessive caffeine lead to heart problems?”
Calm Egg was surprised. “You can guess that?”
Li Shuoxing: “Aren’t these the occupational diseases that authors come and go with?”
Calm Egg admitted, “You’re right.”
Li Shuoxing asked again, “Is it serious?”
“No, I just need a minor surgery. I’ll probably be in the hospital for a month.” Calm Egg said all his arrangements in one go. “I’ve already found a chief surgeon and arranged for a nurse. In a couple days, I’ll contact my family or friends in the same city and ask them to come see me regularly. That’s about it.”
Li Shuoxing was relieved. “That’s good.”
Calm Egg: “These are the easy matters. What I’m thinking about now is, what about my novel
”
Li Shuoxing: “What else can you do? Take a break and leave it. You’re still thinking about writing when you’ve almost lost your life?”
Calm Egg: “That’s right. I was in a coma for a day during this trip to the hospital. My first reaction when I woke up was shit, don’t worry about the daily update, my life is most important
”
Li Shuoxing silently complained, “Usually such words are followed by a ‘but’.”
Calm Egg lived up to expectations. “But! But after a day, I calmed down. I felt like my life was important, but writing was important too
”
Li Shuoxing went black. “This isn’t called calm, it’s being impulsive! You’re thinking about writing as soon as you wake up from a coma? Do you want to contact the CFLAC <sup>1</sup> China Federation of Literary and Art Circles to give you an award for writing with disability?”
Calm Egg sighed. “I won’t have money if I don’t work. I’m not a great god like you, and I don’t have a finished novel for income. If I really were to not write on a whim, I’d have no rice to cook later. Besides, why do you think I was able to stick to the longest daily updates for 999 days?”
Li Shuoxing hesitated. “
Money?”
Calm Egg’s face blackened. “It’s because of a pact, a pact between me and the readers!”
Li Shuoxing hesitated even more. “
I never thought you were such a cheesy egg.”
Calm Egg also felt that he was too cheesy. “Alright, it’s both for the money and for the pact. We’re all adults. Who still makes choices?”
Li Shuoxing: “So you’re planning to
”
Calm Egg’s 12-word policy was resounding and powerful. “Regulate work and rest, persist in physical exercise, seize every single moment! It’s not the updates but my lack of self-control to blame for me ending up in hospital. I don’t start writing until midnight every day. As long as I correct this habit, not to mention 3000-word daily updates, 6000-word daily updates while recovering is just a matter of two hours!”
“I understand your urgency to update.” Li Shuoxing paused. “You should stick to the goals you set.”
Calm Egg was full of confidence. “After this lesson, I’ve learned from my mistakes and am determined to correct them. Just you wait. When I finish the surgery and start recuperating, I’ll go to the group to report the results.”
Li Shuoxing was relieved to see Calm Egg so energetic.
After a few more words with Calm Egg, he left the hospital so as to not let the patient spend too much energy on him.
On the way out, Li Shuoxing took out his phone and went on the group to briefly tell Calm Egg’s situation. Then he closed the group and began to look for a restaurant to satisfy his rumbling stomach.
He took a couple more steps before Su Mingqian’s voice came through his earphones.
Su Mingqian said, “Ximu, I think it’s better to let your friend rest for a while.”
Li Shuoxing explained, “How can I put it
 Online authors have the difficulties of online authors. Eggy’s current book is only one million, public for two months, VIP for two months, just starting to make money. If he stops updating for a month now, the book is abandoned. Overall, half a year is all for nothing and the sunk cost is really high.”
Li Shuoxing paused and gave an objective example.
“There are quite a few online authors who wrote to death. For example, the year before last, an author, while writing, had a sudden cerebral haemorrhage and became a vegetable.”
Su Mingqian: “?!”
“There’s another one, more like Calm Egg. They lived alone and, while writing, had a sudden heart attack. Before an ambulance could be called, they went cold, and their notebook was still pressed on their chest.”
Su Mingqian: “?!?!”
“But.” Li Shuoxing wasn’t talking whoever wrote until they went cold. He was talking about Calm Egg. “But, Calm Egg isn’t one to write until he has a heart attack. Don’t be fooled by his miserable self now. In fact, he writes very fast, from 3000 per hour minimum to 5000 uncapped. It’s just that every day he starts writing at 12 o’clock and writes until 3am before going to bed. The next day he gets up and slacks off until midnight before starting to write
”
However, Su Mingqian was no longer listening to what Li Shuoxing was saying.
He was completely immersed in Li Shuoxing’s examples.
Cerebral haemorrhage, heart attack.
Living alone, unstable work and rest, poor health.
It seems Ximu matches every single one of those disease triggers.
He also writes slowly.
What if, one day, Ximu also

Su Mingqian was as dumb as a wooden cub.
“Ximu!”
A call interrupted Li Shuoxing’s words.
Li Shuoxing: “What’s the matter?”
Su Mingqian: “You have to take good care of your body. Nothing can happen to you.”
Li Shuoxing clearly felt the little person’s concern. He couldn’t help taking out his phone and poking the little person on the screen. “Don’t worry, I have a medical check-up every year. I’m really in good health and nothing will happen. Besides, I’ve also bought commercial insurance for these two years. Even if something does happen, commercial insurance will cover my treatment costs
”
“Slap”.
The little person’s hand slapped on the screen.
Although it wasn’t very accurate, Li Shuoxing somehow felt that the hand was coming for his mouth, wanting to tell him to shut up.
He unconsciously stopped.
On the screen, Su Mingqian stared at Li Shuoxing. He took his palm away from the screen, folding away the other four fingers to leave only one tiny index finger opposite to Li Shuoxing’s across the screen.
Two fingers, one big, one small.
One outside the screen, one inside the screen.
There wasn’t much similarity, but the scene was surprisingly harmonious.
Su Mingqian whispered, “Ximu
”
Li Shuoxing just felt like he was holding down a marshmallow, so soft and sweet that he wanted to eat it in one bite.
In his intoxication, he heard Su Mingqian speak again.
Su Mingqian wasn’t one to sit and wait for death. After a moment of softness, he gathered himself and raised his head, super serious and earnest. “To keep something from happening to you, from now on, I’ll not only supervise your writing, but also your sleep and exercise. Ximu, from today onwards, your daily schedule will be precise to the hour. “
Li Shuoxing woke up.
Li Shuoxing was stunned by the devil cub.
Li Shuoxing

Was Li Shuoxing a noob repeatedly shocked by the same thing?
He wasn’t.
Now, he was Li Shuoxing who had produced antibodies against the devil cub!
Li Shuoxing calmed down and was even a little amused. He changed his poking to rubbing and rubbed the cub on the screen. “Cub, are you concerned about me?”
Su Mingqian: “Of course.”
Li Shuoxing joked, “Are you concerned because I pay you? Now that you’re supervising my exercise as well as my writing, do I have to pay you double?”
Su Mingqian said seriously, “No need to pay double. Ximu, I’m not supervising you because of the pay.”
Li Shuoxing asked again, “Then because of what?”
Su Mingqian: “Because you’re Ximu, because you’ve always been helping me. That’s why I want to help you as much as I can.”
Li Shuoxing wasn’t satisfied. “Is it just a cold relationship of helping each other? I thought we at least depended on each other.”
Su Mingqian was stunned. He lowered his head, seemingly a little embarrassed, but when he raised it again, he gave Li Shuoxing an affirmative answer. “Yes, we depend on each other. Ximu, I don’t want to lose you.”
Li Shuoxing didn’t expect Su Mingqian to admit this.
Surprised, he took advantage of this opportunity. “So I’ll agree to your request, cub, and you’ll agree to mine, right?”
Su Mingqian gave a cough. He was ready. “Yes.”
Li Shuoxing revealed his real intention. “So cub, can you not talk in a domineering president tone in the future?”
Su Mingqian was dumbfounded. “Ah?”
Li Shuoxing talked a load of nonsense. “Cub, when you speak in that tone, you seem very harsh, which makes me nervous. When I get nervous, I want to run away from you
”
Su Mingqian hurriedly said, “Then I won’t speak like that. Don’t run away from me.”
Li Shuoxing revealed his second intention. “And, when you stare at me writing with the same harshness, I’ll think of my teaching director and also want to run away from you.”
Su Mingqian was amused and embarrassed. “I don’t want to be your teaching director. If I’m really too harsh, I’ll change it later.”
Li Shuoxing blurted out, “Then you want to be me my what?”
Su Mingqian: “Uh
”
Su Mingqian was silent for a moment. Suddenly, he leaned forward on Li Shuoxing’s finger on the screen and rubbed it intimately from bottom to top.
He finished.
Su Mingqian made a subtle confession. “Ximu, we’ll always be together.”
***
Later that day, Li Shuoxing held the treasure in his palm and booked a hotel room to stay in.
He posted today’s second chapter. At the very end of the update, he mentioned Calm Egg, of course without specifying which author. He just said, “A writing brother was unexpectedly hospitalised. I went to see him today, and fortunately the situation is fine. Everyone should take care of their health, especially freelancers. If you don’t have social insurance <sup>2</sup> äș”险䞀金 [wǔ xiǎn yÄ« jÄ«n] refers to the five social insurances (old-age insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work injury insurance and maternity insurance), as well as the housing fund. , it’s best to buy yourself some commercial insurance appropriately, just in case.”
He wasn’t alone.
Calm Egg was also in good condition today.
So he also went online to update, updating 1500 words of the main story, and 3000 words of his confession of Li Shuoxing coming to visit him.
In this chapter, he praised Li Shuoxing to the skies and bragged about him as a good brother and a good model of China!
Li Shuoxing’s readers were shocked.
Calm Egg’s readers were also shocked.
1
China Federation of Literary and Art Circles 2
äș”险䞀金 [wǔ xiǎn yÄ« jÄ«n] refers to the five social insurances (old-age insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work injury insurance and maternity insurance), as well as the housing fund.