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Chapter 72




Edited by: kapekopicoffee
“What the hell is this
”
Calm Egg’s readers, realising the gravity of the problem, rose up in anger.
“Three days without an update, and the update’s just 1500 words?”
“Updating 1500 words is fine. After all, he’s in the hospital. It’s the right thing to recover well.”
“But you’re in the hospital, not updating or recovering, but writing 3000 words bragging about Caramel Ximu???”
“Caramel Ximu next door, huh, don’t think we don’t know. This author used to be okay, just a little late with short chapters every now and then. But now, Caramel Ximu’s gay!”
“He’s like most of Terminal’s degenerate authors. His eyes no longer rest on females, but on males; his pen and ink aren’t spent on females, but on males!”
“And you’re different. Calm Egg, do you remember your all ambiguous harems back then?!”
“Calm Egg, you can’t do this!”
“Calm Egg, you can’t go to the hospital and get your sexual orientation skewed.”
“Calm Egg, you’re the last hope for our harem village!”
Readers of Calm Egg’s novel had already let out hoarse cries of collapse.
But one person expressed their displeasure.
Deer Over Fragrant Grass sent a screenshot to the group and highlighted ‘last hope for our harem village’. “What’s going on? Aren’t I the last hope of the all ambiguous harem religion? I, Deer Over Fragrant Grass, don’t deserve a name?”
“Hahahahaha, Brother Deer, don’t get hung up. I’m the last hope of the harem village, you’re the last hope of the harem religion,” Calm Egg replied in a second. After a short chat with Li Shuoxing, he had now risen back up from the dead. “As for the rest of you guys, who dares to stand shoulder to shoulder with me and Brother Deer?”
The others online bowed their heads in shame.
We can’t compare, we’re no match.
Interfinger Storm sighed. “Ah, thinking back then, book after a book in Terminal were all women. I don’t know since when, not only did the brothers not write female characters, but even the reader masters didn’t like to read all about women. Even the editorial department started a ‘How to describe sincere and touching brotherhood’ training course. Time’ll never come back, Terminal’s now all monks
”
Speaking of monks, the monk arrived.
Six Flavour Monk appeared at this time. “Eggy, I have asked my master to bless you with a string of rosary beads to protect you from evil spirits. I will send it to you later.”
Calm Egg: “Thanks!”
Just as he finished speaking, Soren appeared.
Soren also came to report good news. “Eggy, you’re first on today’s bestselling list.”
Calm Egg was stunned. “I’ve stopped updating for three days. How could I be on the list?”
The full name of Terminal’s bestselling list was “24-hour Bestselling List”, which calculated the total amount of subscriptions and rewards received by a work in 24 hours.
After replying to Soren, Calm Egg had a premonition. He closed the group chat, entered the Terminal app and took a look.
First, he saw a silver treasure chest fly over the bookshelf.
After flying for ten seconds or so, another silver treasure chest flew over the top of the bookshelf.
After another ten seconds or so, a third silver treasure chest flew over the top of the bookshelf.
All of them were for his novel.
Calm Egg opened his novel and read the discussion forum.
The posts complaining about his relationship with Li Shuoxing were still there, but in everyone’s complaints, they began to say,
“You’re in the hospital. Boss Egg, don’t keep thinking about writing, get some rest. I’ve set an update alert for you, so no matter when you get back, I’ll get a notification.”
“Student without much to spare. I plan to work after school this month and expect to earn 500 yuan. This 500 yuan will first be rewarded to Boss Egg.”
“I’m ashamed to say that I’m the kind of reader who only reads finished novels. Because of well-known reasons, every time I can only see Boss Egg’s name in txt <sup>1</sup> An aggregator site. . Nevertheless, I still catch up on his books without fail
 Today, I happened to hear that Boss Egg was hospitalized, so I hurried over and paid Boss Egg back the money I owed him in one go. Thank you Boss Egg for your persistence in writing such great novels.”
After a series of great silver alliances, there was even a general gold alliance.
The book friend who had rewarded the Gold General Alliance didn’t say much. He just said, “I’ve been reading your books since I was 40, and now I’m 45. Thank you for accompanying me through the hardest five years of my life.”
When Calm Egg saw this, he lifted his hand and wiped his face.
He typed a few words into his phone.
“Thank you all, too.”
He wanted to send it, but ended up deleting it.
Some things didn’t need to be too emotional, just kept in mind.
***
Then.
Li Shuoxing went online.
It was a rare trip out. Tthe person who had visited several scenic spots with his cub wasn’t at all in the state.
“What’s going on, why have I been shipped with Calm Egg all of a sudden?”
After typing this heartfelt question to the group, Li Shuoxing didn’t sit back and wait for others to answer.
He first looked at his discussion forum.
In the discussion forum, his readers were already in chaos, with all sorts of weird questions posted on the discussion forum.
“Eunuch, it’s fine if you’re gay in your novel, but you’re not gay in reality as well, are you?”
“Ximu, in all good conscience, tell us the truth. Exactly what kind of male-male relationship do you have with the author next door? Wasn’t it just a hospital visit? How come not a single brother showers me with 3,000 words of passionate praises when I visit them in the hospital every day?”
“Seriously speaking, I don’t think the blame’s entirely on Eunuch. After all, the same thing is described completely differently by both authors. Here, Eunuch posted a total of two lines of less than a hundred words at the end of the chapter, describing fully his cold-heartedness. Next door, the extra chapter’s word count is more than twice his main story’s word count. Compare how much the latter loves the former!”
“Eunuch is really attacking <sup>2</sup> 慬慬 [gƍng gong], Eunuch, sounds similar to 攻攻 [gƍng gƍng], attack, which refers to the top in a male to male relationship. , and Eggy is really ballsy <sup>3</sup> 蛋蛋 [dĂ n dĂ n] may refer to the balls. . The authors’ names have revealed everything. They’re born to be a couple. Nothing can stand in their way!”


As Li Shuoxing scrolled through, his face was black. He simply couldn’t look.
Fortunately, only a small handful of people in the discussion forum said things like these.
The vast majority of people focused on something else. Facts had proven that what really mattered to the readers was the update of the novel, nothing else.
“Why do I get the feeling that Eunuch’s tone when mentioning the hospital is filled with strong hints of going on hiatus?”
“Like The Last Supper. He’s saying to us, masters, this little one can’t hold out any longer. Tomorrow I will go on hiatus and today’s chapter will be the last. You guys should eat well before starving.”
“Bah! Eunuch, do you think we’ll bow to you if you hint that you’re going on hiatus?!”
“Bow down and cry.”
“You guys, don’t just create panic. No matter how I look at it, it’s just a simple insurance ad!”
“Is it so hard to live as a god author these days? Even having to advertise for insurance in their novel?”
After navigating the chaos of the discussion forum all the way up to here, Li Shuoxing’s thoughts coincided perfectly with Calm Egg’s readers’ initial thoughts.
What the hell is this

He was about to leave a comment to dispel the rumour so that people wouldn’t believe and spread it, when he suddenly saw a post.
Topic: Technical post, a breakdown of Eunuch’s hiatus warnings in recent years.
Li Shuoxing: “???”
His head full of question marks, he entered the post to see what fancy stuff the poster could come up with!
Then he found that this technical post
 was really a technical post.
The poster was probably his loyal fan and a data guy. He had made a detailed table, with the first column showing the time, the second column showing where the hiatus warning quotation was published, the third column showing the specific hiatus warning quotation, and the fourth column showing the number of days of the subsequent hiatus.
And he also thoughtfully highlighted the keyword, “hospital”, in yellow.
Li Shuoxing carefully counted

He found in ten years of writing, he had mentioned hospital five times, and every time after that, he had gone on hiatus.
Li Shuoxing: “
”
All right, brother, you’re a tough one!
Li Shuoxing conceded defeat. He closed the post and silently took back his words.
In the face of the emperor of data, even the author’s own words didn’t seem that reliable.
He decided to take action to wash away the shame of the past.
But before that, what Li Shuoxing couldn’t tolerate more was him was being shipped with Calm Egg by his book friends.
What are you joking about?
Why would I be together with Calm Egg? Even if I were to be together with someone, it’d be with my cute cub, my cute male protagonist, Su Mingqian!
Li Shuoxing prepared to redeem his reputation first.
He thought that since Calm Egg had written a long extra chapter to express his feelings to him, which caused a commotion among his book friends, then he should also write a long extra chapter to express his feelings to the cub, which would surely cause a counter-commotion among his book friends.
And this extra chapter was incredibly easy.
Li Shuoxing knew by heart how cute the cub was.
He wrote 2500 out of 3000 words in half an hour.
The last 500 words were especially important. Li Shuoxing decided to write them while sucking the cub.
He swiped his phone screen and found Su Mingqian in the game. However, he was surprised to find that he wasn’t the only one writing. The little person was also bent over his desk, writing seriously.
Li Shuoxing jolted.
He isn’t writing down my daily schedule, is he?
He soundlessly snuck over and stole a glance at the title

“On the importance and necessity of the relationship between Caramel Ximu and Su Mingqian”
But this title was crossed out.
A new title was written next to it.
“Study on the causative and catalytic effects of the formation of Caramel Ximu’s feelings towards Su Mingqian based on Nine Crossings”
Then this one was crossed out too.
A third title appeared.
“The feasible development of Caramel Ximu and Su Mingqian’s bond using big data analysis of specific metaphors in the text Nine Crossings”
Li Shuoxing: Huh???
These three titles were each longer than the other. When it came to the last one, Li Shuoxing didn’t finish reading it and couldn’t understand it.
He read it again and again, not understanding why Su Mingqian had suddenly written such a thing, until the little person writing with his head down moved his body and raised his arm, revealing a document he had pressed under it.
Li Shuoxing read just one line and confirmed it.
This was the extra chapter Calm Egg had written about him, because the title of it was “With his arrival, my heart is at peace”.
Li Shuoxing: “
”
You’ve actually chosen such a title. Calm Egg, you really are a Gay Egg.
As he scowled inwardly, he found that the little person had picked up the document, flipped through a couple pages, furrowed his small brows, slammed the document down on his desk, then lifted his pen and continued to write.
But after a while of writing.
About five minutes.
Some sort of lag seemed to have occurred in the little person. He picked up the document again, continued to flip through it, and continued to slam the document down on his desk.
Throughout this process, the narration refreshed.
[Su Mingqian is angry.]
[Su Mingqian tears the document in half.]
[Su Mingqian looks at his writing and sighs.]
[Su Mingqian silently puts the document back together.]
[Su Mingqian finds the collection of works
]
[Su Mingqian references the collection and writes with great speed!]
1
An aggregator site. 2
慬慬 [gƍng gong], Eunuch, sounds similar to 攻攻 [gƍng gƍng], attack, which refers to the top in a male to male relationship. 3
蛋蛋 [dĂ n dĂ n] may refer to the balls.