Li Shuoxing, who had started another bloody storm during a trip out, didn’t stay out for long after talking with Night Tour. He soon returned home and began the magical days of writing, exercising and playing with the cub.
Those magical days flew by quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was the end of the month.
On December 23rd, a message was sent to the inboxes of all contracted authors at Terminal.
The authors opened it and found that the content of the message was very simple, pretty much straight to the point.
[System Notice]:
As Christmas is approaching, Terminal will trial the following medical insurance plan for all eligible contracted authors. The medical insurance is voluntary. Authors who are willing to participate can click the agree button, and those who are not willing to participate can close this message…
As soon as the message was released, all the authors on the site were in an uproar, and the message was screenshotted and spread at once.
Posts that’d sunk to the bottom of Paper Forum were almost immediately dug up again. Authors spoke out one after another, and many emotions such as surprise and delight began to rise.
Then, Li Shuoxing was once again remembered by many of his peers.
Some of the beneficiaries couldn’t contain their excitement and came to Li Shuoxing’s Nine Crossings to make passionate comments.
“Worship the great god.”
“The great god is really something.”
“A small reward for you. Please keep up the good work, great god!”
At first, few people came, just some of the authors on this site.
But as the matter spread farther and farther, more and more people knew about it, and the heat further fermented. On Weibo, the overall sequence of events had been summarised and published, and the response was quite enthusiastic, all the way up to thirty thousand forwards.
Among them, the top comment was, “Worshipping the great god can accomplish anything”.
Soon after, Nine Crossings became a wishing pool.
Regardless of whether it worked or not, the authors from this site, the authors from other sites, and many readers all came to the novel page, voted with a click, and left a comment to give a reward.
The authors on this site weren’t the only ones who said things like that. Some authors from other sites also came to Li Shuoxing’s novel and made similar comments. Some readers who responded began to gather below Li Shuoxing’s novel to discuss, make small talk and shower praises from various angles.
That was just in one day’s time.
Li Shuoxing’s chapter comments and discussion forum were once again totally refreshed.
The highest number of comments on a chapter had already exceeded twenty thousand; the discussion forum could refresh with a whole new page in five minutes.
Corresponding to this was the skyrocketing of the novel on the ranking lists.
From 8am to 10pm.
Li Shuoxing had skyrocketed from fifth on the recommendation list and seventh on the click list all the way up to first on both lists, and reached second on the 24-hour bestselling list with everyone’s rewards.
As for first on the bestselling list, that was Calm Egg’s novel.
While everyone was busy worshipping the great god, they certainly didn’t forget this poor man who was still in hospital.
With full compassion, they sent Calm Egg to first on the bestselling list, as well as second for recommendations and clicks.
On this day.
Caramel Ximu and Calm Egg both went viral!
Midnight that day.
Silent Stream: “…”
Silent Stream, who had once again been overtaken by Li Shuoxing on the recommendation and click list, was already calm.
He didn’t ask for votes this time.
Not only that, but he also used his main account to reward Calm Egg and Li Shuoxing with a silver alliance each.
He said to Calm Egg, “Brother, recover well.”
When he got to Li Shuoxing, it was also simple. He just said, “Well done.”
After he sent the rewards, he patted his ass and went to bed.
However, Calm Egg, who was checking the backend, couldn’t be calm when he saw this. He immediately wailed in the group, “Silent Stream gave me a reward! Not just to me, but to Eunuch too! I’d like to apologise for calling Silent Stream a fatass, but Eunuch, Eunuch!”
He crazily called to Li Shuoxing.
“You’re going VIP next month, and you’ll be competing with Silent Stream for monthly votes. This is the moment when the battle horn is about to blow. This is the new year of miracles for you to slay the god. You mustn’t be corrupted by the enemy’s sugar-coated shells and forget your original intentions. We’ll eat the sugar coating, fire back the shells, and screw him to death!”
Li Shuoxing: “…”
He replied with a line of ellipses to Calm Egg.
He got offline and washed his face.
The cub was already lying in his little bed, waiting for him to go to bed with him and turn off the lights.
***
He woke up refreshed.
As usual, Li Shuoxing went online to watch the cub before getting up.
As soon as he got online, the system sent an email.
From: System
Topic: Happy Christmas Eve
Today is Christmas Eve. The Love Bar app has prepared a small login gift for you.
[Mystery Gingerbread Man Ă— 1]
The 25-day Christmas event has come to an end in the blink of an eye. How many gingerbread men have you collected?
Friendly reminder: The gingerbread men refresh will end at 23:59 on the 24th, and the event prize redemption will take place on the 25th.
Li Shuoxing finished reading the email.
He was a little confused.
Gingerbread men?
Christmas event?
What’s all this?
System, don’t trick me. When have you ever issued such a task!
Then, he saw the little pine tree growing in the courtyard. The short little tree still looked the same as before, grievously sitting in the corner, not having grown an inch.
With this key item as a reminder, Li Shuoxing finally began to remember.
The Christmas event was divided into two parts. One was to collect 25 ordinary gingerbread men to exchange for a Christmas skin, and the other was to collect 10 mystery gingerbread men to exchange for a mystery gift.
At that time, the description of the ordinary gingerbread men event was that there were two ways to get items every day, and a total of 25 would be enough. So, even if he waited until there were only thirteen days left before starting, he could totally make it in time…
Then, when it was thirteen days to Christmas, he forgot about it.
Now, on the last day of the task duration, he finally remembered this event that had faded from his memory in his procrastination.
His ease was gone in an instant, and tension blew over his head like a gale at a cliff, chilling his heart.
The wind blowing on his face instantly blew into his heart, chilling his whole heart.
I should’ve known better than to procrastinate.
I should’ve started right away.
Wouldn’t this event only take thirteen days, regardless of if I do it earlier or later?
What’s the difference between doing it early and doing it late—
There’s still a difference. If I’d finished the task earlier, I wouldn’t have fallen into my present situation.
But sometimes, I just… can’t help… procrastinating…
Li Shuoxing took a moment to calm down and pull himself together. His eyes couldn’t help but fall on the ordinary gingerbread man task.
There was a preview of the Christmas skin that the ordinary gingerbread men could exchange for. It was wrapped in silver, with ribbons fluttering about. Red, green, gold and orange gifts were stacked under the tall Christmas tree, lively and beautiful.
He had already lost a task reward.
Li Shuoxing couldn’t give up another.
He knew it’d be difficult to complete a 24-day task in one day, but!
I can do it!
***
Su Mingqian was awakened by the clatter.
When he woke up from bed, he was still a little dazed, not knowing what was going on. After all, he hadn’t been affected by any noise since he woke up here.
He followed the noise all the way to the kitchen and saw that the tidy kitchen had become messy.
Cutting boards were sprawled on the kitchen counter, knives were flying in the air, food from the refrigerator had been taken out and dismembered, a soup pot was being licked by the flame of the stove, and the boiling water inside was gurgling.
Su Mingqian looked at the seemingly supernatural scene in silence for a moment and tried to call out, “Ximu? …Is that you?”
Li Shuoxing’s voice rang out, “Cub, you’re awake.”
Su Mingqian tentatively asked, “Are you okay?”
Li Shuoxing: “I’m okay!”
Su Mingqian: “???”
Five minutes later, Su Mingqian had figured it all out.
Li Shuoxing continued, “I just made two food items and got a gingerbread man. Now I’m working on a third food item. I think the probability of a gingerbread man dropping isn’t low, and I feel confident that I can complete the task—”
Just as his words trailed off, the food in the pot was done cooking. At the same time, a cloud of smoke suddenly enveloped over the stove. It swirled enthusiastically and happily for a moment, then with a “biu”, the smoke cleared and a gingerbread man leapt out, suspended above the stove.
Su Mingqian took the gingerbread man off the stove.
He placed it in his hand and took a look. “Three kinds of food for two gingerbread men, the probability doesn’t seem low… Ximu, can you knit Christmas stockings?”
Li Shuoxing: “No.”
Su Mingqian: “Me neither.”
The two of them were resolute. “Divide the work and cook together!”
The probability of getting a Christmas gingerbread man indeed wasn’t low.
In one morning, Su Mingqian and Li Shuoxing racked their brains to make 22 kinds of easy dishes. The system generously gave them 12 gingerbread men. Overall, the probability of getting a gingerbread man was above 50%.
With such a harvest in the morning alone, wouldn’t the afternoon and evening be enough to complete the task?
Li Shuoxing breathed a huge sigh of relief and said to Su Mingqian, “I thought the task, given its 24-day duration, would be so complicated, but it looks so simple. If it weren’t for the limit on the mystery gingerbread man, I think we could totally finish it today…”
As his words trailed off, smoke rose.
Another cloud of smoke enveloped the food in front of him.
But this time, the smoke didn’t envelop the space above the food, but the food itself. When the smoke cleared after a moment, a gingerbread man didn’t appear. Instead, the ordinary food began to shine with a golden glow.
Li Shuoxing: “???”
What the hell is this.
He cautiously poked at the food and observed the situation.
[Name]: Golden – Clam Cucumber
[Note]: Not all foods can be labelled golden. Golden food is the nobility of cuisine. It can attract all creatures in the world that have a preference for food, including, of course, mystery gingerbread men. Each golden food will attract 1 to 3 mystery gingerbread men, and there is no limit to the number of mystery gingerbread men that can be collected in a day.
Li Shuoxing wasn’t fooled by the extravagant description. He was extremely speechless.
Game, oh game, do you think I can’t see through your tricks?
Aren’t you just starting another activity to waste my time on, seeing that I could finish one ahead of time?
Heh.
You think I’d fall for that?
At that moment.
“Da.”
“Da.”
There were a few slight sounds of movement around the kitchen.
Both people looked in the direction of the sounds.
The first sound was behind the refrigerator. A gingerbread man with a Christmas hat poked his head out.
The second sound was at the door frame. A gingerbread man holding a red and green cane looked around carefully.
The third was just behind the stove. A gingerbread man wearing a purple bow tie had at some point snuck in along the stove next to the clam, and was reaching for the plate…
Like lightning.
Li Shuoxing slapped away at the purple bow tie gingerbread man!