Chapter 96: This Is What I Deserve

Huang Qingya pressed her lips, her eyes darting about before she rolled them at him. She raised a hand to adjust the gold-rimmed glasses on her nose, then rose with a smile and sat on his lap, wrapping both arms around his neck. Gazing into his eyes at close range, she whispered, "Happy New Year! Is this okay?"

Cao Sheng held her waist and asked with a laugh, "What did you say you came here to do today?"

Huang Qingya: "To help you clean, but it seems I don't need to do that now."

As she spoke, her gaze swept left and right, noticing that the restaurant was quite clean.

Cao Sheng: "Who said that? You don't need to clean the house, but I haven't taken a bath today. Why don't you wash me clean? That would count as you helping me clean. One must never forget one's original intention!"

Huang Qingya wanted to laugh, biting her lip as she looked at him.

Seeing her reaction, Cao Sheng scooped her up in one motion and walked toward the bathroom.

"You're getting more shameless by the day, and you're supposed to be a rising star writer! You're dragging down the average quality of all writers..."

Inside the bathroom, Huang Qingya's soft rebuke could be heard.

Outside, snowflakes drifted down in a flurry.

Wei Dongming, who had just left Cao Sheng's place after drinking, walked while looking up at the falling snow. Under the dark, heavy night sky, the snowflakes drifted down in a flurry; as they passed through the glow of the streetlights, every single snowflake seemed clearly visible.

This scene made him feel a wave of loneliness and desolation.

Then, by accident, he stepped on something. Splash! He fell to the ground, sending water splashing everywhere.

At the same time.

In Cao Sheng's bathtub, water splashed everywhere too.

The difference was—Wei Dongming looked utterly dejected, while Cao Sheng was having a great time.

So it is said, the joys and sorrows of people do not connect.

Late at night.

Huang Qingya lay on Cao Sheng's chest, seemingly listening for secrets in his heart, but she said, "I wrote the beginning of a novel this New Year. I'll bring it next time I come; will you take a look? Is that okay?"

Her words reminded Cao Sheng of her identity—a staff member of the Writers' Association.

She works at the Writers' Association, so her writing should be good; it's not strange that she could write a novel opening.

"Sure, just bring it next time."

A few days later.

When Huang Qingya came again, she brought the novel opening she had mentioned.

It was a stack of handwritten manuscript pages on letter paper, written with a fountain pen.

Her handwriting was beautiful, looking neat and tidy, yet carrying a natural, free-flowing brushstroke; it was far more beautiful than Cao Sheng's own manuscripts from back then.

His manuscripts were so bad that roommates and teachers would immediately abandon any thought of reading his work's content just by looking at the handwriting.

They were so scribbled that hardly a few characters could be easily recognized.

However...

The content of the novel Huang Qingya wrote made Cao Sheng increasingly speechless as he read.

It was far too literary and pretentious.

The title was "The Little Woman in the Sword-Controlling Sect."

The opening was also the plot of the Sword-Controlling Sect opening its gates wide to select new disciples.

But it was described from the perspective of a beautiful female administrator within the Sword-Controlling Sect.

The opening showed this beautiful female administrator sitting behind a window in a wooden building, reading a book while intentionally or unintentionally keeping an eye on the new disciple selection in the square below.

Huang Qingya described the white clouds in the sky, the layered peaks in her field of vision, and the occasional roars of strange beasts coming from deep within the mountains; she even wrote about a flock of small birds darting across the space between heaven and earth.

Then, based on these scenes, she extended into the beautiful female administrator's mood and memories...

Cao Sheng turned a page of letter paper; the content was the beautiful female administrator's memories. He turned two pages, three pages, four pages of letter paper, and it was still writing about the beautiful female administrator's memories.

In the memories, it detailed how the beautiful female administrator had, from being a newly admitted disciple, worked step by step to become an administrator.

Woven into this were two men who had emotional entanglements with this beautiful female administrator.

"Is what you wrote Ye Yanqing?"

Cao Sheng, leaning by the window reading the manuscript, turned his face to ask Huang Qingya, who was sitting at his computer surfing the internet.

Huang Qingya looked over, "Is that not okay? I'm a woman; do I have to write Xianxia cultivation full of fighting and killing like you do?"

Cao Sheng: "That makes sense, but since you're writing Ye Yanqing, why use the background of a Xianxia world?"

Huang Qingya smiled, "Xianxia is popular now! You made Xianxia popular, so you're asking me why I'm using a Xianxia background?"

Cao Sheng smiled faintly, "That makes sense, but I don't really understand the style of writing for Ye Yanqing, so my opinion might not be accurate."

Huang Qingya: "It's fine, just tell me your feelings. Do you think writing it this way has appeal?"

Appeal my foot!

Cao Sheng wanted to roll his eyes.

He was used to fast-paced web novels; even slow-paced web novels didn't have an opening as slow-paced as the one Huang Qingya wrote.

Before his rebirth, the concept of the "Golden Three Chapters" for web novels had emerged, and later, some even proposed attracting readers within the first three hundred words of the opening.

The goal was to grab the reader's attention as quickly as possible.

The competition was so fierce that it left almost no room for slow-paced works to survive.

An opening of several thousand words, entirely describing the female protagonist's memories, as Huang Qingya did, was, in his opinion, a surefire way to fail.

Moreover, although Huang Qingya's handwriting was beautiful, her writing style did not amaze him.

The pacing was dragging, and the writing wasn't stunning enough; how could it make readers interested in continuing?

Cao Sheng wanted to say: You write very well, just don't write anymore.

But Huang Qingya was, after all, his woman, so he couldn't bring himself to say such hurtful words.

So, he pondered for a few seconds, then smiled and said, "You write quite well. However, as you just said, I made Xianxia cultivation popular, so personally, I feel that wrapping Ye Yanqing in the skin of Xianxia cultivation might make many readers very uncomfortable. This isn't your problem! It's a problem with the readers and me. Do you understand what I mean?"

Huang Qingya frowned, looking at him.

After thinking for a while, she asked, "Do you mean I shouldn't be wrapping this story in the skin of a xianxia cultivation tale?"

This was the conclusion Cao Sheng hoped she would reach.

So, hearing her ask this, Cao Sheng smiled and nodded. "Yes! But my opinion might not be correct either. It's a work of art, after all! It still needs to be tested by the readers; perhaps many readers will like it."

Pausing for a moment, he still decided to speak a few truths.

He looked down at the manuscript in his hand and said, "However, if I were to write this kind of love story, in the opening part, I wouldn't write so many scenes of recollection. I would describe the scenery in the beautiful female executive's field of vision in a few words, then write about her gaze accidentally glancing at a certain youth on the square below who was participating in the selection. Just that accidental glance would make her originally clear and indifferent eyes blur slightly, as if recalling some past events.

But the daze in her eyes vanished quickly, and she continued reading her book, yet she frowned repeatedly, seeming unable to read the content of the book anymore. After this happened several times, she finally let out a light sigh, put down the book in her hand, and called out the name of her maid. After her maid appeared, she ordered the maid to investigate the identity of that youth downstairs. And just as the maid received the order and prepared to investigate, she called out to stop the maid again, seeming somewhat hesitant as she spoke, ordering the maid to give a word to the executive in charge of the assessment to ensure that youth downstairs could successfully join the Sword-Controlling Sect."

Cao Sheng narrowed his eyes, thinking as he spoke. After finishing these words, he looked up, only to see Huang Qingya had already come to his side. One of her hands silently touched his heart, and the beautiful eyes behind her gold-rimmed glasses stared at him unblinkingly.

"What are you doing?"

Cao Sheng asked.

Huang Qingya hummed, then leaned in actively and kissed him on the lips.

Cao Sheng was stunned for a moment, a thought flashing through his mind: I helped her come up with so much of the plot; this treatment is what I deserve.