Chapter 167: It Will Kill You!

After dinner, Xu Youyu and Yan Zhusheng quietly cleared the table and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Only Li Luo and Ying Chanxi remained in the living room.

Li Luo rubbed his full stomach, stood up, went to the piano room to fetch his guitar, sat on the sofa, and looked at Ying Chanxi: "You said at noon you wanted to hear a new song—want to listen now?"

Ying Chanxi glanced at the backs of the two girls in the kitchen, then walked over and sat beside Li Luo: "Why not wait until Senior and Zhusheng finish washing the dishes and listen together?"

"It's fine—they can hear it from here." Li Luo brushed his fingers across the strings, preparing to get into the mood.

Seeing he was about to play, Ying Chanxi no longer resisted; she hugged Pikachu and Doraemon to her chest, pinched their heads gently, and quietly immersed herself in Li Luo's singing.

After Li Luo finished singing, Ying Chanxi slowly came back to herself and asked curiously: "Is this the song your rock club has been practicing lately? Are you planning to perform it at the New Year's Eve party?"

"Yes." Li Luo smiled. "We've practiced it almost enough."

"Then I'll look forward to it." Ying Chanxi folded her legs together, then asked, "How busy will your class be with the mini-games on New Year's Eve?"

"Not too bad." Li Luo thought back. "From eight in the morning until eleven-thirty, I'll need to help out in the classroom for about an hour—just the instrument guessing game. I'll be in charge of the guitar, then wait for other classmates to take over."

"What time exactly are you on duty?"

"Eight to nine." Li Luo said. "What about you?"

"About the same." Ying Chanxi nodded happily. "When I'm done, I'll come to your class to find you, and then we'll go collect stamps together?"

Li Luo smiled and nodded in agreement: "Okay."

"What about Zhusheng?" Ying Chanxi asked softly. "Will she come too?"

"Her? She probably won't have time in the morning." Li Luo chuckled. "The instrument guessing game was her idea."

"But the total number of people in our class who can play different instruments is maybe six or seven at most."

"We can't keep just these few people stuck in the classroom all day while everyone else goes to play in other classrooms."

"Since Zhusheng really likes this mini-game, she plans to stay in the classroom all morning, managing all the different instruments."

Ying Chanxi paused after hearing this: "That… that's really hard on her."

"By the way, what mini-game did your class finally pick?" Li Luo asked curiously.

"Our class…" Ying Chanxi chuckled twice, then helplessly covered her forehead. "It ended up being a sudoku game."

"We pre-fill six numbers into a 3x3 grid."

"Then, if you correctly fill in the remaining three numbers, you pass."

"…No wonder it's Class One." Li Luo was half-amused, half-exasperated.

"What are you doing in the afternoon?" Ying Chanxi asked again. "Aren't afternoons for club experience activities?"

"I'll probably be busy in the afternoon—I'm not sure if I'll have time." Li Luo thought for a moment. "Aren't we assigned to the same booth for the literature club? After we finish there, I still have to help the rock club—they're short-staffed, and I don't know if I can spare any time."

"Alright then." Ying Chanxi felt a little disappointed. "I'll go play with Xinyan then."

…

After washing the dishes, Yan Zhusheng stayed a little longer before taking her leave.

Before leaving, she didn't forget to take the kitchen trash downstairs and toss it along the way.

The three people at home each returned to their own rooms.

Li Luo and Xu Youyu went back to their rooms to write, while Ying Chanxi needed to study hard and maintain her school's evening self-study routine.

While studying, Pikachu and Doraemon sat on either side of her desk like two guardian deities.

Whenever she got stuck on a problem, Ying Chanxi would randomly pick one and punch it—after venting a little, her inspiration would return.

Recently, Ying Chanxi had been thinking about whether she should bring the two dolls to school.

But then she reconsidered—her classmates might think it was childish.

Besides, after stuffing both dolls into her backpack, there wouldn't be enough room for many books.

So the idea was quietly dropped.

Meanwhile, as Li Luo was writing, the QQ avatar in the lower-right corner suddenly flashed.

At first, Li Luo thought it was his editor.

But upon closer look, he realized it was a certain investment expert.

【EarlySleepGrowsTaller】: Boss, you're number two on the urban fiction monthly vote chart! So strong!

With Xu Youyu's reminder, Li Luo opened the webpage and checked—it really was.

The book ahead of him was a political fiction; though he hadn't read it in his past life, he'd heard of its fame—unfortunately, it later vanished completely.

For a complete newcomer like him to reach second place on the urban fiction monthly vote chart was truly astonishing.

The urban fiction elite group was constantly discussing Chongran's book, with many expressing envy, jealousy, and resentment.

Most were envious.

A few thought Li Luo was just lucky, riding the wave of "Nianlun" to a big win.

If that same traffic had been directed to their own books, they'd surely have done no worse than I Am Really Not a Star.

As someone who had surfed the internet for decades in his past life, Li Luo didn't even bother replying to such talk—he never participated in that elite group anyway.

【Chongran】: Not bad—it's thanks to others helping drive traffic, otherwise it wouldn't have done so well.

【EarlySleepGrowsTaller】: But that's still your talent—after all, "Nianlun" was written by you.

【EarlySleepGrowsTaller】: Can you tell me your stats? How many average subscriptions do you have now?

Asked this, Li Luo opened his author backend, glanced at it, then replied.

【Chongran】: Over 8,700.

【EarlySleepGrowsTaller】: So fast! I only have 2,700… I just got a recommendation slot today, not sure if I'll break 3,000.

【Chongran】: Believe me, your book has the potential for ten thousand average subscriptions. Keep writing—it'll happen. The elite group will be yours for the taking.

【EarlySleepGrowsTaller】: Hahaha~ You're too flattering—I don't even have that much confidence myself.

【Chongran】: Then let's make a bet—I bet your book will reach ten thousand average subscriptions.

【EarlySleepChairman】: Hmph? So confident in my book? What do you want to bet?

【Chongran】: I haven't thought of anything yet. What do you want to bet?

【EarlySleepChairman】: Let me think... Actually, nothing much. The loser just has to do one thing for the winner—something within their ability.

【Chongran】: Fine. I'll think about what I'll make you do.

【EarlySleepChairman】: Hey! Don't be so sure of yourself! You're acting like you've already won.

【Chongran】: So you lack confidence in yourself?

【EarlySleepChairman】: Mainly because the plot's been giving me a headache lately—one of the female supporting characters is stealing the spotlight, and I don't know how to pull her back.

When Li Luo was bored, he sometimes read Xu Youyu's books.

Even though he'd already read them once in his past life, strangely, since Xu Youyu met Li Luo, the content he wrote had gradually diverged from Li Luo's memory of Literary Era.

Many details and plot points no longer matched up.

That is, in this life, under the influence of Li Luo's butterfly effect, Xu Youyu could no longer write the same Literary Era from his past life.

But Li Luo felt that this version of Literary Era felt more grounded and interesting in its character interactions and daily life descriptions.

Especially the intimate details between the male and female leads carried a warm, everyday charm—and sometimes, reading them gave him a strange sense of déjà vu.

Li Luo couldn't say whether this change was good or bad, but he was certain of one thing: since his rebirth and meeting Xu Youyu, this change had become uncontrollable.

After all, online novel authors write and update daily; even the same chapter written in the morning versus the afternoon might turn out completely different.

Sometimes, catching a flash of inspiration, fingers flying over the keyboard, they could write brilliant plotlines.

But if interrupted midway, once they returned to the keyboard, they might never re-enter that state again—and the brilliant plot would vanish.

【Chongran】: If you've already decided on a single female lead, try consciously trimming the plot.

【Chongran】: Online novels are serialized literature. When readers follow long-term, if a character suddenly disappears, their emotional connection to that character fades gradually.

【Chongran】: My suggestion is, think again about what makes your female lead shine.

【Chongran】: Often, we rush to show off the heroine's appealing traits and end up revealing everything about her too soon.

【Chongran】: Then readers quickly grow bored of a fully revealed character and turn their interest toward someone who brings fresh appeal.

The past-life Literary Era had a similar problem.

After all, an excellent male lead who acts in films would naturally interact with various female celebrities.

But EarlySleepChairman always maintained a single female lead thread; those occasional female celebrities vanished after their respective plot climaxes.

Only the female lead stayed by the protagonist's side.

【EarlySleepChairman】: Thanks for the advice—I'll think it over again!

【Chongran】: Don't forget, if you lose, you have to fulfill my demand.

【EarlySleepChairman】: What if you lose? Watch out—I might make you do something embarrassing.

【Chongran】: Like what?

【EarlySleepChairman】: Like personally recommending your own book to family and friends?

【Chongran】: You're a bit cruel.

【Chongran】: But you've actually given me a good idea.

【Chongran】: If you lose, how about we make this the penalty?

【EarlySleepChairman】: No way! I'll die!