Chapter 226

At night, after dinner, Xu Youyu patted his full belly contentedly and followed Li Luo back to the hotel.

They had finished touring Xihu by six in the evening, then took a taxi to a high-end Western restaurant several kilometers away; by the time they returned, it was already past eight.

Qianzhou waited at the hotel entrance, and only after confirming the two minors were unharmed did he finally exhale in relief.

"What did you two do this afternoon?"

"We toured Xihu," Li Luo said.

"Even locals like to tour Xihu?" Qianzhou asked curiously. "I thought you'd all be sick of such local attractions by now."

"Didn't the editor go sightseeing this afternoon?" Li Luo countered.

"I'm swamped," Qianzhou waved his hand. "Don't think just because I'm out here with you for the panel, I'm not busy online handling other authors' matters and squeezing in manuscript reviews—when do I have time to wander around?"

"That really is tough on you," Li Luo patted his shoulder. "How about I treat you to late-night snacks at midnight?"

"Nah, nah, you've got meetings tomorrow," Qianzhou said. "Let's have dinner again after tomorrow's meeting—I'll have to catch the high-speed train back to Changning."

"Leaving so soon? The hotel reservation is good until the 9th, isn't it?"

"The 9th is Monday, big brother," Qianzhou rolled his eyes. "You high schoolers are already on winter break, but us working stiffs still have to go to work."

"How pitiful," Xu Youyu sighed beside him.

"When you enter society later, you'll understand this pitiful feeling," Qianzhou smirked.

"It probably won't be that bad," Li Luo smiled. "Let someone else experience it—I'll skip it."

After all, Li Luo had already endured this experience in his past life; coming back for a second round, he had no desire to taste it again.

"Tsk… fair enough," Qianzhou muttered, unable to hide his envy as he thought of Li Luo's monthly royalty of over 300,000. "Once you graduate high school, if you keep writing this book for two or three years, you'll be financially free—no need to work a single day."

"It's all thanks to you, editor."

"Don't flatter me—I've got some self-awareness. I've only offered you a tiny bit of help," Qianzhou chuckled. "After all, Yuan Wanqing agreed to the interview only because of your reputation."

"What got you this far is mostly your own effort and talent."

"Of course, don't get cocky—keeping a calm mindset is most important."

"Since I entered the industry, I've heard many gossip stories—some big-name authors suddenly earn a few million, and their entire attitude toward money changes overnight."

"Once they get used to spending lavishly, their previous savings get wiped out by a hit novel, then they keep flopping—making no money, burning through their millions, unable to adjust their spending habits, and ending up worse off than before."

"You're still young—I hope you'll take it slow and steady. I'm counting on you to become Qidian's youngest Platinum author."

Li Luo himself didn't care much about Platinum status, but after Qianzhou's effusive praise, he humbly downplayed it.

If he'd written I Am Really Not a Star at age sixteen and earned hundreds of thousands monthly, maybe Li Luo really would've become wildly arrogant.

But Li Luo, with a thirty-five-year-old soul reborn, had no such risk.

Though he'd never earned this much in one go in his past life, he had once made twenty to thirty thousand monthly from writing.

Later, when he started his Short Drama venture, he even received an investment of seven or eight hundred thousand from Xu Youyu.

At least in terms of income and cash flow at this level, Li Luo could remain level-headed.

"Alright, I won't disturb you anymore—I'm glad you're both fine," Qianzhou led them into the hotel lobby, taking the elevator upward. "Tomorrow morning, same time—eight-thirty—in today's conference hall."

"Besides our online literature association authors, we've also invited some well-known figures from the writers' association to give speeches and exchange ideas."

"Of course, those traditional literature folks might speak in a less pleasant tone—just listen, don't take it to heart."

"In the afternoon, it'll be similar to this morning's session: first, the award ceremony for your writing contest, then free exchange time."

"In the evening, there'll be a buffet dinner at a nearby restaurant—I'll eat with you, then catch the high-speed train."

After outlining tomorrow's schedule, the elevator reached the eighth floor. Qianzhou stepped out and took his leave; Li Luo and Xu Youyu returned to their ninth-floor room.

After entering their rooms, Li Luo stretched, took a hot shower, turned on the room's heating, slipped on a bathrobe, and sat at his desk to start writing.

But after only ten minutes of typing, someone knocked on the door.

Li Luo opened it to see Xu Youyu in pajamas, her damp long hair hanging loose, grinning at him: "Hi~ I'm back!"

Seeing his senior, Li Luo sighed: "It's not even nine yet—plenty of time to write. No need to come over again."

"You talk too much," Xu Youyu squeezed in from the hallway, placing her laptop beside Li Luo's computer. "I dried my hair myself—no need to bother you tonight."

"But sitting next to you really does boost my typing efficiency."

"If I finish today's quota early, I can write more for tomorrow—after all, I've got things to do tomorrow afternoon. Better save some drafts just in case."

"Fine," Li Luo gave in, but he didn't let Xu Youyu dry her own hair.

He fetched the hairdryer from the bathroom, saw her reach out to take it, shook his head, gestured for her to sit still, then stepped behind her, turned on the dryer, and lifted her long hair.

"Keep typing—I'll dry your hair."

"Thank you~ Brother, you're so nice~"

"... If you keep saying that, you can dry it yourself."

"Alright, alright, I won't tease you—I'm starting to type!" Xu Youyu sat cross-legged, focused on her laptop screen, feeling the warm air blow through her hair, and quickly slipped into typing mode.

Perhaps today's research had been exceptionally fruitful—Xu Youyu's typing never stopped, her progress tonight flowing smoothly.

Li Luo watched her word count climb from dozens to over a thousand in just over ten minutes.

Normally, Xu Youyu needed over half an hour to reach this word count.

If she was slow, it took nearly an hour.

Today, she finished it in ten minutes.

Stimulated by Xu Youyu's typing momentum, Li Luo immediately pulled out a chair after drying her hair, sat beside her, opened his typing software, and got to work.

Around ten o'clock, Xu Youyu stretched and completed her second chapter.

But after publishing it, she didn't stop—instead, riding her current momentum, she kept typing.

At that moment, Li Luo's QQ avatar in the lower-right corner of his screen flashed.

He clicked open the message and saw it was from Ying Chanxi.

【Ying Chanxi】: Guess where I am now?

【Li Luo】: Where?

【Ying Chanxi】: I've already arrived in London~ Look!

【Ying Chanxi】: (image) (image) (image)

【Ying Chanxi】: This is Big Ben!

【Ying Chanxi】: Back in middle school, we watched Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street—it had this place in it.

【Li Luo】: Hmm, impressive.

【Ying Chanxi】: Are you free now? I'm going to visit some sights this afternoon. Dad's so boring to talk to—can you keep me company for a bit?

【Li Luo】: Voice call?

At Ying Chanxi's question, Li Luo instinctively glanced at Xu Youyu beside him.

【Ying Chanxi】: Yeah, like the other day—but you can end it before midnight, so it won't disturb your sleep.

【Li Luo】: Wait a few minutes—I'll finish this game first.

【Ying Chanxi】: Okay!

"Senior."

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"What's up?"

"Chanxi wants to do a voice call with me—it'll probably take a while. Why don't you go back first?"

"Oh?" Xu Youyu paused her typing, leaned over beside Li Luo, and glanced at his screen, "Chanxi's already in London?"

"Yeah." Li Luo nodded. "If we do a voice call, it might bother you."

"No problem, wait a sec." Xu Youyu stood up, hurried out of Li Luo's room, and returned shortly with something, tossing it into his lap.

Li Luo looked down and saw a pair of over-ear headphones.

"Put them on—that'll solve the problem." Xu Youyu sat back down cross-legged. "Talk all you want. I'll write my own."

"Fine. But don't make any noise later," Li Luo accepted the headphones and warned her.

"Don't worry, I won't." Xu Youyu gave a thumbs-up, then slipped back into typing mode.

Li Luo plugged the headphones into his laptop, put them on, and connected the voice call. "Hey, can you hear me?"

"Mm-hmm, I can hear you~" Ying Chanxi's excited voice came through QQ. "Are you at home?"

"Y-yeah." Li Luo replied nervously. "I'm playing a game."

"Then keep playing, it's fine," Ying Chanxi said cheerfully. "I'll just chat occasionally—I still have to accompany Dad sightseeing."

"Alright."

The two maintained a steady voice connection with perfect harmony.

In London, Ying Chanxi toured the sights, occasionally chatting with Ying Zhicheng, and whenever she encountered something new or interesting, she shared it with Li Luo.

Li Luo responded with soft "mm-hms," typing while talking to Ying Chanxi.

Everything had been going smoothly—enough to pass unnoticed.

But just as Li Luo was typing and chatting without issue, he suddenly felt his hand being held.

He froze, looked down, and saw Xu Youyu stealthily reaching over—not only gripping his hand, but prying open his fingers to interlock them, gently caressing and savoring them.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Li Luo instinctively swore—then realized he was still on voice call. His mind went blank.

"What's wrong?" Ying Chanxi asked, concerned. "What happened over there?"

"N-nothing!" Li Luo broke into a cold sweat, ignoring his hand still held by his senior. "Got ambushed in the game—scared me half to death."

"Ohhh, I see." Ying Chanxi nodded. "Go get 'em back then!"

"Mm…"

Get 'em back… how the hell do you do that?

Li Luo turned to look at Xu Youyu. She had her eyes closed, lips moving silently—completely in a state of enlightenment.

When she'd had enough, Xu Youyu opened her eyes, withdrew her hand, and her fingers flew across the keyboard again.

Clearly, her sudden hand-grab had been purely for inspiration.

Especially now that she was deep in typing mode, Xu Youyu was utterly lost in her world—she'd probably forgotten Li Luo was still on the call with Ying Chanxi.

She'd hit a block writing the daily details between the male and female leads, so she'd instinctively grabbed Li Luo's hand to find inspiration.

Li Luo didn't doubt Xu Youyu's motives.

After all, he'd seen this state of hers many times in his past life.

Once she entered typing mode, she fully immersed herself in the story, mentally playing all the roles, her mind swirling with storms of plotlines, endlessly refining them.

That's also why Xu Youyu sometimes liked to have a little drink before typing.

That slightly tipsy feeling helped her slip into that elusive, mystical state.

For Xu Youyu, when she entered this state, writing became pure enjoyment.

Characters collided in her mind; each spark from their clashes became another brilliant scene.

But it was tough on Li Luo.

Talking to Ying Chanxi, typing, and constantly guarding against his senior's surprise attacks—

It was torture.

Luckily, Xu Youyu made no sound throughout her typing.

Near midnight, Ying Chanxi happily bid Li Luo goodnight and ended the call.

Meanwhile, Xu Youyu had just finished a chapter—her saved word count officially surpassed 2000 words!

"Haha~ I'm someone who has backup drafts too~"

"Impressive, impressive." Li Luo clapped his hands and encouraged, "Aim to accumulate 200,000 words like me."

At these words, Xu Youyu rolled her eyes at him: "Don't talk, pervert, you're annoying."

"I already have 130,000 words in backup drafts."

"Aaaah! I don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear it!" Xu Youyu flung herself onto Li Luo's bed, covering her ears and rolling around, "Stop talking! Don't say stuff like that again!"

"Alright, alright." After boasting about his backup drafts, Li Luo waved his hand and reminded, "It's already late, go back to sleep."

"Got it~" Xu Youyu had gathered enough material today to last her a while, so she had no intention of lingering longer at Li Luo's place. She stood up, patted her backside, picked up her laptop and headphones, and headed for the door.

Li Luo saw her out of the room, watching as Xu Youyu opened the door to the adjacent room.

"Goodnight then, junior~" Xu Youyu waved at Li Luo with a grin. "I had so much fun this afternoon. Next time, let's gather material together again."

"You want a next time?"

"Why not?" Xu Youyu blinked. "I saw you wrote about Jiang Mingyue today, didn't you? You seemed pretty fired up writing it~ You haven't even thanked me yet?"

Li Luo: "…?"

"You… just sneaked a peek at what I was writing?"

"My eyesight's better, I accidentally caught a glimpse, hehe." Xu Youyu smirked. "Oh right, it's D. No need to make the protagonist guess—let me just tell you the answer outright."

"I really appreciate it…" Li Luo gritted his teeth.

"No need to thank me~ If you ever need material again, just let me know. I'm happy to help." Xu Youyu smiled cheerfully as she finally stepped into her room, but then poked her head out again to say to Li Luo, "Of course, if I need material, I'll come to you too. Mutual benefit—it's only fair, right?"

Hearing this, Li Luo's lip twitched, but the refusal stuck in his throat.

After all, during today's writing, he'd indeed used the inspiration from today's material to flesh out quite a few words… no, he'd written quite a few vivid everyday interactions.

"Alright, I'm not teasing you anymore." Xu Youyu waved at him. "This time I really mean goodnight. Bye~"

Li Luo sighed deeply and waved at Xu Youyu: "Goodnight, get some sleep. We have to wake up early tomorrow."

"Got it~ Remember to come wake me up. I'm afraid I won't get up on my own."

"Can't you set more alarms?"

"Why use mechanical alarms when I've got a human one?"

Even though they'd already said goodnight, they kept chatting and never closed their doors.

For over ten minutes they bickered at each other's doorways before finally returning to their own rooms, preparing to sleep and face tomorrow's symposium meeting.