Chapter 237: Ying Chanxi

"Yeah, the senior invited us to study together."

"Who else? Zhao Rongjun, Qiao Xinyan, Xu Yinghuan..."

"Don't worry, I won't go anywhere—I'll just stay inside."

"Mm-hmm, got it, I'll be careful."

"OK, I'll be back on the 15th."

On the living room sofa, Li Luo hung up the phone and sighed helplessly at Xu Youyu: "Now I'm a liar kid."

"Just say you're studying here with me," Xu Youyu shot him a look, squinting with a mischievous grin. "Why did you have to drag Zhao Rongjun and the others into it? What are you hiding?"

"I just wanted the excuse to sound more legitimate."

"Really?" Xu Youyu chuckled. "Then how come you lied so fluently to Ying Chanxi this morning?"

Li Luo: "..."

With Xu Youyu's reminder, Li Luo felt a twinge of shame and actually fell into thought.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing," Li Luo scratched his head, then suddenly remembered something.

Ever since he started writing novels, he'd gone to great lengths to avoid letting anyone know.

After all, what he wrote was still a little embarrassing.

So how, at the very beginning, had he been exposed?

First, he was underage—the contract required guardian consent.

After chatting with Xu Youyu, he learned he could just secretly copy his family's household register.

But back then he hadn't thought it through carefully; now he realized the method wasn't practical.

Because his family's household register was always locked in a safe by Li Guohong, and Li Luo had no idea what the safe's password was at the time.

So telling his parents was unavoidable.

The problem was, he'd forgotten to warn them not to spread the news.

As a result, his uncle's family found out too.

Later, he accidentally included the song "Nianlun" in his novel; to respond to readers' doubts, he asked Yan Zhusheng to record it and post it online.

Then, readers on QQ Music's comment section exposed it, and Yan Zhusheng discovered the truth.

As for Xu Youyu, it was even weirder.

The editor gave her the Chongran QQ account, and Xu Youyu got Li Luo's QQ number from Ying Chanxi at the start of the semester.

The two QQ accounts were identical—Xu Youyu immediately saw through Li Luo's real identity.

Later, Yuan Wanqing, Yan Zhusheng's mother, learned of it naturally due to their collaboration on "Nianlun."

And Xu Youyu's father was even invited as a guest to a writers' association symposium, where he directly ran into Li Luo.

As Li Luo recalled all this, he suddenly realized many people around him already knew he wrote novels.

And honestly, before his Online Novel gained traction, people found it amusing and teased him a bit.

It was pretty awkward.

But once his royalties reached 370,000 yuan a month, no one looked down on him for writing Online Novel anymore.

At most, they still felt a little awkward after reading his novel's content.

But since both Yan Zhusheng and Xu Youyu—the two female prototypes—already knew, no one else's awkwardness could touch him anymore.

With this thought, Li Luo lowered his head in thought, realizing something.

With Ying Chanxi... shouldn't he stop hiding it anymore?

Among those close to him, she'd been kept in the dark the longest.

Originally, he'd hidden it from everyone because he didn't want anyone to know.

But now, his veil of shame was already riddled with holes—adding Ying Chanxi wouldn't change much, nor would omitting her.

Thinking this, Li Luo began planning: maybe he'd tell her during the New Year holiday.

There was no point in hiding it any longer.

Worst case, he'd just die of social embarrassment again—he was used to it by now.

Besides... back home, the Li and Ying families were neighbors.

Since his uncle's family already knew he wrote novels, the neighbors chatting over sunflower seeds during the holiday might just blab it out.

If that happened, it'd be better to confess himself.

Otherwise, Li Luo couldn't imagine how angry Ying Chanxi would be.

He thought of her temper—and decided confession was better.

"Why do you look like you're marching to your death?" Xu Youyu, licking a small pudding, stared at Li Luo in confusion.

"How could you possibly understand the turmoil in my heart?" Li Luo said solemnly, face stern.

"If you don't tell me, how am I supposed to understand?" Xu Youyu rolled her eyes.

"Let's drop it," Li Luo waved his hand, standing up from the sofa. "Even though I lied to my family about studying, writing is real—I'm going back to my room to write."

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Bring your laptop out. Let's write together in the living room."

"Why use a laptop when you've got a desktop?"

"Or I can bring the laptop to your bedroom? Mainly, writing next to you gives me more motivation."

"Is that motivation?" Li Luo's lip twitched. "You just want to take notes anytime, don't you?"

"Cough... that's part of it," Xu Youyu avoided his gaze, slightly guilty. "Come on, come on—I can let you take notes too."

I haven't written any plotlines for Jiang Ming lately.

"Really? Then are you writing about Shen Dongdong or Mo Qinghan?" Xu Youyu grinned. "Whether it's Chanxi or Zhusheng, I can play either one~"

Li Luo's face darkened instantly: "What even is this? Get your laptop now, stop being so irresponsible."

Saying this, Li Luo pulled out the notebook Yan Zhusheng had lent him from his backpack and placed it on the living room desk.

Seeing this, Xu Youyu happily pulled her own notebook from her bedroom backpack and scampered over to sit beside Li Luo.

After plugging in the charger, Li Luo returned to his room, retrieved the mechanical keyboard Xu Youyu had given him, and brought it to the living room to connect it to the notebook.

Xu Youyu copied him, pulling out her own red matching keyboard.

As the keyboard lights flickered on, both keyboards flashed with identical frequency—one red, one blue—each distinctly striking.

"Alright, let's go!" Xu Youyu waved her hand dramatically. "Let's see who writes more this afternoon!"

"How dare you compete with me on this?" Li Luo glanced sideways at her.

"I haven't finished yet," Xu Youyu hurried to add. "My word count gets multiplied by five before I compare it to yours!"

"You've got some self-awareness," Li Luo rolled his eyes. "You know even three or four times isn't guaranteed to beat me?"

The two chatted and joked for a while, then quickly slipped into writing mode.

As the mechanical keyboards clacked loudly in the living room, Li Luo hammered the keys at full speed, his Memory Palace operating at maximum capacity.

Xu Youyu sat cross-legged on her chair, swaying back and forth to find inspiration; whenever a spark came, she immediately typed a passage, then resumed swaying when stuck.

When no inspiration came, she'd get up and pace around the desk twice, occasionally circling behind Li Luo to tease him under the pretense of gathering material.

Sometimes it actually sparked ideas, and she'd dash back to her seat, plunging straight into writing mode.

The entire afternoon passed quickly like this.

Around four o'clock, Xu Youyu stretched, looked at her screen showing over three thousand words, and wore a satisfied expression.

"Done! Let's go buy groceries!"

Shouting loudly, Xu Youyu leaned over to peek at Li Luo's screen.

When she saw his daily word count displayed as over seventeen thousand words, she froze in shock.

"Are you even human?!"

"Practice more," Li Luo said calmly, standing up, picking up his down jacket and scarf from the sofa, and telling Xu Youyu, "Let's go. Didn't you say we were buying groceries?"

"You're insane," Xu Youyu still couldn't believe it. She picked up Li Luo's mouse and scrolled up and down, confirming he'd truly written that much—not just random keystrokes.

She'd thought writing over three thousand words in two or three hours was already a big improvement.

But she hadn't expected Li Luo to be this incredible.

That's about how many per hour?

Watching her stunned expression, Li Luo chuckled, then secretly rubbed his wrist.

For him, his normal speed was about three to four thousand words per hour.

Writing six thousand words this hour was the result of his Memory Palace running at full tilt.

Now that he'd stopped, Li Luo couldn't help rubbing his temples, feeling a slight dizziness in his head.

It was a minor aftereffect of overloading his Memory Palace.

He definitely couldn't push himself this hard tonight.

"Even with your five-times multiplier, you still wrote less than me," Li Luo kindly reminded her. "Senior, what's the penalty for the loser?"

"Uh… Did I say that? Maybe we can just forget it?"

"No problem. Help me cook later, wash the dishes after dinner, and wash my clothes too. Oh, and don't forget to clean the place." Li Luo smiled.

"You're treating me like a maid?" Xu Youyu glared at him.

"A bet's a bet. Or do you want to pick another?"

"Is there another option?"

"There is," Li Luo nodded. "You can choose to be my maid—obey me until midnight."

"Eww~" Xu Youyu's face lit up with a sly grin. "So that's what you were thinking, little junior? If you want, it's not out of the question~"

"Then it's settled?" Li Luo raised an eyebrow, chuckling. "Then kitchen help, dishwashing, laundry, sweeping and mopping—all yours, our little maid."

Xu Youyu's face darkened instantly: "... What's the difference between that and before?!"

"Maid sounds better than housekeeper?"

"Get lost!"

…

Cleveland City, seven o'clock in the morning.

At the hotel entrance, Ying Zhicheng and Yuan Wanqing parted ways.

"Spend more time with your daughter," Yuan Wanqing leaned in, tiptoeing to press a light kiss on his cheek, then stepped back two paces and smiled. "I'm heading back."

"Mm." Ying Zhicheng grabbed Yuan Wanqing's hand, pulled her back, and kissed her deeply for a long while before letting go. "I'll accompany my daughter for two days, then come find you."

"No problem," Yuan Wanqing waved at him, then got into the car driven by her secretary.

After watching the car disappear, Ying Zhicheng turned back, returned to the hotel, and walked to Ying Chanxi's room, gently knocking.

Soon, Ying Chanxi ran to the door and opened it.

"Chanxi, breakfast's ready," Ying Zhicheng stepped inside and saw his daughter holding a phone, chatting with someone.

Ying Chanxi nodded at him, then said into the phone: "Gotta go now. Don't play too many games, get some sleep. I'm off to breakfast."

"Mm, bye~"

Watching his daughter's sweet smile, Ying Zhicheng cleared his throat. After she hung up, he asked: "Li Luo?"

"Mm-hmm," Ying Chanxi slipped on her shoes and followed Ying Zhicheng out the door. "Let's go, Dad."

"Has he finished the symposium?" Ying Zhicheng recalled the conversation he'd had with Yuan Wanqing last night. He figured if the other girl knew about Li Luo's writing, then Chanxi probably knew too.

He usually worked all the time and rarely stayed by Ying Chanxi's side, so they had few topics to talk about.

Seeing Ying Chanxi had just finished a call with Li Luo, he instinctively found an excuse to start chatting with his daughter.

But upon hearing her father's words, Ying Chanxi was instantly baffled and asked curiously, "What seminar? What are you talking about, Dad?"

Seeing her reaction, Ying Zhicheng burst out laughing: "You're acting pretty convincing, aren't you? Doing such a good job keeping Li Luo's secret?"

"You don't know—he wrote that song 'Year Rings,' which Yuan Wanqing sang, and it was produced by our company."

"So I already knew he was writing novels; you don't need to keep that secret for him."

At these words, Ying Chanxi stopped walking and stared at Ying Zhicheng, utterly bewildered.

"W-what's wrong?" Ying Zhicheng, seeing her expression, grew slightly flustered. "Um… Xixi, you…"

"Dad, could you repeat what you just said?" Ying Chanxi blinked, then smiled faintly, tilting her head.

"I mean… about Li Luo writing songs and novels. What's the issue?"

"I knew he could write songs, but what's this about 'Year Rings'?" Ying Chanxi pressed her lips together. "And writing novels? How come I never heard about that?"

Hearing Ying Chanxi say this, Ying Zhicheng was also stunned.

So Li Luo, you little rascal—you've told everyone else but kept it hidden from your own Xixi?