According to the information, Lin Mu's shop would open around 1 PM this Saturday.
Today was Saturday.
Lu Qing got up early, packed his backpack with his notebook, tablet, Audio-Technica headphones, some cables, and stationery, and took a morning shower, feeling refreshed and ready for the day.
To pretend to be a passerby visiting the "little devil girl," provoke her, and pick on her... Lu Qing felt that today he needed to look "intimidating."
So, after rummaging through his wardrobe for a while, he decided to wear all black.
Generally, black, white, and gray were his preferred color schemes. Cool tones and solid colors always gave him a sense of calm and stability, which aligned with his introverted and occasionally reclusive nature.
However...
"It seems Su Ling has bought me quite a lot of clothes."
"So the money I gave her really was spent on me, huh..."
Standing in front of the wardrobe, his peripheral vision caught the new clothes on the right side that he had never worn before. Lu Qing couldn't help but mutter to himself.
It was clear that the wardrobe was filled with shirts, ties, leather shoes, and sweaters that his younger sister had bought for him. This made him suspect that Su Ling might have a thing for shirts and ties.
A sudden thought crossed his mind: "Wait, is this her fetish?"
Although she never mentioned it, there were times when she acted unusually, especially when it came to certain items. In Lu Qing's eyes, her behavior was no different from his own peculiar attitude when playing the piano.
For example, the bath towels. Although Su Ling had bought new ones online, as they both used them, Lu Qing eventually couldn't tell which one was his and which one was the new one she had bought.
It was all very mysterious.
Every time he asked her why she didn't choose a different color, she would always give vague answers, saying things like, "I want to use the same one as my brother..."
Highly suspicious.
If his attachment to the piano could be called a "piano fetish," then Su Ling could probably be said to have a "material fetish."
"Hmm..."
Lu Qing shook his head and called out towards the bathroom:
"Hurry up, Su Ling. We'll have lunch first, then spend a pleasant afternoon at Twilight Café. After all, her place doesn't serve proper meals, and the owner's attitude is quite concerning. I'm afraid she might poison us."
"Okay~"
Su Ling responded softly, her voice carrying a hint of joy amidst the sound of running water.
"It seems she's in a good mood today."
Lu Qing understood that his sister was happy to be going out with him. It had been weeks since their last outing together.
"If she ends up liking the place, that would be great. We could consider going there every week."
He thought to himself.
Not long after, Lu Qing went to the living room and opened his phone.
He found Tang Hua's WeChat and typed:
"By the way, I'll be working on my outline outside today. The inspiration for the female lead of my next book is ready, so I'll send you the cover requirements when I have time. You can start preparing. The price remains the same, 8K. Is that okay?"
After finishing his business, Lu Qing used the spare time before leaving to wait for Tang Hua's reply.
Last night, he had already gathered the most important things from Bai Xing's heart, and their close interaction had perfectly filled in the image of the "female lead."
The girl's blissful smile at close range, her satisfied gaze, the shy expression of wanting more but knowing not to be too greedy, and the lingering afterglow of passion...
All of these elements had been collected in Lu Qing's mind, ready to be used to create a vivid and lifelike "soul character."
Today, aside from visiting the "little devil girl," he had another task: to make progress on his writing, complete the full outline, flesh out the character profiles, and create an SSS-tier original female character.
"It's good that the Vtuber circle is on track, but I can't afford to stagnate either."
Lu Qing was calm, knowing that the momentum from last night's debut livestream wasn't sustainable.
Half of the support was thanks to Li Mingshi, the ringleader who had stirred things up. It was a temporary boost, not the norm.
For long-term development, it would have to rely on Bai Xing and his own efforts.
In other words, Bai Xing had peaked at her debut. Subsequent income would have to be accumulated gradually, and it was unlikely to continue skyrocketing.
Lu Qing saw this clearly. Considering the delayed returns and the ceiling, he felt that at this point, he should work on both fronts simultaneously: advancing Bai Xing's activities and his own original writing.
After all, he didn't want to take too much of the earnings meant for the girl's grandmother's medical expenses, so he needed to make up for it with additional income on his end.
"That's right. After the manuscript is accepted, I should start stockpiling chapters, right?"
He made up his mind and shifted his focus to another field he excelled in.
As everyone knows, in the web novel industry, to publish a work, you must first reach an agreement with a website.
This means submitting the written manuscript to an editor for review. If it passes, you can sign a contract and publish the book. If it's rejected, you'll have to rewrite, revise, or try another site.
Of course, some nice editors might offer suggestions and point out the "shortcomings" via email, giving the failed manuscript a chance to improve. As long as the author isn't too arrogant and is willing to revise, there's a chance to win the "resurrection match."
For a big shot like Lu Qing, signing a contract wasn't an issue. In fact, after submitting the manuscript, he could just drop a message on QQ, and the editor would immediately put aside other manuscripts to prioritize his, approving and signing it in an instant.
But Lu Qing had a habit: "Never release a book until I've stockpiled at least 100,000 words."
After all, in this industry, updating 4,000 words a day is considered the basic requirement to qualify for the website's full attendance bonus (a few hundred yuan as encouragement—newbies rely on this to survive, while big shots ignore it and aim for glory).
However, for readers,
4,000 words? That's nowhere near enough!
Readers are insatiable little gremlins who can devour hundreds of thousands of words in one night. Some even go full-on "seal mode"—staying up all night without sleep!
They must catch up on the latest chapters of their favorite authors! They must keep up with the progress! They must get the full reading experience! And if they're really enjoying it, they might even send gifts or tips.
So, when readers send big gifts, or when smaller gifts accumulate to a certain amount, or when the book hits a milestone worth celebrating, if the author remains indifferent and still only updates 4,000 words, it doesn't look good.
It can make the author seem "cold," as if no matter how much they're fed, they don't know how to give back.
(Of course, some readers' attempts to "make the author wear a maid outfit" / "cross-dress and livestream" / "meet offline and assassinate the author" / "send snacks as a guise to get the author's address and doxx them" are not good behaviors and should absolutely not be encouraged. Good kids, don't imitate this.)
Therefore, capable and skilled authors will reward their readers with a burst of updates when milestones are reached.
Slow, stone-handed, or newbie authors will stockpile chapters in advance to prepare for such occasions.
Lu Qing was different. Lu Qing himself combined quality with the ability to burst update. Under normal circumstances, he could update 6,000 words a day while maintaining quality, and he would polish each chapter 20 times, endlessly optimizing the content.
However, he wasn't without weaknesses.
His biggest weakness was "not being able to write full-time"—meaning he couldn't dedicate large blocks of time to immersive writing, like someone attending school or working a job.
Aside from attending school, he now had to devote some energy to overseeing Bai Xing's activities.
This meant that his usual 6K efficiency, while working part-time, would drop to maybe 2K at night after returning home. If you didn't count the times he slacked off at school during the day, he only had the two weekend days to stockpile chapters.
Given this, it was better to write 100,000 words in advance before releasing the book. That way, after publishing, he could release chapters slowly, staying calm and composed like a meditating monk.
Of course, this approach had its drawbacks. It might prevent him from getting immediate feedback from readers, making it easier for the story to drift away from market trends. Or, if a major plot twist went wrong, it could cause a chain reaction, making it impossible to go back and make significant revisions.
Lu Qing wasn’t afraid of these things. His control over his writing was exceptionally strong. As long as his health was fine, he would never face the common struggles of writers, such as "writer’s block," "not knowing what to write," "lacking inspiration for a new book," or "being clueless about the next plotline."
Instead, he only dealt with peculiar issues like "feeling anxious because the results weren’t impressive enough," "being upset because trolls in the industry used alt accounts to stir up drama, and the moderators believed them instead of him," or "the morning sunlight not being beautiful enough, or not knowing what to eat for lunch."
Now that the core female lead for his new work had been finalized, the next step was to write a few opening chapters and send them to his editor’s email for internal submission.
"By the way, last time my editor mentioned that my old book was going to be adapted into an IP, but there’s been no news since then…"
"Should I ask her about it?"
Lu Qing frowned slightly, opened QQ on his phone, and found the bunny-eared avatar labeled "Editor: Yao Guang." He typed out a message:
"Yao Guang, I’m about to submit my new book. Are you able to receive drafts right now? Also, what happened to the IP adaptation we talked about last time? Did it fall through? If it did, please don’t hide it from me. I don’t like holding onto false hopes for something that might not even happen."
……
……