When Lu Qing finished settling the bill and returned home with his sister from Twilight Café, evening had already fallen.
A whole day's effort in accompanying her hadn't been wasted, as his sister's expression was now filled with happiness and contentment, which made him feel gratified.
"Brother, shall we try that next time?"
"That? Which one?"
"You know, the place that young man handing out flyers mentioned earlier today."
Su Ling collapsed on the sofa, seemingly drained of all energy, and looked at her brother with an innocent expression, reminding him: "The one with different themes where people can rest."
"Huh?"
Lu Qing's body tensed up immediately upon hearing this, becoming alert, "You're not talking about a themed hotel, are you?"
"Hmm... I'm not sure, I'm just curious about it."
She slid down the sofa like a liquid, mumbling softly, "Come to think of it, brother sleeping on this poor-quality sofa every night makes me feel really guilty."
"...Why?"
"Because it's my fault you're forced to sleep in such an uncomfortable place since I'm occupying the bedroom... You can't possibly get proper rest like this."
She intertwined her index fingers, saying pitifully, "Actually, actually even if brother wants to squeeze in with me, I would..."
"Stop, stop right there."
Lu Qing cut off his sister's dangerous statement and walked to her side, plopping down in his usual spot.
"No need to tease me, but you have a point. This sofa was left by the previous landlord, and it's indeed not very comfortable. I should place an order on TaoBao Network for a sofa bed or something."
He took out his phone and began browsing furniture options on his own.
Time ticked by minute by minute, and the two stayed curled up on the apartment sofa for a while. He scrolled through TaoBao shopping for necessities, while she gradually inched closer to him like a cat, eventually leaning sideways against his shoulder.
Neither needed to speak; it was as if this daily routine had become natural.
Until after 10 PM, Lu Qing suddenly realized he hadn't made dinner for his sister yet.
Since they had eaten some desserts at the café, when he asked if she wanted to eat anything before coming home, she had declined, saying she wasn't hungry. And so time had slipped away until now.
"Su Ling, Su Ling?"
He turned his head to look at his sleeping sister and poked her soft shoulder.
"Hey, fell asleep again? Don't sleep here, you'll catch a cold."
His sister's eyelashes fluttered slightly as she turned, burying her face in his chest.
"...Really now."
Lu Qing sighed helplessly, put down his tablet, and carefully picked up his sister, carrying her towards the bedroom.
A sweet fragrance wafted to his nose, and the sensation was novel.
Watching his sister's white-stockinged legs swaying in the air, his heart began to itch unbearably, so he quickly placed her on the bed, brought a blanket, and covered her thoroughly.
Then, with restless emotions, he fled the room, barely managing to escape from the hormonal temptation emanating from Su Ling.
"This is so hard for me. My sister is always so defenseless at home, and she's as cute as a succubus. What should I do? Need answers urgently."
To distract himself, he posted such a question on the Q&A platform "UnknowHow," seeking help from fellow users.
However, within minutes after the system pushed his question, he was flooded with responses...
User A: "Bro, how much did you drink to get this wasted? Suggest getting some energy drink to sober up." (20+ likes)
User B: "Haha, trying to humble brag? I bet you're just looking in the mirror wearing women's clothes and getting emotional. Come on, stop pretending, you little femboy." (150+ likes)
User C: "I am the First Emperor of Qin." (666+ likes)
"..."
Lu Qing was speechless and abruptly closed the app. "Well, talking to you folks only adds to my troubles. Better think about something else."
He knew that in reality, what internet users most enjoyed wasn't hearing about someone's cute sister, but rather "can your sister become my sister?"
If not, they would just mess with you, argue with you, or develop malicious jealousy towards you.
This was human nature, and there was no point in judging who was right or wrong, so Lu Qing remained silent about it.
With no useful answers from his inquiries, he put down his phone and took out his tablet, opening the premium version of WPS Mind Map, ready to do some real work.
Since he hadn't had time to handle his own affairs during the day, now that he had some free time, he could finally think about the outline settings for his new book.
After several days of struggling, he discovered that somehow, compared to before his sister's arrival, he seemed to have found some direction.
If it had been decided that the new work would be a youth romance novel, then the female protagonist's character design became crucial, as it would directly affect the entire book's "essence" and set the tone for the whole work right from the beginning.
So, how should he choose the female protagonist's character design?
Although he had many ready-made settings to choose from in his mind, as a god-tier writer who "must prove his worth with the next book," how could he be satisfied with creating a female lead purely from imagination?
'Art comes from life.'
'All excellent settings have their foundations.'
'Stories are metaphors for life.'
Following the dramatic theory of Robert McKee, Lu Qing believed that the most vivid characters in writing must have references in reality.
Otherwise, the sense of "vividness" couldn't be maintained.
False characters would gradually become stereotypical, gradually lose their vitality, and become lifeless.
And once a character loses its vividity, the work itself could be sentenced to death.
That wasn't what he wanted to see.
Therefore, 'the female protagonist must be someone who exists in real life.'
Lu Qing set this new creative principle for himself.
"Good."
"With this established, the next step is just to think about what kind of girl should serve as the prototype for the female protagonist."
He put the end of the tablet stylus in his mouth, muttering to himself.
"Come to think of it, the reason my last book succeeded was because the female protagonist was based on the older sister who lived next door when I was young... I was quite familiar with her... but I can't use the same character setting for the new work, I need to make changes."
The character design needed to be based on reality, while the plot relied entirely on imagination.
Lu Qing had never been in a relationship, so everything he imagined was the most beautiful part, whether it was the chance encounter, intersection, caring, or later the mutual understanding, joy, and union... The plots in his writing were far more science fiction-like than real-life feelings.
That's why readers pursued his works, leaving comments like "sweet, too sweet."
In fact, Lu Qing had lived in the countryside until junior high school.
His old man was always out gathering material and fooling around, rarely coming home, so he was considered a left-behind child. The only living person he could talk to daily was the next-door older sister who would visit him regularly.
Since he was too young then, he couldn't remember the older sister's full name anymore, only recalling that her surname seemed to be Lu, the same pronunciation as his own surname.
The older sister was very beautiful, and her smile was heart-warming, giving young Lu Qing much healing.
However, the older sister was also strange, occasionally proposing to help him bathe, and saying things like children who don't bathe will grow up to be unlikeable...
Lu Qing could only develop a cleanliness obsession with her help.
"But thinking about it now, you shouldn't bathe twice a day..."
Memories flowed away like water.
Looking back, the women around him were quite few...
Usually, those he could talk to at school were almost all male, except for Wen Le, Li Mingshi, and Zhang Yang, there was nobody else.
And for a romance novel's female lead, of course, it had to be a girl, and considering it was "youth romance," the age range had to be set between high school and university, after all, puppy love wasn't allowed, even if he wanted to write about it, it wouldn't pass censorship.
Looking at it this way, the range of choices became even smaller.
"She needs to be a young lady, a high school or university student, and have the potential to be a female lead..."
"In other words, she must possess beauty, cleanliness, and something special..."
"Around me, who could meet these requirements?"
Lu Qing's mind raced as he pondered deeply for a very long time.
Perhaps because his subconscious felt that the role of the female lead in a romance novel couldn't be his sister, he had wrongly overlooked the most suitable candidate.
Finally, he reached a conclusion that even he couldn't believe...
"No way?"
"The most suitable person to be the female lead... couldn't be that person next door, could it?"
...
...