Chapter 104: Haoshang! Let Me Explain!
With a helpless expression, Jiang Miao brought the bowls and chopsticks back into the kitchen. After washing the dishes, he returned to his guest room and sighed.
Looking at the empty room, he felt disappointed.
Wouldn’t it be great to hold Senior Sister’s soft body while writing?
What a pity, what a pity.
Just as he was feeling regretful, the QQ on the computer started flashing crazily. Several authors were tagging him in the group chat.
Curious, Jiang Miao glanced at it and habitually opened the Ten Thousand Words a Day Writing Group. He saw that [I Am the Immortal Emperor] had posted a picture.
[I Am the Emperor Immortal]: (Image)
[I Am the Immortal Emperor]: Peach, you’re awesome! Crush all enemies!
[I Am the Emperor Immortal]: Where’s the red packet for a high-quality novel initial subscription?
@Peach JamJiang Miao clicked on the picture. It was a summary of the initial subscription results for all the novels launched on Friday.
Since a large number of novels had gone premium on October 1st, there were only about thirty to forty books on Friday.
And Jiang Miao’s My Girlfriend Is a Content Creator was impressively sitting at the top of the list with an initial subscription of 3,500.
Right below it, only one other novel, Immortal Martial: I Can Loot Corpses, had barely crossed the high-quality work line with 3,000 subscriptions.
As for the rest, only one novel had over 2,000 subscriptions.
The gap was significant after this—everything else had less than 1,500 subscriptions.
There were only six novels with more than 500 subscriptions, including the two high-quality novels.
The rest of the novels, judging by these initial subscription figures, were basically doomed to flop.
In about a month, it was likely that fewer than one-fifth of the remaining thirty-odd books would not be abandoned by their authors.
In fact, not even a tenth of them would survive.
But this had little to do with Jiang Miao.
[Peach Jam]: (Red packet: Peach Jam’s initial success! Cheers!)
After sending the red packet, Jiang Miao saved the initial subscriptions screenshot, closed the group chat, and opened WeChat to send it to Senior Sister.
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: (Image)
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Senior Sister, my novel has reached high quality.
[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Oh.
Su Huaizhou’s cold, brief reply showed no excitement at all.
Jiang Miao thought for a moment and then opened QQ to message Congee Boss.
[Peach Jam]: (Image)
[Peach Jam]: Boss, my novel has reached high quality.
This time, there wasn’t even a response.
Jiang Miao chuckled and shook his head. He put his phone away, opened his writing software, and got to work.
If he didn’t crank out at least ten thousand words today, he was really afraid Senior Sister would snap and expose him at school.
…
Meanwhile, in the master bedroom next door.
Su Huaizhou buried her head under her pillow, looking like she wanted to disappear from the world.
Because she was wearing a dress, and her hips were raised, the already-short hem slipped down her thighs, revealing a glimpse of beautiful scenery beneath.
Unfortunately, no one could see it.
She really didn’t want to see Junior Brother at all now.
Just thinking about his face made her own burn with embarrassment.
Recalling the various details over the past month, the more she thought about it, the more mortified she became. It was a spiraling sense of social death. With every thought, her desire to escape from the city grew stronger.
Her delicate toes, bare without socks, dug into the bedsheets and wriggled from time to time, revealing just how awkward and helpless she currently felt.
She had clearly been successfully confessed to by Junior Brother and even happily hugged him.
As Congee Boss, she had guided him step by step into the confession. Even after several missteps, she had been persistent and didn’t give up.
The final outcome was clearly good.
But why couldn’t she feel happy about it?
Ugh!
Stupid Junior Brother!
He actually kept me in the dark and played me.
Thinking about how proud she had felt back then, believing Junior Brother was firmly under her control, while on the other end, he was likely feeling even more triumphant than she was, she gritted her teeth in frustration.
She was furious…
Yet she couldn’t really blame him.
After all, she was the one who had hidden her identity first, and he had simply turned the tables on her.
But still, she had been deceived for over a month!
How could she forgive him so easily?
Even though, deep down, she really wanted to dive right into a sweet relationship with him, if she couldn’t vent her anger, wouldn’t her social death have been for nothing?
I might as well pretend to be really angry and trick Junior Brother into writing more~
As this thought appeared, Su Huaizhou’s mood brightened instantly.
At this moment, her phone buzzed.
She picked it up, and her eyes lit up with surprise and delight.
3,500!
Peach Jam is amazing!
His novel really made it to high quality!
[Input Box]: Peach Jam is the best!!!
Without thinking, she typed out the message. But recalling how she was still ‘angry’, she pouted and deleted it.
After a moment of thought, she settled for sending just an ‘Oh’.
Hmph!
I’ll leave you hanging for now!
That’ll teach you for messing with me!
I won’t compliment you. I’ll make you anxious to death!
At this moment, Su Huaizhou was like a rebellious little girl. After falling into the vortex of love, the little girl in her heart, who wanted to act cute, throw little tantrums, and be naughty, came to life.
Just as she was feeling proud of herself, her phone buzzed again.
She checked it.
It was a message from Peach Jam on QQ.
It was the same initial subscriptions screenshot and the same message saying, ‘My novel has reached high quality.’
Upon seeing this dog Peach Jam, Su Huaizhou was livid and threw her phone onto her bed in a fit of anger.
The phone bounced a few times and landed near the edge of the bed.
After a moment’s thought, Su Huaizhou crawled over gloomily to retrieve it.
Looking at the chat interface with Peach Jam, she looked conflicted.
[Input Box]: Oh.
Delete.
It can’t be the same as WeChat!
[Input Box]: Hehe.
Isn’t this too sarcastic?
Will Junior Brother be disappointed?
This won’t work.
[Input Box]: It’s okay, I guess.
No, no, no. His novel is first place among the releases. How can it just be okay?
Won’t that make me seem sour and stubborn?
Delete! Delete!
W-sitting (google image search 鸭子坐 for imagery) on the bed, Su Huaizhou typed and deleted her response over and over with a troubled expression, unable to settle on a single response.
In the end, she let out a cute, frustrated cry and flopped face-first onto the bed. Her long legs, exposed under her skirt, swung back and forth as if she was venting her emotions. She murmured a few incoherent sounds as she once again sank into the dilemma of love.
Junior Brother is so annoying!
I’m so angry, but he still hasn’t come to coax me.
Maybe he doesn’t like me that much?
Otherwise, how could he bear to keep me in the dark and toy with me for over a month?
Su Huaizhou tossed and turned on her bed until she accidentally tugged her hair. With a sharp ‘ouch’, she finally stopped moving and lay still.
Ah~
I really want Junior Brother’s hug~
Half of her face was buried in the bed, while the other half was hidden by her long hair, leaving just one pitiful eye peeking out.
Stupid Junior Brother, you don’t even know how to take the initiative.
She felt too embarrassed to keep being the one to take the initiative!
Su Huaizhou turned over unhappily and kicked her legs like a child to vent her frustration and resentment.
If Jiang Miao could witness this side of Senior Sister, he would surely be in disbelief.
Unfortunately, because of her ‘social death order’, he was still writing bitterly.
How could he possibly have the time to coax her?
This was likely a reflection of the difference in thought processes between boys and girls.
When a girl said ‘get lost’, she often expected the boy to come over to coax her, hug her, and shower her with affection.
But the boy might interpret such words as the girl wanting some time alone.
So he would consider it thoughtful to step away and give his girlfriend the quiet space she seemingly desired, thinking it showed understanding and care.
Even though Su Huaizhou prided herself on being an independent and self-reliant woman, once caught in the throes of love, she couldn’t help but act like a young girl.
…
At 4 p.m., because of Senior Sister’s command and the joy of his novel becoming a high-quality work, Jiang Miao unleashed a burst of productivity. From 1 p.m. until now, he had written 6,000 words.
While massaging his sore wrist, he looked at his word count for the day and gave himself a big thumbs up!
Awesome!
As expected of me!
How touching! Boohoo!
To have such a diligent and hardworking author like me, my readers are truly blessed beyond measure.
Jiang Miao praised himself and shook his head in mock awe. Then he uploaded the 6,000 words to the author’s dashboard and wrote his author’s note.
[Here’s 6,000 words for the afternoon. More coming tonight! Brothers, are you touched? Let’s hit 10k every day!!! Vote!!!]
After writing this, he immediately felt heroic.
However, when he thought about how his dear Senior Sister was still sulking in the room next door, he felt somewhat powerless.
He got up, tidied up a bit, and glanced at the time. He walked to the door of her bedroom and knocked. “Senior Sister, I’m going to buy groceries. Do you want to come?”
“No!” Su Huaizhou was still buried in her blanket. When she heard Junior Brother’s voice, the corners of her mouth curled up uncontrollably.
But her tone was still full of irritation.
“Then what do you want to eat?” Jiang Miao asked. “Do you want stir-fried pork again? Aren’t you tired of it?”
“I’m not eating!” Su Huaizhou said stubbornly. “I’ll order delivery myself.”
“If you aren’t going to eat, then I won’t bother cooking. Could you order me some too?” Jiang Miao went along with it.
“Dream on. Order it yourself!”
“Then are you coming out? Stretch your body a bit?”
“No way!”
“You’ve already agreed to be my girlfriend. It’s not good to keep staying in there, right?”
“Who said that?!” Su Huaizhou straightened her neck and said angrily, “I never agreed!”
Jiang Miao: “???”
Hugging each other doesn’t count as agreeing?
“It was just a hug. You’re overthinking it, Junior Brother!”
“But didn’t you say you liked me too?”
“I only said I liked you as a junior brother, but I didn’t agree to be your girlfriend!”
Jiang Miao: “…”
Is that how it works?
We like each other and confessed our feelings to each other, but we’re still not a couple?
Senior Sister is just being stubborn.
Jiang Miao smiled, not the least bit annoyed. In fact, he felt that Senior Sister was quite cute like this.
It was just a pity that he couldn’t hug her.
If he had her in his arms and she kept being so stubborn, he would definitely lower his head and block her mouth.
Then, after kissing her, he would ask her again if she was his girlfriend.
If not, then kiss again!
Right now, Senior Sister was merely putting up her last bit of stubborn resistance, so Jiang Miao wasn’t worried at all.
What surprised him, though, was how utterly embarrassed she became after her Congee Boss identity was exposed.
It seemed her psychological endurance was still not good.
Look at him, for example.
When Senior Sister discovered his Peach Jam identity, didn’t he still get through it just fine?
You just had to get used to things like social death.
With this thought in mind, Jiang Miao went out to buy groceries.
He bought enough ingredients for two people in case Senior Sister was only being stubborn. If she ended up not ordering delivery and got hungry, he’d be prepared.
After returning to Senior Sister’s condo at 4:30 with the groceries, Jiang Miao started the rice cooker and began preparing dinner.
Enough for two.
If Senior Sister didn’t eat, he could turn the leftovers into egg fried rice for a late-night snack.
Jiang Miao started cooking.
His family’s living conditions were modest and middle-class. His parents had jobs and owned a house. They were a dual-income family.
When he was growing up, his parents often had to work overtime and would come home late.
As a result, he had learned to make dinner for himself since elementary school.
At first, he could only manage simple dishes such as egg fried rice.
As he got older, he learned many home-style dishes from his parents, and dinner duty was gradually handed over to him.
This situation only stopped when Jiang Miao started boarding at school in middle school and high school.
During summer vacations, the routine was the same. He would cook, eat by himself, and prepare dinner for his parents.
Although his cooking skills couldn’t match those of professional chefs, it was still easy for him to whip up home-cooked meals.
After finishing a plate of stir-fried pork, Jiang Miao carried it to Senior Sister’s bedroom door and used a small fan to waft the aroma inside.
“Senior Sister, the stir-fried pork is ready. Can you smell it?” Jiang Miao asked through the door, stifling his laughter. “Doesn’t it smell amazing?”
“Don’t even think about tempting me!” Su Huaizhou shouted from under her pillow. “I already ordered delivery! It will be here in a few minutes!”
“Senior Sister, I think you’re forgetting something very important.” When Jiang Miao saw that the stir-fried pork wasn’t working, he changed from temptation to coercion. “The delivery guy won’t bring the food to your bedroom. If you want it, you’ll have to come out.”
“You’ll bring it to me!”
“Not happening.” He grinned smugly. “It just so happens I only made one serving of stir-fried pork, and I’m short of other dishes, so I’ll fill the gaps with your delivery.”
Su Huaizhou panicked. “No! I ordered stir-fried pork too, the same as you!”
“I see.” Jiang Miao nodded. “That’s perfect then. We can swap and try each other’s.”
Su Huaizhou, still lying under her blanket, was about to laugh. She sat up on her bed, feeling oddly better despite the banter with Junior Brother.
I really want to eat Junior Brother’s stir-fried pork, she thought, her mouth watering.
In comparison, delivery stir-fried pork seemed a little lacking.
Before, she was used to the taste of delivery, so it was fine.
But after tasting Junior Brother’s stir-fried meat, how could she go back to inferior versions?
While she was hesitating and struggling with the decision, her phone rang.
Su Huaizhou answered the call, and a calm voice came from the other end.
“Hello, this is Meituan Delivery. Your order has arrived. Please open the door.”
At the same time, Jiang Miao heard the doorbell ring.
He smiled and walked towards the door. “Senior Sister, I won’t hold back on your delivery.”
“No!” Su Huaizhou quickly got up, opened the door, and rushed out to save her delivery.
Jiang Miao naturally wouldn’t give her the chance. He went to the door first and opened it, ready to grab the takeout bag from the delivery person.
But the moment he opened the door, he froze.
“Wait! You’re not allowed to touch my delivery!” Su Huaizhou shouted, running over angrily, wanting to stop Junior Brother’s bad behavior.
“W-wait… Senior Sister…” Jiang Miao stammered, then quickly turned his head, but it was already too late.
She had already squeezed her way to the door and was about to reach out to grab the takeout bag when she saw the delivery person and was shocked.
Outside the door, Chen Haoshang, dressed in a yellow uniform and wearing a helmet with the Meituan Delivery logo, stood silently with a bag containing a stir-fried pork set in his hand.
At first, when he saw Jiang Miao, he was only slightly surprised.
But Jiang Miao living here wasn’t anything particularly shocking.
But the next moment, the familiar figure of Senior Sister Su rushed out from inside and barged into Chen Haoshang’s sight, causing his pupils to widen, as if he had seen something unbelievable.
Well… it wasn’t exactly unbelievable.
After all, he already knew about the relationship between Jiang Miao and Senior Sister Su. Even if she was already at his place or if they were officially living together, it was nothing surprising.
With this thought, Chen Haoshang felt relieved.
After all, it was their personal matter. He was just here to deliver food, so why should he care so much?
“Here you go.” Chen Haoshang didn’t say anything else and handed the takeout bag to Jiang Miao.
“… Thank you.” Jiang Miao took it in a daze. Then, seeing that Chen Haoshang didn’t ask anything and turned around to leave, he hurriedly shouted, “Wait! It’s not what you think! Let me explain!”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry,” Chen Haoshang replied as he pressed the elevator button. Seeing the elevator door open, he only left behind a reassuring statement. “I won’t say anything.”
Jiang Miao opened his mouth, but before he could explain, the elevator door closed.