Chapter 70: Slacking Off, Day 70
In the story where Li Xiangyue was the protagonist of the “Cultivating Immortality with a Reporter System” novel, Wen Ying was indeed the second female lead, but a special kind of second female lead.
Unlike the other second female leads who mindlessly caused trouble, Li Xiangyue and Wen Ying weren’t very familiar with each other in that particular book. In that story, Wen Ying only appeared as a news subject.
Therefore, in her past fifty-plus reincarnations, Wen Ying never had any direct contact with Li Xiangyue. Her mission in that book could be completed simply by succeeding in her missions in other stories, which would, in turn, make her a good news story.
It was one of the few plots that didn’t make Wen Ying miserable.
Because this war correspondent was extremely professional and never reported false news or used sensational headlines to grab attention, Wen Ying had always had a good impression of her, even though they had no real interaction.
Today, Wen Ying planned to go and find Li Xiangyue, which would be the first time they had ever interacted in all of her reincarnations.
Thinking about it, she felt a little excited.
Wen Ying walked up to Li Xiangyue’s door and knocked politely.
“Who is it?” After a moment, Li Xiangyue’s voice answered from inside.
“It’s me, Wen Ying,” Wen Ying replied.
Perhaps because of her excitement, Wen Ying’s tone was a little more upbeat than usual.
Li Xiangyue’s voice from inside the room was clearly startled.
She looked down at the open page of her novel, My Overbearing CEO and I , which she was holding. The page she was on described the CEO coming to visit the female lead’s home.
“Do you… have something you need?” After a long silence, Li Xiangyue finally asked.
“I have some questions about your newspaper,” Wen Ying said, getting straight to the point.
Li Xiangyue looked down at her novel again.
[“Shopkeeper Liu, what is it that you need from me?”
“It concerns the vase you sold to me.”]
Li Xiangyue’s hand, clutching the novel, trembled slightly.
Yuri is great, but it doesn’t lead to babies.
But she was a cultivator; she wasn’t planning on having children anyway.
If it was a domineering CEO… she might not be opposed to it…
After some hesitation, Li Xiangyue opened the door.
“Come in,” Li Xiangyue said, putting the novel behind her back and motioning for Wen Ying to enter.
“Thank you,” Wen Ying smiled and nodded, but her thoughts were far from composed.
With her mind-reading ability, Wen Ying had naturally heard what Li Xiangyue was thinking.
It seemed that Wen Ying’s excitement was not unfounded.
Wen Ying hadn’t expected Li Xiangyue’s mindset to be so… modern.
Not only was she so accepting of the idea of a domineering CEO, but she also liked Yuri…
She truly was worthy of being a writer; not only was her thinking modern, but her imagination was huge.
Li Xiangyue led Wen Ying into the main hall. “My residence is quite humble, Miss Wen. I hope you can bear with it.”
Wen Ying looked around the room—
The ceiling was covered in spiderwebs, the wooden tables and chairs had a faint smell of mildew, the walls were crumbling, the floor was uneven, and there was even a hole in the roof.
It was… indeed very humble.
They said that the more difficult the conditions, the better the writing. Was this the reason?
“It’s no trouble,” Wen Ying said. She then added, “If you need, I can help you fix this place.”
Li Xiangyue once again glanced at the novel in her hand.
[“I apologize, but my home is a bit too humble.”
Without a word, the CEO clapped his hands. “Someone! Paint and repair the entire house for this young lady, right now!”]
“No,” Li Xiangyue quickly said, her gaze returning to Wen Ying as she hurriedly refused.
“Please have a seat, Miss Wen.” Li Xiangyue pointed to a chair.
“Alright.” Wen Ying sat down, but the moment she did, she felt something was wrong.
The chair, due to years of disuse, felt like its leg was about to break.
Li Xiangyue, as a cultivator, also noticed the strangeness of the chair.
“Miss Wen, be careful—!” Li Xiangyue quickly warned, reaching out to grab Wen Ying. But she suddenly tripped on a hole in the floor, and started to fall forward.
She was a cultivator, but it was a secret in this town. Should she use her qi to stabilize herself…?
As Li Xiangyue hesitated, her body fell forward, right towards Wen Ying.
At that same moment, the leg of Wen Ying’s chair finally snapped.
Because of her instability, Li Xiangyue subconsciously loosened her grip on the novel in her hand, and it fell to the ground, flipping open to another page.
[When the female lead went to get something, she accidentally tripped on some construction tools on the floor.
Standing right in front of her was the CEO.
When she fell, she naturally pushed the CEO over, and they both fell to the floor, their lips meeting by chance…]
Could it be…
“Thump!”
After a loud crash, Li Xiangyue felt her head spin.
It was a true, physical head spin. Li Xiangyue’s and Wen Ying’s heads had indeed connected.
The force of the impact was so great that Li Xiangyue felt like her brains had been scrambled. The novel in her hand fell and flipped open to a random page.
Because Li Xiangyue hadn’t pushed Wen Ying over.
The chair under Wen Ying’s butt was in pieces, but she was still sitting in the same posture, perfectly balanced.
Wen Ying simply didn’t want to fall and hurt her butt, so she had stabilized herself just before she fell.
Wen Ying: “…”
Li Xiangyue: “…”
Li Xiangyue quickly stood up from the human chair and clutched her forehead.
Wen Ying, who had avoided hurting her butt, also stood up.
It was clear that Li Xiangyue’s head was much harder than Wen Meng’s.
At least Li Xiangyue hadn’t fainted, and there was no huge bump on her forehead.
“Miss Wen, you truly are… quite strong,” Li Xiangyue said after a long pause.
“Thank you for the compliment, Miss Li,” Wen Ying replied politely. “You too, Miss Li, have a very hard head.”
“No, no, no, your head is much harder, Miss Wen.” Li Xiangyue quickly deferred to her.
In this situation, Wen Ying couldn’t help but wonder if they were… being a little too polite.
“You are too humble, Miss Li.” Wen Ying decided to change the subject. “Miss Li, I came here today to ask about Aunt Wu.”
With that, Wen Ying took out the newspaper clippings she had saved and placed them on the table.
Li Xiangyue picked up her novel from the floor. The page it had flipped to was a scene between the female lead’s friend and the CEO.
Li Xiangyue suddenly understood.
It seemed she was only playing the part of the female lead’s friend.
This meticulous gathering of news articles about Aunt Wu showed a great deal of effort.
But…
Out of the kindness of her heart, Li Xiangyue felt she should warn Wen Ying.
“Miss Wen, Aunt Wu and her husband are… very much in love,” Li Xiangyue said discreetly.
“Oh?” Wen Ying, though she understood the subtext, chose to ignore this absurd assumption.
She was more concerned about what Li Xiangyue knew about Aunt Wu’s life and family.
“Miss Li, I know you have an amazing ability to find news,” Wen Ying said. “So, I came today to ask you, what is happening right now with Aunt Wu’s eight kittens, five geese, three ponies, and ten chicks?”
“Uh… huh?” Li Xiangyue hadn’t expected Wen Ying to be asking about that.
It turned out she was just an animal lover…
Li Xiangyue awkwardly closed the novel.
Out of a sense of guilt, Li Xiangyue seriously activated her special golden finger—the news camera function—to check on Aunt Wu’s animals.
And all Wen Ying needed to do was use her mind-reading spell to see the image Li Xiangyue was seeing.
She was right. The location of Aunt Wu’s house was the empty lot she had passed the other day.
The news camera function allowed her to place a camera at a specific coordinate to take pictures or videos.
In other words, Aunt Wu’s house should have been right there in that empty lot.
But when she had passed by that day, Wen Ying was certain that the lot was truly empty. No spell was hiding Aunt Wu’s house.
The same location, but Li Xiangyue’s camera could clearly capture a home…
As I thought.
Wen Ying was now completely certain of her suspicions.
This world was not just about mind control.
…
After confirming her suspicions, Wen Ying left Li Xiangyue’s residence.
Wen Ying could have broken the spell on Li Xiangyue, but that would only be a temporary solution. Besides, she didn’t know Li Xiangyue well enough to trust her. If she released too many people, she might alert the mastermind. It was better not to act rashly.
Before she went up the mountain to find the Hua Pi couple, Wen Ying needed to do one more thing back at the Shen residence.
She needed to release the spell on Little Black.
In all of Ping’an Town, the only people Wen Ying could somewhat trust were Lu Xiaojie and Little Black.
Although Wen Ying knew that Feng Sixuan and Lan Xiaoming were good people, they were still protagonists.
She couldn’t bring anyone else into Ping’an Town, or else she would have brought Little Sun Sun, or even Kong Jingjing.
Little Black was her last resort.
After returning to the Shen residence, Wen Ying, with great reluctance, petted Little Black’s soft black fur one last time. Only after a whole palm-sized furball came off did she finally release the puppet strings from his body.
“Meow meow meow!” Little Black instantly became alert, then he lowered his front paws like a spoiled child. “Meow meow meow meow meow!!”
This time, he was speaking human, and Wen Ying could understand him.
“Ah! I was a cat for so long! Master, I want to turn back into a person, can I, please?”
Wen Ying was touched that this mischievous child still remembered her command to stay in his cat form outside.
“Fine,” Wen Ying said, waving her hand.
After all, what she was about to ask him to do required him to be in his human form.
Hearing Wen Ying’s permission, Little Black happily turned back into a person.
It was only at that moment that Little Black saw the furball in Wen Ying’s hand.
This… this looks like my…
“Ah!!!” Little Black, now in his human form, reacted. After a moment of stunned silence, he finally thought to cover his head.
But Wen Ying had already seen it.
The young boy had hair styled like an adult.
That’s right—
A “geography-teacher” hairstyle!
Wen Ying had thought the furball was just a normal cat shedding.
But she never would have guessed… that it was Little Black’s toupee…
After a moment of thought, Wen Ying silently put the furball back on Little Black’s head…
Author’s Note:
This is a lyric from a song, I think it’s called ‘I wish to get a single heart’? I don’t know if I’m mistaken…
Also, little angels, I want to say that because I often can’t finish writing by nine (my apologies), from now on, I’ll be updating around nine. The latest will be ten, no more than an hour late. Thank you for your patience, mwah!
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