Entertainment: A song that brought his deceased wife back to life.

Xu Qing stared at the flashing cursor on the screen, her mind racing with only one thought.

According to his writing style, the female protagonist will die in winter, in chapter 120. The cause of death will be overwork; she will collapse on her way home from get off work. There will be no one around. Her phone will ring with the male protagonist's name, but she will be too weak to answer.

He spent over two months meticulously refining this ending. Every detail was perfectly timed to create the most heart-wrenching moments.

But the problem is-

The crazy reader next door was only six meters away from the kitchen knife drawer.

Xu Qing was making her final mental preparations when the study door was suddenly flung open with a bang.

The doorknob slammed against the wall and bounced.

Luo Qianyu stood at the door.

Starfish pajamas. Barefoot. Messy hair. Red-rimmed eyes.

He was gripping a small plastic knife used in the kitchen for cutting fruit in his right hand.

Xu Qing's gaze moved from her face to the knife, and then back to her face.

"Your knife can't even peel an apple."

"Enough." Luo Qianyu stepped into the study, walked up to Xu Qing, and pointed the plastic knife at the computer screen. "Are you going to kill her off?"

Xu Qing didn't say anything.

Luo Qianyu's tears welled up in her eyes but didn't fall.

"I saw the filename in your drafts folder."

Xu Qing glanced down at the computer. The folder on the desktop was clearly titled—The Finale: Winter, Death.

He forgot to change it.

"Xu Qing, tell me," Luo Qianyu's voice trembled, "did she die on her way home from get off work?"

Xu Qing remained silent for two seconds.

How did you guess?

"Because the female supporting character in your last book died on her way home from get off work! You only use that one trope!"

Xu Qing's lips twitched. Being criticized to his face by a reader for using repetitive plots was a first in his writing career.

Luo Qianyu slammed the plastic knife on the table.

"She's already made it through! She found a job, made friends, and met someone who treats her well! Why do you still want her to die?"

"because--"

"Because tragedy is eternal, right?" Luo Qianyu finished his sentence for him, her tone filled with indescribable grievance and anger. "You say that in every book you write. You build up a character in every book and then smash them to pieces. Do you enjoy writing that?"

"accurate."

"Then why are you still writing!"

"Because that's what it is—"

"If you say 'this is my artistic pursuit' again, I'll soak your keyboard in the bathtub today."

Xu Qing shut up.

Luo Qianyu stood in front of him, her chest heaving violently.

She wasn't discussing any literary concepts with him.

She genuinely felt sorry for that fictional girl.

Luo Qianyu was all too familiar with that girl's situation. A person carrying all their belongings in a big city, trampled underfoot, mocked. Just when they finally see a glimmer of light, it's swallowed up again.

Luo Qianyu's tears finally fell.

"She's just like me." Luo Qianyu's voice trailed off. "You wrote about someone like me."

"I don't want to see her die."

"I don't want to."

The study was quiet for a few seconds.

Xu Qing looked at the girl in front of her, who was crying with a red nose, barefoot, and holding a plastic knife.

He wanted to say something sarcastic to change the mood.

But I can't put it into words.

He couldn't utter a single word.

Xu Qing closed her eyes briefly.

Then he reached out and moved the mouse over the file in the drafts folder.

Luo Qianyu was stunned.

Xu Qing opened the folder. The Finale - Winter - Death.

It contains the complete ending, which is 32,000 words long.

The female protagonist lies on the snow. Her phone is lit. No calls are answered. The name displayed on the screen is "Idiot"—the nickname she used for the male protagonist's contact.

She had a smile on her lips when she closed her eyes.

Because she dreamed of spring.

Xu Qing wrote for two months. Every word was the truest expression of his heart.

Luo Qianyu saw that text.

Tears fell directly onto the keyboard.

"you--"

Xu Qing pressed Ctrl+A.

Select all; all 32,000 words will be highlighted in blue.

Luo Qianyu stopped breathing, and Xu Qing pressed Delete.

The screen was blank, the cursor bouncing across the blank page, displaying 32,000 words. That was it.

Luo Qianyu froze, staring at the blank page.

Xu Qing moved the mouse to another corner of the desktop. There was a folder hidden deep inside. Its name consisted of only one letter—B.

He double-clicked to open it, and there was only one document inside.

Filename: The Finale - Spring - Living.

Xu Qing clicked on it.

Luo Qianyu leaned closer to look. The female protagonist in the document hadn't died in the snow; she had survived that winter.

When spring came, she sat on the windowsill of her rented room, basking in the sun. The male protagonist brought up two cups of soy milk and four fried dough sticks from downstairs, complaining that it was embarrassing for her to appear on the windowsill with her hair uncombed.

She laughed as she snatched the fried dough stick, took a big bite, and the sunlight shone on her face.

It was just an ordinary day. There was no life-or-death separation, no heart-wrenching grief. It was just the two of us sitting together eating breakfast.

The last line at the end reads—

"She no longer has to travel."

Luo Qianyu stared at this line of text for a long time.

Tears streamed down my face, and I couldn't wipe them away no matter how hard I tried.

When did you write this?

"last month."

"Didn't you only write a tragic ending?"

"After finishing the tragic ending, I wrote another one," Xu Qing said, leaning back in his chair and looking at the ceiling. "A backup."

Luo Qianyu cried even harder.

"A spare? You call this a spare?"

"What else should I call you?"

"This is clearly the ending you really wanted to write. You wanted her to live. You just didn't dare."

Xu Qing didn't reply, and Luo Qianyu wiped her face.

"You don't dare let her live because you feel that good things shouldn't exist. You feel that all happiness will eventually shatter, so you simply smash it yourself first."

"That way we don't have to wait for God to bring it down, right?"

The study was so quiet that only the hum of the air conditioner could be heard.

Xu Qing did not refute her, because she was right.

Xu Qing never writes happy endings, except for the last one.

Luo Qianyu walked up to him, bent down, cupped his face in her hands, and forced him to look into her eyes.

Her eyes were terribly red, and tears still clung to her eyelashes.

"Xu Qing, listen to this."

"She deserves to live."

"Just as you deserve to live."

Xu Qing looked into her eyes.

Those eyes couldn't hide anything. There was grievance, heartache, and a clumsy but forceful persistence. Xu Qing reached out and grasped her wrist.

"I've changed it."

"What?"

"The ending," Xu Qing's voice was flat. "Ending B. I've released it."

Luo Qianyu was taken aback. She turned to look at the computer screen, where the status bar displayed: Upload successful.