All the people who like me are other people’s girlfriends! ?

In the month since he entered high school, Qingye's book sales have been rising steadily. He also found some time to send out the manuscript of the light novel, and it naturally entered the publishing stage. However, he did not specifically reveal his pen name.

However, his daily life remained stable: reading, writing, playing games, and occasionally visiting the service department... In the evening, he would regularly chat with Banaijian.

That night, Qingye filled the hot water as usual and took a bath in the bathroom.

"call……"

Lying in his bathtub, letting the waves float in front of him, Qingye took out his mobile phone covered in a waterproof bag and casually browsed Twitter.

At this moment, the cell phone suddenly rang.

It was a LINE message from Banaijian, and her profile picture was still a picture of a little corgi.

"Hey, Kiyono-kun, what are you doing?"

——How could you choose such a coincidental time!

Qingye inexplicably felt a little uncomfortable, and replied calmly:

"did nothing."

The message instantly showed as read, and after a pause, the girl continued to send playful text messages.

"So, what am I doing now?"

"I don't know..." He pulled up the message bar guiltily. In recent days, his evening chats with Banaijian were all about sharing food, when to go to bed, and when to take a bath.

"Hint ①: Things that require closing your eyes."

Banaijian attached a picture at the end. The picture showed a blurry ceiling, the scene was hazy, and half of the mint green shower curtain was visible in the corner.

"Count prime numbers?" Qingye answered deliberately.

"You guessed wrong."

In the misty bathroom, water droplets hit the tiles, making a crisp sound.

Banaijian was sitting in the bathtub, her blue hair piled high, revealing her snow-white neck. A drop of crystal clear water flowed down her forehead to her chin, dripping onto her delicate collarbone like a bamboo, and finally merged into the warm water.

The girl looked at the phone in her hand, and ripples appeared in her eyes. Perhaps because she had been soaking in hot water, her pretty face had a touch of pink.

"Hint 2: I'm going to use something that makes a gurgling sound next."

The attached picture is a close-up of the shower gel bottle blurred by water mist, and the words "milk essence" on the label are just blocked by slender fingers stained with water droplets.

"Are you drinking Yakult?" Although he said this, Qingye's eyes unconsciously drifted to the toiletries opposite.

"Wrong!"

Ba Nai Jian sent a voice message. It was the crisp sound of water hitting the surface, which made people imagine the scene of the girl stretching out her frosty white arms.

"Hint ③: What's the current water temperature?"

——You don’t even want to act anymore, right?

"42 degrees."

"It's the same temperature as the tip of Kiyono-kun's ear."

Qingye suddenly felt that the water was too hot, making his heart beat rapidly. He stood up subconsciously, but as if he sensed something, he slowly shrank back into the water.

Even though I was in my own bathroom, the air seemed warm and ambiguous.

The video call request rang - what do you want to do!

Qingye couldn't bear to imagine that scene, and hurriedly pressed the reject button, but the girl seemed to have predicted his behavior long ago. After he rejected it, she sent another text message.

"Failed the penalty game—guess my expression right now."

*

At the same time, Banaijian shyly buried half of his head in the water. His blue hair spread out in the water, and he gurgled out some bubbles. Half of his cheek looked even more charming and attractive under the refraction of the light.

*

After the two of them sorted out their confused and dizzy moods, Banaijian sat down at the desk, turned on the desk lamp, and sent a video call to someone again - this time they were really talking about business!

Qingye hesitated for a long time before pressing the answer button. A girl with slightly wet hair appeared on the screen.

"Let's discuss light novels, young senpai."

Banaijian smiled brightly and got straight to the point.

She wanted to try out the effect of her talent and see if it could help Qingye break through the bottleneck - maybe she couldn't do it in literature for the time being, but if it was this novel that she had read countless times, she still had confidence.

"novel?"

Qingye was a little surprised. The girl probably wanted to... hone her editing experience in advance, right?

Thinking of this, he smiled and said, "Do you have any good ideas?"

"Just a casual chat, for example, the heroine's story in the second half of the first volume..."

Banaijian opened a bag of wafer biscuits and ate them while skillfully turning the manuscript to the page he wanted.

Qingye's novels have been verified and settled by the market, and most of the plots are fine, so what she has to do is to try to strengthen one aspect and improve this plot from 95 points to 120 points.

"Could the scene where the heroine learns of her own death have a stronger emotional impact?"

She didn't know how to trigger the talent effect specifically, so she just did it according to her past experience.

"My heroine is not the kind of girl who would be soft and cry on her knees." Qingye snorted arrogantly.

"You're putting your own emotions into it! Even the strongest girl has a weak and dark side!" Banaijian tapped the table with his pen.

"Then let me hear what the editor has to say."

"Perhaps we could add a scene that marks a significant fork in the heroine's life..."

She said tentatively, observing whether Qingye would have that kind of sudden enlightenment reaction.

Qingye pondered for a moment, and although he didn't have an epiphany, he did witness Yanaijian's awareness. The girl was not only familiar with the story and gave clear suggestions, but more importantly, she also had a good sense of smell, which was similar to what he had discussed with the editor before.

If the girl keeps improving, maybe they can actually co-author the next light novel.

"But if that happens, we'll have to add some lengthy preparation at the beginning," he continued.

"Try to reveal the protagonist's identity earlier?"

As the two discussed the details, Qingye unconsciously focused his attention and sat in front of the computer, summarizing the story and characters with her - Yanaijian even prepared a document in this regard.

"You can use your writing style to simplify and make up for this paragraph," said the girl.

"Well, let's insert some foreshadowing here. The dialogue here can be simplified and conveyed through expressions and actions..."

Qingye copied the original text into a new document and made some simple changes with interest.

He had a vague sense of excitement about a breakthrough - the feeling was not strong, it just made certain scenes more touching, and maybe it didn't help much with sales, but the feeling of making the story better was still extremely refreshing.

The keyboard tapped briskly as he sent two new clips to Banaijian.

"How does this feel?"

"I think it's great, but there are some conflicts with the previous part, which may need to be revised."

The two of them reached a strange kind of emotional resonance, which was rather ethereal and illusory, and together they weaved a beautiful story.

He also truly realized the girl's spirit of working hard and striving for her dream without giving up.

Qingye's fingertips hovered over the enter key, and he was about to praise the girl when he was suddenly interrupted by her.

"What about the revision fee?"

Banaijian leaned close to the screen, her beautiful eyes moving around, a bright and clear smile in her blue pupils.

"What do you want? Buy you some snacks?" Qingye raised his eyebrows.

To be honest, this opportunity is quite rare. Banaijian pondered for nearly a minute before expressing his inner thoughts.

"Well... whenever you want to express your gratitude over the next three years, please fold a piece of manuscript paper into a star, write down your feelings on the inside, and then store the star in a jar."

"Why three years?" Qingye asked curiously.

The blue-haired girl stretched out a slender finger and placed it on her lips.

"Because—when Qingye-kun becomes a great writer, I can auction these things and make money."

In fact, the real reason was to establish a future contract so that he would always think of himself.

*

"What? You changed some of the manuscript's contents again? Teacher Fuyutsuki, I thought this manuscript was perfect enough, and the publication date has already been set. This will cause trouble for the staff!"

When the editor received Qingye's call late at night, his face was expressionless and the corners of his mouth kept twitching - it was not because his sleep was disturbed. In an emergency, he would also come to the house in the middle of the night to urge for manuscripts, but this behavior was already at the level of A-level rebellion!

Then Qingye just sent a manuscript over.

He was silent for a while, then decisively followed the rebellion.

"Hiss...it seems this is indeed inspiration. I understand. I'll try to communicate with the others, but as for the original artist, you'll be responsible for explaining it yourself."

So the next day, Eriri also received the bad news.

"What!? You want me to re-illustrate? And I have to meet a deadline right from the start!?"

——had the same reaction.

Although Kashiwagi Eri can be called an experienced deadline master, this is the first time she's been forced into a deadline like this! Are all of you writers' mental states so twisted?

At this moment, her first thought was to rebel in a magnificent way and disappear from the world, but she was speechless because of the quality of the new manuscript - the beautiful scenes that seemed to appear before her eyes.

If she could cross this deadline, she should be able to break through herself in despair and reach a higher level!

Under the temptation of this level-up, Eriri gritted her teeth and sent a vicious message to someone.

"Let's discuss the details of the new illustrations somewhere!"

She hurriedly packed up her tools and prepared to go out, but at this moment, she suddenly received a call from her childhood sweetheart, saying that he wanted to talk to her about something important.

"Why at this moment..."

Eriri frowned and could only find an excuse to get by. She would talk to Aki Tomoya in the evening! Work was more important right now!

?

PS: Saki has been feeling back pain these past two days, feeling drained...

?088. Minotaur in progress [5K5]

In the girl's bedroom, which was large enough to be called empty, the blonde girl quickly packed her tools into her backpack and grabbed a baseball cap and put it on her head.

But at this moment, her steps suddenly stopped and her eyes fell on the mirror of the dressing table - there was a girl wearing jeans and a boyish sweatshirt reflected there.

"It's not a good idea to go meet that guy like this, right?"

Qingye is not only her classmate and online friend, but also a creator she admires and a team partner. In this sense, this is the first time the two have met.

After hesitating for a moment, Eriri took off her clothes and went to the closet to pick out a cute outfit that suited her gentle girlish look.

This, this isn't something I did specifically for that guy, it's just a matter of image management for teenage girls!

Yes, it is like that!

The tsundere girl found excuses for herself.

*

The sky was clear blue, with low-hanging clouds. In the pleasant spring breeze, students rode their bicycles leisurely through the streets.

Kiyono sat quietly in the corner of the cafe. On the table in front of him was a thin notebook. Next to the computer were several thick foreign classics. The one on top was "The Woman in the Sand" by Kobo Abe.

I saw the young man pretending to pick up a book and read it, frowning in thought, and sometimes typing slowly on the keyboard.

The sunlight streaming in from the glass window made his eyes look even deeper and more melancholic, as if he had seen through the sufferings of the society. An aura of a literary master filled the air, as if this was no longer a resting area in the corner, but a writer writing his truth at a desk that felt heavy with age.

At this moment, his temperament added an artistic, intelligent, and lonely atmosphere to this ordinary coffee shop. The waitresses who came and went secretly glanced at him with strange eyes and discussed him in low voices.

Qingye posed here for a long time, trying to give his partner, whom he had not yet met, a perfect first kill. However, he never waited for the real target, which made him mutter involuntarily and observe the situation nearby.

This girl...why hasn't she come yet?

Qingye still has a lot of feelings for this partner who he has worked with three times in different worlds. Although... although he vaguely guessed the other party's true identity, but! But there is still a 30% chance that it will be another mysterious beautiful girl!

He will keep fantasizing about it until he actually sees it!

At this moment, the door of the cafe was pushed open.