"Mm… ah… nn..."
Fang Qiu lay in bed, her moist, rosy lips parting and closing softly as faint moans — like the cry of an orchid drifting through an empty valley — floated through the room at intervals.
Her eyes were tightly shut, brows knitted together, fine beads of sweat glistening on her pale, pretty face.
After a long while, her body gave two restless twists, and she finally managed to pry her eyes open with great effort.
"Finally awake..."
Staring up at the familiar ceiling, Fang Qiu let out a long, slow breath. Her beautiful eyes were still tinged with lingering fear.
She'd had a nightmare. She dreamed she'd arrived by boat at a grove of peach blossoms — hundreds of paces of flowering trees lining both banks, no other trees among them, the grass lush and fragrant, fallen petals drifting like snow.
She pressed onward and came upon a mountain with a small opening. She left the boat and stepped inside. At first it was extremely narrow, barely wide enough to squeeze through.
So she walked into the cave.
Narrow at first, just enough to pass. Then, after dozens more steps — the space opened up into a vast expanse.
But inside the mountain, there was no idyllic Peach Blossom Spring. Instead, there was an enormous hollow chamber, its floor stacked wall-to-wall with coffins, and from the ceiling above, bloodied corpses hung in dense rows.
"Drip. Drip."
Blood pattered steadily onto the coffin lids below, pooling in dark, spreading puddles across the ground.
Normally, a nightmare was no big deal. Just a nightmare.
But she'd been pinned down by a ghost — that suffocating kind where you can't breathe, can't move. She'd genuinely thought she might die in her sleep.
After a long, desperate struggle, she'd finally clawed her way back to consciousness.
Still, something felt off.
She hadn't read any horror novels lately, hadn't even listened to a single scary story. So why had she suddenly been visited by a ghost pressing her down in the night?
Had she been cursed or something?
"Meow."
Just as Fang Qiu was puzzling over this, a cat's cry came from her chest.
Hm?
Fang Qiu blinked, her gaze dropping instinctively downward.
Sometime during the night, her blanket had slipped entirely to the side, leaving her fully exposed to the open air — almost certainly kicked off during the nightmare.
And sitting squarely on her chest was a white cat, pressing down on those impressively proud peaks and squashing them quite out of shape.
Right.
Now she understood perfectly why she'd been "visited by a ghost" in the night.
So it was this little menace all along...
Fang Qiu sighed and lifted Tingyu off her chest with no small amount of exasperation. The previously squashed peaks promptly returned to their natural, glorious form.
No wonder she couldn't breathe. It was this furball's doing.
She carried Tingyu over and set him down on the writing desk, then glanced at his food bowl — empty, of course.
So the little gremlin had climbed up on her chest just to wake her up and demand breakfast.
Fang Qiu straightened her disheveled hair, washed up, then turned to the cat with a flat look.
"You, all you ever do is eat and sleep."
She poured the cat food into Tingyu's bowl, then grabbed a small pastry for herself and walked to the window.
She pushed it open, and a flood of brilliant sunlight poured into the room.
Nice weather.
The time looked to be mid-morning.
"Time really does fly. In the blink of an eye, the Lantern Rite is already half a month behind us."
Fang Qiu stretched out a long, luxurious yawn.
With the festivities over, Liyue had settled back into its usual rhythms.
A lot had happened in the past few weeks.
For one, Xiangling had swept the culinary competition and taken the championship, making her name resound throughout all of Liyue. The chef called Yan Xiao had also put up an incredibly strong showing — even someone as formidable as Xiangling had barely managed to edge out a win.
It was yet another reminder to Fang Qiu of just how wise she'd been to choose writing over opening a restaurant.
Beyond that, there was the matter of Shui Diao Ge Tou. Hu Tao had come to her with one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.
The good news: at the auction, Shui Diao Ge Tou had fetched a staggering ten million Mora.
The bad news: the one who'd purchased it was Zhongli, a guest consultant for their own Wangsheng Funeral Parlor — and the bill had been charged to Wangsheng's account.
Losing ten million Mora hurt, naturally. But in the end, Fang Qiu waived the entire sum and simply gifted the piece to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor outright.
The poem now hung in the Heyu Tea House for all to admire.
Apparently, it was guarded by four attendants around the clock, with the shift changing every six hours.
Fang Qiu hadn't expected a single poem to command that kind of price. Even so, she had no intention of writing poetry to make money.
For many reasons. First, the poems she had were borrowed from her previous life — she didn't actually understand even the most basic rules of tonal patterns and rhyme schemes. There were still quite a few poems rattling around in her head, but many of them were tied to specific historical contexts, and pulling them out carelessly would be a fast way to get caught.
Poems of the same caliber as Shui Diao Ge Tou that could also fit naturally into Liyue's context were vanishingly rare.
As for the lesser ones — she could barely remember them anyway.
Better not to drain the pond dry.
Poetry was also different from novels. She didn't understand tonal balance or rhyme, and the gaps in her knowledge would show quickly. Besides, now that she'd entered a partnership with Ningguang, the IP development potential of a single book was worth far more than ten million Mora down the line.
Poetry was best kept as a safety net — something to sell a verse of when she was truly down to her last coin and couldn't afford a meal.
On top of all that, the filming of the Sword and Fairy movie was drawing to a close.
All she could say was: true to form, Miss Ningguang. The production efficiency was terrifyingly fast. And her marketing instincts were equally brilliant — throughout the entire shoot, she'd had people strategically leak minor, inconsequential tidbits of information at regular intervals, stoking curiosity and building anticipation ahead of the release announcement.
So when Ningguang finally announced that the Sword and Fairy film was nearly ready to open, all of Liyue Harbor erupted. Countless people were on the edge of their seats, counting down the days.
With the Sword and Fairy film's release imminent, Fang Qiu had also put brush to paper on a new book.
The new work was Sword and Fairy 4 from her previous life — in her heart, the crown jewel of the entire series. She'd been grinding away at it, burning the midnight oil, and had finally finished the manuscript last night.
Once she had breakfast, she'd head to the publishing house to hand it in.
Ningguang had deliberately scheduled the film's opening date for the day before the next book release day.
After resting for a bit, Fang Qiu changed her clothes, tidied herself up, gathered the manuscript from the desk, slid it into a paper bag, and headed out.
All along the way, every street corner and alleyway was buzzing with talk of the Sword and Fairy film. The hype had reached a level that could only be described as unprecedented — on par with Lantern Rite itself. Many teahouses by the road had begun renovating, preparing for the best possible viewing experience. Posters for Sword and Fairy, photographed with Kameras, were plastered everywhere.
Quite a few novel enthusiasts had gathered in clusters on the streets, chattering animatedly.
And of course, the topic was Sword and Fairy.
"That Jing Tian doesn't measure up — honestly, I feel like I'm better-looking than him."
"Li Lao San, go take a good hard look at yourself in a puddle first, will you? With that sorry face of yours, you have the nerve to say that? The way I see it, they should've just cast me."
"The actress playing Tang Xuejian is gorgeous — she's exactly how I imagined her. I just wonder what her name is."
"I can't wait to see the world of Sword and Fairy come to life. I'm taking little Yun with me."
"Heheh, I'm dragging my little sister along. Last time she watched Your Lie in April and cried her eyes out — I've never felt more satisfied in my life. I even photographed her crying with a Kamera. She beat me up something fierce for it, but the photo was hilarious, so it was absolutely worth it."
Listening to the passersby discussing the Sword and Fairy film all the way there, Fang Qiu strolled unhurriedly up to the publishing house.
The moment she pushed open the door to the editorial office, a wave of noise washed over her.
"As I've already explained, the film adaptation rights for the author's work are not in our hands. Even the manga adaptation rights are operated on the author's behalf only after negotiations with Inazuma. If you want the film adaptation rights to the author's work, you need to negotiate directly with the author."
"Then just give us the author's address — that'd solve everything, wouldn't it?"
"I'm afraid that's the author's personal information and privacy. If you wish to acquire adaptation rights, please return and reach out to our publishing house through official channels with a formal cooperation proposal. We will then contact the author on your behalf, arrange a meeting, and from there, negotiations can proceed."
"Can't you just contact the author right now? We're in a hurry."
"No, the earliest would be tomorrow. I must ask you to step outside and stop disrupting our work — otherwise we will have no choice but to call the Millelith."
Fang Qiu looked up to find several female editors massaging their temples, patiently explaining the same things over and over to a group of increasingly impatient visitors.
Fang Qiu's arrival instantly drew the attention of everyone in the room.
One of the younger editors was just about to call out a greeting, when the editor beside her — Li Ling — immediately grabbed her arm.
The younger editor caught on at once.
If she'd called out "Fang Qiu" right then and there, Fang Qiu probably wouldn't have made it out of the publishing house that day. After all, with Tianquan Ningguang personally investing in and producing the film adaptation of Sword and Fairy, Fang Qiu had become the hottest commodity in the eyes of every wealthy merchant in Liyue.
"Alright, everyone — please see yourselves out."
Editor Li Ling said, her tone cool and composed.
Seeing that the editorial staff wouldn't budge no matter what was said, the visitors gave up and filed out of the room, clearly disgruntled.
Once they were gone, the editors who were friendly with Fang Qiu immediately swarmed around her.
"As expected of you — you actually caught the eye of Tianquan Ningguang herself, who's making a film out of your work."
"Right? That's incredible. I'm definitely going to see it when it comes out."
"Me too, me too!"
"Speaking of which, it's going to be a busy few days. Apparently, an Inazuma fleet docked at the harbor late last night — they're probably unloading cargo as we speak. That means another huge batch of new books to review, plus all the work on adaptation rights..."
"Now that you mention it, I'm suddenly feeling very hopeless... A holiday would be wonderful right about now. I want food."
Fang Qiu smiled and exchanged greetings with each of them in turn, then made her way over to Bai Qing.
"Morning, Sister Bai."
Fang Qiu said with a smile.
"Good morning."
Bai Qing gave a small nod, then shifted her gaze to the paper bag Fang Qiu was carrying and asked curiously, "Is that a new manuscript?"
"Mm."
Fang Qiu nodded and handed the paper bag to Bai Qing.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Fang Qiu said her goodbyes and left the editorial office.
The moment she was gone, the editors clustered around.
"Ah Qing, hurry up and take it out — let's have a look!"
"Mm."
Bai Qing smiled and nodded, then drew Fang Qiu's manuscript out of the paper bag.
Right in the center of the front page, three characters stood out boldly.
Sword and Fairy 2.
"Would you all like to read along?"
The smile on Bai Qing's face froze. She looked up at her senior colleagues.
"Uh, Ah Qing, I've got two books still waiting to be reviewed, and the Inazuma shipment might arrive as early as tomorrow — I really need to get moving. Gotta run!"
"...Me too, I need to go sort out my list of authors right away, or it'll be a headache when people start coming in to buy film rights and I can't find the contact information. Busy busy."
"Ah Qing, you've got this."
The last editor gave Bai Qing a pat on the shoulder, then bolted.
Watching every single one of them make a run for it, Bai Qing couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry.
They'd all just been telling Fang Qiu they were looking forward to seeing Sword and Fairy when it released — and the second Fang Qiu pulled out Sword and Fairy 2, they scattered faster than startled birds.
Not that she could really blame them.
Fang Qiu's Sword and Fairy had been absolutely brutal to read. In the days after she'd finished it, Bai Qing hadn't managed a single good night's sleep.
She glanced over at her senior colleagues — several of them were still peeking at the manuscript from a distance while pretending to work elsewhere.
One of them was even holding the manuscript upside down.
"Alright then. Come and gather 'round."
Bai Qing exhaled a long breath, picked up the manuscript, and began to read.
The story began on the secluded peak of Qingluan, with a young boy chasing a wild boar.
The boy's name was Yun Tianhe.
He had grown up on Qingluan Peak in complete isolation, innocent of the ways of the world. For as long as he could remember, he had only ever known his father. After his father passed away, Yun Tianhe had never once set foot off the mountain.
"A naive, sheltered protagonist? That's completely different from Sword and Fairy 1's setup..."
Bai Qing murmured to herself, and kept reading.
The wild boar Yun Tianhe was chasing had blundered into the Shichen Stream Cave — which was, in fact, his parents' burial chamber.
But when he followed it inside, he found that the chamber's hidden mechanism had already been triggered.
This led Yun Tianhe to assume the wild boar must actually be a boar demon — otherwise, how could a pig possibly have activated a mechanical trap?
Determined not to let the boar damage his parents' burial chamber, he plunged in after it — and quickly caught sight of a young girl's silhouette.
Convinced the girl before him was the boar demon in disguise, Yun Tianhe snatched up a bow and a strangely-shaped sword — translucent blue from hilt to tip, without a guard, as though carved from a single unbroken block of ice — and in one fluid motion, nocked an arrow and loosed it.
But the girl was lightning-fast. She rolled aside and dodged the sneak attack without a scratch.
"Wait... what kind of opening is this?"
Bai Qing found herself a little bewildered.
This reminded her of an Inazuma novel she'd reviewed a while back, where the female lead was a pig. At first she'd assumed it was just a gimmick — that the pig would surely transform into a beautiful girl eventually.
Sure enough, the pig did transform. But it became a pig-headed creature with a human body.
Because it was an Inazuma title, it had to be published regardless — otherwise she'd have sent it straight back and told the author to start over. Absolute nonsense.
And that book had, to this day, sold exactly fifty copies. Which said something about the kind of eccentric person willing to buy it.
With Fang Qiu's understanding of the market, surely she wouldn't make a mistake like that?
If Fang Qiu actually went that route, even riding the wave of the Sword and Fairy film's buzz, this Sword and Fairy 2 probably wouldn't sell five thousand copies.
She could already picture it — readers lining up around the block, demanding their money back.
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