Freedom to sleep however she pleased really was wonderful.
No one to wake her up, the house was tucked away from the busy downtown, and it was quiet—she wouldn't get jolted awake.
She could sleep until she woke up on her own.
Unlike her past life, when her days and nights were flipped and she always slept during the day.
But sleeping during the day had one drawback: the noise.
She'd get woken once every two or three hours, which left her chronically sleep-deprived.
And sleep deprivation dragged down the quality of what she wrote, and her update pace slipped along with it.
Once quality and update frequency dropped, her subscriptions dropped too, which only piled on the pressure.
And once the pressure built up, it turned into a vicious cycle...
In her past life, there had been one time when she'd just promised three updates in a day, and then, because she'd slept badly and felt utterly listless, it took her five whole hours to churn out the first one.
For the second update, nothing she wrote satisfied her; from a little past eight in the evening until a little past eight the next morning, she'd managed only seven hundred words.
And then, because the software's autosave failed, she lost the entire draft. Her composure shattered, and in the end, while trying to redo it, she fell asleep.
Even that she could have lived with.
But then, after barely three hours of sleep, someone woke her up again...
It was practically killing her.
After sitting blankly on the bed for a while, Fang Qiu finally climbed out of it.
When her bare, fair feet pressed onto the soft carpet, the nightdress—which had already slid down to her waist and hips while she stretched sitting on the bed—slipped once more, covering up the springtime scenery it had let escape.
"Now that I think about it, today's a release day, isn't it? I wonder if it's still snowing outside."
After a casual wash-up, Fang Qiu picked up a molten pastry, and once she'd finished it off, she walked over to the window and opened it.
Outside, the snow was still drifting down, a boundless, hazy expanse of white filling the sky.
At the same time, the biting air came pouring in, dispersing what little warmth still clung to her almost the instant it touched her.
Cold.
So cold!
Fang Qiu shivered a couple of times, and, with no mind to spare for the lovely view outside, she hurriedly shut the window, then darted into her covers in a streak and scooped up the soundly sleeping Tingyu for warmth.
Tingyu struggled hard for a moment, but in the end simply couldn't bring itself to claw at Fang Qiu, and could only resign itself to its fate.
Feeling the warmth radiating from the covers and from Tingyu, Fang Qiu finally felt much more comfortable.
The world was too dangerous; only her covers were truly safe.
She'd been careless just now—she'd forgotten how well the house kept out the cold, and had subconsciously assumed it wasn't so chilly outside, wearing nothing but a thin silk nightdress.
She only hoped that brief chill just now wouldn't bring on a cold or a fever...
Going to the Bubu Pharmacy in the dead of winter would be far too miserable.
Sigh.
The mere thought of it gave Fang Qiu a bit of a headache.
The holder of a Cryo Vision—never mind being able to dive into the Frostbearing Lake for a swim in the dead of winter—should at least be able to walk around naked... mm... walking around naked did seem a little indecent...
At the very least, she ought to be able to walk through the snow in a single layer of clothing.
Where was there anyone like herself...?
What was she going to do once she became the Cryo Empress?
Would she be like America's handheld nuclear launcher from her past life?
A range of two kilometers, a lethal radius of three?
Speaking of which, her strength seemed to have climbed quite a bit again these past few days.
She couldn't tell whether it was because of these days' book sales, or because of the opera 'Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother.'
As for what level she'd risen to, or which monsters she could beat, she had no idea...
A Mitachurl probably wasn't a match for her anymore.
But then, she'd never even seen a monster stronger than a Mitachurl...
Though she had heard the Traveler and Paimon talk about plenty of Teyvat's monsters.
For instance, the Whopperflowers that disguised themselves as blossoms.
And the Lawachurls and Hilichurl Shamans that could skillfully wield elemental power.
On a deeper level still, there were things like the Electro Hypostasis and the Cryo Regisvine.
Though the Cryo Regisvine didn't sound all that strong.
After all, according to Xiangling, back when she'd first met the Traveler, they'd used a Cryo Regisvine as an ingredient, and what they made turned out quite delicious.
Beyond those, there were many, many more powerful monsters.
Still, hearing about them was one thing—she'd never experienced their strength firsthand. She'd been in Liyue Harbor for so long now, yet had never once tested her own power.
Going by guesswork alone, she couldn't say whether she'd be able to beat those monsters the Traveler spoke of...
Maybe she should ask Shenhe or Hu Tao to come out into the wild with her and test her strength?
Mm...
Better to wait until the snow stopped.
Still, come to think of it, with snow coming down this heavily outside, would anyone actually go out to buy books?
Fang Qiu nuzzled against her pillow, mulling it over.
Yet even as she wondered whether anyone would brave the snow to buy books—
a long, dragon-like line still snaked in front of the Wanwen Bookhouse.
"Buddy, I can see your face has gone purple from the cold. Why don't you head back and throw on another layer before coming back? I'll hold your spot for you—just come straight over when you return."
"Really? You'd really hold my spot for me?"
"Of course. Why would I lie to you? When you get back later, just come find me."
"But—I decline!"
"Why?"
"Last time you got tricked by some guy into going off to buy a Sword and Fairy film ticket, and in the end you got neither the film ticket nor the book. Damn it—don't let me catch that guy, or else... huh? No way, it's that guy—and he's actually already bought the book!"
"Buddy, hurry, go, go have it out with him—I'll give you the spot when you come back."
"Do I look like an idiot to you?"
The people further back in the line were all scheming against one another.
Meanwhile, Hu Tao had already bought her books and, grinning from ear to ear, was hauling her little cart toward the teahouse.
Just as she was about to step inside, she caught sight of Ganyu.
"Good afternoon! Here to buy Fang Qiu's book?"
Hu Tao waved her hand.
"I'm just passing by. As much as I'd like to buy one, my work isn't finished yet..."
Ganyu said with a touch of hesitation.
"In that case, let me just gift you one, then."
Hu Tao said.
"This... how could I possibly accept that?"
Ganyu hurriedly shook her head.
"It's fine, it's fine—it's only a book."
Hu Tao patted her chest with a grin and said, "Fang Qiu's friends are my friends, and since we're friends, let me toss in another perk for you. Right now the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor is running a grand customer-appreciation sale—buy one, get one free—and I can even give you a discount on top. With the top-tier package, it's buy one, get two free. Upstairs in this very teahouse, there are two people who ordered three top-tier packages. I collected payment from both of them—it wasn't cheap—so I threw in three of Fang Qiu's books for them along with it."
"Uh..."
Ganyu's expression stiffened, and she said a bit awkwardly, "That really won't be necessary."
"No need to take it if you don't want—here, the book's for you. And if you ever need anything, just come to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and give my name; I'll absolutely get you a huge discount."
Hu Tao smiled, her plum-blossom eyes brimming with warmth, then turned and pulled a copy of 'Weathering With You' from the little cart and handed it to Ganyu. Looking at her, she said, "Oh, right—the weather's a bit cold. How about we head up into this teahouse together for a cup of hot tea to warm ourselves up? The tea here has been personally vouched for by Zhongli, the consultant of our Wangsheng Funeral Parlor."
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