To be honest, besides Chu Nan, Liu Qian also felt a bit uneasy. Strictly speaking, both of them were single now, so even if they started dating, it would seem completely normal. Yet, things always felt strange in front of Liu Feng. After all, a sister getting together with her younger brother's best friend was bound to be surprising.
"Uhm, are you going to answer?"
For some reason, hearing Chu Nan ask this made Liu Qian feel even more that the current atmosphere was a bit abnormal. Come on, they were just having a meal, they hadn't done anything else.
"I should answer. It might be something urgent."
Hearing this, Chu Nan nodded and answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Dog son, why did it take you so long to answer? Speak, were you sneaking around with some young lady behind my back?"
How should he put this?
He really was with someone else.
Not a young lady, though, but an older sister.
Well, Liu Feng's older sister.
But if he blurted that out right now, Liu Feng would probably grab a cleaver and chop Chu Nan into eight pieces. So, it was best not to say anything for now, until the right opportunity came along—at the very least, until the two of them officially got together.
Beside him, Liu Qian turned bright red at those words.
She was shy.
She was also wondering what Liu Feng's reaction would be if he ever found out that she and Chu Nan were truly together. It would probably be quite interesting.
At this thought, Liu Qian's face grew even redder.
After all, she was four years older than Chu Nan.
According to her best friend, wasn't she basically an older cow eating tender grass?
"Go on, go on. Spill it, what's up?"
Instead of answering the question directly, Chu Nan changed the subject.
"What else could it be? Liu Yanran just called me, saying she's right outside your place and asking where you are."
At the name Liu Yanran, the expression on Chu Nan's face instantly turned cold.
"You have no idea, I just tore into her a few minutes ago."
"It felt so good."
"I haven't felt this good in years."
Hearing this, the corners of Liu Qian's mouth lifted slightly.
Not bad.
This was her good younger brother.
Yes, satisfied.
She decided that for the next few days—no, just today—she definitely wouldn't beat up her brother.
"That girl... Heh, asking for it. Ignore her."
Chu Nan said with a smile.
That's a real brother for you.
Able to step in and curse someone out on your behalf when it counts.
"Alright, anyway, that's that. I won't keep you from your young lady any longer, hehe. Remember to bring her over in a few days so I can take a look and vet her for you, bro."
Hearing this, Chu Nan looked over at Liu Qian.
Liu Qian kept her head down like a little quail.
"Alright, I'll bring her to see you in a few days."
"Holy shit, you dog, there really is a girl next to you? Damn, why is your peach blossom luck so good while I don't even have a single female around me?"
After exchanging a few more words, the two hung up.
As soon as the call ended, Liu Qian's voice came through.
"Your peach blossom luck is pretty good, huh?"
Hmm.
Wait a minute.
Why did that sound a bit sour?
"No way, Liu Feng just likes talking nonsense."
"Sister Qian, are you jealous?"
Chu Nan blinked his innocent, wide eyes at Liu Qian. That gaze of his was truly captivating, full of affection for everything he looked at; even if it were a dog, if it locked eyes with him, your heart would involuntarily start pounding.
"I don't like sour things."
Liu Qian rolled her eyes. In truth, for the two of them, all that was missing now was someone to poke a hole through the window paper; it was just a matter of when that opportunity would arise.
As they ate and chatted, the meal was soon finished. Chu Nan helped Liu Qian clean up the trash, and honestly, the two of them really did look a bit like a married couple.
"Sister Qian, let me pick you up for dinner tonight."
"I left my clothes at the office."
"I can only give them to you tonight."
Left them at the office?
This scoundrel deliberately hadn't taken them.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have an excuse to have dinner together tonight.
"Sure. My treat tonight?"
"Whatever works. I can treat Sister Qian too."
"Then forget it, I'd better treat you. With all that peach blossom luck of yours, don't let me end up spending all your money."
This was the first time Chu Nan had seen Liu Qian looking jealous.
And honestly?
She was quite cute.
It didn't quite match her usual aloof, boss-lady persona.
It had an inexplicable, charming contrast.
"Then I suppose I'll just have to let Sister Qian feed me completely, so I can sponge off her and let her support me."
"Get out of here, you have no shame."
Despite saying that, the happiness on Liu Qian's face was plainly visible.
"Are you still writing your web novel tonight?"
Thinking of something, Liu Qian looked at Chu Nan and asked.
"Yeah."
Actually, he didn't have to.
But because of what happened yesterday, coupled with the ambiguous relationship between them now, Liu Qian's question could essentially be translated as: *I want to video call you tonight, and I've already found an excuse.*
"What about you, Sister Qian? Are you working on your thesis tonight?"
"Yes, the submission deadline is coming up fast, so I need to hurry."
"Well, how about we video call tonight? You write your thesis, and I write my novel. How does that sound?"
Chu Nan looked at Liu Qian and extended the invitation.
"Sounds good to me."
Liu Qian agreed instantly without any hesitation.
In the pursuit of romance, whether the person is a guy or a girl, if you find that no matter what you do the progress stalls completely, don't hesitate—choose to walk away immediately.
Because the other person doesn't love you; they're simply stringing you along.
And if the person claims they are just "slow to warm up," the moment you hear those three words, don't hesitate either—run, run as fast as you can.
Both of them had worked through the morning, so after tidying up, Chu Nan and Liu Qian took a break. Right now, Chu Nan was lying in the guest bedroom, covered by a light summer quilt that carried a lovely fragrance—it seemed to be the exact same scent that lingered on Liu Qian, which inevitably made his mind wander.
Meanwhile, Liu Qian's heart was fluttering wildly in the next room. After all, the person she liked was right next door; no matter who you were, it was impossible to stay calm.
Before they knew it, both of them drifted into sleep amidst a flutter of excitement.
As the 1:20 alarm rang, Chu Nan woke up from his dream. Though he had only slept for a little over thirty minutes, it was enough to make him feel full of energy.
Work started at two. Subtracting the time it took to get there, Chu Nan still had over twenty minutes. He picked up his phone and took a quick look at the backend stats: his follows had already reached 78,000.
"If all goes well, the official promotions start tomorrow. I might even break 100,000 follows before tomorrow."
Chu Nan thought to himself. Just as these thoughts crossed his mind, a knock sounded at the door.
Chu Nan checked his appearance.
Ah, nothing out of place.
He walked over to the door and opened it.
"Sister Qian, you're up so early."
"Not really, I didn't sleep much at noon anyway. Here, wake up and drink some water."
Liu Qian looked at Chu Nan and asked. Hearing this, Chu Nan nodded.
"Will do, sorry to trouble you, Sister Qian."
The two of them came over to the living room sofa. The apartment's interior decoration was quite minimalist and grand, matching Liu Qian's mature, elegant persona. At the very least, Chu Nan quite liked this design style; it was basically identical to the decor of his own place.
"Hey, is there anything special you'd like to eat tonight?"
Hearing this, Liu Qian thought for a moment.
"A colleague mentioned a newly opened hot pot chicken place that's supposed to be really good. Want to go try it?"
Liu Qian looked at Chu Nan. She had wanted to go for a while but never had the chance; today finally presented an opportunity.
"Sure, then we'll have hot pot chicken..."
Chu Nan almost blurted it right out.
He managed to swallow the words back just in time.
Seeing Chu Nan like that, the corners of Liu Qian's mouth curved upward.
"Though you might have to bear with me a bit—I can't get off work until 6:00."
"No problem, I'll just wait for you outside your office."
"Okay."
Time was almost up, so the two of them headed out.
Soon, Chu Nan arrived back at the office. After a quick glass of water, he threw himself into the afternoon's work.
Meanwhile.
Liu Yanran was on the phone with Wang Jia.
"Jiajia, do you think Chu Nan hasn't come back all afternoon because he's with another girl?"
Liu Yanran had been on the phone with Wang Jia all through lunch. She didn't seem to care at all that she was interrupting Wang Jia's break, and Wang Jia had no other choice—the caller was her childhood best friend, making it hard to speak too bluntly.
"Yanran, the two of you are already considered broken up. I really think you should move on as soon as possible and start a new life."
"Besides, Chu Nan has nothing to do with you anymore. Who he's with and who's by his side have zero connection to us."
Wang Jia had warned Liu Yanran long ago that she would regret it.
Liu Yanran hadn't listened back then, and now the boomerang had come back around to hit her.
Yet what could she do?
Most guys usually seemed easygoing, especially when dealing with girlfriends, often willing to lower their heads and apologize. But once feelings were gone and they made up their minds to break away, men would never drag things out or hesitate.
"Isn't that just being a scumbag?"
A scumbag?
Leaving aside whether Chu Nan had someone new by his side or not, if he had met them *after* they broke up, he certainly wasn't a scumbag.
After all, it was Liu Yanran herself who had driven Chu Nan away in the first place.
"Yanran, I have to get back to work. Let's talk after my shift ends—my boss is nagging me."
Without waiting for a proper response, Wang Jia hung up the phone.
Liu Yanran might be jobless, but Wang Jia still had a job to go to.
Naturally, she couldn't just drop her work to listen to Liu Yanran ramble on.
After all, it had been an entire lunch break of the exact same repeating monologue.
What could she even say?
She had given advice back then, and Liu Yanran hadn't listened.
Now that things had turned out like this, she had no right to cry.
Truth be told, Wang Jia felt her best friend was simply far too naive.
Perhaps it was because she had been over-protected by her family and Chu Nan ever since she was little.
That must have been why she turned out this way.
Staring at the disconnected call, Liu Yanran let out a heavy sigh.
Wang Jia had gone back to work too.
At that moment, she felt like everyone she could possibly rely on was gone.
Ma De?
Right now, she had no desire to go looking for Ma De.
Left with no other choice, she could only wander aimlessly down the street.
As for where she was going, she didn't know, nor did she care.
…………
"Editor-in-Chief, these are the stats for Chu Nan's new work. Please take a look."
Over at the web novel platform, an editor sought out the Editor-in-Chief and handed over the performance data for Chu Nan's new book. The Editor-in-Chief began to review it.
"This book is performing remarkably well."
"It attracted so many readers from the book-shortage plaza, and the chapter-ten completion rate is actually 94.7%."
A look of astonishment crossed the Editor-in-Chief's face upon seeing these numbers.
These metrics were truly exceptional.
"Yes. I analyzed it today: on the one hand, the quality of the book is undeniably high; on the other hand, our platform doesn't have any other books of this particular type yet. Being the first to try something new, combined with flawless quality, is what led to this situation."
"Should we arrange a series of promotional campaigns according to the usual schedule?"
The editor looked at the Editor-in-Chief and asked. Hearing this, the Editor-in-Chief tapped a finger against the desk rhythmically, seemingly deep in thought. After a long moment, he raised his head.
"I recall that Chu Nan started his career right here with us. Apart from his very first book, which had mediocre results, his subsequent works have all performed quite well."
"That's right."
The editor nodded.
"Let's do this: skip the intermediate-level promotions. Those promotions are useful for other books, but for a title like this, they won't have much impact. Starting tomorrow morning at seven, push straight for the front-page login recommendation and banner recommendation, combined with a site-wide pop-up recommendation that will run for fourteen days. If the metrics remain strong after the first seven days, then on the eighth day, push it to short-video platforms for external promotion."
The so-called pop-up recommendation meant that when a reader finished reading a book and prepared to exit, a pop-up window would appear, allowing them to jump straight into another book through that window. Naturally, the pop-up could only be dismissed after a three-second delay.
"Should this pop-up recommendation be implemented across all books on the site?"
"Yes, exactly."
The editor nodded upon hearing this.
Having finalized the decision, the editor left the office.
Returning to his desk, he sent a message to Chu Nan.
"Big Boss, the leadership just said..."
Upon seeing the message, Chu Nan felt a brief wave of surprise.
The promotional push this time was massive.
As expected.
This new industry was remarkably fair.
Data spoke for everything. If you had the numbers, the company would heavily invest in cultivating you; if you didn't, the company wouldn't give you the time of day.
"Got it."
"Thank you, Editor."
Chu Nan replied quickly.
"Big Boss, this is only what I should be doing. Just make sure you don't break your update streak during this period."
"OK."
Chu Nan sent an "OK" sticker to show he understood.
Time ticked by bit by bit until the end of the workday arrived.
Chu Nan saved his document, shut down his computer, tidied up his desk, and picked up the bag containing Liu Qian's clothes before leaving the office. It was just past five o'clock, and traffic on the streets was still light.
Riding his shared bicycle, Chu Nan headed toward the hospital. In truth, Chu Nan owned a car—right after graduating from college, he had spent over 200,000 yuan on an SUV for himself. However, he usually disliked driving, feeling that navigating city traffic in a car was far less convenient than riding an electric bike. Unless he was traveling somewhere quite far, Chu Nan rarely drove.
Following Liu Qian's directions, Chu Nan arrived outside the hospital's oncology department. At that hour, there weren't many patients around. Chu Nan sat down in the waiting area and crossed his legs.
Moments later, he snapped a photo and sent it over.
"Sister Qian, I'm waiting for you here."
"Okay."
Liu Qian's reply came back almost immediately. And so, he settled in to wait for his fair lady to finish her shift and appear before him.