Chapter 044 (1/2)

The Complete Guide to the Use and Care of a Personal Assistant

Translator: Jury

Editor: NomNom

First Published on Chaleuria

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Chapter Forty-four

“Thanks to my assistant Xiao Miao, the friendly sponsor for the character ‘Ling Miao.’ Relax, I won’t treat you badly.”

Indeed, it’s me!

Ling Miao was glad, but it wasn’t long before the elation turned to worry: “Ah, why did Su Yuyang suddenly toss me into his book?”

Ling Miao, did you forget that you made the Great Shu cameo in your book?

To Ling Miao’s knowledge, Su Yuyang didn’t read his novel, so he didn’t think that Su Yuyang was aware of Su Yuyang #2’s existence. If Ling Miao had known that Su Yuyang knew about Su Yuyang #2, then he wouldn’t have found it strange that he appeared in Su Yuyang’s book, but Ling Miao didn’t know!

Ling Miao’s eyes seemed to shoot jets of fire as they scanned the last line of the chapter. He felt that Su Yuyang’s last line needed to be interpreted differently: Relax, I won’t treat you badly. I’ll only torture you ‘til you die.

Ling Miao shuddered and thought: I didn’t provoke you, did I? Why do you suddenly want to torture me to death?

Su Yuyang’s actions had unknowingly touched Ling Miao’s most sensitive nerve. Ling Miao’s gaze swept across the line, ‘Relax, I won’t treat you badly,’ over and over again, his grimace growing.

Ling Miao had originally put Su Yuyang into his book for the sheer fun of it, and after several chapters the main character got what he needed from Su Yuyang #2 and the novel changed its setting. Su Yuyang #2 had done his work and could retreat, but since Su Yuyang was treating Ling Miao like this, Ling Miao had to retaliate, of course.

“He’s just torturing me in the book. He thinks I can’t torture back?” Considering his plan, Ling Miao’s earlier worry vanished completely and was replaced by an inexplicable excitement, as if giving the Su Yuyang in the book some problems by letting Yan Che hit his face was a more joyous event than getting a thousand subscribers.

Writers have one very good avenue for venting, which is to put the person you want to beat up into your novel and let your main character teach them a lesson on your behalf. Although doing this won’t cause any real harm to the other party, consider that hundreds, maybe thousands, of people will see the person you dislike getting hit and you’ll feel good!

Su Yuyang in Ling Miao’s novel was a neutral character. Now that Ling Miao had the thought to teach Su Yuyang a lesson in the novel, Su Yuyang #2 quickly moved toward the antagonists’ camp—so quickly that even a rocket would be left in the dust.

Maybe it was the thought of ‘torturing’ Su Yuyang, but Ling Miao was suddenly motivated. He opened his writing document and his thoughts flowed like a river, his fingers leaving afterimages in the air.

Because the chapters were queued, it was two days later when Su Yuyang saw the chapter Ling Miao had written that day. Because Su Yuyang had a new set of characters, he had used up all his stockpiled chapters. Now he wrote at night to update the next morning and wrote in the afternoon to update at night, so the ‘competition’ between the two now had a large time difference.

Ling Miao had already made up his mind that he was an antagonist in Su Yuyang’s book—a major antagonist—but to use Su Yuyang’s own words, this antagonist didn’t get a lot of screen time but had a substantial effect on the main character.

‘Didn’t get a lot of screen time’ suggested that ‘Ling Miao’ would quickly earn his pay and leave.

As Yan Che and Ling Shuang left Chaotic Stone City, they felt a shadow following them. Yan Che pretended not to have noticed it and continued moving forward as planned until they reached the border of the northwest desert.

“Su Yuyang didn’t send you here to escort us, surely?” Yan Che’s gentle voice came, as if greeting a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time.

Su Yuyang had thought that Su Yuyang #2 would keep his neutral alignment until the character went away, but Ling Miao had made different arrangements. Like this, he would definitely become an antagonist in Ling Miao’s novel.

“That’s weird. Shouldn’t this guy have rushed over here and given me a good talking-to once he noticed he’d made an appearance in Massacre?” Given Su Yuyang’s understanding of Ling Miao, the latter exploded at the slightest spark. Only mud wouldn’t explode at a spark.

To give Su Yuyang credit, he didn’t say this out loud. If he were to say this to Ling Miao’s face, Ling Miao would let him know what exactly “exploded after ignition”—and this would definitely be something carried out in the dark.

Su Yuyang was smart and could guess why Ling Miao was doing this. Controlling the characters in their respective books the two of them would have a showdown without smoke or fire, and without a winner. Ling Miao wrote Su Yuyang into his books to feel better and Su Yuyang continued to write about the character ‘Ling Miao’ purely to cooperate with Ling Miao.

As Ling Miao edited, he noticed that Su Yuyang hadn’t written out his character yet and was tremendously happy. After all, some things were like one hand clapping: if only he played this game, he’d feel petty.

“Su Yuyang, Su Yuyang. Since this is what you want to do,] I’ll play with you. We’ll see who kills who first!”

What was this?? Clearly Su Yuyang was playing along with you!

[Wipes sweat and continues.]

Daily life was not affected in the least by the violence currently occurring in the books. Ling Miao and Su Yuyang conducted their usual routine and their book-war was completely invisible. The only small difference Su Yuyang noticed was that Ling Miao didn’t discuss the events in Massacre of the Nine Heavens with him any more.