CH 82

“When she was a child, she was abducted by human traffickers and taken to a remote mountain valley. She was just rescued…” Chu Ge looked at Qiu Wuji’s file and couldn’t help but feel speechless. “With her delicate and ethereal appearance, who would believe this identity?”

Zhong Yi casually said, “What if you are regarded as the human trafficker? Suddenly, it sounds somewhat plausible, doesn’t it?”

Chu Ge: “?”

Qiu Wuji: “It sounds reasonable.”

Chu Ge: “…”

Zhong Yi observed Qiu Wuji for a moment and sighed, “You should really wear a mask. You look a hundred times better than your ID photo. If you walk into a dark room, those people would probably lose their souls. And your name on the ID is still Qiu Wuji…”

Qiu Wuji smiled faintly but didn’t respond.

In this world, it seemed commonplace for people to praise others’ appearances, but she still wasn’t accustomed to it. In that other world, people were more subtle. In fact, regardless of which world, she didn’t like it when people focused on her appearance… But for now, the things she took pride in were exactly the things that needed to be hidden. Oh well.

Hmph, wait until I become a divine writer. Then there will be things to praise!

Qiu Wuji, who hadn’t even figured out the name of the protagonist, was full of confidence.

Zhong Yi said, “This is just for record-keeping purposes. The detail that she was abducted won’t be made public. Who needs to believe it? The publicly certified identity is that of your distant cousin, registered under your household… By the way, how distant is this relative?”

Chu Ge was extremely serious. “Beyond the fifth degree of kinship!”

Qiu Wuji didn’t refute.

She was created by him, so could they be considered relatives? But there was no blood relation. So it should naturally be considered a distant relative beyond the fifth degree of kinship. There’s nothing wrong with that.

(TL Note: In Chinese culture, the concept of “kinship” is often classified into different degrees, with closer relatives considered to be within the first few degrees. )

Qiu Wuji didn’t refute.

The household registration was settled. The identity card still needed to be processed, and it could be collected the next day or sent by mail. Chu Ge didn’t stay long either. He left the address and took Qiu Wuji with him, leaving with mixed feelings.

Qiu Wuji sat in the backseat, flipping through the household registration and feeling equally complicated.

Head of household: Chu Ge.

Family member: Qiu Wuji.

The registered address was not a rented house but the old residence that Chu Ge had moved out of, in the old city area of the city… Hmm, so he’s a homeowner?

Apart from the “cousin” relationship with the head of household, just looking at this document, it felt like there was little difference from obtaining a marriage certificate.

Head of household, family member—it all seemed strange.

Oh, now that she had an identity, it seemed like she could actually get married, right?

“Cousin…”

“Ah… ah?”

Chu Ge rode the bike and sighed somewhat nostalgically, “When the identity card is ready, let’s go open a bank account… You’re truly a modern person now.”

Qiu Wuji fell silent.

Binding her phone number to his WeChat, using his bank card—it was like intertwining ivy clinging to him.

Now she could have her own account, becoming an independent individual.

“Don’t you feel a little bit disappointed?” Qiu Wuji suddenly asked.

“Yes,” Chu Ge smiled, “There’s a kind of… feeling like your daughter has grown up.”

“Still teasing,” Qiu Wuji said impatiently, “I have my own identity now, no longer dependent on you. I can leave anytime, go wherever I want! Don’t you know that?”

“Yeah, when your daughter grows up, it’s like this.”

“You…”

“I do feel a bit of loss,” Chu Ge’s tone became earnest, “But Qiu Wuji, this is what we’ve been pursuing for the past two months…”

Qiu Wuji fell silent again.

Chu Ge continued, “Actually, I don’t know if I feel more loss or relief. Honestly, I don’t have a strong sense of reality about it, maybe because we didn’t gradually achieve it through our own efforts. It feels a bit lacking. Cheating in a game really takes away the taste.”

Qiu Wuji helplessly said, “I’ve never seen someone hoping to make things more difficult for themselves. It’s not a spiritual challenge, you know. Just relying on you, a writer who sits at home all day typing, it would probably take you years to figure this out on your own.”

“Well, the process doesn’t matter anyway; this is the result we need,” Chu Ge rode his bike to the residential area and slowly came to a stop. “Your identity is independent now… I hope your life will be too.”

Qiu Wuji watched his back silently for a long time.

There used to be occasional thoughts, not understanding why she felt so close to him, but at this moment, she didn’t need to think about it anymore.

It had little to do with that particular setting.

Because he was truly wholeheartedly helping her, for humans are not like plants or trees—how could they be without feelings?

“Today on our side is the fifteenth day of the lunar seventh month,” Chu Ge suddenly said. “Our timelines are different, right? You haven’t reached the decisive battle with Yan Qianli yet?”

“Not yet,” Qiu Wuji replied. “The time inside progresses with the plot, unrelated to real-time. But it’s coming soon…”

“Perhaps I can’t understand your state of mind. I always felt it was odd that you were still concerned about trivial matters here in such a critical moment,” Chu Ge said.

Qiu Wuji smiled faintly, “Are you trying to hurry me away with such thoughts?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

“I’m studying the meaning of your creation. That’s the real way for me to seek a breakthrough… As for cultivation matters, you don’t have to worry about them,” Qiu Wuji walked toward the elevator, her ponytail swaying. “I will definitely write it out!”

After a moment.

Chu Ge looked at the protagonist’s name “Chu Xiaoqiu” on the document and felt too powerless to comment.

Whether as the protagonist or as our child’s name, it seems to lack some meaning…

Qiu Wuji glanced at him sideways, “What’s wrong? Returning to a simple name is better. The protagonist’s setting is a poor girl, so it should be like this. Your names, Chu Tiange, Qiu Wuji, is too refined. It looks like it’s deliberately composed of poetic and literary references.”

Surprisingly, there was some truth in that… Chu Ge couldn’t help but laugh and cry, “Fine, let’s go with what you want. Save a few chapters, and once the ID card arrives, you can officially publish your book.”

Hmm, suddenly Chu Xiaoqiu doesn’t seem so bad either. It’s a combination of both our names after all… Chu Ge secretly glanced at the side of Qiu Wuji’s face and felt that this shouldn’t be a name she would willingly use. Logically, even if he had suggested it, it should have been rejected, but it turned out she came up with it herself…

Does that mean…

Forget it, it’s better not to overthink things and risk being hit.

But Chu Ge was still in a good mood. He hummed a little tune as he returned to his room to write.

Two rooms, quiet and peaceful, with only the sound of keyboard typing faintly echoing, reminiscent of the days when he used to share a room and write together with Zhang Qiren. Chu Ge never imagined that finding a girlfriend would lead to writing together like this…

Well, not a girlfriend, but hey, it’s almost the same… Anyway, with the style of writing together, Chu Ge didn’t feel any dissonance at all. Perhaps the life of a writer always looks the same, and he has grown accustomed to it.

It’s pretty good.

Qiu Wuji spent three days writing, totaling five chapters, with two thousand words per chapter, for a total of ten thousand words.

On this day, the ID card arrived.

With a solemn attitude as if preparing for a duel with Yan Qianli, Qiu Wuji opened the publishing website, registered an author account, carefully filled in every piece of information, clicked on publish for the first chapter, and anxiously awaited the review for inclusion in the database.

Chu Ge temporarily put aside his own matters and sat by her side, keeping her company as they waited. “The review for inclusion in the database is quick now, at most an hour, and if it’s fast, it could be approved instantly.”

Qiu Wuji felt a little nervous. “What if it doesn’t pass the review?”

“It generally doesn’t happen. There are only two situations where it doesn’t pass. One is if the first chapter has obvious sensitive issues, and the other is if the sentences are incoherent, worse than AI… You should know that even AI-written stories often pass the review and get included in the database.”

Hearing this, Qiu Wuji was confident.

She may not be good at creating stories or know the techniques and elements of novel writing, but that doesn’t mean her writing skills are lacking. If it came to writing beautifully and using poetry and literary devices, she could outperform Chu Ge a hundred times over.

However, after eagerly waiting for over ten minutes, they received a message: “We’re sorry, but your work did not meet the standards for inclusion in the database. Please try again…”

Qiu Wuji was dumbfounded. “Huh?”

Chu Ge scratched his head. He also thought that even if the first chapter didn’t tell a story that anyone would read, at the very least, the writing itself was impressive. It had a landscape of parallelism and antithesis, reaching a level that could even match some ancient writers. How could such writing not meet the standards for inclusion in the database?

He thought for a moment and reluctantly approached his own editor, sending them Qiu Wuji’s first chapter. “Could you please take a look, dear editor? My cousin’s work didn’t pass the review for inclusion in the database. Is there any sensitive word that triggered it?”

The editor remained silent for a moment and replied with a few words: “We don’t accept classical Chinese literature.”