Chapter 133 (1/2)
The Complete Guide to the Use and Care of a Personal Assistant
Translator: Jury
Editor: NomNom
First Published on Chaleuria
—
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-three
Xie Ruoyan walked in front of Ling Miao. Even though Ling Miao’s expression was resentful, he still accompanied Xie Ruoyan without incident. Seeing the two appear before him, Su Yuyang’s jaw dropped.
“Yuyang, is your jaw unhinged?” Xie Ruoyan teased.
Su Yuyang shut his mouth and stammered, “No… nothing. Why is Xiao Miao with you?”
“He…” Xie Ruoyan let out a faint laugh. Ling Miao huffed and cut off Xie Ruoyan. He snapped, “Met him on the way back.”
Ling Miao was being stubborn and Xie Ruoyan didn’t call him out. Ling Miao was hostile toward him, so if he called Ling Miao out now and Ling Miao turned on him, Su Yuyang, being caught in the middle, would have a hard time too. Xie Ruoyan glanced at the time and asked, “Do you have plans for the afternoon?”
“No.”
“Writing.”
Su Yuyang and Ling Miao spoke at the same time. Xie Ruoyan pretended not to have heard Su Yuyang’s voice and said regretfully, “Since you’re going to write, I won’t take up any more of your time. The book signing starts tomorrow morning at 9:30. We’re about done for today, too, so I’ll take you both back.”
Su Yuyang grimaced as he said, “Alright,” while Ling Miao looked at Xie Ruoyan approvingly.
In some ways, Xie Ruoyan was to Ling Miao’s liking. But Ling Miao couldn’t yet tell if Xie Ruoyan was friend or foe, so he wouldn’t express any of his goodwill toward Xie Ruoyan.
Su Yuyang didn’t want to write at all. They had come out to have a good time—why did he have to write?!
The patter of keyboards echoed through the room alongside Ling Miao’s frequent cursing. Su Yuyang turned his head to look at the busy Ling Miao and asked, “Xiao Miao, how much longer will this dungeon take?”
“Five minutes.” Ling Miao was fighting his way through a large dungeon which he and his guild had already been battling for twenty minutes. Su Yuyang lay on the bed and sighed, “Five minutes ago, you said five minutes more…” If Ling Miao turned his head now, he would definitely see Su Yuyang’s aggrieved look and his unspeakable despondence.
Su Yuyang was very familiar with the dungeon Ling Miao was tackling; after all, he was the one who had created it. Now he regretted making that pocket dimension so large and complicated.
Ten minutes later, Ling Miao’s guild exited the dungeon and divided the loot. The team leader asked if they wanted to head to the next dungeon. Ling Miao glanced at Su Yuyang, who was idle, and had the sudden impulse to call Su Yuyang to play with him.
Su Yuyang was happy to accept Ling Miao’s invitation and the two passed the afternoon playing video games.
After dinner, Ling Miao resumed dungeon crawling while Su Yuyang took up his laptop and forced himself to write.
Su Yuyang had a new patron, and his usual protocol was to make an additional update for them. So he was currently rushing the additional update.
Like this, the two pushed the matter of Xie Ruoyan to the back of their minds. Ling Miao wasn’t willing to mention him while Su Yuyang was afraid to mention him.
Su Yuyang did not sleep soundly that night because Ling Miao kept moving.
When they woke in the morning, Ling Miao looked at Su Yuyang’s bloodshot eyes and said in surprise, “Fuck, Su Yuyang, what happened to your eyes?”
Su Yuyang looked at the culprit, yawned, and said, “Not used to this place, so I didn’t sleep well.”
Su Yuyang appeared exhausted. Xie Ruoyan looked Su Yuyang over thoughtfully and smiled. “Yuyang, did you sleep well last night?”
Su Yuyang knew that Xie Ruoyan was imagining some unsavory scenarios and didn’t bother to explain. He entered the car, leaned against the seat, and began to catch up on sleep. Ling Miao and Xie Ruoyan’s eyes inadvertently met and sparks flew everywhere. Ling Miao dismissively turned his head away, got in beside Su Yuyang, and possessively held Su Yuyang’s hand.
Xie Ruoyan only found Ling Miao’s actions childish. He smiled and didn’t take Ling Miao’s challenge to heart at all.
The car moved smoothly. Ling Miao stared at the buildings outside the window and suddenly became wary. He said coldly, “This isn’t the route we took yesterday.”
Xie Ruoyan explained, “We’re picking someone up first.”
The car stopped in a residential area.
As Xie Ruoyan’s car stopped, a youth wearing casual clothes and a smile walked over. He opened the passenger side door and got in, saying as he fastened his seatbelt, “What took you so long?” There was complaint in his tone, along with a hint of whining.
Xie Ruoyan said indulgently, “I asked you to come with me, but you insisted on lazing in bed and now you say I’m late. What justice is there in this?”
“Hmph,” the youth huffed, then he noticed the two people in the back seat. His gaze slid over Su Yuyang and Ling Miao’s faces, his calm expression indicating that he had already known others would be in the car.
At the venue, Ling Miao shook Su Yuyang awake.
Seeing the crowd lining up outside the venue, Su Yuyang exclaimed, “Fuck. There are so many people.”
Xie Ruoyan went to park the car and Su Yuyang and the others took out their documents and entered the venue.
The hall was deserted. Aside from the workers, only the authors participating in the book signing were there.
While the venue remained empty, Ling Miao went to visit the booths of all his favourite authors.
By the time Xie Ruoyan came in, Ling Miao was just getting the signature of the last author.