Chapter 17: The Editor's Difficult Decision
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Chapter 17: Editor Kuku’s Decision
The next morning, after getting out of bed, Lu Anzhi went out to deal with the renovations.
The two-story house belonging to the owner of Jiu’an Music Store already had a fairly solid basic finish, saving him the trouble of handling all the structural work. All he needed to take care of now was the interior furnishing.
If this had been before, he would certainly have handled everything himself under such favorable conditions—designing every corner, choosing every piece of furniture, and personally seeing the entire job through.
But things were different now. With Qianqian in his life, he wanted to reserve more time and energy to spend with his daughter. Hiring a renovation company was therefore the best choice.
After visiting many places and gathering plenty of information over the course of the day, Lu Anzhi finally settled on a renovation company.
Of all the companies he had seen that day, this one was the most meticulous and responsible. Lu Anzhi sat down with the person assigned to work with him. The man received Lu Anzhi’s opinions with complete sincerity, while also offering numerous suggestions with great enthusiasm and care.
Of course, simply sitting down to talk things over was not enough. Lu Anzhi arranged to meet him at the house the next day for an on-site inspection.
By the time he had finished everything and returned to the hotel, night had already fallen.
Lu Anzhi received a call from Zhang Suxin. The moment he answered and held the phone to his ear, he heard Qianqian’s impatient little voice calling out:
“Daddy! Daddy!”
Zhang Suxin said, “Are you free right now? Qianqian wants to talk to you.”
“Perfect timing. I just finished up and got back.”
Zhang Suxin gave a quiet “Mm,” and then it seemed that the phone was handed over to Qianqian.
The little girl pressed her mouth close to the receiver, yet all she did was keep calling, “Daddy! Daddy!”
A smile rose involuntarily to Lu Anzhi’s face. The little one said nothing else, but her deep affection was contained in each and every one of those calls.
What could possibly hold more meaning than those two simple words?
“Daddy’s here,” Lu Anzhi replied.
Qianqian giggled on the other end of the line.
After that, Lu Anzhi chatted idly with Qianqian for a while. She merely wanted to speak with him; she did not have anything specific to say.
So the father and daughter’s conversation consisted of simple, repetitive, and thoroughly uninteresting topics such as:
“Did you miss Daddy?”
“Yes.”
“Were you a good girl today?”
“Yes.”
They also went over what she had eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—nothing but the same few ordinary subjects.
Yet Lu Anzhi and Qianqian never tired of talking about them.
Only after quite some time did they finally end the call.
Zhang Suxin took the phone back from Qianqian and said to Lu Anzhi, “I’m meeting the agent tomorrow, and I’ll be taking care of some formalities while I’m there. Do you have anything to do tomorrow? If not, could you look after Qianqian for a while?”
Before yesterday, Zhang Suxin would never have left Qianqian with Lu Anzhi.
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But after getting to know him for three days and spending the entire previous day with him, Zhang Suxin had come to trust him. She could accept leaving Qianqian in his care for a while. That was why she had asked.
“I’ve arranged to meet the renovation company at the bookstore tomorrow,” Lu Anzhi said. “I don’t have anything else to do. I can keep an eye on her there.”
“Good. Then I’ll bring Qianqian over directly tomorrow morning.”
The two of them agreed on a time. Zhang Suxin then asked, “Have you decided on a name for your bookstore? I was planning to look into the paperwork for it while I’m at it tomorrow. If you have a name already, you can tell me now.”
“I have. It’s called Three Flavors Book House.”
“Three Flavors Book House?”
Zhang Suxin murmured the name once, apparently finding it rather evocative, though she did not quite understand its meaning. All she said was, “It sounds lovely.”
“Of course it does,” Lu Anzhi replied with a smile.
Zhang Suxin gave a playful little “Mm-hmm” on the other end of the line, a hint of mischief in her voice.
Hearing it, Lu Anzhi recalled the occasional playful expressions she had shown at her home the previous day. He found it amusing and could not help laughing.
That laugh embarrassed Zhang Suxin. She hurriedly said, “All right, then. See you tomorrow. Qianqian, say goodbye to Daddy.”
“See you tomorrow,” Lu Anzhi replied. Then he heard Qianqian’s voice through the receiver:
“Bye-bye, Daddy!”
“Bye-bye, Qianqian,” he answered, and only then hung up.
He had been pacing around the guest room while talking on the phone. When he ended the call, he happened to be standing in front of the full-length mirror by the door. Seeing the smile that had unknowingly spread across his face, he shook his head and laughed.
Who would have thought that four simple words from a little girl—“Bye-bye, Daddy”—could make him smile like this?
It felt wonderful.
He sat down in front of his laptop, opened the computer, and continued writing.
The automatically logged-in QQ account kept flashing the avatar of Kuku in the lower-left corner.
When he opened the chat window, he found it already piled high with messages from Kuku. They were all variations of “Are you there?”, “When are you coming online, B Master?”, “Still not online?”, and “Are you still away?” She looked exactly like a lovesick puppy.
The moment Kuku seemed to notice that Lu Anzhi’s avatar had lit up, another message quickly appeared:
B Master, you’re finally online!
Lu Anzhi typed a few words and sent them over:
What is it? Please.
Kuku: Your humble editor wishes to ask, did you plan from the very beginning to divide the third part of The Dragon Clan into three volumes? I noticed that you’ve already separated the plot and chapters cleanly!
Lu Anzhi: You’re amazing. You actually noticed that!
The third part of The Dragon Clan, Black Moon Tide, had indeed been released as three separate books.
Strictly speaking, Black Moon Tide told one overarching story, but each volume still contained subtle divisions in its plot.
As an editor, Kuku could naturally see that.
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Kuku: ...
Kuku: Heh.
After being exposed to Lu Anzhi’s influence for so long, Kuku naturally knew that his “heh” was another way of saying, “Get lost.”
Lu Anzhi asked: You’ve read that far already?
Kuku typed in reply: No. I only got as far as the second volume, then felt that something was off, so I skimmed ahead a little.
Lu Anzhi typed: As expected of an editor!
Kuku apparently took that as mockery and sent back a question mark.
Lu Anzhi replied with a smiling face.
Kuku then sent an aggrieved emoji, followed by a complaint:
You should have told me you were dividing it into three volumes! Couldn’t you have sent them to me one at a time? Do you know that I’ve barely slept since yesterday because I’ve been proofreading your manuscript?
Lu Anzhi was stunned.
Are you cultivating immortality?!
Kuku: What are you talking about?
Lu Anzhi: Cultivating immortality and attaining enlightenment, until your spirit leaves your body. If you keep staying up like this, you’ll be projecting your soul before long.
Kuku: ...
Kuku: Heh.
Lu Anzhi: Go to sleep.
Kuku: ...
Kuku: Heh.
Even so, Kuku followed his advice and went to bed. She truly could not hold out any longer.
She planned to wake up the next day and finish the rest in one sitting, then find a few flaws to point out and make Dora-B pay.
If she could not find any other problems, she would at least pick out one or two typographical errors!
End of Chapter