I am not a literary giant

Chapter 157 Yugadimur Leviosa

"What do you want to do?" Chen Qingluo asked.

"What do you want to do?" Prince Xu asked, emphasizing his words as he threw the question back at him.

Chen Qingluo thought he hadn't understood, so she emphasized her words: "What do you want with her brought back?"

Prince Xu retorted, "What are you trying to do dressed like that?"

Both were simultaneously filled with shock and anger; Wang Zixu was mainly shocked, while Chen Qingluo was mainly angry.

But Prince Xu still had some sense and preserved a last shred of dignity for our Miss Chen Qingluo—he asked, "What are you trying to do dressed like this?" instead of "What are you trying to do by not wearing anything?"

Chen Qingluo finally realized that she was being extremely improper. She gave a soft "oh" and went back to her room. After a while, she came out with her upper body wrapped in a blanket—but her lower body remained the same. Overall, she looked like a blanket spirit.

Then, she spread her legs and asked aggressively, "What do you want?"

Chen Qingluo's question, "What do you want to do?", is not just a literal question, but a condensed and packaged question encompassing time, space, life, and worldview.

She had just recovered from her seclusion and returned to her old friend's house, only to see Prince Xu returning from outside with his friend in his arms.

What earth-shattering, world-changing, shameless, vulgar and obscene events happened during my seclusion?

Thank goodness I'm back. If I hadn't, how much longer would I have been kept in the dark? These two are all arguing and bickering, and they might even be eating those little crisps together. Just imagine how bad that would be!

"Uh." Ning Chunyan burped at the opportune moment in the prince's arms.

Wang Zixu then realized what she had misunderstood and said, "She's drunk, I'm taking her home."

Chen Qingluo said, "How can she get drunk if you don't get her drunk?"

"I didn't drink it, someone else did."

"Did your friend give it to you?"

"No, it was a social obligation I had to fulfill."

"Are you even harboring the thought of taking advantage of her while she's drunk?"

"Absolutely not. I even took her to see a doctor. Look, I still have the receipt."

"That's because she wanted to get drunk."

"She doesn't want to, she doesn't want to do anything, she just wants to go to the Kingdom of Locke."

"But you two are actually just sticking together!" Chen Qingluo said in a voice that sounded like she had been bullied.

After saying that, she realized she had lost her composure and changed her words, saying, "I just think you're so able to get away with it so easily because you benefited. Look at that certain country that remotely controlled someone's pager to explode, didn't say a word, and when they were condemned, they ran to the international stage to shout that they were wronged. Shame on you!"

Why does this sound so familiar? I feel like I've heard it somewhere before.

Wang Zixu explained, "I swear to God, I had absolutely no ill intentions. I had no choice but to carry her back. Once I carried her back, I couldn't avoid physical contact. This was beyond my control."

"Look, if I had the skill of transporting corpses in Xiangxi, I would definitely use a spell to make her jump back by herself, but I don't; I also don't have the Summoning Charm from Harry Potter, so I can't make her float back in the air by herself. Actually, I didn't want to either, I also have to make sacrifices."

He spoke with such sincerity that Chen Qingluo calmed down a little, but she was still unhappy: "The spell that makes people float in the air isn't a flying spell, it's a levitation spell, you idiot."

Prince Xu frowned: "Where is the levitation spell?"

"It's the Levitation Charm, the spell they used to defeat the troll."

"That's not called the Levitation Charm, it's called 'Yugadimurelviosa'!"

Chen Qingluo retorted confidently, "That's right, isn't that what I said? It's not a flying curse, you idiot."

Prince Xu said, "You've got it wrong too."

"Idiot, idiot, idiot."

After their exchange, Chen Qingluo's mood improved, and her tone returned to its icy edge: "Hey, let me ask you, if I weren't here, would something have happened today?"

Wang Zixu said, "We cannot let the present pay for things that haven't happened yet."

"But what might happen in the future is enough to determine the present, or rather, every choice is predetermined by the future."

"If I said nothing would happen, would you believe me?"

"Yes, I will believe you. If you tell me, I will believe you."

"Nothing will happen."

I don't believe it.

The prince, feigning panic, asked, "Look at you?"

Chen Qingluo said, "You're saying the wrong thing. You should say where you and she went, what you did, why she was drunk but you weren't, why you were the one who took her home, whether this kind of thing has happened before, and how you plan to clean up the mess... Only by making these things clear can you say anything. Just saying 'nothing will happen' is just testing how much trust others have in you."

"I want to go to the Kingdom of Locke..."

Both of them looked at Ning Chunyan at the same time. She was the one who said the last sentence.

……

So the two settled her on the sofa—though it was actually just Wang Zixu, with Chen Qingluo mainly watching from the side—Wang Zixu fed Ning Chunyan water, made her lie on her side, and even prepared a basin for her to catch her vomit.

During this time, Chen Qingluo finally changed into normal human clothes—she added a loose T-shirt to her upper body, but still didn't wear anything on her lower body, only covering it with the hem of the clothes. But at least they were human clothes. After Wang Zixu finished doing everything, Chen Qingluo sat down next to him and made herself a cup of black tea.

After finishing everything, Wang Zixu, exhausted, nestled on the sofa and met Chen Qingluo's gaze.

"Let's continue our previous topic," Chen Qingluo said.

"Where were we? Yugadimurleviosa?"

"Not there, it's your wonderful adventure today."

The prince paused for a moment, then began to speak to her.

He recounted how their magazine's inaugural issue was a great success, why the Little Prince seminar was held, how Shi Shuqiu wanted to give a speech, and how Shi Tonghe stood them up.

He went on to recount how he couldn't find a place to publish his own novel, which led them to attend the banquet with a specific purpose in mind. He described how Ning Chunyan was plied with alcohol at the banquet, how he managed to get back at her, and how he eventually carried Ning Chunyan back home.

During this process, Chen Qingluo crossed one leg over the other, rested her hand on her cheek, and listened quietly. Her posture was graceful, and she blinked her eyes occasionally as she listened to him speak.

Wang Zixu slowly realized that, by sheer chance, he seemed to have finally started having a normal conversation with Chen Qingluo.

This is the first time in ten years.

Four months and 14 days have passed since they reunited. During their brief face-to-face meetings, they failed to establish an effective conversation. They either communicated remotely or avoided the topic.

He dared not show any interest in her, and his several tentative attempts to probe her all ended in failure. If it weren't for this misunderstanding, he probably wouldn't have been able to speak to her directly through eye contact for a long time.

After hearing Wang Zixu's story, Chen Qingluo commented, "So, you offended Shi Tonghe?"

Wang Zixu said, "It can't be said that I offended him... I just got his son to drink a few glasses at the dinner table. Shi Tonghe isn't that petty, is he?"

Chen Qingluo sighed deeply: "You're finished. Shi Tonghe is very petty."

Prince Xu began to fidget: "Really?"

"Really," Chen Qingluo said, crossing her arms below her chest and glancing out the window with a look of reminiscence. "When I was 19, I attended the New Talent Award ceremony for the first time. Because I put my high school Chinese teacher's name before his name in my acceptance speech, he deliberately mispronounced my name during his speech, and he mispronounced it three times."

Wang Zixu frowned: "Is it possible that he really misremembered your name?"

"That's impossible," Chen Qingluo said. "I corrected him twice, but he insisted on pronouncing it wrong. It's obviously intentional."

How do you know it's because you put his name last?

"I didn't know at the time!" Chen Qingluo said. "Later, I ran into a lot of obstacles before I slowly figured it out. I reflected on it many times. I hadn't offended him before. If there was anything that displeased him, it was this. To be honest, I was also shocked when I figured this out."

Wang Zixu was also shocked. He had never imagined that Shi Tonghe was so petty, and he had never even heard the rumors.

In the propaganda he had heard before, Shi Tonghe had always been a pillar of the nation who wrote about the world's suffering with his powerful pen.

Chen Qingluo looked somewhat depressed: "I was only 19 years old at the time, how could I know any of this? He pronounced everyone else's name correctly, but he mispronounced mine, and he mispronounced it three times, especially on such an important occasion. I really...can't bear to think about it. Fortunately, the media later wrote my name correctly in their reports."

Wang Zixu looked at Chen Qingluo. She had never been so close, so close that he could count the trembling of her eyelashes, yet Wang Zixu felt that she was also so far away.

What was he doing when he was 19? Probably lying in his university dorm masturbating? At that time, Chen Qingluo was attending an awards ceremony with Shi Tonghe in attendance.

Wang Zixu said with some heartache, "I never imagined you had suffered so much injustice in the past."

Chen Qingluo said, "It's okay, so I don't play with them anymore."

Having said that, she looked at him with her beautiful eyes: "You've offended someone far worse than I have. What are you planning to do about it?"

Prince Xu said, "There's nothing we can do."

He paused for a moment, then said, "I felt a little presumptuous and uneasy before, but now that I see he actually bullied you when you were 19, it seems he really is a bad guy. I don't feel guilty anymore."

Chen Qingluo pursed her lips, trying hard not to let a smile appear: "Who's the big bad guy? That's just how scholars are proud."

Prince nodded: "Yes, yes, they are all good people, there are no bad guys."

After laughing, Wang Zixu finally remembered the crucial question: "Why are you here? And why weren't you wearing anything just now?"

After asking this question, the normal atmosphere that had been painstakingly established plummeted to freezing point again.

Chen Qingluo glared at him fiercely, but spoke in a very soft voice: "I am wearing underwear."

"Why are you only wearing underwear in other people's houses?"

"First of all, this isn't someone else's house. If I have a key, then it's not someone else's house."

Prince Xu was dumbfounded: "Huh? Second place?"

Chen Qingluo said, "Why don't you carry Ning Chunyan to the bed? She can't sleep on the sofa all night."

When she started beating around the bush, Wang Zixu knew she hadn't figured out what the "second" was. Even if she had, she was too embarrassed to say. He was too embarrassed to guess either.

Wang Zixu stood up: "Now that you're at her house, I'm relieved. You can take care of her from now on."

He turned around, and Chen Qingluo grabbed the hem of his clothes tightly.

"I don't want to, I don't know how to take care of it."

Wang Zixu turned around: "Just make sure she doesn't vomit on the ground."

Chen Qingluo wrinkled her nose: "Will you still throw up?"

"Possibly."

"Move her to the bedroom, don't leave her in the living room."

"No, if I help her over there, there will be physical contact again, and I don't know how to handle Yugadimulleviosa."

"Go learn one!"

……

The next day, Ning Chunyan, her voice filled with exhaustion, called Wang Zixu and asked:

"Did you take me home yesterday?"

Prince Xu said, "Uh, yes."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Um...didn't Chen Qingluo tell you anything?"

"How did you know she was at my house? Oh, she came yesterday. Ugh, I'm so dizzy."

Wang Zixu comforted her, saying, "Get some rest and don't think too much."

The voice on the other end of the phone was languid and breathing heavily, as if the person was still asleep in bed: "I can't help but think too much, Shi Tonghe just contacted me."

"What?"

He said he had found an editor at the magazine "Ancient City" for you, and they agreed to take a look at your manuscript and publish it if conditions permit.

"what?"

After hearing this, Wang Zixu's heart began to pound. "Ancient City" was also a top-tier magazine, and if he could publish in "Ancient City," it would be even better than "Yangtze River."

But what is Shi Tonghe up to now? Has his Buddhist practice made him quite cunning?

Prince Xu asked, "Do you remember what happened after you were made drunk yesterday?"

"I don't remember." Ning Chunyan's voice was blank. "I just remember having a lot of strange dreams, like the Jade Award, Dream Lily and stuff... I didn't say anything weird yesterday because I was drunk, did I?"

The prince thought for a moment and said, "No."

"That's good."

"I actually offended Shi Tonghe yesterday," Wang Zixu confessed.

"what?"

Wang Zixu told her how he stood up for her yesterday, how he forced Shi Shuqiu to drink three cups of wine so she would vomit on the spot, and how he got her revenge.

After listening, Ning Chunyan's voice became much more sober: "You were so handsome yesterday? No wonder Shi Shuqiu wouldn't reply to my messages today, looks like she's even more drunk than me."

The prince asked tentatively, "Aren't you angry?"

"What's there to be angry about? I actually feel pretty relieved, haha, serves him right." Ning Chunyan gloated. "I was a bit impulsive, but ultimately it's my fault. I shouldn't have thought that a meal would be enough to get someone to do me a favor. They're not running a charity."

The prince spread his hands in a gesture of feigned indifference: "So what's the situation now?"

He was referring to Shi Tonghe helping to introduce connections.

Ning Chunyan pondered for a long time: "I don't know about that, but since they've already made the introduction, you should go and meet them. What if the editor is really nice and takes a liking to your manuscript?"

Wang Zixu got the editor's contact information and arranged to meet in person. The next day, somewhat nervously, he made a reservation at the restaurant in advance. After waiting for 20 minutes, the person finally arrived.

(End of this chapter)