I am not a literary giant

That's good. I like you when you're moist.

Qiu Ge: [Okay. But I suggest you be gentler. I have a bad temper; I'm not only easily angered but also fragile, like pottery made by the Yangshao people.]

After saying that, Ning Chunyan chuckled. She was quite pleased with her use of the classical allusion.

The Little Prince: [Don't worry. I will treat you like I would treat my favorite thing.]

Qiu Ge: [What's your favorite thing?]

The Little Prince: [The book.]

Qiu Ge: [You want to see me?]

The Little Prince: [No. I'm not interested in you right now. As everyone knows, the first thing to do after buying a book is to take off the dust jacket.]

Qiu Ge: [Indeed.]

The Little Prince: [Did you wear your belt?]

Qiu Ge: [Not now. But I usually have it.]

What brand is it?

Gucci.

Gucci, luxurious yet minimalist, right? Forget luxury. Simplify. Strip it off.

"Yes, sir." Ning Chunyan replied with a silly grin.

The Little Prince: [The book jacket is always covered with praise from various celebrities, calling it "a truly enlightening work" or "the purest call in a corrupt world"—these are all other people's evaluations. Why do you need others to tell you what it's like? Just read it yourself.]

Qiu Ge: [I understand. It seems the book jacket is indeed the most unnecessary part, and it really should be removed.]

The Little Prince: "Book covers aren't necessary either. You know, those hardcover books, always wrapped in a cardboard cover. They're usually very fancy-designed, but they're not really useful."

Qiu Ge: [Are you going to ask me what I'm wearing next?]

The Little Prince: [Yes.]

Qiu Ge: [I'm wearing a light yellow dress with very thin straps, white casual shorts, bare legs, and white socks.]

The Little Prince: [I can keep the white socks.]

Ning Chunyan rubbed her face and then pinched her earlobes for a while. She felt her face getting hot.

She said, "And then? The book jacket's been thrown away, the cover's been removed, and now the whole book is lying naked in your hands. How are you going to read it?"

The Little Prince: [Reading is a wonderful thing for me. I can't get into e-books, but I'm completely captivated by paper books. I love the smell of the pulp and ink between the pages; I can't help but bury my head between the pages to breathe in the air. The sound of the pages turning and the feel of the paper are intoxicating. I'll deliberately soak the paper with the sweat on my fingertips to make it soft, and I'll gently stroke each line of text on the page.]

Qiu Ge: [You're reading so intently. Selling this book to you is a loss.]

That evening, Ning Chunyan and the prince chatted for a long time, each posing as Qiu Ge and the little prince, respectively.

She told him almost everything she felt about this stage of her life: her fear of marriage and her aversion to blind dates, her sense of distance from literature and her fondness for The Little Prince.

She told him she had been to the remote Qilian Mountains, where the sky was high and the land vast, and everything was lush and green. In the distance, majestic peaks rose like jade pillars to the sky, covered with snow, and on the mountainside, flocks of sheep grazed in white. She had also been to the bustling East China Sea, where a cup of milk tea cost 40 yuan, and not a single tree branch along the roadside was undesirable. Everywhere she looked, there was an abundance of exquisite things that smelled of money. She stayed on the 22nd floor of a hotel and could see the towering Oriental Pearl Tower at eye level.

She told him that she wasn't as refined as she appeared. Her yearning for a turbulent life and intense clashes gave her an inherently dangerous aura. Yet, she was frequently invited to sit among groups of seemingly respectable people, engaging in lengthy discussions of incredibly serious topics such as literature, art, national character, and cultural heritage. If it were discovered that she secretly adored vulgar works like the Little Prince's script, even resorting to dirty tricks just to speak with him, her image would crumble like a snow-capped mountain, and she would be forced to close down in her circle. But this feeling of teetering on the edge of destruction was precisely what captivated her.

But the Little Prince told her nothing. Or rather, he only told her that he liked books, music, and being alone. He revealed nothing about his identity, origin, or even gender. He maintained an air of mystery to the fullest extent possible.

But Ning Chunyan just thought he was so cool.

Near the end, Ning Chunyan gifted the Little Prince the most expensive virtual gift available on the platform. Later, the Prince checked the price and found it cost a full ten thousand yuan.

Ning Chunyan said she was very happy. Wang Zixu didn't understand why she could be so happy. She was the one who was paying for it.

……

It was late. Even those who stayed up all night for speech therapy were few in number. The Wen'ai speech therapy group was quiet, with only a few people still there, either organizing scripts or discussing speech therapy techniques.

Suddenly, a startling message came from the group, which startled everyone out.

Star Voice: [Holy crap! Check the daily sales charts!]

After seeing the group message, the cheerful and sunny Sakura opened the daily sales ranking list in a daze. She first checked her own ranking, and after confirming that there was no change, she glanced at it but did not find anything remarkable.

But at this point, the group chat was already flooded with "Holy crap!" exclamations.

Sakura looked at the daily sales rankings again. This rankings record the person with the highest sales from midnight to the present. Sales figures come from two sources: order duration and tips.

Generally speaking, the list doesn't change much by 8 PM, and it remains basically unchanged by 9 PM.

It's 11 PM now, the rankings shouldn't have changed much. Until Sakura saw the number one spot, she rubbed her eyes in disbelief and stared at it carefully again.

"Holy crap, how come the Little Prince is number one? Where did he come from? Is he the Little Prince I'm thinking of?"

His question was also a concern for everyone else in the group.

Is this number one prince a scriptwriter? Could it really be?

[It's probably just a coincidence of names, right? Why would a big shot like us bother competing for food?]

[But I've never heard of this person before? Could it really be him?]

[It's probably him; only he has the ability, right?]

A while later, another message ignited the entire group chat.

Star Voice: [I asked the operations team. This "Little Prince" is the same person who uprooted the bread tree in the "Little Prince" meme.]

Xing Sheng: [However, they said that Little Prince was only taking the order temporarily and wouldn't be taking any more orders. They told us not to worry.]

After he finished speaking, the group chat was filled with "Holy crap!" and then it was flooded with "The Little Prince, my God!"

Zuo Ziliang called Ye Lan and said, "It seems that the outcome of this crisis is in."

Ye Lan had just finished showering and hadn't noticed the activity in the group chat. She asked, "How did it go? Was the result good or bad?"

Zuo Ziliang said, "Look at the number one spot on the daily sales chart; that's the answer."

As Ye Lan picked up her toothbrush, she took out her phone, opened it, and then, in a daze, dropped the toothbrush into the sink, not picking it up for a long time.