Why bother with dating when you already have a cat?

Or a handwritten diary, or a notebook for jotting down inspiration when I'm bored.

When she's feeling lazy, Ai Qing just wants to scroll through her phone.

But the guilt is greatest when I use my phone while writing.

But sometimes it's just a natural resistance to writing.

So when I don't feel like writing, things I don't usually want to do, like reading and studying, keeping a diary, or recording my inspirations, become less unpleasant.

As the saying goes, humans are compromise creatures.

When you have something you really hate in front of you, the less hateful options naturally become more approachable and appealing.

Fortunately, the little fish knew when to stop.

After asking the question, they obediently continued studying.

Around 10 a.m., there was a knock on the door. Xiaoyu, like a primary school student who had just heard the school bell ring, happily ran to pick up her takeout from the fresh food supermarket.

After receiving the ingredients for lunch, Xiaoyu carried a plastic bag, humming a little tune as she walked into the kitchen, tied on an apron that smelled of Ai Qing, and began preparing lunch.

She has now learned to cook seven or eight dishes.

There seem to be a lot of dishes, but actually four or five of them are related to fish.

Moreover, these are all relatively simple methods.

The other dishes were similar; Ai Qing taught them to be easy to make.

Fortunately, the little fish has only recently started eating human food, so even if it's just a few dishes served every day, she doesn't get tired of them.

Ai Qing wasn't particularly picky about food; she was satisfied as long as she had meat at every meal.

In reality, Ai Qing isn't exactly a culinary expert.

He only knows how to cook a few dishes he likes, and they are all relatively simple ones.

He has hardly ever touched recipes that require complicated preparation.

After all, he had rarely touched anything in the kitchen before he lived alone.

My limited kitchen experience before was when my teacher assigned me homework in elementary school, asking me to cook a dish for my parents at home.

It's all thanks to the almighty internet that Ai Qing was able to follow online tutorials even without prior experience.

Unless you're a complete kitchen novice, if you follow the tutorial step by step, the taste will generally be pretty much the same.

……

"What are you looking at, brother?"

After preparing lunch, Xiaoyu carried the dishes to the dining table and then ran into the bedroom.

Seeing that Ai Qing had finished writing and was leaning back in her chair looking at her phone, Xiao Yu leaned over to take a look and asked curiously.

"I'm looking at what to buy." Ai Qing said while browsing Taobao, "I'll buy a better fishing rod for Grandpa, and the dance clothes and shoes that Grandma mentioned before, saying they look good when doing square dancing."

"For Dad, let's buy him a pack of cigarettes, and also some good wine for him and Grandpa."

Summer is almost here, let's get Grandpa and Grandma a couple of new outfits.

"I really don't know what to buy for my mom," Ai Qing muttered to herself, stroking her chin.

After all, Ai Qing doesn't know much about the skincare products her mother usually uses, and she might not even need to use the ones she buys randomly.

As for clothes, I bought them for my grandparents, since the elderly aren't picky.

Ai Qing is self-aware of her own fashion sense, so she doesn't buy random clothes for her mother.

"I should take Mom out for a meal," Ai Qing muttered to herself. "I remember last time I mentioned a Japanese restaurant I really wanted to try, but it has limited seating and requires reservations."

Having earned so much from writing, it's only natural that I should do something about it.

When she made money from her first book, which didn't have many words, Ai Qing simply bought ingredients, cooked a meal, and celebrated with her family.

Now that my wallet is a bit fuller, I definitely have to show my appreciation.

However, I told my dad that I only earned a few thousand yuan in royalties, so I still need to control the amount.

Sigh...maybe I should just confess?

Since Sister Qian and Xiaoyu already know, it doesn't matter if a few more come, right?

The thought popped into Ai Qing's mind, and she quickly shook her head vigorously, slapping herself twice to clear her head.

Social death is truly terrifying.

It's amazing how people can gradually get used to it, to the point that they have to give in emotionally.

Thinking of this, Ai Qing looked at Xiao Yu again and asked, "Is there anything you want? I'll buy it for you."

"Really?" Xiaoyu's eyes lit up. She immediately thought of the video she had seen on Ai Qing's Bilibili account a couple of days ago, and said, "I want to buy clothes!"

"Clothes?" Ai Qing looked at the dress Xiao Yu was wearing and thought it was indeed appropriate.

After all, it's a bit shabby to keep wearing only two skirts.

Even if the little fish is an automatic laundry maid, she should still have the right to freely choose new clothes.

So Ai Qing asked, "What kind of clothes do you want to buy?"

"Hmm..." Little Fish was stumped by the question and became a little troubled.

She then looked at Ai Qing's phone and asked softly, "I can't get it to work, could you please open my brother's Bilibili account first?"

"Huh?" Ai Qing looked puzzled. "Why did you open Bilibili?"

That's what he said, but he still opened it.

Sure enough, two of the videos featured on the homepage were of young women dancing.

Little Fish immediately picked one out and said expectantly, "This one, this one has cat ears too! Brother, buy me this one!"

Watching the otaku dancer in the video wearing a black and white maid cat ear outfit, Ai Qing fell into deep thought for a moment.

Chapter 96 Like

In modern society, clothing, as something we wear every day, has long since evolved beyond just providing warmth and protection.

It then developed many other uses.

It's simply about looking good, with all sorts of fashionable designs, ranging from catering to a certain type of XP to carrying on a piece of history and culture.

Clothing has become incredibly complicated.

Even now, if a piece of clothing is placed in front of Ai Qing, he might not be able to clearly identify its type and style.

Under such circumstances, those revealing clothes always manage to overpower Ai Qing's reason, making him unable to look at them more than once.

Even so, Ai Qing didn't think about buying similar clothes for Xiao Yu.

The choice of dresses that expose the calves was simply based on a consultation with Xiao Youqian, and was considered the most suitable option for people who don't know how to dress.

But this time, Ai Qing couldn't resist Xiao Yu's pitiful pleas.

Even though Ai Qing told her that these were not clothes that normal girls would wear.

But Xiaoyu raised her hand to assure everyone that she would never wear these clothes out in public, only at home.

In the end, Ai Qing had no choice but to agree to her request.

After all, he had made a fortune from his writing this time and had already bought gifts for his parents and grandparents. Xiaoyu, who was a major contributor to his novel, naturally couldn't be left out.

Unfortunately, it seems that Xiaoyu's aesthetic sense regarding clothing has been distorted by the girls in the Bilibili dance section...

I ordered a maid outfit. I don't need cat ears, since the little fish comes with it, and I don't even need a tail accessory.

In addition, Xiaoyu also chose a modified, cool-looking light green Hanfu and a white cheongsam with the hem only reaching the middle of her thighs.

Ai Qing had serious doubts about how many girls dancing he had watched on Bilibili on his phone.

How can you manipulate his XP like you would big data?

I even bought black and white stockings.

A dozen minutes later, looking at the pile of new items on her Taobao order page, Ai Qing fell into deep thought, wondering how things had gotten to this point.

"I'll buy you some normal clothes that you can wear out normally." Ai Qing looked at the order page and sighed. "You only have two dresses usually, which is indeed a bit too few."

Xiaoyu had already fulfilled her wish, so she didn't care whether Aiqing bought her other clothes or not.

She pulled Ai Qing up from the chair and said to him, "Lunch is ready, it'll get cold if we don't eat it soon."

"Okay, let's eat first."

Ai Qing followed Xiao Yu into the living room and sat down to enjoy lunch.

However, during the meal, Ai Qing took out her phone and looked up several women's fashion content creators that she had followed for research purposes.

After finishing her meal, Ai Qing picked out three outfits based on the uploader's recommendations.

After buying almost everything, Ai Qing calculated that she had spent nearly five thousand yuan.

Of the more than 3,000 yuan left over at the end of last month, 2,000 yuan was used to buy a mobile phone for Xiaoyu.

The remaining thousand or so was spent in small amounts over the past two weeks.

Normally, there wouldn't be that many expenses.

But recently, I've been taking Xiaoyu out for walks and meals frequently, and giving her some pocket money, which has almost all been spent.

The payment for this article was 14,000 yuan. Including the 6,000 yuan my dad gave me, the total is 20,000 yuan.

That's a quarter gone in one go.

I have 15,000 yuan in savings left, of which 2,000 yuan went to rent and 13,000 yuan remained.

He usually cooks with small fish, so the expenses aren't actually that high, but he'll definitely find opportunities to take the small fish out to forage and let it see the world.

So let's say my monthly living expenses, including utilities and other miscellaneous items, are three thousand yuan.

The last ten thousand yuan was the final balance.

Based on his current update frequency, his monthly royalties might be around 20,000 yuan.

I can save at least 10,000 yuan every month from now on.