Maybe it was because Lu Chen was in such a good mood—dinner that night turned out especially extravagant.
There was fragrant, spicy pepper chicken, learned from sneaking lessons at Liyue's Wanmin Restaurant; Mondstadt-style Anemo Archon stew, a hearty mix of seasonal vegetables in a rich, savory broth; and golden, crispy shrimp tempura, tender on the inside...
Dishes from Liyue, Mondstadt, and Inazuma all gathered at the table.
Even the fried tofu that Yae Miko constantly craved was there, as well as Qiqi's ever-essential coconut milk.
Venti stared wide-eyed as Lu Chen and Ei brought out one dish after another.
"Hey, hey! What's up with you today? Did something good happen or what?"
Lu Chen gave him a wink. "Secret!"
Then he happily skipped back into the kitchen, grinning ear to ear.
Venti pulled out his phone and checked the calendar. "Huh? It's not a holiday... In fact, it's Monday—the most dreaded day for students..."
Qiqi, clutching her beloved coconut milk, took slow sips. Whether the meal was fancy or not made no difference to her—she couldn't taste anything anyway.
Yae Miko watched the two bustling in the kitchen, thoughtful. Something about the way Lu Chen and Raiden Ei were acting... felt subtly different from usual.
Her fox-like eyes narrowed, then she broke into a knowing smile.
"Maybe for Lu Chen, today really is a special day..."
"Why?" Venti still didn't get it.
Yae Miko looked at the kitchen again. Lu Chen had a smile in his eyes, and Raiden Ei seemed more radiant than usual. There was something pink and romantic in the air between them.
How to describe it... Like two newlyweds, sweet and inseparable.
"You wouldn't understand," Yae Miko said, tossing Venti a look, clearly uninterested in explaining.
"Huh—?" Venti scratched his head, still utterly confused.
Why was everyone being so cryptic?
Could someone just explain it already?
Desperate, he turned to Qiqi. She set down her now-empty coconut milk bottle.
"Coconut milk... delicious."
...
While they ate, Lu Chen thought of Venti's album again. He opened a popular music app on his phone.
Both Venti's and Gu Cheng's new albums were already live, but the app's splash screen was plastered with Gu Cheng's promotion. You had to dig to even find Venti's music.
Browsing casually, Lu Chen saw that Gu Cheng's lead single had already climbed to number one on the charts—while Venti's album wasn't even listed...
Well, not completely absent—it was tucked away in the "Classical" category, buried far down in the rankings. Ode to the Sea was sitting somewhere past the 50th spot.
Lu Chen tapped into the comments section. There were barely 200 comments, but most were glowing. The top one called it the most soul-stirring music they'd ever heard, lamenting that great songs go unnoticed while shallow hits dominate the charts.
Many others agreed.
Some were curious about V.T.'s identity. No one had ever heard of the name before, yet this debut was incredibly polished—nothing like what you'd expect from a newcomer.
One user claimed they had "inside info" from Starlight Entertainment: V.T. was a "young, mysterious musical genius" recruited from overseas, trained by a master musician, but blackballed by the industry—only to be picked up by famed producer Tony...
They even said Gu Cheng's departure was due to Tony giving all his resources to this newcomer.
Replies piled up fast, full of curious fans asking for more juicy gossip.
Of course, Gu Cheng's fans had found their way there too. The handful of negative comments? All from them.
Lu Chen's expression grew strange. What kind of absurd rumors were these? And why did they sound so convincing?
He handed his phone to Venti, who just gave a helpless chuckle.
"Gu Cheng had long been frustrated with Tony and Starlight. He wanted to break into film and variety shows, but Tony insisted he focus on music."
Lu Chen nodded, understanding, and took his phone back.
Out of curiosity, he played a few songs from Gu Cheng's album.
They were trendy heartbreak ballads—"I like you, but you don't like me," that kind of thing. The choruses were catchy, but the melodies were repetitive. Felt like cookie-cutter pop with nothing fresh.
"Pretty meh," he said.
Everyone at the table nodded—except for Qiqi. They all knew just how good Venti's music really was.
"Well, that's just what people like nowadays," Yae Miko said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe we should follow the trends in our novels too... or we'll never hit that 500,000+ reads mark..."
Venti's situation had taught Lu Chen a lesson. Being too self-focused could isolate your audience—and make it harder to complete tasks.
He nodded. "I'm giving up on the idea of writing the official history of Teyvat. I should mix in more popular trends that readers enjoy."
Over the past few days, he'd been too caught up in his mind games with Yae Miko—and the shift in his relationship with Ei—to think about the challenge task.
Now back in writing mode, he recalled Ei's helpful suggestion: write a novel set in Liyue, with Liyue characters as leads.
"What do you think," Lu Chen began, "would it be more appealing if Zhongli were the protagonist?"
"Morax?" Venti and Raiden Ei looked at him in unison.
"Waaah... what about Reincarnated as the Raiden Shogun..." Yae Miko pouted pitifully.
Lu Chen shot her a glance but didn't reply. Raiden Ei looked a bit exasperated.
"The most popular genres right now are fantasy and cultivation," Lu Chen continued. He hadn't forgotten the challenge—and had done his homework on online fiction trends.
"If we made Zhongli—the Geo Archon—the protagonist, telling a satisfying story about conquering demons and leading the people to build Liyue... would readers go for it?"
Everyone fell silent, thinking. But Yae Miko still protested.
"But how much do you really know about Liyue? As far as I know, you spent most of your time in Inazuma."
Lu Chen chuckled. He knew plenty about Liyue.
Once, while passing through Liyue, Zhongli had taken him to eat the most famous local cuisines—Li-style and Yue-style dishes. Lu Chen didn't even need directions; he found both Liuli Pavilion and Xinyue Kiosk on his own.
Zhongli was shocked. He thought Inazuma's intelligence network must be incredibly advanced—how else could their "strongest swordsman" know so much about Liyue?
It's said that after Lu Chen left, Zhongli actually reorganized the entire intelligence system of the Qixing...
But that's another story.
Seeing Yae Miko still pouting, eyes glistening with mock tears, Lu Chen sighed.
"Inazuma's stories are all too tragic. Readers of feel-good webnovels don't want that kind of thing..."
"That's why it has to be Reincarnated as the Raiden Shogun!"
Lu Chen gave her a teasing smile. "If you want it so bad, write it yourself. You're the chief editor of Yae Publishing House—you must have plenty of writing insight. I'll cheer you on!"
"Hmph!" Yae Miko crossed her arms. "At first, I founded Yae Publishing to read fun novels. But the real fun turned out to be watching writers stress themselves out! If you don't write, who am I supposed to pressure for drafts?"
She looked at Lu Chen's gradually darkening face and laughed harder. "Yes, that's the expression! Way more entertaining than writing a novel myself~"
Lu Chen stared at her.
This fox was turning into a full-blown sadist...
Suddenly, he didn't feel like writing anymore.