[Yi]: Uncle Bai, when are you going to update today?
After taking the bus home, Gu Yebai saw the message from Yi.
He scratched his head and stared at the screen in silence for a long time.
As one of his most important financial supporters, he had to give her an explanation no matter what.
Solo Night Wanderer: Sorry, I don’t understand Chinese.
[Yi]: Uncle Bai, when will you update today?
Solo Night Wanderer: Hontou ni gomen nasai!
Solo Night Wanderer: I have writer’s block.
[Yi]: Why do you have writer’s block every single day?
[Yi]: Is it on purpose or by accident?
[Yi]: Are you being lazy?
Solo Night Wanderer: I’ve been framed.
Solo Night Wanderer: I’ve been trying hard to brainstorm, but heaven just isn’t on my side.
Solo Night Wanderer: I want to update quickly too.
I want to see my royalties soaring.
[Yi]: Uncle Bai, do you have a girlfriend?
Solo Night Wanderer: There are no blind girls in my vicinity.
[Yi]: I won’t let you be so self-deprecating.
Solo Night Wanderer: But it’s the truth.
I’m so broke that if a thief came to my house, he’d probably feel sorry for me.
Solo Night Wanderer: He might even stay overnight to cook me a four-course meal and a soup, and then remind me to eat on time.
[Yi]: When a girl likes someone, it’s not just about whether you have money.
Solo Night Wanderer: But without money, I can’t give her happiness.
Solo Night Wanderer: So why are you asking if I have a girlfriend?
[Yi]: Hahaha, I was just thinking that since you never update on time, you really should find a girlfriend to whip you into shape.
[Yi]: I read a novel before where the protagonist was also an author.
[Yi]: If he didn’t finish 10,000 words a day, the female lead would punish him severely at night by drawing tally marks on his thighs.
[Yi]: If you found a girlfriend, maybe she could cure your habit.
Solo Night Wanderer: Right now, I’m just a flaker.
Solo Night Wanderer: If I found a girlfriend like that—
Solo Night Wanderer: I’d just become a flaker with weak kidneys.
[Yi]: Hahaha, alright then!
[Yi]: Actually, I messaged you to tell you that I’ve arrived at the provincial capital of Dongling Province.
Right now, I’m messaging you from my bed at the Yunjing Grand Hotel.
[Yi]: Uncle Bai, after my parents and I go to Linchuan to find the boy who was swapped with me at birth, I plan to visit Xinghai City as well.
Solo Night Wanderer: A trip to Xinghai City?
Solo Night Wanderer: That’s great.
[Yi]: It’s not just for sightseeing.
You should know my goal for coming to Xinghai City.
Solo Night Wanderer: To eat seafood?
Solo Night Wanderer: The Japanese food here in Xinghai City is quite authentic.
I highly recommend it.
I didn’t realize you were such a foodie, Yi!
[Yi]: You blockhead! You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?
[Yi]: I’m going to Xinghai City to meet you!
Solo Night Wanderer: I’m going on a business trip soon…
[Yi]: Where to?
Solo Night Wanderer: I don’t know yet, but the company wants me to travel, so…
Gu Yebai panicked instantly.
‘What is going on?’
‘Why does she suddenly want to meet me?’
[Yi]: I just want to meet you.
[Yi]: Do you think I’m being unreasonable?
[Yi]: Are you afraid I’ll eat you?
[Yi]: Is a twenty-four-year-old man afraid of a little blonde high school freshman?
[Yi]: Oh, let me correct that—a little redhead.
Solo Night Wanderer: It’s not exactly fear.
[Yi]: I like your writing.
Regardless of whether you’re tall, short, fat, or thin, I want to meet you.
[Yi]: It’s settled.
[Yi]: I’ve already checked the flight tickets.
Solo Night Wanderer: Don’t! Don’t book the tickets yet!
Solo Night Wanderer: It’s really inconvenient, and if you go to Xinghai City, you probably won’t see me anyway.
[Yi]: Uncle Bai, what company do you work for?
Solo Night Wanderer: A private enterprise.
[Yi]: Full name.
Solo Night Wanderer: That’s classified.
Solo Night Wanderer: I am a man of mystery.
Solo Night Wanderer: I’m going to go write now.
In the past, he could fabricate any identity he wanted on the internet.
They were just readers, after all.
They would certainly never meet in person.
But this time, for the first time, Gu Yebai felt like he was being backed into a corner.
When a relationship warmed up to a certain point and the other person was straightforward and passionate, the protective layer of the internet was easily punctured…
Yi said she was going to Linchuan County with her parents.
There was a boy in Linchuan County who had been swapped with her at the hospital.
Could she already know that he wasn’t actually in Xinghai City, but in Linchuan County?
Gu Yebai hadn’t claimed to be an office worker in Xinghai City out of vanity.
Everyone had simply assumed he was a graduate student, a civil servant, or an office worker, so he had just gone along with it and invented an identity for himself.
He could have admitted that he was just a country bumpkin who had never left the county.
He never thought that having little social experience was something to be ashamed of.
It wasn’t his fault that he hadn’t traveled farther.
On the contrary, for someone to pretend to know everything only to be exposed later would be truly embarrassing.
Should he just honestly admit that he was in Linchuan?
That his identity wasn’t an office worker, but an incredibly ordinary high school student?
The thought of Yi buying a ticket to Xinghai City only to arrive and realize she had made a wasted trip made Gu Yebai feel terrible…
Solo Night Wanderer: Anyway, don’t book the tickets yet.
[Yi]: Got it~
[Yi]: You dummy, Uncle Bai.
‘I was called a dummy…’
‘Am I being disliked?’
Gu Yebai felt a bit hurt.
Solo Night Wanderer: By the way, I hope everything goes well with your parents.
[Yi]: I didn’t really want to ask at first.
[Yi]: Uncle Bai, what are your parents like?
Solo Night Wanderer: My dad and mom loved each other very much, and they loved me too.
Solo Night Wanderer: They were my first readers.
They encouraged me to write novels.
Although we were poor, they were very open-minded.
After sending those lines, Gu Yebai held his phone and walked into the master bedroom as if drawn by some invisible force.
His parents’ room remained exactly as it was before they passed away.
He couldn’t bring himself to burn their sheets and clothes.
It was as if as long as they were still there, his parents were just away on a long trip and would eventually come home.
Solo Night Wanderer: They always kept the best things for me.
Solo Night Wanderer: I’ve always been grateful to them for bringing me into this family.
[Yi]: Uncle Bai, do you love them?
Solo Night Wanderer: Of course I love them.
Gu Yebai had even thought once that if he could trade his own life for theirs, he would agree without a second thought.
In their wedding photo, his father’s rugged face was filled with a happy smile, and his mother was very beautiful.
When his father was alive, he always used to say that back in the day in Linchuan County, his mother was a beauty famous for miles around.
But that warmth was now gone.
Winter was quite cold this year.
This was the first winter Gu Yebai would spend alone.
“Dad, Mom, I miss you.”
He finally had a wireless keyboard with Bluetooth, he could afford to eat KFC and McDonald’s, and he could slowly furnish this home to make it more decent and cozy.
But at this moment, Gu Yebai felt an unprecedented sense of loneliness.