Observation Chapter 5
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Observation Chapter 5: Something feels a bit off
“Let’s revisit this topic when we have more time next time, Sister Zheng. I won’t keep you anymore. Please, enjoy your run!” Recalling Zhang’s pallid face and emaciated appearance, Lin Qian ended the call in a hurry.
If he chose to stoke the fire, it would not be a simple nighttime jog anymore; Rather, it would turn into a marathon with numerous participants.
That said, he was confident that the landlady was still her typical self.
In that case, it was unlikely he had transmigrated. At the very least, his situation did not resemble those run-of-the mill transmigrations.
Lin Qian once again examined the messages in his university chat group. That incident of his wealthy scion classmate successfully wooing the class belle a few days ago was still there.
It lined up with his memories.
Yet, if he did not undergo transmigration, what could explain the presence of that red moon?
“…”
After prolonged contemplation, Lin Qian felt that his cognitive abilities were not quite up to par for solving this problem. He resolutely chose to put this matter on hold for now and headed to the bathroom.
Fifteen minutes later, he reached for his razor. Gazing at his reflection through the mirror, he shaved his beard clean, little by little.
‘Pss…’
This razor had already seen its fair share of use and was no longer as sharp as when he first bought it.
The silky-smooth feeling was no more, leaving only a blunt edge in its place.
As it tugged on his facial hair, he felt a dull ache on his jaw.
Only after expending a lot of effort did Lin Qian finally manage to shave his beard clean.
The mirror reflected his stern eyes that had been forged through countless hours of writing. His well-chiseled face stood in perfect harmony with his pale skin that was the result of prolonged sun avoidance. Alongside these features, the scholarly, bookwormish aura emanating from him signified his identity as a member of the literati; In other words, a broke author.
Not only did he not look the slightest bit unsightly, there was even a touch of handsomeness to him.
‘Something is amiss here…’
‘My god…’
‘Seems like I’ve become quite the looker…’
‘Hmm? Did someone give me a make-over while I was asleep?’
Lin Qian stared at his reflection in the mirror, which felt somewhat familiar and alien to him.
While he couldn’t discern significant changes in his features, one thing was glaringly obvious to him.
His face had become more handsome and pleasing to the eyes.
‘There’s no freaking way I could have really transmigrated, right?’
Despite having just left the shower, Lin Qian found himself drenched in dense cold sweat.
Besides the consistent depiction of a red moon in the sky, another distinctive characteristic found in his novels was the consistent use of the name Lin Qian for all his male protagonists.
Lin Qian was a dramatic person at heart. To put it in his words, he believed that using his own name gave him a sense of immersion.
Therefore, with the exception of his first work, all the following novels used the name ‘Lin Qian’ for the main character.
As the protagonists… Well, their appearance would naturally not lag behind others.
Despite his relatively good looks, Lin Qian could not help but feel it was somewhat lacking. He enhanced each of his protagonists with meticulous descriptions and poetic prose, effectively transforming them into a group of lady-killers.
While the current him was not the type of guy who greeted each day with the sight of his handsome face or caused girls on the street to squeal with excitement, he was confident that he had the ability to turn a lot of heads with his looks.
The presence of a red moon in the sky and the seemingly more attractive version of himself in the mirror…
Generally speaking, Lin Qian should have been pleased with the fact that he had become more handsome.
However, a deep sense of unease gnawed at him.
“…”
‘Wait a moment… the mirror!’
His vision gradually focused.
‘Even though everything seems untouched, there are subtle changes everywhere. If that was not caused by transmigration…’
‘It could only be a fusion…’
‘Have the fictional universes I’ve written become one with the real world?!!’
Lin Qian’s complexion suddenly paled, and his legs began to shiver uncontrollably.
‘This is undoubtedly a catastrophe!’
Perhaps the only way the situation could be worse was by transmigrating into the world of a novel he wrote.
No one knew the content of the work he had written over the years better than himself.
After all, he was the author!
As a poverty-stricken writer dwelling in dark and depraved novels, he had penned all sorts of nonsensical stories to secure his royalties. Even if he excluded the novels that he had abandoned, hastily concluded, or taken offline by authorities, he was still incapable of putting an exact figure on the drafts he had tossed away.
His forgetfulness did not stop at just the number of novels he had written; Many of their details had been lost to him.
Although there was no way for him to recover those lost memories, one important piece of information remained crystal clear in Lin Qian’s mind.
And that was the fact that his novels were centered around dark and depraved topics.
They were filled with psychopathic characters, with a significant number of them being female.
“Dear Heavens, please watch over me and ensure I never cross paths with a female psychopath.” Lin Qian clasped his hands and prayed.
“May those discarded drafts find eternal rest. I beseech you not to come back and haunt me. I promise to burn more paper money for your departed souls on New Year’s and during major festivals!”
“Even if you need to, I don’t mind transmigrating or fusing with novels like
“Just don’t subject me to the world and female protagonist of [In the Library], please, I’m begging you, God!”
[In the library] 一 A mysterious and forbidden domain.
The thing written in there had been personally written by an uninhibited and unbridled Lin Qian.
A large portion of it had been personally consigned to the recycle bin by his ordinary self, who subsequently emptied and deleted it with a right click.
The sheer magnitude of the rules it had violated was impossible to convey. Just a random segment had the ability to corrode the moral values of an average person and lead to the swift removal of the novel.
Only a handful of the less dramatic segments still survived.
They were either stored in his computer’s folder or the cloud drive of his chat group.
“Why on earth did I pass up on writing shallow or feel-good novels?”
At this moment, Lin Qian’s smile looked even more unsightly than his crying expression.
Shallow and feel-good novels enjoyed a wider readership and their plot requirements were less demanding.
Rule-breaking was not a concern either, as all he needed to do was to give the readers a fulfilling experience.
Lin Qian’s heart right now resembled lifeless ashes. Though he longed to weep, tears eluded him. He had shortly clung to a faint glimmer of hope, believing that he might have written a Gary Sue novel at some point, even if it was just a short story spanning several hundred words.
He would then take advantage of this unexpected situation, harnessing the protagonist’s unfair edge and ascend to the zenith of his life.
To his dismay, not one such novel exists.
Who would have thought that this had happened just as he was planning to turn over a new leaf and switch to writing romantic and feel-good novels?
‘The heavens truly have it out for me!!’
“Gurgle…”
‘I’m famished…’
The hunger gnawing in his abdomen and the rumbling sound coming from his stomach cut short Lin Qian’s thoughts.
‘I guess life still has to go on…’
‘Who cares, I’ll think about it once I have my fill. Besides, nothing significant has occurred yet. What’s the point of me foolishly bothering about it?”
For the sake of saving money, he had already gone without food for a whole day.
Another sweep of the house yielded no results. There was not a single biscuit, let alone a packet of instant noodle, to be found.
In a state of helplessness, he opened up the Uber Eats from his phone.
Suddenly, he remembered he still had a voucher on DoorDash.
“I choose you, DoorDash!” 1
It was already 1am at this point, so his food options were limited.
After a meticulous selection process, Lin Qian acquired the ingredients needed for a $20 spicy hotpot.
His order just reached the price needed for a takeaway.
It contained three blocks of instant noodles.
He had no choice. When it came to spicy hotpot’s ingredients, nothing was as filling as instant noodles.
After he finished the task on hand, Lin Qian set his phone aside and proceeded to open the document labeled [The Observation Diary of the Abnormal Girls].
‘Romantic series, public display of affection.’
‘I need to switch up my writing style!’
Lin Qian had to bow his proud head to the stark reality before him. When confronted with the issue of survival, the question of his novel universe melding with reality held no relevance to him for now.
‘All of this is just so bizarre and weird!’
Solving his basic needs was his top priority at this moment.
Seeing the initial three digits that constituted his phone wallet’s balance, he heaved a deep sigh.
‘I should set aside some time to distribute flyers. Otherwise, I won’t be able to make it through next month.’
Lin Qian opened his browser. Just as he stumbled upon a part-time job website and was preparing to explore it further, a message suddenly popped up in his chat program.
“Liuli has sent you a friend request.”
“Accept or Ignore.”
‘Liuli? I wonder who that is??’
Lin Qian opened his chat program and realized that the other party was a reader who had just joined the group.
‘Seems like a kindred spirit who likes dark and depraved novels.’
After a slight moment of contemplation, Lin Qian clicked on “accept”.