Her Cultivation Diary

Lun Chuan received two paintings early the next morning.

Qiaoqiao waited until Chen Chi finished breakfast on his tricycle before delivering both of their paintings together.

Qiaoqiao painted Daxiong's—bottom.

A round bottom, with black and yellow stripes, fluffy, and with two little wings... It was simple yet not simple, difficult yet not difficult.

Although the watercolor he learned before was different from this, some knowledge points were similar, so it turned out to be quite interesting.

Lun Chuan looked at it for a long time before nodding and saying:

"The bottom is very round and the fluffiness is very cute."

"Of course!"

Qiaoqiao became proud: "I've known Daxiong the longest! At the beginning, my sister even secretly petted it behind my back."

But back then, I was quite foolish, so it was easy to fool me. Now, Qiaoqiao is no longer easily deceived by such simple lies!

Pumped fist!

Compared to Qiaoqiao, Chen Chi had absolutely no painting skills.

Nor did he have the tutorials on Qiaoqiao's brand-new tablet, so the painting he produced could be described as lacking technique.

Half a page of blue sky, white clouds, followed by grass of varying shades of green, and colorful little flowers...

Just like the results painted by any child.

But because of the unique texture of oil pastels, from a distance, it surprisingly had a bustling, three-dimensional effect.

Lun Chuan earnestly examined it in front of him for a while before nodding:

"The use of color is beautiful! I'll go buy two picture frames later and frame them."

"Qiaoqiao's can be hung on the wall, and Chen Chi's can be placed on the table; both are very nice."

Chen Chi and Qiaoqiao grinned, their tall statures slightly bending forward with pure happiness on their faces.

After they left, Lun Chuan measured the size of the two pieces of paper and began choosing frames online. Meanwhile, Song Tan asked curiously:

"You said last night you were going to stay up late to organize a new book. Do you have an idea?"

To be precise, it was mainly to adjust his schedule; he only had two hours of sleep in the morning.

Lun Chuan nodded: "I do, it's still Xianxia themed—I dreamt of a plot last night, and it felt very interesting."

Seeing that Song Tan was already seated next to him, ready to listen, Lun Chuan briefly explained his unwritten ideas:

"The background world is a thriving Spiritual Energy era, with Three Mountains and Five Peaks, and many sects. The emperor longs for the blessings of heaven, while cultivators believe in the supremacy of power."

"But below the Cloud Summit, the people live in misery."

Song Tan lowered her eyes slightly and listened silently.

As Lun Chuan narrated, he once again sorted out the ideas in his mind—

"The protagonist is a boy from a poor mountain village that has to pay taxes to the government every year and also offer tributes to the Immortal Sect of the surrounding mountains for protection."

"Immortal Dao is flourishing, royal power is domineering, but the way of humanity… faces constant turmoil, and people are driven to cannibalism."

"The government requires exorbitant taxes, and entering the mountains for wood and hunting can only be done with the Immortal Sect's permission."

"No matter how hard they work, the villagers remain poor for generations."

"Until one day, two young geniuses from rival sects dueled. One had just learned a sword technique and easily cut down a mountain, burying the entire village beneath it..."

In a few words, he sketched a brutal Cultivation World, recognizably expansive to any web novel reader, yet Song Tan was entranced—

Until Lun Chuan asked her:

"Would you be interested in this story background?"

Only then did Song Tan smile and slowly reply:

"Such a familiar world..."

She murmured a sigh and then said enthusiastically:

"I am! I'm very interested and eagerly want to see the ending!"

She looked at Lun Chuan, her eyes bright: "Will the dragon-slaying boy shake this world, or become a tyrant?"

Lun Chuan burst into laughter: "According to web novel clichés, he must shake the world... But it might extend the length, let me organize the background first—"

He looked up outside, the rain was still drizzling, so he apologetically said to Song Tan:

"There's a lot of inspiration now, I might need to work today..."

"No problem!" Song Tan seemed particularly expectant: "You should hurry and write this story, I really like it and want to read it."

This surprised him—because Song Tan wasn't that passionate about web novels, not even as much as Song Sancheng and Wu Lan, who listened to books every day.

But everyone has their own preferred genre, so Lun Chuan also became more motivated: "I will try to write it well."

And Zhang Yanping silently watched his back, then sat down next to Song Tan: "Is he really not going to check the inn?"

Song Tan helplessly replied: "It's raining, and the entrance hasn't been paved, stepping outside just covers you in mud, what could he possibly see?"

"Besides, don't you go every day, Brother Yanping? With you there, I'm at ease."

Zhang Yanping raised his eyebrow: "Are you assured of me, or are you using me as a gangster?"

"What kind of brother is a gangster?" Qiaoqiao poked his head in.

Song Tan couldn't help but laugh: "Just like your Brother Yanping, both fierce and dark and scary."

Qiaoqiao was surprised: "Is Brother Yanping scary? He's not even stronger than me! Then can I be Brother Yanping's gangster boss?"

Zhang Yanping: ...

He raised his voice: "Xin Jun! Xin Jun!"

"Come and see your student, did you assign any homework? What on earth is he thinking?"

Xin Jun slowly peeked out from upstairs: "Qiaoqiao is right, you haven't been working out enough, lacking strength—It's raining, but you can push the millstone, can't you?"

He unusually ordered a dish: "I'd like to eat steamed soybean flour."

Dried soybeans ground into powder, add some seasoning, then fry and steam a little, it comes out incredibly fragrant, another type of rice dish enhancer!

Now that he mentioned it, Seventh Uncle got excited too:

"That's right! It's been ages since we had soybean flour, right? Yanping, aren't you the only one free now? Come give me a hand!"

And Qiaoqiao's eyes lit up, he scampered upstairs, and came back down with a large pile of things in no time.

With a "swish," he tore open the adhesive tape securing the drawing paper, and spread out an entire box of 4-layer oil pastels, full of confidence:

"Brother Yanping, you push the millstone well, I'll definitely draw something amazing!"

His gaze was fiery, as if Zhang Yanping only needed to start on the millstone for him to create a masterpiece!

Zhang Yanping: "..."

On this rainy morning, the gangster boss pushed the tiny millstone, his eyes blank, the whole person sunk into reflection—

Why is it that even though I did nothing wrong, the work still landed on my shoulders?