Lovely Writing System

3 An Enticing Offer

When Nie Chang came over Su Yan was already sitting at the table, spooning some soup up with one hand while taking notes with another.

Nie Chang just smiled, went to the cupboard and got himself a plate and a spoon, too, before he sat down next to Su Yan. "What are you doing?"

"Plotting."

"A crime? Tell me who you're going to kill. I'll help you dispose of the body."

Su Yan looked up, sighed and pushed his notepad to the side. "I haven't written even one word in three months." He looked extremely pitiful.

"Ah, don't worry. You'll have more time, soon!"

"It's easy saying that. Three of my co-workers are ill and one is pregnant and getting off work in some weeks. It'll only get worse then."

"Well, you could always come over and work at the repair shop."

Su Yan laughed. "I don't know the first thing about computers and such stuff. Aren't you afraid I'd break more than I repair?"

Nie Chang leaned forward. "Of course, you would! I wouldn't mind compensating for the damage, though. The question is ... How would you compensate me?" He smiled teasingly.

Su Yan only stared blankly, though. "Why would I? I'd rather not work there and continue at the railroad station."

Nie Chang's lips twitched. Was it so hard to respond to his flirting at least a little? In the end, he could only sigh. It wasn't like he didn't know how Su Yan was.

"Forget what I said about the compensation. I was just joking about that. But I was serious about the job offer. I'm actually in need of someone who sits at the counter and deals with the customers. That would give me more time for the actual work. And you would be free to do your own thing as long as no one's around."

"Eh? Really?" Su Yan couldn't really believe what he just heard. "Wouldn't that be ... inappropriate? I mean, it's your own shop. If your customers aren't satisfied you'd lose a lot of money."

Nie Chang laughed and patted his hand. "Don't you worry about that. If they are satisfied or not, will depend mostly on how good I am. And haven't you worked in service all these years since school? It shouldn't be a problem for you to greet some people and see what they want."

Su Yan pursed his lips. It sounded too good to be true. There had to be some kind of catch somewhere. "I might not understand what they want."

"Most of the time they themselves don't even know what they want. And in the worst case, you can just call me. I'm in the back room anyway."

"That's true ..." Su Yan propped his head on his hands. He could imagine working at Nie Chang's shop surprisingly well. Not just because he would have more time to write. He and Nie Chang knew each other since their childhood. Working together in the same place would be great!

Since they had both started working at different places they had had less and less time together. Now, if he really took him up on the offer they could spend nearly every day together. Working at the shop, going out to eat during their lunch break or calling delivery, then driving part of their way home together ... That didn't sound bad at all.

Of course, that was exactly what Nie Chang had in mind. Just wait until they spend more time together! He didn't believe that Su Yan would always be able to resist him.

"Eh, just go do your things for now. We'll talk about it after you had some time to think it through." Nie Chang waved at the notebook. He didn't want to appear too eager or Su Yan would think even more that there was a catch with the offer. Ah, he just knew him too well.

"Mn, you're right. What about you? You've got to do something?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me."

The two of them both opened their respective notebooks. Su Yan took out his headphones, too, as to not disturb Nie Chang. He just needed some music as inspiration. Just as he was scrolling through his tracklist and had chosen one of the songs from Jay Chou's latest album a notification sound rang out.

"Welcome back, host!" This time, the voice was less seductive and sounded more like a bored office lady. After the initial mishap, Official Shen Lu had, of course, taken some countermeasures. She couldn't risk her favorite authors rejecting the Lovely Writing System just because of a badly chosen voice, right?

Su Yan had no problems recognizing this adjusted voice as the one from the strange app, though. He frowned, reached over and pulled at Nie Chang's arm. "Heh, Ah Chang, it's back again."

Nie Chang leaned over just in time to see some window flash and disappear. He frowned just like Su Yan but his thoughts were already churning. An app that came up when Su Yan was alone but couldn't be found as soon as he got somebody to help? Something he didn't find when he just casually looked over it but that turned up again as soon as he seemed to have left it alone? That didn't seem like some small joke anyone was playing!

Nie Chang examined Su Yan's pouting face again. His friend couldn't have attracted some stalker that was coincidentally an amazing hacker, could he?

"Hm ... Were there some other strange things in the last few days?"

Su Yan shook his head. "None."

"Alright. I'll look at it tonight again. Take the notepad for now." He took the notebook from him and narrowed his eyes at the screen. It seemed it was time to bring out his true skills.

At the headquarters of Heaven Corporation, Official Shen Lu face-palmed. Damn! Having a male lead that was not only hot but had some sort of godly skill, too, was always nice. But why did that Nie Chang guy have to be so distrustful? She had only sent over a system! Though, in fact, he wasn't totally wrong with Su Yan having a stalker. After all, she was peeping at them since the system had been delivered. Ah, don't fault her! It was all just to make sure the system worked properly!