Fang Qiu glanced at Junior Sister, Go Easy, Senior Sister Hurts lying on the table, her pretty face blushing slightly.
"I hope the rest are normal books."
She bit her rosy lip lightly and gently untied the red cloth.
What entered her vision was a dense array of bizarre and terrifying covers.
A little girl holding a strangely smiling doll and a knife; a gigantic human face stretched to the point of distortion; a woman in red hanging dead in the center of a room...
Every single cover possessed an intensely strong visual impact.
"Eh?"
Upon seeing these bizarre and terrifying covers, Fang Qiu's eyes, which had been watery and slightly moist, instantly lost their luster, as if her soul had been lost.
Her slightly flushed pretty face also turned pale in a flash.
Her entire person froze on the spot.
It was as if the strength had been drained from her body; she collapsed onto the floor sitting down.
Fang Qiu's delicate body trembled violently, scared to the point that tears flowed out.
If she had known these kinds of books were under the red cloth, she wouldn't have waited for Hu Tao to leave before opening it. If she hadn't, there would at least be someone to accompany her.
Her chest rose and fell continuously. She took several deep breaths, and only then did her limp body gradually recover.
She wiped away the tears that had already spilled from her eyes, sobbed softly, and then stepped forward to slam the wooden chest shut.
These unhealthy readings should be thrown away!
Purge them immediately!
She tried to move it with force...
But the wooden chest only budged a tiny bit.
For a moment, Fang Qiu fell into confusion.
She actually didn't quite know what to do.
Aside from the wooden chest being too heavy for her to carry, she realized another very important matter: going out in the middle of the night to throw away books was, in itself, a very unsettling thing.
In her past life, when she stayed up late coding words, sometimes she would get panicked from hunger and order takeout.
Opening the door to pick it up was fine, since she could hear human voices.
But after eating, when she had to open the door to leave the trash outside for the cleaning auntie to collect, her heart would thump wildly every time she opened the door. Sometimes, she didn't dare to go out to throw it at all.
She would leave it in the entryway and wait until dawn the next day to throw it out.
And that was under circumstances where she hadn't been frightened.
Let alone having just seen a box full of ghost story covers...
She thought about it and decided to wait until tomorrow to find someone to help, or perhaps burn these horror stories as firewood during the day.
But thinking of this, Fang Qiu hesitated again.
After all, these were sent by people who liked her books. Would it really be appropriate for her to dispose of them so casually...?
For a time, Fang Qiu was incredibly conflicted.
Finally, Fang Qiu used all her strength to push the wooden chest into the corner.
Let's just leave it here for now.
Having dealt with the box, Fang Qiu finally collapsed limply onto the Jumpy Dumpty, gasping for breath.
Her physical stamina was truly too poor; even pushing the wooden chest to the corner had cost her quite a bit of energy.
However, once her breathing calmed down, those terrifying and bizarre covers from just now floated before her eyes once again.
"Not afraid, not afraid."
Fang Qiu swallowed her saliva. After letting out a long breath, she decided to sleep!
When encountering difficulties, just sleep.
Once she got through tonight, it would be fine.
Thus, she opened the red sandalwood box containing the nightgown designed by Sister Ying'er.
However, her target was not the nightgown, but the box of sleep-aiding balm.
"I didn't expect the balm Sister Ying'er gave me to come in handy so quickly," Fang Qiu murmured.
She placed it by the head of the bed according to the method Sister Ying'er had described, then stripped the clothes from her body completely clean, and put on that nightgown.
The moment the clothes were on, her chest suddenly tightened.
"Ah."
This sensation of tight binding caused Fang Qiu's delicate body to tremble involuntarily, and she let out a soft moan.
This feeling was too strange.
She lightly bit her red lip and adjusted the bust of the nightgown to the fifth notch.
Feeling the liberation of her chest, Fang Qiu finally breathed a light sigh of relief.
After putting on the nightgown properly, Fang Qiu drilled directly into the blankets, curling up into a ball.
She wouldn't turn off the lights tonight.
Sleep.
Just as she banished all distracting thoughts and tried not to think about those terrifying covers, and was vaguely about to fall asleep with the help of the balm, a sound suddenly rang out from outside the door.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Waves of eerie, rhythmic sounds rang out behind her.
It was the sound of something bumping against the wooden stairs.
It scared Fang Qiu awake instantly.
Then, Fang Qiu realized that this should be the sound of the girl next door coming home from working overtime and going upstairs...
Immediately after, she vaguely fell into a deep sleep again.
...
Meanwhile, at Liyue Harbor, the port.
The Alcor was brightly lit.
Kaedehara Kazuha sat atop the mast, quietly reading the book in his hand under the lantern light of the crow's nest.
In the book, it was exactly the first meeting between Jing Tian and Tang Xuejian.
"Jing Tian, Tang Xuejian... Miss Fang Qiu truly possesses brilliant literary talent. Even just in the beginning, the aura of xianxia leaps off the paper," Kaedehara Kazuha murmured.
Just as he intended to continue reading, a burst of whispering came from below the mast.
It was several sailors leaning on the gunwale talking.
The voices were very quiet, but Kaedehara Kazuha's hearing was excellent, and he easily heard the content of their conversation.
"I wonder how Miss Fang Qiu likes reading it? She should have read quite a bit by now, right?"
"Speaking of which, doing this... are we really not afraid of Miss Fang Qiu telling the Captain? If the Captain finds out we secretly stuffed that book into Brother Thoma's chest, we'll definitely be in deep trouble."
"Don't worry. Miss Fang Qiu is so kind; even if she doesn't like reading it, she won't tell the Captain. Besides, if we get in trouble, we get in trouble. At worst, us brothers will take the punishment together."
"True enough. The only thing to fear is fear itself. Be bold, fear nothing!"
"Where did you learn that kind of talk?"
"A brother buying Miss Fang Qiu's book at Wanwen Bookhouse said it today."
"Hey, listen, do you guys think Miss Fang Qiu will think that book was sent by Brother Thoma?"
"Probably not, right?"
Listening to their conversation, Kaedehara Kazuha sighed helplessly, withdrew his gaze, and continued reading.
Although he was curious about what book they had stuffed into Thoma's chest, he didn't really want to keep listening.
As for reporting them, there was even less need.
At this moment, inside the Captain's quarters.
"Written quite nicely."
Beidou was leaning back in her chair, quietly reading the book.
"Sister Beidou, you're still not sleeping? Don't you have to go to Yujing Terrace early tomorrow morning?" Xinyan asked as she passed by the Captain's quarters.
"It's fine. At worst I'll just be late. Anyway, that woman doesn't have anything important," Beidou waved her hand and said.
"As expected of a book written by Miss Fang Qiu. I didn't expect even you, Sister Beidou, to like reading it so much," Xinyan exclaimed in admiration.
"The lass Fang Qiu indeed writes very well."
After speaking, Beidou raised an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth curling into a mischievous smile, and said, "Speaking of going to Yujing Terrace tomorrow, I wonder if that fellow Ningguang has read Fang Qiu's books. I might as well give her two copies when I go to see her tomorrow."
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