I take Zhu Jue to the room of second young master Hua. When we open the door he is currently hugging one of his legs and sitting on the bed in an undignified manner. He is holding a teapot, presumably preparing to pour some tea. The moment Hua Chongjin sees Zhu Jue at the entrance of the door he suddenly spits out his tea, throws the teapot onto the table, tidies his clothes and then sits properly, saying slowly, "what did you come here for?"
Though he is pretending his best to look dignified, but clearly the form he had when we were entering the door has already exposed his hidden dumb and cute side. Second young master Hua is supposed to look noble and fickle and is a clean freak in front of people, but when there's nobody else or when around people like us who he knows well he is often unkempt. There are a lot of times when he just lies flat on the floor, limbs stretched, and rolls on the ground. So it is a fact that things are only beautiful when you view it from a distance, for many characters, especially myself.
Zhu Jue has a shocked expression on his face, but he tried his best not to react any further. So I say to second young master Hua, "we came for business today. You know about the fact that the disciples of the top Sects disappearing gradually?"
Hua the Second nods in a serious manner. Though since we all know the fixed dialogue to take place here, what we are about to do next is an open secret. Though we mustn't say that in front of the protagonist. We work really hard so that the readers can have something to kill time, after all.
While we are going through our dialogue tree Zhu Jue is standing quietly behind me. I thought he was supposed to say something, but he doesn't even make a sound by the end. There's not a lot of plot here in any case, basically someone saw a group of suspicious people in Mount Changchin in the west, and a member of the group looked really like a missing disciple from the Primordial Skies Clan. Since we have no other clues, we are going to go there to see, so that will be our team's destination.
There wasn't anything much during the night, besides Zhu Jue accidentally rolling off the bed and managing to get a swollen forehead. I don't really want to laugh at him and shatter my image in reaction to this dumb but cute development, so I just treated him with medicine and that was it. By morning the next day 18 and 77 both notice that, and 77 asks casually. So I tell him I accidentally knocked him on the head when I was opening the door, then 18 looks at Zhu Jue in a sympathetic expression. Since his expression is weird, I looked at him fixedly. Then 77 told us that when they first met 18 has also suffered the fate of being smacked by a door. Huh… Poor 18.
Recently Zhu Jue has been sticking to me closely. While I do know he is a fake teenager, but the face is visually confusing. He's also really good at acting cute, so it still feels unreal in any case. Sometimes I would suspect that Zhu Jue is only really 14, but the plot is the one thing that nobody can resist in this world. So… he is probably actually just a bit childish.
So the few of us happily start our sightseeing investigation journey. We ate and played and walked and ran along the way, since no author would describe in detail the scenes of us having eaten soup dumplings in Liu's Restaurant or chaffinches in Huang's Bistro or boiled fish in Zhang's Diner, etc. We might be characters in a novel, but eating and drinking are basic necessities of everyone. Other things the author won't detail include how 77 will always shave his leg before sleeping for the night, how 18 must hug his pillow in his sleep; well that or 77, and how Qiu Yu still has the habit of sucking her thumbs before sleeping. Zhu Jue is… well Zhu Jue is kind of normal in a sense. He just has a sweet tooth, like me. In fact my like of sweets is much more severe than him.
I feel that Zhu Jue as the protagonist doesn't seem to have any special hobbies or settings, probably in consideration for the likeability of him, in comparison to most authors that would usually stick some peculiar or unusual hobbies or habits onto their protagonists. I can recite Zhu Jue's settings easily. Now that I think about it, there really isn't anything on that topic. Zhu Jue's character goes like this – a 26-year-old otaku, accidentally dying while riding on a train (…), then transmigrating. He likes girls and likes to play, and he has absurd luck after transmigrating. He becomes a legendary figure and takes in white and rich and beautiful wives and has the time of his life. To my observations, though, Zhu Jue seems to be quite far from such a personality. He is quiet in front of people, only speaking up a bit in my presence. He doesn't seem to really like girls either, and I can't see how much he likes to play given his diligence in cultivating. As expected, the number characters that do align with their settings are too few in this world.
Zhu Jue doesn't have anything he particularly likes either. The only hobby he has is sleeping, but that is only because he's usually too diligent and tiring himself out.
Since we're not in a hurry in any case, so we only arrive at a small town under Mount Changchin after messing about for a few days. It was still fine when there were inns on the way, but it was nightmarish when we had to camp. What was nightmarish wasn't making tents or so, but in terms of cooking. 18 and Zhu Jue cannot cook at all. They will manage to mess everything up even just helping along. Qiu Yu's hands are seeped with insect poison due to her keeping insects so she cannot make meals, so only I and 77 worked on it. 77 is not good at this either, though, can at best he can help prepare ingredients. So basically I ended up making basically everything. The amount of workload for a meal of five, you know. Though to be honest, I was the one cooking back in the Sect anyway, now it's only plus two persons fill for 77 and 18.
There's a lot you have to do as the head disciple.
We arrive at the place. We hand reconnaissance over to 18 who setting-wise is intelligent but is actually quite the airhead and 77 who setting-wise is friendly and easy to talk to but is actually easy to anger. The group is kind of worrying, but you know, given this is written in the novel, they probably won't have too much trouble as long as they stick to the plot. I'm only worrying about Zhu Jue, because everyone in the village knew that the protagonist is here… so the enthusiastic crowd of onlookers that has once surrounded my house is here again. When we were walking on the street Zhu Jue even pulled my sleeves to ask me, "is there someone following us?"
… No, they're just curious what the unique, irreplaceable protagonist of the entire world looks like, whether he might have three heads, six arms, and is 8 feet tall.
Zhu Jue doesn't seem to be aware of it, however. He follows behind me holding onto my sleeves. Since we handed scouting over to 77 and 18, and Qiu Yu is having her beauty sleep back at the inn, the two of us are just walking about sightseeing. Zhu Jue seems to be very interested in the culture of this world, and he will look and walk everywhere every time we arrive at a place, and try everything out. Yet he isn't a foodie in his settings either. Often times I would think when I see him like this, that the most significant characteristic of our protagonist is that he has no characteristics.
I still want to understand my protagonist well, but I have still not figured out what his favourites are after a long observation. So I ask Zhu Jue who is sleeping by my side that night, "is there something you like?"
Zhu Jue doesn't react for a while before answering, "there isn't anything I dislike."
"Nothing you particularly like?"
"Hmm… I like tasty food, and I don't dislike beautiful flowers, but… there isn't something I specifically like."
I remain quiet, and Zhu Jue too for a moment, before suddenly saying, "there is still something… that is my favourite."
"Hm?"
"But that is not mine yet… Still, it's ok. I will try my best."
It seems his favourite thing isn't something that can be acquired easily. I wonder what that is, so I ask, "what is it?"
Zhu Jue says, "it's a secret."
Kids like having secrets, and I think it's not something I have to force out of him in any case, so I said "oh." Then I added, "if you need help, just tell me."
"Mm!" Zhu Jue nods with a smile.
Then he turns around and hugs my arm, falling into sleep happily. God knows what he might be thinking about all day long.
The next day I get dragged onto the streets by Zhu Jue again. He seems to really like candy gourds, and then he also becomes interested in the knitted grasshoppers being sold in the stalls on the side. They're all just little toys, and master has never bought them for me when I was young, and I was only given them by the sisters and ladies in Vibrant Flowers, given I was cute when I was young. I got my bum cheeks slapped by my petty master who realised he was losing in popularity to me, though you can see how childish my master is despite his age.
We are almost catching up to the author's latest release. I begin thinking about how it will develop from then on out. Though we won't have to worry about the progression once the author updates. We won't be affected even if she updates slowly causing a discrepancy in the timeline. While we don't know about what's to come in the future, we at least know what's immediately coming up. Tomorrow the protagonist and I will meet a character that will advance the plot, known as an extra. Then we will encounter the second (brothel) opportunity Zhu Jue has after the cultivation guidebook his mother left him. Though that means harsh days ahead for me. In any case, let's just sleep for now.