She talked as if she was really poor, but in fact, her family wasn't poor at all, instead it was the truly poor He Qing who could only bitterly smile without saying anything.
Yu Dandan kept babbling to herself, ignored by everyone, and tucked herself into her blanket to start typing away.
She was a novice writer, yet, as a top student from Ming University, her novels weren't that good. She had been mixing in the female-centric literature scene for two years now, still a nobody. The coursework at Ming University was heavy, and she only posted three thousand words a day. Compared to those bigshots on the leaderboards who wrote tens of thousands of words a day, getting floored was simply the norm. Plus, her writing style was just like her essays—female-centric literature, surprisingly lacking scheming vixens and perfect male gods plus bizarre relatives and enemies... The readers down below treated it like a serious piece of literature.
She didn't tell anyone, but He Qing knew, and when she had time, she would secretly write long comments, subscribe, and tip her.
But honestly, Yu Dandan truly lacked the talent. In her book, the male lead proposed with a ring-pull of a soda can, and the female lead agreed - leading to, for the first time, a surge of comments under a twelve-hour-episode novel, all criticisms. The author's response was very serious, "As long as the molecular structure or elements are the same, it's enough. Aren't diamonds and graphite both carbon as well..."
He Qing, silent after reading that chapter, secretly went onto TreasureNet and topped her up with two bucks worth of IQ, with a note saying "Don't need IQ, need EQ..."
Of course, from this incident alone, it was evident that He Qing's IQ was also in arrears...
He Qing laid in her blanket, face ashen, taking ages to recover, only to hear Yu Dandan thumping the bed, "Ow, ow, ow, ow! I have no inspiration!!!"
But after her howling, she said to He Qing, "Hey, what do you think if I finish this story and start writing a supernatural horror? I dreamt last night that I woke up in the middle of the night and ate myself..."
He Qing was utterly speechless.
After a while, her voice came through, "Supernatural stories are good, I... I can even provide you with some material."
Yu Dandan beamed, "Exactly, your home is in the countryside, you must have many rural ghost stories! Quick, tell me one now!"
He Qing remained silent, seemingly brewing something. Yu Dandan wasn't in a hurry and just propped herself up on her elbows, daydreaming.
"When I was a child, about six or seven years old, one day, there was a family event in the village. In our place, both happy and sad occasions are called family events. That day, right at noon, everyone had finished the banquet and was heading home one after another. But I didn't leave; I never took naps and just played around at noon. All the village kids were like that; the adults weren't worried at all."
He Qing continued, her voice becoming distant as if she was returning to that summer day of the past, the beginning of her nightmare and her chance.
She remembered clearly that year, she was exactly four years old - in the countryside, children are born already being one year old by nominal age, but she was precisely four years old by actual age. Before the age of six, the 'Innate Spiritual Fire' doesn't dissipate, with three 'lamps' on top of the skull and two shoulders - unless the person is dead, they are not likely to extinguish, especially in children. The brighter the Spiritual Fire, the more they can see.
On her way home, there was a big pond; because it was a dry summer, only a shallow layer of water remained in the middle, barely enough to cover the back of one's foot. Whenever He Qing passed by there, she kept hearing someone calling her.
"He Qing! He Qing!"
She didn't respond, as her nickname was Xiao Yu, and no one in the village called her by her full name.
But, being young and unafraid, since someone in the pond was calling her, she just sat by the pond and waited calmly, completely at ease as she liked basking in the sun from a young age. It was thirty-six or thirty-seven degrees at noon, which was very comfortable for her.
"After a while, an uncle from the village passed by her. The village was vast and sparsely populated; I barely knew him, though I did know he was from our village. The uncle recognized me and smiled, 'Xiao Yu, why haven't you gone home yet? Be careful not to get tanned.' I still remember the way he spoke, very lucid."
He Qing's voice grew more and more ethereal, and Yu Dandan dared not breathe heavily, knowing that the crucial part of the story was coming.
"And then, all of a sudden, he turned around and walked straight into the middle of the pond," she said.
"At that time, I didn't understand anything and just watched what he was doing. As a result, the uncle just stepped into the water and buried his head in it."
"That pond was a full five-minute walk from the nearest house. Even though I was young, I knew something was off, so I ran over to pull his arm."
"The water was incredibly shallow; the mud on the sides had dried up, and the uncle's face couldn't really sink in, so he just lay flat and buried his head. No matter how much I yelled beside him, he wouldn't get up, and I couldn't pull him out. Finally, my crying and shouting alerted the people nearby and they managed to rescue him."
Yu Dandan's eyes sparkled as she listened. Coming from a wealthy family, she had relentlessly focused on her studies and had never heard such bizarre tales. In fact, He Qing's story was quite ordinary and not at all engaging, but there she was, rambling on about how she was inspired...
This story, of course, was not like that.
He Qing was born at dusk, at the supernatural hour. From a young age, she had a special fondness for the sun, feeling comfort only under its rays. Although she knew she was slightly different from others, as an orphaned little girl who couldn't burden her frail grandmother, she dared not speak of it.
From a young age, she knew she was different from others, not only because she could see things others couldn't, but also because in her mind, it was normal, though she couldn't tell anyone. To this day, she still didn't know what was going on with her, especially after her grandmother had passed away, which had confused her even more.
That noon, the uncle indeed had gone into the water and buried his head. But in an instant, He Qing saw a sinister, twisted figure pulling the uncle. She could even see that every step the figure took left a puddle of water on the ground…
At exactly noon, when the sun's energy was at its peak, it coincided with a once-in-a-hundred-and-forty-year transit of Venus across the sun. The world suddenly dimmed, with only a dazzling golden circle swiftly passing across the sky… He Qing didn't know where the strength came from, but she desperately grabbed the uncle's arm.
She was young, and there were puddles on the ground; logically, she shouldn't have been able to pull him, but that day her strength was surprisingly great. Although her face turned red, her body seemed nailed to the ground, holding the uncle's hand without moving an inch!
But then, that twisted figure, in the misty weather, moved like mercury along the uncle's arm, heading straight for the center of He Qing's palm!
The feel of that icy, deep chill touched her, and He Qing shivered instantly.
Her head was muddled every day, but deep down she knew she couldn't let go; if she did, the uncle would die! So she clenched her teeth, allowing the cold to rampage through her body, crashing again and again!
During that short tug-of-war, her eyebrows and hair had already frosted over, and her complexion turned pale. Watching the uncle's arm slowly pull away in front of her—just about to slip from her grasp—suddenly, sunlight began to shine down!
The transit of Venus had ended.
As the sunlight hit He Qing, she felt as if she were suddenly filled with air, the warm sensation revitalizing her spirit. With a gritted tooth, she bit her finger and slapped her top of the skull directly!
In an instant, a shudder went through her, and the ball of icy sensation immediately dissolved in her body, leaving no trace behind.
He Qing sat down in the mud, utterly drained of strength.