"Ah?" Lu Xinyu held her phone, completely stunned, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"Alright, Shen Yi, I misunderstood you. I apologize," she said after a few seconds of stunned silence, her voice tinged with embarrassment and regret. However, her tone quickly shifted, and she became agitated again. "But why did you skip class?!" she exclaimed, pacing back and forth, her brows furrowed into a deep frown.
Shen Yi sighed helplessly, his voice filled with exhaustion. "I've already left the Lu family, and I won't be going back. So, I need to find a place to live," he explained, setting down the bags he was carrying and rubbing his sore shoulders.
"Also, I should tell you, your eldest sister is with me. You should come and convince her to go back home, so she doesn't have to suffer with me," Shen Yi added, deliberately glancing at Lu Xinyi, who was standing nearby.
Lu Xinyi, hearing this, glared at him and placed her hands on her hips, pouting. "Don't talk nonsense! I'm not going back!" she retorted.
On the other end of the line, Lu Xinyu was utterly confused. "What do you mean? Shen Yi left the Lu family, and he's with my sister?" she asked, her voice filled with bewilderment.
"Wait a minute? What did you just say?! Left the Lu family?" she exclaimed, her voice rising in pitch.
Then, realizing something was off, she frowned, her tone tinged with displeasure. "Shen Yi, that excuse is just too ridiculous! And, sister, how could you go along with this nonsense?"
Shen Yi, having just finished moving things into the living room, was out of breath. After catching his breath, he spoke into the phone, "Lu Xinyu, we're not joking. Just a while ago, your stubborn father kicked both me and Lu Xinyi out of the house! Do you understand now?" He slumped onto the sofa, closing his eyes and massaging his temples in exhaustion.
Lu Xinyu's frown deepened, her face a mix of worry and anger. "Shen Yi! How can you call Dad..." she began, about to scold Shen Yi for his disrespectful tone, but then she remembered something and turned her attention to Lu Xinyi on the phone. "Sister, you should be stopping him!"
Lu Xinyi paused her tidying and, after a moment of hesitation, spoke calmly, "Xinyu, Shen Yi's words might be a bit harsh, but Dad really wasn't acting normal today. And what Shen Yi said is true—we've been kicked out of the house, and even my bank account has been frozen. So, do you still think Dad is in the right?" Her voice was steady.
Lu Xinyu was completely dumbfounded, her hand holding the phone trembling slightly. "Sis... sister... are you serious? You've really been... kicked out?" she stammered, unable to believe what she was hearing.
"Come on, why would we lie to you? If you don't believe it, go home and see for yourself," Shen Yi interjected, snatching the phone and hanging up. He didn't want to waste any more time arguing with the Lu family. Although he didn't mind a fight, it wasn't appropriate with Lu Xinyi around. He tossed the phone aside, lay down on the sofa, and stared at the ceiling, thinking to himself, What a day.
After the call ended, Lu Xinyu's shock turned to anger. She immediately assumed that Shen Yi must have done something to provoke Lu Zhenhua, something so severe that it led to him being kicked out of the house. And her sister being kicked out must have been because of Shen Yi too. "This Shen Yi! Look at the mess he's caused, even dragging my sister into it!" she muttered through gritted teeth. She straightened her clothes and stormed out of the school building, heading straight for the parking lot. She got into her sports car and sped off toward the Lu family home, determined to convince Lu Zhenhua to change his mind. How are they going to survive without any money? she thought.
After the call, Shen Yi and Lu Xinyi spent the afternoon shopping for daily necessities. At one point, Shen Yi didn't want to buy new bedding for Lu Xinyi, thinking she would soon return to the Lu family and it would be a waste of money. He only had a few thousand yuan left and needed to be frugal. But after Lu Xinyi pleaded and begged, and with passersby staring at them, he finally gave in. He felt like he was being driven crazy by her. Once they entered the mall, Lu Xinyi went on a shopping spree, buying anything she thought might be useful. Shen Yi tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen, completely oblivious to his increasingly grim expression. By the time they left the mall, they were down to just a few hundred yuan. Shen Yi looked at the meager amount of money left in his hand, feeling a pang of regret, while Lu Xinyi hummed a tune, carrying bags of shopping as if nothing had happened.
They grabbed some fast food from a street vendor and devoured it before returning to their rented apartment. After organizing the things they had bought, the small, less-than-sixty-square-meter room finally started to look livable.
"Shen Yi, don't be mad~~ I'll share half of my future earnings with you, okay~~" Lu Xinyi cooed, trying to cheer up Shen Yi, who had been scowling the entire time. She leaned close to him, shaking his arm with both hands, her face full of a pleading smile.
"Ha, I really don't understand why you bought all this useless stuff. Look at these things—tell me, what are they even for?" Shen Yi pointed at the pile of items on the floor: a multi-layer fruit tray, an intricately designed candlestick, a stylish trash can, an irregularly shaped floor mat, animal-shaped stools, a multi-tiered iron flower stand, a handmade ceramic wind chime... all of them flashy but impractical, and they had cost him a fair amount of money. His voice was tinged with frustration, his brows tightly knit.
"Uh..." Lu Xinyi was at a loss for words, opening her mouth but unable to come up with a response. She gave an awkward smile, a hint of guilt flashing in her eyes.
"Sigh, forget it. Let's just wash up and go to bed," Shen Yi said, rubbing his forehead in resignation. He regretted giving in to Lu Xinyi's pleas to stay. She was nothing like her composed self at the company—this version of her was a complete spendthrift. He stood up and trudged toward the bedroom, ready to rest.
While Lu Xinyi went to take a shower, Shen Yi sat on a chair, deep in thought. "Ah! I missed class today, and I didn't go to my part-time job. I wonder if my boss will chew me out. I'll have to explain myself properly tomorrow and apologize sincerely. Maybe he'll forgive me. But why hasn't he called to ask why I didn't show up? Did he already fire me?" He tapped the table lightly with his fingers, his face filled with worry.
After a while, he felt bored and instinctively pulled out his phone, wanting to read some fiction. It was a habit he had formed before his transmigration, and it had stuck with him even after crossing over. He downloaded a novel app from the app store.
Once the download was complete, he opened the app and started browsing for something to read. After skimming through the beginnings of a few novels, he felt as uncomfortable as if he were sitting on a toilet, constipated. The writing was so bad it made his eyes hurt. After searching for so long, he couldn't find a single decent novel.
"Maybe... I should write one myself?" Shen Yi mused, stroking his chin as an idea suddenly sparked in his mind.
He quickly registered an author account under the pen name "Strolling the Galaxy" and began brainstorming his novel. He wanted to write a story about cultivation, a tale filled with fantastical elements and a grand, expansive world. The novel would be titled—Epoch of the Cosmos.
He swiftly jotted down some key words in his phone's memo: cosmos, epoch, cultivation, sects, clans, secret realms, divine beasts, magical artifacts, ascension... His fingers flew across the screen as if trying to bring the vivid world in his mind to life immediately. A magnificent cultivation world was gradually taking shape in his imagination. In the synopsis, he wrote: In the vast cosmos, as epochs shift, a young man embarks on a journey of cultivation, forging his own legend...