Naturally, it wasn't as easy as that. Su Yan sat in front of his notebook, hands on his keyboard, and stared at the blank page in front of him. Damn. Was this what people called having writer's block?
"Ugh. I can't believe it!" Su Yan pushed his notebook away, propped his elbows up on the table and burrowed his face in his hands.
Shit. He had never before experienced something like this. Sure, there had been times where he didn't know how to continue with one of his stories but that had always been when he was somewhere in the middle with several directions in front of him in which the story could develop. Most of the time, he just had to reread the last few chapters and he would know what to do. In the worst case, he'd just take a look at the comments and see if he found some inspiration there.
But this time, there were no previous chapters and certainly no readers. He only had two characters and a task.
When Nie Chang returned half an hour later with two bowls of Tu Dou Si he found Su Yan pouting in front of a text editor that was still completely empty. Nie Chang wisely refrained from commenting and just placed the bowls onto the table.
"I hope you'll like it. You know I'm not that good at cooking."
Su Yan turned to face him, his expression extremely sad. "It's better not to know how to cook than not knowing how to write."
"Hah ..." Nie Chang sighed, took the notebook and closed it before putting it aside. "Eat a bit first. You've had a long day yesterday and just came back from the hospital. It's normal you can't come up with anything."
"I never had problems coming up with something. Even after working for fourteen hours straight."
"You should still eat first. I'm sure you'll come up with something after that." He picked up the bowl and pushed it into Su Yan's hands.
Su Yan stared at the bowl while he continued to pout. He just couldn't believe it. He had worked so much at the railroad station that he hadn't had time to write for months. Now he had a new job and enough time but didn't know what to write. This was such a joke!
Nie Chang sighed again, took the chopsticks and picked up some food for Su Yan. "Here. Eat."
Su Yan shook his head. He really didn't want to eat now.
"Aiya, come on. It was a lot of effort to make this for you. Here, take a bite for me." The chopsticks came closer.
With the food directly in front of his nose, Su Yan couldn't ignore it any longer. He leaned forward and let Nie Chang feed him. His expression while chewing was stormy, though.
"I practiced so much but it seems like I still can't cook."
Su Yan shook his head and finally picked up his own chopsticks and started to wolf down the food. Actually, comfort eating wasn't bad either. "It's good. I'm just ..." He sniffled and looked at Nie Chang pitifully. "Why is writing so hard?"
Nie Chang started eating, too, and pondered. "Then what exactly is your problem right now?"
"I just don't know what to write!"
"Then how did you know when you were writing your other stories?"
Su Yan paused. "I ... I just wrote what came to mind." He pouted again. "But I can't do that now. The system wants me to write a short story and I have to use the characters I crafted previously. Well, I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I could write what I want but on top of that, it has to be a romantic encounter. How do you write a romantic encounter for two cultivators? Shouldn't they be ... I don't know ... cultivating instead? How would they fall in love? Argh." He put the bowl back onto the table and flopped onto the couch, using Nie Chang's lap as a pillow. "I'm just bad at romance."
Nie Chang barely held back from grinning. "Maybe that's because you're lacking experience."
"Mn?" Su Yan looked up.
"Well, you've always been single until today."
"That's true." Su Yan reached up and grabbed Nie Chang's collar. "So it's your fault! You have to help me!"
"Then what do you want me to do?"
"Tell me how you fell in love with me."
"Oh." Nie Chang lifted his brows. "I'm not sure if it's such a good idea. You'll probably say it doesn't make a good story."
"Well, it isn't a story anyway." Su Yan sat up again and slid closer, hugging Nie Chang's arm. "Come on, tell me! I need some inspiration."
Nie Chang smiled wryly. It was better he confessed now. He wouldn't be able to evade anyway. Su Yan wasn't one to give up when something was able to hold his attention.
"There really isn't much to say. It was ... back in school."
"Hah?" Su Yan's eyes went wide. "You fell in love with me while we were in school and you never told me?"
"Mn."
"Why?"
"I thought you'd be able to figure it out on your own. At least I thought so for the first two or three years. When you still hadn't managed to do so by the fourth year I also knew I had to do something. I hinted and hinted at it but you never got it. I can't believe you really needed until now."
"I ..." Su Yan turned away. "It's not my fault. You ... You should have been more obvious."
Nie Chang chuckled, leaned forward and put his chin on Su Yan's shoulder. "Even more obvious? Then you'd have said I'm shameless."
"How is that shameless?!"
"Well, if hugging you each day and stealing kisses isn't obvious enough, then I probably would have needed to strip the two of us and push you down onto the bed."
Su Yan blushed. "You —" He wanted to say Nie Chang was shameless but that would be like admitting that he was right. Thus, he shot to his feet and grabbed his notebook instead. "I'm suddenly inspired." Then, he ran off into the kitchen, leaving a smirking Nie Chang behind.