As Lu Zhe sat down at the table, he quickly wiped the lipstick mark off his face. However, although the lipstick mark was gone, the question of why it was there in the first place still left much to the imagination.

Luo Qiu couldn't help but ask, "Who kissed your cheek? Was it that little loli young lady?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Leyou got excited: "Wait, what young lady!"

Luo Qiu: "The last time this guy video-chatted with me, there was an incredibly cute, legally married little girl with him, and she seemed to be some kind of rich heiress or something..."

Lu Zhe interrupted, "What big family? You've been watching too many TV dramas. Her father owns a company, so her family is indeed quite wealthy, but their family background isn't that complicated."

Shen Leyou stared at him intently: "An exceptionally cute legal loli, you can't deny that, right?"

Luo Qiu immediately chimed in, "What's there to deny? I saw that young lady's face when I video chatted with this kid last time!"

Shen Leyou: "So those lipstick marks were left by that young lady..."

However, Luo Qiu frowned, realizing that things might not be so simple: "Wait, something's not right! That rich loli is acting strange, isn't she? Those lipsticks she wore earlier, the colors seemed a bit mature, not the kind that would suit a loli."

Shen Leyou: "Oh ho, does that mean there's a second woman?"

At this point, the two of them turned their heads at the same time and stared at Lu Zhe.

He felt rather helpless under the gazes of his two friends.

These two old friends were classmates of Lu Zhe in the philosophy department at university. They both wore glasses, were reasonably good-looking, and rather thin, typical nerdy guys. However, there were differences between them; Shen Leyou was shorter, while Luo Qiu was taller, his tall and thin figure resembling a bamboo pole, making one worry that a gust of wind could carry him away.

The two also had somewhat different personalities; Shen Leyou was more lively. This was evident in the fact that he was egging them on even more enthusiastically: "Tell me the truth, you scumbag! Were you using the money that rich young lady was paying you to be kept by her, and then going off to fool around with other women?!"

Shen Leyou was just joking when she said this, but to her surprise, Lu Zhe's face darkened and his smile disappeared.

The word "scumbag" had an exceptionally strong impact on Lu Zhe at this moment...

The atmosphere at the dining table suddenly became quiet.

Luo Qiu gave Shen Leyou a wink.

Shen Leyou's lips moved, but no sound came out. He simply mouthed, "There's a story behind it."

Luo Qiu shook his head, signaling his buddy to stop while he was ahead, and then subtly changed the subject: "By the way, Lu Zhe, do you never look at that group chat for the three of us?"

“I haven’t been logging into QQ much lately,” Lu Zhe’s tone had returned to calm, “so I didn’t even know that Lao Shen was here tonight.”

Shen Leyou laughed and said, "You didn't know I'd returned from studying in Japan, did you?"

Lu Zhe shook his head: "I don't know, so what are you planning to do next? Find a job?"

"No rush to find a job, I have something else to do right now," Shen Leyou patted his thin chest. "You don't know yet, but my novel has gotten a great recommendation spot, and the number of favorites is skyrocketing. I reckon it'll be officially released in a few days, and I'll be able to get a five-figure royalty!"

Lu Zhe: "Ten thousand is a five-digit number, ninety thousand is also a five-digit number. How many tens of thousands do you expect?"

Shen Leyou: "Probably ten or twenty thousand... But to be honest, I really owe this novel to the inspiration you gave me."

Lu Zhe: "What inspiration did I give you?"

Shen Leyou scratched his head: "Do you remember the last time you called me and asked me about time travelers? Then I had an idea and imagined a male protagonist who travels back from the future, but his primary goal is not to make money or slap faces, but to avoid being hacked to pieces!"

Lu Zhe frowned slightly: "Avoid using a machete?"

"That's right, look at this!"

As she said this, Shen Leyou opened the reading app on her phone. The screen showed a cover of a two-dimensional girl with her bare, smooth feet out, along with the title of the book: "The Daily Love of a Cleaver".

Lu Zhe: "Is your novel serious?"

Shen Leyou chuckled: "If it were serious, how many readers would there be?"

Lu Zhe smiled, swiped his finger across the screen, and saw the synopsis below the book title: [In his past life, a scumbag was chased to a rooftop by four "assassins" wielding knives, suffering four cuts and eight wounds, and was tragically reborn. In this life, he decides to turn over a new leaf and never stray again, but the "assassins" reappear in his life…]

Then he stopped laughing.

It's obvious that this book isn't very serious, but the key point is that this unserious style gives Lu Zhe a dangerous feeling.

Shen Leyou continued cheerfully, "The key point of my book is to go against the grain! While others have the male protagonist chasing the female protagonist and building a harem, he is forced to build a harem. And he has to be very, very careful during this process, because in his previous life, his harem went out of control, which led to him being killed by a woodcutter."

Lu Zhe asked expressionlessly, "Then why doesn't he stay away from the girls?"

Shen Leyou said smugly, "Because I added a setting: if the girls leave the male lead, something bad will happen. So, in order to prevent the girls from dying, he can't desert. Then, the girls' affection for him keeps increasing, creating a wonderful love triangle... What do you think of my setting?"

Lu Zhe: "Hehe, not bad."

Luo Qiu added, "Moreover, the book is set in Japan, and Lao Shen actually studied in Japan and just came back, so it feels very realistic when he writes it!"

Shen Leyou laughed and said, "To be honest, my initial motivation for conceiving this book wasn't actually the royalties. It was because one night in Kyoto, I saw a young woman wearing black stockings on the street. She must have just come out of an izakaya or bar, she was wearing high heels, carrying her shoes in her hands, and walking barefoot on the street. Well, I wouldn't say barefoot, she was wearing black stockings, but it just looked even more erotic..."

"When are you going to get rid of this foot fetish?" Luo Qiu complained. "Besides, you just stared at them without even going up to chat or ask for their phone numbers?"

Shen Leyou shook his head: "I had an inspiration at the time, so I immediately went back to writing. I didn't have time to chat!"

Luo Qiu: "Is this what it means to be a web novelist destined to be single forever... Hey, Lu Zhe, why are you silent again?"

Lu Zhe forced a smile: "It's nothing, I just think that Lao Shen's novels are quite interesting."

Shen Leyou: "You've come to take a look too?"

Lu Zhe immediately shook his head: "Never mind, I've been too busy lately to read novels. Besides, I don't really like stories about scumbag men."

Shen Leyou asked with some curiosity, "Why? Isn't it better to enjoy the things you can't do in real life by reading novels?"

Lu Zhe: "I don't think being a scumbag is enjoyable..."

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