Chapter 40 Demo "Shall I give you a smile?"...
“It’s written on your registration form,” Jiu Su replied nonchalantly. “I’m not blind.”
Shu Qing pouted. She had originally intended to trick him, but it seemed she hadn't succeeded. She didn't know if he had really seen it on the registration form or if he had already adapted to modern life and was now using such things to fool her.
"How are you planning to celebrate your birthday?" Jiu Su continued to ask. "Invite your friends over and have a small party?"
"..."
Just as she said that he had integrated into modern life, Shu Qing was shocked by his ancient way of celebrating her birthday and quickly refused: "No, no, it doesn't have to be celebrated in such a grand way."
Jiu Su frowned almost imperceptibly. Is this what you call a grand occasion?
In the past, the birthday banquet of Lady Xiashan was extremely grand. Everyone in Kunlun was proud to receive her birthday invitation. People would arrive at Liuxia Peak with priceless gifts. No matter what gold and jade jewelry, rare herbs, or famous paintings and calligraphy, they might not be able to exchange for a chance to personally congratulate her.
She had had such an extravagant affair before, but she didn't like it, so she gave up on it. He went along with her wishes, saying it was just a small banquet for relatives and friends—how was that a big deal?
"I didn't celebrate my birthday for the past two years. I was so busy I was practically dying. How could I be in the mood for a birthday celebration?" Shu Qing said, resting her chin on her hand in a daze. "This year I finally have some free time, so I'm going to have some fun. Let's skip the banquet. You saw how Miss treated us to dinner last time; we were so busy all day that we didn't have a chance to enjoy ourselves at all."
That makes sense, so Jiu Su followed up by asking, "So you want to...?"
"Let's find a restaurant with a nice atmosphere for lunch, and you, me, and Nan Nan and Miss will have a simple get-together, that'll be it," Shu Qing said. "Then I'll ask for three days off on my video account, rent a car, and go on a road trip. How about we go for a drive around the towns and villages around H City? There are so many fun things to do around here, and some famous historical sites. I haven't been to any of them in the past few years because I've been so busy with work."
Jiu Su wrote down her entire statement and then asked, "What about the rest?"
"It's nothing now, I'll talk about it when I think of something." Shu Qing shook her head and asked Jiu Su, "Hey, what's your birthday? I mean your real birthday before, not the day this new body was born."
Jiu Su looked at her, smiled, and said, "That's the day I registered."
Shu Qing wrinkled her nose: "Don't try to fool me! You know me, but I know you better than you do. This is so unfair!"
“I didn’t have a birthday before,” Jiu Su sighed. “I’m not kidding you. I’m a monster born naturally from the heavens and earth. No one can tell me when I was born. The day this body was born was a good day. I like this birthday.”
What's more, on this day, I met you again.
I thought I'd never see you again...
Shu Qing understood and said understandingly, "Okay, I'll celebrate your birthday again next April. By then you'll be fully used to modern life, and we can think about how to celebrate together."
Jiu Su smiled and fed her a French fry. "Okay."
The two of them squeezed in front of the computer, feeding each other until they finished a plate of snacks. It wasn't until almost dinner time that Jiu Su went to show off his culinary skills. Shu Qing looked at her storyboards and documents that hadn't progressed for half a day and thought to herself: Beauty has ruined me!
She worked hard and barely finished the storyboard before dinner. After thinking about it, she realized that a storyboard alone wasn't enough. The leaders and experts at the Supermarket Management Bureau weren't animation experts, and they couldn't judge the subsequent results based on a single storyboard. She needed to provide data to support her assessment.
In other words, they need to shoot a demo of this video first. Shu Qing asked Jiu Su for help: "Help me catch the auspicious bird."
Jiu Su agreed and quickly brought back a string of auspicious birds according to her request. No one knew where he caught them, but each one was glossy and brightly colored. They all perched on the tree in her small courtyard, their colors arranged in a pleasing and orderly fashion.
Shu Qing exclaimed in amazement, thinking that her tree was also an honor to be planted here. First, it served as a backup residence for the unfathomable monster Jiu Su, and then a group of auspicious birds settled here like a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix. It seemed that it was only a matter of time before it became an "extraordinary plant".
Jiu Su lazily reclined on the double lounge chair under the tree, watching Shu Qing inspect the goods one by one, and asked with a smile, "The goods have been delivered, shouldn't you pay now? Is there any reward for me?"
Shu Qing flipped over the wings of one of the birds, looked at the claws of the other, and in the midst of her busy work, turned back to Jiu Su with a smile: "Shall I give you a smile?"
She even had a pretty standard smile, showing eight teeth.
Jiu Su turned her head away, suppressing her smile, and pretended to be serious, tapping the corner of her lips.
Shu Qing pounced over and pecked his lips, but before he could hug her, she sprang away like a spring and swept back to her work post like a gust of wind, continuing to concentrate on photographing her lucky bird.
As for how much of this focus is genuine and how much is fake, it's impossible to know, but at least it looks convincing. If he could tone down the smile on his face, it would look even more convincing.
Ever since Shu Qing kissed him a couple of days ago, the two of them have stopped being shy about it. Jiu Su now openly asks her for kisses, and he even occasionally leans out to kiss her while she's working, which greatly affects her work efficiency.
She wanted to seriously express her stance to him, explaining the importance of her work and the necessity of her income. However, seeing his face, she couldn't be serious at all... Sigh, she could only let it be.
However, Shu Qing still refused to give him a proper kiss. The reason was simple: she felt it lacked a sense of ceremony. But Shu Qing couldn't quite explain what constituted a sense of ceremony; she just vaguely refused to cross that line.
Or perhaps... it's not because of that vague "sense of ritual," but rather because there are many things about her past and present lives that she hasn't figured out yet, and she can't quite explain them.
She felt as if she had fallen into a fog.
The sight of so many colorful auspicious birds clustered together on the tree amazed Shu Qing, as did her viewers. It was the first time anyone had ever seen such a beautiful flock of auspicious birds. Within twenty minutes of the video being posted, the screen was filled with wishes and prayers for good luck, turning it into a veritable wishing well.
Because the scene was unexpectedly beautiful, Shu Qing specially changed the editing order before releasing it, putting the scene that was originally intended to be used as a closing scene at the beginning. Judging from the current reaction, this adjustment has been quite successful.
"Bang bang bang bang, wishing to land on shore this year!"
"So beautiful!!"
"I wonder what it's like for an up to be surrounded by a flock of auspicious birds."
The initial engagement and retention rate were high in the first ten seconds. Later, during the educational segment, Shu Qing released a video of herself drawing cards by pressing the claws of a lucky bird, which immediately sparked a new round of interaction.
"Holy crap! There really is golden light!"
"Ha ha ha ha"
"If everyone uses the Lucky Bird to draw cards, will the game company go bankrupt?"
"There aren't that many lucky birds..."
Next came the feeding interaction centered around getting rich, and a cameo appearance by the Qi Group's lucky bird—this part was an educational segment. It was supposed to be rather dry content, but fortunately, everyone is interested in the topic of monsters, and Shu Qing's writing was relatable, so although the interaction wasn't as high as before, it was still quite enthusiastic.
"Write this down in your notebook: Birds with five-colored feathers are auspicious birds."
"After seeing it a few times, the little black bird is actually quite cute."
Is this the uploader's original audio?
To enhance the video's visual appeal, Shu Qing also invited Tu Nan to provide the science-related voiceover for the latter half. Despite being an unkempt programmer, Tu Nan has a very sweet voice and was once an amateur voice actor, having joined a voice-over club in college.
Shu Qing's own voice isn't that sweet, and her pronunciation and breathing aren't as clear and professional as Tu Nan's. Having her dub for the character is much better, and it has indeed attracted the audience's attention.
When asked about this, she replied, "No, it's another member of our studio, my friend who's getting rich, @今将图南."
When will the uploader's studio officially open?
"Is this a tutorial on yokai (Japanese monsters)?"
"I can explain yokai (Japanese spirits/monsters)! I just got a little yokai and I'm not sure how to raise it."
A large number of people saw that she had made her appearance and kept asking her for Xiao Hong's new video. Shu Qing smiled and agreed, "I'll definitely do it next time." She glanced at the time and realized that two hours had already passed. So she hurriedly took a screenshot of the backend data and pasted it into the PPT as supporting evidence.
After working day and night for two days, the report PPT was finally finished. When Shuqing finished writing the "Thanks" on the last page and stood up, she felt as if she had lost one of her shoulders and back.
She groaned and flopped onto the bed, yelling, "I can't take it anymore!" She gestured to Jiu Su with her eyes, ordering him to rub her head.
Jiu Su: "..."
It's one thing for him to crush someone to death, but expecting him to press acupoints and unblock meridians is probably asking too much.
"Let me make this clear first, I've never done this before." Even if she hadn't done it before, she had to do it, so Jiu Su scooped her up and hugged her, carefully massaging her right shoulder as instructed. "Is this okay?"
"Hey, I'm not made of paper," Shu Qing said, dissatisfied. "Use a little more force."
Jiu Su obeyed her command and slashed down with her claws. Shu Qing let out a loud "howl" and almost jumped three feet high.
He quickly stopped. "Does it hurt?"
"It's okay... massages are just this intense," Shu Qing grimaced, "It's like this... you can continue."
Jiu Su continued without any hesitation, kneading her from her shoulder blades all the way to her tailbone. Shu Qing cried out as he kneaded her, feeling sore and sore from head to toe. Her stiff muscles were almost flattened into a thin sheet under his hands.
Jiu Su tried several times to be gentler, but Shu Qing only said, "This way you can massage it properly. When I was in my senior year of high school, my mom massaged me, and I screamed even more than I am now. The neighbors thought I was being abused, and the next day they came over gloating, asking me how my mock exam went and whether I had failed."
"So what was your answer?"
"I said yes, I didn't do well on the test, only a little over 600 points, I've regressed," Shu Qing said slyly. "I'm not lying. Anyway, when I came back the next day, it was the neighbors' turn to wail and scream, while I hid in my room and laughed heartily—ooh!"
Jiu Su massaged her stiff arm, imagining her mischievous and cunning teenage years as she described them. He couldn't help but chuckle, finding her adorable; yet, he also felt a pang of regret for not having witnessed Shu Qing's youth in person.
“Yes, luckily there aren’t many neighbors here,” Jiu Su replied with a smile. “If we were still living in your old apartment, someone might have already come and banged on our door.”
Thanks to the good soundproofing of their new home and the fact that there were few neighbors, they were able to finish the massage undisturbed. Shuqing sat up from Jiusu's arms, stretched her back, and felt much more relaxed, realizing that her aches and pains hadn't been in vain.
Jiu Su calmly cupped his hands together. The warmth of her body, the touch of her waist and arms, still lingered in his palms. He felt a little unsatisfied.
It seemed commonplace for Shu Qing to sit at his desk for long periods. He thought, why not just buy a book about massage techniques…
"Thanks." Shu Qing easily assigned him the second task, "Can we arrange to talk to Jin Wanli tomorrow? I finished writing this proposal today, so I can talk to him tomorrow and then report to the Supermarket Management Bureau the day after tomorrow or the day after that."
Jiu Su nodded.
"Then it's up to you." Shu Qing smiled. "I'm going out to catch my breath. I'm going to sleep now. I haven't been sleeping much these past few days, I'm so tired."
She shuffled into the yard to breathe in the fresh evening breeze, and took the opportunity to visit the three remaining little monsters in the house one by one. The little cat who was good at bringing joy to people—a beautiful long-haired calico cat, whom Shuqing named Xiaohua—saw her coming and rolled over in her cat bed, meowing softly.
Shu Qing squatted down and rubbed its belly, then cuddled with the cat for a while. The fairy snail was already asleep in the water tank, while the dream butterfly perched on a flower branch, silently fluttering its wings.
Shu Qing reached out her hand to it, and it obediently landed on her finger, its fine scales reflecting starlight.
"I want to dream more about 'Ashu'," Shuqing whispered to it, then added after a moment's thought, "I want to dream something good."
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