Xiao Su said nothing; he wanted to deny that he was waiting for an opportunity to get back at her, but looking at the small fistful of hair in his hand, he could not think of what to say in his defense. In the end, he simply said straightforwardly, “Look, it has already happened. Since it is my fault, I will apologize for it; you can get angry or do whatever you want.” Pausing, his gaze fell on the laptop screen. “However, can you finish the revision of the draft first?”
Jiang Xiaobai became indignant at his words. “Mr. Xiao, can you be a little more humane? Do you know how precious our hair is to us writers? Look at my hair… I don’t have that much hair in the first place; pulling out such a large chunk of it, does your conscience not hurt?” She pointed at her hair while ranting.
He had not paid any attention to her hair before, but now that she said it, he stole a glance at her hair. Although her hair was not thick, he noticed that it was not quite as little as she claimed it to be; in fact, it looked rather normal. Thus, he spoke bluntly, “You look like you have a decent head of hair on you.”
She said nothing in response.
Pressing his palms together, he continued, “I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. It was all my fault, but it really wasn’t deliberate. As long as you help me revise the draft, I will provide you with adequate compensation as well as an apology. Is that okay with you?”
Looking at his anxious expression which held no remorse over pulling out her hair, she snorted coldly, “I won’t do it. It was already an exception when I promised you to revise the draft. Now that you have offended me, I refuse to do it.”
Saying nothing in response, Xiao Su was about to go crazy. Although Young Master Ye and Young Lady Ye had gone to the manor, he was not sure how long they would stay there. He knew he was safe as long as he completed it before lunch. However, what about after lunch? They couldn’t possibly hang around the manor all day long, could they? They would come back for lunch, and after lunch, Young Master Ye might come looking for him for the documents. If the ghostwriter refused to revise the document, was he supposed to hand over the current version—the overbearing and wicked romance novel—to Young Master Ye?
This is all my fault. He shouldn’t have searched for a ghostwriter online, nor should he have chosen one out of urgent need without performing a background check on what she normally wrote. There was no other way to sugarcoat it—he had dug his own grave.
“It really wasn’t intentional. Why don’t we do it like this; just revise it for me first and you can request higher pay or something later. I will accept your conditions.”
Initially, she wanted to resist until the end, but when she heard him mention money, she narrowed her eyes. “Who do you think I am? Increase my pay? What do you take me for? Do you think I’m a money-grubbing person?”
Xiao Su began, “I—”
“Triple the amount at least!” Before he could speak, Jiang Xiaobai held up three fingers at him.
Stunned, he fell silent for a moment; then, he lowered his eyelids. Fine. Money makes the world go round; humans are no different.
“Okay! Revise it now.”
“Sure.”
In a flash, she put the issue about her hair out of her mind. Sitting down in front of her laptop, she became active. The initial payment was already quite considerable. Now that it was tripled, she could take a break from writing for a while. I can’t stand having to write a piece every day.
Working quickly, she removed all the unwanted sections. It was the only thing he could not stomach anyway, so she only needed to remove the phrases that were unacceptable to him. Standing by the side, Xiao Su occasionally voiced out. “This passage is unnecessary; I don’t think it will help him. Also, this, and this… are unnecessary too.”
While deleting it, she glanced over at him and could not resist asking, “By the way, the Young Master Ye you mentioned, did he lose his memories?”
Startled by her words, he stared at her dangerously. “How did you know?”
She was just an author, therefore, he did not mention the Young Master Ye’s current condition to her. He only mentioned the events he wanted her to write and addressed Young Master Ye by his title only without revealing his real name. Still, for her to ask about this…
Instantaneously, she felt a dangerous aura coming from him followed by a heavy pressure that pressed against her. It scared her so much that the hand holding her mouse trembled. Feeling speechless, she replied, “Come on, if he did not lose his memories, why would you want me to write all these? It’s so simple I can figure it out with my toes.”
Xiao Su kept quiet. Is that so? How does she think with her toes?
“My imagination is very good. Let me tell you something else that would blow your mind away. Your Young Master Ye not only lost his memories, but he is also desperately trying to recover them right now. Moreover, he has put in a lot of effort and suffered tremendously while trying to regain his memories. On the other hand, your Young Lady Ye must be the one who went through the most pain. However, your Young Master Ye is unwilling to let her suffer, so he is quietly trying to bear with it. Am I right?”
Xiao Su looked at her in shock—everything was exactly as she had said. To think she had guessed it all, but how was her guess so accurate?
Seeming to notice his confusion, she went on, “Once I know the beginning, I’ll know the ending too. Your Young Master Ye truly has lived a colorful and dramatic life with so many twists and turns in the plot. How about we discuss it a little? If you give me the creative rights to the story, I won’t charge you any money today. What do you think?”
“Creative rights?”
She nodded. “That’s right; allow me to use it for my novel. As you are aware, I’m an author, and I think this idea will work very well.”
Considering her status, he immediately shook his head and rejected the idea. “You can’t.”
“Why not? I won’t take your money either.”
With a cold expression, he said, “Trust me, if you spread this information out, the person you will offend is extremely terrifying. Don’t even talk about letting your novel see the light of day; you won’t even be alive to see the sky.”
Every word he said was scary, and he successfully terrified her. “I understand!” Forget it. Having a novel might be nice, but she was just a lowly writer. If she offended someone, she wouldn’t be able to enjoy a good life in the future.
Soon, the revision of the draft was completed. Without batting an eye, Xiao Su transferred three times the amount he initially offered over to her bank account. Then, he took the documents and left.
After he left, Jiang Xiaobai washed her face, then lay down and went back to sleep.
…
Ever since Yan started staying at home, she had been practicing a daily routine of early to bed and early to rise, cooking with her mother, and going to the hospital to visit her father. The 48 hours observation period had ended, but her father had yet to open his eyes. Even so, the doctors said that he had safely passed the dangerous period, so she and her mother were relieved.
Hearing those words, Luo Huimei let out a breath of relief. “That’s great. Yan, when your father wakes up, you better go and apologize to him. Don’t upset him.”
Yan nodded her head gloomily. “I got it, Mom.” In the past, she had a stubborn streak. After being stubborn for all these years, if her father had not gotten into an accident, she might not have known what it feels like to lose something precious.
