Chapter 248: The Takeaway

After Bai Muchuan and his team left, Xiang Wan took a hot bath.

The weather at Xi City was particularly gloomy and cloudy. When one looked out of the window, the dark clouds looked as though they were pressing down on the high rise buildings, making the atmosphere somewhat heavy and stifling.

Xiang Wan stretched herself and put on the pajamas she brought. She wanted to continue writing her story, but apparently, the long journey took a toll on her body. Her head was muddled and dizzy. She was unable to get into momentum.

“Achoo—”

After a sneeze, she took a jacket.

The weather was cold.

From her angle, she could see a vast expanse of white outside the window that seemed like fog or maybe more like a haze.

The empty sky felt infinite, far and, at the same time, hollow…

She kept getting distracted. After writing a few lines, she still couldn’t get into the momentum and decided to visit her reviews and comments page.

“‘The Temptation of the Rich & Famous’—Uncover the secrets of the path to being the rich & famous. Those who participate in the making of this book will ultimately become the most revered author. An annual income of tens of millions will no longer be a dream…”

That particular comment caught her attention.

There were lots of replies to that comment.

“How do I participate?”

“Is this from a particular online novel studio? Is it a training program or are you looking for ghost writers?”

“Will the original poster please provide contact info?”

“…”

There were lots of queries, but the original poster did not reply.

These advertisements… they infiltrated my reviews and comments page! she thought.

Scammers nowadays had a lot of tricks up their sleeves. One moment, they were hiring typists, offering 30 yuan for every 1000 words, now, they were going to unveil the secrets of becoming a revered Author…

Xiang Wan grunted a sneer and typed a retort when she noticed she could not reply to it.

When she did a page refresh, she noticed the comment had been deleted.

In view of Zi Tan’s insinuating post at Weibo, a lot of haters would come to her reviews and comments page and leave some nasty comments. The website’s administrators would often look out for comments of such nature. Generally, anything that involved hurling abuse at the author or another reader including advertisements or novel recommendations from other sites would be deleted.

Did it get deleted? So be it.

Xiang Wan was not really bothered by it. After browsing through for a while, she did not find anything unusual and closed the page.

She did not participate in the battle between her fans and Zi Tan’s fans that had gone on for the past few days. Once in a while, however, Yuan Qianqian would keep her updated.

Hence, maybe it was because the haters got tired, she was aware the verbal abuse battle was not as aggressive as before.

Well, as she was caught in such a turmoil, she felt she was being thrown into a dye vat.

Those slanderous remarks were as though black dyes that stained her. It seemed impossible to wash off the stain.

Nevertheless, Xiang Wan was not bothered by it.

These keyboard warriors or haters had invested energy and time on slandering her, but she didn’t do the same. For that, she conceded defeat.

She was able to come out of her initial depressed mood ever since the day she met Zhan Se.

Not only her, but any web novelist would also have gotten abused before via the internet in some form or another. It was simply a question of intensity.

Simply put, in this world, no one would know what they would become when someone talked about them to another person.

It was the same for everyone. Neither herself nor Zi Tan was any different.

She couldn’t afford to fuss or be calculative over such things…

Xiang Wan looked at the time and wondered how long it would take for Bai Muchuan to come back. She felt a little hungry and started to feel flustered.

Just like most web novelists, due to the irregularity of work and rest for a long period of time, she belonged to the subhealth group of people. Her blood sugar level was a little low, and whenever she felt hungry, she would break out in cold sweat.

Hence, after struggling in less than ten seconds, she decided to pamper herself by ordering a takeaway.

…

Xi City was a big city. Online businesses were advanced in their technology as well.

It did not take more than 30 minutes when her phone rang.

Xiang Wan picked it up. “Hello.”

“Did you place an order for food?” replied the delivery guy, “I’m at the entrance of the hotel. Could you come down and collect the food? I’m not allowed to go up.”

This hotel had very good security. In order to use the elevator, one would need to scan the room card, and the room card would only send the occupant to the level where their room was located.

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Xiang Wan changed into appropriate clothing and headed downstairs with her phone and room card.

The lobby of the hotel was huge and spacious. She had to make a detour before heading to the main entrance.

A man wearing a helmet was waiting for her outside the rotating door with the food in his hands…

His clothes seemed rather thin. It was already mid-December where the weather had started to turn cold. As he stood outside against the cold winds, Xiang Wan could already feel the cold air outside.

Xiang Wan zipped up her jacket and walked out of the rotating door. “Hello, is that my order?”

The delivery guy turned around and looked at his phone. “Are you Miss Xiang?”

That was the name she used to register in the food and delivery app.

She nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”

She stretched out her hand to take the food with a smile.

The delivery guy passed the food over.

At this very moment, a woman dressed in black dashed over and entered the hotel.

She seemed to be in a hurry. She was tall and donned a cap, a backpack, as well as a pair of aviators that covered half of her face. She darted past Xiang Wan—

Hence, just as Xiang Wan was about to take the food, the woman’s backpack knocked the food onto the ground.

With a thud, the surrounding seemed to become quiet.

That woman was a little shocked and turned to apologize. “My apologies.”

Xiang Wan picked up the food which was firmly secured in its disposable container as she took a good look at it.

To be frank, she was not too happy about it. However, she did not want to create a fuss over such a petty issue, either.

She replied expressionlessly, “It’s okay.”

That woman adjusted her shades and went into the hotel.

The delivery guy was at a loss facing such an unexpected situation.

“Miss Xiang, my bad,” his tone sounded lower than before. “I had let go as I thought you have gotten hold of the food. I didn’t expect…”

“It’s fine. The food is still edible, it didn’t get dirtied or anything.”

Xiang Wan adjusted the bag used to carry the food. She was thinking she was unlucky to have encountered this.

If she launched a complaint or refused to accept the delivery, the delivery guy would have to pay for the food from his own pocket.

The delivery guy was just doing his job to feed himself or his family. As the food was pretty much intact, there was no need for her to behave that way.

He was grateful for Xiang Wan’s kind gesture.

Wiping the perspiration off his forehead, he was finally able to show a smile.

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

“I should, I should, I’m really apologetic about what happened. Thank you so much…”

The delivery guy thanked her profusely.

Xiang Wan puffed a sigh inside her head as she returned a smile before she dusted the bag and returned to the hotel.

As she walked past the lobby, from the corner of her eye, she could see the woman dressed in black talking to the receptionist.

Xiang Wan cut through the lobby from the middle as she walked with her slippers and stepped into the elevator. Just as she scanned her room card and pressed the level where her room was situated, she heard someone calling out.

“Wait!”

The door of the elevator opened again.

Xiang Wan saw that it was the lady in black.

… What a small world.

As Xiang Wan thought so, she stood still.

The woman in black nodded at Xiang Wan. She stood beside her and lowered her head facing the door of the elevator.

As Xiang Wan did not see her swipe her room card, she looked at her strangely.

The woman in black seemed to guess what Xiang Wan was thinking. “I’m in the same level as you,” she answered softly.

“I see.”

Xiang Wan said nothing more.

The elevator moved quietly upward. Xiang Wan looked at her own reflection in the mirror where her image was stretched, looking very thin and tall which looked somewhat scary.

When the elevator arrived at her floor, Xiang Wan stood there without moving as she had planned to see what the woman intended to do. Contrary to her expectation, the woman in black dashed out of the elevator the moment the door opened.