[Contact me when you’re online!]
[Where have you been these past few days?]
[Why have you been missing for so long? Your apprentice is going crazy looking for you!]
She hadn’t been online for over a month; there were more than a dozen chat windows flashing open, making her dizzy.
Mia Ginger closed some messages from game friends, leaving three chat windows open.
Zoey Leaf is a classmate and friend. Those days when she had a falling out with Camilia Davis, she asked her to help rent a room outside.
Upon arriving at the Ginger Family in a rush, she completely forgot about it.
Drunk is an apprentice she took under her wing in the game six months ago, who particularly likes sticking to her.
Editor Crescent Moon is a magazine editor for "New Moon," who contacted her last month wanting to select some of her short stories for a collection to be her first physical book.
Mia Ginger dragged the mouse back and forth across the chat windows, first replying to Crescent Moon.
[Sorry, there were some issues at home recently, that’s why I’m only online now. Apologies.]
Then immediately replied to Drunk—
[Had some issues at home, haven’t been online these days.]
Her online name is the same as her pen name—Wine.
She began publishing short stories five years ago in two youth magazines, "Martial Arts" and "New Moon," becoming famous for her concise writing and varied, quirky style, amassing quite a following.
Initially, she published on "Martial Arts," a magazine primarily for male readers, leading many online to speculate she was an older male; later on, as she shifted to "New Moon," for female readers, the speculation became even more absurd.
Most believed she was an effeminate "pseudo-girl"—a leftover man, but she still had plenty of fans.
Mia Ginger has always been poor these past years; Camilia Davis supported her, yet life was still quite tight. Even before attending school, she was often left at the neighbors’ house.
Their second neighbor was a young man who ran a book rental shop.
In the small city, such rental bookshops were prevalent, mostly near schools, full of novels and magazines, where you could rent for free with a book rental card costing a dozen or twenty bucks.
With no one to watch her, Mia Ginger would sit on a little stool at the shop’s entrance, beginning to grab and read the low-shelf books despite barely knowing any words.
Mostly yellowed martial arts novels from the corners.
Her interest in reading sparked at age four, spanning widely and oddly, leading her to write a short story at fourteen, attempting to submit it to "Martial Arts" magazine.
That was the start of a five-year journey.
Through the magazines’ popularity, she accumulated quite the readership.
Yet she remained poor.
She needed inspiration and a very quiet environment to write her stories, always handwriting, initially submitting them, and these past two years, typing them to email editors, a very time-consuming process.
And she didn’t have that much time.
She had to go to school, and afterward, help Camilia Davis with her stall, squeezing out time for homework, making reading and writing ever more luxurious.
Writing a five thousand to ten thousand word short story took a few months, with the best manuscript fee around two thousand bucks, mostly given to Camilia Davis.
Currently, aside from the two thousand bucks she’s kept, she couldn’t even afford a phone.
This two thousand bucks was her last manuscript fee, before giving it to Camilia Davis, they’d argued over her background.
She’d originally planned to use it for renting a place.
Mia Ginger saved Zoey Leaf’s number, stored it in her phone, intending to call her, when another chat window flashed on the screen.
She met Drunk in the martial arts online game, coincidentally a martial arts novel enthusiast who likes Wine, hence registering Drunk as his name.
Combined, it becomes "Wine, Drunk."
Both chose male avatars; Drunk had top-tier gear but was mediocre in skill, seeing her avatar name, declared her a soulmate, pestering her into becoming his mentor.
Mia Ginger, feeling annoyed but intrigued that he was a reader of hers, finally agreed, making him her only apprentice in the game.
Only, this apprentice never knew she was female.
At the Ginger Family, she was constantly lectured, lacking time to be online, hence not playing the game.
[Aaaah! Master, you’re finally here, I missed you to death!]
While she was in a daze, another message popped up—
[Master, what happened? You vanished for over a month. Humph, you must’ve completely forgotten me.]
Mia Ginger couldn’t help but laugh, replying.
[Ugh, me too. I’m so annoyed lately, a pesky person showed up at our home! I’m just furious!]
[Remember I told you about my sister, right?]
[Yeah. She’s a novelist.]
[It’s really frustrating. Suddenly, another elder sister appeared out of nowhere. It’s so annoying, she came and caused chaos at our home, stole my sister’s crush, pushing her to attempt suicide by cutting her wrist!]
Mia Ginger stared at the chat window, stunned.
After a while, hesitantly typed—
[You mean my sister? No, I found out just in time. But now that pesky person has met the guy’s family, claiming she wants to live together for mutual understanding.]
[It’s basically a trial marriage; I’m just livid!]
[Master, what should I do? I want to help my sister; what if she tries to kill herself again?]