Chapter 338: The Reason for Father Wang Dragging His Feet

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Wang Ling thought he had had a nightmare because it had been a very long time since he had last slept.

He closed his eyes and inspected his body inwardly; even after checking his soul inside out, he couldn’t find that soul contract which the coconut old man had mentioned.

So… maybe he was just overthinking it?

Wang Ling breathed a sigh of relief; actually, if what the coconut old man in his dream had said was true, he should have felt the soul binding take effect as soon as he had entered the space.

Although his life was now a little turbulent, he could so far still accept the overall situation. Currently, it was too early for him to come into contact with Venerated Immortals; Wang Ling didn’t want to become entangled with some random person, much less have anything to do with the so-called old seniors in the cultivation circle – that would only bring him even more trouble.

Frowning, he raised one hand, and his room window opened.

What was supposed to be a pleasant weekend had in the end been screwed up by that coconut old man, making Wang Ling feel somewhat distracted.

As the cool breeze from the window caressed his cheeks, his restless and agitated heart calmed down a little.

…

After reviewing his classwork for a bit upstairs, Wang Ling closed the textbook. Through the window, he saw the old man and Mother Wang go out on Sheep. Mother Wang was holding Loopy Toad as she sat in the back of the tricycle while the old man pedaled. It looked like they were going to buy groceries while at the same time take Loopy Toad out for a ride.

Cupping his chin at his desk, Wang Ling watched the old man ride the tricycle off into the distance on East Huang Road. When they were tens of meters away from the Wang family’s small villa, he actually saw Loopy Toad pull down the corners of its eyes with its claws as it made a face at him, making Wang Ling’s own face twitch… He truly felt that Loopy Toad’s life was far more comfortable than his own!

It was a rare, idle weekend. Wang Ling brought up Father Wang’s novel on his watch, and was surprised to find that Father Wang actually didn’t have any new chapters up today.

Skimming through the website, Wang Ling saw that the comments section forThe Live Streaming Life of the Immortal King was full of complaints, as expected.

Book friend “Newbie Is Too Much”: Is Guru Wang Situ updating today or not? Tell us if you aren’t, waiting for updates is too painful! Book friend “Wounds/Dream Of War”: Shock! Some particular web novelist actually hasn’t updated so far. Is this warped morality or a lack of humanity behind this? Book friend “Golden July”:Previously, I was following a book by an author called Three Days and Two Nights. Now I’ve realized that this author I’m following has become Three Days and Two Updates… Uncle Wang Situ, you must hold on! Book friend “Lock The Writer In A Small Dark Room To Type”: Everyone, be mindful of your behavior! Scolding others is not the right way! In my opinion, why don’t we find two individuals to wait outside the front door of the author’s house, and when he comes out, put him in a sack and “execute” him! Book friend “GGsbada”: Is it going to be only one update a day from now on… OH! NO! …

Wang Ling: “…”

Wang Ling’s impression of Father Wang was that he wasn’t someone who would often drag his feet. Furthermore, from his general understanding of Father Wang’s rules for novel updates after all these years, there usually wouldn’t be a delay or break in them.

However, when Father Wang burst with inspiration and finished writing a week’s worth of drafts in the space of one day, it was possible for him to exhaust all of it after that. The bottom line was that Father Wang was just an ordinary person, and inspiration was an abstract thing that couldn’t just be conjured up whenever you liked. After an explosion of inspiration, Father Wang would without fail sink into a state where his brain felt like it was empty.

There were times when you really couldn’t rush writing.

Sometimes, the more you wanted to write, the more aware you became of how empty your mind was when you tried to put pen to paper.

For veteran web novelist Father Wang, his reasons for delaying or taking a break from updates had to do with time, for example when he had to cooperate with the website and do offline promotions for his novels. Of course, sometimes it had to do with the plot. Father Wang had been writing for so many years, and Wang Ling didn’t believe that his dad wasn’t able to write a single word. But if he forced himself to write when he was in this frame of mind, he wouldn’t be able to justify the chapter’s quality to his readers.

Quantity or quality: this was a problem which many writers faced.

After all, you couldn’t have your cake and eat it too.

So when Wang Ling went downstairs, he saw Father Wang leaning back against the sofa with a hopeless expression, his hands under his head as he smoked. Father Wang’s normal method of looking for inspiration was to watch the live streams of female broadcast hosts, but his favorite female host Little Xuan wasn’t online at the moment, which made him especially twitchy.

Seeing that Wang Ling had come downstairs, he turned his head slightly to look at him, then patted the sofa. “Ling Ling, come and sit!”

Wang Ling knew that this was Father Wang’s second main method for finding inspiration, and that was to frantically look for people to chat with him.

Usually, it would be Mother Wang who would accompany him in this role, but now that she had gone shopping with the old man, Wang Ling was once again surprised to realize that he had actually become the “fallback guy”!

“Little Ming is coming over tonight, so your mother and grandfather went out grocery shopping.” Father Wang flicked away the ash from his cigarette as he spoke to Wang Ling.

Wang Ling replied obligingly with a “Mm.”

During the sporadic times that Father Wang lost his inspiration, even his expression was different; it was full of dejection, which made Wang Ling feel a little unsettled.

Father Wang cast a sidelong glance at him. The corners of his mouth instantly couldn’t help twitching when he realized that Wang Ling was sitting two spots away from him. “This kid… why are you sitting so far away from me?”

Wang Ling: “…”

Father Wang then directly stretched out his hand to pull Wang Ling in to lean against him. “You stuck to me so much when you were younger; have you forgotten that?”

Wang Ling took a deep breath and decided not to argue. “…” The most vivid impression he had of his childhood was probably Father Wang’s mustache; this thing was really unbearably prickly.

Suddenly speaking of when Wang Ling had been young, Father Wang seemed to be remembering a lot of stories, and he couldn’t help smiling. “Do you know? Your mother actually wrote novels before.”

Wang Ling looked at him curiously. “Huh?”

Father Wang: “We were childhood friends, so I’m crystal clear on what she likes to do. When she was young, she actually published a book, and her writing was pretty good! At that time, many publishing houses got in touch with her to write a sequel. She had even drafted the main outline and had decided to start anew with a different pen name… but in the end she became pregnant with you.”

Wang Ling: “…”