A Failed Webnovelist
[ Progress: 0/1500 words ]
Looking at her progress bar, or rather lack thereof, Xu Huiwen sighed for the nth time as she slumped in the chair, feeling dejected.
Where else could she find motivation?
Xu Huiwen had long lost every bit of it.
How long has it been? Seven months? Ten months? A year? It had been too long that she couldn't even remember exactly how long she had been neglecting her obligations as a writer.
Where were the daily chapters she had promised her beloved readers?
Where were the likes she usually gave to the lovely commenters of her novel?
Where were the replies of gratitude she would find time to write before her next updates?
Gone.
Everything was gone as though they were merely fragments of one's imagination.
If it wasn't for Webnovel's policy of not allowing the users to delete their novels, the novel that she had once enjoyed writing would have disappeared from the platform long ago.
Some readers waited. Some readers left. She knew there were still readers who kept patiently waiting, but she couldn't bring herself to continue writing.
That one miserable night, when everybody else went about their own lives as per usual, inside a lonely dorm room, the burning fire within this female webnovelist had started to wane…
Until it extinguished, leaving nothing but the smoke of yesterday's memories.
That night was when the doom started. The much-awaited notification update at 9pm didn't come. Maybe the author forgot, some hopeful readers had guessed.
But the next day, there was no update yet again. Maybe she was just too busy in real life?
And the day after that, continuing for months till now, there was yet any news from her.
Xu Huiwen stared at the white ceiling of her dorm room in a daze. The novel she abandoned had been weighing on her mind ever since.
She had tried to touch the unfinished chapter she last wrote a few months ago for several occasions already, but she just couldn't bring herself to continue.
Sitting in front of her computer screen, the words which used to flow like a free-flowing stream had been drained out, not even a single drop left for her to type out on her blank document.
She lost her passion.
She lost her passion for the things that she used to love…
It was definitely not a good feeling.
If only she could go back in time to give up before she even started, none of these depressing thoughts would haunt her in her sleep.
Ding! Ring~
The crisp and loud notification sound of an incoming call woke Xu Huiwen up from her stupor.
She hurriedly stood up from her computer chair, almost tripping over her own feet, as she grabbed her phone off the nightstand. She couldn't afford to wake the devil next door.
The caller ID showed "Xiao Mingyu".
'Oh, great! The bright and bubbly friend had called so early in the morning. She wouldn't just gossip about her annoying roommates, would she?' Xu Huiwen thought to herself sarcastically.
Sighing a little to herself, Xu Huiwen answered the call and greeted Xiao Mingyu in a hushed voice. "Hey!"
"Girl! Have you heard?!" Xiao Mingyu screamed over the phone. "WSA already started a few months back! You should definitely join this time! I'll send you the link for the themes, okay? Make sure to write me some good stuff! Mata ne~"
Then the line went dead after that.
Xu Huiwen was speechless.
She didn't even get to say anything at all. Little Yu just fired off sentence after sentence without giving her time to respond.
What did she say again?
WSA?
Ha! Right. WSA, huh?
Should she join?
Xu Huiwen couldn't help thinking if it's a good idea to start all over again.
New account. New pen name. New novel.
Which theme should she choose?
Would anyone even read her story?
With so many famous authors joining the contest, a nobody like her wouldn't probably get the chance to win anything.
That aside, the real question here would be: would she even find the courage and motivation to write anything in the first place?
Thinking up to here, Xu Huiwen shook her head to clear her mind off of these miscellaneous thoughts.
"Now is not the time to be thinking about this!"
Tying her shoulder-length hair up on a ponytail, her gaze subconsciously landed on the locked door joining her bedroom to the room next door.
"The devil shouldn't be awake at this time, right?" She muttered under her breath.
Xu Huiwen glanced at the wall clock and saw that it was already 5:35am.
"Oh, shit! Time to cook breakfast. The devil would come knocking on that locked door at exactly 6am." Saying her thoughts out loud, she quickly made her way to the makeshift kitchen.
She had woken up an hour ago to work on her thesis. There was minimal to no progress on that though, quite predictable as she kept on spacing out and thinking about her abandoned novel.
25 minutes.
She only had 25 minutes left to finish cooking.
The devil wanted to eat two perfect sunny-side-up eggs and three tuyo [1] with steaming hot fried rice. This was his favorite breakfast meal.
On the other hand, she was satisfied with a bowl of congee for her breakfast. She liked to put different toppings everyday to enjoy the various flavors each day.
With a minute to spare, she poured the freshly brewed black coffee on the devil's specialized coffee mug and arranged the plates and cutlery on the food trolley.
She took a sip of her jasmine tea before placing it on the trolley as well.
"Done!" An involuntary smile made its way on Xu Huiwen's androgynous face as she stared at the breakfast set.
Just in time, as the clock marked the first quarter of the day, a soft knock came from the other side of the locked door.
"Coming!" She shouted, pushing the food trolley whilst bouncing in her steps.
The devil promised to let her use his VR set today, so she's quite excited. Hopefully, the little guy was not in a bad mood today.
Hearing the familiar clinking of keys on the other side, Xu Huiwen unlocked the deadbolt locks on her side of the door as well.
Living in a Co-ed dormitory, she usually spent her days holed up in her own room, barely interacting with her dormmates. Well, except for her devil neighbor, she seldom meets with anyone at all.
With the recent changes in their school policies, classes were mostly held online due to the pandemic. They were only required to show up on the school premises every Friday for their hands-on laboratory classes.
The school administrators allowed students to either stay in dorms or go back to their hometowns. Xu Huiwen could have just chosen to go back home, but with her family's financial problems, she decided to stay in the dorms.
At least here, her family wouldn't have to worry about her share of food. Her parents could just then use their salary for her little brother's welfare. Though her financial aid could barely cover her food and lodgings, it's more than enough for her.
After all, she recently struck a deal with the devil next door. As long as she cooked food for him, he'd pay for her dorm fee. That worked out well for her. He would be shouldering the costs of her lodgings while she could keep the excess food for herself.
Xu Huiwen couldn't find any reason to disagree — oh wait, she was forced to move to a joint room with him. It was more or less the same as her previous room. The only difference was the addition of that door that connected her room with the devil's.
All in all, everything was in her favor. She couldn't ask for more.
If there was anything she absolutely wanted though, it would definitely be the hard to come by "motivation" to continue writing.
Opening the door, the first thing she saw was a kawaii shota [2] who had his arms crossed over his chest and his cheeks puffed, obviously angry for some reason unknown to her.
"Hey, little dev–, little Mo! Good morning!" Xu Huiwen had the urge to smack herself as she forced out a smile.
Her slip of the tongue might cause this little devil to flare up. That's not a good thing, was it? Especially now that it looks like he's not in a good mood...
"You're so noisy."
...
Notes:
[1] Tuyo is salted dried fish in Filipino.
[2] Kawaii means cute/loveable/adorable in Japanese. A "shota" is a "little young boy" character in manga and anime.