A Reason to Break Up

When Nie Chang came back from the bathroom he found his boyfriend sitting on the couch hunched over his notebook. He wore his shirt inside out and had somehow forgotten to close his belt. His expression said that he didn't care about any of that though.

Nie Chang scratched his head. What was he supposed to do now? Disturb him and drive him to Auntie Zhu's shop to get breakfast? He'd probably get cussed at for that and after that, he'd be ignored for the rest of the day or maybe even the week. Even if you gave him a hundred guts he wouldn't risk that.

He shook his head and went to the kitchen, looking through the things in the fridge. His spoils were extremely lacking though. As someone who couldn't cook, Su Yan naturally didn't have many ingredients at home. Nie Chang had actually been quite surprised that he had managed to find enough for yesterday's meal.

With another glance at the person in the living room, Nie Chang took the spare key to Su Yan's apartment and left.

Su Yan didn't notice that his other half had gone, though. In fact, he didn't even think of Nie Chang who seemed to have gone to the bathroom for a rather long time. He was completely concentrated on the file in front of him.

Su Yan wasn't actually writing. Instead, he was just making some notes on the story he might write. This was something he had already done when planning his fanfictions, after all, he still had had to write everything that would happen to the characters even if they themselves weren't his own creation.

It wouldn't have been a problem with some shorter stories since he'd be able to remember every little detail until the story was completely written. But if the story was longer it might take him several weeks or even months until it was finished. He might forget something until then or even worse he might have overlooked something at the beginning that didn't make sense. When the story was written that kind of thing would be too glaring to ignore.

How could he let anyone point out some plot holes in his story? He didn't want to have any in the first place! So, he had to sit down first and plan a bit before actually writing the story.

It seemed especially hard this time though. It wasn't that he lacked inspiration but he couldn't help but worry about the system while he tried to think about the story. What if it had some requirement for the thing he wrote next? Wouldn't it be bad if he started a story and then after a few chapters the system told him he had to write something else? What if he didn't have the time to write both simultaneously? Then he'd have to drop one and the readers of that story would complain. Then maybe he'd try to write both but couldn't concentrate on either of them and thus their quality dropped. That would be a disaster!

Ah, this couldn't go on! He had to take a look!

Su Yan took out his phone and opened the Lovely Writing System. Before he could click on the main task another window popped up though.

[Special mission

Result: Failed

The host has exceeded the time limit of 1 week. The special mission is judged as failed. The host may choose whether to receive punishment or substitute the task for another one of a comparable level.]

Su Yan stared at the characters on his phone's screen and raised his brows. Hah? He exceeded the time limit of a task? What was this about? What kind of task was this even?! He couldn't remember anything like this!

He looked at the three buttons at the bottom of the window with a dark expression. It seemed everyone was ganging up on him. First, there was that reader who had no idea what great literature was and now, even the system wanted to bully him! Wuwu, he'd cry to Nie Chang later on!

For now, he could only decisively click on [Details]. After all, he first had to know what this was about. The system opened a smaller window for him.

[Reiteration of task: Observe the men in your surroundings and pair them up! Find at least 10 highly compatible couples.

Time Limit: 1 Week.]

Su Yan's eyes widened. Right! That task! He remembered it! That was the one he had gotten the morning after he found the system. He still hadn't really believed in the system at that point in time so he hadn't taken it seriously and just haphazardly combined some people. The worst thing was that disregarding some tests he had paired up only men and women and neglected the gay couples. This task probably really could be deemed an utter failure! He had nothing to say in his defense!

As if the system wanted to make sure he wouldn't try to argue it had provided him with some further detail on how badly he had flunked this task:

[Progress:

Couples paired: 89/100

Highly compatible couples found: 1/10

Time remaining: Time limit exceeded]

Su Yan couldn't look at it anymore. This was really too horrible a result to look at! He hurriedly closed the little window and stared at the other two buttons. Between [Receive punishment] and [Substitute with another task] it was obvious which one he would choose. The system accommodatingly showed him his substitute task:

[You unlocked a special mission: Face up to the challenges couples might encounter. Find at least 10 problems that might lead to a break up.

Time limit: 1 month

Further explanation: If the basic requirement for a successful love story is a compatible couple, then the special ingredient for it is the force that tries to drive this seemingly perfect couple apart.

As an author you should get to know different kinds of stumbling blocks that will test your couple's love for each other and add suspense to your story.]

Su Yan stared at the so-called special mission with an unbelieving expression. Was this really a task equivalent to pairing up compatible people? This seemed too easy! To prove he was right, he closed the Lovely Writing System and wrote a message on WeChat.

[Ah Chang, say, what's a reason to break up?]

Nie Chang who was lining up to pay took out his phone. As soon as he saw the message on his screen his brow beaded with cold sweat and he hurriedly wrote back:

[Please tell me that going out to shop for groceries isn't.]

Su Yan scratched his head. It seemed … the task wasn't as easy as he thought. Well, at least he had a month to find out what kind of thing was able to threaten a perfectly fine relationship. That shouldn't be too hard.

Nie Chang instantly hurried back after paying since he still hadn't received a response from Su Yan. When he finally reached the apartment he once again received a shock thanks to the Lovely Writing System. The last time it had Su Yan enter the Special Dimension without prior warning so he thought the person who had just become his boyfriend had somehow gotten cold feet and fled. This time after getting a message about breaking up he once again came back to an empty apartment.

Indeed, just looking at Nie Chang's expression at this moment it seemed that Su Yan had already found the very first reason for a couple breaking up. Misunderstandings really could be such frightening things.