Why Did He Write in the First Place?

Su Yan told Nie Chang the whole story while starting to sob again. "So doesn't this mean that I really can't write? Uwuwu, this isn't fair! I've been writing for so long! Why did I never notice how bad I was?"

"Aiya …" Nie Chang pulled him closer and rubbed his head. "This is total nonsense. Yes, you might not be perfect and there might still be some flaws in your writing but didn't your readers still enjoy reading them? There was only a really, really, really small percentage that said you weren't a good author and all of them were on your old stories, right? There wasn't even one who said that about your new stories. So, doesn't that mean that you've made tremendous progress?"

"But the system —"

"Ah!" Nie Chang put a finger onto Su Yan's lips and shook his head. "Don't even start like that. The system is just some kind of program. It can certainly calculate things but it will never be able to compute human emotions or understand art. And what you're doing is art, isn't it?

"Don't listen too much to the system in this regard. Just take it as … a kind of guideline, yes, something that tells you how a lot of people do something and how it could be done. But in the end, you're the one that decides what to do."

"Are you sure?"

"But of course! Writing stories isn't about pleasing the system, now is it? If so, then you wouldn't have written so much before getting it. So, shouldn't you ask yourself why you are writing instead?"

"Why I'm writing?" Su Yan blinked his doe eyes, looking completely nonplussed. He had never thought about that before …

"Mn. You'll see that it has nothing to do with the system."

"I guess so …" Su Yan tilted his head. Yes, why was he even started writing in the first place?

Back then, it had probably been because he had read that series with the terrible ending. After raging for a while he had thought that he would be able to do it a lot better than that idiot of an author. So he had written an alternate ending that he liked better.

Even though it had been a lot more work than he originally thought it would be he had been happy when he finished and even happier when he shared the story online and found out that a lot of other people had also disliked the original ending.

Someone had even asked him what he thought of the ending of another series in the comments and with him answering and other people responding too he had somehow found himself also writing an alternate ending for that series. That time he had made even more fun. After all, he already knew what to expect and there were the few people who had read his first story and still exchanged messages with him.

After these two stories were finished a lot of others had followed. The stories had gotten longer and he had gotten bolder with time. Attempting something new with every attempt. Not even once had he lost interest in finding something else to write and then sticking with it. The only reason why he had later on gone on hiatus for a while had been his work schedule. He just hadn't been able to fit writing into that sometimes. And actually … it had pained him.

Not being able to write for a day or for a week or even for more than a month as it had happened back at the service point of the railroad station … It made him feel bad. He missed it! And his thoughts would constantly drift back to the story he had wanted to write at that moment or the stories that he could write as soon as he had a little more time. Sometimes he would even catch himself jotting down some notes when he was talking to a really long-winded passenger.

So, in the end … "I guess I wrote because it made me happy?"

"Mn. I think so too. At least you always seemed really happy when you could write. So, why should you stop? Just continue! The things you learned from the system … Just think them through and then if you feel that they're something you want to use, then do so. And if there's some sentence where you find the advice from the system stupid, then just ignore it. It's your story. The most important thing is that you're happy with it."

Su Yan pursed his lips and couldn't help but wriggle around a bit. "Really?"

Nie Chang froze and tried to shift Su Yan to the side inconspicuously. Unfortunately, a certain someone thought he wanted to hug him and pounced right back onto him.

"Ah Chang!"

"Mn." Nie Chang gave a pained smile. "It's always the most important thing that you're happy."

Su Yan very happily nodded and kissed his cheek.

Nie Chang sighed. "Alright, then. Feeling better now?"

Su Yan nodded again. "Then … I should probably get back to work?"

"How about taking a break from writing instead? You were busy with it the whole morning. I guess what the system said also affected you this much because of this."

"But we don't have that much time anymore, do we?"

"Mn. And that is exactly why you should stop now. Just save what you did until now and after that, I'll tell Old Lao to take over at the counter."

"But it's a little early to go to my parents', isn't it?"

Nie Chang gave a mischievous smile. "Well, we're not going to. Didn't you want to shove our mutual affection in your father's face? I have the perfect idea for that."

Su Yan's eyes widened. He probably shouldn't be surprised since Nie Chang had always had such a teasing manner but … How had he suddenly thought of something devious for his dad? And what was it?

He immediately clutched Nie Chang's shirt and blinked at him with sparkling eyes. "Ah Chang, just what brilliant idea did you have?"

Unfortunately, his boyfriend still liked to tease him the most. He gave Su Yan a quick kiss before pushing him off his lap. "You'll see when we get home. Now go save your work." And with that, he stood up and just walked into the back room, not giving Su Yan any chance to bother him further.