Chapter 55: Ghost Blows Out the Candle

"A suspense genre?" Chen Jiang pondered for a moment, a sudden idea taking shape in his mind.
"Got it! That genre doesn't seem to have appeared in this world yet..."
He created a new folder on his computer.
Book Title: *Ghost Blows Out the Light: The City of Jingjue*
Chen Jiang's fingers tapped rapidly across the keyboard.
[Synopsis: Driven by an ancestral secret manuscript, three contemporary tomb-raiders embark on a journey to unravel the millennium-old mystery behind the disappearance of an ancient tribe...]
Next came the [Prologue].
After finishing the prologue, Chen Jiang officially began writing the main text...
Chapter 1: [The Paper Doll and the Rat Companion]
My grandfather was called Hu Guohua...
Accompanied by the crisp clacking of the keyboard, the sky outside the window gradually grew dim.
In the blink of an eye, a fine drizzle began to fall outside.
The spring rain was persistent, falling drop by drop onto the windowsill.
This novel was the foundational pioneer of the "tomb-robbing" subgenre within the suspense category of his past life.
Even *Tomb Notes*, which later became wildly popular across the entire internet, had drawn inspiration from it.
Chen Jiang had read this novel back when he was in middle school in his previous life. The plot was full of twists and turns, deeply captivating, with a remarkably original setting and a grand framework.
It incorporated many polished storylines based on genuinely occurred events.
The word count of the first volume of this book was not particularly large, totaling only a little over two hundred thousand words. For a web novel writer like Chen Jiang, such a word count was practically a dimensional降维打击 (overwhelming advantage).
Thinking of those physical book authors who would drag out a single book of ten to twenty thousand words—or at most one or two hundred thousand—over half a year or even a full year,
Chen Jiang found this completely incomprehensible.
At a web novel writer's pace of efficiency, they would have long since been cursed to death by readers.
Starting a little past twelve o'clock, he wrote for nearly five hours, reaching around five o'clock before Chen Jiang finally stopped what he was doing.
The word count had already reached over forty thousand words; with just a few more days, he would be able to finish the first volume.
He rubbed his wrists and checked the time. It was almost five o'clock. Since it was raining today, if Yi Yunxue had to carry groceries and hold an umbrella all by herself, it would probably be quite inconvenient.
Chen Jiang sent her a message asking if she needed him to accompany her to buy groceries.
[Yi Yunxue]: I can drive the car myself now, it should be fine on my own.
[Chen Jiang]: Better let me go with you. You have to park the car outside, and that's still pretty inconvenient.
[Chen Jiang]: Let me drive you over.
Five minutes later, the two of them appeared together in the underground parking lot.
Getting into the car, Yi Yunxue sat in the passenger seat, fastened her seatbelt, and shared with Chen Jiang, "A gold-tier lyricist and composer came to the company today."
Chen Jiang glanced at her, feeling somewhat curious: "What's he doing coming to our company?"
"He brought a few songs over, saying he wanted to sell them to us. There are six songs in total, all of first-tier quality, and I bought four of them."
Chen Jiang joked, "Is our company's influence that big now? Gold-tier songwriters are personally coming to our door to submit works."
Yi Yunxue explained, "It seems he came here to attend a composer exchange meeting and just dropped by on the way."
"He even asked me if you were at the company and wanted to get to know you. When I told him you weren't here, he seemed a bit disappointed."
"Looking for me for what?" Chen Jiang was a bit baffled.
"You're currently the most mysterious genius lyricist and composer in the industry; there are plenty of people who want to get acquainted with you," Yi Yunxue laughed.
"You're really so low-key. Normally you hardly ever go to the company, and you haven't even registered a social media account online."
Chen Jiang smiled without a word, concentrating on driving the car.
The car headed toward the residential area's main gate. At this moment, inside the security booth beside the automatic boom barrier, a newly hired young security guard kept a close eye on the incoming vehicles from both directions.
Seeing that Chen Jiang was so young yet drove a car worth millions, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly: "Can't the world spare just one more rich person like me?!"
The barrier lifted, and the car surged forward.
Raindrops struck the windshield, and the view began to blur. Chen Jiang turned on the wipers and asked Yi Yunxue:
"Where are we going to buy groceries?"
"Fengyang Vegetable Market. Actually, I'm usually more used to going to that vegetable market a bit further away; the things there are fresher, but we'll skip it today since it's raining."
Yi Yunxue said.
The Fengyang Vegetable Market was only two kilometers away from their residential compound.
They arrived at their destination very quickly.
Although it was raining, there were still a lot of people out at this time of day.
After parking the car, Chen Jiang popped open a large umbrella, holding it over Yi Yunxue's head as the two of them walked into the vegetable market together.
This was actually the first time Chen Jiang had ever gone grocery shopping with Yi Yunxue.
Back home in his hometown, he used to go grocery shopping with his mom sometimes.
Chen Jiang was completely clueless about this sort of thing; when he was little, he had once volunteered to learn how to cook.
That time, both his parents encouraged him, saying it tasted great, until he actually believed them and ate the fish he had cooked himself...
After trying to learn a few more times, he discovered that he genuinely couldn't pick it up at all—he had zero talent for it.
Following those few experiences, his mom refused to let him learn how to cook ever again.
Chen Jiang was still deeply impressed by what his mom had said back then:
"I'm afraid you'll burn the kitchen down."
Ever since then, he had never cooked a meal again, aside from occasionally boiling some simple noodles.
Walking behind Yi Yunxue, he watched her pick and choose at the meat stall until she finally selected a piece of pork belly with a good balance of fat and lean meat.
"Boss, cut it this big." She gestured toward that piece of meat.
The boss understood in a second, picked up the pork, and made a cut.
"Boss, no need to chop it into pieces, I'll cut it myself."
After calculating the price and paying the bill, Chen Jiang took the bag from her hands.
"Let's go over there and buy some chicken... We'll make stewed chicken with mushrooms for lunch tomorrow!" Yi Yunxue said to him.
"Okay." Chen Jiang nodded, following closely behind her.
After finishing the grocery shopping, Chen Jiang held the umbrella in one hand and carried two bags filled with ingredients in the other.
Yi Yunxue's hands weren't idle either; they were full of groceries.
The two of them left the vegetable market loaded down with goods.
These ingredients would be their food for the next two days.
They put the items into the trunk.
The two of them ducked back into the car.
"We won't need to come out to buy groceries tomorrow; since it's raining, we bought a bit extra," Yi Yunxue said to him.
"Mm-hmm, next time it rains, remember to call me to come with you so you don't get caught in the rain by yourself," Chen Jiang instructed.
"I'll remember!" Yi Yunxue stuck out her delicate, pink tongue.
Tonight's dinner consisted of braised pork belly, minced pork with eggplants, and steamed mandarin fish.
The soup was dried scallop and white radish soup.
After finishing dinner and clearing the table, Chen Jiang returned to his own home and continued writing the first volume of *Ghost Blows Out the Light*.
...
In the blink of an eye, three days passed.
Today, the rain finally stopped, parting the clouds to reveal the sun.
The ground outside was not yet completely dry, and the air was permeated with a unique scent belonging to spring.
On this morning, Chen Jiang finally finished writing the first volume of *Ghost Blows Out the Light: The City of Jingjue*.
After saving the file, he sent the manuscript to Vice President Ning.
[Chen Jiang]: Uncle Ning, this is a suspense novel I wrote myself, and I'm planning to take the physical publishing route.
...
Having just returned to Beijing after finishing a business trip in Shenzhen, Ning Fengyun had just woken up when he saw the message sent by Chen Jiang.
He instantly became wide awake.
"What? Jianghe is preparing to publish a physical book?"