Su Yan held onto Nie Chang's cheeks for a bit until he felt that he had taken enough revenge for his own face. Satisfied, he turned back to his notes.
Mn, his antagonist should count as properly planned now. In fact, with the identity of his antagonist set he suddenly knew how the auction would play out, too. With the whole state treasury and a big clan of cultivators behind him, the antagonist wouldn't have any trouble raising the prize even to a degree where Ziju An would have trouble competing with him. So there was no way he wouldn't win against the protagonist in the end.
The real problem would be that the antagonist felt that it was a slap to his face if somebody even thought about competing against him. After all, he was obviously the son of the emperor and the grandson of the highest-ranking general of the whole kingdom. People needed to be blind to not notice that he was mount Tai! Thus, when the protagonist still dared to try and compete with him he would land on the antagonist's blacklist.
Mn, come to think of it, maybe this hate should develop in steps just like the romance between Dou Fang Hai and Ziju An did. Maybe there was already some trouble at the admission into the sect, then at the auction again and finally they would meet in the assembly where the protagonist would triumph over the antagonist.
Oh. The antagonist still needed a name. He couldn't continue just calling him 'the antagonist'. That sounded really dumb. Since he was part of the imperial family of the Jin kingdom which was named after the Jin mountain where the Jin Shan Sect resided his family's name should definitely be Jin. As for his first name ... Bao Fu?
Su Yan nodded and just wrote it down. This was only the antagonist. He didn't need to plan that well. Who cared about his name anyway? People would probably just call him 'that idiot' or 'that cannon fodder' or 'the one courting death' anyway. It was still good to have a name though.
So, now back to the plot ... Su Yan organized his notes so that they would correspond to the time when they would happen in the story and stared at the list he had received:
[1. Dou Fang Hai enters the Jin Shan Sect.
2. Dou Fang Hai and Jin Bao Fu meet at the admission test and get into trouble with each other.
3. Dou Fang Hai is taken in as Ziju An's disciple.
4. Dou Fang Hai and Jin Bao Fu meet again at the auction. Jin Bao Fu wins the bid but feels like he lost face.
5. Dou Fang Hai and Jin Bao Fu meet once more at the assembly. Dou Fang Hai wins and Jin Bao Fu feels deeply humiliated.]
Su Yan pursed his lips. These were the things he had already planned and found a good place for. There were still some ideas he didn't know where to put though. Well, it wasn't like these five ideas wouldn't take up a lot of chapters already. Eh? Come to think of it he didn't even know if there was a word limit this time! How was he supposed to plan this story if that stupid system didn't give him all the information he needed?!
Su Yan took out his phone and opened the Lovely Writing System there so that he could simultaneously look at his notes on the notebook and adjust them on the go if necessary.
When he opened the system he found the same window from before much to his surprise. Su Yan blinked but finally realized that he hadn't closed it on the notebook so the system had opened it once again on his phone.
Ah, he had been too frustrated with his result just now. It was nothing unexpected.
Su Yan clicked the button at the bottom but instead of closing the window or showing another one the text was just scrolled down.
[Congratulations! The host managed to pass the test! The host's rank is promoted from 'Apprentice Of Dating' to 'Adept of Flirting'.]
[Issuing rewards.]
[With the promotion, the host receives the following rewards:
Tasks: special tasks (advanced)
Tasks: practice tasks
Special Dimension: crafting intermediate settings
Special Dimension: crafting simple scenes]
Hah? Haah? What was happening here?! Su Yan stared at the messages and the row of rewards. Had he actually managed to gain enough ... experience or whatever with the notes the system rated so badly that he managed to rise to the next level? How was this possible?!
Su Yan leaned back, his expression a complete blank. He himself couldn't say what he just felt. This morning his mind had been preoccupied with thoughts of Nie Chang, then he had thought about the plans for his second story, and finally he had pondered the rating. He had had so many things to do that he had somehow completely forgotten about the fact that he was about to reach the next level. If the system hadn't reminded him with its message now he might never have noticed until he was about to reach the fourth level!
Su Yan reached to the side and tugged at the sleeve of the person next to him without looking over.
Nie Chang put away the notebook he was repairing and leaned over. "What is it, darling? Do you need my help?"
"No. The system said I've already reached the next level."
"Mn? Then why are you looking like this? That's great! You should be happy about it!" Nie Chang leaned over even further and kissed his cheek. "Mn, congratulations! But what's the test of a measly little system to my darling? Your husband always knew you were the best!"
Su Yan nodded. "Yeah, it ... it wasn't that hard."
Although he had to say ... it was still much harder than he would have thought. He had been stuck while planning and had needed to ask Nie Chang for help and everything had taken much longer than he would have imagined. Furthermore, he hadn't gotten a full score in even one category and his plot could only be considered mediocre at best. Not just because the system said so but also because he had realized thanks to implementing the suggestions of the system just how much better he could have planned if he sat down and really thought about everything right off the bat.
The missing points in the assessment definitely were his own fault. There was no use denying it. But, well, this obviously showed just how much of a natural talent he was! Even without planning anything well he had been able to write good stories. Mn, other authors would need to be afraid now that he was back and didn't only have time but even a Lovely Writing System. It might be a stupid one that didn't tell him everything and had some quirks but it was definitely helpful in becoming a better author.
Ah, life really was beautiful! He felt like hugging his boyfriend now!