A Night of Comic Drafting

After eating the noodles Qin An had cooked, Yuko felt a bit dizzy from exhaustion and fell asleep right at the dining table without realizing it.

“An-an, why don’t you carry your future bride to bed? What if she catches a cold?”

Qin Yuqing tapped Qin An’s head playfully, then stretched. Her tall, striking figure was incredibly graceful, even when she was just wearing simple loungewear.

“Oh. I know.”

Qin An gently picked up Yuko. She was very light, as if made of cotton.

As he carried her toward his room, Qin Yage appeared at the doorway, spreading her arms to block his path.

“No, you can’t put her in your room. What if you do something weird in the middle of the night?”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa, okay?”

“No, no. She has to sleep in my room.” She shook her head vigorously, her cute twin tails swaying.

“Fine, your room then. The three of you can squeeze in there, I guess.” Qin An didn’t really mind. He had some things in his room he didn’t want others to see anyway.

“Hehehe.”

Qin Yage revealed a triumphant smile, then turned and went into Qin An’s room. She flipped up his blanket, wrapped it around herself, and bundled up tightly.

“Meow.”

The black cat, full and satisfied, was now incredibly nimble. It easily dodged Qin Chan’s reaching hands.

Eventually, it caught a familiar scent and followed it to Qin Yage’s room. With a silent leap, it landed beside Yuko, licked her cheek, then curled into a ball and closed its amber eyes in the darkness.

Qin Chan rubbed her sleepy eyes. It was late, and she had stayed up only out of playfulness. With her eyes closed, she walked unerringly to Qin An’s room and climbed onto his bed, curling up next to Yage.

Of course, Qin An knew none of this. He was currently showering in the bathroom.

His body was well-proportioned, neither fat nor thin, without the bulky, stiff muscles of a bodybuilder. But his sleek, streamlined muscles contained endless power. The real secret of elite assassins was how to use muscle strength efficiently. Ordinary people could only use five percent of their muscle potential, but his past life’s training allowed full control, and more. The denser the muscle fibers, the stronger the explosive force.

Qin An wrapped a towel around his waist. His hair was still damp. He drank a glass of hot milk and exhaled the warm air. It felt great.

He changed into dry pajamas and was about to head back to his room.

Thud.

Qin Yuqing, carrying the faint scent of alcohol, cornered Qin An against the wall.

Her tall stature completely overshadowed him as she let out a dramatic, tired sigh, her long, messy hair framing her face. Qin An didn’t know where to look.

“Um, Yuqing-jie?” Qin An called softly. Whenever she acted like this, it meant a lot of work was coming. He felt an inexplicable headache.

“Xiao An-an~” Qin Yuqing twirled her fingers dramatically near his temples.

“Um, Yuqing-jie, I need to sleep.” Qin An pressed his hands against the wall, planning to escape back to his room.

“No, you have to help me, or we won’t have any money for food after tomorrow.” Ignoring his protests, she dragged him directly into her studio.

Her room was a complete disaster area. Empty soda cans littered the floor, and various clothes were piled haphazardly on the bed.

“Didn’t I clean up this place before I left? Why is it a mess again?”

Qin An felt a massive headache coming on. His older sister was far too careless.

He intended to clean the room first, but she playfully hooked her arm around his neck, leaning heavily against him in a dramatic display of exhaustion.

“Come help me draw storyboards!”

On the desk were piles of comic manuscript paper, along with ink, G-pens, screen tones, drawing mannequins, and other tools. The bookshelf was neatly lined with rows of complete manga and light novel sets.

Qin An picked up a few draft sheets. Only two pages were fully penciled, but they lacked ink, screen tones, or text.

“This is all you did this month?”

“I couldn’t help it. I took on a specialized doujin project.”

She pointed with her slender finger at some other draft sheets. There were several highly dramatic character concepts: rival warriors locked in intense battle, fantastical creatures, complex emotional panels, and beautifully detailed romance drafts. Some of the sketches were incredibly intense and expressive.

“You only took on one commission?”

Qin Yuqing nodded cutely.

“You set aside your main serialized work just to draw this.”

Her main job was a shoujo manga serialized in a well-known magazine, which was actually quite popular.

“But I really wanted to draw it!” She bit her finger, her cowlick bouncing, looking incredibly childish.

“When is the deadline?” Qin An asked, resigned to his fate. Ever since she quit her research institute job two years ago, shouting, “I want to be an otaku! I want to be a mangaka!” he had been helping her hit her targets.

“Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes, tomorrow. The editor already gave me a two-week extension.” She playfully stuck out her tongue.

Little did Qin An know, she was already widely known in the industry as the “Queen of Delays.” Her editors and fans were thoroughly used to her pushing deadlines.

“And you’ve been procrastinating all this time?”

She pressed her hands together and pleaded, “Please, An-an~”

“Just this once. No next time.”

Qin An had lost count of how many times he had said those exact words.

“Love you, An-an!”

Qin Yuqing left a quick, playful kiss on his cheek. Qin An wiped his cheek with his sleeve, chuckling silently.

Qin Yuqing worked incredibly fast once she actually focused. Her character proportions were always spot-on, a result of her background in scientific research and precise study of human anatomy.

Around three in the morning, she had finished penciling more than half of the pages, while Qin An meticulously inked the lines and applied the screen tones.

Suddenly, she pulled out a slender cigarette and went to light it. Before she could take a single puff, Qin An snatched it away and crushed it in the ashtray.

“I won’t interfere if I’m not around, but I won’t allow you to smoke or drink in front of the kids, or me.”

“But I’m so sleepy…” She kicked her legs, rubbing her eyes like a spoiled child.

Qin An lightly flicked her forehead.

“Ouch.”

“I’ll go make you some fresh coffee. Once you finish these pages, you can get some proper sleep.”

“Okay.”

Qin Yuqing rested her chin on the drafting table, softly murmuring as he walked out, “Such a mature little man…”