True Fated Marriage (Grace and Heinz)
Chapter 1467

Leah was flabbergasted. She would never have imagined that Ernest would ask her about the plot of her book.

For a moment, Leah tensed up, because it would be awkward.

After all, she'd used Ernest as reference for the appearance of her male lead.

"Well, you'll know once I've written it," she said indifferently and ducked her head.

"Could it be that you haven't thought about what to write next?" Ernest smiled and asked in a particularly sincere tone, "Would you like me to help you brainstorm, or maybe give you some suggestions as a reader?"

He'd asked it rather seriously. He looked at her with his inky black eyes, as if he was asking a very important question, and was serious when giving suggestions.

Leah looked at Ernest with doubt. She felt like Ernest's attitude was a little suspicious.

However, seeing that he was a reader, his enthusiasm was understandable.

Thus, Leah decided to listen carefully to Ernest's suggestions. Perhaps it could be of use to her work.

She nodded and said, "Okay then, tell me your suggestions. How do you want the story to play out?"

"I just think, since the female lead has strong feelings for the male lead, and she's been trying to find out if he feels the same way, why won't she just confess?" Ernest went straight for the book's romance. Leah was a little surprised. She did not expect him to ask such a question.

Leah also couldn't help but to take a few more glances at Ernest, and he looked back at her as well.

Their eyes met, and they no longer felt the need to rush up the steps.

"Is this a difficult question to answer?" Ernest's dark eyes glinted faintly, as if there were a lot of emotions behind it.

Leah shook her head and then said, "It's not hard to answer. In fact, I just feel that the status quo is not bad anyway. Their relationship status is a little ambiguous, and a confession would be the most anticipated part. As for the female lead confessing, I've always felt like girls who confessed first are remarkably courageous."

"I think you're a courageous girl," Ernest said with a smile, staring at her with a gleam in his eyes.

"Me?" Leah laughed. "Thanks for the compliment, but this is about the female lead, not me. We're different."

"Don't you write a little bit of yourself into your characters?" He asked with a smile.

"Of course, I do." Leah smiled back at him and said, "However, realistically speaking, first I want the male lead to see how amazing the female lead is, and to confess to her. That way, the confession will be even more intense. Even if I let the female lead admit her feelings now, she needs to have a phase where she has a crush on him. Otherwise, if I rush it, wouldn't it seem like her feelings are too shallow?" Ernest was baffled and nodded. He let out a long sigh and said, "Oh, so that's how it is."

Leah continued to explain, "You see, traditionally, girls who are reserved are more favorable. As for brave and courageous girls, although we admire them very much, it's still unusual for a girl to be the one going after the guy. It doesn't really line up with the traditional point of view."

"Well, do you know how Maria and Liam got together?" Ernest asked in response.

"No, I actually still don't know. Why don't you tell me about it?" Leah's love for gossip couldn't conceal itself.

Ernest smiled and said, "Maria was the one who took the initiative to confess, and to top it off, she was very persistent. In the end, she won over Liam's heart. If you want it to happen, you'll make it happen, and it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. I think affection comes easier to the one who's brave."

"Oh?" Leah raised her eyebrows in surprise. "What about you, Ernest? Are you a brave guy? Have you ever confessed first?"

Leah had easily thrown the question back to him. Ernest smiled, but there was a hint of bitterness. He let out another long sigh and shook his head. "No, I've never confessed to anyone. I'm not one to confess, so there's probably been a pile of wasted opportunities."

Leah was surprised. "Passive men like you really leave the authors no choice. Well then, I should probably start plotting for the female lead's confession."

She muttered to herself, but Ernest heard her words. He frowned slightly and said, "Why?"

"Are you going to make the female lead confess her feelings first? Didn't you say you wanted the male lead to confess? Why did you change your mind again?"

"That's because I'm someone who like doing good deeds, and I find what you said just now quite insightful. What if my male lead is a passive person like you, and it the female lead doesn't confess, these pea- brains are never going to be soulmates in an amorous relationship. How am I supposed to continue the story then?" Leah thought about it and couldn't help shaking her head at the terrifying thought. Ernest frowned and gazed deeply at Leah.

"Let's go. If we continue to stall, we really won't be able to catch up with them," said Leah.

"Okay," Ernest said as he followed closely behind.

"Ernest, what made you want to read my books?" Leah looked at him and said, "Why don't you read some male- audience- catered books? Books written by women tend to be overly dramatic and delicate, and are mostly romances. It can be a little awkward for a male reader."

Ernest was stunned and chuckled. "Are you saying that its appeal is rather limited? Since it's good enough to be serialized, why can't I read it?"

"This is so embarrassing," Leah said. "I'm thinking of creating a pen name in the future, so no one will know that I'm the one writing these books."

"That's unnecessary," Ernest replied quickly. "As a reader, I'll give you some advice from the perspective of a guy. Perhaps it'll be good for your writing too. There are two sides to everything, so don't be so closed off to a male reader."

As Leah hear his words, she actually found it slightly seductive.

Having the input from a male reader could be beneficial, and she could enrich the emotions and feelings of her characters when writing them. It indeed seemed to be not a bad idea.

"All right then, I'll allow it for the time being." Leah didn't feel conflicted anymore.

From the looks of it, Ernest had no idea the male lead was inspired by him. Even if he did realize it, she would never admit it.

She had made up her mind, and continued ascending the mountain with a giddy smile.

Not long after, they met up with Maria and the rest beneath the Wishing Tree.

"I want to make a wish." Maria saw Leah and dragged her towards it. "Leah, make a wish too."

The Wishing Tree was a massive old tree, with red ribbons carrying wishes that hung across the branches.

Liam went ahead and paid for the ribbons.

Maria glanced his way and he said with a smile, "Go and make a wish. I'll help you hang it up later."

"Okay." Maria nodded and chose a wish ribbon. The sentence said, "To be loved by someone, to grow old together and never part."

Maria took it from the store owner and gave it to Liam.

Liam took a look at her, fixed his eyes on Maria, and then hung it up for her.

Leah said to the store owner, "I'll write one on my own."

The store owner nodded and handed her a pen along with a blank red strip.

Leah wrote a sentence with the pen. "I wish for there to be no more passive men on earth."

Her handwriting was bold and confident, as if she had learned calligraphy. Regardless, her wish had people laughing to tears.

Ernest was particularly intrigued, for when he saw what Leah had wrote, he was dumbfounded. He then looked at Leah, who signed her name, put down the pen, and waited for the ink to dry before handing Ernest the strip.

"Do you mind hanging it up for me? Thank you." Leah smiled at Ernest.

Ernest took the strip over and said, "Okay, may your wish come true."

Adrian was confused. "Passive men? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ask Ernest. He can give you a good answer, as he's more familiar with the concept." Leah waved him off and took a look at Maria's wish.

It was a really beautiful wish, to grow old together and never part. However, she wondered how many people could still remember how they felt when they first fell in love.

"Leah, what kind of wish is this?" Maria was perplexed. "It's what I'm currently thinking of right now. I was actually going to wish for longevity, but I felt like that would be almost impossible to achieve, so I thought, perhaps I should wish for this instead."

"Does it have anything to do with you?" Maria asked.

Leah was taken aback. She nodded and said, "Of course, it's about my male lead, and my male lead has everything to do with me."

After Ernest hung Leah's wish up, he looked at her solemnly, but said nothing.

Maria proceeded to ask them, "Are you guys not going to make a wish?"

"I'll make wish in my heart," Adrian said. "I only believe in myself."

"Ugh." Maria rolled her eyes and looked at Liam. "What about you?"

"You already made my wish for me," he said in a low voice.

Maria felt a little bashful.

"What about you, Ernest?" Leah looked at him and asked, "Don't you want to make a wish?"

"There's no need," Ernest said dimly. "There are some wishes that can never come true, even if you wish for it a hundred times."