Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

 The cunning fabricator Su Li has been deceived

The only reason Su Li could become the illustrator for “Beautiful April” was because the head of Mengya had contacted her in the first place. Considering how Su Li and her artworks have recently become a hot topic, which had taken over the whole manga world, her taking on this job would put her fame and popularity to good use and effectively increase the sales of the manga booklet.

Besides, before even becoming the illustrator for “Beautiful April,” Su Li had been uploading many of her artworks on Weibo, which mostly featured Chu Luoxun. Her artworks had captivated many, and was deemed to be very praiseworthy by the fans of “Beautiful April,” as it had a special touch of beauty which gracefully brought out the quirkiness of Chu Luoxun’s character.

Her artworks gained so much attention that even the people working in the editorial department of Mengya soon saw it, and naturally, they were so impressed that they had forwarded suggestions that Su Li be hired as an illustrator, if there are ongoing plans to release illustrations together with the manga booklet.

The Chief Editor naturally had no objections. With Su Li’s talents, she was undoubtedly perfect for the job, maybe even too good for it.

It is just that luck was not really been on Su Li’s side at all. As the death of a few characters, like Xu Jing, and Yu Shengfan, had closely followed the release of her well-known artworks, some fans who tended to expand their imaginations too much and come up with their own illogical conclusions. They have claimed that her artworks are filled with a mysterious, unimaginable power, which always brings some kind of misfortune to any female protagonist she draws…

Of course, some loyal fans have protested and cried out about this injustice towards Su Li. They claimed that none of the deaths of the female protagonists had anything to do with Su Li. Well, maybe except for Xu Jing’s death, but now Su Li is forced to take the blame for everyone else’s deaths as well, and she has become the ‘Pan of This Generation.’ What a pity.

Any fan who has been following Su Li for some time would naturally know that she is an avaricious person. To reinforce this notion, she is still very much unwilling to let go of the income that she is getting from the manga world. In addition to that, the mangaka named “Wang Li” is still so insanely famous that she continues to be featured every single time in the biannual world book exhibition…

Su Li is no doubt one with a solid mentality. She could literally endure and accept anything bad that people say about her. This is purely because she only looked up to things that are related to money and only aimed to garner more profit. Recently, Lady Zhao had been added to the list of things she looks up to. Even though Su Li quietly accepted blame after blame, the amount of money she earns on a daily basis has increased significantly. Moreover, Lady Zhao has also recently started to favor her a lot more. When you take all these into account, does it even matter if ‘Everything is Su Li’s Fault’?

Also, because all the rumors about Su Li that are currently circling the internet stemmed from her previous mangas, like “Pure Romance” and “The Strongest King”, many readers who have just recently found out about Su Li and her various works, were unknowingly directed towards it and have subsequently become hooked by it, because all of them were so worth the read.

Coincidentally, the big ending for the “Pure Romance” anime was also released. The anime had been airing for about three months since its first release in April, and many of the people who were watching the anime have not previously read the manga. Thus, when the big ending was released, they were literally shocked to the core, because the anime ended up being nothing like a harem!

This is the first time ever for a harem to be written in an Urobuchi Gen style!

The mangaka Su Li, is really unbelievable!

No wonder the rumors about her in the world of otakus are innumerable!

Su Li had clearly reaped many benefits through the massive success of “Pure Romance,” which not only sparked numerous debates, but also helped her gain so much more attention, that it even promoted the sales of “The Strongest King.”

Those who do not know much about mangas, and had utterly no idea that “The Strongest King” was a novel, are the ones who tend to mistake Su Li as the author of that manga. Therefore, Su Li was naturally bound to get blamed for drawing Xiao Yu to death.

Just when Su Li had mastered the art of taking all the blame, a new catalyst for discussion came about. Nearing the end of his story, Leng Zi had promised loud and clear about how she would not allow Chu Luoxun to die, and that her surgery would surely be a success. She had claimed that the only reason she made Chu Luoxun fall ill was so that she could shape her character into becoming a strong, positive thinker who would be more even appreciative of the little things in life…

At that point in time, most of the readers had believed in her with all their hearts. Further, Su Li had conveniently uploaded an artwork featuring Chu Luoxun happily playing the guitar and singing away, which perfectly portrayed the strong, cheerful characteristics of Chu Luoxun. It totally seemed like Chu Luoxun was given the chance to live a new life!

Now, everyone is blaming Su Li once again. They claim that she had cunningly fabricated the idea and tricked them into believing that Chu Luoxun would not die. Su Li was just an innocent soul who genuinely liked Chu Luoxun, which is why she had voluntarily done so many illustrations of her and uploaded them. How could anyone blame her for Chu Luoxun’s death!

To be honest, Su Li only did so many illustrations of Chu Luoxun in order to get on Lady Zhao’s good side, because Lady Zhao had always been encouraging her to do so. There is just one thing that really makes Su Li confused – Lady Zhao is clearly a Lin Meiyue fan…

What Su Li did not know was this, Zhao Youyue was only encouraging her to do more illustrations of Chu Luoxun, so that the character can gain more attention and leave a more significant impact on the general public. This way, the probability of Zhao Youyue achieving the status of an iconic character is going to be a lot higher.

Whether Lin Meiyue is popular or not did not matter to Zhao Youyue. As long as the character ends up happily with the male protagonist, Zhao Youyue is more than satisfied.

When Su Li received the job proposal from Mengya to become the illustrator for “Beautiful April,” she had almost immediately decided to take up the job, once she heard how much they were willing to pay for her artworks.

For Su Li, doing illustrations are actually much easier compared to drawing a manga, because illustrations are usually still images paired with still backgrounds. The delicate touch that was needed to bring out still life into detail was her specialty!

If Su Li still had time to spare after drawing her mangas, why would she not have the time for illustrations?

Before this, she had even taken the initiative and asked Zhao Youyue to share some opinions about what she thought of her illustrations. Of course, Zhao Youyue said that it was perfectly fine. When it comes to anything related to aesthetics, if it is Sister Li holding the brush, there would surely be no problem at all!

Thus, Su Li had accepted the job offer without hesitation. Then, she got overexcited and went on to draw a teary-eyed Chu Luoxun, filled with deep sorrow, in order to share her excitement with her fans. Together with the drawing, she had announced that she would meet up with Leng Zi, the author of “Beautiful April,” once the big ending was released. Su Li had also promised to take note of how pretty the so-called goddess-like author really was, and made sure that she would spread the news!

Just like that, all the readers were content. The only thing on their minds was how after Chu Luoxun’s successful surgery, she would perform together with the male protagonist for the second time throughout the whole story, and the big ending of “Beautiful April” would then end on this beautiful note.

This time, Su Li had also bought the magazine as soon as it was released. It was the last edition anyway, she would not have to waste any more money on it after this. Nothing else matters as long as she can quickly get the big ending over and done with!

A two hundred thousand word juvenile novel like this is just so easy to read, unlike some web novels, where the introduction to the story alone would already take up two hundred thousand words…

Su Li was not prepared for anything depressing to happen in the story, this time around. It was not like when she was reading “The Strongest King,” where she had already been weary and was ready for something bad to happen, especially after Old Sly Rosemary had dropped the pan on her.

In this story, however, even the author, Leng Zi, did not think that Chu Luoxun’s surgery would fail. Further, the words he used, and the light, witty way he phrased his sentences had totally prepared the readers for a happy ending. Even right before Chu Luoxun entered the operating theater, she was full of confidence…

Even after being struck with disease, Chu Luoxun had been able to hold onto the last string of life for so long. It was so admirable that she was given the nickname of “Chu The Strong.” Normally, these type of characters would survive for a long time!

But this time!

The cunning fabricator Su Li, had been deceived, had been tricked, had been fooled!

In the end, when the male protagonist was in the midst of a piano performance, the beautiful music which resonated the room created a separate imaginary dimension. In that dimension, Chu Luoxun had appeared out of nowhere, and starts to perform together with him. Su Li’s heart begins to ache. Isn’t this their very last performance?

Sure enough, Chu Luoxun died…

Never once in her life had Su Li considered the possibility that one day she would be played the fool. It almost made her cry out loud!

Why!

Why do all you stupid Old Slys like to play with people’s feelings!

Leng Zi, you damned Old Sly, you are no different from Rosemary!

No, in fact, you are way, way worse than Rosemary. Only at the very last moment, do we get to know that she dies!