Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Gamers will get intoxicated if they were too engrossed in gamings. Similarly, mangakas will lose themselves if they went too far in their artworks. In most cases, conditions like this would either give rise to some everlasting classics, or lead to some rotten opuses.

Thus, editors play an important role to monitor the quality of works from aside.

Anyway Su Li’s editor, Wei Suo did not plan to interfere with her written plots. Instead, he was impressed with Su Li’s touching scenes, and fully supported the plots. To think that a hero from Harem manga would turn from a herbivorous man to a bulldozer[1]. Incredible! That defied the perpetual convention of Harem manga!

To him, the Yuri plots between Yang Xixi and Xu Jing were the biggest highlight of the entire novel. Not only they had enriched the erotic scenes, but they had achieved a whole new level of arts that could render the audience restlessly. Besides, the character of “Xu Jing” was much more colorful now. She had outwardly obtained Yang Xixi. But in fact, she was still a tragedy of love, how pathetic. In Yang Xixi’s heart, there was no one besides her brother.

As for now, judging from the plot development, it might be difficult to conclude the story later. But Wei Suo paid no heed to this. In his eyes, with the darkening of “Xu Jing’s” character, and the moral degeneration of Yang Ming, not only the interest level of “Pure Romance” had skyrocketed, but the manga’s popularity was exploding!

From the reader’s feedback in a survey, “Pure Romance” had deservedly become the No.1 manga on “Wind Manga”. Meanwhile on Qidian manga website, the rankings of “Pure Romance” in all Top Clicks Chart, Recommendation Tickets Ranking, and Monthly Tickets Ranking were gradually rising too. The momentum was as good as that of “Slay the Gods, Seek the Truth[2]”. It had enticed more and more readers, and all of them were always waiting anxiously for the manga updates!

A grand occasion like this had again blown the minds of numerous veterans in the manga industry!

It could not be helped. By rights, a Harem manga like “Pure Romance” that depends solely on body-touching scenes, did not stand a chance to go onstage. Never had anyone thought that, owing to the character of “Xu Jing”, the later plot was becoming more and more amusing. Hmm, it seems that the manga had broken free from its own shackle and emerged as a godly artwork, hadn’t it?

There is actually a comparable example amongst the webnovels. It is none other than the “Road to the Buddha” written by “Dream of God Tactics”, a prominent Qidian platinum author. In any way, the beginning of its story sounds exactly like a second-class novel of spiritual-cultivation theme. Besides the main character’s unfaltering way of killing people, the plots and the character moldings were unremarkable. Such a novel would most likely end up to be an ordinary piece of hollow literature[3]. As time goes by, it would be replaced by another hollow literature.

Unbelievably, just as the hero in this book stepped into the divine realm, the story settings and plots turned “godly” at once. The popularity shot up as well. At last, the book had even achieved an ultimate state where “once the Buddha’s book is out, the rest in this world are no longer books”. It had also founded the Antiquity fashion[4], prompting “Dream of God Tactics” to become a God of Novel with only a single book release!

Perhaps there are other underlying reasons too. Don’t forget, there is a regrettable character in “Road to the Buddha”. She is Dragon Lady Aoluan, who had been devoted to the hero Zhou Qing all the way. But in the end, she still perished before the eyes of Zhou Qing by stabbing herself with a sword. The final sentence in the novel —

“Zhou Qing knew very well, that he could no longer see the heroic and valiant girl who wielded a sword in his memories. If he could, that would be five billion and six hundred million years later.”

Sigh, the ending of Dragon Lady Aoluan was heartbreaking! She was no doubt the female character that was most engraved within the reader’s mind in this popular Antiquity-fashion webnovel. Not to mention, no other characters had suffered such a misfortune like hers. When the book “Road to the Buddha” was mentioned, one could easily remember this sentimental female character. You can say that the superior fame of this book did not really come from the character moldings, instead, it was out of the magnificent story settings and plots.

Akin to “Road to the Buddha” having all sorts of indispensable foreshadowings prior to the appearance of divine realm, the preceding chapters of “Pure Romance” were full of mundane Harem plots too. If not, how will the coming chapters strike those readers like a thunderbolt?

At first, the main character of “Pure Romance”, Yang Ming had been undergoing a typical storyline like any other Harem heroes. But now, he suddenly conceded to his lust, regaining his men’s nature to think with their penis. Sure enough, the readers had enjoyed those scenes to their heart’s content. Looking back to the other Harem novels, they would feel their main characters were all hypocrites! So boring…… How could the grazing romance be comparable to shooting the real bullets[5], Ahh…

After the later plot of “Pure Romance” unfolded, a catastrophe had befallen the other bland Harem mangas. In a sense, it had become an overt sabotage of the other businesses!

Humph, blame no one. Why couldn’t the other Harem mangas just come up with a character like “Xu Jing” too?

Due to the ceasing increase in the popularity of “Pure Romance”, for sure the magazines and websites would not interfere with Su li’s composition. After all, their priority was none other than the sales volume. As long as the abusive contents, such as ladies’ nipples were not shown, it would be considered a normal manga!

At this moment, no one could stop Su Li who was carried away by her success!

Readers?

What is that? I’m your daddy!

Just wait for my updates, how dare you hold an opinion against your father?

Wanna change my storyline? In your dreams!

Exactly. Su Li had been so carried away. Just like the hero in her manga who did everything as he pleased, she was now following her feelings utterly. As for those promises she had made to her readers, go fly a cat! To her, these are all meaningless shackles now. What she wanted was to become a superior mangaka who composed a superior iconic novel!

Thus to trap even more readers, she was brainwashing them in her reader group and Weibo blog —

Worry not everyone, you’ll all be happy with the ending of my masterpiece. It’s gonna be a pleasant one. Of course, for a benevolent mangaka like me, would I even cheat my readers? My children? I’m your daddy! Like always, there are only children who cheat their fathers, but no fathers who cheat their children!

Not only that. Since “Pure Romance” earned her fame and reputation, she was invited to appear on several television shows. At long last, she revealed her identity of a female mangaka. During the shows, she naturally put her hand on her chest, rashly pledging that she would give everyone a satisfying ending.

All of these occasions had pushed the popularity of “Pure Romance” to a level beyond imagination!

In this situation, Su Li had finally written up to the most crucial part of the entire novel. The evil deeds of the hero was finally revealed! His car was about to overturn[6]!

Translation note:

[1] Bulldozer (推土机) refers to a promiscuous guy who pushes all the girls, as in having sex with them.

[2] Slay the God, Seek the Truth (屠神证道) is a popular Chinese webnovel.

[3] Hollow literature (小白文) refers to a written work with trivial contents and unrefined storyline.

[4] Antiquity fashion (洪荒流) is a style of Chinese novels that is based on the ancient Chinese background settings and terminologies of iconic novels such as “Investiture of the Gods (封神榜)” and “Journey to the West (西游记)”. This genre was made popular by a famed webnovel,”Road to the Buddha(佛本是道)”.

[5] 真枪实弹 (shooting the real bullets) means having sex for real. The bullets here refers to the men’s sperms.

[6] 翻车了(one’s car overturns) means that one finally encounter failure after a long undisturbed period, in which one has performed well in his work routines, or has successfully covered one’s secrets and lies.