Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

 Successfully Obtained a High Popularity Character Card

The warm hospitality from Lady Zhao had spurred Sun Xian into doubling his update rates. But that wasn’t all. A certain something occurred.

Despite being an ordinary uncle, Sun Xian actually got the chance to “show off” a little. Showing off like that was an experience only reserved for protagonists within municipal novels. They had bumped into one of his old university-mates. They were not from the same course, but they did attend the same Physics class in their university, once in a while. Many Science and Engineering students shared such classes.

After Sun Xian and Zhao Youyue finished their meal, they came across this schoolmate, by chance. He had stared down at Sun Xian most disdainfully. When he caught sight of the young female student – Zhao Youyue standing beside Sun Xian, he seemed to have relived a horrific experience from his younger days. Thus, he lost control of his emotions and started flexing about like a melodramatic villain – just like those who appeared in novels. He started imposing himself upon Lady Zhao in an attempt to intimidate her, but only ended up being scared away by two huge men who appeared out of nowhere. That’s right. They were Zhao Youyue’s bodyguards.

Zhao Youyue did not exude such a grand appearance in the past. Now, she was no longer the same, unobtrusive passer-by. Her Lady aura left a deep, profound impression upon others. On top of that a celebrity. Of course she had bodyguards. Bodyguards who looked over her and her family members.

It was only natural that way. Nobles are not fools.

The whole incident made Sun Xian appear highly influential in the eyes of that schoolmate. For some reason, that schoolmate seemed to bear a grudge against him. Who the heck walked about with bodyguards? Not even wealthy folk had them. You would only find bodyguards around celebrities or actual big shots!

Evidently, this ordinary uncle – Sun Xian was being treated as a big shot, and he was at the liberty of showing off, because he could. Of course, this was all thanks to Zhao Youyue…

Of course, the incident piqued Zhao Youyue’s interest. Did Sun Xian rob him of his wife or something? His hatred for Sun Xian was really something. Even so, Sun Xian had insisted that he was currently single.

Sun Xian had nothing to hide. He shared one of his love experiences during his university life. He once had a girlfriend – who happened to be a childhood friend of that schoolmate.

Calling them childhood friends might be a little bit of a stretch. Anyway, they came from the same hometown, and had been classmates for many years. That guy certainly had a crush on the girl. The same could not be said for the girl. Eventually, Sun Xian managed to win the girl’s heart, and their love went deep. They had even opened a room at a cheap inn outside their school on one of the many “Virgin Breaking Days”…

It was a most natural and common practice. Their relationship had been ideal. Back then, he had not yet turned into the self-imposed social outcast that he was. He had yet to experience the many setbacks in life. They had beaten him down until he could not even submit, and he limped out of the wreckage as an empty husk.

That guy had watched helplessly, as his beloved girl headed into the inn with Sun Xian. He had confessed to the girl after the fact, and was blatantly shot down. He could not understand it. He was way more handsome, richer, and was a better student, compared to Sun Xian. Why would she love Sun Xian instead?

There was no answer to this question. Love was simple yet complicated. A single glance might be all it took, compared to the ends-of-the-earth effort delivered by another. An electrifying connection of their eyes was all it took, and her heart instantly knew that he was THE guy.

Who knows, perhaps this university schoolmate was unhinged in a certain way. He had actually booked the room next to theirs, and went in there by his lonesome. The last thing one would expect was for him to fall fast asleep. The inn was poorly insulated. Therefore, throughout the entire night, he listened to the heartbreaking noises and utterances that came from the girl he loved…

Sun Xian had remained clueless about this until much later on. As it turned out, the schoolmate had posted his experience in the form of a long post, and placed it on a Tieba hotspot. That hotspot was also the birthplace of the word – loser.

The post became notoriously popular and sensational. Within it, contained the bare, naked contents of his heart. He had crushed on the girl for a full five years. He had done everything for her. In the end, he had been utterly betrayed. What kind of world was this? Why did it take him for?

On the other side of the story, the girl had never sensed his effort at all. She even found him downright strange. What did she do to earn his heart?

Eventually, she broke up with Sun Xian, and gave the schoolmate all the more reason to hate Sun Xian. Without digging into it, he viewed Sun Xian as a playboy who had toyed with the feelings of the girl he loved!

In actuality, Sun Xian was the one who got dumped…

That schoolmate had tried to approach and pursue her again. He had certainly chosen to forgive her. Once again, he was shot down, and she got together with yet another guy.

Zhao Youyue listened to Sun Xian’s sharing with relish. This was most probably love between ordinary folk. People fell in love and broke up like it was part and parcel of university life. Or else, how to enjoy that pleasant youth?

Unfortunately, Zhao Youyue had already left the realm of ordinary folk. She found it more interesting to be a bystander. It was better to observe the life experiences of ordinary people from the sidelines.

In Sun Xian’s case, nobody was actually at fault. Perhaps the love that the schoolmate had for the girl ran a little too deep. That depth was directly proportional to the hatred he had for Sun Xian. He felt that Old Sun from next door had betrayed him…

For the longest while, he had wanted nothing more than to punch Sun Xian in the face. Clearly, he did not expect to encounter Zhao Youyue, the mysterious observer.

Sun Xian was treating Lady Zhao as another of his close friends that harbored no secrets between each other. His heart had already set Zhao Youyue as his new, regular mahjong buddy. Lady Zhao was very beautiful indeed, but he could not understand why he was not treating her as a teenage girl. Her mature outlook on life made her surprisingly easy for a grownup like him to relate with. He excitedly told her that he was looking forward to witnessing her incredible gambling skills in future.

Zhao Youyue said that she had little regard for losing or winning, when gambling was concerned. She was just there to enjoy the excitement that came with the risks and high stakes. She even did a demonstration of how she acted and looked like while gambling. Sun Xian was stumped. He had a feeling that she was roleplaying as some sort of anime character. Unfortunately, he did not watch anime.

After Sun Xian returned the favor and started doubling his updates, “Dog Days” reached the height of its popularity. “Hua Xiaomao”– the cat transforming girl led the popularity polls by miles. The readers affectionately called her “Mao Mao”…

1st December – “Dog Days” made its way on the shelves. On that day, “Tycoon Youyue” fired off another barrage. She became the “Silver Sect Master” of the book, and further propelled the popularity of this novel. Each time someone became a “Silver Sect Master,” a server-wide announcement would strike the entire website.

The “Two Dimensional Gate” pinged her in response. “Hua Xiaomao” had been successfully upgraded from a popular character card to a highly popular character card. That had always been her goal. Thus, she chose to harvest the card without hesitation. She had finally earned another raw material to be sacrificed…

This had been no different from spamming cash in a mobile game to earn a high popularity character card. In this case, she had spent the money on the writer and his work. This method was not surefire, for if she experienced the misfortune of picking the wrong writer and the wrong title, she would not necessarily gain a highly popular card.

The moment Zhao Youyue made her exit, she no longer cared about Sun Xian’s productivity. He could drop to the ground, limp and quadriplegic for all she cared. She had already got what she wanted.