Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

It was a habit of Xiao Yiren to write with his mobile phone. He was a diligent online article author. However, as he updated his work far too often, his readers often complained about his tendency of getting hung up over the details. Some even called him the master of pointless words.

At first, he took some offense to that, as it was a mockery of his hard work and sincere effort. As time went by, he went with the flow and maintained the same dedication. After all, everybody talked about pointless topics in chit-chat everyday…

Though he became famous after writing about a female scholar, he did not feel great nor satisfied. All these years, he had been rejected countlessly, left alone in the dark, striving to improve his writing skills. Now that his novel was popular among the readers, he felt a heavy burden being placed upon his shoulders.

Xiao Yiren could not meet Zhao Youyue’s eyes. He was not prepared to face her magnificence. All he could do was to keep thinking about his goddess “Wu Di,” praying that she would give him the strength to talk in the presence of another goddess.

He was not just impressed by her. If anything, he was more surprised that such a successful person actually existed in this world, rather than live in a novel. His protagonist “Wu Di” was dedicated and committed, and nobody in this world could compete with her. Yet, here stood Lady Zhao, a girl that outdid his goddess.

“Yes. Please do not disturb me; I still have two more chapters to go. That’s six hundred in cash.” Xiao Yiren was blunt and bold, at least with his tongue. But his eyes still could not meet her beauty. He forcefully keyed away on his phone.

He had not intended to come off so rudely. He was a shy person, and knew that he couldn’t hold a candle to the magnificent Lady Zhao. It would be wise to maintain a distance from such a dazzling existence, lest she crushes him.

His family continued urging him to court Lady Zhao. They did all they could do to put him beside Lady Zhao. Of course, he did not like it. She was a pampered whelp from a rich family. All he wanted was an ordinary partner to work hard with and cherish a simple life together.

As for the adventures and excitement, let them stay in his novel…

Zhao Youyue was not offended by Xiao Yiren’s response. She knew the world did not spin only around her. In fact, she was impressed by Xiao Yiren’s dedication in writing. She decided to read his novel. If it was good, she would follow her usual procedure and gift his work with presents. When he takes the bait, she would toss him even more treasures.

Without a sound, Zhao Youyue took out her phone, logged into Qidian novel platform and searched for “Drunk For Her.” There were two titles accredited to him. One of it was “Seeking the Truth,” a Taoist martial art novel that was ‘completed.’ Obviously, the author had given up writing about it. How could an online novel end at less than one million words?

Zhao Youyue judged a novel based on the numbers. Most of the time, she was not even bothered to read unpopular books. She had no time to dig out those good novels that have remained undiscovered among the slums of the internet.

In fact, most of the good novels were discovered by the majority. After all, the people were the judges…

Zhao Youyue recalled that a bastard had once messaged her to promote his own novel, called “Seeking the Truth.” So, the bastard was actually Xiao Yiren!

She would instantly ignore a bastard that she has never met. Now, this author was sitting right beside her, focused on completing his own novel. He was a rare jewel among the authors. Perhaps Xiao Yiren had the potential to be famous in the future…

Indeed, it was impressive for Xiao Yiren to have made it this far in the online novel industry. He never had to worry about money. Passion was the only motivation for his achievements. Most of the authors gave up on writing after an extended period of time, due to the small pay they got in return.

Xiao Yiren could have meekly went down the trail his parents had set for him, yet he had chosen to carve his own path. His undivided dedication had also made itself known during the dinner.

Every independent and rebellious author had great potential. Unfortunately, he was not gifted. He would have to make up for that with hard work.

Out of curiosity, Zhao Youyue read the review of “Shift! The Female Elite Scholar.” It showed promise. The followers, subscribers, and gifts all proved that it had promise. It even had a “Recommended Novel” badge. This badge was awarded to novels with more than three thousand unique subscribers.

This was the first time Zhao Youyue had read about a boy transforming into a girl. While some haters slammed it in disgust, she found it interesting. Didn’t guys play as a female character in games all the time? How was it disgusting?

Some readers would never finish reading a particular story. They only read novels that their logic agreed with. Some interesting genres would be too complicated for their tiny brains to comprehend, nor enjoy.

Of course, this was similar to the war between “Which is better, sweet Douhua or salty Douhua?”. [1][2] In the first few chapters, the author “Drunk For Her” had insulted both parties. He successfully converted many new fans of the genre, while leaving room for him to follow up in the future.

Zhao Youyue had grown addicted to the storyline. She thought that the female scholar was interesting, though she did not have what it took to become an iconic character. It was a vibrant, optimistic novel. There wasw nothing special about the writing, but the storyline was fluently conveyed, its surprises many. It made it past the bottom line of Lady Zhao’s expectations.

Finally, Xiao Yiren was done with the update. He raised his arms in the air to stretch his body, and froze when he took note of his surroundings. Lady Zhao had not left him. Instead, she had remained beside him, while reading something on her phone.

What could she possibly be reading for so long?

Curious, Xiao Yiren started to make a move…

Translation Note:

[1] Douhua (Chinese: 豆花; pinyin: dòuhuā) is the short form of doufuhua (Chinese: 豆腐花; pinyin: dòufuhuā). It is a Chinese snack made with very soft tofu. It is also referred to as tofu pudding and soybean pudding.

[2] The discussion of sweet Douhua and salty Douhua (甜豆腐脑与咸豆腐脑到底哪个是王道) has more than 16, 000 comments on that thread. It was a cheap yet tasty dessert everyone could afford, and most of the people have a different view of it. Yet there are two groups of people who could not accept the other type of Douhua, and refused to eat it the other way.