Chapter 131

Li Yixin finished reading the new chapter, and her feelings were very complicated.

When she saw Pei Xi encounter his aunt who had already become a Fallen One and recall how his aunt had hoped he would help end her life as a monster, she felt sympathy and sorrow. She even thought that if she herself turned into something like that, she might also hope someone close to her would end her monstrous existence.

Then Sykes appeared and cleanly dealt with the monster. Though it seemed overly ruthless, he saved Pei Xi, who had been endangered precisely because of his softness toward the Fallen One.

Sykes's cold approach appeared to be the best solution under those circumstances. After all, things had already reached that point. Some sacrifice was inevitable. Fallen Ones were products of tragedy, and they would bring tragedy to others. It was a cruel warning.

Having read many works, Li Yixin could vaguely guess the direction the story would take next.

Pei Xi, wracked with painful conflict, would be forced to kill the women who had become Fallen Ones. That cruel choice would serve as the tempering the protagonist had to endure. From that point onward, his psyche would mature further, allowing him to see the harshness of the world more clearly and face even greater challenges.

For example, the church hidden behind the Hope Project, and later avenging the innocent women who had been sacrificed.

Based on the foreshadowing laid down in earlier plot points, Li Yixin had always assumed that Lu Qi would also become a Fallen One or something similar. The sacrifice of a companion would further solidify protagonist Pei Xi's determination and goal. It was a classic trope.

Li Yixin believed that many readers who followed the weekly updates probably felt the same way she did. By this point, they had already accepted the tragic fate of the monsterized women as inevitable and the most fitting resolution.

However, Ye Zheng appeared.

She disregarded morality and reason, the bigger picture and calculated trade-offs. She simply wanted them to live!

Until Ye Zheng stepped in, Li Yixin felt as though she had been struck awake by a blow. Why had she pitied them so deeply while still believing they deserved to die?

Because their tragedy was so overwhelming, death had been accepted as their best possible outcome.

Because their existence might harm others, killing them had been taken for granted as reasonable and just.

Because they were kind and vulnerable women, it had been assumed the male lead would deliver justice on their behalf.

While almost everyone inside and outside the manga viewed them with lethal pity, putting on a show of wishing they could be saved while silently accepting their inevitable deaths, only Saintess Ye Zheng consistently upheld her conviction.

She wouldn't give up on saving anyone, even if they were no longer regarded as human!

Ye Zheng's appearance completely tore this manga apart.

The author had placed her in direct opposition to the protagonist. Her seemingly willful, ignorant-of-the-bigger-picture "So what" didn't highlight the protagonist's rationality and determination. Instead, it made Pei Xi's complex and conflicted choice look hypocritical.

Among the readers following this serialized manga, at least half of whom were women, when they saw Ye Zheng desperately fighting to protect persecuted women and then compared that with the attitudes of Pei Xi and Sykes, even the slowest among them could sense how unreasonable the plot setup was.

Originally, the forum had still been filled with wails from Kieran's fans about how unreasonable his death had been, along with doubts about Ye Zheng being "royalty" or "the author's favorite daughter." But after this update, public opinion gradually shifted toward accusations that Pei Xi was failing as a protagonist, complaints that the plot itself was unreasonable, and criticism directed at the author.

Li Yixin clicked into the author's old uncle's social media account. The comment section under the latest post already had tens of thousands of replies.

【Take this plot segment to outsiders and ask them to guess who the villain is and who the protagonist is. Our Pei Xi has smoothly become the villain's little brother lol (screenshot)】

Li Yixin opened the screenshot. It showed a conversation between the OP and a friend. The OP had summarized the rough plot of the new chapter, attached several manga panels, and asked the friend to guess the character roles of the three people in the comic.

【This blond guy is giving off screaming villain energy. He just looks a bit dumb, like the hyper-masculine crazy gong from cold comics. Is it okay for me to say that??】

【The battle-damaged black-haired guy has some looks, but he's too meek. Probably the blond guy's subordinate or something?】

【Oh my god, this one is a true goddess descending! You can tell at a glance she's the female valkyrie who will protect all the sisters...】

【Where did you find this big female-lead comic? You've been eating so well behind my back?】

Li Yixin almost burst out laughing after reading it. That comment had already been upvoted into the very top rows. The reactions of outsiders most objectively reflected the impact of this chapter.

【Not sarcasm. I seriously suggest renaming the comic to 《The Legend of the Saintess》. Isn't Ye Zheng's storyline far more exciting and hot-blooded than your fake big male lead?】

【The episode that most strongly supports Ye Zheng ascending to the throne. Who still remembers that her original role was just the female lead?】

【Ye Zheng already said there was a way to save them. How could a Pei Xi who truly sympathizes with and pities those women insist on standing with Sykes? Has old uncle gone mad selling BL?】

【I always thought I was an omnivore until I encountered this kind of plot. Turns out I'm not that un-picky after all.】

【Actually it has nothing to do with selling BL. The truth is old uncle just hates women that much. He had to create an environment where the male lead could openly step on women's tragedies to climb upward. He didn't expect it to flip the car lol.】

【The author got greedy, tried to harvest feminist traffic and got backlash instead? If he'd taken Ye Zheng offline earlier, none of this would've happened.】

Li Yixin was quite surprised. This time, not only were many female readers dissatisfied with the plot, but many male readers had erupted in protest as well. However, their points of protest weren't about Pei Xi standing against Ye Zheng. Instead, they thought Ye Zheng was simply too strong.

Male readers didn't care about Pei Xi's choice. They didn't even understand what the female readers were protesting about. For them, Ye Zheng being a villain wasn't a problem at all. What bothered them was how far Ye Zheng had gone as a villain.

In a single chapter, she had either killed or nearly killed every named male character. Male readers watching from behind their screens felt uncomfortable in exactly the same way female readers felt uncomfortable about Pei Xi choosing to stop Ye Zheng.

【I can't even flame her. The author really drew a T0-level little fairy.】

【Lol, the author is already licking so hard and some women are still unhappy with the plot?】

【Pure bait-and-switch to lure male readers in and slaughter them. I was just reading a comic. How did I end up in northern Myanmar?】

【First time seeing such a man-hating plot. Did the author underneath switch to a woman? Has he completely given up on the male market now? Just wait for the work to get axed!】

The comment section had descended into complete chaos. Readers were criticizing the old uncle from every possible angle. Li Yixin found herself lingering there, unable to look away. Everyone was fighting so spectacularly.

In the past, she’d disliked people discussing ideological issues under entertainment works. She consumed these things purely to relax, not to attend lectures. Yet today, she actually enjoyed watching everyone argue.

If Ye Zheng’s character had never existed, the comment section wouldn’t have had so many voices raising objections. Perhaps only a small minority would’ve noticed that the author, while appearing sympathetic, was actually using women’s tragedies entirely as stepping stones for the male lead’s highlights and growth.

When that small minority voiced dissent, they would inevitably be countered by the majority. Quite a few people would even praise the old uncle for using this plot to speak up for women. As a male author, being willing to acknowledge and sympathize with women’s tragedies was supposedly rare and commendable.

"Thank goodness Ye Zheng appeared," Li Yixin said happily. Otherwise, knowing herself as she did, she might very well have been one of those defending this kind of plot.

A seemingly perfect, righteous, and handsome male lead would make her adore and champion him. But a flawed yet immensely powerful female character stirred a different kind of emotion and impulse within her. It was a deeper, more profound stirring. Li Yixin still couldn’t quite put it into words. She only knew she wanted to join the comment section in praising the great Saintess!

She lingered in the comment section for a while longer, then soon shared her thoughts on the new chapter with Tang Mingxi. The other girl responded in surprise. "Didn’t you say that once Zhao Mei was gone, your love disappeared?"

Li Yixin looked a little sheepish. Her reply came out hesitantly. "Maybe it’s because you’re still following it... the platform keeps pushing notifications to me..."

Halfway through the phone call, her phone chimed with a notification. Li Yixin glanced over. It was an update alert from the followed account 【Steam Empire】. Feeling a twinge of guilt, she quickly deleted the message.

Tang Mingxi heard that the author’s comment section had been bombarded again. After ending the call with Li Yixin, she immediately mobilized her dozen or so big-eye accounts and rushed to the battlefield. She soon realized the situation had already become so one-sided that her army wasn’t even needed.

The front rows were either supporting Ye Zheng or cursing out the old uncle and the plot. Even Pei Xi fans couldn’t stubbornly keep playing the role of "protect uncle" this time. Although a few were still defending with lines like "Ye Zheng can’t guarantee the Fallen Ones won’t hurt people" or "Pei Xi’s choice protected the majority," most Pei Xi fans had to admit that their favorite’s storyline had gone off the rails.

"Washing this kind of plot? I’m starting to suspect Y chromosomes can deliver cyber poison..."

Tang Mingxi muttered to herself.

She dared say that more than half of this manga’s revenue came from female readers. Turning a female character who liberated female victims into a villain showed absolutely no respect for the golden-mother paypigs!

Now even the most protective boy moms had turned rebellious.

But when Tang Mingxi looked at the focus of Pei Xi fans’ comments, she nearly burst out laughing.

【Please respect your manga’s only protagonist. Stop giving him controversial plots just to stir black-red hype, okay?】

【Protect Pei Xi well. Some people are already attacking the plot and dragging the character into it. Why should your mistakes be blamed on this little boy?】

【Focus on shaping the character properly. Stop forcing plots you came up with using your dick onto Pei Xi. He’s clearly a very upright and empathetic boy. Stop OOC-ing him!】

Tang Mingxi looked at the screen filled with exclamation marks and thought that before loving their characters, these people should try loving themselves a little first.

Tang Mingxi curled her lips smugly. Ye Zheng had clearly raised these little steam fans too well. The moment this girl casually flexed her ability and showed off her skills in the manga, a huge number of people inside and outside the work had massive breakdowns. Zheng fans had secured a complete tailwind victory.

【Clear gap in quality. I think Ye Zheng and Zheng fans are the real hot-blooded shonen protagonists here?】

【Fake hot-blooded shonen protagonist: Pei Xi. True hot-blooded shonen protagonist: Ye Zheng!】

【Who still remembers the hard times when Ye Zheng debuted and everyone called her undeserving?】

【Looking back now, the undeserving one was clearly someone else.】

From the accessory female lead everyone despised at the beginning to the "villain" who now concentrated love and hate from countless people, Ye Zheng and her fans had staged a powerful comeback together.

She skillfully switched to another account. Lately her current 3D female idol had gotten into a fight with her groupmates over positioning issues. Not only did she have to control comments, she was also busy fighting rivals.

The rival’s ugly screenshots had been saved into a dedicated album on her phone. Suddenly Tang Mingxi felt a little off. She didn’t really want to fight rivals anymore.

These deliberately screenshotted unflattering images were a common tactic used to attack rivals. This method was even considered relatively mild. More extreme versions involved spreading yellow rumors, photoshopping ghost pictures, gore edits, and so on.

Tang Mingxi usually only countered with real ugly photos of the other side. She believed her moral standards were fairly high and free of gender bias. Whether the target was a female or male idol, if they came at her she struck back with the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms.

Her liking for Ye Zheng had originally been simple. The appearance and personality suited her taste and nothing more. She charged into battles for her out of habit, and she gained a sense of accomplishment from it.

But as she came to understand Ye Zheng’s character more deeply, especially after seeing the multifaceted and razor-sharp version of her in the new chapter, Tang Mingxi suddenly lost interest in using those black images to attack a real-life woman she didn’t even know.

"Forget it. Browsing the forum is way more fun."

The people arguing about the controversial plot had all migrated to the author’s social media account. The forum had already moved on to other topics. Because the discussions were so normal, Tang Mingxi actually found them refreshing and couldn’t resist jumping in.

【1L: Old Li, isn’t it time to update your manga’s power ranking?】

【2L: When Zhao Mei was around it was a four-second stopwatch. After the Zhao Mei incident it dropped to a three-second stopwatch. Kieran had a brief moment of hope but flopped instantly. Now Ye Zheng seems to be vaguely trending toward the big top, right?】

【3L: Not fan rankings. The official ones!】

【4L: Power rankings are more authoritative on certain bars. What else is there to compare on the forum besides fandom wars?】

【5L: These days even power levels are measured by horse eyes now?】

【6L: Guessing what you really want to ask: where should Ye Zheng rank now?】

【7L: Spoiling Zheng Mom a bit. Your kid is probably around fourth or fifth place.】

【8L: Teacher, that’s not right. My kid scored so high on the latest weekly test. How could she only be fourth or fifth in class?】

【9L: Ye Zheng suddenly went super hard. It’s a bit difficult to rank her now, but she definitely still can’t beat Sykes.】

【10L: Wait, didn’t our Zheng clearly hold back when fighting Sykes? Who knows, maybe she could win?】

【11L: What’s wrong with this parent? Don’t you even know your own child? If Ye Zheng could beat him, Sykes probably wouldn’t still be standing.】

【12L: Why is everyone in this thread spoiling Zheng Mom so much?】

【13L: Because the one who loves arguing with Zheng Mom the most, Xi Xi Mom, went to fight the principal. Her son did really badly on the recent exam.】

【14L: I’m dying of laughter. With no one to argue with, I really don’t feel right. Xi Xi Mom, please come back quickly!】

...

【57L: Ye Zheng’s ability obviously relies heavily on environment and luck. If there hadn’t been mist, Pei Xi absolutely wouldn’t have lost. Without water Ye Zheng is useless.】

【58L: Oh my god, who summoned Xi Xi Mom here?】

【59L: To be fair, Kieran was SS-class. Didn’t he still get killed by Ye Zheng in a no-water environment?】

【60L: Kieran was obviously plot-killed!】

【61L: Speaking of Kieran, does anyone care what Ye Zheng actually said to him before he died?】

【62L: There’s discussion in the next thread. People suspect it was some secret related to the Hope Project. He looked like his faith shattered. Ye Zheng didn’t just kill him. She completely heart-slayed him too lol.】

【63L: Why do Kieran’s fans get traumatized every time they click into a thread? My poor wife just gets casually trampled with no one caring...】

【64L: OP upstairs, change your mindset. Isn’t this exactly the passerby mop-up your faves love? Just open for dinner already.】

【65L: How is Kieran uncared for? In certain bars the guys are super into him. He’s already been canonized as the great hero who sacrificed himself fighting the evil villain Ye Zheng!】

【66L: Wasn’t it supposed to be that gazing at Kieran is deconstructing male power? So how come when Kieran is gazed at no man jumps out to defend him? But the second a female character kills him they wail like their dad died and rush out to protect rights?】

【67L: Lol, because if they had Kieran’s looks, they’d already be selling seduction.】

...

【102L: Serious answer to OP. Among the participating youth group, Sykes is first, Bai Muqing second. Ye Zheng and Pei Xi can fight for third. One depends heavily on environment while the other has cheats.】

【103L: I think Ye Zheng’s strength should include her brain. She’s terrifyingly smart and kind of shady?】

【104L: If Ye Zheng were the protagonist, she’d be the super likable type. Smart, powerful, grows fast, classic good guy. But she just had to be the villain...】

【105L: People aren’t afraid of a strong villain. They’re afraid of a villain who grows even faster than the protagonist. That’s the shadow the protagonist and the audience can never shake off.】

【106L: Lighting candles for Pei Xi in advance. And Sykes too. You provoked the villain among villains!】

【107L: Terrifying. Has Zheng Mom completely taken over the forum? One refresh and it’s all praising Ye Zheng’s strength.】

【108L: What else? Praise the freshly minted Successor Twin Young Masters?】

【109L: Praising Ye Zheng after the new plot is normal, right? Forget the Successor Twin Young Masters. Her entire loser alliance could form a Tang Family Three Young Masters.】

【110L: Openly cursing characters with "Tang". You Zheng Moms really have no manners.】

【111L: It’s over. Our Zheng Mom has truly become the forum tyrant. But so what?】