Chapter 141

Ye Zheng couldn’t hold on until she left the church. On her way out, she suddenly fainted. The people around her panicked and rushed in to surround her.

When Ye Zheng opened her eyes again, she saw the familiar ceiling above her. She weakly pushed herself up, turning her head, only to notice someone lying face-down at the edge of her bed, asleep in silence.

Ye Zheng’s body stiffened. She stared at Shu Wan’s side profile buried in her arms, unsure whether she should wake her mother or not.

She didn’t know how Ye Fanjing had explained the trial to her mother. Seeing her daughter lose consciousness and being carried back must’ve broken her heart. But as her daughter, Ye Zheng didn’t know how to explain any of it to her either.

They were the closest blood relatives in this world. Maybe because they were too close, their hearts had unconsciously drifted apart.

Ye Zheng stared at her quietly for a while, then looked away. She got out of bed softly, found her phone buried in a pile of clothes, sat down on a chair, and turned it on.

From the moment she’d entered the Western District until the end of the trial, far too many things had already happened. Ye Zheng hadn’t even had the time to open her phone and check the readers’ feedback. Even so, she could still tell from the rising Action Points that plenty of readers were supporting her.

In Ye Zheng’s view, the higher-dimensional world where the readers and the manga author existed was like a special Aberrant Realm. The difference was that the monsters in normal Aberrant Realms didn’t have human-like appearances or intelligence, whereas the people in the higher-dimensional world had similar appearances and ways of thinking to them. Probably because this manga world itself had been born from that higher-dimensional world.

People from the higher-dimensional world could influence her world through their thoughts and emotions. Sometimes Ye Zheng felt as if she was being watched by a giant eye, yet she could also observe that other world through that same eye.

Looking at it this way, she and the people from the higher-dimensional world were each other’s “monsters.”

“System, according to what you said, our world was born from imagination. The manga author is like a creator god. Your world is like a divine realm to us.”

“Since you can enter our world, it’s like a god sending an envoy into the mortal realm. Since you have a channel to descend, does that mean I might also be able to....”

After the series of events in the Western District, Ye Zheng had grown even more doubtful and thoughtful about this world. A sudden idea rose in her mind, and she even gestured slightly with her hands, but she was quickly interrupted by the system.

『You’ve lost quite a lot of blood. Your brain is currently in a mild oxygen-deficient state, and your intelligence is below your usual baseline! I don’t recommend doing any complex thinking right now!』

『Aren’t you curious about the readers’ feedback? Everyone really likes you. Looking at their compliments is perfect for massaging and relaxing your brain.』

“I think my head is actually pretty clear right now.”

Ye Zheng shook her head twice, trying to prove her point, only to immediately realize she was still a bit dizzy. She quickly blinked a few times to steady herself.

『……See? I told you, your head isn’t clear.』

The normal Ye Zheng would never try to prove she was clear-headed just by shaking her head like that!

Ye Zheng pressed a hand against her forehead and let out a soft sigh. She had been tense for the entire past month. Now that she finally had a little time to rest, she decided she wouldn’t overthink things for the moment.

Even though she sometimes regarded the readers from the higher-dimensional world as “monsters,” she had always been genuinely grateful to them. It was precisely because of their existence and their gaze that she had managed to come this far.

Ye Zheng’s expression softened. A warm feeling rose in her heart, and she opened her phone, entering the forum.

Seeing that Ye Zheng had stopped dwelling on the matter, the system secretly let out a sigh of relief. It quietly adjusted the data, pushing argumentative posts further down while boosting the more affectionate posts from Zheng fans. It just hoped Ye Zheng could get some proper rest, and not only for the sake of changing the topic.

【Little Steam, please come in! Any dream-oriented Ye Zheng food recommendations?】

Little Steam? She understood what steam meant, but the “Steam” in this name definitely wasn’t referring to what she knew. Ye Zheng clicked in out of curiosity.

Very soon, the soft smile on Ye Zheng’s face slowly disappeared after she entered the trending post. First she frowned in confusion, then her expression turned slightly pale, and finally went completely blank as she tried to make sense of everything.

【1L: Little Steam, please come in! Any dream-oriented Ye Zheng food recommendations?】

【2L: Doujin illustrations, fanfiction, video edits—anything works. Please, I’m starving to death!】

【3L: Pointing to Big Eye’s Steam Empire. I refuse to believe there are still Zheng fans who don’t know about Steam Empire.】

【4L: Little Ford’s Ye Zheng tag mostly has dream-girl content, but recently there’ve been a lot of malicious CP fans lurking. Be careful when you check it out.】

【5L: How did you know I got traumatized by Little Ford’s doujin and came here for help? I found a nice solo illustration I liked, clicked into the artist’s page, and immediately got traumatized by Xi-Se works…】

【6L: Is it that black|dao pa one? There’s an artist in the Steam Empire bot who draws it with way more emotion. I’ll forever love Gun Zheng (attached image)】

【7L: What a god-tier illustration… I got distracted for a second and accidentally sat on Ye Zheng’s finger…】

【8L: Upstairs, you…】

【9L: Has anyone drawn Judge Zheng? I wanna be interrogated by Judge Zheng~】

【10L: Once I finish my final exams, I’ll fulfill the person above’s wish. I really wanna steal the Saintess’s smart little head and use it for my exams…】

【11L: Anyone want some “picked-up phone” literature? I just finished writing 《When Ye Zheng Discovers You’re Secretly in Love with Her》】

【12L: So tasty, so delicious! The way Ye Zheng’s calm and composed dom energy is portrayed is just too good. There’s also this damp, shadowy feeling like I’ve long been her prey. Boss, please don’t stop writing!】

【13L: Recommending Milk Tea No Sugar’s works 《Blue Moment》 and 《Please Answer 2067》. One is about meeting photographer Zheng in a foreign country, the other is mutual secret love with a transfer student Zheng. The atmosphere is incredibly strong.】

【14L: Quick heads-up about Milk Tea No Sugar.

She used to write BG in other fandoms, so I don’t really trust straight female authors handling yuri routes.】

[T/N- Easter egg , Milk Tea No Sugar is author of this work]

【15L: There are actually quite a few Ye Zheng GL ships too, YeLu, YeBai, YeShu, but the plot around them is way too thin. The old man just drops a few teasing hints and then leaves me suffering for the rest of my life…】

【16L: This hetun is already gotten used to it. Being left out in the cold actually feels kind of comforting. Us GL fans only exist when BL and BG fans are too busy fighting each other anyway.】

[T/N- Hetun means pufferfish probably a self-deprecating joke like BL fandoms 腐女 (fǔnǚ), meaning "rotten girl,"]

……

【57L: Random passerby who wandered in by mistake. You Ye Zheng dream girls are really eating this well?】

【58L: From what I’ve seen, there are even more Ye Zheng dream girls than dream girls for the male characters in your weird fandom circle. It’s honestly one of the great miracles of this fandom.】

【59L: Falling for Ye Zheng is basically the easiest thing in the world. And dream girls aren’t only about romance, there are also friendship routes and comfort-companion types. Ye Zheng is the kind of female character who genuinely gives people strength.】

【60L: For the friendship route, go check out Madam “Coffee Only Drinks a Little Sugar”’s When Ye Zheng Comes to Your World. A virtual character redeeming reality, an absolute masterpiece!】

【61L: I can only conclude that anyone who hasn’t embraced the "Ye Zheng dream girl" life is seriously unwell. Scientists once conducted an experiment whose specifics escape me, but the results apparently confirmed that becoming a Ye Zheng dream girl stands as one of life’s greatest blessings.】

【62L: Ye Zheng really raised her Zheng-pushers well. No matter which angle you look at her from, she’s a character full of incredible tension.】

【63L: Speaking of tension, I’ve got to bring out my treasured sacred scripture. Everyone flip your phones upside down to read it (long image with text attached).】

【64L: Holy shit, is this the S-type Ye Zheng I get to see without even going to Aotree?】

[T/N- Aotree=AO3]

……

“System, can these things really relax and massage my brain?” Ye Zheng closed her phone, her expression impossible to describe. She needed time to process this completely new knowledge system.

No, this kind of thing wasn’t something she could casually digest. It’d be better to just pretend it didn’t exist at all. As long as she didn’t look and didn’t listen, everything would remain peaceful and intact.

As expected, readers from the higher-dimensional world were indescribable monsters! She absolutely couldn’t try to understand them lightly.

The system felt a bit embarrassed. It had only wanted to push some friendly Ye Zheng-related posts to the top for her to see. It never expected her to so precisely click straight into the most explosive Zheng-pusher group discussion thread. Watching the gradual shift in Ye Zheng’s expression, it felt an inexplicable sense of guilt.

『Alright, just remember this in the future—don’t casually click on any post with “little steam” in the title, or anything involving Xizheng, Syzheng…』

The most out-of-character Ye Zheng dream-girl content only went as far as super-dominant scum-A Ye Zheng. The BG ships Xizheng and Syzheng, on the other hand, were the truly vicious ones, a whole pile of fragile, delicate-wife versions of Ye Zheng. It seriously suspected that quite a few people were just borrowing Ye Zheng’s identity to fantasize about two male characters.

As for the GL pairings with other female characters, they were far too niche. There was absolutely no need to worry about them reaching the point of affecting Ye Zheng herself!

The system quietly adjusted the weighting again. From now on, any post with Xizheng or Syzheng in the title would have its priority lowered. Ye Zheng already worked so hard every day, how could it let her see that kind of thing?

Ye Zheng sat there blankly for a while, holding the phone with its now-dark screen. She lowered her head, then couldn’t help but turn the phone back on again.

People feared the unknown but at the same time, they were drawn to it. Ye Zheng had already figured out what “steam” meant. As long as she avoided opening any posts labeled with it, she’d be fine.

She was curious. After everything that had happened in the manga world, how exactly did the readers perceive it all?

Ye Zheng noticed the magnifying glass icon at the top of the forum. She tapped it, then slowly, stroke by stroke, typed a few characters onto the screen, instinctively figuring out how to search for keywords without needing any guidance.

Using keywords like “Western District,” “dragon bone,” “Fallen Ones,” and “trial,” she browsed through the results one by one.

After going through quite a few posts, Ye Zheng clicked into a new thread titled 【What Kind of Crisis Is Truly Lurking Behind Ye Zheng’s Trial? Ye Zheng’s Dual Predicaments Inside and Outside the Manga!】

The post was extremely long. The author had precisely analyzed the reason she had chosen Holy Verdict at that time.

If she had accepted the outcome where Sykes wrapped everything up for her back then, her reputation as the Saintess would’ve suffered a devastating blow. Labels like “judge’s daughter,” “Crown Prince’s friend,” and “protected young noble lady”… those tags would’ve carried the doubts of ordinary citizens and gradually eroded her identity as Saintess and God’s Chosen.

As a character within the manga, she had never once considered things from the perspective of the author outside the story. This kind of handling was also a way of suppressing her in order to elevate Sykes’ image.

Thinking about it carefully, this maneuver followed exactly the same logic as how the Emperor had dealt with her.

Ye Zheng didn’t believe that Sykes exposing the plaintiff’s fake identity had been a coincidence. First, Sykes wasn’t that kind-hearted. Second, he might not even have had that level of capability. Or rather would someone who had laid such a meticulous trap really leave behind such an obvious flaw?

The moment she saw Sykes appear, Ye Zheng had already been almost certain that the Emperor was orchestrating a scheme. The goal of that scheme wasn’t to eliminate her but to suppress her.

Ye Zheng slowly furrowed her brows. But then why hadn’t the Emperor simply gotten rid of her altogether? Was it because, in his eyes, she still wasn’t enough of a threat?

No. If she were truly that insignificant, the Emperor wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to specifically set up a trap targeting her.

Ye Zheng held her phone and continued scrolling down.

【36L: This scheme was definitely arranged by the Emperor for Ye Zheng. Even though the current clues can’t pinpoint the mastermind behind the scenes, if we reason based on motive, who least wants to see Ye Zheng basking in the prestige of being God’s Chosen? Ye Zheng is still nominally part of the Church. The Pope probably wouldn’t act, but the imperial family has been building momentum for Sykes from the very beginning. Suddenly Ye Zheng appears and since the imperial family has always been at odds with the Church, would they really allow someone representing the Church to grow too powerful?】

The analysis made sense but Ye Zheng still felt that something didn’t quite add up.

If they truly didn’t want the power of the Church she represented to continue expanding, then the Emperor could’ve simply used the trial as an opportunity to eliminate her entirely. It couldn’t be that he was concerned about some private agreement with Ye Fanjing and actually treated her as the future Crown Princess who only needed a light reprimand, right?

Ye Zheng kept scrolling.

【107L: I feel like the Emperor’s attitude is actually pretty good. The OP might be overthinking it with conspiracy theories.】

【108L: The way the Emperor looks at Xi-Sy is so gentle and kind, like parents meeting their child’s partner (not really).】

【109L: I remember someone speculated before, based on Kieran saying Ye Zheng is a Blessed Reliquaries, that Sykes might end up forming a marriage contract with her. When that happens, Xi-Sy Sisters, who’s so good at stirring things up, is going to find it hilarious.】

【110L: The person above, do you think your Sy- zheng Sisters isn’t funny?】

【111L: Hey everyone, let’s not bring up pairings right now. This is a really heavy topic for Ye Zheng. Whether it’s being treated as a Blessed Reliquaries or some kind of marriage contract, Ye Zheng herself would definitely hate all of it.】

Ye Zheng’s gaze paused on 111L.

……Blessed Reliquaries?

After a moment of silence, the corners of her lips curled into a faint, cold smile.

The Emperor was suppressing her because he didn’t need Ye Zheng the Saintess, nor Ye Zheng the God’s Chosen. What he needed… was Ye Zheng the Blessed Reliquary.

Even after successfully creating Pei Xi and Sykes Aston, the Hope Project had never ended. The base was still operating, they were still chasing a more perfect form of hope.

And the most crucial component of that perfect hope was—

The perfect maternal vessel.

The Emperor wanted her to become the second Late Empress.

✧✧✧✧✧

Li Yixin flipped through her book, her thoughts drifting further and further away. She knew perfectly well that her top priority right now was studying but she simply couldn’t control the hand reaching for her phone.

She unlocked it and opened the forum. Earlier, she had left a comment that could easily provoke attacks from pairing fans, so now she checked the replies with a bit of nervousness.

【192L: Thank you for being reborn as a high-school senior who turned into a mutant. Those things are seriously annoying.】

【193L: Wishing you can find joy and motivation in your studies. Good luck with your senior year!】

Li Yixin’s eyes widened as she stared at the replier’s ID: “Ye Zheng.”