Chapter 193
Chapter
193
2026
【Be honest, do you all actually want the emperor to die in childbirth? Then people will start accusing us again of stealing women’s reproductive role. No matter what you do, someone’s going to label it misogynistic.】
【Only a mother’s love can resonate with the majority of people. If it were the father making the sacrifice, it wouldn’t hit nearly as hard. What’s wrong with praising maternal love?】
【They shout about women’s freedom every single day, yet they’re constantly talking down to women in such a patriarchal tone about what they should become. Women can be warriors, they can be mothers, they can love beauty, and they can be anything they want.】
【Ye Zheng, who kills without hesitation for the sake of justice, is praised as an awakened “strong female lead,” while the former empress, who sacrificed herself to save the nation and its people without harming anyone, is condemned as nothing more than a bloodbag tool. Is there really nothing wrong with the values of Zheng’s fans?】
……
Li Yixin came across this post as well. She felt a trace of confusion regarding how the former empress was being portrayed, so she clicked into every related thread.
As she scrolled through the latest chapter’s scenes featuring the former empress together with the emperor and his sons, her brows stayed tightly furrowed the entire time. She didn’t feel even the slightest hint of being moved, only an indescribable sense of discomfort.
Li Yixin was someone with an extremely low threshold for tears. She was easily moved, and every time she watched scenes in movies or anime where mothers or wives sacrificed themselves, her eyes would inevitably fill with tears. But this time, she even started to suspect that she’d gone numb from studying too much.
She quickly figured out the reason. A similar plotline had actually appeared before in the Western District’s Hope Project arc. Back then, she had sincerely admired those women who willingly sacrificed themselves for the Hope Project, believing they were great and noble, filled with righteousness.
However, Ye Zheng’s storyline at the end of the Western District arc had struck her hard and shaken her awake. Why was it that when women achieved great righteousness, it always involved dying quietly behind the scenes for men? Why couldn’t these powerful women remain alive and save the world on their own?
This time, the former empress’s story was simply wrapped more delicately under the label of maternal love. At its core, it was exactly the same as the Western District arc. As fellow fans would put it, it was using tragic women as embellishments for the male protagonist’s medal of heroism.
The post was filled with intense arguments. The focus was no longer on what Ye Zheng or her fans had done. Everyone had their own views about maternal love and how female characters should be portrayed. Quite a few male readers even left comments like, “I’m a guy and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it,” and “Sykes’s mom is the real saintess. Ye Zheng is just a fake saintess.”
Li Yixin scrolled through the post, feeling extremely irritated. She exited it, refreshed the homepage, and found a new thread.
【Before praising her as a great mother, please first treat her as a human being.】【hot】
【1L: Before praising her as a great mother, please first treat her as a human being.】
【2L: The “her” here can refer to the former empress, or to any woman in literature and in the real world. Every time you praise how noble and selfless maternal love is, the shackles placed upon mothers only grow heavier. The more sacred and exalted the title of “mother” becomes, the more a woman’s social identity is stripped away, until she’s reduced to a flawless being who exists solely to devote her entire self to motherhood.】
【3L: Society glorifies mothers as all-powerful superhumans for the sake of their children, with the saying “Women are weak by nature, but become strong once they become mothers.” But why do these supposedly strong mothers always end up as the ones who are sacrificed, only able to linger on in dim, hazy memories?】
【4L: You call mothers great superhumans, so why is there never a superhuman mother who rises up, fights bravely to protect her child, and saves the world? Instead, it’s always the mother who dies because of her superhuman son, after which the son sets off on a path to either save everything or destroy it.】
【5L: A mother’s so-called “highlight moment” always lies on the path toward death, or within death itself. Yet the spotlight cast upon a mother’s noble corpse isn’t a highlight at all, it’s the fangs of a bloodsucker. Even after she’s dead, she’s still reduced to a tool for men to pity themselves and justify their own actions, look how pitiful he is, he lost his mother!】
【6L: But if people truly cherished mothers so deeply, why do they keep dying in countless different ways across works of fiction? Why do people even genuinely believe that the moment a mother dies is the greatest highlight of her life?】
【7L: In literature and entertainment, there are always layers upon layers of misunderstandings and endless conflicts between fathers and sons. They clash, struggle, adventure, reconcile, and finally make peace. Mothers, on the other hand, are forever cast as the warmest harbor. She understands her husband’s ambitions and her child’s rebellion alike. People feel grateful for a mother’s tolerance, yet no one cares about her own ambitions or her darker side. And so, she truly becomes nothing more than a faint, barely visible harbor.】
【8L: Women have the freedom to sacrifice themselves, the freedom to return to family life, and the freedom to love beauty. But freedom requires the presence of real choices. Are you sure society has actually given women any other options? If the answer is yes, then so many mothers wouldn’t keep dying one after another throughout literary and artistic works.】
The comment section under this post was unexpectedly harmonious. Aside from a handful of people trying to stir things up, the discussions were relatively calm and easy to sit through. Perhaps the written word itself created a kind of natural barrier.
……
【196L: Well said. Honestly, if you want to judge whether a female character is well-written, you only need to look at the reaction from the male audience. If they’re strongly praising a female character, then there’s definitely something off about her.】
【197L: “Throne of the Aberrant Realm” is a textbook example of whiny male-oriented writing. Things that would get mocked to hell in real life suddenly become acceptable the moment you slap an attractive 2D male skin over it?】
【198L: A man’s mother is just like a man’s morals, they only show up when needed. They’re pulled out for display when it’s convenient, but most of the time, they’re completely forgotten.】
【199L: My mom is very ordinary, but I can feel her love for me through countless small details. I genuinely can’t understand the mindset of people who keep going on about how a mother’s sacrifice is her “highlight moment”…】
After reading through the original poster’s comments, Li Yixin suddenly found herself thinking of her own mother.
For a long stretch of her adolescence, she had resented how her mother hovered around her every single day. Every little thing she did would attract her mother’s attention and questioning. That kind of maternal care had felt suffocating to her. Why couldn’t her mom be like her dad and go out to work? Why did she always have to keep such a close watch over her?
Back then, she had preferred her father more. Dad didn’t interfere as much. His concern outside of work always felt measured and appropriate, and he wouldn’t argue with her day after day over trivial matters.
Because of some minor incident, she had once shouted at her mother, “Why do you have to control me so much? Can’t you just mind your own business?!”
She had even said things that were far harsher than that.
After her emotions cooled down, she would always feel a sense of regret, yet she couldn’t bring herself to apologize to her mother. Maybe even if she did apologize, she wouldn’t know what to say. A heavy, sour bitterness would rise up and block her throat.
But now, as Li Yixin’s adolescence was nearing its end, she finally arrived at a different understanding.
What she had truly wanted to say back then wasn’t “Mind your own business,” but rather, “Mom, you deserve a much broader life.”
✧✧✧✧✧
Tang Mingxi saw the neighboring post openly using Empress’s name to smear Ye Zheng, so she dropped the act and started cursing outright.
【1L: I feel like Sykes won’t be around much longer. Does anyone else get that feeling?】
【2L: This little boy who loves his mother so much deserves to grab his lunchbox and clock out early.】
【3L: Don’t delete my post and don’t start cursing me, okay? Even Uncle said we’re allowed to discuss which major character might die. I’m voting for Sykes. What about you guys?】
The moment they saw the title, Zheng fans, who were already holding back a stomach full of anger, rushed in even faster than the Sykes fans.
【46L: Blackened boy, stand at attention!】
【47L: I’m voting for Pei Xi, because I ship the twin-young-masters CP. Please just lock yourselves together no matter where you go~】
【48L: Sykes is so repressed and miserable that he’s bound to blacken. Staying in this cruel world is way too much pressure for our fragile little boy (crying emoji).】
【49L: He blackens just because his inheritance rights were shaken a little? I think the one with the most reason to blacken is Sykes’ younger sister. She doesn’t even have any inheritance rights to begin with. Doesn’t she deserve a full-blown blackening arc?】
【50L: Voting for Sykes. I hope the world never has to deal with this Sykes-Zheng fetish ever again…】
【51L: Our Steam Empire bot has already rolled out a voting exile law. Sykes has taken first place as the character most deserving to go offline by a massive margin.】
【52L: That authoritative? Uncle’s gotta respect the voting results from our Steam Empire.】
【53L: I hereby announce the immediate disbandment of “Throne of the Aberrant Realm.” I’ll be joining the far more authoritative Steam Empire instead.】
……
【108L: You guys are all joking around, but why do I feel like this could actually happen? If Sykes blackens and tries to destroy the world, Ye Zheng definitely won’t let him get away with it. Any male character who offends our Empress Ye ends up either dead or missing.】
【109L: Going offline in Zheng fans’ dreams, huh. Cursing characters really is your signature move. My son has so much development, and he’s the author’s designated second male lead. Isn’t the chance of your girl going offline way higher?】
【110L: The one who actually deserves to be cursed is someone else. The neighboring thread is guessing it’s Lu Qi. Why does she always have to sacrifice herself to protect her teammates in the Western District? Does your grand male protagonist really can’t move forward without a woman’s corpse paving the road?】
【111L: Poor little Lu Qi, what a pitiful girl. In the end, Sykes is still the most fitting one to go offline.】
【112L: Friendly reminder: the last male character who made a flashy entrance and confidently thought he could take on Ye Zheng has already watched his stock price crash straight through the planet’s core.】
【113L: The original poster was clearly just joking. Sykes fans, don’t start cursing people. Let’s respect the freedom of women to joke about male paper characters.】
【114L: Some people should seriously stop trying to discipline us Zheng fans. Who’s going to protect our freedom as real, three-dimensional women to curse paper male characters?】
……
【427L: Alright, our thread has already overtaken the neighboring one. Looks like Sykes has also secured the title of “Most Likely to Go Offline” in the forum poll. Uncle, you absolutely can’t go against the will of the people!】
On the forum, the Zheng fans only treated this post as a joke. After all, everyone understood deep down that the author had invested so much effort into shaping Sykes as a character. There was no way he’d let him go offline that easily.
Tang Mingxi closed her phone, feeling a mix of satisfaction and a faint trace of regret.
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Authors Note
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The elders at home were celebrating a birthday, so I ended up busy until very late. That’s why tonight’s update is so delayed. I sincerely apologize to all the adults who are staying up late…
~~~End~~~