Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Zhao Youyue braced herself, bit down the embarassment, and shut down portions of her brain to bulldoze through the pages. This was how she charged through anything unfavorable coming from the “Two Dimensional Gate.” After all, she needed to complete a book before she could deliver her final verdict upon it.

She could immediately abandon some works and save herself time.

“God Level Leader” was one such tasteless piece. At most, it gave the writer just enough to survive. It was absolutely impossible for this work to be outstanding. Nothing could be salvaged from the plot, and no character cards would probably accompany Zhao Youyue on her way out.

Therefore, it was truly unnecessary to continue wasting her time.

At that moment, Zhao Youyue took hold of “An Youyou” and started taking her first steps to death.

Before seeking death, Zhao Youyue had to do something to clear up the readers’ misunderstanding of the capricious, arrogant Lady An Youyou. What could she do?

Actually, it was very easy. She only had to treat the male protagonist nicely. These sorts of works played the “reader stepping into the shoes of the protagonist” card extensively. Therefore, the male protagonist must not even have one bad moment. Beautiful female characters must fell in love with the male protagonist. If not, they would be considered as highly toxic. Still that same sentence, “Within harem kind of works, supportive characters had no mating right!

An Youyou was blunt and forthcoming. Her true self, was her only self. Anyway, the male protagonist had rescued her from the gangsters once. Thus, it also made sense for her to repay him Most male readers thought that the best way would be to join his harem. At the same time, her family could end up as another pillar of support for the protagonist.

But how could Zhao Youyue possibly allow these readers to have it their way?

The best flowers were most often a finger’s breadth out of reach!

Zhao Youyue put An Youyou’s character settings to full use and portrayed the image of a domineering gentleness with her “true, unpretentious” behavior. She made a point clear, “I go to nightclubs, but I know that I’m a good girl.”

What was considered a good girl? Let’s not talk about that in real-world terms. Within novels, as long as a female character did two things, she was a good girl. Firstly, she had to be beautiful. Secondly, she only cared for male protagonist. In that case, her personality would be of no consequence whatsoever – even if she was a manic serial killer. The readers would defend her themselves. They would be glad to induct yet another “Yandere”[1] in their library of anime girls.

An Youyou had already shown her irritable side in the past. With Zhao Youyue taking the wheel she maintained the tongue clicks and annoyance that the character showed in the past, but treated the main protagonist all too differently.

Readers would be most content with how things were turning out. Wasn’t this how they wanted to feel, if they were in the shoes of the protagonist?

“I Love to Eat Pumpkin Pie” was only in it for the marketability. He would most certainly approve of such a development

Zeng Dawei had used his mind reading technique to read An Youyou’s mind. He realized that this Lady was far too simple-minded, albeit stubborn. She only thought about repaying his kindness.

Zeng Dawei’s perspective towards this Lady slightly changed. He originally thought that this Lady would most absolutely look down on him, since he once belonged to the bottommost echelon of society. He had not expected this lady to be so, genuinely grateful

Of course, Lady An Youyou still treated the others with disdain, pretending to be very proud. Her attitude was completely different – only when treating the male protagonist.

She repaid his kindness in various ways, such as giving him expensive, rare presents, disclosing high-level intel to him; even introducing to him to powerful figures that would serve his future well. She had single-handedly turned him into a legitimate threat in the vast world of elites and corrupt diplomats!

What that raked at the hearts of readers was how she seemed to have passionately fallen for him. This was the purpose of writing hollow stories!

In “God Level Leader,” many beauties fell in love with the male protagonist. There were also many “Hero saves the Damsel in Distress” situations. In one instance, the protagonist had utilized his power to wash away the grievances of a beauty who had been wrongly accused, and became her master, causing the beauty to fall in love with him

According to the standard, Lady An Youyou should be falling in love with him at this point. The male protagonist’s aura within hollow literature like this one was too powerful. However, due to Zhao Youyue’s appearance, things had changed.

An Youyou was not exactly falling in love with the male protagonist. She was also unlike those frivolous female characters, who offered everything to the male protagonist at the drop of a needle. She used more roundabout methods, repaying kindness in in complex, multi-layered strategic maneuvers.

Such was Zhao Youyue’s plan, and all was working out well.

In the real world, “I Love to Eat Pumpkin Pie” Xu Liangming had unsurprisingly entered the intoxicated state, and jotted all these events down in one breath. He was at the top of his game!

Before he uploaded the chapter, he gave it a careful once-over. He had great sense of accomplishment towards his depiction on An Youyou. It had been a first for him writing about a female character who was not all dim-witted and frivolous. He should be able to slap the faces of those readers who had been criticizing him in the past about his vulgar, “Damsel in Distress” plot!

Lady An Youyou’s IQ had come back online!

When the chapter went online, readers had much good to say about it!

“It is just me, or has An Youyou suddenly become a lot more wholesome? I can’t wait to see when will she gets conquered.”

“An Youyou has my full and undivided support. This is the first female character who looks like a proper heroine. All the other members of his harem were nothing but living sex dolls.”

“This is a sudden turn, but it’s definitely a turn for the better. It’s a refreshing detour from the rinse and repeats. It looks like the master writer has started putting effort in his writing”

“An Youyou is very lovely, being a real, unpretentious, innocent Lady. It feels like the writer has finally stopped criticizing the source character. In my heart, Ah Yu is just as innocent as this!”

“In the past, she gave me the impression of being the classic bitch package of capriciousness, arrogance, and nightclubs. Now only have I learnt that this is the real An Youyou. From how she’s so keen on repaying the male protagonist’s kindness, she has to be a righteous, upright figure. I like this version of her. Why not just make her the leader of the harem? She definitely has the capabilities!”

“The real heroine has finally appeared! She’s such a wealthy Lady. I’m tired of the harem trope, but I might just be able to see a woman taking charge of her supposed harem, along with its owner”

“Master Pumpkin Pie is finally writing up to standard. This An Youyou is truly very much in line with Lady Ah Yu’s nature. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would mind having her run the harem!”

Zhao Youyue read the comments and sneered. Now that her image has been restored, it was about time she died.

Sit down, all of you. I was just getting started.

Such hollow literature only knew how to host flower vase female characters. They were all brainless, frivolous, and only knew how to give. When a female character broke the rules by possessing IQ and based itself upon an amazing real life figure, it was no surprise that she would stand out and eclipse everything else!

Translation Note:

[1] Yandere – A fictional character who fits the archetype of being genuinely romantic, loving, kind, merciful, sparing, sweet and gentle, but is at the same time brutal, psychotic or deranged in behavior. The psychotic tendency can be both sudden and ever-present. Often used for both comedic and dramatic displays of character. (http://www.yourdictionary.com/yandere)