At around nine in the evening, Zhao Youyue closed the latest issue of Wind Manga, the glossy paper sliding quietly across her desk. She had to admit that seeing Xu Jing—the character she had possessed in the Dimension Gate—and everything she had experienced appear in a real-world manga gave her a strangely subtle feeling.
Back in the world of the work, being abused so mercilessly by the creator had filled her with a simmering anger, to the point that she had nearly wanted to explode and stir up trouble within the panels. Yet in reality, reading the actual manga under the warm glow of her room's light, she found herself feeling a kind of detached amusement. After all, her current identity was Zhao Youyue, not Xu Jing. No matter how much suffering Xu Jing endured in that fictional landscape, Zhao Youyue herself remained completely unharmed in the real world.
So even when she saw the fanservice involving Xu Jing in the manga, her heart didn't stir at all. It wasn't her body on the page.
Objectively speaking, the manga artist named Su Li really had portrayed Xu Jing extremely well. When drawing content related to Xu Jing, it felt as though Su Li had entered a state where inspiration and technique were both erupting at once. The lines were sharper, the expressions more nuanced, and the environmental details more vivid.
Zhao Youyue felt this was likely connected to her possessing Xu Jing. She had given Xu Jing a genuine soul. Her actions and behavior all made sense, which gave the character a powerful sense of reality that transcended the ink and paper. It was no longer just a vivid drawing; it was as if Xu Jing truly had life. Compared to the other soulless, formulaic characters, the difference was obvious at a glance. That was why so many readers felt that all previous plotlines and characters in Pure Love seemed to exist only to highlight Xu Jing, making her stand head and shoulders above the rest.
From another perspective, this also showed that creator Su Li's overall level, especially in character writing, was honestly quite average. If Zhao Youyue had entered a work created by a high-level author, or a story with a rich ensemble cast where every character felt real, then Xu Jing wouldn't have been able to stand out so overwhelmingly on her own.
This situation brought both benefits and drawbacks for Zhao Youyue. The benefit was obvious: Xu Jing could easily rise above the rest and leave a deep impression on countless readers. The drawback was that a work called Pure Love couldn't break through its bottleneck. It would still be considered mediocre and unable to withstand the test of time. After all, a work couldn't rely on a single character to support the entire narrative structure.
If Zhao Youyue did nothing under these circumstances, then Xu Jing would probably only shine for a short while before gradually being forgotten, never becoming a classic character.
That was why she was definitely not going to let Su Li, a creator who was mediocre in everything except selling fanservice, continue following her original plan. Zhao Youyue had stayed in the world of Pure Love for so long that through careful observation she had already figured out Su Li's creative taolu (routines). Right now, Su Li was abusing Xu Jing so brutally. In the end, wouldn't the male lead and his younger sister appear at the critical moment so he could play the hero, save the beauty, and then logically add Xu Jing to his harem?
How could Zhao Youyue possibly allow Su Li to push the plot in that direction? As she had said before, if Xu Jing being taken into the harem could make her a classic character, she wouldn't even mind it. After all, it wasn't her body. In special situations, she could even directly detach her senses, let the plot pass, and then possess Xu Jing again once the scene ended.
Once Xu Jing became a classic character, Zhao Youyue would be able to inherit Xu Jing's abilities in the real world—the kind she could turn on and off at will. That way, she would no longer have to worry about her studies. She could turn Xu Jing's ability on during class every day, then activate it for another two hours after going home to tackle her homework. It would be hard not to become a top student with that level of focus.
She could even activate Xu Jing's ability during exams, completely eliminating mistakes caused by carelessness. Those points lost to carelessness shouldn't be underestimated. If someone didn't take that problem seriously, they would often look at their returned paper after an exam, sighing as they thought about how much better their ranking could have been. Yet in reality, some people could never fix that flaw no matter how hard they tried.
Carefulness was actually a kind of talent, just like diligence was a kind of talent, especially sustained, unwavering diligence.
And Xu Jing possessed those talents and abilities in abundance.
However, Zhao Youyue didn't believe that Xu Jing being taken into the harem would turn her into a classic character. On the contrary, it would destroy Xu Jing. She would become just one of the many girls in a crowded cast, losing her strong, independent appeal and turning into nothing more than an accessory to the male lead. How could that be considered classic?
Men tended to like women who revolved around them, but the ones they truly respected were independent women with strong personalities of their own. Xu Jing's perseverance, effort, independence, resilience, calmness, gentleness, and meticulousness had deeply moved countless male readers. But once Xu Jing became one of the male lead's harem, would she still possess those qualities?
Su Li hadn't considered this question at all. She only knew that Xu Jing's popularity was sky-high right now. And in her view, a highly popular female character being taken into the male lead's harem was exactly what all male readers loved to see. That was how her work would become even more popular and smoothly get animated.
It was truly shallow, but there was no helping it. After all, Su Li was a newcomer manga artist who had just come ashore from the doujin manga scene.
In fact, Zhao Youyue could already see online that after reading the latest chapter, Pure Love's readers had split into a massive divide. The two sides had almost formed opposing camps and launched a chaotic battle of words. Weibo, Tieba, forums, and other social platforms had all become their battlegrounds.
This completely pushed Pure Love, which had only been mildly popular as a harem manga, into the realm of real popularity. Many onlookers who had no idea what was going on naturally decided to give the work a try. They wanted to see just how much pull that manga character named Xu Jing had to make so many readers argue over her.
The core of this massive divide was whether Xu Jing should be taken into the male lead's harem. About sixty percent of readers believed that a top-tier girl like Xu Jing obviously had to be taken into the harem. Otherwise, what? Give her to someone else?
"Giving the girl away" was a massive poison point in harem-oriented works.
However, the remaining forty percent believed that with the male lead being that kind of trash, he didn't deserve to take the goddess Xu Jing into his harem at all. That would be nothing but defiling their goddess.
She was already that pitiful, and now she still had to become a mistress?
No, she wasn't even a mistress anymore. Who knew how far down the line she would rank? She would still have to compete and get jealous over those vase-like female characters. Was she really that cheap?
Couldn't she find a good man who would be devoted to her alone?
In any case, if the male lead forcibly took Xu Jing, it would completely ruin such a character.
They strongly demanded that the author draw a spin-off with Xu Jing as the protagonist. Even if it only showed her obsessively studying every day—all kinds of study poses, diligently doing housework, cooking for her mother, and carefully caring for her seriously ill father—they would never get tired of watching it.
They had even come up with the title for the author already. It could be called A Certain Pure Love's Super Female Top Student. Who knew, maybe the spin-off would be even more popular than the main work.