Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Let's Break Up

Under normal circumstances, whenever there is a case of "ghostwriting," the ghostwriter would get the most attention. In this case, the person concerned was Lin Shiya. However, Su Li's name struck the headlines!

As everyone was wondering how this "ghostwriting" case came to be, the first line they could draw was Su Li had drawn an illustration of Wen Qingyu, a highly popular character in "Bakuman." It was true that the character did not encounter any misfortune, but Master Ya Jing had not been so fortunate herself, she had not managed to repel the attack Su Li's reality-altering weapon!

Everyone wanted Su Li to express her concern. Hopefully, she would promise that she would exercise more restraint for a time being!

Besides Su Li, who else had reality-warping abilities?

When Su Li knew about this, she called Zhao Youyue, as confused as ever, "Milady, concerning this Ya Jing, did she really find someone else to write on her behalf? If so, she could have gotten exposed anytime, but why now?"

Zhao Youyue was equally confused, as this was her first time encountering such an unexpected turn of events. When her senses finally returned, she reminded herself that she had once promised to clear the misunderstandings surrounding Su Li. Yet, Su Li had once again taken the blame for exposing Lin Shiya's ghostwriting…

Zhao Youyue had never once believed that Su Li had the power to throw misfortune at another individual. They had all been executed at her personal requests. Maybe that mysterious power came from Zhao Youyue all this while, and Su Li was just taking the blame for her?

Clearly, Zhao Youyue did not believe in superstitions, but when Master Ya Jing was exposed to a career-ending scandal, she started to have doubts over herself, was she in fact, cursed?

Nevertheless, none of this was her business; Su Li was her meat shield. Lin Shiya was only receiving her just deserts if she had been innocent all along, she would have gotten away unscathed.

Lin Shiya's response did not help the situation one bit. She deleted all the articles in her blog and deactivated her Douban account as the netizens clambered up to Su Li. She replied on Weibo

1. These were completely made up accusations.

2. My lawyer will handle this.

As expected, with the concrete evidence provided by the BigV, her replies fell short, as if she was glossing things over to stay on good terms.

Of course, carefree fans thought that being calm was the best response. People would definitely suspect her if she panicked and flailed about in the face of her accuser. She might even be buying time to use her well-known status and make a deal with her accuser. Under the table, of course.

Her ghostwriter had to be someone close to her. To protect her reputation, that person would surely lay as low as possible until the smoke clears.

Plus, ghostwriting was quite common in the literary field and some authors even shared the same pen name…

The ghostwriter and the 'face' of the author clearly had the same goals from the beginning. It would not be easy for them to get exposed.

The carefree fans of Master Ya Jing did not bother to uncover the truth, because Lin Shiya was much better looking than that particular BigV. In other words, justice would always side with good-looking folk; and that was the absolute truth!

Carefree fans were the most unreasonable creatures in this world, even if Lin Shiya had indeed procured the services of a ghostwriter, it did not matter to them. On the contrary, they would only feel angry that her perfect illusion had been ruined. If Lin Shiya's case was brought to the court and she lost, she would still have those carefree fans to fall back on.

How could you people still degrade Master Ya Jing, even though she was giving it her best?

This was how the world functioned, ye nave idealists. We are all beneath the heel of the elites.

Which is why it is crucial to get famous as soon as possible. Popularity gave you the power over truth.

As the case of Ya Jing's ghostwriting blazed on, "Bakuman" only rose to greater heights. Those rational fans believed that Master Ya Jing could easily prove her innocence by live-broadcasting herself as she wrote the novel…

However, Lin Shiya did not have the courage to do so, she remained calm on the outside, but in fact, she was downright fearful. Deep down, she knew that she was not the true author of the novel. She had already gotten used to basking under the glorious light of being a beautiful genius author, while being showered by praise and worship of her fans. If all of these were taken away from her, she would have nothing.

Some reasonable, senior authors also posted a long post on Weibo expressing their take on things. They had their reservations about Ya Jing. Even though she was indeed beautiful, she did not behave like an author, for she rarely spoke about her novels whenever she attended events.

Every author would treat their works like their children, and would take every opportunity to praise and brag about them. No author could resist the urge to talk and brag about their work, especially if they were well-accepted by the public.

Of course, the undeniable facts were the discrepancies between her writing styles…

Lin Shiya's fans were mostly ordinary people. At first, they would think that Master Ya Jing would never hire someone to write on her behalf, it was impossible! As time passed by, people would become more suspicious of her as more evidence appeared.

Lin Shiya anxiously asked her boyfriend, Shi Jingnian to think of a solution, but he never really took this matter seriously, and only continued to devote himself to writing. Hunched over his work, he did not even turn around to murmur that as long as he does not own up, there would be no witnesses, nothing could go wrong.

In the end, his passive way of handling this issue not only left Lin Shiya disappointed; he also made Lu Xue furious. She had many recordings and photo evidence, such as the handwriting of the original manuscript of "Bakuman," which was nothing like Lin Shiya's handwriting.

As Ya Jing's reputation took a dip, "Bakuman" rose to the height of legends.

"Sister Li, fret not. This whole debacle will blow over. As long as Ya Jing denies the allegations, there shouldn't be any problems," Zhao Youyue replied Su Li.

Su Li believed that it was fair enough. Nobody would be stupid enough to own up to the truth and end their jig…

Just as Su Li was convincing herself of that idea, more evidence appeared! The real author, Shi Jingnian had been forced to face the audience as well, all of his half-written novels had been exposed! It caused an uproar on the internet, because most of the affected readers were reading "Bakuman" as well!

Lin Shiya soon buckled under the pressure, as she was just a university student. She admitted her wrongdoings on Weibo and apologized to her fans. Upon relinquishing all falsehoods, she felt as she had been born anew. She was not destined to take things that did not belong to her…

"Let's break up." Lin Shiya finally said those words to Shi Jingnian, after being with him for as long as she could remember.

"You really disappoint me," Lu Xue said to Shi Jingnian.