Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Self-cultivation of a Hollow Literature Writer

When the clouds cleared from Xu Liangming's head, he found another eight chapter-fuls of extra manuscripts in his computer. It depicted the male protagonist going on a wild rampage, killing everything in his path as he sought for his vengeance. He conducted a crackdown operation on the gangsters. He was headed straight for the "Gangster Emperor"!

Intoxication was a godsent. His pen would fly across the paper, carving worlds with mind of its own!

Even though Xu Liangming wrote with a switched-off brain for some extra earnings, it was not always enough. He had to key negative values into his IQ. One thing he learned from writing web novel was —— to underestimate the readers' IQ as much as possible, going so far as to even to insult their IQ. This way, he would write with minimal brainpower, as his readers would.

As for his critics on Longkong forums, their thoughts be damned. Some people criticized him for being a writer who had never studied in a university, that he was a total retard. He only replied with a smile.

He was deliberately writing in such a manner. Did they really think that he knew nothing about politics?

Clearly, that was not the case. If he had started off strong and eloquently, he would have burned out, or even dropped out in the middle of things. Therefore, he went full retard. It was for the good of the future. He had anticipated, and planned this!

Go ahead and ridicule his book. You can never ridicule him. He was too clever. His market target had always been those hollow literature readers, and he knew what would be a precise fit to their palate!

Based on Qidian statistics alone, his subscription count was rather mediocre, but traffic in other channels was overwhelming. Time-starved office workers had to read his book at night, in their sleep. It was their mental refuge, their relief from the stress at work. This male protagonist was their idea of living the life in office!

As an officer, things like calling shots for the people and building one's wealth were all secondary. Officers mainly lived for the mistresses and harem. That's life!

It was ridiculous to think that officers lived to serve the people. Why be an officer, then? People would rather raise pigs at home!

Officers never served the people. They stood over the people, dangling their dilly dongs about, doing whatever they wanted!

China had always been driven by the learned and capable. It was true that they had scholars, peasants, workers, businessmen. But scholars always remained up top. The only thing that changed about the modern world was that businessmen now closely followed after scholars.

Xu Liangming wrote based on the idea of the addictive, seductive superiority complex, and wrote such a "life-reflecting" work about politicians. On the one hand,his work was heavily criticized by veterans web novel readers and those who had some knowledge the subject. They all said the same things. This story had no lower limit in terms of IQ, and was utterly irrational. On the other hand, hollow literature readers welcomed the book with open arms. They even shouted the slogan - "The officials serves only Zeng Dawei and no one else!"

Xu Liangming was a mediocre writer. At most, he could only write things with acceptable fluency. But he knew how to rile up the teenager in every grown man's heart. Professional writers could learn from him!

Still, prideful professional writers would never lower themselves, even if their lives demanded it. It was true that they wanted easy money, but they would get caught up in their own prideful hipster-itis. They may not all be geniuses, but they would insist on writing like one. They should have done the opposite like Xu Liangming remove the lower limiter on their IQs. If the protagonist had an IQ of 50 while the supported characters had IQs of 30, the contrast would make it seem like the protagonist was a genius.

Sometimes, flexibility brought you a long way. Sacrifice your pride for easy cash, or write according to your heart and curl up in your lonely, niche corner.

Xu Liangming had never once been "intoxicated" in the past, as he had to constantly lower his own IQ to write. He had to keep a clear mind. This time, he realized that he had truly become mentally retarded when he was "intoxicated". How could he have been so foolish to write something so interesting!

Something in his manuscript caught his attention. The protagonist was a municipal leader. After An Youyou died, he started acting like a true idiot. He almost hid his face in embarrassment when he saw that he had even written a passage that showed the male protagonist wanting to have a fistfight with the "Gangster Emperor" Ye Wudao.

Which officer still did that, in this day and age?

That was certainly impossible. But this was a novel. How else would he give his readers the satisfaction of claiming revenge with your own two hands?

More importantly, after finishing off Ye Wudao, the protagonist would become enemies with Ye family, and he could continue milking and juicing his story!

Such was hollow literature. After defeating the younger generation, came the older generation. It was the perfect recipe for milking a story. You could have a few million words of brain-cell killers

Let's start from the low ranking servants, to the distant relatives, before moving onto thebranch family, the chosen youths, then start fighting the patriarchy. The protagonist was up against the Ye family of Lingnan this time. Such a family actually existed in real life, and they were beyond what you would call formidable!

Praise the freedom of speech. If they had it their way, they would have already banned this book. But since they could not have it their way, everyone got to read it in delight and feast upon their imaginations. The critics were actually closet fans, and thoroughly enjoyed the pirated versions as well. They could always stick around the slam the book further. Oh, what a joy!

The beauty of hollow literature. People could read the pirated version with peace, while remaining atop their pedestals

With such a system in place, the ones who were on the sharp ends of both sides would be hollow writers who were both unpopular and unsuccessful. It was either the top 500, or nothing at all. They would not get paid, and they would be blasted by criticism from all angles. Poor them.

Xu Liangming had his misgivings about the plot, but he did not plan to modify it. What's done is done, the manuscript seemed to be brimming with some sort of spirit. The hot-blooded, adrenaline-rushing kind. The protagonist was a low-level officer, yet the opponent was the great Ye family of Lingnan. If the protagonist defeats such a great family in the end, it would be very satisfying.

Wait a minute. Now that his mind was clear, why had he written the female character An Youyou to death?

This question terrified him!

He rushed to the review sections and started reading the "comments to this chapter" area…

As expected, it had turned into nuclear fallout. Many readers were expressing their pity towards the character "An Youyou." At the same time, they were giving his plot praises. It was tearful enjoyment, whatever the heck that was!

Perhaps hollow readers were just too innocent. Oh, how cute they were. It was why Xu Liangming even lowered his IQ, in the first place. It was all for the sake of his cute, innocent hollow readers!

At the same time, many had expressed their intentions of abandoning the book. Some of the usernames seemed strangely familiar —— Huh? Wasn't this guy the pirated version reader who criticized him for having no lower limit in IQ, and had abandoned his book last week?

What difference did it make, then? He replied with a smile. He could not care less about the critic who had been "abandoning" his book for the past straight month

Xu Liangming was unlike Su Li, who despised pirated version readers and pleased Godly tycoon readers. He was no Rosemary either, who patiently advised pirated version readers to read the genuine version.

Next, he moved on to the subscription statistical graphs. If nothing had changed, he would continue writing just the way it was. It would save him all the time in the world. He had several manuscripts that were waiting to be used.

If his subscriber count had cascaded, he would somehow revive An Youyou. He could even create a doppelganger, such as An Youyou having a twin sister or something, and that her name was An Xiaoyi.