Most of the students present had expected a very different scene. In their minds, the image should have been that of a dazed, slightly cute girl who had spaced out in class and gotten caught red-handed by the teacher, standing helplessly at the podium. No one would have laughed at her. They would have just felt that this bob-cut girl was really unlucky today. First, she got caught by the homeroom teacher during morning reading and had her phone confiscated. Then, she got hit again by Teacher Gu in math class. If it were anyone else, their mentality would probably have collapsed by now.
It had to be said that sometimes, when someone was unlucky, the whole day stayed unlucky, with one mishap after another. The morning sun streamed through the window, highlighting the dust motes dancing in the air, but the atmosphere around Zhao Youyue's desk felt heavy with misfortune.
But what no one expected was that this girl actually solved a moderately difficult problem with ease. She moved her hand across the board with a steady rhythm, her explanation clear enough that everyone understood the logic behind the geometric proof.
Many students couldn't help feeling a wave of admiration for Zhao Youyue. For some reason, they felt that this girl had a strong heart. Whatever she did, she never seemed flustered or rattled. She gave off an unusually reliable feeling, and her voice and smile were genuinely soothing, like a soft breeze on a humid day.
Gu Yaoyan was stunned as well. He clearly hadn't expected that Zhao Youyue, despite her obvious daydreaming, could still solve the problem. She hadn't corrected the paper after the test either; the blank space on her worksheet was proof of that. That left only one explanation. She must have put in the work after going home, or she was simply quick-witted enough to solve it on the fly.
Either way, being able to solve the problem deserved praise. He adjusted his glasses and said, "Zhao Youyue, your explanation was very good. Just make sure you stay focused in class from now on."
She nodded vigorously, her expression extremely sincere. Satisfied, he let her return to her seat. As she walked back, the eyes of her classmates followed her, a new sense of curiosity replacing their previous indifference.
…
While Zhao Youyue went on with her ordinary school life, in a manga studio located in the same provincial capital of Jiangnan Province, two artists were bent over their desks, working diligently. The room was cluttered with stacks of paper, G-pens, and half-empty coffee mugs, the air smelling of ink and the sharp scent of alcohol-based markers.
One of them was Su Li, the creator of the campus harem manga Pure Love. The other was her assistant, Zhang Ziqiang.
Pure Love's readers would probably never imagine that this campus harem manga, which relied entirely on fan service to stand out, was actually created by a female manga artist.
Su Li's looks were decent. After dressing up, she could absolutely be called a beautiful manga artist. Back in university, before she devoted herself to manga creation, she had plenty of admirers. What many people might not believe was that she had already fallen in love with drawing hardcore doujinshi back then. She had even become famous in the doujin circle under the pen name Wang Li, earning quite a lot of money just from drawing those underground books.
People always had ambitions. After graduating from university, Su Li set her sights on becoming a proper manga artist. That didn't mean she planned to wash her hands of her past. In reality, she still participated in the world-class comic conventions held every summer and winter, known as the Holy War. She continued to make money by selling the doujin books she drew there.
Her reputation in the doujin circle also helped her successfully land commissioned work from the manga magazine Wind Manga. She first created several short works as a trial. The reader response was decent, so she was granted a serialization slot. At the same time, she partnered with Qidian Manga, serializing both in the magazine and online. That way, she could earn manuscript fees from the magazine while also receiving subscriptions and tips directly from readers, although she only got one-quarter of the latter.
Even so, Su Li enjoyed interacting with readers online and had even set up her own fan group. Occasionally, someone in the group would comment that her art style looked a lot like Teacher Wang Li's. Every time that happened, her heart would jump into her throat. She was terrified that she would really be exposed. She carefully hid her identity in the doujin circle, pretending to be a pure, innocent rookie manga artist. Yet the skilled fan-service scenes in Pure Love constantly led readers to tease her. "Teacher Su Li, why are you so practiced at this?"
Feedback from online readers always came quickly, allowing her to think about future plot developments based on their opinions. For a campus harem manga like hers, it basically came down to which girl in the harem readers favored more. She would give that character more panel time and more fan service.
Su Li also had her own responsible editor. That editor rarely gave her advice on plot. Instead, the man was always helping her think up new ways to sell fan service, focusing on lighting and angles that teased the audience.
To be honest, Su Li wasn't very satisfied with her work titled Pure Love. She always felt that it wasn't much different from the doujin books she drew. The doujin books were simply more explicit, even directly depicting sex scenes. This work, on the other hand, had no explicit scenes and didn't even show anything outright. Critical moments were covered by holy light. Still, the blatant sexual innuendo was extremely obvious, often leaving male readers painfully aroused without a second of relief.
Plot writing had always been her weak point, and her character portrayals relied heavily on templates, making them very flat and predictable. She had originally wanted to train these skills by drawing a mainstream work, but clearly, Pure Love hadn't helped her achieve that goal.
Even so, she had to keep drawing it. The series was reasonably popular, especially with male readers, and the manuscript fee income was good. At the very least, it allowed her to confidently call herself a "manga artist."
At the same time, she knew that a formulaic harem manga like this could only get so popular. The chances of it being adapted into an anime were slim. At best, it might get a radio drama adaptation. Once the series ended, it would be forgotten, because it lacked uniqueness. There were simply too many similar works that could replace it.
Unless her series could produce a classic female character who completely captivated readers—someone who could even compete for a Moe King title. But how could that be possible in a story like this?
Su Li had already prepared herself for her first long-form work to fade into obscurity when she suddenly heard her assistant, Zhang Ziqiang, who was working on the backgrounds, say, "Teacher Su Li, this younger sister's best friend character is kind of interesting. Could she end up becoming part of the protagonist's harem?"
"The younger sister's best friend?" Su Li asked instinctively, her pen pausing over the paper. "Isn't that just a background character? What is interesting about her?"
Zhang Ziqiang was a balding, chubby man in his thirties who was still single. He still had dreams of making manga, but his own talent was simply not enough, leaving him stuck as an assistant to a young yet talented manga artist like Su Li.
Although Su Li was currently weak in plotting and character writing, her fresh, juicy art style and high-level fan-service skills alone were enough to let her gain a firm foothold in the harem manga genre.
Zhang Ziqiang pondered for a moment, then began to talk about his impressions of the minor character named Xu Jing.