ICTEUWMN Chapter 31

Today, Kane had been eagerly anticipating 6 PM since morning. Even during meetings, he would unconsciously touch his light brain.

After all, today’s update would finally feature the climax of the plot. Caesar’s long-awaited “creamtorium moment” was about to arrive, and Kane could hardly wait.

He wished he could fast-forward time to see the latest update of “Contract Marriage” right away!

However, despite his eager anticipation, not only did he not get any update on “Contract Marriage”, but he also found out that the author had “fallen for someone else” and started a new project!

For someone who had never been in a relationship, Kane suddenly felt an inexplicable anger of meeting a scumbag for the first time—

Here he was, still immersed in the sweet romance of the current book, only to find the author had moved on behind their backs!

How despicable, how unacceptable!

Kane vowed to see what this new book was all about—how could it steal the author’s attention?!

So Kane was almost like the first batch of interstellar readers who discovered that Yu Mian had published a new book. He immediately rushed to the new book page in the author’s column and poked at it viciously.

But as soon as he saw the title, he, like many others, was completely baffled.

“Eternal Night Rose”?

What on earth was that?!

After all, on hearing the term “eternal night”, every interstellar reader instantly thinks of the fabled planet of the Bart Clan that was shrouded in perpetual darkness.

It was said that the planet was perpetually gloomy, devoid of sunlight, and eerily sinister.

In such an inhospitable environment, how could fragile plants like roses possibly grow?

This was clearly a logical inconsistency!

Moreover, the new book’s title had the term “eternal night”. Could it be that this is actually a novel about the Bart clan? That was even more puzzling.

You know, in most books, it was already good enough that the Bart clan was not arranged to be the ultimate villain boss. Who would like such a ferocious race that lives in a shady way and has a brutal temperament?

“Damn it, has this crappy Huanyu website glitched?!”

Kane would rather believe it was a technical error than accept that his beloved author had willingly started such a strange new book.

How could the author who created the sweet and heartwarming “Contract Marriage” suddenly switch gears to write a novel about the Bart Clan that everyone hated?

Was this a shift to horror writing?

Kane wasn’t the only one puzzled. The news that the new book might feature the Bart Clan left all readers dumbfounded.

Although most fans of “Contract Marriage” were dissatisfied and upset about the dual book writing, they also cared deeply about Yu Mian’s career development.

[Is it because the author has lived in a remote star system for many years that they don’t know much about interstellar common sense? Most readers really hate the Bart Clan! Please, author, see this message as soon as possible!]

[Yes, it really feels a bit absurd that the ultimate villain has become a protagonist! This is my favorite author, though. Can’t we have more of “Contract Marriage” instead? I want to see Caesar and Gu Bai’s sweet romance, not some story about the Bart Clan!]

[And those marketing accounts spreading the news…ugh, their comments are so annoying!]

Readers who cared about Yu Mian scrambled to warn him that the Bart Clan was a taboo topic.

After all, who would want to read a novel where the Bart Clan were the protagonists?

Even within the Huanyu editorial team, chaos was brewing.

“Why are the readers reacting so strongly?”

The deputy editor had initially been thrilled that Yu Mian agreed to write a novel about the Bart Clan. But he hadn’t anticipated such a fierce backlash online, which even spilled over into dissatisfaction with Huanyu itself.

“Damn it, who leaked the news that the Bart Clan had requested a novel commission?”

Another editor who was monitoring reader activity hurriedly reported the latest developments.

“What?”

The deputy editor rushed to his light brain, his expression stunned as he read.

#Strong Protest Against Huanyu Forcing Authors to Write Specified Themes!#

A shocking thread title had skyrocketed to the top of “Contract Marriage”’s comment section, with replies flooding in by the hundreds every second.

Upon clicking the thread, it turned out that a mysterious reader had somehow learned that representatives of the Bart Clan had visited the Federation and expressed their love for “Contract Marriage”, prompting them to reach out to Huanyu for a collaboration.

But everyone knew the Bart Clan had a notorious reputation for being arrogant and domineering.

Could it be that this sudden new book resulted from the Bart Clan using strong-arm tactics to pressure Huanyu into forcing their beloved author to write a novel about them?

This was blatant privilege and tyranny, disregarding whether the author might face ridicule or failure after publishing it.

“This is so unfair! We would never force an author to write something!”

The deputy editor wiped the sweat from his brow as he stared at the fiery comment section.

“If I had known readers would react so strongly to the Bart Clan, it might’ve been better not to write it.”

Reflecting on the uproar online, the deputy editor began to regret not thinking through the challenges of writing a novel with the Bart Clan as the protagonists. He was only thinking of completing the task his superiors had assigned him.

Even he couldn’t imagine what kind of story about the Bart Clan would actually appeal to readers.

Shaxs who was next to him also looked worried.

[Crispy Shark: Author, the protests online are far more intense than we expected. Should we take action to address this, or wait a bit longer?]

[Fish: It’s okay, let’s wait a bit. The first chapter’s click rate is climbing, so some readers are starting to check it out. The new book’s style is different this time, so the response is naturally slower.]

At this moment, Yu Mian was watching the gradually increasing clicks in the background, quietly waiting for the first wave of reader feedback.

Because this time, it wasn’t just the theme that had changed.

He had also boldly adjusted his writing style and pacing, moving away from what he had established in “Contract Marriage”.

Though Yu Mian was confident that this topic would find an audience, even in the interstellar era, he acknowledged that the slower pacing might delay the readers’ responses.

[Fish: By the way, editor, have you even read the first chapter yet? If so, could you give me some feedback?]

[Crispy Shark: Uh…sorry, sorry, I’ll read it right now!]

Caught off guard by Yu Mian’s question, Shax scratched his head awkwardly.

He had been so preoccupied with damage control because of the controversy over the new book that he hadn’t had time to read the new book himself.

But facing Yu Mian, who officially started a new book under his leadership for the first time after signing the contract, Shaxs suddenly felt that he should grow up quickly.

How else could he become an excellent editor and genuinely help the author succeed?

As Yu Mian had observed, while most readers exploded at the mere mention of the Bart Clan as the protagonists, a portion of them hesitated before eventually giving it a try.

After all, “Contract Marriage” had been so wildly popular that various fans, finding themselves with nothing better to do while waiting for updates, decided to risk opening the new book.

Maybe their beloved author could even make a horror novel exciting?

Kane, one of “Contract Marriage”’s most loyal readers, was among them.

Despite the mix of sweetness and torture “Contract Marriage” had brought him, he couldn’t deny how much fun it had been to follow the updates with other readers, watching Caesar and Gu Bai’s sweet yet tangy romance unfold.

It was precisely this accumulated “trust in the author” that gave Kane a glimmer of hope.

What if the new book wasn’t that bad?

Even if it wasn’t great, it would still be better than being left in a book drought after “Contract Marriage”.

But what Kane didn’t expect was how entirely different “Eternal Night Rose” was from the horror atmosphere he had imagined.

Even the very first line of the book presented an unexpected and intriguing premise:

[[When applying for an internship at a desolate interstellar museum, Su Yan, who just wanted a summer job, never imagined that this decision would transport him hundreds of years back to the Old Interstellar Era.]]

‘Uh, time travel!’

‘Back to the Old Interstellar Era hundreds of years ago?’

Kane, who had never read a so-called “time-travel novel”, was stunned for a moment before gradually combining the context and realizing the slightly novel meaning of this term.

In the 21st century on Earth, the concept of “time-travel novels” had long been overused by countless pioneering authors, becoming a basic trope. It was so common that it seemed almost mandatory for every aspiring writer.

Senior editors would even advise new authors that it was best to have the protagonist of a time-travel novel open their eyes and arrive in a different world, instead of wasting thousands or tens of thousands of words writing about the protagonist’s time-travel process, as they did when the trope first gained popularity.

After all, readers had read it so many times that they would immediately understand the meaning when you mention time travel.

Writing a bunch of nonsense before the time travel was useless except for losing out on a number of clicks.

But in the world of interstellar novels, Kane was reading a book about a protagonist traveling back to the past for the first time.

Even thinking about it briefly, the plot felt incredibly intriguing.

To take the simplest example, who hasn’t dreamed of going back ten years, reliving their childhood, and erasing all regrets?

And that’s for short-term time travel.

If one traveled even further back, to an era less technologically advanced, wouldn’t they be able to use their futuristic knowledge as a golden finger to effortlessly revolutionize the timeline and speed up the development of the interstellar technological tree?

As an old bookworm who had read various interstellar novels over the years, after stepping through the door to the “time travel” trope, Kane immediately conjured countless scenarios in his mind.

He even vaguely realized that after this novel serialized for a while, various interstellar time-travel novels might dominate major rankings just like the recent wave of music-themed protagonists inspired by Gu Bai.

And the protagonist was not even from the Bart clan.

He was obviously a normal human young man looking for a job and internship during the summer vacation.

‘I was really worrying too much. I knew that my favorite author would never write such a bizarre protagonist!’

Kane’s mood instantly calmed down after reading this, and he could hardly wait to read the following text. For a moment, he even unconsciously forgot about the heated debates on star network.

‘I can’t wait to know how Su Yan, the protagonist of this book, traveled back to the past.’

‘What happened and who did he meet after traveling through time?’

What’s more, Kane keenly discovered that the author’s writing style this time seemed to have a more narrative flavor than the previous book “Contract Marriage”.

The pace was a little slower than the previous book, but the story atmosphere seemed stronger.

[[People in the interstellar age are always paying attention to the latest achievements in scientific and technological development and what kind of energy and fuels have been detected in the frontier planetary belts.

As a result, ancient structures like museums had become relics of the past, dusty and forgotten.

Occasionally, someone passing by the last remaining museum on Central Star might be surprised:

How has this desolate place not closed down yet?

But Su Yan was different from everyone else.

Always wearing thick black-rimmed glasses, introverted and silent, Su Yan loved researching the long interstellar history alone and was like an alien in the interstellar.

Cleaning and organizing each relic on the museum’s displays never felt tedious or boring to him.

On the contrary, he felt that touching these ancient relics was like touching a mysterious period of time that had been sealed away in the cracks of the universe by history.

“Remember, all the relics here must be cleaned and organized on time. Uh, except for the exhibition hall numbered 0000, don’t go in if you don’t have anything to do.”

The white-bearded director was often elusive, and after waiting for Su Yan, the only intern who seemed introverted and easy to control, to arrive, he threw all the work at him without any hesitation.

Though the director’s hands-off approach allowed Su Yan, an intern, to gain a high degree of freedom within the museum.

Moreover, this solemn reminder actually aroused a subtle curiosity in Su Yan.

Every time he passed through the door of that exhibition hall, he would subconsciously recall the director’s inexplicable expression of awe.

What kind of relics are hidden there?]]

When reading this, it could be said that not only the protagonist Su Yan became curious about this mysterious exhibition hall, but even Kane was a little curious.

What kind of relic was hidden in there that warranted such caution?

Was there something VIP readers weren’t allowed to see?

What’s more, Kane’s intuition after reading the author’s previous book “Contract Marriage” told him that there must be some crucial relic hidden in there.

Maybe it had something to do with the so-called “time travel”.

The plot seemed to confirm Kane’s thoughts as a turning point soon occurred.

[[One night, Su Yan, who had already got off work, accidentally discovered that he had forgotten his water cup in the exhibition hall, so he hurried back to the museum in the dark.

However, it was easy to get lost in the museum’s labyrinth like exhibition halls and corridors late at night.

Su Yan groped around and adjusted his glasses before finally pressing a light switch—only to find himself standing in Exhibition Hall 0000, the very place he had been told to avoid.

Su Yan was just about to follow the instructions and leave, but the next second, he looked at the huge display in front of him with extreme shock.

Because the “relic” exhibit in the central display was actually a crystal ice coffin covered with roses!

The fragrant white roses seem to have been blooming quietly here for hundreds of years.

As a result, the scene that should have been extremely terrifying inexplicably had an indescribable sense of tranquility and dreaminess.

The mysterious man lying in the center of the ice coffin with his eyes closed in deep sleep had a face that was extremely handsome and noble, and he even had a fragile divinity like a character from ancient interstellar mythology.

He was so vivid it seemed he might awaken at any moment.]]

“Ah, this ‘exhibit’ is actually a person!?”

Even Kane, who had already braced himself for a major plot twist, never expected the “relic” hidden in this exhibit to be a living man.

And not just any man—one so breathtakingly handsome.

Yu Mian spared no effort in weaving all sorts of intricate and elegant words into the description of this mysterious man.

Who exactly was this “ancient relic”!?

If the slow and steady narrative tone of the opening chapter of “Eternal Night Rose” merely piqued Kane’s curiosity, by this point, his interest was completely hooked.

After all, a dilapidated old museum, a forbidden and dangerous mysterious exhibit, a luxurious crystal ice coffin, and the stunning man slumbering inside…

Each bizarre and gorgeously eerie element piled on top of another to elevate the story’s intrigue to its peak.

The narrative pulled readers deeper into an ever-heightening sense of curiosity.

As expected of the author he regarded highly.

After the success of “Contract Marriage”, their new book continued to break the mold, steering clear of conventional plotlines and offering a refreshingly unique experience.

In fact, at that moment, Kane realized that what kept drawing him in every time might be the author’s imagination—something that seemed entirely ahead of its time.

The writing created a constant sense of freshness, leaving readers relaxed and willingly immersed in a series of extraordinary worlds.

***

[[Who was this man?

Why was he sleeping here?

Was he still alive?

These questions instinctively surfaced in Su Yan’s mind.

The normally introverted and shy young man even forgot the director’s warnings for a moment and, driven by curiosity, couldn’t help but step toward the mysterious flower-filled display.

Only when Su Yan noticed the information plaque beside the exhibit did he realize that the man—or rather, the “relic” inside the display—had a remarkably retro and elegant name:

—Dreven D. Alpine Gural

Upon silently reading the name, Su Yan, a devoted enthusiast of interstellar history, sensed something was amiss.

Because the name “Dreven” belonged to none other than a notorious Bart monarch from ancient interstellar history!

Records described this Bart monarch as not only excessively cruel and unpredictable but also responsible for igniting a massive war across the galaxy for an unknown reason.

Eventually, his reign of terror was ended by a mysterious assassination, which toppled the Bart tyranny. Dreven himself was said to have been burned alive in his excessively opulent palace. This bizarre and unforgettable episode in history remained vivid in the annals of time.

How could such a legendary figure appear in this museum?

Was this an imitation or a living person!?

Just as Su Yan realized the potential danger and tried to retreat in panic, a white rose unexpectedly pricked his fingertip.

As a drop of vibrant blood slid down, a miraculous scene unfolded.

The pure white roses instantly transformed into a deep, stunning red!

“Ugh—”

Caught off guard, Su Yan almost fell down. His black-framed glasses slipped to the floor, revealing the unexpectedly beautiful eyes that had always been hidden beneath them.

And then, he was inexplicably drawn into a sudden burst of silvery moonlight!

At the crucial moment before he closed his eyes to avoid the dazzling light, Su Yan seemed to vaguely see that the famous Bart tyrant who was originally sleeping had actually woken up?

And he was now…holding his hand!

When the man devoutly bent over and reverently pressed his lips against Su Yan’s wounded fingertip, softly kissing and sucking the blood, the faint sensation sent a rush of heat to Su Yan’s face.

What in the world was happening!?]]

***

“What the hell is going on!?”

Outside the book, Kane read this in one breath and sat up straight, his face burning alongside the protagonist’s.

Wait—how could this ancient guy in the coffin rely on his good looks to act like a hooligan toward the young man!?

Kissing his finger on their first meeting?

And even licking the wound?

This was way too suggestive!

Even though “Contract Marriage” had pushed the limits of dramatic tension, the two protagonists, Gu Bai and Caesar, had adhered strictly to the boundaries imposed by their “contract”. Their most intimate moment was merely a hug prompted by Caesar’s jealousy.

Compared to previous interstellar novels, the plot setting of Gu Bai and Caesar getting into a fake marriage as soon as they met made interstellar readers so excited, and it felt like the book was developing as fast as a rocket.

Who could have anticipated that Fish Soup Noodles’s new book would kick off with such intensity?

Especially when the sleeping “ancient relic” suddenly woke up and licked the wound on the fingertip of the innocent younger protagonist that was scratched by the rose, this kind of vague sense of sensuality…

Compared to hugs or kisses, it carried an ineffable allure.

Although Kane, who has always been single, couldn’t quite articulate the appeal, it left his ears burning.

The style of this new book was definitely different from “Contract Marriage”.

‘Please, write more of this, author. I need to “study” it in detail!’

Hehe, poor interstellar readers, you’re blushing at this, what would happen if you discovered “smut” 😆

Just as Kane dimmed the brightness of his light-brain and settled into a secluded corner of his office to read happily, a familiar notification appeared:

[Dear reader, you’ve reached the end of the latest chapter! Please wait patiently for updates.]

Heh, no problem. He was used to this.

It wasn’t a big deal. On the bright side, he now had two books to look forward to every day—it was double the joy compared to solely following “Contract Marriage”.

Just as Kane smiled confidently, convinced he had grown into a calm and mature reader, an unexpected author’s note appeared:

[I’ve read all your comments. Don’t worry, “Contract Marriage” will continue with daily updates. “Eternal Night Rose” is just a trial chapter today and will update weekly, so it won’t delay the completion of the first book. —A Bowl Of Fish Soup Noodles]

Kane: “…”

‘Huh?’

‘What??’

‘Weekly updates?’

‘Say that again—what do you mean by weekly updates!?’

The psychological defenses Kane had painstakingly built crumbled in an instant.