Compared to the bustling noise on the interstellar network, the Federation Star, which was about to enter the late night, was calm and peaceful.
At the Federation Research Institute of Literature.
“Hey, Lu Wei, you’re still working overtime and not leaving?”
A colleague glanced into the office and noticed that it was almost 8 p.m., yet someone was still there.
“Mm, you guys go ahead.”
In response to the question, Lu Wei, who was standing by the window, smiled but showed no intention of leaving.
“Oh, okay. Just don’t stay too late!”
The colleague scratched his head and decided not to insist further.
Although they had all joined as researchers in the same batch, Lu Wei always seemed a little different from everyone else.
Moreover, it was said that he wasn’t a native of the Federation. In any case, his background was somewhat mysterious.
After watching his colleagues gradually leave, Lu Wei finally turned his gaze back to the light brain in his hands.
If someone were to move closer and see the reader ID displayed on the screen, they would be shocked to discover that Lu Wei was none other than the famous “Interstellar Wanderer” among Yu Mian’s fans!
The renowned analytical review written by “Interstellar Wanderer” had, during a critical moment of public opinion crisis for “Contract Marriage”, turned the tide and even garnered support from a group of professors led by Professor Holse.
Because of this, Yu Mian had been deeply impressed by this reader who was verified as a “Federation researcher”.
However, after speaking out publicly that one time, “Interstellar Wanderer” never appeared again, as if they had disappeared entirely.
Yu Mian wasn’t particularly surprised or regretful about this, he just assumed the other party wasn’t truly following the updates regularly.
After all, researchers were said to have a reputation for being aloof, right?
In reality, Lu Wei had simply returned to his home planet for some business and only just returned to the Human Federation Star today.
Yes, Lu Wei was indeed not a native of the Federation. In fact, he wasn’t even human.
He was a member of the famous Zerg race!
However, Lu Wei was not one of those Zerg who were fanatical military enthusiasts but was instead a rare “humanities student” among them.
Tracing back millions of years, his race was originally called the “Silverfish”.
Despite the name, they were not actual fish but rather a race that fed on books—commonly referred to as “bookworms.”
The term “yellow scrolls” in the phrase “blue lanterns and yellow scrolls” from ancient Blue Star referred to paper dyed yellow with herbal treatments to prevent it from being eaten by bookworms.
Of course, with the advancement of the interstellar era, this race had evolved. They no longer needed to consume physical books and instead absorbed the mental energy of words by reading.
As a result, Lu Wei’s kind often wandered across the universe, traveling from galaxy to galaxy to read and feed on widely circulated books, producing many famous scholars along the way.
However, due to the Zerg’s reputation in the interstellar era being no better than the Bart clan’s, most chose to keep their identities hidden.
The Federation Star, where humans resided, was renowned for its abundance of books. So the young Zerg, Lu Wei, had chosen this planet as his home.
The vast collection of books at the Federation Research Institute of Literature was indeed unparalleled. Ever since Lu Wei arrived here, he had been well-fed, healthy, and thoroughly content.
But!
Everything changed with the appearance of a book called “Contract Marriage”.
It was like someone who had eaten healthy whole grains like rice and wheat for decades suddenly tasted milk tea, a piece of cake, or indulged in a late-night barbecue…
It was an instant conquest of young Lu Wei’s palate!
One taste, and he was hooked, unable to stop.
He had read “Contract Marriage” hundreds of times, and upon returning today, he discovered that the author had started a new book, “Eternal Night Rose”!
Lu Wei was completely enthralled by this second book. He found it even harder to put down than the first.
As a bookworm, Lu Wei could clearly sense that “Eternal Night Rose” had a distinctly different flavor from “Contract Marriage”.
While “Contract Marriage” featured straightforward and fluid language with short sentences, “Eternal Night Rose” deliberately used complex and lengthy sentences, historical references, and intricate settings to create an aura of mystery and antiquity.
Many regular interstellar readers commented in the reviews that while the new book was just as enjoyable, it was somewhat more challenging to read compared to the lighthearted and easily digestible “Contract Marriage”.
But for Lu Wei, this new style was perfectly to his taste!
He couldn’t help but wish for even more of this style from the author.
Filled with excitement, Lu Wei opened the page for “Eternal Night Rose” and used his salary, paid in human Federation Star coins, to send a generous reward to Yu Mian.
[Reward: ×10 Starships] Interstellar Wanderer: [I love it so much—please write more! The new book is really delicious. Please update this one more often! ^_^” ]
Of course, after sending the reward, he dutifully caught up on the latest update of “Contract Marriage”. Completely satisfied, Lu Wei felt an unparalleled sense of happiness, as if he had been starved of content for months and had finally been able to binge-read everything at once.
The news of the famous reader “Interstellar Wanderer” being lured back by Yu Mian’s new book, “Eternal Night Rose”, undoubtedly brought another wave of heat and discussion to the already highly anticipated novel.
[Oh my gosh, Interstellar Wanderer is back!? Are there any new reviews or analyses this time? I’m such a fan!]
[I’ve already read the opening of the new book so many times I’m going to starve with the weekly updates—couldn’t the author write more for Interstellar Wanderer’s sake?!]
[Exactly, exactly! “Eternal Night Rose” is so amazing—who gets it? I think it’s even more addictive than “Contract Marriage”. Why not switch to daily updates for this one, A Bowl Of Fish Soup Noodles?!]
With this surge of popularity, “Eternal Night Rose” performed astonishingly well on the Huanyu Rankings, almost catching up to “Contract Marriage”.
However, the weekly update schedule of “Eternal Night Rose” unintentionally created a “hunger marketing” effect, so that many readers are hooked and subconsciously start comparing the two books.
After all, the styles of the two books were different. Although they were both written by Yu Mian, it was inevitable that there would be a group of readers who preferred one book over the other.
The only issue was that “Contract Marriage” was currently at a climactic turning point. A large number of die-hard fans desperately hoped for Caesar and Gu Bai to reconcile. Many wished for Yu Mian to write ten chapters overnight to get them remarried!
Seeing someone suggest switching the update frequencies of the two books immediately provoked outrage.
[Hey! Weren’t you the ones who said you didn’t like it before? How dare you now suggest turning “Contract Marriage” into a weekly update?!]
[Exactly! I’m furious—this chapter already made me cry today, and now you’re pulling this nonsense?]
[Help, I can’t even imagine if “Contract Marriage” switched to weekly updates—wouldn’t that mean I’d have to wait until my next life to see Gu Bai and Caesar reconcile?! [Crying loudly]]
Many longtime readers of “Contract Marriage” who had managed to avoid falling into the trap of “Eternal Night Rose” had been watching the drama unfold with a sense of schadenfreude.
Little did they expect that this wave of fire, which they had been watching from the safety of the sidelines, would suddenly spread to their own stockpile.
They were terrified that the author would hear these demands and actually switch the update schedules of the two books.
Even Kane was alarmed by the commotion and hurriedly added his own voice in the comments with a reward.
[Reward: Starship x10] EN: The new book is great, but “Contract Marriage” absolutely cannot be interrupted. Everything should follow the principle of first-come, first-served. How can it cut in line?!]
Though Kane also enjoyed “Eternal Night Rose”, “Contract Marriage” was, in a sense, his “first love.”
And the status of “first love” was completely unshakable.
If the update schedules for the two books were truly swapped, Kane felt like he’d lose his mind.
At that point, even the frustration over “Eternal Night Rose” being a weekly update didn’t feel so unbearable anymore. After all, ensuring the daily updates for “Contract Marriage” was the top priority!
The tension between the reader bases of the two books escalated so intensely that by the next day, when the Huanyu Rising Star Project live interview was about to begin, the number of online viewers hit an all-time high.
The surge in viewers even caused rare technical issues with the live broadcast room as it started to lag unusually.
The technicians at the Huanyu Reading Platform never anticipated such a turnout.
After all, the Rising Star Project was meant to be a program for new authors and usually didn’t attract as much attention as events for established authors.
But this year, with Yu Mian on board, the popularity went through the book. The waiting room’s barrage was flooded with heated arguments.
[Upgrade! Hurry and upgrade to the maximum capacity for the live broadcast room. Didn’t we already plan to raise the standards for this year’s event?]
In the editorial office of Huanyu, the deputy editor was wiping away sweat constantly, caught in the bittersweet agony of unexpected success.
“Huh? When did I ever say I was switching the update schedules of the two books…”
Logging into his light-brain after waking up, Yu Mian adjusted the parameters for his entry into the Huanyu live interview room. Seeing the increasingly heated debate in the comment section, he couldn’t help but hesitate.
He had only been offline for one night—how had things escalated so dramatically?
The rumors made it sound as if the update schedule switch was already set in stone.
Anyone with a shred of reason would know that the schedules couldn’t be swapped.
As Kane had pointed out, “first-come, first-served.” Wouldn’t switching them make the old readers of “Contract Marriage” explode?
Although Yu Mian hadn’t anticipated Eternal Night Rose’s launch to draw out the old reader “Interstellar Wanderer” who had disappeared for a long time.
Moreover, judging by the tone of their comment, why did it feel like this reader ID’d as “Interstellar Wanderer” didn’t seem particularly old for a researcher.
[There are countless unique races in the interstellar era. Maybe this person belongs to a special race? Like Lilith—she’s over four hundred years old and still not considered middle-aged in the Bart clan.]
The little system explained its thoughts in response to Yu Mian’s curiosity.
“All right, but for now, I need to choose a virtual avatar and get ready to join.”
For the first time ever, Yu Mian was about to open an interstellar-era live broadcast room.
To be honest, if not for Editor Shaxs’ insistence, he really didn’t want to appear in front of so many people.
Especially considering the plot of both books had reached such intense cliffhangers, this felt like an execution scene for someone with social anxiety.
“Wait, why is the default virtual avatar just a projection of my real appearance? Then what’s the difference between participating online and in person!?”
As soon as Yu Mian entered the settings page, he discovered that the initial virtual avatar was an exact 1:1 replication of his mermaid form.
Even his long hair, which he hadn’t trimmed in ages, fell lightly against his ears.
Fortunately, he hadn’t entered the live broadcast room directly. Otherwise, he would’ve been exposed immediately.
[Wow, can’t we just participate like this? I swear the popularity would explode!]
The system was still trying to persuade Yu Mian to embrace the path of a superstar.
“That’s absolutely not happening.”
Yu Mian glanced at the time and began quickly tweaking his virtual avatar.
“Has Teacher Fish Soup Noodles still not entered the live broadcast room?”
Back at the Huanyu Rising Star Project site, the host glanced at the time and noticed that Yu Mian seemed to be the only one missing.
