ICTEUWMN Chapter 35.2

[Huh? What!? I literally jumped out of bed; I can’t believe this is real!]

[You’re telling me that the cute little furball is the legendary tyrant Dreven!?!]

No one could believe that this infamous tyrant would reappear beside Su Yan in such a bizarre manner.

And this bastard—after licking Su Yan’s finger during their first meeting, he’s now sharing a bed with him on their second encounter?!

Seriously, how thick-skinned is this guy to be so shamelessly cradled in Su Yan’s arms every night without a care?

This scoundrel must have lived for centuries, why was he so shameless?

To make things worse, just as the interstellar readers were exploding with reactions, the latest major update of “Eternal Night Rose”, released as compensation due to the Rising Star Project’s incident, abruptly ended here.

No matter how many times readers scrolled down or even tapped their light-brain screens in frustration, they found nothing new.

It was then that everyone realized how generous the update had been, delivering tens of thousands of words that significantly expanded the worldbuilding and plot chains of “Eternal Night Rose”, unlike the previous teaser-like prologue.

However, despite the massive word count of this update…

[How dare you stop here!? Then what’s the point of reading all this if it leaves me hanging like this—[collapses, sobbing in despair]]

[Of course there’s a difference! The difference is that I’m now even more trapped in the pit—I’m going crazy…!]

[Right, I used to just think it was good and wanted more. Now I just want to lock the author up and make them write 24/7 QAQ.]

This major update of “Eternal Night Rose” caused an upheaval in the interstellar book fandom.

First, the Rising Star Project was already at its peak in popularity, with many people diving straight into Yu Mian’s updated chapters after watching the live broadcast.

Second, even those cautious readers who had avoided the book due to its little progress couldn’t resist diving into the pit after seeing such a big update.

From then on, they joined the earlier readers at the bottom of the pit, screaming in pain and joy.

Moreover, the sheer amount of information in the update was so rich it required readers to carefully digest every detail.

Which Dreven had awakened—was it the one from this timeline or another?

If he was so powerful and mysterious, how did his initial source blood become damaged?

Who leaked the perfect nutrient solution, and was that traitor still lurking around Su Yan?

These questions sparked endless waves of discussion in Eternal Night Rose’s comment section, with countless posts flooding in like an unstoppable tide.

For the Huanyu Reading Platform, this level of enthusiasm for a book so early in its release was unprecedented.

Meanwhile, another group of readers was in a different kind of turmoil—

[Help, am I the only one who has fallen for Xiao, the male supporting character in Fish Noodle Soup’s novel? Does anyone else think this sunny, loyal childhood friend is just perfect!?” [pounds the ground in frustration]]

[Wow, you’re brave—shipping an unconventional CP in Fish Soup Noodles’ books after that Rising Star Q&A. Good news: you’re not alone; I ship it too ahhh… [crying with sunglasses emoji]]

[I’m so mad. Why are the supporting characters in Fish Soup Noodles’ books always so compelling? Why is this happening!?]

In “Eternal Night Rose”, Yu Mian created not only the male protagonist, Dreven, but also Xiao, the “childhood friend” who consistently accompanied and helped Su Yan.

Especially in Su Yan’s growth journey, the male supporting character Xiao seemed to have grown and become stronger alongside him.

Not only did Xiao become the strongest force among the current generation of Blood Hunters, but even the guards around Su Yan were personally trained by him.

Regardless of whether Su Yan was in the adversity of not being valued and discriminated against or the prosperity of being revered as a prophet by the entire human race, Xiao, who considered himself Su Yan’s best friend, never changed his attitude.

He neither looked down on Su Yan during his struggles nor treated him with excessive reverence during his success.

He simply stood behind Su Yan, taking it upon himself to earnestly protect and care for his physically frail best friend.

This kind of dashing and loyal supporting character undoubtedly captured the hearts of a large group of interstellar readers with an aesthetic preference for the good and sincere.

Moreover, as the saying goes: “The male lead belongs to the main protagonist, but the second male lead belongs to the readers.”

After all, they carried the aura that they are destined to be BE, which was definitely a great hunting point for readers to be dissatisfied with.

However, the “tragic demise” of the Roy faction at the Rising Star Project event was still fresh in everyone’s minds. This only made the new wave of CP fans rooting for Xiao in “Eternal Night Rose” feel a mixture of pain and sweetness.

The feeling of licking sugar off the edge of a knife was nothing compared to the thrill of shipping unconventional CPs in Fish Soup Noodle’s books.

It was all about being rebellious to the core.

Thus, for these interstellar readers who had once again fallen into the unconventional CP pit, their cries of anguish and joy were anything but exaggerated.

“But I really didn’t do it on purpose, okay? I just don’t like writing male supporting characters as cannon fodder or idiots.”

Yu Mian adjusted his hat and carefully cradled a stack of books while searching through the library shelves for reference materials. He casually chatted with the little system in his head.

Ever since the Rising Star Q&A session concluded, his popularity had soared to a new height, and the little system had informed him that his transformation time had increased again.

Although exceeding the limit would leave him exhausted and revert him to his small fish form on the spot, Yu Mian generally dared to use only about four hours before relying on Huo Yan to take him home.

This time, he ventured out because he wanted to visit the Central Star’s offline library to see if there were any resource books about the Bart clan or related interstellar history for his writing.

After all, the protagonist of his new book, “Eternal Night Rose”, Su Yan, was set up as someone proficient in history.

For an author with shallow historical knowledge, it would obviously be challenging to write a character as a historical expert, let alone craft compelling, high-quality plotlines where Su Yan used historical foresight to leverage his prophetic “golden finger.”

Hence, this new book was a challenge for Yu Mian. Writing it well would not be easy, and it definitely required extensive study and absorption of various background knowledge.

Moreover, after releasing this new book, Yu Mian noticed a new aesthetic preference among interstellar readers.

That is the refreshing plot where the protagonist Su Yan shone brilliantly in the human settlement. Initially, it was just a casual addition of a golden-finger plot, stemming from his habit when writing time travel novels in his past life.

Unexpectedly, it resonated with readers to an extraordinary degree and received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Even his editor specifically approached him to ask if similar plots could be added in the future because the readers loved it so much.

This observation gave Yu Mian a new idea.

It seemed feel-good plotlines remained universally appealing even in the interstellar era, consistently attracting a large audience no matter where they were written.

If the opportunity arose, perhaps writing a dedicated feel-good novel wasn’t a bad idea—as long as the “feel-good” moments were closely tied to the interstellar setting.

Luckily, Huo Yan’s library card was of the highest level. After lending it to Yu Mian, he could almost freely access various resources.

Even some rare ancient books from Earth in the archive department. Yu Mian was so dazzled by the collections he momentarily forgot his original purpose of finding resources on the Bart clan.

“952.0801.221Z…”

Yu Mian muttered the book number under his breath. Just as he reached out to grab the book, he realized that someone beside him was also reaching for the same one.

“?”

“Sorry, were you also looking to borrow this book? If you need it, I can let you have it.”

Yu Mian, already holding four or five reference books in his arms, subconsciously looked up at the person next to him.

“Thank you, but it’s alright.”

Lu Wei glanced at Yu Mian briefly, his gaze then falling on the titles of the books in Yu Mian’s arms.

“Chronicles of the Blood Moon”, “Origins of the Bart Clan”, “A General History of the Old Interstellar Era”…

Lu Wei frowned slightly. He was about to raise his eyes to take another look at Yu Mian’s appearance when he noticed that Yu Mian had already nodded and hurried away.

The bookshelf returned to its quiet, unoccupied state.

“Professor Lu, the book I was looking for has already been borrowed.”

“Mine too! So strange.”

As Lu Wei stood there momentarily stunned, students from the research institute waved from the other side of the bookshelf.

Though Lu Wei’s official title was researcher, he also took on teaching duties, so students habitually addressed him as “Professor.”

When Lu Wei first joined the research institute, his youthful appearance led many students to assume he was easy-going and that his classes would be an easy way to earn credits.

Unexpectedly, once classes began, Lu Wei’s profound knowledge on the literary context of many major galaxies in the universe, and engaging teaching style—citing sources and weaving humor into the lectures—immediately won over his students.

His elective course quickly became a hotly sought-after option for the next academic year.

Recently, many students in his class had been avidly following “Eternal Night Rose”. When Lu Wei announced that one session would be dedicated to revisiting old interstellar history, the entire class cheered.

Unfortunately, their search for relevant materials today had been extraordinarily unlucky, as if someone had borrowed everything just before them.

“No matter, we can postpone it until next week.”

Lu Wei shook his head gently but couldn’t help replaying the earlier scene in his mind.

Even though the person was wearing a hat and a mask, thoroughly concealing their face, their figure vaguely revealed that they were quite young—likely a young Federation citizen in their twenties.

‘Is he interested in ancient interstellar history and the Bart Clan too?’

After borrowing the books, Yu Mian noticed that there was still some time left before he needed to head back. Holding the freshly purchased “Central Star Travel Guide” in his hand, he began to flip through it.

“If you’re looking for a place to have fun, you should go somewhere lively, with lots of people!”

The shop owner, who had just sold the book to Yu Mian, for some reason found the young man to be really approachable. Without thinking much, he enthusiastically offered a suggestion.

“Are there any popular recommendations lately?”

Yu Mian looked over curiously.

His pair of stunningly beautiful eyes made the shop owner inexplicably flustered and his face heat up.

“Ah, uh, recently popular… That would definitely be the Central Star Museum! It’s just across the street, no reservation needed.”

Unexpectedly, the shop owner’s recommendation turned out to be none other than the nearby Interstellar Museum.

“Strange, right? No one used to go there. But starting just yesterday, it suddenly got packed with people! It’s even made the roads here hard to navigate. I just don’t get what’s up with young people and their trendy internet-famous spots these days.”

‘Wait… could it be…’ Yu Mian awkwardly glanced at the museum not far away.

Come to think of it, the museum where Su Yan worked in “Eternal Night Rose” was indeed based on this very Central Star Museum. He had used it as a reference to avoid inconsistencies or glaring errors in his writing.

Could it be…?

“Attention, all visitors! There is no exhibit hall numbered 0000. I repeat, there is no exhibit hall numbered 0000—”

“And we definitely do not have any “handsome mummies”! Please, if you have any peculiar dating preferences, do not come here! Stop asking our staff about such things!”

Just as Yu Mian was about to approach, he heard a desperate, hoarse voice shouting through a loudspeaker at the museum entrance amidst the bustling crowd!