Objectively speaking, Xiao’s attempt to expose Dreven’s true identity was indeed motivated by a desire to ensure Su Yan’s safety, fearing that Dreven might be some kind of monster.
However, from the emotional perspective of the vast interstellar audience, Xiao’s actions seemed like an intentional disruption of the plot that everyone was enjoying.
[The key is, I was really enjoying this part. Who understands?! Watching the settlement get better and better, with more and more food, and the buildings getting more and more beautiful. It really gave me an inexplicable sense of accomplishment and participation!]
Compared to the first book, “Contract Marriage”, the second book, “Eternal Night Rose” was indeed much richer in terms of overall content and elements because Yu Mian had more time to prepare before starting writing.
It was not only a romance novel about traveling through time and falling in love with a tyrant, it also contained many exciting elements of career-oriented tropes like traveling through the apocalypse to engage in infrastructure construction!
Especially with the help of the protagonist Su Yan’s golden finger, people who were originally trapped in a perilous, unstable situation and at the bottom of the food chain, could slowly and steadily improve their territory.
They even attracted many lone human refugees from the surrounding areas, and the population and resources of the entire territory visibly increased.
This kind of plot was essentially a very classic “infrastructure and farming” novel with feel good and satisfying points.
Perhaps some readers might not particularly enjoy it, but there are definitely very few who would dislike this type of plot!
In Earth novels, this “satisfying/cool” model could even be traced back to the pioneer of farming stories in textbooks, “Robinson Crusoe”.
Who could say that when reading this text back then, they didn’t feel an indescribable sense of satisfaction seeing the resources on Robinson’s island gradually increase?
So, once Xiao’s actions broke the peaceful upward trend, everyone instantly became nervous and angry.
Tell us, what good is there in exposing that guy?
After all, Dreven was a free laborer, and now, with Xiao’s actions, everyone started to dislike him a little!
But for Yu Mian, this reaction from the interstellar readers only made him realize that people in the interstellar era were still too young, too naive.
On the one hand, they wanted to eat some sugar, but on the other hand, they didn’t want the plot to break the comfort zone and have drastic changes.
But if the plot didn’t change drastically, how could they enjoy the sugar?
[[So, half a month later, the food in the base once again faced a shortage, and the nutrient solution was almost used up. People were about to organize a hunting team to go to the unknown zone to search for supplies.
But this time, Su Yan voluntarily asked to go along.
“The formula for the hemostatic agent is missing just one material, the Light Star Grass. I have to go to the Silverlight Forest to identify it.”
Despite Xiao being extremely worried and trying to object, Su Yan still explained seriously.
“But what if you get hurt?”
Xiao knew the importance of the hemostatic agent, but was more concerned that Su Yan might get hurt.
“It should be fine. Let Dreven come with me.”
Su Yan glanced at Dreven behind him.
Upon hearing this, Xiao and Dreven immediately looked at each other.
One pair of dark eyes was filled with disgust and vigilance, while the other pair of deep red eyes was calm, as if emotionless.
‘Damn it.’
‘The hypocritical vampire.’
If it weren’t for the fact that he had to lead the team, he could’ve personally protected Su Yan, and there wouldn’t have been a chance for this guy to be involved.
But just as Xiao gritted his teeth, he suddenly realized something.
The unknown areas in the wild were extremely dangerous.
Once blood was spilled, Xiao didn’t believe Dreven could hide his true nature.
After all, based on his observations, this guy hadn’t consumed a single drop of blood in the past few months.
And a vampire’s thirst for blood when hungry was undoubtedly difficult to conceal.
“It’s fine, but I can’t trust that this guy won’t harm you once he’s alone in the wild. He and I will go in one team, and Su Yan, you go with the deputy captain. Is that okay?”
Xiao almost stared at Dreven while stating his final demand.
“Can you go with Xiao to look for food?”
Dreven, who had been motionless, remained silent for a moment until he heard Su Yan’s soft plea. Then he walked towards Xiao’s team with an expressionless face.
Seeing this, Su Yan also sighed in relief. It was best if these two could coexist peacefully.
So, the team quickly set off for the wild, beginning the dangerous and tense hunting activity!]]
And when Xiao grasped the fact that Dreven had never consumed blood from the beginning, it immediately alerted the readers who had been immersed in the earlier plot to a crucial issue.
[My God, I didn’t realize Dreven had been following Su Yan all this time without drinking any blood! As a Bart clan, isn’t he hungry!?!]
[I almost forgot this guy is a violent vampire. But now that I think about it, Dreven drinks blood, and maybe even killed humans before—I suddenly wonder how I could have liked this kind of guy!?]
[Right! Many of you had issues with Xiao before, which was really ridiculous! Don’t forget that Dreven is from the Bart clan. Even if he doesn’t harm Su Yan, isn’t it just as wrong if he kills other humans to drink their blood?]
After all, once the vampire’s critical trait of “drinking blood” was pointed out again, the moral and ethical issues inevitably sparked strong debates among the readers.
Especially among the readers who had a stronger liking for Su Yan’s best friend Xiao, they couldn’t help but protest fiercely.
If Dreven really drank human blood, didn’t that mean the readers who liked him were just letting appearances lead their opinions?
This was too much. After all, he kills people.
How could the prey and the hunter possibly fall in love? It was a love destined to be opposed by everyone!
Thus, all the readers anxiously clicked to the next page.
However, this time, they suddenly noticed a dialogue box pop up on the screen.
[After testing, the following content contains age restrictions. Please click to confirm if you are eligible to read.]
Huh, why would there be an age warning?
Could it be because of Xiao’s big move that the forest was now filled with bloody, violent scenes?!
Most readers became even more nervous and anxious, but they gritted their teeth and continued reading…
[[“Found it, it’s in the water!”
While looking for herbs, Su Yan was soon delighted to find several Light Star Grass growing in a cave near a deep pond.
“I’ll go down to pick them, you wait up here.”
The deputy captain next to Su Yan immediately raised his hand to volunteer.
“Okay, but be careful.”
Su Yan knew he couldn’t swim, so he watched as the deputy captain dived into the water, heading for the sparkling light in the distance…
“Lord Prophet, I got it! No danger occurred!”
Just as the excited team member surfaced from the water, holding a bunch of Light Star Grass and shouting joyfully to the shore, Su Yan and the others suddenly looked horrified.
“Be careful! Deputy Captain, behind you—”
The deputy captain immediately widened his eyes and looked behind him. To his horror, a giant beast with a body that seemed to cover the sky and earth had returned to its lair and found that the precious Light Star Grass had been harvested by humans!
The enraged giant beast stirred up a terrifying wave.
The smell of blood mixed with screams spread, quickly attracting the attention of Xiao and Dreven not far away!
“Su Yan, be careful! The ground is going to shake!!”
Just as Xiao rushed over and thrust the hilt of his blade into the giant beast’s back with a roar, a massive amount of blood sprayed everywhere as the beast struggled.
The thick, rust-like scent of blood quickly filled the water in the pond.
What made matters worse was that the loose soil gave way under the tremors. Unable to steady himself, Su Yan lost his balance and plunged into the water.
“Su Yan!?”
Xiao, who was locked in a struggle with the beast, looked at the water with bloodshot eyes, unable to spare any moment to save him.
‘Am I really going to die here?’
As Su Yan teetered on the edge of suffocation underwater, he reached up to touch the skin of his face, where the scorching blood had splattered moments earlier.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that it was his fault—leading everyone into such a dangerous place without thinking of the consequences.
But no matter how much he regretted or felt guilty, it was too late now.
Just as Su Yan was about to lose consciousness underwater, he suddenly fell into a form, broad embrace.
“Mmm!”
In the next moment, a cool sensation touched his lips.
The oxygen that his suffocating body desperately needed was passed to him without reserve through this sudden kiss.
So, even though Su Yan had no experience, in his oxygen-deprived state, he subconsciously and clumsily responded to the entwining of lips and teeth.
As the water rippled, Su Yan opened his eyes in confusion, only to see Dreven in front of him with his eyes half-closed, his expression devout and completely absorbed.
Even after the kiss ended, he carefully licked the blood stains from the corner of Su Yan’s lips, cleaning them thoroughly.
The silver strands of his long hair floated and intertwined with the water’s ripples, enshrouding them in a veil of secrecy and indescribable emotions.
The water in the pond was obviously extremely cold, but at that moment, Su Yan felt his cheeks were extremely hot.
But he had already lost the strength to push the man before him away…]]
After reading to this point in one breath, the comments section of the interstellar readers suddenly became eerily quiet.
The comment section, which used to be bustling with people even when there were no updates, now didn’t have even a single new post, as if the space had been abandoned.
But if the user activity on the backend of Huanyu Reading Platform was checked, it would reveal that the latest chapter of “Eternal Night Rose” had seen a terrifying surge in the number of views and clicks.
Moreover, the individual reading time on the chapter had far exceeded the normal reading speed!
It wasn’t until over half an hour later that the first new post appeared in the comment section.
[Everyone—I have repeatedly studied and confirmed it more than ten times— They! Really! Kissed! (banging my head against the wall like crazy)]
[Ahhh, is this something we can see? Why do I feel like the progress is faster than “Contract Marriage”?! How many chapters has this been, and they already kissed—!? Damn it, I need to confirm this ten more times! See you all tomorrow morning!]
[So before I opened this chapter, I saw the age warning and thought it would be a bloody, violent scene in the forest, but the age warning was actually for a kiss!?]
In the interstellar age, age ratings were generally used to differentiate between scenes with graphic violence and gore.
After all, books where characters took hundreds of chapters just to hold hands rarely required other content warnings.
So when the readers saw the last scene in this chapter, they were completely unprepared and the whole reader community erupted in chaos.
They thought that “Contract Marriage” starting with a wedding was already exciting.
They never imagined that Fish Soup Noodles’ new book “Eternal Night Rose” could push the envelope even further!
To be fair, “Eternal Night Rose” hadn’t even reached 100,000 words yet, and the two main protagonists had already kissed! In an era where it usually took hundreds of chapters just to hold hands, this was almost unbelievable!
Even the hateful once a week updates by the author seemed forgivable now.
[Yes, even though we’re the laughingstock for weekly updates—but look, our progress is fast, haha! Let them keep mocking our weekly updates—who’s about to finish without even a kiss?!]
Posts like these filled the comment section of “Eternal Night Rose”, which had been cowering in despair for a long time, and people celebrated like crazy as if it was New Year’s Day.
The key was that “Contract Marriage” was nearing its conclusion, but the news of a kiss between the two protagonists in “Eternal Night Rose” shook the resolve of old readers who had held out, waiting to binge-read the finished novel.
Even though this book had weekly updates…
But it’s a kiss, damn it!
Who can resist diving into this!?
As a result, the number of new readers and the number of collections for “Eternal Night Rose” surged so much that even the backend of Huanyu Reading Platform was alarmed.
“What’s going on? Buying fake data? But with the current popularity of Fish Soup Noodles’ work, there’s no need for that, right!?”
When the editorial department heard that a work was gaining thousands of new readers per minute, their first reaction was that someone had blatantly bought views.
But when someone with insider information revealed the truth, the editors were stunned.
Moments later, they too silently opened their “To Be Read” list and clicked into the book.
Damn, who can resist not reading…?
It could be said that this chapter was updated, the popularity for “Eternal Night Rose” officially broke into mainstream attention for the first time.
The kiss scene between Su Yan and Dreven, and the ongoing triangle involving Xiao sparked widespread debate beyond the core fanbase.
[Although the main CP is sweet, I suddenly feel so bad for Xiao. Xiao is over there holding off the monster, but Dreven is the first one to jump in the water to save the beauty. I’m crying, Xiao, you really can’t beat this guy’s scheming…]
[The key is, does Dreven really drink human blood!? Is he licking the blood from Su Yan’s lips, or is he just kissing him!? Please, this question is really important to me!]
[Damn it, how come a good young man like Xiao has nothing, while Dreven has everything. Author, we protest—this isn’t fair!!]
The kiss at the end of “Eternal Night Rose” not only didn’t explain the essential question of whether Dreven, as a member of the Bart clan, drinks human blood, but instead deepened the readers’ suspicions and curiosity.
