Chapter 103 - What To Do if You’re the Villain and the Heroine Likes You

Fan Ziruo stared blankly at the title written by He Yunxiao, feeling a bit slow to react for a moment. Why can a colon appear in the title? Can the title also be so casual? Can "Defeating the Martial Arts League Leader" be used as a title even though it only occupies a small part of the book? Fan Ziruo looked at the title written by He Yunxiao, then looked at the title of her own book, "Qing Ping". Even though she still thought "Qing Ping" was better, looking at He Yunxiao's title, she suddenly had the urge to open the book and read it again, even though she had read it several times and remembered many of the plot points. But she still wanted to open the book and take a look. Seeing her expression, He Yunxiao knew that his purpose had been achieved, so he said, "Ziruo, bystanders would see more clearly, shall we ask Miss Du to see which one she likes?" Fan Ziruo, who had been full of confidence just now, now felt a bit unsure. She said, "Okay." Fan Ziruo held two sheets of paper with the book titles written on them, and went to Du Yinyun's residence with He Yunxiao. Little sister Du was as usual, either playing the zither, reading books, or embroidering. Only when He Yunxiao wasn't around would she go and spend some time with Fan Ziruo, chatting with her good sister. She was preparing an embroidered handkerchief for Fan Ziruo, having finished one and still working on the second one. For the embroidery pattern, she had deliberately chosen the "Lotus After the Rain," which suited her sister's temperament. However, from the pattern that Du Yinyun was embroidering, this "Lotus After the Rain" only featured "lotus" and not "rain." As clever as she was, she has not forgotten to embroider "rain" by mistake. On the contrary, the "Lotus After the Rain" without rain was the true stroke of genius. Du Yinyun moved a chair to sit under the eaves, with a basket on the nearby stool containing various needles and threads needed for the embroidery. She was embroidering lotus flowers, with a barely concealed smile on her lips. She really wanted to see her sister appearance after "it had rained"... After all, it was "Lotus After the Rain"... Fan Ziruo led He Yunxiao to Du Yinyun's residence and, standing some distance away, called out, "Yinyun." Upon hearing Fan Ziruo calling her, Du Yinyun was about to tease her sister, but before she could speak, she saw He Yunxiao standing next to Fan Ziruo. Little sister Du always held her beloved young master in high regard, always dreaming about him. She wouldn't forget what he had instructed her. Seeing He Yunxiao, she abandoned her playful mood and adopted a cool demeanor. She set down the needle and thread, stood up, and slightly bowed to He Yunxiao. Every move she made emitted a natural distance that could only be called "aloofness." She lightly bowed, "Mr. He." He Yunxiao returned the gesture, "Miss Du, good to see you again." Fan Ziruo, seeing the atmosphere, stood between the "distant relationship" of the two, and explained to He Yunxiao, "Sir, my sister has a somewhat indifferent temperament towards everyone, not too warm or cold. Please don't take it to heart." He Yunxiao: "Indifferent temperament." Du Yinyun: Why did my sister just call him "sir"? I was the one who called him that first. He Yunxiao replied to Fan Ziruo, "No problem, no problem. I've heard about Miss Du's personality." Deliberately not mentioning "Spring Breeze Pavilion Encounter" to embarras her, he didn't need to make nice with little sister Du, and Spring Breeze Pavilion was not a good memory, talking about other people's past sorrows for no reason was a bit too much. Fan Ziruo quickly got to the point. She handed the two sheets of paper with the book titles written on them to Du Yinyun. "Yinyun, here are two books. Based solely on the title, which one do you like? Which one would you like to read?" Du Yinyun looked at the two book titles in her hand, then glanced at Fan Ziruo and He Yunxiao. Then she pointed to "Qing Ping" and said, "I like this one." Du Yinyun's choice was quite surprising to He Yunxiao. She didn't choose my colonized title? Upon careful consideration, it made sense. Little sister Du's literary level was second only to Fan Ziruo's, exceptionally high, so it was normal for her not to like the vernacular title. After bidding farewell to Du Yinyun, they asked a few maids who could read. Just as He Yunxiao had anticipated, the maids all chose the colonized title. The two of them returned to the study side by side, and Fan Ziruo's expression was not very good. He Yunxiao comforted her, "Ziruo, the title you picked is indeed good. It's just very refined, but refinement also has its advantages. Miss Du liked it very much didn't she?" Fan Ziruo said, "Sir, you don't understand. My little sister is very clever. She must have seen that this title was picked by me, and she deliberately chose this title to please me." This made He Yunxiao feel a bit awkward. It turned out that every person had chosen his own, and not a single person chose Fan Ziruo. Even though Fan Ziruo was the first talented woman in Yinjing and had reached the pinnacle in online literature, hearing everyone's choices had somewhat shattered her confidence. Confidence is a very complex thing for an author. Excess confidence can make people deaf to advice, arrogant; and insufficient confidence can make people hesitant and produce writing lacking in vigor and pride. So a good author must maintain both humility and pride, which is very difficult. He Yunxiao, looking at Fan Ziruo's somewhat low spirits, once again put the two sheets of paper with the book titles in front of her. "Ziruo, your 'Qing Ping' is really good." Fan Ziruo raised her head and looked at He Yunxiao seriously. He Yunxiao reiterated, " 'Qing Ping' is really good, even much better than the original title of this book, 'Tale of Lake Tai Swordsmen'." Fan Ziruo's eyes sparkled. She looked at He Yunxiao seriously, listening attentively to his tone. No matter how closely she observed his expression or how many times she discerned his tone, she could only draw one conclusion—He Yunxiao genuinely thought so. [Fan Ziruo's favorability rating has changed from 75 to 75] He Yunxiao: What's going on? How did the favorability rating get stuck at 75? Fan Ziruo gazed softly at He Yunxiao and said, "My title, clearly no one likes it, so why does Sir still say it's good." He Yunxiao set the system aside and earnestly replied to Fan Ziruo's question. "Do Ziruo thinks my title is good?" Fan Ziruo hesitated for a moment and said, "Yes." "Good what nonsense!" Suddenly using coarse language, He Yunxiao truly startled Fan Ziruo. "Ziruo, you are Yinjing's top talented woman and a teacher at Lu Jiao College. With your level, do you genuinely think my title is good?" "If so many people like Sir's title, naturally it's..." He Yunxiao grabbed Fan Ziruo's hand. "Ziruo, where did your confidence and pride go?" "I..." "You want to gain more readers' recognition, which is not wrong, but do you have to sacrifice your basic judgment just to cater to others?" "Ziruo, let me tell you, my title is very successful, but it's not good at all! It's not worthless. On the contrary, it is very useful, very functional, but even so, I still think it's not good at all." "Ziruo, think carefully about why I'm saying this." Fan Ziruo, looking at He Yunxiao holding her hand, blushed slightly, pretending not to recall any strange "men and women are different" matters. She said, "Sir, are you saying that the author needs to know what is good as well as what is useful? These two aren't mutually exclusive." He Yunxiao smiled, "Yes! You want to write a book that others like to read, right? Okay, you can do that. But what's the prerequisite for that? It's knowing what they want to read." Fan Ziruo, pretending to casually pick up He Yunxiao's thread, said, "So, what does Sir like to read in novels?" At that moment, He Yunxiao's expression became solemn, as if he were a loyal disciple. "I will always like romance (harem) novels."