Chapter 14
Xu Ying is concentrating on typing.
In "Back to High School," she has already written about the female protagonist's arrival at university and her daily life there.
Of course, it's about time for the male lead to make his appearance.
She set the male lead as a history student in the same school but a different year as the female lead. With this identity, she could openly incorporate elements of Chinese culture into the novel without it seeming out of place.
Not only does it not feel abrupt, but to some extent, these things related to the male protagonist's profession actually allow readers to better appreciate his professionalism and charm.
A double win.
Li Mu was a student the professor valued, and he was exceptionally taken on this archaeological project despite being an undergraduate.
By the time the project ended and the team returned to school, the freshmen had already been in school for over a month.
Back at school, Li Mu was never idle. Besides attending classes, he spent his days following his seniors around, busy organizing materials.
He was taking a lunch break when he suddenly received a call from the professor.
The professor needed some materials urgently, so he asked him to go to the library's archives to get them.
Without delay, Li Mu hung up the phone and rushed to the library.
At that time, Xu Jiayue was wearing a plain long dress and carrying a stack of books. She had just come out of the library when, without noticing, the two bumped into each other at the library's main entrance.
The books Xu Jiayue was holding were scattered all over the ground, and her notebook was lying on the floor.
Li Mu could see all the dense handwriting on the notebook.
Such elegant handwriting.
This was Li Mu's first impression of Xu Jiayue.
You see his handwriting before you see him.
This was an idea that suddenly popped into Xu Ying's head while she was writing. Once she started writing, it inexplicably became more romantic. She immediately deleted the chapter she had already written and started rewriting it.
After I finished writing, a message from Ephemeral suddenly popped up again.
Mayfly: Stop keeping me in suspense and just tell me already, what kind of male lead are you planning to create?
February Sky: Finally awake?
February Sky: Probably the type of mother-son relationship.
ephemera:?
Mayfly: What is a male mother...?
Mayfly scratched her head, wondering if she was just too ignorant; how come she had never heard of the term "male mother" before?
I don't understand what this means?
Xu Ying touched her chin and suddenly realized that the concept of a male mother had never existed in this world before, and she wondered if readers would be able to accept it.
Never mind, they'll accept it as I write.
February Sky: It's probably a gender-swapped version of the virtuous wife and loving mother.
ephemera:!
Mayfly: That sounds interesting! I'll add more!
February Sky: ......
Adding more chapters is impossible; she deleted a lot of things and is currently rewriting them.
Xu Ying ignored the mayfly, put down her phone, and continued typing.
Xu Jiayue and Li Mu's second meeting was at a small restaurant outside the school.
She invited Xiaoxingxing over for dinner, while Li Mu was having a meal with his roommates.
When the two groups met, Li Mu immediately stepped forward to greet them.
Last time, he was in such a rush that he didn't even have time to ask the other person's name, and he felt annoyed for a long time afterward.
Xu Jiayue and Li Mu exchanged names and majors under Xiaoxingxing's teasing gaze.
Li Mu's roommate was very savvy and immediately suggested that everyone eat together.
As it turned out, Li Mu was very tactful and immediately stopped her, which made Xu Jiayue like him a little more.
...]
Xu Ying doesn't plan to create too many obstacles for the romance between the male and female leads. Her story mainly focuses on the female lead's growth, so the romance will be a simple and sweet story.
*
The mayfly quickly understood what the "male mother" in February meant.
The male lead in "Back to High School" has already made his appearance, and she didn't expect that February Sky would actually portray him as gentle, polite, and a loving homemaker who cooks.
The key point is that in the novel, Li Mu actually cooks when he's pursuing the female lead.
He would personally cook and deliver the food to the female lead's dormitory every few days. Before delivering it, he would even thoughtfully ask her if she minded being seen by other female classmates. If she did, he could take the lunchbox and walk away.
This... even though mayflies have a wide range of tastes and can enjoy anything, they are still a little slow to react.
This male protagonist isn't bizarre; on the contrary, he's too normal, so normal that he's almost out of place. They've never seen a male protagonist like him in the online novel world.
Mayfly couldn't resist sending a private message to Gentle Breeze.
Mayfly: Have you watched the parts where the male lead appears in "Back to High School"?
Gentle Breeze: Nonsense, I've seen everything I could.
Mayfly: Hey, you usually take forever to reply to my messages, but you came right away this time!
Mayfly: I feel like this is a male protagonist who has read books, and he would definitely not be the kind of person who knowingly breaks the law.
Gentle Breeze: I also really like this male lead; he's so well-written.
A gentle breeze: What's wrong? Did something upset you?
She knew Fuyou quite well. When Fuyou suddenly mentioned the male lead in "Back to High School," it was clear that she was stimulated by the character created by Eryuetian.
Mayfly: Sigh, I suddenly realized that we were too narrow-minded before. When writing about protagonists, we only wrote them as either charming and arrogant or cold and aloof. February's writing is much more vivid.
Mayfly: Actually, I've had some inspiration in my head recently, and to my shame, it came from the book February.
A gentle breeze: What inspiration came from?
Mayfly: It's probably also a story where the protagonist is reborn and goes back to the past to change the course of future history, and the protagonist I envisioned also starts from school.
A gentle breeze blew as he gripped his phone, frowning. This setup was just too similar.
That's what she thought, and that's how she replied.
The mayfly felt a little ashamed.
Mayfly: Indeed, that's why I haven't started writing.
Mayfly: The only difference is that the protagonist I wrote is a male protagonist who accidentally wakes up in a girl's body when he goes back to the past, and from then on he lives as a girl.
Mayfly: Moreover, he also taught his former spoiled self, transforming him into an upright and excellent person. In the end, the better version of himself fell in love with his younger self who was a girl...
Despite her rambling, the mayfly still managed to spill her brainstorming ideas. This story will probably never see the light of day; she could only tell Qingfeng about it.
After reading the text on her phone, Qingfeng Xulai was completely dumbfounded. She had previously thought that the characters of Fuyou and Eryue were similar, but now she didn't think they were similar at all.
What kind of bizarre idea is this from mayflies?!
She knew that Fuyou's writing style was unconventional. In the past, when everyone was writing melodramatic romance novels, Fuyou's writing was more melodramatic and forced than others.
The online novel trend had finally been somewhat corrected by February, but she still managed to find a melodramatic loophole to exploit in such a positive and inspiring setting.
As expected of a mayfly!
However, if the mayfly is set up this way, then it's not impossible to write a novel about it. After all, everyone has a different focus. This mayfly story seems to focus more on the tug-of-war between the male and female protagonists.
Well, if the main character can be called the female lead.
Gentle Breeze: Now that you mention it, I feel like your characters don't quite match up anymore. Why don't you go ask February? If she doesn't agree, then forget it. But if she does, wouldn't that be a happy ending for everyone?
Mayfly: That makes sense. I'll go ask them.
Mayfly was not one to procrastinate. After listening to the advice of Gentle Breeze, he immediately went to chat with Xu Ying privately.
Xu Ying was also surprised when she saw the news; it was a surprise of delight.
She never expected that as soon as she finished writing about rebirth, Fuyou had already come up with the idea of a man transmigrating into a woman and even using the Narcissus theme. Tsk tsk tsk, no wonder he is a trendsetter in the online novel world.
He's incredibly quick-witted.
After sending the message, Fuyou felt a little uneasy. She really liked her friend February Sky. Although they had never met in person, it was not easy to make a few close friends online these days, and she was afraid that the other person would misunderstand her.
She wanted to explain further, but before she could even send her explanation, she received a reply from February.
February Sky: Write, write right now!!!
February Sky: Your idea is so ahead of its time! It'll definitely go viral if you write it. I can't wait to read the full text.
Mayfly paused in her typing.
Mayfly: You don't mind?
Xu Ying could tell at a glance that she was getting stuck on a rut.
Of course she didn't mind. Ever since her novel became popular, countless quick-handed authors have imitated her and started writing rebirth novels. If she minded every single one of them, how could she possibly mind them all?
Moreover, rebirth is just a general setting and doesn't involve the specific plot framework at all.
February Sky: I don't mind at all, I'll just write whatever I want.
February Sky: From now on, you will be the pioneer of narcissistic literature.
Mayfly never expected February to be so pleasant.
She thanked him sincerely.
Mayfly: Thank you, but what does "Narcissus Text" mean?
Xu Ying hesitated for a moment.
Of course, daffodils exist in this world, but whether this world has Greek mythology or whether daffodils represent narcissism is something she really doesn't know.
She quickly searched for it and found that it actually existed.
It seems that history hasn't changed much abroad, which makes it feel more familiar and convenient for her.
She immediately explained it to the mayfly. The mayfly knew the story of Narcissus transforming into a daffodil in Greek mythology and also knew about his self-obsessed nature, but she had never connected the two before.
Now that Eryue has said this, she suddenly feels that using daffodils to describe the protagonist's emotional entanglement with herself is very appropriate.
Moreover, this kind of allusion supported by classical allusions is exactly what literati love most. Even mayflies are not immune to this. At this moment, she looked at the name Narcissus and liked it more and more, feeling that it was full of artistic beauty.
At the same time, she also gained more respect for February's boundless imagination.
The same story is there, everyone can see it, but only February has transformed it into a beautiful name.
Mayfly: You're so good at coming up with names!
Mayfly: The name Narcissus is so romantic and beautiful, it's the perfect name for this type of creature.
......
After being thanked several times by the mayfly and promised to meet up offline sometime in the future, the two finally ended their conversation.
Xu Ying put down her phone, suddenly feeling a sense of anticipation.
I don't know what kind of story Ephemeral is planning to write. She's actually quite interested in this kind of subject matter; the idea of self-dominance is exciting.
From then on, it became a situation where Xu Ying would occasionally poke the mayfly.
She would send harassing messages to Fuyou every few days, asking how many drafts she had stockpiled and when she planned to start writing. After a while, even Qingfeng joined in and sent messages, which annoyed Fuyou to no end.
Serves him right, Qingfeng gloated.
Who told her to keep urging others to write instead of writing herself? Now that it's her turn, she knows what it feels like, hehehe!
Having finally found an opportunity to tease the mayfly, Qingfeng was even more excited than Xu Ying, since she had been friends with the mayfly for longer and had been tormented by her for a longer time.
A note from the author:
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