Chapter 1: That Author
What is fantasy, and what is real?
What you see is not always true, and what you don’t see does not mean it doesn’t exist.
The world is a mystery. Everything lives inside its own small circle, with countless layers of fog hiding the truth.
Of course, even though the world is so strange and interesting, some people are not very curious about it.
For them, a simple and happy life is enough, and they never leave their small circle.
Mu Le is a writer, or maybe that’s not fully correct. He just writes for fun.
As he says, he only writes because he likes it.
Yes, a writer driven by interest.
His writing is not very good, and his stories have many mistakes, but because he enjoys it, he never gets tired of writing.
Even though what he writes is a niche genre.
“Gender-bender marriage” novels, as a type of transformation story, do not seem to have many fans.
But no matter what others think, Mu Le really likes this kind of story. In his opinion, if a character changes gender but does not get married, then what’s the point?
When did he first come across this genre? Probably a few years ago. When he had nothing to read, he accidentally found a transformation novel.
Since it was a new type of story he had never read before, he became very interested.
After that, he couldn’t stop. He began to look for more novels like this.
While searching, he also discovered a forum by accident.
From there, he found many good books and learned that transformation novels have many different types.
At the same time, he slowly changed, from a pure and well-behaved student into someone who enjoys more “wild” online discussions.
The “gender-bender marriage” category especially matched his taste, and over time, he became a firm supporter of it.
The reason he went from reading novels to writing them was simple: there were too few stories in this category, and even fewer really good ones.
He had already read almost everything on different literature websites, but still couldn’t find new or interesting stories in this genre.
As time went on, his frustration from having nothing to read made him want to write his own stories.
Of course, as a science student, his writing skills at the beginning were not very good.
But luckily, Mu Le had strong determination. He slowly improved, learning from others and picking up better ways to use words.
Gradually, his stories started to gain some popularity.
Also, Mu Le is actually a shut-in, so being a writer suits him well.
“…So many people are starting new stories, but many seem to have already dropped them.”
In the hot summer, during school vacation, the young man casually moves his mouse with one hand, while holding an ice cream in the other.
With the air conditioner on, the room feels cool.
On his computer screen, a new anime is playing on one side, while a webpage is open on the other. You can vaguely see a line of small text: “Gender-bender marriage novels forum.”
When he has nothing to do, browsing and chatting on the forum has become one of Mu Le’s daily hobbies.
Although the genre is niche, the people on the forum are actually quite friendly… of course, that’s ignoring the fact that they can be pretty “dirty-minded.”
He casually browsed through the “gender-bender marriage novels” forum. A few new posts had appeared, but the old posts he saved still showed no updates.
After looking for a while out of boredom, Mu Le yawned, then threw the finished ice cream stick into the trash can beside him.
In summer, people often feel sleepy for no reason. With the cool air from the air conditioner, he started to feel drowsy.
But it seemed that fate didn’t want him to rest. At that moment, the little penguin icon at the bottom right of his computer suddenly started flashing.
He glanced at it without thinking, but when he saw the familiar profile picture, Mu Le suddenly shivered.
After hesitating for quite a while, he finally clicked it, as if accepting his fate.
Mu Le didn’t have many contacts. Other than friends from real life and online, there were only editors from the website he posted on.
But the person messaging him now was an exception.
[ZY: Only one update today? Didn’t you say there would be two?]
A simple name made of letters, and a plain black-and-white profile picture.
It looked nothing special, but in fact, this person was very rich.
Mu Le showed a troubled expression. He typed a line of text, thought about it, and then deleted it all.
After waiting too long, he took a deep breath and showed a “whatever, I’ll just say it” expression.
[Le Mu: I feel like my body is completely drained ( ꩜ ᯅ ꩜;) ]
[ZY: ……]
The other person replied instantly with six dots. From that, Mu Le could almost imagine the other person’s speechless face.
[ZY: Reward sent. Remember to update.]
[Le Mu: Ahhhh! Brother Z, don’t do this! Updating once a day is already my limit! Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||) ]
[ZY: Reward sent. Remember to update.]
The other person sent the same message again. Mu Le’s mouth twitched. Then he closed the anime he was watching and opened the link to his own work from his bookmarks.
Looking at the notification at the top—“ZY tipped 10,000 coins. Hope the author keeps working hard”—appearing twice, he felt like he needed a cigarette to calm down, even though he didn’t smoke.
ZY was his reader. Mu Le had written several novels with difficulty, and this person had given large tips to almost every one of them, again and again, while also constantly asking for updates.
At first, Mu Le felt very motivated. After all, it’s not easy to meet a rich supporter, especially a super rich one!
And this person seemed to be from a rich family, treating money like it didn’t matter.
Every time he asked for updates, he would send a wave of tips, making other readers call him a big spender.
But after a long time, Mu Le could only say… “Big brother, I was wrong! Please stop asking for updates! I really can’t keep up! (╥﹏╥)”
Adding him on QQ was something Mu Le still regretted. But there was no way he could block or delete such a “valuable supporter.”
And their chat history had only one topic… asking for updates!
So now, whenever Mu Le saw his QQ, he would feel a chill down his back!
That rich guy is here to push for updates again!
“I’m someone with extreme laziness, please understand, okay?!”
After feeling speechless for a while, Mu Le saw that the other person had gone offline. Knowing what to do, he took out a chapter from his saved drafts.
Looking at how his draft storage was almost empty, after uploading the new chapter, Mu Le let out a weak sigh.
Then, as expected, he opened his writing software and entered writing mode.