Chapter 122-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
After last week's manga update, Ye Zheng's actions in the base sparked another wave of backlash. Tang Mingxi was so pissed she made a bunch of high-damage expression packs and even photoshopped some black propaganda for the rival male fave, but it still didn't vent her anger.
Under the guidance of the veteran otaku Li Yixin, she quietly snuck into other sites besides the forum and Weibo—mainly fanwork production hubs.
The #YeZheng# tag wasn't low in heat; over half was CP-oriented output, with gonggong-momo fans scrapping it out, and even some folks summoning Zhao Mei under the Ye Zheng tag. Tang Mingxi didn't look before, but once she did, she was shocked—how were these people shipping such weird stuff?
What a poisonous bunch; suspected heterophagia fetishists.
She casually checked the rival's situation and was surprised to find that this week's fastest-rising fanwork heat for King of the Demonic Domain was actually Kiran?
[Mommy great mommy, your top momo in Demonic has appeared!]
[Such a bad woman deserves to be thoroughly wiped...]
[What glorious output; househusband vibes so full-on, I want to follow you forever, Ross!]
Tang Mingxi, a longtime lurker in the cold entertainment circle, had seen plenty of male idol momos calling their faves "little girl," "baby sis," "wife"—every time she searched those feminine terms and the square filled with male idol pics, she'd roll her eyes.
But seeing this Kiran momo crowd, she still felt her horizons had been broadened.
No one remembered how Kiran experimented on those women in the manga anymore? For a male character like that to have fans treating him like a girl to adore? Tang Mingxi figured this Kiran momo bunch owed her a pair of unpolluted eyes!
The forum had plenty of fights revolving around Kiran too, and Tang Mingxi—usually a fun-seeker—didn't even want to glance, just hoping this disgusting guy would log off quick. Plenty of readers agreed with her this time.
[#29: Outrageous—didn't expect so many people to genuinely like Kiran; your tastes are scary good...]
[#30: Someone liking him makes me chuckle and move on; what I can't stand is pairing it with feminine terms—go take a look at how the neighboring bar supports Kiran and trashes women to sober up.]
[#31: If he wasn't running that persecution-of-women experiment, I'd stan him just for the looks and personality... but his actions are kinda off-putting. Though he's not pure evil.]
...
[#78: Mind your own business—who are you to police what others stan? the fandom environment in our otaku world is getting worse.]
[#79: Liking Kiran doesn't mean endorsing his actions; adoring him doesn't mean whitewashing him—simple logic, got it?]
[#80: Thumbs up to the above; plus some are harassing the artists drawing Kiran—who's the one blurring 2D and 3D here? Feel for the taitai.]
[#81: Fine, you insult-women fave stans are just lesser beings, worth dining with the neighboring bar's Male One.]
[#82: And here comes the 'insult-women' hat, fresh off the press. What about me, writing Kiran getting non-conned, prostituted out? Just treating the male character as the gazed-upon object, that's all—you're the ones escalating.]
[#83: Support all you momos turning Kiran into a teacher; this kind of bad man deserves to be thoroughly toyed with, becoming our female gaze's plaything!]
[#84: The ones cursing Kiran momos should eat with the neighboring males; making guys sell their bodies is a deconstruction of male authority—it's your gouzi lit (钩子文学, A genre where male chars are objectified in smut, as a feminist 'deconstruction' of male gaze; 'gouzi' puns on 'dick') that breaks those guys' defenses.]
[#85: Never seen guys breaking over your gouzi lit; only seen them breaking over #SerialKillerZheng.]
[#86: We villain stans are the ones who most want our faves to die—roadies, stop judging us okay? Kiran is the type who has to die for his ideals; by then, Kiran stans will be happier than you roadies. Dying fulfilled is an aesthetic...]
Tang Mingxi eyed these black-inducing comments, thinking that for every extra week Kiran stayed alive in the manga, she'd suffer an extra week of this torment—she wanted to uninstall the forum.
Until she clicked into this week's update.
In last week's update, Ye Zheng got caught and locked in the confinement room after killing a few people. Tang Mingxi had a bad feeling—the creator was probably nerfing Ye Zheng again. This guy always quietly screwed over her girl with small shoes; unless it was major mainline plot, there wasn't even a scrap of daily inner monologue.
Tang Mingxi thought again: This kind of shaping actually lucked into making Ye Zheng the most discussed character—distinct traits plus tons of blank space for the taitai to flex—
Though some fanwork crumbs would kill a career fan like her.
She opened the manga, and Percy and Kiran's faces filled the phone screen. Tang Mingxi scrolled down fast, itching to quantum-speed past this plot.
She scrolled quick but still grasped the gist: With Kiran's backing, Percy roped in his two companions and even successfully persuaded Sykes to join, heading off to save the 500,000 trapped by Zhou Yun.
Not a surprising turn—despite Percy previously trying to off Kiran over the Hope Project's evils, now he could calmly chat with him, shelving the base's sins to play hero for the masses.
The only surprise for Tang Mingxi was Percy running into Lucy at the base. The harried Lucy seemed to have something to do and refused to rejoin Percy and the Cloud-Soaring Squad.
What exactly was Lucy off to do? For her to show up at the base—had she been made an experimental subject too?
On screen, Percy had the same thought, his face twisting for a bit before he decided to set Lucy aside and find the others to move out.
Seeing this, Tang Mingxi really felt the Cloud-Soaring Squad's friendships were kinda plastic—overlooking the evil befalling someone right in front of them to chase distant justice. Was this really justice?
Good thing Ye Zheng wasn't part of this protagonist crew; she couldn't buy the logic the creator fed them.
Next, Percy and Sykes set off with their group, while Kiran watched them leave from the church, his handsome face carrying a gentle depth. Until someone stumbled up to him in a panic.
Tang Mingxi furrowed her brows, unsure what that person said, but Kiran's face on screen changed abruptly. He shoved past everyone and headed deep into the base.
At this point, Tang Mingxi had a weird intuition: With Percy and Sykes gone, who in the base could rattle Kiran like this—Ye Zheng!
She scrolled down itchily, and the panel cut to Percy's POV: The group stepped into the thick mist, ambushed by the base's so-called Fallen Breed—dragon-bodied humans. After a fierce battle, they staggered toward the town.
Off-screen, Tang Mingxi was still fretting over what happened in the base—was Ye Zheng just locked up?
On screen, Percy severed a monster's limb and suddenly glanced back, as if sensing something, toward the base. His mind hung on Lucy and the trapped Ye Zheng, a nagging feeling that something bad was about to go down.
The protagonist's sixth sense was always spot-on. Tang Mingxi's heart tightened—had something major really happened at the base?
With worry churning, she kept scrolling, until Percy and crew entered the town Zhou Yun used to trap the hostages, getting the lay of the land. Percy's unease lingered.
In the manga, the black-haired, blue-eyed youth wandered the misty streets alone, that vague worry surging again.
Suddenly, he bumped into someone; their black bag hit the ground, something rolling out.
Percy quickly picked it up for them, but the feel in his hand was off, his body stiffening.
"Percy, hand it over. Hm?"
In the thick mist, the other's figure was hazy, until the youth rather forcefully took the round thing from Percy's hand. The youth's face finally came into focus—
Ye Zheng cradled a terrified, ugly severed head, standing up and smiling down at Percy like she was just saying hi.
And the manga panel followed Percy's view, looking up at this horrifying, shocking scene.
"Aaaah!"
Tang Mingxi squealed in excitement. She replayed the scene over and over, then dove straight into the forum.
This time, the forum erupted in another wave of wails and screams.
[#1: @An Unremarkable Ordinary Manga Laborer, look what you've drawn!]
[#2: I'm done—someone tell me that head isn't Kiran's...]
[#3: Hair and eye color match, plus the mole under his eye, but can't rule out Kiran faking his death.]
[#4: Kiran stans, hold off the tears—based on the old uncle's past writing, how could Kiran die this easily? And looking that ugly in death.]
[#5: What I can't take is dying so ugly... Your Demonic top beauty mommy dead like that—you okay with it?]
[#6: Why Ye Zheng again? I used to stan Yin Kong; analysis said she killed him already—now Kiran too?]
[#7: @Old Uncle Refund! Never seen a creator treat characters so casually—only Ye Zheng is your darling daughter, right?]
[#8: Why drag Ye Zheng into it? She didn't just start killing today—how about speaking up for the random guys she killed? Oh wait—you actually did speak up for those woman-abusing randoms.]
[#9: Ye Zheng stans, don't come peddling cheap outrage; don't you see your fave is already universally hated?]
[#10: Wait, where do Kiran stans get off calling Ye Zheng stans universally hated? Sure, the dead deserve respect, but your faces are on another level.]
[#11: Aaa upstairs good mouth!]
...
[#107: Kiran stans aren't just saying Kiran's a female gaze plaything? How come you're cursing the real woman Ye Zheng over a woman's toy?]
[#108: God, aren't Kiran stans the ones on earth who most want Kiran dead? Hurry up and celebrate!]
[#109: Stop—actually, Kiran stans are so thrilled they can't speak, staring at screens and madly thanking Ye Zheng for fulfilling their wish for their fave to die meaningfully.]
[#110: (Blocked by mods for intense language)]
[#111: Upstairs curses so filthy—is this the fan girls building all the Kiran gouzi sales for love?]
[#112: Enough—neighboring bar's Kiran dream guys are breaking too, all yelling for old uncle refunds lol]
[#113: Nah, old uncle's the most wronged this chapter—they're not even reading official, right? Scheming to scam the creator's cash.]
[#114: boys hurt boys (lighting candles)]
[#115: Betting Ye Zheng's about to get mass-blackened again. Poor paper girl, getting anti-ed daily just for doing the world a service.]
Tang Mingxi quit this Kiran grave-weeping thread, refreshed the home page, and sure enough, a fresh Ye Zheng black thread popped up. She wasn't surprised at all, clicking in—and this thread was even more explosive than the grave-weeping one.
The title alone was stupidly creative, making her snicker.
[#Who agrees to go report this manga IRL? Ye Zheng's image is already harming teens' grasp of social order and morals.][hot!]
[#1: Who agrees to go report this manga IRL? Ye Zheng's image is already harming teens' grasp of social order and morals.]
[#2: First time seeing a manga character who does abuse killings, beheadings, and has fans rabidly defending it, pushing a toxic 'destroy the world if it doesn't suit you' value—says it's righteous but it's rotten and nasty. Normal people wouldn't do that stuff.]
[#3: Plus it promotes disorder, disrespect for procedural justice and rules, resulting in justice vigilantism—easy to give teens misguided personal hero syndrome ignoring the law.]
[#4: ...Sis, you abstracting here? (playing abstract; slang for absurd, out-of-touch rants)]
[#5: Reporting +1; everyone check my attached guide (attached flowchart)]
[#6: Been wanting to say it—Ye Zheng's character is seriously crooked morals. Seeing so many like her, the influence is awful.]
[#7: Wait, this floor for real? No one's reporting that rotten Kiran, but Ye Zheng kills a few beasts and gets reported?]
[#8: Aren't Ye Zheng stans finding this ridiculous too? Outsiders would think Ye Zheng killed your dad...]
[#9: No need for reports, right? Let's all go protest under old uncle's Weibo—sisters are prepping big-character posters (attached pic)]
[#10: Upstairs Ye Zheng stans, don't muddy the waters painting Ye Zheng haters as Kiran stans. We hate her crooked morals and actions—who said hating her means supporting Kiran?]
[#11: Tolerated Ye Zheng and her stans long enough; today's final panel scared me to death—shonen manga shouldn't have characters like this!]
[#12: Remember this manga's rated 16+? Ye Zheng keeps this up, it'll get the whole thing pulled.]
...
Tang Mingxi declares: This is the most abstract thread she's seen since stanning Ye Zheng!
Where's the promised inclusivity of niche circles? Ye Zheng rids the world of harm and gets reported instead—she couldn't fathom what these people hated about Ye Zheng.
Luckily, most replies under this deranged thread were against it.
[#279: Male fave dads' most abstract episode—thought Ye Zheng was starting WW3, turns out she just killed a few non-humans.]
[#280: Told you stanning too many male faves warps the brain—are you hating Ye Zheng's crooked morals, or hating she overshadowed your male fave? You know the answer in your heart.]
[#281: I'm a Percy stan; final panel spooked me a bit, but shouldn't Kiran that scum die? Keep this Ye Zheng hate-love going, and I'm adding her to my list...]
[#282: Same; wasn't into stanning before, but lately speaking up for Ye Zheng—feels like I'm turning into her shape...]
[#283: Kiran stans being villain stans while reporting other villains—kinda comical.]
[#284: Honestly, Ye Zheng's killed several people; that's pretty bad. Gonna gaze at her hard in revenge (attached Ye Zheng modern cop outfit fanart)]
[#285: Browsing forum and scoring fresh food! Being a Ye Zheng stan is peak happiness.]
[#286: Look at this little bad girl! Gonggong her all! It's a deconstruction of female authority! (attached super broad-shouldered aggressive top Ye Zheng fanart)]
Tang Mingxi had geared up for battle, but scrolling down, the thread had fully devolved into a Ye Zheng fanwork showdown.
[#293: God, suggest OP call the cops—this is serious. Suggest everyone female-gaze this mommy-wife-baby sis a bit~]
[#294: Gonggong-momo make way! Ghostly mold (fan archetype for Ye Zheng's eerie, damp/moldy ghostly vibe redesigns) is your Zheng's canon shape—everyone, spare this little female ghost some medicine! (attached pic of Ye Zheng smiling with head hug)]
...
[#337: I'm done—how are there actual Ye Zheng gonggong-momo fights upstairs? Anyone care about OP's report?]
[#338: This OP calls Ye Zheng a hero-ism, not heroine-ism—diagnosed as Ye Zheng gonggong, done.]
[#339: Roadie about to die laughing in this building—fed up with you fighting over mom...]
Author's Note:
This report thread is based on a real report I got—the original was this abstract; I even toned it down a bit... Burst out laughing when I saw the report content.
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