It's Blowing Up

"Teacher Black-Hearted Wolf."

After reporting the good news to Xia Ping, editor Meng Fei calmed down and said, "Just wait and see. I'll make sure more readers discover such an excellent work."

With that, he ended the video call.

"More than two hundred thousand paid subscribers. That's a little beyond what I imagined." Xia Ping sighed. Even though he knew he was good at drumming up publicity, the story's explosive popularity was a little beyond his control.

Still, it meant he could make a fortune and have enough money to buy all kinds of rare medicines and monster meat, and improve his martial arts.

"But even with so many subscribers, I still don't know what the readers think of it."

Xia Ping tapped the screen lightly. With a ding, his phone projected a page onto the desk in front of him: his novel's page on Penguin.

He could also project the virtual page onto his retina, but that feature was very harmful to the eyes. Unless he needed to keep something private, he generally didn't use it.

Earlier, when he'd been talking to editor Meng Fei, he hadn't wanted others to find out what they were discussing, so he'd turned on the privacy feature. Now he was only browsing a webpage, so there was no need.

"Huh? No one's cursing me out." Xia Ping glanced over the novel's comments section. Two days earlier, after a celebrity had picked a fight with him for publicity, a lot of readers had come to the comments section to curse him out, making it a total mess.

But two days had passed, and those readers had long since cooled off. They hadn't kept commenting, and the insults had either been deleted or sunk beneath a flood of new posts.

He casually looked through the comments. One from a reader called Big Sword seemed to have been featured by the moderators. He opened it and read:

"I used to be Jia Zhiwei's fan. When I saw this guy's readers daring to come here and bash Master Jia Zhiwei, I got furious. I grabbed my gear and rallied dozens of brothers to storm this comments section.

"But after thinking it over, I realized I hadn't even read this guy's novel. I couldn't curse him out properly without anything to back it up, and that just wasn't satisfying. So I figured I'd spend a little money and give it a look. If it was bad, I'd just consider it money down the drain.

"I never expected to get hooked the moment I started reading, like someone trapped in a bad stock investment. I still can't get out. There's some kind of magic in this novel. It's terrifying. I'm still shaking."

"Isn't that the truth? I got lured in by that forum post too. After reading the first chapter, I was like someone who'd taken the ancient elixir Maixuan. I couldn't stop."

"What a great book! It's the best novel I've read this year. I wonder how many videos the author watches and how many women he's seduced all year to build such impressive experience. He's definitely a veteran. If he isn't, I'll livestream myself eating shit."

"You're all praising him, but I'm going to curse him out. This author is shameless and heartless. No wonder he calls himself Black-Hearted Wolf. He writes this kind of stuff all day, ruining himself and everyone else! I live in a slum, and my family's income is nothing special.

"Ever since I started reading this novel, all the nutritional drinks at home have disappeared. I'm not getting enough nutrients, and now I've got dark circles under both eyes. I haven't left the house in three days, and my mom's so angry she wants to kick me out."

"I'm one hundred percent certain that this author is a beast. He started sleeping with women at nine, was juggling five or six girlfriends by twelve, and was taking women to hotels at fifteen. Now he's in his thirties or forties, a seasoned womanizer with countless conquests. He's probably even reached the glorious milestone of sleeping with ten thousand women.

"Otherwise, he couldn't write with such seasoned skill. A novel like this even got me, a veteran who's been with countless women, completely hooked. Just imagine how terrifying that is."

"Damn, he knew how to chase women at nine? This author really is a beast."

"Let's not get off topic. That's just speculation, so don't believe the rumors."

"Come on, it's speculation, but I'd say there's a seventy-to-eighty-percent chance it's true."

A crowd of readers replied below. That single post had already drawn thousands of comments, and the discussion was blazing.

Another reader called I Am Potato had written a post:

"Reading this novel profoundly moved me. It may be an erotic novel, but it goes beyond the genre. I'd say it's a work of critical realism—an erotic novel that transcends erotica.

"The protagonist, Bai Rong, is an honored teacher. She has a family and a husband, but her husband is useless and cowardly. Her career prospects are blocked, and her husband can neither understand nor help her. Her friends aren't there for her either. She's a lonely, beautiful woman, and deep down she feels utterly empty and alone.

"It's tragic, but beautiful women are bound to attract all kinds of gossip, whether they want it or not. Rumors that harm their reputations spread regardless. That's jealousy. It's society's darkness, and it puts even more pressure on the heroine. Sadly, her useless husband can neither help nor understand her.

"So she eventually cheats on him. It feels so natural, so inevitable. She has one passionate affair after another with all kinds of men: the principal, a bureau chief, colleagues, thugs, her first love, even students. But I don't think it's her fault. I think society is to blame. Society's oppression and injustice turned her into this.

"As everyone knows, even in this age of advanced technology, women still live under all kinds of discrimination, bound by countless traditional rules.

"Because of this, many women suppress their needs and compromise. It stifles their natural ability to grow freely and leads to countless tragedies of our age.

"I think the author uses this novel and the vivid character of Bai Rong, its heroine, to satirize the injustices in society and expose the problems of our times, presenting us with a truly heart-wrenching story.

"By the end, I was in tears and couldn't stop crying for a long time. I no longer care what happens to the heroine. I can only think of the countless women in society who are suffering just like Bai Rong, and the pain is so unbearable I can't sleep at night."

"Bro, it's just an erotic story. The author wasn't thinking that hard."

"Brilliant analysis, OP. You managed to find so much social meaning in an erotic novel. I'm on my knees."

"After reading your comment, I'm in awe. I need to go back to elementary school and study reading comprehension again."

"You're right, OP. There are so many women in the world suffering like this. I'm going to invite a few over tonight and spend some money to save them."

"I feel the same way. I cried too, but in a different place."

"Are there really love scenes? Why does it seem like it's all just action scenes to me?"

A crowd of readers replied.

After reading their replies, Xia Ping felt like his entire worldview had been turned upside down several times over.

"Xia Ping!"

Just as Xia Ping was reading the comments, Jiang Yaru suddenly walked over.