Su Yan took out his phone and looked at the publication stats the Lovely Writing System had just told him about. If the website was really broken, then at least the system should tell him that he hadn't achieved the first batch of passive tasks.
Strangely enough, the system didn't show what he thought it would. Instead, all three of them were checked.
He clicked on them to make sure it wasn't displaying wrong just on the front page but instead of opening anything the numbers he was supposed to achieve just became higher and two other passive tasks were added:
[Get ten comments
Get ten reviews
Get one 5-star review
Get one 1-star review
Have ten followers]
Su Yan frowned. What was this thing doing? Why was he supposed to get a 1-star review?! Wouldn't it be good if his ratings were as high as possible? That wasn't a goal he wanted to achieve at all!
Fuming he wanted to close the system when he noticed that this wasn't the only odd thing about these publication stats. No, the strangest thing was that not counting the shitty task of getting a 1-star review all of them had already been fulfilled, too! What was going on here?!
Su Yan clicked again and the numbers refreshed once more.
[Get 100 comments
Get 100 reviews
Get ten 5-star reviews
Get one 1-star review
Have 100 followers]
Su Yan mechanically turned to Nie Chang. He didn't even dare to take a closer look to find out whether or not one of this third batch of tasks was already checked again.
"I don't understand what is happening here."
Nie Chang gave a smile and looped an arm around Su Yan's shoulders. "Maybe you were lucky. Or maybe you just struck the right note with that story. Sometimes life is like this. Come on, don't look at these stats any longer. Better go and read your comments and reviews. You'll know what your readers think then."
"You're right!" Su Yan hurriedly closed the Lovely Writing System and entered the website again. He still had the first chapter opened.
On this website, the readers couldn't just comment on chapters as a whole. They could even comment on paragraphs. Back when he had written xianxia the readers had already used this option so he didn't think of it as strange. He opened the comments column and slowly started to scroll down. To summarize it in one sentence: It started off weird and it became even weirder when he got further down.
The first was a comment on the very first paragraph where Yun Bei Fen's Master had brought him to the sect.
Fujo with glasses: [Bearded old man?! (*ﾟﾛﾟ) That wouldn't be our ML, would it? Would it??? (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))]
Su Yan gaped at the comment. How could anyone think that Yun Bei Fen's master was the male lead?! This was way too absurd! And why should the male lead turn up right in the first paragraph anyway? He obviously hadn't gotten the joke.
Shaking his head, Su Yan read on. The second comment wasn't much better. What really puzzled Su Yan was the username though.
Rotten things smell sweet: [Awr, what a poor boy! Don't worry, YBF! I'm sure you'll find a new family soon. ☆⌒（＊＾∇゜）v]
Su Yan didn't dare think deeper about these sentences and just continued to scroll down.
Transmigrated ML waiting for his shou: [I approve! Where can I fetch the shou?]
Let me kiss you, little junior: [At the post above: You can go and fetch yourself! 凸ಠ益ಠ)凸 Haven't you seen that Xiao Fen Fen was admitted to our sect? He's obviously my junior now! (￣ω￣)]
Immortal Lover: [Children should keep their hands to themselves. Laozi will show the little disciple the way of the sword.]
Master's favorite disciple: [Uh, uh! Show me, too, Master! Σ(≧ε≦ｏ)]
The bickering went back and forth for a while. Su Yan didn't dare look any longer and scrolled even further down, looking for the next comment that was actually talking about the story. He finally found it at the part where Yun Bei Fen grabbed his Master's sleeve and pointed at where Mei Chao Bing tested the new recruits. This was also the moment where his Master told him who that person was so it could probably be seen as Mei Chao Bing's first appearance.
Su Yan excitedly started to read but his expression soon turned dark.
Miao Meow: [Aaaaahhhh! Is that our ML? Is that our ML?! O(*>ω<*)o]
Xiao Shou: [How old are they? (ღ✪ｖ✪)｡o○ ( ♡ )]
Cultivating sword arts: [Old enough to learn a few sword techniques. Well, the gong at least ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]
Fujo with glasses: [*adjusts glasses* I smell something sweet! |･ω･｀)]
Rotten things smell sweet: [I know what you mean ❁ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ)]
Su Yan leaned back and thoughtfully looked at this conversation. How come he didn't understand what they were talking about? What did they smell? A conspiracy? But there was nothing of the like in his story!
He turned around to Nie Chang with a puzzled look. "Ah Chang, what do they mean when they talk about cultivating sword arts? Maybe I shouldn't have put xianxia in my profile? They wouldn't have misunderstood, would they? There wasn't much with sword arts until now. And why would anything smell sweet?" He even turned the phone around so that his boyfriend could take a look for himself.
Nie Chang stiffened. "That ... I ... I also don't know." He hurriedly made Su Yan turn the phone back around. He definitely couldn't let him see his expression right now. With his luck, Su Yan might have one of his more observant days today. How would he explain then?
He didn't need to worry though. Su Yan was completely immersed in the wonders of reading comments. Even if he didn't understand much, he should still try and read all of them! Who knew, maybe he'll be suddenly enlightened when he read the last one?
He wasn't. He found a few normal comments in between though. Well ... [The ml sounds so hot (◍˃̶ᗜ˂̶◍)ﾉ"] did count as normal, didn't it?