Zhao Youyue did not expect that Ye Hai and Su Li would ask for her suggestions about the character design of "Yu Shengfan", Su Li even wanted to take the reference from her appearance.
Of course, she rejected that idea without any hesitation, her personality was not even close to "Yu Shengfan", and her appearance was not suitable too. These characters in anime were designed accordingly to their personality, except for unique iconic characters. Might as well just follow the tradition and strengthen the image in the readers' impressions.
"Blonde twintail, lolita body, with cute canine teeth, that's what I thought about 'Yu Shengfan'." Zhao Youyue replied in the four-person QQ group chat, one of them was Ye Hai's wife, Li Mengyao.
Rosemary had never described the character's appearance in details. He had only mentioned that "Yu Shengfan" is very beautiful, but never described her hairstyle or body. Because he had never expected that "Yu Shengfan" would become one of the main characters, an important and irreplaceable member of Lin Feng's team.
"Hmm, blonde twintail characters in anime would most likely be a tsundere ojousama[1], basically people would already know her personality from her appearance… Since everyone liked the moe, twintail, and tsundere traits, I think we can go with this idea." Su Li was obviously humoring Lady Zhao, but she had pretended to be subjective towards the matter.
"Lolita design would be great! A little girl with incredible hand movement speed and decent gaming skills, these traits are moe indeed! The audience will not be able to hate her insulting words too!" Rosemary happily agreed.
At first, Rosemary had imagined that "Yu Shengfan" would have the same appearance with "Lady Zhao" in Su Li's photos. As he gradually expanded the setting of "Yu Shengfan" in the novel, he realized her character was going further apart from "Lady Zhao". The readers never realized it because he had been describing her with words instead of portraits.
After hearing Zhao Youyue's suggestion, he could easily be visualized a 3D "Yu Shengfan" since he too had watched a lot of animes. To him, the blonde-twintail image fit "Lady Yu Shengfan" perfectly.
Since she was mistaken as a "fat otaku" in the novel, this rumor about her was the total opposite of her actual appearance, this would make the scene where she first met Lin Feng and Tang Yongkai one of the peaks in the novel.
Yu Shengfan was already showing her tsundere trait in the novel, like she would do everything just as Lin Feng told her though she claimed that she followed his orders solely to PK him.
She did this for something. She could not wait to PK Lin Feng.
Even though it appeared that Yu Shengfan despised her beaten foe, Tang Yongkai, she would insult him whenever she could, but she agreed to fight alongside him in a five versus five battle, she had actually treated him as a partner deep inside her heart.
Yu Shengfan's "tsundere" trait was not the typical exaggerated type under Rosemary's description. She did not say "I'm not doing this for…" but her non-stop insults and disgusting words. She liked to hang out with Lin Feng and Tang Yongkai, and altogether they were called "The three musketeers", wreaking havoc as they went around, and this would not make her feel lonely.
In the comments section of "The Strongest King", fans from the love block had concluded Yu Shengfan's moe points, these were talkative, abusive words and tsundere. Lin Feng is lucky because he was able to be acknowledged by this rich lady, who yearned for having true friends.
This might seemed lucky to an outsider but Lin Feng was in fact strong in game, even stronger than Yu Shengfan that had not fully reached her potential. He thought that games would not need any moral values from reality, as long as he was strong enough, he can do anything as long as it was not banned.
Lin Feng could overlook Yu Shengfan's attitude problem, he had no problem with her insulting others for being a noob or having an ugly character… Even though Lin Feng never said it out loud like Yu Shengfan does, but he despised them even more in his mind.
Lin Feng was able to suppress "Hoodlum Master" and "Unpleasant Rain" with his skills and charisma, "Shadow Rogue" was also crowned as the "Terrifying Final Boss" or "The Super Villain" because of his unscrupulous actions, such as killing without mercy and abusing his intelligence for his own benefits. To Lin Feng, power is everything in game!
This kind of character would be the typical villain in Shonen manga, who will make his appearance as a max level character, invincible and emanating a villain aura! Quite the contrary, the righteous main character has to fight creeps for levelling up, then farm equipment from the mini bosses. Along the journey, he will get to know several righteous partners as well, together they will challenge the final boss in the end. Which novel will have a main character that is maxed level since the beginning? How could he prove that the weak is able to defeat the strong? How is he supposed to unleash his full power in a pinch, or blather on all sort of his life principles…
When someone opts for reasoning instead of fighting, it is just because his fist is not big enough, have you seen human reasoning with an ant?
Having finalized the character design of Yu Shengfan, the collaboration between Su Li and Rosemary had gone even smoother, especially for Rosemary. He was almost prepared to release the mind-blowing plot whereby Yu Shengfan revealed her real identity. Previously, he had no idea how to portray her character details, but now, he would not have to describe her with merely two words - "extremely beautiful", right?
Translation note :
[1] Ojousama - often refers to a rich lady in anime.
Chapter 96 Babysitting the Sisters
With the ticking of time, the Chinese New Year was over.
Zhao Youyue thought that Chinese New Year was meaningful, but she rather be on her phone instead of watching New Year TV programs.
Many people who seemed to have great power were coming to visit the esteemed Grandpa Zhao. Albeit retired, Grandpa Zhao appeared to be influential as ever. This is the situation in China since the ancient times, though there is a saying, "The intimacy between people will fade away as they separate for long". Anyway, there must be someone who had inherited the political heritage before he retired. The only thing to be feared was that the new leader might exercise an opposite political ideology, then the people would lash out at Grandpa Zhao as the people always adapt to the style of the current leader.
Anyway, the Zhao family was quite a handful. Know that their ancestors were the founding members of the Republic of China. It was like owning "The Gold Medallion[1]" during ancient times, as long as they were well-behaved, their wealth was able to last for several generations. In terms of power, Zhao Youyue's generation was obviously not on par with the elder generations.
Zhao Hao, Zhao Youyue's cousin was the most valued member of her generation. Grandpa Zhao would always have this beloved grandson, Zhao Hao at his side to welcome the guests of honor. He wanted Zhao Hao to interact more with these people as Zhao Hao was already the CEO of an investment company founded by his own.
However, those people who got to know Zhao Hao would consider him as a prodigal son. Well, he was indeed talented in spending money, but an entrepreneur? Forget about it.
Luckily he was not in the officialdom, as he would not last a second with that attitude.
The successors of Grandpa Zhao had no special talents of their own. The magnificent Zhao family would definitely sink once Grandpa Zhao was no longer around. None of them was actually wise enough to support the family's current stage and wealth, especially the third-generation Zhao Hao. He was good for nothing, but to one's surprise, he had never committed any crime, neither did he smoke or drink alcohol. Fortunately!
Zhao Hao liked to collect luxury sports cars, but he crashed two of his rides that cost more than ten millions before. He came home this year with his black domineering SUV, which looked exactly like an armored car with its rectangular shape, he even organized his own racing team to participate in a super series race. This had helped Zhao Youyue to gain some knowledge about cars, although she had no interest in cars and only thought of them as a mode of transportation.
Zhao Hao was fond of beautiful girls too, as he mingle around with ladies when he was still a student. Now he was in a relationship with a female actress, while keeping contact with his ex-girlfriends, obviously a scumbag. To a guy that did not have to worry about money, it was not too bad…
Basketball and games were Zhao Hao's favorite too, he would go to America to support his favorite NBA team every year. Besides that, he liked to watch Esports tournaments on site, he even would be invited as a special guest too.
In comparison with Zhao Hao, his cousin Zhang Wanjun was way better than him. She gave a good impression to Zhao Youyue, with ladylike temperaments and good looking facial features. She was studying in a famous university in Shanghai, about the same level with Jiangnan University, and she was one of the student council members too. Zhang Wanjun was already on her third year, but she did not take care of herself nor putting on make-up, her skin was not as good as Zhao Youyue, even though most of the girls were already looked different when they entered university level.
No doubt, there was something else more important than appearance to Zhang Wanjun. Was it studying?
The possibility was quite big, since she was giving off a brilliance aura. She was wearing frameless spectacles, with the lens reflecting her coolness. Her hair was even shorter than Zhao Youyue, and her voice was of neutral tone, which sounded tomboyish. This rendered a beautiful girl like her to gain an even higher sense of presence. Too bad Grandpa Zhao was not fond of her, probably because her surname was not "Zhao". She was destined to become "someone else's child", otherwise she could be the role model of Zhao Youyue and Zhao Hao.
Zhao Youyue thought that Zhang Wanjun and Zhao Hao were close, but she realized that these two did not belong to the same group. One was obviously showing off his wealth while another looked like a normal person, nobody would have guessed that she was the daughter of a mayor.
Zhao Youyue activated her "side character halo" as usual, watching everyone else in the Zhao's family quietly, no one had noticed her, and she already gotten used to being ignored.
"Hao Hao, these two sisters are in your care today, bring them out and have fun before we part ways. Take good care of Xiao Youyue especially, I've never seen you taking care of her or giving her red packet. Do you become the eldest brother for nothing?" Zhao Jiaren rebuked his son.
Zhao Jiaren was the pillar of the Zhao's family currently, and he treasured family bonds. He took great care of his youngest brother Zhao Jiayi, and he treated Zhao Youyue like his own daughter. He was one of few people who did not ignore Zhao Youyue. Zhao Youyue was fond of her uncle too, she was delighted whenever she received a red packet from him.
On hearing his father request, Zhao Hao's face turned sour. "Ugh... Zhang Wanjun is hard to get along with, how are we going to have fun? Wait a minute, who's Xiao Youyue?"
Did he have a sister?
He did, but why had he never noticed her?
Such a mysterious sister!
Her name was Zhao Youyue, she just entered high school and was pretty much pampered by her daddy…
After being reminded, Zhao Hao remembered a little bit about Zhao Youyue, he then turned his head towards his little cousin Zhao Youyue. She was standing at the corner as if she was isolated from the world, watching everyone like a bystander.
What the!?
He had such a cute little sister with a ponytail?
He had thought that every little sister in the world was unamiable as Zhang Wanjun!
Despite being very close to her, above any ordinary brother and sister, and having sent her a lot of gifts, he was still unable to resonate with Zhang Wanjun…
"Alright! I will bring them out to have fun, and eat lots of great food too!" Zhao Hao tapped his chest with confidence.
Zhao Hao agreed to babysit them because he was interested in his cousin Zhao Youyue. Of course, it was not any love interest. He already had a girlfriend, and considered her much prettier than Zhao Youyue.
As he was not interested in anime or manga, he did not have any sister complex. One reason he could not communicate with his cousin Zhang Wanjun was that she would use anime terms that he could not understand at all.
Translation note:
[1] The Gold Medallion - A medallion that could protect one's family during the ancient Chinese era, not even an emperor could harm the holder.