Hearing You Say Love chapter 66

I Don’t Like This Ending

Su Ming: …

Because it was an adult comic, Su Ming rarely encountered readers who questioned his plot, and those who directly questioned him were even fewer.

In all these years, this top sponsor was the only one.

First, this guy said that the sacred relics in his comic were meaningless, then he said his rabbit didn’t like the wolf. It was clear that the two protagonists liked each other. Didn’t he realize that it was still possible for two people who liked each other to have conflicts due to different values?

If all the issues were as easy to solve as the sponsor suggested, the story would have ended long ago.

The more Su Ming thought about it, the angrier he got. He took a screenshot of the chat with his sponsor and sent it to Chen Muchao: [So the sponsor is a contrarian! I’m going to die of anger! He’s talking bad about my rabbit! Crying.jpg]

Chen Muchao: [It’s okay, a thousand readers, a thousand Hamlets.]

Su Ming: [I want to return the money to him and make him shut up!]

Chen Muchao: [Forget it, forget it, Su, calm down. If he’s so invested in your story, it shows that you’re doing a great job as an artist.]

Su Ming: [Feeling wronged.jpg]

Chen Muchao sent him a small yellow face emoji holding a lotus flower: [Stay calm, stay calm.]

Su Ming, feeling unsettled, wanted to light a cigarette. He searched the desk for a while but then remembered that he had quit smoking, which only made him feel even more wronged.

He opened the drawer, unwrapped a milk lollipop, and popped it in his mouth. Then, he saved the emoji Chen Muchao sent and posted it on his Moments with the caption: “May there be no trolls in this world.”

A few minutes later, Zou Beiyuan sent a video call request.

Su Ming placed his phone on the desk and answered the call.

“What’s wrong?” Zou Beiyuan appeared shirtless on the screen, “I was about to take a shower, but I saw your Moments. Who bullied you?”

The sight of his handsome boyfriend and his well-defined chest muscles immediately comforted Su Ming.

He hugged his knees while sitting in the chair, his left cheek slightly puffed from the lollipop, chin resting on his knees. He looked at Zou Beiyuan for a while, then slowly picked up a notebook and wrote: I just encountered a troll reader.

To express his feelings of being wronged, he even drew a little crying figure beside the note.

Zou Beiyuan’s expression froze for a moment, “A troll reader… What did he say to you?”

Su Ming put down his pen and gestured with sign language: He said my protagonist is a bad guy.

Zou Beiyuan: “…”

“Weren’t you drawing an educational comic?” Zou Beiyuan asked.

Su Ming: Yeah, it’s a story-based educational comic, meant to be educational and fun.

After a day of traveling by plane, Zou Beiyuan looked a bit tired. Leaning against the bed with the phone in his hand, he spoke in a low voice, pretending to be innocent: “What kind of story is it? Can you tell me about it?”

So, Su Ming roughly explained the story of the rabbit and the wolf to Zou Beiyuan, omitting the more adult content. He made it into a family-friendly adventure story.

Zou Beiyuan became quite engrossed as he watched Su Ming use sign language to narrate the story.

Every time Su Ming mentioned “rabbit,” he would gesture with his hands to mimic rabbit ears on both sides of his head, looking very serious. This contrast made him appear particularly cute, and Zou Beiyuan felt a surge of affection, almost forgetting that the troll reader was actually himself.

Once Su Ming finished the story, he looked at Zou Beiyuan with a wronged expression and complained: He said my rabbit doesn’t treat the wolf as a good friend. Do you think he’s annoying?

Zou Beiyuan immediately abandoned all principles and answered: “Annoying.”

After answering, he asked, “But does the rabbit really consider the wolf a good friend?”

Su Ming signed: Of course! Didn’t the rabbit receive an extra life from his master? Later, when they faced danger, the rabbit gave his life for the wolf!

The usually spoiler-averse Su Ming was unashamedly giving away all the plot details to Zou Beiyuan, who felt a sinking feeling in his chest: “Then what happens to the rabbit?”

Su Ming continued without any guilt: After Wolf Jue becomes the wolf king, he learns that the rabbit approached him to get the sacred relic. He, like that reader, thought the rabbit didn’t actually like him. It’s only when the rabbit gives his life to him that he realizes the rabbit always loved him, and then the rabbit dies in his arms.

Zou Beiyuan: “…”

Zou Beiyuan: “…………”

Su Ming, are you seriously wielding that knife so harshly!!!!

Zou Beiyuan, now fully immersed in the story, said seriously: “The skull of the White Wolf god can grant a wish. Isn’t Wolf Jue going to open the sacred tomb and ask the White Wolf god to bring the rabbit back to life?”

Su Ming shook his head: People can only make one wish to the White Wolf god, and once it’s fulfilled, the White Wolf god disappears. That’s why the wolf tribe has always worshiped the White Wolf god but never used the skull. This wish can only be used in a moment of crisis for the survival of the wolf tribe.

Zou Beiyuan paused for a moment: “If I were Wolf Jue, I’d revive the rabbit, even at the cost of annihilating the entire tribe.”

Su Ming: But Wolf Jue in the story is a great wolf king. He wouldn’t do that. In the end, the White Wolf god’s wish is used to stop the old rabbit king’s war scheme. Wolf Jue protected all the living beings on this continent, fulfilling the rabbit’s wish. It’s another kind of happy ending.

Zou Beiyuan felt the story deeply, his heart aching. After a long silence, he said to Su Ming: “I don’t like this ending.”

When Su Ming started this story, he liked this ending. But now, he didn’t like it as much either.

The two of them stared at each other on the video call, their eyes reddening, feeling sorrow for the story.

Zou Beiyuan rested his elbow on the leather headboard of the bed, propping his head up with his hand, looking at Su Ming. His voice became softer: “I don’t want the rabbit to die.”

Su Ming moved the lollipop to the other side of his mouth, puffing his right cheek, frowning a little in distress as he signed: But the current storyline and character setup are all leading to this ending.

“Why don’t you add another god or wish, and bring the rabbit back to life?”

Su Ming took the lollipop out of his mouth, licked his lips, making them glisten. His eyes drifted away as if thinking, then he put the lollipop back in his mouth and gestured: No, that’s just too boring.

Using divine intervention to fix a story is a cardinal sin in storytelling. Su Ming didn’t want to do that.

Zou Beiyuan’s gaze fell on Su Ming’s lips, his voice even lower now: “Baby, let the rabbit live, please.”

Suddenly, Su Ming remembered the last time Zou Beiyuan had said “Baby, please say mmm for me” during a video call, and his face flushed. He signed: Are you asking me to change the ending?

“Can you?”

The outline of this story had already been carefully discussed with the editor before Su Ming started writing. The ending had long been decided, and the characters and foreshadowing all pointed to this inevitable conclusion.

Changing the ending was a huge task that could affect everything. One wrong move and the characters could become out of character or the whole storyline might collapse.

Shu Yu Ming Jin never changes a story’s direction based on reader feedback, but Su Ming nodded at the screen and signed: I’ll think about how to modify it.

Zou Beiyuan raised his phone to make eye contact with Su Ming. “You are their White Wolf god.”

Su Ming shook his head and elegantly signed: You’re their god. Without you, I wouldn’t change the ending.

“I don’t want to be their god,” Zou Beiyuan said. “I only want to be yours. Come with me, and I’ll protect you.”

Author’s Note:

I noticed some readers worried about a sad ending in yesterday’s chapter, so I posted tomorrow’s update ahead of schedule.