[Manga Forum] The Easygoing Beauty Only Wants to Be a Pretty Face

Xi Qiao was born a prodigy, but he was a total slacker. His only ambition in life was to lie flat, until one day, a System came knocking. Apparently, this world was a shonen manga about the male lead. Its main story followed Xiao Pingce, who rose from a useless nobody to become the strongest legend on the continent. Everyone his age whom he met along the way would be left in the dust, reduced to background characters. Xi Qiao would be one of those background characters, too. Perfect. A slacker like him loved this script. But now something had gone wrong with the manga. The male lead's fortuitous opportunity had been snatched away by some nobody, and he was about to stay a useless nobody for good. The manga world was teetering on the brink of collapse. The System declared with fervor, “Only you can save this world! Get moving! Join the main story, fix the plot, and become the manga's second male lead. With your talent, cultivation techniques, gold, silver, and treasure, what couldn't you get?” Xi Qiao politely refused. “The second male lead? No thanks. All I have to do is fix the plot, right? We slackers have our own place in the story.” The System: “?” Question: What kind of character in a shonen manga can slack off, influence the male lead's decisions, stay out of the main story, and still be guaranteed to survive? After fifteen years of being a useless young master holed up in the city, Xi Qiao packed his bags and decided to go be a pretty ornament by Xiao Pingce's side. The manga Strategies for All Heavens followed a slow-burn, triumphant-rise formula. From the very first chapter, its gorgeous art and masterful paneling drew in a huge audience. Unfortunately, the author couldn't get the pacing right. There was far too much suffering in the early chapters, and the manga looked ready to start strong and end badly, only to get axed Then a breathtakingly beautiful new character appeared, the kind that made people exclaim, “The author's hands belong in heaven!” His name was Xi Qiao. He was drop-dead gorgeous, but also delicate and lazy. While Xiao Pingce fought, he watched. While Xiao Pingce was being hunted, he slept. Their scenes were bizarre yet somehow soothing, and Xi Qiao was the quintessential pretty ornament, there to brighten up the everyday moments. The dramatic clashes between workaholic Xiao Pingce and Xi Qiao changed the whole atmosphere of the manga. The audience split into two camps. One kept shouting, “I volunteer!” The other raged, “It's a new era! Do shonen manga still have to pair the male lead with a pretty ornament? I don't care how gorgeous he is, it's still a no!” The manga's popularity shot up. Then came the moment of true crisis The young man swept his sword across the battlefield, his features striking and refined. Readers: “…” W-wait, so you'd been pretending this whole time?!!! The two camps, who had been fighting tooth and nail, instantly united. - Xi Qiao had only meant to be a pretty ornament who appeared briefly. He never intended to join the main story. He hadn't expected the male lead's life to be so full of bloodshed. Somewhere between one lazy day and the next, he somehow became a powerhouse who stood shoulder to shoulder with Xiao Pingce, as well as a fan-favorite character in the manga?? And the story's direction was getting increasingly strange… Readers: “Oh, wow! It's been ages since we've seen a shonen manga with such a wholesome romance!” Xi Qiao: “…” Who? Who's having a romance with whom?! Xiao Pingce chuckled, keeping his contribution to himself. - CP: Xiao Pingce × Xi Qiao Scheming, ambitious, invincible male lead gong × lazy, gifted beauty shou Content warning: Both the manga world and the readers' world are very open-minded, and any gender combination is a perfectly reasonable pairing. Meaning the forums will be full of teasing about who tops and bottoms, and readers will treat the pairing as the planned official couple whether they like it or not. A shonen-manga forum story for those who enjoy this sort of thing, written to scratch the author's own itch (why is this person doing this to themselves again?). Theme: Hard work will eventually be rewarded.