Just because I wrote "Zhu Xian," the school beauty sent me razor blades.

Early the next morning.

The rain stopped.

But the storm on the internet has only just begun.

The hashtag #DragonRaiders# saw its readership surge from 20 million to 100 million overnight, with comments refreshing at a rate of over ten per second, nearly crashing Weibo's servers again.

Four of the top ten trending topics were related to this topic.

#Lu Mingfei, why didn't you tell Nuonuo?#

#Ye Shengya's underwater depth of 80 meters#

#BadKid#

#Something for nothing#

The most popular comment in the comment section wasn't about the plot, but a comment with 30,000 likes—

"S-class bloodline but knows nothing—this is the old man's most ruthless deconstruction of the word 'talent.' Having talent doesn't guarantee victory, and lacking talent doesn't mean you should lose. Lu Mingfei isn't a typical wish-fulfillment novel protagonist; he's the 'if only I had been braver back then' version of himself in every ordinary person's heart."

Released one week ago.

The sales of "Dragon Raja I: Dawn of Fire" can no longer be described as "explosive".

In its first week, 1.2 million copies were sold.

The publisher urgently initiated a fifth printing.

But this is only the beginning.

What truly made everyone realize what made this book different wasn't its sales figures.

But its significance lies in the fact that it is changing the direction of the entire market.

For a long time, the synonym for domestic youth literature has been "pain literature." Abortion, terminal illness, family feuds, and love triangles have been mass-produced like an assembly line, and readers have long been aesthetically fatigued by them.

Then came Dragon Raja.

An ordinary boy who is unremarkable at school, spends all his time playing video games, and has a crush on a goddess but doesn't dare to confess—a starting point that every reader can relate to.

But behind this boy stands the entire world of dragons.

Everyday life intertwines with passion, laughter and sacrifice go hand in hand.

It expands the definition of "youth" from "falling in love and being sentimental" to "discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary and learning to stand shoulder to shoulder in solitude".

The literary criticism community reacted quickly.

The journal *Contemporary Literature Review* published a long article with a very straightforward title—

When "Bad Kids" Become a Mirror for a Generation: On the Subversion and Reshaping of Youth Fantasy Literature by Dragon Raja.

The article's core argument is presented in only a few paragraphs, but each paragraph has caused a stir in the industry.

"Dragon Raja pioneered a completely new path: youth fantasy. It's neither the grand narrative of traditional fantasy nor the delicate daily life of youth literature, but rather a fusion of the two, using a fantasy shell to contain the core of youth. Lu Mingfei's cowardice, loneliness, and being unseen are realities experienced by every eighteen-year-old. Dragon blood, the power of words, and dragon slaying are merely a dazzling sugar coating wrapped around these real pains."

"The greatest contribution of this book is not that it tells a good story, but that it breaks a prejudice—that fantasy literature is not entertainment. It can carry the same weight of humanistic exploration as serious literature, only in a younger and more concrete language."

"The old man from Mount Akina proved one thing with three completely different types of works—fantasy, suspense, and youth fantasy: genre is not the ceiling, it's just a tool. What truly determines the height of a work is always the depth of the author's understanding of human nature."

"If 'Zhu Xian' proved that Chinese online novels can carry romantic fantasy stories, and 'Murder on the Orient Express' proved that Chinese genre literature can stand on the world stage, then 'Dragon Raja' proves that Chinese writers can create a fantasy IP universe belonging to young people."

Lu Mingfei is not a character. He is a symbol.

He represents an entire generation—ordinary people who weren't the smartest, most popular, or most loved in school. They tried but got no results, liked someone but didn't dare to say it, and were kind but no one remembers.

The novel "Dragon Raja" gave this group of people a name—"Bad Kids".

This term spilled over from the novel and became a trending word on Weibo, a frequently used phrase in Bilibili comments, and everyday language in university dormitories. Some people introduced themselves by saying "I'm just a loser," while others posted on their WeChat Moments after being rejected, "At least Lu Mingfei has Nuonuo, I don't even have a Nuonuo."

A fictional character has become the spiritual identity card of a generation.

Once a symbol gains traction, the snowball effect of its intellectual property (IP) can never be stopped.

In the second week of its release, the phone lines of the Red Eggplant Literature Network's operations department were inundated with calls from various partners.

Comic adaptation rights: Three comic platforms submitted bids simultaneously, with two of them bringing draft storyboards. The fastest one had its editorial team work through the night to produce a character design for Lu Mingfei, which was sent to the Red Eggplant platform before dawn.

Mobile game adaptation rights: Two leading game companies offered sky-high licensing fees, with a performance-based clause—if monthly revenue exceeds 500 million, additional profit sharing will be provided.

Animation adaptation rights: A leading domestic animation company flew directly to Beijing with a complete production plan and a list of voice actor candidates, and talked with the company in the Red Eggplant Conference Room from 3 pm to 8 pm.

Related merchandise: A trendy toy brand applied for a collaboration, designing blind box figurines of four characters: Lu Mingfei, Nono, Caesar, and Chu Zihang. A keyboard manufacturer also released a "Seven Deadly Sins" themed mechanical keyboard, with seven keycaps corresponding to the colors of seven swords; it sold out on the first day of pre-sale.

Looking at the stack of collaboration documents on the table, thicker than during the "Orient Express" era, the editor-in-chief of Red Eggplant sent a message to Lin Yuan's author account—

[Dear author, I've received a mountain of IP collaboration offers from Dragon Raja. Comics, games, animation, merchandise—every single one is very serious. Would you be willing to discuss it?]

Lin Yuan replied very quickly this time.

[I can do comics. Find the one with the best artwork; I have specific requirements for the character designs, and I'll oversee the storyboard myself.]

[The game is temporarily on hold. The world of Dragon Raja is too vast; a rushed launch would only damage the brand.]

[Animation is negotiable, but only if the production quality meets standards. I do not accept shoddy work.]

The surrounding area is random, but it's incredibly ugly.

After reading the reply, the editor-in-chief remained silent for three seconds before forwarding it to his colleagues in the business department.

A month later.

The comic version of "Dragon Raja I: Dawn of Fire" has been launched on the Red Eggplant Comics Channel.

The artwork is so exquisite that every dragon scale has layers of light and shadow, and the panel layout perfectly replicates the rhythm of the novel. The panel where Lu Mingfei is on stage holding dandelions and the others, the panel where Nuonuo walks against the light, the panel where Ye Sheng lets go underwater—each panel feels like a scene directly extracted from the reader's mind.

On its first day of release, it garnered over eight million views.

The comments section has a unified style—

"I stared at the composition of Lu Mingfei standing on the stage for a full five minutes without scrolling away."

["The panel where Ye Shengsong lets go, artist, are you trying to kill me?"]

"This comic isn't just an illustration; it's like a second director for the novel."

Two months later, the Seven Deadly Sins themed mechanical keyboard shipped.

Qian Zhuangzhuang managed to snag a "Rage" themed weapon, took a picture in his dorm room, and posted it on his WeChat Moments with the caption: "Lu Mingfei's same model. It should boost critical hits when used in games."

Zhou Zixuan commented: You don't need a keyboard to play games, you need your brain.

Qian Zhuangzhuang replied: Your sarcastic remarks are just like Zhao Menghua's.

Zhou Zixuan: ...You are Zhao Menghua.

Chen Mo liked that post on WeChat Moments.