Sidekick Fights Back (Married The Protagonist’s Mother)

Author’s Journey:

I started reading cultivation novels years ago, and over time, I noticed a recurring problem: romance. I was fine with slow romance, but most of them lacked depth or emotional fulfillment. I’ve read novels with over 2,500 chapters and still felt unsatisfied with the relationship development. Even after reading many more cultivation novels, the issue remained.

About a year ago, I came across a NovelBin that had only 14 chapters. Its synopsis caught my attention because the protagonist was going after the mother of another Heaven's Favoured. It was shocking—completely new territory for me—but intriguing. Unfortunately, the novel quickly devolved into a typical jade beauty collection. It lacked romance and first heroine was gone after chapter 10 and new heroine appeared on the chapter 12 or 13.

I searched for more novels with similar concepts, but most had poor romance or were just bland wish-fulfillment with no emotional satisfaction.

Time passed, and after my exams in November, I finally had a month free. It was then that I decided to write my own cultivation fantasy—with romance. My initial goal was modest: 50–60 chapters, ending with a happy conclusion for Bai Yunxi. The name "Bai Yunxi" came from the story I mentioned earlier, and I wanted to give her a happy ending in my version.

I drew inspiration from wish-fulfillment novels but aimed to write one with better romance. At least, I tried. I can’t say whether I succeeded, but I gave it my best.

I originally posted the story on NovelBin and began getting views like crazy. Those numbers fed my ego, and I started to think I might actually have talent.

After ten chapters, a main plotline began forming in my mind. I thought, "If I can merge this serious plotline with wish-fulfillment and romance, maybe I can create something legendary—a cultivation novel with good story, satisfying romance, and maybe even success: millions of views, fame, and income."

My writing style was heavily shaped by the NovelBin platform because that was the audience I was writing for. I had no intention of posting anywhere else. But then I discovered something that shook me.

My views on NovelBin were fake.

The platform gives fake views to every story—just to pump up new authors and make readers think a novel is popular. I wasn’t a rising star. I was just a naive author chasing a dream built on illusions.

I learned this after a month. I thought I had thousands of views and hundreds of readers per day. The truth? I had maybe 20–25 actual readers.

But by then, it was too late to quit. I’d already created characters I was attached to, especially Bai Yunxi. I couldn’t abandon her or the story I’d burned my brain cells over. I wanted to give her the happy ending she deserved.

I considered their contract offer. Even earning $50–60 a month would’ve made me happy. But after reading about NovelBin’s practices, I couldn’t trust them.

I even considered dropping the main plotline and turning the novel into a pure wish-fulfillment story—maybe 300–400 chapters long, but with the kind of romance I found satisfying.

At first, like many new authors, my goal was money. I won’t pretend I was purely motivated by storytelling.

Then I heard about Royal Road (RR) and decided to try it. I knew nothing about the site. I just updated occasionally while focusing mainly on NovelBin. But NovelBin’s audience wasn’t clicking with my story—their expectations and preferences didn’t match my writing. They wanted Su Kang to go after Yue Mei.

On RR, I used tag filters in my account like xianxia, romance, drama, and adventure. I didn’t understand much about the site or its audience back then. I wasn’t even seeing LitRPG novels because of it and thought I was doing well for a newbie. I gained some good fans—around 50 followers—but later learned that others had 500 followers with just 10 chapters.

Still, it gave me some hope and confidence, even if NovelBin’s fake data had crushed me earlier.

Then came RR’s 15% intimacy guideline. I had to rewrite. I learned about Rising Stars and other features of the platform. But eventually, I realized a hard truth: RR’s major audience doesn’t enjoy romance-focused stories. Many won’t even click a novel if it has a romance tag. After asking other authors, it became clear that my story wasn’t suitable for RR.

Uploading to NovelBin or Scribble Hub might suit it better.

I understand my story is, at best, average. I’m an amateur who briefly thought he was talented because of fake numbers. That delusion pushed me into writing a full novel instead of the short novella I originally intended. But I still couldn’t give up. I wanted to finish the story and give the characters—especially Bai Yunxi—the ending they deserve.

That’s the whole journey of my experience as an author. I'm posting on the RR and SH. I have almost abandoned NovelBin. I even deleted the original version of the story.

.....

And yes—my inspiration for wish-fulfillment came from these novels:-

Protagonist Entrusted His Mother to Me ( Bai Yunxi's name and inspiration is from here. It's dropped with only 14 chapters.)

Villain: After The Heroine's Mother Gave Birth, I Went Crazy With Joy. (This is translation of a chinese novel. Jade beauty collection trope. If you couldn't handle bad grammar, bad writing then don't try it. Even the name is incorrect here. It should be hero's mother not heroine's mother.)

I had read many novels with butchered English back then—even machine-translated ones felt like a novelty compared to the quality on some sites. You could say that whatever English I had learned in school was almost ruined by those sites.

You can ask if you wanted have any questions.