CH 60

Xu Xiran had heard of a saying before: No matter how familiar a place is, it will have a different kind of scenery when you look at it from a different angle. Lately, he has come to have a more profound understanding of this.

He used to only know that Fang Mo was handsome, but now that his perspective has changed, he has found that Fang Mo was not just simply handsome.

Even if Fang Mo’s lips were not painted with shiny lip gloss, they were still beautiful. The color of them was slightly lip, with no distinct lip lines, making them look soft and kissable.

His collarbone was also beautiful, slender and soft, and when he wore a low neckline top, it was especially obvious that when you get closer, you can even see a bit of light hair on his back.

He had a mole behind his left ear near his neck. It was small and the color was not too deep, so it was easy to miss if you didn’t look carefully. It was not out of the ordinary, but it exuded a different kind of aura.

And when he sneezed, he would usually only make one sound. When he inhaled, the movement would be big but very quiet. He would hold it in for a while, make a “chirp”, and then the tip of his nose would become red.

He was so cute.

Xu Xiran thought about these things over and over again in his heart, and finally came to a conclusion: he was really messed in the head.

He was heartbroken.

As an anime otaku, he had played a lot of dark games, read a lot of bad1 books, and occasionally made comments back in secondary school that would definitely make him feel ashamed and indignant if he looked at them again in a few years. But this did not prevent him from being an active, healthy, and bright young man in real life.

Now, the good young man had fallen into a period of confusion in his life.

Getting along with Fang Mo had become such a sweet yet painful thing. Even he himself had found out that he had been behaving very unnaturally these days. Ever since he realized his feelings towards Fang Mo, he had completely lost his sense of normality.

Panic, self-blame, confusion.

Not knowing what to do.

He didn’t even know how to initiate a conversation with Fang Mo. Falling in love with a real human being for the first time in his life felt too strange, and he was not used to it.

Being obsessed with fictional characters was a very simple thing. Spend a lot of time getting to know her, pay attention to her, get to know her well, and then spend as much money as you can to own a part of her.

A fictional wife would never disappoint him, nor would she truly belong to him.

Real people were different. After being in a trance for several days, Xu Xiran finally realized something. It was possible for real people to respond to him.

Because of the impact of these overly intense feelings, he had neglected this simple fact. If Fang Mo knew about his feelings, he would definitely feel troubled, but other than that, was there any other possibility?

Out of guilt, he didn’t dare to have any physical contact with Fang Mo and would just avoid it altogether, hoping that he wouldn’t make the same mistakes over and over again. But if Fang Mo could also become an accomplice, could all this be forgiven?

Fang Mo had said in the beginning that if Xu Xiran really fell in love with him, he wouldn’t know what to do. Did that mean that there was actually a chance?

Alright, now the question was: How exactly do you go about courting a straight man?

Xu Xiran had no clue at all.

Fang Mo was so popular, there must be countless men and women who have had a crush on him. There were so many people who had dauntlessly gone forward to him but had fallen into the sand, so the difficulty of the strategy was easily seen. If this was a love game, then Fang Mo was at the very least a hidden character.

As a layman who had no clue about love and had a gender disadvantage, it could be said that passing this level smoothly would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Men rarely discussed emotional issues with each other. Xu Xiran didn’t have anyone suitable to confide in, so he could only blindly think. For the time being, he first looked to himself for reference. As a former iron-straight man, how did he fall step-by-step?

After thinking about it for a long time, he didn’t gain any valuable experience except for the fact that Fang Mo was really cute. The only thing that was certain was that seeing Fang Mo in women’s clothing made him infatuated, which then finally confirmed his feelings for him.

Why not… learn from that?

He immediately rejected this option. When this hypothesis appeared in his mind, he couldn’t help but get goosebumps all over his back. Undoubtedly, if he dressed as a woman, Fang Mo would never be moved by it, and would even laugh at him.

Xu Xiran knew Fang Mo’s character too well. He would definitely burst out laughing, take photos with joy, and make fun of him. Then when he started to feel unhappy, he would awkwardly say a few words of comfort, and even praise him out of conscience. After the praise was over, he would definitely be smug, and say something cheap like “almost as good as how I looked”.

Xu Xiran quietly visualized this, and then couldn’t help but laugh.

After laughing, he felt that he was really done for, and became depressed again.

He had been worried about this for a whole week and had had insomnia every night, and whenever he would finally fall asleep, he would always have some strange dream. In these dreams, he would do all the things he shouldn’t do, and in real life, when he would take out his phone, he did not even know what to say to him anymore.

The things that were so easy to do in the past were now extremely difficult because of his overcautiousness now.

In his helplessness, he decided not to pursue him for the time being, and to at least adjust his mentality first, so that he could get along with Fang Mo normally like before.

But what was it like to get along normally?

Xu Xiran thought long and hard. He and Fang Mo’s friendship started because they watched anime together.

~

Fang Mo took a while before appearing.

“I brought some snacks.” He held up the things in his hand to show Xu Xiran, “Let’s eat together.”

Xu Xiran didn’t have the habit of eating snacks, but he immediately nodded: “Okay.”

His laptop was not big, with just a fourteen-inch screen. The two boys squeezed together in front of it, with their shoulders naturally touching each other. Fang Mo didn’t mind this, and from his shoulder to his arm, half of his body was tightly attached to him. Xu Xiran was so nervous that he didn’t dare to move.

In order to hide that fact, he talked nonstop, introducing the new production team members of the second season of Love Story. Fang Mo listened carefully, nodded from time to time, and asked questions.

Xu Xiran secretly took a deep breath, encouraging himself in his heart.

Very good, this is a very good start. Fang Mo is very interested, and I will continue to work hard!

He finally shut his mouth when the feature film began playing. The first episode of the second season had just come out today, and he hadn’t watched it yet, so he hadn’t had time to write a small essay.

Because the first season had received wide acclaim, the second season had more funding. From the start of the film, every frame was filled with a strong sense of high production.

Fang Mo crossed his arms and nodded earnestly: “This I know! An expensive jiggle!”

Xu Xiran frowned and said nothing.

The film continued to play.

“Wow, Xiaoyao is so cute!” Fang Mo sighed while eating a Pocky stick.

He made a “kacha kacha” sound like a little squirrel as he ate, which distracted Xu Xiran.

“The scenes look more beautiful than the last season, don’t they?” Fang Mo said again, and after speaking, he took out a Pocky and handed it to his mouth.

Xu Xiran’s heart was beating fast. He caught the Pocky with his lips and followed Fang Mo’s example and took small bites of it.

“Why are you so quiet?” Fang Mo elbowed him ten minutes later, “Your wife is right in front of you, are you not excited?”

Xu Xiran got flustered on the spot: “No, uh, I…”

Then he realized that when he said “wife”, he referred to Xiaoyao. Fang Mo didn’t call himself his wife.

“Wow, really?” Fang Mo looked at him in surprise, “Were you that moved to see her again after a long absence, that your face is turning red?”

Xu Xiran lowered his head and wiped his face just as the ending song began to play.

“The first episode was quite exciting,” Fang Mo commented.

“Do you like it very much?” Xu Xiran asked.

Fang Mo hesitated for a moment, then loudly said, “I like it!”

After a brief hesitation, Xu Xiran nodded but did not comment.

“What’s the matter?” Fang Mo was puzzled, “Do you think it wasn’t good?”

“…It was alright,” Xu Xiran said.

Since Fang Mo liked it, criticizing further would be inappropriate and might offend him. Even if he had never pursued someone before, he still understood this much.

Fang Mo stared at him for a while, then shook his head: “You don’t seem normal.”

People with demons in their hearts couldn’t bear to hear such words and Xu Xiran immediately retorted: “How would I not!”

“You didn’t respond to your favorite close-up of Xiaoyao’s thigh,” Fang Mo gestured at his thigh, “Isn’t that your favorite, just this one section.”

Xu Xiran thought to himself, I like this section of you now.

“Even the reflection of the skin is drawn, which captures that fleshy and flexible feeling,” Fang Mo has been influenced by him for a long time, and unexpectedly said this very eloquently, “All this fanservice and you didn’t even respond, have you changed your orientation?”

Xu Xiran held back for a long time, but then finally couldn’t help but express his opinion under Fang Mo’s repeated prodding.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit too much?” he said, “There is a difference between appropriate fanservice and excessive displays of skin, and there is a fine line between the two. If you don’t handle it properly, it will turn from temptation into obscenity. The essence of Love Story is not a vulgar erotic work. Soft pornography can be used as one of the selling points, and it can serve as the flowers to the brocade2, but it must not be used as the basis of the whole work.”

“…Ah?” Fang Mo froze, “What? What are you talking about?”

“What really touched people’s hearts in the first season of Love Story is its high-quality script. But if you look at the most important first episode of the second season, what else is there besides everyone showing their skin? Are you able to even recall any of the plot? Now, at a glance, all you see are boobs and legs, and they’re deliberately exaggerating their fanservice, completely inverting the root with the branch3, and losing the real essence of the series. Let me say that this is not as good as fanfiction. At least in fanfiction, you can have a bit more freedom without trying to sell itself while half-concealing everything.”

Fang Mo stared at him blankly with his mouth open, and with the Pocky in his mouth almost falling out.

Xu Xiran had a high desire to express himself and couldn’t stop. He held the mouse and began to pull back on the progress bar of the video: “Look here, is this necessary, with everyone shaking like that? Would you be pleased with this kind of image?”

Fang Mo immediately shook his head.

Xu Xiran was very satisfied: “Right? Not only is it not cute, but if the force is too much, it creates a sense of awkwardness.”

After he finished speaking, he continued to drag on the progress bar.

“Then…” Fang Mo interrupted in a low voice, “Do you want to get dinner at the dining hall together later?”

“Okay,” Xu Xiran responded casually, and then pulled Fang Mo to focus on the screen again, “Look at this shot, did you find a very serious bug?”

Fang Mo first looked at his face, then slowly moved his gaze toward the screen. He frowned and stared at it seriously for a long time, and finally shook his head cautiously: “…what bug?”

“Tsk,” Xu Xiran was disappointed in him, and tapped the table vigorously with his fingers as he said, “How’s it possible that Mingmei’s breasts are as big as Xiaoyao’s!”

“……”

“The difference in breast size is one of the important components of character design. They don’t even respect this aspect and blindly emphasize their largeness. It’s clear that the production team now regards this work as simply a profitable commodity. They don’t understand the real Love Story at all!”

“Is that so…” Fang Mo looked at him blankly.

“Her breast size being OOC is just a facade. What this really shows is their contempt for the audience, thinking that we’d be superficial enough to be won over by this change. This is simply humiliating.”

“How is it exaggerated?” Fang Mo was surprised.

“If you don’t believe me, I’ll analyze it for you,” Xu Xiran continued to adjust the progress bar, “Come here and take a closer look.”

~

By the time he finally finished analyzing each shot, two entire hours had passed, and his mouth has run dry.

“Calm down, calm down,” Fang Mo followed his back, “You’re right, it makes sense, they’re making a mess. This isn’t Love Story or Xiaoyao at all, it’s OOC… uh, it’s called OOC, right?”

Xu Xiran was very relieved, feeling that he had just saved a lost lamb: “Yes, it’s very good that you understand.”

Fang Mo reached out his hand carefully, slowly closed the lid of his laptop with one finger, and asked, “…Are you hungry? Want to go to the dining hall?”

When he was too invested in speaking, he indeed consumed a lot of energy. Xu Xiran nodded: “Let’s go!”

He thought to himself, the atmosphere just now seemed to be pretty good. Fang Mo was very convinced by his eloquence. Did that mean that this might change the way he sees him in his mind? 

His own plan seemed to be pretty good. He created a common language, fully demonstrated his own meaningful content, and created a world in which two parties can have in-depth conversations, isn’t this the beginning of a perfect love?

It seemed like pursuing people was not so difficult after all!

Author’s note:

Fang Mo: he~tui!

[Clickbait-specific title is naturally a clickbait title]

Yin: I think this chapter was also clickbait to an AU of the beginning of this novel. I have a persistent image of a UNO reverse card stuck in my head (*ﾉ▽ﾉ)

Bad as in bad for you

An idiom similar to the English idiom “the icing on the cake”

Another idiom similar to the English idiom “putting the cart before the horse”