Chapter 155: 6

Chapter 155: 6

Defining My Brother which had already been very popular for the lively characters, lighthearted story, witty jokes, and beautiful and thoughtful writing, had, after the last six chapters of pure unadulterated reader abuse finally skyrocketed to the top of StoryFountain. Many red-eyed readers were either sending knives to the author in their hearts while promoting the heartbreak they have been subjected to after this sudden turn of events.

The author ShiningGreenTea had a personal blog that was even bombarded with unprecedented vigour.

Readers: You dare play us like this?! Where is the warning???

ShiningGreenTea: It's in the tags.

Readers: Don't fool us, it clearly only has slice of life as the genre.

ShiningGreenTea: Is it wrong? I gave you a slice of life. Is it your fault you didn't think that life is bitter and full of tragedy?

Readers, speechless: Damn who hurt you?

In the end, the author very smartly added the Tragedy tag soon after, however that didn't ease the pain of those who had already been unexpectedly shot at all. They can only vent and cry to their fellow victims. Some of the sly ones would even wipe their tears and happily send their friends and fellow netizens toward the story, promising a 'good time' and that the slice of life fluff they had been enjoying for so long was finally finished and the ending was 'so good they cried'.

Discussing it online it slowly became a hot topic. First, the passerbys in the related reading forums were pulled in and were interested in putting their two cents in. From ignorant to aggressive, many people questioned if such a main character is worth grieving over.

Isn't it abnormal though for a man to love these sorts of things? Isn't he on the right track now? I don't see the problem? This is the correct way.

Many readers admitted they previously thought that way as well. However, after reading the story they could now provoke a sense of empathy and understanding that they couldn't comprehend before. Now facing those who still held such a narrow-minded view- while not necessarily vicious in intent, it suffocated the readers all the same and was filled with the overwhelming need to educate them.

How can it be abnormal? Isn't it just liking something? Who hates fluffy and soft things anyway- isn't that more abnormal ah? People just simply happen to like some things more than others how is that strange?

What's wrong with a man that likes to cook, knit and sew? Who likes fashion and is willing to play with hair accessories and flowers? That sounds like an ideal guy to me! As a working single dog who cannot boil noodles and can't do my own makeup well I would kneel down to any man who is happy to share the burden of housework and even enjoys it!

How is he on the wrong track before? Liking to bake, to buy a few frilly things, is that going to affect your grades? Will it affect your health? Is it going to ruin his mind?

It's a difficult road but some people are simply willing to walk down that road. We will walk two separate paths in the same direction but who cares? Do they interrupt our journey? No? Then why must we be stumbling blocks for theirs?

What is the correct way? Good grades, stable job and marry a nice person and have two kids? Damn, so old fashioned, are you my auntie? This is a new world, we must advocate equality and open-mindedness!

Upstairs it's okay to want to advise someone who is straying down a bad path but you have to consider how far you want to intercede. Telling people to stop smoking, gambling or drugs is indeed good, these are bad habits that can ruin people. But how is this the same? If it is not harmful for a girl to like dolls how is it harmful for a boy to like the same thing? We should help people but we shouldn't want to forcibly change them till they fit your ideals at the same time. Considering their happiness is important too.

Jia Hyson sees this and smiles faintly before closing the tab with his writing account ShiningGreenTea and opening another blog site.

The people who read his story has reached an estimate half a million now. It is neither big nor is it small, but like a ripple in a lake the idea will spread wide. Maybe it is less effective the further down the grapevine it goes but the fact there are people's worldviews here that have been shaken and that will continue to be shaken, if, just a little, is good enough for him.

While he himself chooses not to show Alaric's interests in the story it didn't mean he couldn't do something to help others with similar interests.

Even if this is a book, it is also a world beyond the plot. The author of this Jessica Fang series is not that popular, the plot is cliche and the writing is only average. Jia Hyson suspects even with improvements it will not reach as many people as something he casually produces.

Therefore to compensate he wrote Defining My Brother, something that will spread awareness further in this world than anything the author of this story could possibly spread in their own world. And if this story does not make a scene he can always write another one and another. He's a vampire in this world, after all, he has time.

Besides, if toxic masculinity can fade even a little bit here, awareness can spread a little bit faster, it will also provide Jia Hyson more leeway to succeed on the off chance his cross-dressing habit becomes revealed.

Nontheless, he has no desire to write only chicken soup for the soul though. It was already considered really good that he finished Defining My Brother so aptly. Now that he sees that it became quite a big hit he can write whatever he pleases now with less pressure.

However before that-

With swift and well practised movements, completely different from his hesitation when he first started, Jia Hyson pulls out various photo files and opens the newest one. In them were the newest photos he had taken of himself. Photos of him cross-dressing.

After finding a few he liked he took out the old basic photoshop and did some minor editing. He was so pretty, that he felt he only needed to do some minor lighting adjustments and a few touches ups, keeping it as natural as possible. Afterwards, he added some good looking filters and sparkles until he was satisfied.

Unfortunately, the current era the technology is still a bit behind if he had to describe it, the internet was very early 2000s when there were no Instagram apps and was more inclined to more MySpace type blogging.

Finally, after the photos were done he pasted it onto his new blog post and began to type: 'Today I saw the cutest scarf from Valeria hehe~ UwU I just had to buy it! >~< Fortunately it was at a discount or I wouldn't be able to afford this refreshing ice peach tea. I really like the peach jelly they added inside! Really flavourful and sweet! ()'

Bebe who watched this series of 'beautiful' movements with a cold face refused to admit that it taught his host this messy thing.

Yes, one of Bebe's strengths was in social media. At the very least it can be a free water army if needed to help direct public opinion. It also makes sense that Bebe could also teach its' hosts a few tricks.

However Jia Hyson was usually very savvy in public relations as well, and generally was fairly independent and didn't actually need much help. The popularity of Defining My Brother was 95% due to Jia Hyson's own strength and strategising. The other 5% was Bebe helping speed up the process a little bit by using a few alt accounts at the start to blow rainbow farts to gain some attention.

However even without Bebe's role, Bebe calculated that the same effect would have been achieved, either way, it was just a month or two later than it would've been.

It was very sad, and Bebe felt a bit useless, so when Jia Hyson asked for help about the blog Bebe acted like it had been injected with chicken blood. 110% enthusiasm.

Now looking at the blog that has an eggshell white background with many lovely, colourful pale flowers scattered around it, the cute, pretty fonts, and the mouse icon in the shape of an upside-down dark pink heart with angel wings, where, when it moves, there is a tail of sparkle animations- Bebe has the urge to die.

It wasn't actually that bad. Jia Hyson was still a grown man and couldn't bear to use a blog that had an overbearing princess theme to it. While it did scream typically 'girly' it was tasteful and everything fit together well enough.

Yet thinking that this was the eggshell white base colour Bebe had carefully picked, how it had argued with its host over the best flowers to edit onto the background, how it spent hours determining the cutest sparkle animation and debating the best songs for background music- Bebe was really a bit embarrassed after waking up and taking a step back.

Jia Hyson however did not feel as bad. Unlike Bebe who only 'woke up' in the aftermath, Jia Hyson had been completely sober from the start.

Had he been embarrassed? Of course, he had. No matter how he advocated to let people do their own things, it was different to doing it himself. He wasn't actually someone who loved crossdressing and overly pink things in the first place. It's true he loved soft plushies, and occasionally crossdressing but that was a fetish thing than anything, not really anything serious.

Even if he felt gendernorms were constricting he was inevitably brought up with them and will use them as a basis subconciously. And damn, this site was really girly. Which is fine. But at the same time it kind of made him feel low-key like he was pedophile catfishing. _(:3)_

But now he was more numb and even has adapted his mind to the point he finds the site actually quite good looking and something to be somewhat proud of. If it wasn't his own blog that, he, a man over a hundred years old was writing in, he would want to praise it to the sky. At the very least it fits in line with most of his basic aesthetics, clean, well-formatted, fairly easy on the eyes

Ironically enough seeing Bebe who had previously been so confident suddenly become ashamed filled Jia Hyson's confidence a lot. The more shy Bebe became, the better Jia Hyson felt, his bad taste in bullying people overpowering his own shame in writing in UwU language for everyone on the internet to see.

'Hey, hey, do you think I should make the text baby pink or peach colour ah?' Jia Hyson mentally probes.

Bebe:

'The new bunny emote is cute too, and it matches with the scarf design, what do you think?'

Bebe:

'Actually, which sounds better- 'I found the cutest scarf today~ UwU' or 'OMG isn't this scarf soooo cute!!! (,,,> <,,) ' Pft- ahahAHHAHAH!'< p>

Bebe: Kill me. Just kill me. _

So when Jia Hyson wandered to the red-light district, while it was true there were bad people and perverts who wouldn't hesitate to attack a pretty young boy, there were still good and kind-hearted people as well who noticed him.

Turning around he could see it was an older woman who trotted quickly over to him. Her makeup was very heavy and so was her perfume but she looked fairly sincere in her concern, if a tad apathetic, which was fairly normal.

Jia Hyson calculated in his head before giving her an expression of confusion and distrust, crossing his arms defensively, "What do you want? Why can't I be here?" He asks in a demanding tone.

The older woman frowns and scratches her cheek a little embarrassed, "You- look this place is for adults, where are your parents?"

Giving her a purposely assessing and suspicious look, Jia Hyson then acted like he was reluctantly relaxing and truthfully replied, "They dropped me off with some food and water and told me to be good and they'll pick me up in a little while."

The woman: "" Yo, isn't this the infamous abandoned child?

Forcing herself to smile, she awkwardly reaches out her hand to the kid. "My name is Charlie kiddo, I run a uh an establishment. Why don't you sit there for a bit while we wait for your parents?"

Blinking those bright blue eyes he had, Jia Hyson gave her a hesitant expression that made his previous haughty demeanour look more like he was putting up a front. Now he looked more obedient and lost which melted the older lady's heart a little. "I I don't want to be a bother." For a split second, he seemed to have thought of something and then resumed his arrogant look, "Okay! But I have money, so I can pay you back and I won't owe you anything after!"

"Okay, okay, do whatever," She agrees quickly. Looking at how smug and proud the other was, but how timidly and awkwardly he held her hand in contrast to his attitude, the older woman cursed the kid's parents. After all, even if they had to abandon him, they even went so far as dropping him off in the red light district!

She couldn't tell but he looked at most, fifteen. A fifteen-year-old kid, clearly a little sheltered and dull-witted, with a pretty face and what seemed like foreign blood being dropped here during the night The kid will be eaten alive here! Are they monsters???

The Rong family: We didn't, we don't- QwQ

Charlie ran a rather reputable bar and strip club. Jia Hyson who had looked around was fairly relaxed, contrary to his outward appearance which screamed nervous and shy.

As someone who picked up a lot of people at a lot of bars, Jia Hyson had a bit of an ability to discern a decent bar. While the place was a bit run down, there looked to be groups of people familiar with the establishment, the tables and bar were clean, the smell of food was mouth-watering, and there were bouncers which showed a concern for safety. Jia Hyson was satisfied and silently communicated with Bebe who sent a message to this world's consciousness to pull a few strings.

And through a series of coincidental events, Jia Hyson stayed with Charlie in the red light district for two months while exposing himself to different people from all walks of life. That was enough to justify a person's enlightenment.

Of course, Jia Hyson also made sure to pull his weight and help around, after all the patrolling vampires will report to Alaric's parents if he is too idle. Tsk.

And Charlie was a very responsible and surprisingly motherly character for someone who owns a strip club and sells what looks like illegal moonshine under the table. Therefore Jia Hyson couldn't have a proper sexual awakening under her watch either. Tsk.

Not to mention he had to relearn how to do chores. Triple tsk. That one was definitely the worst. He had lived for over three lifetimes not needing to mop or iron clothes anymore and he really intended to continue that pattern.

Anyway, that was how he spent roughly over the first two months of his time in this world. He had also got himself a laptop with the money he had been given and started to write his stories under his pseudonym ShiningGreenTea and was taught a few makeup skills from the strippers that worked under Charlie.

Jia Hyson: 'I still can't believe I went to a strip club for two months and didn't get laid once.'

Bebe: 'Shut up, the number of times you put your face in the strippers' chests was so unsightly you pervert.'

Jia Hyson: 'IT WAS CONSENSUAL! THEY PUT THEIR CHESTS INTO MY FACE!'

Bebe: 'Sure, sure The only time you can act like a timid and shy virgin white lotus is when boobs are involved huh.'

Jia Hyson: 'Untrue. I also do it for moobs* too.' :)

*For the uncultured, it's man boobs :)

Bebe: _

While it was too much to say Prince Silas didn't like Alaric before the trip, it was also false to say he enjoyed his company either. Alaric was very stiff, he didn't want to talk casually with him and only spoke using formalities and strict etiquette while nagging at him constantly to be a better representative of the royal family. If Silas wasn't so impassive to things, he probably would have done his best to avoid Alaric as much as possible.

But after coming back, Alaric, while still quite nagging, had become very relaxed? Teasing? Gentler? It was as if Alaric had lost and gained something inexplicable at once. While he was still quite rule-abiding, he was easier to talk to and quite whimsical which Silas enjoyed quite a lot. After a few months of adjusting to the change, Silas even found the other's nagging a bit cute as well. Like a hissing cat.

Prince Silas was too lazy to make friends, but since Alaric insisted on sticking to him like this, he supposes it would be more of a pain to leave him alone ah.

"Anyway," Jia Hyson coughs, "I need to go do my homework, you know how it is."

Prince Silas glances at him doubtfully. "I don't recall any homework we were assigned?"

Because they were high-class noble vampires that were still quite young, they were essentially homeschooled until they could go to St Lailah's the academy created to allow young vampires to socialise in the outside world in a safe setting. Of course, as Prince Silas was part of the royal family and Alaric Rong's family was very closely entwined with the royal bloodline as their loyal helpers and mentors, the families often taught the children of the same age range together with a few other prominent families' children.

The classes were set in the royal family's castle's East Wing. As there really weren't too many noble vampires, it was also set up as a place for the young vampires to also socialise and hang out.

Alaric was one of the only ones who hung around the empty library, with Prince Silas being the other person- though for the former it was to do his work and try to pursue more knowledge to become his ideal perfect vampire, and the latter was to have a quiet place to nap. They actually didn't interact much but when it happened, it was mainly Alaric trying to awkwardly flatter Prince Silas or nagging him to uphold the royal dignity.

When Jia Hyson came back from his two-month trip, he also followed Alaric's habits to some extent. However, he would only gently nag and never push too hard, after all, it was really too rude to force your ideals onto someone you were not even a close acquaintance to.

It is said, the story of the North Wind and the Sun* was really applicable here. The original Alaric was the north wind who couldn't achieve a good friendship with Prince Silas, but Jia Hyson who used the sun's passive tactics gained the other's goodwill and a tentative friendship.

*A fable, essentially the sun and the north wind made a bet to see who is strongest by who can strip some guy's clothes. The north wind was violent and the man was clinging to his clothes, but the sun was gentle and warm which made the man willingly take off his clothes (Bebe: ...well, yes, but, and this is important- no _ )

"Yes, well, I asked for extra homework," Jia Hyson coughs. His eyes glance at his computer and fidgets subconsciously. He hasn't had the opportunity to post on his cross-dressing blog for a while and he really wanted to do it as soon as possible, preferably during the best traffic time.

He was the type who needed that instant gratification high and would post things almost immediately when he was done with something. Right now his stories and writers blog had a stable and high popularity but his crossdressing blog was still fairly new, only started a month and a half ago and was growing at a barely adequate rate. Jia Hyson who was used to catching fans quickly was a little impatient.

It couldn't be helped, he was busy adjusting to the world, the schoolwork the vampires his age was given plus the extra workload that comes with being from a noble family that insists on being better than everyone- where would he have a few hours to indulge in anything much less cross-dressing where he had to be all secretive about it.

Because of this, his update time for his cross-dressing blog was appallingly slow, and for a new blog that was really not good.

Jia Hyson has always advocated on posting more at the start in order to catch as much as he can while he still has the freshness of being a newbie blogger. After all, to a bystander, a small, new blog with a few followers is normal, but an old blog with few followers is instinctively interpreted as garbage and not worth the time to explore. It's shallow and cruel but it's true, Jia Hyson is a firm believer of this theory, so it distresses him more seeing how long it's been since he's posted some photos.

Thinking about it even more, the itch in his brain couldn't be suppressed and Jia Hyson grabbed his laptop and stood up, "Anyway," He coughs awkwardly, before bowing apologetically to the prince, "I really must go, I do think I asked for too much extra work so I should go home and finish it as soon as possible to not lose face."

Prince Silas slowly tilted his head to the side thoughtfully before saying, in uncharacteristic proactiveness, "..If you want, I don't mind sparing some time helping you-"

Jia Hyson: "" No! Fuck off! I need to post my shit!

"I wouldn't dare! There's no need! Thank you! And! Goodbye!" Jia Hyson immediately runs off, clutching his precious laptop in his arms.

Prince Silas' pitch-black eyes blink slowly and helplessly.

It was true that he thought the other had changed for the better.

But he did wish Alaric was less addicted to his computer though. _(:3)_