The Theory Of Queerbaiting

You Xin felt that Duan Jiashu was looking at him strangely. 

At first, You Xin did not notice this. He and Duan Jiashu returned to the courtyard the night before they started recording, as per usual. You Xin came earlier than Duan Jiashu, and when he arrived, he carried the kitten into their bedroom first. The kitten had been taken care of by the crew for a week, and then it would be given to You Xin and Duan Jiashu to feed during their two days of recording, but of course the main feeder was really You Xin. The crew also intended to let the kitten be an animal guest to participate in the next episode, making the “family” need to care for the pet. Especially since it was saved by two of the main cast members, it came with its own storyline which can be added points for viewers to watch.

The kitten grew quickly. It was a week away from becoming very fat, but it still had the same cuteness. As soon as You Xin touched its head and chin with his hand, he would start to purr, making people feel a sense of healing.

You Xin was playing the cat around happily, when he looked up and saw Duan Jiashu arrive.

Duan Jiashu was standing at the door of the bedroom, and it was unknown for how long he’d been standing there. When You Xin discovered him, Duan Jiashu was looking at You Xin motionlessly, and his face was very complicated, as if he wanted to come over but was hesitating because of some reason. You Xin thought he was hiding because he was almost bitten by the kitten last time so he didn’t think much of it and pulled Duan Jiashu over to play with the cat. 

Duan Jiashu walked into the bedroom. He looked at the kitten carefully, then his hands trembled and finally touched the kitten’s head. The kitten must’ve felt that Duan Jiashu’s hand didn’t move, so it rubbed his hand with its small head. Duan Jiashu was surprised for a moment and finally showed a relieved smile. He turned his head and looked at you Xin with a very gentle look, “Why don’t we give him a name, ba.”

You Xin got goose bumps when he looked at Duan Jiashu’s face. He shivered and nodded reluctantly. “OK, let me think… It can be called Xiao Hua, Xiao Cao Mei, or…”

“We can call it Duan Xiaoxin.”

You Xin: “… cough cough cough!”

You Xin choked on his saliva and coughed. Duan Xiaoxin? Duan Jiashu’s “Duan”, You Xin’s “Xin”? What kind of name was this? It’s too ambiguous. Usually, it’s only when couples have a baby that they’ll use this method to give their child a nickname. He and Duan Jiashu were ordinary colleagues that happened to pick up a kitten together. Giving the cat this kind of name would be a little strange.

You Xin cleared his throat and disagreed, “It’s not appropriate to call it this name…”

Duan Jiashu frowned when he heard this, as if his his emotions had been interrupted. He instantly returned into his usual expressionless look, “Then it’ll be called Xiao Hua.”

You Xin: … 

Just look so solemn look, a turn of the eye so randomly set a name, Duan Jiashu this is too changeable, right. The other side is usually nervous, but today this degree how to look like stimulated.

You Xin ignored him, fed the kitten some milk and put it back in its bed. Then, Duan Jiashu looked down as if he was thinking about something and soon looked up at You Xin with a very serious expression as if he made up his mind.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Tbe Wlc, P kjca ab jrx sbe j defralbc.”

Tbe Wlc kjr ajxfc jyjmx, tlr fsfr ibbxfv ifoa jcv gluta, gfwfwyfglcu atf ijra alwf Gejc Aljrte teuufv tlw, jcv tlr ojmf ribkis aegcfv gfv “Qtja defralbc jt?” 

“Ljnf sbe fnfg tfjgv bo atf AljWlc JU?”

Tbe Wlc: !!!

Gjwc, tbk mbeiv Gejc Aljrte jrx remt j defralbc!

Of course You Xin did, he had a certain understanding of all his CPs. Not to mention, JiaXin was quite popular now and You Xin also read the JiaXin fanfiction. But Duan Jiashu doesn’t like queerbaiting, how could he understand this circle? The actual fact is that you will be able to find out more about the actual actual people. You Xin suddenly realized that Duan Jiashu must’ve been disturbed by the CP war between the JiaXin and Meteor CPs during the week’s episode, so he came to question You Xin. 

“We didn’t market this CP. Last time, your agent talked to Yu-jie about it, so she didn’t even buy any marketing. This CP got popular not because of me at all, but because ……”

“Because I acted out a whole scene alone.” Duan Jiashu duly picked up.

“Yes… Well,” You Xin wanted to say that the reason why JiaXin got popular was because there were too many Jiashu moments. However, he didn’t dare to directly confront Duan Jiashu about this. He was worried that the other would do something extreme when he heard this, which would lead their CP to go further and further down the road of no return to the deep sadistic love affair.

But he never expected Duan Jiashu to admit it himself. You Xin suddenly got struck dumb and didn’t know what to say. Since Duan Jiashu knew it was because of himself, You Xin felt a little embarrassed, so he picked up a cup of water and took a sip. 

“It seems that you also know about JiaXin. Have you ever read a story called Unexpected Love?”

You Xin spit out the water with a “pfff”. Why is it that every time he drinks, Duan Jiashu would say these kinds of shocking things ah! This story was the same story that was famous for its running with the ball trope!

You Xin quickly collected himself then calmly wiped his mouth, intending to die without admitting the truth. “No, I haven’t read it.”

However, he met Duan Jiashu’s eyes that seemed to know everything, and lowered his head guiltily. 

“It seems that you have.” Duan Jiashu nodded.

He was exposed! You Xin blinked uneasily, an idea suddenly popping up in his mind. He raised his head and looked at Duan Jiashu anxiously, “You wouldn’t have gone to report the author, right?!”

“No.”

You Xin breathed a sigh of relief, and then thought of another very serious thing 

“Then you haven’t seen…”

“I know you’re pregnant.”

You Xin: …

It was already embarrassing enough that Duan Jiashu knows that he read homoerotic fanfiction, but he knows that he read a homoerotic fanfiction with him having a baby! You Xin wanted to turn around and jump out of the first floor window! He’s no longer sure on how to keep recording this show. There were so many bed scenes between him and Duan Jiashu in that fanfiction, it’s almost like he and Duan Jiashu made an XXX gay movie. Now they can both die of embarrassment! 

You Xin looked up with a red face and found that Duan Jiashu was looking at him again with an expression of both tenderness and heartache, which he’d just done as when he named the kitten. Was this guy just simulating the chapter in the fanfiction where You Xin gave birth to a baby and Duan Jiashu came by to visit?

You Xin’s head instantly started to smoke. He was ashamed and angry at Duan Jiashu and yelled, “I’m not pregnant! That’s just the plot of a novel. Don’t look at me with such an expression, okay?”

Duan Jiashu was surprised by You Xin’s reaction that he froze for a moment before nodding. “Sorry, I just brought in the novel again. I know you’re not pregnant, you don’t have the organs necessary to get pregnant, and you’re not having a xing relationship with me.” After saying that, he surprisingly sighed.

You Xin: !!! 

What do you mean by that regretful expression of yours!? What do you mean there is no necessary organ for pregnancy, what do you mean there is no xing relationship!? Ahhhhhhh, what have I done to deserve this!? I shouldn’t have come to this show in the first place, much less met Duan Jiashu, and most of all, I shouldn’t have read that smut fanfiction… The worst thing was truly him reading that article… Ahhhhhhh

You Xin felt dizzy and light-headed. He howled in his heart for a while, then drank a mouthful of hot water to calm himself down. However, he soon found out that he still couldn’t calm down even after drinking.

“Duan Jiashu, what do you even want to do!” You Xin felt that his three views were boiling and changing from a quantitative to a qualitative one.

Unexpectedly, after hearing You Xin’s question, Duan Jiashu changed his solemn expression and talked about another matter. 

“Did you watch this week’s episode? Those poor JiaXin CP fans. They were rubbed to the ground by those Meteor CP fans in the bullet screen, and they had no force to fight back.”

You Xin looked at Duan Jiashu suspiciously, “Don’t you hate selling CP? How did you suddenly care about those CP fans?”

“I hate selling it, but CP fans are innocent! If it wasn’t for the birth of the JiaXin CP, would our show have this much popularity? Would you and I have gotten so many discussions on the forums? Without those forum discussions, would anyone have gotten interested in you to understand and appreciate you more? CP fans have selflessly brought you so many benefits, don’t you feel sad to see them like that?” Duan Jiashu’s powerful words hit You Xin’s little heart word by word.

You Xin blinked his eyes and suddenly felt a tinge of guilt. It was true that he had recently started to gain popularity due to the JiaXin craze, and he had not only taken on new commercials, but also had many more offers for variety shows and TV dramas. These benefits were indeed brought about because of the JiaXin CP fans who have been feverishly eating their CP candy. But this time, during the JiaXin and Meteor fandom war, You Xin just casually glanced at it and no longer paid attention afterwards. After all, he used to see more CP fans eating vinegar and was used to it, so his mood has rarely fluctuated. It rarely did, to the point where he felt like a thankless ingrate! 

You Xin was embarrassed to say that he wasn’t upset about it at all, so he had to softly say, “So what if it hurts, it’s not like there’s anything I can do about it.”

“No, you can do something about it.” Duan Jiashu replied with certainty, “I recently read Unexpected Love and it gave me a lot to think about. I discovered that even if the feelings of those involved in a CP are fake, the feelings of CP fans are real. The novels they write carry such genuine feelings that I was even touched by them. So I thought, I think I can act out a story of two boys falling in love with you as a way to hone my acting skills and bring in some fun for the CP fans. ”

“En, en.” You Xin listened and nodded, then he squinted and blinked, “How does such a clear and off-the-wall approach sound like selling CP?” He paused and said with great certainty, “Because this is selling corruption!”

“How can it be so?” Duan Jiashu shook his head and frowned angrily at You Xin. “Did you listen carefully to what I just said? This is fundamentally different from the kind of selling CP that I hate, this kind of CP acting is an activity carried out in order to refine one’s acting skills while also rewarding CP fans. That kind of queerbaiting tactics with such poor acting skills for the sake of profit is very different!” 

You Xin: …

Isn’t this still selling CP? You Xin resisted the desire to roll his eyes and asked Duan Jiashu something else instead.

“Poor acting skills? Selling… Selling…so it takes acting skills to work, huh? I don’t have that kind of stuff!”

“It doesn’t matter, I know you don’t have it.” Duan Jiashu nodded in understanding and fished out a document from his bag and handed it to You Xin. 

“So I’ve already written a simple CP script, and I’ll supervise you properly to practice it with you too!”

You Xin: …

What’s going on with this world, is Duan Jiashu forcing me to sell CPwith him?!!!