The Theory Of Queerbaiting

Duan Jiashu was still asleep when You Xin woke up in the morning. 

Duan Jiashu lay on his back with his arms crossed in front of his chest. With his appearance, he almost looked like the male version of Sleeping Beauty. You Xin just didn’t know what this person dreamed of, for his eyebrows were furrowed.

You Xin approached Duan Jiashu’s sleeping figure and took a picture. While admiring the photo, he shook his head and thought, this person looks so good, but he ended up being a psychopath. God was really fair, then.

You Xin sighed and went to his table to find his charger. Last night, he was too angry to remember to even charge his phone, so now he had to hurry and charge it.

He was rather hasty when arranging his things last night, so the things on his desk were a mess. You Xin picked up the bag of cookies on the table to find the charging cable that was pressed underneath it. Just after he charged his phone, he felt a little strange. Why does this bag feel lighter than before? 

You Xin opened the bag, only to find that it was all empty. Last night, the bag was still full of cookies, but today the cookies are missing. What kind of paranormal story was this?

Could it be that last night, someone went to his bedroom to steal the cookies? Or was it actually…

You Xin turned his head to look at Duan Jiashu and saw that the other person had already woken up and had a dazed look with his bleary eyes.

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.

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You Xin hasn’t even finished building this thought in his heart before he heard Duan Jiashu say, “I ate your cookies by the way, I’m sorry…”

You Xin: …

“Damn it! I gave you cookies yesterday but you didn’t want them, now you had to finish the whole bag of cookies in the middle of the night and then leave the bag where you found it? You’re really f*cking thrill-seeking, ah! Or is it that you wanted to give me a surprise?!” he was so stimulated that You Xin unconsciously poured out all his inner spite. After speaking, he became speechless at his own self to the point of no return, but he found that Duan Jiashu’s face was even a little aggrieved.

“I didn’t want to surprise you, I thought you wouldn’t find it…” Duan Jiashu’s voice sounded abashed for a moment but then he justified, “It’s because you wanted to sell CP with me that I didn’t accept your cookies. Last night, I didn’t get to eat enough, so I got hungry in the middle of the night. And because I couldn’t go out, I ate your cookies to fill up my stomach instead.” 

“You mean you’re blaming me for stealing the cookies? And what’s wrong with me selling CP, did you think I would force you into it if you didn’t want to? You’re quite sick, aren’t you?” You Xin was shocked by Duan Jiashu’s strange logic, and he instantly felt extreme regret. Who am I, where am I, why do I have to participate in this unlucky show and encounter such an unlucky person?!

He saw Duan Jiashu silently get up from his bed, walk to You Xin, and give a serious answer to his question. “Selling CP is originally a shameless behavior. You as an entertainer don’t want to improve your own career level, but instead of doing the right thing, you’d resort to these evil ways, spreading fake ideas, cheating young fans’ feelings, and even feeding them delusions, making innocent people like me and you sink together. Queerbaiting… this thing is simply considered as extremely immoral.”

You Xin: …

Listening to Duan Jiashu’s powerful words, You Xin had his mouth open wide and he lost the ability to manage his expressions. He was both surprised and angry, and these two emotions that intertwined were about to form smoke on the top of his head and explode like a firework. He wanted to retort, but he couldn’t say a word to refute the other. There was a needle stabbing him straight up from the bottom of his heart to his brain, and he realized that Duan Jiashu’s point wasn’t exactly wrong. 

The only thing that made him taste a little bit of sweetness was through selling CP, but he also took it for granted. After the frequent setbacks when it came to hyping up his CPs, he only thought that it was just his own bad luck. He didn’t think that because the hype relied on the strength of the people involved, the heat of the CP would also be easy to break. In the six years he spent in the entertainment circle, full of sinking and floating ships but having not many achievements for himself, a sense of insecurity and frustration lingered in the depths of his heart, but he would instead escape from reality, put his feelings into the farming novels he enjoys reading, and muddle through his day.

You Xin’s anger gradually disappeared as the sinking pain in his heart stabbed through, and a sour feeling welled up in his eyes.

The Duan Jiashu in front of him became more and more blurry-looking, so much that he allowed himself to still see the hint of panic appear from Duan Jiashu’s normally unperturbed face.

“Don’t cry, you! I didn’t bully you, so don’t cry!” 

You Xin smiled and touched his face, his hand really was wet with tears. He couldn’t help but feel more ashamed than he already was but he still spoke while crying, “You… you stole my cookies… even still… you still spoke… with your reasoning… you still lectured me… ” Thinking about the fact that he was still recording in the program with Duan Jiashu and even crying in front of him, he simply cannot be more humiliated than now. But this grief he was feeling made him cry harder.

“But I’m also not wrong… Okay, okay, don’t cry, I won’t say anything else… I’ll shut up…”

The two were quite occupied in this room when they heard someone knocking on their bedroom door.

“Jiashu, Xin Xin, are you awake? It’s Yuan Feng, the door isn’t locked so I can just come in?” 

Seeing that the door was about to be pushed open, You Xin’s mind went blank, he couldn’t catch his breath after his crying session, so he simply didn’t know what to do next. Then he felt his back tighten and someone pressed his tear-stained face into a warm chest.

As soon as Yuan Feng pushed open the door, he saw Duan Jiashu’s unkempt arms around You Xin and was giving him a rather panicked look.

Yuan Feng: …

“I’m sorry! Sorry for disturbing you!” Then, the door was closed again with a bang. 

After making sure that Yuan Feng had really gone, Duan Jiashu only gently breathed a sigh of relief. Just now, he was really close to being discovered by others that he had bullied You Xin to tears. Fortunately, he followed his instincts and blocked You Xin’s face from being seen, but his shirt had gotten wet in the process.

Duan Jiashu frowned and looked down at his chest, and saw that You Xin was also looking up at him. Duan Jiashu froze. This was the first time he saw You Xin’s face at such a close distance, and he realized that You Xin’s pupils were a little lighter in color, and his eyes still held crystal-like tears. The slight redness at the corners of his eyes and nose stained his white and jade-like flawless skin. Surprisingly, there was an alluring, ravished cuteness to him, as if he was an aggrieved kitten.

Duan Jiashu felt his heart violently swell for a moment, then he heard a thumping sound that kept accelerating. He became immersed in this hazy and heart-pounding feeling but was awakened from his daze by You Xin’s actions of trying to break free.

“Why were you rushing up to hug me? Which one of us is trying to sell CP here?” 

“Oh.” Duan Jiashu replied while he was still feeling the tingling in his heart under the aftershocks of a shameful impulse.

That cookie was poisonous, right? Duan Jiashu inwardly felt doubtful; were they added with the chun drug?

The author has something to say:
Duan Jiashu: I am Kongtong, my mind is filled with yellow waste, but I am a respectable person.