Chapter 22 - Author: In YY novels, lilies can be straightened

(Note: Du Ze is an otaku and he uses anime terms a lot. Yuri (百合) means “lily.”)

Xiu did not dislike the skin-to-skin contact. That person’s body was soft and it made the undead’s perpetually cold skin feel like it was warming up.

That smell ...

Xiu hesitated for just a moment before stretching out a finger to feel Du Ze’s breath. As Du Ze exhaled, Xiu’s fingers were wrapped in hot and moist air, but underneath it was the cold and cloudy breath of the undead.

Du Ze was awakened by Xiu’s movements. The black-haired youth opened his eyes, confused, but did not raise his head right away. His right hand quickly and skillfully hunted around until he found his glasses. When Du Ze put on the glasses, he raised his head and saw that Xiu was awake. He felt like a fool, and at that moment he saw the final outcome.1

The novel said that the protagonist would be in a coma for five days. Why did he wake up after just four days?!

The bitter reader wanted to weep, yet lacked the tears. When the demon sister led them to Belial city, Du Ze was finally able to eat and sleep. He naively believed that all of his hardships were over and waited for a better future. Then the curse’s “imprinting on the first thing it sees, like a baby chick” problem struck Du Ze with a vengeance.2

The cold curse wasn’t stopped by the 0-point restore!

The cold curse’s method is this: the caster calls a demon to enter the specified target body, and the very cold Yin spirit will make the accursed person feel cold from his or her soul. Because it is acting on the soul, it is useless to try to defeat the cold by wearing more clothes. The use of fire elements won’t help either. As far as people can see, the body temperature of the accursed person is not abnormal when felt externally. The curse doesn’t damage the physical body; it is purely a spiritual torment. Since the cause of the curse is the Yin spirit, if the spirit is destroyed or leaves the accursed, the curse will disappear. In “Mixed Blood,” the protagonist easily sucked out the spirit from Alice’s body.

That was why Du Ze’s fate was quite tragic. He had never seen such a cute fool of a Yin spirit. He had expected to be able to get rid of the curse when his 0-point restore ability activated, but restore can’t stop the Yin spirit’s actions. At midnight Du Ze was restored to his normal state. The Yin spirit in his body was cast out and the cute spirit looked around with wide eyes. The first time he saw the Yin spirit, Du Ze was interested in the white shadow’s crying expression. But then the spirit looked around blankly and suddenly ran back to Du Ze’s body, chirping like a baby chick.

Du Ze: ...

Your mom’s eggs! Why are you trying to act cute? Your master is gone, I’m begging you to pursue freedom, boy!

Du Ze endured the extreme cold until the next midnight when the spirit was squeezed out. When the spirit was still disoriented and couldn’t understand why it was expelled, Du Ze turned to run but again was attacked by the bear child (the naughty spirit). On the third day, judging from its expression, Du Ze thought that the spirit was about to cry. Du Ze almost cried himself. No matter how many creatures were around, the Yin spirit only recognized Du Ze; it refused to possess anyone who wasn’t Du Ze.

Violet wanted to help but couldn’t. Belial City had no experts in undead magic, otherwise the blood poison plague wouldn’t have caused such devastation in their territory and they wouldn’t have had to search for a cure for it. Du Ze wanted to cry; he could only put his hope on Xiu who was still in a coma. Right now Du Ze saw that Xiu’s eyes are green – which means that he is a life-saving medicine and a human-shaped hot water bottle for Du Ze.

The curse of the Yin spirit can be alleviated if it is suppressed by a high-level undead person. In “Mixed-Blood,” Violet had to run to the sea of undead souls every once in a while to find herbs to ease Alice’s suffering until they met the protagonist.

In Belial City, are there any higher level undead than the Lich?

Therefore, the reader was unable to bear it and grabbed Xiu’s hand out of some evil impulse. When Du Ze grasped Xiu’s hand, the reader’s frozen fingers finally felt like they regained their normal temperature – but the warmth only affected the hand. The rest of him was still extremely cold. Thus the degeneration of Du Ze’s moral integrity began.

Initially he just held Xiu’s hand, then the whole arm, and so on, until at last the frenzied reader tore off the protagonist’s clothes and clung to Xiu. From beginning to end, the object of his aggression was in a coma, which made this a brutal assault on an unconscious person.3

Some silly, cute person then thought (obviously this is wishful thinking): as long as he stops before the protagonist wakes up then Xiu will not find out that Du Ze forcefully seized another man in his arms. Du Ze held on to Xiu for a few days in a row because of the cold curse. Because he had not rested well for quite some time, he accidentally fell asleep while on him, which precipitated this disaster.

And now Du Ze’s gaze moved from Xiu’s eyes to Xiu’s chest, silent.

Xiu stared at Du Ze’s expressionless face. This is the first time Xiu was able to observe the other’s face closely and for so long. Every curve of the other’s face was magnified several times, clearly reflected in Xiu’s eyes. He suddenly realized that this person wasn’t as indifferent as he seemed. The black-haired youth’s face had almost no expression, but if one looked closely, the tension in his facial muscles showed a refusal to reveal ... nervousness?

Du Ze was completely unaware that Xiu’s keen eyes had penetrated his usual “elegantly beautiful aloof from worldly affairs” surface and saw the silly, cute boy underneath. He put on the headphones. This was going to be very difficult to explain.

Protagonist, you want the calm young man to know that what you want to hug is a sister, but this is just human error, the way he calculated the days must be wrong!4

“... my body is so cold.”

... Did he just start to recite the lines again foolishly?

The soul fire in Xiu’s eyes flared then suddenly extinguished. Without the soul fire animating the eyes of the undead, they become completely dull and would not reflect anything anymore. But Du Ze had a feeling that Xiu was examining Du Ze’s soul’s condition. After Xiu’s investigation was finished, the Lich’s eyes returned to normal. Xiu simply said: “I will warm you up.”

– Do you have to be so professional?!

Suddenly the silly reader experienced the protagonist’s professionalism as the Lich began his scientific “first aid” treatment.

Chapter 22.2 – Author: In YY novels, lilies can be straightened

Xiu took off Du Ze’s glasses and, before he could react, Du Ze was turned onto his back, laying him flat on the bed with Xiu on his knees above him. The Lich’s long black curls tumbled down his pale shoulders. Not waiting for Du Ze to curl up and shiver from the cold, Xiu stooped down and kissed him on the lips.

This was not the first time that their lips touched. When they first met, the skeleton lying under the statue of god could only watch as the black-haired youth walked towards him, crouched down, and kissed him – Du Ze was saving Xiu then. Now the black-haired youth on the bed could only watch as the pale, handsome Lich leaned over and kissed him – Xiu was now saving Du Ze. The same two people, the same behavior, even the purpose of the action is the same, but because the dominant person is different, the action is very different.

The first time, Du Ze’s motive was “I want to save him, I don’t want him to be in pain.” With that thought, he gave his soul to Xiu. A lot of time passed since then, but now Xiu has the same idea. The soul flames in his eyes were fluctuating as he slightly lowered his eyelids, concentrating all of his attention on his prey.1

This person ... is important.

Du Ze felt Xiu’s ice-cold thin lips on his, and when the Lich’s tongue explored his mouth, he was unsure of what to do with his own. Obviously he knew that this was just Xiu’s way of sucking out the spirit and saving him, but this type of behavior of one’s lips and tongue will always have a different meaning. Along with the time when he gave his soul to Xiu, this was the second time that Du Ze has kissed someone – and it’s even the same person! But this time, the impact of the kiss was much stronger than the first. The previous time they kissed, the other was in his skeleton shape. This time Xiu was in his Lich form. For Du Ze, he very vividly felt that he was kissing a man, even though he is also a man.2

Xiu’s tongue was inside Du Ze’s mouth, gently sucking out the spirit. The cold that had chilled him to the bones gradually faded away as Du Ze felt the familiar sensation of his soul being consumed. Even though he knew it was just Xiu sucking out the cold spirit, this scene was so similar to the old one that Du Ze felt frightened – that time when he had contributed his soul, he almost died. In the Lost Land, although he lost part of his soul every day, the protagonist had used undead magic to take it.

Through his blurry vision, he saw the soul flames in Xiu’s eyes leap up again.

[...... Are you afraid?]

Du Ze was confused for a moment. This was the same as before when the protagonist spoke in his mind. But even now Du Ze still doesn’t know how to respond. He subconsciously wanted to retract his tongue, but failed.

Xiu was silent then he stretched out his hand and stroked the Du Ze’s black hair.

[Don’t be afraid.]

The faithful reader was instantly comforted and cured. Comparing the performance of the protagonist’s first and second kiss, Du Ze felt that this time his autobiography wouldn’t be “Blackened Fan: A Beautiful Cinnamon Roll Too Good For This World, Too Pure” anymore. This time the autobiography’s title would be “How to Raise a Cute (Moe/Meng) Master” and the theme would be: Long live the cute master! The hole in Du Ze’s brain was getting bigger and the silly, adorable reader didn’t realize that Xiu was not just sucking out the Yin spirit. The tip of Xiu’s tongue was licking Du Ze’s tongue. The soft, slippery and moist touch made the Lich narrow his eyes.

Very comfortable ...

“Mr. Du Ze, your companion woke up -”

The voice from the door came to an abrupt halt, and the two men in the bed came to their senses and parted. Du Ze and Xiu turned at the same time to look at the door. Violet stood in shock, her mouth covered by her hand.

Q: When a sister opens a door to see two men half-naked in bed, what would she think?

A: It is the chaste act of a man saving another man’s life.

...... Who’s going to believe that?

Seeing Xiu’s cold look and Du Ze’s impassive (desperate) gaze, Violet panicked and stammered: “I, I knocked at the door – I’m sorry to disturb you! If you are alright, please come and see me at the reception room. I have something to ask. I’m awfully sorry!”

The door slammed shut. Du Ze was in a daze to think that the title of “gay man” was ruthlessly smashed on his head. With his playful social barrier, there’s no way that he could explain it to her so he could only rely on the other party. Du Ze looked at Xiu, very calmly began to put on his clothes, and tactfully said: “She seems to have misunderstood.”

The main character of your family’s harem thinks that you’re gay! Come on, fix it!!

Xiu seemed puzzled: “What’s wrong?”

“...”

After Du Ze haltingly explained it to him, Xiu finally figured it out. But he frowned a bit, still confused: “Why would she think so?”

Should he tell the protagonist that the twin demon flowers are actually a pair of lilies (lesbians), which is why the sister earlier “understood” the relationship between Xiu and Du Ze?!

Yes, Violet and Alice were actually lilies before they met the protagonist. In order to increase the diversity of the YY (wish fulfillment) novel’s harem, “lily” attributes have become popular. Ye Zhi Qiu wished to meet the expectations of readers, so in “Mixed Blood” he wrote a pair of lily sisters. Anyway, when it comes to web novels, there is an unwritten rule: in YY works, the bent lily can be straightened.

Suddenly, Du Ze felt so dirty and ashamed that he could not look directly at the protagonist. Xiu was genuinely, baffled which meant that Du Ze had previously misunderstood the protagonist. Xiu’s recent behavior had combined with the doujinshi’s contents in his mind, but now it looks like the protagonist is still straight. The act before was because of the demon form’s carefree ways and a certain evil influence.3

Doujinshi: You’re still too young.

For the sake of the health of the cute Lord, Du Ze cut his explanation short. After they had put on their clothing, they went to the reception room but found that Violet was not there. A servant told them that Alice woke up so Violet went to see her. She asked that they go to Alice’s room to talk.

When Xiu and Du Ze reached the demon sisters’ bedroom, they saw Violet tightly holding Alice crying.

“Wu wu wu4 ... You idiot! Why did you detonate your power that way ... You know I love you so much, but you do such a cruel thing in front of me ...”

Alice was lying on the bed, still pale and wan. She smiled quietly and stretched out a hand to hold her sister.

“Because I love you, too, sister.” ”

Violet eagerly kissed Alice, who welcomed it and deepened the kiss.

Du Ze moved away from their line of sight, his face mostly expressionless but his lips tight, betraying the feelings of a loser. He did not see Xiu’s astonishment when the Lich heard the sister’s words. Neither did Du Ze notice that Xiu was stunned when the sisters started kissing.

******

******

They’re saying ... love？

What is that?

– [black box]

The author has something to say:

Author: In YY novels, lilies can be straightened.

Reader: Praise.

Protagonist: ... (← Predator)5

Author: In DM (danmei/BL) text, straight males can bend.

Protagonist: Praise.

Reader: ... (← Prey)6

*******