The Theory Of Queerbaiting

What’s the difference between two people eating a strawberry using just their mouths and two people directly kissing each other on the mouth?

There’s no difference! 

Listening to the excited wolf howls of the crew around them, Duan Jiashu felt his scalp tingling. How did we end up going further down the road of queerbaiting when we already agreed that we wouldn’t sell it? Thinking that he had to “kiss” You Xin in front of so many people, Duan Jiashu got goosebumps all over, but he didn’t just feel disgusted. There was a rather subtle emotion mixed with nervousness, making his whole body feel as if he had fallen into a swamp, wanting to escape but he just couldn’t move his feet.

While Duan Jiashu was still frozen in place and didn’t know what to do, You Xin came over with an ugly face. “Don’t worry, later I’ll pick a larger strawberry to bite in the mouth. Then, you bite off a little bit of the other side of the strawberry. It’ll be fine, our lips won’t touch.”

Duan Jiashu thought about it then nodded “You are very experienced, ah.”

You Xin: … 

Seeing You Xin puff up his cheeks and glare at him, Duan Jiashu felt a little happy. But when the punishment began and You Xin had a strawberry in his mouth waiting for him to bite, he once again felt nervous. The atmosphere around them where everyone around was waiting for him to bite the strawberry seemed like a ritual of some kind. It was unknown if it was because of his unstable feet or the uneven ground, but when he walked up to You Xin, even though Duan Jiashu just wanted to bite the strawberry, he stumbled and directly hit You Xin’s lips, pushing the crushed strawberry into the other person’s mouth.

The whole scene instantly stood still.

It was unknown how many seconds had passed until You Xin pushed Duan Jiashu away. He gasped, wanting to swallow his saliva, but he found that the soft strawberry was still in his mouth, so he ended up subconsciously swallowing it along.

You Xin: …

He was completely stunned at the cheers of the crowd around them.

Duan Jiashu looked at You Xin foolishly, the other person’s mouth had some juices of the squeezed strawberry, as if he was wearing lipstick and it had been smudged because of the kiss. Looking at You Xin’s throat move a little, Duan Jiashu knew he had swallowed the strawberry. He subconsciously also swallowed a mouthful of saliva, licked his numb lips and thought, this strawberry is truly incredibly sweet.

After they finished recording the episode, Duan Jiashu returned home. However, he still couldn’t help but touch his lips. He washed a few strawberries that he brought back from filming, but he felt that they weren’t as sweet as the one he tasted in his mouth. As he was reminiscing about the taste of the strawberries, the phone rang. Iit was Wen-ge.

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.

“Zs, Gejc ijbrtl, tbk mbwf atja sbe’nf bcis xcbkc fjmt batfg obg akb vjsr jcv sbe’gf jigfjvs xlrrlcu atlr qfgrbc bc atf rtbk? Gbc’a sbe tjaf deffgyjlalcu atf wbra?” 

“Rb, la’r yfmjerf P kjrc’a rajcvlcu qgbqfgis rb la tjqqfcfv ys jmmlvfca. P vlvc’a jmalnfis rfii JU.” Gejc Aljrte rmbkifv.

“That’s good. I’ve already talked to the program team; this segment won’t be broadcasted. Though I heard the director say that you and You Xin are on particularly good terms, so I thought, was he trying to seduce you? This young boy in the entertainment circle specializes in this kind of business. I don’t know how many people he’s hooked up with, but that means he and his methods could be rather dirty. I usually do not dare to talk to you about these matters, but don’t fall into the trap ha~”

“… I won’t.” Hearing this, Duan Jiashu felt a little angry, but he didn’t reveal any of his emotions.

“Okay, then take a good rest, mull over the script, relax and unwind. I could get you a cat for you to raise, you like cats, right?” 

“No, it’s fine. No need to worry about it, bye.”

Duan Jiashu hung up, and some of the colorful thoughts in his mind dissipated. He opened his phone and watched a video of the little kitty he technically raised. In the past, whenever he saw a kitten being cute, his mood would immediately brighten. This time, however, he was still distracted.

Duan Jiashu quit watching, typed You Xin’s name on the Bilibili search bar, and immediately searched out a whole bunch of CP clips. He casually clicked on one video with a high viewer count and saw that the content was a CP sugar compilation between You Xin and his former teammate, Liu Yanhui.

The pink filters on the video made You Xin look pink and cuter. He smiled at Liu Yanhui who rubbed his head, and then the two of them got closer and formed a big heart on the stage. At this moment, a bunch of comments in the danmu started to roll out, all screaming “Ahhhhhhh!!!” 

Out of habit, Duan Jiashu immediately paused the video to report it, but when it came to writing the reason for the report, he didn’t know what to write. You Xin was obviously happy to sell CP with his former teammates, whether he was gay or a corrupt YY himself. Finally, he ended up simply writing: “Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting!”

Submitted successfully.

–

Back at his home, You Xin couldn’t rest because he had to broadcast a livestream. He and a livestreaming platform signed a good agreement, and he had to livestream once every two weeks. For a third-rate star like him, there’s barely any point for him in opening a livestream, but it could still help support his family. 

Most of the people watching You Xin’s live were his fans from his idol group and already knew him very well. These fans brushed him with gifts, praised him again and again saying he was thin, handsome, and beautiful… And only after they did this did he start chatting with his fans.

【Xin Xin, were you tired from recording the program?】

The news of You Xin participating in “The Wacky Family” had been officially announced, so fans who followed him have known from the schedule that he has already recorded the first episode, so it wasn’t surprising for the fans to ask him this question.

“The show should be aired soon, so you can look forward to it~” 

【I heard that Liu Yanhui is also going to be a guest on “The Wacky Family”, did you know that Xin Xin?】

Once this comment popped up, the video immediately started a wave of:

【Meteor is rio!】

【I want to eat meteor candy!】 

【Meteor is always in our minds! We’ll never forget, so there’s bound to be echoes [crying] [crying]】

You Xin: …

He really couldn’t help it, most of his fans were basically CP fans or fujoshis, so once they encountered something CP-related, they couldn’t help but make big waves. So many people had hyped the Meteor CP before, and You Xin couldn’t directly ignore the past.

“Well, I don’t really know if Yanhui-ge is joining or not… I haven’t heard about it yet.” 

The CP fans’ pop-up comments went down quite a bit after he said this, and You Xin also felt a bit awkward, but fortunately, there were more understanding fans who asked other questions.

【I heard that Duan Jiashu, who is on the show as well, is a very cold person. How are you getting along with him, Xin Xin?】

“Uh, Duan laoshi ah…” You Xin hesitated for a moment, not knowing which words to say to answer the question. In this moment of hesitation, the screen once again swarmed with pop-up comments.
【Duan Jiashu is super handsome!】

【Duan laoshi superiority!】 

【Why is Xin Xin suddenly shy when it comes to Duan laoshi? [doge]】

【JiaXin is rio! JiaXin is rio!】

【I want to eat sandwich candy!】

The enthusiasm of the CP fans immediately made a comeback and even reached a new peak. 

You Xin: …

Even the CP name sounded good and has already been decided. If these fans find out that he and Duan Jiashu actually kissed each other in the mouth earlier, he estimates that by tomorrow, they’d already have their own children…

Sky has something to say:
That subtle emotion… is called being gay XD We will also get to meet Hui-ge next chapter!
Expressions etc. in square brackets found in this (and future chapters) mean emojis (i.e. [crying] & [doge] these were written in this way (which are shortcodes you use for CN apps) in the raws and have no images attached. You can view Weibo emojis here or Wechat emojis here if you want a few references of what they look like)

Let me know what you think of “Meteor” and what makes you, the readers, more comfortable. Should I continue using the literal translation, or should I use “LiuXing” or “LiuXin”? Thank you very much everyone~