| BYSG | Rouge | 11
During his student years, Shen Yu didn’t have many hobbies.
Because he didn’t have pocket money, he could only enjoy free books at bookstores and libraries.
After realizing his sexual orientation, he also read some BL comics and novels, savoring the pure beauty of the virtual world.
This particular BL comic must have been one of the popular ones at the time, and soon after, its collaborations would be seen everywhere.
It seems that Cheng Zhiyu was also a little girl who enjoyed BL CP.
Shen Yu held the cup with both hands, sipping slowly, and his Adam's apple gently moved as he drank. He quietly observed the situation.
Cheng Mofei’s facial features were sharp, and when his lips were tightly pressed together, he gave off a cold and unapproachable vibe. His long legs were stretched casually, but as his brows furrowed, he shifted his posture, sitting up straighter.
Shen Yu’s heart skipped a beat.
The next moment, Cheng Mofei directly closed the comic, placed it back on the small table, and closed his eyes, pinching his brow as if he had been impacted by something and needed a moment to calm down. His expression was far from pleasant.
Shen Yu’s heart was shaken intensely.
What exactly made Cheng Mofei so averse to homosexuality back then? And what caused him to suddenly accept it later?
This question had been troubling Shen Yu for nearly half a month, but up until now, there was still no clue.
Shen Yu hated this feeling of being stuck in place.
He had to take some action; he couldn’t just keep observing silently.
With that thought in mind, Shen Yu put down the water cup in his hand, glanced at Cheng Zhiyu's problem-solving progress, stood up, and pretended to stretch after sitting for too long.
In reality, he slowly made his way toward Cheng Mofei's direction.
Noticing someone approaching, Cheng Mofei opened his eyes. When he saw it was Shen Yu, his expression softened a little.
To avoid disrupting Xiao Shen's class, he kept quiet, as he always did. This time was no different; he just silently curved his lips into a small smile.
Shen Yu smiled back, but the next moment, his gaze landed on the comic Cheng Mofei had placed on the small table. Under Cheng Mofei's watchful eyes, Shen Yu reached out and picked up the comic.
Cheng Mofei: "?!"
Cheng Mofei's smile quickly faded. He shot up from his seat, intending to grab the comic from Shen Yu's hands, but when their eyes met, he hesitated—such an action seemed impolite and rude, and it might even scare Shen Yu.
"You... don't look at this," his voice was somewhat hesitant.
"What's wrong?" Shen Yu's voice was soft as he lowered his head and seriously looked at the comic in his hands.
The cover of the comic was actually quite normal. It depicted the two main characters, one the "seme" and the other the "uke," riding bicycles under a blue sky.
The scene was more prominent than the characters, with the figures portrayed as silhouette-like blocks of color. The atmosphere was moving, and anyone who saw it would simply think it was beautiful and will not associate it with anything else.
Cheng Mofei opened his mouth several times, but couldn’t find a way to explain.
The impact the comic had on him was just too great; he hadn’t fully recovered from it yet. Every time he thought about the scenes he had just seen, his stomach churned.
He also remembered some unpleasant memories, and the thought of describing the comic was unbearable.
He knew not all straight men were as homophobic as he is. In fact, some might even search for this kind of content out of curiosity.
They wouldn’t feel uncomfortable like he did, and it wasn’t that they liked it either; they just had no particular feeling toward it.
But he didn’t want Shen Yu to see it.
Just like he encouraged Shen Yu to not drink.
Once the door to some new world was opened, it was hard to close again.
BL comics and novels often idealize many aspects of reality. Shen Yu was still young, and if he read these and developed some misconceptions about reality, and then, because of his looks, was lured into dangerous situations by some bad men in the gay community...
Cheng Mofei didn’t dare to imagine how serious the consequences could be.
Shen Yu had come to Yancheng City all alone, with no one to rely on. His closest relationships were his roommates.
He had to prevent such situations from happening and make sure that Shen Yu had no contact with that circle at all.
Straight men should stick to reading comics meant for straight men.
Once they head back, he would buy some action-packed comics to share with Shen Yu.
Seeing that Shen Yu hadn’t said a word, Cheng Mofei blinked and stopped bothering him, letting him flip open the comic.
Inside the comic, there was a delicate bookmark, and when Shen Yu flipped the page, it landed directly on the one with the bookmark.
The entire left page was filled with an intimate scene of the two main characters, the seme and the uke, kissing.
The uke was slender and delicate, dressed in a maid outfit and white stockings, looking somewhat androgynous in a beautiful way.
He guessed that Cheng Mofei must have initially mistaken the uke for a girl and continued reading, only to gradually realize that the character was actually a boy.
One could easily imagine how "erotic" the plot must get from there—after all, the character had already put on a maid outfit, how could things not escalate?
That’s likely why Cheng Mofei showed such a shocked and repulsed expression.
Shen Yu wanted to laugh, but he could only secretly chuckle in his heart, not daring to laugh out loud in front of Cheng Mofei.
Looks like you’ve opened the door to a new world, Cheng Xiaofei.
Before he could continue to laugh in his heart, his hands suddenly felt empty.
Cheng Mofei had finally snatched the comic from him and awkwardly changed the topic. "Stop looking at it. Zhiyu seems to have finished."
Still chewing on the pen, Cheng Zhiyu was confused. "Huh?"
How could she not know she was done?
Cheng Zhiyu turned her head and immediately noticed the comic in her cousin's hands, as well as the subtle tension in the atmosphere between her cousin and Teacher Shen.
Her cousin... was acting really strange.
She had been focused on solving problems, with no indication that she was finished, so her cousin’s comment sounded extremely forced, as though he was using her as an excuse to cover something up.
Although her family was close to her cousin’s, and their relationship was lukewarm, Cheng Zhiyu didn’t actually know him very well.
When her grandmother fell ill, her cousin didn’t study in Yancheng City during middle school.
Instead, he had gone with his mother to the city where her grandmother was being treated, staying with her until he came back to Yancheng City for college.
She couldn’t be entirely sure of her cousin's sexual orientation.
However, she had never heard of him having a girlfriend.
Of course, there had never been a boyfriend either.
So—she needed to find evidence.
Cheng Detective Holmes Zhiyu was on the case.
"Have you finished?" Teacher Shen, tricked by her cousin, was now standing next to her.
Cheng Zhiyu quickly shook her head.
There were three blanks in total, and she had only solved two.
"It’s okay, take your time, think carefully about the method we used earlier," Teacher Shen said kindly, just like always.
Cheng Zhiyu went back to chewing on her pen.
If it was really like she thought… then the gentle and innocent Teacher Shen was definitely someone her cousin could "deceive."
Her cousin was big, strong, and a year older than Teacher Shen. They were also roommates.
Oh my god, how could this be such a perfect ship.
No, she couldn’t jump to conclusions about their sexual orientations yet—she couldn’t ship real-life people like this.
Cheng Zhiyu, feeling a bit dizzy, managed to solve the third blank correctly and with ease.
For the first time, she felt like she had a bit of control over chemistry. Cheng Zhiyu secretly felt pleased with herself and immediately asked Teacher Shen for a five-minute break as a reward.
Shen Yu happily agreed.
You can’t expect to become an expert all at once; learning needs a balance of work and rest.
Cheng Zhiyu went straight to her cousin, seeing that he had moved the comic from the small table to his side of the couch, his hand resting on it.
The manga was of a small size, almost entirely covered by his palm. She hesitated and asked, “Cousin, do you like comics too? If you do, I can give you some. I bought a lot, and there’s no more space for them at home.”
Straight men definitely wouldn’t like this kind of comic, much less take it with them.
Like it?
How could he possibly like something like that?
Cheng Mofei felt as though he had swallowed a fly, and though his mouth opened and closed, he managed to say one word: “Sure.”
Cheng Zhiyu felt a wave of excitement in her heart.
He—he—he actually accepted it! Could it be that her cousin really is…
But soon, her excitement faded completely.
Cheng Mofei, like a bandit, stood up and walked over to her bookshelf, carefully flipping through her collection. He proceeded to snatch up all of her BL comics—leaving not a single one behind.
There were still plenty of other comics left, but they were all BG (boy&girl) or had no pairings at all.
Her heart sank.
It was completely dead.
She shouldn’t have said things like “I’ll give you some” or “I bought so many, there’s no more space at home.”
Now, everything was gone.
Cheng Mofei hadn’t expected his cousin to have bought so many “gay comics.” Veins popped up on his forehead.
However, he wasn’t one to lecture others. He doesn't understand but respects and stays away from things that he dislikes as long as it does not violate the law.
If it had been in the past, Cheng Mofei would never have taken those comics, not even touched them.
But since Shen Yu was going to tutor Cheng Zhiyu for at least a semester, he was worried that Shen Yu might casually flip through those comics during his free time, so he decided to just take all of them.
Perhaps feeling a bit guilty for taking so many, Cheng Mofei patted his not-so-heavy conscience and said to Cheng Zhiyu, “Study hard, I’ll treat you to seafood during the National Day holiday.”
Cheng Zhiyu: “…Alright.”
Seafood was expensive, comics were cheap—she could make up for it with just one meal.
Besides, with such a big secret about her cousin discovered, it was hardly a loss.
Meanwhile, Shen Yu, holding his water cup, quietly observed the entire scene, his thoughts complex.
He had figured out that all the comics Cheng Mofei took were BL.
But he didn’t quite understand Cheng Mofei’s actions.
Cheng Mofei definitely wouldn’t like those comics.
Could it be that he was so homophobic that he didn’t want his cousin to read such things, so he simply took them all?
The more Shen Yu thought about it, the more likely that seemed.
It seemed that Cheng Mofei’s homophobia was even more severe than Shen Yu had anticipated.
The difficulty of the "pursuing Cheng Mofei plan" had just been raised once again.
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