"Well, I knew that part," Shang Qinghua says absentmindedly. His son is gay? Shang Qinghua would argue he can't be held responsible for most of what happens in PIDW-But-Real; sure, it's his book, but he didn't write every single background character or banal little moment. It's not his fault if Random Villager #26 breaks his arm, or something like that. And he most certainly did not intend to create a real Luo Binghe—kind of real, however real you can call people in the fucked up construct they live in—and then push him into a lot of loveless marriages. He doesn't feel guilty, exactly, and he'll push back against anyone who tries to make him. But it's pretty sad. Shang Qinghua's parents were always bugging him to get married before he died, and that was bad enough. This is what he gets for trying to write a book with some kind of literary merit for once, before taking a hard left into porn. Next time he's gotta just start with the trash.

Pretty good luck for Cucumber-bro, though. Shang Qinghua thought that Binghe-obsessed runaway train was headed right for an unrequited brick wall.