Shang Qinghua listens to this with great interest. It's not as foreign a concept to him as it may be to Claudius, because he's familiar with fandom. What Claudius is describing is like a big multi-fandom crossover, maybe one of those compilation fics where every chapter is a different trope. Shang Qinghua always scrolls past them; he never thought he'd be inside such a thing. It would definitely explain why Binghe is gay. Whoever is writing it must have meant to write in the real Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua, and just got him and Cucumber-bro by accident. (But what kind of weirdo has the original Shang Qinghua as their favorite character??)

"If that's the case," he says, "then whoever selected Luo Binghe didn't think it through. He doesn't exactly mix well with others."