wtf?? since when chaptwr 8.5 is an clear and on the face that Zhang is DEFENTLY GAY! stop projecting because ther was no one drop of clear indication she is gay or anything, it’s like beting the supposed straight character to be secretly in the closet were that trope has been doen to death in the yuri gener,

but the chapter itself has you so delusionade that you for sure 100% know she is gay??? what?

First, I didn't say "definitely gay" or "100% gay," I said "increasingly interested." That isn't even subtext, that's just there.

Chapter 8.5 starts with Zhang blushing and freaking out because Dai is looking for her, visibly excited. She then has a serious mood crash when she realizes she said something that might have made Dai feel bad. Then the last little bit makes it clear that Zhang helped with the students specifically to help out Dai. (The last line on that first page also makes it clear that she did so for personal reasons.)

When you put this in the context of the original scenes, those scenes often left things ambiguous as to whether Zhang was conscious of Dai and her feelings, or if she was oblivious. 8.5 shows her perspective in those moments and shows that not only was she not oblivious, she was in full gay panic mode.

This context, paired with the fact that she keeps acting to help out Zhang (with the billboard, with the prinicpal, with the students, etc) shows a clear signs of a crush. The larger context of the series (and, y'know, the title is clearly painting Zhang as somebody who is in a loveless engagement. Her awareness of and interest in Dai is not well hidden from the reader. It's all over the place. She wants to sit with her, she wants her to come looking for her, she keeps finding ways to help her out, she wants to get invited to the hot springs with her....The writing is on the wall. Your inability to read it is your problem.

Edit: Oh, but I will make a bold, crazy prediction now: Zhang is definitely, 100% gay. She is into Dai Yi, she is in a betrothal with her gay male friend because they want to put up a front for their families because Chinese culture is unforgiving on this topic. There are lots of clear indications of this, and have been for awhile, but it's going to get significantly more obvious in the next couple of chapters.

last edited at Jun 25, 2022 8:47PM

Is anyone really reading this and not expecting Zhang to be gay/bi? It's a yuri romcom; it's the whole point. It's like popping in Jurassic Park and wondering why all these big lizards keep showing up.

EDIT: And for what it's worth, I agree with the analysis that Zhang is nursing a crush on Dai Yi. Whether she realizes it or not, she's clearly preoccupied with her in a way that goes beyond just senior-junior dynamics.

last edited at Jun 26, 2022 7:41PM

Her awareness of and interest in Dai is not well hidden from the reader. It's all over the place. She wants to sit with her, she wants her to come looking for her, she keeps finding ways to help her out, she wants to get invited to the hot springs with her....The writing is on the wall. Your inability to read it is your problem.

Edit: Oh, but I will make a bold, crazy prediction now: Zhang is definitely, 100% gay. She is into Dai Yi.

In my case, I have no questions about whether Zhang Guo is gay (since it never crossed my mind to doubt Dai Yi's gaydar) but I do wonder when and why did she start crushing on Dai Yi.

I remember that at first she didn't seem to be into Dai Yi at all, but then she suddenly started acting like she's romantically interested in her and I can't recall how the transition worked at all.

Maybe I should reread from the beginning...

I can understand Zhang's intention to getting a lavender marriage with a man.
Zhang cares deeply about her family, and that her grandma is her precious out of all.
With her grandma's health condition getting worse year by year, and Zhang's intention to get married may have something to do with
(1) a superstition saying that bringing a marriage to home will bring luck and also health to the old people
(2) her grandma's wish is to see Zhang marriage before she dies
Whatever Zhang intention is, in Chinese culture, those are the valid reasons most sexual minorities decided to repress their nature and get themselves married, which is sad but most of them were really like that..They can't just 'be themselves'..they will be shunned by the society, losing jobs, losing friends, losing $$..it's too much of a risk.

Though I admire Dai Yi's courage of her revealing her sexual orientation to her family at the very beginning.
But in reality, most people who acted out like Dai Yi to their family are mostly getting backlashed.
Some of their moms would even threatened to kill themselves so that their daughters/sons could 'get back to normal' and 'get married' and have kids.
Even though their children already have a same-sex partner.
They would berate the partner, threatened and even locked their children away from their partner so that their children would obey to them.
If you happened to be active in Weibo and see the young ones' confession about accidentally out of closet due to some unforeseen circumstances, you'll see most of their parents will be infuriate and threatened to cut off their financial support so that their children will 'go back to the right, heteronormative path'.

That being said...
If DaiYi could understand Ms. Zhang's intention, what would happen?
I wanted to know if DaiYi would get near to Ms Zhang. But if that happens, what will happened to both of them?
Since it's clear that Ms. Zhang got herself into the marriage because of her grandma..

In Weibo, when someone consults about their relationship affair about the other half decided to get married out of societal expectation, but said that her other half promises that she is still the one she loves, everyone in the comment berated the person back by saying:
"But you do know that, your other half decided to get married. Once the marriage is valid, it means there will only be one : they are husband and wife, and you? You're just a third wheel, or a 'mistress'."

So what will happen to both of them if they decided to be together?
I don't think Ms. Zhang will cancel the marriage just because of DaiYi.
Afterall, she gets married in the first place because of her beloved grandma..

It may be due to cultural differences that some don't understand why Ms.Zhang does that, and as a result, they find Ms. Zhang's decision to be quite a selfish act.
To be honest, at first, I don't understand too.
But with all the pressure and responsibility bringing to their shoulders.. unless the young-mid generation of their society believes that love has no boundaries and shouldn't' be based on genders, and decided to have a change about this, they will always end up and stuck to this infinite loop. There will always be someone who will end up getting hurt, either by being themselves, or losing something, like family or their loved ones, or conform to the societal expectation.
Basically it's like once they reach to a certain age, they are forced to pick and choose and throw away something in order to have the thing they consider the most important to their lives.

It's like the society is telling them -- You simply can't Have it All .

But most importantly is that, do their society want a change on this?
Or that they are absolutely fine to see some suffer, because to them, the importance of having population > love is what they should conform to, as it had always been?
But marriage is a complex issue. Most people are straight but they choose not to get married and have kids.
Yet they choose to blame the issue to the sexual minorities, who apparently get married and some even decided to have kids.
I don't quite get their logic at all.
They seem to just want to have solved the issue through a lazy manner by just pinpoint on the not so obvious.
Like instead of solving the obvious reasons why they aren't married and have kids, they go with

"Let's just blame on certain people because they are the ones that made the whole population go down."
"Let's just make these people feel bad for being who they are."

But, is that really the case?

I don't.. understand all of these anymore.

insert sad face

Whatever these two decided to go for and how they are dealing with their current issue, I'll root for them as a reader.

After all, the reality isn't.. giving much option for people to live however they want to live without possibly throwing something away..
I really do wish people live happily through finding ways of what they considered happiness..
But..
Sorry for the rant. I hope you all are doing fine and well.
Take care and have a good day.

last edited at Jul 9, 2024 11:03PM

What ever happened to this series? I just discovered it and found it really interesting, especially with the fairly unique character designs, only to find it hasn't been updated in two years. Did the creators go back on haitus after just one chapter?