OK, this is purely me playing devil’s advocate (I was an early adopter of the “Yundou is into Xiaoen” theory, and still hold to it), but was there anything more explicit in this chapter to support that premise than we’ve seen before?
There certainly was more of the same—statements with implied subtext, significant expressions, meaningful framing and cuts from panel to panel, etc. Is it the quantity of suggestions/focus on Yundou’s feelings that sealed the deal for previous doubters?
A very throwaway comment some chapters ago where yundou said to her father
"When it's going to be enough?"
Makes me think she was always a closet case and would probably always follow what her parents wanted her to do, only now that she is an adult is she considering abandoning that.
It goes in direct harmony whit her telling our protagonist to return to her life and not throw it all away for xiaoen, it could be some jealousy but doing what is expected of her is also what she chose/was pressured into doing when she was a young lesbian like her, she was "passing her torch" in a way.
I like her character as it is a very realistic one in a society like that and I hope she can grow with the passage of chapters