The Rebirth of Han Yuxi

I got it wrong.
Xing Lie and I were not able to give birth to little babies, because I was male.
Only girls could give birth.

“Because girls are able to give birth to little babies, so you want to find them to settle down with and get married to?” I seemed to have understood something.

When he heard my question, Xing Lie appeared to be taken aback for a moment.
“Why would you think so? It’s not like that.”

“Then why?”

I obediently waited for him to continue.

“Those two people (the man and woman in his example) live together because they like each other.
‘You like me, and I like you’.” Xing Lie didn’t seem to be very good with this kind of topic.
He had some trouble explaining, “You have to marry the girl you like.”

“We can only like girls?” I asked.

“Of course men like girls!” Xing Lie spoke in a very firm tone, “Men must like girls!”

“Because girls can give birth to little babies?!” I also raised my voice.

The question seemed to have circled back to the point of origin.1

“No, that’s not it.” Xing Lie was being self-contradictory, yet he still tried to explain, “You have to first like them, then you can spend a lifetime together.”

“Then why can we only like girls?” I still didn’t understand.

“I frigging…” Xing Lie smacked the back of my head, “Are you being contrary to me?”2

I covered my head (in my hands) and frowned, “You’re the one who didn’t explain clearly!”

Telling me that you “like girls”, is it not because girls can give birth to little babies?!3

“Men should like women just because! Don’t ask why! It’s just like that!” Xing Lie began to give up and act unreasonable.

“Why do men have to like women?” He wouldn’t let me ask, so I did (to be contrary), “Can’t men like men?!”

Xing Lie halted in his steps, seeming to have been severely scared by me.
“You like men?”

I opened my mouth, and closed it.

“Frick, there are gay monsters?” Xing Lie took a step back, scanning me up and down, “No way.”

“I don’t (like men).” I felt a little awkward from his gaze.
“I won’t (like men).”

Xing Lie thought about it, said “That’s true”, and returned once more to my side.
“A little tree spirit like you don’t know anything.
You ask all sorts of questions all day and don’t feel abashed at all.”

I only felt that my face was so hot, it was scary.
I couldn’t resist pulling the scarf at my lips up higher.

Abashed and bashful only differed in one character.4 However, rather than “bashful”, “abashed” seemed to make people even more uncomfortable.

“Can…men not like men?” I asked quietly.

“Well, no.
It’s not like they can’t,” Xing Lie lifted his foot and walked towards the side of the road once again, “But I’ve never met any.”

“They can?” I was dizzy.5 “But didn’t you say that men must like women?”

“Why do you like to argue with me on these things?” Xing Lie seemed to have already been angered to dizziness by me, “Ninety-nine percent of the men in this world like women.
Only one percent take an alternative route, got it now?”

I noticed that Xing Lie was somewhat unhappy, so I didn’t pursue the matter.

Xing Lie, seeing me sulky, rubbed my hair in an ingratiating manner, “Girls smell nice.
Do you not like them?”

I nodded, “I do.”

I lied.
I didn’t care at all whether girls smelled nice or not.

And I didn’t understand what smelling nice had to do with liking someone.

Xing Lie didn’t smell nice, but I still liked to smell his scent.

Was this “like”’?

I stopped in my tracks, standing in my spot as I stared at the ground in a daze.

Xing Lie’s hand paused in mid-air, and he also stopped at my front left.

“What is it?” he asked.

“That one percent of men who take an alternative route,” my voice was very soft, deathly afraid that I would make Xing Lie unhappy if I used a loud voice to speak, “are they freaks?”