on a more serious note: there's this commodification of language and cn culture as a whole in danmei fandom, which ultimately led to this whole situation. people are incredibly comfortable just taking what the author wrote, twisting it to suit their kinks and labelling it canon.

it's perfectly alright to go beyond canon and seek what you enjoy! so much of fan content, especially queer fan content, is about that. but when you start claiming your misinterpreted version as being canon, that's disrespectful to the original story the author wanted to tell.

it's especially disingenuous when you do this and then try to dictate how other people interpret the book. this debacle was waiting to happen, because so many people wanted to believe that their perception of the book is accurate instead of admitting they like certain headcanons.

this is also true for fan content, which ultimately tends to lean towards what's popular. if you think the so-called translator leaned into certain interpretations by pure coincidence, and not because they realized their audience was lapping those up, i have a bridge to sell you.

this thread is getting sort of popular. heads up i'm not chinese, this is just where i ramble, not an authority on things blah blah.

buy the original novels and if you have money to spare, buy your local translator a ko-fi or two! it's hard work!