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Funny tidbit #1:

Premise: MC’s three roommates were texting each other in the back seat of a car, ML2 is driving, MC is in the passenger seat.

[Is Meng Xinghe into Baobao?]

[Duh! You are just now noticing that?]

[Shall we give help it along?]

[Nah. The fuzzy stage is the best. Why hasten things for them?]

[But if we don’t help out, with Baobao’s straight man brain……]

[That’s not a problem. Meng Xinghe is a straight male too, haven’t you noticed? Straight man brain versus straight man brain. Neither one of them will notice that things are curious between them. What could be more fun than that? Ahahaha.]

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The tidbit above prompted my conversation with Fuyu about the percentages of webnovel readers who know what straight male means in Chinese webnovel. For starters, straight male in English refers to a heterosexual male.

In Chinese webnovel, it’s meaning is slightly different. It is used to refer to males (can also be used on females, if necessary) who are clueless or oblivious when it comes to romance. They are not the same as aromantic (someone who doesn’t care about romance), but that they just don’t get it. For example, a boy who is interested in a girl but didn’t know how to court her. Or a girl who was clueless that a boy was interested in her despite the signs being clear as day. [Yes, you can expect a poll at the end of this entry. =)]

From there, it brought on Fuyu’s abrupt question of, “Why is it considered romantic when a man gives a woman flowers? And the 99 roses in webnovels, ugh.”

Welp, she couldn’t have asked a worse person to say the least. This translator much prefers potted and useful plants over flowers that were cut (days are numbered). Specifically I love succulents and edible ones such as lemon, cilantro, green onions, garlic, and ginger… the last three being very important ingredients in Chinese cooking.

Not having the answer to her question, I decided to share a funny tidbit that I have read in another webnovel involving roses — my mistake #2 (see fig. 3 in Badmouthing Fuyu entry, if you haven’t already).

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Funny bit #2 (from a different novel):

Premise: MC ran into some stressful situation. She received a bunch of roses, not 99 of them, thank goodness, from ML unbeknownst to her.

Wenxiu, MC’s assistant, was very upset for her [for being bashed by netizens, you know the drill].

Jiang Shanse (MC) pointed at the roses in a vase sitting on the dresser and said casually, “Wenxiu, do you see those roses over there?”

Wenxiu, feeling enlightened, “ShanSe-jie, are you trying to tell me that those who wishes to wear the crown must bear its weight and those who wants to hold the rose must bear its harm?”

Jiang Shanse was truly a real life philosopher.

Jiang Shanse shook her head, baffled, and said, “No, what I was trying to tell you that it’s that time of the month and I am having cramps. Can you please make me some water and add soe of those rose petals in it?”

Rose petals and hot water has the effect to stop cramps from periods and helps with circulation.

Wenxiu, “……”

Okay, it was her thought for overestimating her idol.

Later on, ML checked in with MC, “How do you like the flowers that I sent?”

MC, deciding to be honest, said, “I like them a lot. They are very tasty.”

ML quickly decided that it’s best for him to not ask what she meant by that.

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Fuyu’s response to that (verbatim):

“Err, what if there’s chemicals sprayed onto the roses to prevent them from wilting?”

And, before this translator could process what she had just said, she followed up with this quote

"To test whether pesticides were accompanying those roses to the market, Wiles´ group analyzed eight flower samples purchased from retailers or by phone. Roses were chosen because of their popularity and growers´ traditionally heavy use of chemicals on them. Many chemicals break down into harmless by-products over time, but Wiles´ group detected a dozen different pesticides in their tests, including two that are listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as probable carcinogens. One of those pesticides, iprodione, was detected in one sample at a level 50 times higher than the amount allowed in food, Wiles says. Iprodione has been shown to cause cancer in rats."

Complete with the source of the quote:

https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2000/Pesticides-and-Cut-Flowers

Not saying that she wasn’t right, but this goes well beyond being straight male…. >.<