The bedroom smelled like sweat socks, cheap cologne, and the particular brand of teenage male intensity that only surfaces during one thing: a Very Important Debate.
Four high school boys were sprawled across the floor of Xiao's room, a constellation of chaos around a half-dismantled basketball helmet and scattered textbooks. The air vibrated with the weight of their discussion.
They were not, however, satisfied with the homeowner's son's verdict.
"No."
Xiao didn't even look up from polishing his helmet's visor. His face was a masterpiece of practiced, utter disinterest—a feat, considering the topic was the only thing anyone at their school had talked about for three weeks straight.
Yen, a human live-wire with more energy than sense, exploded. "WHAT?!" He shot forward, pointing a finger that practically vibrated with outrage. "You. Still. Haven't. Seen. The. Five. Minute. Iconic. Catching. Scene?! AND you haven't bought the novel? Dude, we've been singing the title song for seven freaking days! I have it as my alarm! My mom hates me!"
He delivered this as if confessing Xiao had committed a war crime.
Shen Yao, the group's designated scholar, didn't glance up from his physics textbook. His ears, however, were fully engaged. "Come on, man. It's not like you're broke. Your allowance is basically a CEO's bonus compared to mine." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "The denial is statistically fascinating."
Xiao's grip tightened on his helmet. His noisy friend circle had been eating his ear off for an hour. Now, they were advancing on his whole brain. He could feel it.
He huffed, rolling his eyes so hard he saw his own brain. "Quiet!" he hissed, then lowered his voice to a conspiratorial, slightly embarrassed mumble. "Just because… just because you all are certified gay lovers… doesn't mean I have to be one too."
A beat of silence. Then, Han Ye's face split into a grin that screamed trouble. He slithered closer, dropping his voice to a stage whisper meant for sharing state secrets—or, in this case, smut.
"Of course you have to," Han Ye purred. "No, no—read it, at least! Because~" He leaned in, his breath tickling Xiao's ear, his expression shifting into the universal 'boy about to talk about naughty things' look. "Because you'll get the really delicious scenes there. The ones that… aren't animated. But the novel?" He leaned back, wiggling his eyebrows. "The novel has descriptions."
Xiao blinked at him as if Han Ye had just grown a second head and started speaking in dolphin. His friends watched, rapt, waiting for the thumbs-up, the surrender. Xiao even felt his hands go slack on his beloved helmet.
He raised a hand slowly, dramatically, his face a dry, bored slate. The others leaned in, hope dawning.
Nope.
His hand shot out and gripped Han Ye's face like a volleyball. "Mmf! Dude, what?" Han Ye mumbled through squished cheeks.
Xiao said nothing. He just stared, then pushed Han Ye's face away like a bothersome teddy bear.
"I said I won't watch that 'gay stuff,'" Xiao declared, his tone cool, though a faint flush was betraying him at the cheekbones. A tiny war was raging behind his eyes—part stubbornness, part teenage hormones piqued against their will. "Try all you want. My preference is clear." He cleared his throat, aiming for nonchalance and landing somewhere near flustered. "'Normal' hentai is the best. Then those… finger-rubbings."
The double meaning hung in the air. His logic was simple, unshakable: a key needed a lock. A keyhole. Not another key.
That was just straight facts.
His friends utterly collapsed. Yen howled, slapping Xiao's back with a force meant to dislodge a lung. Han Ye, recovering, wrapped an arm around Xiao's neck in a headlock that was equal parts affection and asphyxiation.
It was a scene of harmless, loving torture.
Xiao coughed, slapping at the arm. "Eh! Stop squeezing me! And why are you laughing?!"
"Wrong, baby, wrong~" Han Ye sang into his ear, his smirk audible. A full-body shiver ran down Xiao's spine. "Let us teach you how a key… can unlock another key." He whispered the last part like it was forbidden magic.
"Without needing a hole to dig into~" Yen chimed in, dancing his fingers on Xiao's shoulder like a creepy spider. "Trust us, buddy. The story isn't trending for no reason! We, the audience—hashtag choosy readers—have standards!"
Han Ye nodded eagerly, his eyes gleaming.
Xiao swallowed hard. He was trapped, literally wrapped in his friends' limbs. He looked between them—stubbornness, annoyance, and a begrudging, microscopic drop of submission in his gaze. He sighed, defeated for now. "Fine. Whatever."
"That's my boy!" Yen boomed, his voice dropping an octave into a weirdly proud 'dad' tone that earned him another epic eye-roll from Xiao. Shen Yao just watched from his textbook fortress, a soft smile playing on his lips.
"Oy, Shen Yao!" Yen barked, snapping his fingers. "Laptop. Now. We're administering the vaccine."
Shen Yao sighed, the long-suffering sound of a tech-support god. "Hm. Don't break it. You have a disorder of breaking things. Accept girls' hearts." He handed the laptop over with the solemnity of a surgeon passing a scalpel.
Xiao bit the inside of his cheek to stop a smile. Shen Yao had a point, and it was a good one.
"E-shut up," Yen shot back, giving him a 'bombastic side-eye' meme look in real life. "Don't make me tell everyone about your inability to talk to Li Ming."
An excited, anticipatory silence fell as the four of them huddled around the glowing screen. Yen's fingers flew across the keyboard, searching YouTube for the clip universally tagged as #YeLiansSundropSunflowerSmileScene.
"Ah, yeah~" Han Ye whispered, grin widening in the screen's blue light. "The connection's first… and then just watch how he steals your heart. Like he stole ours."
"You're smiling like a fangirl," Shen Yao observed dryly. "Don't show your beautiful teeth too much; they might fall out." He barely dodged the playful slap Yen aimed at his shoulder.
"Shh! The Wi-Fi is eating my nerves!" Yen hissed. The loading circle spun. Then—click. "Found it!"
Xiao gave the three of them a final, withering side-eye, a last bastion of defiance, before his gaze was dragged to the screen.
And there he was.
Ye Lianlei Xue.
Clad in traditional robes of white and gold that seemed to float on an unseen breeze, a thin veil of petal-soft green and crimson trailing behind him like a ghost. His hair was the warm brown of autumn leaves, spilling over his shoulders. A mask, gold and white and eerily beautiful, covered the upper half of his face, looking less like an accessory and more like a part of his skin. And from his temples, curving with elegant grace, were soft, golden dragon horns.
Xiao's stomach did an uneasy flip. He was… noticing things. The drape of the robe, the way the hair caught the light, the intricacy of the mask… on a man. He shifted uncomfortably.
"Stop looking away," Han Ye said, his hand coming up to cup Xiao's jaw, holding his head steady towards the screen. The situation had devolved into them force-feeding bitter medicine to a stubborn child. "We can't rewind every time you get shy."
The scene began.
The dragon prince wasn't just flying; he was dancing across the sky, a streak of white and gold claiming the heavens. Then, the threat: shadows against the sun, evil black dragons descending toward a peaceful village. Their goal? Children. For a feast or a foul ritual.
Panicked cries. Small figures running. Most made it into a shrine—safety. But one boy, small and terrified, stumbled. A black claw reached, snatching him from the ground.
Oh no, he's falling, Xiao thought, his own breath catching. He was in. Hooked.
A flash of gold. Ye Lian moved with impossible speed, his own hand—adorned with long, sharp, golden nails—slicing through the air. He didn't attack the dragon. He severed one leathery wing.
A shriek of pain. The claw opened.
The boy plummeted.
And Ye Lian was there. He caught the child against his chest in a swirl of silk and veil. The momentum spun them gently. The sun caught the edge of his golden-white mask, making it shift, revealing just a sliver of a lower jaw, a curve of a smile.
Then, he smiled. Not a grand, heroic grin. A soft, slow, sunflower-unfolding-under-dawn smile. It was devastating. It was designed to be remembered.
The world in the scene seemed to slow, the sound dipping to a tender hush as Ye Lian spoke, his voice a melody of absolute safety.
"It's alright… I've caught you." A pause, filled with the beating of wings and the child's shaky breaths. "I always will. You're safe under my golden veil."
Then he was soaring away, the child secure in his arms, back to the green land below before turning to face the remaining threat. The five-minute clip ended, freezing on the image of Ye Lian's retreating back, his green veil a painted stroke against the sky.
The room was dead silent.
Xiao was frozen. Or… thoughtful. His mind, always so loud, was quiet for once.
This, he reasoned firmly to himself, his last line of defense,
is just high-quality color manipulation..It had to be..but shy.. it have hit different while he barely watches those?