One thing I really appreciate about MXTX’s novels is how the pining gets more ridiculous with each novel.
Time spent pining: 5-ish years
How oblivious was the pine-ee? I’m gonna give Shen Qinqqiu a bit of a pass on this one. True, there’s no excuse for him missing Luo Binghe’s clearly-visible-from space teenage crush, but post-Abyss it was actually kind of reasonable that it took him awhile to realize that Binghe’s feelings for him were something other than murderous rage. I did spend most of the latter half of the book yelling at them to just talk to each other, for the love of god, but their failure to do so was at least due to somewhat reasonable assumptions based on the information they had at the time. So:
Absurdity level: Moderate-to-low.
Time spent pining: 13-16 years.
How oblivious was the pine-ee? Oh, there’s plenty of blame to go around here. Yes, Wei Wuxian is an oblivious dipshit, but then again Lan “so bad at expressing his feelings that WWX thought he was trying to arrest him” Wangji wasn’t exactly winning any prizes for good communication.
Absurdity level: RIP, Lan Xichen’s blood pressure.
Aaaaaaaaand then there’s this one:
Time spent pining: 800 YEARS, MOTHERFUCKERS
How oblivious was the pine-ee?
Hua Cheng: Gege, can I get you anything? Like all of my worldly possessions? Also, can I have some more of your delicious cooking, which sickens everyone else who tries it? Also, did you like the ridiculous number of lanterns I lit in your honor? Also, do you want to come over sometime, or maybe get married? I LIKE YOU A NORMAL AMOUNT.
Xie Lian: Wow, San Lang is such a good friend!
Absurdity level: Readings are off the scale, cap’n!
Based on this, I can only assume that the next book will feature the protagonist’s love interest buying a billboard outside of the protagonist’s apartment that’s just a giant picture of Love Interest’s face and a caption reading “[Protagonist], I am in love with you,” and Protagonist instantly leaping to the conclusion that it’s directed toward the person in the apartment below theirs.
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