Can a Naive Man Be a Heartthrob in a Bizarre World? Chapter 18.2

Part 2

In short, the mindset Luo Shizhen accepted was marriage and having children, then working steadfastly for this small family for a lifetime, treating his wife and child well, and earning more money to support the family.

Men and men… he had never heard of it.

Luo Shizhen was a little confused why Big Brother would say such things, but soon, he found a reason for Xiao Shan.

“Big Brother, you’re joking with me, right? You really know how to joke.”

Although he didn’t think it was funny, he hadn’t found his classmates’ jokes funny before either. So this wasn’t Xiao Shan’s problem; it was because he was too stupid to understand the punchline.

Xiao Shan stared blankly at Luo Shizhen. “You don’t actually not know that homosexuality exists in this world, do you?”

Luo Shizhen was indeed confused. “What is homosexuality?”

Fuck! He really doesn’t know!

“Homosexuality is men falling in love with men, and women falling in love with women. Are you for real? You don’t even know this? How did you get into high school?”

Luo Shizhen was shocked. “It can be like that?”

Then he felt ashamed of his lack of knowledge. “I studied hard, but my grades were always bad. Maybe it was written in the books, but I missed it.”

Xiao Shan: …It would be a ghost story if textbooks wrote about homosexuality.

At this moment, his brain circuit strangely aligned with Qin Yinian’s: Which remote mountain corner did Luo Shizhen crawl out of??

After feeling ashamed, Luo Shizhen became even more confused. “But in that case, how do they have children?”

Xiao Shan: “Homosexuals don’t have children.”

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Luo Shizhen was shocked. “No children? Then after they die, won’t there be no one to burn paper money for them?”

His grandmother was particularly afraid that no one would burn paper money for her after she died, leading to a miserable life in the underworld where she would be bullied by little ghosts. Since Luo Shizhen was seven or eight, Grandma had repeatedly urged him that if she died, he must fold gold ingots for her and call her name while burning the paper.

She also urged Luo Shizhen to remember to have his descendants burn paper money for him when he died; otherwise, he would get lost in the underworld.

Grandma Luo often burned paper for her deceased husband and son, but she was very forward-thinking. She felt her deceased husband might find a new partner down there behind her back.

Her son was filial, but he died in an accident, not from old age, so he might have already been arranged for reincarnation.

So after thinking about it, Grandma Luo felt she was the most reliable one. Before she passed away, she saved up a huge pile of folded paper gold ingots and urged Luo Shizhen repeatedly to burn them for her.

Raised by Grandma Luo, Luo Shizhen naturally believed deeply that after death, one must have descendants to help burn paper money. Otherwise, one would be a poor ghost even after death.

He earnestly explained his grandmother’s “Post-Death Paper Burning Theory” to Xiao Shan.

Finally, he concluded, “So, how can you not have children?”

Xiao Shan sneered, “Do you really believe that’s real?”

Luo Shizhen naturally believed it. “Grandma never lied to me.”

Xiao Shan’s eyes darkened.

“Then what if the child you have isn’t filial? You ask him to burn paper, but he refuses. You say you want a burial, but he cremates you. You buy yourself a plot in a cemetery, and he resells it and scatters your ashes in the sea?”

Now it was Luo Shizhen’s turn to have a blank mind.

Grandma hadn’t taught him what to do in such a situation.

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He couldn’t figure it out, his face turning red from holding it in. Finally, he stammered out a sentence:

“How… how could there be such a bad child?”

“Why wouldn’t there be?”

Xiao Shan was silent for a second, then let out a cold laugh.

He lowered his head to look directly at Luo Shizhen, his eyes gradually filling with hostility.

“That’s exactly how I treated my old man.”

“He was just like your grandma, believing in all that. Before he died, he grabbed my hand and begged me to bury him. I refused. The moment he died, I arranged for cremation immediately. I scattered the ashes with my own hands.”

Xiao Shan didn’t say that his old man raised him like a dog. In his memories, he had never eaten a full meal. That man beat him to vent anger whenever he lost at cards. When debt collectors came to the door, he pushed the few-years-old Xiao Shan out, saying he would use him to pay the debt.

At that time, he cried and hugged his dad’s leg, begging not to be given away. And what did his dad say?

“A son paying his father’s debts is the law of heaven and earth! Otherwise, why the hell did I give birth to you?!”

Xiao Shan remembered this sentence to this day. Even though that trash father was dead and gone, his ashes scattered clean by him, whenever he thought of that sentence, a huge wave of malice and hostility wanting to destroy everything would still surge from his heart.

Looking at Luo Shizhen staring at him blankly, thinking about how he just said having children was so someone would burn paper for him—even knowing that he looked like he knew nothing and just learned whatever his elders taught him—Xiao Shan couldn’t help but feel waves of malice and hostility bubbling up from the bottom of his heart.

Xiao Shan pinched Luo Shizhen’s cheek, pulling the corners of his mouth to the sides, smiling provocatively:

“So? Do you still think I’m good now? Do you still think having children is good?”

Luo Shizhen’s cheeks were very elastic. Being pulled out a small chunk forced his speech to become a bit slurred, but his eyes remained clear, not scared by Xiao Shan at all.

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“Big Brother, we’ve only known each other for two days, and you treat me so well. If you were bad to your dad, it must be because your dad was bad to you first.”

He spoke with certainty, his eyes full of seriousness.

Xiao Shan froze.

“You sure have confidence in me.”

Luo Shizhen chuckled. Because his face was still being pinched, his smile looked even sillier.

“I know Big Brother is a good person. And Mr. Chen definitely knows too; otherwise, he wouldn’t let me follow you.”

This was a bit of Luo Shizhen’s small cleverness. Mr. Chen was a very, very good person. If Mr. Chen entrusted him to Xiao Shan, it must be because he knew Xiao Shan was a good person who wouldn’t bully him and would take care of him.

So no matter how fierce Xiao Shan looked on the outside, Luo Shizhen never feared him.

Xiao Shan maintained eye contact with Luo Shizhen, who kept smiling foolishly at him.

For Xiao Shan, the people and things he encountered growing up leaned towards cold and hard. Even Chen He’an was only gentle on the surface; in his bones, he possessed the aggression and offensive nature of an Awakener.

Luo Shizhen… Why was he completely different from everyone else?

Xiao Shan felt like a cat’s paw gently strummed his heartstrings. A strange emotion permeated his heart.

Staring at Luo Shizhen, he suddenly spoke: “I am a straight man.”

Luo Shizhen was confused. “Big Brother, you said that already. I know you are a straight man.”

Xiao Shan seemed to snap back to reality. “Oh, right, I said that.”

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He slowly released the hand pinching Luo Shizhen’s cheek. “You are also a straight man.”

Luo Shizhen puffed out his chest and patted it. “I am!”

He hadn’t forgotten to clumsily comfort Xiao Shan:

“Big Brother, don’t be sad. It was your dad’s fault for treating you badly. You are so good; he was the bad one.”

“If I had a child as good as you, Big Brother, I would definitely take good care of you.”

Xiao Shan was still a bit dazed.

He thought to himself, I can see Luo Shizhen is a real straight man. He even wants to be my dad.

“Wait, if you are a straight man, why could you use purification on me?”

Luo Shizhen was surprised. “Can straight men not use purification? Can only homosexuals use purification?”

Xiao Shan: “…Wait a minute. I need to call Old Chen and ask.”

Xiao Shan felt he couldn’t argue with Luo Shizhen. This guy was too weird. He looked clumsy, but whenever you argued with him, it was easy to get dragged into his logical loop.

Chen He’an answered the phone very quickly. He was the least likely teacher to be unreachable; whenever students looked for him, he answered instantly.

“Xiao Shan, what’s wrong?”

“What? Shizhen can use purification already?”

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