Where Luo Binghe comes from, it's not particularly frowned upon. It's widely assumed that men will marry women, but men who choose other men are not seen as lesser. However, for Luo Binghe specifically, there is much to lose by not being—as Sagramore poetically puts it—"straight." Until recently, the thought filled him with panic. He never thought the same might be true for Shen Qingqiu, because what could he possibly have to lose by it? He's not even married. And even if he was, people regularly give up their lives, homes, families and status to marry Luo Binghe. He's never thought that might make someone hesitate.

"No one minds it, in my world, but Shen Qingqiu... I don't know where he's from. He is—by his own admission—a displaced spirit, inhabiting a body that doesn't belong to him. Because I knew the real Shen Qingqiu, and he was entirely different from the man who lives here. Our Shen Qingqiu admitted to this, but shied away from telling me who he really is. So how these things are viewed in his home country, I know no better than you." He chews on his thumbnail anxiously, thinking hard. "You really think it's because I'm a man? I would never have thought—I would sooner have guessed it was because I'm a demon." He's afraid to take Sagramore at his word just yet.