#shen yuan was just like huh i get a lot of romance scenes with the mc well we gotta wait for him to get his harem!!!

[potatosaresweet]

the unreliable narrator pipeline starts with richard papen (purposefully hiding details or altering events to make himself look better) and ends with shen yuan (being even more lost than the reader on what is going on)

[touchmycoat]

svsss extraordinary you!AU

shoujo main lead Luo Binghe, the poor kid at Cang Qiong on a scholarship that only barely takes care of his ailing mother’s hospital fees, relentlessly bullied yet relentlessly optimistic

shoujo love interest Shen Qingqiu got looks got smarts got money, top of the school hierarchy, most prominent member of the school’s peak tier trio of heartbreakers, nicknamed, what, the Lords? the Immortals?

secondary love interest Yue Qingyuan also got looks got smarts got money, is the son of the school’s president, famously kind and super darling and popular. Mournfully plays the erhu in LBH presence a lot while SQQ steals LBH’s attention from him

B-plot male lead Liu Qingge, the grumpy pants of the peak lords but also gao fu shuai, son of corporate scion

B-plot love interest Shen Yuan, LQG’s fiancé who’s been pursuing him for ten years, but LQG hates his guts. Has a chronic heart condition that causes many convenient plot lines

One day Shen Yuan begins to grow increasingly aware of the weird page-flipping noises he hears, the gaps in his memory, the way he does things he doesn’t actually want to do, like weep in the middle of a courtyard after LQG snaps at him to stop following him around

Genre-savvy SY sees LBH being bullied, sees the Peak Lords, sees the way everybody immediately forgets any and all rude or “uncharacteristic” thing he says, and makes the educated deduction that he was in a shoujo manga. He’s bound by weird rules here, whether or not he wants to—he’ll always chase after LQG no matter how horrible the things LQG says to him are, he’ll always appear in tropey scenes to help forward the romantic plot line between SQQ and LBH

like when LBH gets locked in that bathroom stall! where did those random wet wipes in SY’s hand come from?? he helps LBH out, and keeps up this constant sighing litany of “oh you poor thing, suffering this shit writing, how many times will they shove you into a locker how many times will they beat you up, how many times will SQQ give you a random debt and demand you be his servant this is such BAD WRITING”

but LBH of course doesn’t remember any of it

as SY develops this habit of commentating on all the scenarios’ being shit, one day he suddenly enters a scene with the super busy school administrator Shang Qinghua, who hears him, and suddenly is all “!!!!!!!!!” and drags him aside

SQH is all “bro, oh my god you’re conscious thank god” and SY is like “??? who are you?” and SQH is all “You don’t remember???”

“What are you talking about?”

“Bro, we’re not from here. This isn’t our world. But thank god you’re awake, seriously, I’ve been so scared this whole time watching you all run around with your bullshit romance plots seriously it’s like they didn’t try at all and that’s coming from me hahaha... Well anyways, we have to wake everybody else up, okay? If you can be woken up... Maybe they all can too.”

“...Who are ‘they?’”

For personality reasons, they decide to try YQY first. SY points out that he’d been talking shit to their faces this whole time, but it’s never worked, they’ve never remembered past the next required plot scene. But they investigate anyways—or well, SY investigates, since he’s the one actually popping in and out of the scenes, while SQH is the most background extra to exist and still have a name in this manga.

SY tries a handful of things, but they never seem to work. YQY is always still staring longingly at SQQ and LBH from afar.

One day, when he’s near giving up, SY asks YQY, “what do you like so much about him anyways?”

“...I don’t know.” Classic shit writing for side characters, Yue-dage!! I’m sorry you got so shafted!! “I just... I just really feel like I’ve always loved him, and have never known how to stop.”

“Man, sorry to hear that, unrequited love must really burn.”

“Well you’d know best, wouldn’t you Shen Yuan? Heheh. I appreciate your commiseration.” Here, YQY’s expression grows frustrated. “I just... I just wish he liked him back, is all. He not liking me back is one thing, but to watch him suffer too? Why can’t he just give him a straight-forward answer already, you know?”

SY, blinking, “I... Sorry, you lost me. You wish who liked who back?”

“Luo B—”

“Shen-xuezhang!” LBH comes bounding over, ditching SQQ mid-convo. “Yue-xuezhang.”

Ah, darling main character, you can’t just leave your love interest behind like that!! This is why Yue Qingyuan keeps hoping you like him back!

“Um, I’ve actually been having a little trouble with the new math material lately, and I think a tutor would really help...”

“...Ah, sorry,” YQY says, attention completely on SQQ glaring at him in the back. SY of course thinks this is about their love triangle with LBH. “I’m no good at math.”

“That’s fine,” LBH dismisses way too quickly. “What about Shen-xuezhang? Please?”

“I don’t mind,” SY says, frowning. “But I doubt the plot will let me. Isn’t your tutor supposed to be Yue Qingyuan, any way you look at it?”

FLIP

SY is LBH’s tutor. SY reluctantly gives the author a little kudos for going out of the box with this one, but he assumes, of course, that he’s meant to be forwarding the love triangle. LBH asks if SY is going to the annual school ball with LQG, and SY goes “aha,  I’m supposed to invite him, doll him up, and bring him to the ball to shock SQQ and YQY’s poor hearts mhm.”

LQG also shows up. Cue scene. SY asks LQG if they’re going together and LQG yells at him and refuses to go and, heroic heroine Bingmei says he’ll go with the quietly crying SY. Typical.

They go the ball. YQY is there first, and SY gets ready for YQY to get the “oh my god he’s beautiful” close-up glowing shot when he sees LBH, but to SY’s surprise it doesn’t come. Instead, it’s when SQQ shows up that there’s some sparkles, and what’s this, a delayed stage effect? What kind of poor scene management!! SY wants his money back!! But at least SQQ gets the glowy close up when he sees LBH.

But before SY can inquire further, he’s flipped into another scene with an angry LQG, snapping at him about using his family’s corporate power to pressure LQG’s family into making LQG keep SY company etc. etc. SY is helplessly sniffling while on the inside he’s like god let me die this is so contrived end the scene already.

The scene finally ends, and he completely snaps out of the weepy setting. He slaps LQG on the arm mid-sentence and is like “shut up for a second, let me ask you a question about YQY—has he been acting strangely recently?”

LQG is a bit startled at first, but does answer. “Not particularly, why?”

“He hasn’t been... asking questions? Talking about gaps in his memory? Hearing strange sounds?”

“Why are you asking??”

“Sigh, grumpy pants Liu-juju of course you’re no help. But that’s not your fault.  It’s not like I’m not taking any of your shouting to heart, though it still sucks a surprising amount to be shit on all the time about a health condition I can’t even help, I’ll be honest. But anyways, I’m off.”

“...Sorry.”

“Hm?”

“I don’t mean to shout about your heart condition,” LQG grits out. “I said I’m sorry.”

“Oh. Wow.” Come to think about it, this is SY’s first time talking to LQG outside of a scene. “Huh, I guess you’re actually not a bad guy, without bad writing? They really did you dirty. Don’t worry about it man.”

[pr0cyon-lotor]

HELP???? Why are you right tho? 😭😭😭

the unreliable narrator pipeline starts with richard papen (purposefully hiding details or altering events to make himself look better) and ends with shen yuan (being even more lost than the reader on what is going on)