After the Straight Man Mistook Me for a Dragon-Born Protagonist

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Lin Xuanchuan transmigrates into a cannon-fodder character in a grassroots underdog power fantasy. He doesn’t appear often, but he is an important mentor to the protagonist during the early stages.

The protagonist gets dumped by his fiancée, and Lin Xuanchuan drinks with him and talks him through it. The protagonist isn’t satisfied with his cultivation, so Lin Xuanchuan keeps drinking with him and cheering him up.

In short, whenever the protagonist is unhappy, Lin Xuanchuan is supposed to show up.

People close to the protagonist either ascend to immortality or ascend for real.

Lin Xuanchuan’s character belongs to the latter group. As soon as the protagonist’s destined partner appears, he dies a tragic death and exits the story.

He doesn’t want that! So he has a flash of inspiration. If he becomes brothers with the protagonist, more than just his mentor, maybe he can avoid being written out?

From then on, Lin Xuanchuan decides to do more than offer encouragement. He sticks close to the protagonist at every opportunity. But the protagonist is even worse off than he expected, and is already on the verge of death when they first meet.

Lin Xuanchuan takes Shen Jinglan home and lovingly nurses him back to health, but Shen Jinglan always looks at him with a hint of resentment.

That’s the protagonist!

Lin Xuanchuan is alarmed. To stay alive, he becomes even more attentive.

*

Lin Xuanchuan diligently takes care of him. Drinking together is one thing, but brother, why are you tugging at my belt?

Shen Jinglan: “Didn’t you want us to get closer?”

Lin Xuanchuan thinks about it. Brothers do seem to share a bed and sleep together.

Thrilled at the thought of finally escaping his cannon-fodder fate, Lin Xuanchuan eagerly lifts his clothes, lies down on the bed, and pats the spot beside him. “Come on, bro.”

Lin Xuanchuan does everything he can to get along with him. Somehow, things get along so well they end up in bed together.

When he wakes up sitting on the bed, Lin Xuanchuan’s brain completely crashes. Wait, did something go wrong?

No, isn’t the protagonist straight?

No, wait. Is the person he picked up really the protagonist?!

*

Shen Jinglan is indeed a protagonist, just not the one Lin Xuanchuan was trying to win over.

Lin Xuanchuan is eager to get the story back on track, but Shen Jinglan keeps following him around, his eyes full of resentment. Lin Xuanchuan finishes comforting the real protagonist, then turns to comfort Shen Jinglan, only to hear him ask, “Are he and I the same to you?”

Lin Xuanchuan: “How could you possibly be the same!”

“You’re not allowed to see him.”

“...I can’t agree to that.”

Shen Jinglan looks aggrieved, so Lin Xuanchuan quickly says, “I’ll agree to anything else.”

“Every time you see him, you do it with me once.”

Lin Xuanchuan plays dumb. “Do what?”

“Twice.”

“! Wait...”

“Three times.”

“Fine, fine, fine! Stop adding more!”

*

Lin Xuanchuan puts up with it once or twice, but he really can’t take being jolted awake whenever he tries to sleep. After giving it serious thought, he decides to run away.

He knows the difference between work and love.

He runs, but doesn’t get away.

Shen Jinglan follows him everywhere like a male ghost. Wherever Lin Xuanchuan goes, Shen Jinglan goes too, just like he’s a heartless lover who abandoned him.

Lin Xuanchuan really can’t take it anymore. He doesn’t want to keep going back and forth between the protagonist and Shen Jinglan.

No, he needs to come up with a plan. He’s already won someone over, so how can he have won over the wrong person?

Lin Xuanchuan has a flash of inspiration and a bold idea. What if the antagonist is the protagonist?

Then that would still count as a successful conquest, right?

Theme: A beautiful misunderstanding