Book 2 Chapter 47-Wedding
Added 2023-11-13 15:53:46 +0000 UTCThank you for your patience! I know the Cultural Notes are a little long for this chapter, but traditional Chinese weddings had a LOT of rituals involved.
Comments
The scene's supposed to end there as a semi-cliffhanger. As for Kayla's sexuality, it was mentioned before that she began to experience attraction to women after merging souls with Wenyuan. It's not explicitly stated whether that's because of the soul-merging or if it just served as an awakening for Kayla to uncover repressed desires of her own, because I wanted to leave that open to interpretation.
umedrop24
2023-11-14 14:02:57 +0000 UTCIs that a cliffhanger or is the scene supposed to end there? Would they really do it or would Kayla fail? Unless Kayla is Bi or Homo this is gonna fail terribly isn't it? Had her sexuality been stated anytime before? What is happening? ππ
Alex Iskandar
2023-11-14 12:24:07 +0000 UTCIt's thematic consistency for being a fish out of water in every possible way! It's less about whether Kayla counts as being transgender and more about how gender is linked to social position, which this story indirectly tries to get at. Kayla was a woman in her original world, but here she holds the social position of a man who can participate in politics, own property, and take all manners of sexual liberties. In other words, not so dissimilar to the rights she has as a woman in a modern society, though certainly more privileged (enormously wealthy and related to the Emperor). Wenyuan was a dude through and through, but his constrained social position under the Grand Duke (no personal financial, political, or social power save for that afforded under the careful control of his patriarch), including the sexual harassment and domestic abuse, was actually closer to the social position that a young woman with an abusive father might have in the same time period. Sure, Wenyuan could participate in politics, but he had less influence at court than an eunuch might. And in terms of sexuality, people in Ancient China were a lot less interested in labels. What would now be considered being bisexual was not so uncommon back in the day, even if that wasn't what it was called. Not needing to label it certainly takes off a lot of pressure for someone like Kayla, who finds herself in a confusing position.
umedrop24
2023-11-13 18:28:13 +0000 UTCWe're just gonna fully ignore the unnecessary transgender of it all huh?
Notcreepycreeper
2023-11-13 17:35:23 +0000 UTC
