Said this last week, but what a thread.

Anyways, I'm re-reading Saye, a danmei novel, and man, seeing how much freedom danmei had in the 2010s (when the series was made) compared to the present makes me depressed.
I can't imagine something like,
>As Gu Fei traced his fingers back around his inner thigh, and slid in with the coolness of the lube, Jiang Cheng’s breathing suddenly got a lot heavier, and accompanied by a very low sound.
>Gu Fei pressed up against his back and clutched his waist tight, then licked the back of his ear gently, tracing a line to the back of his neck. Along the way he could feel Jiang Cheng’s surging pulse and the tensed skin wherever he went.
being made today unless it's written poetically or is pertaining to something not completely human. I'd be happy to be proven wrong on this, but it seems that danmei is heading to a sad direction. At least the merch seems to still have a romantic flair to it.

In any case, I'm on the 5th volume of Saye (final is 6th) and I still really enjoy how down to earth this SoL is upon re-reading it after all these years. Even within the SoL genre, many works struggle to develop a believable couple, especially when it has an opposites attract trope (with a vers couple no less!) so I'm happy in how Saye pulls it off. Though, I kind of wish some of the coincidences were more believable. For instance, MC found his older brother in the midst of being beaten violently the moment the MC decides to visit him the first time. Yes, there were hints that he was chased by loan sharks shortly beforehand, and this happened at the brother's place so it's not a random street, but just walking right into the action when the MC, on his own, decided to visit the first time is quite the coincidence.Regardless, I don't think it's a big deal overall, and I enjoy the work immensely.