114 Reputation (1/2)
After she figured it out, the situation was not that hard to understand. If intimate activities were delineated according to levels, sex would naturally be the highest level and lower than it would be kissing, hugging, and holding hands.
Hugging and holding hands were out of question because they might occur too accidentally, like someone might reach out to steady you when you tripped and fell. In fact, these activities might be considered a cultural reaction for the alien race.
So, it was understandable that these two interactions would not influence the sex transformation. However, kissing was obviously a sign of intimacy. If intercourse was the concrete condition to stabilize one's sex, a level 1 intimate interaction could be seen as a pseudo-trigger.
The effect of a pseudo-trigger was not permanent, so without a final condition to follow up, the sex swap would return to its original state.
Ye Shuang discovered something interesting that she had not paid attention to before. Like on that alien planet, what if a couple's transformation time was completely similar?
Sex between same sex individuals was not meant for trading of genetic information, so it defeated the purpose of procreation. So, they would have to go and have sex with another alien to stabilize their sex before coming back to hump their lovers‽ That was too challenging to the moral standard; even the aliens had shame.
Therefore, when facing this situation, one of the couple could ask for a kiss of blessing from a family member of the opposite sex to extend the sex transformation to the next day. This meant that their transformation time would be delayed by one day… and that was more than enough time for those 'things'.
This kind of interaction only needed the touching of the lips—the length and passion would not affect the outcome. After breaking up, this method could be repeated until the final partner was found.
”So, as I've said, kissing a member of the opposite sex can delay the transformation time to the next day, but this is only possible on the day of the supposed change; kissing earlier than that would be pointless. For example, if I kissed someone on the second day of being a woman, then the third day I would still be a woman, so the kiss would have no effect, and it wouldn't be delayed to the fourth day.”
Of course, if you want to continue the streak on the fourth day, it was possible as well. The alien race upheld the notion of free love, too. Before settling down with the final partner, a little physical affection was not that out of line, and it could be used to stabilize both parties' sex.
Basically, it was easy to discern whether someone was in a relationship on that planet—you could just see whether their sex had changed within a three day period. If it did not, then said person was taken.
After the detailed explanation, Ye Shuang sighed. ”I didn't pay attention to this detail before because I assumed it was an alien culture and life experience information… and isn't something worth knowing. Since I don't plan to visit this alien planet, I just skipped over the information.”
Why would she, an earthling, familiarize herself with alien culture‽ If not for the need to find out the reason for the discrepancy, she would not have gone back to study it either. After hearing Ye Shuang's explanation, her father felt much relieved because at least it was not a health scare as he had thought, but now he had another problem to worry about.
”Who is the creep that kissed you‽” Father Ye's face fell and hissed through gritted teeth. Which f*cker dared kiss my precious daughter‽ Does he want to die?
”…Erm, it was an accident. I still have work tomorrow, so I'll be leaving, good night!” Ye Shuang fled as soon as she could. With flighty steps, she hurried back to her room to sleep, leaving a grim-faced Father Ye who was prepared to find out more information from Little Brother Ye.
…
The next day, Brother Shuang reappeared at her apartment. After fetching the golden retriever, she picked up the lawyer on the way to meet Miss Bai. Miss Bai was straightforward. That morning, she had called to say that Director Zhou was free due to the delay in his latest film and was coming with her because he wanted to meet Brother Shuang.