The situation this story is in is not as straightforward as 'fuck China, they are stopping this story from being interesting', even though a LOT of people in these comments sections say that it is. The story was dropped by the publisher for reasons that weren't well explained (to anyone). The situation is complicated, but the best summary I was able to figure out was 'the government (or a very minor piece of it) probably was involved in some way'. However, that publisher still does run other yuri content besides this (not that much, but it does). It also runs yaoi content.
Now that the story is dropped though, the author can do whatever they want with it. Maybe they're trying to play down the attraction between the leads in the assumption that that's why the story got dropped. However, it is also what makes this story interesting. If you cut the yuri from a yuri manhwa, what's left wouldn't be interesting enough for the publisher to pick up again anyway. So... if that's the author's intention, it's stupid.
The idea that lesbian relationships in stories can't progress in China doesn't seem to be true at all, though (even though people say this CONSTANTLY). Every Chinese manhwa's comments section is riddled with comments like this now (because of this incident with Tamen de Gushi), and they're almost always wrong (Dormant Desires, Fatal Possession, Mojito, Soulmates, and the list goes on). Maybe the statement is true, but only if the author is trying to be published by a major publication (most aren't, at least not directly).