Chapter 36

From seventeen until now, last year had been the only year that Yuan Ye hadn’t received a red envelope or Fang Shaoyi’s simple blessings that sounded like sweet nothings. Last New Year’s Eve, he had spent the first half of the night with Professor Yuan and his mom. The second half of the night, he had been at Old Tu’s, drinking until the sun came up. When Old Tu drank, he wasn’t willing to have the little girl stay next to him. Thus, it was only the two of them. That day, Yuan Ye hadn’t been very talkative. He wanted to use the alcohol to numb his nerves.

But that day remained extra clear in his mind. What he had gained and lost during all these years, what actually caused him more pain, remained stuck in his brain.

This day, the two of them ultimately didn’t go all the way. Neither of them wanted to – or, more accurately, neither could bear to. Back then, they had fucked shamelessly and messily during the show filming. That had been because both of them had felt stuffy in their hearts at the time. With so many emotions twisted together, unable to find a good method of catharsis, they felt like they would never get to do anything again if they didn’t do it now. Additionally, it had already been the last episode.

However, that wasn’t the case now. Now, the other was right in front of their eyes. Their romance was slowly healing. Thus, they couldn’t bear to use sex again to either end or begin this relationship. Sex would cause the ambiguous stage to immediately end. And then, the two of them would naturally be together again. But this ultimately lacked a bit of ceremony.

With a practically irrelevant distance between them, Yuan Ye’s mouth was curved in a calm, gentle smile. His voice was slightly raspy. “Yi ge, I’ll help you rub one out?”

Fang Shaoyi closed his eyes and lowly hummed in response. After, he asked, “Don’t need to be fucked anymore?”

Yuan Ye was still laughing. Once he finished chuckling, he said, “I have a big mouth. You know that.”

Fang Shaoyi squeezed Yuan Ye’s chin and forcefully bit it before telling him softly, “All you can do is bluff.”

“Un, exactly.” Yuan Ye was finally well behaved now. “I’m the most cowardly.”

Fang Shaoyi gently ground his teeth against Yuan Ye’s chin, then turned off the lights with a smack of his hand. Only a small night light remained lit by the headboard of the bed.

These days, Yuan Ye was so well behaved he didn’t seem like a wild monkey: he seemed like a tamed monkey kept in someone’s home. His words no longer carried thorns and he thought a lot more before acting. On set, his relationship with the film crew and directors was very good. As long as he was next to Fang Shaoyi, he would automatically hide his quills away, doing his best to make himself seem calm.

Yuan Ye even gave the other two young, on-site screenwriters red envelopes for the new year. Little Gao seemed flattered. “Yuan Ye ge, you’re too kind. Thank you, ge. You’ve always taken care of us.”

Yuan Ye smiled and responded, “Happy New Year. Hopefully work will go smoothly in the new year.”

Yang Siran had stayed on set over the Spring Festival too. He was someone in Fang Shaoyi’s company, so Yuan Ye gave him a red envelope as well. When he ran into him in the hallway, Yuan Ye called him to a halt. Yang Siran stopped in his tracks and asked, “What’s wrong, Yuan Ye ge?”

Yuan Ye pulled out a fairly thick red envelope from his pocket and threw it at him. “Catch! Jiayou.”

Yang Siran caught the red envelope in slight surprise. He blinked, but surprisingly didn’t manage to say anything in response. A long time later, he finally got a “thank you” out. He had even forgotten to add Yuan Ye’s name. His expression looked extremely panicked.

Yuan Ye started laughing because of his reaction. He said, “You don’t need to be so nervous.”

There were still two days of break left. Fang Shaoyi fell asleep in Yuan Ye’s room. Yuan Ye obediently started doing chores beside him, completely silent. A while later, Fang Shaoyi fell into a deep sleep. Yuan Ye changed the temperature of the thermostat and placed a thin blanket over Fang Shaoyi. Then, he left to get some fresh air alone.

It was slightly cold outside. Yuan Ye exhaled before putting his hands in his pockets and randomly walking around. His brain went blank. These moments were the most relaxing.

Yang Siran had a hat on. His ears were stuffed with earphones. He ran over from the opposite direction. Yuan Ye raised a hand to greet him. Yang Siran stopped to chat. He called out, “Yuan Ye ge.”

Yuan Ye asked him, “Running?”

Yang Siran nodded. “Yes. I feel sleepy if I stay in my room.”

At first, because Yuan Ye was talking to him, Yang Siran followed the other and started slowly walking as well. Later on, it would be improper if he finished the conversation and turned around to run off in the opposite direction. Thus, the two of them started walking together. This pair seemed incompatible, but in actuality, were fine.

Yuan Ye inquired, “What are you listening to?”

The other had taken his earphones out long ago. Because of Yuan Ye’s question, Yang Siran handed them over. He said, “Just an instrumental. No lyrics. Yuan Ye ge, do you want to listen?”

He had already handed them over, so Yuan Ye grabbed them and stuffed them into his ears. There was a piano piece playing. It was very slow, but very nice. Yuan Ye asked him, “Who composed this instrumental?”

Yang Siran switched to the next song. Shyly, he smiled and said, “I did. It’s not too polished. Just don’t laugh at me.”

Yuan Ye was a complete outsider when it came to music. He actually couldn’t tell anything, but the melody was very comfortable to listen to. All the songs were pretty good. Yuan Ye was quite surprised. “They’re all written by you?”

“Un, yes.” Yang Siran nodded before smiling softly. “Actually, I studied music.”

Yuan Ye truly hadn’t expected this. He gazed at Yang Siran, then asked, “Why did you sign to their company if you studied music? They only film movies. You like acting?”

Yang Siran zipped his jacket up all the way, so that it was touching his chin. He glanced at Yuan Ye before shaking his head. “Actually, I didn’t really like acting in the beginning. It was very unnatural. But later on, it got better because I got used to it. It’s a lot easier for us newbies to act when it’s alongside someone like Shaoyi ge.”

“Un, he helps you get into character. Learn well from him,” Yuan Ye replied.

This strange pair actually strolled and conversed for a long time. When Yuan Ye returned to the room, Fang Shaoyi was already awake. He asked, “Where’d you run off to?”

Yuan Ye was still surrounded by the cold air that he had picked up from his walk outside. On the other hand, Fang Shaoyi was nice and warm. Yuan Ye stuck his hands under the other’s blankets. Upon remembering what had happened in the past, he purposefully stated, “Took a stroll with a young kid.”

The last time he had held a nighttime conversation with a young kid, he had been taught a lesson. Now, he still had the face to bring this up again. He was trying to cause trouble with his words. Fang Shaoyi remembered too. Eyebrow cocked, he inquired, “Talking about emotions again? About life?”

Yuan Ye stuffed his hands between Fang Shaoyi and the bed. The temperature was alluring. With a cheeky smile, he answered, “Ah, I was chatting about emotions with Little Yang. I asked my ex-husband’s rumored overnight little boyfriend about his love life and future dreams. That sort of stuff. Gotta know the enemy, right?”

Fang Shaoyi burst into laughter. He didn’t keep joking with Yuan Ye, instead lifting an arm and wrapping it around the other to hug him. Yuan Ye took this chance to flop on him. Fang Shaoyi laughed and asked, “Touching ceramics? I didn’t even put any strength into my arms.”

Yuan Ye was touching ceramics. As soon as Fang Shaoyi had neared him, he had directly flopped over. Now, he laid there, laughing, for a long time. After, he said, “Your body is always quite warm when you wake up. I’m sharing the heat.”

Their ages added together was close to seventy, but they weren’t lacking in the slightest when acting in this suggestive manner. It was a good thing Ji Xiaotao wasn’t here now. Otherwise, he would definitely be complaining to himself about these two old men acting like two young people in love. So shameless.

Such a brief break passed in the blink of an eye. By the time work started up again, everyone felt extremely lazy. The first night, they held an important meeting in the conference room. This meeting lasted three hours. Fang Shaoyi couldn’t skip out on working out; he had tasks to accomplish every day. Previously, he had lost some weight during the period that he had been plagued by a headache. His fitness instructor had eventually switched up his workout plan. After Yuan Ye finished the meeting, he returned to organize the script for the next day. Tomorrow, they definitely wouldn’t be editing scenes or lines. The first day back at work needed to be filled with good luck. They had specially chosen a scene where Fang Shaoyi was acting alongside an old, experienced actor. The first day, filming went extremely smoothly.

On this day, Geng Jinwei visited too. He had returned to his family home for the Spring Festival. Prior to heading back to the company, he first came to take a look at their set.

When Fang Shaoyi finished filming for the day, it was already dark. After he removed his makeup and changed, he shared a meal with Geng Jinwei. Yuan Ye had headed over to the director’s room to edit the script. Thus, he hadn’t tagged along.

During dinner, Geng Jinwei said, “Your movie’s investor wants to edit the script. Has the director mentioned it yet?”

Fang Shaoyi cocked an eyebrow. “A major edit? About what?”

Geng Jinwei answered, “They want to add another main character. You’ll still be the male lead, but they’re adding a second male lead. However, I assume that Director Jiang and the producers will be able to hold their own against the pressure. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have not mentioned it. Everyone knows about his terrible temper. If he gets angry and simply quits, everybody would be dumbasses.”

Investors who didn’t try to cause trouble were too rare. Fang Shaoyi didn’t really think too much about this. Jiang Linchuan’s crew would be able to stand their ground against the pressure. Fang Shaoyi said, “The new crew Linchuan has switched to is a bit unstable, but won’t be too annoying. Let him be.”

Not everybody’s movie would allow investors to mess around. Jiang Linchuan’s temper wouldn’t accept this. Thus, he hadn’t even mentioned anything. It wouldn’t pass in his books.

On the eighth day of the new year, Ji Xiaotao came back, dragging his big suitcase. There were quite a lot of delicious snacks in it, all from home. He gave some out to the directors and producers he was familiar with, then went to knock on Yuan Ye’s door. “Mr. Screenwriter! Open the door, I’m gifting you care!”

Mr. Screenwriter’s door was opened by the film emperor.

Ji Xiaotao and Fang Shaoyi stared at each other. Ji Xiaotao thought to himself I only left for ten days. Where in the relationship have you two progressed to now?

These two people hadn’t responded to any of his messages for the past few days. They found him annoying. After returning to the film set, he hadn’t seen Fang Shaoyi in his own room. Instead, he now saw him in Yuan Ye’s room.

Yuan Ye shouted from inside, “What care are you gifting? Let me see.”

Ji Xiaotao scurried in and placed a pack of jerky next to Yuan Ye. He lowly asked, “Mr. Screenwriter......Remarriage?”

Mr. Screenwriter picked up a piece of jerky and stuffed it into his mouth. He answered, “You can leave now that you’ve gifted the care. Take your ge with you too. Let me have some peace and quiet.”

Ji Xiaotao turned around and left, completely unbothered. As he walked, he said, “Only I’m annoying. My ge isn’t annoying at all. Let him stay here!”

After he left, Yuan Ye and Fang Shaoyi made eye contact. Both laughed. Fang Shaoyi told Yuan Ye, “Sleep earlier. I’ll head back now.”

Yuan Ye nodded. “Okay.”

However, before Fang Shaoyi could leave, Ji Xiaotao knocked on the door again. Fang Shaoyi opened the door for him and Ji Xiaotao squeezed in. With furrowed brows, he asked, “Didn’t He Sai finish his scenes before the new year? How come I saw his manager again?”

Yuan Ye had originally been sprawled out very haphazardly on the table. Now, he instantly sat up straight, one eyebrow raised extremely high. “He’s back again?”

“Ah, I saw him. In the hallway,” Ji Xiaotao answered.

Yuan Ye replied, “Probably because his acting is bad. Maybe one of the scenes he filmed previously couldn’t pass, so the director called him back to make it up.”

“Quit messing around. They want us to go back and keep sniffing the smell of paint?” Ji Xiaotao scoffed. “He’s in such a big rush, but still has time to come back and make up some shots?”

“Technically he should be done already.” Yuan Ye furrowed his brows. “But I can’t say for certain. I’ll go check it out tomorrow.”