C2 Part12

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P – Chapter 2.11

P – Chapter 2.12

Cao Ye settled down for a good few days afterwards.

The things Cao Xiuyuan said to him were actually somewhat useful — after all, hotheaded teenagers never wanted to be looked down on, let alone being looked down on by their own distinguished father.

The other reason he was actually willing to stay at Lan Yan was because of Liang Sizhe. Compared to staying with Lin Yan, who never stopped with his public displays of affection, Cao Ye found staying with Liang Sizhe much more comfortable and relaxing.

And at the same time, Cao Ye’s innate talent at getting people to like him fully displayed itself at Lan Yan. Within less than two days, he met and became friends with no less than ten older sisters. He’d go down the stairs, and he’d see Hong-jie, Lan-jie, Qing-jie… It’d be a whole train of greetings, and it’d get to the point where he was almost calling out all the colours of the rainbow.1

It was habit for Liang Sizhe to watch a film in their room in the afternoon. If it was a film he hadn’t seen before, Cao Ye would watch along; if it was one he’d already watched, he would run downstairs in just a few minutes. It was painful for him to resist giving out spoilers.

During the summer, the karaoke hall in the second floor opened for business at 7pm. Lan Yan was at its most quietest at the hours right before opening; the ladies living in the third floor used them to dress up and clean their rooms. When going downstairs to throw away their trash, they’d greet each other — but none of them had any desire to chat.

But as soon as Cao Ye started living at Lan Yan, those hours suddenly livened up. Cao Ye didn’t like staying in his room, disdaining the poor light, and kept sitting by the doorway on a wooden stool. The women coming back from throwing away their trash all liked to go up to him and chat for a while.

“Is Cao Xiuyuan really your dad?”

“Can you get Director Cao to give us a few background roles?”

“Did your dad tell you to come here for the environment?”

Cao Ye was always polite and friendly. If he was given a difficult question, he’d play dumb and gloss over it, a bright smile on his face most of the time. Anyone would be willing to become friends with someone like him; there wasn’t a trace of having lived through hardship on him. He was filled with so much fresh, lively youthfulness that it was about to bubble over — just by going outside and sitting in the the sun, he was about to pop and overflow.

One of them was Cao Xiuyuan’s son, and the other was a newcomer Cao Xiuyuan had chosen. The grapevine was flourishing, and since the people in the store knew exactly who these two boys were, they couldn’t help but secretly compare them against each other.

They said — look, Liang Sizhe truly was really good-looking, and he truly did have something unique to him, but he just wasn’t as friendly and easy to get along with as Young Master Cao. It was almost as though he’d erected a thick border around himself; he talked, joked and came into contact with people with that border in between. “He’s hard to get close to,” the store owner quietly concluded.

It was nearing dusk, and Cao Ye was sitting at the doorway idly talking with a few of the women. The number of guests started to increase, the sounds and noises gradually rising. Just as he was about to take the stool back inside and go upstairs, a very familiar off-road car drove in and stopped in front of him. When the door opened, Zheng Yin came out.

“Uncle Yin?” Cao Ye got up. “Why are you here?”

Closing the car door, Zheng Yin walked up the steps. “I’m here to see if you’ve been obediently staying here.”

The women immediately turned around and went inside as soon as they saw Zheng Yin, worried they’d get into trouble.

Zheng Yin glanced at those receding figures and gave Cao Ye a pat on the back. “Troublesome brat.”

“What, I only came out here for a bit… Uncle Yin, why’d you come without even giving me a call?”

Zheng Yin threw him a look. “Should I have called you ahead of time so you could make it look like you’re seriously studying the script?”

Cao Ye dryly chuckled. “Well, you coming by so suddenly makes it look like you’re here to catch a cheating spouse…”

“Am I not?” Zheng Yin gravely said, “Don’t let me see you talking to those girls again, understand?”

“My dad told me to experience living in places like this, but you’re forbidding me to do this and that.” Cao Ye retorted confidently without fear, “Then I might as well stay in my room all day staring at the script. Why bother living here…”

He was actually right, so Zheng Yin helplessly tried to compromise. “All right. You can talk to them, but you can’t talk about indecent stuff. Where’s your Sizhe-ge?”

Cao Ye pointed upstairs. “Watching a film.”

Zheng Yin looked at him. “And why aren’t you?” He started pushing at Cao Ye’s back, moving him forward, wanting him to follow him upstairs.

“I’ve watched it before!” Cao Ye unhappily said.

When they pushed open the door, Liang Sizhe was sitting on his bed, his back leaning against the headboard. One of his legs was stretched out, while the other was bent upwards. His eyes shifted from the television screen to the two people coming in at the sound of the door opening.

“Yin… Ge.” Seeing Zheng Yin come in, he moved slightly to sit up straight.

“Mn.” Zheng Yin walked in and looked at the television — it was playing The Godfather. “Watching something?”

Liang Sizhe pressed the pause button on the remote. “Yes.”

Cao Ye came in behind Zheng Yin, interrupting them and saying, “Liang Sizhe, how could you call Uncle Yin ‘ge’? That’s just taking advantage of me2.” He’d gotten familiar with Liang Sizhe these last few days; he no longer pretended to be obedient and now called Liang Sizhe directly by his name.

Smiling, Liang Sizhe explained, “It’s a bit strange to call him ‘uncle’.” Zheng Yin just didn’t look like someone old enough to be a generation older than him. The words ‘Uncle Yin’ didn’t come out of his mouth as easily as they did from Cao Ye’s mouth.

“But you should call him what I do. If you call him ‘ge’, then wouldn’t that mean you’ve turned into someone the same generation as him? Should I call you ‘Uncle Sizhe’ then?”

“You can if you want,” Liang Sizhe laughed. “I don’t mind.”

“I mind!” Cao Ye sat down on Liang Sizhe’s bed, looking up at Zheng Yin. “Uncle Yin, do something about him.”

“I can’t even handle you,” Zheng Yin replied with a chuckle, but he still looked at Liang Sizhe. “Since Xiao Ye calls me ‘uncle’, then you may as well call me that too.”

“All right…” It didn’t really matter to Liang Sizhe, so he easily said, “Uncle Yin.”

“Mn,” Zheng Yin responded in return. Lowering his head to look at the two boys sitting on the bed, he got down to business. “I’m here to let you guys know there’ll be a screen test in two days. Cao-laoshi3, the scriptwriter, the assistant director, the casting director… all of the crew’s important people will be there that day. Get yourselves ready. I’ll pick you guys up around 3pm that day.”

“How should we prepare?” Cao Ye asked, looking at him.

“There’s no need to specifically prepare anything. Just clean yourself up a bit — it’ll just be a screen test to see how you appear on camera. We’re not testing acting ability yet. No need to be nervous.”

“So we just need to spin around a few times in front of the camera?”

“Yes, something like that,” Zheng Yin said while nodding.

“Hey, Uncle Yin.” Cao Ye reached out and placed an arm on Liang Sizhe’s shoulder. He tried to fish for some information. “Will the two of us be in the same film?”

“Hm, that’s… hard to say.”

Cao Ye let out a ‘tsk’. “Keeping us in suspense.”

“I’m really not,” Zheng Yin laughed. “We haven’t even done the first round of on-camera testing yet, let alone the later rounds of acting auditions. Everything is still uncertain. It’s not like I can predict the future.”

Cao Ye had nothing to say to that. “Fine.”

Now that he’d told them what he’d come to say, Zheng Yin looked at Liang Sizhe and said, “Sizhe, come out with me for a bit.”

“What’s up? Why can’t you tell me too?” Cao Ye hooked his arm around Liang Sizhe’s neck and refused to let go. “Don’t go with him.”

“It’s not like I can talk badly about you to your face, can I?” Zheng Yin smiled. “Hurry up and let him go. It’s urgent.”

Liang Sizhe lifted a hand and caught Cao Ye’s wrist, wanting to move his arm away, but Cao Ye stubbornly tightened his hold instead and actually held on quite tightly. Liang Sizhe couldn’t really wrestle with him in front of Zheng Yin, so he turned his face over and said to him, “Don’t worry. I definitely won’t tattle on you.”

“It’s not like I’ve done anything recently!” But despite saying so, Cao Ye loosened his arm.

Shifting over to the side of the bed, Liang Sizhe got down, put on his shoes and headed out behind Zheng Yin.

Right before the door closed, Cao Ye hollered, “Liang Sizhe, remember we’re on the same side!”

“Have you been getting along well with Cao Ye?” Zheng Yin asked as they walked. There was a marked difference in the way Zheng Yin treated him when it was just the two of them. Zheng Yin treated him with the slight distance that usually appeared between two people of the same age; it was entirely different from the familiar way he interacted with Cao Ye as though he was a child.

“Yes. We’ve been getting along decently,” Liang Sizhe responded.

“He’s not an annoying child, so at least I don’t really worry about that.”

Liang Sizhe hummed in response.

“Sizhe, I asked you to come out with me because I wanted to ask if you could please watch over Xiao Ye. He’s completely like a small child. I’m rather worried about leaving him here in this sort of environment, so can you take care of him for me?”

He spoke so sincerely, and for a moment, Liang Sizhe thought Zheng Yin seemed more like a father than Cao Xiuyuan did. After a moment of silence, he said, “I can try, but he might not listen to me.”

“You guys seem to be getting along rather well. Cao Ye gets along with everyone, but there’s still a difference in the way he treats people. I can tell he treats you like a really close friend. You don’t need to spend too much time on him — it’ll be fine if you could just help me make sure he doesn’t play around with the girls. Is that okay?”

“I’ll try my best,” Liang Sizhe said.

“Thank you so much. Oh yes, by the way, Director Cao means for you guys to eat from the places in this alleyway and absorb the general atmosphere. I’m too scared to give Cao Ye too much money — I’m worried about him refusing to stay here once he has money to spend. I’ll give the funds to you.” Once downstairs, Zheng Yin walked to the car, opened the passenger door and pulled out an envelope from the glove compartment. He offered it to Liang Sizhe. “Just use this for your meal expenses this month. Here.”

It was a very thick envelope. With just a glance, Liang Sizhe knew Zheng Yin definitely wasn’t just giving him money for their meals… It perhaps also included some money for him watching over Cao Ye.

Liang Sizhe didn’t take it. “I can pay first. I’ll give you the total at the end of the month, and then you can pay me back.”

“Just take it.” Zheng Yin pushed the envelope into his hand. “It would’ve been hard for you to come to Beijing by yourself.”

“It’s really okay.” Liang Sizhe took a step back, watching him. “Would it really be considered a favour if I take your money?” He’d be considered a nanny then — but he didn’t say that out loud.

Understanding what he meant, Zheng Yin stopped pushing and said with a smile, “Fine. Then I owe you one.”

Liang Sizhe nodded. “Sure.”

Around 2pm two days later, Zheng Yin arrived at Lan Yan. When he knocked on their door, the two boys were still taking a nap on their respective beds. He needed to knock quite a few times before they woke up — Liang Sizhe woke up first, sitting up, and then went over to the other bed in his slippers. Before opening the door, he patted Cao Ye on the shoulder twice, his voice still a bit husky. “Get up. Uncle Yin’s here.”

“You guys must not be nervous at all,” Zheng Yin said, walking in. “Not even bothering to clean up and get ready beforehand.”

“So sleepy…” Listlessly sitting up, Cao Ye yawned for a long, long while with his eyes still closed.

“Hurry up and wash your face.” Zheng Yin went to him and smoothed out Cao Ye’s hair with his fingers, mussed from sleep. “Come on. Don’t dawdle.”

By the time Cao Ye was putting on his slippers, his eyes still bleary, Liang Sizhe was coming out of the bathroom, having already finished washing up. A black hair tie was between his teeth, and he was gathering his hair into a bundle behind his head.

Zheng Yin watched as Cao Ye’s eyes slowly widened from their droopy, unfocused state; he was staring straight at Liang Sizhe. Amused, Zheng Yin couldn’t help but smack the back of Cao Ye’s head. “Are you Jia Baoyu4?” When he turned back to look at Liang Sizhe, he had to admit — that boy truly was eye-catching. He was more attention-catching than any of the previous newcomers Cao Xiuyuan had used. But when it came to being an actor, it might not necessarily be a good thing to have an aura that stood out so much.

Liang Sizhe was initially tying up his hair with his eyes lowered. When he heard Zheng Yin’s words, he looked at Cao Ye in confusion.

Cao Ye snapped out of his daze, finally waking up, and felt a bit awkward. Rubbing his eyes, he changed the subject and said, “Didn’t you say you were coming over around 3? It’s only a bit past 2.”

“There’s been a change in plans. This industry is like that. You have to be ready all the time, or else someone else will take your opportunity,” Zheng Yin said very patiently. “Hurry up. I’ll give you five minutes.”

Zheng Yin pulled out two pieces of clothing from the closet and put them on the bed as Cao Ye washed his face: a white t-shirt and a pair of plaid shorts. When Cao Ye came out of the bathroom, Zheng Yin pointed at them and said, “Wear these.” He knew what kind of image Cao Xiuyuan wanted for Xiao Man — and he also knew what kind of clothes Cao Ye needed to wear to fit that image best.

Cao Ye didn’t care what he wore; he was happy he didn’t need to find clothes for himself. Walking over, he got changed.

Liang Sizhe wore a black t-shirt and a pair of straight-legged medium wash blue jeans. After changing, he leaned by the side of the door and waited for Cao Ye.

Before they left, Zheng Yin looked at him and appeared as though he wanted to say something — but in the end, he kept quiet. He had been considering whether he should tell Liang Sizhe to change his outfit. Even though the clothes by themselves weren’t flashy at all, they looked different when worn on Liang Sizhe’s body: the black intensified that distinctive air about him and made him appear even sharper. With those clothes on, Liang Sizhe was very different from Xiao Man. He didn’t look like he was going to a screen test for Thirteen Days; rather, he looked more like he was going to an idol audition.

But after thinking about it, Zheng Yin decided to not say anything.

Only one person could be Xiao Man. He wanted that person to be Cao Ye, the boy he’d watched grow up.

And as for Liang Sizhe — to him, Liang Sizhe was just someone passing through his life. He didn’t need to care too much for him.

Translator has something to say:

All of the women’s names are colours — Red-jie, Blue-jie, Green-jie… ↩Taking advantage of him in the fact that he’ll have to give LSZ respect since he’d be of an older generation than him haha. ↩Directly translated, this means ‘teacher’ — so ‘Teacher’ Cao. But it’s not used in China in the single way we do in English-speaking countries; it’s a respectful way to refer to anyone who is skilled in their profession. People can call their hairdressers ‘laoshi’ for example. It’s a universal greeting. ↩Jia Baoyu (贾宝玉) is one of the main characters in the Chinese classic Dreams of the Red Chamber. He’s mostly known for his heterosexual love triangle with his cousins, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, but there’s been quite a lot of studies and papers written about his potential bisexuality (he has a lot of interactions with men that can be read as more than platonic). That’s what Zheng Yin is making fun of Cao Ye for, here — he’s insinuating, why are you staring at LSZ like that when you’re a guy (and straight)? are you gay? ↩

P – Chapter 3.1

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