Chapter 100

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Later on, Xia Xingcheng took the dress back to the hotel and had fun with it for an entire night. Much later on, he couldn’t bear to throw it out, so he washed it clean and folded it before putting it in his suitcase. It was eventually hung in between the rows of monotonous men’s clothing in Yang Youming’s closet, looking particularly out of place.

When Xia Xingcheng finished shooting his parts for ‘Accidental Murder’, he packed up his things and left the crew ahead of time.

It was early in the morning on the day of his departure; the sky was yet to fully brighten when he got into a low-key SUV parked outside the hotel with his suitcase in hand.

Yang Youming was the driver, and they were the only two people in the car. Once Xia Xingcheng had sat down on the passenger seat and fastened his seat belt, Yang Youming started the car and drove forward.

While driving, Yang Youming said to Xia Xingcheng, “If you’re sleepy, take a nap. I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

Before, he had driven directly from his house to the set on his own.

Clad in a hat and mask, Xia Xingcheng tilted his head back and slightly glanced at the other man. “I’m not sleepy. I’m a little excited.”

Yang Youming let out a laugh, his gaze fixed to the front.

Xia Xingcheng asked, “Your house is so big—are you the only one living there?”

Yang Youming said, “There’s an auntie* surnamed Tian. You can call her Auntie Tian. She used to live there, but when I bought the house, she didn’t want to move, so I let her stay. She cleans the house every day, and she can also cook for us.”

*not necessarily blood-related

Xia Xingcheng then asked, “Won’t she find you bringing someone back weird?”

Yang Youming laughed and said, “No, she never asks about my affairs.”

As Yang Youming drove onto the highway, the landscape on both sides of the road became monotonous. Having been sleep-deprived for a long time, Xia Xingcheng adjusted his seat and fell asleep.

But after what seemed like a short slumber, Xia Xingcheng was roused by a call from Huang Jixin.

Huang Jixin pelted him with an endless stream of shouts, asking him when he’d be returning.

Xia Xingcheng patiently endured until he finished yelling and said, “I just left the crew, can’t you let me rest for half a month?”

Huang Jixin said, “Do you know how many fans you lost after you vanished for two months? And you still want to take half a month off?”

Xia Xingcheng couldn’t hold back a yawn.

Huang Jixin angrily hung up on him.

Xia Xingcheng stared at the darkened screen and said in bewilderment, “Why is he getting more and more grumpy?”

Yang Youming laughed and didn’t say anything.

A while later, Huang Jixin called again, evidently striving to control his emotions as he asked him, “Is Yang Youming there?”

Xia Xingcheng replied, “He’s driving.”

Huang Jixin asked him, “So you two got back together, huh?”

The sound coming out of the receiver felt too loud for Xia Xingcheng. He wasn’t sure whether Yang Youming could hear it, so he merely said, “We didn’t fight.”

Huang Jixin said, “Half a month is too long, I’ll give you a week. We’ll be arranging work on our side, so get your ass back here quick.”

Xia Xingcheng said, “All right.”

He hung up and threw his phone to his lap, raising his arm to shield his eyes and sighing.

Yang Youming said to him, “Huang Jixin’s right. You’re still young, you have to work a little harder these years.”

Xia Xingcheng whispered, “I’m not worried about hard work, I just hate having to leave you.”

Yang Youming drove quietly for a while, then said, “I’ll go back with you.”

Xia Xingcheng, however, was taken aback and said, “Of course you’re going back with me, were you planning on not going back with me?”

Yang Youming chuckled and said, “No, I’ll always be by your side.”

He drove for more than an hour at high speed and into the neighboring city, driving the car through the streets with a familiar ease.

Xia Xingcheng asked, “Do you come back often?”

Yang Youming said, “I come back to visit on my own when I have time on my hands—not too often, but I recognize the roads I travel through.” He smiled as he spoke, glancing at Xia Xingcheng.

Xia Xingcheng watched as the car drove into a narrow alley in the city centre, where the number of cars and people gradually became fewer. Yang Youming continued along the path, passing through the alley and into a one-lane road with lush trees on both sides. Behind the large trees were low-rise buildings; very few were shops, but there was the occasional quiet and secluded bar or coffee shop.

With his hands on the wheel, Yang Youming said, “There are a few Republican era buildings here, but most of them are private residences.”

Xia Xingcheng listened to him speak as the car gradually slowed down, before finally stopping in front of an iron gate to one side of the road. Yang Youming pressed on a remote control, and the gates slowly swung open until there was enough room for the car to make its way through.

Through the gates was a three-story building with a blue tile roof, dark red brick walls, and wooden doors and windows.

Yang Youming parked the car in front of the building, and the iron gates slowly closed behind them.

“We’re here. This is my home,” said Yang Youming to Xia Xingcheng.

Xia Xingcheng was still peering at the house through the car window.

Yang Youming thus got out of the car first, walked to the back of the car, and opened the trunk to take out Xia Xingcheng’s suitcase. He didn’t have much luggage himself, only lugging a backpack.

It was almost May, and in some southern cities, the pedestrians in town had already begun to wear short sleeves so long as it was sunny out.

Xia Xingcheng opened the car door and hopped down, just as the door on the first floor of the building opened. A woman who’s entire head of hair had grayed stood at the doorway, smiling as she said, “Youming’s back!”

Yang Youming carried the suitcase up the steps, then turned back and beckoned to Xia Xingcheng. “Xingcheng, come here.”

Xia Xingcheng hurriedly walked over to him.

Yang Youming introduced him to her. “Auntie Tian, this is the friend I told you I’d be bringing here, Xia Xingcheng.” He then said to Xia Xingcheng, “Xingcheng, this is Auntie Tian.”

Xia Xingcheng cleverly called out, “Hello, Auntie Tian.”

Auntie Tian nodded repeatedly. “Come in come in, why did you come back first thing in the morning?” They had set off early, and it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet.

Yang Youming brought the suitcase and went in with Xia Xingcheng, saying, “We left early and haven’t had time to eat breakfast yet, is there something we can eat?”

Auntie Tian promptly said, “Of course there is. I’ll go and prepare something for you right away.” After saying that, she walked through a doorway on the left side of the house.

As soon as Xia Xingcheng entered the house, he couldn’t help but catalogue everything in the room. Through the large front door was an entrance hall, with a staircase leading to the upper floors directly facing the door. There was a door on each side of the entrance hall, wooden and painted with red lacquer. The stairs and handrails were also made of wood and painted in the same red, while the walls were a warm, creamy white. If you looked upwards, you’d discover that the roof beams were carved with fancy patterns.

Yang Youming closed the door, set the suitcase down on the wooden floor, and grabbed Xia Xingcheng’s waist, whispering in his ear, “The kitchen and dining room is on the left, and Auntie Tian’s room is on the right.”

“Which floor do you live on?” Xia Xingcheng turned and asked him.

Yang Youming answered, “I live on the third floor now. I’ll take you up and show you after breakfast.”

Since it was a last minute breakfast, Auntie Tian heated milk and boiled eggs for them, also steaming two frozen buns.

Xia Xingcheng followed Yang Youming to the dining room for breakfast and found that the wooden floor creaked a bit as he walked on it. When he went up the stairs after breakfast, the creaking was even more obvious, and it was as if the entire staircase was shaking.

Yang Youming walked in front with his suitcase. He stopped on the second floor, set his suitcase down, opened the door on the right, and stood in the doorway as he said to Xia Xingcheng, “This is the apartment my family used to live in.”

When Xia Xingcheng got to the door, all of a sudden he didn’t dare to proceed and merely peered in. The room had the same white walls and dark red wooden windows, but the furniture and decorations seemed even more old-fashioned than the ones in the first floor. The bed and wardrobe were both wooden, the surface paint peeling. There was a musty smell in the air—the room seemed to have been unoccupied for a long time.

Yang Youming said, “Go in and take a look.”

Yang Youming pulled at Xia Xingcheng’s hand, and they entered the room. He saw a black-and-white photo of a family of three hanging on the wall; the little boy in the middle ought to be Yang Youming, and his parents who stood behind him still looked very young, his father tall and handsome, and his mother a gentle beauty.

He raised his head and stared at the photo.

Yang Youming said, “This is the last time we posed for a photo together. My father passed away not long afterwards.”

Next to the black-and-white photo was a colored photo of Yang Youming, who was already grown up but still very young at the time, and his mother, who was significantly older.

Xia Xingcheng reached out and pointed to the photo and asked, “How old were you in this?”

Yang Youming said, “This was taken with my mother when I was in my third year of university, her health was already not very good at the time.”

Xia Xingcheng carefully examined the photo for a moment, then turned to Yang Youming.

Yang Youming smiled and asked, “Have I aged terribly?”

Xia Xingcheng said, “I think you’re much more handsome now.”

Yang Youming kissed his cheek and chuckled, “Thank you for the consolation.”

Xia Xingcheng circled the room and discovered that there was a small, partitioned-off area. It was closed off by a curtain, and when he went over to pull it open, he found a single bed inside, and the wall to the left of the bed was covered with award certificates. He was astonished as he walked in and saw that all those award certificates had Yang Youming’s name on them. From primary school all the way to high school, there were all sorts of merit student awards, excellent student leader awards, and even awards from sports.

He looked back at Yang Youming, who was standing at the door of the small room watching him, and said in disbelief, “How are you so outstanding? Is there anything you’re not good at?”

With his arms folded on his chest and one leg bent and propped up against the wall, Yang Youming appeared to think very seriously before saying, “Dating. I’ve never dated anyone in middle school.”

Xia Xingcheng felt even more disinclined to believe him. “There’s no way that there aren’t any girls who like you.”

Yang Youming recalled, “There were some. But none I liked, and I didn’t talk to any either. They definitely couldn’t compare to you.”

Xia Xingcheng turned his face and pretended that they had never talked about this topic.

When he came out of Yang Youming’s small room, he found several trophies in a glass cabinet. He thus leaned closer to take a look and discovered that among them were two first-place trophies of the city’s swimming championship. His mouth fell open, and he pointed at the trophies as he turned to Yang Youming.

Beside him, Yang Youming leaned in to take a look, and in a deadly earnest tone asked, “What’s the matter?”

Xia Xingcheng said, “When you lost to me in swimming back then, did you do it on purpose?”

Yang Youming looked at the trophies and hesitantly asked, “Which time?”

Xia Xingcheng grabbed his arm, “When we were filming ‘Gradual Distance’ at the swimming pool!”

Yang Youming appeared to be gazing focusedly at the contents of the glass cabinet, his fine, long eyelashes lightly blinking twice. His lips parted slightly, “Oh. No, I’m just old. My physical strength is bad.”

Xia Xingcheng refused to believe him, clinging to his hand. “You’re really Schrödinger’s physical strength. If it needs to be bad then it’s bad, when it ought to be the opposite, it’s not bad at all.”

There was surprise in Yang Youming’s eyes as he looked over at him. “You even know Schrödinger?”

Xia Xingcheng flushed at his words. “I’m a regular college graduate, okay? How could I be so uncultured.” Only, he didn’t learn about Schrödinger from university; it had been a line in an old TV series. At that time, he had looked up the meaning and learned it by heart afterwards.

Yang Youming laughed as he raised a hand to embrace Xia Xingcheng’s shoulder, softly patting him twice to placate him.

When they walked away from the cabinet, Xia Xingcheng asked Yang Youming, “You didn’t live in this room?”

Yang Youming walked up to the window and leaned back against the windowsill. He said, “After I went to university, my mother lived here by herself for a long time. Later on, she also left. I wanted to keep this room, so I bought the whole building and renovated it. This was the only room I couldn’t bear to do anything to, so I left it alone. It’s like my personal memento.”

As Xia Xingcheng listened to him, he looked up at the two photos on the wall. They were like two stages in Yang Youming’s life—his beloved family left him one by one until he was the only one left.

Xia Xingcheng then walked to his side.

Yang Youming didn’t utter another word, simply looking at the side of Xia Xingcheng’s face in silence.

Xia Xingcheng’s eyes abruptly stung for some reason. He lifted his finger, pointed to the empty wall next to the photo of Yang Youming and his mother, and said, “Let’s have our picture taken and hang it here.” It would be the third stage of Yang Youming’s life, all the way until old-age.

Yang Youming did not answer him immediately.

Xia Xingcheng turned to look at Yang Youming in high spirits, wanting to obtain his approval.

Yang Youming took a deep breath and nodded with a light smile. “All right.”

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – 100 chapters!!!!!! ❤ i made a carrd for this novel a couple of days ago as an early celebration~

⟵ Chapter 99 | TOC | Chapter 101 ⟶

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