Chapter 104

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For the entirety of that day, Xia Xingcheng couldn’t ever muster up the nerve to open the video. He was too embarrassed to even take a closer look at the promotional poster; Yu Haiyang cupping Fang Jianyuan’s face with tears streaming down his cheeks, the two looking at each other with gazes full of sorrow.

For others, it was nothing more than a movie, but for Xia Xingcheng, each and every scene were true feelings of love between him and Yang Youming.

Their brief yet sweet vacation officially came to a close, and Xia Xingcheng and Yang Youming parted, flying back one day after the other.

The fans weren’t notified of Xia Xingcheng’s itinerary, yet he was still recognized by several young girls at the airport, which brought about a small commotion.

If his popularity since filming Gradual Distance had been on the rise, then once the trailer was released, his popularity completely erupted.

Most of these young girls hadn’t even seen the movie, but from those fleeting scenes as well as Yang Youming and He Zheng’s names, they had huge expectations and started paying close attention to the young actor Xia Xingcheng.

For the moment, the momentum of Xia Xingcheng’s development was quick and violent, exactly like a new traffic star.*

Huang Jixin was summoned by Cai Meiting several times for this reason. He was urged to focus on adjusting Xia Xingcheng’s work to include endorsements and magazine photoshoots, and all his variety shows had to be carefully selected.

As for Xia Xingcheng himself, this sudden and widespread attention made him simultaneously excited and anxious.

The higher the attention you gain, the higher the expectations people have for you, and the better you have to perform in order to not let people down.

Xia Xingcheng was even worried that by the time the audience finished watching Gradual Distance, his value as an artist wouldn’t be as high.

When he talked to Yang Youming about these worries, Yang Youming said, “If you have the mind to worry about the sky falling, you’re better off honing your acting.”

Xia Xingcheng captured Yang Youming’s sleeve. “Ming ge, what do you think about my acting?”

Yang Youming said, “If I only consider your performance in Gradual Distance, then there’s absolutely no problem with it. But I haven’t seen your other works, so I can’t really comment on them.”

Xia Xingcheng was immediately displeased. “I used to act in so many idol dramas—haven’t you seen a single one? I’ve watched all your movies!”

Yang Youming was silent for a moment, then said, “Can’t you let me get away with this?”

These past two days, Xia Xingcheng had been busy dealing with his backlog of work. Most of it was product commercials, but there was also a magazine photoshoot, followed by a variety show that didn’t take long to record.

He still hadn’t made his mind about the IP ancient fantasy drama that Huang Jixin had previously brought up, but when Xia Xingcheng seeked out Yang Youming’s opinion, Yang Youming didn’t quite recommend him to film this type of drama.

“Even if it’s a drama, you have to make sure that you don’t revert to an idol actor status. I don’t think you need to keep taking up those monotonous and unchallenging roles.”

Xia Xingcheng hugged his waist. “That’s easy for you to say. It’d be great if small actors like us even got casted.”

Most of the time, it wasn’t about whether he wanted to or not, but whether there was even a choice.

Yang Youming kissed his forehead. “Let’s just wait and see, okay?”

–

A month later, He Zheng returned from the European Film Festival with the best picture award under his belt. Gradual Distance’s second trailer also made its appearance online.

This trailer contained a lot of affectionate scenes of the two characters; a slow motion shot of Fang Jianyuan and Yu Haiyang in the swimming pool, swinging their arms underwater; a shot of Fang Jianyuan jerking his head out of the water that abruptly switched to Yu Haiyang’s wife Xu Jia’s face as she asked “Does Yu Haiyang live here?” followed by their intense and painful struggle; and a shot of Fang Jianyuan in a telephone booth shouting “Get lost!” and slamming the phone back down.

The trailer circulated much more rapidly than the first one, leading to a large number of reposts and many people bawling about wanting to watch the movie in theatres.

Wherever Xia Xingcheng appeared, he attracted numerous fans who showed up to show their support. When he attended a commercial campaign, more than half the streets would be blocked off by fans.

In contrast, Yang Youming was much more carefree. It wasn’t that he didn’t attract new fans, but he couldn’t care less about it. He spent most of all his days at home as before; working out, reading books, cooking for Xia Xingcheng—there was no trace of him in the media.

After dinner one day, as Xia Xingcheng was lying on the sofa and scrolling through Weibo, he heard Yang Youming’s phone on the living room coffee table ring. He turned to look, and was surprised to find that the caller was He Zheng.

He hastily rolled over and got up from the sofa, and brought the phone to the kitchen. “He Zheng’s calling,” he told Yang Youming, who was scrubbing the grease stains on the stove with a cleaning rag.

Yang Youming’s hands were still wet, so he said, “Put me through.”

Xia Xingcheng’s finger swiped across the screen to answer the call. He then put it up to Yang Youming’s ear. Yang Youming tilted his ear closer to the receiver as his hands continued to busy themselves. “Hello? You’re back?”

He Zheng had brought their movie to compete in the film festival. Yang Youming and Xia Xingcheng, the two lead actors, had not gone, and the news that they were aware of had been heard from the internet.

He Zheng said something on the other side.

Yang Youming listened quietly from start to finish, humming softly once in a while.

After a while, Xia Xingcheng’s hand got tired from holding up the phone, so Yang Youming put the cleaning rag aside, wiped his hands on his apron, took the phone from Xia Xingcheng’s hands, and continued listening.

Xia Xingcheng didn’t leave the kitchen. He tried to get closer to Yang Youming’s phone to listen in on what He Zheng was saying, but unfortunately he couldn’t hear all that clearly.

Yang Youming’s mind was on two different things. As he listened to He Zheng speak, he gazed at Xia Xingcheng and lowered his head to rub his dry lips against his forehead.

A while later, Yang Youming said, “All right, you decide on the time. I’m fine whenever.”

After that, he hung up.

Xia Xingcheng looked at him. Just as he was about to ask what He Zheng had said, he heard his own phone that had been abandoned on the sofa ringing. He scurried out, and once he grabbed his phone, he shouted at the direction of the kitchen, “It’s from He Zheng!”

Yang Youming slowly walked out of the kitchen. He untied his apron and draped it across the back of a chair.

Xia Xingcheng was suddenly somewhat nervous. When he answered the call, He Zheng’s voice rang out, “How is Xingcheng doing?”

Ever since He Zheng sought him out to act in Gradual Distance, Xia Xingcheng had always been extremely grateful to him. He felt like a schoolchild that had abruptly ran into their teacher, and he unconsciously straightened up. “I’m fine. Congrats, Director He!” He said, referring to the movie award, his tone differential.

He Zheng chuckled. “This award is partly yours too, we should both be proud.”

Previously, He Zheng had invited Xia Xingcheng and Yang Youming to attend the red carpet, but Xia Xingcheng couldn’t make it because of work, and Yang Youming didn’t want to go; after all, they weren’t shortlisted for the actor award.

Xia Xingcheng felt quite honoured, and he couldn’t help but smile along.

“I just got back. I haven’t had time to contact you, but now that things have wound down, I want to invite you to dinner some time in the next two days. Would that be any trouble?” He Zheng said.

Xia Xingcheng glanced at Yang Youming, then said to He Zheng, “It won’t, I don’t have any schedules in the evening this week.”

He Zheng hummed, then said, “Great, I’ll ask Youming what day is convenient for him, and I’ll let you know when and where.”

Xia Xingcheng promptly said, “No problem, Director He.”

With that, Xia Xingcheng exhaled deeply and hung up the phone. With the phone still cupped in his hand, he turned to Yang Youming and asked, “He Zheng invited you to dinner just now, right?”

Yang Youming nodded, walked to the sofa, and sat down on the armrest.

Xia Xingcheng felt apprehensive. With one knee on the sofa, he grabbed hold of Yang Youming’s arm and said, “He doesn’t know about us yet.”

Yang Youming looked at him, and after a while, he wondered, “Why do I think that you’re a little scared of him?”

Xia Xingcheng was struck by the question. “I am a little scared of him.”

Yang Youming said, “You used to be a little scared of me too.”

These words weren’t a question, but a statement, Xia Xingcheng realized. He couldn’t help but frown, and he thought for a while before saying, “Being a little scared of you is normal. You’re a movie star, and I’m just a small actor.”

Yang Youming laughed. “You were so well-behaved back then.” Before Xia Xingcheng could respond, he continued, “But how things are now is good too. It’s me who’s spoiled you.”

When he heard this, Xia Xingcheng couldn’t help but blush. He hugged Yang Youming and felt Yang Youming’s arms encircling his waist. Pressing close to Yang Youming’s ear, he said, “I’ll get hard if I hear you say these things.”

Yang Youming laughed and said, “Oh? Then it really won’t do if I don’t grab hold of this opportunity.”

Xia Xingcheng laughed with him, then cupped Yang Youming’s face to kiss him.

Out of the two small-framed photos that Jiang Zihe had taken for them, one was left in Yang Youming’s old house, while the other had been brought back with them. The photo of Yang Youming kissing Xia Xingcheng’s eye now stood on their bedside cabinet.

Before they slept, Xia Xingcheng sat on one side of the bed, and reached out for the photograph to take a look as he asked Yang Youming, “Do you think we should go to He Zheng’s together or separately?”

Just as his voice faded, both their phones that had been placed on the bedside table rang separately. Xia Xingcheng put the photo back and reached out for his phone, then saw that He Zheng had sent a time and address over WeChat, followed by an ‘OK?’.

He turned to have a look at Yang Youming’s phone screen and found that it had the exact same message. “He sent out a mass text?”

Yang Youming was resting on the headboard. He didn’t reply right away, but asked Xia Xingcheng, “You ‘OK’?”

Xia Xingcheng opened the schedule Huang Jixin had sent him and looked it over, then said, “I have an interview that afternoon, but the evening should be ‘OK’.”

Yang Youming immediately replied to He Zheng with a single ‘OK’.

Xia Xingcheng then replied with the same two letters. After that, he looked at Yang Youming, “I have work in the afternoon, so I guess we’ll have to go separately?”

Yang Youming casually flung his phone next to his pillow, then stretched his neck that had gone stiff from leaning against the headboard for a while. He said, “You just don’t want to go with me, do you?”

“No!” Xia Xingcheng’s response was more extreme than Yang Youming had imagined. He turned to face Yang Youming, lying sideways. “You still don’t know what I think of you? How can you say this about me?”

Yang Youming reached out to hug him. “I’m sorry, I was wrong.”

Xia Xingcheng rested his head on Yang Youming’s chest furiously .

Yang Youming stroked his hair as he hugged him. “I was wrong. Don’t be angry. I’ll come pick you up when you’re done with work, and we’ll go meet He Zheng together.”

Xia Xingcheng looked up at him, and slightly hesitated before nodding. “Okay.”

–

On the afternoon of their appointment with He Zheng, after Xia Xingcheng got off work, Huang Jixin drove him to a secluded underground parking lot nearby, where Xia Xingcheng would get off and get in Yang Youming’s parked car that awaited him there.

When he opened the car door to accompany Xia Xingcheng out, Huang Jixin grumbled, “It’s like we’ve set up a rendezvous for a secret society.”

Xia Xingcheng turned around and glared at him. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Huang Jixin said, “For you! Not me!”

Xia Xingcheng had no shortage of masks, sunglasses, and hats. His entire face was covered up tight. He opened the door of the passenger seat of Yang Youming’s car and got in, and before closing the door, he said to Huang Jixin with gritted teeth, “You’ve. Worked. Hard.”

The car door closed with a bang.

They were smack dab in the middle of the rush hour, and the traffic moved forward at a snail’s pace. Xia Xingcheng hadn’t said one word all this while; his head was pasted on the car window as he mutely stared at the car in front of them.

Yang Youming had only put on a hat. When he stopped at a red light, he asked, “Nervous?”

It was only then did Xia Xingcheng notice that his lips were a bit dry. He suddenly recalled the words He Zheng had said to him on the day Gradual Distance wrapped up, that this road was truly difficult, and it was normal for people to not continue down the road.

Yang Youming said, “Regretting it?”

Xia Xingcheng’s head whipped around to face him. “Am I crazy? How can I regret it?”

Yang Youming reached out and patted the back of Xia Xingcheng’s hand. “I’m just kidding, don’t get mad.” When the light turned green, he hurriedly switched gears and drove forward.

Xia Xingcheng looked at him. “Do you not believe me?”

Yang Youming said, “I really was joking.”

Xia Xingcheng eyed him skeptically. “Really?”

Yang Youming chuckled. “Of course.” Afterwards, his tone softened as he added, “If I didn’t believe you, how would I dare make such a joke—you don’t know how important you are to me.”

“Director He—” Xia Xingcheng asked hesitantly, “Didn’t he advise you to not take things with me seriously during filming?”

Yang Youming said, “How did you know?”

Xia Xingcheng slowly said, “I heard him in your room one night—that day you kissed me.”

Yang Youming let out an ‘Mm’, “He came to advise me. He thought there was something up with me.”

Xia Xingcheng looked at him. “If he does it again, will you leave me?”

Their car arrived at another long queue at an intersection. Yang Youming pressed the P button and, holding Xia Xingcheng’s hand, he looked him in the eyes and solemnly said, “In this lifetime, I’ve only said ‘I love you’ to two people. The people I love are very precious to me, and I won’t let them go no matter who tells me to.”

Xia Xingcheng glanced at the flashing red light countdown before looking back at Yang Youming. “Is the other person Yuan Qian?”

Yang Youming was silent for a few seconds. As the red light countdown got to zero, the traffic light turned green, and he answered, “It’s my mother.”

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – ngl i bawled when i tled that last bit T___T

have a lovely holiday everyone! thank you to sea for the kofis ❤

*idk if i’ve mentioned this before, traffic star or 流量小生 (there’s no english term for it afaik) are celebs with a large degree of attention on the internet. so traffic here refers to online traffic.

⟵ Chapter 103| TOC | Chapter 105 ⟶

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