Chapter 125

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Whether or not He Zheng was truly fond of him—Xia Xingcheng couldn’t sense it. When filming resumed after their return, He Zheng reverted to his prior state of nitpicking Xia Xingcheng’s acting, slowly polishing up scene after scene. It made Xia Xingcheng feel restricted everytime he acted, and his mind grew increasingly agitated.

However, this agitation was very much in line with Han Bohan’s current state of mind. His father, Han Zhang, had been detained by the supervisory committee, and nobody knew when he’d be released. His mother went around looking for connections, wanting to bail his father out first. Whenever Han Bohan went back to visit his mother, he’d listen to his mother’s indignant complaints about how Han Zhang’s old friends had all turned their backs on him, and how none of them would back him up once things went south. She also grumbled about how Han Bohan wasn’t capable enough to find someone from within the system who could lend them a hand.

Han Bohan never knew what he was supposed to say. As it happens, he’d already done everything he could do, including inquiring news from his past colleagues at the anti-corruption office, but the outcome had been the least bit promising. By now, the issue of whether Han Zhang could keep his post was a mere trifle—he’d likely end up getting prosecuted and incarcerated. When that time comes, even Han Bohan’s job may be on the line.

His mother was right. He didn’t have the ability to fish out his father.

What Xia Xingcheng needed to portray was a Han Bohan who was in such a bad state that his pride was practically worn down. On top of that, at this time, Han Bohan also got close with Shu Mian.

Han Bohan, in fact, ought to suspect Shu Mian. When he ran into her at Sun Yao’s building, it was obvious that Shu Mian hadn’t wanted him to find out that she was heading to Sun Yao’s apartment by deliberately going to the third floor. But after Han Bohan went to her school to investigate her identity, Shu Mian began to actively approach him. That was the first time, and after that, there was a second and a third time.

Now, however, Han Bohan no longer had any desire to pursue the matter. He liked the feeling of being around Shu Mian; to say the least, he was at ease when he was with her, like the troubles in his life were out of reach.

That day’s scene was shot in Han Bohan’s apartment, where he lived alone. Shu Mian had given him a call, wanting to have dinner with him, so Han Bohan bought takeout, and the two of them sat at the coffee table in his living room and ate together.

Han Bohan used a plastic spoon to mix the vegetable and rice in his takeout box evenly, then scooped some up into his mouth. He had refined table manners, and his actions weren’t hasty nor slow.

Shu Mian was sitting diagonally across from him. She, like him, was also sitting on the floor, keeping close to the low coffee table as she ate while doing the homework in her exercise booklet.

Han Bohan stared at Shu Mian’s exercise booklet somewhat dazedly. He thought that—he seemed to like Shu Mian, but he hadn’t forgotten the fact that Shu Mian was still a high school student.

Seemingly detecting that Han Bohan had stopped eating out of the blue, Shu Mian raised her head and glanced at him, smiling as she set down her pen. She passed the spoon in her left hand to her right, scooped up a spoonful of sweet corn from her own takeout box and brought it to Han Bohan’s mouth.

Han Bohan cast his eyes down and stared at that spoonful of corn, then opened his mouth and let Shu Mian feed him.

Shu Mian took back her spoon, then continued to eat.

Another burst of agitation suddenly welled up in Han Bohan’s heart, tangling up with everything else he’d faced recently. As he looked at his takeout box, he suddenly lost his appetite, and he got up to throw it out in the kitchen.

Shu Mian tilted her head and looked at him strangely.

Han Bohan quietly said, “Take your time, I’m full.”

After Shu Mian finished eating, she stayed in Han Bohan’s living room, doing her homework until late. Han Bohan sat close by on the sofa behind her. He said, “Still not done yet? I’ll drive you back.”

Shu Mian’s eyelashes were thick and curled up. She bit at the pen cap as she looked over at Han Bohan, not saying yes or no. A moment later, she reached out to capture Han Bohan’s hand.

The instant his hand was grabbed by Ling Jiayue, Xia Xingcheng slightly fell out of character. Ling Jiayue’s hand was chilly, and for a split second, the icy cold removed him from his role and returned him to the film studio. All of a sudden, he heard very low whispers. They went undetected by the audio equipment, but his train of thought was abruptly interrupted and he forgot his following lines.

He raised his head and glanced at the whispering staff standing off-camera and found that they were also looking his way.

He Zheng got pissed. He turned around and shouted, “What’s all this noise?!”

Instead of shutting up the studio, He Zheng’s bellow instantly stirred up a greater bout of murmurs, as if the loudness had ignited the atmosphere.

Xia Xingcheng was somewhat confused. Ling Jiayue immediately retracted the hand that was holding his.

The assistant director walked over to He Zheng and whispered a few words in his ear. Xia Xingcheng only saw the way He Zheng’s brows instantaneously creased. The assistant director handed him his phone, and he rapidly tapped on the screen a few times.

A moment later, He Zheng beckoned to Xia Xingcheng. “Xingcheng, come here.”

Inwardly, Xia Xingcheng had a terrible feeling. He made his way over to He Zheng’s side. Seeing He Zheng directly handing the phone to him, he raised a hand and took it, and when he lowered his head, his eyes caught on a magnified photo. The photo seemed as if it were a sneakshot, and it was somewhat blurry, yet you could still make out that the person in it was him. He was lying on a person’s lap with a smile on his face as he talked to them.

It was the day he and Yang Youming attended Chen Hailan’s son’s one-month birthday banquet. The picture was taken when the two of them were alone in the tearoom, and whoever took the picture ought to have taken it from the other side of the sliding door. Maybe they had opened the door a crack and taken the picture. At the time, he and Yang Youming hadn’t noticed.

Xia Xingcheng’s expression was grave; on the contrary, he wasn’t feeling all that nervous. He tapped on the screen, and once the photo was minimized, he saw the Weibo interface. A showbiz marketing account had posted four photos. All of them were of him lying down on Yang Youming’s lap, but they only showed his face alone along with half of Yang Youming’s leg and his body below the neck. At the time, his coat had been taken off and blanketed over Xia Xingcheng. The coat was obstructed by the front of the tea table, and one could only see his beige shirt. Apart from the people in the tearoom that day, others may not recognize that the person was Yang Youming, but everyone could determine that it was a man.

Two of the four photos were of Yang Youming feeding him tea.

The marketing account that had posted the photos was called Gossip Tabloid, and the photos were captioned with: “Recently, someone sent us a few pictures. When we clicked on them to take a look… HOLY CRAP! Isn’t this the recent hot star, Xia Xingcheng? Xia Xingcheng lay on a man’s lap, looking so intimate that he even let the man feed him water! Speaking of, Xia Xingcheng became very popular from shooting a gay movie, could it be that he’d really been bent?”

Xia Xingcheng didn’t look at comments. He returned the phone to He Zheng.

Right then, Hua Hua rushed over with his phone, handing it to him as she said, “Jixin ge is calling.”

Xia Xingcheng took it from her, hearing Huang Jixin say, “Don’t respond.”

On the phone, in place of shouting and screaming, Huang Jixin’s voice was very calm. Xia Xingcheng said, “I know.”

Huang Jixin was probably very busy. After those two words, he told Xia Xingcheng to wait for his call before hanging up.

When Hua Hua took the phone back from Xia Xingcheng, she looked anxious. She softly called out, “Xing ge?”

Xia Xingcheng realized that he was much calmer than Hua Hua. He smiled and said, “It’s all right. It’s only a misunderstanding.” The latter half said to the other staff on the set.

Hua Hua came to her senses. She nodded, and said, “Those marketing accounts are making stuff up.”

He Zheng said to Xia Xingcheng, “We’ll drop things for today, why don’t you go take care of this.”

Xia Xingcheng nodded. “Thank you, Teacher.”

He knew that many people had their eyes on him, yet his face gave nothing away, and he was actually much calmer than he thought he was. Unless the person who sent the photos to the marketing account had other photos that were more exposing, this affair would only stir up the internet for a while before it eventually dies off in the end.

And at a certain point, Xia Xingcheng felt that being exposed wasn’t too dreadful. His career might be affected to a certain extent, and he’d lose many opportunities, but he’d be able to openly hold hands with Yang Youming in public. There was nothing bad about that.

When Xia Xingcheng went to change before leaving, he saw that Ling Jiayue had stood in place the whole time, her head lowered as she looked at her phone. Apparently noticing Xia Xingcheng’s eyes on her, she raised her head and shot a glance his way before lowering her head again indifferently.

Hua Hua scrolled through Weibo throughout the entire drive back to the hotel. Xia Xingcheng could hear the beeps of her frequent page refreshes, and he knew that she must be following this matter closely.

Xia Xingcheng went without another look. He wasn’t that interested in the internet’s opinions, whether they believed it or not, whether they supported him or called him a pervert, all this negativity from random strangers were of minimal concern to him. The only ones who needed to be comforted may be the little girls who genuinely liked him, but he couldn’t rush a response either.

Halfway there, he received a WeChat notification. It was a message from Yang Youming that contained only three words: It’ll be fine.

The period at the end of Yang Youming’s short “It’ll be fine” was like an intangible reassurance to Xia Xingcheng. It was truly nothing serious.

He picked up his phone and typed up a reply: I know. After he finished typing, he deleted the whole thing and changed it to: I love you.

For the first time ever, Yang Youming replied to him with a meme GIF: coy cat makes a heart shape.

A term suddenly jumped to the forefront of Xia Xingcheng’s mind: memes for boomers. Amused by his own thoughts, he laughed quietly.

It gave Hua Hua a startle. She leaned over to take a look at Xia Xingcheng’s face, patting her chest as she said, “You’re laughing… I thought you were crying.”

A smile remained on Xia Xingcheng’s face. “What would I be crying about?”

Hua Hua thus smiled too. She handed her phone to Xia Xingcheng to show him something, and said, “It’s okay, Xiao Xing ge. I saw a lot of people saying that the photos were stills. It’s already been reposted several thousand times, they’re refuting the rumours for you.”

Xia Xingcheng gave it a cursory look and saw that it was another showbiz marketing account with a large following. In a tone of someone with insider info, their Weibo post stated: It’s all dispelled, there’s really nothing worth being excited about.

Hua Hua was overjoyed. “I saw comments asking if they were stills. This person replied ‘Otherwise?’. I think people fell for it.”

Xia Xingcheng said, “Got it. I’m fine, don’t worry.”

Hua Hua supposed that she herself didn’t know whether they were stills. In any case, she believed that someone around Xia Xingcheng had spoken up for him. But Xia Xingcheng knew deep down that there was certainly someone who had immediately responded to steer public opinion early on.

He just didn’t know whether it was done by his agency, or a person found by Yang Youming.

☆ ☆ ☆

Thank you to Bolshv for the kofis!

⟵ Chapter 124 | TOC | Chapter 126 ⟶

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