Chapter 49

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On the night the filming of Gradual Distance wrapped up, He Zheng and Xia Xingcheng drank a lot of wine at the celebratory feast. After, Xia Xingcheng accompanied He Zheng to smoke on the balcony. The restaurant had a large balcony, and they were the only two outside.

Xia Xingcheng asked He Zheng, “Director He, you once said that this movie was based on your friend’s story.”

He Zheng leaned against the railing, one hand holding a cigarette and the other stretched out over the guardrail. He gazed at the distance and let out a mere soft ‘hm’.

“Then—” Xia Xingcheng didn’t seem to know if it was appropriate to ask this question, “did they really not get together in the end? I mean—the real Fang Jiangyuan and Yu Haiyang.”

He Zheng brought the cigarette to his lips, held it in his mouth and took a deep drag, then sluggishly straightened up his arm on the balcony’s guardrail before unhurriedly saying, “All artistic creations are always a processed version of reality.”

Xia Xingcheng said, “May I ask which part?”

This time, He Zheng looked over at him and patted his shoulder, “It’s been so long ago, don’t ask.”

He Zheng’s answer made Xia Xingcheng feel unexpectedly sad. He turned to look ahead.

He Zheng continued, “It’s really hard. It’s not just limited to that era, it’s still hard to this day—it’s normal for anyone to not be able to go on.”

Xia Xingcheng put his hands into his jacket pockets and said, “I understand.”

As filming had concluded and Xia Xingcheng’s job was done, he took the next morning’s flight back. When he got off the plane at the airport, he saw many fans who had come to pick him up, many of them chasing him with cameras and taking pictures all the way through.

His popularity had continuously risen from the time he was cast in He Zheng’s movie until now. Yet this was actually a bit strange—He Zheng’s movie hadn’t had any publicity so far. It was either gossip media or fans digging up the news themselves.

Previously, every time his popularity had gone up, it was after a work had been released. It was only now that he had attracted new fans while still in the filming stage. Xia Xingcheng didn’t quite understand why, but he could only attribute it to the fact that Yang Youming and He Zheng received a high degree of attention.

He didn’t have any makeup on today and used a mask to cover up most of his face, yet it didn’t sufficiently cover up his seemingly exhausted and lifeless eyes. He waved to his fans along the way until he finally got into the nanny car that picked him up.

After he got in, Huang Jixin helped him haul his suitcases and piled them all into the car then got in himself, sitting next to Xia Xingcheng and telling the driver to start driving.

Xia Xingcheng leaned back on his seat and lifted his hand to take off his mask.

Huang Jixin stared at him then said, “Look at your miserable appearance.”

Xia Xingcheng was baffled, “What?”

Huang Jixin said, “Everybody’s going to say that you’ve lost weight again.”

Xia Xingcheng sighed, “The weather was hot, I had no appetite, and we’re all worn out from filming.”

Huang Jixin didn’t say anything and only stared at him.

Xia Xingcheng said, “What are you staring at me for?”

Huang Jixin said, “Do you want to take a short break?”

Xia Xingcheng looked at him in surprise, “Since when are you so nice to me, taking the initiative to let me rest? How long?”

Huang Jixin tapped on his thigh and said, “Half a month. I’ll give you some time to go on a trip.”

Xia Xingcheng leaned closely against the back of the seat, tilting his head to look out of the window. After a while he said, “No thanks, I’d rather work.”

Huang Jixin tsked, “How about this, you go back and have a good two days worth of sleep, and then I’ll go find you to talk about work.”

Xia Xingcheng nodded.

Huang Jixin left after sending Xia Xingcheng home.

Xia Xingcheng piled his luggage up in the living room. He couldn’t be bothered to unpack, so he went straight to the bathroom to take a shower before going back to his room dressed in a pair of briefs, then lay down to sleep.

At first, he lay for a long time without falling asleep. His body was obviously exhausted, yet his brain was abnormally worked up.

A few days ago, he was busy with filming and didn’t have time to think things over, but now that it’s calmed down, the only thing in his head was the last few scenes of the movie they had shot before Yang Youming left the crew.

He remembered being on the bus and watching Yang Youming looking for him on the side of the road, yet shortly after, his eyes and nose began to sting. He tried his best to block that train of thought and reached out for his phone that was currently charging on the nightstand.

The phone was on silent. He saw a missed call and several wechat messages, all from friends who knew that he was back inviting him out for a meal. Among them was one from his mom, asking if he wanted to take some time to go back to his hometown.

Xia Xingcheng replied to his mom’s wechat, saying that he would see what his next work plans were first. All the other invitations were put aside for the time being.

His fingers swiped repeatedly on the phone’s home icon, and after several times he finally opened weibo. There were many reposts, comments, and various private messages, but he didn’t have time to go through them carefully, only giving them a cursory glance. Then he opened his following list and found Yang Youming.

Ever since Yang Youming finished filming and left, there hadn’t been any news about him.

Xia Xingcheng looked through his weibo and found that it hadn’t been updated either. The latest post was still the one the man had posted shortly after he joined the crew.

Although he rationally knew that he shouldn’t continue, Xia Xingcheng couldn’t control his body’s reaction. He searched Yang Youming’s name—only to find that there was still no new news of him whatsoever. It was as if this person had disappeared into thin air.

He didn’t even know if Yang Youming was still in China right now.

Xia Xingcheng put down his phone, laying unmoving for a while before he turned over to grab his phone again. This time, he searched for another name on weibo: Yuan Qian. Yuan Qian had never made a personal account. There was only a studio account, and there was rarely any news after her marriage.

But his search turned up a picture that a netizen had taken of her outside a restaurant a week ago. Yuan Qian wasn’t by herself, she had several friends with her—but there was no sign of Yang Youming in the picture.

Xia Xingcheng stared at that photo for a while, then exited Weibo.

In fact, he already had Yang Youming’s wechat as well as his phone number, but Yang Youming was someone who never shows off his life on social media, so if Xia Xingcheng didn’t take the initiative to contact him first, he wouldn’t have any contact with the man at all.

Xia Xingcheng threw his phone to the side and pulled up the blanket to smother his face.

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⟵ Chapter 48 | TOC | Chapter 50 ⟶

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