Chapter 34
Thus, Yuan Ye hadn’t been unreasonably confident when he had asked, “Who could be younger than me?” When he had gotten together with Fang Shaoyi, he truly had been youthful, dewy to the point that he ought to have been covered in water droplets. The person who had taught him everything about love and romance was Fang Shaoyi. When he had wanted to pursue someone, wanted to date someone, that person had always been the same one.
But Fang Shaoyi didn’t completely agree with his “when you first got together with me.”
“I got together with you?” Fang Shaoyi cocked an eyebrow. He laughed, “Didn’t you get together with me?”
It had been a long time since Yuan Ye had been that naive and innocent seventeen or eighteen year old kid. He had long since learned everything there was to know about relationships. Currently, he was an uncle-level, thirty-three year old man. He pointed at Fang Shaoyi, shoulders shaking as he laughed. He scolded, “You were just a big, bushy-tailed wolf! You just watched me dumbly pursue you. You acted like a pig to eat the tiger.”
“You’re a tiger?” Fang Shaoyi shook his head and slowly walked forward. “A tiger? Back then, you were at most a little puppy.”
Yuan Ye followed behind. Strolling around like this at night, reminiscing memories of the past amidst the moonlight, made him very nostalgic. At that time, he had used his entire being to like Fang Shaoyi. He had been bold and unwavering, but in the end, he had somehow managed to lose Fang Shaoyi.
Yuan Ye suddenly reached a hand out to grab Fang Shaoyi’s hand. They gently held hands; both their fingers were warm.
Yuan Ye chuckled. He looked up at Fang Shaoyi. When their eyes met, Yuan Ye told him, “Thank you.”
Why thank you, thank you for what, Yuan Ye didn’t say. Fang Shaoyi didn’t need him to explain either.
The two of them returned quite late that night. This caused Ji Xiaotao to stare at them rather judgingly when they finally did. It was almost as if he wanted to find some unspeakable romance between the two of them. When Yuan Ye passed by him, he pushed the other’s face away and sat on the couch. He said, “The way you keep staring at me everyday is kind of scary. If you keep being so abnormal, I’m going to make your boss fire you. Then, we’ll switch to a more well behaved assistant.”
Ji Xiaotao was completely unbothered. While pouring out cups of water for the two of them, he said, “Not that I’m trying to imply anything, but if you two switched assistants now, you wouldn’t even be able to survive.
Yuan Ye received the water and blew on it for a long time. He took a sip and said, “Your face is big enough to horizontally cover the Pacific Ocean.”
Ji Xiaotao had a grin on his face. He scooted close to casually chat with Yuan Ye. Fang Shaoyi went to shower in the bathroom. Yuan Ye waited for him to walk out, then notified the other that he was leaving before heading upstairs. It was quite tiring following the film crew around all day. He needed to head back, shower, and sleep earlier.
After he left, Fang Shaoyi told Ji Xiaotao, “When you’re free, go chat with Yang Siran.”
“About what?” Ji Xiaotao cocked an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with him?”
Fang Shaoyi was expressionless. He said, “See if he’s encountered some trouble.”
Ji Xiaotao had followed Fang Shaoyi around for so long, after all. Sometimes, he could get the point after just a subtle hint. He looked at Fang Shaoyi and asked in slight disbelief, “It shouldn’t be that bad, right? We’re still here, who could be bullying him? Director Jiang’s film crew is pretty well behaved&#k2026;&#k2026;”
Fang Shaoyi didn’t say anything else. He only told Ji Xiaotao to ask about it when he had time. At the end of the day, Yang Siran was his company’s artist. If something really had happened to him under Fang Shaoyi’s watch, that would be unacceptable.
Ji Xiaotao nodded and said, “Alright. I’ll find an opportunity to ask. He seems quite shy. I’m scared he’ll feel embarrassed.”
During the day, Fang Shaoyi had bent over to say something to Yang Siran on camera, then led him away. He had taken the other to the dressing room. Nobody had spoken about this outright, but they had all exchanged eye contact and found it quite strange. Especially because Yuan Ye had been present too. Fang Shaoyi didn’t overly explain to Yuan Ye, only saying that the other’s legs were bruised so he had taken him to get some concealer. This was also because of his personality. Fang Shaoyi wasn’t the type to take the initiative to share other people’s personal matters, even if the person listening was Yuan Ye.
That afternoon, Yang Siran had seemed a bit hesitant while sitting on the sofa. His eyebrows had been furrowed the entire time and he had been unwilling to take off his pants. It shouldn’t have been such a big deal for a male actor to show his legs on camera. He looked to be very stressed about something. Later on, after Yang Siran took off his pants, because Fang Shaoyi was standing nearby, he noticed that there were some very suggestive fingerprints at the base of the other’s thighs. Some were still green, while others had already faded to a light yellow.
Fang Shaoyi was experienced. He knew exactly what had caused those bruises. Regardless of if Yang Siran was a member of his company or not, even if this were a normal young actor, Fang Shaoyi would have taken care of them when it was needed. If his legs showed up on camera, everyone would be able to see. For an actor, this was a very embarrassing situation. They weren’t even leaving him a fig leaf. At the time, he had furrowed his brows and turned around to tell the surrounding workers, “Wait a moment.”
He only told Yuan Ye that the other’s legs had been bruised, but he hadn’t said in what manner they had been bruised. Yuan Ye was most annoyed at the dirty business transactions in this industry. Thus, it was impossible for Fang Shaoyi to go into detail when explaining things to him.
Ji Xiaotao was quite confused by this situation too. Logically speaking, such a transaction wouldn’t occur. Geng Jinwei was very against artists selling their own bodies to earn resources. He also never hinted for his artists to engage in such activities. Their company had quite a good reputation in this industry. Geng Jinwei was capable, but never harmed others. Additionally, signing to Fang Shaoyi’s studio meant that there would never be a lack of resources. Director Jiang himself didn’t participate in these messy matters. As a consequence, his crew also didn’t dare to.
Thus, unless Yang Siran had consented, nobody would actually be able to do anything to him.
Yuan Ye said he didn’t care, which meant he truly didn’t care. Prior to his arrival, Yang Siran and Fang Shaoyi had ended up on the news together, but Yuan Ye was still quite polite to him. When he spoke to the other, he always called him “little bro.” At his age, he couldn’t handle being groundlessly jealous of a little kid. He also wasn’t the type to.
Sometimes, he didn’t wake up that early in the mornings. After eating, it would already be almost noon. He would stroll to the film set. If Fang Shaoyi was acting, then Yuan Ye would move a little stool over and sit off to the side, watching. If Fang Shaoyi wasn’t acting, then Yuan Ye would wander around blindly.
Old Tu sent a message to his phone, asking when he was returning. A new shipment of good tea leaves had arrived at the teahouse. He was telling Yuan Ye to come try them out.
Yuan Ye said: Don’t know if I get time off during Lunar New Year. If I do, I’ll head back. If I don’t, I’ll just stay with the film crew.
Old Tu sent another message: Little Mei told me to tell you to jiayou. We’re wishing that you can successfully pursue him sooner.
Head lowered, Yuan Ye laughed while replying: Then thank Little Mei for me, I guess.
He kept his eyes on his phone as he walked, causing him to accidentally bump into someone. Yuan Ye immediately moved to the side. Without even looking back, he apologized. The other was young worker for the film crew. Upon noticing who he had bumped into, he hurriedly apologized too, “Sorry, Teacher Yuan Ye.”
Yuan Ye waved his hands and said, “Don’t worry,” with a smile.
When he reached set, he habitually went looking for Fang Shaoyi. After finding the other, he discovered that his face looked a little pale. His eyes were closed as he rested. There was a thin blanket over him. Yuan Ye quietly asked Ji Xiaotao, “What’s wrong?”
Ji Xiaotao said, “He’s not too comfortable. They just newly painted that room last night. The smell’s too strong. He’s filmed there all morning.”
Yuan Ye furrowed his brows and asked, “Why’d they paint it?”
“Last night, the director and them observed it and said that the color was too bright on camera. They hurriedly repainted overnight.” Ji Xiaotao was annoyed too. Fang Shaoyi couldn’t really handle extremely pungent smells. When he smelled these, his head hurt. These few days, they needed to film in the tailor shop of the little village. As soon as they finished filming, the actors needed to leave because of the smell. There were still several more days left that they were required to smell this paint. Yuan Ye lowered his head and looked at Fang Shaoyi. The other was probably asleep. He didn’t even move when the blanket over him slipped off.
While tugging the blanket up higher with one hand, Yuan Ye asked Ji Xiaotao, “Did you bring the Tiger Balm?”
“Yes,” Ji Xiaotao pulled the container out of his pocket and handed it over. “I was just about to apply some for him, but he didn’t allow me to.”
Yuan Ye grabbed it, then scooped out a bit with both his index fingers. Following this, he slightly bent over and gently started rubbing circles on Fang Shaoyi’s temples.
Fang Shaoyi opened his eyes to look at him. Yuan Ye softly told him, “I’ll rub them for you. Sleep.”
This massage truly could ease the pain a lot. Fang Shaoyi closed his eyes and continued to sleep. Ji Xiaotao moved a chair over so Yuan Ye could sit. Yuan Ye shook his head and didn’t sit down – sitting would prevent him from reaching Fang Shaoyi.
Fang Shaoyi had always been unable to handle special smells. Yuan Ye knew this. Sometimes, it would take several days for him to recover from smelling extremely pungent smells. Each time Yuan Ye saw how uncomfortable he was, he would always get the impulse to want Fang Shaoyi to stop acting.
He had started acting since young. This year, he was already thirty six. He was too dedicated to his work. Things had gotten a bit better these past few years: in the past, he had accepted invites for a lot of action films. Every film, he would acquire at least one injury. Back then, Yuan Ye’s heart often felt stuffy. He really didn’t want the other to continue down this career path. By now, though, he had already made peace with himself. After reaching a certain age, it was easy to understand certain things clearly. Humans always had things that they stood by and were passionate about. The more they accepted, the more they naturally needed to compensate for.
Fang Shaoyi didn’t eat lunch. He didn’t have an appetite. His brain felt muddled and his head felt like it was going to explode. Yuan Ye kept the Tiger Balm in his pocket. As soon as Fang Shaoyi finished a scene, he would immediately scoop some out and massage Fang Shaoyi’s temples. Ji Xiaotao secretly took a picture of the two of them and sent it to Jian Xu’s assistant, Dong Lin. He discreetly showed off: The two in my family are so lovey-dovey daily, but still haven’t gotten remarried. Don’t know what they’re playing at.
Dong Lin sent him a sticker that was captioned “an awkward but still polite smile”. After, he asked: What’s wrong with Shaoyi ge? He looks kind of uncomfortable ya.
Ji Xiaotao: Ah, nothing much. He’s dizzy because of paint fumes.
Dong Lin: Ya, is it serious or not ya?
Ji Xiaotao: If you “ya” one more time I’m going to block you.
Dong Lin sent two more stickers. After, he said: Hahahahahahahahahaha, okay, I won’t send any more.
Right now, Ji Xiaotao was the equivalent of a mother about to wed off her daughter. Every cell in his body couldn’t help wanting to show off. He told Dong Lin: Actually, even though my ge normally is uncomfortable after smelling so many paint fumes, he definitely wouldn’t start acting like Daiyu in these situations. Ey, but isn’t Ye ge here? So dramatic over some minor illnesses and discomfort. He’s just different because he has someone looking after him, ha.
Dong Lin probably didn’t know how to respond. He replied with a long chain of “ha”s before starting to send a bunch of stickers again.
At night, Yuan Ye told Ji Xiaotao to order two servings of porridge and side dishes. They would eat in Fang Shaoyi’s room. Ji Xiaotao was extremely conscientious. After ordering the food, he left and returned to his own room to watch TV while eating meat. In the other room, Fang Daiyu still didn’t have an appetite. Who knew how much he would need to be coaxed in order to eat a few bites. At a time like this, it would be better if the assistant didn’t stay around to watch.
In the other room, Yuan Ye opened the bowl of porridge and turned around to ask Fang Shaoyi, “Come, Yi ge. Have some porridge.”
Fang Shaoyi furrowed his brows. He said lowly, “No, my head hurts.”
“Then what will it take for it not to hurt?” Yuan Ye asked with a smile.
Fang Shaoyi glanced at him, then expressionlessly stated, “Tiger Balm.”