Chapter 62
There were millions of different types of relationships in this world. Each had its unique characteristics. Yuan Ye and Fang Shaoyi were among the luckiest: they had encountered each other in their youth, then fallen in love and gotten married. Though they had eventually gotten divorced, their affection for each other was still there. They also hadn’t lost their hearts that desired love.
In comparison to them, Yang Siran belonged to the most pained group. He had fallen in love at a young age, too, but rather than saying that he had dedicated his life to a single person, it was more accurate to say that he had dedicated his life to a bitter period of yearning.
In the blink of an eye, it seemed like several years had already passed.
“He……” Yuan Ye gazed at the other’s face. He was a bit hesitant and almost couldn’t bear to, but he still asked, “Liking Geng ge must be quite tiring, right?”
Yang Siran’s expression was calm. The sparkle of joy in his eyes remained. He shook his head. “No.”
Matters of love never needed to be coaxed. Each mature adult was more than capable of taking responsibility for their own feelings. As long as one felt that their choice was worth it, that was enough. Yuan Ye patted Yang Siran on the shoulder and replied, “That’s good. As long as you’re happy, that’s good.”
Yang Siran had never told anyone about these matters. He hadn’t wanted to, but also, he hadn’t had anyone to tell them to. However, he surprisingly didn’t keep any secrets from Yuan Ye on this day. He was even quite enthusiastic while speaking. Yuan Ye hadn’t interacted with Geng Jinwei much these past few years. The other was unmarried with no girlfriend or boyfriend that he knew of. Thus, he hadn’t ever spoken about this topic before. Unexpectedly, he was getting an earful of gossip about Geng Jinwei’s love life today.
Affection oftentimes appeared out of the blue. When Yang Siran had first developed a crush on Geng Jinwei, he had been seventeen too. Back then, nothing had needed to happen. He had only seen the other; after the first glance, he had already been head over heels. This affection didn’t need a reason either. It was the supposed “love at first sight.”
At that time, Geng Jinwei had lived on the floor above him. They would occasionally encounter each other in the elevator, sometimes by intention, others by accident. Geng Jinwei seemed to never notice that there was a little boy living on the floor under his. Many times, Yang Siran, dressed in his school uniform with a backpack on his back, would stand behind that tall, sturdy figure. He could see the other’s face reflected in the elevator walls, but Yang Siran never dared to look. He always kept his head lowered, catching glimpses of those legs wrapped in suit pants instead. This was enough to cause Yang Siran’s heart to beat faster. The rush of blood in his ears blocked out all other noises.
He had even calculated the timing and their paths of movement. When Geng Jinwei reached out to press the elevator button, he purposefully reached his hand out at the same time and acted like he needed to press the button as well. His fingers gently brushed against the back of the man’s hand. After, he immediately curled his burning fingertips into his palm. The man slightly lowered his head to observe him. Yang Siran instantly felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest.
Eventually, Geng Jinwei moved away. It became basically impossible to see him again.
It sounded like a simple one-sided crush. Others could hear it summarized in merely a few sentences, but for the person who had lived through the story, day by day, it was a reflection of a decade of careful patience and anticipation.
Yuan Ye was more or less a bit surprised after hearing this. He hadn’t expected for Little Yang to be a lover.
“Badass……” Yuan Ye stood up and shook out his legs. His ankle couldn’t handle standing around like this all the time. He turned back to glance at Yang Siran and asked, “Then how did he happen to sign you? You planned that too?”
While speaking of this, Yang Siran’s eyes seemed to light up a bit more. He said, “It was really a coincidence. We coincidentally encountered each other.”
It truly had been a coincidence. Yang Siran had gone to an entertainment company to sign his contract. He had written a few songs that weren’t very valuable, but he still needed to sign a contract to sell them. He had instantly spotted Geng Jinwei in the building, then had held his breath and greeted the other. After moving away, Geng Jinwei hadn’t seen Yang Siran again. However, he still remembered the other. He cocked an eyebrow and calmly stared at Yang Siran. Yang Siran stuttered out an explanation about how he had used to live on the floor below Geng Jinwei’s.
A very esoteric greeting. There wasn’t anything else to be said following it.
Later on, Geng Jinwei surprisingly asked Yang Siran if he wanted to act or not. Yang Siran thought about it for half a minute before nodding and saying okay.
He was honestly very promising. He had a great outer appearance. Geng Jinwei handed him a business card. When Yang Siran accepted it, he did his best to hide the fact that his hands were shaking. He realized that at the time, the other probably believed that he had only nervously greeted him with the goal of getting signed.
After hearing this, Yuan Ye chuckled. He gave the other a thumbs up.
Yang Siran rubbed his nose and smiled shyly. Following this, Yuan Ye offhandedly asked, “Does Geng ge know?”
“No,” Yang Siran replied almost instantly.
He blinked and looked a bit nervous. He said, “He doesn’t know. Don’t tell him either. Please?”
Yuan Ye cocked an eyebrow.
Yang Siran lowered his gaze. His voice softened a bit as he slowly said, “It’s my own business that I like him. Why do I have to tell him about the past? They’re all meaningless memories. How much I like him, how many years I’ve liked him – at the end of the day, I was the only one who felt anything. I can’t use these memories to force anyone else into doing anything…… That’s too terrifying.”
Yuan Ye had originally just been treating this as a story. He had noticed that Yang Siran seemed to really want to share it, so he had listened. But right now, Yuan Ye turned to look at Yang Siran after hearing the last few words out of his mouth. He suddenly realized that he had probably underestimated the other in the past.
The other had a very mature mentality. He hadn’t expected for Yang Siran to be so sensible.
Yuan Ye gave him a thumbs up again. He didn’t say anything else. After, he patted the other and nodded with his chin into the distance, gesturing that they needed to head back.
That evening, during their call, Yuan Ye didn’t tell Fang Shaoyi what Yang Siran had told him. He wasn’t in the habit of gossiping about other people’s private matters. The two of them also didn’t call each other every day. Sometimes, their schedules didn’t line up.
Fang Shaoyi asked him through the phone, “Does your foot still hurt?”
Yuan Ye said, “A little bit. It’s not too bad.”
“Take care of yourself. Otherwise, you’re going to be twisting your ankle every other day in the future. That’d kill me.” Fang Shaoyi’s throat was a bit dry. He took a sip of water to wet it.
“That’d kill me too. Doesn’t Teacher Yuan Ye still need his dignity?” Yuan Ye couldn’t help laughing. “Crippled monkey?”
“Monkey?” Fang Shaoyi joked through the phone, “Can you still climb a tree?”
Yuan Ye answered, “Definitely not right now. We’ll talk about the future when it comes.”
Fang Shaoyi made a noise of acknowledgement. He didn’t say anything else. In actuality, after twisting an ankle, vigorous exercise was banned for a short period of time. Climbing a tree, which involved climbing up and jumping down, was even less allowed. However, Fang Shaoyi wouldn’t tell him these things. How could Yuan Ye himself not know?
Fang Shaoyi basically only had to act while in Director Wei’s film crew. There was nothing to worry about. Yuan Ye didn’t have any big problems on his film set, either, but there was a never ending stream of little problems. Since Yuan Ye had left, the two of them hadn’t seen each other for over two months. Neither of them had the time. On the day of Fang Shaoyi’s birthday, Yuan Ye waited until midnight to post on Weibo. Surprisingly, Fang Shaoyi reposted this Weibo post.
Through the phone, Yuan Ye asked him, “Don’t you feel childish, Teacher Fang? We’re going to end up on the trending list again tomorrow.”
“I wanted to repost it,” Fang Shaoyi said, “Why would I worry about so much other stuff?”
Yuan Ye didn’t specially fly over this time to celebrate Fang Shaoyi’s birthday with him. One reason was because Yuan Ye honestly couldn’t catch a break. Another was that there were only two months left before Fang Shaoyi would be finished with filming. The more in sync the film crew was with each other, the faster filming could be completed. Recently, all of the scenes Fang Shaoyi was filming were crucial points of the movie’s plot. Yuan Ye didn’t dare to visit. He worried that if he did, he would disrupt Fang Shaoyi’s emotional state. Either way, he would be returning soon. Thus, Yuan Ye didn’t head to the film set. The two of them made do by sharing a private phone conversation.