After taking ChenYing home, ZhouXiang also returned to his home.
YanMingXiu came back very early today. ZhouXiang glanced at him and asked, “What do you want to eat tonight?”
“Xiang Ge, don’t bother with that for now. I have something to tell you.”
ZhouXiang sat on the sofa next to him, “What is it?”
YanMingXiu’s face tinged with a shade of discomfort, “Xiang Ge, your… your funeral, do you have any thoughts?”
ZhouXiang froze.
Funeral…
After returning from Guizhou, it had been more than half a month. All of his funeral affairs were handed over to YanMingXiu. To be precise, YanMingXiu’s requested to handle it, he merely just wanted to evade it. He really didn't have the courage to be dealing with his own funeral arrangements. Now, it's likely that all the procedures and the like are completed. It is time to consider these things.
YanMingXiu gripped his hand.
ZhouXiang regained his senses and took his hand back, "It's nothing. I'm fine.”
He combed through his hair and sighed, “Forget about the funeral, just bury it. I'll go to the cemetery to see if there are any spaces next to my parents' tombstones. I was too young at the time and didn't think to leave an extra space for myself. Now I don't think I can be placed next to them."
“Let me handle this. I'll go ask.” YanMingXiu looked at him deeply, “I will have a place set for the both of us.”
ZhouXiang is shocked as he bitterly smiled, "When I go see my parents in the future, I can also see myself… this is really fucking crazy.”
YanMingXiu lowered his head; his eyes full of sorrow, “Xiang Ge, I…”
ZhouXiang raised his hand to stop him, “You don’t have to apologize any more. I'll say it again. You don't have to take responsibility for my accident. What you owe me are feelings, not life. But everything has passed; don't mention it anymore in the future.”
YanMingXiu relentlessly asked, “Why aren't you letting me pay it back?”
“Because I don’t want it. Don’t dare want it.”
YanMingXiu still wanted to say something but ZhouXiang had already stood up and walked into the kitchen. He prepped the food ingredients while telling him, "I'll go take a look after the burial. Everything else, I'm not going to be involved. There's no point. Also, don't tell CaiWei and them. If they ask, just say it then….”
YanMingXiu swallowed back the words he had wanted to say, seeing ZhouXiang’s lonely desolate back, he felt terrible.
He walked over and embraced ZhouXiang from behind, saying softly, “Tell you something that makes you happy.”
“What…?”
He wrapped his powerful strong arms around ZhouXiang’s waist, their two bodies tightly affixed, seemingly inseparable.
“The movie premiere had been moved ahead of schedule to the 24th.”
“Ohhh? Didn't they say New Year’s Day?”
“It'll be competing against an American film on New Year’s Day so it's been moved up to the Christmas holiday.”
“Isn't that the day after tomorrow then?”
“Yeah. Since you didn’t participate in the previous promotion, you must go to this premiere.”
ZhouXiang thought. It's not that he didn't want to participate but nobody called him at all. He was only a small supporting role after all. With him also making WangYuDong furious in front of the crew, it would be surprising for him to still be included. So he hesitated, "I wasn't even part of the promotion to start with, the premiere definitely has nothing to do with me.”
“I'll take you there.” YanMingXiu softly pulled his earlobe in his mouth and lightly nipped it with his teeth, “Everything that has to do with me, also involves you.”
“Forget it. Going without being invited is no fun.”
“It's fine. Nobody would dare say anything. There is a dinner banquet after the premiere; I'll introduce you to some people. This gathering is very important.”
ZhouXiang no longer persisted against it. To be able to participate in the premiere of his movie, even if he is only playing supporting role, he is very happy. Besides, with YanMingXiu present, nobody would make it hard for him.
ZhouXiang laughed at himself while thinking, having a backing is indeed convenient. No wonder everyone wants to find one or two.
On the afternoon of the 24th, YanMingXiu took ZhouXiang to a renowned styling studio, taking more than three hours to give ZhouXiang a complete make-over. Seeing ZhouXiang coming forward dressed in an impeccably suit with his handsome face shrouded in glistening light, it was impossible for people to look away.
When YanMingXiu saw this ZhouXiang, it was as if he was seeing that very familiar face of the person who always had on a warmly gentle smile. He knew that he could no longer see that face again. Although the same soul lived in this body, this kind of intense lost and remorse continued to torture his heart endlessly.
ZhouXiang walked to the front of the full-body mirror and looked for two seconds. Then he smiled softly, “More attractive compared to before(T/N).” His tone was full of despairing loss.
T/N: As compared to his previous self, older ZhouXiang.
The stylist next to him looked baffled. ZhouXiang smiled at him, “I mean this style.”
YanMingXiu walked up next to him and softly whispered, “No matter which one, it is still you, the 'you' whom I love."
After the two men got themselves dressed up, JiangYuan came to take them to the premiere.
The premiere was held at an exhibition hall in a hotel. The outside was surrounded by reporters, fans and various vehicles. When YanMingXiu led ZhouXiang out of the car, countless spotlights fired at them like machine guns, all the microphones are like knives stabbing in front of them. Questions like raindrops continuously rained down on them, adding on to the screams from the fans outside, ZhouXiang felt that this is similar to a small battlefield except for the lack of smoke (from weapons). Everything else is just about the same. When he thought about it, he suppressed his nervousness and instead wanted to laugh.
The calm and gentle smile on his face attracted countless cameras.
“Mr. Yan, what made you decide to participate in this movie? Could it be that you only take part in movies with your own family?”
“Is it because WangYuDong is your brother-in-law that you guest-starred in his movies?
"Is Mr. Yan and ZhouXiang's personal relationship very good? How do you guys know each other? Can you reveal a bit?"
"How do you rate this movie and how do you evaluate your performance?"
The people around blurted a variety of questions, some were particularly cunning, making ZhouXiang somewhat apprehensive. The two had rapport to not say a word. ZhouXiang still kept his smile. YanMingXiu looked on indifferently at the people around him and just beelined to the hotel.
YanMingXiu’s bodyguards opened up a path for them along the way. Finally, the hotel’s security guards came over to assist and they were able to break through the hash of people to get into the hotel.
After entering the hotel, all the containment disappeared. ZhouXiang took a long breath, sweat dripping from his body. YanMingXiu smiled at him and asked, “Nervous?”
“A bit, I've never been subjected to this kind of attention before, only seeing others being blocked and intercepted from afar. So this is how it feels like. It's very scary.”
YanMingXiu laughed lightly, “It's okay after you get used to it.”
JiangYuan also smiled and patted ZhouXiang’s shoulder, “This is considered minor. You've not seen what it means to be really scary. They would trample on me just to get close to MingXiu.”
Very soon, people familiar with YanMingXiu saw that they had come so they also came forward to say a few words. The crew responsible for the reception also came over and led them to the venue. The venue is full of round tables. Each round table has a maximum of six chairs, making it convenient for people to turn around and watch the movie. There are various wines and snacks on the table. The atmosphere is excellent.
From afar, they could already see WangYuDong leading TanYin and other stars busy with setting the stage, the staff shuffling back and forth.
Half an hour later, the premiere officially began. Starting off with showcasing the important roles for the promotion and then the film began.
YanMingXiu and ZhouXiang sat in the best position. ZhouXiang’s eyes stared intently at the huge screen.
After four to five minutes into the movie, ZhouXiang remembered that the villain's role would appear for the first time. Thinking that he would soon see himself onscreen, ZhouXiang felt a trace of excitement.
He had also guest-starred in a number of large and small productions, but it can't even be considered to be a supporting role. At most, he was an extra, occasionally there were one or two lines. This time, there was at least 10 minutes of screen-time, he will appear.
Unexpectedly, even after this scene was over ZhouXiang still didn't see his face. Instead TanYin, who was the subordinate of the lead villain, appeared.
ZhouXiang crease his brows, thinking that it might have been deleted for whatever reason.
For a typical movie with several hours of footage to be shortened to an hour or two is very normal. After all, his role is not an important role.
YanMingXiu didn’t realize this because he didn't quite know what role ZhouXiang was playing. Moreover, ZhouXiang was merely a supporting role so it's not surprising that his appearances onscreen are few.
ZhouXiang continued to watch full of expectations. But even after the movie was shown halfway through, the lead villain had appeared many times, as well has his underlings and TanYin, and the two other people, all except for him.
By now, even YanMingXiu realized that something is wrong. He squeezed ZhouXiang’s hand under the table and leaned close to his ear, “There should be your scenes right? Still not out yet?”
ZhouXiang’s expression didn't look quite right, he said in a deep voice, “I don’t know.”
Something seems to have dawned on YanMingXiu; his expression became gloomy.
Sure enough, the movie concluded with ZhouXiang's face not even appearing once. Of course, his shots as WangYuDong's stuntman were indeed edited very well, the graceful movements, the elegant back, everyone thought that it belonged solely to WangYuDong.
ZhouXiang clenched his fist.
YanMingXiu said something but the sounds from the movie were too loud so ZhouXiang didn’t hear him. But from YanMingXiu’s expression, he could tell that it was not a good thing. Upon seeing that YanMingXiu was going to immediately stand, he instantly held onto his shoulder.
JiangYuan also quickly pulled YanMingXiu, signaling for him not to be impulsive.
YanMingXiu had already stood up slightly at this this time. His expression a little distorted. He reached out and adjusted his suit a bit and sat back down.
The movie is over. ZhouXiang did not appear at all from beginning to end. Even when the credits are shown, the name displayed as WangYuDong's stuntman is – ZhouYang.
This is flat out irony.
ZhouXiang is livid. He was going to explode. He didn't know if this was an illusion, but he felt that many people were watching him, many pairs of eyes staring at him, waiting to see him make a fool of himself. He knew that it is his own illusion because most of the people here didn't even know that he was also in this movie. Now, they definitely won't know, but ZhouXiang still felt humiliated.
Getting him to star in this movie only to have all his scenes cut, even if this was someone else, it is a direct slap in the face. ZhouXiang never expected WangYuDong would do something like this but he firmly believed that this must be instructed by him (WangYuDong). After all, it was YanMingXiu who referenced him for this role, no one else would dare to offend YanMingXiu.
YanMingXiu is also enraged, his clenched fists were cackling. Before the film's credits were over, he pulled ZhouXiang up, “Let’s go.”
Earlier ZhouXiang didn't let YanMingXiu go because it would have been too obvious. Now that the movie had ended and many people were heading to the restrooms and such, it would not appear to be too abrupt for them to leave now.
In fact, he didn't want to stay any longer in this place.
ZhouXiang and JiangYuan followed behind him and left the venue.
End of the chapter