As He Yu and Xie Qingcheng talked things over back-stage, the cool director realized that they probably wouldn't be able to wrap up on time tonight. She tried calling the head director of this film anthology, Jiang Liping-laoshi, in hopes that she could give the facility managers a heads-up and extend the hours of operation for this auditorium. The call went through, and the director waited for Jiang Liping to pick up.
Inside one of the university's hotel suites, Jiang Liping's phone, which was lying on the bed, started buzzing.
But the phone's vibration was hardly worth noting, given the far more intense movements that were happening on the bed. The woman didn't pick up the call, preoccupied as she was with entwining her limbs with those of a man, a sensuous, intoxicated expression on her face.
It was a long time before their movements finally came to a stop.
"If it weren't for that call you got rushing me, I could have gone for even longer," said the well-muscled man to the woman in his bed as he lit a cigarette.
Jiang Liping leaned lazily against him, her eyes silkily coquettish. "You've already wrecked me plenty, what more do you want?"
Flattered, the man chuckled, looking exceptionally pleased. "How am I compared to your other men?"
"Aiyo, way to kill the mood," Jiang Liping pouted. "All the other men come and go, but you're the one and only husband for me. I'm waiting for you to propose."
The man felt like he was walking on air. He embraced her and said, "They can't satisfy you. I'm the only one who's up to the task. In that case, let's indulge in our secret affair a while longer while my wife's on her business trip in the United States."
Jiang Liping giggled, her soft, full-figured body quivering. "You've finally cheered up. Look at how distracted you've been recently!"
"Hey, that was because of…" At this point, the man shivered and stopped talking.
Jiang Liping feigned ignorance, smiling as she nestled against him. "Laogong, how dare you get distracted while I'm here. Why don't we play
for a while longer—how would you like it? I'll give you anything you want."
She successfully enticed him. The man swallowed hard, ready to roll around in the sheets with her again. "…You really…make me forget my worries… Come on, baby…come play with me…"
Smiling, Jiang Liping went to join him.
In the auditorium, the director hung up once again. "It's not going through," she sighed to the xuemei beside her, scratching her head in distress. "So we have to hurry up. The uncle in charge of the auditorium is super nosy, ridiculously strict, and really hard to talk to. Tell He Yu to get moving."
The xuemei replied, "He Yu's trying to persuade Professor Xie right now."
"Persuasion"? Hardly—the two of them were clearly in the middle of an argument.
Behind the curtain, He Yu was assessing Xie Qingcheng's expression with a subtle smile. Never in his wildest dreams could Xie Qingcheng have imagined that He Yu would go to such lengths—and dragging him into it too? Hadn't that time in the hotel room disgusted He Yu enough?
Xie Qingcheng said coldly, "You want me to rehearse with you?"
"Is that not okay?"
"You're out of your mind." Xie Qingcheng made to leave.
"You asked for it." He Yu pinned him in place and stared at him intensely, as if he wanted to tear out Xie Qingcheng's bones and grind them all to dust. "You'd better not think of escaping now that it's come to this. You're the one who wanted to torment me, so if there's punishment, you'll be enduring it right along with me."
"You're the one who started it by sabotaging my computer," Xie Qingcheng said.
"That pop-up site was an accident. I've explained this to you many times already. You're going through a midlife crisis at worst, but surely you haven't gone senile yet, have you?"
This was the type of beast Xie Qingcheng hated the most—acting all prim and proper, gentle and refined in front of others, not showing the slightest hint of it when he was upset in public, so that everyone thought of him as an exemplary youth. But the moment he had Xie Qingcheng backed into a corner, the mask came off and he'd spew round after round of bullshit. He never uttered any vulgarities, but his verbal abuse was three times as cutting than if he had.
Xie Qingcheng replied coldly, "You're the one acting like a fucking adolescent with an intellectual disability." He tried to shake off the hand He Yu had clamped around his left wrist. "I don't have the energy to mess around with you. I'm not an actor. Go and find some little girl to act with you."
"How awkward would it be with a girl?" He Yu said. "Shouldn't a gay story be acted out by people of the same sex?"
"Then scram and find yourself a little boy."
"What are you saying, Ge? None of them can compare to you." He Yu had really been driven to the limit by Xie Qingcheng's dirty tactics. He'd abandoned every shred of his facade in front of Xie Qingcheng. The way he said "ge," angry and scornful, made him sound exactly like a beast in human clothing.
"You really are…" Xie Qingcheng sighed heavily, evaluating this brat he'd raised for seven years through completely new eyes, "too sick in the head. Completely sick. How did 600 Wanping Road let you out?"
He Yu pointed at him, his gaze drifting down. There was a touch of roguishness on his lips, unnoticeable at this angle to anyone but Xie Qingcheng. "Look, you got so mad the Huzhou twang came out." Xie
Qingcheng was speechless.
"You know, your voice is actually pretty soft, and when you speak in Huzhou dialect, it gets even softer. It doesn't sound like cursing at all."
"Doing this scene with me—doesn't it make you want to throw up?" Xie Qingcheng asked, ashen faced.
Unexpectedly, this asshole smiled gently. Then, his expression immediately darkened. "Ge, even if I throw up, it'll be into your mouth. I won't waste a single drop of my vomit."
"…Fuck you!"
He Yu turned the other cheek to Xie Qingcheng's vitriol, his smile
never slipping from his face. Even more incredible, he remembered to remind Xie Qingcheng, "It's your sister's film. Don't you want me to put on a good performance? I've already sacrificed myself; there's nothing wrong with you sharing in my bad luck."
"Since it's Xie Xue's film, don't you want to perform well?" Xie Qingcheng countered.
"Oh, I'm not so sure about that." He Yu drew away slightly and gazed down at him, the degree of sincerity in his voice difficult to parse. "It's not as if I like her. We're just ordinary friends, so if I really got upset, do you honestly think I'd still think of her? When the time came, she'd be the one in trouble, not me."
Xie Qingcheng glared at him.
Peach-blossom eyes met almond eyes as an undercurrent of violence surged between them. He Yu still had Xie Qingcheng's left wrist clamped tightly in his hold, the two of them locked in a standstill. He could feel Xie Qingcheng's pulse where it throbbed under his fingertips; its rhythm vibrated through his bones, through the places where their skin touched, through his grayish-blue veins, and accurately and unerringly reached the very center of He Yu's nervous system.
"…Fine." Clenching his jaw, Xie Qingcheng threw caution to the wind. "Fine. All right. I'll do it." As he spoke, he nodded in a way that made it clear how long he would be holding this grudge. "I'll fucking do it, all right? Are you satisfied?"
A hint of a smile unfurled across He Yu's face as he stared at Xie Qingcheng. It was a gentle smile, but for some inexplicable reason, it made one's hair stand on end. He Yu let go of Xie Qingcheng's slender wrist and reached up to help him straighten out the white lab coat and inner dress shirt that he'd pulled out of place.
Xie Qingcheng allowed He Yu to adjust his collar, his eyes chilly. "But let's be clear. This doesn't even count as an official rehearsal. That student director of yours is aware of this too, that this is just for you to get a sense of the scene, so it can't possibly be for real. It must be an angled shot."
He Yu said softly into his ear, "Sounds good. Holding you will be sickening enough. You think I'd want to kiss you for real?" With that, He Yu dropped his hands to pat Xie Qingcheng on the shoulder. His smile disappeared in an instant, replaced by a dark expression as he said, "Xie Qingcheng, after this mutual torment is over, we'll be even. Let's call a truce, because otherwise, I really will throw up."
Xie Qingcheng thought, Does stealing my lines get him an extra chicken drumstick for dinner or something?
The two of them pushed aside the curtains and walked out. They both looked very calm, as if the intense conversation had never occurred.
The rehearsal resumed.
"How much do you love me? What would you give up for me?" Xie Qingcheng fired off one indifferent word after another with a stony, oppressive aura. He didn't seem to be speaking words of love at all—rather, he was the spitting image of a household patriarch conducting an interrogation from the imperial preceptor's chair.
It wouldn't have seemed out of place if he'd finished his speech with "If you don't explain yourself, I'll break your legs."
"For fuck's sake. I can't…" The director facepalmed and was about to yell "cut" when the acting consultant stopped her.
"Wait a little longer."
"His scene partner is atrocious. There's no way…"
The acting consultant, a veteran actor, smiled and said, "There's no need to rush. Let's keep watching."
Meanwhile, He Yu was already responding to Xie Qingcheng's line. "I love you a lot."
Startled, the director turned back once more.
Huh? It didn't seem as horrible as she'd imagined?
It could hardly be considered a tour de force, but at least this time, He Yu's performance was watchable.
He Yu said, "I love you a lot. I can give up anything if you just ask."
Xie Qingcheng continued to recite his lines dispassionately. "Then look into my eyes."
He Yu really started to look directly into his eyes.
That heated gaze was almost tangible as it slid from his brows to his nose to his lips, leaving a slight itch in its wake before it fell from his lips to his neck.
"Ge, I'm looking into your eyes…"
Through all this, Xie Qingcheng never cooperated in terms of his body language. So after staring at him for a while, He Yu suddenly lowered his head and pressed closer to Xie Qingcheng's neck, where his skin was like a thin sheet of ice, and his carotid artery lay just beneath. The natural self-preservation instinct aroused a sense of danger in Xie Qingcheng, causing his whole body to immediately tense up. He nearly abandoned the performance and pushed He Yu away, his gaze swiveling elsewhere.
He Yu's lips stopped mere centimeters above the artery in his neck.
"You told me to look into your eyes, but why won't you look at me seriously?" He Yu began to improvise, his warm breath carrying this question, as quiet as a sigh, into Xie Qingcheng's ear, boring straight through the pores of his skin and snaking through his arteries to slam against his heart.
Xie Qingcheng's scalp went numb, the words "are you insane?" caught between his teeth as he swung his gaze around to glare at He Yu in disbelief.
However, this was the wrong decision.
In all honesty, He Yu's delivery was quite good, even better than the acting consultant had expected. Originally, the old consultant had wanted to have He Yu change scene partners because he realized the great disparity between He Yu and his original scene partner's levels of immersion in their roles. His original scene partner was an openly gay man to begin with, and he was clearly interested in He Yu. However, because He Yu was unused to that kind of attention, he didn't even want to come into contact with the gay man.
Under these circumstances, not only was it impossible for his partner's immersion to draw him in, but it would stir up strong resistance from He Yu and prevent him from entering the right mindset for his role. Just as a drunk person and a sober person couldn't converse on the same wavelength, what He Yu needed was someone who was at roughly the same level of sobriety to help guide him.
And while Xie Qingcheng didn't know how to act, it was obvious that the effect he had on He Yu was stellar.
He Yu wasn't guarded against him at all. Both of them were well aware of each other's sexual orientation. They were just two straight men, so regardless of whether they kissed or hugged, what feelings could possibly be involved? With this understanding in place, He Yu performed extremely naturally, so when Xie Qingcheng looked back at him, he met a pair of eyes welling with passionate emotion.
He Yu tilted his head as he inhabited the role of that fifteen-year-old boy who couldn't control his secret love and desire. His breathing quickened and his gaze filled with urgency as his lips moved from Xie Qingcheng's neck to his mouth.
He left a little bit of distance between them, but every trace of air from their breaths tangled together, like the strands of saliva left clinging to the lips after a passionate kiss. Immersed in his character, the teenage boy watched the man before him, his breaths hot and quick like they were about to solidify in midair and sink viciously and deeply into his flesh and soul.
Xie Qingcheng's entire body stiffened.
Memories of that night in the hotel in Hangshi resurfaced in his mind. When He Yu was drunk, he'd looked down at Xie Qingcheng with a gaze just as scorching. That heat and desire unique to young men was ruthlessly weighing him down.
Emotions and experiences one wasn't familiar with would always be somewhat discomfiting, and these eyes that were boring into him at such a close proximity and with such reckless intensity were unfamiliar to Xie Qingcheng in the extreme.
Later on, Xie Qingcheng would numbly think that it was perfectly normal for him to feel so shocked, to become so incredibly tense that his face paled and his entire being went on high alert, right?
Why was everyone around them laughing?!
"Okay, cut!"
The director was more than satisfied with this take and promptly called things to a halt. A gloomy-looking Xie Qingcheng immediately pushed away this much-younger schoolboy. The gentle look in He Yu's eyes also vanished in an instant. He stared pensively at Xie Qingcheng's lips for a long while, thinking about god knows what.
Then he looked Xie Qingcheng up and down a few times, a hint of a smile on his face.
"…Do…you always perform more passionately when you're hugging a chunk of ice?" the director asked He Yu with her cheek propped up in one hand. She had been sitting with her eyes glued to this process the entire time.
He Yu lowered his lashes. "I might've gotten the knack for it."
The knack was: he firmly believed that the more sincere his performance, the more he would disgust Xie Qingcheng. And looking at Xie Qingcheng's ashen face now, it was obvious that he had achieved his goal.
The director was overjoyed. She checked her watch; it seemed there was still enough time to finish filming. "Great! In that case, let's hurry up and do the actual take right now. Come on—"
She beckoned He Yu's acting partner over. "Xiao-Zhao, get over here. Let's try to get this done in one take! Everyone, double your efforts. Before the auditorium closes tonight…"
Bang!
Before she could finish speaking, someone threw open the auditorium doors.
Everyone whipped around in surprise to see the auditorium manager calling out to them, huffing and puffing. "We're closing, we're closing! Hurry up and finish your business!"
The director was pissed. "Hey, our time isn't up yet! Look, there's still forty minutes left. How is it—"
Before the manager could say anything, a chorus of flat, mechanical voices suddenly rang out through the room.
"Drop…drop…drop the hanky, set it lightly behind your friend's back, no one let him know…"
Everyone started in shock. This voice was simultaneously coming out from everyone's phones!
"Holy fuck! What's wrong with my phone?!"
"A video popped up!"
"Mine too. I can't close it! What's going on?!"
Xie Qingcheng whipped out his phone and unlocked it—it was still usable, as the apps were starting up as normal. But a pop-up window that he couldn't close had appeared in the upper left corner of the screen. Before he could examine it more carefully, a squadron of police officers in uniform marched into the auditorium.
The leader of the squadron said gravely, "There's been an incident at the school, and there has already been one case of homicide. We will be enforcing a curfew tonight, so hurry up and get back to your dorms."
The auditorium fell deathly silent for a moment, then everyone erupted into panicked screams.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"