Chapter 13
Guan Zhou came to be a guest MC on the show that Yuan Ye needed to film for. Yuan Ye hadn’t attended such variety shows before. The recording lasted a few hours and basically only followed the script provided ahead of time. However, the program was designed quite well, with lots of jokes. Even just following the script didn’t make Yuan Ye appear unexciting.
After filming, Guan Zhou didn’t let him head straight home. The two of them had a meal together.
Guan Zhou told him, “Based on netizens’ responses, you’re pretty popular.”
“Is that so,” Yuan Ye was quite unbothered. “Is even a single one of the couples not popular?”
“Well you were pretty mysterious in the past,” Guan Zhou joked with a smile. “How about accepting invitations for more shows from now on? I think you’d do okay.”
Yuan Ye chuckled and c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. He asked, “You joking?”
Guan Zhou smiled. A moment later, he wiped the expression off his face and told Yuan Ye, “Oh right, you two still need to be careful. Don’t know if they told you already or not, but the news about your guys’ divorce keeps getting leaked.”
Yuan Ye looked up at him. “Didn’t it get deleted?”
“It did, but there are more than one,” Guan Zhou said. “The past few days, the station’s been keeping it under wraps. We have no idea who keeps trying to spill the beans. Bet Fang Shaoyi and them have heard the news already too.”
Yuan Ye nodded. He didn’t say anything else, only keeping silent and eating.
Guan Zhou seemed pretty serious. With his and Yuan Ye’s relationship, he was very concerned for the other. “If even I know about it, it isn’t a secret in this industry anymore. I think a lot of people probably know that you guys are divorced, so we can’t be sure who’s ultimately trying to cause trouble this time. It might also be our opposing channel trying to increase the viewer ratings for their own show. Either way, as long as there’s no evidence, it’s nothing. But, if someone really does post something in the next few days, it won’t be that easy to keep secret anymore.”
“Un, got it.” Yuan Ye looked at Guan Zhou. He smiled at the other, “Don’t worry about me, bro.”
Guan Zhou appeared extremely exasperated. “You can still smile?”
The corners of Yuan Ye’s lips twitched. He said, “Smile or not, there’s nothing else I can do anyways. Besides, nothing has happened yet. Why worry?”
Yuan Ye was truly unbothered. This time, he had taken a few pictures during their trip to Inner Mongolia. With nothing else to do at home, he started editing them. There were a few he really liked; one of these was a photo of Fang Shaoyi standing in the desert, looking back at him. His expression was a bit cold, his brows even slightly furrowed. Maybe because of the glaring sunlight, maybe because of the relentless wind.
Yuan Ye used this as his laptop’s wallpaper. Everytime he moved his cursor across the screen, he would always pause over Fang Shaoyi’s figure.
He also picked out a photo of a herd of sheep in the fields. Among them, there was one little sheep coincidentally looking into the camera. Yuan Ye uploaded this to his Moments with the caption: Photography by Little Yuan.
Ji Xiaotao immediately liked it.
Yuan Ye messaged him: What time is it for you to still be liking random posts?
Ji Xiaotao instantly sent him a voice message back. He sounded extremely tired with barely any energy left: “We haven’t wrapped up yet, Ye ge…… We’re gonna have to film through the night again.”
Yuan Ye glanced at the time. Two in the morning. He didn’t know what to say. There also wasn’t anything fit for him to say. In the end, he only sent: You’ve worked hard.
Ji Xiaotao replied with a voice message again. His tone was slightly amused: “Not at all. When you guys go film the show, I can get lots of days off.”
Yuan Ye casually exchanged a few more messages with him before setting down his phone.
In the blink of an eye, they had already filmed two episodes of the show. There were five destinations in total. After another episode, they would be done with half the required filming. Yuan Ye had been quite cooperative this entire time and had followed everything on the itinerary, doing everything the directing team told him to do. Previously, he had thought it would probably be quite difficult, but after a few days, found it actually wasn’t that bad.
This time, their destination was j.a.pan. Unlike last time, Yuan Ye didn’t head to Fang Shaoyi’s film set in advance. The crew had already moved to Shaanxi. He and Fang Shaoyi departed separately, so filming started in the airport. On the plane, the little director told them that there would probably be a few changes to the last episode.
Prior, the show had scheduled for their last episode to be filmed in Australia. Now, because of certain reasons, they needed to switch locations, possibly to Canada.
As soon as he heard this, Yuan Ye looked at her and asked, “How many days in advance?”
The little director answered, “The usual would be about two days in advance. This way, all of our guests would have time to get over jet lag. But you all have very tight schedules, so it’ll probably have to be based on everyone’s schedules. Might be a day or two.”
Yuan Ye didn’t inquire further. He only shook his head and said, “No.”
The little director hadn’t thought that Yuan Ye would be so direct in his refusal. Besides, to these guests, filming was still filming despite the location. Though the sudden change would affect things somewhat, to them, it was only part of the job.
“What’s wrong, Teacher Yuan?” The little director asked him.
At the time, Fang Shaoyi had been sleeping off to the side with a sleep mask on. Yuan Ye lowered his voice a bit and told her, “Let’s do what the contract says and go to whatever location we decided on in advance. Canada won’t work. Or, you guys choose somewhere closer. India, Thailand, Saudi Arabia – these would all work. A destination overseas won’t.”
The little director was completely lost. She had thought this would be resolved in only a few sentences. Unexpectedly, Yuan Ye had such a big reaction. She tried once more, “Teacher Yuan, can I ask why?”
Yuan Ye shook his head. The expression on his face seemed to say that he didn’t want to discuss further. He said, “No reason. I just don’t like sudden changes. I’ll only film what we agreed on in the contract. The contract said we’d be filming in Australia. You can’t make a decision and then notify me, switching locations out of the blue. Wouldn’t you say that’s unreasonable?”
The little director didn’t know how to handle this situation anymore either. She had never antic.i.p.ated something like this happening. As soon as she got off the plane, she hurriedly reported it to her boss, telling him everything Yuan Ye had said. On that side, her boss immediately called Yuan Ye, asking him what he thought. Yuan Ye spoke very politely, but made it clear that he wasn’t going to change his mind. “Sir, we can come to a different agreement. If we’re not going to Australia, then we can choose a closer country. I’m for sure not going to Canada.”
Just now, on the plane, Fang Shaoyi had been asleep. Yuan Ye had lowered his voice while speaking, so he didn’t know about this. Currently, while Yuan Ye was on the phone, the little director repeated the situation to him. Fang Shaoyi nodded and told her he understood. He looked at Yuan Ye; Yuan Ye was still on the phone. His expression was starting to become impatient.
Fang Shaoyi reached a hand out and tugged on his wrist. He shook his head at the other.
Yuan Ye glanced at him, then told the person on the other end of the line once more, “Okay. We’ll discuss further later.”
After hanging up, he gave the phone back to the little director. Fang Shaoyi told him, “Don’t be so feisty.”
Yuan Ye looked over. He said, “I wasn’t trying to be feisty. I just don’t want to go.”
There were too many people around them. Fang Shaoyi didn’t say anything else. He only tugged Yuan Ye over while the other had his head down, making sure he wouldn’t run into anyone. Fang Shaoyi said to the little director, “Don’t mind him. We’ll discuss again later.”
“Un, okay Teacher Fang,” the little director hurriedly nodded. “No problem at all.”
Yuan Ye and Fang Shaoyi had flown in from the north. They got there the earliest. The other few groups were all in southern cities, so their flights wouldn’t arrive until afternoon. Yuan Ye and Fang Shaoyi holed up in the hotel. Fang Shaoyi was really short on sleep. He laid in bed catching up on rest while Yuan Ye sat off to the side, playing on his phone.
Guan Zhou’s news was fast. At lunch, he sent a WeChat message asking Yuan Ye: What’s wrong with you now? What h.e.l.l are you raising?
Yuan Ye replied: Daily h.e.l.l-raising.
Guan Zhou: Well raise h.e.l.l a bit more gently, gege. Don’t p.i.s.s so many people off.
Yuan Ye: I always speak extremely politely.
Guan Zhou: I just heard Lin Wei complain briefly to our executive channel director about how you’re too fussy. It’s only because your family has a high status that he didn’t say more. If this were another person, Lin Wei would definitely have started cussing already. He’s someone with no brain to mouth filter. But the status of that person in your “family” has nothing to do with you now, gege. Make sure you know that.
Yuan Ye tsk’d, then sent him another message: Get back to work. You don’t need to worry about me.
Guan Zhou was really busy too. After sending these few warnings, he really didn’t say anything else.
Fang Shaoyi’s schedule was extremely tight. Who knew how much sleep he was missing? He laid on his side in the bed, breaths slow and even. He remained fast asleep.
Later, only Chen Ru and her husband hadn’t arrived yet. The other two groups were already here. Yuan Ye glanced at the time. The little director was probably going to come call them soon. Yuan Ye walked over while purposefully making sure his footsteps weren’t too loud. He stopped on the side of the bed Fang Shaoyi was facing. Yuan Ye squatted, then opened his mouth and made to wake Fang Shaoyi up. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he couldn’t bear to make a sound.
Fang Shaoyi’s face was truly exceptionally handsome. His features were deepset, his nose very prominent. Yuan Ye had always really liked his nose. In the past, he would often bite and nibble at this nose, also not sparing the nose-bridge. Fang Shaoyi was very peacefully asleep. He looked quite comfortable too. His expression was completely relaxed. Looking at him sleep, Yuan Ye couldn’t bear to wake him from this comfort.
When he got tired of squatting, he simply sat on the floor and scooted closer to the edge of Fang Shaoyi’s bed. Then, he fell asleep too.
But he only napped for about eight to ten minutes. It was almost time. He still needed to wake Fang Shaoyi up. Yuan Ye stretched his arms out and stood. He tapped Fang Shaoyi’s shoulder, calling out, “Yi ge?”
Fang Shaoyi had no reaction. Thus, Yuan Ye called him again. “Yi ge.”
Fang Shaoyi’s eyelashes fluttered. A few seconds later, he finally opened his eyes.
He had been too deeply asleep. The temperature in the room was just right too. He probably had also had a pretty good dream. His barely opened eyes still carried a bit of perplexion. After being woken up, he didn’t even furrow his brows. Yuan Ye had to hold back the impulse to reach a hand out and caress the other’s face. He only smiled and told him, “……Stop sleeping.”
Fang Shaoyi blinked. He looked at Yuan Ye. The two of them made eye contact. Currently, there were no complicated emotions in their gazes; everything was very simple and very calm.
Yuan Ye wanted to say something else to help Fang Shaoyi wake up completely, but before he had the opportunity to, Fang Shaoyi suddenly reached out and circled his arms around Yuan Ye. After his sleep, Fang Shaoyi’s body temperature was extra high. This dry warmness suddenly broached Yuan Ye’s airways, causing him to fall into a daze.
His face was buried in Fang Shaoyi’s chest. The other’s scent made him feel a comfortable sense of familiarity. It was very pleasant. Yuan Ye didn’t say anything. He only closed his eyes.
His eyes were coincidentally where Fang Shaoyi’s collarbone was. The hard bone was a bit painful to rest on. One of Fang Shaoyi’s hands was on the back of Yuan Ye’s head. His slightly warm palm was glued to the other’s scalp. This temperature was so enjoyable that Yuan Ye really wanted to take a nap.
Eventually, Yuan Ye was the first to move. This position was a little tiring for him. He took a deep breath in, then reached a hand out to remove Fang Shaoyi’s arm. He lifted his head to look into Fang Shaoyi’s eyes. When their gazes met once again, Yuan Ye smiled anew. As if nothing had happened, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Fang Shaoyi stared at him, silent for a moment. Then, he looked away and squeezed the spot between his brows. “Nothing. Just had a dream.”