Chapter 26

This phone call ended up being a tangled mess of emotions.

Ji Xiatao didn’t know yet that those two had already called each other in the middle of the night. He continued worrying uselessly, stressing greatly. However, he didn’t even dare to say anything about this.

Fang Shaoyi was too calm. He was always like this. When you looked at him, you wouldn’t be able to tell what he was thinking at all; you also wouldn’t be able to guess.

“Tao ge, busy?” Yang Siran’s a.s.sistant was named Chen Tong. He was also someone who had worked at the company for a long time. Ji Xiaotao and him were fairly close.

Fang Shaoyi and Yang Siran were practicing their lines together. Chen Tong walked over to Ji Xiaotao and squatted down next to him.

Ji Xiaotao greeted him, then scooted his b.u.t.t over to sit in Fang Shaoyi’s chair. He pointed at the one he had originally been resting in and said, “Sit.”

Chen Tong smiled and sat.

Ji Xiaotao hugged the big bag that Fang Shaoyi kept his clothes in and chatted with Chen Tong, “Are you going to stick with him long term?”

“Don’t know yet. I’ll just listen to orders, I guess,” Chen Tong sighed. “Actually, I’ve been feeling a bit incapable recently. These past few years, I’ve become worse and worse at staying up late.”

Ji Xiaotao laughed. He glanced at the other. “How old are you? Already can’t stay up late?”

Chen Tong said, “My body condition isn’t good. Far worse than you, Tao ge. I can’t pull all-nighters. When I do, I get headaches.”

Two messages arrived on Ji Xiaotao’s phone. They were from Jian Xu’s a.s.sistant. He didn’t have any important business – he had just sent two silly stickers over. Ji Xiaotao replied with a sticker too while saying, “Then submit a request to the leaders about transferring to become a manager. It’s more relaxing, but you still might have to follow newbies around for half a year to a whole year.”

“Un, I mentioned it to Lin ge last time,” Chen Tong said. “Following artists around for filming is really a bit too much.”

Ji Xiaotao chatted on and off with him, all the while having a sticker war with Jian Xu’s a.s.sistant on WeChat. These days, Jian Xu was still a reliable TV emperor. With him in a drama, the viewer ratings were guaranteed to be good. As long as the script wasn’t horrible and post-production was pa.s.sable, he could always pull in views. Fang Shaoyi and him had maintained a good relationship through the years. Their graduating cla.s.s had produced quite a few celebrities, but the two of them had the highest statuses. Jian Xu’s a.s.sistant had just turned twenty four. He had only started working in this industry last year, so always treated himself as a rookie. He was also a bit silly, so loved to send stickers.

Ji Xiaotao asked him on WeChat: Still in Beijing?

Jian Xu’s a.s.sistant was named Dong Lin. He replied: Nope, in x City. We’re very close ya.

Ji Xiaotao: Speak properly.

Dong Lin: Hahahaha why do you think I’m teasing you? My Jian ge said that since we’re so close, we can hang out.

Ji Xiaotao: Really? Here to film?

Dong Lin: Rea~lly.

Ji Xiaotao: So gay.

In actuality, the kid was straight; he also wasn’t girly, he was just purposefully acting silly. Ji Xiaotao and him chatted for a bit. After Fang Shaoyi finished filming, Ji Xiaotao told him, “Jian ge’s in x City. Wants to meet for a meal.”

Fang Shaoyi asked, “What’s he here for? Filming?”

Ji Xiaotao answered, “Yes, I heard Dong Lin say that they’re scheduled to film here for around 40 days.”

Fang Shaoyi nodded and said, “Pick a time then. When we’re both free, I’ll head over to have a meal with him.”

Yang Siran and Chen Tong weren’t that far away from the two of them. Ji Xiaotao heard Yang Siran whisper, “Can you not check my phone in the future? Just leave it alone if there are messages.”

He didn’t hear what Chen Tong’s reply was. His voice was too soft. He probably didn’t dare to speak too loudly because Fang Shaoyi was so close. Ji Xiaotao glanced in that direction, then turned back around to continue speaking with Fang Shaoyi.

The shot they had just filmed hadn’t pa.s.sed. In a bit, they needed to retake it. During these breaks between shots, Fang Shaoyi normally didn’t speak that much. He needed to maintain his emotional state. Unrelated topics would cause his emotions to disappear.

Yang Siran took a few steps in the opposite direction. Chen Tong followed. Thus, Fang Shaoyi and Ji Xiaotao could no longer hear their conversation. Yang Siran gently furrowed his brows, seemingly in slight disagreement with Chen Tong’s reply. He kept lowering his voice and saying something.

Ji Xiaotao handed a bottle of water over to Fang Shaoyi. Fang Shaoyi silently took it from him and drank a gulp to soothe his throat.

This time, Jian Xu had come to the film studio to film a movie. He was only less than two hours away from Fang Shaoyi by car. Fang Shaoyi found the spare time to go visit him on set.

The director was a young, new, and innovative director. Fang Shaoyi hadn’t collaborated with him before, but had seen the other a few times during film festivals. They had also conversed before. Right now, they were filming a casual, modern romance. Jian Xu’s character was an outwardly sullen but inwardly coquettish PE teacher. This was a cla.s.sic Valentine’s Day movie that could be easily finished while eating popcorn and drinking c.o.ke. The director didn’t have any wild ambitions. It also wasn’t that tiring filming these types of movies.

When Fang Shaoyi arrived, Jian Xu was shirtless and showing off his muscles. There was a thin sheen of oil on his skin; under the sunlight, his figure looked very eye catching.

The director sipped at the iced tea Ji Xiaotao had brought and cheerfully spoke with Fang Shaoyi. He was a year younger than even Fang Shaoyi, so was honestly considered young in the directing circle. He said, “Shaoyi ge, take a visiting picture later. We’ll post a Weibo.”

Fang Shaoyi smiled and said, “Okay.”

Jian Xu casually slung a jacket over himself and walked over. The director had someone off to the side take a picture of the three of them. When he looked at it after, he said, “Edit it for me before you post it. There’s two much pressure taking pictures next to the two of them. Makes me seem both short and ugly.”

The people surrounding them laughed. Jian Xu asked, “Then should we take the picture sitting?”

“Nevermind. It’s the same anywhere. Photoshop my legs longer when you post it,” the director said.

That day, Fang Shaoyi and Jian Xu had a meal together, along with Ji Xiaotao and Dong Lin. They were all old friends, so it didn’t matter that their a.s.sistants were sitting with them. There weren’t that many extra considerations. Actually, in the past few years, Fang Shaoyi and Jian Xu hadn’t seen each other too many times. However, with their relationship, they didn’t feel more distanced from the other at all. Each time they met, they still had a lot to talk about. Everyone knew that they were very good friends – and truly, they were extremely good friends.

In the private room, Jian Xu took off his shirt. Thus, he was only wearing a wifebeater. Ji Xiaotao chuckled and said, “Jian ge’s muscles are looking good recently.”

Jian Xu scoffed and looked askance at him. “Mocking me? In front of your ge, I still have the face to bring up my muscles?”

“You are a bit less toned than my ge,” Ji Xiaotao cackled. “But if they don’t look at my ge and only look at you, yours are still really good.”

“I don’t even know if you’re complimenting me or complimenting your ge.” Jian Xu unscrewed a bottle of iced beer for himself. He asked Fang Shaoyi, “Want some?”

Fang Shaoyi rarely drank alcohol. He poured himself a cup of tea.

Jian Xu b.u.mped his gla.s.s onto the other’s. “Let’s clink gla.s.ses, bro. It’s been half a year since we’ve seen each other.”

Fang Shaoyi asked him, “You got any more gigs after this?”

“Yep. I have a historical drama after this film. After that, nothing so far. I want to take a break,” Jian Xu said.

During the meal, Jian Xu didn’t eat much. Later, he ordered a salad and slowly chewed it. While eating, he said, “My instructor won’t let me eat most things. He also told me to eat eggs, but I haven’t. I f.u.c.king hate eggs the most.”

Fang Shaoyi said, “Eat something else as a subst.i.tute. Same effect.”

Jian Xu and Fang Shaoyi were the same age. These years, Fang Shaoyi had never really filmed any romantic comedies, but Jian Xu had filmed a lot. However, he was thirty six too. In a few years, he wouldn’t be able to continue down this path. He needed to consider changing images.

Fang Shaoyi and him were buddies. There wasn’t anything that couldn’t be said between them. Back then, when they were in school, they spent all day together. Throughout all these years, they hadn’t gotten into any arguments either. They were among the few true bros in this industry. Fang Shaoyi told him, “If you want to change your image, you need to stop accepting invitations for these types of films. The audience might accept you for one or two, your fans might ensure that you make enough ticket sales, but after enough time, your image will be set. There are no pros.”

Jian Xu filled up the other’s tea cup again before bitterly chuckling. He said, “n.o.body asks for me, ge. These days, the ones inviting me are all for the third male lead or lesser. I never even get any invites for the second male lead. Even if there are, they’re all for s.h.i.tty movies. The role this time is actually alright; at least the script is pa.s.sable. I’d even be okay with guest starring in a movie. How am I supposed to act as the third or fourth male lead?”

Jian Xu was a true A-list celebrity in the drama circle. For all these years, he hadn’t lost his place. However, he no longer acted in idol dramas anymore. Currently, there were only so many different genres of dramas that could be aired in this industry. Disregarding the war dramas, there were many limits on what could be filmed. Just last year, he had filmed a post-marriage family drama that had received fairly high reviews. But filming too many of those made even the actors annoyed. It was rare for big production political ploy dramas to become available every year too; Jian Xu couldn’t afford to wait.

A very awkward situation. His studio and company’s resources were all in the TV drama industry. They couldn’t reach into the film industry, so couldn’t receive offers from big directors for big productions. Many famous directors also had their own go-to actors. Jian Xu didn’t want to act in a subpar film either. Thus, year after year, he had dragged on. This was why he was still filming dramas.

Fang Shaoyi said, “The third or fourth male leads in some movies aren’t bad either. I heard that you rejected Director Wei’s offer last year. I’ll keep an eye out for you. If there’s a suitable role in the future, I’ll let you know. Then you can let your company go ask about whether it’s plausible or not.”

Each year, Fang Shaoyi rejected a lot of film offers because of his schedule. But he and Jian Xu were completely different types. In general, movies that invited him weren’t necessarily the best fit for Jian Xu. Besides, the other wasn’t a rookie at the company who could get squished into the role of a trivial character after simply discussing with the director. Jian Xu needed to play important characters. It was impossible to get such characters in films by famous directors merely through asking for them.

“Thanks, bro. As for Director Wei’s film……the female lead was my ex-girlfriend, gege!” Jian Xu threw his head back and laughed. He looked at Fang Shaoyi and said, “Let’s stop talking about me. Let’s talk about you. Pretty busy recently, huh?”

Dong Lin had kept himself silent for a long time. Now, he could finally b.u.t.t in. “Hahaha, has Yuan Ye ge pursued you? Shaoyi ge.”

Most people wouldn’t casually joke about this topic after seeing Fang Shaoyi. Yet, there was nothing Jian Xu wouldn’t say. Forget Fang Shaoyi – he was even extremely familiar with Yuan Ye. Back in the day, when Yuan Ye had still been a tiny bean, he had already known the other. The three of them had often eaten out together. At the time, he only treated Yuan Ye as a little lackey. Unexpectedly, Yuan Ye had truly managed to get together with Fang Shaoyi in the end.

Later on, they truly got divorced too.

Ji Xiaotao elbowed Dong Lin and said, “What are you blindly trying to inquire about?”

Jian Xu scolded, “Don’t elbow my a.s.sistant. Come, Dong Lin, ask. Ask your Shaoyi ge if he’s gotten back together with Yuan Ye yet or not.”

At the time, Fang Shaoyi ignored all of them. He took a bit of food and didn’t say anything.

Jian Xu said, “Is it that you guys have been together for so long that you feel uncomfortable without causing a bit of trouble? I told you last year that you guys simply had nothing better to do. What kind of ‘spicing up’ is this?”

Fang Shaoyi didn’t like talking about himself and Yuan Ye at the meal table. He also didn’t like bringing this topic up. Even though this was Jian Xu, he still didn’t want to say anything.

Besides, Fang Shaoyi had nothing to say either. What could he say? Could he say that after posting that Weibo, Yuan Ye hadn’t actually pursued him? The other didn’t even reveal a hint of intent to pursue, but right now, they could occasionally share a phone call at night and chat with each other.

Telling the truth was honestly a bit embarra.s.sing. Monkey was unreliable.

What was Monkey so busy with recently that he could be so unreliable?

Yuan Ye squeezed his phone between his ear and shoulder. While boiling a pot of tea, he kept making noises of acknowledgement.

“So after everything you just said, this is still a s.h.i.tty script.” Yuan Ye carried his tea over and set it on his table, then stretched his arms. He said, “What the h.e.l.l were you doing earlier? Why didn’t you ask me before you bought it?”

“I’m not being perfunctory with you. I read that script character by character and finished the whole thing. No is no.”

“Six million? Admit that you lost a bunch of money buying this script and get over it. If you spend this extra six million, you’re going to be crying a lot in the future. Otherwise, hire a few people and get them to rewrite the script for you. Change it completely.”

“Quit thinking about the plot. There’s no f.u.c.king plot.”

“Me? I won’t write it. I can’t write these things. It’s not about money. I wouldn’t write it for a million, nor for eight million. Even if you killed me, I wouldn’t write it.”

“Grow a brain before you spend money in the future, okay? Bye bye, little cutie.”

Yuan Ye hung up the call and casually threw his phone onto the table. He reached a hand behind and squeezed his neck. Recently, he had been too dedicated to rushing out his ma.n.u.script. He felt like all the bones in his body were stiff; every time he moved, they creaked and snapped.

Just now, Ning Lu had called him. He had spent an enormous sum of money buying a script off a top-tier screenwriter last month. He felt that he would be able to make a huge profit off this, so sent it over to tell Yuan Ye. The plan was to spend six million and make a movie. He wanted to surpa.s.s last year’s《Fairytales of the Wilderness》.

Yuan Ye had been in possession of the script but never read it. Recently, he had a lot of business to attend to. Yesterday, Ning Lu urged him to hurry and read it. Yuan Ye flipped through a few pages and scanned it, then immediately felt an impending sense of doom. Later on, he diligently read through it and realized that it truly wouldn’t do. When he finally made it to the ending, he discovered that if someone really made a movie with this script, they would lose a lot of money.

This script was something used to fool dumb, rich investors. Ning Lu was that dumb, rich investor.

This incident was a coincidence, too. Prior to buying it, Ning Lu had asked Yuan Ye to help him look it over. However, that was the period of time after Yuan Ye had posted his Weibo post, so he had disappeared for several days. Ning Lu hadn’t been able to get in contact with him and had been fooled by the screenwriter, so couldn’t bother with too many other matters. He quickly bought the script and was even waiting for Yuan Ye to praise him. The blow Yuan Ye had given him had caused half his heart to go cold. He was reluctant to admit that he had wasted several hundred thousand dollars just like that.

Ning Lu was truly a great investor: he was dumb and had a lot of money. Any project that managed to get him to invest in it was pretty fortunate. Yuan Ye shook his head and rolled his neck. There were honestly an infinite amount of things to worry about when working with such a dumb, white, sweet rich person.

A while later, Yuan Ye ultimately couldn’t bear to be so harsh. He pulled up Ning Lu’s trashy script and wrote him a thousand-word plot outline. He pointed out the important characters and wrote a short summary.

——If you trust me, you wouldn’t film this. See if you can sell it for a low price. If you’re determined to make it a film, these are some plausible thoughts I had. Look everything over again.

Yuan Ye sent Ning Lu an email, then notified him over WeChat.

This previous year, he had spent too much time not doing anything. Now, he was in a lot of debt. During this period of time, he had returned most of it. He had been working on his own book for two years. It was only missing the ending; he would probably be able to finish it in a few days.

He glanced at the time. Ten at night. He called Fang Shaoyi. The phone rang for a long time. It did get picked up eventually, but the person who answered wasn’t Fang Shaoyi.

“Ye ge? Ye ge are you looking for my ge? My ge is at a meeting in the director’s room!” Ji Xiaotao shouted.

“Okay, then I don’t need anything.” After Yuan Ye finished saying this, he made to hang up.

Ji Xiaotao called him to a halt, “Ye ge!”

In exasperation, Yuan Ye said, “Don’t shout for me so desperately. Feels like something bad has happened to me or something.”

“Ye ge, you’re finally making a move!” Ji Xiaotao sounded extremely excited. “I thought that you had disappeared!”

Yuan Ye c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. It seemed like the other didn’t know about his secret phone calls with Fang Shaoyi. Yuan Ye laughed, “Ah.”

Ji Xiaotao said, “Ye ge, what are you busy with?”

Yuan Ye didn’t have any time to make small talk with him. He said, “I really am busy. Tao-ah, I have a bunch of stuff left to do. I’ll hang up first.”

Ji Xiaotao very quickly said, “Okay, okay, bye bye,” and hung up. A while later, he told his ge to return the call. Actually, this was all because Ji Xiaotao hadn’t checked Fang Shaoyi’s phone. If he had, he would’ve known that these two had an abundance of call histories and WeChat chat histories.

After a few minutes, Fang Shaoyi called. Yuan Ye picked up and put the phone on speaker. He set it on the table. “Yi ge.”

“Headed out for a bit just now,” Fang Shaoyi said.

“I know,” Yuan Ye chuckled. “Xiaotao told me.”

When Fang Shaoyi went to take a shower, he left his phone outside and on speaker. Yuan Ye’s phone was on his table anyways, so he didn’t hang up either. The call remained connected. Yuan Ye heard Fang Shaoyi walk out. He asked, “Done showering?”

Fang Shaoyi made a noise of acknowledgment. Yuan Ye added, “Then do some skincare?”

These days, the two of them had these types of calls occasionally. Honestly, they didn’t say anything much, but the calls would always last quite long. This feeling was very fresh and interesting.

Fang Shaoyi told him, “Today I went to visit Jian Xu on set.”

“He’s filming over there too? The film studio?” Yuan Ye c.o.c.ked an eyebrow and inquired.

“Un, he’s filming a movie.”

“He’s filming movies now?” Yuan Ye asked. “What kind?”

“Nice and easy. A romance,” Fang Shaoyi answered.

“Ah,” Yuan Ye said. “Xu ge’s still not changing his image?”

“It’s hard to.” Fang Shaoyi picked up the new script he had just received from the director. While reading it, he chatted with Yuan Ye. “He can’t get any good movies, but also doesn’t want to accept roles in bad movies.”

Yuan Ye and Fang Shaoyi talked for a long time. Even though it seemed pretty immature, he really liked talking to Fang Shaoyi like this.

When the two of them finished conversing, it was already almost twelve. Yuan Ye was actually fairly tired, but he didn’t really want to go to sleep. Because of this, he continued working. He needed to hurry and finish all the tasks still incomplete.

The next few days, Fang Shaoyi had a scene that needed to be shot at night. Yuan Ye sent him a few WeChat messages, but didn’t call. When Fang Shaoyi was filming, Yuan Ye rarely called him. He was scared of disrupting the other’s work. Besides, the two of them didn’t have anything truly important to talk about anyways. It would be too much if he called while the other was filming.

On Friday, Yuan Ye sent a file attached to an email. Then, he sent a voice message on WeChat: “Boss Zhang, I’ve sent the file to your inbox. I won’t worry about anything else now. After you edit it, send it to my email. I don’t want to include any pictures in this book. You can decide the rest.”

The other said, “Okay Ye ge, I’ll look at it later.”

Yuan Ye smiled and told him, “You’ve worked hard. I’m rarely around, so if you call me and I don’t answer, just leave me a message. I’ll return the call when I see it.”

The other once again replied, “Okay.”

Yuan Ye stood up and stretched. In the past, if Fang Shaoyi was nearby and he had been sitting for too long, Fang Shaoyi would walk over and force him to stand up. Teacher Fang’s rules were usually pretty strict. If he didn’t follow them, he would get taught a lesson. Now, he was free; n.o.body was by his side, controlling him. He was bold and lawless.

Yuan Ye laughed. He bent over and closed the tab logged into his email.

A news page automatically popped up on the computer screen. Yuan Ye didn’t pay attention and simply made to close it. These pop-ups were always very annoying. They couldn’t even be blocked. Just as he was about to close the page, it scrolled down to the entertainment section. Yuan Ye’s hand reflexively paused.

People were always extra sensitive to their own names. Not to mention that this also included Fang Shaoyi’s name.

Yuan Ye scanned over the page quickly. After, he silently heaved a sigh.

He had deleted the Weibo app and also never used his phone to read the news. Unless he needed to send a message, he rarely checked WeChat. But in the current society, it was impossible to completely cut off the Internet. Just like now – he couldn’t avoid things even though he wanted to.

Yuan Ye shook his head and directly turned off his computer.

Just now, the headline, pictures, and text had taken up the entire gossip section.

The headline, in dark font and bolded: Fang Shaoyi Spends Evening in Young Male Celebrity’s Room Until Midnight. Netizens: Yuan Ye, Are You Still Going to Pursue Him?

The accompanying pictures were extremely blurry and completely covered with “XX Entertainment Exclusive” watermarks. The photos were a play by play of Fang Shaoyi opening the door for the young man to walk in, followed by the young man leaving an unspecified amount of time later.