Meanwhile, the meal is set. The mother says to everyone, “today’s mid-autumn festival and everyone is finally home for once. Let’s take a photo to commemorate.”
Everyone drops what they’re doing, more out of being surprised than complying. Her husband murmurs, “aren’t we all here every few weeks or so? ‘For once’?”
She gives him a glare, and he immediately acquiesces, “sure, sure; photo, photo.” Then he quickly hurries Liu Yu’an and his brother too, “you three as well, come over here.”
Now that the family is a bit more used to the presence of Shao Yanxi, the parents are also no longer treating him with fear all the time. Even if they might not ever be able to treat him as intimately as they do their own sons, but they’re also relaxed enough.
“Yeah, yeah,” even if they think it’s a silly thing to do, but they still walk over compliantly, standing by the parents’ side.
They get the domestic worker here to take a few pictures for them.
Then when they are finally seated, ready to eat, and the father is already extending his chopsticks, his wife smacks his hand, “be a bit more patient, would you?”
And she starts to take photos herself.
Maybe it’s a cultural phenomenon already, to let the phones have the first bite of any meal. A group photo of all the food, and then each dish one by one, and then putting dishes she thought went well together on camera together to take some more photos.
The four other men watch quietly as she moves the dishes about to take all dozens of photos, losing hope in life.
Finally, she is done.
“Alright, alright, let’s eat, it’ll get cold otherwise,” sounding like she isn’t the one most likely to cause the meal to grow cold in the first place. And still, she isn’t eating yet, calling the domestic worker over, “Lin -sao , send the photos to me on WeChat, alright?”
“Certainly.”
And after she receives the photo, she starts her photo manipulation regime. As if she can fill her stomach somehow just looking at the meals getting prettier and prettier.
A while after the meal began she’s still holding onto her phone, unmoving. Her husband really can’t take it anymore, and says, “can’t you do it after you eat?”
“Sure, sure,” she says, still unmoving as ever; perhaps she would mutter ‘sure’ to anything they say to her in this state.
Liu Yu’an decides to take the phone directly out of her hands, saving then closing it, saying, “mom, eat first, and then you can edit the photo some more, alright?”
“Yeah, right, I should eat before it gets cold,” she doesn’t lash out at Liu Yu’an, and quietly starts eating.
Her husband is quite heartbroken looking at this scene. If he were the one to take the phone out of her hands, he’d be ripped to shreds. And when it’s her son doing it, nothing happens.
Talk about double standards, jeez.
After the meal, Liu Yu’an gives his mother her phone back, and she resumes her photo manipulation.
To be honest, her photo-editing skills are average at best, but after she’s done, she sends the photos into their family chatroom and says, “quick, pick nine of them to share publicly,” she’s got dozens there for them to choose.
“???”
There was never such an ordeal in the family before.
She’s puffed up when she sees them unmoving, “more picking, less blanking out, ok? Look at Yanxi, and look at you three. Is it that embarrassing to let everyone know we had a happy meal as a family?”
Seeing her about to enter an endless dreary blabbering phase, the three men are quick to succumb to the pressure and quickly share the photos.
“Done, done, we shared them,” the father says, meaning, ‘please shut up.’
She complies as expected. Phew, they got off scot-free this time.
Later, Liu Yu’an’s phone rings——It’s Ren Jianzhang.
Ren. Jian. Zhang.
Uuurgh…
Liu Yu’an would really, really prefer not to pick up this ominous call. Unfortunately for him, there’s one, two, three and now four pairs of eyes looking. So he just picks it up, “uh, Ren-ge?”
“An’an, it’s Mid-Autumn Festival today. Do you want to post the festive greeting yourself or have us do it?” Anything else and they might have done it themselves, but it is still best to have a more personal family photo of a meal or something, but of course they don’t have such a photo.
“What’s your agent saying?” His mother asks before he could reply.
“… To post a status update,” he says, being vague, but his mother doesn’t fail to disappoint, “a status update of reunion on the autumn equinox right?”
“… Right.”
“Should’ve said that in the first place. I’ve got the photos already. These ones,” she says, and Liu Yu’an’s WeChat rings up.
“I’ll do it myself,” Liu Yu’an replies to Ren Jianzhang then hangs up.
When he opens up the photos, he realises the family photo from just now is also here, “this one too?”
“Of course. You’ve gone public already, right?”
“When did…” He suddenly stops himself, realising Shao Yanxi is still right next to him. Shao Yanxi, the oversensitive, overthinking, overly insecure guy. He’d definitely read too much into this.
“Fine,” Liu Yu’an says. They’ve kind of come out already, so “want to go public in full?” He asks, turning to Shao Yanxi.
“I’m fine either way,” he replies.
“Then do it,” his mother is blabbering again, “it’s not like you have your livelihood depending on your celebrity career. So what if some fans turn against you?”
Liu Yu’an “‘scuse me? I am actually depending on my celebrity career, thank you very much.”
“You’d have starved to death with that paltry money you make.”
Liu Yu’an wants to retort, but he runs the numbers mentally a bit and quickly realises he’s actually in the red.
He has a bunch of unused club memberships and a bunch of odd cars or whatever that he’s left rotting in the wind or unable to find a buyer for. Shao Yanxi is the one paying for all their maintenance in general.
… Liu Yuxi really is right, about him mooching.
“Then I’m going public,” he says, digging out that photo he took of him and Shao Yanxi sitting on the rock between Lai and Anxi they took during that show earlier and their marriage certificate.
Liu_Yu’an☑️: I’m lucky to have met you, to have fallen in love with you, and to spend the rest of my life with you @Shao_Yanxi☑️
The moment he presses the send button, he can practically imagine the grim face Ren Jianzhang will have. Though he shakes the thought away and writes another post.
Liu_Yu’an☑️: Mid-autumn festival, family gathering @Shao_Yanxi☑️ @Liu_Yuxi☑️
Then he asks his dad if he has a WeChat. He says he hasn’t, but his mother immediately counters that, “I do, BlindFool is me, I comment a lot on your WeChat.”
“!!!” Liu Yu’an is shocked, “isn’t that Liu Yuxi’s?”
“What’s Zuozuo got to do with that? It’s mine.”
Liu Yu’an looks at Liu Yuxi with question marks in his eyes “???”
Liu Yuxi rolls his eyes at him, “did I tell you it’s actually me?” and a sentence he keeps to himself because the parents are still here, ‘do you think I look like someone who’d cheer for you like some fangirl?’
What a dumb younger brother he has.
Liu Yu’an takes a few deep breaths then tells his mother, “mom, ge told me before that he’s BlindFool and also deducted two months’ worth of my pocket money saying it’s his pay for cheering for me.”
Liu Yuxi goes ‘shit’ inside.
“Liu Yuxi! What kind of older brother are you?! How much are you earning a month? And how much is Youyou earning a month? You’re seriously still taking money from him? You can’t be so stingy you know. Tomorrow… No. You should pay Youyou back right now.”
Liu Yuxi feels like he might die clutching his chest eventually.
Liu Yu’an gives Liu Yuxi a cunning smile behind his mother’s sight.
The father can see their playfighting, but doesn’t intervene.
And after everything, Liu Yu’an also @s his mother then shuts down his phone for good——He would rather not have to deal with two phone calls from Ren Jianzhang a day. Then he tells the others present, “I’ve made the post. You can share it if you want.”
And they all share it, as the clock turns to 7:50, a few minutes before 8, when Celeb’s Wilderness Survival is going to air.
The mother wants them all viewing together as a family since everyone is here for once. They have a storeroom turned family theatre in the mansion. The father follows, and so the opinions of the three younger ones don’t matter anymore.
They connect a cable from a laptop to show on the projector. And the moment they open up the show, the screen is just full of Liu Yu’an and Shao Yanxi’s name.
There’s a comment saying WeChat is currently lagging too. And also some express wonder at how the show’s comments are overtaken by Shao Yanxi’s name two out of two times it’s aired (and to ignore Liu Yu’an’s name).
There are even ones saying Shao Yanxi’s alt has been busted.
“Alt? What alt?” Liu Yu’an is mulling over it when his father says, “can you turn off those moving words? I can’t see a thing.”
“The comment barrage is the soul of the show! What are you even thinking trying to turn them off?” And his wife is in objection.
Liu Yuxi’s hand is hovering over the comment barrage button. Then he presses it after his mother is convinced this time – “do you want to see our son or just read the words?”
“Oh, right, you’re right. Zuozuo, shut it off.”
Then Liu Yu’an borrows Shao Yanxi’s phone. He wants to see what this alt business is about… And WeChat’s login service fails.
Liu Yu’an “!”
He doesn’t think it’s because he acknowledged him and Shao Yanxi with that marriage certificate, because one, they’re about halfway public anyway, and he’s infamous and unpopular himself, and Shao Yanxi, while he has lots of followers, but he isn’t actually a celebrity. He can’t imagine Shao Yanxi’s fans burning the Internet down over the exposure of a celebrity’s romance.
Then he hears his mother call him out, “Youyou, you should have helped Yanxi, look at how tired he was with that big of a suitcase.”
Liu Yu’an looks up to see it’s currently showing them passing through the trees. Shao Yanxi’s face is reddened by the heat. Instead of the usual cold and distant aura, this makes him feel more approachable and even cute. For Liu Yu’an, he even wants to rub it.
If the comment barrage is turned back on, Liu Yu’an swears he would definitely see a bunch of people hoping to rub Shao Yanxi… He starts to regret letting Shao Yanxi join the show with him a little.
Then it gets to the part where Liu Yu’an forcefully took over the suitcase from him. His mother finally stops complaining, “now that’s much better.”
Liu Yu’an “…” I suppose you can’t see the other suitcase still in your son’s hand, huh?
At the seashore, the other celebrities all run for the ocean, other than Liu Yu’an and Shao Yanxi. So his mother asks, “where are the two of you?”
“Yanxi’s feet had blisters, and I helped him out.”
“Blisters? How are you feeling now? All healed up yet?” She turns around to ask. And so does the father and Liu Yuxi.
“It’s healed up now. Thanks,” he feels a little touched. His nose and his eyes feel a little warm as well.
He… has also got a family, and people who care about him now; people who would take care of him if he has blisters on his feet.
It feels really fluffy inside.
And the mother continues asking questions each and every scene after that. Liu Yu’an is patient at first but slowly he gets annoyed. He’d answer without thinking seriously at all. So the mother tells him off.
In the end, Shao Yanxi explains in his stead instead.
He’s really patient. No matter what she’s asking, he would explain in detail, because he understands very well it is her way of caring for them, to know how they are doing.
It’s really just Liu Yu’an who’s irritated with the talkativeness instead of being thankful for being the subject of worry and care.