Sheng Xing Ze turned and looked at Yu Bai in disbelief. He rushed to Yu Bai's side and raised his hand to touch Yu Bai's face. "You really don't feel it?"
Yu Bai shook his head at the other's expecting eyes, and he smiled at Sheng Xing Ze, "I said there will be exceptions, didn't I?"
Sheng Xing Ze's eyes flashed with excitement, "I think I must be dreaming."
Yu Bai reached out and gave the younger man a hug, Sheng Xing Ze jumped directly into his arms, his hands tightly wrapped around Yu Bai's neck.
"You never are a monster. Only you and I know about this ability, and there will be no third person," Yu Bai's right hand patted the younger man's back, and his voice soothed gently.
Yu Bai slowly opened his left hand, which had been clenching all this time, at an angle that Sheng Xing Ze could not see, exposing five-crescent-shaped bleeding wounds; and it was quite painful when he clenched, but this pain could not be compared to the pain in his heart when he saw Sheng Xing Ze's self-blaming.
After a long stressful day, Sheng Xing Ze went to bed early.
Yu Bai sat beside him next to the nightstand with the script open, from time to time he would look at the person next to him, the expression on his face became softer.
He had quietly cleaned the wounds in his palm with the antiseptic, and hidden it under the quilt, far away from Sheng Xing Ze.
Listening to Sheng Xing Ze's gentle breathing, Yu Bai finally let go of a heavy weight in his heart.
He really did not want to see his Xing Xing with red eyes unless he was in bed with him.
He secretly placed a gentle kiss on Sheng Xing Ze's lips, Yu Bai lied down and turned off the light with satisfaction, and the corners of his lips curved up as he drifted into dreamland.
The next morning, Yu Bai sleepily turned off the alarm on his phone.
The person next to him were still very unreliable. Although there were two quilts on the bed, Sheng Xing Ze still got himself into Yu Bai's quilt.
Sheng Xing Ze, who thought he could do whatever he wanted with two quilts in the bed, wore only thin pajamas, and Yu Bai felt a patch of smooth skin with his hands.
The half asleep Yu Bai did not notice at first. He only felt that the touch on his hand was quite good. After regaining some consciousness, he quickly ran into the bathroom with embarrassment.
After solving some physiological issues, Yu Bai walked out of the bathroom while rubbing his hair, and turned to look at the person who was still deep in sleep on the bed. He bit bitterly on Sheng Xing Ze's face and tucked the younger man's exposed arm back into the quilt, then get dressed to head to the crew.
**
"Yu Bai, what's the matter with you! I said that this scene is very, very important. Why did you still get yourself injured?" The director looked at the wound on Yu Bai's hand and got all furious, if Yu Bai's character was not the crucial role in the whole movie, he really wanted to kick this person out of the crew.
"What did you do yesterday?" He tried to make his tone sound less aggressive.
Yu Bai knew that he was in the wrong. He lowered his gaze to confess his mistakes positively. The director felt like he was punching a cotton; when he saw that Yu Bai was unwilling to say it, he could only wave him off and let him go impatiently.
The crew doctor helped him clean the wound again, bandaged it, and told him not to touch water for the time being.
"What is happening nowadays to young people, they would self-harm their body at every turn..." Yu Bai thanked the doctor as the man left, he could hear the other mutter softly.
Yu Bai looked at the injury on his hand and tried to think of an excuse when Sheng Xing Ze asked, so the other would not suspect anything.
Nearing noon time, Sheng Xing Ze finally was willing to leave the warm blanket and crawled out of bed slowly.
"How did I get into this?" He rubbed his unkempt hair and slowly crawled to the other side like a sloth, groping his slippers with his eyes closed.
After spending more than half an hour getting ready, Sheng Xing Ze finally arrived at the studio and found no sight of Yu Bai.
"Do you know where Film Emperor Yu is at?" He asked a random staff member.
"He's with the doctor over there, he got injured just now."
Sheng Xing Ze hurried over, "Tell me, are you seeking death!" The director's scolding voice echoed through the whole set.
Yu Bai saw Sheng Xing Ze was among the crowd watching him. He stared at the director, which made the other man shut up, then walked towards Sheng Xing Ze.
Sheng Xing Ze saw his bandaged hand at a glance.
"How did you get hurt?"
"It was a little accident during filming, it's not a big deal," Yu Bai just stated a random excuse.
The director's mouth twitched at hearing these words, and he really wanted to say something.
From the beginning, he had suspected that Yu Bai's wound was somehow related to Sheng Xing Ze, especially after he saw the man could not get out of his character after he finished filming. The director believed this would be a huge problem.
Sheng Xing Ze did not see what Yu Bai's wound was like; he thought it must be serious due to many people gathering around here. He grabbed the crew doctor and asked for precautions, until finally the doctor got impatient with him, "This little injury will get healed on its own, don't exaggerated it, okay?"
"It's not that serious?"
The doctor gave Sheng Xing Ze a blatant look, and he had this thought of throwing these two people who make a big deal out of a small problem out of the crew.
The director seemed to see through the doctor's thoughts and mercilessly shooed the two men out of the crew.
Walking outside the film and television city, Sheng Xing Ze poked Yu Bai's arm.
"That, at noon, I have an appointment with Pang Shi..." Sheng Xing Ze touched his nose as he felt somewhat uncomfortable around Yu Bai. After all, he felt bad for leaving Yu Bai alone in the hotel.
"I have something to talk with him as well, let's go together."
Sheng Xing Ze did not want to leave Yu Bai behind, and took him to the meeting location with Pang Shi.
The three found a hot pot restaurant with a nice environment nearby and asked for a secluded private room.
"A half-half hot pot, okay? Brother Yu can't eat spicy food."
Pang Shi nodded stiffly, "You two order, I have no appetite."
Sheng Xing Ze ordered several recommended dishes, and then passed the menu to Yu Bai, "Anything you want?"
"I can eat whatever you order."
Sheng Xing Ze ordered the dishes quickly, the waiter helped them close the door, and there was no interruption from outsiders in the private room.
Pang Shi's face was haggard, with a pair of thick dark circles, his eyes were bloodshot; and his whole person's mental state was very bad, "He came to me again," he said weakly.
"He doesn't believe that I broke up with Meng Meng, and asked me to give him more money, but all my savings have been cleared out, and I can't even survive on my own anymore, where I get the money to hand it to him."
"Have you reported to the police?" Sheng Xing Ze's nails tapped on the table, thinking for a moment.
Pang Shi shook his head, and the ringing of his phone interrupted what he was about to say.
When Sheng Xing Ze looked at Pang Shi's expression, he knew that the other's father was calling. Before waiting for the man to connect the call, he reached out and grabbed Pang Shi's phone, connected the call, and pressed the recording button neatly.
"Son, let me remind you that if you don't have the money wired to my account in an hour, watch me, don't you celebrities want a good reputation to show to the public? I'll ruin you."
The uncle on the other side was having a thick accent and using vulgar language, his voice immediately burst into Sheng Xing Ze's ears, but he really did not understand what the man said.
"This uncle, I have recorded everything you just said."
"You fucker, how dare you threaten me?"
Sheng Xing Ze did not care what the man said, since he did not understand him anyway, and continued where he left off, "I don't care what make you so confidence. What I can tell you now is that I have evidence of your gamblings, as well as your extortion being recorded. If you don't want to spend your years behind a cell bar, you better spit out all the money Pang Shi gave you. And you better clean after your own mess, don't call Pang Shi ever again, or else you will spend the rest of your life eating prison meals."
There was an exclamation on the other side of the line, followed by cluttered footsteps, and then some conversations got mixed in.
Sheng Xing Ze listened to some of it, then hung up when no useful information was being recorded, and returned the phone to Pang Shi.
"I'm sorry for suddenly doing that, this kind of person will just keep on extorting if you don't threaten him back."
Pang Shi shook his head and said he did not mind. He looked forward to the evidence Sheng Xing Ze mentioned, "Do you really have the evidence?"
"No, I was just bluffing, but these things should not be difficult to find, we might not find it now, but it will pop up at a later time."
Pang Shi's eyes lit up slowly.
"However, I suggested that you better tell Sister Meng about this matter, lest you regret it later."
As he spoke these words, he sandwiched the shabu beef in the hot pot into Yu Bai's bowl.
"What do you want to eat? You're injured, don't move much, just tell me what you want."
"Want to eat spicy flavor." Yu Bai looked at his bowl full of bone soup, really yearning for the spicy soup next to it.
"No can't do, the doctor said to not eat spicy food," he said while putting vegetables from the clear soup into Yu Bai's bowl.
The spicy sauce in front of Yu Bai was being confiscated by Sheng Xing Ze, he could only grievously watch Sheng Xing Ze's red lips as the younger man eating spicy food.
Pang Shi looked at the interaction between the two people across from him, recalling the time he was with Bin Cong Meng; and without hesitation, he started to dial the number he had remembered by heart.
"Meng Meng," Hearing a familiar voice over the phone, Pang Shi's voice shivered.
"You finally called me, and here I thought you really didn't want me anymore." Bin Cong Meng's voice was crying, and Pang Shi immediately felt distressed.
"No way, how come I don't want you."
"Then why did you break up with me!"
Pang Shi hesitated and looked over to Sheng Xing Ze with a guilty expression, "I'm sorry," he whispered.
Sheng Xing Ze kept mouthing to him from the opposite side, stating, say it, say it.
Yu Bai moved the bowl in front of Sheng Xing Ze a little, so that Sheng Xing Ze would not be caught when he leaned over.
"I shouldn't keep it from you."
Pang Shi told Bin Cong Meng that he was a child from the countryside and his father's gambling addiction and the man threatened him.
"I'm sorry Meng Meng, I'm just afraid that you won't be with me after knowing the truth."
"You're such a fool! I don't care about you anymore." Bin Cong Meng angrily hung up the call.
Hearing the busy tone on the other line, Pang Shi held the phone in at a loss and looked at Sheng Xing Ze in panic.