CH 79.2

Actor Fu immediately restrained his joking expression, as he could control his outward expressions freely. He entered the scene in an instant. His face was serious, exuding a somewhat ascetic aura. Neither sad nor happy, a monk with a heart not tethered to mortal troubles. He clasped his palms together as he spoke, “Your Majesty, this poor monk is eager to learn from scriptures. I hope that Her Majesty will release the Xiliang Customs Clearance Scripture as soon as possible.”

As he especially emphasized the word “Xiliang”.

The guests finally came to their senses, and Teacher Li, clapped the table and said, “Is it the Queen of Xiliang?”

The director nodded, “Yes!”

“…” This is hell-level difficulty.

Sure enough, the difficulty level of the questions given to the actor was different. Beyond that, they were given unpopular and niche films. Thankfully, Shen Xingsui showed extraordinary memory and could help acting out the scenes, while Fu Jinxiao was extremely good at performing and grasping the key points. In the end, they directly scored 50 points, which was the highest so far.

After the end, the guests applauded:

“Wow, this is amazing.”

“Mr. Fu and Suisui are both great.”

“You two are really strong.”

Sadly, during the guessing of the last two films, Fu Jinxiao “inadvertently” made a mistake – he said the protagonist’s name out loud, which meant that he and Shen Xingsui needed to accept the punishment.

When all groups have participated in the game, the punishment period begins.

The first group to be punished was Shen Xingchen and Tuya. The two have to work together to eat a pocky stick, face to face, bite it together until it’s all gone. Normally, the view of a pair of handsome man and a beautiful woman face-to-face like this should be heart-racing, but these two have absolutely zero romantic chemistry. On top of that, Shen Xingchen bit down the biscuit stick with too much force, which directly made Tuya laugh out loud, dropping the last bit of pocky to the ground.

The director gave them mercy and let them pass.

The next group was Anran and Li Xu’an. These two people have a bit of CP feeling. The two handsome young men leaned together and ate very slowly, but when they got to the middle part, Li Xu’an secretly bit the stick, and pulled off his face, leaving Anran to finish the piece.

Again, the director gave them mercy, but the audience wanted more.

Then came Shen Xingsui and Fu Jinxiao. When this group came out, the barrage in the live broadcast room began to surge wildly.

[OH MY GOD IT’S HAPPENING!!]

[I’ve been waiting for the two of you.]

Shen Xingsui stood in front of Fu Jinxiao. In front of them, the two bent down to hold the pocky together. The distance between their faces slowly got closer, until Shen Xingsui could feel the warmth radiated from Fu Jinxiao’s body. Thanks to that, he didn’t feel the cold of the winter air.

Slowly, only half of the biscuit was eaten.

Shen Xingsui felt that his heartbeat seemed to be slowly becoming faster. He looked at the enlarged handsome face in front of him and felt that his limbs were a little stiff. He didn’t know what to do. Fu Jinxiao was so close, so close that Shen Xingsui’s brain short-circuited, forgetting to think.

He didn’t think about taking the initiative to bite off the chocolate, because he thought Fu Jinxiao would do it.

However, when the biscuit reached the last point, Shen Xingsui squeezed his eyes shut. Then, he felt a gentle and soft touch to his lips, and he was overwhelmed by the cool and pleasant scent that distinctly came from Fu Jinxiao.

All of these seemed to happen in an instant.

Then, everyone gave them applause.

“The challenge is complete!”

The position just now was rather tricky, and no one else could see what happened, as Fu Jinxiao intended – after all, what kind of movie emperor is not good at camera blocking?

Only Shen Xingsui stood there in a daze, unable to move for a long time.

One of the guests saw his dumbstruck expression, and asked, “Suisui, why are you so dazed?”

Shen Xingchen was still a little curious, so he walked over, and said with a smile, “What’s wrong with you? Why are you blushing? Do you have a fever?”

Shen Xingsui’s face turned even redder after hearing this sentence; the kind that creeped all over his face, down to his neckline. Fu Jinxiao, who was beside him, looked calm. After he heard Shen Xingchen’s question, the actor had enough cheek to pretend like a polite and courteous gentleman, and asked Shen Xingsui with concern, “Are you feeling unwell?”

Shen Xingsui blushed like a boiled octopus. He was indignant. “No, I’m not feeling unwell!”

Shen Xingchen blinked in suspicion.

The audience, as always, was liking this turn of events.

[What happened just now?]

[Suisui why are you blushing, tell jiejie please!]

[There’s definitely something going on, sisters.]

[Woooooooooooooooooooooooooow.]

At the beginning, the CP of these two was considered a cult1rare ship; as in, it was way off from the mainstream CP.. But now, after weathering all kinds of storms and receiving all kinds of crumbs, many of the shipper felt like they had stumbled upon a gold – a real couple. There’s no sense of “forcing” or “artificial marketing” between these two men. Only pure sugar and indulgence.

The game was finally over.

All the guests could enter a local house for late lunch-slash-early dinner. This time, the meal was arranged at the village chief’s house at the head of the village. After entering the door, there were various delicacies on the table, and those delicacies were still steaming hot. The scent instantly made everyone’s stomachs growling.

Shen Xingsui unexpectedly discovered that the village head was indeed, the Uncle Wang he met earlier today.

When the guests were seated, Uncle Wang asked kindly to Shen Xingsui, “Young man, have you picked the wood splinters from your hand?

Because of the thick local accent, it was hard to understand at times. Thankfully, there was an in-site translator bridging their conversation.

Hearing this question, some of the guests began wondering.

“What’s going on? “

“How did your hand hurt?”

“What’s the matter, Suisui?”

Shen Xingsui knew that everyone was hungry, and he didn’t want to delay everyone’s meal, so he immediately answered, “It’s okay, it’s not a big deal. I already handled it earlier.”

Only then did everyone feel relieved. Only Fu Jinxiao, who sat next to him, frowned slightly. He asked in a whisper, “When did it happen?”

As soon as Shen Xingsui raised his head, he met the actor’s sharp gaze. Normally, Fu Jinxiao always had a kind smile, but even then, nobody dared to underestimate the perpetually smiling Fu Jinxiao. With a serious face like this, his powerful aura was unrestrained. While it wasn’t hostile, it was still able to make people feel nervous.

Shen Xingsui was inexplicably guilty and pretended to be relaxed, “I uh… I was not careful when chopping the firewood, so a wood splinter cut my finger a little…”

Before he finished speaking, his wounded hand was grabbed by Fu Jinxiao. The actor looked at the wound, then at Shen Xingsui, who was flushed despite the cold ambience. Because of rough work earlier, his hand was rather rough. However, this didn’t disgust the actor. If anything, his expression was rather gloomy.

Then, he glanced coolly at the director not far away.

In the middle of winter, the director inexplicably felt chilling shivers down his spine. He immediately asked the field manager to add a military coat to him to make him feel much better.

Shen Xingsui thought that this look was aimed at himself, and he said softly with a guilty conscience, “I didn’t mean it…”

Fu Jinxiao heard the youth’s soft voice, and looked back at the wound that had been wiped carelessly. This kind of wound could be infected if not treated properly, and it was painful. And yet, Shen Xingsui, this silly boy, didn’t think much of it for the sake of the task. He only thought about others.

Fu Jinxiao sighed helplessly and said, “I don’t blame you, I’m angry with myself.”

‘For not realizing you were hurt earlier.’

‘I’m also mad at you for being hurt but unwilling to take the initiative to tell me.’

An inexplicable fire ignited in the actor’s heart. For the first time, Fu Jinxiao had nowhere to vent his anger, so he just said, “I’ll ask the staff to get me the medicine box. You eat first.”

Shen Xingsui hesitated, “No, you can eat too… “

Fu Jinxiao pressed the youth’s shoulders down, while he stood up and left.

Shen Xingsui still wanted to speak but was persuaded by Tuya. The woman smiled and said, “It’s okay, just let him go, otherwise he will still be sullen.”

Shen Xingsui replied with a hint of anxiety, “Did I make him angry?”

‘I’m the one injured, why is Teacher Fu angry? It’s not even a serious wound…’

Tuya felt that this child was still ignorant in the matter of feelings. “He wasn’t angry at you. He was worried for you, especially because it reflected his bad habits.”

Shen Xingsui frowned deeper.

“You know his leg is injured, right?” Tuya said while eating, “His leg was injured during filming because of a prop mistake. Despite that, he still continued even if it was painful and could further aggravate his injuries. I saw him that time, he wasn’t even flinching because of the pain. He could even calmly order his assistants around to deal with the subsequent matters. But deep down, he knows that this behavior wasn’t healthy.”

Fu Jinxiao was someone very professional, dedicated to his craft.

Or maybe just reckless about his own body.

All of it poked Shen Xingsui’s heart, making it feel sour and itchy.

Tuya smiled gently at Shen Xingsui, “But, he still was more worried about your body despite such a trivial injury. Maybe it’s because he loves you more than himself.”

Just this light sentence made Shen Xingsui’s heart completely confused, and even when Fu Jinxiao came back to treat the wound later, his thoughts were still jumbled. In this fugue state, he was drifting along. It was only when it was time to learn the dance that he finally snapped out of this state.

Fu Jinxiao, who was next to her, asked the girl, “Will you start teaching us now?”

The dancer girl smiled and nodded. “Yes, but our dance is divided into roles. We will teach you according to the roles assigned to you by the director. For you, Mr. Fu, you are more suitable to dance as one of the drum-men. And as for you, Mr. Shen… well, there’s only one role left for you to fill – the female fairy bride.”

Shen Xingsui almost bit his tongue, “Th-The what?”

The girl covered her lips and smiled. She repeated her answer with more clarity and mirth. “The bride.”

Shen Xingsui was flustered. “I’m the bride? But I’m a boy, how can I…?”

“Boys can also play as the bride.” The girl replied softly, “Just put on our costumes and props, and then dance the proper steps. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Shen Xingsui hadn’t spoken yet, but Fu Jinxiao said, “I have a problem.”

The girl looked at him suspiciously.

Fu Jinxiao raised his eyebrows, and said slowly, “Who is the groom?”

“…”

Well, what a question.

Then the girl came to her senses and explained, “In this dance, you don’t play the role of the groom – it should be my brother’s role. But… I think you can play it on his behalf. He played this last year, so it’s not a problem if you fill it in for this year. Plus, he wanted to go abroad, so he was searching for a replacement lately.”

Fu Jinxiao leaned on the table next to him, and said slowly: “Can we guests play the role of groom?”

The dancer knew about the role. She was a bit confused, so she simply asked, “Aren’t you all artists? I think this role shouldn’t be interesting to you, right? The groom doesn’t have any singing and dancing parts.”

“Girl, I think you may have misunderstood.”

Fu Jinxiao stood up straight.  The man’s tall and straight body, even wearing clothes with ordinary brand names, he couldn’t hide his handsomeness. With a faint smile on his face, he slowly acted, “My family has been very difficult since I was a child. When I was young, I had a very small wish, that is to become an actor and perform on stage…”

1rare ship; as in, it was way off from the mainstream CP.