/
In the end, Xia Rong set out with Su Chi after all— When all was said and done, he felt that he couldn’t bear more accidents occurring in his life =_=.
Xiao Wu had already gone back. So this time, Su Chi was driving in the front while Xia Rong was playing with his phone in the back seat. First, he sent a message to Zhang Youying on WeChat: {Sorry, I didn’t mean to lie to you.}
It took a while for the other party to reply, her tone unexpectedly calm and light. {I’ve already thought it through. And it’s not like you really lied to me. If you changed ‘girlfriend’ to ‘boyfriend’, then it’s the truth.}
Immediately after, she again added, {In any case, at least now I know that it’s a problem with nature, that I was born with the wrong gender and not because I wasn’t attractive enough to move you. So I can only give up in peace.}
Seeing this message, Xia Rong started deleting the words ‘Su Chi isn’t my boyfriend’ that he had just typed into the text box. In order not to hurt this little girl’s self-esteem, he decided to just brace himself and tacitly agree to her misconception. {En, it’s because of me, not your fault. You also shouldn’t need to listen to Uncle Zhang too much. You’re so beautiful, you’ll definitely be able to find someone better.}
{Who said I only came to pursue you because I was listening to him?} Zhang Youying was unexpectedly stirred up and sent a long string of hitting-his-head emojis. “Of course it was because I liked you! Even studying at BeiYing was because of you!!!}
{…Ah???} Xia Rong was completely shocked, while suddenly feeling that what he was carrying on his shoulder seemed much heavier, so he couldn’t not take it a bit more seriously. {Actually, I’m not…}
Before he even finished typing his sentence, the little girl already sent over the next sentence in a pitter-patter, “Now think about it, it was because you rose into popularity when I was still in school. All the students in my class were your fans, so I felt very proud of the fact I actually knew you and couldn’t help but want to get closer to you. Maybe I just took this sort of conceit as ‘like’, that, maybe, who I liked was only the “you” in my imagination.}
{It should be just that!} She hurriedly self-affirmed. {I didn’t even understand you at all, didn’t even know you liked men, aaaah!}
Xia Rong, “…”
Zhang Youying: {I think Su Chi’s pretty good. I didn’t expect you two to get together! But I heard that the gay circle was rather messy, especially in our circle. You two shouldn’t be together just for benefits, right?}
Xia Rong, who had already formed a conditional reflex towards these kinds of questions1: “We’re not!”
Zhang Youying: {Oh, then I can rest assured… Since you two are dating, then date properly. On Uncle Xia’s side, if you don’t want to talk about it for the time being, I’ll keep it a secret for you… Ah, I won’t say any more frivolities, I wish you two happiness!}
“…” Xia Rong was already numb to this and could only turn a blind eye. {Thank you, I too wish you will soon find someone more suitable to you.}
He was still looking for the right expression in his collection of expressive stickers when Zhang Youying again beat him, replying: {No need to worry about me, I’ll be fine after crying a month! [laughter] Alright now, won’t talk anymore, I’m going to do a spa as I study the script. Even if you rejected me today, won’t you still have to say you love me in front of the camera tomorrow [aren’t_I_just_super_amazing.jpg].}
Never had Xia Rong ever felt that his typing speed was as slow as now. Zhang Youying has already rushed to speak out on everything that should have been said, just like beans being poured out of a tube of bamboo2. In such a hurry, with such a strong tone, while it may seem as if she had the upper hand, being so unrestrained and magnanimous, in fact, it was only to maintain a final trace of a girl’s self-esteem.
Xia Rong finally found the expressive sticker that he was looking for – a GIF of a cat patting a person’s head with its paw which also had the words “pats head” – and sent it to her.
“We’ve arrived.” The car slowly came to a stop. Su Chi turned back and asked casually, “Who are you chatting with, you’re so engrossed?”
Xia Rong sighed and heavily said. “I found that for a lot of humans, we can actually look at them from a variety of perspectives. That possibly, while you find them a bit annoying from one perspective, they are actually quite cute from another… Humans are such complex creatures.”
“Kicking yourself out of the human species so soon?” Su Chi said, “Then what are you, a one-track-minded, foolish cat?”
Xia Rong, “…”
Su Chi, “I don’t know how to look at humans or how many sides there are to them; in any case, no matter which side I look at you from, you’re still a ball.”
Xia Rong, “…Enough from you!”
=====
What could be considered fortunate was that the door to the dressing room has yet to be locked. Although there were a new group of people using it at that moment, everyone was in a hurry, so no one had noticed that pile of clothes under the cabinet.
Xia Rong had Su Chi go up to distract the other people’s attention while he pretended he was looking down to pick something up. Using this opportunity, he pulled the clothes out and stuffed them into the backpack that Su Chi had brought.
Although the backpack could be seen to be fuller than when they had entered, the people in the dressing room were all so frantically busy that no one had in the mood to pay attention to such a thing. So the two of them just directly slipped out of the set without having to hide anything.
Back in the hotel, as they were getting out of the elevator, Su Chi suddenly asked, “I was still quite useful, no?”
That’s right, not only could he help create a distraction, but he also so timely provided such a powerful prop! Xia Rong gave a strong nod. “En, you are still the most attentive!”
He had thought that Su Chi was trying to show off for a bit when the other had asked this question, unexpectedly, the other only asked this one line before directly dropping it.
…Satisfied so easily?!
Seeing that they were about to arrive in front of their respective rooms, Xia Rong hesitated before breaking the silence. “Er, then I’ll… head in first.”
Su Chi looked at him, giving him a slight smile. “En, go ahead.”
=====
Sitting on the bed alone, Xia Rong had the script that he brought back with great difficulty spread open on his knees, but for some reason, he just didn’t seem to be able to get into it— At one moment, he felt hungry and his mind brought up earlier when Su Chi had asked him whether he would like to go out to eat or call in an order; but the next moment, after changing his posture, he remembered when Su Chi was telling him ‘the underwear is new, I’m just afraid that the size might not be right’. Then another moment, he recalled that slight smile that Su Chi had on while looking at him right before he entered the door…
Sigh—
Xia Rong fell back with his arms spread wide open. As he looked at the ceiling, he began to think. He simply felt that the design of his room just wasn’t as good as Su Chi’s, that although all the furnishing looked exactly the same, it just seemed empty, and boring…
“Tuk-tuk-tuk.”
When the door was knocked, Xia Rong immediately became spirited. He turned and jumped out of bed then shuffled over in his slippers to open the door. Outside, it was indeed the Su Chi who he had been thinking about!
“Why did you come over?” The corners of Xia Rong’s lips couldn’t help but quirk up, but he still consciously tried to flatten the smile back down. “Did something happen?”
“Nothing happened.” Su Chi’s expression was calm as he shook the bag with a family bucket3 in his hand. “《Liang Shanbo and Romeo》 is going to start soon. I think it would be more interesting to watch it with others.”