Chapter 61
Studio.
“CUT!”
When director Zhou shouted stop, Lu Bai came out of the scene, his eyes were clear, but the makeup on his face made him look like a wandering rogue. He kept his position from the scene and remained seated on Qu Xueyu’s lap, chewing the prop mints that he had just used during the scene, presenting a unique and paradoxical style of youth.
Qu Xueyu viewed this style of Lu Bai, and frowned slightly – this kind of teenager was somehow familiar to him, but it shouldn’t be surprising. After all, everyone was saying that they were lovers before.
So he smiled, and reached out to tousle the teenager’s curls: “Are the mints okay?”
Just now was the scene Lu Bai had seen at home, where Huo Qi asked Ruan Jiangjiu to feed him mints from his mouth. Lu Bai shook his head: “It’s too cold, I don’t actually care for mints.” The one who loves to eat mints is Huo Qi.
Qu Xueyu chuckled, then took the milk tea bought by his assistant and stuffed it into Lu Bai’s hands – for some reason, he always wanted to put something warm into this teenager’s arms when it was cold.
Lu Bai took a sip of the hot milk tea, remembering something, he looked up at the ceiling and remarked, “I’ve read the script once before, including the parts we’ve filmed. I originally thought Huo Qi was a hateful scum, but just now there was a moment when I felt sorry for him.” He likes a person but doesn’t know it, and he has spent time with the person he likes and had the closest contact with him, but the other person still doesn’t know it was him. “But-” Lu Bai looked at Qu Xueyu and blinked, “I’m beyond sure that he is indeed scum.” He ruined Ruan Jiangjiu’s life.
Qu Xueyu grinned softly, sighing, and said, “Xiao Bai, people are very complicated creatures. Having certain qualities in him that make you feel sorry for him, and him being a scum, are not mutually exclusive.”
Lu Bai nodded thoughtfully, when Director Zhou’s voice, appeared tinged with a sigh. He was looking at Lu Bai, the emotions in his eyes indiscernible in the blur of light, but he smiled and said, “Xiao Lu, you’re right, he’s indeed a scumbag, and no one can defend him.”
Lu Bai had a feeling that Director Zhou seemed a bit sad, he opened his mouth but didn’t know what words to say. Qu Xueyu rubbed the teenager’s head and looked at Director Zhou with a smile, “Director Zhou, today’s scenes are over, aren’t they? I have to take Xiao Bai to dinner.”
Director Zhou stared blankly for a moment before chuckling sincerely, waving his hand at them and exclaiming, “Go ahead, go on.”
In the car.
Bo Yangzhi was driving, and from the rearview mirror, he watched the young master of the Lu family who was concentrating on playing with Qu Xueyu’s fingers, seemingly intent on those delicate fingers. Qu Xueyu just dotingly gazed at the other letting him play around with them. As Bo Yangzhi watched them being mushy he twitched his mouth, and after a moment’s consideration, he said, “Xueyu, we’re going to see Director Zhao after dinner tonight, you remember, right? “
Qu Xueyu stretched out his other hand and stuffed a piece of Amber Sugar with milk1Seems like its a jelly-like cube but has a candy shell on the outside. This particular piece has milk added to give it a cream taste. See end of chapter for more details! into Lu Bai’s mouth, nodded, and said, “I remember.”
Not long ago, there was a script that Qu Xueyu was very interested in that was sent over. The director and his team had worked with him many times, and it just so happened that Director Zhao was in Jinghai right now, so they made an appointment to meet tonight.
“You’ve been filming this whole time so I didn’t have time to tell you,” Bo Yangzhi continued, “Director Zhao is bringing an extra person with him tonight. He said it’s another actor he’s interested in, a newcomer.”
Qu Xueyu returned the hold on Lu Bai’s hand and said absently, “That’s fine.”2Was “成 / chéng ” which translates as ‘to succeed, to finish, to complete, to accomplish, to become, to turn into, to be all right, OK!, and one-tenth’. Mostly just wanted to point it out because MTL usually uses ‘Success’ and that is weird sounding, so if you find this phrase when you MTL or something, then now you know what it could be! This was something very common when talking about cooperations, and Director Zhao wasn’t the kind of person who enjoyed keeping a messy set, so he didn’t give it a second thought.
Lu Bai reached up and pinched Qu Xueyu’s cheeks, stating, “Then I’ll wait for you at home after we eat.”
Qu Xueyu smiled and kissed the teenager’s fingers, “Good.”
In this way, the agreement was made, but in the end, there was an unexpected situation after they ate. Qu Xueyu had accidentally left his cell phone with Lu Bai before he left for his appointment! Lu Bai blinked and smiled brightly, “Let’s go and give Xiao Qu his phone!”
When Bo Yangzhi, who was responsible for driving Lu Bai home, saw Lu Bai’s overly bright smile in the rearview mirror, he was stunned, but he turned the car around and proceeded to the restaurant. Without a cell phone, things would be inconvenient, not to mention that the young master would not be at ease, and he would also feel anxious.
The agreed place was an old traditional Chinese restaurant. Bo Yangzhi brought Lu Bai to the door of the box, but when they were about to go in, the door of the box opened slightly, and a small dog with a snow-white body and pitch-black eyes squeezed out. Lu Bai was surprised when he saw the small dog, and his eyebrows furrowed slightly as if he was pondering over something.
The little dog stopped moving and then bared its teeth at Lu Bai, its dark eyes full of hostility. Lu Bai could then see that the puppy appeared to be entirely white, but there was a little black trace like an ink spot on its right ear. Lu Bai tightened his furrowed brow – for some reason, this dog felt familiar to him.
So he squatted down, looking at the little dog, but didn’t extend his hand – it was basic common sense to not touch other people’s pets.
Bo Yangzhi observed Lu Bai’s posture and asked, “Do you like small dogs?”
Lu Bai was about to reply when the door abruptly opened the rest of the way with a creak. After a hand scooped up the puppy, a young voice spoke up, “His name is Ah3” 阿 / ā ” prefix used before monosyllabic names, kinship terms etc to indicate familiarity — Yabla, Online Chinese dictionary-Bu, Mr. Lu. Do you like him?”
Lu Bai froze, as soon as he raised his head, he collided with a pair of pitch-black eyes, he was a very good-looking young man, but for some reason, almost instinctively, the first time he saw this person, Lu Bai’s heart gave birth to an uncomfortable sense of resistance, as if the young man’s existence itself had triggered his body’s self-defense mechanisms.
He stood up, pursing his lips as he looked at the young man. There was obvious defensiveness in his eyes. The young man measured him up and narrowed his eyes at Lu Bai. When he finally shrugged his shoulders and flashed a smile, he leaned over to Lu Bai’s ear and whispered in a profound tone, “Mr. Lu, to be honest, I don’t dislike you, nor do I have any desire to do so. After all, disliking you is a dangerous thing to do.”
Lu Bai’s pupils shrank, and the weird feeling of discomfort grew stronger. His lips tightly turned downward, and as he was about to reach out and push the person away, he was pulled by the wrist, and then he fell into a familiar and reassuring embrace.
Qu Xueyu’s voice rang out, somewhat cold: “Mr. Bai, what are you doing?”
The young man smiled faintly, as if nothing had happened, and said, “Don’t be concerned, Teacher Qu, I just-” he gestured to Lu Bai, “I just feel an instant connection with Mr. Lu.”
Qu Xueyu narrowed his eyes at the hand pointing at Lu Bai, and was about to speak, when the youth in his arms shifted out of his embrace and then slapped the other’s hand that was pointing at him away with a sharp sound.
Lu Bai looked at the other party with an impassive stare and remarked, “It’s not that hard for me to hate a person. As it happens, I don’t like you.”
One by one everyone in the private room had left, so Director Zhao came out to find someone, but as soon as he exited the door, he heard Lu Bai saying this sentence. In a flash, he smiled and came forward to smooth things over, “Xue Yu, Ming Yuan, what’s going on here? There are still some things we need to discuss. Why don’t we go back in and talk about them?” With that, he looked at Lu Bai, “This is Young Master Lu, right? I’ve seen you before with Mr. Lu, why don’t you come in and have some lunch too?” Director Zhao was a rising director in the past two years. He was very capable and thoughtful, he was much younger and more mellow than Director Zhou, and never offended people lightly.
“Ah, I haven’t introduced myself yet.” before Lu Bai could answer, the young man looked at Lu Bai and exclaimed, “My name is Bai Mingyuan, and I’ll be the partner for Mr. Qu’s next play after the cooperation is agreed upon.” He paused, curling up the corners of his mouth, and said meaningfully, “Although my family’s roots are abroad, I am a family friend of the Qin family. That’s why – I’m now living temporarily in Qin Gu’s home. I’ve heard that Mr. Lu and Qin Gu grew up together and are very close, so can’t we be friends?”
“No.” Lu Bai said, “Because I don’t know any Qin Gu.” It was the truth as he had lost his memory. And neither his family nor Xiao Qu had ever mentioned this name in front of him.
In the side hallway around the corner, Qin Gu just happened to hear these words and stopped walking. After hearing those words, he looked at the back of the teenager standing not far away, feeling that his heart ached as if a knife was twisted in, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He clenched his fists tightly, and the tendons on the backs of his hands protruded, but in the end, he refrained from stepping forward.
After hearing Qin Gu’s name, Qu Xueyu’s face became colder and colder, he hugged Lu Bai’s shoulders, while smiling at Director Zhao, only the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Director Zhao, my family came to look for me, so let’s stop here tonight.”
Qu Xueyu unapologetically showed off his relationship with Lu Bai, and when Director Zhao was stunned, he hastily smiled and said, “Okay, okay, we’ll talk later.”
After Qu Xueyu took Lu Bai and left, Qin Gu took big strides to Bai Mingyuan. Director Zhao looked at the two people he couldn’t afford to mess with and secretly sighed, but still said with a smile on his face, “This meal has started to cool already. I’ll go in first to have some, and Mr. Qin and Mingyuan can talk with each other slowly.” He wisely returned to the private room.
“Stay away from Xiao Bai.” Qin Gu said as he looked at Bai Mingyuan blankly.
“Tsk, so scary.” Bai Mingyuan said this butthere is no expression of fear on his face, he sized up Qin Gu, like he was sizing up a non-functioning tool. Suddenly, an incomparably bright smile appeared on his face and he exclaimed, “I know that it’s thanks to the blessings of Mr. Qin, the Lu Family, and the Qu Family, that Mr. Xiao is now living a wonderful life in prison. But rest assured, I will certainly have better luck than Mr. Xiao.”
“Bai, Ming, Yuan.” Qin Gu narrowed his eyes dangerously.
The youth’s face, however, remained without any fluctuations as he smiled and said, “Mr. Xiao is very stupid. But, regrettably, you, like him, are not very smart either.” Saying that he picked up the small dog by the scruff of its neck and left, and Qin Gu watched the other party’s back as he clenched his fists with a sneer.
Bai Mingyuan carried the puppy out of the restaurant and made his way to a remote and uninhabited alley entrance. He set it down in front of him, then squatted down and looked up at the sky drenched in the city’s neon lights for a long time before he turned to the puppy and asked, “How could you pick someone as stupid as Qin Gu to be my CP?”
“Senior is really amazing, to actually be able to survive your script.” A genuine gleam seeped out of his eyes as he continued, “Honestly, I miss him after not seeing him for many years. Because he’s still just as, well, adorable.”
“My heart tells me that I still love and want him as much as ever.”
He gave a feigned sad sigh, but a frighteningly ruthless intent appeared in his eyes, “But he has to die. Because I’m just an ordinary person who wants to live-” he rubbed the dog’s head, his eyes blurring, “Ah-Bu, you’re going to help me, aren’t you? Because I saved you once, and am your chosen protagonist.”
~~~~~
The Villa. Midnight.
Lu Bai woke up with a jerk from his nightmare, gasping for air, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
“Xiao Bai?” Qu Xueyu turned on the nightlight that hadn’t been used for a long time and took the teenager’s shoulder, his face full of worry.
Lu Bai was dazed, seemingly yet to come around, he lunged into the other man’s embrace. Closely clutching the other man’s neck, the tip of his nose overflowed with the usual pleasing fragrance of the youth’s body, and his body temperature was reassuringly warm. Lu Bai finally felt as though his violently beating heart had been calmed, and he held the other man a little tighter, saying, “Xiao Qu, I dreamt that the world was empty… there was no you or my family… and only the very red- very red maple leaves, and they were like blood.” His arms around the youth trembled, then he kissed the youth’s lips as if he wanted to prove something: “Xiao Qu, you definitely won’t leave me, right?”
Qu Xueyu’s eyes narrowed as he felt his heart ache terribly, and his forehead ached terribly. It was as if at some point during which he didn’t remember, this young man had once said these heart-wrenching words to him over and over again. He immediately blamed his past self from before he lost his memories, what exactly had he done that made this young man so insecure?
He kissed the corner of the teenager’s slightly cold forehead preciously as if he were pledging a vow, “Xiao Bai, I won’t leave you.” After a pause acting as if by instinct, he affectionately smoothed the back of the teenager’s neck and murmured, “And I won’t let you leave me either.” No one would be able to ruin this.
“Good.” A light smile appeared at the corner of Lu Bai’s lips, and he snuggled back into the youth’s neck in a daze, quickly falling asleep again with peace of mind. The youth, however, remained leaning against the head of the bed. Together with the soft blanket, he tightly gathered the sleeping youth into his arms, gently stroking the other’s back, as if helping the other to drive away the maliciousness in his dreams.
It was as if only the young man’s breath and body temperature existed in this space, and Qu Xueyu’s heart was filled to overflowing, with some inexplicable and aching pain. The morning stars are the brightest, and as the starlight pierces through the pre-dawn darkness, spilling into the youth’s beautiful eyes through the gap in the curtains, they converge into an endless, wide galaxy.
~~~~~~~~~
The author has something to say: the missing person returns, oooh, after the update will try to settle things down, it’s almost over! (this chapter has a foreshadowing about the truth)
Shio: Sorry for the late update, life happened and I got too stressed to focus. But we only have the last monster of a chapter left now! Also a shout out to kittennoodlesoup for your ko-fi 💚 , Thank you!!
Editor: Krone
Proofreader: N/A
Amber Sugar
“The freshly made amber candy is elastic and tough, and the color is translucent and bright. When you first see it, you will be impressed by its appearance. The special taste of amber candy is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and it is caused by a natural phenomenon, which is very magical. Many bakeries don’t actually sell amber candy. If you fall in love with its appearance, make it yourself. In addition to sugar, the most important material for making amber sugar is agar. Agar-agar may not be common to you as an ingredient, but you may have seen carrageenan or agar-agar on the ingredient list of many jelly. The solidification of amber sugar relies entirely on agar.” — Reference Link
