CH 3

Shen Weixing was very serious about his job. He would arrive early for every scene, get into costume, get his makeup done, then sit in the dressing room and practice his lines with his assistant.

The current TV show that he was in was for a special cameo appearance; he played the role of the male lead before his face was disfigured and switched to a new face, so he didn’t have many scenes.

Shen Weixing thought, if this were a movie then that would be great, I really want to act in a movie. I’d be very satisfied even if it was just getting the role of the male lead of a good movie before his face was disfigured and he switched to a new face.

Too bad reality was different from wishes. So far, Shen Weixing at most had only gotten roles for forgettable, blink-and-you’ll-miss-them side characters in good movies.

For TV series, Shen Weixing was an A-listing celeb, but movies and TV series had a river separating them. The only movie resources that the little company he was in could get him were so pitiful it’d make you cry, with small production movies and horror flicks. Shen Weixing didn’t want to lower his own status, this sort of thing can only rise, if it falls even once it would be an enormous loss.

So he would rather take the tiny side characters in good movies than be the main lead in rotten films.

His agent had privately advised him countless times to switch companies, and there were many big companies that had reached out with an olive branch to Shen Weixing. But, Shen Weixing had always borne the pressure and didn’t change his decision.

The reason was none other than—

“Shen Ge.”

The door to the dressing room was pushed open, revealing a pale, smiling face that made people feel endearment and good sentiments towards.

The assistant hurriedly got up and said hello. “Qiu Ge.”

The person that had come was named Xia Qiu, he was in the same company as Shen Weixing, and was also the reason why Shen Weixing wasn’t willing to switch companies.

The reason was nothing more than Xia Qiu saying that he took nostalgia and feelings importantly, and wasn’t willing to leave the company with him. While Shen Weixing was worried that if he left, no one would protect Xia Qiu.

After all, Xia Qiu’s talent was actually limited. His face was not bad, but in the entertainment industry those who debuted generally all had faces that were not bad, and Xia Qiu’s acting was a huge drag, to the point that he had to depend on Shen Weixing carrying him and packing him into filming crews to be able to snag any good roles.

Those companies who wanted to poach Shen Weixing were willing to take Xia Qiu too, but Xia Qiu wasn’t willing himself. He said that he had an emotional attachment to his old starting company, and told Shen Weixing to leave by himself.

Shen Weixing naturally wouldn’t leave by himself.

The reason was also very natural: Shen Weixing had promised to take care of Xia Qiu for the rest of their lives.

The history between Shen Weixing and Xia Qiu was very long. To put it simply, it was the gratitude debt of N number of meals. During Shen Weixing’s most troubled years, he had received support from Xia Qiu’s parents, and later on once he'd grown up and awakened to love, he fell for Xia Qiu.

But this was all one-sided.

Well, Shen Weixing hadn’t confessed before, and had only kept it in with slight hints, but Xia Qiu didn’t have any reaction, face completely innocent and upfront, not seeming like he was gay.

And so Shen Weixing didn’t dare have any more wishful thinking.

After all, he owed the other’s parents a debt of gratitude, if he forcefully ‘bent’ their son, then that wouldn’t be proper in any way.

Shen Weixing could only keep his white moonlight in his heart, doing his utmost to give Xia Qiu everything he could provide from a friend’s standpoint, as well as promise to take care of Xia Qiu for life as a friend.

This time the cast and the script of the TV series were actually all pretty ordinary, the reason why they were able to get Shen Weixing to make a cameo appearance was only because the male lead was Xia Qiu.

This would be the first time that Xia Qiu played the male lead, so Shen Weixing was obviously going to show his support.

The assistant, very self-aware, found an excuse to leave the room.

Shen Weixing looked at the time, pulled a chair over and motioned for Xia Qiu to sit, and asked, “You just arrived?”

Xia Qiu nodded, his smile very endearing. “When I came over, I heard that you’d arrived, so I rushed over to see you.”

Shen Weixing felt secretly pleased in his heart, but on the surface he still properly lectured him. “Next time, come to the set earlier, if you see any areas where you can help then help others, or else go over the script with people, don’t come here exactly on time.”

Xia Qiu put his palms together, blinked his clear eyes, and said, with remorse, “I’ll remember that.”

“Remember to do as I said, it’s not the first time that I’ve said it as well.” Shen Weixing felt a little powerless.

“I know~, I know~, I know I was wrong~” Xia Qiu stuck out his tongue, got up from the chair and massaged Shen Weixing’s shoulders appeasingly. “You can’t blame Xiao Chan~. She saw that I was memorizing the script up too late last night, so she wanted me to sleep more and called me later.”

Shen Weixing slightly furrowed his brows. “Have you finished memorizing your lines?”

Xia Qiu was just about to speak, but Shen Weixing had already picked up the script, randomly flipped to a page, said one of the female lead’s lines, then motioned for Xia Qiu to continue.

Xia Qiu was a little overwhelmed. “That isn’t my line.”

“This is my line, I’m your character before getting disfigured.” Shen Weixing sighed. “Didn’t I tell you to memorize my lines as well as your own? I don’t have many lines.”

“P ibbxfv ja atfw, yea P vlvc’a wfwbglhf atfw.” Wlj Hle lccbmfcais gjc tlr tjcv atgbeut tlr tjlg j ofk alwfr. “P vlvc’a tjnf atf alwf.”

“Ktlr lrc’a j yegvfc, sbe tjnf ab ecvfgrajcv jcv jcjishf sbeg bkc mtjgjmafg atbgbeutis. P’w sbe, sbe tjnf ab xcbk ktja sbe rjlv yfobgf.” Ktfc Vtfc Qflzlcu rjlv, “P’ii rjs sbeg ijaafg ilcfr atfc.”

Although Shen Weixing was just making a cameo appearance as the pre-disfigured male lead, he got his assistant to get the complete script, and had read it through once. He hadn’t memorized all of Xia Qiu’s lines, after all there really were too many, but he was very familiar with all the scenes. He flipped to a page with a lot of notes, read out a side character’s line, and cued Xia Qiu to continue.

Xia Qiu was able to say his lines, but stumbled a little.

After he finished, he hurried to say, very self-aware, “These scenes will be shot in a few days. When the time comes, I’ll definitely be able to memorize it smoothly, I’m already really familiar with the lines before these scenes!”

Shen Weixing wanted to speak, then stopped. “Alright then.”

Xia Qiu made a face at him purposefully, then studied his expression. He reached out a hand and poked the corner of his mouth. “Smile, otherwise I’ll be scared.”

Shen Weixing looked at him, finding it funny. “How am I scary?”

“Whenever you talk about acting, you become super serious and stern, and are really scary.” Xia Qiu earnestly said.

Shen Weixing didn’t think so himself. “I’m not, though?”

Was being serious something that could be called scary?

Shen Weixing and Xia Qiu practiced for a while, and the assistant came over to tell them that the other people had all arrived, they could now start filming.

Xia Qiu naturally went with him, although he wasn’t going to act. Still, he very earnestly sat on the set’s exterior and watched Shen Weixing act.

Shen Weixing was famous for nailing an act in one take, but the female lead was an up-and-coming actress in the same debut era as Xia Qiu, and it was also the first time she was playing one of the leads, so she was a little nervous and NGed the scene multiple times.

As long as ‘cut’ was called, Shen Weixing’s expression would darken, but he would only give pointers with a dark expression, he didn’t leave, nor did he curse out at anyone.

After painstakingly completing a few scenes, they directly filmed some scenes between the female lead and the supporting characters with the same background. As such, Shen Weixing went off set.

Xia Qiu took the tea prepared in advance from his assistant, then handed it to Shen Weixing. “Shen Ge, I was just watching you act, and I found that in my scenes there’s one with a similar situation, so I want to discuss with you—”

“Watch her act.” Shen Weixing pointed to the female lead in front of the camera. He took a sip of tea. “Her acting foundation is pretty good, it’s just that she’s too nervous. But pay attention to her positioning, she’s got a good handle on it, it’ll be advantageous to yourself if you learn it. What’s more, you need to get familiar with her, so as to better pair with her.”

Xia Qiu could only continue watching the filming.

The female lead finally temporarily finished her scenes, got off set and stood to the side, hesitating for a long time, before finally coming over and waving hello to Shen Weixing. “I’m sorry, Shen Laoshi, my state wasn’t good, I’ve caused you trouble.”

“You don’t put yourself into the character enough. When you act, don’t think about too many things, no matter who the other party is, they’re just another character in the story, not some Shen Laoshi.” Shen Weixing habitually frowned. “And anyways, I’m not some Shen Laoshi, you can just call me Shen Ge like Xia Qiu.”

The female lead smiled and nodded.

Shen Weixing didn’t have many scenes and he was highly efficient, so he compressed it all into one day and finished filming.

When the day’s filming came to an end, the director came over to invite Shen Weixing, Xia Qiu and Co. to dinner. Of course, Shen Weixing didn’t refuse, and went with them. During the meal, he helped openly and secretly gain some good points for Xia Qiu, getting the crew to help Xia Qiu some more in the future.

After three rounds of wine, the director asked, “Shen Ge, will you come sing karaoke later? The room’s already been prepared.”

This was a clear insinuation, normally this sort of thing wasn’t just simply going to sing karaoke, and instead would be an occasion where they’d get some small-time actors or models as ‘accompaniment’.

Shen Weixing asked a question in return, not letting anything show in his expression, “You aren’t filming tomorrow?”

“Ah, Xia Qiu’s definitely not going!” In the show-biz circle, opinions varied on why Shen Weixing took so much care of Xia Qiu, but in any case, keeping Xia Qiu out of it would be the right thing to do. The director hurriedly said, “Well, isn’t it because Shen Ge, you don’t have to film tomorrow, right?”

“No, that’s alright, I won’t bother you and disrupt your rest.” Shen Weixing was all smiles. “Later I have a meeting with a friend to discuss a new role.”

“Oh, oh, then you go be busy.” The director said.

However, it was after the banquet was over, that Xia Qiu stayed by Shen Weixing’s side. He curiously asked, “Who are you meeting? It’s so late, it’s already dark outside. Actually, if you planned a meeting with someone, then you didn’t have to come with me to eat this meal.”

“For the sake of a good relationship, if it can be done then I’ll do it, it’s just a meal anyways.” Shen Weixing avoided the first question, because he didn’t have the habit of meeting with people to discuss proper matters, and was very clear that in show-biz, meeting at night was basically never about proper matters.

In any case, the meeting didn’t actually exist, it was just that this place was close to Ye Jiuyue’s school, and he wanted to make a surprise check-up.

He didn’t believe it, he was absolutely going to get dirt on Ye Jiuyue.

Ye Jiuyue was a very not normal person, okay, extremely not normal!

The two had been together for about three months, yet Ye Jiuyue hadn’t contacted Shen Weixing first even once! Not even once! On Shen Weixing’s birthday, he hadn’t even gotten a ‘happy birthday’ message!

That day, Shen Weixing had refreshed and reclicked Ye Jiuyue’s Weibo page and WeChat the whole day, yet Ye Jiuyue hadn’t even sent half a word!

Ha. Ha. Act, act even more realistically, why don’t you ask me for a small role to play to get your fill of acting? Shen Weixing coldly laughed.

Shen Weixing accompanied Xia Qiu to the door of the hotel. “You go up by yourself then, don’t sleep too late, otherwise you won’t be feeling good. Remember to go to the studio early, to show a good attitude. But if there are people who maliciously bully you, don’t keep it in. If you can’t handle it, then tell me.”

Xia Qiu nodded obediently. “En, I’ve got it all down. Thank you, Shen Ge.”

“Okay, go in then.”

After Shen Weixing accompanied Xia Qiu to the hotel, he drove towards that apartment of Ye Jiuyue’s at once.

He would often have to do filming in the vicinity. What’s more, he’d become Ye Jiuyue’s sugar daddy awhile ago, so he just went and bought a car. Back then, he said it was a gift to Ye Jiuyue, but Ye Jiuyue was too lazy to get a license, and refused to admit that he’d accepted this car.

Just laze to death, why don’t you.

There was no saving this weirdo in this lifetime.

No, this was definitely just a ‘playing hard to get’ ploy. Ha. Ha. He was just pretending to not love money or looks, who would believe that! Calculating, too calculating, too bad the one you met was me, I’ll expose you sooner or later, you calculating □□

Shen Weixing viciously cursed Ye Jiuyue as he drove.

Indeed, the neighborhood of the apartment that Shen Weixing rented for Ye Jiuyue was not bad, at least, its privacy protection wasn’t bad, and was well managed. It was probably because this was the designated neighborhood used for sugar babies for Ye Jiuyue’s university.

He parked the car, went upstairs, opened the door and took a look. His mood turned bad immediately.

The apartment was completely dark.

Shen Weixing didn’t like it when he opened the door to home and found it completely dark. Before, when he came over, he would notify Ye Jiuyue ahead of time, so every time he opened the door he would see lamp light, and the TV would be on as well. Occasionally he would hear Ye Jiuyue making a show of pretending to do house chores.

In actuality, doing household chores was a request of Shen Weixing’s.

Ye Jiuyue wasn’t very willing, and didn’t really understand either. He slowly asked, “Why?”

Shen Weixing coldly laughed as he told Ye Jiuyue that this was already a very humane request, he probably didn’t know that other people would have way more scary, despicable, dirty, painful requests!

Ye Jiuyue nodded, face completely dumbfounded. “Oh.”

Tonight, Shen Weixing looked around the apartment, Ye Jiuyue wasn’t anywhere to be found. He was immediately so angry that he took out his phone and asked: Where are you?

Ye Jiuyue didn’t reply even after some time had passed.

Shen Weixing : It’s already so late, where are you?

Ye Jiuyue’s phone was probably dead.

Shen Weixing sat on the sofa, waited three minutes, and thought that Ye Jiuyue was probably dead as well.

He gave him a phone call, but that side only picked up after a long time, and it was an unfamiliar male voice that picked up. “Hello?”

Shen Weixing was immediately shocked, then furious, and then he fell silent.

Under his demands, Ye Jiuyue had saved his number, but the contact name was Zhang San, in order to prevent others from finding anything out. He was afraid that if he spoke, he would be recognized, so that’s why he stayed silent.

If he couldn’t speak while in deep silence, then he could only erupt in anger in deep silence.

Sure enough, sure enough, sure enough, Ye Jiuyue was exposed! It was so late at night! His phone call was picked up by another man! Ye Jiuyue, you’ve been exposed! You’ve gotten exposed!

A hundred and eighty scenes of catching cheaters appeared in Shen Weixing’s mind; what’s more, each of them was in bed.

Until Ye Jiuyue’s slow voice sounded from the other side. “Don’t pick up my calls.”

That unfamiliar male voice said, “It rang a few times, seeing that you’re showering, I picked it up. I was afraid that there was an emergency.”

You couldn’t hear any temper from Ye Jiuyue’s voice, as usual, and he unhurriedly said, “You could have called me, though.”

The male voice was full of reason and firm with it. “Aren’t you afraid of getting shocked with electricity?”

Shen Weixing was going to die from anger!

They were already in the shower! Fuck you, Ye Jiuyue! Laozi hadn’t put on any condoms before! Fuck!

Shen Weixing felt uncomfortable all over, so he rushed into the bathroom and prepared to take a shower as well.

Ye Jiuyue said numerous ‘hello’s’, before finally hearing Shen Weixing’s gruff reply, “Where are you?”

Ye Jiuyue replied, “The dorm.”

Shen Weixing’s mood got a little bit better.  “Oh, the dorm.”

But then he very quickly grumpily asked, “Are there any people near you?”

Ye Jiuyue paused, then asked a question back, “Roommates?”

Shen Weixing shouted, “I’m asking if there is anyone near you that can hear me speaking?!”

Ye Jiuyue paused again, then asked, “Do you want me to press the speaker button?”

It really wasn’t Ye Jiuyue’s fault for asking, after all, in these past three months, Ye Jiuyue found that the idol he had previously been a fan of had some strangeness in the thought process department. For example, he likes seeing him do household chores, or the fact that he really liked attracting people’s attention, which was completely different from the calm and steady persona seen on TV.

That’s why it was his previous idol.

Ye Jiuyue had already been on the fence about continuing to be a fan or not being a fan for a long time now.

But he hadn’t dared let Shen Weixing know about this.

What’s more, as long as Shen Weixing didn’t open his mouth and talk, as long as Shen Weixing silently stayed as an ikeman, then he felt that he could stay a fan for a while longer.

“I don’t want that!” Shen Weixing told himself to be calm. “Didn’t I tell you to stay at the apartment?”

Ye Jiuyue said, “Oh.”

What does “oh” mean?!

Shen Weixing breathed in deeply. “I’ll go pick you up.”

Ye Jiuyue said, “It’s too late and tomorrow I have classes during first and second period.”

Shen Weixing said, “It’s only eight o’clock.”

“But—–” Ye Jiuyue had just started speaking, when he suddenly paused.

Shen Weixing’s ears pricked up and listened. He heard someone on that side speaking to Ye Jiuyue, and could vaguely catch vital snippets such as “came again” “you should meet them” “pretty romantic and devoted”.

Shen Weixing: Ha. Ha.

Your level’s not bad huh, playing others like fools is completely a breeze to you, good thing I’m not like those idiots.

Shen Weixing smugly shoved the clothes back into the closet, then abruptly felt like something was not quite right.

Ye Jiuyue really was getting entangled with someone else behind my back! He was furious once more.

Ye Jiuyue spoke to his dormmate, went to a corner and said to Shen Weixing, “I have some stuff to do, will you still be there tomorrow? I’ll go over after class.”

Shen Weixing coldly asked, “What is it?”

Ye Jiuyue said, “A classmate wants to talk to me about something.”

“Ha. Ha. “

Ye Jiuyue said, “Then, I’m hanging up ah.”

And then Ye Jiuyue really did hang up.

Shen Weixing glared at his phone, which had been hung up, in disbelieving shock for a full half minute, then rushed out.

Fuck, I’m going to go catch those cheaters!

The author has something to say:

Shen Ge’s work ethic is still absolutely great, his attitude is very proper and upstanding, it’s just that he has rather many problems in the matters of love.

Rinrin: Well, the white moonlight’s made his appearance…..