The first three-minute video was over quickly. Both of the main protagonists fell into a somewhat awkward silence.
“If no one’s talking, should I keep playing?” Chu Xingyun broke the quiet, reaching for the remote.
“Wait…” Ye Hancheng grabbed his hand and pushed it back. “Let me breathe. Let me process this.”
“No time for processing,” Chu Xingyun said with a straight face. “The audience isn’t here to watch you breathe.”
Lines of frustration appeared on Ye Hancheng’s forehead: “…What do you want from me?”
“Tell us how you feel.” Chu Xingyun held his hand out like a microphone. “What’s it like seeing your past self’s declarations?”
【Good job, A-Chu! It’s okay to ask even deeper questions!】
【Actually, it’s not just the two of them being silent; it’s me in front of the screen too. Such a perfect pair of soulmates, how did they end up like this? [Crying]】
“I just feel… I was quite brainless back then,” Ye Hancheng spoke reluctantly. “And I loved making a fool of myself.”
“That’s how it is when you’re young,” Chen Shu added. “Tomorrow or the day after, even more brainless statements will appear.”
Jiang Xun: “What’s that supposed to mean?” Who are you hinting at?
“Ahem, why do I feel like that was a dig at me too?” Chu Xingyun lightly bumped Cen Jing’s shoulder. “Ge, I should be considered as having a brain, right?”
Cen Jing hesitated before speaking: “…Hard to judge.”
After a few more quips from the others, Lin Shen waited until his heart felt less stifled to speak: “Actually, my relationship with him right now is like a couple that has divorced but was once deeply in love. Watching those ‘lovey-dovey’ videos now, besides the sentimentality, it’s mostly just awkward.”
Chu Xingyun enthusiastically latched onto the ‘married couple’ analogy: “Then after the divorce, do you guys go visit the kids?”
Lin Shen: “…Kids?”
Chu Xingyun: “The movies and dramas you collaborated on. I remember Above the Azure Clouds is at the top of the ‘Most Rewatched’ list year-round.”
“…I do watch them,” Lin Shen chose to tell the truth. “Occasionally when I have no inspiration for a script. But I can’t watch too much; it hurts if I do.”
When past success is placed alongside current failure, anyone with even a shred of ambition will feel the sting.
“I watch them too,” Ye Hancheng added in a muffled voice. “And when I go on other shows and people mention my representative works, it’s always those old ones… unless I’m specifically there to promote a new drama.”
“It’s okay, I’ve only ever won one World Championship,” Jiang Xun offered as consolation. “I can coast on that one victory for the rest of my life.”
“…Do you think other people are as unmotivated as you?” Chen Shu gave Jiang Xun his hundredth eye-roll of the day.
“I work hard too!” Jiang Xun looked extremely innocent. After years of being flamed, ‘unmotivated’ could no longer hurt him. “It’s just a matter of lacking a bit of luck and skill…”
“Alright.” After pulling himself together, Lin Shen returned to normal. “Let’s keep watching.”
…
The production team had selected the videos very carefully; throughout the viewing, there were almost no repeating clips. Moreover, aside from the first video, the rest were sorted chronologically.
The other four guests spent over an hour watching a condensed version of Lin Shen and Ye Hancheng meeting, getting to know each other, and becoming soulmates. The scenes shifted from small rooms for script readings to film sets, to cinemas, to celebration banquets… and finally to the awards podium. They were always kindred spirits, appreciating one another.
But in the final video, quite suddenly, when they mentioned each other again, the passion and light in their eyes were gone.
“What does it matter? I am still a screenwriter; I will continue to write scripts. He is still an actor; he can still be the protagonist in someone else’s story. Those who watch the story shouldn’t care who wrote it or who played the part; they only need to appreciate the story itself.”
“Life is made of many regrets. If you can’t let go, more and greater regrets will follow. So… you must take care of the present.”
…
“I’m crying.” Jiang Xun grabbed a tissue and rubbed away the tears welling in his eyes. “I’m just too sentimental.”
Chen Shu: “…” He really wanted to throw a sarcastic comment back, but he held it in.
“How do you feel?” Chu Xingyun continued in his role as ‘host.’ “After seeing so many beautiful memories, is there an urge to ‘remarry’?”
“…What are you asking?” Lin Shen lowered his voice to dodge the question. “I was just using a metaphor; it’s not like we were actually a loving couple.”
Chu Xingyun shifted his gaze to Ye Hancheng. “What about you, Senior?”
“Me?” Ye Hancheng’s mood wasn’t great either. “I have nothing to say.”
“It’s fine.” Chen Shu sat cross-legged, taking an apple and slowly peeling it. “Everyone who came to this show has a similar past. We’re all fellow patients suffering from the same illness; don’t be embarrassed to speak up.”
Cen Jing also said, “It’s normal for your heart to be a bit messy. Just sort it out slowly.”
“If you can’t explain your feelings, let’s switch to something you can explain.” Chu Xingyun seamlessly transitioned to a new topic. “Back then, what was the actual reason for your falling out?”
Jiang Xun: “Yeah, what was it for?”
Once this question was thrown out, no one in the room spoke. The beam from the projector flickered in the darkness like fireflies trapped in the room. On the screen where the video had finished, only the faint glow of the blue screen remained.
The fruit knife in Chen Shu’s hand scraped against the fruit, making a rhythmic shasha sound. The apple skin spiraled down like a shed snake skin into the trash can. Then, Lin Shen let out a sigh.
“It’s actually quite simple,” he began slowly. “Eight years ago, when he was at his most glorious, he had swept all three major domestic film awards, and I had harvested more than one ‘Best Screenplay’ award…”
He paused, took a sip of tea, and continued: “Back then, as long as you put my name and his together, capital would swarm in. I didn’t want to deal with any of that; I only wanted to write the stories I had for him. But… as I was finishing up a new script, his company’s high-level executives suddenly came to me. They said if I wanted to continue collaborating, I had to produce another script for another actor in their company.”
“…What?” Ye Hancheng was the most shocked person in the room. “How come I didn’t know about this?”
Chu Xingyun pursed his lips: “Wasn’t that just them being reckless because they knew you favored Senior Ye?”
“I refused, of course.” Lin Shen glanced at Ye Hancheng but didn’t answer his question. “I said I had no intention of having anyone other than Ye Hancheng as my lead for the time being. As for supporting roles, your company can cram in as many as you want. They agreed.”
Ye Hancheng listened silently, no longer interrupting.
Lin Shen sighed. “What I meant was they could put in whoever they wanted for the existing supporting roles, but they misinterpreted it as being allowed to cram in unlimited supporting characters. When the original roles weren’t enough to go around, they demanded I write a few more into the story.”
“Sss… why does this feel both ridiculous and yet perfectly plausible?” Chu Xingyun opened a bag of chips and started eating them idly.
【Even at such a high status, can one still be forced by Capital? [Shocked]】
【Capital is just that arrogant and rude. [Certain]】
【Looking at Ye Hancheng’s expression, I bet he didn’t know about any of this.】
【Obvious… his acting career was too smooth, which made him a bit of a ‘Silly White Sweet’ (naive). Uh, am I allowed to say that?】
Jiang Xun gave a sharp review: “Isn’t that just ‘biting the hand that feeds you’?”
“…I naturally refused that request too.” A helpless smile played at the corners of Lin Shen’s lips. “I sensed that something once pure had become tainted. So, I temporarily stopped writing, hoping the other party would also stop and think about their original intentions.”
“But they couldn’t stop.”
“With Ye Hancheng’s ‘Grand Slam Movie King’ halo, they had countless new options. While I was using the excuse of writing in seclusion, he joined a new production.”
“I didn’t forbid him from acting in other projects. But while he was on set, new rumors kept appearing saying I couldn’t create anything without him, that I shouldn’t trap him in my increasingly boring stories, and that forcibly binding him was only draining his talent… things like that.”
“I went to ask him if he really thought that way. He said yes.”
“No!” Hearing this, Ye Hancheng immediately denied it. “I never said anything like that!”
Lin Shen remained noncommittal, his tone still fairly calm: “You can explain from your perspective what exactly happened back then.”
“I…” Ye Hancheng scratched his head, his expression distressed, as if he didn’t know where to start.
Cen Jing opened the wine the production team had prepared and poured him a glass. Chu Xingyun leaned over, his tone intimate and natural: “Ge, I want a drink too.”
Cen Jing glanced at him and first handed a glass to Lin Shen on the other side.
“Thanks.” Lin Shen took it and knocked back a mouthful. The cold light of the screen hit his face, and a thin layer of weariness rose in those eyes that were trying so hard to remain calm. He unbuttoned his collar, looking as if he had finally caught a breath of air.
“I want a drink too,” Chu Xingyun’s voice softened slightly. “Pour me a little.”
Jiang Xun spoke bluntly: “You sound so gross, brother.”
The expression on Chu Xingyun’s face began to crumble: “…You sound gross too, brother.”
Cen Jing poured wine for both “brothers,” giving Chu Xingyun a bit less. Chen Shu, nibbling on his apple, waved his hand to indicate he didn’t need any.
“Phew…” Ye Hancheng, granted courage by the alcohol, finally made up his mind to speak. “I… I went to film the new drama because my manager told me that Lin Shen didn’t want to write scripts for me anymore.”
“He said it and you just believed him?” The alcohol stung Jiang Xun’s tongue, and he hurriedly gulped some water. “Don’t you have a mouth of your own?”
Ye Hancheng spoke gloomily: “I didn’t believe it at first. But they said that in order to customize a script for a newcomer, he had started rewriting a script that was almost finished and was already attracting investment… When I asked his assistant and found out he really was in seclusion writing… how could I not believe it?”
“I’m actually a very stubborn person… Originally, I didn’t plan to take the new drama. I wanted to wait until he finished his script and then go confront him! But… life is full of ‘buts’… they said that because I had already won every award, there was no meaning in collaborating again for Lin Shen.”
“They said Lin Shen wanted to create a new god. He spent six years letting me get the Grand Slam, so he wanted to challenge himself by creating a new Grand Slam winner in five years or even less. He was the one who abandoned me.”