Forty-three minutes after leaving the room, Cen Jing returned to Room 4 with Jiang Xun in tow.
The moment the door opened, Chu Xingyun’s voice rang out.
“I clearly didn’t send you a message, so why are you back so late? …It took you 43 minutes to get out? Can you really play by yourself for that long?”
Cen Jing: “…”
He knew that even if he left and came back, he would find no peace.
“Is 43 minutes a long time?” Jiang Xun unceremoniously flipped the wall switch, flooding the room with bright light. “I can play all night by myself.”
Chu Xingyun squinted at the sudden brightness. “…Jiang Xun? What are you doing following him into our room?”
“Sleeping with my bro, of course.” Jiang Xun wasn’t polite at all, climbing straight onto the bed. “I missed you so much, bro.”
Chu Xingyun: “Come any closer and I’ll kill you.”
Cen Jing was quick, grabbing the back of Jiang Xun’s collar. “Brush your teeth first.”
Before entering the room, the two had spent some time on the balcony to let the smell of smoke dissipate from their clothes, but they couldn’t get rid of the smell in their mouths so easily.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it~” Jiang Xun leaned his head back. “Let go of me first!”
Cen Jing is surprisingly strong.
Cen Jing released him as requested and took a spare new toothbrush from his travel bag. “…Go on.”
Jiang Xun took the toothbrush, spun it around his fingertips a few times, and tilted his chin at Chu Xingyun. “Leave the middle spot for me!”
With that, he hummed a tune and headed to the bathroom.
Once the sound of running water came from inside, Chu Xingyun scrambled to the foot of the bed and, like an angry cat, hissed: “You’re really inviting a gay guy to sleep right between us?”
“…He requested it, and I found it hard to refuse.” Cen Jing instinctively took half a step back, explaining with little confidence: “I suspect something happened between him and Chen Shu.”
“What could have happened?” Chu Xingyun rolled his eyes toward the bathroom. “…That coward.”
He probably saw the guy and wanted to kiss him.
“Anyway… let’s just put him up for one night.” Cen Jing cleared his throat, unsure who the word ‘coward’ was referring to. “Otherwise, it’ll affect the recording.”
“You’ve already brought him here; it’s not like I can throw him out, right?” Chu Xingyun wrinkled his nose. “…But only for tonight.”
“Mm.” Cen Jing obviously didn’t plan on using this tactic forever. “I’ll try to resolve the conflict between them tomorrow.”
Chu Xingyun: “Mm.”
If he hadn’t caught Cen Jing pretending to sleep, he wouldn’t have had any bad intentions to begin with…
Soon, both Jiang Xun and Cen Jing had finished brushing their teeth. The lights went out, and the three lay side-by-side on the bed.
“You’d better behave yourself,” Chu Xingyun said, lying with his back to Jiang Xun. “If you defile us, I’ll definitely kill you.”
“Good grief, bro.” Jiang Xun lay flat, staring wide-eyed at the dark ceiling. “I’m still a pure-hearted youth. If anything, you two would be the ones defiling me.”
Cen Jing subtly moved a few inches closer to the edge of the bed.
Chu Xingyun scoffed: “Are you even worthy?”
“I’m the worthiest,” Jiang Xun replied with absolute confidence.
Chu Xingyun: “…”
He was beginning to understand why people online described Jiang Xun as a “mad dog with no IQ.”
“Too lazy to argue. Going to sleep.” Chu Xingyun closed his eyes and gave a low warning: “If you dare run into our room tomorrow, I’ll go sleep with Chen Shu.”
Jiang Xun muttered: “…Despicable.”
The Next Day, Around 6:00 AM
Jiang Xun yawned, his hair looking like a bird’s nest, as he wandered down from the second floor to the snack cart in the living room. He pulled out a red bean bun and collapsed onto the sofa, eating while half-asleep.
It wasn’t that he wanted to get up this early. It was that Chu Xingyun was a terrible sleeper! The guy would kick out of nowhere. After enduring a few stray punches and kicks, Jiang Xun couldn’t take it anymore and quietly slipped out of bed.
“Xiao Jiang?” Lin Shen, returning from an early walk, was surprised to see the figure on the sofa. “Why are you up so early?”
The livestream for Long Time No See ran from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Yesterday, Jiang Xun had even tried to negotiate with the crew, saying he couldn’t wake up before 10:00 and asking if they could just stream him sleeping. Yet here he was, awake before 7:00?
Hearing the voice, Jiang Xun struggled to open one eye. “You’re up early too, old man! I should have slept with you instead.”
“What happened?” Lin Shen opened a bottle of sparkling water. “Kicked out by Xiao Chen? No way… He seems sharp-tongued, but he’s actually quite good to you.”
“Wasn’t kicked out,” Jiang Xun said weakly. “It’s… it’s just… I-I’m scared…”
“Scared of what?” Lin Shen sat down on the sofa next to Jiang Xun, looking like an attentive listener.
Jiang Xun put on a “mask of pain” and shook his head conflictedly. “You old guys wouldn’t understand.”
“Who says?” After yesterday, Lin Shen was immune to being called an “old guy” and even seemed to enjoy it. “Old guys have deep experience; what haven’t we seen?”
“Then…” Jiang Xun wavered, finding some logic in that, and decided to beat around the bush: “Then… in the past, did you ever want to kiss Brother Ye’s mouth?”
The air fell into a dead silence for two seconds.
“Are you sick?” Lin Shen could no longer maintain his fatherly kindness. But after the outburst, he realized: “…You want to kiss Chen Shu?”
“I didn’t say that!” Jiang Xun jumped off the sofa in a panic. “What are you talking about, old man!”
He didn’t want this to become public knowledge; Chu Xingyun knowing was more than enough.
“…Right.” Lin Shen didn’t expose Jiang Xun’s clumsy cover-up, answering the original question instead. “Of course, I wouldn’t want to kiss Ye Hancheng. I’m heterosexual and married.”
“Oh…” Jiang Xun nodded. “I saw how close you two were and thought there might be something.”
Why is there no one I can use as a reference for this situation? So stressful.
“Friendship can be just as deep.” Lin Shen decided to poke him a bit. “Wasn’t your friendship with Chen Shu deep? Or was it not friendship, but something else?”
Jiang Xun stammered: “It-it was definitely friendship.”
“If it’s friendship, you should talk to him openly. You came to the show, which proves you want to talk, right?”
Jiang Xun: “…I don’t want to talk at all.”
If it weren’t for the bad results this season, losing two team sponsors, the higher-ups wanting to generate revenue, and the recording coincidentally falling during the off-season, he wouldn’t be here.
Confess to Chen Shu that I want to kiss him? Just thinking about that scene is terrifying.
“Talk about what?” Chen Shu’s flat voice came from behind. He picked a Vitamin C drink from the rack, his gaze lingering on Jiang Xun’s exhausted face. “Pulled an all-nighter in the game room? Working so hard even in the off-season. It’s truly heartbreaking.”
“You pulled an all-nighter?” Lin Shen’s eyebrows shot up. “Then you’d better go back to your room and catch up on sleep.”
“…Y-you’re not sleeping anymore?” Jiang Xun stammered. “Then I… I’m going to bed…”
With that, he abandoned his half-eaten red bean bun and sprinted upstairs as if his life depended on it.
Lin Shen and Chen Shu turned in unison, watching him leave in a daze. Once he disappeared, they looked at each other. Lin Shen instinctively opened his mouth to ask something, then snapped it shut.
“You can speak freely, Teacher Lin,” Chen Shu said politely.
Lin Shen: “I have a few questions, but I’ll save them for the show.”
“Alright.” Chen Shu nodded. “I’ll head up then.”
“Up?”
“Didn’t get enough sleep. I need a nap.”
Lin Shen: “…”
Lin Shen: “Alright, see you later.”
At 10:00 AM, the Long Time No See livestream began. Hundreds of thousands of viewers flooded in instantly.
【It’s here, it’s here, finally!】
【Wishing for Lin Shen and Ye Hancheng to successfully ‘remarry’ today. (Movies and dramas, take them all!)】
【In a TV drama, such a melodramatic misunderstanding wouldn’t be cleared until halfway through. I’m worried about what they’ll record now that it’s resolved so early.】
【Leave the rest to the young ones!】
【Am I the only one who went to eat right after the stream ended yesterday? The ‘Gao Shan Jing Xing’ ship is top-tier! The ‘Jiang-Chen’ ship is exquisite! The ‘Old Regret’ group is high-quality! I’m eating it all!】
Before the live feed started, the crew released a short interview recorded that morning.
“The first day of the show is over. Any thoughts?”
Chu Xingyun was the first on screen. “It would be better if you did fewer ‘atmosphere-building’ games.”
“Ahem… it’s our first time too. We’ll pass that feedback up.”
Next was Chen Shu. “Thoughts?” He squinted at the camera. “My thought is that this money is pretty easy to earn.”
【He dares to say it, and you dare to air it. Production crew, I salute your bravery.】
【No high-intensity training, just eating, chatting, and playing games… compared to being a pro, it is way easier.】
【Don’t go into entertainment!! I’m still dreaming of them making up and winning the championship on the same team!】
The clips continued.
Lin Shen: “Thoughts? This show is interesting, and the people invited are interesting too.”
Ye Hancheng: “Boring. No one talks to me once we’re off the clock.”
Cen Jing: “Progress is faster than I imagined.”
Jiang Xun: “…I want to quit.”
“Eh? Why do you want to quit?” the staff asked in surprise.
“Mind your own business.” Jiang Xun’s face was noticeably flushed. “I just want to quit. It’s not like I’m actually doing it. Can’t a guy think?”
【Okay, today’s first mystery: why does Jiang Xun suddenly want to quit when he was fine yesterday?】
【Will they show the ‘Reminiscing’ video for the second pair today?】
The teaser ended, and the crew presented a new question.
“What was the most memorable thing that happened yesterday?”