Wen Jiang carried a pleasant scent of mint on him. And this was the same scent he had smelled in his dream. Thinking of that dream, he felt the temperature on his face skyrocket, and now he was being held so intimately in Wen Jiang’s embrace. This sense of security from the embrace gradually overlapped with the feeling of bare skin against skin in his dream. Xu Yizhou reacted. He struggled out of Wen Jiang’s arms almost instantly.
The darkness concealed the expressions on both their faces. Xu Yizhou said nervously,
“Brother, it’s late. You should go rest.”
Wen Jiang remained silent for a long time before raising his hand to adjust his glasses.
“Alright, you too.”
With that, the figure turned and left. The light fell on his sharply defined jawline, and Xu Yizhou caught a glimpse of a faint redness at the corner of his eyes. Xu Yizhou closed the door and leaned against it, his heart pounding with fear. He had actually reacted?
To his own brother?
He couldn’t believe it as he glanced down at the desire that had already stirred within him.
He was even more afraid that Wen Jiang had already noticed. Something was wrong. Very wrong. How could he have reacted to Wen Jiang?
For a moment, Xu Yizhou couldn’t find the words to describe his current mental state.
Frustrated, he ran his hands through his hair, feeling so embarrassed he could have banged his head against the wall.
“It must be an illusion, it must be an illusion.”
Comforting himself this way, he rushed to the bathroom and took a cold shower. The freezing water made him grimace. Then he spent the whole night watching videos of beautiful women, which left him with dark circles under his eyes the next day. When he arrived at the studio, Yu Xin even teased him, asking if he had just come from the national zoo.
Wen Shi arrived early. While the recording studio was still adjusting the equipment, he was already sitting to the side, reading the script.
Seeing Xu Yizhou arrive, he put down the script and greeted him, “Teacher Xu, I thought you wouldn’t be coming today either.”
Xu Yizhou remembered what Wen Jiang had said the night before, and his gaze toward Wen Shi shifted slightly. He replied somewhat dismissively, “Oh, I wasn’t feeling well yesterday.”
“Teacher Xu, you didn’t answer my call yesterday. I was worried about you.”
“It’s fine. I slept all day yesterday and turned my phone off.”
His tone carried a hint of distance along with the dismissiveness. Moreover, everything that had happened these past few days felt like a series of absurd misunderstandings, and he had no idea how things had turned out this way. He felt he might need to keep some distance from men. That feeling was just too strange. Xu Yizhou was completely out of sorts the entire day.
“Cut! Stop, Teacher Xu, put a little more heart into it. This part needs emotion. Imagine you love him deeply, then bring that feeling into it and try again.”
Su Fei, listening from outside, frowned. Xu Yizhou looked at Xiao N, who nodded, signaling they could start again.
“Brother… I… like you…”
“Teacher Xu, did you not sleep well last night? It feels like you’re completely out of it today.”
Su Fei expressed great dissatisfaction with the stiff delivery.
“Fei-jie, I’m sorry. Let’s do it one more time. I can do it well.”
Xu Yizhou pushed the images in his mind aside and looked apologetically at Su Fei, offering an embarrassed smile. After all, he couldn’t let his own issues hold back the entire studio.
“Teacher Xu, if you’re not in good shape, maybe you should take a break first.”
Wen Shi had already set the rhythm for Xu Yizhou many times in the earlier scenes, but Xu Yizhou still stumbled over his lines. Though he didn’t know what had happened yesterday, seeing Xu Yizhou in such a state today, something interesting must have occurred.
Xu Yizhou shook his head, “I’m fine, let’s continue.”
He tried to focus all his attention on the work, adjusting his breathing.
“Brother, I like you!”
He finally managed to deliver the line smoothly, conveying the emotion as written.
Wen Shi propped his head on one hand, watching Xu Yizhou, “Oh? But Linchuan is still young. How could he understand what ‘like’ means?”
“Good, very good. Well done. Let’s take a break.”
Su Fei, listening to the playback outside, waved at them.
“Wow, Teacher Xu, so tender”
Yu Xin laughed, clearly enjoying the spectacle. The scene they had just recorded was from Linchuan and Liu Junnian’s childhood, so the voice actors needed to pitch their voices as high as possible. It was clear both of them were trying hard to raise their voices, but they couldn’t quite reach the level of a child’s tone. Still, it was pretty good.
“Teacher Xu, have some water to soothe your throat.”
Wen Shi had somehow fetched a cup of water and handed it to Xu Yizhou.
“Th… thank you.”
Xu Yizhou snapped back to reality and took the cup. The day passed in the monotony of voice recording. For the next few days, Xu Yizhou barely spoke to Wen Shi or Wen Jiang.
The airport was twice as crowded as usual on the weekend. Xu Yizhou stood among the crowd, wearing a baseball cap and a black denim jacket, his gaze fixed on the person emerging from the terminal. That person scanned the area before finally locking eyes with Xu Yizhou.
“Gu Xing!”
Xu Yizhou had deliberately chosen a less crowded spot to wait. Seeing him, he stepped forward and helped pull the suitcase.
“Why are you back so early, Gu Xing?”
Gu Xing couldn’t stand hearing such a question and immediately slapped Xu Yizhou’s shoulder.
“What, can’t I miss you?”
“You think I believe that?”
Xu Yizhou glanced at Gu Xing; the studded jacket he wore was digging painfully into his shoulder. He shook off Gu Xing’s hand uncomfortably. Gu Xing’s eccentric fashion sense was nothing new—after knowing him for so many years, Xu Yizhou had grown used to it.
“Hey, it’s all because of that question you asked me on WeChat. As a professional member of the community who’s also in a relationship, I decided to come and enlighten you.”
Gu Xing unwrapped a candy and tossed it into his mouth, the tongue piercing glinting as he spoke nonchalantly. Xu Yizhou remembered now—he had indeed messaged Gu Xing about his recent string of embarrassing incidents and some lingering doubts. But Gu Xing hadn’t replied.
“You never answered. What are you barking about now?”
Xu Yizhou couldn’t help but retort.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t put it that way,” Gu Xing took off his sunglasses, his crystal-blue eyes meeting Xu Yizhou’s. “I figured explaining things over WeChat wouldn’t be as good as coming back to guide you in person.”
“About the issue you mentioned well are you free today or tomorrow?”
“I am, but what are you up to?”
Xu Yizhou had been tormented by that mental hurdle lately, to the point where he tried to avoid men as much as possible. If it weren’t for the fact that they had grown up together and Gu Xing already had a partner, he wouldn’t have stayed so close to Gu Xing.
“Then let’s make it tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll go somewhere—I’ll send you the location then.”