“So why did you suddenly change your mind and decide to go back to work?” While waiting at a red light, Hu Yue looked at the man in the backseat through the rearview mirror with a forced smile, his tone laced with sarcasm.
Having not seen him for half a month, he felt as though he barely recognized his own artist.
Gu Shi was looking at his phone without raising his head, replying in an indifferent voice, “He complained that I wasn’t working.”
Hu Yue felt like going crazy and wanted to cry, banging his head against the steering wheel as he muttered, “So who on earth is he?! Can you really not tell me?! My lips are always sealed tight! I will absolutely never tell a single soul, I swear to heaven!”
Gu Shi glanced at him. Hu Yue thought there was hope and listened with bated breath, only for two words to reach his ears.
“No.”
The exclusive interview was scheduled to start at eight o’clock, and it was currently seven. Hu Yue had planned to contact the person in charge of this exclusive interview at six-thirty to apologize and negotiate the penalty fee—using the money Meng Xiaozhu had transferred to him.
At six-twenty-nine, Gu Shi called him to say he had reached a quiet place to pick him up.
Today’s work was thus saved.
“The interview location is right here, not in the neighboring city, let alone the neighboring province, otherwise you’d really have something to fret over,” Hu Yue said. “I truly don’t understand you. In your eight years in the industry, who doesn’t know you’re a workaholic who runs on overdrive? What on earth is the point of this stunt you’ve been pulling lately…”
“Falling in love,” Gu Shi stated.
“Oh…” All of Hu Yue’s words got stuck in his throat, a thousand sentences condensing into a single word: “Oh.”
Then his eyes widened abruptly as he jerked his head around to shout, “You found someone?!”
Gu Shi frowned, raising his head from his phone with a solemn expression. “Watch the road, drive properly.”
“Ah, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! I’m fucking too shocked.” Hu Yue hurriedly turned back to drive properly, his eyes in the rearview mirror wide as copper bells. “So you’re currently living at his… his place?”
Gu Shi didn’t answer, treating silence as confirmation.
Among the contents of their three-chapter pact was the rule that, aside from family members, he was not allowed to tell any outsiders where he lived.
What he just said wasn’t spoken by Gu Shi.
Hu Yue mused, “During the past half month you weren’t working, was it because he wouldn’t let you?” Shaking his head in denial, he corrected himself, “That’s not right. You just said it was because he disliked your lack of work, which is why you came out tonight.”
Gu Shi said indifferently, “He doesn’t watch television at all.”
Hu Yue: “Ah.”
When he first managed Gu Shi, in order to better understand his artist, Hu Yue had a heart-to-heart talk with him, asking what his purpose and wish were for staying in the entertainment industry. After listening, Hu Yue had sat in silence for a long time, saying “that’s pretty good” while internally cursing him for being out of his mind.
Gu Shi rolled down the car window and quickly raised his phone to snap a photo of the distant clouds.
“Out of his mind,” Hu Yue muttered to himself, looking like someone watching a brain-dead romantic drowning in a sea of love.
Back at home, Xuan Congnan received a message from Gu Shi.
Scavenger: [Will you watch my exclusive interview?]
Tomorrow was the weekend, and Xuan Congnan had made a trip back to school to retrieve his easel for oil painting, just setting it up by the window.
Xuan Congnan answered truthfully: [Is the link on Weibo?]
Xuan Congnan: [I don’t have Weibo. In fact, I don’t have many apps; my phone can’t run them.]
Scavenger: [Okay.]
Scavenger: [I’ll be back at ten. Leave the door unlocked for me.]
He had already said it once when he left, yet now he was emphasizing it again, acting just like a child who forgot what they said as soon as the words left their mouth.
Xuan Congnan: [Understood.]
Xuan Congnan: [I remember. If I lock the door, I’ll open it for you when you get back.]
Scavenger: [Okay.]
Tonight’s sunset was exceptionally breathtaking, an expanse of fiery red evening glow that looked like peony petals crushed across the edge of the sky.
Tomorrow would be another blazing, sunny day.
Xuan Congnan sat by the window, shielding his drawing board from direct sunlight as he captured the final traces of dusk.
The canvas was laid flat and smooth on the drawing board.
Beside him were paints and various painting brushes such as round brushes and flat brushes along with a palette, linseed oil, and turpentine.
Xuan Congnan lowered his head to sharpen a few pencils, carefully brushing the pencil shavings into the trash can beside his feet so they wouldn’t fly about haphazardly.
The pencil tip sketched lines onto the 8K-sized drawing paper, leaving only a very vague outline.
When Xuan Congnan laid down his initial lines, his touch was so light it was as though he weren’t even drawing on the paper, acting merely as if he were mapping out steps for the work ahead.
Today’s base color was red. He picked up his palette and earnestly mixed the pigments on it.
Peace and tranquility did not come easily, and Xuan Congnan cherished them exceptionally.
The initial application of color needed to be light and even. He added an appropriate amount of turpentine to the paint for dilution, making the base color easier to smear.
His phone rang.
Xuan Congnan glanced sideways at it an unfamiliar number, so he didn’t answer.
After a moment, the phone vibrated twice more.
His WeChat didn’t have notifications disabled for pop-up messages, and he caught sight of a WeChat message sent by the other person.
Scavenger: [Congnan, I’ll bring back a midnight snack tonight when I return. Don’t cook for yourself.]
Xuan Congnan wiped his hands and tapped the keyboard with a single fingertip: [Okay.]
Scavenger: [My work hasn’t started yet. What are you doing right now? Can you chat with me for a bit?]
Xuan Congnan: [Painting.]
Scavenger: [You paint. I won’t disturb you.]
Recalling their very first meeting, Xuan Congnan had made a sketch of Gu Shi and the night view from that evening. Gu Shi had noticed him long ago, yet remained completely silent.
At the time, he had said: “You are painting. You need quiet.”
Xuan Congnan continued applying color to the drawing paper, his brush strokes light and full.
Summer was hot, and with the high temperature causing quick drying, he worried the paint wouldn’t remain sufficiently moist, so he added a moisturizer to it. When he came back from the art studio, he had also brought back the small humidifier placed there, which was more than enough for today’s painting session.
When he was one-third finished, the outside world had grown completely dark, and the lights of thousands of households had lit up. Xuan Congnan drew the curtains, waiting for the paint to dry a little.
Suddenly, he thought of Gu Shi asking whether he wanted to watch his exclusive interview.
They weren’t very familiar with each other, having only known each other for half a month; nor were they complete strangers, seeing as they were rooming and living together after all.
So when Gu Shi asked him that, did he mean he wanted him to watch it, or did he mean he didn’t want him to watch it?
Since they were currently roommates, he probably wanted him to.
Xuan Congnan opened his phone, found the app store, and downloaded Weibo.
The download progress went smoothly, but during installation, something went wrong with the system; it kept spinning in circles, and the first attempt even resulted in an installation failure.
A cheap phone from years ago not only had poor performance, but its storage capacity was also insufficient.
If he remembered correctly, the storage capacity of Xuan Congnan’s phone was 32GB.
Aside from sending messages, making calls, and regularly clearing out useless items without installing any unnecessary software, the storage had been just about enough over the years.
Yet just moments ago, the second Weibo installation finally succeeded, but the phone immediately popped up a notification reading: “Your storage space is insufficient, please clean it up promptly.”
Xuan Congnan: “…”
Should he just delete it?
Since it was already installed, uninstalling it was a hassle.
Xuan Congnan opened Weibo, registered an account using his phone number, and chose the nickname “Nannan Doesn’t Find It Hard”.
He searched for “Gu Shi” in the search box, and the very first result displayed was today’s exclusive interview with Gu Shi, broadcasted via livestream.
It was already nine-ten. The interview was scheduled for an hour, and having exceeded ten minutes, Xuan Congnan had walked right into the tail end of it. Barely a minute after entering, he was kicked out due to heavy traffic because there were too many people.
Xuan Congnan: “.”
He couldn’t even tell what kind of interview this was; he only heard the dignified and poised female interviewer asking Gu Shi, who was dressed in a suit and tie: “Fans are all very concerned about where you’ve been these past two weeks. Would it be convenient to disclose that?”
Xuan Congnan’s heart tightened.
Gu Shi said, “Personal schedule.”
Xuan Congnan’s heart relaxed, feeling that Gu Shi was quite savvy and obedient.
“Alright, then I won’t ask,” the interviewer smiled. Regardless of how the livestream chat protested, she refused to pursue the topic further.
Two minutes later, Gu Shi stood up, expressed his thanks, and left the stage, bringing the exclusive interview to a close.
Xuan Congnan: “…”
He muttered, “I watched for nothing.”
Gu Shi arrived home at nine-fifty in the evening, and Xuan Congnan had bolted the door from the inside.
Hearing the knock, he hurriedly wiped the paint off his hands and jogged over to open the door. Cautiously glancing around to make sure no one was there, Xuan Congnan finally relaxed his mind.
“I bought shrimp fried rice and sweet soup.” Gu Shi held up several boutique bags in one hand, while his other free hand removed his black hat and face mask. “I didn’t buy too much, so it won’t go to waste.”
He had changed back into casual clothes, losing the aloofness and reticence of wearing formal wear under the cameras, and gaining an added touch of approachability.
Xuan Congnan, who frequently interacted with this side of Gu Shi, took the food and said, “It’s enough to eat. The shrimp fried rice smells so good.”
The two portions of shrimp fried rice were placed together, the two portions of sweet soup were placed together, and there was also one bag that looked particularly exquisite; looking at it, Xuan Congnan didn’t think it was dinner.
He didn’t ask; since it wasn’t his stuff, he wasn’t curious.
“A phone, I bought it for you.” Gu Shi pulled a rectangular box out of that very exquisite bag.
After washing his hands and coming back to unpack dinner, a pair of disposable chopsticks went “clack” as they dropped onto the floor. Xuan Congnan asked in a daze, “Huh?”
Gu Shi bent down to pick up the unopened disposable chopsticks and said, “I am now your co-tenant roommate. Because of my work, you naturally ought to know my work schedule, and a new phone will make it convenient. Please accept it.”
Of course Xuan Congnan wouldn’t take it, only finding Gu Shi inexplicable. “I have a phone.”
Gu Shi: “Yours is too laggy.”
Xuan Congnan stated, “I have no need to know your schedule.”
Gu Shi lowered his gaze. “I want you to know.”
Xuan Congnan took the disposable chopsticks handed over by Gu Shi, staring longingly at the phone.
He didn’t know much about phones, but he could tell it was the latest model.
“…Are you trying to… gain an extra fan?” Xuan Congnan asked doubtfully, as that was the only reason he could come up with.
Gu Shi raised his eyes and acknowledged it: “Mn.”
Xuan Congnan said, “You already have 60 million fans.”
Gu Shi said, “I’m missing yours.”
Xuan Congnan tutted: “Greedy.”
Gu Shi said, “Mn.”
He pushed the phone a bit further forward. “Take it. You can use it to take pictures without having to constantly delete photos to clear your storage.”
Xuan Congnan didn’t take it yet. Instead, he opened his broken phone first and asked, “Do I need to pay you back?”
“No need,” Gu Shi immediately replied.
Xuan Congnan lifted his phone and said with a smile, “I recorded that, you know.”
The phone screen indeed showed a new recording, lasting only three seconds.
Gu Shi looked into Xuan Congnan’s eyes, blinking slightly after a long moment as he averted his gaze, uttering a soft “Mn.” “Fair enough. Very smart.”
The new phone had 1 Terabyte of storage.
The screen was touch-sensitive and responded exceptionally fast.
The color on the back of the phone was a glass-like aqua blue, giving off a soft and cool sensation. Xuan Congnan looked at this color scheme: “I really like this color.”
Gu Shi said, “As long as you like it.”
Xuan Congnan said, “Thank you.”
Gu Shi said, “Mn.”
When Gu Shi had first come back, Xuan Congnan had still called dinner fragrant, but right now dinner wasn’t seeming all that fragrant anymore. He was fully absorbed in removing the SIM card from his old phone and installing it into the card slot of the new one.
The signal indicator changed from an “X” to full bars after a two-second delay, and an unfamiliar incoming call ringtone suddenly blared, giving Xuan Congnan a start. His thumb slipped and accidentally pressed answer, and trying to hang up, he accidentally hit speakerphone instead.
“Nannan?”
Xuan Congnan: “…”
Sometimes, having a phone that was too sensitive wasn’t a good thing.
Fearing he would hang up, Shen Chen hurriedly said, “Don’t hang up, will you listen to me please? Nannan, can we meet up? Please don’t keep dodging me, I’m hurting.”
A full 365 days in a year.
In all those past days, Shen Chen had been present in Xuan Congnan’s world every single day.
Hearing Shen Chen’s distress, he lightly pressed his lips together, his expression complex.
Shen Chen’s speaking pace remained very fast: “Everything needs to be talked through thoroughly and clearly; let me explain properly. I’m at the restaurant across from your apartment complex, can you come out and meet me?”
“Do we have to go?”
Xuan Congnan lifted his eyelids in surprise to look at Gu Shi, not expecting him to speak up suddenly.
Gu Shi gazed steadily at Xuan Congnan, his voice even lower than before: “Congnan, do we have to go?”