Chapter 16 – Rehearsing Lines

After eating a few bites, Shen Fubai suddenly stopped. He stared at the brimming meat in his lunch box and glanced at Jiang Heng’s plain cabbage and tofu dish. He felt it would be inhumane to continue eating just for himself.

“I can’t finish all this,” Shen Fubai said, his face betraying no blush or pant despite having cleared an entire table of desserts in front of Jiang Heng last night. “Wanna share?”

“Sure,” Jiang Heng replied without hesitation.

Eating from the same lunch box as your idol—how could anyone resist that?

Calories? What are those, never heard of them.

Shen Fubai placed a chicken leg into Jiang Heng’s lunch box and added some fish fillet on top of his white rice. He also passed over the unopened soy milk to Jiang Heng. “Try it, the soy milk is actually pretty good.”

Jiang Heng immediately pushed the soy milk back. “If it’s good, you should have it.”

Shen Fubai pushed it back. “I’m giving it to you precisely because it’s good. This lunch box is from Yunji, right? I usually drink their soy milk.”

Jiang Heng silently noted Shen Fubai’s preference and pushed the soy milk back again. “If you drink it often, it must be because you like it. You should have it.”

Shen Fubai tried to push it again. “I actually prefer milk tea more…”

At the door, Xiao Zhang and Xiao Lin looked at each other in surprise.

Xiao Zhang: “What are they doing, passing drinks back and forth like that?”

Xiao Lin: “Drinking interlocked cups, maybe.”

“Cough, cough.” Xiao Zhang cleared his throat at the door.

Jiang Heng quickly straightened his face. “Why are you back?”

Xiao Zhang saw the chicken leg and fish fillet in Jiang Heng’s bowl and put on a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “Just came back to see if you were eating well, terribly well.”

Seeing the pile of junk food that Shen Fubai had consumed, Xiao Zhang understood why the usually disciplined Jiang Heng suddenly let loose last night and dared to eat so many sweets.

It was all due to Shen Fubai’s influence.

According to the obsessive level of Fubai’s fans, they would find anything sweet if Shen Fubai even fed them arsenic.

Xiao Zhang felt deeply that it was a highly risky move to let Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai spend time together. He hurried back—sure enough, Jiang Heng was eating meat again.

He must not want his body anymore!

In response to the assistant’s forced smile, Jiang Heng decided to relieve the tension with a glass of soy milk.

As soon as he took a sip, his entire face turned green.

Why was it soy milk, but tofu juice?

Jiang Heng remembered something.

Yunji sells both soy milk and tofu juice, and the packaging for delivery is identical. Jiang Heng wasn’t a native of Beijing; he just attended university there and started his career there after graduation. Yet even after all these years, he was never quite able to get used to the local specialty tofu juice.

Xiao Zhang, the local, loved it though, having at least one glass a day. Jiang Heng tried it out of curiosity once and nearly died on the spot.

This takeout was originally for Xiao Zhang, so it was predictable what it contained. Shen Fubai mistook it for soy milk.

Shen Fubai blinked his beautiful eyes and earnestly watched him. “How is it? Is it good?”

“Not…” Jiang Heng couldn’t bear to say no outright. “…bad.”

Shen Fubai said happily, “Then you should drink more.”

Jiang Heng looked perfectly composed, but he gnashed his teeth as he bit down on the straw.

On the side, Xiao Zhang was astounded.

Wasn’t Brother Jiang the one who never drank tofu juice? The one who would rather die than ever accept tofu juice?

Where was his bottom line?

Jiang Heng: Bottom line, Fubai, everything else is up for discussion.

Exhausted by watching Jiang Heng bravely drink a whole cup of tofu juice without showing any signs of distress, all Xiao Zhang could do was not order Jiang Heng to abstain from meat. He’d let him indulge this once and add an extra two hours at the gym to his schedule later.

“You carry on,” Xiao Zhang pulled Xiao Lin away, making sure to close the door and not disturb the cozy atmosphere in the room.

Jiang Heng silently put the tofu juice down, feeling as if survival was all that sustained him.

He stuffed a mouthful of rice, suppressing the tart rush in his mouth, and finally caught his breath.

The two finished their meals silently. Xiao Zhang reappeared in a flash to collect the garbage and vanished once more.

A good assistant always appears when necessary and disappears when not.

After lunch, there was still some break time, but that belonged to the staff. Shen Fubai still had to get made up and change costume, while Jiang Heng had no immediate transformation required.

In the afternoon, Shen Fubai and Jiang Heng had two scenes. One was Chu Yu’s first encounter with Yu Tang after returning from England, following his friend Du Wenbin into the theater—a scene that connected to what Jiang Heng performed in the morning.

At that point, Chu Yu was still a green boy who would go dimwitted when he saw a beauty.

The other scene was the impromptu act performed in the dressing room the day before—years later, after Chu Yu returns from the battlefield, Yu Tang misunderstands and thinks he’s going to a matchmaking date. A conflict arises, and by this time, Chu Yu has become extremely reserved.

These two scenes spanned a considerable gap of time for Jiang Heng, but Shen Fubai had it even tougher. While Jiang Heng could switch from a suit to a military uniform to illustrate a change in identity, Shen Fubai would wear the same costume both times, having to convey emotions that were world apart. And with thick makeup limiting his facial expressions, acting became almost exclusively about ‘giving a look and letting you interpret it.’

After dinner, Shen Fubai had to return to his dressing room to get his makeup done. Jiang Heng, after some internal debate, couldn’t resist saying, “You could get your makeup done here, too.”

Shen Fubai turned around.

Jiang Heng calmly said, “We haven’t run our lines yet. We might take advantage of the makeup time, which would help our afternoon performance.”

This reason was flawless.

Jiang Heng waited for Shen Fubai’s reply with some nervousness.

Shen Fubai paused and smiled. “Sure.”

Shen Fubai calmly sat on Jiang Heng’s chair as his heart raced, wanting to soar into the sky.

This was the chair that Heng Heng had sat on!

Jiang Heng sat still on the chair next to him, secretly sprouting invisible wings on his back.

Fubai and I shared the same chair!

While it was just an ordinary chair, at this moment in Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai’s eyes, it was a throne, an emperor’s chair, a seat of power.

Because their king had sat on this chair.

They were each other’s most dedicated servants.

Jiang Heng opened the script and asked Shen Fubai, “Should we start from the scene of their first encounter?”

That was the scene they would perform first in the afternoon.

Shen Fubai said, “Sure.”

Shen Fubai didn’t bring the script with him, and Jiang Heng asked if he needed one. “I’m good, I’ve got it in my head,” Shen Fubai said, implying, “And so do you.”

Jiang Heng nodded and closed the script.

They were both people who had long since memorized their lines.

Rehearsing lines wasn’t the same as rehearsing scenes. A scene requires body language and emotional expression, something like the day before. Line readings were different, where two people simply went through the lines once to get a sense of the flow. One could be heartfelt or entirely void of emotion, it didn’t matter—

The script was like this.

[Chu Yu saw Yu Tang on stage for the first time and couldn’t forget him. Following the conclusion of the play, he went backstage to request the owner to have Yu Tang come out and meet him.]

The owner would never decline the request of the Young Master from the Inspectorate General’s House.

Yu Tang: [behind the stage, about to remove his makeup]

Owner: [entering] Miss Tang, there’s someone outside waiting to see you.

Yu Tang: [pauses midway removing his makeup] Owner, I don’t like meeting people.

Owner: Oh, I know, I usually let you do as you wish, but this one is different. This is the Young Master from the Governor General’s House, a distinguished guest among the distinguished, a cut above the rest.

Yu Tang: [chuckles in his heart: what’s so different][face] Got it, I’ll be right there.

Cut to the scene.

Sixteen-year-old Yu Tang, dressed in the garb of an actor, was still a bit green but already showing signs of the supreme elegance he would later possess.

The handsome young man in a white suit had a pure gaze, free of lasciviousness.

Owner: Come and greet the esteemed guest. This is Master Chu, the young master of the Governor General’s House!

Yu Tang: [right hand over left, kneels as a girl’s bow] Young Master.

Owner: [aware of the situation] I will leave you two alone then, I’m off to attend to other things. [steps out]

Chu Yu: [gently supports him] You… are called Miss Tang?

Yu Tang: [gently] Um.

His voice was melodious, a flirtatious gaze revealing an exquisite teenager.

Chu Yu: [nervous, speechless] How, how can a young man be called Miss?

Yu Tang: [covers his mouth and laughs] Because I played a female role, the Owner let me be raised as a girl.

Chu Yu: [dumbfounded] You’re really… gorgeous…

Outside, a voice calls: “Young Master, the old man is calling you!”

Chu Yu: [acknowledges the voice] Got it! [rushed to the door, bumps into it, covers his forehead and stands still, turns to look back and shouts] I’m Chu Yu, I’ll be back to look for you! [holds back]

Yu Tang: [after a long moment, lowers his eyes] He seems… different from others.

Yu Tang: [chuckles] He’s a bit of a fool…

Starting from the middle, Jiang Heng read: “You’re called Miss Tang?”

Shen Fubai: “Um.”

Jiang Heng: “How can a young man be called Miss?”

Shen Fubai stared at his face which was gradually taking on a more feminine appearance in the mirror, and mournfully lamented, “It’s all for the sake of a living. Otherwise, would anyone want to be a misses?”

—Jiang Heng’s tone was too ordinary, Shen Fubai completely forgot that they were rehearsing lines.

The makeup artist’s hand trembled.

Jiang Heng paused for a moment. “Too tragic, let me keep you then.”

Shen Fubai: “No, a man should self-sustain.”

The makeup artist fought back a laugh.

Jiang Heng forcefully steers the lines back on track. “You’re really beautiful.”

Shen Fubai: “Thanks, I think so, too. In our line of work, you have to be attractive.”

Jiang Heng: “…I’ll come back to look for you.”

Shen Fubai: “Welcome, see you next time.”

Jiang Heng had strong improvisational skills, but now he felt he had no way to respond to that line. If he had to respond, he wanted to say, “Your whole life, I’ll cover it all.”

The makeup artist couldn’t hold it any longer and tossed the makeup brush aside, snorting in joyful laughter.

Even if she hadn’t memorized the script, she knew the two of them had distorted their lines beyond recognition.

“Hahaha, did you guys know that you just sounded like a john and a male courtesan talking…”

Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai silently stared at her.

“Hahahaha, ha ha, ha,” under the stare of two handsome men, the makeup artist gradually quieted down, climbed up from the ground, and cleared her throat, “My apology. I’m a professional person, I usually don’t laugh at funny things unless I can’t hold it in…phuhahaha…”

Shen Fubai belatedly realized what he had said.

He brought his usual quick-witted banter and one-liners with Xiao Lin to Heng Heng. Heng Heng, probably not wanting to make him embarrassed, played along.

Heng Heng, listen to me explain!!!

Shen Fubai smiled with a cool demeanor. “We were just joking around, let’s do it again.”

Jiang Heng: “Alright.”

They started over-

Jiang Heng: “You’re called Miss Tang?”

Shen Fubai: “Um.”

Jiang Heng: “How can a young man be called Miss?”

Shen Fubai: “Because I played a female role, the Owner had me raised as a girl.”

Jiang Heng: “The Owner is not a thing, if I had kept you, you could have been a man if you wanted, or a girl if you wanted, never forcing your will to change.”

Shen Fubai: “???”

Brother Heng, how did you bring the conversation back around?

Shen Fubai’s first reaction was to look at the makeup artist.

The makeup artist had already collapsed to the ground with laughter, breathlessly spitting out, “Can someone arrange for an ambulance.”