TF01 28

It was sometime in the afternoon. Shi Yi had some personal matters to take care of that day, and since the place wasn’t far from Ying Ming’s house, he decided to drop by after finishing up.

He pressed the doorbell for a while. Just as he was about to assume no one was home, Ying Ming finally came to open the door, looking a bit of a mess.

His whole body was covered in foam, his bangs clipped back with a hairpin, making him look ridiculous.

“What the hell are you doing at home?”

What was with this look?

Ying Ming frowned and motioned for Shi Yi to come in before turning back toward the bathroom. “Fuck! I was giving the cat a bath, and my bathroom is about to be destroyed.”

Shi Yi followed him in, only to find a half-soaked cat sitting in the corner of the bathroom, covered in foam, baring its teeth and glaring at Ying Ming as he reopened the door. Its expression was… unsettling.

“You have a cat?”

He didn’t notice one when he stayed over last time.

“It’s actually my friend’s. They said moving was inconvenient, so they left it with me. But once they left it here, they never bothered to take it back.” Ying Ming walked toward the cat, but as soon as the little menace raised a paw in warning, he lost his patience and snapped, “Try scratching me again, and I’ll throw you back to the rats!”

Shi Yi wasn’t sure if the cat actually understood or if it was just startled by the outburst, but it really did settle down a little. Its claws twitched but didn’t strike.

Seeing Ying Ming like this for the first time, Shi Yi couldn’t hold back a laugh. “You’re pretty funny. Think it actually understands you?”

“You keep animals long enough, and you develop this bad habit,” Ying Ming muttered as he grabbed the cat and lathered more shampoo on it. His pants were already soaked, and the bathroom was a disaster zone, bottles knocked over and water everywhere.

It wasn’t hard to imagine how brutal the earlier battle had been.

“This cat got a name?”

“Didn’t bother asking what it was called before. I just call it Smoke Ring.”

“Hah!” Shi Yi raised a brow. That was exactly the kind of name Ying Ming would come up with.

While Ying Ming was giving the cat a bath, Shi Yi leaned against the doorframe, chatting with him idly. It didn’t take too long. Once the ordeal was finally over, Ying Ming plopped down on the sofa with Smoke Ring, drying its fur with a hairdryer.

That was when Shi Yi suddenly noticed something. “Is it just me, or does your cat have a poker face?”

It had been wearing the same expression from start to finish. Even when it was baring its teeth earlier, and now, curled up on Ying Ming’s lap getting dried, its face barely changed.

Ying Ming turned the cat’s face and examined it. “Does it?”

Smoke Ring responded by swiping at him with a paw before flicking its tail in irritation and jumping off the sofa.

Ying Ming didn’t bother with it, turning off the hairdryer before standing up to go change his clothes.

“Wait here for a bit.”

“Alright.”

This was Shi Yi’s second time in this apartment, but the vibe felt completely different from the last visit. He glanced around and noticed the cabinet where he had seen Ying Ming’s trophies before. There were also a few old photos, probably from his childhood. Amused, he stared at them for a while.

When Ying Ming came back downstairs after changing, Shi Yi turned to him. “These from your elementary school days?”

“Middle school.”

“Knew it. You’ve looked young since you were a kid.” He wasn’t actually short, but being on the slimmer side with youthful features made it hard to pin down his age.

Ying Ming pointed casually. “This one’s from my graduation. I stopped studying much after that. That one’s my actual elementary school photo.”

The elementary school photo was old, showing a bunch of boys rolling around in the snow. If Shi Yi hadn’t looked closely, he wouldn’t have even spotted Ying Ming in there.

“You had a middle schooler’s face in elementary school, and now you’re in your twenties and still have a middle schooler’s face.”

After staring at the photos for a while, Shi Yi finally made his conclusion. Ying Ming frowned. “Fuck, what a flattering compliment…”

Shi Yi was done looking around and straightened up, smiling as he caught Ying Ming’s annoyed expression. Then he turned and caught sight of Ying Ming’s hair, pausing for a moment.

“You’re going out like that?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

Ying Ming frowned and glanced down, not noticing anything wrong.

Shi Yi reached out and pulled the clip from his hair. “Doesn’t this thing bother you?”

Only then did Ying Ming realize he had forgotten to take it off. “I clipped it up earlier when I was giving Smoke Ring a bath. It was getting in the way, and I forgot about it.”

Having long hair could be a hassle sometimes.

“Why not just cut it?”

In Shi Yi’s mind, men with long hair always felt a little off. But Ying Ming’s suited him. It matched his vibe, never looking effeminate or pretentious.

Ying Ming ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. “Sometimes directors want long hair for a role, so I just keep it. I’ll cut it when I need to.”

Growing it out took time, after all. He preferred keeping it long so he could style it when necessary.

Shi Yi didn’t really get it, but he was just making conversation. Neither of them thought much of it.

---

The hospital where Dong Xiao was staying was quite a distance from Ying Ming’s place, and at this hour, traffic was at its worst. The moment they hit the ring road, they were stuck in a jam, unable to move.

Shi Yi glanced at the endless line of cars ahead and shook his head helplessly. He reached out and turned on the CD player.

“Perfect timing. I got the songs for you.”

Ying Ming pulled a USB drive from his pocket. “I was gonna give it to you next time we met, but since we’re here, might as well.”

“Your band’s songs? That Six Periods?”

“Yeah, plus a few demos. Thought they sounded decent, so I threw them in too.”

Shi Yi’s car had top-tier speakers, and the sound quality was excellent. He had heard the first song live in the theater that day and had liked it quite a bit.

With some music to ease the mood, the trip wasn’t as unbearable, but it still took them an hour and a half to cover what should have been a forty-minute drive. When they left, the sun was still up. By the time they arrived, it was already evening.

The sky was getting dark.

People were streaming out of the hospital. Ying Ming asked for the room number, then he and Shi Yi made their way inside. Fortunately, there weren’t many VIP rooms, so it didn’t take long to find it.

Just as they reached the door, they heard someone shouting inside.

“Get the hell out! Stop fucking bothering me!”

The voice was hoarse, but it was unmistakably Dong Xiao.

Shi Yi glanced at Ying Ming before pushing the door open. Inside, an older woman stood beside Dong Xiao. She had just been yelled at and looked a little shaken. When she saw Ying Ming and Shi Yi enter, she instinctively stepped aside.

The lighting in the room wasn’t great, but from where they stood, Dong Xiao’s scars were clearly visible.

They weren’t grotesque or terrifying, but they were impossible to ignore.

Dong Xiao hadn’t expected to see them. His brows furrowed. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Ying Ming stepped forward. “Came to check on you.”

“Check on me?” Dong Xiao let out a bitter laugh. “What, here to see how fucking miserable I am? There’s nothing left to see!”

The woman beside him discreetly wiped the corner of her eye, looking embarrassed as she turned to Ying Ming. “You two must be Xiao Xiao’s friends. Come, have a seat—”

Before she could finish, Dong Xiao cut her off. “Friends? Your son’s face, his scars, are all because of him! What kind of bullshit friendship is that?”

He shot Ying Ming a look full of hatred. But Ying Ming remained expressionless as he pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Seems like you really hit your head hard. Your brain’s getting worse. You know exactly how this happened. If it weren’t for me, you’d be dead already.”

Had he already forgotten who dragged him out of that wrecked car?

Dong Xiao knew he was right, but he couldn’t swallow his anger. He clenched his teeth, glaring at both of them. “I’d rather you never fucking saved me.”

No one in the room was surprised by those words. But that didn’t mean anyone liked hearing them.

His mother was the first to speak. “Dong Xiao, how can you say that?”

She had a slight accent. Maybe because there were outsiders present, she was too embarrassed to speak too openly. She only looked at Dong Xiao anxiously and angrily, tugging at his sleeve, but he pulled away.

“I’m just telling the truth. Fuck this. Ending up like this, I’d be better off dead.”

“If you died, the one who’d feel the most relieved wouldn’t be you.”

This time, Shi Yi spoke. He stood behind Ying Ming with a smile. Dong Xiao’s mother had pulled out a chair for him earlier, but he had no interest in sitting in a hospital.

“Weisai is probably dying to wipe everything clean. If you really died, a lot of people would have one less problem to deal with.”

He wasn’t Ying Ming. He didn’t care about choosing his words when talking to Dong Xiao.

Dong Xiao’s face stiffened. He hadn’t expected him to bring up Weisai so bluntly. He didn’t move for a long time.

The sky outside had grown even dimmer. The golden light filtering through the blue curtains turned into an odd, murky color. The air in the hospital room felt heavy. No one spoke. No one knew what to say. It wasn’t until much later that Dong Xiao slammed his fist on the bed frame.

“Fuck off!”

He looked up, his eyes filled with both anger and helplessness, bloodshot and burning.

“All of you, get the fuck out!”

Then, just like when Ying Ming and Shi Yi first arrived, he started screaming hysterically.

Maybe he did this often. Despite all the noise, not a single nurse or doctor came to check.

Ying Ming and Shi Yi exchanged a glance. In the end, Ying Ming got up and left the room without another word. Shi Yi, however, threw in one last remark before leaving.

“Dong Xiao, that Weisai contract. Ying Ming still hasn’t signed it.”

Without waiting for a response, he shut the door behind him.

Dong Xiao clenched his teeth, glaring at the curtains swaying in the wind. He didn’t say a word for a long time.

Ying Ming walked out of the hospital room at a slow pace. Shi Yi stayed beside him, watching as he pulled out a cigarette. He asked for one, lit it, took a drag, and exhaled.

“That was Dong Xiao’s mom just now?”

“Yeah, probably.”

They weren’t familiar with her. They had never met before.

“Even after everything, that kid is still the same.” Shi Yi scoffed. “He wasn’t likable to begin with. Now that he’s injured, he’s even worse.”

Ying Ming knew he was mocking Dong Xiao’s attitude, so he shook his head.

As they walked side by side toward the parking lot, he only explained when they neared the car.

“Dong Xiao probably entered this industry because of his family’s situation. That Weisai contract… if he was willing to sign it, he must have been thinking about them.”

If he ever lost his job as an actor, his family would have no financial security at all.

“When you’re stuck with something you can’t get over, when you’ve got nowhere to vent, the only people you can lash out at are the ones closest to you. Because you’re not afraid of losing them, you act like you can do whatever you want.”

That was probably the hardest part of being family. But it was also in moments like these that people truly understood what family meant.

Giving up a career and a dream seemed meaningless when compared to a family’s survival.

Shi Yi didn’t say anything. He only took a couple of drags from his cigarette and smiled.