TF01 37

Neither Shi Yi nor Ying Ming could remember what exactly they had been drinking that night.

All they knew was that by the end of it, Ying Ming had practically emptied his entire stash of alcohol. Eight bottles, all gone.

They vaguely remembered getting completely wasted, acting like lunatics. Shi Yi had this nagging feeling that he did something, but when he woke up the next morning with a splitting headache, he couldn’t recall a thing.

Ying Ming had to rush off for a shoot in the morning, so he didn’t wait for Shi Yi to wake up. He did, however, leave a note saying there was food in the kitchen.

Shi Yi thought it was a damn skill to drink yourself into oblivion one night and still wake up clear-headed enough to make breakfast and head to work the next morning. He was chewing on a simple sandwich as he sighed over it, cleaning up the mess they had made in the living room while he was at it.

Truth be told, he never even bothered tidying up his own place.

But walking out just like this didn’t sit right with him.

There were things scattered all over the couch. His wallet, Ying Ming’s T-shirt, his own suit jacket.

Shi Yi picked up his jacket and suddenly, a hazy image flashed through his mind. He and Ying Ming, both dead drunk, tangled up together, mumbling who knows what as they rolled around on the couch.

He froze for a moment.

But when he tried to recall more, the pounding headache came back full force. He gave up after a while, sitting down on the couch with a helpless sigh. The last time he drank this much was probably the day he graduated from college.

“This is bad…” How the hell was he supposed to go to work like this?

Shi Yi pressed a hand to his forehead and forced himself to stand. In the end, he decided to just take a shower at Ying Ming’s place. His own place was too far, and with his head in this state, he wasn’t too keen on driving.

Work had to be done every day. His life, on the other hand, he only had one.

It turned out that Ying Ming’s bathroom was pretty high-end. Shi Yi had to fiddle with it for a while before he finally got the hot water running. The moment steam filled the space, he had the strangest feeling that he had been here last night.

A blurry figure flickered in his mind. He couldn’t quite grasp it, couldn’t see it clearly. When he tried to focus, the dizziness from the hangover hit him again.

Shi Yi wiped his face with a hand, his patience running out as he gripped the edge of the sink. “Fuck!”

What the hell happened last night?

Later, when Shi Yi tried calling Ying Ming, he barely got a response.

Ying Ming was probably too busy filming. After two tries, Shi Yi gave up. He was swamped for the next few days anyway, so he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Still, for some reason, a vague impression of that night lingered in his mind. He couldn’t remember it clearly, but he just couldn’t shake it off either.

As for his situation with Liu Li, the best course of action for now was to just let things cool down.

Neither of them reached out, and most of what he knew about her came from the constant reports on TV. The publicity stunt surrounding the movie’s release only got more out of hand, but in the end, the one taking the hit was clearly not Liu Li. The media was getting nastier with their words.

Shi Yi pulled some strings to suppress part of it, but the entertainment industry wasn’t that easy to meddle in. He could control some things, but not everything.

It wasn’t until he saw Liu Li saying she would take legal action against any more fake news that he finally gave her a call.

“Need my help?”

This was the first time they had contacted each other in days, and there was no denying the awkwardness in the air.

There was some noise on Liu Li’s end. It was unclear where she was, but she was probably caught off guard when she saw Shi Yi calling. She let out a light chuckle. “Saying I’ll get a lawyer is just a statement. I’m not actually going to.”

“In a situation like this, you could have handled it yourself.”

“Don’t worry, I know how far this will go. Once the movie is out of theaters, this whole thing will die down on its own.” Liu Li sounded relaxed, which only made Shi Yi furrow his brows even deeper.

There wasn’t much left to say after that. Once the call ended, he leaned back in his office chair, silent.

He and Liu Li wanted different things.

What he valued most was at the bottom of Liu Li’s list, while what he had always resisted was precisely what Liu Li wanted the most.

They had nothing to offer each other.

They were simply not meant to walk the same path.

Shi Yi decided that once this movie was over, he would sit down with Liu Li and have a proper conversation. Their last talk had ended on a sour note, but breaking up in such a casual and ambiguous way wasn’t his style. At the very least, giving up without making any effort was not how he did things. He preferred to see things through from start to finish.

He never brought up any of this with Ying Ming, not even that night when they both got wasted. Neither of them mentioned Liu Li.

But Shi Yi knew that Ying Ming was aware. In fact, he definitely was.

It wasn’t just because Liu Li’s scandal had been all over the news. There was also Wang Yiqi, who had been going on and on about it in his ear. There was no way he could be completely oblivious.

Especially since Wang Yiqi’s way of relaying the news always came with his own share of mocking glee.

“I knew from the start that Shi Yi and Liu Li were a disaster waiting to happen. A second-gen rich kid like him managing to handle someone like Liu Li? That would be an urban legend. Compared to her, Shi Yi isn’t even fully grown yet.”

Wang Yiqi casually tossed the tabloid he was holding onto the table and crossed one leg over the other with a smug shake. “He looks all proper and put together, but at the end of the day, he’s just a naive fool.”

After finishing his commentary, Ying Ming turned to look at him. “How do you even have this much free time to waste on gossip? You NG’d more than ten times in one scene yesterday, and you still have the nerve to talk?”

“Fuck off!” Wang Yiqi frowned in dissatisfaction. “Ying Ming, why do you blow up every time you hear Shi Yi’s name? Are you just looking for ways to mess with me all day?”

Ying Ming couldn’t even be bothered to argue. He just lazily replied, “I’m just pissed off at your NGs.”

But there was something off about Wang Yiqi lately. Back when they had worked together before, he had never been this out of it.

Ying Ming simply turned to face him. “What’s going on with you?”

Wang Yiqi didn’t answer right away. He stayed silent for a while, then waved a hand irritably. “Nothing.”

Seeing him like this, Ying Ming didn’t press further. He just raised an eyebrow and patted him on the shoulder. “If something’s up, just say it. Don’t bottle it up all day. You’ll make yourself sick.”

“You think I’m you?”

Wang Yiqi shot him a sideways glance, shrugged indifferently, then glanced toward the doorway and let out a cold chuckle. “Forget about me. You should worry about yourself first.”

Ying Ming followed his gaze and saw Wang Le standing outside the dressing room, greeting him with a wave.

His expression immediately stiffened. “Oh, hell no…”

At that moment, he finally understood why Wang Yiqi had been trying so hard to avoid this guy before. Wang Le’s clinginess was genuinely terrifying.

Wang Yiqi bent down slightly, resting his chin on Ying Ming’s shoulder with a smirk full of mischief. “I warned you to be careful, but you didn’t take it seriously. Now you know how much it sucks, huh? Too late!”

He even fluttered his eyelashes in an exaggerated wink. Ying Ming shot him a glare, brows tightly furrowed.

Seeing his expression, Wang Yiqi straightened up just a little and, for once, seemed to show some mercy. “Alright, alright. Since we’re bros, I’ll help you think of a way out.”

The way he said it gave Ying Ming a really bad feeling. He eyed him warily. “What are you planning now?”

“Just making him give up on you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Yiqi grabbed the back of Ying Ming’s neck and pressed a kiss against his lips.

Well, if it could even be called a kiss. Their lips only barely touched, with Wang Yiqi carefully controlling the distance so they weren’t actually that close. But from Wang Le’s angle, it looked like a full-on kiss, especially with Wang Yiqi’s ridiculously smug expression, as if he had just scored big.

By the time Ying Ming snapped out of it and shoved him away, he instinctively turned his head, only to realize that Wang Le wasn’t standing alone.

Shi Yi was with him.

And the first thing they walked in on was this scene.

For a moment, it felt like everyone’s expressions twisted in some way.

Wang Le stared at Ying Ming and Wang Yiqi in utter disbelief, looking like he had just witnessed the end of the world. Meanwhile, Shi Yi’s expression was pure rage, the kind that could kill, his entire presence wrapped in an oppressive aura.

Ying Ming instinctively got up, wanting to say something, but in the end, he kept his mouth shut.

At a time like this, anything he said would just feel awkward.

Wang Yiqi, on the other hand, was completely unbothered. He casually draped an arm over Ying Ming’s shoulder and tilted his chin up with that annoying smirk of his. “What, never seen people run lines before?”

He was obviously saying this to Shi Yi, but the first person to snap was Wang Le. He rushed forward and shoved Wang Yiqi aside. “Don’t touch him!”

His outburst startled everyone outside the dressing room.

A few curious onlookers peered inside, trying to figure out what was going on, but the tension in the air was too confusing to make sense of.

Wang Yiqi stumbled and nearly crashed into the makeup mirror. He barely managed to steady himself. “The fuck! You trying to kill me?”

Wang Le stood in front of Ying Ming like a protective rooster. “Wang Yiqi, you are not allowed to touch him!”

“Oh, fuck off. You think just because you said so, I’ll listen? We’re playing a couple in the film. I can touch him however I want. And not just on set, I’ll touch him off set too. Anywhere I want. What are you gonna do about it?”

Wang Yiqi had already been pissed at Wang Le, and now, after nearly getting thrown across the room, his temper flared even more. What should have been the most childish argument in existence somehow turned into a full-blown shouting match.

Stuck in the middle, Ying Ming felt utterly speechless. He turned to glance at Shi Yi, finding the entire situation ridiculous beyond belief.

But Shi Yi’s expression was dark.

A sickly, tense kind of darkness, like his face had turned rigid and pale with anger.

Before Ying Ming could say a word, Shi Yi suddenly strode forward and grabbed Wang Le by the arm. “Stop embarrassing yourself. You’re coming with me.”

Wang Le struggled against his grip. “No! I’m staying.”

“Like hell you are. Move.”

That last word came out in a near shout. Wang Le had never seen Shi Yi lose his temper like this. For a moment, he froze, stunned, and before he could do anything else, Shi Yi dragged him away.

Left behind, Ying Ming and Wang Yiqi exchanged glances, both equally bewildered.

For some reason, Ying Ming felt unsettled.

Maybe he was being paranoid, but he had a nagging suspicion that Shi Yi’s anger was directed at him.