TF01 77

The boy who had shown up that night and caused trouble never came back.

In a couple of days, Ying Ming would be joining the film crew. Shi Yi had been busy with company matters over the past few days as well, and both of them often did not get to eat until after ten at night. Shi Yi had told him more than once not to wait, but just as he was not someone who followed instructions easily, his words did not carry much weight with Ying Ming either.

No matter how late Shi Yi came home, Ying Ming was always awake, either watching TV or throwing punches at the sandbag.

It was only after the fight they had that Shi Yi realized Ying Ming’s skill was far beyond what he had assumed. Even if his build didn’t look impressive at first glance, once things actually got physical, the pressure of that strength became very clear.

That realization left Shi Yi feeling uncomfortable.

He did not really care about who ended up on top in bed, and it wasn’t as though he had some obsession with control. For over twenty years, he had always been the one in control. But now, whenever Ying Ming got into position, he found himself with barely any room to resist. That realization was difficult to accept.

So when he was not working, he spent more time at the gym.

Ou Yang could tell something was different. Shi Yi’s energy had noticeably improved. From time to time, Ou Yang would lean against the office door and sigh with mock reverence. “I don’t know who this person is, but whoever they are, they must be a god.”

That one comment earned him two weeks of eating plane food. Shi Yi took it a step further and had all of Ou Yang’s calls redirected to the assistant secretary. Unless it was something urgent, he wasn’t to be contacted. All protests were dismissed without discussion.

After Ying Ming joined the crew, Shi Yi did not go back to his apartment either. His things had slowly been moved to Ying Ming’s warehouse bit by bit. There was nothing left at the apartment anyway. It hadn’t been that long, but he had already gotten used to living in a space filled with the traces of two people. Shi Yi was no longer used to the feeling of living alone.

Still, he had been busy too, and he hadn’t spent much time at home lately.

The only thing that really tested his patience during that time was the cat, Smoke Ring.

Everytime Ying Ming joined a film crew, he usually left the cat with Haozi. Kou Jing’s lifestyle was erratic to the extreme, and Wang Yiqi spent most of his days drunk and half out of his mind. He could barely take care of himself, let alone look after a cat. But almost every time Smoke Ring ended up at Haozi’s place, something went wrong. It would either develop stress-induced gastritis or fall into a depressive episode. The first time Ying Ming mentioned it, Shi Yi had laughed for a full minute.

“It’s just a dumb cat. And now it’s coming down with human illnesses?” They always said chronic gastritis was a rich man’s condition. It could not be cured, only managed. Apparently, this cat had a real taste for luxury.

That kind of mocking attitude lasted until Shi Yi had to take over as temporary owner. Only then did he understand what it meant to be truly lovesick.

From the day Ying Ming left, Smoke Ring began sitting at the coffee table in the warehouse living room every morning at exactly eight o’clock. Its eyes stayed fixed on the tightly closed front door. Sometimes it sat like that for the entire day. When Shi Yi left in the morning, it was in one pose. When he returned at night, it had barely moved.

At first, he did not think much of it. But after seeing it again and again, Shi Yi started to wonder if something was seriously wrong with the cat.

Later, Haozi told him that Smoke Ring was pathologically attached to its owner. As long as Ying Ming was not around, it could not eat or sleep. Only after the shoot was over would the condition improve.

“What the hell are you, a real cat or not?” From disbelief to outright frustration, Shi Yi began seriously considering whether he could toss the thing out while Ying Ming was away, then tell him it had reached enlightenment and ascended. There was a chance he might even buy it.

In the end, to stop Smoke Ring from dying of heartbreak before Ying Ming returned, Shi Yi scanned a photo from the study, printed it in large format, framed it, and propped it up in front of the coffee table for the cat to stare at. He also texted Ying Ming to let him know the cat he raised was a complete emotional wreck.

The movie shoot did not last long, just over a month. Shi Yi visited the set once in the beginning, but since he barely knew anyone in the production, he found it dull and did not go again.

Most of the time, they kept in touch by phone. Since the location was in a nearby city, Ying Ming occasionally managed to come home. But he always returned during the day, and if Shi Yi happened to be at the office, they would often miss each other.

After two or three rounds of that, Shi Yi finally lost patience. He left a big note on the door, written in wild, sweeping strokes. It said, Call me when you’re back.

His handwriting was a lot like him. Loud, unfiltered, and showy. When he put in the effort, it was barely decent. When he didn’t, it looked like something Smoke Ring had scrawled out with its tail. Ying Ming had teased him about it before. For someone walking around with that much fame, he had no sense of presentation at all.

When Ying Ming saw the note, he could not help but rip it down. What he didn’t expect was that there was another note behind it, saying almost exactly the same thing. The only difference was that the tone was a little softer. At least it wasn’t written in glaring red, screaming at him on sight.

He took a shower and grabbed something simple to eat. It wasn’t until he was curled up on the couch that he lazily called Shi Yi.

He hung up before the other side picked up. Shi Yi would get the message.

After that, he stared at the clock on the wall, watching the numbers shift minute by minute.

At first, he was confused. Then the confusion turned into concern. And by the time evening rolled around, he was genuinely pissed off.

He had called. Anyone else would have come back after that. But Ying Ming waited from ten in the morning until seven at night and still did not even see a shadow of him. He called more than twenty times. None were answered. The messages he sent disappeared into thin air. Not a single reply.

It was only because he didn’t have a scene to film tomorrow that he stayed home. Otherwise, sitting there on the couch all day like a complete idiot would have been even more pathetic.

When Shi Yi finally came back, the first thing he saw was Ying Ming’s expression, already halfway twisted with anger.

Ying Ming narrowed his eyes. “Your phone broke?”

The man across from him reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, checked the screen, then looked up. “No, it’s fine. I can read messages and take calls.”

It would have been better if he had said nothing. As soon as he opened his mouth, Ying Ming’s face darkened even more.

Shi Yi took off his jacket and tugged loose his tie. Then, he took a swig from the half-empty beer bottle Ying Ming had left out. He ran a hand through his messy hair and looked at the man on the couch.

“You’re back already today?”

The expression on his face was so genuine that if Ying Ming hadn’t seen that blood-red note stuck on the door, he might actually have believed him.

Ying Ming yanked Shi Yi’s tie and forced the words through clenched teeth. “I really didn’t see it before, but you’re a hell of an actor. Shame you’re not in this line with me, you would’ve—”

He said it one word at a time, breath hot against Shi Yi’s face, the space between them narrowing with every second. The storm in Shi Yi’s eyes intensified with each word. In the end, he didn’t wait for him to finish. He shoved Ying Ming straight down onto the couch.

“Fuck. So now you know how it feels when someone doesn’t pick up or reply. You filming on the moon? You come back and don’t say a word. What, you thought I was dead?”

He roared it out in frustration, then kissed him like he had lost his mind. The two of them crashed into each other, knocking things over left and right. Smoke Ring let out a screech that could only be described as pained, likely caught in the chaos. But the two locked together on the couch didn’t even glance over.

Ying Ming nearly ran out of breath before he managed to tear Shi Yi off him. What stared back at him was a look so raw it threatened to swallow both of them whole.

Shi Yi clutched him tightly, and for a split second, he had the urge to strangle the man in his arms. “Fuck. It’s only been a few days, and it already feels unbearable.”

He didn’t even want to admit that someone this wrecked could be him.

He had never experienced this kind of restlessness that clawed at his chest and lungs. Even during that earlier period, when he and Ying Ming had hovered just shy of crossing the line, when everything was chaotic and his days were a mess, at least back then he knew what was bothering him. His state had been obvious to anyone who looked, but it never crossed into losing control. But now, during these few days while Ying Ming was away filming, Shi Yi felt like he was sick.

In front of others, he looked completely normal. He worked when he had to, ate when it was time to eat. But his mind would not stop. The moment it stopped being occupied, there was nothing left but Ying Ming. And it kept piling up. Building higher and higher until it felt like he was going to explode. And the worst part was that there was nothing he could do to fix it. He wanted to lash out, but he couldn’t even locate the source of the frustration. So he came home and ended up fighting with Smoke Ring or with himself.

Shi Yi pressed down on Ying Ming’s throat and frowned. “If this keeps going, I’m probably done for.”

There was nothing more terrifying than losing your grip on reason. And over the past few days, he had lost control more times than in the past twenty-something years of his life combined.

Ying Ming tilted his head slightly, gripping Shi Yi’s arm so hard that his own knuckles were starting to turn white. He had waited all day. The fury built up inside him was ready to swing fists. It felt like every violent impulse in his body had been awakened by Shi Yi. He was never someone who let emotions drive his actions, but with Shi Yi, he kept losing control again and again.

By the time they were both completely spent on the couch, they ended up collapsed on the floor together. Ying Ming rested his head against the edge of the sofa, eyes closed, chest rising and falling.

Neither of them was wearing anything, and neither of them cared. Any sense of shame had long since been discarded. This feeling of complete release, without restraint, was like being born again. Even if the sky collapsed, it would not matter.

Ying Ming turned his head slightly and touched Shi Yi’s forehead. The sound was faint, and both of them could not help but smile.

“I’m just saying… don’t you think we’re getting crazier by the day?”

His voice was hoarse, more like a whisper to himself. He nudged lightly against Shi Yi’s head. The soft rustling of their hair brushing together could be heard.

That familiar laugh sounded in his ear, laced with mockery. Shi Yi kept his eyes closed, leaning to one side. His left hand reached out and found Ying Ming’s. Their fingers locked and squeezed tight for a moment, then slowly released. A faint smile curved across Shi Yi’s lips.

“Doesn’t matter if we’re crazy. As long as the guy in the next bed stays calm.”

Hearing that, Ying Ming thought of the image: the two of them sitting face to face in those restrictive outfits, talking like nothing was wrong. He could not stop himself from laughing. After the laugh came a long breath, and his body finally started to relax.

His mom had called earlier, asking if his insomnia had gotten any better. She said she had come across some secret remedy and told him to come home and try it when he had time.

He told her it was more or less resolved, though she clearly did not believe him.

But it was strange. Ever since Shi Yi moved in, the sleepless nights had mostly stopped. He had never liked sleeping in a large bed. It always made him feel uneasy. Yet somehow, night after night, he had begun to settle in.

As long as he could hear that familiar breathing beside him, even if he could not sleep right away, his body would begin to relax.

How many chances did a person get in life to meet someone like that?

With a faint smile on his lips, Ying Ming thought maybe he had been lucky after all.