TF01 76

After getting the answer he wanted, Ying Ming finally let go. The boy broke free from his grip and stumbled back a few steps before coming to a stop. He rubbed his aching jaw while staring at the two of them, his face filled with hatred.

Shi Yi frowned slightly. “I was the one who hit him. As for why, he knows perfectly well. If you want to settle the score, go to the right person.”

After what just happened, the boy was somewhat intimidated by both Shi Yi and Ying Ming. His bluster had cooled. He bit his lip, stared at Ying Ming for a long time, and finally managed to squeeze out a sentence.

“Yu-ge took your money back then because something happened at home. He used it to save a life. Yeah, it was wrong, but he said he wanted to pay it back. You were the one who refused. He’s felt guilty ever since. He tried to see you a few times, but you never gave him a chance. And now you send someone to beat him up. Ying Ming, did you really have to go this far?”

Ying Ming listened, then gave the boy a glance. “I don’t care how you found my address. Just make sure I don’t see you again.”

He shut the door without bothering to watch the boy’s reaction.

Shi Yi had been watching him the entire time.

Even when Ying Ming turned back, walked to the table, and sat down to resume eating, Shi Yi did not move.

The warehouse air felt heavy. Other than the clinking of bowl and chopsticks, there was no sound at all. Shi Yi frowned. In the end, he could not help himself.

“This some kind of nonviolent protest? Silent treatment?”

Ying Ming looked back at him. “Anger?” He raised an eyebrow. “What would I be angry about?”

His tone was so calm that Shi Yi could not tell if it was a rhetorical question or if he genuinely did not care. He stepped a little closer to the table.

“I had someone beat up Mao Yu. You’re not mad?”

“You didn’t hit me. Why would I be mad?”

The question struck him as absurd. Ying Ming shot Shi Yi a sidelong glance. “Or do you think I’m supposed to be mad?”

That kind of rhetorical reply had a way of getting under people’s skin. Shi Yi sat down across from Ying Ming.

“You were pretty pissed about me stepping into your business with Mao Yu, didn’t you?

From the moment he decided to make a move, Shi Yi had never planned on hiding it. If Ying Ming did not find out, he had no intention of bringing it up himself.

Ying Ming looked at him with a smile. “Even if I had a problem with it, you were going to step in anyway. What difference does it make?”

To be honest, he was not surprised in the least that Young Master Shi had gone after Mao Yu. It would have been more out of character if he had done nothing at all. He was not exactly thrilled about it, but after all this time spent around Shi Yi, it was clear the man was not someone who cared about other people’s feelings. Whatever he did, he did because he felt like it. Even if you were the one directly involved, your opinion did not matter.

But that was not the reason he seemed so indifferent now.

The real reason was that he truly did not care.

He looked at the twisted look on Shi Yi’s face and finally put down his chopsticks.

“There was no need for you to go and have someone beat him up. Whether you did or didn’t, it wouldn’t make me feel better or worse. It was a waste of effort.”

He had never even been angry to begin with.

What Mao Yu did back then had been a huge blow, that much was true. At the time, he had still been young, holding tight to his pride and the illusion that he had control over his life. He had thought he had a steady grip on everything. In everyone’s eyes, he was not the kind of person who would run into real trouble. That was why his family had felt safe letting him work in the entertainment world on his own, grinding through it day by day.

His career had not gone smoothly, and for the most part, it was his friends who held him up. During those idle, aimless days, if it had not been for them, maybe he really would have collapsed. In this industry, no one bares their heart easily. On turf crowded with award-winning actors, one wrong move and you could end up sold out by the person next to you.

Ying Ming’s trust had never been something he gave away lightly. He had never imagined that the one time he did, he would fall that hard.

But no matter how bitter it had been, no matter how angry or unwilling he once felt, it was all in the past now.

For him, once something was over, it was over. Whether it had been betrayal or disappointment, once the emotion passed, it was nothing more than a passing collision between strangers. There was no need to dig deeper.

Shi Yi studied Ying Ming’s expression, trying to read what he was really thinking. But no matter how hard he looked, he felt like he could never quite reach the core of it. He narrowed his eyes slightly.

“You really don’t care at all?”

Ying Ming lifted his head. “Are you jealous?”

It was the second time he had asked that question. The first time, Shi Yi had deflected it. This time, he got a clear and direct answer.

Shi Yi pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a drag. “Isn’t it only natural for me to be jealous?”

First, there had been all those people acting strange, trying to speak but holding back. Then this Mao Yu had appeared out of nowhere, swaggering around with the label of Ying Ming’s past stuck to his back. Even if it was nothing but a shameful history, everyone treated it like a taboo. If he were not jealous or angry, then he really would be a goddamn joke.

No one could stand having a person like that constantly lingering in their life.

Even if everyone kept insisting it was all in the past, it was more than enough to make him sick of it.

He looked at Ying Ming. “If he shows up again, I’ll beat him.”

The unusually serious tone made Ying Ming frown. He stared at Shi Yi for a long time. It was not until the man was halfway through his cigarette that he finally said, slowly and deliberately, “Shi Yi, I’m pretty sure I told you very clearly. I’m not gay.” After a pause, he added, “Even now, I’m still not.”

There were men everywhere. Tall, short, fat, skinny. All kinds. Not one had ever made him want to look twice.

In an environment like the entertainment industry, it was never hard to find strange people. Homosexuality aside, threesomes and partner swapping were nothing new.
If he had really wanted to try it, he would have done it ages ago and probably gotten bored of it by now. It was never a matter of not being able to play that way. He simply had no interest. Even if a man stripped down and threw himself at him, he would not feel a thing. He was certain and clear about what he was. Since he was not into it, there was no reason to waste his time.

If he had never met Shi Yi, there was no way he would have ever ended up with a man.

Ying Ming looked up at Shi Yi across the table. “Or do you think I’m the type who would pull some random guy into a bathroom and fuck him?”

There was real anger in his voice.

Shi Yi, on the other hand, let out a laugh. He bit down casually on his cigarette. “I know you’re not. But that doesn’t mean I feel fine about it.”

He took the cigarette out of his mouth and tilted his head, flashing Ying Ming a smile that carried more warning than humor. “Just the thought of someone hovering around you makes me want to hit something. You say there’s no point in beating him, but that’s not true. I didn’t do it to make you feel better. I did it to make myself feel better.”

When it came to what was on the table, he was not blind. He knew just as well as anyone else that there was nothing real between Mao Yu and Ying Ming back then. It was just a pathetic, cliché little story. He already knew that stepping into Ying Ming’s business would only make him unhappy, and looking back on it now, he could not deny that there had been something intentional in it. Kou Jing’s use of the word outsider had struck a strangely sensitive nerve. He had gone ahead with it fully aware of what he was doing, and even after beating the guy, he felt no guilt. Now, seeing how completely indifferent Ying Ming was to Mao Yu, he felt nothing but satisfaction.

Shi Yi stretched with exaggerated ease. “Hitting him was the smart move. I feel fantastic. Clear-headed, relaxed, completely at peace.”

“I didn’t think Mao Yu would actually be good for anything. Next time you have a fever or a headache, forget the hospital. Just find someone to beat him up again. That should fix it.”

After tossing out the line, Ying Ming stood up and began clearing the table. Shi Yi suddenly grabbed his hand and bit it, then leaned in and licked it.

“This is a heart problem. He can’t fix it.”

Still licking, he began to gently nip at the tips of Ying Ming’s fingers. “For this kind of thing, it has to be you.”

Ying Ming was not gay. Neither was he.

But no one else could ever make him like this. He wanted it constantly, never satisfied, like his body was trapped in a cycle that would not stop. Back when he was young and wild, he had thought he was already jaded with sex. It was always the same routine, no matter who the partner was. Same steps, same ending. But with Ying Ming, it was different. His body reacted like it was addicted. The more he got, the more he wanted. It never stopped.

The feel of that tongue made Ying Ming’s chest tighten with irritation. He tried to pull his hand away, but Shi Yi only tightened his grip and tugged him closer. In the end, he could only frown and let him keep toying with him.

Was there anything left of the man Shi Yi used to be, back when they first met?

By the time they were on the couch, wrapped around each other and pulling at each other’s clothes, Ying Ming finally pushed down on Shi Yi’s head. “Tell me, where the hell did you learn all this? You’ve gotten way too good, way too fast.”

He had been acting for years. When it came to teasing and provoking the body, he was more than used to it. Shi Yi’s past probably wasn’t all that pure, but in theory, he should have valued physical release more than emotional stimulation. This was someone who had gotten hard just from watching a pole dance. And now, somehow, he was pulling out tricks like a seasoned pro.

Shi Yi licked his lips. “You think anyone needs to be taught this? It comes naturally. Self-taught, no teacher required.”

He had barely finished speaking before Ying Ming flipped him over and pinned him down. The man gripping his collar was smiling, eyes and mouth both lined with a kind of allure that was impossible to name.

“If you’re that eager to learn, I’ll teach you. Free of charge. A good teacher makes all the difference when you’re just starting out.”

As he spoke, his fingers moved down and rested lightly over Shi Yi’s lower half, never quite closing around him. In moments like this, there was always something dark and unhinged in Ying Ming’s presence, like a cruel streak barely held back. He shifted his hips and said, “Shi Yi, I really think someone should take a picture of you like this, blow it up to life-size, and hang it on your wall so you can look at yourself every day.”

Preferably in the bedroom.

Ying Ming leaned down and kissed him. The two of them kept grinding against each other, while the air in the room grew hotter and the fire inside their bodies kept burning higher.

Somewhere in the haze, a thought flickered through Shi Yi’s mind.

He and Ying Ming still did not believe they had any desire for men. But then what was this hunger between them? No interest in men, no interest in women, and yet just the name Ying Ming was enough to break him. What did that even make this? How was any of it supposed to be defined?

But in the end, he never asked.

He didn’t have the energy or the focus. Every part of him was pulled into the mess of being with Ying Ming. Even the meeting he had the next morning at the company had already been completely forgotten.