TF01 83

It was almost no surprise at all that the one who ended up completely wasted was Wang Yiqi.

Shi Yi had always been the better drinker. He was more experienced with situations like this and knew how to handle being goaded into drinking. So by the time Wang Yiqi was slumped over the table and couldn’t even be kicked awake, Shi Yi laughed loudly three times, savoring the sight of him in such a sorry state.

The others could only shake their heads.

What kind of messed-up dynamic was this supposed to be?

After that night, Kou Jing made a point to visit Ying Ming once more on set.

Haozi had been the one to speak up during dinner, but Kou Jing shared the same concerns. He had already had a bad feeling about the two of them from the very beginning, when they first got to know each other. Now that it had actually turned into something real, he could not quite tell what emotion was weighing heavier.

Ying Ming, on the other hand, didn’t look surprised to see him at all.

When the hotel front desk called to say someone was asking for him, he had a pretty good idea it would be Kou Jing.

He opened the door and narrowed his eyes. “You’re up early.”

He had only gone to bed around four in the morning after a night shoot, and now, just four hours later, Kou Jing had already shown up at his door.

“I’ve got an event this afternoon. If I didn’t come now, there’s no way I’d make it back in time.” With the New Year approaching, traffic was already starting to jam up. After noon, there was no telling how long it would take to get anywhere near the city.

Ying Ming poured him a glass of water. “Then let’s keep it short. What did you come all this way to see me for?”

“You probably already know.”

“This is about me and Shi Yi?”

Kou Jing smiled. He took two sips of water and immediately frowned at the harsh mineral taste, then set the glass down. “How long have you two been together?”

“A few months.”

“Since that night at KTV?”

Thinking back, that night had already felt off. The two of them had claimed they were going to the bathroom, but once they left, they never came back. Everyone had looked all over for them and couldn’t find a trace. The next day, Shi Yi had sent a half-assed text saying he left early.

But after that, everyone got too busy and no one had time to chase it down.

Ying Ming did not try to hide anything. He nodded, which served as confirmation.

Kou Jing let out a long breath and sank back into the couch. It took him a while before he turned his head and looked at Ying Ming. “If it were Wang Yiqi doing something like this, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. But you? I really don’t know how to make sense of it.”

Out of all their friends, Ying Ming had always been the most clear-headed.

He always knew exactly what he wanted and what it would cost to get it. He could not claim that every decision he made was carefully thought through, but he was unquestionably someone who held himself accountable.

But choosing to be with Shi Yi, there was no angle from which that looked like a rational choice.

“You know his family background. You know your own situation. Do you have any idea how this is supposed to end?” Never mind the pressure coming from Shi Yi’s side, just considering Ying Ming’s position alone, as the only son in his family, his parents probably had never once imagined their son might end up with a man. Just being an actor already meant he lived under constant scrutiny from people with too much time on their hands. If this ever blew up into something public, it would be unmanageable for anyone involved.

Kou Jing looked at him closely. “Or maybe you never planned that far ahead to begin with.”

The man standing across from him smoked quietly, his expression calm. It was as if he had been expecting this line of questioning all along, or maybe it simply didn’t surprise him.

“To be honest, I really haven’t thought that far ahead. Whatever happens next, I’ll deal with it when it comes. Plans will never keep up with change. No matter how much I try to predict it now, it won’t make a difference.”

Kou Jing frowned. “That doesn’t sound like something you would say.”

Ying Ming gave a small smile. The seriousness in his tone had weighed the room down a little. Ying Ming stayed quiet for a moment, then lowered his gaze. “Do you think being with a man is something that sounds like me?” He shook his head. “To be honest with you, even now, I don’t really know what switch inside me got pulled.”

“Then why still choose this path?”

If he already knew how difficult the road ahead would be, wasn’t it just walking into misery?

Compared to the weight they would have to carry, whatever happiness he and Shi Yi had now seemed like nothing. And when that time came, who could say for sure they would be able to hold on?

Ying Ming stayed silent at that question, took two slow drags from his cigarette, and after a long while, gave a helpless shrug. “Before we decided to be together, the two of us spent a long time thinking it through. Kouzi, if you ask me now why I made this choice, all I can tell you is, I can imagine the pressure that’s waiting for me down this road. But if I choose to give it up, I can’t imagine who I’ll be in the future.”

He looked directly at Kou Jing. “Does that make any sense to you?”

He already knew there was a mountain ahead. Climbing it would be exhausting. He might not even reach the top. He was not clinging to some unrealistic fantasy where everything ended in a perfect happy ending. But even so, he still had the courage to climb. During those days when he had pulled away from Shi Yi on purpose, if he had even the faintest outline of a life without him, he never would have gone this far. But the truth was, he had not.

He called it a choice, but in many ways, it felt like there had never really been one.

Ying Ming’s words left Kou Jing momentarily stunned. He had no response. For a while, he just sat there, frowning at his friend, his thoughts circling back on themselves again and again until all that was left was a long, disbelieving sigh.

“Then as your friend, all I can say is, if you ever need help, just say the word.”

Maybe he had never really understood Ying Ming or Shi Yi all that well.

In the end, it was their path to walk. He had said everything he could and done what he felt was right. The rest was up to them.

Kou Jing reached out and patted Ying Ming’s shoulder, a quiet gesture of support.

He had hesitated at first about whether he should even make this trip. After all, this was ultimately a private matter between Ying Ming and Shi Yi, and he didn’t really have the right to interfere. But maybe because he had been there from the very beginning, watching everything unfold, it left him with a lingering sense of responsibility. He felt like he had to say something. If anyone ended up regretting this down the line, he knew he would not be able to let it go either.

Now that he had talked to Ying Ming, he felt a little more at ease.

No matter what, both of them were people who knew how to take control of their own lives. Maybe his concern had been unnecessary from the start.

Kou Jing finally smiled.

Now that he had relaxed, something else came to mind. “By the way, how’s it going, working with Si Ji?”

“It’s fine.”

He hadn’t expected the conversation to veer in that direction. Ying Ming instinctively sensed there was more to it. “What are you about to tell me?”

In their circle, Kou Jing was always more in the loop than he was. Ying Ming usually didn’t pay much attention to that kind of gossip, unless it made its way to him directly or became common knowledge. Otherwise, he was often the last to know.

Kou Jing raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t call it gossip exactly. I just heard that things between Si Ji and Dong Xiao aren’t exactly simple. Back when the Weisai incident happened, Dong Xiao was involved. And apparently Si Ji turned down domestic projects to go overseas with him. I don’t know the details, but if that’s true, it would explain why he might not treat you very nicely.”

The tension between Ying Ming and Dong Xiao over the Weisai issue had already made the rounds in the industry. It had even stirred up some buzz when the casting for this film was announced. With Si Ji now back in the country and directing a movie Ying Ming was in, it was hard to see any of it as coincidence.

Ying Ming blinked, caught a little off guard. “Si Ji and Dong Xiao know each other?”

“They’re more than just acquaintances.”

Kou Jing gave a small laugh. “From what I heard, during the whole Weisai situation, Si Ji did a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes. You only came out of it clean because Shi Yi stepped in. As for Dong Xiao, I wouldn’t be surprised if Si Ji pulled quite a few strings for him too.”

Without someone like that, getting out of the country probably wouldn’t have been so easy.

Something finally clicked for Ying Ming. So Si Ji’s coldness had nothing to do with Shi Yi after all. It was about Dong Xiao.

Looking at it from that angle, it all made a bit more sense.

“I see…” Ying Ming gave a small smile. “So I was just overthinking it.”

Come to think of it, there was no way Si Ji could have known about the real relationship between him and Shi Yi. If he was already being targeted just because Shi Yi had once visited the set, that would be too petty to believe. It was probably because Ying Ming himself was aware of the connection that he instinctively assumed too much.

He really had let guilt get the better of him.

He shook his head and decided not to explain what he meant by that offhand comment. Right then, his assistant knocked on the door to tell him it was time to get ready. Kou Jing hadn’t planned to stay long anyway. He gave a quick goodbye and left.

But from then on, whenever Ying Ming looked at Si Ji, he couldn’t help wondering, if Si Ji had come back to the country, had Dong Xiao returned as well?

If their film was about to enter its promotional phase, at some point he would have to show up.

And when that happened, it would probably be another full-scale media storm.

With a sigh, Ying Ming mentally braced himself for the inevitable onslaught. He had never had much patience for the rules of the game in this industry.

His role in the film wasn’t that heavy. Even with Si Ji dragging out the schedule, it would still wrap in about a month and a half. It just happened to run up against the New Year holiday. The crew gave him a three-day break, but he was expected to return to set right after the fourth day of the new lunar year. There were two scenes left that, for whatever reason, could not be finished before the holiday and had to be pushed until after.

This alone was enough to piss Shi Yi off.

“What the hell? Is that guy doing this on purpose?” It made no sense to hold people on set through the New Year like that, as if the holiday meant nothing.

Ying Ming smoked in silence, listening to the shouting on the other end of the phone. He waited until Shi Yi had vented enough before finally replying, slow and calm. “Let it go. Once the shoot wraps, it’s done.” Even if Si Ji was trying to make things difficult for him, there were only a few days left. Once the New Year was over and he returned to film those last two scenes, they would go their separate ways. That would be the end of it.

But Shi Yi still wasn’t satisfied. “Then what are we supposed to do for New Year?”

“You’re not going home?”

“I am.”

Unless the fate of the country was at stake, there was no skipping New Year’s Eve dinner at the Shi family’s house. No matter how big the issue, it had to wait.

Ying Ming had already expected that. “If you’re going home anyway, then it doesn’t matter when I go back to set, does it?”

“Ying Ming…” Shi Yi’s voice suddenly softened. “I want you to come home with me for New Year.”

“Come home?”

Ying Ming frowned. “Are you trying to start the year with a disaster?”

Who the hell brings a man home for New Year’s? Was he out of his mind?

Shi Yi gave a quiet, steady exhale. “Do you have to be so pessimistic about everything? It’s not like we’re going back to make some grand announcement. Just say I’m bringing a friend home for dinner. My uncle’s brought people over before. It’s not a big deal. I just want you to spend some time with my family.”

He had been thinking about this for a long time.

Ever since they got together, he had been staring at the calendar, trying to figure out how to handle it. And in the end, what he wanted was to bring Ying Ming home.

Even if he didn’t say it outright, Ying Ming knew exactly what he meant.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Shi Yi didn’t press him. He knew Ying Ming needed time to think.

Eventually, Ying Ming let out a quiet laugh. “The problem is, Shi Yi, I have to go home for New Year too…”