TF01 92

It was the first time Ying Ming had ever used the word love in reference to himself and Shi Yi. But he found that saying it out loud was not as difficult as he had imagined.

Chen Cheng’s brow twitched at the word, as if he couldn’t quite tolerate hearing a man declare love for his nephew to his face. Yet, looking at Ying Ming’s expression, he found himself at a loss for words.

It wasn’t until his cigarette had nearly burned down that he gave a light cough, leaned over, and stubbed it out in the ashtray.

“All right. Then I’ll wait and see how long that love of yours lasts.”

It was a clear signal that the conversation was over. Chen Cheng got up to leave. But as he reached the door, he turned back for one last look at Ying Ming.

“If Shi Yi had spoken as clearly as you did last time I talked to him, maybe I wouldn’t have insisted on separating the two of you. But Ying Ming, everything you just said only represents your own point of view.”

He gave a faint, mocking smile.

“Shi Yi still isn’t ready.”

With that, he left without another word.

Ying Ming knew this talk wasn’t exactly a success, but it wasn’t a failure either. What Chen Cheng said near the end made it clear that the pressure going forward would only increase. The only question was whether that pressure would be aimed at Shi Yi, or at him.

He sat in the living room smoking for a while, then couldn’t help picking up the phone to call home.

No one answered.

A glance at the clock reminded him that it was probably the time of day when his parents were busy with their own things. He shook his head and set the phone down with a self-deprecating smile. Then he let out a long breath and sank into the sofa, his expression slipping into a faint, distracted daze.

Shi Yi hadn’t hidden anything about his talk with Chen Cheng, and naturally Ying Ming didn’t hide anything either.

When he told Shi Yi about it, the man furrowed his brow.

“What did he say?”

“Nothing you couldn’t guess. You can probably imagine the gist of it.”

Neither of them were naïve. From the moment they got together, both had already run through these possibilities in their own heads. To be honest, Chen Cheng’s stance was actually more restrained than Ying Ming had expected. It was clear that, although Shi Yi had always said he didn’t have a particularly close bond with his family, they genuinely cared about him.

Ying Ming glanced at Shi Yi. “You should try to visit home more often. Your parents don’t live far.”

“Mhm,” Shi Yi replied absently while organizing documents. “They’re on a trip right now. I’ll wait until they’re back.”

Chen Cheng had reminded him of the same thing before, telling him to visit home more often.

Shi Yi didn’t avoid going back out of reluctance. It was just that, whenever he did, no one really had much to say. His father would ask about work in that overly serious tone, and his mother would nag him about everything from his daily routine to his job, inevitably circling back to the tired topic of marriage. It had always felt like some lingering distance from childhood never quite disappeared. Even now, though both sides clearly wanted to fix things, there was still that sense of falling short.

If the atmosphere became too deliberate, everyone just ended up feeling awkward.

At work, the problems were mounting. Though the pressure from Chen Cheng wasn’t a fatal blow, Shi Yi’s company, Shiyang, had been rising fast. That kind of momentum was bound to attract hostility from the bigger players. In this industry, no one climbed their way up clean. Everyone had some kind of background or teeth. Those in the know moved just as fast as Shi Yi himself, and it went without saying that they wouldn’t hesitate to kick someone when they were down.

That was how society worked. If you weren’t advancing, you were already falling behind.

Ying Ming could see that Shi Yi hadn’t been devoting much energy to family matters. His focus was clearly on the company. Remembering what Chen Cheng said at the very end, Ying Ming instinctively frowned.

In truth, he was already well aware of Shi Yi’s shortcomings, even without Chen Cheng pointing them out.

It was just that Ying Ming had a little more faith than he did.

Or rather, at this point, aside from believing in Shi Yi, there really wasn’t anything else he could do.

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The plan for Ying Ming’s film had always been to spend two months in preparation, with shooting scheduled to begin in early April. That timing would line up neatly with the release of Wang Yiqi’s and Ying Ming’s previous film, giving them a chance to ride the wave of attention and visibility to promote the new project.

Everyone involved was from the industry, and no one understood these marketing mechanics better than they did. Ying Ming had never liked hype, but he didn’t reject it either. If it actually helped the film and didn’t cross his bottom line, he would cooperate unconditionally. Which was why, when filming officially began, the media buzz was overwhelming.

Homosexuality was already one of the easiest taboos to exploit for headlines in the entertainment world. The fact that Wang Yiqi and Ying Ming were known to be close friends in the industry, paired with a few carefully angled promo photos and stills, plus a director and screenwriter who were rising stars in the new wave of filmmakers. There was no way this project would stay under the radar.

On the day the first trailer dropped, the press turnout could only be described as unprecedented.

Everyone was buzzing with excitement, eager for the premiere of the first trailer. Given the nature of the subject matter, there was no way the film would be allowed a standard theatrical release. No matter how the distributor planned to launch it later on, domestic viewers would have a long wait ahead before they could see it.

Both Ying Ming and Wang Yiqi were present. Their seats had been intentionally arranged side by side, and the press snapped every shot they could of the two talking to each other. Judging by the satisfied looks on the reporters’ faces, they probably already had eye-catching headlines lined up in their heads.

Wang Yiqi gave the crowd a sweeping glance and lifted the corner of his mouth in a deliberately smug arc.

“That jealous young master of yours will cough up blood when he sees this press conference.”

He had always known that Shi Yi didn’t like him.

Just as he didn’t particularly care for Shi Yi either.

The reason was different, though. Wang Yiqi’s dislike came purely from instinct. He had dealt with too many privileged elites of Shi Yi’s type and couldn’t stand the way they carried themselves. From a friend’s perspective, he simply didn’t want to see Ying Ming get tangled up with someone like that. And as things turned out, his gut had been right. Ever since they started seeing each other, one incident after another had kept piling up.

Shi Yi’s dislike for him, at the end of the day, came down to the long-standing rumors about his relationship with Ying Ming.

Especially during the Liu Li fiasco, when the media had twisted and spun rumors about Ying Ming’s orientation into something half-true, half-false. With Shi Yi’s temperament, of course he would blow up over it.

And frankly, that reaction gave Wang Yiqi no small amount of satisfaction.

Which was why he deliberately reached over and ruffled Ying Ming’s hair, grinning harder when he heard the rapid click of camera shutters nearby. The pettier the provocation, the more entertained he looked.

The other man involved couldn’t even be bothered to roll his eyes. He lowered his gaze slightly and chose not to react at all.

As Kou Jing once put it: a classic case of two dogs fighting over scraps. Not much fun, but still too amusing to ruin.

Even so, when it came to using sexual orientation as a marketing hook, Ying Ming did have his reservations. After his conversation with Chen Cheng, no real warnings had followed, but he still worried that the media storm might provoke him. Still, the film didn’t belong to him alone, and things had reached this point. There wasn’t much he could do.

The first trailer had been edited by the director himself.

Neither Ying Ming nor Wang Yiqi had seen the final cut. The entire filming process had been kept extremely low-profile, and to preserve that mystique, the number of people involved in post-production had been strictly limited.

Given industry norms, it was likely that the bed scene would be included.

Rumors had already leaked that they would film one, but the media hadn’t been able to catch any real footage because the shoot had been scheduled ahead of time. Now that the director had edited the trailer personally, it didn’t take much imagination to guess what kind of footage might make it in.

And sure enough, the three-minute trailer opened with an extremely explicit shot.

The director explained that while this scene would take up very little space in the final cut of the film, both Wang Yiqi and Ying Ming had acted so well that he couldn’t bear to cut it entirely. So he left it in the trailer to let the audience enjoy it a little. Watching the shoot live, he said, it truly felt like these two men were in love with each other.

Of course, that was just something he said for the occasion, but it definitely stirred up a loud and enthusiastic reaction from the crowd.

Wang Yiqi, always eager to fan the flames, turned on his mic with a grin. “Ying Ming’s body is the sexiest I’ve ever seen.”

As he said it, the big screen happened to be playing a shot of Ying Ming’s half-bare back. The perfect muscle lines, whether in terms of aesthetics or sensuality, more than backed up Wang Yiqi’s compliment.

The next second, every reporter threw the question toward Ying Ming.

“Ying Ming, what did it feel like to shoot that bed scene?”

It was a clearly suggestive question, and several people nearby chuckled knowingly. Ying Ming played along, offering a smooth smile and answering with full cooperation.

“It felt pretty good.”

Just four words, and every reporter in the room probably had enough material for their headlines.

The entire press conference was filled with this kind of unspoken, spontaneous chemistry. When it came time to talk about the film’s actual themes and core message, the director’s description received plenty of agreement. A live broadcast of the event was available online, and the overall response was overwhelmingly positive.

Later, the director even made a point to call both of them.

“The investors are really pleased. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble getting into the film festival.”

It was undeniably good news, but it also meant a surge in promotional events, which added a heavy strain to Ying Ming’s already packed schedule. He still had to juggle the project with Dong Xiao and the others, plus the publicity campaign for the film with Liu Li had already been laid out. None of these tasks were especially significant on their own, but all together they took up a lot of time. And skipping them wasn’t an option.

It felt like all the work he had put in last year had suddenly exploded into full force this year. Ying Ming was running himself ragged day after day.

This frantic pace filled his days so thoroughly that when it came to Shi Yi, he honestly didn’t have much time or energy to spare.

But he knew Shi Yi was under enormous pressure too.

One night, after wrapping up an event, he didn’t get home until nearly one in the morning. To his surprise, Ou Yang was in the living room with Shi Yi, the table covered in documents as they talked business. When Ou Yang saw him, he gave a polite greeting, saying it felt a bit rude to drop by so late.

Ying Ming wasn’t entirely sure whether Ou Yang knew about his relationship with Shi Yi.

The two of them didn’t have much personal contact. Though they shared a social circle, the worlds they moved in were quite different. Since Ou Yang was Shi Yi’s friend, Ying Ming left it to him to handle. He didn’t go out of his way to hide anything, but he didn’t say anything either. He just nodded and went upstairs to the bedroom. Shi Yi looked up at him briefly, and though he didn’t speak, the glance clearly said he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight and that Ying Ming should just do as he pleased.

Shi Yi and Ou Yang stayed up all night, and left early the next morning. When Ying Ming got up, he saw a message from Shi Yi on his phone saying he was going on a two-day business trip to negotiate a deal. He’d be gone for two or three days.

Compared to how Shi Yi used to blow up after Ying Ming spent even a few days away on set, it was clear how much had changed. These days, both of them were too overwhelmed by their own careers to keep tabs on each other, and strangely, that no longer brought any unease.

It wasn’t that the relationship had faded. If anything, the trust between them had quietly grown stronger.

Ying Ming smiled a little.

For a moment, he had the odd illusion that they were an old married couple, deep in the daily routine of rice, oil, salt, and soy sauce.

If someone had told his past self that he would end up like this, it would have sounded like a disaster film too ridiculous to imagine.