Chapter 35
Before the happy unpacking moment could arrive, Qu Xueyu received a call from his agent Bo Yangzhi the following evening.
“Xueyu,” Bo Yangzhi said from the other end of the call. “You may need to shoot a small interview for Director Zhou’s new drama in two days in Jinghai.” Even though the public thought Qu Xueyu was in Chunming at this time, Director Zhou’s film was about to start its production. It was not strange for Qu Xueyu to appear in Jinghai now, as his private itinerary has always been very tightly guarded. In addition, Old Man Qu was here, so the scalpers would not dare to leak his details.
Ruan Jiangjiu said: “Okay.”
As Director Zhou’s new movie was starting soon, his time in the web drama production team was also coming to an end. It was unknown what Lu Zhi’s intentions were, but this web drama continued to remain under the radar, and not even a single stage photo could be found online—including his. Except for Xiao Bai, practically no one would believe that there would be such resemblance between the two in the world. Some people in the crew had actually speculated about his identity, but because of Lu Zhi’s intervention, not half a bit of news was leaked.
Ruan Jiangjiu’s scenes had almost wrapped up and gazed at the starry twilight sky with a smile; Xiao Bai had started classes today and could only pick him up from the set later.
“So,” the corners of Bo Yangzhi’s mouth twitched and said: “Now you are waiting for the kid to pick you up after class?” He was, after all, the young master’s agent, so the fact that the young master is in love was not hidden from him. To be honest, it made him a little touched.
Ruan Jiangjiu raised an eyebrow: “He is very worried about me. He’s afraid that I would be bullied, so he insisted on coming to pick me up.”
Bo Yangzhi: “Hehe.”
Ruan Jiangjiu hung up the call after Lu Bai’s car arrived. When the car door opened, he was suddenly pounced on by the youth, embracing him. His hands slipped inside the youth’s warm windbreaker and closely held the other’s waist.
Ruan Jiangjiu was little surprised, yet still caressed the soft black hair of the teenager, and his voice was soft, “What’s wrong?”
Lu Bai’s body shook and sullenly mumbled, “Nothing.” It was just that when he went to class today and slept, he dreamt of something not-so-good—in the original story, this young man’s ending was death. Because he was no longer bound by the plot, he had almost forgotten about it—or, rather, he had deliberately refused to remember. But today, that dream had cruelly reminded him.
Thinking of this, he hugged the young man a little tighter and said, “Xiao Ruan, you must not leave me. I have to be by your side at all times.” This way, he could protect him. No matter what the cost was, he would not let this youth go into the same desperate situations as in the original story.
Ruan Jiangjiu could hear that something was wrong in the teen’s voice. He lowered his head and gently placed a kiss on the other’s hair, asking, “Xiao Bai, what’s bothering you?” His voice contained worry.
“It’s nothing, really.” Lu Bai rubbed the tip of his nose intimately against the youth’s chest and said, “Xiao Ruan, let’s go home.”
Ruan Jiangjiu hesitated, but still said, “Okay.” All the things that this child—whom he cared for the most— was concerned and worried about, he would one day know. If he could, he would be willing to take over all the worries of this teenager—this child was born to laugh without a care in the world.
As they drove to the Riverview Villa, the lights sparkled all across the river, reflecting on the surface of the river, and the road next to the villa was already lit up—the residential area was tranquil and quiet, and the nearby lights were softly illuminating.
Lu Bai did not pull into the garage but parked his car in front of the villa without getting out.
Ruan Jiangjiu turned to him: “Xiao Bai?”
Lu Bai suddenly turned off the lights in the car, and the car immediately fell into darkness. Ruan Jiangjiu’s eyes narrowed and subconsciously reached out towards the teenager—his Xiao Bai was afraid of the dark and claustrophobic.
But before he could reach out all the way, Lu Bai had already grasped it, and Ruan Jiangjiu felt that the younger man’s hand was somewhat hot.
Then, with a rustling, Ruan Jiangjiu felt that the teenager had shifted over to sit on his lap.
Ruan Jiangjiu stretched out his other hand to grasp Lu Bai’s waist. He felt the teenager leaning over and hugging him tightly with both arms wrapped around his neck.
“Xiao Bai?” In order to make the teenager’s position more comfortable, Ruan Jiangjiu lowered the back of his chair. He held the other’s waist with one hand and gently pressed his other hand on the back of his neck which seemed to be a comfort to them both—his voice sounded so gentle, as if he was afraid to scare the other.
“Xiao Ruan,” In the virtually enclosed space, Lu Bai took a deep breath of the warm and familiar fragrance of the youth, and his restless heart finally calmed down. “I am indeed afraid of the dark and also have a phobia of confinement, but, you see, when you are around, I am not afraid of any of these. “
This was something that he actually discovered a while ago, and the only reason why he still slept with a night light on when he was with the other was because it was a deep-rooted habit.
“Xiao Ruan, I may even be grateful for such a dark and small space now,” Lu Bai murmured, rubbing the tip of his nose against the youth’s fair and warm neck. “Because, in such a space, I can be so close to Xiao Ruan.” It was as if they were the only two people in this small world, so he could clearly and unmistakably confirm that the youth was still alive. That he had a healthy body and a strongly beating heart.
Hearing the teenager’s words, Ruan Jiangjiu felt a sudden pain in his heart; this young man was not a person who should say these kinds of distressing words. He was pure and spontaneous, soft and lovely, but with a clear and simple personality. This teenager was not a hesitant, weak, and fickle person.
But when he heard him say such things, Ruan Jiangjiu did not think he should feel this way. The corners of his lips rose into a smile and kneaded the back of the teenager’s neck, saying, “I’m here, aren’t I?”
Lu Bai moved slightly away from the other, his eyes shining brightly in the darkness, and he cocked his head and said demandingly, “Then you should kiss me.”
Ruan Jiangjiu looked at the teenager straddling his lap in the darkness and felt like he was going crazy. He laughed out lowly, “You are really my kryptonite.” The young man trustingly plunged down toward him and caught his body perfectly in his arms, kissing the young man’s parted lips.
“Unh…”
Their breath, lips, and tongues were thoroughly intertwined in the intimate darkness.
The feeling of kissing this young man was so good that Lu Bai was running out of breath, but still could not bear to part—as if this kiss itself was a life-saving gift, and he wanted to constantly confirm the presence of this youth.
When they eventually separated, Lu Bai was gasping for air; his hand was on the youth’s chest, and his body was tingling and heated. Ruan Jiangjiu laid supine in his seat. From out of the car window, one or two rays of light shone in, and the youth’s slightly tilted neck showed a strange vulnerability and allure in it.
Ultimately, he decided that he was on his way to complete madness.
“Shall we do it?” He was sitting on the youth’s lap, and he was certainly aware of the changes in the other’s body. Lu Bai thought there was nothing wrong with doing it here if the other party was Xiao Ruan.
Ruan Jiangjiu chuckled as he squeezed the back of the youth’s neck again, pinning the youth’s body firmly into his embrace, but he merely kissed the other’s heated ear and tenderly said, “No.”
Making love with someone you adore was supposed to be a beautiful experience, filled with mutual pleasure, but right now, when nothing was prepared… he didn’t want the young man to have any unpleasant experiences. He cherishes him too much to hurt him.
“Be a good boy. Let me help you.” He pressed the teenager into his arms and unzipped the other man’s jeans.
Lu Bai buried his face in the other’s neck, his cheeks burning, and kept breathing in a disorderly manner. Unable to think of anything else, he dazedly reached a hand down and mirrored what the other was doing. “I can also help Xiao Ruan.”
He seemed to be somewhat shy, and his voice was soft, like a delicate feather brushing against Ruan Jiangjiu’s heart. His heart felt soft and fuzzy, yet it burned like a flame. He felt that he would gladly be crazy for this teenager for many lifetimes with no complaints.
~~~~~~
After a good night’s sleep.
The next day Lu Bai woke up rubbing his eyes and then, without any heartache, skipped the day’s classes—his father had been busy with something for the past two days, and it was rare that he didn’t supervise his homework.
The other side of Lu Bai’s bed was empty, and he vaguely remembered that Ruan Jiangjiu seemed to say that he had to go out today.
“Xiao Bai, I’m going to give an interview in the morning.” Last night in bed, while his upper and lower eyelids were fighting, he seemed to have heard the youth telling him this.
Originally, he had wanted to say ‘My Xiao Ruan is so impressive! He just made his debut and someone came to interview him’. He wanted to add ‘I must go with you. You don’t know it but those reporters can be too scary!’ But he was too sleepy at that time and fell right back to sleep, so he didn’t have the chance to say any of it in the end.
Lu Bai ate the breakfast prepared by Ruan Jiangjiu and regretted not getting up earlier to go with the youth. The remote control was close at hand, so Lu Bai simply turned on the TV—although it may not be on one of the famous channels or programs, and he may not have much time on camera, it would be nice just to see him.
The TV was turned on, and Qu Xueyu’s face popped up on the screen. Lu Bai was shaken by the face that was too similar to his Xiao Ruan and was about to change the channel when the hostess’ sweet voice was heard.
“What is the name of Mr. Qu’s new role?” Mr. Zhou’s films had always been kept under wraps. And before the release of the production staff list, the public wouldn’t even know the name of the main character.
The young man on the TV screen was handsome and charming, and his eyes were bright like the stars in the sky. He smiled and said: “Ruan Jiangjiu.”
Lu Bai blinked in stunned silence.
Much of the information about that movie had to be kept secret still, so the relevant questions concerning that were very cleverly deflected by the young man. Next segment came the interactive fan question session; the host pointed to the big screen and smiled, “Next, we will have super fan questions popping up! Ah, Mr. Qu should pick at least one to answer!”
Qu Xueyu raised his eyebrow and grinned: “Sure.” After all, this was also part of the job.
The host called out to start, and the screen quickly flashed with questions from fans—this was a live interactive TV station, and the questions were all in real time.
Qu Xueyu looked at the feverish stream of questions and was going to pick one at random to answer when suddenly, out of nowhere, he saw one and his pupils shrank.
“Stop.” He said softly.
The screen immediately stopped, and the host rushed to cater to him: “Has Mr. Qu picked one? Let’s see which one it is!”
Even after pressing pause, there were still many different kinds of questions on the screen, and Qu Xueyu pointed to an inconspicuous spot in the corner of the screen and said, “That one.”
The host was stunned and hurriedly looked over and read out: “What is Mr. Qu’s favorite festival?” The host felt some regret after reading it out—the question was really too bland.
But the handsome young man looked seriously at the camera, as if he was looking at someone through it. His eyes curved up, and there was a sparkle within them. He answered, “I like the Bailu Festival 1Chinese Autumn Harvest Festivalthe most.”
The host was stunned and asked, “Why?”
“Because of the poem, ‘The dew(Lu) is white(Bai) tonight’.” His voice was so gentle that it sounded like a light kiss, but it was so earnest and solemn.
So after a bit of wordplay my man here just announced on national television that he ‘likes Lu Bai the most’… twice lol. How? Well sometimes things can sound the same but be written differently and have different meanings. These are known as homophones, an example is how “Pear” and “Pair” sound the same but have different meanings. That’s what happened just now, as Lu Bai’s name is spelled ‘陆白’ (Lù bái) and the ‘White Dew/Bailu’ is spelt ‘白露’ (bái lù).
Bailu Festival and Poem Bailu Festival= Equivalent to the autumn harvest festival, this is held Sept 7-9th. It can also be called the White Dew Festival.
The Poem, “‘露从今夜白’ by ‘杜甫’ “/ “lùcóng jīnyèbái by Tang dynasty poet Du Fu”
“The drum breaks off the pedestrians , and the sound of wild geese in Bianqiu .
The dew is white tonight , and the moon is bright in my hometown.
Brothers are all scattered, no family to ask death and life.
The length of sending books is not long , and the situation is that the soldiers have not been suspended.”
~~~~
The easier version,
The sound of drums on the garrison building cut off people from coming and going. In the autumn of the frontier fortress, a lone goose was singing. Since tonight has entered the Bailu solar term, the moon is still the brightest in my hometown. There are brothers, but they are all scattered, and there is no home to inquire about life and death. Letters from home sent to Luoyang City often could not be delivered, not to mention the frequent wars that did not stop. ——
Edit: Krone
Proof: Nitta
