Chapter 52
“For the next scene, we have to shoot on a snowy mountain. We don’t have to be too high, just a little higher up the mountainside.” Director Zhou had called Lu Bai and Qu Xueyu to come with him this time, and after saying this, he looked at Lu Bai and continued, “Huo Qi is capricious and loves to torment people. He is even more interested in Ruan Jiangjiu, so he tries his best to harass him. He hid the only relic that Ruan Jiangju had left of his father and told the other to accompany him and climb the snowy mountains before he would return it to him, and Ruan Jiangju, meanwhile, was still blind and crippled. Huo Qi just wanted to see Ruan Jiangjiu angry while having to surrender to him.”
Lu Bai’s eyes widened, “This person is really bad.” He glanced at Qu Xueyu’s cool and tender appearance due to his makeup and haircut, and then looked back to Director Zhou: “Xiao Qu is so great, Huo Qi should treat Xiao Qu as a treasure. How could he bully him like this.” After a pause, he quietly grabbed the youth’s fingers, and with a straight face: “Only I can bully Xiao Qu.”
Director Zhou: “…”
Qu Xueyu coughed slightly, his ears were a little red, but he held back his laughter and stroked the young man’s hair.
Director Zhou took a deep breath as he watched the two people flirting with each other, and drawled as he said to Lu Bai, “Xiao Lu, you are Huo Qi.” He paused and then began to talk about the scene, saying: “On the mountain, Huo Qi gets high altitude sickness1Physical distress from difficulty adjusting to lower oxygen pressure at high altitude. Most cases of altitude sickness are mild, but some may be life-threatening. Symptoms tend to occur within hours after arrival at high altitude and include headache, nausea, shortness of breath, and inability to exercise. Mild cases may resolve in one to three days. Severe cases may require oxygen, medications, and moving to a lower altitude. Source, and had to let the blind cripple carry him on his back and fumble his way down the mountain. It was on Ruan Jiangjiu’s back that Huo Xiu fainted, but his feelings for Ruan Jiangjiu began to change.”
Then Director Zhou raised his chin towards Qu Xueyu and said: “There is nothing I should be worried about, but I still want to remind you. In the scene, I want you to keep yourself together and do what you need to do. When you are in a scene, you are Ruan Jiangjiu, and Xiao Lu is Huo Qi.” Qu Xueyu was a bit proud, but there is no doubt about his professional ability. He never needed to worry about him when shooting a movie, but with this teenager that he was playing against, it felt too personal for Qu Xueyu.
But he himself is also guilty, Director Zhou thought, he actually let a loving couple come and play as enemies. It is not without an understanding yet it was annoying, but there was no other alternative. Finding a suitable person to play Huo Qi was not easy.
Qu Xueyu raised an eyebrow but nevertheless nodded with a slight smile. As he looked over at the teenager, his eyes were glowing with warmth and humor, and for the first time in his career, spoke an irreverent and unconvincing sentence, “Don’t worry, I’ll try my best.”
Director Zhou huffed but didn’t say anything.
Although Qu Xueyu had made the remark, when he entered the frame, he had already completely shifted into the brooding Ruan Jiangjiu.
“Give me back the photo.” Ruan Jiangjiu grit his teeth. He tugged on Huo Qi’s wrist, throwing the guy against the wooden wall. There was obvious anger in his dull eyes – if the other man wanted to play, he could play along with him, and even if some of the other’s pranks went too far, it didn’t matter, he could then pay him back. However, everyone has their own bottom line.
This time the man took away the only family photo he had. His family home had caught fire, and all the other photos had been burned out, except for this one.
Huo Qi looked at the youth’s enraged appearance and finally burst out into a low laugh, which was both chilling and contained giddy malice as he asked, “What if I don’t give it back to you?” Like he was teasing a toy.
Huo Qi did not deliberately change his voice anymore, but Ruan Jiangjiu did not recognize him because he had never listened carefully to Huo Qi’s voice before or just because he had been spending too much time with Huo Qi lately and was unable to clearly identify his voice. He just frowned sharply, grabbing Huo Qi’s collar and pinning the other against the wall, his voice sounding frighteningly frigid: “Do you know what? I’ve seen a real monster. I got too close to him once, and he turned me into a vicious person as well… and now I can do anything.”
Huo Qi, however, just stared at the youth’s up-close soft and rather fetching lips with narrowed eyes, the tip of his tongue flicking across his lips.
The fall sky in the grassland was wide, the air carrying the fragrance of fresh grass. In the distance are the majestic snow-capped mountains, the slowly setting sun starting to spill over the top, as if shedding a handful of blood.
Huo Qi stared at the colored mountain peaks in the distance, a mischievous smile spread across his face and he suddenly exclaimed, “Accompany me up the mountain and I’ll return it to you.”
Ruan Jiangjiu abruptly let go of him and cursed, “Psycho.” Nevertheless, he turned around and took big strides in the general direction towards the snow-covered mountains. Huo Qi barked out a malicious light laugh, so he hung back and followed the other party to walk towards that place as well.
“CUT! Pass!”
When this scene was over, the sun was still low in the sky, so Director Zhou urged the cast and crew to rush to the mountain site not far away. He knew that it might be a bit of a scramble today, but he still wanted to take a shot and try his luck. The altitude of this place was already high, but the mountains were even higher, and they had already made preparations. The tour guide had found oxygen tanks and other necessary supplies in advance, and the scene would only be filmed not far from the base of the mountain, for safety reasons.
Qu Xueyu and Bo Yangzhi talked about something, and then Qu Xueyu pulled Lu Bai to an isolated corner, draping a cotton coat around the other person, and started to undo the buttons of the slightly thinner coat that he was wearing for the scene.
Lu Bai obediently let the other man maneuver and did not struggle. His ears were red, but his eyes were bright. There was a sense of mischief in his eyes, and he pretended to be shocked and asked, “Do you want to do it here, Xiao Qu? In broad daylight? You’re really too wild!” Although he said that, his face was unable to hold back his smile. Even put his hand into the pockets of the others’ coat in a particularly natural way without difficulty.
Qu Xueyu tore open the Warm Babies2Brand of heat packs. These are thinner and gently adhesive on one side to wear under clothes and not be noticeable. Helpful for when one is wearing thin or fewer clothes than they should. packaging in his hand. He raised his eyebrow and glanced at the teenager with a smirk: “The sky is nearly dark, it’s not exactly broad daylight.” As he said that, he put a sheet of Warm Baby under Lu Bai’s shirt on his lower back, and then he gently kneaded the teenager’s waist.
“Mmm…” Lu Bai docilely buried his face into the other’s chest, letting the other have his way.
Qu Xueyu smiled somewhat helplessly. Tearing open the rest of the warm babies, he carefully pasted them on for the teenager. It was almost nightfall, and the snowy mountains were definitely cold. For the purpose of filming the scene, however, he had to wear a slightly thinner coat for the desired visual impact.
The youth’s embrace was gentle and slightly cool, penetrating through the thin fabric to the skin, the face of Lu Bai was slightly red in the youth’s embrace, thinking of something, he tilted his head up to look at Qu Xueyu: “Xiao Qu, what about you?”
When Qu Xueyu put the last piece on, he answered, “Don’t worry, there’s more.”
Lu Bai hugged the other’s waist, “Then I’ll help you apply them too.”
Qu Xueyu’s eyes curved up as he ruffled the teenager’s curly hair, “Okay.”
~~~~~
Because they needed to find a snowy place to shoot, the crew came to a gentle slope in the shade of the snowy mountains. The sun had not yet fully set, and the golden rays of light spilled down into the white snow fields in the shade, presenting a strange sense of sacredness.
After all the preparations were made, Director Zhou called out to start.
Huo Qi fell into the snow, his face pale and panting heavily.
With the higher elevation up here, he was having some altitude sickness, and he hadn’t even thought about bringing an oxygen tank.
Ruan Jiangjiu squatted in front of Huo Qi with a cold face. Reaching out, he groped for the other man’s face and patted him, then said, “Now, return the photo to me.”
The sky is gradually painted with dark colors, and the endless snow appears cold and shadowy. Huo Qi’s hands were pressing into the snow, being frozen until they turned red, his face was frighteningly blanched, but the tip of his nose was getting frostbitten. Due to the altitude change, his heart was fluttering terribly, and yet as he looked at the appearance of that young man he coughed out a laugh, and he hoarsely asked, “So, it’s that important to you?”
Ruan Jiangjiu coldly nodded and extended his hand towards the other again, “It’s very important. So give it back.”
Huo Qi raised his eyebrow, staring at the youth for a long time. But with a shivering hand, he managed to hand the thin photo over to the other – but only half of it. He kept the remaining half. Despite his current lightheadedness, he was looking forward to seeing the youth’s enraged appearance when he found out about it.
Ruan Jiangjiu naturally quickly noticed. Frowning furiously, he stood up and turned around to walk away – although his eyes could not see, he was able to navigate with the simple crutches he had under his arms. While that guy was the worst kind of human, he should be left for dead on the snowy mountains.
With the youth gone, all is silent amidst the snow. Huo Qi was lying flat in the snow. His heart palpitations were getting worse, his lips were blushing and starting to crack as he panted heavily. The snow chilled through his clothes, freezing him into the ground. Yet he merely stared blankly up at the darkening sky, a detached yet placid grin on his face-it seemed that he was really going to die. When the young man called Ruan Jiangjiu found out that the one he had left in the snow to die had been his enemy, what kind of expression would he have on his face?
The moment the tips of the young man’s crutches reappeared in his line of sight, Huo Qi half-closed his eyes and giggled quietly-saying that he had also become a bad guy, yet he was still so soft-hearted. In this world, those who are soft-hearted will always be hurt. There are always many fleeting opportunities that they miss, just like how this young man, who clearly had the chance to take revenge, still returned to help him, the bad guy.
Ruan Jiangjiu’s grim face remained silent. He just groped his way to pick up Huo Qi, who was nearly unconscious, and slung him onto his back. Struggling to stand up again, he left one of his crutches behind. Using his remaining crutch to help him find his path, he steadied Huo Qi’s body with his other hand. That was how he limped through the silent snowy terrain.
Huo Qi’s eyelashes were caked with cold snow, which was now gently touching the bared skin of the youth’s neck.
“Why, return?” The corner of Huo Qi’s face let out a shallow smile brewing with madness, but he was too tired. As he spoke, his upper and lower eyelids subconsciously fluttered together, his eyelashes trembling, melting onto the back of the youth’s neck thanks to the ice and snow on them.
Ruan Jiangjiu felt the ice-cold tickle, but his grim face did not say anything, just leaning on his crutch and laboriously moving forward.
His eyes were still blind, so he couldn’t see what kind of strange gaze was coming from the young man on his back who was holding on with his eyes half-open.
~~~~~~
Director Zhou looked at the two people in the camera and nodded with satisfaction-it seemed that there wasn’t even a need to reshoot, he just needed to supplement with an additional couple of shots showing the two people’s profiles.
Lu Bai was being steadily carried by Qu Xueyu, and when he noticed that the camera position had started to change, he knew that they wanted to shoot some back shots. If he was filming his back, he wouldn’t need to act as Huo Qi anymore.
“Xiao Qu,” he leaned closer to the youth’s ear and whispered, “Are you cold?” The youth was wearing even thinner clothes than he was.
Qu Xueyu had not yet gotten out of character when he heard the teenager’s illusive voice, he paused. Closing his eyes, and then reopening them, they were filled with a gentle warmth and he continued walking, quietly whispering, “I’m not cold, Xiao Bai. If you’re cold, you can slip your hand under my collar and hold on to me, I’m warm there.”
Lu Bai’s heart felt like a soft mess, as he was about to say something, he suddenly glanced at the youth’s ears which were a little red from the cold, and was startled – He was wearing a very thin outfit, so how could he not be cold?
Lu Bai frowned slightly, his line of sight could only see the youth’s cool jawline and a little bit of the tip of his nose, which, as expected, was also red.
After a few seconds of silence, Lu Bai gently pressed his lips to the youth’s earlobe. As long as the movement was kept to a minimum, the camera at the back should not be able to capture it.
Feeling the kiss on his ear, Qu Xueyu’s eyes dilated, and his steps stuttered before continuing forward. His steps on the fresh snow made a squeaking crunch.
Following the earlobe kisses, Lu Bai kissed the young man’s neck which was exposed to the cold air. These kisses were gentle and soft as if they were filled with boundless affection.
Qu Xueyu’s voice was hoarse and low: “Xiao Bai, wh-why?”
Lu Bai brushed his lips over the other’s cold skin again before he whispered, “My hands are too cold to provide any warmth, and the movements would be too big. But my mouth is soft and hot, it can help you get warm ah.”
Qu Xueyu’s breathing was turbulent for a moment, his heart going nearly sour with softness.
The night had completely shrouded the snowy land, and the view from afar was colored in a cold mix of deep blues and snowy whites. In that instant, Qu Xueyu felt that he was willing to carry this teenager on his back and walk along this road for eternity.
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Author’s Note: Oooh still haven’t written the twist, but it’s coming! After I finish the twist, it’s going to be over! (I’ll try my best to finish it by the end of this month!) (shakes fist and sets up a flag.jpg)3They don’t lol. Author posted this chapter Sept 9th 2020, and the final chapter, c62, was uploaded Feb 16th 2021. (Latest update was Feb 14 2023 on c59)
Editor: Krone
