Chapter 53
“Xiao Bai, don’t worry, it’s done.”
When Lu Bai received a text from Lu Zhi, the stone that had been hanging high in his heart finally broke free.
Qu Xueyu entered the tent then, with a business card in his hand, and sat down by his side. Then Lu Bai climbed onto him and looked at it: “Who is this?”
Qu Xueyu quirked an eyebrow, “Hmmm… a psychology professor.” Ruan Jiangjiu’s character has a mental disorder, and when he turns dark in the later stages of his life, this disorder is fully revealed, so Director Zhou gave Qu Xueyu the information of one of his many contacts, asking him to consult the other person for advice in the later stages of the film.
Lu Bai gestured to himself with gusto, “You could have asked me!”
Qu Xueyu’s eyebrows rose: “??”
Lu Bai: “I’m a psychology minor at university.” Although up to now he has only studied for one year. His learning is quite shallow, but he is quite diligent in his studies. He smiled as he thought of this, “I’ve been studying hypnosis – oh, in fact, it’s more like a kind of psychological suggestion. My professor has said that I’ve got a talent for it.” After a moment, his eyes fell to look at the ground, and added in a mumble, “‘Cause it’s something I had wanted to learn in my old world.”1 “Overall, psychiatrists are trained in both medicine and mental health, while psychologists focus solely on mental health. Both psychologists and psychiatrists can find work in a private practice, mental health clinic, treatment facility (such as drug or alcohol rehab centers), general or psychiatric hospital, academic center, and many other settings.” —UCLA ‘Whats the difference between Psychologists and Psychiatrists’
Qu Xueyu smiled softly and wrapped him up in his arms, kissing his forehead. He solemnly looked at Lu Bai and asked, “Xiao Bai, in fact, when you told me that there are other worlds outside of this world, I wasn’t surprised. Humans tend to be shallow and ignorant. But I have to ask-” His eyes seemed bright and gentle, and he kissed the corner of the teenager’s mouth and continued, “Will you return to your original world?”
Lu Bai quietly looked at the young man’s eyes which were like shining starlight but only held his silhouette, then said, “Xiao Qu, if I were to say I will, what would you do?”
Qu Xueyu’s face continued to wear a smile, but as if he was afraid that the young man would disappear in the next second, he clutched the young man tightly in his arms.
Lu Bai’s ears seemed to hear a soft sigh of resignation that couldn’t be any lighter, and then, he received the youth’s steadfast and gentle reply.
“Xiao Bai, I would let you go.” The youth whispered in his ear, his voice sounding as if he would drift away, “In fact, if that day really comes, I’ll be so envious of your world that it would drive me to madness… but I love you, so would let you go.” Then, perhaps spend the rest of his life being filled with hopeless longing, or after sending away the only relative he cared about in this world, exhaust all his strength to reach that world where his beloved existed.
Lu Bai snuggled in the other’s arms, his eyes curved up, yet they reddened. He wrapped his arms around the youth’s neck to whisper in the youth’s ear, “But I don’t want to leave.” In this world, he had both his family and his beloved, which made this place also a real world to him. The world where he has already lost the only people he cared about is no longer his home.
Lu Bai nudged Qu Xueyu away from him and then placed Qu Xueyu’s hand over his heart.
Thump, thump, thump.
Feeling the young man’s strong and warm heartbeat under his palm, Qu Xueyu’s eyes shuttered.
He then heard the teenager state, “My mom and dad will always be in here. Xiao Qu and my family in this world will always be in here as well.”
The teenager’s glistening eyes were shining in the warm light, honey gold and white, clean and transparent, coated with glittering tears.
Qu Xueyu felt his heart beating rapidly, about to jump out of his chest.
He covered the back of the teenager’s neck and fiercely hugged the teenager into his bosom. Then he vigorously nibbled on the other’s lips and squashed the other underneath him.
“Mmm… ” Lu Bai enjoyed the youth’s passionate embrace, reaching up to wrap his own arms around the youth’s neck.
~~~
After the last kiss, Lu Bai’s clothes were messy as he clutched the youth’s waist while gently panting. He looked at the youth with a crafty yet innocent twinkle in his eyes, “Tomorrow, before returning to Jinghai, you and I will have a make-out scene-” He pinched the other’s chin mimicking Huo Qi to call the other’s name: “Xiao Ruan, will you still kiss me like this then? Give me your love?” The tone and expression was that of a playboy’s, but his eyes were still bright and happy – and so, so adorable.
Qu Xueyu raised his eyebrow, his eyes profound. He lightly nipped the teenager’s lip, before heaving a sigh and intimately resting his forehead against the teenager’s forehead to look him in the eyes, he proclaimed, “Xiao Bai, if you look at me with such eyes in that moment, I indeed couldn’t help myself-even if Director Zhou carded2If the director calls a shot no-good (card) they would have to re-shoot it me a hundred times, I would not be able to resist taking the initiative and kissing you.” To be able to hold back is not human.
Lu Bai grinned as his eyebrows arched, “Oh~?”
~~~~~~
As Lu Bai had said, the last scene set in the grassland was an intimate one. Director Zhou didn’t worry about Qu Xueyu, but he thought that it was Lu Bai’s first time as an actor to perform in this kind of scene, and he even cleared the set of extra personnel when explaining the scene to him.
The location of this scene was Ruan Jiangjiu’s cabin. The house was cleared, and at this time there were only three people there: Director Zhou, Lu Bai, and Qu Xueyu.
Director Zhou, a little old man, slapped the stiff bed and looked at his two actors so passionately that even his native dialect came out: “The bed scene, ya’ know it bah?” This is one of the biggest and most important scenes in the movie.
Qu Xueyu’s eyebrow twitched, and Lu Bai felt some rare nerves and embarrassment and quietly held Qu Xueyu’s hand. The youth immediately returned his grip, not seeming to mind his slightly wet palm. Lu Bai perked up with a smile, and Qu Xueyu curved his eyes and brushed the other party’s hair back behind his ear.
“Xiao Lu, you can’t smile like that,” Director Zhou emphasized as soon as he saw the smile on Lu Bai’s face and patted the other’s shoulder, “This bed scene is very oppressive, even to the extent of becoming perverse, how could you smile so sweetly? If you smile so darn sweetly, would Ruan Jiangjiu still be reluctant to sleep with you? When you smile like that, whoever would reject you is blind, eh?” This smile looks like a loving sweetheart, the opposite of the perverted, twisted, and oppressive situation in the movie.
Lu Bai: “Xiao Ruan is indeed blind at this point.”
Director Zhou huffed, rolling up the script and lightly smacking Lu Bai on the head, “You just can’t smile like that.” Saying this, he looked at Qu Xueyu again and said, “Qu Xueyu you damn well better pay attention to Laozi3Reminder, this is slang for ‘your father’. Used to demand respect, not actually QXY’s father. too, put that away.”
Qu Xueyu cocked an eyebrow and boldly wrapped his arm around the teenager’s shoulders, and looked at Director Zhou: “Even the most depressing bed scene is still a bed scene. When you come to an unfamiliar environment, you have to familiarize yourself with it in advance. Director Zhou, we’ll familiarize ourselves with the scene while you talk about it.”
Director Zhou frowned in his heart, I say you have already eaten the little guy clean and are still not familiar enough? But to see Lu Bai being held happily by the young man, his heart softened – let it go, if there is a problem, it’s not a great problem to spend more money on a few more takes if the scene was not good.
So Director Zhou watched the two people puttering around and began to talk about the scene: “After Huo Qi came down, he fell sick, and it was Ruan Jiangjiu who took care of him. In the process of someone taking care of him, Huo Qi became strongly possessive of him. Huo Qi is a twisted man, but he has a sense of cleanliness. Before this, he had not slept with Ruan Jiangjiu, he had only toyed with him in front of outsiders, humiliating him, torturing him, and playing with him to death. At some point in being taken care of by Ruan Jiangjiu, it was then that this playboy suddenly wanted to kiss him.”
Lu Bai: “Tch, what a lack of vision.” He tilted his head to look at the delicate-faced youth, “If I were Huo Qi, I would have wanted to sleep with my family’s Xiao Qu the first time I saw him!”
Qu Xueyu: “… ” Well, as expected of his family’s little friend, how adorable, so bold to say.
Director Zhou also choked and coughed before continuing to talk through the scene, “He made this request directly, but Ruan Jiangjiu just thought he was sick, and of course, he didn’t agree. So Huo Qi came up with a rather drastic solution – he was already a bit of a crazy guy with a twisted nature.”
“He drugged Ruan Jiangjiu.” Finally, Director Zhou shrugged.
Lu Bai: “Heh, perverted scumbag bastard.” He looked at Director Zhou with a blank stare, “Director Zhou, why do you like such a character?”
The little old man seemed to have been stabbed in the heart. He was silent for a few seconds then let out a light laugh and gently patted Lu Bai’s shoulder, like a kind elder, and said, “Children shouldn’t ask so many questions. Xue Yu, you talk to Xiao Lu again about what he should pay attention to when you’re recording, I’ll wait for you outside, and we’ll start filming in a bit.”
Lu Bai faintly felt that he seemed to have unintentionally poked at a wound in Director Zhou’s heart, so he nodded obediently with some guilt. Qu Xueyu also said “Alright”.
“Did I say the wrong thing just now?” Lu Bai looked towards the doorway and asked.
“It’s okay.” Qu Xueyu rubbed the teenager’s hair and smiled, “Even though he won’t admit it, he does need to find out. Xiao Bai, maybe you helped him.”
After a few seconds of silence, Lu Bai asked, “Is it true that Director Zhou isn’t married and doesn’t have any children? In that case, we’ll visit him often in the future.”
Qu Xueyu smiled, “Good.”
~~~~~
“Start!” Behind the camera, Director Zhou gave the order. The small room was cleared, leaving only essential personnel, and the camera featured a strange kind of ambiguous feeling.
Ruan Jiangjiu was expressionless in the dim light as he fed Huo Qi his medicine.
Huo Qi drank the bitter medicinal liquid he hated the most, and then, he tilted his head to look at the youth and righteously declared, “I want you to kiss me.”
Crshhh!
The medicine bowl in Ruan Jiangjiu’s hand fell to the ground and shattered into shards and small wet spots.
“Psycho.” Ruan Jiangjiu coldly groped for the shards on the floor to gather them up, then turned around and left the cabin. The half-sitting Huo Qi on the bed stared intently at the other’s silhouette, and narrowed his eyes, then, an icy smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth-what he wanted to get, he never failed to obtain.
~~
There are often people selling their goods on the grassland, and it is not difficult to obtain some shameful or dirty drugs from those people. Huo Qi has not yet fully recovered from his illness, his face is still very pale, but his eyes are amazingly dark, it seemed as if there was no light in them, and they were even a bit scary. He casually weighed the item in his hand, and returned to the wooden cabin-the youth had gone to the river to wash vegetables, and would not return until later.
It’s easy to pull tricks in front of a blind man, and Huo Qi just boldly poured the powder into the youth’s cup of water with a big, paranoid grin.
~~
Ruan Jiangjiu’s cheeks were flushed red as he collapsed on his bed, panting heavily. It was as if there was a fire burning violently inside his body, and even in his blood.
A human’s senses become more sensitive once they lose one. Without sight, the remaining senses become more keen to compensate for the loss.
Huo Qi sat on the youth, wearing only a white shirt. He leaned down in the somber moonlight that filtered in through the window, almost obsessively looking at the youth’s tightly clenched teeth, red face, dark and disoriented eyes, and the veins protruding from his forehead.
When he gently covered the youth’s hand that was gripping the bed sheet tightly with bulging veins, he let out a low laugh and brought his lips to the youth’s ear, “I bet you’re having a hard time right now.”
As if through clenched teeth, the youth spat out four words, “Get, the hell, out.”4Origanally three characters, ‘滚出去’ 滚 gǔn – to boil; to roll; to take a hike; Get lost! 出去 chū qù – to go out
“No. How can I play if I leave.” Huo Qi laughed suddenly, his eyes were dark without any luster, and his face was pale, but his lips were ruddy like blood. His whole presence in the gloomy moonlight was like that of a malicious ghost.
“Kiss me.” Huo Qi commanded. He moved his lips towards the young man’s lips, coming very close but not touching. In the end-what he wanted was for the young man to take the initiative to kiss him.
Ruan Jiangjiu felt the other’s warm breath on his face, and together with those damned words, they were like feathers brushing against his body, where a careless step would lead to complete degradation, itching, and numbing.
He clenched his teeth and strained to avert his face, beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
Huo Qi sneered as he slipped a hand into the youth’s clothes. Feeling the youth’s almost rigid body, he brought his lips to the youth’s ear. With a heart full of malicious intentions and other indiscernible bits in his mind, he softly remarked, “I know you’re feeling very uncomfortable right now.” After a pause, his voice was even milder, with a touch of tenderness. To the youth’s ears he sounded like both a devil and a siren, terrifying: “If you take the initiative to kiss me, I’ll let you do it. To cure you of your poison.”
Ruan Jiangjiu’s eyes widened.
Snap
While his eyes were still clouded in darkness, he felt like a string had snapped in his brain. Despite not being able to see, no one could resist such a temptation.
He clenched his jaw, his hand raising up mechanically with each passing second, and when he felt the warm skin, he heavily closed it over the back of the teenager’s neck, and then ferociously brought the teenager down underneath him.
Before completely losing his mind and taking the prize he’d been promised, he didn’t forget to give the other what he wanted in exchange.
A soft kiss reflected across his lips, where the youth’s body burned hot, but his lips had a faint coolness to them.
Huo Qi’s pupils contracted, as if somewhat stunned – It turns out that being kissed by someone was this kind of feeling. Immediately afterward, he broke out into a low, crazed laugh, his voice hoarse and muffled.
He almost completely lost his mind before the youth fully pressed him down, without knowing what kind of emotions were crossing through his heart, and under the cold moonlight with the dark shadows, a transparent tear quietly flowed from the corner of Huo Qi’s right eye.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Author’s Note: Oooh, still didn’t write the twist, crying late at night!
Shio: So just wondering, if me and my team can actually finish translating this before the end of the year… would you guys prefer a lump update of all the final chapters or a daily post?
Editor: Krone
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