Ch 5: Don’t frickin’ let me hear the words ‘Lady Returning to the Village’ ever again!

TL/N: Remember the drama Shao Si did a cameo in to get closer to his target of investigation, Yang Yinyin? yeah that drama XD

When Gu Yanzhou received the text, he was in the gym room, shirtless and with a towel hanging around his neck, leaning against the bar table to rest after just getting off the treadmill. His whole body was covered in sweat; a few drops of sweat slowly dripped from the ends of his hair, trickled down into his eyes and eyelashes, causing him to squint his eyes in discomfort as he stared at the screen. 

The notification tone was so loud, Gu Yanzhou’s manager, Chen Yang, who was originally on the sofa on the other side of the room working away, instinctively raised his head and asked, “Who is it?”

—— ‘Are you free to have a meal? ’

Gu Yanzhou repeatedly read these words a few times, then tossed the phone randomchly to the side, opened a can of ice beer, saying as the sound of the can’s pull ring rang out, “It’s nothing.”

Hearing this, Chen Yang used two fingers to lift his glasses frame. Thinking of the recent mess in the entertainment circle, he reminded after mulling: “Please don’t date, the paparazzi have their eyes on you……Even if you’re gonna date, don’t keep it a secret from me. That way I can help take care of things, because if you get photographed it’ll be troublesome. A while back, You and Yang Yinyin got forced to be a CP*, all because you guys co-starred in one production – those dating rumours still haven’t died down.”

*TL/N: CP is short for couple, could be real or shipped by fans

Gu Yanzhou didn’t respond. 

He took two sips of beer, then picked up his phone and headed up the stairs: “Don’t overthink things. I’m gonna go shower, feel free to head out once you’re done, and remember to close the door when you go. “

“ Oh, wait,” Chen Yang suddenly remembered something, “Heard Director Wang introduced you to that kid, Shao Si?”

“What about it?”

“He’s quite popular and thriving in his career right now, certainly a new star in the entertainment circle. So if you two can get tied together and boost each other’s popularity it’d be pretty great, but you gotta confirm that there’s nothing wrong with his character. Otherwise if you guys present yourselves as bros, you’ll get dragged into any trouble he gets himself into…Shao Si’s been active for five, six years now, he basically hasn’t had much negative news, I’m thinking his character should be ok.”

He was busy envisioning something great, not noticing that Gu Yanzhou’s brows were getting more and more furrowed. After he finished his thoughts, he asked expectantly, “What do you think?”

Gu Yanzhou paused slightly, then continued walking: “I don’t think it’s a very good idea.”

Chen Yang was a little confused, he somehow had a vague feeling that Gu Yanzhou acted differently toward Shao Si, and even seemed to sort of despise him. 

On the other end, Shao Si was sitting on top of a closed toilet seat, racking his brains to figure out how to save this horrible car crash-like accident. 

Li Guangzong came looking for him in the washroom, Shao Si’s coat in hand: “Daddy, are you still here? Which stall are you in?”

Li Guangzong started knocking on and opening each stall one by one. When he opened the last stall, he saw Shao Si with his phone in hand, comfortably but pretentiously seated, with one leg unceremoniously up on the seat. His head was down, neck looking extra pale in contrast with his hair and black hoodie.

“Let’s head out. You’re right, that Qi Ming is a total idiot.” Li Guangzong wasn’t just coming out to search for him, chances were he probably suffered through some inhuman ordeal again while Shao Si wasn’t present, “That Yang Ze’s not a good person either… In the future, let’s try to keep as little contact as possible. You going? I’ve already gotten the driver to wait for us at the door. Also, put your leg down, if someone got a photo of you, people would point fingers and talk about how you’re uncivilized, damaging public property, even stepping on toilet lids. Hurry up and put it down.”

“What paparazzi would be so unoccupied that they’d bother to run into a washroom and take pictures of me,” Shao Si lifted his head, his face showing no expression other than fatigue, calmly saying to him, “By the way, I accidentally asked your idol out for a meal just now.”

Li Guangzong: “What?” 

“I said, I asked Gu Yanzhou out for a meal,” while saying this, he finally put his bent up leg down from the seat. Under his ripped jeans, his legs looked extra slender and long, “Gu Yanzhou, your idol.”

After repeating himself, Shao Si even lifted up his phone, showing Li Guangzong his phone screen.

—— Are you free to have a meal?

—— Sorry, not free.

Li Guangzong was obviously still a little confused, he didn’t know how his Shao Si and his idol, two entirely unrelated people, would all of a sudden now be acquainted with each other. 

So he got stuck processing everything for a while, only able to repeat after Shao Si: “……Oh, you asked my idol out for a meal, moreover you got rejected.”

And then 10 seconds later, his eyes went wide asking: “ That’s too sudden, why are you asking my idol out for a meal, what are you doing asking him out for a meal?”

Shao Si stood up, took his coat from Li Guangzong, walking out: “You don’t have to know why, I got rejected anyway. Let’s go, take me home so I can sleep.”

He strode out chicly, leaving only Li Guangzong behind to ponder over Gu Yanzhou’s ‘Sorry, not free’, finding it a little weird. His idol was the world’s number one most gentle person in the world, but those words came off a little cold. 

After getting home, Shao Si slept like log – It was unfathomable how he managed to take a shower before collapsing on the bed. Tomorrow, his scenes didn’t start until the afternoon, and he didn’t have any scheduled work in the morning. 

This was going to be his most relaxing day for the upcoming three months, later he would have to  join the《Lurk》film crew, and concentrate on filming day and night.

Gu Yanzhou often came to visit Director Wang on set. If you were to say that only the two managers, Li Guangzong and Chen Yang, were sensitive from the beginning, and noticed that Gu Yanzhou’s attitude toward Shao Si was a bit strange, then after a few times, Shao Si himself also noticed it. 

Even someone like Shao Si, who only spent everyday acting and catching up on sleep, noticed Gu Yanzhou’s faint rejection of him. 

Normally it was hard to notice, with so many people around, Gu Yanzhou acted politely towards Shao Si. 

Whenever Gu Yanzhou dropped by to see Director Wang, Shao Si always got his share of the hot drinks or whatever that Gu Yanzhou brought for the whole film crew. 

Until the one time Li Guangzong insisted on dragging him to thank ‘Gu Shixiong.’

Shao Si wasn’t willing to go, lazing in the chair, legs crossed, script splayed out: “I already said thank you when I took the milk tea, why do I have to go through the trouble again? No need right? It comes off as really deliberate.”

“…It’s to improve your guys’ relationship daddy, to prove you’re a good child who’s extraordinarily humble and willing to learn.” Li Guangzong sputtered nonsense until he finally couldn’t help but reveal his ultimate objective, “If you don’t go over, I won’t have any way to talk to my idol.”

Shao Si only sneered in response, but after a while he couldn’t help but add, “Child, you know what the paparazzi would call you?…A drama king.”

Li Guangzong: “…”

But it seemed like the heavens were on the ‘drama king’s’ side, because as soon as Shao Si said that, he saw Director Wang beckon him from afar, calling for him to go over: “Xiao* Si, come over, bring your script, let your Gu Shixiong go over the scenes with you.”

*Xiao= Little

Hahahahahahahahahaha, Yes!

Li Guangzong gave a little cough, trying not to laugh out loud.

And so Shao Si had no choice, but to walk over with his milk tea and script: “Hello, Gu Shixiong.”

Gu Yanzhou: “Hello.”

Gu Yanzhou had taken off his jacket, the top three buttons on his shirt unbuttoned. His expression was gentle, but looking down from his shirt collar, his collarbone and partially visible chest gave off a feeling of aggressiveness.

Shao Si honestly was just not very good at conversing with others, especially conversing with people in the same industry, and didn’t know what to say next: “Gu Shixiong, what scene should we chat about?”

“My apologies,” Gu Yanzhou calmly lifted his hand to look at his watch, then grabbed his jacket and stood up, giving him and Director Wang a slight nod: “I just remembered that I have some other matters to attend to, how about another day, another day for sure. “  

Shao Si “……” What was that supposed to mean?

Afterward, Li Guangzong tried to comfort him: “He’s the film emperor, it’s normal to be busy, be understanding…It’s fine as long as the milk tea’s hot and delicious.”

With that, they kind of just let the incident pass.

Shao Si kept busy with filming every day and discreetly chatting up anyone in the crew who had been in contact with Yang Yinyin to investigate. His productive life quickly made him forget all about Gu Yanzhou, to the point that he didn’t even realize that the “another day” Gu Yanzhou mentioned during his goodbyes last time never came.

The next time Shao Si heard Gu Yanzhou’s name, was when Li Guangzong was helping him post a selfie on Weibo again, and while looking at his followers list, they realized that Gu Yanzhou never followed him back. 

Shao Si was in the car memorizing his lines, lazily leaned back in the seat as if he didn’t have a bone in his body: “Can I unfollow him?”

Li Guangzong was very troubled: “Daddy, that’s not too good, people will make groundless accusations and incite rumours and fights. Maybe he forgot…my idol, he’s super busy…Hey, if you’ve got time, how about you spend it interacting with fans a little more instead.”

Shao SI: “Oh.”

But Li Guangzong later noticed that Shao Si unexpectedly started to go on Weibo more.

Of course, compared to other celebrities, it still couldn’t be considered a lot. At most once every seven or eight days, he would randomly pull out his phone and go on Weibo in the middle of a meal. 

Li Guangzong found it hard to believe that Shao Si would be so fixated on “Gu Yanzhou not following back.”

Although he knew Shao Si cared so much about this following back primarily because of his dignity as a man and it didn’t have anything to do with who the other party was.

Moreover, Shao Si was putting on a front, not willing to admit to his actual thoughts, explaining: “I’m just going on Weibo to look at the news.”

Li Guangzong gave his chopsticks a shake: “Really?”

“Why else? You think I have the time to scroll through Weibo for him? Look — the child who got abducted a few days ago to the mountains was found, it only took eight years. Son, take a look, this shows that our country’s crime solving ability is quite exceptional, it’s worthy of praise.”

Li Guangzong thought, I frickin’ almost believed those jumbled, incoherent words.

“Also, look at this,” Shao Si put down his chopsticks after eating, finger pointing at the screen a few times, reading to him like a news anchor, ”Lady Returning to the Village has surpassed a total of 1 billion views.”

The voice flowing into his ears made people feel relaxed and happy: his voice was clear, a little cold, with a slight rasp at the ends of phrases.

He always felt that if Shao Si didn’t act he could switch gears to become a singer, and he would still certainly become popular.

And yet, Li Guangzong still couldn’t help but break his chopsticks in anger: “Shao Si, don’t frickin’ ever let me hear the words ‘Lady returning to the village’ ever again!” 

TL Lumi:

Oh man, I can’t wait till Yanzhou and Shao Si have an official battle of wits