After they got off the boat, Yan Su Ang made a phone call, then said to Xiao Bai, “I need to meet a friend nearby and pick something up. Can you come with me? I’ll take you home afterward, okay?”
Xiao Bai said, “If it’s troublesome, I can go home by myself.”
“No!” The instant Yan Su Ang heard how stiff his own tone sounded, he immediately smiled. “It’s so dark. It isn’t safe for you to go home alone. I’d better take you.”
“But…”
“No buts. Let’s go.” Yan Su Ang moved behind him and pushed him forward by the shoulders.
After twisting and turning through several streets, the two somehow ended up inside an almost deserted alley.
Yan Su Ang’s hand slowly changed from pushing Xiao Bai to wrapping around him. From a distance, the two of them looked like a couple taking a leisurely walk.
Xiao Bai said, “Can we rehearse the lines again?” He was still worried about tomorrow.
The corner of Yan Su Ang’s mouth curved upward. “Sure.” A few romantic lines would be perfect at a time and place like this.
“Xiaoxiao, weren’t you meeting some friends to go to an art exhibition today? Why are you here?”
Yan Su Ang gently pinched his earlobe. “Because I wanted to surprise you.”
Xiao Bai burst out laughing.
Yan Su Ang gave a dry cough. “When we rehearsed that line before, that wasn’t how you reacted to the surprise. I think… we should stick with the original ruling.”
Xiao Bai tilted his head away from Yan Su Ang’s fingers. “Your hand is making my ear itch.”
“……So that’s your sensitive spot?”
“What’s a sensitive spot?”
“It’s… uh, a place that gets ticklish when somebody touches it.”
“Oh. Mine isn’t my ear.”
“Oh?” Yan Su Ang immediately perked up. “Then where is it?”
Xiao Bai answered honestly, “My armpits.”
“……” Yan Su Ang suddenly reached under his arm and lightly tickled him. “Here?”
Xiao Bai ran away, laughing helplessly.
Yan Su Ang was just about to chase him when he saw seven tall, burly young men walking toward them from the other end of the streetlight.
“Xiao Bai!” he shouted.
Xiao Bai froze and stopped.
Yan Su Ang quickly walked to him and instinctively moved Xiao Bai behind himself, intending to go around them. But the seven young men suddenly spread out in a line and blocked the middle of the road.
Yan Su Ang frowned. “What do you want?”
A young man with dyed blond hair stepped forward and sneered. “Nothing much. We’ve been a little short on cash lately, so we thought we’d find some spending money. You look pretty well-off, so Grandpa here is giving you the opportunity to show your filial devotion. What do you say?”
Xiao Bai had barely poked his head out from behind Yan Su Ang when Yan Su Ang pushed him back again.
Yan Su Ang said coldly, “And if I say no?”
The blond youth moved two steps to the left and looked at Xiao Bai. “Then we’ll ask whether this little brother agrees.”
Xiao Bai said, “I think—”
“Be quiet.” Yan Su Ang pushed him back again. “Then come and try.”
The blond youth scoffed. “There are seven of us, and you two are… one and a half. You really think you can win?”
Xiao Bai could not help saying, “Why are you saying he’s only half a person? He’s obviously a whole person. Doesn’t that make two of us together?”
“……”
The blond youth stared wordlessly at Yan Su Ang.
Yan Su Ang gave a dry cough. “One and a half… means our teamwork is so good we count almost as one person.”
Xiao Bai nodded as though he half understood.
The blond youth said, “Enough nonsense. Either hand over your money or hand over your lives.”
Yan Su Ang stepped forward and sneered. “If you think you’re capable, come try!”
And thus, a thrilling battle unfolded.
Yan Su Ang raised one hand—one man went down. One kick—two men fell. His movements were clean and decisive, his heroism extraordinary. In only a minute or two, the young men who had been acting so arrogant a moment earlier were all lying on the ground groaning.
Yan Su Ang proudly dusted off his hands. “Well? Still want Grandpa here to give you some spending money?”
The blond youth said, “No, no. Just pay our medical bills now.”
Yan Su Ang gave a sinister chuckle. “I only pay hospitalization fees.”
Seeing him preparing to attack again, the blond youth hurriedly waved both hands. “Don’t need those either! We suddenly remembered we bought insurance before coming here.”
“……”
Yan Su Ang sighed admiringly. “You people really do have excellent safety awareness.”
Xiao Bai frowned. “I feel like… you all look really familiar.”
The blond youth and Yan Su Ang were simultaneously startled.
The blond youth hurriedly said, “Yes, yes, yes. I have a very ordinary face. Of course I look familiar. Everybody tells me that.”
Yan Su Ang shot him a look. “Why aren’t you leaving yet?”
“Leaving, leaving, leaving. Right now.” The blond youth sprang upright and gestured to the others. “Let’s go.”
Xiao Bai suddenly cried out, “Ah! Doesn’t he play that street thug in Shanghai Beach who robs the heroine?”
“……”
By all logic, after going through a heroic rescue like this, shouldn’t the beauty have been moved to tears and clinging dependently to his savior? Why did Xiao Bai still have enough spare attention to notice completely irrelevant details?
Yan Su Ang once again realized that his particular beauty was anything but ordinary.
His eyes darted around, and he made something up. “That was his older brother.”
“……” Xiao Bai looked at him suspiciously. “How do you know?”
“That’s because… because… because…” Yan Su Ang rubbed his mouth. “Because he’s robbed me several times. After being robbed enough times, you get familiar with each other. Ha ha. Old acquaintances.”
Xiao Bai tried hard to recall the other faces. “And those two standing beside him looked like people from My Class Monitor, My Class.”
Yan Su Ang asked, “My Class Monitor, My Class? Is that a war drama?”
“No. It’s about the college entrance exam.”
“……Oh.”
“Right, and the long-haired one looked like—”
“Ow!” Yan Su Ang suddenly clutched his stomach and crouched down.
Xiao Bai jumped in alarm. “What happened?”
Yan Su Ang put on an expression of tremendous suffering. “I think that blond guy punched me just now.”
Xiao Bai looked confused. “But he never threw a punch. Before your fist even reached him, he flipped backward by himself.”
“……” Yan Su Ang frowned. “Really? Maybe I’ve beaten him up so many times that, uh… he’s developed a fear response.”
“Then why would he still come rob you?”
“Uh… maybe… because the light was too dark, so he didn’t recognize me at first.” Yan Su Ang realized he absolutely could not become a screenwriter. Such a tiny scene had already been turned into an incoherent mess full of holes. Fortunately, his Xiao Bai was very innocent. Thank goodness.
Xiao Bai murmured, “I still feel like… that fight looked pretty fake.”
“……”
“Ah! I’m dying!” Yan Su Ang suddenly collapsed into Xiao Bai’s arms.
Xiao Bai caught him and asked frantically, “What’s wrong? Do I need to take you to the hospital?”
“Wasn’t I very heroic just now?”
“……” Looking at the expression on Yan Su Ang’s face as he supposedly endured great pain, Xiao Bai hesitantly nodded.
“Sweet talk. I don’t believe you. Unless…”
That sounds just like the dialogue in the script.
Xiao Bai instinctively continued, “Unless what?”
“Unless you give me one special present.”
That’s slightly different from the script.
Even while thinking that, Xiao Bai dutifully continued, “Special? How special?”
Yan Su Ang struggled to lift his head and affectionately rubbed the tip of his nose against Xiao Bai’s. Just before his lips touched Xiao Bai’s, he murmured the final line in a hoarse voice.
“Unforgettable for the rest of your life.”
Xiao Bai seemed to turn stupid. He stood completely still without reacting.
Yan Su Ang sucked contentedly at those soft, damp pink lips and thought, A plot doesn’t necessarily have to make sense. As long as the ending lands beautifully, that’s enough!
The next day, after a night to recover, Lian Jue Xiu’s expression was obviously far more pleasant than it had been yesterday.
Xiao Bai was still thinking about the scene beneath the streetlight the previous night. Yan Su Ang had explained afterward that he had only done it to help Xiao Bai get more deeply into character, but Xiao Bai still vaguely felt that something had become different—or rather, was becoming different.
Jia Zhi Qing had nagged him endlessly all night about coming home late. In truth, he had mostly been indignant about Yan Su Ang receiving preferential treatment.
“Xiao Bai, how are you feeling today?” Lian Jue Xiu smiled warmly at him as though the man who had been raging so fiercely yesterday that smoke nearly rose from his head had been somebody else entirely.
Xiao Bai thought about it. “I think… better than yesterday.”
Lian Jue Xiu patted his shoulder. “If somebody asks you that in the future, you always answer, ‘No problem.’ Show some confidence. For a celebrity, confidence is the first requirement. That way people can see the radiance coming from you. A little narcissism from time to time is fine too. Look at Yan Su Ang and Feng Ya Lun. Which one of them doesn’t have narcissistic tendencies?”
“That’s slander.” Even as he spoke, Yan Su Ang walked up behind him.
Hearing his voice, Xiao Bai turned around. Yan Su Ang was dressed in pale-blue casual clothes and looked refreshed and imposing. Morning sunlight fell behind him as though it were a gaze chasing after him. Xiao Bai vaguely seemed to understand what Lian Jue Xiu meant by the “radiance” a celebrity gave off. It was the sort of radiance that made people unable to look away, yet somehow reluctant to stare straight at it—brilliant and dazzling.
Yan Su Ang watched Xiao Bai’s blank stare and secretly felt delighted. Looks like last night’s sneak attack really did produce results. I worried all night and couldn’t sleep until dawn. Apparently that was completely unnecessary. The strategy was absolutely correct.
He suppressed the waves of glee constantly surging inside him and asked calmly, “What are you looking at?”
“You have radiance.”
“……What?”
Xiao Bai did not answer. He merely walked away with an expression of dawning realization.
Yan Su Ang was about to chase him down and ask for an explanation when Lian Jue Xiu grabbed him. “I don’t think you have any scenes today either.”
“I like visiting the set and deepening my relationship with the production. Is that not allowed?”
“It’s allowed. I’m only afraid the drunkard’s heart isn’t really in the wine.”
Elio’s Notes: 醉翁之意不在酒, literally “the drunkard’s intention is not in the wine,” means someone’s true interest lies somewhere other than their stated purpose. The full classical image also involves enjoying the surrounding scenery, which Yan Su Ang uses for his comeback.
Yan Su Ang stopped, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “Don’t worry. You’re neither the wine nor the scenery.”
“Then what am I?”
“Heaven knows.”
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