birthday gift

It's been over a month since He Wei joined the crew, and Lu Chenyang seems to particularly enjoy spending time with him. He Wei, who is usually difficult to approach, has also surprisingly shown acceptance towards Lu Chenyang. If Yu Sheng didn't know these two's personalities well, she probably would have thought she'd been cheated on.

But this is for the best, Yu Sheng thought. At least it gives him some time to prepare things he doesn't want others to find out, without being disturbed.

On the evening of March 25th, on the film set.

An infrared camera flickered dimly in the dim light. The small greenhouse was filled to the brim with all sorts of flowers, with only an old incandescent bulb overhead swaying and casting a cheap white light.

Wu Cao carefully carried over a simple white ceramic flowerpot and whispered, "Brother Qing, take the potting soil from the second shelf. Don't get the wrong one."

"Okay." Sui Qing responded crisply, easily lifting the nearly 100-pound woven bag of flower soil with his bare hands and placing it steadily on the ground.

"You're willing to use this soil? You're such a cheapskate." Sui Qing squatted down and carefully filled the pot with soil, shovel by shovel, her movements practiced.

Wu Cao dug a small hole in the soft soil, scattered a few seeds in, and buried them. He looked up, and whether it was from joy or from being tired from moving the flowerpot, his pale cheeks were slightly flushed. "To plant the flowers I like, I have to use the most expensive soil."

"Okay." Sui Qing habitually ruffled his hair, then poured the remaining water from the teacup into the flowerpot. "Wait for it to bloom."

"Yes, red poppies. We planted them together. They're very beautiful."

"Cut! Pass!"

As Lan Dajing finished speaking, Ajiang, who had been waiting to the side, was the first to push in a small food cart. On the cart was a large cake that was three or four layers high. On the top layer of cream was a cute and spirited Q version of Lu Chenyang wearing a police uniform.

Happy birthday, Teacher Lu!

Instantly, the small greenhouse burst into enthusiastic blessings and laughter.

Tonight's filming ended three and a half hours earlier than usual. Lan Dajing wasn't heartless; the entire crew had been working tirelessly for nearly three months, so they took advantage of Lu Chenyang's birthday to let everyone relax.

The old man, unusually, put aside his seriousness and, like a kind elder, walked up to Lu Chenyang, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "You've worked hard. Let's cut the cake."

"Thank you, Director Lan, thank you everyone!"

Amidst laughter and cheers, Lu Chenyang stepped onto a stool, lit the candles on the cake, made a wish, and then blew them out in one breath. He then took the cake knife from Ajiang and carefully and patiently distributed the cake to each staff member.

Yu Sheng remained leaning against the windowsill, not approaching. He Wei took the cake his assistant brought, took a bite, and gently nudged him with his shoulder, "What are you thinking about? You seem so lost in thought."

Yu Sheng's gaze remained fixed on Lu Chenyang. He leaned closer to He Wei and lowered his voice, saying, "Tell me... what would happen if my affair with Chenyang were exposed? How can we handle the public relations to minimize the negative impact on his career?"

While He Wei was still thinking, Yu Sheng saw Lu Chenyang take a knife and, instead of cutting it, directly scoop out the whole piece of cake with his own Q version image drawn on it from the very center. He scooped it out, not cut it; he dug a big hole in the middle of the cake and then, like holding a treasure, presented it directly to him.

Yu Sheng looked down at the chibi version of Lu Chenyang on the cake—a round-headed figure wearing a wide-brimmed hat and seemingly holding a small handcuff—and couldn't help but chuckle. "What? Are you giving yourself to me?"

Lu Chenyang held the cake, unabashedly nodding as He Wei stood beside him, "Yes, eat me..." He then mouthed two words silently. Yu Sheng saw it clearly—it was clearly—Master!

Depend on!

*

As soon as they got back to the hotel, Yu Sheng hurriedly pulled Lu Chenyang along and took the internal elevator directly to their floor.

"Why are you in such a hurry today?" Lu Chenyang was happy to be pulled along by him and obediently thrown into the room without any resistance, his eyes full of smiles.

Yu Sheng rolled her eyes at him, then strode into the suite, grabbed her laptop, and started typing furiously as she searched for something. Without turning around, she asked, "What did you wish for?"

“It won’t work if you say it out loud.” Lu Chenyang sat relaxed on the sofa, unbuttoned his shirt, lit a cigarette, and tilted his head to look at him through the rising smoke.

Yu Sheng raised his hand and pressed the Enter key, his tone tinged with pride and arrogance, "Tell me, and I'll make it happen for you."

“Okay.” Lu Chenyang leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, closing the distance. “My first wish is for Grandma to be safe and healthy, and you’ve already helped me with that. And there’s another one…”

What is it?

"you guess."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng looked up and met Lu Chenyang's burning gaze. Of course, he knew what Lu Chenyang wanted, but he couldn't give it to him, so he could only settle for second best.

He grasped Lu Chenyang's wrist, took a deep drag of the cigarette between his fingers, and then slowly exhaled smoke toward the other's face, his eyes serious. "I have a gift for you."

He pushed the laptop in front of Lu Chenyang. On the screen was an open document with the header: Designated Guardianship Agreement.

“There are many more documents behind this,” Yu Sheng said, her tone filled with excitement after the surprise. “All my assets, including financial investments, bank deposits, holding companies, debts, real estate, stocks… I have had my lawyer compile them in detail.”

"What do you mean?" Lu Chenyang's gaze fell on the first page, his face darkened, and his voice dropped several octaves.

Yu Sheng, however, remained immersed in what she perceived as a grand and joyful occasion, completely oblivious to the other person's changing emotions. Still basking in her own smugness, she continued, "With this agreement, we can make decisions on their behalf in times of crisis, sign surgical consent forms, control their assets, and exercise their rights on their behalf. These are just electronic versions; once we return to Beijing, I'll have my lawyer prepare the official documents, and we can sign them anytime. If you're in a hurry, I'll have him fly over tomorrow, and we'll sign them on the spot."

He spoke faster and faster, his eyes sparkling, "Then we'll sign a will, so we can fully share each other's assets, and we'll both be each other's first-order heirs! That way, it'll be no different from being married! So, do you like this birthday present?"

"I will not sign."

"Huh?!" Yu Sheng was taken aback and finally turned around. Only then did he see clearly that Lu Chenyang's face was so gloomy it could drip water, and his usually bright black eyes were now slightly narrowed by the smoke from the burning cigarette, filled with many emotions that he couldn't understand, but it was definitely not the happiness of receiving a gift.

Lu Chenyang forcefully stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, covered his face with his hands, and rubbed it vigorously a few times.

After a long while, Yu Sheng heard him exhale a long breath, his voice filled with indescribable weariness, "Ah Sheng..."

"What's wrong?" Yu Sheng's heart sank, and a sense of grievance welled up involuntarily. "I prepared this gift for a long time, thinking you would like it... Is it really that bad?" He thought Lu Chenyang would definitely like it. Even if he didn't rush up to kiss him in surprise, at least he shouldn't have reacted like this.

Lu Chenyang didn't know whether he should be angry or heartbroken. He felt as if he were soaking in lukewarm syrup; there was sweetness, but mostly exhaustion and heaviness. He rubbed his slightly reddened eyes and looked at the child who seemed lost and helpless, as if he had done something wrong. Heartache ultimately overwhelmed all other emotions.

He reached out and gently pulled the man into his arms, patting his back softly as he spoke in a soothing voice, "Ah Sheng, your gift is very presentable, not bad at all, really. It's my fault... I wanted too much and pushed you too hard. I wasn't good enough. Also, I had a bad attitude just now and didn't control my emotions. I apologize, I was wrong, don't be sad."

He patiently guided the person in his arms, trying to make them understand, "I won't sign this, not because you did a bad job, and certainly not because I don't like it. It's because I don't want either of us to be lying in a hospital bed in the future, and the other person to have to find a lawyer, present a bunch of documents, and prove our relationship to others before being allowed to sign for them. What I want... you've always known what it is, haven't you? You're just not fully ready yet, so you can't give it to me for now, right?"

Lu Chenyang stepped back slightly and placed a few gentle kisses on Yu Sheng's aggrieved face. "You can't give it to me right now, that's okay, I can wait. I'll wait until the day you have no more worries, until you willingly agree. We have a very, very long time, I'm not in a hurry, and you don't have to be afraid, okay?"

Yu Sheng sniffed, his nose stinging, and nodded vigorously twice. Of course, he knew what Lu Chenyang wanted. Everything he had done today, on the surface, was to fulfill Lu Chenyang's wish, but wasn't it also self-deception, a way to find psychological comfort for himself? He was trying to use a few legal documents to escape reality and cover up his inner cowardice, but it was nothing but burying his head in the sand.

'This is no different from getting married.' Of course, he knew how different it was—worlds apart. Calming down, he also felt that the gift wasn't worth liking at all, it was utterly awful.

Yu Sheng snatched the computer and, in a fit of pique, proceeded to delete all the files he had prepared over a long period of time, muttering, "I'm not signing! I'm never signing this crap again! It's all Lan Lao Er's fault for coming up with this terrible idea! Time for bed!"

Of course, I couldn't sleep. It's rare to finish work so early, it's not even ten o'clock yet.

Lu Chenyang picked her up and carried her to the bathroom, not forgetting to slap Yu Sheng's butt hard, and chuckled, "It's my birthday today, so please wash yourself clean and take me to my bed, young master."

Knowing she was in the wrong, Yu Sheng buried her face in his shoulder and gritted her teeth, "Bastard..."

However, Yu Sheng was already planning to add a thick cushion to the chair tomorrow, but she didn't know if Old Man Lan would agree.

*

As filming progressed into its later stages, Changchun officially entered spring in April, with most of the snow melting and a touch of warmth in the air.

During his lunch break, Yu Sheng hid in his RV and sent emails to the headquarters of Shuye. Before joining the production, he had handed over most of his daily affairs to the vice president, but there were still some important decisions that required his personal review. He could only handle them remotely during breaks in filming. The Australian project, in particular, was facing many obstacles and had been stalled.

He's exhausted. Aside from his kidneys being relatively healthy, everything else about him—his complexion and his general weakness—is almost exactly like Wu Cao's in the play.

"Click." The car door was pulled open from the outside, and He Wei sat down with two cups of hot coffee. He immediately saw Yu Sheng's pale face as she was still typing away at her computer screen, and couldn't help but sigh, "Sheng, you have to be able to spend your money as well as you earn it. Look at how weak you look, take it easy."

Yu Sheng took the coffee, casually tossed the laptop onto the bed behind her, raised an eyebrow and smiled, "When did our little Weiwei become so sharp-tongued? This isn't right. I told you long ago to stay away from that unreliable Lan Lao Er, and look, he's definitely corrupted you."

He snorted and didn't respond to his question.

"Have you seen my Officer Lu?" Yu Sheng asked, taking a sip of coffee.

"Ah Jiang said he went out to get something, but he didn't know the specifics."

"Oh, I see. Then can you do me a favor?"

Here, Lu Chenyang had just signed for a document from a courier and was about to return to Yu Sheng's RV. As soon as he reached the vehicle, he noticed that the curtains were drawn tightly, and some unusual sounds could be faintly heard coming from inside.

"Are you sure you can handle this? Use some force... I said use force..."

"You're too tense, it's hard for me to apply force, relax a bit..."

"Okay, okay... Ouch, it really doesn't hurt. If you can't do it, I'll do it myself..."

"—Lie still and don't move... Don't shout, or someone will hear you..."

Lu Chenyang stood outside the car, his face flushing red and then pale, his brows furrowed tightly. Just then, Ajiang walked over, curious why he was standing there instead of going in. "Brother Chenyang, why aren't you going in?"

"Who's inside?" Lu Chenyang actually recognized the voices inside, but he still gritted his teeth and asked, wanting to confirm.

Ajiang looked confused and honestly replied, "Brother Yu Sheng and Teacher He Wei."

Just then, a loud scream of pain suddenly came from inside the car.

"Ah—I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding! You fucking beast!"

—"Hold on! Don't move!"

Damn it! The people inside might be able to tolerate it, but Lu Chenyang couldn't! His face darkened, and he yanked open the car door: "Yu—"

Before he could finish his roar, the sight before him forced him to swallow his anger, leaving him speechless and unable to vent his rage.

The two people in the car were startled by the sudden commotion and turned around at the same time, their faces filled with astonishment. Yu Sheng stared blankly at Lu Chenyang, whose face was pale, and asked in bewilderment, "W-what happened?"

Yu Sheng was leaning against the back of the chair, his sweater pushed up to reveal his thin back. He Wei stood behind him, half-bent over, his hands pressing hard on a red, swollen boil on Yu Sheng's back, seemingly trying to squeeze out the pus.

On the table next to it were an open first-aid kit, gauze, an iodine bottle, and several used cotton swabs.

Lu Chenyang: "..."

So...does squeezing a pimple really require so much force and making such a fuss?!