Chapter 15

After the wrap party, the two lost contact.

Yan Huai didn't rest, and worked one after another, variety shows, magazines, endorsements, red carpet...

Ye Xiaoming said that after shooting for the last major magazine, he would take a break from work for half a month to change his mood.

Yan Huai's day and night were reversed and he lost a lot of weight.

He stared at the break time sent by Ye Xiaoming and complained to Yuan Meng, "Look how cunning your brother Ye is. He said we'll have a half-month holiday, which just happened to coincide with the Chinese New Year."

"Thank you for your hard work. You can rest in a few days." Yuan Meng gave him a set of clothes for the photo shoot.

Yan Huai drank some water, changed his clothes, and continued shooting for the magazine.

It was already early morning when Yan Huai finished work. He returned home and lay on the carpet. He began to give red envelopes to his assistants, security guards, and makeup artists, and gave them to them in advance tomorrow.

After wrapping the red envelope, Yan Huai’s WeChat rang.

He swiped open his phone and saw a message from his mother.

--Baby, your daddy and I will arrive in China tomorrow!

--Make a video and let your mother see you.

Yan Huai reluctantly made a video call, and in the video, his mom and dad were still eating pizza outside.

"Hi! Baby, you must be tired from work." Mom smiled at him.

"It's okay. I'll take a rest in a few days." Yan Huai opened a bag of potato chips and ate them.

"My Chinese has improved recently. What do you think of what I say?" Dad stared at him expectantly.

Yan Huai laughed wildly: "Dad, your Chinese is as good as my English."

"Really? Your mother even praised me for my fluent Chinese." Dad scratched his head in embarrassment.

Yan Huai is a mixed-race of Chinese and British. He looks more like his mother since he was a child. His hair and eyes are inherited from his father. He has to dye his hair black and straighten it, and wear colored contact lenses when filming.

After hanging up the video, Yan Huai fell into bed and had a deep sleep.

Shang Zhier did not write a new script. He stayed in his room, playing games and reading comics day and night, living the life of a true otaku.

"Hello, Sanshi, come home for dinner." Shang Che's voice came through the phone.

Shang Zhier replied absentmindedly, "Oh."

"Your sister-in-law and I will drive to pick you up." Shang Che coughed.

"No," Shang Zhier refused. "I'll drive back by myself."

Those two kids were chattering like a hundred thousand whys and couldn't stop. Shang Zhi Ershi broke down when he thought of the two kids clinging to him in the car.

Shang Che knew he was afraid of children, so he laughed and said, "Okay, come early on 30th."

"Um."

On New Year’s Eve, fireworks fill the sky and firecrackers blast in our ears.

Yan Huai spent the New Year with his parents at his grandparents' house. Although he was 27 years old, he still received a lot of red envelopes. He said that he could keep receiving them as long as he was not married.

After the New Year’s Eve dinner, he stood on the balcony and sent a Happy New Year message to Shang Zhier.

Wanting to blend in with the crowd of people's greetings and not stand out too much, Yan Huai stared at the chat box. It turned out that he hadn't been in touch with Shang Zhier for almost two months.

Shang Zhier looked at the four words and made a video call.

"Happy New Year." Shang Zhier stared at the person on the phone. He had lost weight, his hair had become curly again because he probably didn't straighten it, and there was still some dragon fruit juice on the corner of his mouth that hadn't been wiped clean.

Yan Huai smiled and said, "Happy New Year."

The two were silent for a moment, and neither of them hung up the phone first.

"Uncle, who are you talking to on the phone?" Guoguo, the girl of the twins, hugged Shang Zhier's calf and looked up and asked.

"There are children." Yan Huai asked.

"Yes, my brother's child." Shang Zhier squatted down and picked up Guoguo.

Guoguo, with her hair tied in two buns, exclaimed when she saw Yan Huai: "Brother, are you a big star? I saw you at my uncle's house..."

Before she could finish her words, Shang Zhier covered her mouth.

"What did you see at your uncle's house?" Yan Huai smiled. He thought he saw it on TV and didn't think much about it.

Shang Zhier's ears turned red. "Nothing."

Doudou burst into tears, "Wow, wow, uncle only holds Guoguo and not Wo!"

Shang Zhier's head hurt from the noise, and he hurriedly picked up Doudou again and hung up the video in a panic.

"Gone?" Guoguo pointed at the phone.

Doudou sniffed curiously: "What's gone?"

"There was a celebrity on my phone. I saw it at my uncle's house before." Guoguo said.

Doudou started crying again, "I want to see it too!"

Shang Zhier was helpless and held the two children and asked Shang Che and his sister-in-law to take care of them.

"I want to see the stars," Doudou put his arm around Shang Che's neck. "My uncle just showed it to Guoguo, I want to see it too."

"What celebrity?" Shang Che asked.

Guoguo said: "A very handsome brother."

Shang Che coaxed the two children and walked over to Shang Zhier. He had heard about the relationship matters before, "Still the same one as before?"

"Yeah." Shang Zhier was a little annoyed. He didn't like Shang Che asking him about his feelings.

"Ten years. If it still doesn't work, forget it." Shang Che lit a cigarette with a lighter. "Alas, who made you inherit our family's infatuated gene?"

Shang Zhier also lit a cigarette and smoked it slowly.

He was lying in bed at night when Tao Ning sent him a message.

--We went out to play on the seventh day of the New Year. Du Yang said he wanted to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms.

Shang Zhier had nothing to do, so he sent an OK and agreed to go into the mountains.

The seventh day.

Shang Zhier and Tao Ning met at the foot of the mountain. There was a shop nearby where they could rent tents and some tools.

"Why don't you buy a bright-colored jacket?" Tao Ning asked, picking up his tools. "It's hard to find people wearing a black jacket. A brighter one is better."

Shang Zhier, of course, wouldn't admit that he thought the black jacket looked cool. He simply said, "Other colors are sold out."

"You brought a lot of dry food, didn't you?" Tao Ning checked out the tent and tools. "There are six of us in total, and four more haven't arrived yet."

Shang Zhier squatted at the door of the shop, opened the package, and bit into the meat floss bread.

An off-road vehicle came speeding and stopped suddenly in front of the shop.

Shang Zhier continued eating bread and looked up at the people getting off the car.

"I've told you so many times, drive slower!" Du Yang slapped the man with the crew cut on the back.

A short-haired girl got out of the car, and Yan Huai?! Shang Zhier opened his eyes slightly and stopped moving.

Yan Huai also saw him and greeted him: "What a coincidence."

Shang Zhier stood up and threw the packaging bag into the trash can.

Then he saw the man with the buzz cut kiss Du Yang as if no one was around. He guessed that this man was Du Yang's boyfriend.

"Shang Zhier, long time no see. You didn't even ask me out to play." Du Yang rushed over and gave him a bear hug.

"I was too busy. I followed a film crew a while ago." Shang Zhier smiled.

Du Yang thought for a moment, "Is it that Moss? Or is it starring Yan Huai?"

When the past events on the set were brought up, both of them looked a little unnatural.

Du Yang didn't notice and pulled the guy with the crew cut in to buy tools and rent a tent to bargain.

The short-haired girl was chatting and laughing with Tao Ning, leaving only Shang Zhier and Yan Huai outside.

"Why did he die suddenly that day?" Yan Huai turned around and asked.

Shang Zhier said, "Both children wanted me to hold them, and I accidentally touched the phone."

Yan Huai squatted down and sat on the bench, "Yeah, it's pretty cute."

"It's so noisy." Shang Zhier looked up at the sky, where flocks of birds flew by. "I didn't expect to see you here."

Yan Huai said softly, "I didn't expect this either. What a coincidence. Du Yang asked me to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms. I've never picked mushrooms before, so I came here just to have some fun."

They both thought that after the wrap party, they would never see each other again and would never have any intersection again. They didn't expect that fate and destiny could be so wonderful sometimes.

The four people in the store came out after buying things and threw the tent to the two people, "Carry your own tent, pack it up and go up the mountain!"

Shang Zhier took the tent first. Du Yang and the guy with the crew cut were a couple, so they had to live together. The two girls also had to live together. He and Yan Huai had no choice but to live in the same tent.

Yan Huai also realized this and was stunned for two seconds. He wanted to ask if there were any other tents, but the boss said that they were all rented out and there was not a single one left.

The two men lowered their heads, put on bucket shoes, raincoats, gloves, and carried wooden sticks, and followed Du Yang into the mountains.

It rained heavily last night, and now the mountains are full of plump mushrooms.

"She's my girlfriend, older than you all. Just call her Brother Xi," Du Yang introduced. "She's Tao Ning's friend, Sheng Yu. Follow the group and don't get lost. Don't pick up random mushrooms; eating them can be poisonous."

Xige nodded and said, "When you pick them, pat the mushrooms so that the spores fall into the soil and they will grow again next year. Don't go into the grass; there might be snakes."

"This plump little white mushroom is a matsutake mushroom, and it's edible." Brother Xi bent down and started picking it up. "This black one is green on the touch, and it turns green immediately after being cut. It must be cooked thoroughly or you will be poisoned."

Du Yang dug one out of the soil and said, "I know, this white one is an old man's head."

Xige praised him: "Smart."

Under Xige's guidance, several people quickly picked a lot of mushrooms.

He lowered his head to check and said, "These ones with red umbrellas and white stems are poisonous. If you eat them, you will go to the hospital." He threw away the poisonous ones in Shang Zhi's twenty boxes.

"There are some morels ahead. Pick them up, eat something, rest for a while, and then set up the tent." Brother Xi called out.

Shang Zhier lowered his head to pick mushrooms, and his gloved hands accidentally touched Yan Huai's. The two of them quickly picked up the mushrooms and followed the team.

After washing his hands, Yan Huai took out some compressed biscuits and water from his bag and ate them.

Shang Zhier stretched out his hand towards him: "Give me a piece."

Yan Huai carried a piece of compressed biscuit on his back, and now he only had one bite left. He was struggling, and Shang Zhier simply lowered his head and ate it from his hand.

While biting the biscuit, she gently bit his finger. Yan Huai felt the touch on his hand. Was it the tongue?

Shang Zhier didn't feel embarrassed at all. He took out hot cocoa powder from his bag, waited for the water to boil, and made hot cocoa.

Du Yang stuffed wood and leaves into the fire, and Xige stuffed a chicken leg into his mouth: "I'll only let you take one bite, let go quickly."

Du Yang bit the chicken leg tightly and refused to let go. He was satisfied only after tearing off a large piece of meat. He raised his eyebrows at him proudly.

Xige couldn't do anything with him, so he put his arms around his neck and whispered something.

Du Yang's face suddenly turned red and he stayed there obediently.

Shang Zhi distributed the powder to everyone, poured hot water into the cups, and the rich and tempting cocoa was ready.

"It tastes so good." Sheng Yu said, holding the thermos cup.

Tao Ning nodded: "Shang Zhier is really thoughtful. It's so comfortable to have a cup of hot water at a time like this."

There was a dense drizzle in the sky. Xige packed up his things and took them to an open and flat land to set up the tent.

"The two girls' tents are in the middle, and we can set up ours on the sides, okay?" Brother Xi patted Shang Zhier and Yan Huai and asked for their opinions.

Shang Zhier said, "Okay."

Yan Huai also expressed no objection.

The three of them hurriedly set up the tent. After Xige checked the safety and stability, they each went into their own tent.

The edges of Yan Huai's raincoat rolled up and his pants were wet, sticking to his body and making him feel uncomfortable.

Shang Zhier wanted to turn on the small light hanging in the tent, but Yan Huai quickly shouted, "Don't turn it on!"

"What's wrong?" Shang Zhier was a little confused.

"My pants are wet." Yan Huai said aggrievedly.

Shang Zhier frowned: "Can you find the pants in the bag after turning off the lights?"

Yan Huai gritted his teeth and shouted, "My underwear is wet!"