Chapter 12
Zhao Yan didn't know about this yet. He hugged Xiang Shui and asked what was wrong.
A man was walking by the roadside and was so scared that he ran away madly towards the water.
Zhao Yan chased after him, tugging at his hat and asking, "What happened?"
Xiang Shui trembled: "Is that person just now...is he from my school?"
"No." Zhao Yan said affirmatively, "Tell me what happened."
Xiang Shui looked up at him, tears streaming down her face: "They found out, they knew I was gay."
They are a lot of people.
"Don't be afraid." Zhao Yan wiped away his tears. "You can live with me. I'll accompany you to and from school."
Zhao Yan did what he said and sent Xiang Shui to the school gate the next morning.
When he came to pick someone up in the evening, no one was there.
"Where is Xiang Shui?" Zhao Yan grabbed a classmate of Xiang Shui and asked.
His classmates stared at him in surprise. "He was dragged away by his parents. They said an elderly family member had passed away and he was taken back to his hometown for a week."
"Drag?" Zhao Yan asked.
"Yes," the classmate replied, "When he saw his parents, he was like he saw ghosts. He didn't want to leave and was dragged away. Many people were watching."
Zhao Yan was devastated. Xiang Shui's grandparents had all died long ago. How could an elderly person return to their hometown after death? Especially right before the Gaokao (National College Entrance Examination)?
The classmate turned around and was about to leave, but Zhao Yan grabbed him and asked, "Where is his hometown?"
"It seems to be in D City, quite remote."
When Zhao Yan got the news, he immediately bought a flight ticket for the nearest flight.
While waiting for the plane to take off, he called and sent text messages again and again, but to no avail.
Xiang Shui was taken back to his hometown and tied up.
Zheng Fang found a master from nowhere, who locked him up in the room every day and wouldn't let him go out. Every day, a group of people dressed in colorful clothes would dance and exorcise ghosts in the room, insisting that he was possessed by an evil spirit.
Xiang Shui was in a trance, muttering, "I'm not a sissy. I'm not... I'm not a pervert, I'm not a woman... I'm a man, I'm a normal person."
"I'm gay. I like men."
When Zheng Fang heard this, she walked through the crowd of people dancing and slapped him hard.
Xiang Shui hugged his head and curled up on the bed, tears streaming down his nose.
"Master, it's been almost five days, why isn't he getting better yet?" Zheng Fang scratched the table anxiously with her nails.
The master pretended to be serious and whispered, "Get two water jars."
Zheng Fang took the Master's words as the truth. Because of this incident, Xiang Zhang had been unkind to her for a long time. He was worried that if the matter was exposed, people in the office would talk about him and his stable job would be in jeopardy. He made Zheng Fang the villain and he became the beneficiary, hiding in the background and reaping all the benefits.
Zheng Fang often said that Xiang Zhang was an honest man who had lived a well-behaved and stable life and never dared to do anything that crossed the line.
But Xiang Shui knew that Xiang Zhang pretended to be a beast in human skin and was humble in front of outsiders, but his true nature was revealed at home. He would beat and kick him and be moody for years.
At that time, Xiang Shui was in kindergarten, and the girl who lived next door to him said, "I really envy you because you can go to kindergarten every day."
"I envy you," Xiang Shui squatted on the ground playing in the mud, "your parents never beat you."
The girl pouted and said, "Humph, my family favors boys over girls. All the good food and clothes are given to my brother. I wish I were a boy."
Lowering her head towards the water, she said silently, "Boys are no good either..."
Xiangshui envied the girl very much. Although her family was poor and only her brother went to kindergarten, and they had no money in the past few years, so they sent the girl and her brother to first grade together. But her parents never beat them and taught them to be honest and kind people.
Xiang Zhang enrolled him in kindergarten just to establish himself as a good father in the workplace. In reality, apart from tuition, he spent all the remaining money on drinking.
Zheng Fang's salary was not enough to cover the family expenses, so she took Xiang Zhang to the supermarket.
"Did you hear me? Put it in your pocket and go out with me later." Zheng Fang looked around and stuffed something into his pocket.
Xiang Shui was timid and scared. What would happen if he was discovered?
Once, twice, three times... They were caught. The sound of quarreling continued in his ears. Xiang Shui finally breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he didn't have to walk into this supermarket in fear anymore.
Two vats were filled with scalding water, and Xiang was grabbed by the head and pushed under. He struggled desperately, but it was no use. The water was so hot and the vats were so small, but he felt bottomless, as if he was on the edge of an abyss.
He could hear no sound and it was pitch dark.
He wanted to shout, but every time he opened his mouth, water poured into it. He had difficulty breathing and was struggling desperately.
Help me...
Help me!
“Crack!”
Yan Huai was pulled out of the water, coughing with his head down. It was summer in the movie, but it was winter here. The warm water quickly turned cold, and he was shivering from the cold as they repeatedly pushed him in and out of the water.
Shang Zhier wiped his face with a towel. Yan Huai was wrapped in a heavy blanket, his teeth chattering, "Director Lu, did you pass this one?"
"Here's another one. When they push you into the water, you have to struggle hard at first, but then you slowly feel despair, lose your strength, and finally pass out." Lu Zheng instructed him.
Yan Huai nodded and raised her head to let the makeup artist touch up her makeup.
Five minutes later, Yan Huai took another shot and passed.
Bath water was boiling in the iron pot. While waiting, he, He Xuan, Shang Zhier, and Yan Xuxing stayed in the house to warm themselves by the fire. Lu Zheng and the assistant director, a few grown men, said they wanted to follow the village chief to cut grass and feed the pigs, so there were only four people left in the house.
"This water tank plot is very similar to Xiao Hong's Biography of Hulan River." Yan Huai stretched out his hand to feel the warm stove.
Shang Zhier nodded: "It's a tribute. Do you still remember the original text?"
"Little Tuanyuan's wife was carried into a large vat filled with boiling hot water," Yan Huai read slowly. "She was screaming and jumping in the vat. She was screaming as if her life was in danger."
"So, when the little daughter-in-law, Xiao Tuanyuan, dreamed of her mother-in-law beating her, or hanging her from the beam with a rope, or burning the soles of her feet with an iron, or pricking her fingertips with a needle, she would cry and scream, and say she wanted to go home."
The depressing and heavy words come to mind, as if the experiences and encounters of Xiao Tuanyuan's daughter-in-law appear before my eyes.
For a moment, the room was dead silent.
“Whether it’s women or sexual minorities,” He Xuan said, “there’s still a long way to go.”
Yan Xuxing added firewood to the stove: "Many times when we speak up, there are always men who mock us."
"That's because they are stupid and ignorant. There's no need to be angry about it. We should even feel a little sympathy for these people. They have grown up without love, in anger, and in violence, and they haven't been respected. Naturally, they can't respect and empathize with women." Yan Huai looked up.
Xiao Tuanyuan's wife died under the shackles of feudalism, and Yan Huai and He Xuan were also crushed by this mountain called feudalism.
The hot water in the iron pot was boiling, and Yan Huai closed the door to take a bath.
He was wearing loose pajamas, with water dripping from the ends of his hair. Shang Zhier suddenly appeared in front of him, scaring him.
"You're crazy!" Yan Huai was still frightened. "You scared me."
Shang Zhier glanced at his collar, revealing his fair and sexy collarbone, "Blow your hair."
"No more drying. Wait until the house is dry." Yan Huai put on his down jacket, opened the door, bent down along the side of the house and walked into the living room.
Shang Zhier followed closely behind and closed the door.
There were many people in the house, and the stove was burning brightly. They were cooking sweet and sour pork, big rice dumplings, chicken stewed with mushrooms, and iron pot stew...
There were more than twenty dishes on the table, and everyone in the room devoured them all.
The guys carrying the cameras were all starving, exhausted, and cold.
After washing the dishes, clearing the table and the garbage, everyone went back to their respective rooms.
Yan Huai opened a bag of mouthwash and spit it into the trash can outside the door. He locked the door and got into his sleeping bag. He Xuan had already fallen asleep and started grinding his teeth.
There were a few noises at the window. Yan Huai opened his eyes and a dark shadow rushed in.
He sat up and gripped the stick beside the bed. "Who?"
"I."
Hearing Shang Zhier's voice, Yan Huai breathed a sigh of relief and gently placed the wooden stick under the bed. It would be terrible if someone came in in the middle of the night and suffocated him and He Xuan to death.
Yan Huai swiped his phone and turned on the flashlight. "Why are you not sleeping so late at night?"
"No kiss tonight." Shang Zhier shook the snow off his hat.
Yan Huai said indifferently: "We're going to wrap up soon, so there's no need to practice kissing you for intimate scenes."
"Just treat these as dreams. Anyway, you and I were just a fleeting romance."
Every word he spoke was like a sharp knife, piercing Shang Zhier's heart.
"You think I came to you just to kiss you, right?" Shang Zhier stared at him.
"Isn't it?" Yan Huai said irritably.
She came to see him late at night just because she missed him and thought of him. They were not lovers and she could not say "I love you". Shang Zhier had no other choice but to get close to him under the pretext of helping him rehearse.
Being close to you is not to relieve loneliness, nor just for kisses and flirtations, but because I want to be with you all the time. There are many people around me during the day, and I am far away from you. Only at night do you belong to me.
However, these were only Shang Zhier's inner thoughts. His voice was a little loud and trembling: "So, Yan Huai, after the filming is finished, we will have no relationship at all, right?"
"Yes." Yan Huai replied. He didn't believe there was any sincerity in the circle.
He didn't dare to look into Shang Zhier's eyes. Then, he heard the door closing and Yan Huai sighed.
Shang Zhier is only 25, young and rich. She doesn't understand how much she has to endure to be with him. Even if it's just for fun, the price will be huge. If it is exposed one day, can Shang Zhier withstand the overwhelming negative news and abuse?
At six in the morning, He Xuan glanced back and forth between Yan Huai and Shang Zhier, and whispered, "Did they have a fight?"
"No." Yan Huai drank half a cup of hot water.
"Didn't he sit at this table the past few days?" He Xuan sipped his porridge. "Today he went to sit with Lu Zheng."
Yan Huai bit his chopsticks and said nothing.
Filming continues.
Xiang Shui fainted and was dragged to the ground. The crowd left and the door closed.
The last flicker of light on the candle was extinguished.
After Zhao Yan asked every household in the village and every family, he finally found Xiang Shui who was dying.
"I'll take you away." Zhao Yan carried him on his back and left quietly.
As soon as they reached the main road, those people caught up with them. Their legs could not outrun the tricycle, so they were stopped.
The gang dragged Xiang Shui away, and the bearded man held a sharp knife and said, "If you come any closer, I'll kill you, believe it or not?"
How could Zhao Yan let them lead Xiang Shui? He rushed forward and desperately tried to grab Xiang Shui. In the struggle, the sharp knife pierced Zhao Yan's abdomen, and the severe pain made him fall to the ground. The bearded man had only intended to scare people, but he accidentally killed someone and fled in panic with the group.
Xiang Shui rolled and crawled towards Zhao Yan. Zhao Yan's abdomen was bleeding. If the knife was pulled out now, blood would gush out like a fountain. Xiang Shui could only help Zhao Yan onto the tricycle and drive to the clinic in the town.
"Why are you crying?" Zhao Yan leaned weakly on his shoulder.
Xiang Shui stared at the road ahead, tears streaming down her face.
He was extremely anxious, but Zhao Yan hummed a song beside him in a low voice:
"When the sky is dark, when the temperature is abnormal."
"You always manage to withstand sharp glances and harsh noises with your immense strength. You wrap them up with the romantic tenderness of a rainbow..."
In the clinic, Zhao Yan was lying on the bed. The doctor was stitching him up, and he was still singing intermittently.
The two drove all the way to the train station under the cover of night, but the tricycle ran out of power and was abandoned on the roadside.
After several twists and turns, it was already six in the morning when we got off the plane.
Exhausted, the two returned to Zhao Yan's shabby house and lay on the bed. Zhao Yan didn't ask what Xiang Shui had suffered there, but slowly began to talk about his own story: "My parents are divorced, each has their own family and new children, and neither of them wants me. My aunt occasionally gives me money, but she has her own children. Do you know what I think about sometimes? I think how great it would be if I were my aunt's child."
"Why am I not my aunt's child?"
Xiang Shui opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. "I've also been wondering why I don't have a brother. If I had an older brother or younger brother, there would be someone to share the pain with me. If two people each bear 50% of the pain, one person will have to bear 100% of the pain."
"Are you afraid of death?" Zhao Yan turned around and asked.
Shake your head towards the water.
Zhao Yan turned around and grabbed his neck tightly. He rolled and struggled in the water like a fish in a frying pan. Zhao Yan started to cry as he pinched him, so he let go.
Xiang Shui gasped for breath: "You try it too."
"Okay."
Xiang Shui turned over and grabbed Zhao Yan's neck. The two looked at each other, crying and laughing.
Dark, gloomy, and cramped, they were clinging and sticky like damp, low-growing moss. The plant life was tenacious and quickly enveloped everything.
Xiang Shui's parents did not continue to look for him. They thought that the man had killed Zhao Yan and was afraid of being responsible for a death, so he simply hid from the spotlight.
Xiang Shui performed steadily in the three mock exams, and the college entrance examination came in the blink of an eye.
He came out of the examination room and waited for a while before he saw Zhao Yan running over. "How did you do on the exam?"
Zhao Yan spoke, steam rising from his lips: "That's just how it is. If you don't study for the college entrance exam regularly, your performance level will be just like that."
After three days of exams, when the last one was over, Xiang Shui and Zhao Yan saw Xiang Zhang and Zheng Fang in the crowd, and they also discovered that Zhao Yan was not dead. When they saw that Zhao Yan was not dead, they were furious and prepared to rush over.
Xiang Shui and Zhao Yan left the two people behind them in the streets and alleys. They were out of breath and lay on the sofa in the house.
"It's all over." Xiang Shui lay in Zhao Yan's arms.
The college entrance exam, superstition, and control are all over.
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