Chapter 5
Shang Zhier's throat tightened, "It counts."
"Oh." Yan Huai opened the car door. "Please drive to that street. I want to have a midnight snack."
Yuan Meng, sitting in the passenger seat, turned around and said to him, "If you eat so late, you'll have edema tomorrow morning."
"I eat clear soup and only vegetables, no meat." Yan Huai blinked.
Yuan Meng wanted to say something, but Shang Zhier had already gotten in the car and sat next to Yan Huai. She didn't know why she was always a little afraid of Shang Zhier, so she just said, "Remember what you said about being a vegetarian."
"rest assured."
The car was quiet and comfortable. Yan Huai took out his game console and started playing. Shang Zhier tilted his head to watch him play the game, but his mind was thinking about the meaning of his previous sentence.
The car stopped at the food street. Yan Huai got out and lowered his hat, unable to see the road clearly.
Shang Zhier grabbed his wrist and said, "Pull over, there's a car."
"Um."
Even in the early hours of the morning, the food street is still bustling with people.
People come and go in the various shops.
The maocai stall doesn't have a storefront, so people eat at small tables on the roadside. Business is brisk.
"Will anyone recognize me?" Yan Huai's voice came through the mask.
Shang Zhier looked around and saw no one was paying attention. "It's okay, no."
After choosing the dishes, Yan Huai and Shang Zhier stood by the roadside waiting. Although no one recognized who they were, the two tall and handsome guys still attracted many people's attention.
They chose the farthest and most secluded small table. Yan Huai looked at the steaming maocai in the bowl with his eyes shining. He was really about to vomit after eating boiled vegetables and chicken breast.
Yan Huai liked the dish medium spicy, while Shang Zhier's was much lighter as he was not very good at eating spicy food.
"The wide noodles are delicious." Yan Huai buried his head in the food and ate it voraciously.
Shang Zhier stared at the red oil in Yan Huai's bowl and ate the cauliflower in silence.
"Try a piece of my spicy one, it's super delicious, a hundred times better than the one with clear soup." Yan Huai scooped up a spoonful of meat with a spoon.
Shang Zhier picked up a piece of beef and started coughing because of the spiciness.
Yan Huai unscrewed the bottle of mineral water and handed it to him. Shang Zhier took it and drank half of it.
"It's so spicy." Shang Zhier said.
Yan Huai said as he ate, "If I'm sick and have a fever, eating a bowl of this can make me half better. Although the doctor told me to avoid certain foods, I always feel better after eating maocai. It's like fighting poison with poison."
Shang Zhier finished the food in his bowl and put on a mask.
Yan Huai finished the rest in a few bites, wiped his mouth, and put on a mask.
"Let's walk back. It's quite close to the hotel." Yan Huai suggested.
Shang Zhier nodded.
After walking out of the elevator, Yan Huai waved: "Good night."
Shang Zhier opened the door with the room card and said, "Good night."
After closing the door, Shang Zhier leaned against it and took a deep breath. He seemed to be impatient for the desensitization to begin.
He endured it, worried that Yan Huai would notice his feelings and run away.
For breakfast, Yan Huai bit down a straw, sipping iced Americano to soothe his swelling, scrolling through his Weibo account. He was so glad no one had taken their picture. He wasn't worried about being photographed while eating with Shang Zhier, but he was worried Yuan Meng would scream when she saw him eating the medium-spicy maocai (hot and spicy maocai). It was a calorie-dense dish, but delicious.
Yan Huai lowered his head and typed.
--20 minutes to go out.
--good.
He and Shang Zhier had reached a certain tacit understanding and took the bus to the crew together every day.
"Let's go." Yan Huai walked into the elevator.
Shang Zhier pressed the button for the first floor, "Aren't you cold?"
Yan Huai is wearing a white sweatshirt today.
He shook his head and said, "It's not cold. I'm wearing a down jacket lining."
The two of them got into the car, and Yan Huai tossed Shang Zhier a hand warmer. "You'll use it on the set later. It keeps warm for an hour, and it's of very good quality."
"Okay." Shang Zhier squeezed the pink hand warmer.
In the crew, Yan Huai was showing off to He Xuan in the dressing room that he had eaten maocai yesterday. He Xuan's mouth was watering after hearing that. In order to lose weight for the role, he had been having tasteless dishes for lunch recently.
Shang Zhier touched the cigarette in his pocket, glanced in the direction of the dressing room, and finally endured it. He squatted down and stared at the little snowman that Yan Huai had made yesterday. It had not melted yet.
He picked up a few small stones and gave the snowman eyes and a mouth.
"One, two, three, go!"
Xiang Shui, carrying a tattered schoolbag, went to a noodle shop with Zhao Yan. The shop was small, dirty and messy. The floor was covered with garbage and no one had cleaned it. The tables were greasy and had leftover soup from the previous customers.
"Boss, two bowls of beef noodles, extra spicy." Zhao Yan sat down on the stool.
"Okay."
Neither of them wiped the soup off the table, but just waited quietly for the noodles to be served.
"How much?" Xiang Shui asked, "I'll give it to you."
He didn't want to owe anyone anything, and besides, he and Zhao Yan weren't on good terms. However, this shabby shop didn't even have a price list, so he didn't see how much Zhao Yan had given him. He only saw the owner give him a bunch of coins in change.
"I told you to come," Zhao Yan took out two pairs of disposable chopsticks from the chopstick cage and threw one pair into Xiang Shui's arms, "Come on."
Xiang Shui opened the package and broke the chopsticks apart. He found that the chopsticks were of poor quality and were broken, with some pieces being long and some being short.
"Use this pair." Zhao Yan took the chopsticks from his hand and handed him his own pair.
He ate noodles with a pair of full chopsticks, while Zhao Yan ate with a long and a short pair.
"How is it? Is it delicious?" Zhao Yan looked up and asked.
"good."
Actually, it’s delicious, but Xiang Shui just doesn’t want to admit it.
Zhao Yan exclaimed, tore off a napkin to wipe his mouth, and threw it accurately into the trash can in the distance.
Zhao Yan attends a vocational high school and finishes school earlier than Xiang Shui does at the heavy high school. The two hang out together all day long. They are neither friends nor lovers, but because of that kiss, their relationship becomes ambiguous and vague.
Xiangshui is no longer alone, he finally found his kind.
The bell rang, and Xiang Shui hurriedly packed up his textbooks. His deskmate teased him, "Hey, you seem to be in a good mood lately. Are you so confident about this monthly exam?"
Xiang Shui nodded casually to get by, but his mind had already flown outside the school. He was in a good mood not because he was confident about the monthly exam, but because of someone.
He hurried downstairs and ran to the playground.
Suddenly someone grabbed his schoolbag and he fell backwards, but he did not fall on the ground. Instead, he fell into a strong and powerful chest.
"What's the rush?" Zhao Yan chuckled.
Xiang Shui was startled and stood up straight, "How did you get in?"
"Just climb over the wall, isn't that easy?" Zhao Yan pulled him, "Come on, I'll take you to a fun place."
"Where are you going?"
"You'll know when you get there."
With a click, the shooting is over.
Yan Huai shivered, wrapped his down jacket around himself, and held two hand warmers in his hands.
"Where are the high school uniforms so thin?" He Xuan complained, "Give me a hand warmer."
Yan Huai threw one to him, unscrewed the thermos and started drinking hot water.
The staff member in charge of the costumes smiled and said, "Hold on. Wearing less will produce better results. You don't want to appear in front of the audience wrapped up like bears, do you?"
Yan Huai walked up to Lu Zheng and asked nervously, "Is it okay this time?"
"Your body expression is too stiff. Resistance is written all over your face," Lu Zheng sighed. "Take a ten-minute break and start over. You and He Xuan just can't do intimate scenes well. It's unnatural and fake. How can the audience believe that these two characters have feelings for each other? Read the script carefully again. What does it mean to love someone? You've never been in a relationship before your debut?"
Yan Huai was stuck: "No..."
"No matter what method you use now," Lu Zheng said, "just adjust your state and devote yourself to Xiang Shui. You have to think that you are Xiang Shui during the filming."
"Okay, I understand."
Yan Huai walked out of the shed and saw Shang Zhier squatting on the side of the road, not knowing what he was doing. He approached with a lot of confusion.
"Shangzhi twenty."
His footsteps were so light that Shang Zhier was startled. He stood up in a hurry and brushed off the smell of cigarettes.
"Are you... smoking?" Yan Huai came closer to him.
"No." Shang Zhier coughed.
Yan Huai pointed at the half-burning cigarette and asked, "What is this?"
Shang Zhier put out his cigarette, threw it into the trash can, and abruptly changed the subject: "What do you want from me?"
At the same time, he felt regretful that Yan Huai might label him as something bad. He was distressed at the thought of his impression score dropping.
"The director said I wasn't good at intimate scenes and asked me to find my form," Yan Huai grabbed a ball of snow, "We're going to shoot an intimate scene tomorrow."
It was even more outrageous than last time, Yan Huai smiled bitterly in his heart.
"I'll analyze the character for you." Shang Zhier said.
"Shang Zhier," Yan Huai said, "Let's go back and give it a try today."
Shang Zhier swallowed hard, "Try what?"
“Desensitization.”
Shang Zhier could only feel his heart beating wildly in his chest, so fast and so loud. He said hoarsely, "Okay."
Yan Huai turned around and walked to the shooting location, took off his down jacket, and immersed himself in the role again.
After finishing work, Yan Huai leaned back in his chair and wiped his face with a makeup remover cotton pad.
"What should we do when we shoot that scene tomorrow?" He Xuan sighed and put on woolen gloves.
Yan Huai closed her eyes and wiped her eye makeup. "I don't know. It will probably take several more days."
That scene was the first sex scene, and the relationship between Xiang Shui and Zhao Yan was heating up. Yan Huai began to doubt his life when he thought of him and He Xuan, two grown men, lying on the bed hugging each other with only flesh-colored underwear taken off.
If I just hugged him, he wouldn't have collapsed like this. He had to nibble, kiss, and breathe heavily.
Even though Lu Zheng said he would clear the area for them, Yan Huai still couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart.
After so many years in the entertainment industry, he has never filmed any large-scale sex scenes since his debut. Apart from kissing, he only kisses occasionally. It is not as explicit as what Shang Zhier wrote.
Thinking of this, Yan Huai blamed Shang Zhier in his heart. Wouldn't it be enough to just write a general outline so that everyone knew what happened? Why did it have to have a sex scene?
He Xuan said goodbye to him and went back to the hotel first.
Yan Huai felt upset and confused. He balled up the scarf in his hand and left the dressing room.
There were not many people outside, everyone was going home from get off work, and Shang Zhier was waiting for him under the street light.
A gust of cold wind blew by, and Yan Huai sneezed.
Shang Zhier heard the noise and walked towards him: "Why don't you wear your scarf?"
"I don't want to." Yan Huai put on the hood of his sweatshirt, and the wide brim covered his face.
Shang Zhier took the brown scarf from his hand and wrapped it tightly around his neck over his hat to keep the cold wind out.
Yan Huai opened the car door and climbed into the back seat.
Inside the hotel, they walked out of the elevator and went to Yan Huai's room together.
Yan Huai threw the room card and scarf on the table, took off his hat and shook his fluffy hair. He stared at Shang Zhier, ready to die: "Come on!"
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