Chapter 21 "I was once the one who was gazed at lovingly by a superstar!"
Chu Yi had just filed the last medical record when his phone vibrated in his pocket. After 24 hours of continuous duty, his solar plexus felt like it was being pricked by needles, and even his fingertips felt a chill of weariness.
Chu Yi took out his cell phone and saw that the caller ID was Qi Yuan. This kid had been quiet for a week, which was unusual, since he had been drunk unconscious in the bar last week and had to be stuffed into a taxi and sent home by Chu Yi.
"What's wrong?" Chu Yi answered the phone, his voice slightly hoarse after staying up all night, as if covered with a thin layer of dust.
"Ayi!" Qi Yuan's voice, always high in the octave and lively, penetrated the airwaves, forming a sharp contrast with the silence on his side. "Help! Brother Yingzhi's birthday is next week. Come with me to buy him a present! I can't do it alone."
Chu Yi pressed his brows, then vaguely remembered that Cheng Yingzhi's birthday seemed to be coming soon. He had never been sensitive to these dates.
"I just got off the night shift today." There was no emotion in Chu Yi's tone, and he continued to speak calmly.
"That's perfect! Come out for a walk to wake yourself up! I'm at the Guomao area, why don't you just come over?" Qi Yuan took advantage of the situation and didn't give him any chance to refuse.
"...Okay." Chu Yi looked at the time. He really had nowhere to go. Going home to face the empty apartment would just be a way to catch up on some sleep.
Inside Beijing's largest shopping mall, the air conditioning was so intense it made one's skin shiver. The polished marble floor reflected the dazzling lights and the logos of various luxury brands, and the air was filled with the mixed scent of expensive fragrances and money.
As soon as Qi Yuan came in, he was like a fish in water. He quickly forgot what he had said before, "buy a gift for Cheng Yingzhi", and scanned the windows of various shops with his shining eyes.
"Ayi, what do you think of this co-branded sweatshirt? It's a limited edition!"
"Hey, the color combination of these shoes is amazing! I have to try them!"
"Wow, I didn't even know when this figure was released!"
Chu Yi followed him, a silent shadow, watching Qi Yuan wander from the trendy brand store to the electronics store, his hands full of shopping bags growing larger and larger, yet almost none of them were for the birthday boy. He didn't bother to remind him, having grown accustomed to Qi Yuan's pretextual desire to shop.
Two hours later, Qi Yuan finally stopped in front of an LV store, as if he had just remembered something important.
"Oh, right, the gift!" He slapped his head and pulled Chu Yi in.
The VIP room's door blocked out the outside noise. The velvet sofa softly supported my tired body. The salesgirl, dressed in a neatly ironed uniform and white gloves, quietly brought me water and hand-poured coffee.
Chu Yi didn't touch the coffee. He just picked up the ice water and took a sip. The cold liquid slid down his throat, slightly suppressing the surging tiredness.
Qi Yuan was surrounded by salesgirls, trying on a new waist bag with great interest, looking at himself left and right in the mirror.
Chu Yi leaned back on the sofa, his unfocused gaze directed towards the huge floor-to-ceiling glass wall of the VIP room.
The shopping mall's atrium boasts exceptionally high ceilings, offering a wide field of vision. Consequently, the massive advertising screens hanging on the facades of the buildings opposite them irresistibly and overwhelmingly fill the entire field of vision.
Just one glance and Chu Yi was stunned.
On all the big screens, whether in the deep background of watch ads, in the hazy halo of perfume ads, or even in the top luxury ready-to-wear blockbusters scrolling on giant LED screens - it's all Zhou Ai.
Different shapes, different postures, as the picture changes, the cold and unruly, lazy and charming, and affectionate are all perfectly presented on Zhou Ai's face.
The face was infinitely magnified, so detailed that one could clearly see the shadow of each eyelash and every ray of light in the eyes.
At that moment, Zhou Ai was like the king of this material world, looking down at all the living beings under his feet.
Chu Yi looked up, his gaze finally fixed on the advertisement that almost occupied the entire wall opposite the VIP room.
The background of the picture is extremely white.
Zhou Ai was wearing a beautifully tailored black suit, which contrasted greatly with the background yet blended in perfectly.
Crisp, premium fabrics gleam luxuriously in the carefully placed light.
Looking down, Zhou Ai was holding a large bunch of pink roses in his arms, which was in stark contrast to his cold appearance. The color was so saturated that it was almost blinding.
He leaned slightly to one side, his jawline forming a sharp curve, but his eyes looked straight at the camera accurately.
Or rather - he looked through the lens and into the eyes of everyone who was looking at him at that moment.
Chu Yi stood there facing the large advertising screen that almost occupied the entire wall. When he looked up, his eyes were caught off guard and bumped into it.
In an instant, all the sounds around seemed to disappear completely.
All that remained was the huge image with its oppressive beauty, and the person in the image who seemed to be able to see into the depths of his soul.
Chu Yi suddenly recalled the clinic filled with the smell of disinfectant a few days ago.
That person used the same look, pressing forward step by step, with a playful smile, and easily exposed the mask he was trying to maintain, as well as the lie about the scar cream.
“Are there many patients who refer out of pocket?”
Those words, across time and space, struck his eardrums again clearly.
Chu Yi's fingertips gripping the glass tightened slightly, but the cold touch couldn't dispel the subtle and chaotic throbbing that suddenly arose in his heart.
He just stared blankly at the ubiquitous eyes in the advertisement, forgetting to look away for a moment.
Qi Yuan finally lost interest in the waist bag and turned around to express his opinion to Chu Yi about whether Cheng Yingzhi would think it was too fancy.
But Chu Yi tilted his head slightly, his gaze fixed, and the lines of his profile appeared a little distant under the soft light of the VIP room. It was as if the whole person was paused, with an invisible barrier between him and the luxurious and flowing atmosphere around him.
"What are you looking at so intently?" Qi Yuan came over curiously and looked out the window following Chu Yi's gaze.
The next second, he exclaimed exaggeratedly, "Zhou Ai! He's everywhere, what a sight! He's so handsome, with such a face and such aura, God must be chasing him to feed him..."
Chu Yi was awakened by Qi Yuan's voice and came back to his senses, only to realize that he had been distracted by Zhou Ai's advertisement for a long time.
He withdrew his gaze and picked up the water glass in a disguised manner, but his fingertips revealed an imperceptible pause.
Just as he turned around, he heard a clear "click" sound in his ears.
It's the sound of a cell phone camera.
Chu Yi looked in the direction of the voice and saw Qi Yuan holding up a cell phone with the screen still on, and the camera had clearly just been retracted from his direction.
Qi Yuan had an excited smile on his face as if he had succeeded in a prank, and he lowered his head to admire his "masterpiece".
"What are you filming?" Chu Yi asked, with a hint of surprise still lingering in his voice.
"Don't move, don't move! That picture just now is amazing!" Qi Yuan shouted excitedly, his fingers moving quickly on the screen, as if zooming in to see the details. "Ayi, come and see! The composition, the atmosphere, it's amazing!"
Chu Yi frowned and walked over. Qi Yuan handed the phone to him like he was presenting a treasure.
On the screen is a photo that has just been taken.
The composition of the photograph possesses a certain unintentional sophistication. In the foreground is Chu Yi's slightly slender silhouette, dressed in a simple shirt. His shoulders, fatigued by continuous shifts, slacken slightly, creating a sense of quiet languor. He tilts his head slightly upward, gazing beyond the frame. Though merely a silhouette, he inexplicably exudes a preoccupation, drawn, even possessed, by something intangible.
The main subject of the image, and even the background, is completely occupied by the enormous billboard opposite. Zhou Ai's image is crystal clear on the screen. He's dressed in a black suit, cradling a vibrant pink rose. His eyes, peering through the lens, are deep and penetrating, as if he's gazing intently through the bustling mall and the cold glass at the figure in the photo, facing away from the camera.
Even more fortuitously, due to the camera's angle, Zhou Ai's gaze landed squarely on Chu Yi's back. The bouquet of luscious roses seemed to be handed to Chu Yi.
Light and shadow interweave, reality and huge images are in the same frame at this moment.
Chu Yi's realistic back, with its weary air of the world, forms a strange and strong contrast and echo with Zhou Ai's meticulously crafted, exaggerated perfection and cold luxury in the advertisement.
It’s as if two dimensions collided abruptly yet harmoniously, silently telling an unspoken story.
"Look, look," Qi Yuan was still excitedly tapping the screen, "Doesn't it look like a movie poster? You seem to be looking at him... but it also seems like you're not looking at him, but he's definitely looking at you! That look is amazing! Hey, Ayi, were you just mesmerized by this?"
Chu Yi's gaze fell on the photo, looking at his own back in the photo and Zhou Ai's gaze that almost swallowed everything.
The coolness brought by the ice water seemed to spread from my fingertips again, and a subtle sense of embarrassment, as if I had captured evidence, mixed with the residual palpitations brought by the advertisement, quietly rose in my heart.
He did not answer Qi Yuan's question, but just looked at the photo silently. After a moment, he looked away indifferently and drank the ice water in his hand.
"Deleted." His voice was flat, and no emotion could be heard.
"Delete it? No way!" Qi Yuan immediately hid his phone behind his back, as if protecting something precious, his eyes wide open with a look of "don't even think about it". "This photo is so artistic! It's a stroke of genius. If I delete it, I'll be punished by God!"
Chu Yi frowned even more and reached out to take it: "Qi Yuan, stop making trouble. There's nothing worth keeping."
"Why is it boring?" Qi Yuan dodged nimbly, playing hide-and-seek with Chu Yi around the velvet sofa, his voice full of self-righteous cunning. "Look at this composition, this light and shadow, this sense of story! The cold superstar gazes affectionately at the tired little doctor... What a contrasting cuteness! Maybe a casual shot of mine will be a piece of contemporary art!"
“…”
Chu Yi's solar plexus began to ache again at his perverse reasoning. The 24-hour shift had consumed most of his energy, leaving him with no energy left to engage in a physical battle with the energetic Qi Yuan.
He stopped, pressed his forehead, and said with undeniable fatigue: "Qi Yuan, delete it. I don't like it."
Perhaps because he heard the rare and real weariness in Chu Yi's voice, Qi Yuan restrained his playful smile a little, but still insisted: "Oh, Yi, it's just a photo, I won't post it on WeChat Moments! I promise not to show it to anyone, can't I just keep it for my own enjoyment?" As he spoke, his fingers operated quickly on the back of the phone.
Chu Yi was about to speak again when he felt the phone in his pocket vibrate.
He subconsciously took it out and looked at it. The screen lit up, showing that there was a new message from Qi Yuan.
Click on it.
It’s the photo just now.
Qi Yuan was even considerate enough to send the original picture over, which was high-definition and lossless, with every detail crystal clear - his focused back, Zhou Ai's penetrating gaze, and the bunch of pink roses that seemed to burn his retina.
"Look!" Qi Yuan came over as if to take credit, grinning, "I sent you one too! Sharing joy is worse than enjoying it alone! When you're old, you can take out this photo and reminisce about how you were once the recipient of a superstar's 'passionate gaze'!"
Chu Yi looked at the photo on the screen, then raised his eyes to look at the huge Zhou Ai on the billboard opposite.
An extremely complex, indescribable feeling enveloped him. He wanted to press the delete key immediately, but his fingertips hovered above the screen and did not fall.
In the end, he simply turned off the screen and silently stuffed the phone back into his pocket. Without glancing at Qi Yuan or the billboard again, he turned and walked towards the door of the VIP room, his voice lacking any emotion: "...Aren't you going to buy a gift for Cheng Yingzhi? Are you still going to take a look?"
Qi Yuan proudly made a "V" sign behind him, knowing that Ayi would always compromise in the end.
He quickly caught up, chattering again: "Look, look! Of course! Hey, do you think Brother Yingzhi will like that flashy fluorescent tie? I think it suits him perfectly..."
Chu Yi seemed to be listening, yet not listening. The phone in his pocket seemed to still retain the weight and warmth of the image from earlier, hanging heavy against the side of his leg.
That photo was not deleted after all.
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