RSDH CH8

As soon as Cheng Duzhou got off the plane, he sent a message to Duan Xingye. After beating around the bush for a long time, he still couldn’t figure out Duan Xingye’s attitude towards him coming home.

A wheel of cold-blooded sunset hung below the overpass.

Cheng Duzhou got into the car.

“Where to?” his manager, Brother Duo, asked. “Home?”

Cheng Duzhou said, “Bulgari.”

“Bulgari? Why go to a hotel?” Brother Duo didn’t understand. “There’s no event there tonight.”

Cheng Duzhou lowered his long eyelashes and said, “Just drop me off there.”

In the past, when Duan Xingye threw a tantrum, Cheng Duzhou could remain indifferent because, after all, he wasn’t in the wrong.

But the romance variety show interview was different. If Duan Xingye wanted to give him attitude, Cheng Duzhou had no temper to fight back.

He accepted the script first, and during the interview, not only did he disregard Duan Xingye’s feelings, but he also exposed quite a few childhood stories. Duan Xingye’s idol baggage weighed two tons; it was understandable that he would turn angry from embarrassment.

Cheng Duzhou’s intention to seek peace was obvious, but Duan Xingye wouldn’t give him a way out, leaving him unable to return home.

Brother Duo found it strange and glanced through the rearview mirror.

Half of the man’s face was hidden in the twilight flooding in from the window. Only his clear jawline was exposed under the streetlights, making his entire expression obscure and hard to guess.

Brother Duo suddenly thought of something, shivered, gripped the steering wheel firmly, and hesitated again and again.

Right at this moment.

Cheng Duzhou’s phone showed activity. Duan Xingye finally responded to him, sending a voice message.

Brother Duo kept his eyes on the road ahead, his tone becoming stern. “Duzhou, there are some things I shouldn’t say. I know you’ve faced many temptations along your journey. In the past, you were able to ignore them all. Now that you have Little Duan, even if he’s just a partner in name, human ethics still don’t allow you to mess around outside…”

— “Cheng Duzhou, where are you?”

Accompanied by a beep, a melodious male voice with rainbow-like momentum exploded inside the car.

“…”

Brother Duo shut his mouth instantly.

There was no mistaking it; that was the “Little Prince of Iron Lungs.”

It sounded like he was sending a message to hurry him up.

“Sorry.” Cheng Duzhou hadn’t intended to play it on speaker. He took out his Bluetooth earphones and put them in.

Duan Xingye immediately sent another voice message.

— “The password lock at home hasn’t been changed. What are you pretending for?”

Cheng Duzhou tapped play twice, then tapped it again. After listening, he took off the earphones.

He hadn’t paid attention to Brother Duo’s words just now and asked, “What messing around?”

Brother Duo let out a “Hah,” feeling embarrassed himself. He had misunderstood.

So the young couple was going to the hotel for a date, specifically changing to a fresh location to stay. They really knew how to play; absolutely a case of “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Brother Duo laughed. “Nothing! Sit tight, I’ll take you to Bulgari right now!”

“Actually,” Cheng Duzhou changed his mind. “No need to go to the hotel. I’m going home now.”

Brother Duo paused. “Then what about Little Duan…”

Cheng Duzhou looked up, suddenly understanding what Brother Duo meant earlier.

It wasn’t convenient to explain the details, so he only said ambiguously, “Going home is the same.”

…

Duan Xingye saw the message half an hour later. He couldn’t be sure if Cheng Duzhou was waiting at the airport, on his way home, or had gone somewhere else during this time.

Afraid of delaying things, he sent a voice message directly to ask.

What he said about not letting him come home after the interview that day was just angry talk; he didn’t expect Cheng Duzhou to take it as an imperial decree.

Duan Xingye scrolled through the previous chat history again, finally detecting an unusual flavor.

Cheng Duzhou wanted to go home but didn’t say it straight, beating around the bush with vague words, hoping he would relent first.

Dream on. Who spoiled you like this?

But mockery aside, Duan Xingye could still see Cheng Duzhou’s attitude of admitting his mistake.

The sun really rose from the west…

Thinking of a Movie Emperor standing by the street waiting for a car like a stray puppy.

Duan Xingye bit his lower lip, typed, and sent.

Seen: [Idiot.]

All the Way With You posted on Weibo at 8:30 PM.

All the Way With You V:

Just one clip made our editor-sister ship it so hard she forgot to eat and sleep. [Facepalm]

PS: She watched the interview of this CP no less than a hundred times back and forth.

The attached picture showed a girl holding chopsticks, but not taking a single bite of rice, staring intently at the computer screen with eyes full of shimmering tears of happiness.

“Hahahaha I believe it, this is my real expression when I’m shipping sugar.”

“Stop teasing, dare to say the CP name directly?”

” Lü Ye Shu Huai has exited the chat.”

“First, rule out the Cheng-Duan pair. How could anyone ship them to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep?”

“No need to name Lü Ye Shu Huai, it suspects of stepping on them (for clout). CP fans can clearly state it’s not them.”

Duan Xingye scrolled through this Weibo post on his way home and slid down to the comments section.

Duan Xingye knew very well that in the trailer, he and Cheng Duzhou didn’t have love, only mutual destruction. Even if you pressed people’s heads down, they couldn’t ship it.

Fortunately, the netizens’ psychological expectations for them weren’t high to begin with.

A new message notification dropped down from the notification bar above.

Grandpa: [Xingxing, are you busy? The All the Way With You trailer starts at nine. I’ll record it and burn it onto a disc for you. Don’t forget to watch it with Duzhou. This is your first time participating in a variety show together, Grandpa has high hopes. [Strong]]

“…”

The only one who could see through the essence of “existing in name only” yet still believe this marriage had a promising future was his grandpa.

His grandpa was named Kan Dashan, a famous domestic novelist and playwright who treated Duan Xingye like a treasure.

The children’s literature series Little Xingxing, which once swept the country, was created by Kan Dashan based on Duan Xingye. A total of twenty-four volumes allowed Duan Xingye to live as a protagonist in the hearts of children nationwide.

However, Kan Dashan protected Duan Xingye thoroughly; the outside world didn’t know Duan Xingye was his grandson.

Duan Xingye changed his sitting posture and picked up his phone to type.

Seen: [Don’t burn a disc, what era is this? The video can be found online. You’re old, go to sleep early.]

Grandpa: [Xingxing calculated the age wrong, Grandpa is only sixty-nine this year. [Withered]]

Seen: ……

Seen: [Young lad of sixty-nine, do your knees hurt recently? Have you called the doctor for regular checkups?]

Grandpa: [Not hurting, body is fine too. Don’t send those milk powder health supplements home.]

Grandpa: [But sending ginseng and foreign wine is okay. [Rose]]

Seen: [[Smile]]

The young lad is very cheeky.

Grandpa: [Right, Xingxing should smile more.]

Seen: ……

Duan Xingye chatted a few more sentences before Grandpa said the trailer was about to start and had to end the conversation.

Duan Xingye and Cheng Duzhou’s marriage was single-handedly facilitated by Kan Dashan.

Two years ago, when the contract termination scandal was raging, Duan Xingye wasn’t anxious. Instead, he returned alone from Shanghai to his hometown in Yu City to rest.

One day, Cheng Duzhou suddenly appeared in his living room.

That was their second meeting after being apart for many years.

—The first was at the KTV, where neither took the initiative to say hello.

Looking at the big star who should have been attending events in Shanghai, Duan Xingye asked: “What are you doing here?”

Cheng Duzhou: “Meeting the parents.”

“…”

Cheng Duzhou was called by Kan Dashan. What they discussed in the study, Duan Xingye didn’t know.

Three days later, Cheng Duzhou appeared again.

Duan Xingye: “What for?”

Cheng Duzhou: “Proposing marriage.”

“…”

Duan Xingye wanted to enter the entertainment industry, and Kan Dashan knew he couldn’t protect him. He was a national treasure-level master in the literary world, but he couldn’t reason with capital.

Later, Duan Xingye really got into trouble.

Kan Dashan felt distressed and wanted to curse. The record company dared to make Xingxing create hype with unclean people today, and tomorrow they would dare to drag him to sleazy drinking parties.

If Duan Xingye insisted on developing in the entertainment industry, Kan Dashan insisted on finding someone to take care of him.

That person had to be excellent enough, powerful enough, and preferably someone whose background he knew inside out—Cheng Duzhou, whom he watched grow up, became the only candidate.

Cheng Duzhou debuted early and was hardworking himself, having long accumulated extraordinary influence.

After marriage, Duan Xingye wouldn’t be affected by scandals, nor could he be bullied by brokerage firms; he only needed to focus on making music.

Duan Xingye thought his grandpa was joking.

Until Kan Dashan said to him, exhausted and weak: “Don’t make me worry.”

Duan Xingye succumbed.

But marriage takes two to tango. Just as he was wondering how Cheng Duzhou could agree, news was announced online—”Cheng Duzhou will star as the male lead in Elder Kan’s classic work Zhao Ge.”

After that drama, Cheng Duzhou’s acting career went up another level.

So for Cheng Duzhou, he had utility value.

At nine o’clock, the All the Way With You trailer went online on time.

As soon as the screen opened, the video views shot straight to a million.

Half an hour later, Tao Ziyi leisurely opened the video’s official website.

The total length of the trailer was only about twenty minutes. The first batch of viewers had all finished watching. Barring any accidents, the final voting results in the video should have already opened a gap.

His manager smiled and asked from the side, “Confident in taking first place?”

“If first place isn’t me, could it be Duan Xingye?” Tao Ziyi mocked. “Didn’t the official blog say earlier? The editor-sister shipped it so hard she forgot to eat and sleep. Our group is secure.”

The manager smiled until his eyes squinted. “The ratings for this program depend on you and Huang Liang.”

Tao Ziyi didn’t watch the trailer content; he dragged the video progress bar directly to the end.

A prompt popped up:

“Offer flowers to your favorite guests~”

Below were options named after the four groups of guests.

Tao Ziyi naturally offered flowers to his own “Yellow Peach” (Huang-Tao) CP.

After the vote was successful, the system announced the real-time flower count for each group.

[Lü Ye Shu Huai]: 250k

[Yellow Peach]: 20k

Tao Ziyi’s eyes widened.

In the poll, the bar graph for [Lü Ye Shu Huai] was riding the dust alone, leaving the other three groups far behind.

What is the situation!?

Even though he knew the trailer was online, Duan Xingye wasn’t interested in the interview segment where he didn’t perform well. After getting home, he tossed his phone aside and went straight to take a bath.

Just as he was comfortably spreading his limbs in the bathtub filled with hot water, the bathroom door knocked twice.

Cheng Duzhou was back.

Duan Xingye fumbled for the remote control, turned off the surround sound stereo, and shouted: “Bathing.”

Through the door panel, Cheng Duzhou’s voice was duller than usual: “How much longer?”

“Just started soaking.” Duan Xingye slid down, all the bones in his body feeling loose.

Cheng Duzhou knocked his head lightly against the door panel forward.

He never used hotel bathtubs when on business trips, so naturally, he wanted to take a bath after coming home to wash away the fatigue of travel.

But many times, Duan Xingye beat him to it.

“I’ll wait for you,” he said.

“At this hour, you’ll be asleep by the time you’re done waiting.” Duan Xingye looked at the door panel, a teasing mockery flashing in his upturned eyes, irresponsible banter. “Why don’t you come in and…”

Cheng Duzhou wouldn’t come in. In the past when the bathroom was occupied, he either waited or gave up and used the shower outside the bedroom.

— Click.

Before Duan Xingye finished speaking, the door opened, and Cheng Duzhou walked in.

“…”

Duan Xingye stared at Cheng Duzhou for two seconds and propped himself up.

He had only been soaking for a short while, yet his fair cheeks had already steamed into a lovely pink.

Why didn’t Cheng Duzhou ever… in the past…

Then he thought of it.

I never issued an invitation in the past.

…Fuck.

Duan Xingye sat in the bathtub, unconsciously retracting his long limbs and curling up: “You…”

Cheng Duzhou unbuttoned his cuffs, looked up, and gazed at him with a frank look of “Is there a problem?”.

Duan Xingye exhaled two breaths in the scorching steam and turned his face to the other side.

Forget it.

For the sake of him obediently admitting his mistake today, if we wash together, we wash together.

…But it can’t be this clear.

Duan Xingye turned sideways, rummaging in the wall cabinet: “Huh? Where’s my bubble bath ball?”

The water splashed down, winding along his lean, snow-white back.

Cheng Duzhou’s eye color deepened. He looked down, only half-unbuttoned his cuffs, and instead raised his hand to unbutton his shirt.

…

…

…

When leaving the bathroom, Duan Xingye kept a straight face, but the rims of his eyes were red.

He got into bed, pulled the quilt up to his neck, and glanced at Cheng Duzhou: “Please have some self-respect for the next month!”

After dropping the harsh words, he turned over forcefully.

“…”

Cheng Duzhou stood by the bed holding a pillow, looking at the back of Duan Xingye’s head, confused.

He was the one who felt good, yet he’s the one unhappy in the end.

Duan Xingye couldn’t fall asleep for a while. He fumbled for the phone on the bedside table. The screen lit up, illuminating his face covered in a flush.

He didn’t know if it was because the lights were bright or because they unlocked a new location, but Cheng Duzhou was particularly excessive today… excessive to the point of being annoying.

It was already midnight, and there were many unread notifications on the phone.

In the WeChat column, Xiao Dai’s message was pressed at the top.

Xiao Dai: [Teacher Duan, you and President Cheng are my gods!]

“?”

Duan Xingye clicked into the chat box. There was a trending search share link above.

#BambooHorseLitShinesIntoReality#

The page jumped, and he saw the top post in the topic.

Bitter Tea Seed:

Ten years of childhood companionship, feelings sprouted at sixteen. Counting from then, Cheng Duzhou had a secret crush for a full seven years. Fortunately, the person beside him in the end is him.

Godly love, I can’t live without shipping this [Loud Crying]

“?”

What nonsense are they talking about?

__

Author’s Note:

Teacher Duan: Godly love can never catch up to me.