FLME Ch63

When the makeup artist pushed the door back open, she felt the atmosphere in the room had grown even more subtle.

Teacher Xiao Yu and his manager were sitting in their original spots—one adjusting the loose bangs on his forehead, the other looking down at his phone. Neither spoke a word, not even exchanging eye contact; their interaction was dead silent, stiff as a board.

Yet, the makeup artist sensitively caught a whiff of undercurrent-like ambiguity brewing beneath this stiffness.

It didn’t look like they were fighting; rather, it looked like they were deliberately keeping their distance.

She suppressed a chuckle at her own thoughts. Walking up to the mirror, she noticed Yu Wen had taken off his jacket. “Is Teacher Xiao Yu feeling hot? Your face is red too, flushed pink like a peach,” she teased.

Yu Wen smoothed his bangs, which had gotten messed up during the hug, and replied awkwardly, “A little… Maybe the AC is set too high…”

The makeup artist picked up the remote and lowered the temperature by two degrees. Noticing that the curtains had somehow been drawn to cover the security camera, she walked over to the window and pulled them open. Passing by the manager—arguably the youngest young man she had ever seen in the management industry—she saw him staring at his phone with tight brows, looking as if he were grappling with an unsolvable problem. A faint blush traced from the base of his ears down his neck.

Young people run hot, the makeup artist thought to herself. Both of them are flushed red to the neck from the heat.

It was already late when they finished shooting the character posters and headed home. Xie Heyu was driving, while Xiao Zhou and Xiao Zhong chattered away in the back seat, discussing how perfect Yu Wen’s styling was today and how much buzz the posters would generate once released. Xiao Zhong even ventured, “Who knows, maybe it’ll snag an award. Best Supporting Actor wouldn’t be too far of a stretch, right?”

“…You guys sure dare to dream.” Yu Wen was utterly shocked. Should he say birds of a feather flock together? Starlight Media’s employees were practically cut from the exact same cloth as their boss—experts at popping champagne at halftime, and especially fond of drawing up big pies just to eat them themselves…

Wait, no. The drama hadn’t even started filming yet. It wasn’t even halftime; they were popping champagne at the kickoff!

Xiao Zhou pushed up her glasses and analyzed seriously, “Moonlight Harbor is adapted from a short suspense novel. In the original work, there was no romance line between the male and female leads. Director Miao’s script elevated them to soulmates, but they still aren’t a CP. If you insist on finding one, the emotional core of the entire drama rests on your character. If shot well, Teacher Xiao Yu will definitely reap the most dividends.”

Xiao Zhong chimed in, “Yeah, exactly! Suspense dramas like this are prime material for awards. If someone from the main cast is destined to win one, why can’t it be our Teacher Xiao Yu?”

The main storyline of Moonlight Harbor was brilliant. The female lead was a modern, grassroots police officer who accidentally time-traveled. After surviving a massive explosion, she returned to the modern era. However, because she objectively hadn’t escaped the bizarre magnetic field of time travel, and subjectively couldn’t let go of the more than six hundred lives lost in the explosion, she initiated a second, a third… an infinite number of time-travel loops.

Every time she time-traveled, she returned to the initial point in time. The drama’s title, Moonlight Harbor, was precisely the location where she appeared upon every time-travel. She was an outsider journeying from afar, anchoring herself in a harbor named Moonlight.

The story was introduced from the male lead’s perspective. At the beginning, the manager of Moonlight Harbor came to the Fu family to report that a strange woman had appeared at the docks recently. She seemed to have swam up from the sea in the middle of the night and had been sitting on the pier in a daze ever since, refusing to leave. Her tone implied she was incredibly familiar with the eldest young master of the Fu family. The manager didn’t dare make a reckless decision and came to ask Young Master Fu for judgment.

When Fu Mingshen rushed over, he saw the woman sitting on the pier, gazing into the distance, swinging her legs. Her hair was very short, barely reaching her ears, blown messy by the wind. When she smiled, she radiated a heroic, valiant spirit.

She said, “Morning, Shen-ge.”

This was a very bizarre woman.

Fu Mingshen was certain there was no place for her in his memory, yet she was intimately familiar with him—from his dietary preferences and way of speaking to his daily habits… She was even thoroughly acquainted with the entire Fu family compound.

Where did this woman come from? What was her identity? What conspiracy was she harboring?

The story began from here.

Through a series of investigations, the female lead’s suspects changed one after another, finally locking onto Song Mingzhu. Under her relentless pursuit, Song Mingzhu’s two-faced nature gradually surfaced. This was the most high-stakes confrontation in the early plot. Twists upon twists: the female lead investigated, the male lead assisted, and Song Mingzhu continuously shook off suspicion only to be targeted again…

It was a sheer adrenaline rush.

Of course, Song Mingzhu wasn’t the true culprit. His traits did highly overlap with the sociopathic profile the female lead had deduced, but his obsession was his brother; he wasn’t desperate enough to drag everyone down to hell with him.

The bond between the male lead, the female lead, and Song Mingzhu was also very intriguing. Yu Wen had read Director Miao’s revised draft. The female lead’s ideological altitude as a people’s police officer earned Fu Mingshen’s deep admiration, leading him to hold a special appreciation for her. Through her investigation, the female lead developed boundless pity for Song Mingzhu, who had grown up in a twisted environment, and attempted to instill core socialist values in him—her treatment of him was highly unique. As for Song Mingzhu… it went without saying that he was the only one oblivious to his own massive, one-sided crush on the male lead.

These three formed an incredibly bizarre triangle. It wasn’t necessarily romantic love; perhaps it was admiration or pity, but they were definitely massive, one-sided arrows. When Yu Wen read it, he was dumbfounded, thinking: Forget the arrows, you three just living a good life together would be better than anything else.

Xiao Zhou and Xiao Zhong had also read the script and knew how brilliant the content was, which was why they dared to dream of winning awards.

“Brother Xie, don’t you agree?” Xiao Zhong tried to pull Xie Heyu into the group chat.

Xie Heyu wasn’t much of a talker to begin with, and he talked even less while driving. He had been listening silently, but suddenly being cued, he instinctively glanced at Yu Wen and smiled faintly. “Winning an award or not isn’t important. What matters is that your Teacher Xiao Yu likes this role.”

Xiao Zhong replied, “Liking the role and winning an award don’t conflict, though.”

Yu Wen gripped the backrest, turned around, and said, “I’m telling you guys to hang out less with the boss. Stop learning his bad habit of drawing big pies for himself. We need to be pragmatic, understand? Happiness is the most important thing. If we don’t win an award this time, there’s always next time.”

He was never particularly ambitious about his career. Pursuing the role of Song Mingzhu this time was purely because he liked the character, and because he felt his acting had improved significantly, he wanted to experience the feeling of fully immersing himself in shaping a character. If it had to be tied to his career trajectory, he’d find the whole thing quite meaningless and would just want to lie flat.

The two assistants didn’t understand his mindset and murmured their agreement in confusion. Turning back around, Yu Wen’s gaze accidentally met Xie Heyu’s, and he flashed a small smile.

“Huh, what’s this… You know how to fold paper boat hats too?” There was a flat object folded from newspaper placed casually yet conspicuously on the dashboard. Noticing it, Yu Wen picked it up to inspect it and realized it was a little hat meant to be worn on the head, even stained with a few specks of paint.

Yu Wen had completely forgotten about his past handicraft and laughed, “I know how to fold this too! I fold it exactly the same way you do…”

Xie Heyu said, “It is yours.”

Yu Wen looked surprised. After a moment, he chuckled, “Ah, I left it in your car that time we painted the walls… Why did you keep it?”

Xie Heyu replied, “The fake answer is: I was worried you might want it back.”

Yu Wen: “And the real answer?”

Xie Heyu: “…You look very cute wearing this hat. Kept it as a souvenir.”

Teacher Xie was the kind of person who either didn’t speak or spoke only to drop explosives.

Yu Wen noticed the paper hat had signs of being unfolded and refolded. Clearly, Xie Heyu hadn’t just kept it; he occasionally took it out to look at it. What was the saying… seeing the object and thinking of the person.

Fiddling with the paper hat, he felt a bit embarrassed and asked, “Where were you keeping it? I ride in your car all the time, how come I’ve never seen it?”

Xie Heyu: “I had to hide it before, afraid you’d find out.”

Yu Wen: “…”

He didn’t even dare ask further, afraid Xie Heyu would drop another outrageous line. But having confirmed their relationship, Teacher Xie clearly felt a bit fearless and immediately followed up with: “Not afraid anymore. I let you see it on purpose.”

“…” Yu Wen covered his face with the paper hat and mumbled as softly as a mosquito, “Stop talking…”

The assistants are still here!

Good thing he still remembered the two assistants.

At first, Xiao Zhou and Xiao Zhong tried to comprehend the conversation and chime in, but eventually realized it was encrypted dialogue and couldn’t understand a single sentence. They simply lowered their heads and played on their phones, their attention having drifted far away from the two up front.

When the car pulled into the neighborhood, Yu Wen didn’t go back to the dorm. Instead, he planned to head to Xie Heyu’s house first to fetch those glasses and send a picture to Director Miao.

Ever since the confession misunderstanding, Yu Wen had never gone out for a night run again, mostly to avoid running into Xie Jialin. He couldn’t face the uncle; it was simply too awkward.

Xie Heyu seemed to know he was uncomfortable and repeatedly assured him that no one was home. Xie Jialin was out playing cards and wouldn’t be back until eleven or twelve.

Yu Wen relented. Upon reflection, he felt the phrase “no one is home” sounded a bit strange, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint why.

Arriving at the villa, the house was indeed empty, the lights off.

Yu Wen breathed a sigh of relief. Xie Heyu poured him a glass of water and told him to wait on the sofa for a moment.

“I’ll go upstairs to grab it. Do you want to come up and take a look?” Xie Heyu rested his hand on the staircase railing, glancing back slightly as he asked in a seemingly casual tone.

Yu Wen’s fingers curled inward. Going into someone else’s room wasn’t very appropriate, but this wasn’t someone else—this was his boyfriend.

Come to think of it, he had absolutely no idea what kind of person Xie Heyu was in his past.

He set down his water glass, bounded up the stairs in a few quick steps, naturally took Xie Heyu’s hand, and said obediently, “I want to see. I also want to see your wardrobe and wear your clothes.”

Literally. He had been craving Xie Heyu’s excellently tailored, low-key, and comfortable hoodies for a long time.

Xie Heyu raised an eyebrow slightly. Seeing his innocent smile, he felt too embarrassed to voice the dirty thoughts popping into his own head.

Usually so smart, but when it comes to romance, he looks like the type to be eaten clean and still help count the money for the perpetrator.

Entering the room, Xie Heyu locked the door behind them.

Xie Heyu’s room was just like the man himself—organized so immaculately it bordered on OCD. The crucial part was that he remembered where every single little item was placed. When Yu Wen casually asked about a few accessories he had seen on him before, Xie Heyu accurately recited the exact layer, row, and position from left to right in his accessory cabinet.

Yu Wen pulled an entire drawer out and asked Xie Heyu, “Can you gift this whole drawer to me? My dear boyfriend.”

He even knew how to act sweet, deliberately changing his address to ‘boyfriend’ and specially tacking on a ‘dear’ prefix.

Xie Heyu’s accessories were numerous and varied. Some were bought off cheap shared bikes, some were bought while strolling through malls, and some were limited editions accidentally acquired that couldn’t be bought twice.

Yu Wen’s eyes were terrifyingly sharp; he pulled out the most precious drawer right off the bat.

Leaning against the wardrobe door, Xie Heyu pondered, “It’s doable, but what’s in it for me?”

“In it for you?” Yu Wen pursed his lips and racked his brains. “Mm… I’ll gift you something later too, something very precious. How about that?”

Xie Heyu shook his head. “I don’t eat drawn pies.”

Yu Wen was so frustrated by this line he laughed, arguing, “I wasn’t drawing a pie!”

Teacher Xie was exceptionally iron-hearted today; no matter what Yu Wen said, he simply wouldn’t agree.

Holding a drawer full of treasures, Yu Wen sensed a subtle nuance in Xie Heyu’s continuous head-shaking.

After hesitating for a moment, Yu Wen put the drawer down.

“Is this what you want?” He stepped closer, grabbed Xie Heyu’s collar to make his boyfriend lower his head slightly, and gave him a fleeting, butterfly kiss.

Xie Heyu stopped moving.

Yu Wen confirmed it: He just wanted a kiss.

He thought to himself, This cool-guy boyfriend is so secretly eager; he wants kisses but refuses to say it.

But he’s also very cute. I like it.

Yu Wen asked, “How many kisses will it take for you to gift me these pretty accessories?”

Actually, one is enough, Xie Heyu thought to himself.

But he remained silent, his intuition telling him that as long as he didn’t speak, he could reap some unexpected extra benefits.

Sure enough, seeing his silence, Yu Wen muttered to himself, “Kiss… let’s do five kisses, okay? I’m not very good at it, so if you feel uncomfortable, just tell me…”

Saying that, Teacher Xiao Yu nervously licked his lips, and under Xie Heyu’s deep, intense gaze, slowly pressed his lips up against his.

_

Xie Jialin was in an exceptionally good mood today.

He ignored his poker buddies’ pleas to stay and insisted on going home, because he had seen his family’s silent gourd on TV!

Well, not TV exactly, but a projection. That morning, Starlight Media had released the highly anticipated after-sales content for the Evil-Hero ship—three video clips that had been fermenting online since the morning. The official Battle Royale account had even retweeted the posts.

Xie Jialin’s internet surfing speed was rather slow, so he only saw it that evening. While playing cards, one of his buddies noticed the video. Since Xie Jialin had previously bragged about this young friend he felt a special affinity with, everyone paid a bit of attention whenever Yu Wen’s related info popped up.

Xie Jialin took a look, and the more he looked, the more he felt something was amiss. While he wasn’t close enough to his son to recognize him solely by his back, the video was produced by Starlight Media. His brother’s company only had a handful of employees in total. Given the striking physical resemblance, there was a high probability it was Xie Heyu.

So he called Xie Jiamao to ask. Upon receiving a positive confirmation, he instantly beamed with joy, eagerly beckoning his poker buddies to appreciate these three short clips that totaled less than three minutes.

After being bombarded with a chaotic barrage of rainbow-fart praise from his buddies, Xie Jialin’s ego inflated. He began to feel that the Xie family’s artistic cells might truly be reviving this time around, and that his son actually possessed some potential to become an arts student.

He promptly excused himself from the card game and headed home, planning to whip up something delicious to encourage Xie Heyu’s brave foray into the entertainment industry.

As he walked through the door, he was still talking about it in the family group chat. The silent gourd was doing who-knew-what; despite tagging him and sending private messages, he just wouldn’t make a peep.

Then, Xie Jialin noticed Xie Heyu’s shoes at the entryway. Next to them was another pair, a smaller size. He didn’t pay it much mind, thinking it was great that Xie Heyu was home—the father and son could have a face-to-face, heart-to-heart conversation.

He bounded up to the second floor in a few strides. Just as he knocked on Xie Heyu’s door, a flurry of clattering and banging erupted from within. He didn’t know what was going on, but it sounded like a frantic scramble.

Xie Jialin shouted boisterously, “My precious son, come out! Papa wants to reward you!”

After a moment of chaos, the noise inside stopped.

Xie Jialin: “Son? Precious son?! Hurry and come out! Do you have anything you want to eat?! Do you want a house? Want some pocket money?”

After waiting for about ten minutes, the door finally opened a small crack. Xie Heyu’s features were shrouded in shadow, his expression cold and aloof.

Before Xie Jialin could even open his mouth, Xie Heyu said, “Don’t want to eat, don’t want anything. I’m busy. Stop being noisy.”

…Ten short words completely choked Xie Jialin back. Stroking his bald head, he let out a melancholy sigh.

Raising a silent gourd really is no fun. He isn’t affectionate at all. Not nearly as fun as Xiao Yu…

He had no choice but to say, “When you’re done, come downstairs. Dad has something to tell you.”

Xie Heyu nodded expressionlessly. Watching Xie Jialin walk away, he closed the door, walked to the wardrobe tucked in the furthest corner against the wall, slid it open, and harvested a little fish who had buried his face in his knees, playing dead.

“…Yu Wen,” Xie Heyu called out, sighing helplessly. “We’re not having an illicit affair, why did you have to hide in the closet?”

Yu Wen refused to look up, his voice muffled. “Didn’t you say no one was home…”

Xie Heyu fell silent for a moment. “A miscalculation. My apologies.”

After a good deal of coaxing, Yu Wen clutched Xie Heyu’s hand and crawled out of the wardrobe, his legs still wobbly. Anyone watching would think they had committed some heinous crime, when in fact they had just been kissing a bit too passionately.

He blinked, asking Xie Heyu with intense nervousness: “Is the uncle going to leave again? If he doesn’t leave, how am I supposed to get out?”

“…”

Xie Heyu paused subtly.

“If he doesn’t leave, you can’t get out… Just sleep here tonight.”