WAM CH49

Shao Si didn’t know how he got back to the hotel. The few hours he spent at ‘Zuisheng Mengsi’ were truly a wild, drunken dream.

Even in his sleep, he could feel the residual hit of alcohol surging up, his head throbbing, making his sleep fitful throughout the night.

Early the next morning, Li Guangzong came knocking at the door.

Li Guangzong: “Dad, open the door! Time to get up! …Or I’m coming right in.”

Shao Si rolled over inside the blanket, covering his ears without making a sound.

Li Guangzong used the spare key to unlock the door, crept inside quietly, and placed the meal box at the entryway.

“This morning is your solo scene. Have you memorized your lines thoroughly? While there’s still half an hour left, want me to practice with you?” After getting him up, Li Guangzong started worrying about work. Because he had read today’s script, and the content was a bit… um… wait, what?…

“Rehearse that scene with you, my ass,” Shao Si sat half up, squinted his eyes and ruffled his hair, and only after a long pause got out of bed with unsteady steps, veering into the bathroom while taking off his top as he walked. “I’m taking a shower, wait a moment.”

Li Guangzong, as usual, expressed disdain for his terrible mysophobia that who-knows-who had spoiled him into.

Shao Si ignored him and directly shut the door.

Before long, the sound of running water echoed from the bathroom.

Only now did the smile on Li Guangzong’s face gradually fade away.

He recalled the past when Shao Si had gotten into a physical fight with Qi Ming and was almost shelved by the company. Back then, they rushed around third-tier gigs, playing bit parts everywhere…

He still remembered how once, after Shao Si finished an explosion scene with a layer of dust covering his face, he sat cross-legged on the ground eating a boxed meal, picking at it, barely eating a few mouthfuls. Yet it was this very Shao Si who comforted him, saying: “It’s pretty good, let’s take it step by step.”

And step by step, they had walked all the way to the present.

Shao Si indeed showered very quickly; after about ten minutes, the water stopped.

“You might not believe it, but I went out with Gu Yanzhou yesterday to seek sponsorships,” Shao Si found a phrasing toeing the line between truth and lie to spare Li Guangzong’s heart from taking a blow. Finishing his sentence, he changed the subject: “…What’s for breakfast?”

Li Guangzong opened the meal box: “Sandwich.”

With a towel hung around his neck and water droplets slowly dripping down his cheeks, Shao Si sat down, checked the time, said no more, and reviewed his script while eating.

Today’s scene was a bit embarrassing, he had to hide in the dressing room backstage at the opera troupe… to jerk off.

Regarding this plot point, when Li Guangzong first read through the script, he was the first to step up and express concerns: “This might not be so appropriate. Can we change it to be a bit more pure? We should give the audience a positive, uplifting image. Besides, look at him, he looks like someone with zero sex life. Making him jerk off, no matter how you think about it…”

Shao Si kicked him: “Mind your tongue! Who has no sex life?”

Li Guangzong stated bluntly: “…You.”

Listening to this, Director Ou slammed the table and stood up: “Xiao Zong, what do you know?! Sex springs from the heart! This scene of jerking off absolutely cannot be changed, cannot be changed; it gives the whole character and historical background more tension, fully embodying this suppressed society, that kind of unventable… do you understand, lust!”

…He didn’t really understand.

8:00 AM.

Gu Yanzhou and Chen Yang had nothing to do in the morning and arrived somewhat late. Delayed by about half an hour, as soon as they walked over, they saw half the crew jammed at the makeup room doorway from afar, with conversations like these wafting out from time to time:

“Good, stuff your hand into your pants.”

“Stroking, stroke slowly for the first three reps.”

“Once it gets hard, speed up your hand, keep your facial expressions under control.”

“Let out a couple of moans, the very suppressed kind. Wait, gaffer, what the hell is with your lighting? It’s way too bright!”

Chen Yang: “…”

He truly had never seen a spectacle like this. He hadn’t read the entire script for Mask either; except for Gu Yanzhou’s parts which he had perused word for word, he wasn’t quite as clear about the other actors’ scenes.

“What’s going on here? Why do these words sound so bizarre…”

It was indeed very bizarre.

Shao Si had never had a masturbation session spectated by a massive crowd—gaffer, camera crew, directing team, screenwriters, makeup artists… adding up to over a dozen people all together.

Director Ou gave directions up front for a long while before finally checking his watch, gesturing for the staff around him to halt first, standing up to question: “Shao Si, are you unable to get hard?”

Shao Si touched his soft little brother: “…”

Li Guangzong chimed in at the right moment: “Director Ou, look, how about this; let’s still change it a bit, or make the camera work… more indirect, like only filming his face… and then the lighting could be a bit dimmer… hazy beauty, how about it…”

“Not good at all,” Director Ou rejected without even looking, then continued to ask, “Xiao Si, don’t be shy, are you unable to get hard?”

“There is absolutely zero problem with my sexual function,” Shao Si said expressionlessly, shooting a look at the staff member who was practically pressing the camera right against his crotch, “If these comrades could avoid clinging so closely to me, that is.”

…

After crew adjustments, the slate operator clapped the board and shouted: “Scene 13, Take 2, Shot 2!”

Director Ou: “Lighting in position, camera crew control yourselves, stay back from him.”

Shao Si took a deep breath. Just as he was about to close his eyes, out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Gu Yanzhou standing on the outermost edge of the crowd.

Immediately after, as if discovering a whole new continent, Director Ou said with uncontrollable joy: “It’s hard! Very good! Very good! Hold it!”

Shao Si tilted his head back, his eyes completely closed. Gu Yanzhou’s figure was merely a fleeting flash in his vision. Yet within the total darkness, another Gu Yanzhou surfaced before his eyes with increasing clarity.

—That was what happened after he blacked out from drinking yesterday.

He had hooked his arms around Gu Yanzhou’s neck and kissed him for about a minute… the moment he pressed up against him became the focus of the crowd, but once the light shifted away, Gu Yanzhou quickly turned the tables and took control.

Comparing kissing skills with Gu Yanzhou, Shao Si was still far behind.

Gu Yanzhou’s kiss differed from his exterior, it was a bit rough. Like a wild beast lowering its head to lick tenderly, while casually biting down playfully as it did so.

Shao Si’s lower lip was soon bitten by him until a fine, dense ache flared up. He let out a low “Mhm,” vaguely sensing danger. Just as he wanted to pull away, Gu Yanzhou didn’t yield an inch, pressing down on the back of his head.

Thus, with nowhere to hide, he could only sink into it as if stuck in a quagmire, gradually drowning in this kissing scene that had far exceeded expectations.

“Wang Shan is here, right at the entrance. We’ll head out and walk past him,” after an unknown amount of time, Gu Yanzhou stopped, pressing close to his lips as he whispered ambiguously, “Can you still walk?”

Shao Si narrowed his eyes at him, his lips somewhat swollen, stubbornly holding out: “Just this much, I can still…”

…No, his legs were feeling a bit weak.

Gu Yanzhou saw right through his little thoughts and said no more, directly draping his coat over him, lifting him up as he walked out: “Legs, hook around me.”

…

“Alright, cut!” Director Ou clapped his hands. “This shot, pass. Go rest for a bit first.”

Having ejaculated, Shao Si reclined half-up in a corner, his long legs slightly bent, the costume hanging loosely on his body. His face was only half-made-up, an eyeliner flicked upward on one eye, adding a touch of earthly sensuality.

Li Guangzong bent down and passed over a box of tissues: “You… wipe yourself?”

Shao Si pulled out two with a cold face to wipe his hands.

Director Ou shot a satisfying scene and hastily called everyone around over to watch the replay, he hadn’t slept well for two consecutive nights, yet his mental state during work every day was exceptionally good, to an alarming degree, as if he were excessively consuming himself to forget those hurts.

“Yanzhou, come over, I think this shot was filmed exceptionally well.” Director Ou pulled Gu Yanzhou over casually, but as he spoke he stroked his chin thoughtfully again, “Though this lighting, is the angle a bit off?”

Gu Yanzhou said: “Director Ou, you should still find time to rest more. With you being like this, we’re all very worried.”

Director Ou smiled: “It’s nothing; I’m not as fragile as you think. Even if I’m a balloon that’s already been punctured, with some stitching and patching, I can still float for a while longer. Getting old; the older I get, the tougher I become. I’ve endured all these years; what does a little thing like this count for?”

Gu Yanzhou remained silent.

“Right now, I just want to help Xiao Qing avenge his death,” Director Ou looked far off into the hazy blue sky for a moment, then added, “And I really regret not telling him back then that I loved him very much.”

After Director Ou finished speaking, he turned to Gu Yanzhou, and following his gaze, saw a poor creature in the corner of the makeup room, who had just had his ejaculation spectated by a crowd, walking out after changing clothes. So he patted Gu Yanzhou’s shoulder: “Stop looking, he’s already walked far away… If you like someone, tell him. Don’t end up like me when the time comes.”

“Don’t dare to pursue him.” Gu Yanzhou fell silent for a long moment, unexpectedly speaking these words as if admitting defeat.

“I’ve held back for a long time, holding back from provoking him, but found it’s far too difficult.”

Director Ou’s eye corner twitched: “This doesn’t sound like you at all.”

He had known Gu Yanzhou for quite a few years now; speaking of which, Gu Yanzhou stepping into the performing arts circle even had a bit to do with him. At the time, Gu Yanzhou was probably around sixteen or seventeen, rebellious beyond belief, acting stubborn with his father. Coming back by climbing over the wall in the middle of the night, his brows and eyes were full of hostility, and his body bore several knife wounds from who-knew-where.

Director Ou happened to be discussing a film co-investment deal with his father at the time, when completely out of nowhere the door was kicked open with a loud “Bang!”. Gu Yanzhou, who was already a head taller than his peers, walked in from outside with a frigid face, his very first sentence being: “Even if you really make me die out there, I fucking like men anyway. Why don’t you just kill me with one knife blow and be done with it?”

The Gu Yanzhou back then, whose face was still slightly tender, sneered as he ripped open his jacket, exposing several knife scars inside: “You don’t need to hire people to scare me either. Just these few slashes, are they playing around?”

Even years later, over a decade passed, and Gu Yanzhou hid his sharp edges so well that nobody could see them, with the outside world spreading how gentle and polite he was, Director Ou knew crystal clear that this guy was just a rascal, acting on whim and thoroughly unrefined.

In love affairs too, he was never indecisive or dragging. In fact, he was somewhat domineering to a fault. Although at the end of the day it was all mutual consent, in every relationship, whether getting together or breaking up in the end, Gu Yanzhou took the dominant position. To put it bluntly… he was quite a ruthless guy.

It was this very Gu Yanzhou who actually started considering someone else…?

Sure enough, just as Director Ou guessed, Gu Yanzhou confessed of his own accord: “I have a lot of misgivings.”

Shao Si wasn’t gay; he knew that crystal clear. Moreover, with their statuses, every word and action was watched by countless eyes and judged by countless mouths. He couldn’t, out of his own selfish desire, pull him off his original trajectory, nor could he bear to let him be pointed at by others because of this.

This time, he thought he had truly fallen head over heels.

Gu Yanzhou gave a self-deprecating smile.

Even though his heart was bursting, constantly enduring an itch like a small animal nibbling inside him, he still preferred to wrong himself.