WAM CH51

After noticing Wang Shan’s footsteps fading into the distance, Shao Si continued to moan while sitting on the toilet lid, waiting for a notification in the WeChat group.

Finally, Zhou Weiping sent a single word: Done.

“Alright, wrap it up.” Shao Si lowered his half-bent leg.

However, Gu Yanzhou seemed a bit off. Shao Si stood up, walked over to him, and waved a hand in front of his face: “Hey, Gu Yanzhou, what are you spacing out for?”

Gu Yanzhou suddenly covered Shao Si’s eyes with one hand and pushed him outward with force. Before Shao Si could even react, he was shoved right out of the stall, and the door was locked from the inside.

Confused, Shao Si bent his fingers and knocked twice: “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Gu Yanzhou answered with a muffled grunt.

Shao Si was inexplicably met with the cold shoulder.

Fortunately, he didn’t mind and couldn’t be bothered to ask further. Besides, checking the time, it was nearly lunchtime: “Then I’ll head out first. Take care of yourself.”

Inside the stall, Gu Yanzhou wore a dark expression, unsure whether to curse him for being stupid or dense.

His lower half had been aroused by Shao Si’s moaning for quite a while now.

Shao Si’s voice had a naturally cool quality. Whenever he moaned and panted, the ends of his notes habitually dragged out by an extra beat, trailing off into a lazy, upward lilt. It was different from his scene in the dressing room earlier; back then, Shao Si had barely made a sound, merely parting his lips as if a sigh were about to spill over at any second, yet holding it back.

Director Ou had specifically asked for that effect, saying it felt sufficiently repressed.

Just now, Gu Yanzhou had been covering himself with his hand, desperately trying to hide the growing tent in his pants. He had even mischievously planned that if Shao Si asked about it, he would confess straight up.

I like men, and I like you.

Yet this guy was completely blind.

After quickly relieving himself, Gu Yanzhou unlocked the stall door and stepped out. Standing by the sink, he stared at his reflection in the mirror, zoning out for a brief moment.

“You have misgivings; of course you have misgivings.”

“No, no, no, I don’t want to know the specifics of your misgivings. I just want to know if your misgivings are for yourself, or… for him?”

“…Oh, considering things for his sake.”

Director Ou’s voice still seemed to echo in his ears.

Especially the final words he had spoken that day.

“When you see a pretty little fish, you think it ought to live inside a gorgeous glass tank with pretty little pebbles scattered at the bottom. You think that way it will swim happily and cheerfully inside without needing to worry about harsh survival issues. Have you ever considered that this little fish might actually prefer the open ocean?”

“You have no right to choose the glass tank for it.” Director Ou had patted his shoulder before walking away, adding, “Though I can pretty much tell you’ve never truly liked someone before… Yanzhou, you’re done for. Getting caught up in this is a lifelong affair.”

Yes.

As Gu Yanzhou washed the sticky fluid off his hands, he thought noncommittally that he really was done for.

Fortunately, however, that blind person had a system that wasn’t quite so blind.

Before going to eat, Shao Si decided to stop by the surveillance room. Along the way, the system kept chattering at him: [I don’t know if you noticed, but Best Actor Gu seemed to have gotten an erection just now.]

Shao Si’s foot slipped, and he nearly took a tumble.

[What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Do you even know what an erection means?]

[Of course I do. It’s a natural physiological response you humans experience when sexually aroused.]

Shao Si put on an act of ignoring it until he reached the door of the surveillance room, where he finally couldn’t hold back anymore and asked in what he believed was an exceptionally calm tone: [Are you sure? He really got hard?]

The system hit the nail on the head: [Do you actually care a whole lot about this?]

[…No.]

Pushing open the door, he saw Zhou Weiping packing up the cables. Shao Si cleared his throat: “Hold on, don’t unplug it yet. Let me watch the playback first.”

Ye Xuan suddenly walked out in silence, her limbs stiff and her gait unusually unnatural.

“What’s wrong with her?” Shao Si stepped aside to let her pass.

Zhou Weiping replied, “She got spooked. Let her have some quiet time to herself.”

Shao Si raised an eyebrow: “Spooked?”

“It’s hard to describe; see for yourself.” Zhou Weiping turned on the computer. “I originally wanted to copy the file and send it to the group chat, but since you’re here, take a look. Brace yourself mentally.”

Shao Si’s immediate thought was that their gambit had missed the mark.

However, upon seeing the bizarre, twisted expression on Wang Shan’s face in the surveillance footage, Shao Si couldn’t suppress a chill rising from the depths of his heart, making his skin crawl.

Wang Shan’s face shifted unpredictably before his eyes, eventually morphing into the words Li Guangzong had mentioned earlier: “I was passing by Qi Ming’s office and heard Yang Ze arguing with him. Yang Ze even cursed that Boss Wang as a damn pervert…”

At lunchtime that day, Yang Ze was lying in bed scrolling through Weibo and interacting with fans when a WeChat notification flashed across his status bar.

Shao Si: You there?

The relationship between Yang Ze and Shao Si had always been tense and hostile; especially after bringing things into the open, neither could stand the sight of the other.

They followed each other on Weibo and were added as friends on WeChat, yet they had never interacted.

Yang Ze looked utterly washed out. The curtains in his home were drawn tightly shut, blocking out all air, and empty aluminum cans lay scattered in messy piles by his feet. His finger paused over the screen before he ultimately ignored the message.

A few seconds later, Shao Si sent another one: If you want to pretend to be blind, stay off Weibo.

Yang Ze impatiently tapped open the chat box: What do you want?

Are you free tomorrow afternoon? Let me treat you to a meal.

Yang Ze’s immediate reaction was to refuse. In the past, he would have jumped at the chance to strut around and show off in front of Shao Si, but right now…

He looked self-deprecatingly at his own faint reflection on the screen.

It was a face covered in scruffy stubble, with deeply sunken dark circles under his eyes.

Shao Si was eating his meal when he saw Yang Ze reply with a voice message. The moment he held the phone to his ear, he was nearly deafened: “Are you here to gloat?! Are you feeling super smug right now?! I got cut from my role, and Qi Ming is planning to drop me too! I’m ruined, I’m completely washed up! Are you happy now?! Huh?! Are all of you just watching me make a fool of myself?!”

Li Guangzong paused with his chopsticks, unable to hear clearly from a distance: “What’s going on? Why is someone yelling so loudly, like they’re wailing at a funeral?”

Shao Si held the phone screen slightly farther away and said, “Isn’t it? I’m curious too.”

After a moment, Shao Si asked again, “Do you know where Yang Ze lives?”

Li Guangzong: “…Hm? Let me look it up. Wait, what are you planning to do?”

Yang Ze’s residence wasn’t too far from here, roughly a forty-minute drive away. The troublesome part was that if Shao Si wanted to use the car, he had to ask Li Guangzong for the keys.

It would take a miracle for Li Guangzong to let him drive out on his own.

After wrapping up work for the day, Shao Si paced back and forth in the hotel hallway.

[Just knock on the door and say, ‘Senior Brother Gu, could I borrow your car?’ Wouldn’t that settle it?] The system didn’t quite understand. [Why are you dawdling like this now?]

[Shut up, don’t bother me.]

[…You get grumpy just because I nagged you a bit.]

Drawing on years of understanding him, the system guessed: [No way. Are you seriously still sulking just because I mentioned an erection this morning?]

Shao Si mentally pinned the system down and beat it up.

Meanwhile, Chen Yang had just finished discussing matters with Gu Yanzhou. Opening the door, he was startled to see Shao Si standing outside with a gloomy expression: “…Looking for Yanzhou?”

Shao Si straightened his collar: “Yeah, wanted to run through some lines. Is he in?”

“He is,” Chen Yang stepped aside to make way for him. “Come on in.”

Gu Yanzhou was doing push-ups. There was no telling how many he had done, as his face was covered in sweat. The first thing Shao Si saw when he walked in was Gu Yanzhou’s bare back; his shoulders and upper back arched slightly as he pushed upward, defined by a sleek layer of muscle, tapering down into a lean, toned waist…

Shao Si shifted his gaze away uncomfortably, leaning against the doorframe without stepping further inside.

Finishing his final rep, Gu Yanzhou took a moment before pushing himself up. With one leg half-bent, he sat on the floor and reached for a can of cold beer nearby, sparing Shao Si only a glance from the corner of his eye: “Came to rehearse lines with me?”

Shao Si was always one to get straight to the point: “No, I lied to your manager. I just wanted to ask if I could borrow your car.”

Gu Yanzhou stood up, sweat trickling down his neck: “It’s so late. Where are you going?”

Shao Si kept a straight face: “For a joyride.”

Their eyes met for a few seconds before Shao Si changed his tune: “I’m going to see Yang Ze. Li Guangzong mentioned to me that he had a fight with Qi Ming, and when I contacted him today, he seemed a bit off.”

Gu Yanzhou tossed him the car keys, then pushed him down onto the sofa. As Gu Yanzhou leaned in close, Shao Si thought for a split second that the man was about to try something on him. However, Gu Yanzhou merely raised a hand to ruffle the top of his hair, coaxing him the same way he coaxed Gu Sheng: “Sit here and wait for me for a bit while I take a shower. There’s fruit on the coffee table; help yourself.”

Shao Si blinked: “…Oh.”

An hour later, when the two arrived at Yang Ze’s apartment, Yang Ze happened to be swaying unsteadily on his balcony while drinking. Looking up at him from below against the glow of the streetlights, only half of his silhouette was visible.

Yang Ze tilted his head back to finish the last gulp and let go. The can dropped straight down, rolling all the way to Shao Si’s feet. Without breaking stride, Shao Si kicked it back out; the aluminum can spun in a wide arc before hitting another spot with a loud bang.

Yang Ze narrowed his eyes, spotting the dark figure wearing a cap downstairs beneath his building: “…Who are you?”

Shao Si tilted his head up, revealing his signature handsome face, then pulled a hand from his pants pocket and gave him a casual little wave: “I’m your dad. Open the door.”

Yang Ze withdrew his gaze, popped open another can of beer, and shuffled back inside in his slippers.

Shao Si muttered a quiet “Fuck” under his breath.

Gu Yanzhou rolled up his sleeves: “Give me the short version. What’s been going on with him lately?”

“Got cut from his role, says he’s completely ruined.”

“Easy enough. Provocation works best on someone like him.” Gu Yanzhou bent down, picked up the aluminum can off the ground, and tossed it backhand up toward the balcony.

…

“Right now, you can probably only clutch your phone and chat with fans for comfort. You think your fans actually like you… What is it they like about you?”

“Do they like your surgically altered face, your cringe-worthy acting, your practiced lip-syncing skills every time you get on stage, or your blind arrogance in remaining completely oblivious to all of it while genuinely believing you’re some kind of big shot?”

Standing at the balcony doorway, whether stung by the wind or something else, Yang Ze first spat out several “Get lost”s before finally losing his patience. He marched downstairs and yanked open the door, his face dark. Before he could even say, “What the hell do you want?”, Shao Si and Gu Yanzhou flanked him on either side and pinned his arms.

Gu Yanzhou grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall, while Shao Si reached behind himself to lock the door.

Yang Ze’s face gradually turned a livid shade of purple.

Gu Yanzhou freed one hand, patted Yang Ze’s cheek, and asked, “I won’t waste breath and will get straight to the point. That private, closed-off club spanning five thousand square meters beneath Wang Shan’s nightclub: did he ever take you inside?”