ITOTIABSAM | Entertainment Industry | 19
His secret crush on Xie Ye was a secret.
So, when Su Qingyue blatantly revealed this unspoken secret, Xue Minglang's first reaction was embarrassment and panic.
In the eyes of outsiders, it had always been Xie Ye chasing after him, going crazy for him, getting jealous for him, opposing the fans and the Su family for him. Xue Minglang was the one on a high pedestal being pursued.
But Su Qingyue's questioning undoubtedly punctured this illusion.
He had heard too many press releases online, discussions from netizens that Xue Minglang had forgotten how he had once quietly, humbly, liked Xie Ye amidst the crowds, in movies, in news collected over the walls, and in the midst of flowers and trophies.
Yet, in Xie Ye's eyes, he was just an old classmate who hadn't met for a long time, almost a stranger, almost forgotten.
Because of this, Xue Minglang admitted that when he saw Xie Ye drinking and laughing, besides disappointment, there was a subtle happiness churning in his heart. It seemed that as long as he seized this matter, he could stand on the moral high ground and feel heartbroken, scornful, and rightfully bring down the moon hanging high in the sky.
Let him be shattered, desperate, and praying to embrace him in his arms.
These dark and despicable thoughts, Xue Minglang initially thought only he understood, but it wasn't until this moment that he realized he was wrong.
Su Qingyue knew what he was thinking.
"You are joking again," uncertain if the previous words were heard by other guests, Xue Minglang instinctively retorted, "Me and Xie Ye are just old classmates."
Su Qingyue felt deeply disappointed.
Forced to listen to some gossip, Wei Yan and Qin Cheng in the back row imagined various entanglements and conflicts for a second, then looked at each other and closed their eyes, pretending to sleep soundly, wishing to immediately snore a few times.
What surprised the two even more was that Su Qingyue, who impulsively spilled a big question, had suppressed his emotions without exploding, without tearing into anyone, without changing teams, without going on strike. He maintained polite interactions with his senior brother Xue Minglang, and with Xie Ye, it seemed like the heated questioning on the bus was just a hallucination.
It wasn't until the end of the four-day-five-night recording that they learned from the director that the other party had left the show.
For this outcome, Xie Ye was not surprised.
As the most pampered youngest member of the Su family and the little master of Su Entertainment, Su Qingyue had more than enough capital to be willful. He could afford the breach of contract penalty and was not afraid of being blacklisted.
Completing the recording process in H Province before leaving was a way of not letting the program team work in vain, it showed some level of courtesy.
"It's already this late, and you still have time to praise the protagonist?" Forcibly shutting down the host's phone screen, 1101 anxiously said, "Xie Ye, you haven't slept for three days, 72 hours. Aren't you afraid of sudden death?"
After a slight hesitation for two seconds, it suggested, "Or... or we go find Gu Cong."
Su Qingyue got off the bus midway, and Xue Minglang followed suit. Fans were confused, thinking hard, but could only blame everything on Xie Ye, who had conflicts with both individuals.
In addition, the ambiguous attitude of the program team, neither clarifying nor denying, made even Zhou Ming, who usually loved pushing artists to work, suggest that Xie Ye stay home and avoid trouble.
The entire living room was sealed off, and the faint light reflected on the large TV screen enveloped the young man, making him look like a ghost in the sofa.
As if sharp nails were tearing at his nerves, causing a throbbing pain, Xie Ye glanced at the screen suddenly lighting up next to the pillow, "Forget it."
Almost at the same moment, 1101 accurately captured a trending topic related to the host, emerging out of nowhere.
#Xie Ye accompanies drinks#
Clicking on it, a nine-grid layout posted by a Weibo small account appeared, with an overall dark and blurry tone. Everyone else was heavily mosaic-ed, but Xie Ye's drunken smile and the cigarette between his fingers were clear as day.
1101 was very indignant: "This is fake!"
Even the original owner not controlled by the main plotline would adhere to basic principles. In its memory, the gatherings its host participated in were clearly normal dinner parties, held in spacious private rooms with bright lights. However, someone intentionally manipulated the images to create an ambiguous atmosphere.
Xie Ye remained extremely calm.
Even if he had to guess, it was easy to deduce that this was the work of Su Qingyue's big brother. In the business world, this person emerged from the big dyeing vat, and those who only spoke the truth would have died long ago. Moreover, the fact that he was taking some subtle actions on behalf of his younger brother was quite normal.
"Are you always looking forward to this happening?" Realizing a bit late, 1101 said, "Waiting for the program team to be unable to withstand the pressure and terminate the contract voluntarily, avoiding the penalty, then selling the house and enjoying life?"
Xie Ye nodded, "Mm-hmm."
"You little devil," feeling both angry and amused, 1101 reminded, "Because of the artist's own reasons, compensation is still required if unable to shoot."
Xie Ye responded, "This reason doesn't hold water."
"When the program team invited me to participate, my reputation was already quite poor. Is it too late to regret now?"
"Or they can grit their teeth and let me continue participating," rubbing his temples with his fingertips, Xie Ye said slowly, "As long as they're not afraid of being targeted by the Su family."
1101 asked, "What about Gu Cong?"
Did he forget about the yogurt advertisement that just went live a few days ago?
It thought there might be some changes on his part due to the injury of Gu Cong.
"It should be enough to leave an inheritance as compensation. He can organize a concert or something," after a long silence, just when 1101 thought Xie Ye wouldn't answer anymore, he suddenly mumbled to himself.
Surprised, 1101 asked, "Are you afraid of implicating him?"
He pulled up the blanket, and the lonely young man curled up in silence.
He and Gu Cong hadn't been in contact for two days.
With the system in place, Xie Ye naturally knew that Gu Cong's phone had been taken by his manager, and under the pretext of special training, he was put on house arrest. Xie Ye sometimes felt that this was fine.
At least, Gu Cong wouldn't get injured again due to some inexplicable misfortune, and he could proceed with his plans step by step.
However, sometimes Xie Ye would feel lonely. Thanks to the increasingly frequent interactions lately, he seemed to be getting used to Gu Cong's presence. Now, with one person missing, the refrigerator, once filled, seemed even emptier in the quiet home.
An hour, or maybe several hours, he couldn't fall asleep no matter how much he tossed and turned. Xie Ye decided to pick up his phone and opened Weibo.
Messages from Zhou Ming were still flashing at the top like a brush screen, but he ignored them. Instead, he directly went to Gu Cong's profile.
The first post that caught his eye was an advertisement for yogurt posted three days ago. Gu Cong's company's response was a bit slow, or maybe the account was actually managed by Gu Cong himself since the post, despite being tagged casually, hadn't been hidden.
Scrolling down, he saw a series of bright and somewhat familiar moons.
1101 reacted first, "Look at the mosaic building; isn't this the angle from your balcony?"
Xie Ye's apartment wasn't on the top floor, so when trying to capture a vast night sky, it was inevitable to include other buildings.
—"Then you wouldn't mind taking a photo with me for a Weibo post?"
—"If it were when we first reunited, you would be willing, right?"
For some reason, these two sentences popped into Xie Ye's mind. He glanced at the posting date on Weibo and, after a brief calculation, confirmed that it was from the night he and Gu Cong had been drinking.
He had a good memory, and he wouldn't be mistaken.
When Xie Ye, who had always considered himself sentimental, subconsciously tried to distance himself from Gu Cong when he tried to comfort him in his own way, even if the other party knew that he rarely used Weibo and might not see it.
A strange warmth surged from his long-silent chest. The movie on TV had just come to an end, the black and white subtitles flashed by, and the light suddenly brightened. Xie Ye closed his eyes and buried his head in the blanket.
However, today, the phone seemed determined to disturb his peace. In just a few minutes, a buzzing vibration sounded from the blanket.
It was an unknown number.
But 1101 was one step ahead and chose to answer, "Hello? Mr. Xie, right? This is the security guard at the residential area. Do you know someone named Gu Cong?"
"He's injured, and his phone is broken. He said he had an appointment with you..."
The words after that were intermittent, and by the time Xie Ye came back to his senses, he had already changed into clothes and was heading downstairs.
He lived in an apartment near the north gate, and the sun was dazzlingly bright, making him squint. From a distance, Xie Ye could see a person waving to him with a limp, "Teacher Xie!"
"You've come to rescue me."
It was indeed Gu Cong.
Looking as if he had fallen from a height, Gu Cong seemed quite disheveled at first glance. His palms were bruised, and there was a tear near his knee. Xie Ye suppressed dizziness and blurred vision, hurriedly speeding up his pace, "What happened?"
"Who bullied you?"
"No, no, I fell when I escaped from captivity," rarely seen without wearing a hat or mask during the day, Gu Cong quickly took off his coat and tried to cover Xie Ye with it, "Face, face, block it, there might be reporters around."
The security guard nearby rolled his eyes silently, "Sir, the privacy of our community is very good."
If it weren't for the fact that the man indeed had an extraordinarily handsome face that surpassed the average person and could accurately report Xie Ye's door number, he wouldn't have made that call.
But what Xie Ye cared about was not these.
Lifting the edge of the coat, he looked like a cat sticking its head out, "Escaped from captivity?"
Gu Cong choked, his gaze evading, "Uh... I jumped out of the dormitory window..."
Although his manager confiscated his phone, he hadn't confiscated his teammate's. As long as there was a will, there was always a way to learn about Xie Ye's situation.
Especially in a situation like today with widespread online coverage.
He wasn't sure what his teammate was thinking when secretly lending him a spare phone. All he was certain about was that he had to see Xie Ye as soon as possible.
Even if he couldn't help much, even if he could only offer a comforting hug.
In fact, Gu Cong did exactly that.
Just before the young man raised his eyebrows and get angry, he reached out and pulled Xie Ye into his arms, "It hurts."
However, there was no response from the person in his arms.
The oversized coat fell to the ground with a thud. Gu Cong felt a sudden weight on his left shoulder, realizing that the other person seemed to be slipping uncontrollably. Anxiously, he lowered his head and saw the closed eyes of the black-haired young man:
"Teacher Xie?"
"Xie Ye, wake up!"
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