Chapter 6  

Fuck me?

Yuan Ye didn’t even try to look away. He maintained eye contact with Fang Shaoyi, completely fearless. He opened his mouth and said, “Then fuck me.”

With their identities now, their words were simply attempts at provoking the other. Yuan Ye leaned back and fell straight into the pile of blankets with a thud. He laid there, flat, and looked at Fang Shaoyi. A hint of a smile was still painted on his face. He reached a hand out and unzipped the zipper of his jacket, lifting the t-shirt inside enough to reveal his solid abs. With his hand still holding his shirt up, he said, “Come fuck me.”

Fang Shaoyi’s eyes were dark. Yuan Ye was challenging him. Fang Shaoyi didn’t step down from the challenge. He burrowed inside the blankets. He did this extremely quickly, actions carrying a sense of determination. But while he was fast, Yuan Ye was faster; he was determined, but Yuan Ye even more so. Yuan Ye rested his fingertips by the waistband of his pants and lifted his waist up, making to remove his pants. This set of motions didn’t even take a second. They were in the wilderness, so were obviously only wearing sweatpants. There wasn’t even a belt. As long as he tugged down, he could take off his pants instantly.

Fang Shaoyi froze. Yuan Ye stopped moving too. He stilled, gently lowering his thumbs slightly. The extremely sexy section of skin below the belly button became revealed. The eyes locked onto Fang Shaoyi’s were full of provocation. He glanced slyly at the other and asked, “Are you coming or not?”

Fang Shaoyi didn’t answer. Yuan Ye made his voice lower, then purposefully panted a few times. He attempted to lower his fingertips some more, squeezing out some seductive moans from his throat.

Fang Shaoyi turned aside and cussed with furrowed brows. He grabbed Yuan Ye’s hand before lifting the other corner of the blanket and wrapping Yuan Ye up. He tugged forcefully, rolling him so he was now facing the other side. With a lowered voice, he said, “Quit acting crazy. Hurry and sleep.”

Yuan Ye was facing the tent. He started laughing. Only half his head was outside of the blanket roll. His body started shaking to the rhythm of his laughs. Fang Shaoyi zipped up the tent from inside, then laid down beside him.

Yuan Ye had acted coquettish for a while, causing himself to sweat. With his back to Fang Shaoyi, the smile on his face slowly disappeared. He opened his eyes and gazed at the tent before him. Every cell in his body was extremely excited. They could feel even the slightest shifts of movement coming from the body only a blanket away from him. Whenever Fang Shaoyi moved somewhat noticeably, he would get goosebumps. A while later, he finally couldn’t breathe in the stuffy blanket roll anymore. He tugged it apart and swung an arm and half the blanket over Fang Shaoyi.

Like this, the two of them slept.

It wasn’t very awkward, nor were they sleepless. Nothing felt off. They even felt quite comfortable. They were too familiar with each other: they had slept together for over a decade. Lying down next to this person was as natural as sleeping on a pillow or covering oneself with a blanket. Separating for more than a year was quite long, but was irrelevant compared to the amount of time they had spent together.

When Yuan Ye opened his eyes in the morning and immediately saw Fang Shaoyi, he froze for a moment. It took him some time to clear his mind. Fang Shaoyi wasn’t awake yet; his face was to Yuan Ye as he peacefully slept.

The sun wasn’t completely up yet outside. Right now, it was quite cold on the mountain. Yuan Ye actually needed to pee, but he didn’t really want to move. He laid flat on his back and looked up through the clear patch on the top of the tent at the sky outside. He saw a gray little square.

He had once written something in one of his books. For some reason, it suddenly popped into his head right now:

Playing in water wasn’t tiring. All they needed to do was play some dumb games by the ocean. Only one person was needed per family. Yuan Ye found a spot and hung up a hammock. Everyone else played games for filming. Yuan Ye sprawled out off to the side, reading a book. The trees’ shadows could basically cover him completely. Such leisure time made him feel a bit sleepy.

The little director said, “Teacher Yuan, you look a bit too comfortable.”

Yuan Ye glanced at her. “You want to try it?”

The little director hurriedly waved her hands. “No thanks. You can keep laying there.”

Yuan Ye smiled and closed his eyes again. “I was just asking, don’t take me so seriously. Even if you wanted to lie down I wouldn’t let you. This is my noble consort chaise lounge. Would I let any random person lay on it?”

“Teacher Yuan, you’re too funny.” The little director couldn’t stop laughing because of him.

Yuan Ye told her, “When you’re editing the episode, use rainbow colored words to write ‘Noble Consort Yuan’ by my face. Actually, no. How about ‘Consort Ye’? Sounds pretty wild. Suits me.”

The little director burst into laughter again. She asked, “Are you reading Teacher Feng’s book? I bought it but haven’t started reading it yet.”

Thus, Yuan Ye waved the book at the camera. He purposefully said, “Ah, then give it a closeup. Take a look everyone. This book was newly released by Feng Leizi – it’s the one with his own picture as the cover. Nobody read it.”

He casually flipped through the book in front of the cameras, muttering, “I said I don’t want it, that I don’t have time to read it. I could already guess the plot for whatever he wrote without reading it. But Feng Leizi was adamant about mailing me a copy. I took a look and lo and behold, I wasn’t wrong at all. Still his usual sour clichés. I heard that it’s number one in sales?”

Yuan Ye asked the little director, “Is it?”

The little director shook her head while laughing. She answered, “I really have no idea.”

“He beat me?” Yuan Ye cocked an eyebrow. He said straight into the camera, “Are any of Yuan Ye’s fans watching the show? Fans, don’t buy this book. Just say Uncle Ye said this book isn’t good.”

After saying this, he laid there and laughed for a long time. Then, he started complaining about Feng Leizi again. The cameraman filmed everything.

Yuan Ye actually just wanted to borrow this platform as a way to help his friend promote his new book. Feng Leizi and him had been friends for too many years. The two of them had met in school. They were quite familiar with one another and had a solid relationship. Everyone else also knew how well they got along, so Yuan Ye dared to casually joke about him like this.

The groups with girls all allowed the girls to sit out and rest. In the group with the two boys, Chi Xing and Cheng Xun took turns playing. Only Yuan Ye stayed in place, making no indication that he was planning to join in.

Later on, the little director asked him, “Teacher Yuan, aren’t you going to at least participate?”

“Participate?” Yuan Ye replied, “No need. Aren’t they running in the water? Two of me don’t even amount to one of Teacher Fang. Teacher Fang normally runs 10,000 meters just for fun. Did you forget that I’m the noble consort?”

A while later, they started switching people in the game again. All the other groups switched participants. Chi Xing asked Fang Shaoyi, “Ge, aren’t you tired? Should we have Ye ge take your place?”

Fang Shaoyi turned around to look in Yuan Ye’s direction. He shook his head and laughed. “No need. He spent all of yesterday wandering around the mountain and climbing up trees. He’s tired now. Let him rest.”

After two days of filming, Yuan Ye had somewhat found the rhythm too. He no longer had nothing to say. Even though he wasn’t participating in the games, he knew that he had to talk. This way, the cameras would have something to film. Since he signed the contract and was getting paid to film this show, he needed to provide them the content they wanted. With nothing to film or edit, the production team would’ve spent all that money for nothing.

Today was the last day of filming in this location. Everyone would need to pack up to head home tomorrow morning. At night, they were required to split up and film individual interviews. These days, each group’s PD had compiled a list of questions they wanted to ask regarding filming. After, these interview clips would be edited into the middle of the episode. This was especially important because it was their first episode. Originally, they were supposed to have completed an interview before filming, but because of poor planning, all their interviews got moved to now.

They each filmed alone. Yuan Ye went first. Fang Shaoyi was after him. The production team found a room and set up a background panel in the back. The interviews took place here.

The little director started, “Teacher Yuan, you’ve never really appeared in the public eye. You’re too lowkey and have always been quite mysterious, even after marriage.”

Yuan Ye cocked an eyebrow and looked at her. “Am I mysterious? Not really. Look at all the books I’ve written already. I also attend many promotional events. I shouldn’t be that mysterious.”

The little director said, “You know I’m talking about things in relation to Teacher Fang. Things in the entertainment industry.”

Yuan Ye made a noise of acknowledgment and nodded. “That’s true. I’m not part of the entertainment industry. I’m just a normal person.”

The little director questionned, “You and Teacher Fang got married very early on. Back then, what were your thoughts? To make such a decision?”

Yuan Ye smiled and rubbed his forehead. “I didn’t have any thoughts. At the time, I did whatever I wanted to. I wanted to get married, so I did. I didn’t think about anything else.”

The interview was pretty simple. The questions were all trivial. Yuan Ye cooperatively answered them. As they chatted, he thought in his heart, I really am getting old, accepting interviews like these. In the past, would he let anyone ask him such revealing questions? It would’ve been impossible for him to cooperate. Yuan Ye hated being interrogated like this by people unrelated to him. Why do you care what I’m thinking? Is it any of your business? Who are you?

Now, though he still wasn’t quite fond of it, he was no longer as resistant as before. That dangerous air of being unafraid of anything had also slowly dissipated with his age.

After asking all the required questions, the little director then added an impromptu one. She smiled and blinked curiously, “We all know that you and Teacher Fang have been in love for many years and that you’ve always had a good relationship. I want to secretly ask you, between you and Teacher Fang, who pursued the other first?”

Yuan Ye didn’t refuse to answer this sudden question. People’s gazes were always gentle when they reminisced the past. This held true even for Yuan Ye. The corners of his lips curled up. Very honestly, he said, “I pursued him first. Even in the past, Teacher Fang already had an extremely dazzling presence. It would surprise nobody that someone would fall for him, right?”

The little director agreed. “Yes, Teacher Fang became famous at a very young age.”

Yuan Ye had originally been prepared to end the interview and stand up, but this last sentence caused him to pause. Then, he lowered his head and stared straight into the camera to say, “Whether or not he’s dazzling is unrelated to whether or not he’s famous. Even if he didn’t become famous, he would still be Fang Shaoyi. Even after he won film emperor, he’s also still Fang Shaoyi. Fang Shaoyi has always been exemplar. This has nothing to do with his celebrity status or family background.”

Yuan Ye’s touchy temper was well known. He was blunt when he spoke too. The production team had prepared for it in advance. During this round of filming, Yuan Ye had been quite easygoing. This was the first time he was expressing any bit of negative emotion. The little director’s response had been somewhat on purpose. The hidden aim of that sentence had been to bring up Fang Shaoyi’s second generation celebrity identity in a roundabout way. Everybody knew that Fang Shaoyi had become famous at a young age because of his dad.

Yuan Ye didn’t like their traps. He knew it was on purpose, but he still felt the need to respond. When he wanted to speak, he couldn’t hold himself back. After saying this, he asked, “We’re done, right? Nothing else you want to ask?”

The little director nodded. “Yes. There are no more questions, Teacher Yuan.”

Yuan Ye made a noise of acknowledgment before standing up, pushing the door open, and leaving.