Edited by Yummers
Yuan Rui also couldn’t fall asleep after showering.
He had difficulties sleeping on a bed other than his own, it would always take him a few days before he could get comfortable on a new mattress. The hotel pillows weren’t as comfortable as the ones back home either.
Furthermore, his bedside felt too empty. He had the urge to call Zheng Qiuyang again.
He grabbed his phone to check the time. It was already past twelve, too late. He’ll just call him in the morning.
He flipped to a new position as he stared at the lamp with flower carvings at the bedside. It was really pretty. He wondered if he should also buy a couple of pretty desk lamps. That way, he and Zheng Qiuyang could lean against each other as they read comics or magazines together before bed. Just thinking about it was super comforting.
Since he’d already thought that far ahead, he went ahead and opened up Taobao. He scrolled and picked for quite a while, he favorited a few desk lamps but didn’t buy them. He couldn’t allow himself to make any purchases before bed, people are the most impulsive at night. He’s gotta wait until he’s not as impulsive in the morning to pick from the options again.
He closed Taobao and scrolled through Weibo a bit with his burner account. He reposted a few raffles and read through some short stories, but he still wasn’t sleepy.
He missed his home so much, he missed his boyfriend too.
He woke up later than usual the next morning.
Past seven in the morning, Zhao Zhengyi came to wake him up for breakfast. Even though Zhao Zhengyi had his room card, he still knocked. Yuan Rui finally got up as he put on his clothes in a panic, through the bedroom door, he asked, “Has Auntie Yang arrived yet?”
“I heard that she left the airport not long ago, she’ll be here in a while to make it to the launch conference.”
Yuan Rui came out fully dressed. Zhao Zhengyi had a cup of honey water ready for him, he handed it to him as he said, “It’s not hot anymore, just the right temperature. Why do you have such dark eyebags? Did you not sleep well?”
Yuan Rui took a sip of the water as he admitted embarrassingly, “I kinda have trouble sleeping in a bed that isn’t my own.”
Zhao Zhengyi said worriedly, “Are you feeling alright then? If not, we can notify the hosts so they won’t ask you too many questions during the conference.”
Yuan Rui rubbed his eyes. “It’s fine, I’m good.”
After he brushed his teeth and washed his face, he and Zhao Zhengyi went to eat the buffet breakfast on the ninth floor. They met Song Huanyan who had her hair and makeup done already. She simply sat there, sipping her coffee slowly without eating anything.
Yuan Rui greeted her, she could tell that Yuan Rui didn’t sleep too well and even asked some polite questions out of concern.
Once they separated, Zhao Zhengyi whispered to him, gossiping, “She’s not as pretty as she looks on TV. She’s so skinny and she doesn’t have much of a bust either. Can’t really tell what her sugar daddy saw in her…”
“Xiao Zhao,” Yuan Rui looked at him with a modernly serious look. “Can you not talk about her like this?”
Zhao Zhengyi shut himself up, feeling a bit bashful. This was the first time Yuan Rui had used such a tone with him.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
They finished breakfast quickly and went back to the room. Zhao Zhengyi didn’t speak the whole way back.
Vfflcu tlw rlaalcu atfgf lc rlifcmf, Tejc Eel jrxfv, “Wljb Itjb, jgf sbe jcugs?”
Itjb Itfcusl kjrc’a jcugs, tf pera ofia j yla ecqifjrjca. Lf rjlv bqfcis, “Tejc-Xf, ktja P rjlv fjgilfg jgfc’a atlcur atja P gjcvbwis vfmlvfv ab wjxf eq. Uier, fnfc lo P vbc’a wjxf atbrf mbwwfcar, batfg qfbqif klii. Jjc sbe gfjiis rtea fnfgsbcf’r wbeat eq?”
Yuan Rui said with a bit of disappointment in his tone, “It’s true that I can’t decide what others have to comment about her, but you are my friend.”
“…”
A second later, Zhao Zhengyi said, “You should change now, we have to leave in half an hour.”
Yuan Rui looked at him, asking, “Are you not mad at me anymore?”
Zhao Zhengyi smiled. “Who would actually get mad at their friends?”
Yuan Rui smiled too. “Wait outside for me then, I’m going to make a call, then change.”
Zhao Zhengyi thought to himself, Sigh, he’s going to call that “uncle” again.
Zheng Qiuyang had been awake for a while already. He placed both his phone and iPad beside his pillow, waiting for Yuan Rui’s wake-up call. But he never received anything, which had him displeased for a good amount of time.
When Yuan Rui finally called, he pretended that he just woke up as he whined, “What time is it even? It’s so early…”
Yuan Rui said from the other side, “It’s already eight, wake up and eat, then go change the washer.”
Zheng Qiuyang was furious, this time, he whined for real, “Washer, washer, all you think about is the washer!”
“…”
Zheng Qiuyang burst out, “Why didn’t you ask if I had a good sleep?”
Yuan Rui was very obedient as he asked, “Did you have a good sleep?”
“Not at all.”
The other side was quiet for a moment, then Yuan Rui said in a quiet voice, “I wanted you to get some extra sleep so I called after breakfast.”
“…”
Yuan Rui really thought the other was upset because he had to wake up so early. He continued to coax, “Go sleep for another half hour, I’ll call you again before the conference starts.”
Zheng Qiuyang thought, Sleep my ass, I just wanna sleep with you right now.
“Alright, go to sleep now,” Yuan Rui said. But he didn’t want to hang up either, he commented, “I actually didn’t sleep well either, I missed you a lot.”
Zheng Qiuyang’s lips moved, but he didn’t reply.
Yuan Rui waited for a while to hear nothing, he said to himself, “Did he fall asleep?”
Zheng Qiuyang kind of wanted to laugh, though mostly, he really wanted to fly over and give him a hug.
Yuan Rui thought that he must’ve been asleep, so very quietly and gently, he said, “Qiuyang, I love you so much.”
Once he said that, he felt rather embarrassed as he immediately hung up.
Zheng Qiuyang’s mood instantly flung up, the drumming in his chest wouldn’t stop. Slowly, an ardent symphony rang up in his ears, he grabbed Yuan Rui’s pillow and took it into his tight embrace. Multiple scenes of him and Yuan Rui being together crossed his mind. If someone were to ask him what his name was right now, he would need a while to think about it.
I’m done for, I’m fucking planted right in Yuan Xiao’s Rui’s grasp.
The launching conference for Who’s The Sand Between Your Fingers went very successfully, the majority of the questions were prepared beforehand and everyone was ready to answer them. The Q&A session went smoothly, sometimes they’d make some jokes for the comedic effect. The producer, Yang Lu, was an exceptional host; because she had risen to fame in her youth, she was an expert at transitions and handling any unexpected occurrences with her famous commentator experience.
Once it was over, Yang Lu talked in private with the group of young actors. As someone who’s worked at CCTV for many years, she was an upright and strict senior. The youngsters all were a little intimidated along with their respects for her. After a disciplinary discussion, they all basically got on the same page. They shouldn’t cause any trouble for the team, especially anything engaging in unorthodox sexual activities, gambling, or drug abuse. Or else, instead of waiting for the news outlet to expose them and be eliminated by all the netizens, the producers would eliminate them themselves first.
No matter what others’ opinion of this was, as someone who had stayed in very foul production teams before, Yuan Rui was very happy. In his past crews, the actor would bang the director, the female actresses would bang the male actors, the male actors would sleep with their fans, and the female actresses would sleep with their sponsors for money. They also did drugs and formed orgies at night. They even offered him to join, which immediately frightened him into running back to his room and locking the door. He didn’t dare to get a wink of sleep that night. Although he doesn’t participate in such acts, it was still stressful to stay in that kind of team. To have a clean work environment and team was truly a great thing.
By the time Yuan Rui got back to the hotel, it was already lunchtime. He originally wanted to go eat at the ninth-floor buffet paid by the production team, but Yang Lu’s assistant came to notify him that Yang Lu wanted to treat him to a meal.
Yang Lu had all the dishes ordered already as she waited in a private room for him. Upon his entrance, she went ahead and declared, “I have to go back to Guangzhou this afternoon, I’ll leave right after this meal.”
“Ah? You’re so busy—”
Yang Lu smiled. “No matter how busy I am, I should still take some time to have private talks with my son.”
Yuan Rui got a bit bashful from her words. “Auntie Yang, I’ll do well on set, I won’t cause any trouble and bring shame to you.”
“I know you’re a good kid.”
Since Yang Lu had to go back to Guangzhou for work in the afternoon, she didn’t order any wine. There were no exceedingly gourmet dishes on the table either, it was just a casual meal.
Yang Lu noticed how Yuan Rui only felt comfortable with reaching out for dishes that were put in front of him, so she placed some food in his bowl, and even asked caringly, “You don’t seem to like celery much.”
It’s been a long time since Yuan Rui had been cared for by a female senior like this before, his heart felt very warm. “Yeah, I haven’t liked it since I was a child.”
“I don’t like it either, it has a weird taste, and the same goes for my son. We never buy celeries in our house.”
Yuan Rui nodded. He’s heard from others that Yang Lu has a son, who’s also studied at a famous school abroad, he was apparently an excelling individual.
Yang Lu continued, “Eat more, don’t do modeling in the future anymore, that way you don’t have to constantly keep up this kind of draining figure.”
Yuan Rui replied embarrassingly, “I can’t eat too much, my stomach has shrunk over the years because of restricted diets.”
Yang Lu looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. “You’ve worked so hard aboard at such a young age without anyone taking care of you, it even damaged your body. When we go on break during Lunar New Year’s, I’ll take you to a Chinese doctor. He’s a great physician who’s treated many national leaders. We’ll have him prescribe some medicine for you. You have to get your body taken care of while you’re still young or else a lot more problems will surface when you get older.”
Yuan Rui was very touched, but he also didn’t know how to show his gratitude, he stuttered, “Auntie Yang, thank you, I—I…”
“Come on, eat, I have to leave quickly once we’re done.”
Yuan Rui swallowed the words he didn’t get to say. He stuffed the rice down with all his might that he ended up eating half an extra bowl more than usual.
Having a “mom” was such a nice thing.
The next day was the first official day of filming. Now that his days were busy, time was passing by much faster.
Zheng Qiuyang and Yuan Rui FaceTimed each other every day, they could never get enough of seeing each other. Every time a goodbye was said, they’d drag it on for a long while before an actual goodbye.
Without Yuan Rui at home, Zheng Qiuyang ate at his mom’s place often. His mom had high blood pressure, she was in discomfort more frequently during the winter, but she held back her temper, so she did not nag him as much anymore.
Ever since his older brother, Zheng Shaoyang, had a daughter, the grandma who was heavily biased towards male descendants picked on Zheng Shaoyang’s wife constantly. This caused the frequency of her arguing with Zheng Qiuyang’s mom to decrease as well.
Due to the heavy dispute in Zheng Shaoyang’s family, where he had to take care of his wife and baby while also having to console his mom who was constantly on a rampage, his availability in the company decreased. The majority of his work was passed down to trusting subordinates; those people didn’t want to get on Zheng Qiuyang’s bad side, so some of his designs were picked.
Not only had his ears been freed from naggings, but alongside the upraise at work; Zheng Qiuyang had been feeling quite well recently.
The only exception was that he still missed Yuan Rui too much, the fleshlight slowly ceased to satisfy him as well.
Shanghai has been overcast and rainy the entire time, no sun has been seen in the past half month.
When Yuan Rui happened to look up at the sky during breaks throughout the filming, it made him miss the warm and blazing sun of Beijing.
He missed Zheng Qiuyang a lot too, he talked to Zheng Qiuyang every night before bed. Once they hung up, he wouldn’t be able to stop his eyes from wanting to tear up.
Zheng Qiuyang’s hair had grown out longer, he was also wearing a very nice-looking new shirt that he hadn’t seen before. The thin layer of his beard that built upon Zheng Qiuyang’s face was super sexy, Zheng Qiuyang also told him that his new designs were picked, Zheng Qiuyang, Zheng Qiuyang, Zheng Qiuyang…
Yuan Rui finally started to train in his fapping skills that he hadn’t worked on ever since he started dating.
But the more he fapped, the sadder he got. The more he fapped, the more he wanted to go home.
T/N: LMAO the end of the last chapter and this chapter really corresponded huh
Lol what a perfect match these two silly guy 🤣🤭
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
omg these two are clearly made for each other 😂 Thank you for the chapter!
OMG that ending xD I’m giggling too much.
Thanks for the chapter! <3
😂 That was sweet with a good laugh at the end!
Name error – “** Zhao Zhengyi [Zheng Qiuyang] had been awake for a while already.”
ah, thank you ^^ i’ll correct it soon!
The ending from the last chapter and this ending 😂😂😂!! Thank you for the update. ❤
thanks for the chapter!