Edited by Yummers
On the night of November 10th, Yuan Rui left Shanghai to go to Hainan. The Sparkling Friends movie was going to be filmed there. Aside from Zhao Zhengyi, the female assistant hired by Yang Lu also came along on the trip.
They flew for nearly three hours. By the time the airplane landed, it was already 11:40 at night. The two guys who were hired to pick them up went to help with their luggage. Once they made it back, they saw Yuan Rui and the other two standing in a line against the wall. All their heads were lowered as they scrolled through Taobao.
The two guys looked at each other in silence, not knowing what to say.
Yuan Rui only wanted a pair of shoes to begin with, so the event was pretty easy for him. He lifted his head to face the two guys and said embarrassingly, “There’s still a few more minutes until twelve, do you guys not have anything you want to buy?”
And so, the number of people lining up against the wall went from three to five.
At twelve o’clock, all the people in the airport’s waiting room and arrival hall, as well as the departing passengers and the flight attendants coming out the gates all had their heads down collectively as they furiously went on a shopping spree.
This day was merriment for everyone.
At 12:01am, Zhao Zhengyi put down his phone and asked, “Yuna-Ge, did you get the shoes?”
Yuan Rui had a sad face. “No! The site was laggy!”
The female assistant was also over the edge as she said, “I couldn’t place my order at all! And the first thousand buyers get a free makeup gift box!”
Zhao Zhengyi—who successfully got his one-cent toilet paper—couldn’t help but chuckle with pride.
Once they finally got in the car heading to the hotel, Yuan Rui texted Zheng Qiuyang: “I didn’t get the shoes [Sob][Sob][Sob]”
Zheng Qiuyang quickly replied with a picture. It was a screenshot of his Taobao receipt. He bought ten boxes of condoms at 50% off and also used a ten-dollar coupon.
Zheng Qiuyang: “The first hundred buyers are gifted a bottle of lube too! It’s fruit-flavored!”
Zheng Qiuyang: “Isn’t your husband awesome?”
Yuan Rui: “[Goodbye][Goodbye][Goodbye]”
Zheng Qiuyang: “[Haha][Haha][Haha]”
The movie’s launch conference was the next day and they also had to attend the opening ceremony for the cultural festival hosted by a tourism sector there, so the two didn’t continue their conversation as Yuan Rui quickly took a shower, and went to bed.
The weather hasn’t been too nice for the last couple of days. The skies were usually overcast with clouds, and the temperature hung around 30°C during the day. This was pretty good for The Sparkling Friends team though Otherwise, shooting on a blazing day and worrying about heat strokes would be troublesome.
The cast met up with each other before the launch conference. They quickly got acquainted with each other and had fun. As for the other special guests like Tomas, they weren’t present since they didn’t need to attend the launch conference. The rest of them would be arriving later in the afternoon or the evening.
Yuan Rui was more familiar with the Taiwanese girl. They caught up with each other and chatted about how they’ve been. The girl whispered to him, “Have you seen Director Yang’s son yet? He’s over there.”
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.
Yuan Rui replied, “No. What’s he doing here?”
“P tfjgv atja tf’r jirb tfgf yfmjerf bo kbgx. P vbc’a xcbk atf fzjma vfajlir atbeut. Vqfjxlcu bo tlw, tf’r sbeg ubvygbatfg cbk. Tbe’nf cfnfg wfa tlw yfobgf flatfg?”
Tejc Eel fzqijlcfv jkxkjgvis, “Rb. Cecalf Tjcu jcv P lcafgjma wbrais atgbeut kbgx, kf vbc’a ajix wemt lc qglnjaf.”
The girl was smiling. “I wasn’t trying to get anything out of you, and I know you’re not the type to flatter others. Don’t be so nervous. I just wanted to say that your godbrotheris super handsome!”
“…Ah?”
The girl’s eyes were sparkling with hearts from excitement. “For real! He’s even taller than you, his muscles seemed pretty firm too. Who knows if he’s already got a girlfriend though.”
A complicated thought popped up in Yuan Rui’s head—was this what he looked like when he drooled over Bai Tu and Tomas? The fact that Zheng Qiuyang was able to resist beating him up, was true love right there.
An entertainment show like The Sparkling Friends producing a film wasn’t that big of a deal. After all, its purpose was to earn some quick cash. The TV station and production team didn’t make it super extravagant either. The launch conference was also quite simple. They made a champagne tower, took a few pictures for the press, and then it was over.
Then, they left for the cultural festival. Yuan Rui didn’t have much to do there. There were several TV hosts who knew how to liven up the mood and artists who could sing and dance in the cast, as well as a very likable acting king. For an event that required individuals of various talents, his job was to simply sit in the corner and clap—unless there was a raffle.
However, the cultural festival was led by the government, so there were no raffle drawings.
He tried his best to clap for two hours straight before the opening ceremony finally came to an end. They were considered important guests for this festival. Many of the audience members also came solely because of them. So naturally, they got on the stage as a group at the end and took a picture with the people in charge of the event.
The opening ceremony was hosted at a national convention and exhibition center that used to be a huge marine park. But the park wasn’t a great hit in the location as most tourists in Hainan would rather go to Sanya. After the park went out of business, it was modified into an exhibition center. They changed from a simple touring site to including services that would attract business people with higher spending budgets.
The Sparkling Friends team was stationed to live at the hot spring hotel beside the exhibition center, so it was very easy for the guests to get back to the hotel once the opening ceremony was over.
After lunch, Yuan Rui didn’t have anything scheduled for the rest of the day, so he wanted to go out. But as he peeked out from his curtain, there was still a group of his fans waiting downstairs. A good portion of them held his poster and name sign, it made him both grateful and troubled. He obviously found it good that people liked him, but he also wanted to go to the sea. He thanked his fans in his head while also wishing that the girls would go home soon after not seeing him.
Zhao Zhengyi walked into his room with a floral shirt as he carried two big coconuts in his arms. He was all smiles as he asked, “Yuan-Ge, you want some coconut juice?”
Yuan Rui exclaimed, “Woah! I’ve never seen any coconuts this big!”
He immediately took out his phone to snap a picture, then sent it to Zheng Qiuyang.
Zhao Zhengyi was completely speechless; his heart was completely shattered from these two showing off their love all the time with no regard to anything else.
Yuan Rui waited for a while for Zheng Qiuyang to reply, but he didn’t. He assumed that he was still working. Zheng Qiuyang had been quite busy lately, having to make designs for the company in the morning, then going home at night and working on his design for the competition.
Yuan Rui and Zhao Zhengyi each held a coconut and drank the juice as they watched TV until the acting kind rang their doorbell. He asked, “Xiao Yuan, do you know how to play basketball?”
Yuan Rui replied, “Yeah.”
The other smiled as he said, “I had a feeling that you would, or else that’d be a waste for your height. I saw a basketball court from my window, and some people were playing basketball there. I counted about seven or eight people. If we go, we could make up the numbers. There’s nothing to do just sitting in these rooms anyway, do you wanna come along?”
Yuan Rui was very swayed. He quickly agreed, “Give me a moment, I’m gonna change!”
He ran to change while Zhao Zhengyi looked over at the acting king, asking, “Ge, what if they don’t let you play with them?”
The acting king replied nonchalantly, “Then, we’ll just come back.”
“…”
Yuan Rui finished changing his clothes in a flash. He carried a pair of tennis shoes in his hands to slip into as he spoke excitedly, “I can also buy a couple more coconuts on the way!”
The acting king agreed, “Okay, okay.”
The two men ran to the basketball court without having to worry about maintaining their idol image. The acting king shouted, “Can we join you guys?”
The people there were having a pretty relaxed game. Instantly, someone called out the acting king’s name in astonishment, then someone else added on, “Yuan Rui’s also here!”
The acting king continued, “Hello! Can we join?”
Yuan Rui’s expression showed his eagerness.
The man who was just dribbling stopped what he was doing; he held the basketball in one hand as he turned over to look.
Yuan Rui, “!!!”
Unexpectedly, the acting king called out to him naturally, “Oh? It’s you, Xiao Meng, I couldn’t recognize you from afar.”
The said person passed the ball to the guy next to him and slowly walked over with a smile, asking, “Do you guys not have to film in the afternoon?”
He was very tall with handsome features. On the end of his left eyebrow was a small and shallow slit.
Yuan Rui took a half step back subconsciously—why was Meng Lai here?!
“We start the film tomorrow. Plus, the rest of the other guests aren’t here yet.” The acting king was a lot shorter than Yuan Rui, he reached out his hand to pat his back as he smiled. “What a coincidence, this is your godbrother. You guys haven’t met before, right?”
Yuan Rui’s eyes widened, What godbrother?
Meng Lai looked even more shocked than him, questioning the statement, “Godbrother?”
The acting king was taken aback for a bit. “Did Director Yang not tell you? She’s now Xiao Yuan’s godmother. Speaking of, which one of you is actually older?”
Meng Lai looked at Yuan Rui, then replied, “I’m four months older than him.”
The acting king found it odd. “Do you guys know each other?”
Meng Lai smiled. “We were high school classmates.”
The acting king looked at both of them. “Oh, old classmates, that’s great then!”
Yuan Rui quickly cut in, “We weren’t too close.”
The acting king blinked. He looked at Meng Lai and Meng Lai smiled at him, saying, “Mn…yeah.”
The others on the court called out to them, “Since we all know each other, then let’s play a game together!”
At this point, Yuan Rui wasn’t feeling it at all anymore. But he couldn’t find an excuse to leave either, so he endured the uncomfortableness as he stepped on the court.
He and the acting king were on the same team, while Meng Lai was on the opposing team.
After they separated into two teams, Meng Lai hit the back of his head lightly, saying, “Yuan Rui, good luck. Do well!”
Yuan Rui was a bit dumbfounded.
Around the start of high school, their school had basketball competitions between classes. Since he and Meng Lai were the tallest, they were trained to be the backbones of their team.
Meng Lai was naturally the athletic type, while all Yuan Rui had was his height. During the beginning of practices, Meng Lai was even annoyed at him for being a dead weight to the team. He also didn’t have a crush on Meng Lai yet. He just thought that Meng Lai was too good; he had good grades, was athletic, everyone liked him, and he was always the center of attention wherever he went.
When Meng Lai called him dumb, it didn’t anger him either. He gritted his teeth and practiced hard. Slowly, as he improved, Meng Lai ceased his scolding gradually. He started treating him better and would buy him soda whenever he did well. At that time, Yuan Rui had just hit 180cm, while Meng Lai was already past 185cm. Before the beginning of every game, Meng Lai would slap the back of his head as encouragement. It wasn’t a hard slap, instead, it felt a bit intimate.
From the continuous slaps, feelings started to bloom within Yuan Rui who was going through puberty. He couldn’t bear to drink all the sodas Meng Lai bought him. He’d carry them home in his backpack and line them up against the table by his bed. Once there were ten bottles lined up, he confessed to Meng Lai.
Meng Lai was shocked by his confession, he rejected him without a second thought. He even commented, “Are you dumb? I’m a man.”
That night at home, Yuan Rui chugged down all ten bottles of soda in one sitting. The second day, his stomachache was bad enough that he could barely stand still, causing him to miss the final match with another class. Their class lost. As Meng Lai left the court, he ignored everyone. When he passed Yuan Rui, he hit the back of his head hard. It wasn’t gentle at all, and tears even formed in Yuan Rui’s eyes.
“Yuan Rui!” The acting king called out to him loudly.
He swiftly stole the ball and led it to his side. Pushing with the strength applied to his wrist and fingertips, he passed the ball to the acting king. Although his mind wasn’t entirely focused on the game, his muscle memories were still there.
Meng Lai ran past him, complimenting him in a low voice, “Great play.”
“…”
Yuan Rui spaced out again.
The son who didn’t like celery that Yang Lu spoke of was actually Meng Lai. Was Meng Lai also the reason why she treated him so well then?
But Meng Lai doesn’t seem like he knew about Yang Lu becoming his godmother. Did he honestly not know or was he faking it?
Are both of them trying to set him up?
Though that seemed too narcissistic. Meng Lai was such a successful man, Yang Lu was both influential and rich. They wouldn’t be so bored to set up a not very good-looking and not too famous little celebrity like him, right?
What was Meng Lai doing in Hainan then?
He was a little scared. He felt like he’d fallen into a pit, but it also didn’t seem like Meng Lai was the one who led him in.
Wow what a twist…
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
I knew it… I have suspected that director Yang’s son would be that high school first love.
I knew it would be Meng Lai!! The author loves coincidences too much.
I really hope it doesn’t cause drama. These two gave been able to work through their bad moments this whole time. Id hate to see the misunderstanding. Though honestly I think Yuan Ruin would glue himself to ZSY if they were really about to break up. He wouldn’t let ZSY go.
Ehhhh, I guessed it but still surprised 😂😂 now I’m just wondering whether Aunt Yang statement to Zheng Qiuyang was deliberate. Although the content was understandable but it definitely increase pressure to Zheng Qiuyang.
Thank chu so much for your amazing translation!! 😘💕
ugh. she chose to be his “godmother” to hook her son up with him? gross.
i thought we were rid of him, I guess not >->
thanks for the chapter <3
Now i know what godmother treated uncle zheng like that….
i dont like this lady much or her son….
thanks for the chapter!
I really hope she didn’t scheme against Yuan Rui
Because she wouldn’t be any better than ZQY’s dad at that point.