Lie in Bed?

Ye Qing suddenly began to doubt himself. No, it wasn't really self-doubt, but a sense of helplessness in the face of the world.

It seemed as though nothing but bad things ever happened to him.

"I want to help people, but honestly, I wish I wasn't the only one helping. More than anything, I wish the world were a beautiful place."

Yet these past few days, it hadn't seemed all that beautiful.

Gu Ze understood how Ye Qing felt. Perhaps he had once thought the world was beautiful, or, to put it another way, he hadn't expected there to be ugliness in the world that he had never noticed.

Seeing so much of it had made him start questioning the world.

Gu Ze said nothing. Instead, he found a nearby park, and the two of them sat side by side on a bench.

Clearly, what Ye Qing wanted most tonight was to get his feelings off his chest. "Brother Gu, do you know why I wanted to help people?"

"Why?"

"I guess it's because I've seen so many things. Information travels so easily now, and we can see so much online."

"We can't tell which things are true and which are false, but sometimes I feel like something causes such a huge uproar, only to die down before long."

"I keep thinking, if some of those things really happened, would things have turned out differently if someone had helped them at the time?"

"In those moments, I really wanted to help them myself, because compared to a lot of people, I already have the means to help."

"But now, I suddenly feel like these things will never end, because there will always be people doing things that ordinary people can't understand."

Gu Ze heard the uncertainty in Ye Qing's words. "Look, what do you think of the moon tonight?"

"It's beautiful. Big, round, and bright."

"What about the trees beside us?"

"They're neatly trimmed, with distinct layers and a pleasing arrangement."

"And the lake in front of us?"

"The water is clear." Beneath the moonlight, it looked even more radiant.

"Do you think all of that is beautiful?"

"Of course." The cascading moonlight seemed to drape the trees in a layer of light. From a distance, that hazy glow made it hard to tell what was real, not to mention the lake's clear water.

"So, you see? Why would you think everything in the world is bad?"

"The scenery around us is beautiful. Good and bad are relative. You've only seen the bad side and forgotten that there's a good side too."

Gu Ze said nothing more. He simply led Ye Qing to a street bustling with activity, the complete opposite of the quiet place they had just left.

"What do you see?"

There were quite a few people, so Gu Ze took Ye Qing's hand and led him onward.

As they walked along the street, Ye Qing saw all kinds of people: street vendors, shoppers, elderly people, and a few who looked like young delinquents.

Yet Ye Qing noticed that even the vendors whose stalls no one stopped at were happy, chatting and laughing with the people beside them, while someone who looked like a delinquent reached out to steady an old lady who was about to fall.

A school-age child spent what little pocket money they had on food for stray animals.

They weren't walking particularly fast, but they weren't slow either, and before long, they had reached the end of the street.

At that moment, the world fell quiet, as though everything they had just seen had been an illusion.

But Ye Qing knew it wasn't. That was another world, alive with activity.

"Brother Gu, I really loved all of that."

"I understand now. There's more to life than just the things I've noticed. There are all those ordinary little details too. Those little details are actually everyone's happiness, and they're beautiful things in their own right."

Gu Ze placed both hands on Ye Qing's shoulders. "Yes, Xiaoqing. You can't insist that only beautiful things exist in the world. You have to allow some bad things to exist too. Good and evil are twins, born together and living side by side. One waxes as the other wanes, but neither can exist alone."

"I understand." He had been too caught up in his own narrow way of thinking.

Gu Ze lifted a hand and stroked Ye Qing's head. "I'm glad you understand."

Moonlight spilled over them, stretching their shadows endlessly. A breeze drifted past, stirring someone's heart—whose, no one could say.

It was too late, and they were rather far from the hotel where they were staying during filming, so they found another hotel.

They booked a suite with one living room and two bedrooms. If asked, their reason was that the separate rooms were too far apart.

Once inside, they each found a bathroom and took a shower.

Ye Qing came out first. Seeing that Gu Ze hadn't finished yet, he started drying his hair. He had been at it for a while before Gu Ze finally emerged.

But Gu Ze wasn't wearing anything on his upper body. Honestly, this was the first time Ye Qing had ever seen what an eight-pack actually looked like.

It wasn't as though he had never scrolled past pictures of abs before, but he hadn't thought those looked good. They were even too exaggerated, making him suspect they were just for show.

In short: not attractive!

But Gu Ze's were different. They weren't the showy kind he saw online, but a lean layer of muscle, with a firm, powerful abdomen, defined V-lines, and an inverted-triangle torso. Every abdominal muscle seemed to blend strength and beauty perfectly.

Ye Qing had never seen such beautiful abs. He couldn't help wanting to reach out and touch them.

[Ohhh, those abs are incredible.] He could be forgiven for not knowing how to describe them.

Gu Ze let out a deep sigh. He didn't know whether he'd picked up the wrong towel, but the bath towel in his bathroom was so short that he had no choice but to cover only his lower body.

As for Ye Qing's thoughts, he could only pretend not to know and casually pick up the hair dryer to dry his hair.

But the burning gaze behind him was impossible to ignore, so he could only hurry.

He had just switched it off when he heard Ye Qing's voice, full of envy. "Brother Gu, how did you get those abs?"

"Basically, I get up early and exercise for an hour every day, and if I have time in the evening, I exercise for another hour. Sometimes filming is exhausting, as you know, and that's a kind of exercise too."

"Keep doing that long enough, and they'll develop, but you have to stick with it."

Listening to Gu Ze, Ye Qing felt his own stomach. He did have abs, actually, just not eight of them, and they were only faintly defined.

When Gu Ze asked whether he wanted to work out with him, Ye Qing refused without hesitation. He didn't dislike exercise, but he wasn't particularly fond of it either.

Besides, all he needed was to stay healthy.

Since there seemed to be nothing else to do, Gu Ze decided to return to his room and put his T-shirt on. He had already worn it that day, but he had nothing else to wear.

Ye Qing's gaze followed Gu Ze until the door closed.

Before long, Ye Qing couldn't resist knocking on Gu Ze's door.

When the door opened from inside, Ye Qing discovered that Gu Ze was still bare-chested.

Gu Ze had no choice. He was a clean freak, and in the end, he hadn't put the shirt on.

Ye Qing said he wasn't sleepy yet and was bored on his own, so he wanted to come over and chat with Gu Ze.

After letting him in, Gu Ze thought for a moment. Sitting and chatting wasn't ideal when he was bare-chested, but lying down while Ye Qing sat seemed even worse.

So, how were they supposed to chat now?

Maybe they could lie in bed together?