Hengdian World Studios.
The filming location for "Lawyer Storm."
"Cut! Xiao Cheng, you got the line wrong!"
"Cut! Xiao Cheng, the emotion is wrong!"
"Stop, Xiao Cheng, what's wrong with you today? Are you feeling unwell?"
Director Liao Xian emerged from behind the monitor and frowned.
Xiao Cheng was famous in the industry for getting everything in one take. As long as the actors opposite him didn't hold him back, no matter how difficult the scene was, he never needed a second take.
What was going on today?
Xiao Cheng apologized sincerely. "Sorry, Director Liao. I'm not in good form today and haven't gotten into character. I've held up filming for everyone."
His attitude was good, and Liao Xian's expression softened a little.
"Go back early and get some rest. We'll film the other actors' parts first."
Xiao Cheng nodded and had Xiao Wu order dinner delivery from a five-star hotel for the director, actors, and crew present.
After returning to the hotel, Xiao Cheng glanced at his phone.
His WeChat conversation with Jiang Chiyan was completely empty.
More than four hours had passed since he posted that Weibo post through his studio's official account.
Jiang Chiyan hadn't offered even a word of explanation.
Just then, Xiao Cheng's phone rang.
It was a call from Jiang Chiyan.
Xiao Cheng didn't answer.
He simply tossed his phone aside, put it on silent, and went into the bathroom to shower.
After coming out of the shower, Xiao Cheng saw thirty-nine missed calls on his phone.
Every single one was from Jiang Chiyan, without exception.
Xiao Cheng's gaze shifted slightly.
Just then, an incoming call suddenly appeared on the phone screen, startling him.
His hand shook, and he accidentally tapped the answer button.
Jiang Chiyan's voice came through the phone, carrying a smile.
"Such a temper?"
Xiao Cheng said flatly, "I'm not angry."
Jiang Chiyan's voice was very hoarse, laced with exhaustion. "All right, all right. Best Actor Xiao, who isn't angry, send me your room number."
Xiao Cheng froze. "My room number? Aren't you in the Demon Capital..."
Jiang Chiyan sounded rather aggrieved. "I came straight here to see you the moment I got off the plane."
Ten minutes later.
The door wasn't locked, and Jiang Chiyan slipped straight into Xiao Cheng's room.
Xiao Cheng had just thrown his dirty clothes into the washing machine. He was wrapped in a bathrobe, with a T-shirt and a pair of boxer briefs still lying at the head of the bed. He hadn't had time to change.
Jiang Chiyan's gaze fell on the underwear at the head of the bed.
Light gray.
Xiao Cheng came out of the bathroom and saw Jiang Chiyan staring at his intimate clothing. He coughed a little awkwardly.
"What are you doing here?"
Jiang Chiyan placed his black business suitcase in the corner and took off his coat.
He walked over to the bed and deliberately sat on Xiao Cheng's underwear.
"Baby, you can't be so heartless."
"I have another business trip tomorrow, but I came all the way to Hengdian to see you tonight, and you wouldn't even answer my calls."
Xiao Cheng had felt a little sorry for him at first.
But that word, baby...
Just a few hours ago, Jiang Chiyan had said it to a woman at a bar.
He didn't want it.
Xiao Cheng's expression was cold.
He stepped forward and reached for the T-shirt and underwear.
"Lawyer Jiang, I'm going to change and get some rest."
An undisguised request for him to leave.
How could Jiang Chiyan possibly let him get his way?
He caught Xiao Cheng's wrist with one hand and tugged at the bathrobe belt around his waist with the other.
"Then let me help Best Actor Xiao change."
The belt came undone.
Xiao Cheng wore nothing beneath his bathrobe.
Jiang Chiyan's gaze followed the contours of Xiao Cheng's abs, swept over his V-lines, and traveled farther down...
He saw everything, whether he should have or not.
Nothing was left hidden.
Xiao Cheng's face flushed bright red.
He pulled his bathrobe closed and shot Jiang Chiyan a glare, a little angry with embarrassment. "Give me my clothes!"
Jiang Chiyan picked up the T-shirt at the head of the bed and handed it to him.
"A-and... my underwear!" Xiao Cheng lacked conviction.
He felt terribly aggrieved.
Jiang Chiyan was clearly the one flirting with another woman.
Why did it seem as though he was the one who had done something wrong?
Jiang Chiyan gave a wicked smile and tilted his head. "I can give it to you, but... you have to tell me why you're angry, don't you?"
He was asking a question he already knew the answer to.
He and Xiao Cheng had already seen each other completely bare.
But every time he brought up their relationship, Xiao Cheng evaded the question.
It seemed he was avoiding something.
Jiang Chiyan just wanted to hear Xiao Cheng admit that he was jealous.
"I'm not angry," Xiao Cheng insisted stubbornly, reaching out to snatch his... underwear.
Jiang Chiyan caught both his wrists, gently pushed him against the head of the bed, and held him there.
"Baby, if you keep squirming, do you want me to take off your bathrobe and put them on you myself?"
His warm breath turned even the base of Xiao Cheng's ears red.
The temperature in the room rose higher and higher.
Xiao Cheng only felt his mouth and throat go dry.
He held it in for a long while before finally blurting out, "I don't like you calling me baby."
"Hmm?" Jiang Chiyan reached out and hooked a finger under his chin. "Don't like it... then why are you blushing? Why are you shy?"
Xiao Cheng retrieved his phone from beside the pillow, opened the video, and handed it to Jiang Chiyan.
"See for yourself."
After watching it, Jiang Chiyan smiled. "You're keeping tabs on me?"
Xiao Cheng's heart lurched.
He thought Jiang Chiyan was angry.
Being watched by someone you cared about certainly wasn't a pleasant feeling.
But the very next second.
Jiang Chiyan rested against Xiao Cheng's shoulder, licked his ear, and whispered, "I like you keeping tabs on me."
"Next time, don't stew in jealousy alone. I'm waiting for you to call and check up on me, waiting for you to question me. Understand?"
Jiang Chiyan rubbed Xiao Cheng's lips with his thumb and smiled helplessly.
Xiao Cheng drowned completely in Jiang Chiyan's tenderness and was swept along by him. "So that woman..."
"It was the first time I'd met her. I don't know her, and I'm not interested in her."
Jiang Chiyan pointed at the video. "Did you see the miniature earpiece in her left ear?"
"Yes."
"She's a human trafficker. She abducted a sixteen-year-old girl."
"What?"
"That girl's name is Xu Xiaoxiao. She's a reader of your work as the great Season. This is the WeChat conversation with her parents thanking me for saving her. The police are already involved. I had no choice but to flirt with that woman to save someone..."
"Oh."
Xiao Cheng was too embarrassed to look at Jiang Chiyan.
What a misunderstanding this had turned into.
Jiang Chiyan gently held Xiao Cheng's chin, turned his face toward him, and lightly kissed his cheek.
Xiao Cheng's mind went blank.
He was so nervous that he didn't dare move, and even his legs went weak.
"So... Best Actor Xiao, now that the interrogation is over and I've confessed everything truthfully as your prisoner, could you find me something to eat? I'm starving to death."
To play on his sympathy, he hadn't even eaten his in-flight meal.
As soon as he finished speaking, his stomach began rumbling nonstop.
Xiao Cheng took a deep breath.
After thinking it over, he still couldn't bear to make Jiang Chiyan eat the hotel's dinner.
He asked Jiang Chiyan, "What do you like to eat?"
Jiang Chiyan answered without hesitation, "You."
Xiao Cheng said, "I'm being serious."
He took Jiang Chiyan to the refrigerator, opened the door, and pointed at the vegetables, eggs, and meat stocked inside.
"What would you like? I'll cook it for you."
"Anything is fine." Jiang Chiyan gently stroked Xiao Cheng's face.
Xiao Cheng nodded.
He washed his hands, took a small piece of meat and a few leafy greens, and headed for the kitchen.
Xiao Cheng glanced at Jiang Chiyan's dark circles and bloodshot eyes, remembering to remind him, "Go lie down and sleep for a bit. I'll call you when it's ready."
"It's fine, I..."
"Go to sleep!" Xiao Cheng would brook no argument.
Jiang Chiyan obediently went.
Only then did Xiao Cheng enter the kitchen.
He opened a kitchen cabinet. Inside...
There were silver handcuffs, leg shackles, and a metal collar.
Xiao Cheng's fingertips gently stroked the pattern on the handcuffs' fine chain.
It was a Louis XIV Rose pattern.
If Jiang Chiyan really cheated on him.
If Jiang Chiyan hadn't come to explain himself today.
He would definitely handcuff Jiang Chiyan and keep him imprisoned.
For a lifetime.
"Chiyan..." Xiao Cheng's eyes gradually turned blood-red.
PS: Xiao Cheng's obsessive, unhinged side is required by the novel's plot. Please do not imitate it. If you encounter a man or woman like this in real life, stay away. Run as far as you can, and don't gamble with your life.