Old Friends

"Okay, thank you, Sister Yin Ran!"

Xie Yibai held his phone against his chest, suppressing his racing heartbeat as he pulled open the glass door and returned to the living room.

Zou Yan had finished his meeting with the production team. He closed his laptop and looked at him. "I have some good news for you."

"I have good news too!" he cut in excitedly. "I passed the audition!"

Zou Yan said, "Then congratulations are in order. It's a double celebration, because our drama's project approval went through too."

Xie Yibai rushed over to the liquor cabinet. He had had his eye on those bottles of imported liquor for a while, and excitedly pulled out a bottle of martini. "We have to have a couple of drinks to celebrate!"

But Zou Yan checked the time on his phone. "No rush. I'll notify the publicity team first and have them put out an article to build anticipation while weekend evening traffic is high. Your archrival happens to be a top star, so we can toss his big name around and draw some attention."

Hugging the bottle and two cocktail glasses, Xie Yibai ran over to Zou Yan and asked, "Brother Yan, did you tell Sister Yin Ran outright that we wouldn't be casting Qi Lan in this drama?"

"I did." Zou Yan typed a message into the chat box. "You gave the order. How could I not obey?"

Xie Yibai set the bottle and glasses on the carpet. "So that's why Sister Yin Ran was so cold to me on the phone... I was wondering why she wasn't happy for me. She still minds, doesn't she?"

"People always have their favorites. Your archrival is an artist she brought up herself, so it's only natural she'd feel for him." Afraid he would overthink it, Zou Yan added, "But she's signed you now, and you're all on the same side. She won't favor one of you over the other. Who cares whether she's happy? As long as we're happy, that's enough."

Xie Yibai had gained a lot that evening. Thoroughly convinced, he nodded. "You're right! Why should I torment myself? Qi Lan should be the one tormenting himself!"

"When he sees the trending searches tomorrow, he'll probably be stewing for a while. I don't believe a top star like him would put out a press release to clarify that he didn't get offered the role. Let him stew!" Zou Yan opened the bottle, poured two glasses of martini, and clinked glasses with him. "Congratulations to our leading man, Xiaobai. It's never too late for a gentleman to take revenge."

Xie Yibai held his glass without drinking. He looked at Zou Yan. "Brother Yan, you're so bad."

His eyes held admiration and longing. Zou Yan hadn't meant anything naughty, but with the light in Xie Yibai's eyes shining on him like that, he blurted out, "I can be even worse. Want to try?"

Chapter 32: Old Friends

Everyone who knew Zou Yan knew that, though neither "womanizer" nor "scumbag" applied to him, he still had a wild, frivolous side.

If the person he was flirting with had been anyone other than Xie Yibai, they would have long since ignited like dry kindling and been rolling in the sheets.

In fact, Xie Yibai knew it too.

He wasn't someone who shut out the world and devoted himself solely to being a canary. He had never deliberately asked about Zou Yan's past, but he had heard a little about it.

Zou Yan had no publicly acknowledged exes, only a few widely circulated tales of his romantic exploits. They said that with his power and easygoing personality, he attracted admirers wherever he went, and men and women both in and out of the industry flocked to him. As for how many tricks he had up his sleeve, nobody could say for certain.

Xie Yibai took a sip of his cocktail to steady his nerves and refused to play along. "No. I like you when you're good."

His mother had warned him that men turned bad as soon as they got rich, and powerful men were all bastards. He shouldn't be so foolish as to believe whatever someone told him, or sooner or later he'd be sold off.

The world was dangerous, and he had to keep control of his own boundaries.

With him being so frank, Zou Yan couldn't very well be a scoundrel. In fact, Zou Yan had simply spoken too quickly and regretted it the moment the words left his mouth. His Xiaobai was different from those seductive hussies of the past. He was inexperienced and needed guidance; Zou Yan couldn't make it look as if he were forcing himself on him.

"Haha, I was teasing." Zou Yan moved the bottle and glasses to the coffee table to avoid losing control after drinking too much, then ruffled his hair. "I could treat anyone else badly, but never you."

As his head was patted, Xie Yibai toppled like an unbalanced roly-poly toy, landing against Zou Yan's arm with a thump. Zou Yan caught him and tickled him.

The unexpected attack drew a piercing shriek from Xie Yibai. His skin was thin and he had little fat, so it was hard for him not to be ticklish. Both tickling and pain sapped his strength, but the less he struggled, the more the tickling made him laugh. Soon he could barely laugh anymore, and tears seeped from the corners of his eyes. He beat at the back of Zou Yan's hand and begged, "Stop, stop! I can't take it anymore."

Zou Yan stopped, wrapped an arm around his waist, and pressed him down onto a cushion.

Xie Yibai's world spun, and his smile abruptly froze. He stared blankly at the man above him, his eyelashes fluttering and trembling, his eyes flickering with sparkling light.

Zou Yan's gaze traced his features and lips like delicate brushstrokes. He combed his fingers through the strands of hair stuck to Xie Yibai's sweaty forehead and asked, "That ticklish, huh?"

Xie Yibai didn't move. He only looked away, glancing at the glass on the table. The chandelier was reflected in the clear liquor like shattered diamonds. "I'm incredibly ticklish... Being tickled is like a punishment. You have to laugh even when you don't want to."

Having to laugh even when he didn't want to was a portrayal of his working life.

"Then why didn't you say so?" Zou Yan rubbed the back of his fingers against his cheek. "If you'd said you didn't like it, I would have stopped."

Xie Yibai's dark pupils were like miniature pools of cold water. He pursed his lips and said, "You're very good to me, Brother Yan, so since you like playing with me, I thought I'd play along for a little while."

Zou Yan had heard plenty of flattering words of love ten times sweeter than that, but hearing Xie Yibai tell such a reluctant truth was like watching a brightly colored tropical fish swim into the depths of his heart: he wanted to catch it, but couldn't.

He cupped Xie Yibai's face. The more he looked, the cuter he found him, so cute it was killing him. He tightened his grip, squeezing that little face out of shape.

Xie Yibai valued his appearance more than his life. He broke free of Zou Yan's hands and sat up, several reddish finger marks left on his cheeks. He touched his face and said, "Good thing I've never had fillers, or you'd have squeezed my face out of shape."

It was as though several fireworks had exploded in Zou Yan's head, dazzling and dreamlike. He couldn't help saying, "Xiaobai, I really want to make you small."

Xie Yibai looked down, searching everywhere for his phone, and answered, "How small?"

"Thumbelina-sized. Then I could put you in my pocket and take you everywhere I went."

"Brother Yan, you're so childish." Xie Yibai found his phone and poured himself a fresh glass of wine to take into the bath. He said to Zou Yan, "I'm going to take a bath."

There was no sexual innuendo or seduction in those words.

But Zou Yan was still very happy. The irritation and gloom that had accumulated from work over the past few days were swept away in an instant, and he seemed to have truly returned to his carefree childhood in a dream. Watching Xie Yibai disappear behind the bathroom door, Zou Yan thought that perhaps preserving this innocence wasn't so bad. Desire was fleeting, but affection could last.

Marketing for a drama had to begin as soon as the project was approved. If it was based on an existing work, it could draw on the IP's popularity. To build momentum for an original script, producers often made a fuss over casting, using actors who brought their own traffic to generate buzz and establish name recognition first.

As soon as news of Beacon Fires West of the City's registration came out, it caused quite a stir on Weibo.

If Xie Yibai's fans were fierce, Qi Lan's were fanatical. Many supporters of traffic stars were career fans, who cared most about their idol's next drama and scrutinized the production team, subject matter, and cast.

The discussion this sparked was exactly the publicity the production team wanted.

However, using a fanatical fandom to generate hype was a double-edged sword. People who paid attention to the drama because of Qi Lan could also come to hate it because of his absence.

As Zou Yan had said, Qi Lan was a top star. With his status, it was impossible to avoid others riding his popularity, and no one would come forward to declare that he hadn't accepted the drama. That would be too beneath him. He could only let the discussion build and do the work for someone else's benefit.

Xie Yibai didn't believe Qi Lan would silently swallow this loss, because he had worked with him before. Back then, they had both been obscure nobodies, before establishing the personas and labels they had now, and had simply been themselves. He had a feeling Qi Lan would definitely strike back.

But he didn't know what form it would take. He would wait and see.

Every mature fandom had professional fans leading and managing it, and the big fans in turn were under the authority of the celebrity team's fan operations staff. If Xie Yibai were the one whose name was being dangled for a role, his fan leaders would immediately contact the studio. If the information was confirmed false, they would guide the discussion and call on everyone to say "no official announcement, no engagement," refusing to give unrelated parties free publicity.

Xie Yibai waited three days. He and Zou Yan left the island, returned to the bustling city, and plunged into an endless stream of scheduled appearances. By the time he had forgotten all about it, A Chu showed him a new drama unfolding on her phone.

[They actually promoted themselves as a CP? Am I the last person on the internet to find out?]

Blackhearted Avocado [OP]:

Someone tell me, what period is this from...? They both look so tacky...

[GIF] [Image] [Image] [GIF]

Awwwweee:

Uh, first time I've seen these pictures. They were even in the same frame?

David of Light:

These pictures are centuries old. They've been analyzed to death. Surely every longtime fan knows about them?

Are you all surfing on 2G?

Baby's Breath:

Leaving an ear here

Tingting:

It was an early school variety show called Youth Never Ends Class. It only ran for one season before it was stopped over a copyright dispute. It was taken down across the entire internet and you can't find it anywhere, so a lot of people don't know about it.

I remember it was before Qi Lan changed companies. He and Xie Yibai have known each other for a long time. They seemed pretty close on the show... Hard to say what they were like in private, because they never followed each other on Weibo.

Bangbang Rabbit:

Wasn't it just for the show? It was all scripted. The CP didn't take off, so they split. They aren't even two people who follow each other, and somehow you still manage to ship them.

Tummy Is Rumbling:

OP, do you have a death wish? Don't you know the Lanyu sisters control this group?

"What's this?" Xie Yibai asked. "I don't even remember these photos."

"Take a look at this too." A Chu switched to the homepage of a Weibo marketing account. "That post went up last night and got five hundred replies overnight. Marketing accounts picked it up this morning, and now there are huge threads in every forum and group. Someone's hyping up your old friendship with Qi Lan."