Chapter 44

"Are you not angry anymore?"

Xie Yibai asked in confusion, "Was I angry? When?"

Zou Yan said, "You were ignoring me a while ago."

"Oh... I guess I was, but that's all in the past now, haha."

If asked to explain why he had been in a bad mood, he might not have been able to bring himself to say it. Better to let it go.

His dimples appeared when he laughed. Without asking permission, Zou Yan kissed his cheek.

Xie Yibai stopped laughing. He could hear Zou Yan's heartbeat and breathing, and Zou Yan seemed to be moving closer to his lips. The air suddenly grew thick, and time slowed to a crawl. He couldn't tell whether he was looking forward to it or resisting it, but in any case, he didn't move.

Then something very dramatic happened-Zou Yan's phone rang.

Just like in a TV drama, they almost kissed but didn't quite make it. They both burst out laughing, and the intimate atmosphere vanished.

Xie Yibai coughed to ease the awkwardness and backed away. "You should answer it."

Zou Yan looked at his phone and saw that it was his father calling. He immediately stopped smiling. Rather than leave the room, he sat down on a nearby chair.

Xie Yibai's makeup was so light today that he could leave it on or take it off. He dragged a chair over to Zou Yan and straddled it, facing the back. With both hands resting on its edge and his chin on the backs of his hands, he watched Zou Yan pitifully.

"Hello, Dad." Zou Yan answered in a serious tone, but his gaze remained fixed on Xie Yibai's face as he reached out to stroke his ear.

Xie Yibai turned his face to the side and, imitating the way Little Biscuit pestered him, rubbed against Zou Yan's palm. There was a faint scent of tobacco between his fingers, and the lingering scent of fabric fragrance on his cuff.

It smelled quite nice. He sniffed lightly, then opened his mouth to bite Zou Yan's finger.

Zou Yan hadn't expected him to be so bold, and deeply regretted that this wasn't the time to flirt.

The reason Zou Yan's father had called was simple. He had learned online what his son had been up to lately-abandoning work and flying off to an unrelated production just to act as a little celebrity's bodyguard and hold an umbrella for him. Then he had heard from others that Zou Yan had not only launched a web drama for the little celebrity, but had also fought with someone or other out of jealousy.

So he had called specifically to ask after him and find out whether these things were true, and how much was fact and how much fiction.

"Yes, it's all true. None of it was exaggerated. I did it." Zou Yan was a little surprised, but he had no intention of denying it. If it had reached his father's ears, a couple of lies wouldn't be enough to fool him. Still, his father normally didn't interfere in such matters, and he didn't know who had been running their mouth.

Xie Yibai left faint teeth marks on his index finger, then cradled his hand and counted the lines on his palm.

"You haven't come home for a meal in three months, have you? Come back today or tomorrow, will you? Your mother misses you. Invite Xiao Ke too."

"Mm."

Zou Yan withdrew his hand, and Xie Yibai stretched his neck after it. "Can we go eat now?" he asked hopefully. "I'm hungry."

He imitated a puppy to perfection, looking pitiful and adorable. If Zou Yan hadn't just finished a call from home and needed to figure out how to deal with his parents, he would have wanted to take a few bites out of him.

"Come on, let's go eat." Zou Yan kept up the mystery and didn't tell him what kind of food they were having.

In fact, no matter what they ate, Xie Yibai didn't dare eat as much as he wanted. If he had an allergic reaction or got puffy and delayed filming, he would be the whole crew's culprit. Filming was as good as burning money, especially for a movie. Equipment and location rentals, labor costs, the entire crew's daily expenses-every extra day of delay meant millions in funding going up in smoke.

He had said he wanted a surprise, but he had only wanted Zou Yan to put some thought into making him happy.

In any case, if he was happy, Zou Yan would be happy too.

Zou Yan was willing to share in his happiness, but who would have thought the heavens wouldn't cooperate? When they went out, a torrential rain began to fall. The rain was so heavy it formed a curtain of densely strung droplets, and the streets were flooded in an instant. Pedestrians scattered in a sorry state, while car horns blared one after another.

Xie Yibai looked at the rain pouring down and said dejectedly, "With rain this heavy, who knows how bad the traffic will be."

No matter how capable Zou Yan was, he couldn't change the weather or the traffic. He offered a possible solution. "Downpours usually don't last long. If you don't want to be stuck on the road, how about waiting until it stops before we leave?"

"By the time it stops, I'll be starving..." Xie Yibai said with a pout.

Zou Yan said, "Then we can only go back to the hotel or make do with something around here."

The promised surprise had been ruined by the sudden wind and rain. Xie Yibai said dispiritedly, "Let's go back to the hotel."

The rain seemed ready to swallow the entire city. Drops clattered against the umbrella, and an overpowering earthy smell enveloped the high-rises and asphalt roads.

Even though someone held an umbrella over him, Xie Yibai still got rained on as he climbed into the car.

The city's discharged wastewater and polluted air contaminated the rain as well, with all sorts of acids and bacteria, so he headed straight for the bathroom to shower as soon as he returned to the hotel.

After his shower, he didn't feel like getting properly dressed to go to the restaurant. He slipped on his slippers and went next door to Zou Yan's room, where they ordered food to be delivered.

Xie Yibai hadn't watched TV in a long time. As soon as he came in, he turned it on for background noise, then curled up on the sofa and played on his phone.

After Zou Yan finished dealing with work, he came over and said, "Xiaobai, I have to go home tomorrow. If I can't get back for the next few days, will you be all right on your own?"

"I'll be fine." Xie Yibai put down his phone and asked, "What are you going home for?"

"My parents want to see me. We'll probably talk about some family matters." Zou Yan sat down on the same sofa as him.

"Family matters? What kind?" After asking, Xie Yibai covered his mouth. "Do you mind me asking?"

Zou Yan said, "I don't mind. It's just parents showing concern for their child. Besides, I haven't been home for a while, and they want to see me."

Although Xie Yibai wasn't very clever, his intuition was unusually accurate. He asked, "They aren't going to say you're neglecting your proper work, are they?"

Anyone could have figured it out. The biggest change in Zou Yan's life was him. A distinguished producer had put aside his work to accompany him while he filmed. To put it harshly, he was practically losing his ambition to an amusement!

"Who cares what they say? I know what my main occupation is." Zou Yan had long been independent. He lived apart from his family and didn't need help from his elders in his career. His feelings toward his parents were more love than respect, more annoyance than fear. He wasn't afraid of being scolded; he was afraid of being nagged.

When Zou Yan was little, his mother had been a renowned lioness of Hedong. She couldn't cow his father by yelling, so she was always yelling at him instead.

When he grew older and she could no longer keep him in line by yelling or hitting him, his mother learned to weep and nag him with a long face instead.

She was his own mother, after all. She had carried him in her body, fed him, and done everything for his sake. How could he fall out with his old mother, who had spent so many years working hard to care for the family?

Zou Yan had no way of dealing with his mother. He could only put up with her and give way.

"I don't even need to go back to imagine what they'll say." Zou Yan propped his head on one hand and said dejectedly, "They'll definitely start pestering me and making a fuss again. What's their problem? Haven't I given them little enough to worry about?"

Xie Yibai, who was less capable than him, didn't have that problem, but he could sympathize. Parents everywhere were much alike. He too used to dread being pulled aside for a talk by his mom and dad. They called it a family meeting, but it was just the two of them playing good cop and bad cop to teach him a lesson.

He wanted to give Zou Yan a hug out of humanitarian concern. Spreading his arms, he said, "Poor Brother Yan. So you have a weakness too-you're afraid of being summoned by your parents."

Amused, Zou Yan caught him by the wrist and pulled him into his arms. He pinched his chin and tickled him with his other hand. "Then what's your weakness?"

Xie Yibai was carefree-or perhaps he had drawn enough of a sense of security from Zou Yan to come over in a bathrobe and slippers without a worry. It wasn't as though he was trying to seduce him, but as they tussled, his robe fell into disarray, exposing his thighs to the light. They were snowy white, as smooth and delicate as his calves, with full muscle contours emerging as he kicked and shifted.

His legs were also very long, slender and straight. As they moved about, bending and crossing over each other, they were vividly alluring.

Whether he meant to do it wasn't important. What mattered was that Zou Yan thought he had done it on purpose. You know I'm interested in you, yet you came over dressed like this. Not only are you hugging me, you're openly showing yourself to me too. What do you mean by that?

Over the long time they had spent together, Zou Yan had noticed that he sometimes played dumb.

At the thought that he would be flying away tomorrow, Zou Yan stopped beating around the bush. The hand tickling Xie Yibai suddenly moved downward, gliding over his robe, and his fingertips pressed against skin that people wouldn't normally touch.

Xie Yibai was already ticklish, and the tickling had made him increasingly fearful. Seeing the change in Zou Yan's gaze and his hand in the wrong place, he hurriedly said, "No, no, not today."

Zou Yan suspected he had some other trick up his sleeve and first gripped his wrist. "Why not today?"

"Because I still have to work tomorrow! If you... if you hurt me, I won't be able to film tomorrow." Xie Yibai shook his head like a pellet drum. He didn't even want a single drop of rain to fall on him, so how would he dare do something improper with someone?

He strongly disapproved of sneaking around and fooling around on set! What if it delayed work?!

His face red, he lowered his eyes. His thick lashes fluttered, and his soft, moist lips moved as he spoke in a low voice. To Zou Yan, it looked no different from playing hard to get.

If it had been anyone else, Zou Yan wouldn't have believed such clumsy excuses. But Xie Yibai was an inexperienced virgin, after all, so it was understandable that he felt weighed down by it.

Zou Yan took a step back. "Then I can at least kiss you, right? Let me kiss you."

Xie Yibai remembered the kiss in the dressing room that hadn't gone any further. He covered Zou Yan's mouth with both hands, one over the other, and said, "No to that too! If we kiss, I'm afraid you won't be able to control yourself. Let's do it another day!"

He had spent a great deal of money, not to mention a great deal of effort, and had finally managed to hold him for a little while, only to be forbidden from touching or kissing him. Zou Yan moved his hands away and asked, "Do you hate me that much?"

"I don't hate you," Xie Yibai said. Hearing that he was a little angry, he steeled himself and buried his head in Zou Yan's chest. "You've already held back for so long. Why can't you hold back a few more days? I'll be finished filming this drama soon. I call you Brother Yan because I like you. Don't you care about me anymore? Are you still the Brother Yan who treats me best?"

Zou Yan actually thought he had a point. He had held back for so long already, so why rush things over the next couple of days?