Accident 2

Sheng Ke didn't like lying, so he told the truth. "Here's what happened. Zou Yan went away on a business trip, and I came to deliver flowers for him. Then I used the key card to come in. You didn't want me to turn on the lights, and you threw yourself at me and hugged me. Besides, you weren't wearing anything underneath. I don't think it was entirely my fault."

Reality dealt Xie Yibai a devastating blow. His mind shook as if in an earthquake, plunging him into profound confusion. He turned on every light in the room at once, then calmly picked up his bathrobe and put it on.

He wrapped the only cloth he had left tightly around himself and looked at the clothes strewn across the floor and the bouquet on the carpet not far away. Black wrapping paper cradled vivid pink and white blossoms, as though the pattern on the dark carpet had grown onto the wall.

"Go pour me a glass of water," Xie Yibai said, his head lowered. He swallowed with difficulty, as if a thorn were lodged in his throat.

The refrigerator in the room held all kinds of water and drinks. Sheng Ke took a bottle of purified water, poured it into a glass, and walked back to the bed to hand it to him.

Xie Yibai took the glass, gripping it so hard that his fingertips turned pale. He drank the whole glass, held the empty vessel in both hands, and asked, "Is there anything else you want to say?"

Sheng Ke sat beside him and, after giving it some thought, cupped his head and kissed his cheek. "I'm sorry. I... didn't mean to."

"Is sorry all you have to say?" Furious, Xie Yibai hurled the glass from his hand. It struck the carpet and broke into a pile of shards. His soul returned to his trembling body, and he shuddered all over as large tears spilled from his eyes and pattered onto the pure white quilt.

"I knew a long time ago you were no good... but I never thought you had no bottom line at all! Brother Yan treats even me so well, let alone you... You've been friends for so many years, and this is how you treat him?"

Sheng Ke said, "It was an accident."

"It wasn't an accident! You could have pushed me away! You knew it was me! All you had to do was say something, so how could you... And you still call it an accident. You're so awful." Xie Yibai was sobbing too hard to speak clearly. He choked out, "Are you a beast? So many actors are willing to sleep with you. Couldn't you have picked any one of them? Why did you have to hurt me? I'm the person your friend likes! Has a dog eaten your conscience?"

Sheng Ke wasn't confused by this barrage of questions. He asked bluntly, "You're the person Zou Yan likes, that's true. But what about you? Do you like him?"

"I was about to like him..." Xie Yibai raised the back of his hand to wipe his tears and murmured, "I was so close to falling for him..."

He had only one thought left: he was done for.

He had slept with Sheng Ke.

Zou Yan had given him his whole heart, yet he had slept with Zou Yan's best friend!

He might as well smash his head against something and die!

"Then you don't like him," Sheng Ke concluded decisively.

"What's it to you whether I like him or not?" Xie Yibai's heart ached from crying, and his sobs came in ragged gasps. "Even if I don't like him, I still wouldn't like you! What gives you the right to do this? You've made me into a terrible person... Brother Yan treats me so well, and I actually... I actually..."

"If you don't like him, why are you so upset?"

"Because I have a conscience!"

"Stop crying. Since you don't like him or me, we're both the same to you." Seeing how miserably he was crying, Sheng Ke wanted to wipe away his tears.

Xie Yibai swatted his arm away and shouted, his emotions spiraling out of control, "How are you the same? You bastard! Scumbag! I hate you!"

He grabbed the pillows within reach and hurled them all at Sheng Ke. "Get out-get out! You're rotten to the core! I never want to see you again!"

Sheng Ke remained as calm as if nothing had happened. He stayed put through the blows and curses, and when Xie Yibai had thrown all the pillows in his hands, he said, "Driving me away won't help. It's already happened. What matters most is what you choose to do next."

"What do you mean, what I choose?"

"You can choose between me and Zou Yan. Don't you want resources? I can help you too."

"Who wants your lousy resources? Even if you got on your knees and begged me to act in your movie, I wouldn't do it!" Xie Yibai was being driven mad. He burst into loud sobs. "You're not human, you shameless bastard! How am I supposed to live with myself now? How can I face Zou Yan? You did it on purpose! You want to ruin me. You never liked me from the start. You look down on me, you think I'm cheap, and you don't want me to be with Zou Yan, so you had to humiliate me like this! I won't let you get away with it. Even if I die, I'll drag you down to hell with me!"

In the face of his hysteria, Sheng Ke was as calm as a surgeon. The words he uttered were like a scalpel, dissecting his skin and internal organs. "Why are you angry? Zou Yan might not even mind. If you feel guilty and can't face him, I can explain it to him. It's not as serious as you think."

"Don't you dare!" Xie Yibai said, his eyes red. "I won't let you tell him!"

"Then should we keep it from him?"

"If anyone tells him, it'll be me! You forced me! Just wait until he comes after you for this!"

"Why do you think he'll come after me? Just because he said he likes you?"

Xie Yibai bit his lip and fell silent.

That was right. What if he wasn't that important to Zou Yan?

He remembered the photos Xing Zhanyun had shown him. He wasn't the first person Zou Yan had liked, and most likely he wouldn't be the last.

A man could keep as many canaries as he wanted, but he had only one closest friend.

Would good brothers as close as family fall out over a bird?

Even judging by their individual value alone, a replaceable actor and an irreplaceable director-the latter was inevitably more valuable and rare.

Sheng Ke had asked him whom he wanted to choose. The choice was in his hands.

If Zou Yan learned about this, the choice would belong to Zou Yan.

And he could only wait passively, just like at an audition: to be looked over, assessed, weighed for pros and cons, accepted, or cast aside.

He had had enough of those days. He didn't want to be so pathetic anymore.

Xie Yibai forced himself to stay calm and asked, "What good would choosing you do? Can I suddenly leave him and get together with you? What would he think? Wouldn't you still be making me the shameless traitor? I'm not falling for that!"

"What does this have to do with betraying anyone? And why should you care what he thinks?" Sheng Ke said. "Whatever Zou Yan does for you, he does of his own free will. He's happy to do it. Have you ever acknowledged that you're a couple? I don't remember that you have, right? You're free to choose whoever you want."

"Listen to yourself! Do you even sound human? He grew up with you. He's the best friend you'll ever have! Yet you're stealing the person he loves and completely disregarding his feelings! Are you insane?"

"I'm not insane. It's precisely because he's my good friend that I don't want him wasting his time on someone who won't like him."

Xie Yibai was on the verge of breaking down, but he was holding in his anger and insisted on winning the argument. "You still think you did nothing wrong, don't you? Now you're the great benefactor, helping me and saving him? You're utterly deranged. I think you should stop making movies and go get treated at a psychiatric hospital!"

Chapter 41: Accident 2

It was the first time anyone had ever pointed a finger in Sheng Ke's face and berated him. He reflected on himself: he had indeed said some inappropriate things, but the reason for Xie Yibai's anger was probably still that he had been deprived of the right to know during their encounter, and that could not be made up for.

"I'm sorry. I was wrong," he apologized sincerely. "Please don't be angry. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, please tell me."

"What good does apologizing to me do? You'd better think about how you're going to explain it to Zou Yan!" The more Xie Yibai thought about it, the angrier he became. His tears flowed uncontrollably. "You'll be fine once you've explained yourself. I'm the only one who's really unlucky... You've been friends with him for so many years. How could he blame you? If he blames anyone, it'll be me for seducing you... From now on I'll be someone fickle and shameless..."

Sheng Ke said, "I'll tell Zou Yan it was all my responsibility and ask him not to take it out on you."

Xie Yibai's last line of defense collapsed. He cursed, "I can't talk to you! Get out!"

Then Sheng Ke picked up his shirts and put them on one by one, took his phone, checked for his car keys in his coat pocket, and left.

The door opened, then closed.

Xie Yibai's tears stopped. He suddenly wanted to laugh.

This was an eye-opener. There really was someone like that in the world!

He had knowingly slept with him, said sorry a couple of times, then pulled up his pants and walked out.

What a shameless piece of trash!

The strongest genius director in history, worshipped by the entire entertainment industry, was a super rotten, rotten, rotten, rotten piece of trash!

Xie Yibai stopped crying and burst out laughing. The bitterness and misery that crying had failed to release were dispelled in his laughter.

Then his heart and body were both hollowed out. Light and weak as an empty skin, he fell onto the disheveled bed and stared blankly at the wrinkles in the quilt, counting them.

So what was he supposed to do?

He felt so tired. He had just been put through a grueling few hours, and his bones had nearly been shaken apart.

He suspected Zou Yan had lied to him too. Had Sheng Ke really never been in a relationship? Had he taught himself? Xie Yibai had nothing to compare his performance with and couldn't judge, but he really did last a long time, and it had made him suffer.

Would someone come and hold him? He needed a hug full of humanitarian care.

He missed his mom so much. If only she were here.

Xie Yibai's nose prickled, and he wanted to cry again, but he held it in and found his phone. After thinking it over again and again, he dialed Zou Yan's number.

Zou Yan was partly to blame too. He had always shown up on time, come whenever called, dropped work to accompany him to the set, and sheltered him from wind and rain. Why had he been absent at the most crucial moment?

The call went through, and Zou Yan picked up two seconds later. "Xiaobai? Why are you still awake so late?"

"Brother Yan..." He curled up and said softly, "I miss you so much."

Zou Yan had rushed to the hospital as soon as he got off the plane. He was still waiting outside the operating room with a group of people. After a day of hard work, everyone was exhausted. Some lay sprawled across the seats, dozing, while others stood talking in groups of three or five.

"I miss you too, Xiaobai. I'm really sorry about today. Something urgent came up at the last minute, and I missed our date. Did you get the flowers? Sheng Ke didn't bully you, did he?" Zou Yan said gently.