My Former Colleague Wants to Fake a BL Comeback Again - Chapter 3

“I’ve finished all the ones I know.” Cen Jing picked up his exam paper and handed it to the standing Chu Xingyun. “You do the rest yourself.”

Chu Xingyun: “…?”

“I do the rest… myself?” As the words popped out one by one, the smile on his face faded completely.

Cen Jing: “Mm. It’s more efficient this way.”

Chu Xingyun took a deep breath, trying to steady his erratic heartbeat. He looked down at the thin sheet of paper in his hand.

Out of fifty questions, Cen Jing had answered less than half. Aside from the vast blank space at the end, he had even skipped three questions regarding their time on the survival show and in the group.

…He had even left the final question, “Please write down his name,” blank.

It was as if Chu Xingyun had been doused with a bucket of ice water. Something sank slowly in his chest, so heavy he could barely remain standing.

“I’m not writing it.” He let go, allowing the “exam paper” to flutter to the floor, his voice tinged with coldness. “It’s an open-book test. Doing this counts as cheating.”

【He still loves pulling a long face; he truly hasn’t changed. [Wiping tears]】

【In the past, when he pulled a face, someone would coax him. Now, though…】

【Now all he gets is a look of confusion.】

Cen Jing caught the falling paper and placed it neatly in front of himself.

“Then I’ll ask, and you answer.” Cen Jing didn’t want to have an unnecessary argument with Chu Xingyun. “When was the first time your ranking entered the top tier during the show?”

Chu Xingyun’s teeth ground together audibly. “How can you not know the answer to this?”

When the rankings were announced back then, this man had clearly been more excited than him.

“Bad memory,” Cen Jing brushed it off dismissively, his hand holding the pen twitching slightly. “…Just answer.”

Chu Xingyun’s breathing grew heavy. He wanted to say something but forced himself to hold it back. “…After the first public performance.”

Cen Jing filled in the answer and moved the pen down. “The brand of your first solo endorsement?”

“You can actually ask that?” Chu Xingyun let out a scoffing laugh. “Who was the one who set an alarm and squatted online several minutes early, saying they absolutely had to grab the limited-edition gift box?”

Cen Jing’s expression remained calm. “I didn’t get it, so I don’t remember.”

“Fine.” Chu Xingyun pursed his lips and nodded repeatedly, looking as if he were fuming. “…’Sen Shi’ skincare.”

“Mm… next one.”

…

With Chu Xingyun’s “stink-faced” cooperation, Cen Jing successfully finished the exam a few minutes later. He gathered the two papers and the pens and handed them to the staff.

While waiting for the results, the two remained silent, sharing no communication.

Cen Jing knew Chu Xingyun was angry, and the reason was obvious. It was nothing more than the psychological imbalance caused by the fact that the questions Chu had answered on his own were far more than the ones Cen had answered.

But Cen hadn’t left them blank on purpose.

Aside from a few hazy memories, he truly didn’t know a single answer for the second half of the paper. Initially, it was for the sake of a “forced withdrawal”; aside from work requirements, he had completely given up on receiving news from the internet. Later, when he started using the web again, he would occasionally scroll past news about Chu Xingyun without ever looking closely. Naturally, he couldn’t answer.

The fact that Chu Xingyun could answer questions about him was what was actually surprising.

“Congratulations to you both for getting perfect scores!” The PD graded the papers at lightning speed. “Please follow the staff to the new location now~ The other two pairs are progressing slower, so please wait a moment.”

“Alright,” Cen Jing replied politely.

Chu Xingyun said nothing, maintaining his sour expression as he followed behind Cen Jing. The PD didn’t feel offended; instead, he followed gleefully. If things were perfectly peaceful, what would be the point of this show? He could even accept more intense clashes or verbal sparring!

…

The staff brought them to the villa’s living room, told them to wait patiently, and hurried away. Cen Jing took a brief look around the room, identified the positions of several cameras, and turned toward the restroom.

He leaned against the locked door and spaced out for a while before taking care of business. When he was done, he stood at the sink with the water running at a low pressure. He squeezed a pump of hand soap into his palm and slowly worked up a lather, the fine foam covering his slender fingers, even scrubbing carefully between them.

While rinsing, he stared at the water swirling at the bottom of the basin, his eyelashes lowered, expressionless. After turning off the faucet, he didn’t leave immediately. Droplets of water fell from his fingertips, making distinct sounds in the silence.

After a long time, he finally pulled out a paper towel and methodically dried every finger. With a soft sigh, Cen Jing pulled open the restroom door.

Chu Xingyun was leaning against the opposite wall, hands in his pockets. It was unclear how long he had been waiting. Seeing the door open, his gaze immediately landed on Cen Jing’s face like a cheetah that had been waiting for its prey.

“Does using the restroom take that long? Is there something wrong with your bodily functions?”

Cen Jing raised his eyes to confirm that the production team wasn’t perverted enough to install cameras near the restroom before speaking unhurriedly: “If you’re in a hurry to use it, you can go to the second floor or knock.”

“I’m not in a hurry.” Chu Xingyun straightened up and approached Cen Jing. “I just wanted to see how long you can hide from me.”

“…That doesn’t make much sense.” Cen Jing took a half-step back, creating distance between them. “If I wanted to hide from you, why would I come to this show?”

“Is that so? Then I must have misunderstood.” Chu Xingyun suddenly took a large step forward, the scent of mint blowing past Cen Jing’s ear. His tone was dangerous and ambiguous. “Since you aren’t trying to hide, then coming to this show means you wanted to see me, right?”

The tips of Cen Jing’s ears were stained a faint pink by the hot breath he exhaled. But he didn’t step back again. Cen Jing’s lips curled slightly as he said, half-amused and half-confused: “I don’t understand why you would think that. To me, this show is just a simple job. And you are nothing more than a normal colleague I worked with for a year or two seven years ago.”

Chu Xingyun laughed from extreme anger: “…A normal colleague?”

“It’s normal for the show to exaggerate the emotional depth between us for a gimmick.” Cen Jing lowered his eyes, trying to reason with him. “But if you think about it, normal people have many friends who were once close but eventually stopped contacting each other. It’s not that special. If I had to use a metaphor… this show is basically a class reunion.”

“Not that special? A class reunion?” A trace of imperceptible pain flickered in Chu Xingyun’s eyes. “…Cen Jing, you still hate me, don’t you?”

“I don’t hate you,” Cen Jing said, feeling somewhat weary.

He had prepared himself for “unexpected situations”. After all, Chu Xingyun had never liked playing by the rules. He just hadn’t expected this moment to come so soon. This man had grown in age but not in patience; he couldn’t even hold it in for half a day, proving less composed than before.

Chu Xingyun: “…Liar.”

Cen Jing replied immediately: “I’m not.”

“Heh… what right do you have not to hate me?” There was a hint of unwilling resentment in Chu Xingyun’s voice. “…Cen Jing, what are you pretending to be so generous for?”

“I have no reason to hate you.” Cen Jing turned sideways, walking around Chu Xingyun and leaving the restroom area. “Everything that happened was the result of my own choices. If I chose wrong and then blamed or hated others for it, that would be too exhausting.”

“You’re now—”

“This is bad, this is bad!” A staff member appeared, interrupting Chu Xingyun’s next words. “Teacher Cen, Teacher Chu! A fight broke out over there—”

Cen Jing let out an imperceptible sigh of relief and took two quick steps toward the staff member. “Which side?”

The staff member had a bitter look on his face. “Both sides!”

“They’re fighting as soon as we start recording?” Chu Xingyun put his hands in his pockets and said somewhat sloppily, “How undignified.”

Cen Jing: “…”

Is cornering someone at a restroom door a very dignified thing?

Naturally, the staff member didn’t dare to comment. He could only pretend not to hear and said honestly: “The director wants you to go and try to persuade them.”

…

The other two pairs were fighting because of the “exam.”

Lin Shen and Ye Hancheng hadn’t hidden their familiarity with each other’s works since their “split.” They wrote down the answers with extreme ease. The catch was that every time Lin Shen wrote an answer, he had to stop and offer a critique or opinion. Initially, Ye Hancheng could maintain a polite smile and rebut with his own critiques. By the end, the two completely lost control of their verbal output, wanting nothing more than to trample the other’s works into the dirt.

The reason for the other pair’s fight was also quite simple. Jiang Xun and Chen Shu weren’t strictly from the entertainment industry and had no “works” to speak of, so the show’s questions were quite tricky. This resulted in several questions that even they themselves couldn’t answer. As the unanswered questions piled up, the two gradually found each other more and more annoying and entered a full-on shouting match.

Cen Jing, afraid that Chu Xingyun would make arrogant comments toward the seniors, took the initiative to go to the room where Lin Shen and Ye Hancheng were recording.

【The Ambassador of Peace has arrived! [Anticipation]】

【LMAO, is this the rescue the production team called for?】

【So, Chu Xingyun went to put out the fire on the other side? Director, I want to see that side.】

【Sorry, that side is truly too uncivilized.】

【Whoever wants to see it, wait for the edited version and count how many sentences can actually be broadcasted.】

“You old man, you’re really hilarious. Can you go home, flip through a calendar, and see what year it is? Can you stop obsessing over your outdated plots and wasting actors’ natural talent? When viewers turn on the TV and see your dramas, all they’ll say is ‘Wow, that’s tacky!’ before turning it off, okay?”

“Heh! You’re the one who needs to flip through a calendar! You won several awards and started floating; you started playing the teacher and using formulaic acting! Don’t you know that acting styles can go out of style too? Don’t you see how many viewers are tired of your repetitive performance?!”

“I spit on that! Don’t slander the viewers, okay…”

Seeing the situation, Cen Jing took two quick steps and took two bottles of water from a staff member.

“Seniors, please have some water first.”

He extended both hands simultaneously, handing the water to Lin Shen and Ye Hancheng. The two, in the heat of their argument, were both startled. They glanced at the camera at the same time, took the water, unscrewed the caps, and drank.

“I seem to have some impression of you.” Lin Shen finished his water first and looked Cen Jing over. “Have we met somewhere?”

“Hello, Teacher Lin. My name is Cen Jing, and I am also one of the guests on this show.” Cen Jing put on his trademark professional smile again. “This is our first time meeting in person. I am an actor; you likely saw me on TV.”

“Oh… you have good potential. I’ll look for an opportunity to collaborate with you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, collaborate with you?” Ye Hancheng was utterly speechless. “He has plenty of good scripts in his hands; yours are the kind people look at and immediately throw in the trash.” Having said that, he glanced at Cen Jing and gave him a ‘you know what I mean’ look. “I’ve said what you didn’t dare to say for you.”

Before Cen Jing could defend himself, Lin Shen cut in first: “I understand. You’re too afraid to suggest a collaboration with him, so you’re desperately slandering him in every way. After all, you’re old and your skin is sagging now. Standing next to such a fresh young actor, you inevitably feel inferior~ I understand~”

Cen Jing’s brain stalled for a moment. Are these respected seniors really this savage when they scold people. Ye Hancheng was only thirty-eight this year; by no means could he be considered “old with sagging skin.”

“You’re the one who likes to slandering others!” Ye Hancheng grabbed Cen Jing and pulled him over, hooking a hand around his shoulder. “Open your dog eyes and look closely. When we stand together, anyone who sees us would think we’re brothers with not much of an age gap, okay!”