Perfect Divorce [Entertainment Circle] - Chapter 19

“I’m sorry,” Yuan Xingzhou said. Having finished preparing the ingredients, he raised his hands and spoke earnestly to Ye Huai. “About that matter… I’m really… sorry.”

Ye Huai didn’t say a word.

Yuan Xingzhou watched his eyes carefully.

After a long silence, Ye Huai finally nodded.

Yuan Xingzhou let out a massive sigh of relief. Although they had joked about it and Ye Huai hadn’t seemed particularly bothered lately, Yuan Xingzhou still felt a sense of guilt in his heart.

Fortunately, Ye Huai had given him this chance to formally accept his apology.

With the weight off his chest, Yuan Xingzhou was overjoyed. However, extreme joy turned to sorrow—the black pepper beef willow scorched in the pan.

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

His beef slices, each one precisely measured to 0.8cm!

Yuan Xingzhou was so pained he could barely breathe. Luckily, the beef wasn’t completely ruined, and the meticulously balanced sauce still tasted authentic.

Ye Huai, who hadn’t even eaten breakfast, waited until one in the afternoon. At this point, he couldn’t even bring himself to say anything disparaging. The two of them made do, eating their rice with a plate of blackened beef.

That evening, Yuan Xingzhou picked up the knife to battle again and finally succeeded.

However, Ye Huai refused to eat another bite, no matter what.

“Not hungry! Not hungry at all!” Ye Huai hid in the bedroom, refusing to open the door even on pain of death. He shouted: “If it’s good, then you eat more!”

“Is this ‘a little more’? This is two pounds!” Yuan Xingzhou felt suffocated. Holding the plate at the door, he said: “Really, it’s not burnt. It’s a success. Just smell it.”

However, the door was sealed too tightly; Ye Huai couldn’t smell a thing.

Yuan Xingzhou resorted to threats and lures, saying fiercely from outside: “You think if you dodge tonight, you can dodge tomorrow? If you don’t come out, tomorrow I’ll make chicken. Roast chicks in the morning, stew the mother hen at noon, and fry the father rooster in the afternoon…”

Ye Huai: “…”

But making chicken wouldn’t work either; it wasn’t that Ye Huai truly didn’t eat chicken. After a long, fruitless effort, Yuan Xingzhou had to return and enjoy the fruits of his victory alone.

This was undoubtedly a good start. Yuan Xingzhou was full of confidence, believing he had already left the “novice village” of the culinary world and was ready to challenge the higher halls of cooking.

He spent half the night choosing recipes and engaged in a “one-sided, pleasant exchange” with Ye Huai through the door, deciding on the “Land, Sea, and Air Challenge.” However, when Yuan Xingzhou woke up excitedly the next morning, he found that Ye Huai was gone.

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

“He went home. It’s a family member’s birthday; he asked me to let you know.” Wen Ting called Yuan Xingzhou and sent over the script for the first short play they would rehearse for Idol Love Season. “You two will just do a guest appearance, playing a bickering couple.”

Yuan Xingzhou and Ye Huai’s filming schedule was relatively simple. They would head over on Friday to familiarize themselves with the environment. Saturday morning was rest, with rehearsal in the afternoon. Sunday morning was rest, with the official recording in the afternoon. Monday would be waiting to see the final cut.

The content of the short play wasn’t complex; their bickering scene only lasted a few seconds.

It was fine since Yuan Xingzhou hadn’t seen the original, but because he had done his homework by watching the Japanese and Korean versions, he couldn’t help but complain that a perfectly good variety show had been “magically modified” again. Apparently, domestic directors still loved filming reality TV dramas.

Since that was the case, the two of them would most likely be arranged to stay in the same room. They were leaving the day after tomorrow, and since he didn’t know if Ye Huai would be back today, Yuan Xingzhou had to set aside the cooking and figure out what to pack.

While he was looking at the script and organizing his suitcase, with things spread out everywhere, he received an invitation from Zhu Yueming.

So, Yuan Xingzhou left his half-packed luggage and met Zhu Yueming at a coffee shop.

“We’ve reunited after so long; I should have asked you to dinner,” Zhu Yueming smiled. “But thinking you wanted to learn cooking, I took the liberty of changing it to afternoon tea. How about I kidnap you to my house to cook tonight?”

Yuan Xingzhou had no plans for the evening and said quickly: “I can, I can!”

Zhu Yueming laughed: “Won’t it interfere with the big star’s schedule?”

“Don’t…” Yuan Xingzhou’s face reddened. He said, between laughter and tears: “Don’t, don’t be like that…”

“Let me enjoy the feeling first,” Zhu Yueming teased. “It’s too hard to see you.”

Yuan Xingzhou was a bit overwhelmed by the attention. In fact, after their reunion the other day, although he was happy, he wasn’t sure if Zhu Yueming really wanted to reminisce or was just being polite. After all, they had only been classmates for a year and a half, and they hadn’t been particularly close back then.

The only thing they had in common was their good looks; they were the “visual representatives” of the class. Whenever there was a grade-level party or a social mixer, the boys would drag them along as the class’s “trump cards.”

Zhu Yueming was naturally the “Big Joker.” He was handsome, well-bred, came from a good family, and was an all-around talent in arts, academics, and sports. He kept a low profile yet constantly created legends.

Yuan Xingzhou, however, was very ordinary. He was shy and always short on cash, so he rarely participated in group activities. When everyone went out for dinner, gaming, or traveling… he declined nine times out of ten.

But even so, he could sense everyone’s kindness.

The classmates neither forced him to go nor treated him like a charity case. When he signed up for the talent show, his male classmates pooled their money to buy him a high-quality guitar.

Yuan Xingzhou had thought countless times that after the competition, he would return to school in glory to thank his teachers and classmates, taking everyone out for karaoke and dinner. The dream was simple, but reality was bleak. He “fizzled out” right after the competition, and everyone graduated in the blink of an eye. By the time he debuted with the group and faced the “blood and wind” of the industry, his classmates were working or getting married.

Now that he was finally popular again thanks to a few dramas, his classmates’ children were growing up, and some were even having a second child.

Zhu Yueming naturally chatted with him about the current status of several classmates. Yuan Xingzhou had forgotten many of their names and couldn’t match the faces, so Zhu Yueming used their student nicknames: “Fatty,” “Doudou,” “Kiss-up,” and the like.

“Do you know your own nickname?” Yuan Xingzhou was listening with interest when Zhu Yueming suddenly stopped and looked at him with intrigue. “You had a nickname in class too, but I bet you’ve heard it without knowing it was you.”

Yuan Xingzhou truly didn’t know and looked at him in surprise. “What was it?”

Zhu Yueming moved his mouth without making a sound, then suddenly laughed again. “Are you going to hit me…?”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

“Little Flower (Xiao Hua),” Zhu Yueming laughed.

Yuan Xingzhou: “???”

Yuan Xingzhou remembered. During class spring outings, he had indeed heard people say things like, “Tell Little Flower to come take a photo,” or “Has Little Flower eaten yet?” Yuan Xingzhou had always assumed they were referring to one of the girls, so he never thought twice about it.

“Why?” Yuan Xingzhou was shocked. “That was calling me?”

Zhu Yueming smiled and nodded: “You didn’t know yourself, but you always had a fragrance on you, like some kind of floral scent, very light… Doudou was the first to notice. But you didn’t wear perfume, and your shampoo or body wash didn’t smell like that. Neither did your laundry detergent. So everyone treated it like a puzzle, taking turns sitting next to you… they even fought over seats for it.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Looking back on his student days, Yuan Xingzhou had always thought he was seen as poor, rustic, aloof, and shy—someone who didn’t fit in. He never imagined it was like this.

“In the end, everyone failed to solve the puzzle and collectively decided you were born with a floral scent. Since you were so good-looking, they called you Little Flower.” Zhu Yueming smiled. “You don’t know how popular you were. If you hadn’t gone to join the competition, there were boys who were going to confess to you.”

Yuan Xingzhou’s face turned bright red instantly. He waved his hand. “How is that possible?”

“Why is it impossible?” Zhu Yueming looked out the window, then glanced at his face as if casually, and smiled. “I even had the love letter written.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “!!”

Yuan Xingzhou was truly stunned this time. His mind was filled with “How is this possible?!” It would have been more believable if he had a crush on Zhu Yueming!

“It’s a shame we missed each other like that.” Zhu Yueming smiled at him and added: “I’ve been following you. How many years have you been married to Ye Huai? Four years, is it?”

Yuan Xingzhou’s brain was still numb; his eyes were wide and his mouth was open, but his mind automatically replied: “The fourth year.”

“Mm, counting the year of dating, that’s five years. I’m still single; looks like I can hold out until your ‘seven-year itch.'” Zhu Yueming said. “Or, aren’t you two always living apart? Are there any relationship problems that would let me sneak in?”

Yuan Xingzhou finally snapped out of it, looking at him with a beet-red face.

Zhu Yueming raised his eyebrows and looked back, a hint of seriousness in his eyes.

“Just a joke,” Zhu Yueming spoke first after a while, smiling. “It’s true that I’m single, but I also wish you a happy relationship.”

In Yuan Xingzhou’s brief year and a half of college, his classmates had given him nothing but pure, beautiful memories. As the representative of those memories, Zhu Yueming held significant meaning for Yuan Xingzhou.

He felt close to and liked his former classmates from the bottom of his heart. Therefore, when Zhu Yueming invited him home, he had agreed without hesitation.

But now, after Zhu Yueming’s indirect confession, Yuan Xingzhou could only change his mind and decline.

“I understand,” Zhu Yueming said with regret. “Even though I knew I shouldn’t tell you, I couldn’t help it. That person of yours is quite a jealous one; he looked like he was about to breathe fire at me the other day.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Yuan Xingzhou imagined Ye Huai turning into a fire dragon and breathing fire at Zhu Yueming, and suddenly found it very fitting. Especially since Zhu Yueming had deliberately ignored Ye Huai at the time, acting as if the man didn’t exist at all.

But Yuan Xingzhou quickly realized that Ye Huai wasn’t being jealous back then; it was likely just a purely masculine crisis of territoriality.

“He just has a ‘stinky’ face, that’s all.” Yuan Xingzhou smiled.

The two drank coffee for most of the afternoon. Yuan Xingzhou bid him a polite farewell and then drove home. After entering, he ignored the suitcase on the floor and went straight to the bedroom, collapsing onto the bed with a loud shout.

He actually got confessed to!!

Yuan Xingzhou felt like he was drunk—literally, a world-spinning kind of drunk. But did drinking coffee feel like this? He didn’t know; he lay on the bed panting, too lazy to look it up.

It was too unbelievable. He actually got a confession!

Yuan Xingzhou still felt shocked even now, but naturally, there was even more secret joy. No matter what, being liked is a very happy thing, especially by someone so excellent and “god-tier.”

Yuan Xingzhou tried hard to recall fragments of his time with Zhu Yueming at school, attempting to find evidence that the other had liked him.

Why would he like him? Was it love at first sight? Or did he do something that caught the eye of the “Great Deity” Zhu Yueming?

“…When did he start liking me?” Yuan Xingzhou lay on the bed, murmuring to himself. “If I had known… it would have been so nice to date… I’ve never even kissed…”

He was lost in his own wild imagination. At the thought of a kissing scene, he suddenly felt ashamed again and turned over to bury his face. However, as he turned, he saw a figure standing at the door.

“Holy shit… can you, can you make some noise?” Yuan Xingzhou was so scared he jumped in place.

Ye Huai stood at the door with his arms crossed, staring at him with “knife-like” eyes.

“I knocked on the door,” Ye Huai asked. “What are you ‘waving’ about here? What kiss?”

Yuan Xingzhou’s face, which had turned pale from fright, went red again.

“It’s nothing, can’t I just have a moment of reflection?” Yuan Xingzhou said.

Ye Huai’s face darkened: “You haven’t had enough kissing with that ‘anti-fan leader’? You’re still pining for it?”

“Who said it was him?” Yuan Xingzhou clicked his tongue. “I was thinking about the matter of dating.”

He had received too much of a shock today, and now that there was finally someone here, Yuan Xingzhou really couldn’t control himself. He said to Ye Huai: “Do you know?”

Ye Huai: “I know.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

The bellyful of words Yuan Xingzhou wanted to pour out was instantly stifled. He opened his mouth and asked, “What do you know?”

Ye Huai: “Then do you think I know or not? You know I don’t know, yet you still come and ask me if I know?”

Yuan Xingzhou: “?”

Ye Huai was like a puffed-up pufferfish; after speaking, the air was let out. While Yuan Xingzhou was still dazed, the man walked in crossly and sat on the bed.

“Say it,” Ye Huai asked. “What happened?”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Ye Huai was unhappy again: “What, do I need to give you a musical intro?”

Yuan Xingzhou’s desire to share was almost crushed out of him. He didn’t feel a hint of excitement now, so he said matter-of-factly: “Oh, it’s nothing. I just got confessed to by a ‘male god’ today.”

Ye Huai looked like he’d been struck by electricity, his eyes snapping over in a “shua.”

Yuan Xingzhou was quite satisfied with this reaction, thinking to himself: Take that, scared you, didn’t I? I have pursuers too…

“What,” Ye Huai’s expression was strange, “Did you kiss?”

“How is that possible!” Yuan Xingzhou wasn’t at that “level” yet and became bashful again, mumbling with a red face: “I was just reflecting. If I had known our class monitor liked me, I should have dated back in school. As a result, I foolishly missed out back then, and never even had a proper kiss.”

Having said this, he remembered Ye Huai’s misunderstanding and hurried to explain: “I mean the kind with a lover… a real kiss. Kissing scenes don’t count; I’ve filmed too many, and the first time was with a body double. I treated that as an action scene.”

Ye Huai: “…”

Ye Huai remained silent. Yuan Xingzhou covered his face and daydreamed for a long time. When he came back to his senses and looked at Ye Huai, he suddenly felt awkward.

“W-what is it?” Yuan Xingzhou became flustered. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Ye Huai glanced at him again, then got up and left.

The next day, Yuan Xingzhou continued trying to make roasted shiitake mushrooms at home. Ye Huai remained behind closed doors the whole time.

Yuan Xingzhou assumed he had been annoyed after going home. He asked once but got no response, so he cooked and ate by himself. After three consecutive meals, he finally finished all the mushrooms. He took the time to pack his luggage and packed Ye Huai’s share as well.

That night, Yuan Xingzhou dreamed he had turned into a shiitake mushroom spirit, leading an army of countless mushroom-grandchildren to flatten the farmhouse. Fortunately, as the mushroom army was about to march on the company after flattening the farmhouse, the alarm went off.

He hurriedly got up to wash and check the luggage.

At ten o’clock, the production crew finally called. They would arrive in a bit, and the cameramen would come up directly to take some interior photos of them first.

“Hey, smile!” Yuan Xingzhou saw that Ye Huai was still expressionless. Realizing they would be facing the camera in a moment, he became anxious, coaxing: “What’s wrong with you? Give me a smile, just one smile, okay?”

Ye Huai was already dressed in a “uniform-style” outfit—exceptionally handsome and aloof—sitting on the sofa playing games.

Yuan Xingzhou sat to his left; he turned to the right. Yuan Xingzhou sat to the right to tease him; he turned back to the left.

Yuan Xingzhou simply got off the sofa and knelt before him, hugging his legs.

“Stop it, Brother Huai, Brother,” Yuan Xingzhou coaxed, stuck between laughter and tears. “I was wrong, I was wrong, okay? The crew will be here in a minute…”

Ye Huai finally stopped turning. He looked down at him and let out a “Heh.”

Hearing this, Yuan Xingzhou knew he was stuck; the subtext of that “Heh” was: “Where were you wrong?”

But where was he wrong?

Yuan Xingzhou hugged Ye Huai’s legs, looking up with a blank face.

Ye Huai: “…”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

“You aren’t sincere at all!” Ye Huai said angrily. “Do you think I’m stupid!”

“I was wrong!” Seeing the look on his face, as if resentment was gathering between his brows with nowhere to go, Yuan Xingzhou didn’t have time to think. He started talking nonsense: “I shouldn’t have shown off that day! It was just a confession, wasn’t it? What’s the big deal… so what if a ‘male god’ confessed? No matter how ‘godly’ he is, can he beat Brother Huai…?”

Yuan Xingzhou suddenly realized that “flattery will get you everywhere.” He immediately cast everything else aside and focused on praising Ye Huai, from his physique to his features to today’s outfit, while disparaging several other famous male artists multiple times.

“To be in a CP with Brother Huai, I’m simply happy to death.” Yuan Xingzhou finally said with eyes full of tears: “How could someone like me not be satisfied? Kissing and ‘kisses’—throw them all aside…”

“Heh,” Ye Huai put down the game console and looked down at him. “So you do know? Weren’t you quite proud of yourself?”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…” It really was because of that?

“Think less about those ‘messy’ things in the future.” Ye Huai acted as if he had forgiven him, saying crossly: “With me, you’re still not satisfied?”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Yuan Xingzhou suppressed a mouthful of old blood. He thought to himself: Does this CP pairing require emotional purity too? I can’t even think about it? In the adult world, I’m not even allowed to fantasize about a little ‘meat’ in my head?

However, he only grumbled in his heart; the crew’s car was arriving soon, and now was not the time to argue.

“You aren’t allowed to be wrong again,” Ye Huai said solemnly.

With a serious face, Yuan Xingzhou hugged Ye Huai’s legs and blinked innocently, nodding in agreement to this humiliating “monk’s treaty.”