Pretending Not to Love You [Entertainment Circle] - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The room was quite spacious, furnished with two beds and all necessary amenities.

After the two finished dealing with the cameras, confirming that no surveillance equipment was hidden in the room or bathroom, they relaxed. Zuo Qiu opened his suitcase and hung his clothes in the closet, while Xiao Bojun lay spread-eagled on the bed, eyes closed, resting. Waking up early was torture for Xiao Bojun, and now that it was nap time, he felt even more drowsy.

After Zuo Qiu finished organizing both his and Xiao Bojun’s luggage, he turned around and realized Xiao Bojun was asleep. Zuo Qiu didn’t wake him. He covered Xiao Bojun with a light blanket, opened the door, and left.

In the guesthouse lobby, Liu Min and Zheng Yang were sitting on the sofa cracking melon seeds.

Zuo Qiu walked over and greeted the two with a smile: “Sister Min, Brother Yang, what are we supposed to do next?”

Liu Min answered with a question: “What can you do?”

Zuo Qiu scratched his head: “Besides cooking and doing laundry, nothing else, really.”

Liu Min threw down her melon seed shells, scooted closer to Zuo Qiu, and asked interestedly, “You can cook?”

Zuo Qiu nodded.

Liu Min seized the chance to interview him: “Really? When was the last time you cooked?”

Zuo Qiu said, “I cooked last night.” They rushed to catch the plane this morning, and Xiao Bojun said they should eat out, so Zuo Qiu hadn’t cooked.

“Wow, impressive. I heard you and Xiao Bojun are classmates. Is that true?” Zheng Yang asked.

Zuo Qiu nodded: “We are students at A University and have been roommates for three years.”

“A University? The best university in the country? Wow, so both members of Z.X are academic overachievers!” Liu Min said, wide-eyed.

Zuo Qiu humbly replied: “Not bad, I guess.”

…

At five in the afternoon, the awakened Xiao Bojun took a moment to register his surroundings before realizing he was in the guesthouse for the show. He glanced at the bed next to him. It was neatly made, exactly as it was before he fell asleep, and Zuo Qiu was nowhere to be seen.

Xiao Bojun got up and walked to the closet, pulled off his shirt, and casually grabbed a white T-shirt from the closet to put on.

On the other side of the miniature camera, the girl watching the monitor screen stared at the screen, her eyes shining, while touching her nose. Phew, no nosebleed.

Although it was only ten seconds, the girl still clearly saw the semi-naked man. Xiao Bojun’s chest and abs were defined, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist—his figure was incredible! She had thought this would be a boring job, but she got such a huge surprise in less than half a day! The girl felt it was very worthwhile, and she was looking forward to the rest of the filming time more and more.

…

After leaving the room, Xiao Bojun found everyone else was outside. Zuo Qiu and two female guests were busy in the kitchen, and the others were chatting in the living room.

As soon as Liu Min saw Xiao Bojun exit the room, she teased him: “Did you sleep well?”

Xiao Bojun was thick-skinned and didn’t feel there was any problem with him sleeping while others were trying to make an impression. He plopped down on the sofa and replied, “Quite well. The bed was a bit hard, though.”

Liu Min was amused by Xiao Bojun’s honesty and asked him, “Zuo Qiu can cook. As the other member of the duo, what can you do?”

Xiao Bojun’s immediate gut answer was “love,” but the person asking wasn’t Zuo Qiu, so he held back. After thinking for a moment, he answered seriously, “I can eat.”

This time, Liu Min couldn’t hold back and burst into hearty laughter, clutching her stomach.

In the kitchen, Zuo Qiu heard Liu Min’s infectious laughter and glanced in their direction. Xiao Bojun was also looking at him, and their eyes met. Xiao Bojun patted his stomach towards Zuo Qiu.

The popular young actress, Lin Xiao, noticed their interaction and curiously asked Zuo Qiu, “What does it mean when Xiao Bojun pats his stomach?”

Zuo Qiu smiled: “He said he’s hungry and wants to eat meat.”

“You even know this kind of sign language? You understand him so well!” Patting the stomach means hungry; that’s understandable. But how did you know he wanted to eat meat?

Zuo Qiu explained: “We lived in the same dorm for three years; we know each other quite well.” Xiao Bojun was someone who couldn’t live without meat. Zuo Qiu couldn’t think of anything else he’d love besides meat.

…

During dinner, Liu Min pointed to the six dishes, one soup, and one dessert on the table and asked Xiao Bojun, Zheng Yang, and the accomplished actor Deng Zhong to guess who made which one.

After tasting all the dishes, Zheng Yang said, “The delicious braised pork ribs and bullfrog with pickled peppers must be done by Sister Lu. That ‘Snow Mountain Dragon Fruit’ dessert is definitely made by the beauty, Xiaoxiao. The scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and those burnt-looking dried shredded lotus roots, must be Zuo Qiu’s.”

The veteran actress Lu Lan, in her forties, always maintained the persona of a virtuous wife and loving mother, often posting pictures of her family eating together on Weibo. The young actress Lin Xiao was most dedicated to dieting. So, the assumption was: Happy family = good cooking skills; loves dieting = often eats fruit = superior skill in making attractive fruit desserts; Zuo Qiu, a 20-something guy = unaccustomed to physical labor and cooking. This seemed logical to them.

Clearly, no one took Zuo Qiu seriously when he said he could cook.

Deng Zhong added, “I think what Boss Yang said is right. The remaining two mediocre-tasting vegetable dishes are probably Zuo Qiu’s masterpieces too,” he said, patting Zuo Qiu’s shoulder and comforting him, “It’s okay. If your cooking isn’t good, you can marry a wife who can cook later.”

Zuo Qiu, only 21, was so encouraged by a senior in the industry that he was embarrassed and didn’t know how to respond. If his sexual orientation were mainstream, a simple “Sure” would suffice. But given his situation… if he said that, and his privacy was later exposed, many people might think he was being hypocritical. So, he really couldn’t answer at the moment.

Liu Min, who was fond of the gentle Zuo Qiu, stepped in to save him: “He’s still just a little boy; he’s easily embarrassed!”

Everyone looked at the blushing Zuo Qiu and smiled kindly.

Xiao Bojun looked at the embarrassed Zuo Qiu beside him, focusing on the shoulder that Deng Zhong had just patted. He said, “My answer is different from Brother Yang and Brother Zhong. I think the best dishes—the braised pork ribs, the bullfrog with pickled peppers, and the Snow Mountain Dragon Fruit—were all made by Zuo Qiu.”

Liu Min didn’t say who was right or wrong and asked the three individuals to reveal the answers themselves.

The eldest, Lu Lan, shrugged and said, “I don’t cook, so this black dried shredded lotus root and the slightly salty soup are mine.” These days, with all the kitchen smoke and skin damage, few female stars are willing to cook.

Lin Xiao, covering her face, also said, “I can only make the mediocre-tasting vegetables and scrambled eggs with tomatoes.”

So, the dishes they thought were the best were all made by the one they thought was least likely to cook—Zuo Qiu?

Zheng Yang picked up another piece of pork rib and exclaimed, “Zuo Qiu, you studied culinary arts while being an academic genius? Is this what you call cultivating both inner and outer skills? And Xiao Bojun, how did you guess so accurately?”

Xiao Bojun lowered his head and ate his meat. “Because I eat it every day.”

Such a juicy detail was naturally picked up by Liu Min: “Zuo Qiu, you cook for him every day? Why is that?”

Zuo Qiu smiled and explained that he lived at Xiao Bojun’s house during his internship and cooked to cover the room and board expenses.

Liu Min seized the opportunity again: “I want to ask, are you still looking for someone to cook for? Like a particularly good-looking, non-picky beautiful Jiejie (sister) who will eat whatever you make?”

Zheng Yang feigned anger at his “wife’s” shameless behavior: “Do you think I’m dead again!”

Everyone laughed.

…

After dinner, given the tiring journey on the first day, the production team did not arrange any special activities for the evening, allowing everyone free time.

Zuo Qiu and Xiao Bojun returned to their room. Since Zuo Qiu smelled of cooking oil, he grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom to shower.

Fifteen minutes later, Zuo Qiu emerged from the bathroom in pajamas and saw Xiao Bojun sprawled on the sofa, feet on the coffee table, watching TV. Zuo Qiu was used to this. As long as Xiao Bojun wasn’t so unrestrained in public, it was fine. Thinking of how Xiao Bojun had behaved himself in the afternoon, Zuo Qiu felt that Xiao Bojun wasn’t a completely unruly person.

Xiao Bojun glanced at Zuo Qiu, whose cheeks were flushed pink from the hot steam. He felt a little restless. Perhaps because the environment had changed, and they were assigned to sleep in the same room again, Xiao Bojun felt something stirring within him.

Ten minutes later, Zuo Qiu, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed reading the script, was startled by the somewhat loud sound of the bathroom door opening. He looked towards Xiao Bojun, who had just emerged from the shower. Xiao Bojun was only wearing a pair of long gray sweatpants, which were low-rise, sitting just below his navel, loosely tied with a drawstring.

His upper body was bare. His hair hadn’t been dried yet, and water droplets ran down his neck, sliding along his taut muscles to his waist, then disappearing into his pants.

Xiao Bojun was drying his hair with a towel while secretly glancing at Zuo Qiu. Seeing Zuo Qiu’s face flushed and his gaze evasive, he felt a little smug inside.

Suddenly, he frowned and looked at the oil painting above the bed. He had a persistent feeling of being watched, which he’d felt that afternoon, but it was stronger now. However, after scrutinizing the painting for a while, he didn’t find anything unusual. He comforted himself that he was probably overthinking it, grabbed a T-shirt, and put it on.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the screen, the three girls in front of the monitor were frozen as if paralyzed. The few seconds Xiao Bojun spent looking directly at the camera felt like their hearts had stopped.

“Ah, I’m bleeding!”

The girl who was sitting heard this and touched her nose again. Phew, it wasn’t her. She glanced at the two girls behind her who had come to peek. One of them was wiping a nosebleed.