The Beautiful but Obscure Star Is Targeted by a Scheming Movie Star - Chapter 28

“Inside, please, gentlemen.”

The waiter led Tang Jingran and Xue Kai to their seats.

“See what you’d like to eat?” Tang Jingran handed the menu in his hand to Xue Kai.

“Didn’t I say I was treating you to dinner? How did it become you treating me?” Although Xue Kai said this, his hands were already flipping through the menu as he began calling out dish names.

“If you weren’t acting like this, I might have actually believed you,” Tang Jingran glanced at the way the other man was ordering.

“Hehe,” Xue Kai finished ordering his own items and pushed the menu back to Tang Jingran. “I just thought I should be polite.”

Tang Jingran took the menu and ordered a few dishes he liked.

The waiter had already been screaming with silent excitement in their heart from the moment they received the two of them. Consequently, after finishing the order, the waiter summoned their courage and asked, “Excuse me, you two are Mr. Tang Jingran and Mr. Xue Kai, right?”

Tang Jingran looked at the visibly excited waiter, his eyes curving slightly.

“Yes.”

Ahhh! The waiter clutched their thumping heart.

“Hello, may I take a photo with the two of you? Both of you are actors I really like; the stills for your new drama are so handsome!”

Xue Kai was clearly used to this kind of thing. “Thank you, of course, no problem. Is there a specific pose you’d like for the photo?”

“No, no,” the waiter waved their hands hurriedly. “Just a direct photo with both of you is fine.”

After taking the photo, the waiter put away their phone with a surface-level calmness.

“Thank you very much. I won’t disturb you two any further.”

Having said that, they nodded to the two of them and left. Judging by the back of their departing figure, they were indeed very excited, nearly colliding with someone coming from the opposite direction.

“How did you find this place to eat?” Xue Kai’s eyes scanned the surroundings. The entire restaurant had a warm tone; dim orange lights cast a slow glow from above, reflecting off the flowing stream nearby.

It was very leisurely and comfortable.

Tang Jingran leaned his back gently against the sofa cushion, his gaze relaxed. “You like it?”

Xue Kai nodded affirmatively. “I like it. You really went to a lot of trouble, brother.”

Tang Jingran looked at Xue Kai for two seconds and let out a light chuckle. This laugh was different from his usual ones; the end of it curved upward slightly, like a playful little hook scratching across one’s heart, making it itch uncontrollably.

Xue Kai stared blankly at him.

He saw Tang Jingran lean forward slightly, his slender fingers interlaced and resting against his chin, the tail of his brow arching upward.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

Because the weather was hot, Tang Jingran was wearing a white sleeveless vest with black trim. As he moved, half of his snow-white collarbone was exposed at the neckline.

The red string on his left wrist made his skin look even whiter by contrast. The red whip-like marks and scratches wound and coiled along the bracelet, adding a touch of temptation that couldn’t help but make one’s imagination run wild.

“N-no.” Xue Kai suddenly didn’t dare to look him directly in the eye, only realizing after he spoke that he was nervous.

“Then do you have a boyfriend?” Tang Jingran laughed again, his gaze unchanging.

Xue Kai swallowed hard. “No… Holy shit!”

Xue Kai finally caught on. “Are you trying to trap me into a confession?”

No wonder he had felt things were a bit weird since a moment ago; so this was what was waiting for him.

“Rest assured, I am a 24K pure straight man.” Xue Kai raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he felt. “So, you set up this ‘Hongmen Banquet’ [ambush] for me?”

Tang Jingran retracted his expression and looked at him. “Half and half.”

Xue Kai had helped him, and he also wanted to confirm this man’s attitude.

Tang Jingran blinked his eyes. “Sometimes your excessive care is truly hard to ignore. Have you not noticed it yourself?”

Xue Kai scratched his forehead. He did indeed want to get close to Tang Jingran because he thought he was good-looking; perhaps he hadn’t managed the boundaries well.

“Cough.” Xue Kai coughed to clear his throat. “This… I just wanted to get a little closer to you.”

Seeing the suspicious look in the other man’s eyes, Xue Kai immediately added, “Don’t look at me like that, I just want to be friends with you!”

Seeing that the other still didn’t believe him, Xue Kai raised his hand in a promise. “Really!”

Tang Jingran narrowed his eyes and watched him for a few seconds before slightly tilting his chin, indicating forgiveness.

Xue Kai then belatedly remembered—wait, shouldn’t this guy be the one apologizing to him? How did it become him apologizing to Tang Jingran?

Just as Xue Kai was about to speak, a frivolous, low-pitched voice cut in ahead of him.

“What’s ‘really’?”

The first thing Tang Jingran saw was a pair of sturdy, powerful legs wrapped in straight, dark grey suit pants. Moving upward, there was a robust, broad chest and shoulders, and finally, his gaze swept past a cold, hard jawline to meet a pair of dark, sunken eyes.

Tang Jingran’s eyes flickered.

It was Gong Yingxiao again.

Standing next to him was a tall, handsome man with peach-blossom eyes, who was currently winking at him.

Xue Kai looked up without any defenses, and his jaw nearly dropped once he got a clear look.

“Holy crap, the Film Emperor!”

Realizing his tone, he immediately corrected himself. “Hello, Mr. Gong!”

As he spoke, he stood up and moved to the other side to pull Tang Jingran up, but before his hand could touch Tang Jingran’s arm, it was blocked by a slender, powerful palm.

“No need to stand up, just stay seated,” Gong Yingxiao spoke.

“Oh, oh, okay.” Xue Kai said as he prepared to sit back down.

The owner of the frivolous voice from before spoke again, “You don’t mind if we join you, right?”

Ever since Liu Yefei arrived, his eyes had been fixed on Tang Jingran. This bastard [Gong] sure has good taste.

But judging by the current expression on the little beauty’s face, he doesn’t want to deal with you at all.

At critical moments, it still has to be your brother helping you.

Liu Yefei introduced himself familiarly, “I am Gong Yingxiao’s friend, a singer from abroad.”

“I have an event here for a few days. I just returned to the country, and I’m not very familiar with things yet, so I’ve been relying on my friend’s care.”

“Since everyone knows each other, why don’t we just share a table?”

“I’ll invite you all to my concert when I have the time.”

In just a few sentences, Liu Yefei explained why the two of them appeared here and even put in a good word for his brother in front of his sweetheart.

They didn’t intentionally come here to bump into them; it truly was an accidental encounter.

Xue Kai looked at Tang Jingran, who had his head lowered, unsure of his attitude. “This…”

“It’s fine,” Tang Jingran said with a professional fake smile. “As long as you two don’t mind.”

Liu Yefei waved his hands hurriedly. “Not at all, not at all.”

This bastard [Gong] couldn’t wait to cling to you; he definitely wouldn’t mind.

Hearing their words, Xue Kai stood up quickly. “Then you two sit together, I’ll sit with Jingran, I…”

Before he could finish, he was grabbed by Liu Yefei. “It’s okay, no need, I’ll just sit on this side with you.”

“I have this habit—when I eat with my friend, I have to sit opposite him to be able to eat. I hope you can understand, friend.”

Brother, I’m saving you here. Let the two of them resolve their own issues.

A ‘?’ slowly appeared on Xue Kai’s face, but upholding the principle of ‘not understanding but respecting,’ he still nodded.

“I understand, I understand.”

Liu Yefei: “Thank you very much.”

As he spoke, he sent a look toward Gong Yingxiao.

It meant: Am I loyal enough?

The other man didn’t even give him a single glance.

Liu Yefei: “…”

The atmosphere became instantly quiet after the two sat down. Liu Yefei coughed and took the initiative to greet Xue Kai next to him, breaking the awkward silence.

“I haven’t asked yet, what is your name, friend?”

“My name is Xue Kai. We are both actors, currently in the same crew,” Xue Kai replied, then asked, “What do you want to eat? Jingran and I only ordered dinner for two.”

Brother Xue Kai, please stop calling him ‘Jingran’ so affectionately, one ‘Jingran’ at a time. Haven’t you noticed my brother’s face is turning as black as charcoal?

“It seems you two are very close.” Liu Yefei quickly scanned his brother’s expression; it was still within the normal range for now. “Then I’ll add a few more dishes.”

“Waiter, we’d like to add more items here.”

In a short while, the dishes were served one after another. Xue Kai thought the scene would be very awkward, but he found that communicating was not like that at all.

This man named Liu Yefei was very good at chatting and never let the conversation go cold.

It was just that the expressions of the two people opposite him were cold, one after the other. It felt like the food in his mouth wasn’t even fragrant anymore.

Tang Jingran put down his chopsticks and spoke, “I’m going to the restroom, you guys continue.”

“Okay.” Xue Kai was chatting animatedly with Liu Yefei, turning his head when he heard the voice.

Tang Jingran nodded and got up to go to the restroom.

A few seconds later, Gong Yingxiao also stood up. “I’ll go to the restroom as well.”

Xue Kai looked at the departing figures of the two with a confused gaze. Before he could realize something was wrong, he was pulled back into the conversation by Liu Yefei.

Liu Yefei raised one eyebrow and narrowed his eyes as he watched the figure disappear around the corner.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Tang Jingran stood at the sink washing his hands, his head slightly lowered. His fair neck curved into a perfect, elegant arc in the air.

Hearing the door open, he didn’t even lift his head.

Closing the faucet and looking up, his gaze collided in the mirror with the cold, sunken eyes of the tall, imposing man.

Without any emotion, Tang Jingran shifted his gaze away. He turned around, his nose nearly brushing the man’s chin.

Tang Jingran’s cold voice rang out, “Move.”

Gong Yingxiao looked at the other man’s cheeks, eyes, neck, and collarbone for a few moments. The cold white fluorescent light made the other’s skin appear even fairer. Then, leaning forward slightly, he supported himself with both hands on the sink, trapping the person in his embrace.

Tang Jingran tilted his head back, his brow furrowing with impatience. “Move aside.”

Gong Yingxiao didn’t listen; instead, he forcefully wedged his leg between Tang Jingran’s legs.

Tang Jingran was caught off guard and staggered slightly, his hands gripping the suit sleeves on the other man’s arms tightly.

Once he reacted, he immediately let go.

There was a height difference of several centimeters between the two. With the other’s leg pressed between his own, it would always brush against his thigh.

To avoid contact, Tang Jingran tried to spread his legs wider, but doing so would only cause him to touch other places.

Tang Jingran moved around for a while without finding a suitable position for himself, so he simply stopped moving.

“I think I’ve made myself clear enough. With Mr. Gong’s IQ, you can perfectly well understand.”

“What exactly do you want to do?”

Gong Yingxiao squeezed his leg in a bit further and asked with lowered eyelids.

“Is it not obvious?”

Tang Jingran frowned. “What?”

“I am pursuing you. Is it not obvious?” Gong Yingxiao’s gaze swept over Tang Jingran’s rosy lips, his eyes darkening.

Tang Jingran’s heart gave a violent shudder. A powerful, thumping heartbeat rang in his ears, and his face felt a bit hot. But immediately following that, a dense, tingling pain spread from his limbs and bones.

A person’s first love truly has a great impact; even if he hates this man, his heart still beats for him.

If he had heard these words a month ago, he might have been very happy.

But things had turned out contrary to his wishes.

This layer of ambiguous, unclear window paper was lightly poked through by the other person. It turned out that hearing it with his own ears wasn’t as… as happy as he had imagined.

The corners of Tang Jingran’s eyes tilted slightly, his tone playful. “So this is your attitude when pursuing someone?”

“I don’t want to be like this, but if I don’t, you’ll run away again.” Gong Yingxiao looked at his expression and asked in return, “Isn’t that right?”

“Yes.” Tang Jingran nodded. “But unfortunately, I don’t want you to pursue me.”

“To tell you the truth, you make me very annoyed.”

“Oh.” Gong Yingxiao raised his hand, gently catching Tang Jingran’s chin. He lowered his head and leaned in close. “Why are you annoyed? Is it because you like me?”

“It’s… no, I don’t like you.”

“A pity, because I like you.” Gong Yingxiao affectionately stroked Tang Jingran’s cheek with his finger, his voice carrying a low chuckle. “You really should see the look in your eyes when you look at me.”

“Then you would know what kind of gaze you have when you look at me.”

Tang Jingran’s pupils trembled slightly, but on the surface, he remained defiant.

“What gaze?”

Gong Yingxiao sighed softly. “If you looked into my eyes, perhaps you would understand.”

Tang Jingran crashed into those eyes that were full of deep affection and tenderness, yet deep down, they also contained a hidden, terrifying emotion.

Tang Jingran stared straight at the man for a few seconds, then spoke with a smile, “So? What does that prove?”

“I can have this kind of expression for you, and I can have it for others as well.”

“I’ll say it one last time: I don’t want to see you again, nor do I want to accept your pursuit.”

“Also, move aside.”