Chapter Eighty-Seven

  After that, Jin Yan would still go to the crew of "The World's Red Beauty" next door, but after he got there, he would also play with Fang Yu, Ding Hua and Xu Le, and rarely interact with Jiang Chuan - normal conversations were also possible, but three or two sentences could be briefly said; At lunchtime, the two sat at the same table to eat, but careful people would find that Jiang Chuan seemed to stop putting green peppers and other things he didn't eat into Jin Yan's bowl, and Jin Yan wouldn't grab meat from Jiang Chuan's rice box to eat; Every evening after dinner, people rarely saw Jin Yan and Jiang Chuan walking together near the old people's sports equipment, even if they were seen, there would definitely be a chatty Fang Yu in between...

  It seems like something is wrong, but thinking carefully, it seems like nothing is wrong after all.

  Two big men sticking together all day, being overly affectionate is what's really not right, but Jian Ran and Jiang Chuan suddenly became less close, which made people feel uncomfortable - however, since the other party was future brother-in-law Yuan Jian Ran as well as cold-faced and even colder-hearted Jiang Chuan, nobody dared to rush over and gossip directly.

  So in the end, Ding Pang became the one who rushed to the front - Ding Pang himself is a relatively gossipy guy, and he once suspected that the owner of a certain high-rise building on a certain forum might be him. Because after cooperating with Xu Qianqian once, Ding Pang never used her again. Everyone knows about this incident before Xu Qianqian's accident, the LZ of that building also scolded her for "showing off" "acting skills are okay but skin is actually very bad" "yelling at agents" and so on. Apart from Xu Qianqian, there were not a few male and female actors who were also implicated...

  But although the complaints are just complaints, the poster's temper is as good as Ding Hao's, no matter how others pick on him and say he's a fake expert pretending to be a master, he'll always respond with a smile and say "what do you know, do you even understand what you're saying?"

  This kind of person is even more convincing.

  At that time, Jian Yan was so disappointed with the director who had been spreading rumors about him in the world. He felt that his personality had become so pretentious and had a lot to do with these gossipers: it's like ordinary company bosses setting up an external public forum every day to gossip about their employees from work attitude to dressing style, without any difference, simply perverted, with no privacy at all.

  That night, Jianran was sitting at the table eating when he saw a stout figure walking towards him with small steps, then sat down in front of him with a plop. Before the other person could speak, Jianran said: "Your body is shaking so much that I suddenly feel like eating braised pork."

  "You're so annoying, always attacking people's figures all day long." Ding Pao put down the tray filled with enough food for two Yuan Jinrans and sat down steadily. "Jinran, I have a question for you."

  "Ask."

  "Has Jiang Chuan confessed to you again?"

  “……”

  He carefully held a mouthful of rice in his mouth, neither swallowing nor spitting it out. Finally, he subtly spat out a few grains onto Ding's chubby face. As the other person loudly protested and backed away while holding their dinner plate, the young man with black hair had already calmly taken a paper towel to wipe the corner of his lips, raised an eyebrow to glance at Ding - not daring to look too much, afraid that if he made eye contact, the other person would see the ferocity in his eyes. He lowered his head and asked again: "Why did you suddenly think of this?"

  "Not 'I', but 'we' - 'we' specifically refers to the group of people who are not blind, and that does not include your agent... because recently the atmosphere between you and Jiang Chuan has been a bit strange." Ding Pao corrected while carefully re-seating himself across from Jian Ran, "Our guess is whether he confessed to you again and was brutally rejected so..."

  He felt as if his knees were full of arrows.

  "I thought you all knew that Jiang Chuan's confession to me in front of the media was just for show, even the media claimed it was a textbook-perfect PR stunt. Jian Yan suppressed his urge to flip the table and feigned a disdainful expression, "Not many netizens took it seriously, but an old slickster like you actually believed it..."

  "I'm really serious," said Ding, "I've seen all sorts of weird things, but this weird thing where a male star publicly confesses to another male star seems real - you should go look at the video online from when Jiang Chuan held a press conference, the person who shot it was absolutely professional, super good at taking pictures, and at the end I remember they gave him a close-up shot of his face - in those azure eyes like a clear sky, I saw a rainbow burning with flames."

  "I'm going to throw up." Jian Ran said with a straight face.

  Ding: "So you two are really okay?"

  Taking a deep breath, he looked steadily into Ding's eyes: "It's okay."

  Ding Pao: "Oh, so tonight our crew and your 'Star Fire' will go sing KTV together. You call him to join in on the group activity, we spent the whole day today trying to get that big shot moving - does he even have any interests or hobbies? The whole person is like a dead pool of water with no interest at all... I asked him what he likes to do and he told me 'film', damn it, he actually said 'film'!!! I almost suffocated on the spot..."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  Ding: "Eight thirty in the evening."

  He felt like he had jumped into a desperate situation, thinking that he hadn't privately called or texted Jiang Chuan for a whole week. Just thinking about the phone number he had memorized made his scalp tingle - it was hard to say whether it was excitement or unease. However, at this moment, in order not to reveal his weakness, the young man with black hair could only put on an impatient expression and said: "You also said that you guys spent a whole morning trying to get him up, where did I get my confidence from?"

  Ding Pu Pu: "When he looks at you, his eyes have a burning rainbow."

  "Shut up."

  ……

  At half past ten at night, standing in front of the Golden Coast KTV Jinbi Huihuang's gate, looking at the two groups of main actors and directors waiting in the hall, I really felt like I had been deceived - especially when I saw Xide beside me, who was initially interested in checking out the surroundings, now staring intently at the LCD screen in the hall playing "My Skateboard Shoes". I cleared my throat: "Someone like you also comes to KTV?"

  "Can't I?" said Shide, "I also sing popular songs very well."

  “……”

  What I mean is, you're here, who else would dare sing tonight?

  Such a serious answer made Jian Ran speechless, and at this time, Ding Pao had already booked a private room in front and ran over to ask Jian Ran: "Have you informed Jiang Chuan?"

  "...He slightly curled up the corner of his lips,"I forgot."

  Ding Pu had no time to speak, and behind him, people who overheard their conversation were already talking loudly.

  "What? Brother Chuan hasn't arrived yet?"

  "Hurry up, we've been calling someone all day and can't get through, but with just one call from you, it'll definitely be settled immediately!"

  "Come on, brother, hurry up a bit, it's already 8:40, and we all have to get up early tomorrow for filming..."

  "Jiang Chuan didn't come, I feel like something is missing..."

  "Alright, you heard Jiang Chuan came especially today and changed into a pair of higher heels, did you think I didn't see?"

  Under everyone's urging, Jian Ran had no choice but to reluctantly take out his phone. He thought for a moment and decided not to call Jiang Chuan directly, instead opting to send him a subtle text message first. Opening their chat page, he saw that it had been a week since they last exchanged messages. After hesitating for a moment, he sent three words: "What are you doing?"

  After sending the message, he put the phone in his pocket. If someone else asked him again, he would reply: "I've already told him, I just called him and he didn't answer, so I sent a text message. He'll call me back when he sees it."

  Everyone temporarily let him go, a group of people rushed into the elevator and went upstairs in two batches - everyone followed their seniority, of course, letting the senior actors and directors of the "Star Fire" crew go up to the private room first. Ding Pangpang also went up with them. A bunch of young actors were left outside the elevator, chatting and waiting for the next trip. Jin Yan stood at the back of the crowd, distracted, talking to Xi De in English, his fingers unintentionally touching the pocket of his clothes.

  It's as if subconsciously waiting for the vibration of the phone in the pocket.

  But it wasn't until the elevator arrived that his phone still didn't react, and he couldn't help but take out his phone to check if he had turned on the ringtone and vibration. After confirming everything was fine, he put the phone back in his pocket with an unknown emotion... When entering the elevator, he thought for a moment and took out his phone again, holding it in his palm. This small action didn't escape the red-haired boy's eyes, who was leaning lazily against the wall of the elevator, looking at the young man with black hair, staring into his eyes and saying in English: "There's no signal in the elevator, you won't be able to receive calls or texts even if you take it out."

  "Oh, yeah." Jian Yan's face was dazed, and he put his phone back in his pocket.

  Is it broken?

  Do you want to shut down and restart?

  When the elevator arrived at their floor, everyone else walked out laughing and chatting, with Jin Yan and Xi De following behind - as soon as they stepped out of the elevator doors, Jin Yan felt his phone in his pocket start vibrating, he subconsciously paused for a moment, his heart skipping a beat - when he took out the phone that had stopped vibrating, he was taken aback by how much he had never been so shocked and thrilled by a single text message before, wanting to look but also being a little afraid to look, despite knowing that the other person might have simply replied with a simple sentence and a simple punctuation mark.

  But the joy that was about to be uncontrollable and the fondness, made every single word of the other person, even simple punctuation marks, look so special.

  He clumsily unlocked his phone, swiped open the password and entered the messaging interface. He took a deep breath, lowered his head and looked carefully, only to find...

  Fang Dazui: Which bag is it? I'm almost there!

  Jian Ran: "……………………"

  With a black line on his face, he casually returned an "up yours" to the agent, angrily shoving his phone back into his pocket and taking two steps forward. Suddenly realizing that venting his anger like this wasn't quite right either, the young man with black hair once again pulled out his phone and quickly sent the private room number to the agent. After handling everything, he carefully watched as his phone fell silent once more, and he too fell into a deathly stillness. Staring at it for a while, he thought to himself: Why not just turn it off altogether?... That way, it wouldn't be that Jiang Chuan didn't return the text message, but rather that he did reply, but I didn't see it because my phone was turned off?

  I'm going to turn into an ostrich.

  But this neither-up-nor-down, as-if-holding-a-_____-heart feeling is really making people feel so anxious!!!!!!!

  His expression was calm and numb, but in his heart, 10,000 clay horses were galloping wildly by.

  He walked stiffly to the door of the private room, and Hyde, who was walking in front of him, pushed open the door first. As he entered, he turned his head back to look at Jian Ran and asked faintly, "Are you okay?"

  "It's nothing." He shook his head calmly and smiled, "What could be wrong?"

  Xide let out a soft "oh" and walked in, but didn't rush to sit down. He looked around, east and west, until he found a corner spot that seemed like it was haunted by his own ghost, and sat down there. Only then did he turn around and walk over to sit down next to Jianran.

  At this time, the waiter brought in a few boxes of wine, and the actresses chattered and ran to order songs. Girls, after all, have their own routine at KTV: first sing, then sit aside to take selfies, take enough selfies and then take intimate photos together, then separate, each using their phones to edit and post online, read comments and receive praise for a while, then put away their phones. If there are no boys around, they gossip about other girls who aren't present; if there are boys around, they flirt with them.

  But the men are always relatively reserved, and not many of them like to sing in KTVs. Most of them just sit aside drinking and chatting - at this moment, a group of people sitting together may be shooting different subjects, but they're all making TV dramas after all, so everyone looks like they have a lot to say...

  In short, the atmosphere on site was harmonious.

  Jin Yan sat quietly beside Xi De, chatting occasionally, and took out his mobile phone to play a game for a while - the young man seemed to be speechless about him playing "Push Box" on his smartphone, but Jin Yan thought it was nothing wrong, at least such games required brain power, and it was easy to focus on the game, not thinking about other things.

  Although Xi De bluntly said that the game was "boring" and "childish", he still sat down beside Jian Ran and accompanied him for a while, this guy is really smart, after discussing with Jian Ran, he helped him pass a level that he had been stuck on for a long time.

  When those actresses finished their turns singing with ear-piercing voices, the two people in the corner were still discussing how to proceed with the next step. This behavior is also very common in KTV - for example, the directors sitting on the side drinking and looking like they didn't want to sing at all. However, since Jian Ran and Xi De are both big shots to some extent, those actresses wouldn't let them off easily. After taking various selfies and posting them on Weibo, they finally entered the last step: hitting on the young guys.

  Then Bai Mei led the way, sat down beside Xide and said: "Great God, how about singing a song? I'll help you with your debut single -"

  Xide was taken aback for a moment, then lifted his head from the screen in Jinran's hand and looked at her with a smile.

  He slightly curled up the corner of his lips and said without lifting his head, "......You let others come to KTV to sing their own songs, isn't that embarrassing?"

  "What's so embarrassing?" Bai Mei said, "I even gave you a nod for your signature song, Ah Ran the Great God——"

  "What the heck."

  "You just sang that one song - like you released a whole album or something."

  “……”

  Jian Ran rolled his eyes at the impudent girl, just about to say something when suddenly his phone screen lit up and started vibrating wildly. Jian Ran subconsciously thought that Fang Yu had gotten lost on the way and was calling for help, so he picked it up with a look of annoyance. But as soon as he looked at the caller ID, his expression changed - the two words "Jiang Chuan" were displayed on the screen.

  He was taken aback for a moment.

  Although he had waited for more than half the night, when the phone finally rang, he was somewhat slow to react - it was still Bai Mei who urged him from the side: "Kan Ge is calling you, hurry up and answer, why are you staring at me?"

  Jianran hastily picked up the phone, muttering "oh oh" twice, while Xide was dragged away by the actresses to sing. Jianran covered the receiver slightly to hear more clearly, then said "hello". The other end fell silent for a moment before a familiar male voice responded: "I just dozed off in the bathroom and didn't bring my phone with me, what's up?"

  Oh, it turns out I didn't respond in time because I fell asleep.

  This was the first thought that flashed through his mind.

  Oh, he's explaining to me why he didn't return my call in time.

  This is the second thought that flashed through his mind.

  Oh, he asked me something.

  This is the third thought that flashed through Jian Ran's mind.

  When I realize that a sentence spoken by the other person can be dissected and understood in three different ways, each with a different meaning, I feel like I'm probably doomed.

  "Oh, actually there's nothing else going on," Jian Yan hoped his voice sounded calm enough, "It's just that tonight isn't a KTV night, and the people from your crew said they tried to persuade you for an entire day but you didn't agree, so they asked me to come and persuade you... do you want to come or not?"

  “……”

  The phone was silent for five seconds, and then Xi De walked over with the receiver and sat down beside Jian Ran. He was singing a relatively soothing love song at this time, if someone were to listen to it alone at home with earphones on, they would probably hear the sound of pregnancy - and at this moment, the young man leaned in completely, his amber-colored eyes shining particularly brightly in the dim light of the KTV... He stared at Jian Ran as he sang, his serious expression making Jian Ran suddenly recall the day when they first met, Xi De on stage, him below drinking until he couldn't tell Liu from Li.

  Jin Yan's hand holding the phone tightened slightly, and he subconsciously shifted his buttocks backward - but at this time, Xide not only didn't retreat because of this, but instead pressed closer, even putting his arm around the young man with black hair. The crowd was also used to this childlike sticky behavior and didn't think there was anything wrong with Xide clinging to Jin Yan. Only the young man with black hair lightly patted away his hand after a slight pause, muttering "You're blocking my phone call". Xide said "No" and leaned in even closer.

  He had to bow his head, covering the phone with his hand so he could hear more clearly. At this moment, it was about twenty seconds after Jiang Chuan fell silent after extending an invitation. The other end was quiet enough that Jian Ran couldn't tell if Jiang Chuan had hung up the phone again to do something else, so he could only say "hello" again and ask if Jiang Chuan was still there. The other end fell silent once more, and a few seconds later, said succinctly: "I'm here."

  "Do you want to come over?"

  “……”

  Another silence, at this time Jian Yan has already started his cells to work together to think about how to respond after being rejected so as not to be too embarrassed - after all, he is still good at this, but unexpectedly, before he could speak up to mediate, the other person's voice rang out.

  "Alright."

  “……”

  He didn't react for a moment, and then he let out an "ah" in a daze. At this time, the sound of rustling clothes came from Jiang Chuan's end, and it seemed that Jiang Chuan had wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder to put on his pants. When the voice sounded again, it was somewhat too three-dimensional. The man carefully asked for the address and room number of the KTV, and finally hung up the phone after saying "see you in ten minutes".

  After thinking for a moment, they drove over and it seemed like it took about fifteen minutes.

  He couldn't help but grab the phone and throw it back at him, saying "Don't run a red light!", only then did he put away his phone. At this time, Shide, who was leaning against him, had finished singing her song, and the sisters were applauding and cheering excitedly, exclaiming that they had gotten a good deal - normally they would have to spend tens of thousands of yuan on tickets to go abroad to hear "heavenly music", but today they got to hear it for free.

  Xi De just smiled and didn't speak, but instead Ding Pao Pao looked up and said with a serious face: "You're all stars, can't you do better than this trashy girl!!!!!!!!!!"

  Everyone burst out laughing.

  Xide sang another song at the request of his sisters, then put down the microphone and said he didn't want to sing anymore. Although everyone was a bit reluctant, because of his young age, no one blamed him for being willful - so everyone gathered together and whispered for a while, and after a few minutes, they brought up another song again. As soon as the familiar prelude sounded, the black-haired young man sitting on the sofa had already shown a helpless expression.

  Nor did I know who ordered that song he sang "Who's Listening"

  Although I'm used to seeing my face on TV, for some reason, hearing myself sing in a KTV place still makes me feel a little embarrassed. In the end, it was an older colleague from the same drama group who handed me the mic and I had no choice but to follow the tune on TV and sing seriously.

  The movie "The Sound of the Years" is about the most popular youth drama nowadays, the kind that makes you feel nostalgic for your school days. The white shirts and fluttering skirt corners of boys and girls in their adolescence, first love, being discovered by parents, forced to break up, secretly tasting forbidden fruit, abortion, breaking up, and after many years, the male and female leads meet again and sigh about how things have changed... Last year, this type of movie was very popular, with each one more sensational than the last. Jiang Luocheng's film was both critically acclaimed and a box office hit, winning numerous awards...

  "Who's listening to this song" is a tailor-made movie soundtrack theme song by Jiang Luosha.

  The lyrics were written by Jiang Luocheng.

  After breaking up with He Jiang, although he still hummed a little to himself in private, Jian Ran basically didn't want to sing this song again in public gatherings - it was the first time in half a year. At this moment, Jian Ran stared at the movie clips on the TV screen and sang along seriously. When he sang, his tone was different from when he spoke normally, slightly low and dry like sand.

  "Do you hear the sound of time passing by, drifting in the sea of people?"

  I turned around, couldn't see you, and all I saw were endless crowds of people;

  Do you hear the sound of the passing years dispersing the sorrow of parting?

  Sorrow and joy, parting and separation, in the end, only loneliness remains.

  Do you hear the sound of time passing by? Promises seem too easy

  When we meet again, I couldn't recall that in the future I mentioned earlier, there was also a you.

  ……

  "Who is listening, the sound of fleeting years."

  At this time, the private room was very quiet, and even when the door of the private room was pushed open from outside, no one noticed. When Jin Yan finished singing the last paragraph, the private room was silent for a moment before immediately remembering the chaotic applause.

  "Wow, Brother Ran sings so well!"

  "Yes, yes, when you sang this song for the first time at the awards ceremony, I was sitting below and listening to it with tears... super emotional..."

  "Why don't you go be a singer instead of coming here to steal an actor's job!"

  "When singers should also be in the rhythm of becoming popular in no time."

  "You said before that you wouldn't develop in the music industry, don't you want to now either? I can introduce a production company to you..."

  "Mao ah, are you guys really praising me after Shi De finished singing?"

  He smiled and laughed, "Who was listening to the award-winning song during that period of time, coincidentally, it was his transitional period after breaking up with Jiang Luocheng. Since he had truly liked her before, his mood at that time was naturally still very heavy. Moreover, the lyrics were filled with the joys and sorrows of youth, parting ways, etc., which made him think of the days they spent together in the past. When the song was sung again, it would inevitably feel "super emotional".

  He was responding to the exaggerated praise of those guys around him, when he suddenly felt a particularly special gaze on himself, and he seemed to have sensed it, turning his head back, and then met a pair of calm turquoise eyes.

  Jian Ran: "......"

  Jiang Chuan: "You sing pretty well, if I didn't know better, I'd think you've been through a breakup."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  At this time, everyone finally noticed Jiang Chuan standing at the door and leaning against the door frame due to the sudden low voice.

  There was another commotion in KTV.

  Several actresses were so excited that they stood up directly.

  Gang Chuan ignored the enthusiastic welcome from a certain female creature, greeted everyone equally, and walked past Xide to sit down beside Jing Ran. The faint scent of soap on his body wafted into Jing Ran's nostrils, who was taken aback before vaguely recalling that Gang Chuan had mentioned earlier that he was "taking a bath". Jing Ran remembered that Gang Chuan usually took baths right before "going to bed immediately"...

  He gently put down the receiver, thought for a moment and then said with a relaxed tone: "It's so late, I didn't think you'd come."

  Jiang Chuan didn't say anything.

  Scratching his nose awkwardly, he lowered his head.

  But in the moment when the young man with black hair lowered his head, his gaze crossed over his head and met the amber-colored eyes on the other side for a second before quickly separating. At this time, Jian Yan, who was looking down at his shoe tips, heard the man say calmly and briefly, "Received provocation, had to come."