The violent knock on the door shattered the beauty of the room. You Shulang dragged the person who was clinging to his chest up and said in a hoarse voice, "I've been knocking for a long time. Go open the door."
Fan Xiao held his lips and blocked the man's words: "Don't worry about it, just focus on Director You."
"Maybe the neighbor has something urgent, Fan Xiao, I'll go ask."
You Shulang's words were intermittent with the sound of water. After a deep kiss, Fan Xiao said "Fuck" softly: "Don't move, I'll go."
He simply put on a pair of loose pants, but one could still see that he was standing tall. With impatience in his eyes, Fan Xiao opened the bedroom door and walked out.
You Shulang was afraid that he might cause trouble, so he put on his nightgown with his sore waist. Just as he reached the bedroom door, he heard Lu Zhen's distorted exclamation.
"Fan Xiao, why are you here?!"
Lu Zhen? You Shulang paused. How did he know Fan Xiao?
When I opened the door, I saw two people confronting each other in the entrance.
There was surprise and anger in Lu Zhen's eyes, and the hair on his body stood up like a stressed little animal.
As for Fan Xiao...
You Shulang's gaze fell on Fan Xiao and saw that his back was stiffer than ever before, his right hand still holding the door handle, the veins on the back of his hand bulged, and the dark blue color running across his hand was unusually clear.
Subconsciously, You Shulang glanced behind Fan Xiao's ear. This unconscious action of inspection sometimes really annoyed You Shulang.
The veins behind the ears began to bulge again, seemingly more urgent and faster. Now, even the veins on the neck were bulging together, as if a usually arrogant beast had unexpectedly encountered a powerful enemy.
Lu Zhen took a step back and confirmed the house number. The familiar numbers ignited his anger again! He was almost a head shorter than Fan Xiao. He suddenly pushed the tall man in front of the door and said angrily: "If you have anything to say, come to me. Why are you looking for You Shulang? I have already returned the gift you gave me. I also wrote you an IOU for the money I owed you! Why are you looking for him? I have broken up with him!"
Lu Zhen had suffered a series of heavy blows throughout the night, and now he was provoked by the living Fan Xiao. He was furious, but he took it for granted in his mind and regarded him as a bully who came to collect debts.
Fan Xiao was pushed by him and easily bumped into the shoe cabinet behind him. The crystal photo frame on it swayed back and forth for a few times and finally fell to the ground.
The dazzling crystal exploded in an instant, and the crystal clearness turned into fragments. The broken pieces buried Fan Xiao's smile in the photo.
Fan Xiao, who was outside the photo, also looked cold. He wanted to act like a weak and gentle Bai Lian, but he didn't expect to break his own photo frame.
This was unlucky, so he touched the four-faced Buddha on his chest.
"I can only dump him, but he can't leave me."
"Coax her back and then dump her hard."
Fan Xiao suddenly realized that You Shulang had been coaxed back and all he had to do was get rid of him.
He slowly clenched his fist and told himself that this was...a perfect time.
Not allowing himself to think too much, Fan Xiao said with a half-smile: "Zhenzhen, why are you here so late?"
With the word "Zhenzhen" uttered, the atmosphere in the room suddenly changed!
Lu Zhen finally came to his senses! Seeing the photo on the ground and Fan Xiao with his upper body naked, his face suddenly turned pale!
Lu Zhen slowly looked past the man in front of him and looked at You Shulang, who was standing by the bedroom door in only a bathrobe. He asked tremblingly, "Uncle You, what's going on? Why is Fan Xiao in your house?"
Uncle You? Fan Xiao frowned slightly, and he cast a cold and hard gaze at You Shulang, and asked nonchalantly: "Yes, Shulang, why would my painting model knock on your door in the middle of the night?"
Two people were actually blaming!
There was a spotlight above the place where You Shulang was standing. It was a feature of old-style decoration that the ceiling was surrounded by a circle of downlights.
The light came from above, casting a brilliant glow on his hair, like the occasional ripples in a quiet lake, a lonely scene. That strand of black hair was Fan Xiao's attachment, and he had just kissed it over and over again, infatuated with the scent of the withered and sad wild rose.
The overhead light fell on You Shulang's eyelashes again, casting a heavy shadow under his eyes, hiding the expression in his eyes and making everything about the man unclear.
"Do you know each other?" You Shulang's voice was still full of romance, hoarse and sexy, so beautiful that it made one's scalp tingle.
The slow and leisurely tone, without any impatience or anger, surprised Fan Xiao.
"us…"
Lu Zhen was a little slow in speaking, so Fan Xiao answered for him: "I know him. I once asked him to be my painting model. I think it was only once, I think."
While talking, Fan Xiao left the entrance, found a chair in the living room and sat down. He took out a cigarette and held it between his fingers, and confirmed it again: "In my impression, this is the case. I invited too many painting models and I can't remember them all."
When Fan Xiao turned around, Lu Zhen saw several scratches on his back. What this meant was self-evident! He finally confirmed his guess, and his voice became sharp and trembling. He pointed at Fan Xiao and asked his former lover: "You... Shulang, what were you doing just now? ... Going to bed?"
A question that no one answers represents a default.
"Is he also the one who didn't come out of the bedroom last time?" Lu Zhen asked almost shouting.
"Yes." You Shulang answered happily.
"Yes?" Lu Zhen's eyes suddenly turned red, almost crazy, "You Shulang, do you know who he is? He is Fan Xiao, the one who hired me as a model, the one who called me Zhenzhen, the one who kept giving me gifts, the one who treated me kindly, the one who made me abandon you and cheat on him!!"
"I didn't cheat." Fan Xiao, who was sitting on the chair, corrected calmly, "Cheating requires emotional interaction, and there is no such thing between us."
Lu Zhen smiled sadly: "Yes, no, you just pretended to make me think you were in love with me, and when I gave up everything and risked everything, you told me it was all fake!"
"You made fun of me, I admit it, I deserve it! Fan Xiao, why are you here? What do you want to do, you pervert?!" Lu Zhen's voice was dry and hoarse, almost hysterical.
In contrast, Fan Xiao's words were light and thin.
"Oh, I understand." He smiled. "Your ex-boyfriend is my current boyfriend, right? Because I rejected your pursuit before, but now I am with the boyfriend you abandoned, so you... collapsed?"
"No! That's not it!" It was obvious that Lu Zhen had really collapsed. He quickly walked to You Shulang and grabbed the man's arm. "Uncle You, don't listen to his nonsense. It's my fault. I'm a mean person. I broke up with you because of him, but he is really a pervert and a master at playing with people's hearts. I don't know why he played tricks on me and then messed with you. There must be a connection between them!"
Fan Xiao's fingers couldn't help but turn the matchbox. Under the light, You Shulang had lost his passionate expression, and his face seemed as calm as usual. He even reached out and patted Lu Zhen's shoulder, asking him to calm down and breathe.
The fragile matchbox was slowly crushed by the closed palm. A smile appeared on his cold expression. Fan Xiao pulled a chair over and said in a gentle voice, "Zhenzhen, sit down and relax. When the emotions pass, the misunderstanding will be resolved."
"Don't call me Zhenzhen!!"
Lu Zhen was so angry that he wanted to explode again, but You Shulang forced him to sit on a chair and handed him a cup of warm water and two chocolates: "Lu Zhen, control your emotions. Your lips are pale now, you must have low blood sugar again. I don't want you to faint here. I no longer have the obligation and responsibility to take care of you."
Fan Xiao raised his eyebrows. You Shulang's ruthlessness towards Lu Zhen made him feel a little happier.
"Fan Xiao," the next moment, he was called by You Shulang, "Lu Zhen has anemia and cannot withstand verbal stimulation. If he faints here because of your provocation, then the responsibility of taking care of him should be borne by you. After all... he was also your painting model."
The tone was still gentle, but the words were extremely impolite. However, it was very effective and successfully made the two people shut up.
But Fan Xiao was unhappy again.
"I'll go change my clothes." You Shulang suddenly said. The bathrobe he was wearing was conservative and tightly wrapped, so changing into another one would be unnecessary.
But he had already turned and walked towards the bedroom, his back framed in the gaze of the two people behind him, as thin and tall as ever.
It was not until the bedroom door was closed that You Shulang, who had come to change clothes on the pretext of changing clothes, slowly leaned against the door panel. His calm expression could no longer hold up, and his body slid down the cold door panel and sat on the ground, burying his face in his palms.
God knows how long he held on under that solitary light. Ever since Fan Xiao called out "Zhen Zhen" at the entrance, his heart had fallen into an icy abyss. The hot blood in his body seemed to be drained, and his breathing stopped at that moment.
His body still carried the rotten smell left by Fan Xiao, and the soft flesh on his chest was still aching slightly... However, in just a few moments, the distance between him and the man went from being close to being negative, and then to being so far that there was a huge abyss between them!
You Shulang smiled bitterly, it turned out that everything had a traceable path, but he was just blinded by lust and deceiving himself!
The bedroom door was opened again. You Shulang changed into an ordinary two-piece home suit. He also brought a top for Fan Xiao, threw it on the man, and said lightly: "Put it on."
Fan Xiao glanced at You Shulang's expression before putting on his clothes. In his eyes, You Shulang was normal. Facing such a chaotic situation, he was calm as if he was dealing with other people's affairs. Fan Xiao did not ask You Shulang to be hysterical, which was almost impossible, but the man could not even see the panic and pain.
Don't you care about me at all? Fan Xiao felt even more unhappy.
Seeing Fan Xiao putting on his clothes, You Shulang also pulled a chair and sat down, not too far away from the two of them.
"I'll ask a few questions," he said slowly, "You can choose not to answer, but those who don't answer please leave my room."
"You ask, Uncle You." Lu Zhen responded positively.
"Uncle, what the hell!" Fan Xiao cursed lazily, and said in a long voice, "You are a three-year-old kid, calling me uncle all the time."
You Shulang gave Fan Xiao a warning look, and then said to Lu Zhen: "Change your words, it's not appropriate to call you that again."
Lu Zhen felt aggrieved, but did not argue anymore.
You Shulang lit a cigarette, bit it between his teeth and asked in a low voice: "Lu Zhen, how did Fan Xiao find you to be a model?"
After hearing these words, Fan Xiao was startled.
Lu Zhen answered obediently: "My agent notified me. I didn't want to agree to it at first because I had other announcements at the time. My agent said to put aside all the others because this order paid more money."
"Did they ask you to be a model?" You Shulang asked again.
"Yes, name me."
You Shulang nodded without making any judgement. He turned to ask Fan Xiao, "Have you ever given Lu Zhen a gift?"
"I have given them to express my gratitude to Lu Zhen. They are just small gifts, not expensive." Fan Xiao's reply seemed very frank.
"Did you give me the crown?"
You Shulang glanced at Fan Xiao and was indeed stunned when he saw him.
"I gave it to them. I went to their company to discuss filming a commercial and happened to see Lu Zhen being bullied. We are all friends, so I couldn't just sit back and watch. You know, it was a trade-off, so I asked the organizer to give the crown to Lu Zhen."
"That day when Lu Zhen came here to pick up the painting, you heard his voice in the room, but didn't you recognize it was your friend?" You Shulang asked closely.
Fan Xiao suddenly felt that the room was a little hot, and his back was slightly sweaty.
The more you say, the more mistakes you make. He just gave the simplest answer: "I didn't hear it."
Holding the cigarette between his middle and index fingers, You Shulang skillfully flicked the cigarette butt with his thumb, and the ash fell like a sudden tear.
"Lu Zhen, I remember you received a call on the day you picked up the painting. Who called you?"
You Shulang still remembers the phone call that day. Just one ringtone made Lu Zhen go from sadness to joy, and he left in a hurry. You Shulang guessed at the time that the person who called should be Lu Zhen's new lover.
"Ah!" Lu Zhen jumped up. "It was Fan Xiao who called me. I thought he wanted to date me, so I left in a hurry."
His eyelids suddenly raised, and You Shulang looked at Fan Xiao with a gaze as sharp as a cold blade.
After a few seconds of silence, Fan Xiao said, "I really don't know. Lu Zhen, did you get through when I called you?"
"…No, I hung up before the call was connected."
"It must have been an accidental touch, an unintentional act."
"Fan Xiao, you're lying!" Lu Zhen could no longer bear it. "You said that what you gave me were just ordinary gifts, and that you were just helping me out. I can still tell the difference between normal interactions and ambiguous temptations!"
Fan Xiao made a "tsk" sound, showing his contempt to the fullest: "You are still at the age of dreaming."
You Shulang stopped the fight in time and asked, "When was the last time you saw each other?"
"It's been a long time." Fan Xiao replied insincerely.
Lu Zhen added: "On November 4, I pushed aside an important announcement to go see you. You had been out of town for a meeting before, and you happened to come back just when I was at work. I lost a lot of money to see you, and now I think it's not worth it!"
"Holding a meeting out of town?" You Shulang murmured, and after thinking for a moment, he took a puff of cigarette, raised his head and exhaled, looking at the bright mist in front of him, and smiled helplessly.
"What's Lu Zhen's nickname in your phone? It should be Lu, right?" You Shulang and Fan Xiao came back from a seminar in S City. At the airport, Fan Xiao received a call from Lu. "Is it exciting to answer a call from my ex-boyfriend in front of me?"
Fan Xiao crossed his legs, and his toes, which had been swaying slightly, suddenly straightened. He subconsciously reached for his phone, but found that You Shulang had taken it out of his pocket.
"Lu Zhen, give Fan Xiao a call."
"good!"
"Shu Lang, don't you trust me?" Fan Xiao sat up straight and questioned, "You didn't trust me last time about Xue Baotian, and you still don't trust me this time. Am I not worthy of your trust, or are you just making up stories and suffering from delusions?"
You Shulang and Fan Xiao stood on either side, their eyes intersecting in the air, one gloomy, the other fierce, entangled and torn invisibly. They had looked at each other many times before, tenderly, passionately, and affectionately, but it was only yesterday, just now, but now it seems like it was a thing of the last life.
Lu Zhen's phone called, the ringtone and vibration sounded at the same time, and the three people's eyes were focused at the same time.
A few Chinese characters popped up on the screen - Chinese Model 1.
You Shulang: "…"
Lu Zhen: "!!!"
In the silent atmosphere, Fan Xiao slowly stood up and squatted in front of You Shulang, looking up at him with a look of extreme sadness in his eyes: "Do you know what the note I gave you is?"
He picked up You Shulang's phone and dialed his own number. After a moment of silence, the phone rang and two words popped up on the deep screen.
Light.
"You Shulang, I don't love light, but I love you. I regard you as the light in my life that can drive away the darkness. I regard you as my salvation and my faith. But in the end, you never believed in me!"
"Perhaps, you have never loved me. When I treated you as the lover I wanted to be with for the rest of my life, you kept looking for so-called 'evidence' that I lied to you, and were ready to leave me at any time."
The light in Fan Xiao's eyes seemed to break into pieces: "You Shulang, I love you, but I am also tired. I can't stand being suspected again and again by the person I love, and being interrogated like a criminal again and again. I want to crawl at your feet, but not as a criminal. Let's... break up."
Looking at You Shulang, Fan Xiao cried with every word, but what echoed in his ears was Shi Lihua's teasing voice.
"Coax him back and then dump him?" A month ago, Shi Lihua once asked with a smile, "How are you going to dump You Shulang? Tell him everything you did? Let him know that you never liked him?"
Fan Xiao remembered shaking his head at that time: "A man as mentally strong as You Shulang would definitely not retain any love for you when he knows that you have never loved him."
"Only by making him feel regretful, sad, and feel that he has let you down, and that someone who loves him deeply has been greatly hurt because of him, will he soften his heart, and will he never forget it and live in repentance forever."
"This is really dumping him."
At this time, Fan Xiao had already taken back his phone and stood up. He looked at You Shulang deeply again, then took a difficult step and walked towards the door.
With his hand on the door, Fan Xiao found himself trembling. Every cell in his body was clamoring to let go of the room. Even the corners of his eyes began to feel sore and an unknown liquid began to gather, becoming more and more, heavier and heavier, threatening to burst out of his eye sockets and burst out violently.
You should be happy, be happy soon! Fan Xiao, you won! You won over that fool, that bodhisattva, that kind person who doesn't understand suffering, that liar who uses "hope" to persuade people to be "strong"!
Be happy soon! Please, be happy, Fan Xiao! He ordered himself again and again, commanding himself.
But, nothing helps!
Raising his head, he tried to force back the heavy liquid, but it was so embarrassing that before this move failed, Fan Xiao pushed open the door.
"Mr. Fan." You Shulang suddenly spoke up, changing his address. A laugh escaped from his chest, and he flicked the ash off his cigarette. His tone was a little cold: "It's too dramatic, a bit too much."
Fan Xiao frowned slightly, turned his back, wiped away his tears, and then looked at You Shulang again: "Shulang, what do you mean?"
You Shulang's voice was soft and weak, with a hint of laziness after being tired: "What I mean is that Mr. Fan is a good actor, but not that good. What he said just now sounded a bit fake, not enough to impress the judges and the audience."
"Shu Lang, you are not a sarcastic person, please make your words clear."
You Shulang smiled, his eyes indifferent: "I am indeed not good at being sarcastic, so let's be direct. Mr. Fan, please take a look at the first message in your phone."
Fan Xiao hesitated for a moment before swiping the screen, finding the green icon and clicking on it. The first message was from Shi Lihua, but Fan Xiao hadn't contacted him recently.
With a light click, the list unfolded. With a glance, Fan Xiao subconsciously took a step back!
He suddenly raised his head and looked in the direction of You Shulang, and found that the man was also staring at him. His eyes were no longer cold, but filled with deep... sadness.