Chapter 26.1

Jing Yuanqi teased Shi Qing in this subtle way in public.

You had to admit that he really was talented.

Normal people already found it difficult to do two things at once, but here he was juggling three.

On the surface he was spouting out innocuous words of concern, but both of his hands seemed to have little minds of their own.

It was a bit much to be honest.

Jing Yuanqi thought that the gloomy film emperor in front of him would push him away or silently break out from his grasp.

However, although Shi Qing was stiff, he did not resist his ministrations.

Jing Yuanji’s actions became more and more outrageous. The ancient robes could be easily lifted unlike modern clothing.

He didn’t lift them though. Instead, he traced downward along the length of the white belt.

His hand gently and suggestively circled around.

“Wu……”

Shi Qing shifted his waist slightly and let out a gasp filled with urgency.

Jing Yuanqi could clearly see a faint blush rise to his cheeks.

Gao Zhi nervously glanced over: “Shi-ge?”

The film emperor quickly concealed the look that shouldn’t have been on his face. From Jing Yuanqi’s perspective, his dark eyes seemed to flash as those petal-like lips opened and closed: “I’m fine.”

Jing Yuanqi’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. With a harmless smile, he retreated while the going was good.

He slowly released his hand and left Shi Qing’s side without further incident.

“It’s almost time now so I’m going to go freshen up. Does Shi-laoshi want to come with me?”

Shi Qing didn’t answer. He continued to read through the script with a lowered head.

Gao Zhi immediately swept in. “I’m so sorry Jing-laoshi,” he said. “Shi-ge always becomes immersed in his roles after he’s finished acting.”

“It’s fine.”

Jing Yuanqi’s smile was generous and sunny: “I often do that as well. It’s completely understandable.”

It was only when Gao Zhi saw that the young man walk away that he returned to Shi Qing’s side. He handed over some water and whispered, “Shi-ge, Jing-laoshi seems to have a good temper. He didn’t even say anything when you ignored him. Doesn’t he care about what happened before?”

After saying that, he continued to mutter about how strange this all was: “But his smile was a little too wide just now. He seemed way too pleased as well. If I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought that he was really close with Shi-ge.”

Shi Qing didn’t reply. He took several big gulps of water.

[He’s such a flirt. I’m getting hot all over.]

Because nothing too risque was done, the System was a bit worried after watching the entire thing play out: [Host, what if you get taken advantage of?]

[That won’t happen.]

Shi Qing didn’t bother to mince words: [How can you describe flirting as taking advantage of others?]

System: [But his animosity value isn’t dropping.]

It had to watch these two get hot and heavy, but the animosity value wasn’t dropping!

[It’s fine.]

Shi Qing drank another mouthful of water to suppress the dry heat in his body. He distantly glanced in the direction that Jing Yuanqi left: [It will fall soon.]

***

At night, maybe because there were multiple cameras from every angle focused on them, but Jing Yuanqi’s hands were well-behaved and didn’t do anything that they shouldn’t have done.

The two played off each other as usual. Everything proceeded smoothly.

Afterwards, Shi Qing didn’t retire to his private dressing room to remove his makeup. Instead, he followed everyone else to the common dressing room and sat there waiting for someone to help him take it off.

There were not a lot of scenes that needed to be filmed in the evening, so the large dressing room was sparsely populated.

Jing Yuanqi was also here, but his makeup had about the same degree of complexity as Shi Qing’s. When Shi Qing was finished changing his clothes, he still had not finished removing the makeup on his face. He could only sit there and watch as the gloomy as usual film emperor stood up and walked in his direction.

Shi Qing was closer to the door than he was. There were no exits near Jing Yuanqi at all. He didn’t leave after taking off his makeup but came here instead, so what else could he be doing other than looking to talk with Jing Yuanqi?

The young man’s lips slightly curled up. His peach blossom eyes crinkled as he smiled. He was about to open his mouth and call out to Shi Qing who came to him, but Shi Qing didn’t even look at him as he passed him by.

Then the voice of the film emperor sounded out.

He called out a name, but it wasn’t Jing Yuanqi:

“Cui Yunqing.”

The smile on Jing Yuanqi’s face fell off. His expression was discontent for a moment, but it soon returned to normal. He turned around to very casually look behind him, as if he was only glancing there out of simple curiosity.

Shi Qing stood in front of a youth who looked to be only 16 or 17 at most. When the other party appeared to be too timid to reply, he said quietly: “Come to my room to practice tonight.”

“Practice?”

The boy’s face became even more fearful. He was just playing a minor supporting role. Including today, he has only been in ten scenes since he came to this set.

Disregarding the difference in their status, he was only 18 years old this year, which made him appear to be a child next to Shi Qing.

What did a film emperor like Shi Qing get out of rehearsing with someone like him?

He became even more frightened when he recalled the rumors that Shi Qing was intolerable towards new faces in the circle. There would be no one around to help him if he went into the other person’s territory in the middle of the night.

He thought back to all the shady people and dealings within the industry that his teachers at school had mentioned. Cui Yunqing really couldn’t bring himself to go. He carefully took a peek at Shi Qing’s icy expression before saying, “Shi-laoshi, how about doing it tomorrow? I’m a little tired today.”

“No.”

The film emperor’s voice was hard and his face was frigid: “You must come tonight.”

If this scene was seen by people who liked to fill in the blanks in their head, they might think that he was forcing a pure maiden into prostitution.

At least that was what Jing Yuanqi thought.

He got a taste of sweetness off Shi Qing today, and he was pretty pleased with the feeling of holding a cold film emperor in his hand.

After all, he was the only one with enough courage to do something like that to Shi Qing.

In addition, he also believed that, at least in terms of this cast, he was the one that meant the most to Shi Qing.

His delusions were slapped mercilessly up the head multiple times in less than a day.

Shi Qing, who always pretended that ‘you are all dust beneath my feet that’s unworthy of being put in my eyes’ [voluntarily] [invited] a small supporting actor to enter his [room] at [night].

Special emphasis on the words marked with [] above.

Even if this film emperor-laoshi was just a means to pass the time, his heart was still upset.

It was like finding a beautiful clam and believing that it belonged to him. After casually swinging his tail around and dragging it back to his nest to slowly savour it, the clam ran off into someone else’s den the moment he turned his back.

It would be strange for him to be fine with that.

Jing Yuanqi has never been one to restrain himself. If he wasn’t happy, then no one else could be either. He stood up with a heart filled with grievances and strode over to the conversing pair with his long legs.

“Shi-laoshi, Yunqing is still just a child so he has to go to bed early. Can’t you arrange another time if he doesn’t want to go?”

As he spoke, the young man placed his arm around Shi Qing’s shoulder in a very natural motion filled with brotherly feelings: “We share a scene tomorrow as well, so how about I accompany you instead?”

“No need.”

The film emperor gently furrowed his brows, and the lines of his face seemed to become harsher because of Jing Yuanqi’s actions: “You’re already doing well, so you don’t need to practice with me.”

“But I think I still have a lot of room for improvement.” When Jing Yuanqi was focused on achieving a goal, he could be as cheeky as was necessary.

“Shi-laoshi, you are the film emperor. Of course I should practice the play with you. How about this? Let’s go to your room tonight and have a real close look at tomorrow’s scene.”

When he mentioned the word ‘scene’, Jing Yuanqi seemed to unconsciously rub Shi Qing’s back with the arm wrapped around his shoulders.

His fingers were very long, so it was easy for him to reach his scapula and stroke it repeatedly.

Shi Qing’s whole body reacted as if he had been electrocuted. He jerked and threw off Jing Yuanqi’s arm to one side.

The originally cheerfully smiling expression on Jing Yuanqi’s face darkened because of his actions.

After a second, the young man reluctantly pulled up the corners of his mouth to reveal the exact same carefree smile as before:

“Laoshi was willing to do it with me in the studio before. How come Laoshi is reluctant to even let me pat you on the back in front of Yunqing now?”

As he said that, he glanced at Cui Yunqing who was scared stiff on the sidelines. His words were filled with hidden meanings: “It looks like Laoshi really likes Yunqing. He cares about his image so much in front of him.”

Cui Yunqing didn’t see what Jing Yuanqi’s hand just did. He thought he came over to help him out. Seeing the stalemate, he quickly laughed dryly: “I’m sorry Laoshi. I’m really tired today so I have to turn down your generous offer.”

If he was this insistent, then Shi Qing didn’t need to make things harder for him.

“Alright.”

The film emperor answered dismissively before turning around to leave. You could tell that he was as gloomy as always just from looking at his back.

“Jing-ge.”

Cui Yunqing’s entire body relaxed once he left. He hurried to approach Jing Yuanqi to thank him: “I’m really grateful for your help just now.”

Jing Yuanqi withdrew his sight from Shi Qing’s back. He turned back to consider the beautiful face in front of him. Because he was still jittery from before, Cui Yunqing completely resembled a little white bunny rabbit. His mood soured further.

Even to him, Shi Qing only bothered to let out the occasional ‘en’ in response. But he cared enough to say ‘alright’ to Cui Yunqing?

This was the type he liked?

He could actually stomach something so weak.

Jing Yuanqi hid his indifference and disdain from his face. He smiled very naturally: “It’s nothing. I wasn’t aware that you had such a good relationship with Shi-laoshi. Why did he suddenly invite you to practice with him?”

“That’s what I’m wondering too,” Cui Yunqing really was a little fool. He spilled his heart out just because Jing Yuanqi asked him in passing.

“But when I was auditioning before, I almost didn’t make the cut even though I did really well. My teacher found out when he asked around that Shi-laoshi was the one responsible. I figured he couldn’t have had good intentions for inviting me over just now.”

“He tried to use his connections to keep you out of the crew?”

Cui Yunqing jolted unconsciously because of how Jing Yuanqi’s voice suddenly froze over. “Ye-yeah. Jing-ge, is something wrong?”

“No.”

Jing Yuanqi was still smiling, but there was a storm raging inside.

He actually thought he was special before.

But now he knew that Cui Yunqing was treated the same way he was.

The young man barely managed to press down the brewing sense of dissatisfaction in his heart. His voice was still somewhat chilly: “Did he feed you chili peppers?”

“Peppers?”

Cui Yunqing shook his head blankly: “No ah. What’s this about chili peppers?”

It might just be a trick of the eyes, but Cui Yunqing felt that the young man in front of him seemed to relax after he admitted he didn’t know about the peppers.

His momentary aloofness suddenly dissipated to reveal the sunny senior he was familiar with.

After he found out that Cui Yunqing wasn’t as special as him, Jing Yuanqi returned to being a smiling sprite:

“Don’t mind me. Go on. What happened after he interfered with your audition?”

“My teacher helped me find someone who let me in. The assistant-jiejie who took care of me told me in private that Shi-laoshi has always been like this. It wasn’t the first time that he had ruined the auditions that younger actors worked hard to try out for. She also advised me to avoid Shi-laoshi on the set if possible.”

After the little fool spilled his beans, there was still a remaining hint of timidity in his eyes. It was obvious he regarded Jing Yuanqi, who had just rescued him from this ‘terrifying film emperor’, as his saviour.

“Jing-ge, what should I do ah? How can I refuse Shi-laoshi again if he comes to me later?”

Jing Yuanqi offered a few more words of comfort to this little fool.

When he was certain that he couldn’t uncover any more information about Shi Qing, he ‘suddenly’ remembered that he wasn’t finished removing his makeup. He smoothly excused himself and sat back where he was to continue.

But a cloud of questions remained at the bottom of his heart.

It was reasonable to assume that a film emperor like Shi Qing, who had backing and a stable position at the top, has no real reason to view Cui Yunqing or him as threats.

So why did he want to chase them out of the cast?

If this kind of thing got out, even a film emperor couldn’t escape unscathed from the backlash. He didn’t look like he was dumb, so why did he do something so stupid?

If it was before, Jing Yuanqi would’ve thought that Shi Qing lost his rationality because he was too narrow-minded and jealous of his juniors.

But after he changed his opinion of the man he was certain that Shi Qing wasn’t that kind of person.

Someone who could do something as silly as gifting the devil’s pepper sauce he liked to others with a straight face couldn’t possibly do such a thing.

What in the world was going on then?

Jing Yuanqi found his fascination with the enigma that was Shi Qing was growing deeper.

Just a heads up that there are references to non-consensual activity in the next part. I’ll be putting a summary at the end. Don’t worry it doesn’t happen to ML or MC.