Ch.121 – The Star Around The Sun

A brief silence descended upon the two—until Sun Yao asked Han Bohan, “Where do you work now?”

With his eyes on him, voice quiet, Sun Yao said, “I’m currently unemployed.”

Han Bohan froze for an instant. “What happened with your previous company?”

Sun Yao smiled, his eyes somewhat frigid. “I was dismissed right after the accident. Which company would employ a murderer?”

“Don’t say that,” Han Bohan said. “From a legal standpoint, you’re no murderer.”

Sun Yao’s smile remained on his face throughout, yet the smile contained no warmth from the start.

Han Bohan sat quietly for a while. “Then what are your plans? If I remember correctly, this place is rented, right?”

Sun Yao lifted his head and cast a glimpse around the narrow, dimly lit room, and finally answered, “That’s right.”

The scene ended there. He Zheng summoned Xia Xingcheng to watch the playback, and said, “The first half was great, but your gaze wasn’t quite right towards the end.” 

Xia Xingcheng watched himself in the shot; after hearing Yang Youming say that he’d been dismissed, his eyes really did soften somewhat.

He Zheng said, “That’s Sun Yao, not Yang Youming.”

Xia Xingcheng stared at the screen momentarily before saying, “I know that’s Sun Yao. I was looking at him through Han Bohan’s eyes. I thought he was pitiful.”

He Zheng didn’t speak. He scratched at his head with his cigarette-holding hand. Xia Xingcheng worried that the ash would fall onto his hair. 

A while later, He Zheng said, “You don’t experience the things Han Bohan does. Don’t substitute Han Bohan’s thoughts with yours.”

Xia Xingcheng fell into reflection. 

He Zheng clapped his shoulder. “Think it over. Let’s take it from the top.” 

Xia Xingcheng returned and sat down on the sofa across from Yang Youming. Yang Youming was drinking water, and Li Yun was standing beside him, waiting to put away the cup. 

Yang Youming watched him as he drank. Afterwards, he handed the cup to Li Yun and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Xia Xingcheng spoke slowly, deep in thought as he theorised, “Han Bohan has encountered a vast number of cases. He’s gained first-hand knowledge of all sorts of crimes. Would his mindset become relatively cold and rigid?”

Yang Youming thought for a bit. “I doubt it.”

Xia Xingcheng looked at him. “Director He disagreed with my interpretation.”

Yang Youming propped up a hand on the back of the chair and held up his head. After a while, he said, “I think he’d conceal it. He won’t show other people that he’s softhearted and reveal what he’s truly feeling inside.”

The dialogue was later retaken two more times. He Zheng made no mention of which one he thought was best, and merely said that he’ll consider which to use during editing. 

Xia Xingcheng’s scenes ended there, and what followed was Ling Jiayue and Yang Youming’s shared scene in the same set. 

In the script, this scene took place after Han Bohan left Sun Yao’s place after his conversation with Sun Yao ended. 

Upon leaving, Han Bohan mentioned that he knew someone who ran a large real estate company, and that he could try to put Sun Yao in touch with some work.

Sun Yao walked him to the door. Han Bohan turned around and went downstairs, and Sun Yao shut the door behind him. 

It didn’t take long to get to the first floor from the second floor. Once his feet reached the first floor landing, Han Bohan caught sight of a girl wearing a T-shirt and denim shorts going up the stairs. 

Her hair was worn down, and her denim shorts were so short that it showed off her fair, slender, completely attention-grabbing legs. Han Bohan glanced at her and instantly recognized her as the girl he’d seen twice before, once at the community hospital, and once at the gates of the detention centre. 

The girl didn’t see him. Her long hair draped down and concealed half her face; she brushed past him and continued making her way upstairs. 

A strange feeling suddenly arose in Han Bohan’s heart. He walked to the first floor, turned a small corner, and continued down, and when he was about to leave the unit, he abruptly stilled. He raised his head, and quietly listened for the girl’s footsteps.

The girl’s footsteps weren’t rushed. She went from the first floor to the second floor, and without stopping, continued up towards the third floor. 

Han Bohan retracted his gaze and stepped out of the unit building. 

It was no longer raining outside. For a split second, the black clouds dispersed, and harsh sunlight shone through the clouds.

Han Bohan subconsciously squinted. He stopped, and his footsteps were practically inaudible as he went back inside. He heard the sound of footsteps going down the stairs, and it sounded just like the girl’s footsteps had just a moment ago. 

The footsteps went down from the third floor to the second floor. There was a pause, and then there was knocking. Shortly after, the door opened. Neither person inside and outside uttered a sound. The footsteps entered the apartment, and the door slammed shut.

Han Bohan stood unmoving for a while, then headed out once more. 

What occurred after the girl entered the apartment was unbeknownst to the Han Bohan in the movie. Yet Xia Xingcheng was still hanging around the film set, watching them shoot this scene. 

It was the same exact room as the previous set. Xia Xingcheng watched Yang Youming blendering food in the kitchen—it was Sun Yao preparing dinner for his daughter.  

When he was filming, as he was engrossed in his role, Xia Xingcheng would think that the man he was facing was Sun Yao, not Yang Youming. Yet once he distanced himself and withdrew from Han Bohan’s character—only then did he think that Yang Youming was Yang Youming.

Only his demeanour and mannerisms had changed, turned crude and brutish. He was pressing on the lid of the blender with one hand, listening to the loud rumble it brought about and staring at food being churned into paste with a wooden face.

Ling Jiayue passed behind him. 

The kitchen space was narrow. When Ling Jiayue passed by, her body almost grazed Yang Youming’s. There wasn’t the slightest change in their expressions. 

Xia Xingcheng fixed his eyes on Ling Jiayue. He saw no emotion on her face, and yet her eyes contained an indefinable sense of clarity. If he had to put it to words, she probably resembled a still naive child; she had a spaced out look in her eyes, and yet it was obvious that her brain was anything but. This made Shu Mian’s character seem a little strange. 

In this scene, apart from the comatose Sun Xunyan, there were undoubtedly only two people in the room—Sun Yao and Shu Mian. However, there was no dialogue between them. Each of them were silently doing their own things.

Later on, Sun Yao entered his daughter’s room, where Shu Mian had been squatting by the bed doing origami.

She folded a paper airplane, then held it in her hand and flew it flat along the horizontal Sun Xunyan, only a few centimetres away from her body. 

Sun Yao spoke up at long last. “Don’t disturb her.”

Shu Mian turned to face him. The paper plane left Sun Xunyan’s body, and made its way before Sun Yao. Her line of sight followed the paper plane in her hand from beginning to end. She raised the plane and landed it by Sun Yao’s neck, the tip facing downwards, and just as she had traced a path along Sun Xunyan’s body before, she flew it down Sun Yao’s neck, all the way to his chest. 

Seeing this, Xia Xingcheng immediately realized that Ling Jiayue hadn’t followed the script. He had scanned through Yang Youming’s script a moment ago—originally, Shu Mian was supposed to fly the paper airplane directly to Sun Yao’s hands. 

However, He Zheng didn’t say cut, and from the expression on his face, he seemed to be very pleased with Ling Jiayue’s bit of improv. 

When the paper plane in Ling Jiayue’s hand approached Yang Youming’s lower belly, Yang Youming captured her hand. 

They didn’t stop and instead kept going, finishing off the rest of the scene. Yang Youming snatched the paper plane away from her hand and said, “Xiao Yan needs to eat.” He then walked past her. 

He Zheng called for a stop. 

Xia Xingcheng felt an indescribable sense of discomfort.

Yang Youming walked to Xia Xingcheng’s side and patted his head. It didn’t show the slightest ambiguity, and yet it oozed intimacy. 

He Zheng’s arms were folded on his head, his body tilted backwards. He looked up at Yang Youming and whispered, “Ling Jiayue’s not bad.”

To his surprise, Xia Xingcheng saw Yang Youming nodding. 

Although Ling Jiayue went off script, it was clear that her performance and reaction to Sun Yao better fitted the original novel’s portrayal of Shu Mian’s character. 

Xia Xingcheng immediately grumbled at He Zheng, “I want to change up my parts too.”

He Zheng crossed his legs and jeered. “What are your plans? C’mere, I’m all ears.”

Xia Xingcheng said, “I can also film a scene where Han Bohan seduces Sun Yao.”

He Zheng shot him a disdainful glance. “Are you nuts or am I nuts?”

Yang Youming said, “Jiayue has a knack for acting, but I disagree with her performance. It’s going to distract the audience.”

He Zheng hesitated.

Xia Xingcheng took a look at Ling Jiayue’s direction.

When Ling Jiayue finished shooting, she would always sit on a small chair at a corner by herself. Although she and Song Yanyan were around the same age, they didn’t appear to share a single common topic. Normally, if He Zheng didn’t take the initiative to greet her, she would just silently read her script, alone. 

Yang Youming’s hand clasped Xia Xingcheng’s shoulder. All of a sudden, he bent at the waist and whispered in Xia Xingcheng’s ear, “Your scene—when we go back tonight, give me a private showing.”

That night, when Yang Youming stepped out of the bathroom after showering, he saw Xia Xingcheng sitting in front of the dressing table mirror. His arms were crossed on top of his chest, and his long legs were stretched out in front of him. The moment their eyes met, he called out to him in a low voice, “Sun Yao.”

Yang Youming had first been wiping his hair with a towel. Upon seeing this, he held the towel in his hand, and asked in a not particularly polite tone, “What do you want from me, Prosecutor Han?”

Xia Xingcheng’s eyes were keenly trained at him. “What is your relationship with that girl?”

Yang Youming walked up to him, and from a short distance away, he softly uttered, “How does that concern you?”

“That girl is around your daughter’s age, is she not? Now that I think of it, when I saw her at the gates of the detention centre last time, it was around the exact date of your release. Did she come to pick you up?” Xia Xingcheng asked in a cold voice.  

Yang Youming shut his eyes and barked out a laugh, saying, “Why are you so intent on her? If these eyes of yours only see her, what’s the use of keeping them?”

Having heard this, Xia Xingcheng was somewhat dazed. He then saw Yang Youming raise his hands and use the towel in his clutches to cover his eyes. Xia Xingcheng plunged into a moment of darkness, and he could only sense the damp towel that contained the scent of Yang Youming’s shampoo being tied behind his head. He couldn’t help but tilt his head up, and soon afterwards, a firm kiss was pressed to his lips. 

The kiss was rough at first before it gradually grew tender. They kissed for a long time, and as Yang Youming left his lips, he seemed reluctant to part with them. He asked, “Who do you see now?”

Xia Xingcheng’s adam’s apple trembled a little as he answered in the darkness, “You.”

“Who am I?” asked Yang Youming.

Xia Xingcheng said, “Sun Yao.”

Yang Youming’s voice abruptly took a chilly turn. “Say that one more time.”

Xia Xingcheng took a deep breath and reached out for Yang Youming, who captured his warm hand and squeezed it in his palm. Only then did he feel a little sense of security. “Ming ge.”

Suddenly, Yang Youming picked him up, then gently set him down on the bed. 

As Xia Xingcheng fell onto the bed, the back of his head pressed against the knot on the towel. He subconsciously reached out to pull it off and easily pulled the knot loose, but as he poised to remove the towel, his hand was held down by Yang Youming. 

“Don’t take it off.”

Xia Xingcheng obediently held still, his eyes still covered by the damp towel. He then felt his clothes being pulled off by Yang Youming, and warm, wet kisses softly falling on his chest that subsequently made its way further down. He couldn’t help but tilt his head up, his mouth slightly falling open as he took large, gaping breaths.

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Thank you to Ann for the kofi!
t/n – Just a heads up, updates might be slowing down a little (just a little! maybe 1 chapter every 2 days?) over the next couple of weeks because I have to study for an exam ❤ Thank you for reading! And don’t forget to support the author 🙂

⟵ Chapter 120 | TOC | Chapter 122 ⟶