Chapter 50: Capture

The next day at noon, Lan Xiaoshan, holding a blue work pass that allowed him access to the set, poked his head into Shen Xici’s room and was dumbfounded. “Huh, where’s Brother Shao?”

Before Lan Xiaoshan arrived, Shen Xici had already completed his daily check-ups and was recording his blood pressure readings. “Your Brother Shao left at eleven. If you had come a few hours earlier, you might have met him.”

Shen Xici had woken up at ten-thirty in the morning. He had assumed that Sheng Shaoyan must have already left while he was sleeping. After all, his schedule was so packed, and Sheng Shaoyan had only made a special trip over because of his headaches and insomnia.

Unexpectedly, when he opened his eyes, the curtains were drawn, and the room was dimly lit. Sheng Shaoyan was sitting on the narrow sofa in the hotel room, a silver-grey, ultra-thin laptop resting on his long legs wrapped in black suit trousers. He had silver earphones in his ears and was looking down at the screen.

The laptop screen was the only source of light in the room. Like the most exquisite lighting, it carved out the sharp angles of Sheng Shaoyan’s features. When working, Sheng Shaoyan’s aura was even stronger. His eyes were a deep blue, as sharp and lean as a cold sword. He was like a precision processor, feeding vast amounts of data into his brain and outputting the most accurate decisions seconds later, with an imposing presence.

Quietly watching this scene, Shen Xici subconsciously held his breath. A certain part of his heart settled, causing him to involuntarily close his eyes, wrap himself in the quilt, and doze off again for a while.

Due to his upbringing and physical condition, although he was always trying to overcome it, his lack of a sense of security was like a crack in porcelain, accompanying him throughout his formative years, not easily repaired.

For example, he found it difficult to sleep deeply. When he heard a door open, he would instinctively become tense and guarded, subconsciously worrying that his adoptive father, Wu Licheng, had returned drunk after losing at gambling.

But whenever he was near Sheng Shaoyan, he would easily be enveloped by this security barrier named “Sheng Shaoyan.”

Perhaps it was because Sheng Shaoyan was always extremely rational and resolute, like a lighthouse in a storm. Even with monstrous waves, he would guide sailors, and nothing could shake him?

Left at eleven? Damn it, he missed him just like that!

Lan Xiaoshan was dying to know how the “chasing after his wife for a thousand miles to beg for forgiveness after a fight” script was progressing. But as a professional on-set assistant, one of the basic rules was not to be too curious about the artist’s private life.

After a moment of silent regret, Lan Xiaoshan handed over the work pass in his hand. “I thought Brother Shao would be staying with you until filming wraps, just like on the last set, so I applied for a work pass. This way, it would be much more convenient for Brother Shao to get in and out of the studio.” He asked tactfully, “How about you give him the pass next time he comes?”

He didn’t know if Sheng Shaoyan would come again, but Shen Xici still took the pass. “Okay.”

Seeing Shen Xici take it, Lan Xiaoshan’s eyes lit up—a good sign! There’s hope!

At that moment, the phone screen on the table chimed twice. Shen Xici casually picked it up for a look, and a smile appeared on his lips. “Perfect timing. Your Brother Shao says he’s arrived in Ningcheng.”

“That’s great, that’s great!” Lan Xiaoshan was overjoyed—wasn’t this the follow-up to the script he’d been waiting for? Brother Shao was even reporting his itinerary to Brother Shen. It was confirmed, the CP he shipped hadn’t died! Cause for celebration!

However, right up until “Capital City Massacre” wrapped, the work pass meant to facilitate Sheng Shaoyan’s access to the set was never used.

With a bouquet of flowers and a thick red envelope shoved into his arms, surrounded by cheers of “His Majesty has wrapped!” and “Congratulations, Teacher Shen,” Shen Xici was startled to realize he had finished playing another role.

After treating the entire crew to a meal and thanking them with tea instead of wine for their care over the past half-month, Shen Xici dragged his suitcase back to Ningcheng the next day. He took a few days to shoot the promotional ad for Zhulong Guangqi and then quickly moved on to Lu Jiming’s set.

After over a month of preparation, Lu Jiming had given his first film a rather artistic title—”Fleeting Life.” Filming officially began in early July. To make the Spring Festival release window, the entire crew was rushing the schedule. As the male lead, Shen Xici, along with Lu Jiming, was completely immersed in the production. Under the bright lights, it was impossible to tell day from night.

The elevator doors opened. Shen Xici stepped onto the hotel corridor’s carpet. The gold and red patterns looked magnificent, and the spotlights on both sides created an orange halo on the carpet’s pile.

“…Brother Shen, Brother Shen!”

Noticing his sleeve being tugged, Shen Xici finally came back to his senses and turned to look at Lan Xiaoshan. “Were you calling me?”

Lan Xiaoshan was long accustomed to Shen Xici’s detached state after a scene, as if his soul had been sucked out. He pointed to his phone. “Brother Shao is looking for me. He’s asking if anything happened to you. He said you haven’t been replying to his messages and aren’t answering your phone.”

Sheng Shaoyan?

The moment he heard the name, Shen Xici seemed to be pulled out of the gilded scroll of glamorous Shanghai and back into his real body.

He tried to recall how long it had been since he had contacted Sheng Shaoyan. The last time they chatted seemed to be four days ago. Before going to sleep, he had told Sheng Shaoyan on WeChat that as soon as September began, it started raining continuously in the film city. Lu Jiming was ecstatic, seizing the opportunity to rush through several rain scenes. The crew saved a large sum of money on sprinkler trucks, which made Lu Jiming so happy that he would hold his little ledger and crazily sing the praises of the heavens whenever he had a free moment.

Unexpectedly, the next day, a large pile of various cold medicines was delivered to the hotel’s front desk. When Lan Xiaoshan brought the medicine back to Shen Xici’s room, he was shocked. While organizing them, he clicked his tongue and asked if Brother Shao’s family was in the cross-border pharmaceutical business. The scale of these cold medicines was just too much!

Shen Xici looked them over. They were all for respiratory diseases, from various domestic and international brands, with packaging in English, German, and French. There were even specially attached labels with the ingredients, usage, dosage, indications, and whether they tasted bitter or not.

Counting back, ever since that night Sheng Shaoyan appeared in his hotel room at Qintai Film and Television City, the broken thread between them seemed to have been tied back together. Occasionally, when typing, Shen Xici would feel a bit dazed—he had thought that their relationship would end there.

He was well aware of his own shortcomings. He was actually a contradictory person, finding it difficult to form deep and close connections with those around him. This was because he subconsciously believed that he would never be chosen steadfastly and would always be the one abandoned. Therefore, he never took the initiative to pursue a friendship and would even deliberately avoid deep connections.

As long as he didn’t form a close relationship with anyone, he wouldn’t be abandoned.

However, from that day on, Sheng Shaoyan would occasionally send messages to tell him where he had flown to, in such detail that he could almost piece together his entire itinerary—in just over three months, he had flown to New York, Europe, South America, Central Asia, and Africa nearly twenty times in total. The intensity was comparable to a special forces-style round-the-world tour, truly busy to the point of his feet never touching the ground.

At first, Shen Xici didn’t know how to reply. Later, he would pay attention to the climate and weather of Sheng Shaoyan’s destinations. When Sheng Shaoyan was free, he would take the initiative to mention interesting things that happened on set or his own thoughts on his character.

The feeling was strange. After Sheng Shaoyan regained his memory and left the rental house in Sui County, he had completely distinguished between the Sheng Shaoyan he knew in his previous life, the amnesiac A’Shao, and the Sheng Shaoyan of this life. Each “Sheng Shaoyan” was similar, yet subtly different.

During this period, it was a bit like he was getting to know a different Sheng Shaoyan for the third time.

Walking to his room door, Shen Xici opened his phone and saw that Sheng Shaoyan had said yesterday afternoon that he was flying to South America to inspect a port. It was now past one in the morning. At this time, Sheng Shaoyan had probably not only arrived in South America but had also likely finished inspecting the port. No wonder he had to ask Lan Xiaoshan if something had happened to him.

Feeling a bit guilty, Shen Xici quickly typed a reply: [I just got back to the hotel from the set. Sorry, I haven’t been looking at my phone.]

Lan Xiaoshan opened the door with the key card, and the room’s lights came on. Seeing Shen Xici typing, he remarked, “Brother Shen, Brother Shao really cares about you!”

Brother Shen couldn’t look at his phone while filming. After he was out of the camera’s range, he often zoned out, lost in the character of “Gu Changsheng,” in an almost completely immersed state. Sometimes, calling “Brother Shen” wouldn’t even work, but if he called “Gu Changsheng” or “Sheng Yu’en,” Brother Shen would definitely turn his head. In this state of being in character, he couldn’t remember to look at his phone at all.

This led to him, the assistant, occasionally receiving WeChat messages from Brother Shao, asking if Brother Shen was feeling unwell or anything.

Even though they were in a long-distance separation and hadn’t seen each other for three or four months, what was this if not a love stronger than gold?

Lan Xiaoshan comforted him, “Brother Shen, this movie has been filming since early July. It’s been over two months now. Just hang in there a little longer, and it’ll be wrapping up soon. Then you can see Brother Shao!”

Shen Xici hadn’t even noticed. “It’s been over two months already?”

Lan Xiaoshan deftly plugged in the electric kettle and nodded. “Yeah, and in another week, ‘Mountain Range Line’ will be released.” He then felt it was a pity. “If it weren’t for you being on set, Brother Shen, you could have gone on the promotional tour all over the country with Director Wan and the others. What a great opportunity for exposure!”

“It’s okay. Filming this character well is more important.” Shen Xici wasn’t too concerned about exposure. Besides, he really liked the character of Gu Changsheng and wanted to play him well. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have contacted Lu Jiming right after reading the script to express his interest, and even worked with him to find investors.

Lan Xiaoshan thought what Brother Shen said made a lot of sense. In the end, an actor’s work speaks for itself. Then, thinking of something, he faked a couple of coughs and asked mysteriously, “Brother Shen, Brother Shen, on the day of the ‘Mountain Range Line’ premiere, do you and Brother Shao want to go to the cinema to watch it together? This is your first movie, Brother Shen, and Brother Shao witnessed the entire filming process. How meaningful!”

Watch a movie?

Shen Xici subconsciously touched the ring on his left middle finger, a little hesitant.

Although he and Sheng Shaoyan had resumed their friendship, watching a movie—

“For a special situation, Director Lu will definitely grant you leave! I can help you guys cover. I’ll keep a lookout in all directions, and you absolutely won’t get photographed!” Lan Xiaoshan also voiced his own concerns. “And Brother Shen, your state of being in character is a bit too serious. Being able to leave the set, watch a movie with Brother Shao, have a meal, it will definitely do you good!”

Shen Xici was swayed.

This was indeed a problem.

When he acted, his approach was roughly 70% experience-based and 30% method-based. That was why in his previous life, Wen Yage had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to detach himself from his characters.

Holding his phone, Shen Xici made a decision. “I’ll ask him then.”

He was just asking, anyway. The possibility of being rejected was probably higher, right? Although the premiere of “Mountain Range Line” was on the first day of the National Day holiday, Sheng Shaoyan’s schedule never considered the holidays of just one country. Maybe that day, Sheng Shaoyan would be abroad or too busy with work to have time to watch any movie with him.

On the other side, it was noon. The harsh sunlight poured down unsparingly, and the shadows of the port buildings seemed to curl from the heat.

The soles of black leather shoes stepped across yellow-painted metal plates. Sheng Shaoyan walked at the very front of the crowd, with several people of different skin colors following behind him. The group passed between intersecting mechanical arms, the air filled with a mixed smell of salt and diesel.

Several black Maybachs with bulletproof glass were parked at the edge of the port. With a “bang,” the car door closed, and Yu Zhou shivered from the cold air inside the car.

He quickly organized the documents in his hand. When he looked up, he saw his boss staring at his screen, as if contemplating some critical issue.

Just as Yu Zhou was rapidly composing his words, preparing to share his boss’s worries and elaborate on his own proposal for acquiring the port, he heard Sheng Shaoyan speak. “A person has intentions towards you, but they’re not yet clear. Your messages are sometimes answered quickly, sometimes slowly. After not replying for a day or two, they suddenly invite you to watch a movie together. What does that mean?”

Yu Zhou’s first reaction was, Tsk, tsk, who is this person, so bold as to play games with our President Sheng? Then he immediately realized, who else could it be?

Over the past three months, his curiosity about the person messaging President Sheng had reached its peak. He had noticed that the other party’s messaging frequency was not high at all, even a bit too infrequent. But just these few messages could always affect President Sheng’s mood.

Usually, when he kept checking his phone like before, his mood and expression were not so pleasant, which meant he hadn’t received a reply yet. Now, when the air around him was relaxed and at ease, it meant the other person had replied.

The fact that President Sheng demanded a stable signal and network connection no matter how busy his schedule was or where his private jet landed was a clear indication of the level of importance.

Yu Zhou had been Sheng Shaoyan’s special assistant for a long time. With President Sheng’s looks, family background, and intelligence, countless eager admirers, both men and women, including blue-blooded nobles, supermodels, artists, and socialites, had thrown themselves at him, but President Sheng had always been completely uninterested.

He had almost thought that President Sheng would spend his life married to his work. He never expected President Sheng to ask this question!

Suppressing his curiosity, Yu Zhou quickly adopted a professional attitude and stated with certainty, “President Sheng, this person is clearly playing hard to get with you.”

After saying this, he expected to see a hint of annoyance and displeasure on Sheng Shaoyan’s face.

Unexpectedly, even though he was being toyed with, why did President Sheng not seem angry at all?

His thumb swiped up and down the screen. In the chat box, Shen Xici was asking him if he was free on September 30th. The premiere of “Mountain Range Line” was at midnight on October 1st.

Shen Xici wanted to watch a movie with him.

And it was the premiere of his first movie.

For the umpteenth time, the image of that early morning at the hotel room’s bathroom door flashed in his mind. Shen Xici, wrapped in a long bath towel, covered in steam, saying that the clothes he had taken in had accidentally gotten wet in the bathroom, and pointing him to the location of the suitcase.

He had taken another set of pajamas out of the suitcase, handed them to Shen Xici, and watched him put them on.

The skin, like a white night-blooming cereus, was covered inch by inch by the fabric.

After that, from early morning until the sky was bright, he had not felt sleepy at all.

Whether the clothes were wet in the bathroom or it was the so-called playing hard to get, Sheng Shaoyan didn’t mind.

However, if it really was playing hard to get—

Wouldn’t it be better to just capture him directly?