SM Chapter 24

Chapter 24 I’ve Liked You For A Long Time

Chapter 24 I’ve Liked You For A Long Time

The public bathroom was at the end of their dormitory floor. The staff members who had finished showering walked out, chatting and laughing. They greeted Sheng Mingqian and Ye Lai when they saw them.

Sheng Mingqian nodded in response to each of them. Ye Lai followed behind him, feeling guilty and nervous. He didn’t know where Sheng Mingqian was taking him.

The girls’ dormitories rented by the crew were on the first floor, and the boys’ were on the second floor. He followed Sheng Mingqian up the stairs directly to the top floor, the fourth floor, stepping up one step at a time. The voice-activated lights on the third and fourth floors lit up in turn.

After reaching the fourth floor, Sheng Mingqian walked down the corridor. Ye Lai couldn’t help but ask, “Director Sheng, where are we going?”

No one lived on this floor. The long corridor was empty. His voice echoed, layer upon layer, back into his ears.

“Scared?” Sheng Mingqian stopped and, rare for him, made a joke. He turned his head, hooked the corner of his lips, and asked him teasingly.

“No,” Ye Lai replied softly, “I’m not scared.”

Sheng Mingqian took a few more steps forward, and Ye Lai followed him closely. Finally, they stopped in front of a door. The sign on the door read “Principal’s Dormitory.” Sheng Mingqian took out a key from his pocket, opened the door, and felt around on the wall for the light switch. He pressed it, and the dormitory instantly lit up.

“This is the principal’s dormitory. I just asked someone for the key. There’s a private bathroom here. Go in and take a shower,” Sheng Mingqian walked to the balcony, opened the door, and glanced inside. It was indeed a private bathroom.

Ye Lai stood at the door with his things, not going in. He peeked inside through the crack in the door. The principal’s dormitory was the same as the employee dormitory, with a simple bed and desk, but with an extra small balcony and bathroom.

“Why aren’t you coming in?”

Ye Lai was urged by him and sneaked in like a thief, as if he had done something wrong. After entering, he stretched his neck and looked around in the corridor to make sure no one was there before feeling relieved.

He put his hand behind his back and slammed the door shut, startling Sheng Mingqian, who turned to look at him.

“Sheng Mingqian, thank you.”

Hearing Ye Lai call him by his name again, this time without even the surname, Sheng Mingqian frowned slightly, but said nothing. He put the key on the table, “Lock the door after you’re done showering. Remember to give me the key when you get back.”

Ye Lai responded with a “okay.” Sheng Mingqian didn’t stay long and left after speaking.

Hearing the sound of the door closing and opening, Sheng Mingqian’s footsteps faded away. Ye Lai was still standing behind the door. After being scolded by Sheng Mingqian for so long that night, he was now filled with another kind of emotion. His rain-soaked body instantly dried up, and his legs felt light, as if he was spinning while walking.

After taking a hot shower, Ye Lai thoroughly cleaned the bathroom before going out. He locked the door, took the key, and returned to the second floor. Someone saw him coming down from upstairs and asked him why he came down from up there.

Ye Lai didn’t dare to tell the truth and only said that he had gone to the wrong place. Everyone was tired after a day, and no one paid attention to this small matter.

Sheng Mingqian lived next door to him. Ye Lai usually went to Sheng Mingqian’s room often, but tonight was different. He stood at the door with the key for a long time before daring to knock.

Sheng Mingqian sat at his desk writing the script, not even glancing at him, and told him to just put the key there.

Ye Lai put the key on the table, “Director Sheng, rest early. Good night.”

“Good night,” Sheng Mingqian still didn’t look up.

Ye Lai didn’t sleep well that night. Sheng Mingqian had found him a place to shower alone, Sheng Mingqian secretly gave him different treatment, maybe only in his eyes it was secretly, Sheng Mingqian may just see that he did not want to use the public bath, but this still made him think too much.

Ye Lai lay facing the wall, like a voyeur, his fingers slowly sliding over the wall, imagining tracing Sheng Mingqian’s sleeping face after a wall, closing his eyes can also touch his deep eye socket contours, thick eyebrows, the middle of the bridge of the nose slightly raised, sliding down from the tip of the nose, angular lips, with a tough curve of the chin ……

Sheng Mingqian, separated by a wall, seemed to have sensed something. He was lying in bed and was about to fall asleep when he suddenly opened his eyes and turned to look at the wall.

Ye Lai suddenly retracted his hand, opened his eyes, and saw only a white wall. He held his breath and dared not breathe in again, but his heartbeat seemed to be able to penetrate the thick wall and jump onto the body of the person on the other side of the wall.

–

–

The next day was a light rainy day. Ye Lai went back to doing the work of a stagehand and assistant. Neither of them mentioned what happened the night before.

The weather forecast said there would be heavy rain in two days, and it was his turn to reshoot the scene that didn’t pass. The drizzling rain fell for two days. Ye Lai looked at the weather forecast and was so nervous in the dormitory the night before filming that he couldn’t fall asleep.

Because of what happened that night, Ye Lai’s emotions had been wrapped in another kind of secret boiling these days. He knew that if this continued, he still wouldn’t be able to film the feeling that Sheng Mingqian wanted the next day.

Suddenly, Sheng Mingqian’s words from that night popped out again——

“If I really threw you in the mountains for three days, would you be able to find the feeling of despair?”

Still thinking about his words, Ye Lai decided to try it. He crawled out of the bed, got dressed, and went out with a flashlight. He wanted to find the feeling of the scene first, because he was afraid of delaying the progress again.

Ye Lai didn’t go far at first. He was in a small mountain depression behind the dormitory, trying his best to substitute himself into Chi Wen, the feeling of being abandoned, covered in injuries, and desperately trying to save himself.

The rainy night was cold, and fine rain fell on him. The fog under the flashlight was blurred. Ye Lai slowly entered the state, found the feeling of Chi Wen, and unknowingly walked farther and farther.

When he realized that he should go back, he found that he was lost. The signal in the mountains was weak, and it was raining again. His cell phone had no signal, and he couldn’t contact anyone else.

This time, he had completely found the feeling of Chi Wen. Just as Ye Lai wanted to continue looking for directions to go back, suddenly his foot was empty, his body lost its center of gravity, and he leaned back. He rolled down the hillside, and the back of his head heavily hit a tree trunk. Then, a fishy and wet taste of rain and mud covered his throat, and he lost consciousness in the darkness.

–

–

Ye Lai didn’t know how Sheng Mingqian found him. When he could hear the sound again, it was Sheng Mingqian calling him.

“Ye Lai, Ye Lai, wake up.”

Ye Lai thought he was hallucinating. His face was warm, but whether it was reality or hallucination, he couldn’t resist that person and that voice. His eyes slowly opened, and in that small patch of blurred light, Sheng Mingqian’s originally blurred face slowly became clear.

For a moment, Ye Lai’s emotions rose up, and he called out to him, “Mingqian?”

“It’s me.”

Sheng Mingqian checked Ye Lai to make sure he wasn’t injured. The wound was on the back of his head. He carefully helped him up, tidied the raincoat on his body, and put the hat on him.

Ye Lai swayed in his arms and leaned on him. Sheng Mingqian steadied him and squatted down in front of him, “Lie on my back, I’ll carry you back.”

His head was still dizzy. Ye Lai barely steadied his body and obediently climbed onto his back, wrapping his arms around Sheng Mingqian’s neck, hugging him tightly.

Sheng Mingqian’s shoulders were very broad, and the clothes on his body were also wet, but they were unusually warm. Ye Lai absorbed the heat from his body little by little, as if a person who had been thirsty for a long time had finally tasted a little sweet nectar.

“Sheng Mingqian, thank you.”

“Why did you run off on your own?”

The mountains were pitch black. Sheng Mingqian held a flashlight in his hand. The beam of light shone in front of their feet. Sheng Mingqian’s feet stepped forward in the light. Ye Lai opened his eyes for a while and then closed them again. He lay on Sheng Mingqian’s back, opening his mouth and breathing in small breaths. A drop of rain fell on the tip of his nose, itchy, and he rubbed it on Sheng Mingqian’s back, “I was originally, in the small mountain depression behind the dormitory, wanting to find the feeling of Chi Wen being abandoned in the mountains.”

“Found it now?” Sheng Mingqian’s tone didn’t sound very good, even a little angry.

Ye Lai suddenly laughed, “Found it. I found it just before I fell. I shouldn’t ng again when filming next time.”

Sheng Mingqian didn’t say anything and carried him forward. The road that night was particularly long. Ye Lai remembered lying on Sheng Mingqian’s back and talking all the time.

He talked about his dream last night, his childhood, the orphanage, and being beaten to the point of vomiting blood by a big kid when he was a child.

The person who beat him was fat and strong. He couldn’t beat him, so he went to the mountains to catch some bugs and threw them into that person’s bed at night. The next day, he was beaten even harder. This time it was more serious. He lay in bed for seven days. After he recovered, he didn’t catch bugs, but directly caught a snake. After that, that person never dared to bully him again.

“I didn’t expect you to dare to catch snakes,” Sheng Mingqian interjected.

“I wouldn’t dare to catch them now. I don’t know where I got so much courage when I was a kid. It shouldn’t have been poisonous, otherwise I would have died when I caught the snake.”

Not knowing which sentence it started from, Ye Lai began to talk about his years in the entertainment industry: “I entered the entertainment industry back then because I wanted to be closer to you, Sheng Mingqian, do you know? I knew you many, many years ago.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I saw you for the first time in the newspaper, and then on TV. I started liking you when I was 19. I’ve seen all the movies you’ve made.”

Sheng Mingqian didn’t say anything. Ye Lai giggled, “Don’t you believe me? I’ve really seen all your movies. I remember all the lines. I can say them if you just pick one.”

Sheng Mingqian still didn’t say anything, and naturally didn’t pick one. He had heard Ye Lai’s words from many people’s mouths, and didn’t think it was anything special.

Ye Lai continued on his own: “There’s a line in “Sunset Hour” that you filmed that I remember very clearly, When the moonlight falls on your chest, boldly tell him you love him. You have to let him know that he has appeared in your dreams.”

After Ye Lai finished speaking, he sighed, and his two hands hugged Sheng Mingqian’s neck even tighter: “Sheng Mingqian, there’s no moon tonight, and it’s still raining, but I still want you to know that I’ve liked you for a long time. You’ve appeared in my dreams many times, many, many times…”

The rain was a little heavier than before, and the raindrops were hitting the raincoat, making a pattering sound. Ye Lai didn’t want to wait for Sheng Mingqian’s response. He was already used to the gaze hidden in the corner.

Later, he was about to fall asleep on Sheng Mingqian’s back again when a voice colder than the rain slowly slipped into his ears: “Film the scenes properly, don’t always think about getting close to the director…”