SM Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Sheng Mingqian Taught Him Hands-On (Minor Edits)

After finishing the dumplings on New Year’s Eve, that child waited until the New Year’s bell chimed on TV before leaving. Sheng Mingqian regained his sight half a month later, and never saw that child again after being discharged from the hospital.

With his eyes unable to see, even his previous memories became fragmented, like snowflakes in that winter, fluttering down piece by piece. When he tried to recall them, they were only about what he heard, touched, and felt.

Leaving no trace.

In the initial period after his eyesight returned, Sheng Mingqian often thought about the child on the sixth floor of the hospital.

But he still didn’t know the child’s name, what he looked like, the difference between long and short hair, what happened to the child later, whether he had enough to eat and wear, whether he had a family, whether he waited for the sunlight to fall on him, or whether he, like him, waited for the warm spring of the following year.

As time moved on, he gradually forgot everything.

After so many years, because of the words Ye Lai read aloud at night, Sheng Mingqian once again thought of that child.

Ye Lai moved, using his arm as a pillow. Perhaps he wasn’t sleeping soundly after drinking, his breathing was a bit heavy, and he was mumbling in his sleep. Sheng Mingqian leaned down and listened carefully near his mouth. Ye Lai’s voice was muffled, and he couldn’t make out what he was saying, so he patted his back, wanting him to sleep more peacefully.

When Ye Lai completely stopped talking in his sleep, Sheng Mingqian picked up his cell phone from the bedside and called Piao Zhengyang. He suddenly remembered after dialing that it was five o’clock in the morning in China. It was too late to hang up; Piao Zhengyang had already answered. He sounded like he had been woken up, his speech was vague, but he was very nervous.

“Mingqian, what’s wrong? Is your eye bothering you again? Should I come to the hospital?”

“No, it’s not about my eye,” since the call was connected, Sheng Mingqian didn’t waste the opportunity and directly explained the reason. “Zhengyang, do you remember the car accident ten years ago when I couldn’t see and was hospitalized?”

Hearing that it wasn’t his eye that had a problem, Piao Zhengyang breathed a sigh of relief: “Of course I remember, you stayed in our hospital for more than two months that year. What’s wrong?”

“Do you remember ‘the child on the sixth floor’? The boy who was admitted to the hospital not long after I was. He had long hair at first, didn’t like to talk, and the police came to look for him several times.”

Piao Zhengyang had no idea what Sheng Mingqian was talking about. He wasn’t the hospital director ten years ago. He scratched his head and thought for a long time but couldn’t remember: “You’re making things difficult for me. It’s been so many years, and there are so many patients in the hospital, how would I remember?”

“Can it be found?” Sheng Mingqian asked.

Piao Zhengyang said, “It can definitely be found. Hospital records can be kept for decades. Wait, are you calling me in the middle of the night just to ask me this? What do you want to find this for?”

“It’s nothing important. I just want to know what the child’s name is.”

“Okay, I’ll go to the hospital records room tomorrow and see. I’ll tell you after I find it.”

After hanging up, Sheng Mingqian felt that his behavior was a bit inexplicable. It’s been ten years, why is he looking for that child? Even if he knows the name, what can he do? What was he expecting before Piao Zhengyang replied?

At five o’clock in the morning Finland time, Sheng Mingqian received a text message from Piao Zhengyang, telling him the child’s name.

Fu Ruige, the three characters put together were awkward and hard to remember. Sheng Mingqian looked at the completely unfamiliar name in the text message, as if he was recognizing these three Chinese characters for the first time.

An inexplicable sense of loss rose in his heart for no reason. Sheng Mingqian didn’t understand why the emotion of loss appeared. He couldn’t explain what he had been expecting before Piao Zhengyang replied.

After replying to Piao Zhengyang, Sheng Mingqian put down his cell phone and lay down again. He circled Ye Lai from above with his arms, finally shook off the unclear emotions in his head, and fell asleep again.

In the morning, Ye Lai was awakened by the chirping of birds and the barking of dogs outside the window. Before opening his eyes, he vaguely wanted to snuggle into the warm embrace of last night, but the side was empty, and the sheets beside him were cold.

Ye Lai woke up completely at once, reached out and touched the quilt, there was no one. He sat up directly, lifted the quilt and got out of bed: “Mingqian, Mingqian…”

Sheng Mingqian heard the sound and came out of the study, still wearing pajamas, standing at the door holding the doorknob: “I’m here, what’s wrong?”

Seeing him, Ye Lai’s accelerated heartbeat slowly slowed down: “So you didn’t leave.”

“Didn’t leave.”

Ye Lai ran over, hugged Sheng Mingqian around the waist, and looked up, finding dark circles under Sheng Mingqian’s eyes: “When did you get up? Didn’t you sleep well?”

“Seven o’clock.” Sheng Mingqian only answered his first question.

Having just woken up, Ye Lai’s hair was still messy, with a few strands sticking up on the top of his head. Sheng Mingqian raised his hand and smoothed his hair, pressing down the strands that were sticking up.

“I had a dream last night.” Ye Lai lowered his head and rubbed his chin on Sheng Mingqian’s shoulder, like a puppy acting cute, and then yawned again.

“What dream?” Sheng Mingqian wanted to know what Ye Lai had mumbled in his sleep last night.

“I dreamed that I turned into a wolf and bit someone.”

Sheng Mingqian frowned after hearing this: “Who did you bite?”

“A hunter.”

“What happened in the end?”

“In the end, I ran away.”

“What about the hunter?”

“I don’t know…”

Yuan Ling came upstairs and knocked on the door, telling them to come downstairs for breakfast. Sheng Mingqian responded, and Ye Lai ran back to the bed to change his clothes, quickly washed up in the bathroom, and followed Sheng Mingqian downstairs.

Yuan Ling and Sheng Dehui were bickering in the kitchen. Yuan Ling said she wanted to buy ice cream after breakfast, but Sheng Dehui said it was too cold and wouldn’t let her eat it. Yuan Ling didn’t want to, and the two of them went back and forth, making Ye Lai couldn’t help but laugh.

The way Sheng Mingqian’s parents got along was the way Ye Lai had always yearned for.

In the past, he had often imagined in his heart the scene of living with Sheng Mingqian for many years and supporting each other.

Now… the time they can be together is running out.

–

–

While eating, Ning Yuan sent a message to Ye Lai, telling him that the episode of the show where they interviewed Sang Mei had been broadcast, and the ratings had exploded. Sang Mei had also introduced them to her friend, who was also a well-known female star at the moment, and her topic of conversation was also high. She has a schedule next month and will come to record the show.

Ning Yuan asked Ye Lai when he would be free to go out for a drink with him, and also asked if he had time to be on his talk show later.

Ye Lai and Ning Yuan used to be partners, and he was very familiar with the show. He had also recorded two episodes as a guest, but his topic of conversation was not high. Ning Yuan also said that the director wanted to thank him for introducing Sang Mei to them.

Ye Lai raised his eyes and looked at Sheng Mingqian, who was concentrating on eating breakfast. He had screwed up Zhou Ran’s interview at the time, and Sang Mei was not introduced by him, but by Sheng Mingqian.

“Mingqian,” Ye Lai put down his chopsticks, “Ning Yuan wants me to be on his show as a guest.”

“Yeah.”

Sheng Mingqian gave an indifferent response. Ye Lai didn’t know if he heard him or not, so he didn’t say anything else, picked up his chopsticks and continued eating breakfast.

Yuan Ling and Sheng Dehui also heard it, and they became interested, asking him when the show would be recorded, and whether they could see it online after it was broadcast. They also wanted to watch it.

The three of them chatted enthusiastically. After eating, Yuan Ling also suggested watching a movie, asking Ye Lai if he had acted in any other movies besides Sheng Mingqian’s “Live Dissection.”

Ye Lai shook his head, saying that he had only collaborated with Sheng Mingqian on that one movie.

Yuan Ling turned her head and asked Sheng Mingqian: “Mingqian, you and Xiao Lai only made one movie? Why don’t you make a few more? Your father and I have watched “Live Dissection” many times. Xiao Lai’s acting is so good, it’s just that the role of Chi Wen is too depressing. Let him shoot more of other things.”

Sheng Dehui interjected from the side: “We don’t understand how you decide on the roles. What? Do you want to hide people and not let them be seen?”

His words broke up the subtle emotional changes between Ye Lai and Sheng Mingqian. Ye Lai put his arm around Yuan Ling’s shoulder and chuckled.

Ye Lai laughed and diverted the topic. Sheng Mingqian had told him that one shouldn’t be too greedy. It was him who wanted people in the first place, and having one thing is enough to be content.

His resources have not been good over the years. Ye Lai knew that someone behind the scenes didn’t want him to have resources. Many jobs that had already been negotiated were inexplicably lost at the last moment. The other party either said that they had found a more suitable candidate, or they ran away before signing the contract. Every time Zhang Yihao excitedly took him out, the two of them would return disappointed in the end.

Ye Lai knew the reason. In the first year after marrying Sheng Mingqian, he lost four jobs that had been negotiated. Zhang Yihao negotiated a movie role for him again at the end of that year. Just before signing the contract, the other party received a phone call. The person didn’t hide it from them, respectfully calling the other party “Director Sheng.”

There was no second Director Sheng in the circle. The person hung up Director Sheng’s phone and put the prepared contract back into his bag, saying that Director Sheng had introduced them to another actor, who was a newcomer in his latest movie.

It was hard to say whether it was disappointment or something else, perhaps more numbness.

That night, he had a good time drinking with Zhang Yihao. After a few glasses of wine, he still got all the grievances in his heart drunk. After going back, he really wanted to ask Sheng Mingqian why?

But when Sheng Mingqian pinched his chin and asked him why he drank so much, he still didn’t ask anything.

He vomited three times that night. He remembered that Sheng Mingqian took care of him all night.

Ye Lai occasionally made excuses to numb himself. He used such methods to tie Sheng Mingqian to his side back then, and he deserved to pay for it. How could there be so many good things in the world that you alone can occupy?

Yuan Ling and Sheng Dehui still chose “Live Dissection.” The four of them sat on the long sofa chair.

Yuan Ling specially closed the curtains. The projection screen was very large, occupying most of the wall. Because the neighbors were far away, the sound from the speakers was not low. Coffee and Duoduo were lying on the floor.

Sheng Mingqian crossed his arms and leaned back on the sofa. Ye Lai sat next to him.

Ye Lai had watched the movie too many times, so familiar that he could almost recite everyone’s lines. His first scene appeared when the movie was sixteen minutes long, and his sex scene was at fifty-eight minutes.

That sex scene was Chi Wen’s fantasy. He was unwilling to be mixed in with a bunch of mud-covered construction workers. He fantasized about himself in a suit and leather shoes, standing at the top of the pyramid, holding high power, and also dating an excellent white collar girlfriend.

Under the long-term psychological distortion and depression, he began to follow a single girl in an office building next to the construction site. That was the sex scene he fantasized about on the night of the follow.

Watching himself in a sex scene in front of his elders, Ye Lai couldn’t let go. As he watched, he felt his face burning. He wanted to fast-forward but was too embarrassed to speak. His scalp was numb, so he could only move his eyes away from the screen, praying for time to move forward quickly.

When Ye Lai turned his head, he saw Sheng Mingqian’s profile. The faint blue light paved a layer of cold tone on his deep contours. There were light spots moving slightly in Sheng Mingqian’s eyes. Ye Lai couldn’t tell whether he was seriously watching the movie or was distracted.

Looking at the screen again, the sex scene was finally over. Ye Lai breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. When that sex scene was finished, he felt the same as he did now.

Although he understood the role of Chi Wen very thoroughly, he had no experience in filming sex scenes. Sheng Mingqian taught him hand by hand so that the sex scene could be successfully filmed.

Ye Lai half-lowered his eyelids and recalled. Calculating the time, the filming of that sex scene was after they returned from the mountains, that is, after he and Sheng Mingqian confessed to each other in the mountains.

Too much time has passed. Ye Lai didn’t know whether the memory at that time had been deviated again in a future recollection. Now, when he recalled the sex scene that Sheng Mingqian taught hand-by-hand, Ye Lai seemed to still be able to feel the fiery temperature of Sheng Mingqian’s body, and the firelight in his eyes that suddenly rose and scurried around.

They were too close at the time. Ye Lai felt the changes in Sheng Mingqian’s body. Although it was very subtle, Ye Lai felt that his memory was not wrong.

Sheng Mingqian was lying on him at the time.

He was hard…