SM Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Ending Chapter

(Part 1)

Ye Lai himself wasn’t aware of his deliberate behavior. It turned out that he had been psychologically forcing himself all this time. His subconscious still felt that he should suppress his negative emotions and perceptions.

Unable to release them externally, he could only digest them internally.

After Sheng Mingqian said it, Ye Lai finally found the source of the sudden feeling of suffocation he had been experiencing since morning.

Too tired, a nightmare, a baseless and nonsensical photo, a one-time accumulation of emotions, all concealing the most fundamental problem.

Daring to face the negative side of oneself is not easy. Many times, Ye Lai chose to bury it, and if he couldn’t bury it, he would bypass it, but that wasn’t a permanent solution.

During this time, he allowed Sheng Mingqian to get close, but used their “bedroom relationship” as an excuse, drawing an invisible line between them. That line was ambiguous, and even Ye Lai himself didn’t know it existed.

But Sheng Mingqian could see it. As soon as Sheng Mingqian touched that line, it broke open, like the smoke from the chimneys in the morning, scattered by a single breath, leaving no trace.

Sheng Mingqian just pulled him, who was still outside the boundary, back to his side.

Sheng Mingqian told him that he didn’t have to smile every day. When he was unhappy or tired, he didn’t have to force himself. He could do whatever he wanted. These words sounded soft, but Ye Lai could also hear the strength within them.

But that strength wasn’t directed at him. On the contrary, Sheng Mingqian was directing it at himself.

He was saying that he could do a lot, and Ye Lai no longer needed to extend his little paws that had been burned before to test the waters bit by bit.

In front of the still-lit screen, Sheng Mingqian, dressed as a clown and trying his best to make Ye Lai laugh, carefully cupped his hands at this moment, protecting the last remaining little flame in front of the “naked Ye Lai,” not letting the light be extinguished.

So that Ye Lai could continue to keep warm and continue to follow.

They didn’t take back the film projection equipment and the box of movies suitable for children. Sheng Mingqian also handwritten a set of instructions for using the projection equipment for Sun Ayi, so they could watch it whenever they wanted.

After cleaning up the yard with Sun Ayi, Ye Lai and his “clown friend” went home.

–

–

The actors for the new film were basically finalized, with only the last supporting male character remaining undecided. That character was outwardly gentle but inwardly tough, and was a very important figure in the script.

On the day of the audition, Ye Lai went after finishing his opera class. He also cared deeply about that role.

There were seven or eight people auditioning, and the first few were no good. After watching them, Sheng Mingqian shook his head straight, not saying a word. Ye Lai was also a little discouraged, thinking that they probably wouldn’t be able to decide today.

The second-to-last actor to audition was a new actor that the investor had pushed to Lin Han, and Lin Han couldn’t refuse, so he gave him an audition opportunity. Ye Lai glanced at his resume, saw that he had no acting experience, and heard that he had been pushed in by the investor, so he thought he had no chance either.

But after watching an audition scene, Ye Lai found that the new actor’s temperament and charm were very close to the character, and it was obvious that he had made enough preparations for the audition scene in advance, practicing it many times.

The last person to audition was also very good, with a good external image, acting experience, and undeniable acting skills.

After everyone finished auditioning, the director team held a small meeting, wanting to choose one from the last two people who auditioned.

But between those two people, Sheng Mingqian and Ye Lai had a disagreement. Ye Lai was more inclined toward the new actor who had been pushed in by the investor, while Sheng Mingqian was more inclined toward the other one.

The two of them said a lot of reasons to each other. Lin Han was constantly replying to messages on his cell phone. Hearing the discussion stop, he took a puff of his cigarette and said casually, “You two, if you have any opinions, go home and discuss them in bed. Don’t quarrel.”

Lin Han’s words were half teasing and half joking. They weren’t quarreling, at most they just had different opinions.

When two people work together, disagreements are inevitable. They each have their own ideas.

It’s not uncommon for directors and screenwriters or actors to have different opinions when working on a film, but often it’s through arguing that more wonderful results and chemical reactions occur.

When they went home in the evening, Ye Lai finally persuaded Sheng Mingqian. Ye Lai felt that the new actor had his own ideas, and might give something different when filming actually started.

Another reason was that Ye Lai also saw the previous him who played Chi Wen in him. They both belonged to the immersive experience school, and had to transform into that person before acting. Although this acting method sometimes made them too painful, there would also be surprises that came out of the collision.

After Ye Lai took a shower, Sheng Mingqian was still in the study researching the script, pondering the new actor’s plot points, with a serious expression on his face.

“What’s wrong? Is there still something that doesn’t work?” Ye Lai walked over and asked, seeing that he was a little unhappy.

“I’m thinking about what happened during the day.”

Ye Lai thought he was still thinking about the supporting male character, thinking that he had regretted it again: “Do you still think he’s not suitable?”

“No, not because of this,” Sheng Mingqian closed the script, stood up, and naturally took the towel from Ye Lai’s hand to dry his hair.

“Then what is it because of?” Ye Lai asked, enjoying it with his eyes lowered.

Sheng Mingqian dried Ye Lai’s hair and put the towel aside, putting his arm around Ye Lai and returning to the bedroom: “Lin Han was wrong to say that during the day.”

“Mm, what did he say? He said we should go back and study it before deciding.”

“Not that sentence.”

“Then which sentence?”

“We’re not a couple yet…” Sheng Mingqian said.

Ye Lai: “…”

It took Ye Lai a full half a minute to understand Sheng Mingqian’s logic. Because Lin Han said they were a couple, but in fact they weren’t a couple yet, so Sheng Mingqian was unhappy.

Ye Lai raised his arm and touched his still-damp hair, giggling twice.

Sheng Mingqian found the hair dryer and blew Ye Lai’s hair. Ye Lai sat on the edge of the bed, nudging Sheng Mingqian with his elbow. Under the cover of the buzzing sound of the hair dryer, he deliberately asked loudly, “Then what can we do?”

Sheng Mingqian turned off the hair dryer button, reached out and pulled open the drawer of the bedside table, taking out a small, deep blue velvet box from inside, holding it in the palm of his hand.

Without having to think much, Ye Lai knew what was inside.

Sheng Mingqian opened the box, and inside was a ring.

“I want to take it out every day, today is a good day…”

Sheng Mingqian squatted half-kneeling beside Ye Lai’s legs, picked up the ring from the ring box, wanting to add a little credibility to the “good day” he spoke of, looked up and glanced out the window through the glass, “It’s a good day with stars tonight, Ye Lai, let’s get remarried.”

Ye Lai also followed Sheng Mingqian’s words, glanced out the window, and stretched out his hand: “It is indeed a good day.”

Ye Lai’s fingers were slender and well-proportioned, with the middle joints not particularly prominent. The distance and shape from the tip of his ring finger to the root had been traced by Sheng Mingqian too many times. Sheng Mingqian had also repeated the process of putting the ring on Ye Lai’s finger too many times in his heart.

But when it really came to this moment, he unconsciously held his breath, and his fingers were heating up. It took him a long time to put it on.

Ye Lai raised his hand, looking at the ring on the root of his finger under the light. The shimmering light spots on the ring seemed to have spirituality, facing Ye Lai, hooking him.

“Are we considered a couple now?”

“We are now…”

–

–

Having a ring wasn’t enough. Sheng Mingqian dragged Ye Lai to get their marriage certificate the next morning.

It was still that photo studio at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau. Sheng Mingqian and Ye Lai sat side by side on the long bench.

“Look at the camera, smile, very good, wait a minute…” The photographer put down the camera in front of him, “Director Sheng, look at the camera, this is a certificate photo, you can tilt your head slightly, leaning in the direction of your loved one, but your face must be facing me.”

The photographer’s words “your loved one” pleased Sheng Mingqian, and he raised his eyebrows and smiled.

“Very good, just smile like that, one, two, three…”

With a click of the shutter, the two people, shoulder to shoulder, were frozen in front of the red background.

As soon as he got the marriage certificate, Sheng Mingqian posted the marriage certificate photo on Weibo, with the caption “We’re remarried,” and @ Ye Lai.

Ye Lai also posted the same copy, followed by another round of trending searches, #ShengMingqianYeLaiRemarried#, #ShengMingqianSuccessfullyChasedHisWife#,

#ShengMingqianYeLaiOfficialAnnouncement#, most of the comments were congratulations.

The two people’s cell phones were blown up again. Ye Lai simply turned off his phone, but he answered and replied to all the calls made to Sheng Mingqian.

The last time he and Ye Lai had a secret marriage, hiding it and not letting anyone know. This time, he was afraid that no one would know.

(Part 2)

When Lin Han saw Ye Lai the next day, he pointed to the wedding photo posted by Sheng Mingqian in his Moments, and first Tsked a few times.

“Look, look, look, Mingqian is smiling so hard that flowers are blooming. I went to his office to find him once before, and I saw him smiling in the mirror, but that smile was like a mourning face.”

Ye Lai raised his eyes: “Huh? When?”

Lin Han supported his forehead with his finger and thought for a while: “Before the New Year, when it was about to be the New Year last year. I remember it snowed heavily that day, and I almost thought he was possessed. His beard was unshaven, his eyes were black, and he was smiling in the mirror, which was even uglier than crying. It was like a ghost.”

It was before the New Year.

Ye Lai calculated the time. That should have been when he and Sheng Mingqian had just divorced.

That night, after he signed the divorce agreement, he said to Sheng Mingqian when he finally left that he hadn’t seen him smile much and wanted to see him smile once.

Sheng Mingqian didn’t smile at him in the end.

Unexpectedly, he later practiced it secretly.

Ye Lai imagined Sheng Mingqian’s smile like a crying ghost in his heart, and a heat surged in his throat.

Ye Lai asked Sheng Mingqian when he went back at night. Sheng Mingqian dodged and refused to admit it, stubbornly saying that Lin Han must have seen it wrong.

Ye Lai kissed Sheng Mingqian’s eyes: “Then smile.”

Sheng Mingqian turned over and pressed on Ye Lai, kissing Ye Lai again and again: “I don’t need to practice now. I want to smile as soon as I see you.”

A week later, the heat of the discussion about their remarriage on the Internet still didn’t decrease, because the film they directed and starred in was officially announced.

After the actors were finalized, the investor arranged a dinner party, which was attended by the main creative team and the actors. Sheng Mingqian brought Ye Lai with him.

“Director Sheng, Little Ye, come, come, sit here.” As soon as he entered the private room, the investor’s boss, who had already arrived, stood up to greet him, with a smile on his face.

Someone next to him raised a hand holding a cigarette, correcting the person who had just spoken: “Old Wang, you can’t call him Little Ye anymore, you have to call him Director Ye now.”

“Right, right, right, look at me.” The man patted his head, “Director Ye, Director Sheng, sit here. I haven’t congratulated you on your remarriage yet. Big happy event, big happy event, congratulations, congratulations.”

“Thank you, President Wang.” Sheng Mingqian reached out and shook his hand with him.

Except for the people in Sheng Mingqian’s studio, Ye Lai didn’t know anyone else. Sheng Mingqian introduced them to him one by one. Ye Lai greeted them and shook hands, sitting next to Sheng Mingqian.

There was nothing serious about this kind of drinking party. It was mainly for everyone to get to know each other before filming started. There would be many opportunities to deal with each other in the future. Everyone would have a bottom line in their hearts. When they met in the future, they would also know who was who.

The drinking party was already halfway through the night. The atmosphere in the private room was still high. President Wang, who was sitting next to Sheng Mingqian, talked too much nonsense after drinking, and his tongue was slurring. He was still saying the same thing over and over again, chewing it up and spitting it out.

The room was filled with the smell of smoke and alcohol, and Ye Lai was so sleepy that his eyes were blurry. He sat on the chair and nodded straight.

Sheng Mingqian saw that Ye Lai was too sleepy, and stretched his left hand behind his waist to hug him. Sheng Mingqian was also annoyed by the same rusty words coming and going. He had been looking at Ye Lai with the corner of his eye, looking at his dazed face when he was sleepy, and only felt that no one was cuter than him.

Ye Lai’s neck swayed to the side, and Sheng Mingqian’s palm had already stuck to it, steadily holding Ye Lai’s face.

Ye Lai woke up suddenly, his peach blossom eyes half-closed, and the water light that came out of his sleepiness was swirling in them. After a while, he became a little more sober, turned his head to look at Sheng Mingqian, and muttered in a low voice, “Sleepy.”

Someone next to him also heard it, hearing Ye Lai’s coquettish tone, and joked with them: “The young couple just remarried, so clingy.”

There were other midnight arrangements after the dinner party. Sheng Mingqian didn’t usually participate in follow-up activities. People who were familiar with him also knew this, so they didn’t stand on ceremony with him and didn’t force him.

Sheng Mingqian greeted the people in the private room and took Ye Lai home.

The newly remarried young couple were clingier than before.

He was too sleepy at the dinner table just now, and that sudden nod dispelled Ye Lai’s sleepiness. After returning home, he clamored to watch a movie again.

The two of them hadn’t watched a movie at home for a long time. As soon as Sheng Mingqian turned it on, the content that was last played continued to play. The two people entangled on the screen kissed so hard that they couldn’t bear to part. The sound of the speakers in the movie theater was very loud, and the sound of intertwined gasps and the friction of skin surrounded the movie theater, and also surrounded Ye Lai’s ears.

At this moment, the two people lying on the viewing sofa were both stunned. What was playing on the screen wasn’t a movie, but the video from the hotel room on the night of the “Unearth” wrap-up banquet.

On the screen, Sheng Mingqian stroked Ye Lai’s waist, Ye Lai’s lips were flushed from being kissed, and his fingers clutching the edge of the pillow looked unbearable and impatient.

“How can you… still play this?” No one would be too calm watching their own little porn movie. Ye Lai’s face was red and his scalp was tingling. After saying a word, his throat instantly became hoarse.

Sheng Mingqian’s hand had already covered Ye Lai’s chest, tearing open the shirt at his waist: “I didn’t exit last time, it seems to be playing on repeat…”

Since returning from Bincheng, Ye Lai had been taking opera classes. Now, while taking classes, he was also busy with film preparation. After receiving the marriage certificate, the time that the two people were really together wasn’t too much to count on their fingers.

Often, when Ye Lai went home in the evening, he was too tired to fall asleep. Sheng Mingqian couldn’t bear to toss him, so he could only endure it during this time.

How could he possibly endure it now?

A night of noise. In the chaos, no one knew who touched the remote control. The “movie” was paused before dawn. The two people on the sofa bed were in the same position as the two people on the screen. Sheng Mingqian hugged Ye Lai from behind, sleeping peacefully.

Waking up again, Ye Lai had a kind of illusion looking at the screen, as if they had passed through the time gap in the middle that night, hugging each other until now…

–

–

After the actors were finalized, there was only one last mountain location that hadn’t been determined before filming started. A large part of the script was filmed in the mountains, and the scenes to be filmed spanned the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, accounting for a very important proportion.

After the first round of screening by the director team, they finally gave two choices. Sheng Mingqian demanded strictness and decided to do an on-site inspection before making a decision.

After the team investigated the actual terrain of the first mountain they went to, and learned about the local climate change, it was quickly rejected by the director team.

Two days later, they drove to the second location. This time, the team stayed in the mountain for half a month. After investigation and understanding, they felt that all aspects were suitable, and went to the relevant local departments to make advance reports and consultations. Someone took them back into the mountain to determine several suitable filming locations.

The last filming location was in a village in the deep mountains. Cars couldn’t drive in, so the group could only walk.

Ye Lai was badly tossed around by Sheng Mingqian last night, and his legs were still soft. He climbed mountain roads for half a day, and accidentally stepped on a stone and sprained his foot on the last uphill road.

There was a total of less than one kilometer left. Sheng Mingqian let the others go first, and he carried Ye Lai on his back.

Sheng Mingqian walked very slowly. Every time he took a step, he would take Ye Lai to look at the surrounding scenery. Ye Lai’s feet didn’t hurt much, and he could walk by himself, but Sheng Mingqian wouldn’t let him.

The sun hadn’t set yet. Before entering the village, the two people chose a hillside with a wide view, preparing to watch the sunset before going back.

The two people sat together, looking up into the distance, there were large patches of green of varying depths, dragging half of the sky dyed red by the sunset, and above the red was a bright dark blue.

In the twilight, the golden light was slanting, and the mountain shadows were heavy. Flying birds shuttled through the misty water mist in the forest, their cries echoing with the sound of the stream water constantly flowing from high to low.

Sheng Mingqian and Ye Lai sat there, quietly watching all the time.

The thick, continuous cyan was slowly deepening with the sunset. They couldn’t help but wonder what was at the bottom of the mountain, and where the river would eventually flow.

Finally, the two people discussed it for a long time. Ye Lai twisted a dog’s tail grass in his hand and turned it around, remembering the time he filmed in the mountains that year, and asked him, “Mingqian, do you still remember the time we filmed in the mountains that year?”

“I remember.” Sheng Mingqian picked up a small stone next to him, raised his hand and threw it far away. The tall grass in the mountainside was disturbed into silence, and his body shook.

“There was no place to take a bath. I didn’t want to go to the public bathhouse, so you helped me find the principal’s lounge.”

“I remember.”

“I was injured in the mountains, and you carried me back. I lay on your back, and later I said a lot of words.”

“I remember everything.” Sheng Mingqian’s palms were supporting the grass behind Ye Lai, and his arm was half encircling Ye Lai’s posture. He turned his head to look at him.

Ye Lai looked up, wanting the sinking twilight to stay on him for a little longer.

Sheng Mingqian watched him silently for a long time. Ye Lai felt it, looked back at him and asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me all the time?”

The mountain shadows overlapped one by one, and there was Sheng Mingqian’s vaguely visible outline, filling Ye Lai’s eyes.

Sheng Mingqian looked at him and smiled: “I thought of the movie we’re going to shoot.”

“Mm?”

“When I was writing the script, I was thinking about what the name of the movie should be. I had imagined that scene before, and now I finally saw it.”

Ye Lai understood, but still wanted to ask it out loud. He wanted to hear Sheng Mingqian finish speaking, against the shallow and warm light floating on his face: “What did you see?”

Sheng Mingqian sat up a little straighter, leaned closer to Ye Lai’s side, raised his fingers stained with green grass leaves, and touched Ye Lai’s curved eyes, rippling with the light of the sunset: “Looking at You is the Landscape.”

Looking at you is the landscape…

–End of the main text–