CH 77

Chapter 77 – Daytime Dream

You are my reward.

Qiang Ge had really arrived too quickly.

It was so true that you couldn’t do bad things; as soon as you do bad things, you’ll get caught.

Fang Juexia quickly put on his pajamas, nearly buttoning the buttons into the wrong holes. While his hands were trembling, he swore in his heart that he would never buy pajamas with buttons in the future.

There was no big closet in this hotel suite, and the bed was also a solid bed, with no space under it. The sofa also didn’t look like it could hide someone under it.

The balcony….

No, no, the balcony was windy, and it was too cold.

Fang Juexia’s thoughts went in circles, and he could only push Pei Tingsong to the bathroom.

“You lock the door,” whispered Fang Juexia, and then wanted to run, but Pei Tingsong grabbed him and said, “Hey, hey, my clothes.”

“Oh yes, wait a sec.”

Pei Tingsong’s pajamas were all over the place. Fang Juexia quickly picked them up, pulled open the bathroom door, and stuffed them into his hand. The knocking sound continued, and flustered Fang Juexia to the point that he could only exhort Pei Tingsong again, “Don’t make any noise ah.”

He didn’t know whether he was too guilty or what, but he kept feeling like there were too many traces of last night’s activities in the room, so he opened all the windows.

Although the hotel room itself had its own air purification system, he was still not at ease. He took out a bottle of cologne from his suitcase, sprayed it around several times, then used his hands to wave it around.

“Juexia? Have you fallen asleep again?”

Fang Juexia took a deep breath, put on his slippers, ran to the entrance way, worked hard to brew up a yawn, put on a sleepy look with his eyes half-closed, and only then did he open the door.

“My little ancestor oh, you finally opened the door. I thought I wouldn’t be able to wake you up again.” Cheng Qiang walked into the room with his laptop. “How are you? Do you still feel bad?”

Fang Juexia shook his head and with a guilty heart, closed the door, after which he glanced at the closed bathroom door. “….I feel much better.” He walked two steps forward and led Cheng Qiang to the end of the sofa. “Ge, would you like to sit down and drink some water?”

“No, no, when I just got up, I downed a big cup of water,” said Cheng Qiang as he put his laptop on the coffee table. He seemed to sense that something was wrong, so he stretched his neck out and frowned. “How is the smell in your room…”

It couldn’t be that he had figured it out ba? Fang Juexia gripped the leg of his pants nervously.

“……so sweet ah.” After that, Cheng Qiang sneezed. “Did you spray perfume all around?”

Fang Juexia was relieved. “Ah…. Yes, as soon as I came in yesterday, I felt that the room smelled a little strange. It smelt a bit like cigarettes, so I sprayed some cologne.”

Cheng Qiang turned his head and looked around. “I feel like you can also be too much; your windows are all open, and your balcony door is open. Weren’t you cold when sleeping at night ah?” Saying that, he grew worried and got up to close the window in front of the sofa for him.

“It’s alright, it’s not very cold.” Saying that, Fang Juexia sat down next to him, wanting to quickly resolve the issue with the advertisement endorsement, so that he could get this great Buddha to go away as hastily as possible. “Qiang Ge, what endorsement were you talking about?”

“Oh, right, right, I almost forgot the most urgent business.” Cheng Qiang pushed the laptop screen in front of him and explained, “This sports brand wants you and Xiao Pei to do an endorsement.” As soon as he said that, he grew angry. “Don’t even know where that guy is, he just did a disappearing act on me so early in the morning. Really, no one can control him.”

Fang Juexia cleared his throat. “It’s alright, let’s discuss it first ba.”

Cheng Qiang sighed and continued, “In fact, this counts as an emergency. They had found a top-line actor first, but didn’t seem to be able to reach an agreement in the end, and at the critical point of their new product’s launch, their partnership collapsed. Now, they are anxious to confirm some spokespersons for their new product. You two have been popular recently, and have been blessed with appearances in several popular variety shows, so you guys are in hot demand. They contacted me early in the morning and sent me several e-mails. Even before I got to see them, they called me again.”

Fang Juexia always trusted Cheng Qiang and had no habit of criticizing his work. “Ge, do you think it’s okay after looking at it? If it’s okay, then I have no objections. You go ahead and confirm with them.”

“I think it’s pretty good. It’s a top-line sports brand and their spokespersons have all grown popular, becoming new generation idols. Although the contract is only to become the spokespersons for one series, it’s still pretty good. They have never found any members from boybands to be their products’ spokespersons before. Moreover, the other side said that if it sells well, they’ll consider letting the whole group be spokespersons for the next season’s new products, which is a series aimed at young people.”

Hearing about the entire group getting to do an endorsement, Fang Juexia was even more satisfied. “Alright ah, I’m okay with it.”

“Alright.” Cheng Qiang wanted to say something else, but the computer dinged, and it was the sound of an email arriving. “Hey, they sent us the electronic version of the contract for us to confirm, let me have a look.”

Fang Juexia let out an “en”, turned his head to glance at the bathroom, and then turned around again. “You’re not going to ask Xiao Pei?”

Cheng Qiang looked at the contract seriously. “What do you want to ask him for?”

“Confirm the working hours, endorsement fee, and so on.”

“Come on, such a small endorsement fee is not enough for the little devil to even buy a good watch.” Cheng Qiang raised his head and started acting out an impromptu imitation show, saying, “Xiao Pei, I have this so-and-so job, do you want to do it?” After asking that, he turned to the other side and copied Pei Tingsong’s hangdog expression as he said, “Not going, don’t want to do, don’t care.”

The cellphone in Fang Juexia’s pocket vibrated twice. As soon as he took it out, he found that it was Pei Tingsong.

[A Constant Truth: It’s foul play to speak ill of people behind their backs!]

Wasn’t this the truth though?

Just as he was about to reply, Cheng Qiang turned his head and looked at him. Fang Juexia quickly gripped his cellphone, fearing that the message had been seen, but fortunately, he hadn’t seen anything. Cheng Qiang just shook his head. “If I ask, he’ll say he doesn’t want to do it, so I’m too lazy to go ask him. I’ll just go and sign the contract at that time, and it’ll be fine. Which other time wasn’t like that?”

Fang Juexia could already almost imagine Pei Tingsong’s expression of complete refusal, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but quirk up.

Cheng Qiang glimpsed it and was very proud of himself. “Oh, very good ah, I can actually amuse you into smiling today.”

Fang Juexia cleared his throat when he realized that his emotions were becoming more and more obvious. “No, I was just thinking that you work really hard, managing us.”

“I make do ba, I’m just enjoying the feeling of being a father of infants ahead of time.” After reading the contract, Cheng Qiang said, “Okay, there’s no problem. Wait to sign it ba, I’ll confirm some details later.”

Fang Juexia nodded smartly. “En.”

The endorsement had been confirmed, and the contract had been read, so his work should be done ba.

“Are you still sleepy? If you’re still tired, sleep some more. I also need to go back and catch up on some sleep too, these days have been so tiring, and then I have to go out later to talk with the TV station here.” Cheng Qiang yawned. “By the way, Ling Yi and the rest went to climb mountains. They said that they may go for a stroll through the streets to eat some stuff tonight. After sleeping enough, if you want to go out, go talk to them; it’ll be better if everyone is together.”

Fang Juexia agreed and said, “I’ll rest some more, my head still feels a little dizzy.”

“Alright.” Cheng Qiang picked up his laptop and stood up, ready to leave. Fang Juexia closely followed behind him, wanting to send him away as soon as possible. Although his visit hadn’t started off well, being very threatening for them, it fortunately hadn’t turned out dangerous.

Just as he was about to approach the entranceway, Cheng Qiang stopped, turned around, looked at Fang Juexia, pointed to his mouth, and said, “Juexia, has your body been a bit inflamed recently? Look, your mouth is red and a little swollen. What’s the matter? Do you need some herbal tea to clear away the inflammation and swelling?”

Fang Juexia’s ears grew hot. He licked his lips and tried to explain awkwardly, “Maybe that’s the case ba… Yes, yesterday’s private cuisine was too spicy. I had a stomach ache after eating it and felt a bit inflamed. It’s fine, I’ll drink more water later. Once I drink some water, it’ll be fine…”

“Yes, drink more water.” Cheng Qiang turned around, and was just a few steps away from the door when he suddenly turned back. “Hey, speaking of that, I drank a little too much water.” He put the laptop in Fang Juexia’s hands and said, “Let me borrow your bathroom ah.”

“Hey, hey, Ge! Not possible.” Fang Juexia ran to the bathroom door quickly to block the door, blinking continuously.

Cheng Qiang wondered, “What’s the matter?”

“Um…” Fang Juexia swallowed. “….It’s broken. The toilet can’t flush, it can’t be used.”

He felt that he was too resourceful, and was becoming increasingly more capable in making up lies.

“Really?” Cheng Qiang stopped. “Alright ba, then I’m going back ba, fortunately, I can still hold it in.” Saying that, he took the laptop from Fang Juexia’s hands and said, “You remember to call the front desk for repairs ah.”

As he walked out, Cheng Qiang complained, “It’s such an expensive hotel, but the facilities are actually so poor.”

“Bye bye, Qiang Ge.” Fang Juexia poked his head out through the door frame, staying that way until Cheng Qiang had walked around the corner, and no one was there anymore. Only then was he completely relieved. He quickly closed the door, slipped down it to sit on the ground while still against it, and then took a long breath.

He had followed the rules for so many years, but now he was doing all these exciting things with Pei Tingsong.

After hearing nothing for a while, Pei Tingsong quietly cracked open the bathroom door a sliver, and glanced around before coming out. He saw Fang Juexia sitting on the floor. “He’s gone?”

“En, finally he left.” Saying that, Fang Juexia sighed again.

Pei Tingsong squatted in front of him and rubbed Fang Juexia’s head just like he was petting a cat, while praising him, “How can you be so smart? You even managed to deceive him about all this, so amazing.”

It was clearly a compliment, but Fang Juexia felt that he was kind of making fun of him, so he slapped his hand away and went to the bathroom to clean up.

He was really becoming more and more like a cat. Pei Tingsong followed right behind him, squeezing in front of him and brushing his teeth with him. Fang Juexia remained silent on the surface, brushing quietly, but his heart was fluttering away.

Waking up in the same bed with the person you like and then washing up, shoulder to shoulder— this kind of scene was so warm that it almost seemed unreal, appearing to be things that only happen in romance movies.

However, Pei Tingsong was much noisier than those leading characters in movies. One minute, he was arguing that since he has an injured hand, Fang Juexia should help him wash his face, and then the next minute, he wanted him to help him shave.

This continued until Fang Juexia told him with a serious expression, “You are really childish.” It was only then that Pei Tingsong stopped doing this, stopping fairly quickly, and washing and drying his face by himself obediently.

Fang Juexia thought of a question he had seen on Zhihu — What was the experience of falling in love with a boy younger than yourself like?

At that time, he had only glanced at it in a hurry, and he didn’t know how the front page, which was full of mathematics related problems, could end up generating such a life-oriented problem, and he had slipped away directly.

Now that he thought about it, he seemed to be able to reply to that question anonymously.

Fang Juexia’s face was pale and pure, and with some drops of water hanging there, he looked like a person made of glutinous rice. After brushing his teeth, his lips had turned redder, probably due to the stimulation brought by mint. Pei Tingsong stared at him for a while, recalled what he had just heard Cheng Qiang say while he was in the bathroom, that his lips were too red, so he couldn’t help teasing him.

“Your lips are really red ah.”

As soon as he said that, Fang Juexia turned his head and glared at him. Although he didn’t speak, his face was covered in the words ‘it’s all your fault’. After glaring at him, he headed straight out of the bathroom.

Pei Tingsong couldn’t hold down the corners of his mouth from curving up. He walked out to pull the curtains open, before throwing Fang Juexia onto the bed again. “I feel like you didn’t study mathematics, instead you studied how to suddenly turn hostile.”

Fang Juexia took his hand and pushed him. “What nonsense are you saying?”

“You were so obedient last night, going along with whatever I said, but as soon as you woke up today, you turned hostile and didn’t recognize me. I really am too pitiful.”

Completely shameless. Fang Juexia’s mind was filled with these two words, so he pushed Pei Tingsong even harder, but he still couldn’t push him off. Instead, in fact, he was dragged into bed. As soon as the quilt was lifted up, it fell against their bodies like drifting clouds, covering their heads. The sunlight penetrated through the cloth and fiber, weaving a warm color filter.

They were face to face with each other, forehead against forehead. Fang Juexia’s heart was beating wildly. He thought Pei Tingsong was going to do something, and he had almost closed his eyes subconsciously, but then he suddenly heard Pei Tingsong whisper, “I had a dream last night.”

“A dream?” Fang Juexia looked at him.

Pei Tingsong’s eyes and eyebrows were relaxed. Plainly speaking, he had very aggressive features, but his eyes were very gentle. “En. I dreamt that I took you back home to meet my grandfather. He seemed to know you were coming, so he had even cooked for us himself.” Pei Tingsong grimaced. “He’s a terrible cook. You know, he’s the kind of person who has never suffered, so his cooking is a disaster.”

Fang Juexia wanted to laugh and say, ‘aren’t you the same’, but he thought again, and realized that Pei Tingsong may really have suffered a lot. He was after all a young master who had leapt out of the window, ran away from home, and then was captured and pulled back.

“He made a dish for you that looked very….messy, a quinoa and smoked salmon salad, and a Wellington steak, something that he has never made successfully, but you actually seemed to relish eating it!”

He had a look of disbelief on his face, letting out a habitual ‘unbelievable’ from his mouth while frowning, then he laughed again, looking as if he were really describing something that had actually happened. Fang Juexia was so fascinated listening to all this that he drew closer to him, to the point that he was nearly sticking to the tip of his nose. “And then?”

“And then, he liked you very much, and he said over and over again,” Pei Tingsong imitated his grandfather by putting on an old man’s accent, “‘You’re so cute.’ When you praised his dishes as tasty, he was so surprised and kept saying, ‘Really?’. We were laughing so hard, it was a really happy scene ah, and he even let go of his cane.”

Fang Juexia was engrossed and also started laughing, as if he had really gone to the place where Pei Tingsong had grown up and met the only relative who had once accompanied him, the old man who had taken him to see the world and had given him humanistic nourishment and spiritual support.

He laughed and laughed, but his eyes started to sting. He had heard a long time ago that Pei Tingsong’s grandfather had passed away, and that information came from other people.

So, in fact, they were already people in two completely separate worlds. He couldn’t see that old man, he couldn’t see him hurrying around and being clumsy in the kitchen with Pei Tingsong, he wouldn’t be able to see his eager-for-praise expression.

Only in a dream could they realize this incomplete dream.

“What’s the matter?” Pei Tingsong stared at Fang Juexia’s pupils and asked, “Are you going to cry?”

“No,” Fang Juexia’s eyes widened, and his eyes were covered in a layer of liquid, looking as beautiful as glass beads, but he tried to hold them back and not let them fall as he refused, “I’m not.”

Pei Tingsong laughed. It was really strange, this person was clearly so strong, sometimes even to the point of being hard-hearted, but he would actually be flooded with emotion simply because of a dream.

He had once really thought that Fang Juexia was cold and hard, without emotions or expressions, indifferent to everything, which included even his own matters, completely cold and stubborn, and totally unlike a living person. But he was so wrong.

Fang Juexia wasn’t ice. He was naive, intelligent, and had the most gentle and romantic soul in the world. It was in order to maintain and preserve such a soft self that he had created such a hard icy outer layer.

Pei Tingsong raised his chin and kissed Fang Juexia’s eyes. “He also told you a story, a story that he had told me before.”

“What story?” Fang Juexia was curious.

“He showed you a collection of poems he had shown me before. He said that he had written them for a girl who he had secretly been in love with when he was young. He said that he really regretted that he didn’t really pursue her, but just secretly wrote poems. Poems can’t grow feet and run over by themselves to recite themselves to their object, so did he just write them for God to see? So his first love just died in its sleep like that.”

Fang Juexia’s focus was a little strange. “That poetry collection, can I see it later?”

Pei Tingsong laughed. “That is not the main point ba, child Fang Juexia.”

Fang Juexia frowned again when he heard the word ‘child’, but he thought that he had gotten the point wrong or it might be because of a difference in their thought process, so he sincerely asked, “Then what’s the main point?”

“When he told me this story before, it was to tell me that we must be brave. Only brave people can get the most precious reward.”

Saying that, he kissed Fang Juexia’s birthmark. “The little old man was right. You are my reward.”

Fang Juexia just smiled, not saying anything more. At this time, he seemed to have lost his ability to express anything using words, only being able to respond with actions. So he hugged Pei Tingsong and pressed his body against his within the stuffy quilt.

“Now I’m a little worried.” Pei Tingsong held him and sighed.

“What are you worried about?” Fang Juexia was puzzled by the sudden change in his words.

“My grandfather in heaven is expressing that he is very satisfied with the reward I got, and even gave me a dream about it.” After that, he was not sure whether the word he used was right or not. “A dream where a ghost comes to make a request.”

Fang Juexia nodded, “En.” No, why did he nod?

Without waiting for him to figure it out, Pei Tingsong continued, “But your grandfather, one look and you can tell he’s not a person easy to deal with. What to do, will he point a gun at me?”

Fang Juexia let out a long hum then said, “The possibility is very low. After all, he doesn’t have a gun.”

“That was an exaggeration!” Pei Tingsong sighed again before saying, “He must think that this reward is very inferior, no, he may think that I am God’s punishment for you.”

Fang Juexia suddenly laughed and felt it was very appropriate. So he put his arms around Pei Tingsong’s neck and said, “If it’s a punishment, it’s a punishment ba. I like punishment.”

Pei Tingsong quickly grasped this sentence, being a master of words as he was. “You’re the one who just said that. So it turns out, you like punishment play, very powerful.”

“What ah…”

“I’ve already seen the moon, but can I also see the sun, Gege?”

“Shut up, don’t talk anymore, shut up.”

The two people fussed around in bed for a few hours, like any other ordinary lovers in this world, exchanging intimate physical closeness for inner peace, and even this lazily lingering in bed seemed very interesting. When they were hungry, they got the hotel food delivered to their room, and watched Pei Tingsong’s favorite Nordic literary art films while eating.

Fang Juexia clearly wasn’t a person who liked to kill time. For his 20 and more years of life up until now, he had been racing against the clock, and every single minute of it had been very tense. But right now, he felt relaxed, and had fallen in love with this feeling of wasting time. As long as Pei Tingsong was by his side, even if he was narrating the stories of various philosophers and their romantic histories, he found it all interesting.

When Pei Tingsong was talking about the love and hatred that existed between Schopenhauer and his mother, Fang Juexia’s cellphone started vibrating non-stop. Ling Yi was calling, they had come down from the mountain and were getting ready to go strolling around the city to eat local snacks, and he wanted Fang Juexia to come with.

“Going?”

Pei Tingsong stretched and ate the last cracker. “Let’s go, ba.”

However, Pei Tingsong didn’t dare to go back to his own room. He rifled through Fang Juexia’s suitcase and found a loose milk-coffee colored long sleeve shirt and loose black sports pants to put on. “It actually looks pretty good.”

Fang Juexia, who had just changed his clothes and was now wearing a black hoodie, turned around to praise him seriously, “Looks good.”

“What about shoes?” Pei Tingsong stretched out his feet and said, “My feet are bigger than yours.”

Fang Juexia’s eyes brightened as he clenched his left hand and knocked it against the palm of his right. “I brought a pair of sneakers that are a little big this time. I have started to like to wear big shoes recently.”

“You did it on purpose ba, just wanting me to wear your clothes? Schemer.”

Fang Juexia put on his socks with a completely unfeeling expression. “You can also go out in hotel slippers.”

They both then put on hats. Fang Juexia was wearing a baseball cap, with the hood of his hoodie covering it, and then put on a mask, so his face was almost entirely covered. As soon as they exited the hotel, they hailed a taxi, got in, and went to the place that Ling Yi had arranged. The roads twisted and turned, and it was a very hard place to find, so it had turned dark by the time they got there.

It was a street that was neither too long nor too wide. Both sides were filled with stalls and facades, the people passing by were all talking in the local dialect, the food was steaming hot, and the warm lights made everything look delicious.

Meeting up with their bandmates was like meeting up with triad members. Each one was more tightly bundled up than the next one, and they were also flashing each other strange and weird signals.

Lu Yuan had his back turned to He Ziyan and said, “No. 2, No. 2, is No. 2 still there?”

He Ziyan pulled at his own collar. “Reporting in, we have found Kaleidoscope No. 4 and Kaleidoscope No. 6, over.”

Pei Tingsong slapped his paw on He Ziyan’s face. “What silly scene are you guys making?”

Lu Yuan immediately showed a frightened expression. “There’s a mole, terminating the transaction.”

“Hahahahahaha!”

Ling Yi, who was a foodie, had utilised an online strategy to find the most authentic food here. Although most of it Fang Juexia couldn’t eat, the milk tea was very good. He tried a little bit from everyone’s order, and all the dishes were actually very good.

They wanted to happily snack the entire way, but they hadn’t expected to be recognized by the fans they ran into. After all, it was already rare to see a handsome guy out on the street, let alone six of them; they were just too eye-catching. The fans didn’t dare to disturb them casually, and only after repeated confirmation became sure it was Kaleido.

They didn’t dare to go up to ask for autographs, so they only took pictures secretly. At first, they were taking pictures secretly, but then Pei Tingsong just had to crouch on the street at that time as he sucked at the last pearls stuck in his milk tea like a complete youth. Fang Juexia was standing beside him, wearing headphones while eating a slice of watermelon to relieve the spiciness from the previous dishes, and had twisted his head to chat with Ling Yi, who was eating roast beef tallow.

The fans were standing across the street, across a pedestrian walkway, and some were even hiding behind an electrical pole. Unexpectedly, Pei Tingsong, their target, actually discovered them. He raised his eyes, which were filled with a fiendish spirit, then pointed at them. Just as the fans’ hearts had reached their throats, Pei Tingsong made a cutting motion across his throat with his hand.

“Gege, we’re wrong!” The fans begged for mercy.

Pei Tingsong naturally leaned against Fang Juexia’s leg. “100,000 per picture, time to collect.”

Who knew another fan would say, “God, you’re so cheap.”