CH 35

Second of two chapters! (Because ending on that last one would be too heartrending lol)

Ye Fei set foot on the plane to the northwest the next morning. The peak summer travel period has passed, so even if he was purchasing a last-minute ticket, Ye Fei was fortunate enough to obtain a first-class seat. 

He did not bring much. After putting away his luggage, Ye Fei was about to sit down, until he caught eyes on something, and was startled.

It was a familiar computer bag. It shared the same dark blue leather cover, and silver-plated buckle of the bag Yan Xiao usually carried. Ye Fei’s heart thumped as he slowly raised his head.

A handsome yet unfamiliar face came into view.

“Sir, sir?” The sweet-looking stewardess walked up to him and reminded, “Would you please take your seat first?” Ye Fei recovered, and smiled at the flight attendant. 

“I’m sorry.” He’s good looking and even more attractive when he smiles. The flight attendant’s cheeks turned a little red, and she smiled back. With her professionalism, she resisted the urge to stay for a while and went to the boarding gate to wait for others to board the plane.

Ye Fei fastened his seat belt, thought about it, took out his mobile phone and opened Yan Xiao’s chat dialog.

Yan Xiao’s avatar used a photo of him. Dressed in a meticulous black suit, with neatly combed hair, he looked as serious as an ID photo. Ye Fei smiled involuntarily, but his smile was fleeting and soon disappeared. He moved his fingertips and pressed the avatar to save it.

There was a rustling sound coming from his side. It should be his seat neighbor. Ye Fei continued to stare at his chat record and did not look up.

“Hello.” A male voice sounded in his ear. It took a few seconds for Ye Fei to realize that the other was talking to him. He turned his head and noticed that the owner of the familiar computer bag just happened to be the one sitting next to him.

“Are you going to the Northwest too?” The man was dressed in a well-fitting white shirt and introduced himself to Ye Fei, “My name is Feng Gaoyi.”

Ye Fei said “yes” and nodded politely at him, but did not want to continue the conversation.

Feng Gaoyi disregarded his coldness and sat with his legs wide open, his eyes shifting to Ye Fei’s face. “Domestic flights really aren’t comfortable. In international flights, you get a tolerable seat pitch, but not so in domestic flights. So I always only buy first class when I travel.” 

He paused and asked again, “Are you on a business trip or a tourist trip?”

“On a business trip.” Ye Fei was irritated by him, and gave a perfunctory answer.

Feng Gaoyi did not seem to notice his indifference. He chose to smile and continued to speak. “It’s a coincidence, I’m also on a business trip. The hospital in the Northwest invited me to practice at their clinic and give a lecture to their doctors.”

While speaking, he raised his hand and nudged the Hermès laptop bag in Ye Fei’s direction. “Look, I even brought my computer with me.” 

Ye Fei sneered and looked away. Yan Xiao’s sitting posture was always upright, and he would not show off with luxury goods. Ye Fei was sure that he could not even recognize the brand of his laptop bag, and simply took what his assistant had chosen.

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“You know, I’ve been very busy as a doctor. Because I’ve been paying attention to my career, I’ve delayed my own personal aspirations. I’m now looking for someone to settle down with.” He hinted his intentions at Ye Fei with a burning gaze, “It’s nice to go out with your boyfriend, sit together and have a chat.” 

Ye Fei had been disregarding him in hopes of getting him to retreat, but he never expected that this person would step on his face in response. He simply arched his neck and raised his eyebrow with a smile.

“Really?” Ye Fei gave the pretense of acknowledgement. “Which hospital are you from?”

Ye Fei’s courtesy was about to dissipate Feng Gaoyi’s soul. After a long while, he reported the name of a third-tier hospital. Ye Fei narrowed his eyes indolently.

“This hospital, I’m familiar with—” Feng Gaoyi’s eyes lit up. Just as he was about to say something, he heard Ye Fei continue, “My father and my brother were killed in your hospital.” 

An awkward silence. The flight was three hours long, yet Feng Gaoyi was as quiet as a chicken and never spoke again.

The filming location of <<Super Time Redemption>> was very remote. After Ye Fei got off the plane, he needed to take a chartered car and ride for nearly five hours. He spent a lot of money to order a lot of food from the only nearby county, before he finally arrived at his destination in the evening.

The actors showed a great welcome to his arrival. Because they were close to the desert, they were afraid of issues. Thus, the crew had great difficulties exiting the filming location, and access was restricted. No matter how delicious their takeaway lunch was, they were tired of the endless repetition. What Ye Fei brought solved their cravings.

Rather than following the majority grabbing food, Song Wen pulled Ye Fei aside to report to him about the budget situation. 

Song Wen was an honest person. Since Ye Fei had assisted him when he was at a low point, his nerves were stretched as he did everything to perfection in order not to let Ye Fei down.

The two’s conversation lasted until the middle of the night. It was only when the assistant director came over to remind him politely that Ye Fei might be tired after traveling all day, did Song Wen recover his wits and let Ye Fei go back to rest.

The next day, Ye Fei woke up feeling uncomfortable. Having come from a humid place, he could not adapt to the dry northwest climate. Not only was his skin peeling, he had started coughing as well.

“It’s normal to be not accustomed to the soil and water” Song Wen was particularly experienced in this and bought a packet of malva nuts over, and started to soak them for Ye Fei to drink. “When I just came, it took half a month of drinking this to help.”

“This is the first time I am drinking this stuff.” Ye Fei thanked Song Wen as he reached out and poked at the packaging. He picked up the cup and tasted it. The taste was not bitter, but astringent. “You have worked hard.”

“I should be.” Song Wen waved his hand and talked to Ye Fei for a while before running to the monitor, ready to start the first shooting of the day. 

Ye Fei rejected the assistant Song Wen had arranged for him, and sat alone outside the location. He appeared to be watching the actors filming gravely, but his head was filled with thoughts about Yan Xiao.

He had made a mistake in his calculations. Distance did not obstruct this uncontrollable feeling, but the separation had made his heart grow fonder. Ye Fei’s chest felt empty, and he urgently needed to do something to keep himself busy, so as to forget Yan Xiao.

He pondered for a while and took a picture of the malva nuts before sharing it to his circle of friends, posting his status—

[Your Brother Fei: Surviving by this [picture]] 

Then he sent the picture to the group chat of Gu Ruijia and several others. This group was newly created by Gu Ruijia, and Yan Xiao was not a member. Because the topics they usually talk about were too obscene, it would be awkward if Yan Xiao was reading them.

[Brother Fei: I am not used to the soil and water, Song Wen gave me a drink of this.]

[Gu Ruijia 180 minutes: Hahahahaha good for you! You deserve it for insiting on going.]

[Sun Qiong is very rich: Ye Fei is busy drinking malva nuts in the northwest, but I can only drink red wine in the air-conditioned room. Ah, this is the difference.] 

[Zhou Family Group Pet: Are you still human? Ye Fei is so miserable… I’m sorry, I can’t make it up, hahahaha, you can also add some wolfberries. ]

Ye Fei smirked, and wanted to tease them as usual, but he could not even muster up the urge to type. It was as if he had lost all of his energy and strength overnight. He sat in a daze, before turning off his phone. He was about to go back and lie down when the screen suddenly lit up, a WeChat message popping up—

[Yan Xiao: Ye Fei, what happened to you?]

Ye Fei abruptly stood up and stared at the screen without blinking. It took a long while before he could calm down his thrashing heart. Before he could decide whether to reply or not, Yan Xiao called. 

Ye Fei took a deep breath, pressed the answer button, and tried his best to adopt a casual attitude. “President Yan, is there something wrong?”

Yan Xiao gave a “hmm” and asked him, “What’s the matter with you?”

Ye Fei’s mind was not fully operational, and it took a few seconds to understand what Yan Xiao meant. “It’s nothing, I’m just not accustomed to the weather.”

“Accustom?” Yan Xiao repeated. 

“I went to the Northwest for something.”

“I see,” Yan Xiao broke off, and after a while, he slowly replied, “I didn’t know.”

Ye Fei did not know how to answer and kept quiet. Fortunately, Yan Xiao did not continue the topic, and only asked him, “What symptoms?”

“It’s just a little cough, no worries, it’s normal.” 

“Okay.” Ye Fei faintly heard a slight sound of flipping books on the phone, but did not ask. The two continued their awkward silence; the atmosphere started to get cold. Ye Fei’s chest started to feel tight with no rhyme or reason. He closed his eyes and wanted to say goodbye to Yan Xiao, but his throat suddenly itchy and he coughed uncontrollably.

When he did not cough, it was okay; but once he started to cough, he could not stop. Ye Fei swallowed hard twice, finally got a moment to catch his breath, squeezed out the words “hanging up”, and ended the call.

Song Wen had come over to look for him. Seeing this, he patted him on the back and said, “You need to hurry over to where the wind is blocked.”

Once they had arrived, Song Wen produced his purpose of coming over. “President Ye, since you’re already here, let’s have dinner tonight?” 

“No,” Ye Fei drank a mouthful of malva nuts to moisten his throat, and refused, “You should continue to film. Once we’ve reached the end and started our promotion, we can have a celebratory dinner.”

“Okay.” Song Wen thought about it and agreed.

<<Super Time Redemption>> had to be released during the Spring Festival. They had wasted a lot of time due to the incompatible weather. In order to catch up, they had been rushing through their scenes. It was not worthwhile to use a night for a get-together.

Though they did not dine together, Ye Fei still had to indicate his support. For the next few days, the menu of the crew was enriched. The actors were satisfied with their meal upgrade, and wished that Ye Fei would become a permanent mainstay of their crew. 

In the evening, Ye Fei did not want to be alone, so he ran to the shooting location. The Gobi desert had a large temperature difference between day and night, as though it alternated between seasons each day. Ye Fei was wrapped in an overcoat and sat on a chair, watching the actors filming.

Perhaps because Ye Fei was present, the third male lead, who was considered a rookie, became nervous and kept ‘NG’ing. Song Wen was polite at first, but as the third male lead started to get more and more out of sorts, he was so angry that he started to roar.

Ye Fei saw that the third male lead’s shoulders were shrunken, and was about to be scolded to the point of turning into a hermit. Ye Fei stood up and was just about to play mediator, when the field manager suddenly called him from behind. “President Ye! President Ye!”

Ye Fei turned her head. “What—” His voice halted as his eyes glazed over. Was he hallucinating? 

Yan Xiao’s suit was slightly wrinkled, and his hair was a little messy, as if he had traveled for a long time. Holding a bag in his hand, he was walking towards him step by step.

“President Yan is here to find you, hahaha.” The field manager spoke with a smile, before wisely making his exit, leaving the space for the two of them.

Ye Fei felt his breath catch. He opened his mouth, but no words escaped. It was not until Yan Xiao stopped in front of him did his voice re-emerge from hiding.

“Why are you here?” 

“It’s a business trip. I brought medicine since it’s on the way.” Yan Xiao opened his bag, took out the medicine inside, and introduced them to Yan Xiao one by one. At the end of his soliloquy, he stated, “I have asked the doctor, and it can be used.”

The medicine bag traveled from the southeast of the country to the northwest. It was a distance of more than 2,800 kilometers.

“Tell me the truth.” Ye Fei’s voice started to tremble. Maybe it was cold. The Gobi Desert was chilly at night, and the wind bit at your skin. The light of the stars on top scattered over Yan Xiao, creating a tranquil yet noiseless atmosphere.

“I won’t feel at ease if I don’t see you with my own eyes.” He finally uttered.