CH 18

Last night, Liang Yu had posted a photo of a vegetable garden littered with holes. It was captioned, “A little secret planted at my place.” The post came a little out of nowhere. However, there was nothing wrong with it, so the comments under the post were very harmonious. It even made it onto the trending list, hovering around at the very bottom of the list. It didn’t look like it was going to stick around for too long.

As a result, Xu Jingzhe didn’t just post a photo of the exact same vegetable field. He even took the photo from the exact same angle. 

Once there wasn’t any human intervention, the trending topics would become very direct and intuitive. For example, after Xu Jingzhe posted on Weibo, the phrase “reap our rewards” started trending. It instantly shot to the top of the trending list.

Whenever Xu Jingzhe and Liang Yu were to promote themselves in the past, the management team would be at the ready. They would make sure that random phrases like this wouldn’t show up on the trending list. However, it happened far too suddenly this time. The team wouldn’t be able to do anything even if they wanted to. Was Yang Jierui supposed to throw money into promotions just because of this random phrase?

Zhang Man even made a long distance call to Xu Jingzhe.

“I won’t complain about your impulsiveness.” She didn’t manage to hold back the emotion in her voice. “Why didn’t you tell me that you’d be visiting Liang Yu’s family?” 

Xu Jingzhe hesitated for a while before saying, “I didn’t think it’d be a big deal.”

Zhang Man: “Everything about the two of you is a big deal. Even the teeniest tiniest issue between you guys will be magnified a hundred fold. It’s a good thing it was just a photo this time.” She paused, feeling a little complicated. “Do you guys really have that good of a relationship or are you just acting? You do know that you don’t have to do all that, right? No one’s going to pay you for doing overtime. There’s no need to make it seem so real, okay?”

Xu Jingzhe: “…”

The photo had already been posted. It wasn’t like they could take it back. Zhang Man and Yang Jierui both seemed to have given up. They decided to simply close their eyes for now and go back to celebrating the holidays.

Zhu Xiaoxiao was rather busy. She wasn’t busy with Xu Jingzhe. She was busy lurking through various forums.

As expected, YuJing Official Shipping Hub was busy losing their minds. They wanted nothing more than to hold the wedding ceremony of the century right this very instant. As for the other thread, Ptoo! We’re Not Buying!, the atmosphere was a little strange. Most of the comments seemed to go along the lines of something like this.

“Did Yang Jierui forget to buy marketing for Liang Yu? What’s the use of a trending topic like ‘reap our rewards’?”

“This trending topic is probably real. It was so obvious that those previous trending topics were an act. I’ve always thought that there’s no way an upstart like Liang Yu would fall in love with someone as fake as Rem.” 

“Don’t you guys think it’s pretty strange though? According to our logic, this means Liang Yu actually brought Rem home?!”

“…”

“…”

“Tbe’gf rfmgfais j rtlqqfg, jgfc’a sbe?! Xfa bea bo tfgf! Uabb! Qf’gf cba yeslcu la!” 

Ite Wljbzljb rajgfv ja atf cjwf bo atf atgfjv obg j ibcu alwf. Vtf mbeivc’a tfiq yea kbcvfg ktja atf tfii atfs kfgf agslcu ab jmmbwqilrt. Ktfs kfgf fnfc yfaafg ja olcvlcu rtlqqlcu mbcafca atjc atf boolmlji rtlqqlcu atgfjv!

Liang Yu didn’t pay much attention to the carnage going on online. Marketing was the work of his subordinates. It had nothing to do with him. Now that everyone was on vacation, no one was working. They would just have to wait for the trending topic to go down on its own.

Since Xu Jingzhe still had to stay for a few days, he ended up trying a lot of new things. Xu Jingzhe discovered that Liang Yu didn’t play mahjong at home. He asked Xiao Luo about why that was. She responded with a smile, “My brother doesn’t play mahjong because he likes it. He plays because he can make money.”

Xu Jingzhe thought of that little ledger, the amounts written on it, and the signatures. The expression on his face was a little complicated. 

Liang Yu really loved money.

During the last two days of their vacation, the two of them went fishing. The artificial pond that Xiao Luo mentioned was very large. It took about ten minutes to walk from one end of the pond to the other. Plum trees were planted along the embankment. The trees were in full bloom, like snow upon a winter day.

Liang Yu didn’t dress as casually as he did at home. He wore black sweatpants trimmed with silver zippers. He was also wearing a red hoodie with a black puffer vest. Xu Jingzhe’s outfit was, once again, matching. He wore white sweatpants trimmed with drawstrings. He was also wearing a black crew-neck sweater paired with a hooded red overcoat.

The way they were dressed was very festive. It was obvious that the two of them were a couple. 

As soon as they walked out the door, Xu Jingzhe immediately entered business mode. His red clothing looked particularly conspicuous when he stood under the flowery white plum tree. Even his gaze seemed to be as affectionate as a real lover.

Liang Yu felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up when he saw this. He couldn’t help but say, “There usually isn’t any paparazzi around here.”

Xu Jingzhe paused for a moment. Then, he adjusted his position, and, sure enough, the left side of his face was facing outward.

“Just in case.” He spoke calmly. 

Liang Yu owned some pretty good fishing rods. Xu Jingzhe had never fished before. He later discovered that there was actually a bit of technique to it. For instance, most experienced fishermen had their own recipe for their fish bait, and they were very particular about it.

Xu Jingzhe held a fishing rod in his hands. Liang Yu squatted down next to him, neatly helping him set up the bait.

“Back up a little.” Liang Yu instructed him, “Lift your arms.”

Xu Jingzhe obeyed. Liang Yu observed him for a bit, but he still felt that something was off. He stood up and wiped his hands. Then, Liang Yu circled around Xu Jingzhe and helped him adjust the fishing pole. 

“It’s like this.” Liang Yu was practically hugging Xu Jingzhe from behind. He put both of his hands on the back of Xu Jingzhe’s. Then, he exerted a little bit of force, “Raise it up … and then throw it out.”

The thin and narrow fishing line drew an oblate arc and smoothly slipped into the water. After a second or two, the buoy turned upright. It was only then that Liang Yu let go of Xu Jingzhe’s hands.

Xu Jingzhe didn’t move right away. “Is it like this?”

Liang Yu: “Yep. Now, we just need to wait.” 

He propped up two folding stools and motioned for Xu Jingzhe to sit down. Then, he unscrewed the lid of a thermos and poured out two cups of tea.

Xu Jingzhe asked, “You’re not going to fish?”

Liang Yu glanced at him and said, “I’ve had enough of fish. You can play.”

He stuffed a cup of tea into Xu Jingzhe’s hands and told Xu Jingzhe to use it to keep his hands warm. He sat on the other folding chair, arrogantly propping his leg up on his knee, and looked out at the pool’s surface. Xu Jingzhe stared at the buoy for a while. It was a little boring, so he looked back at Liang Yu. 

“Don’t look at me,” Liang Yu suddenly said. “Look at the buoy. The fish are about to take the bait.”

Xu Jingzhe looked back at the buoy and found that there wasn’t any movement. He muttered, “It still hasn’t taken the bait.”

Liang Yu turned his face to the side. There just so happened to be a cluster of white plum blossoms right above his head. A few of the petals drifted down and landed on his body.

“What’s the rush?” He laughed softly as he watched Xu Jingzhe. Then, he slowly said, “It’ll take the bait soon enough.” 

Xu Jingzhe didn’t know whether Liang Yu had simply made a lucky guess or whether Liang Yu’s fish bait had some sort of secret ingredient, but Xu Jingzhe actually did end up catching a ton of fish. There were so many fish that the bucket couldn’t even hold all of them.

Liang Yu asked him if he wanted to buy them and take them back.

“Let’s buy a few,” Xu Jingzhe said. He felt very accomplished today. He didn’t look like his usual calm and cool self. Instead, his eyes glittered. He proudly said, “Let’s kill them and eat them.”

It was probably the first time that Liang Yu heard him say something so unpolished and direct. He ended up laughing a little too hard. 

Xu Jingzhe realized that he was a little too excited, so he had no choice but to rein himself back in. He deliberately asked, “What are you laughing for?”

Liang Yu played along. “It’s nothing.”

He propped the fishing rod up on his shoulder and carried the bucket over to the management department so that they could check out. Xu Jingzhe felt that the scenery was simply too beautiful. He couldn’t help but take a few pictures of the white plum trees. It wasn’t until Liang Yu called out his name that he reluctantly started making his way to leave.

“When do you need to join the film crew?” Liang Yu suddenly asked as they made their way back. 

Xu Jingzhe didn’t even need to calculate the date. “I’ll be joining the crew on the eighth day after new year’s, so the day after tomorrow.” He sighed, a little dispirited. “I hope I haven’t gained any weight.”

Liang Yu gave him a sideways glance and said, “You haven’t. I can tell.”

Xu Jingzhe didn’t really believe him. “We’re together all the time. What can you tell?”

He had just finished speaking when he realized that his tone of voice seemed to be a little too intimate. Just as he was thinking about how to smooth things over, he heard Liang Yu say, “Once you arrive on set, send me the address.” 

Xu Jingzhe didn’t quite follow. “What for?”

“What do you mean? I’m going to visit you,” Liang Yu said very naturally. “We’re in a relationship now, so how could I not?”

The Author Has Something To Say:

Liang Yu’s Love: He hates seafood more than anything, but he still takes Xu Jingzhe fishing.