Author: 反舌鸟 / Mockingbird
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 17
Yu Ruoyun woke up in the middle of the night after falling asleep too early.
Long Xingyu, who was sleeping beside him, was a light sleeper and was awakened as soon as the light was turned on.
“What are you doing here?” Yu Ruoyun asked.
Still groggy, Long Xingyu slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? You got drunk, lost control, and slept with me. I kept shouting ‘no’ but couldn’t resist. You need to take responsibility.”
“I didn’t sleep with you. You haven’t even taken your clothes off,” Yu Ruoyun said. “It’s my clothes that are missing.”
“There’s only one robe in this room,” Long Xingyu pouted. “This is supposed to be the most expensive room, but the hotel is so stingy.”
“Change back,” Yu Ruoyun said gently. “Your clothes are all wrinkled.”
“It’s three in the morning!” Long Xingyu protested. “If I go back now, people will say I failed to seduce you.”
Even though it was unlikely anyone would be outside at this hour, and he indeed hadn’t succeeded in his seduction attempt.
To avoid such a fate, Long Xingyu decided to stay put. He turned on the TV, recalling the award ceremony he hadn’t finished watching. Long Xingyu pressed the replay button and rewound to the part where the Lifetime Achievement Award was announced.
Watching TV naturally meant reclining. Yu Ruoyun’s bed was large, and Long Xingyu shamelessly lay on the other side. Yu Ruoyun said, “I just had a dream.”
“Dreaming of your old lover?” Long Xingyu asked.
“I dreamed someone was pressing down on me,” Yu Ruoyun said. “I turned over, but they kept pressing on me, and we eventually fell off the bed together.”
“That usually means you’re going to have bad luck,” Long Xingyu said without changing his expression. “If you’re willing to pay, I can find a feng shui master to help change your fate.”
On the TV, clips of Jiang Yu’s classic movies, accompanied by sentimental music, caught Long Xingyu’s attention.
It was a short video, so each image only appeared for a few seconds, but the audience recognized them. As for the less successful films, they were cut out without any regret.
“Why did you suddenly stop talking?” Yu Ruoyun asked when he saw Long Xingyu fall silent.
Long Xingyu waited until the video ended before speaking. “So, he did leave something behind. That’s good. He can reincarnate peacefully.”
He looked at Yu Ruoyun. “Don’t you think that a person’s life is made up of fragments, not a continuous timeline? No one cares what someone ate for lunch ten years ago. When people look back, they think of significant moments like university entrance exams, marriages, and childbirth. These are the nodes. For celebrities, some actors or singers leave only one role or one song. No one cares about the rest of their careers, even if they lived many more years. What people remember and replay are the most brilliant moments. If you can’t achieve that, it’s like having nothing at all.”
Jiang Yu had always thought that way, believing that he needed to leave something behind before the wave of his era turned into foam. He thought he would live to see the day he was forgotten, without any more roles, reminiscing about the old days that no one cared about.
He knew Yu Ruoyun wouldn’t necessarily agree with this view. As expected, Yu Ruoyun said, “The entertainment industry isn’t just made up of these glamorous moments. You’re still young. You shouldn’t think like this.”
He wanted to listen to Yu Ruoyun’s lecture, but Yu Ruoyun didn’t continue.
“Then what else is there?” Long Xingyu had to ask. “Please, great Film Emperor, enlighten this newcomer.”
Yu Ruoyun said slowly, “It seems there’s no need to say it. Suddenly, I feel you might already know.”
Long Xingyu looked at Yu Ruoyun and smiled mischievously. He had only said half of what he wanted to say, and Yu Ruoyun didn’t want to complete the other half for him. Success wasn’t the only thing that mattered; failure also had value and could define a person. Mention Nixon, and people think of Watergate. Mention Gorbachev, and they think of the Soviet Union’s collapse. The same went for celebrities’ failures. Mental breakdowns, unhappy families, being abandoned, heavy debts—these could also be memorable points that attract attention and sympathy.
Just like Jiang Yu’s bad luck and tragic end.
Long Xingyu said, “When we slept together, you kept calling Jiang Yu’s name.”
“…We didn’t sleep together,” Yu Ruoyun repeated. “Don’t falsely accuse me.”
“Okay, we didn’t.” Long Xingyu changed his story. “But you did tell me about Jiang Yu.”
That wasn’t a lie.
“What did I say?” Yu Ruoyun asked.
“You said you loved Jiang Yu to death.” Long Xingyu began to fabricate. “You said you cried every day at home, wishing you could trade all your awards to bring him back…”
“That’s unlikely,” Yu Ruoyun interrupted.
“What’s unlikely?”
“The last part. I wouldn’t say that.”
“Crying every day?” Long Xingyu asked.
“The part about trading my awards.”
Long Xingyu’s confidence crumbled. “You wouldn’t trade your awards to bring him back?!”
“Leaving aside whether such a premise is possible,” Yu Ruoyun said. “Let’s assume it is. I would be willing to trade all my honors to bring him back, but I wouldn’t make that assumption myself. Because—”
“If I didn’t have those awards, those accolades, I don’t know if he would still love me.”
Long Xingyu was furious.
He wanted to argue but found himself tongue-tied, glaring at Yu Ruoyun. He couldn’t speak. Feeling guilty, he had this reaction. He realized he still didn’t understand life enough.
It shouldn’t be like this. He should tell Yu Ruoyun it wasn’t just about that; he shouldn’t think that way.
“Idiot,” Long Xingyu said. He jumped off the bed. “You motherfucking 24k pure idiot. You think he loved you because of that.”
He started walking out, or rather, fleeing, as if a fire were chasing him, forcing him to confront his own feelings, demanding an answer.
He didn’t know the answer.
But Yu Ruoyun had found the answer to another question.
This was a weapon effective only against one person. He had taken a gamble, and it cut deep. His suspicion about that person’s identity had taken shape. But this gamble couldn’t be considered a win. If not for the accident, he wouldn’t have wanted Jiang Yu to know he had ever thought this way. He wouldn’t have wanted Jiang Yu to start questioning it.
“Can I help you?” the receptionist asked.
Long Xingyu felt more dejected than before. “I lost my room key. Can you get me another one?”
Running out of Yu Ruoyun’s room at three in the morning, with wrinkled clothes and messy hair, to report a lost room key wasn’t a wise choice. Tomorrow, there would be more rumors that he had been kicked out by Yu Ruoyun, for the second time. At this hour, they might even say he had been kicked out after sex.
Let them talk. He didn’t care anymore. There was no way he was going back to ask for his key. Right now, Yu Ruoyun was like a terrifying demon to him. He’d rather throw himself onto the road and get run over again than see Yu Ruoyun.
He didn’t want to know how much pain Yu Ruoyun was in, thinking about this.
The media shouldn’t have whitewashed him just because he died. He was indeed a selfish and despicable person.
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