Gu Lizhou had run several kilometers back and forth. He was drenched in sweat, his hair disheveled, and the whole person looked utterly miserable. Zhong Weishi quickly poured him a glass of water and turned on the small fan in the living room.
Gu Lizhou gulped down a large cup of water before some color finally returned to his lips. His throat still burned like fire, and he croaked hoarsely, “Why hasn’t anyone come out to debunk that news ah?”
Zhong Weishi said, “There are tons of posts like that online. Someone even claimed the lead actor has an illegitimate child. The team can’t possibly keep up with all of it. Eventually people forget. But if a post gets too many shares, the official account will definitely step in and clarify.”
Cao Zhiheng let out a heavy sigh. “Old Gu, I really gotta hand it to you. That kind of dangerous scene obviously used props ah. You saw the way that person flew? Their arm looked like it didn’t even have bones.”
“How would I know?!” Gu Lizhou’s eyes were red. “If you knew, why didn’t you tell me! Now you’re just playing hindsight!”
“You didn’t even send me the video ah,” Cao Zhiheng looked completely wronged. “You sounded so sure on the phone. I even asked if you were certain, and you insisted you were. You yelled at me like crazy—‘You’re a scourge~ What does he understand ah understand~…”
Cao Zhiheng pinched his throat to mimic him.
“Shut up!”
Gu Lizhou was thoroughly humiliated. He glanced at the perfectly unharmed Zhong Weishi and felt like a total fool. He was so angry that steam practically fumed out the back of his head.
He even cried in fear at the airport.
Utterly embarrassing!
Too shameful to recall.
Zhong Weishi saw the tips of his ears slowly turning red and thought he was angry. He quickly nudged his arm. “Ge, don’t be mad. I’ll pay attention to my phone next time.”
It was the first time the child had called him “Ge.”
Obedient, cautious, with a tone of trying to make peace—like a pair of soft little hands squeezing Gu Lizhou’s heart into mush in an instant.
Cao Zhiheng furrowed his brows, but managed to stay unusually clear-headed in a key moment: “Ai, that’s not right ah? You’re calling him ‘ge’ and calling me ‘uncle’? So what generation are we even supposed to be ah?”
“Roll!” Gu Lizhou turned around and roared.
Zhong Weishi had no choice but to pick at his fingernail and correct himself, “Uncle Gu.”
“Hahahahahahahahaha—” Cao Zhiheng slapped his leg, laughing uncontrollably.
Gu Lizhou jabbed Zhong Weishi on the forehead hard. “Is your brain full of water or what?!”
Zhong Weishi rubbed his head. “Don’t you usually make me call you ‘Dad’? You are of that generation ah. So how was I wrong again!?”
Gu Lizhou roared in rage, “Either call me ‘Dad’ or call me ‘Ge’! Pick one yourself!”
Standing behind Gu Lizhou, Cao Zhiheng silently mouthed: Call him Dad.
Zhong Weishi looked just like a kid being forced to greet relatives during New Year, awkward and fidgety, then ended up not saying anything at all. “It’s hot, you should drink more water to cool off.”
Gu Lizhou was fuming. In the end, he could only glare viciously at Cao Zhiheng. “Uncle Cao, go get me another glass of water.”
“On it!”
Zhong Weishi lowered his head again to rewatch the video, amused. “Why would you ever think that person was me?”
“You told me this morning you had something going on with the production crew, but didn’t say what…”
Now that Gu Lizhou was watching the video on repeat, he could tell there was a slight difference from a real person—the limbs were a little stiff when the body was blasted away.
The preconceived idea had been too strong. He hadn’t even considered it wasn’t a real person.
He propped one hand on his thigh and took a deep breath. “I only caught a glimpse of that video at first. The second I saw the words ‘Cheng Yue’s stunt double,’ of course I thought of you. These shady marketing accounts will do anything for a few damn clicks—scared the crap out of me, I almost had a heart attack.”
Zhong Weishi pursed his lips. “You really thought I got blown up and died ya?”
Gu Lizhou didn’t say a word.
Cao Zhiheng patted his shoulder. “Alright, alright, alright, it was a false alarm. He’s fine, that’s all that matters. Old Gu, you better take care of that arm of yours or it’ll get infected.”
Zhong Weishi tilted his head and glanced at Gu Lizhou’s arm—then gasped sharply.
No wonder he’d thought something was off. The guy’s arm had been hanging at a weird angle ever since he walked in.
A patch nearly the size of half a palm had the skin scr4p3d clean off. Judging by the wound, it looked like he’d braced himself on the ground and rubbed it raw. The torn area was still smeared with dirt, looking grimy and filthy.
Gu Lizhou’s skin was pale to begin with, so that patch of blood on his hand looked especially shocking.
Zhong Weishi didn’t even dare lift his arm too hard, afraid the bone might be hurt. “What happened?”
Cao Zhiheng, leaning on the sofa, explained, “He thought something happened to you, right? So he ran to the hospital near the film set to see if they’d received any emergency patients. He was running too fast and didn’t notice a car making a left turn and got hit.”
Honestly, after finding out Gu Lizhou didn’t come back out of reluctance to leave him, Zhong Weishi did feel a little disappointed. But seeing him now, in such a sorry state, he felt both distressed and secretly a little pleased.
In short, it was very contradictory.
Gu Lizhou saw the pale look on his face and quickly tried to reassure him. “It’s nothing serious, just some scr4p3d skin.”
“This is not just a scr4p3. Can you even move it? You didn’t hurt the bone, did you?” Zhong Weishi rushed back to the room to rummage through drawers. “Good thing the medicine you bought me last time hasn’t been used up yet.”
Cao Zhiheng settled onto the small sofa. “Didn’t I say it was nothing? But no, he wouldn’t listen to me. You wanna go to the hospital for an x-ray? If there’s a fracture, that’s no small matter.”
Gu Lizhou shook his head. “No need. I know whether my bones are injured or not.”
Cao Zhiheng recalled the image of him getting knocked over by that SUV and still felt a lingering fear. Luckily, it happened at an intersection, so the car had slowed down a bit. Gu Lizhou, all banged up, got up from the ground without even saying a word to the driver, dashed straight across the road, and rushed to the hospital.
Even the driver was confused.
The Gu Lizhou he knew, outwardly friendly and courteous, always able to quickly warm up to others, was actually cold as ice deep down, the type who’d rather lock himself up in a dark room to rot alone.
Aside from writing, nothing ever stirred his interest, let alone getting so worked up over someone that he’d start yelling.
But lately, he kept bringing up that kid in front of him, helping him pay rent, bailing him out from the police station, even going to great lengths to plan a birthday.
They practically grew up together in the same pair of crotchless pants, and when had he ever thrown him a birthday party ah?
At most, he’d send a red envelope.
Not even a slice of cake.
This whole episode today made it feel like Gu Lizhou had changed.
But whether that change was for better or worse, he couldn’t say for sure.
Cao Zhiheng glanced at the kid with his butt sticking out, rummaging through the room for medicine. He hooked an arm around Gu Lizhou’s neck and whispered, “Don’t you think you care a bit too much about your litle didi?”
Gu Lizhou frowned. “What kind of question is that? If it were you in danger today, I’d be just as worried.”
Cao Zhiheng only smiled, neither agreeing nor denying.
Zhong Weishi came out carrying a big bag stuffed with everything he’d ever taken or used in the past four years—some expired, some newly bought.
He dumped it all onto the coffee table.
“What were you so anxious for anyway? I’m not a kid, it’s not like anything would happen to me.” Zhong Weishi twisted open a box of cotton swabs and dipped one into the iodine. He’d never treated anyone’s wounds before, and his fingers were shaking badly. “Maybe Uncle Cao, you should do it instead?”
Cao Zhiheng waved him off. “Nope, not my job. You caused this, you deal with it.”
Zhong Weishi pouted. “What do you mean I caused this ah? I didn’t tell him to…” He looked up and met Gu Lizhou’s eyes. “Fine, fine, I caused it. It’s all my fault. Bear with it ah.”
Ow, ow, ow, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah—
It was like a pig being slaughtered.
The battle was utterly tragic.
“Zhong Weishi! Do you want me to die!”
“I’m already being really gentle! It’s just that this bit of skin is still hanging on by a thread. I wanted to pull it off—it looks so uncomfortable. It’s making my guts itch, just like when you see a tiny pimple.”
“Then let your guts itch! Don’t touch my skin!”
“Then let me blow on it, okay?”
“Fine. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow—”
The skin got ripped off.
Once he finally finished cleaning the wound, Gu Lizhou covered his eyes with a hand, holding back tears. “You’re such a liar.” There was no blowing at all, like he’d promised.
Zhong Weishi leisurely wrapped the gauze, looking quite pleased with himself. “Your clothes are dirty too. Wanna take a shower and change?”
Cao Zhiheng was nibbling on a Cornetto he’d dug out from the fridge when something suddenly occurred to him. “Oh right, where’s your suitcase?”
“Right, oh! And your plane ticket! Did you miss your flight?!” Zhong Weishi snapped to attention. “How much money was wasted?”
“My suitcase is stored at the airport. The flight can be rescheduled, he just had to pay a small change fee. I’ll check online later to sort it out. Old Cao, let me borrow your laptop.”
“Sure, go grab it from my room later. No password on it.”
Cao Zhiheng headed back to 303, and the living room fell quiet. It was nearly six in the evening now, the sky outside growing dim. The atmosphere inside was warm and soft.
Gu Lizhou was trying to blow-dry the medicine on his elbow, while Zhong Weishi was looking through the pile for unexpired antibiotics.
Out of nowhere, that one sentence Gu Lizhou had blurted out in panic echoed again in his mind: “Don’t panic, I’m on my way. Whatever it is, I’ll handle it…”
Zhong Weishi had been a child abandoned by his own family—no father’s love, no mother’s care. The smallest gesture of kindness could move him to tears. That feeling of being cared for, of being protected. It wasn’t something he could ignore, let alone resist.
He looked at the man sitting before him, who was ten years older, a man who had been watering and nurturing his heart over and over again, and he felt like something inside him was slowly taking root and starting to grow.
From the corner of his eye, Gu Lizhou could sense the boy leaning closer. He turned his head and met a pair of clear, bright eyes.
Zhong Weishi had beautiful eyes, full of spirit. Big eyes had this way of making everything they looked at seem so intense, like the kitten he used to have as a child, always staring at the goldfish in the tank.
He often thought: for someone to have a face this good-looking, his parents’ genes must’ve been incredibly strong.
No one knew how long they stared at each other, maybe a second, maybe three, but time felt like it had frozen.
Zhong Weishi saw the tiny mole hidden beneath Gu Lizhou’s brow, a stray eyelash on his cheek, even the reflection of himself in Gu Lizhou’s pupils.
He wanted to look a little deeper, but soon found himself dizzy from that gaze, heart thumping wildly. He dropped his eyes.
The atmosphere was subtle for a while.
Gu Lizhou capped the bottle of iodine and said, “You need to be more careful from now on. No matter how much they pay, don’t take on any dangerous stunt work, got it? I’m not an immortal who can always be by your side. If something does happen, it’ll be too late for regrets.”
Zhong Weishi nodded and murmured, “I know. Thanks for today.”
Gu Lizhou chuckled. “What are you thanking me for ya? It was all just a big misunderstanding.”
Zhong Weishi’s index fingers were nervously twisting together, the tips turning pale from pressure. “Thanks for caring about me. I never thought about it before, but it turns out, if I get hurt, or if I leave, there’s actually someone who’d worry and feel upset. That makes me really happy…”
The boy kept his head down as he spoke, and though subtle, there was a faint quiver in his voice.
That simple confession hit Gu Lizhou right in the softest part of his heart.
The heart that had weathered storms, always calm and unshaken, suddenly turned to mush like a ball of cotton that was left to be ravaged again.
“Your tear threshold’s pretty low, huh?” He hooked an arm around him and pulled him into an embrace, patting his shoulder with one hand.
Without hesitation, Zhong Weishi turned fully and hugged him tightly. “I’m just fvcking touched,” he said, voice trembling.
Gu Lizhou: “Cut the profanity and say it again.”
Zhong Weishi tightened his arms. “I’m really damn touched!”
Gu Lizhou struggled to keep a straight face. Zhong Weishi worked out regularly—his arms were muscular and springy, strong enough to nearly squeeze the breath out of him.
His right hand hovered for a moment before resting on the boy’s back, gently stroking over the slight bump of his shoulder blade, then along the firm, well-defined lines of muscle.
He could trace the outline even with his eyes closed—broad shoulders, a narrow waist, a body full of aesthetic strength.
And suddenly, he remembered what Cao Zhiheng had said earlier.
In this moment, he had to admit, it made a certain kind of sense.
Who wouldn’t want to hold a healthy, radiant, full-of-life body like this?
“Meeting you has been really great,” Zhong Weishi murmured. His chin rested on Gu Lizhou’s shoulder. He could smell a faint trace of sweat, but it was mostly overpowered by the scent of laundry detergent. He rubbed against Gu Lizhou’s collarbone, leaning in close to his ear.
Their chests were pressed together, no space in between.
Zhong Weishi blushed in no time.
Not only did his face flush, his racing heartbeat was impossible to hide.
“I think I’m pretty awesome too,” Gu Lizhou said with a smile, ruffling the back of his head. “Alright, I’m covered in sweat and probably starting to ferment. I’m gonna go take a shower.”
He tried to push Zhong Weishi away, only to find he wouldn’t budge.
“It’s not stinky, it actually smells kinda nice.” Zhong Weishi leaned in and sniffed at his neck, his lips brushing across the skin, intentionally or unintentionally. That unfamiliar, soft sensation short-circuited his brain, leaving him flustered and frozen.
Gu Lizhou tickled him lightly on the waist. Zhong Weishi svoided it for fear of itching, and quickly squirmed away and finally let go of him.
“Did you put on cologne or something? So flashy,” Zhong Weishi muttered, lips pursed and his face red as a chili pepper.
Gu Lizhou laughed and teased, “Completely charmed by me and got distracted ah?”
“Pfft, shameless,” Zhong Weishi shot up like a spring. “I’ll go find you some clothes.”
“Alright.”
Only after watching the boy’s figure disappear into the bedroom did Gu Lizhou lift his hand and rub at his neck. He turned his head—and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw someone standing by the window, leaning with their head tilted and one eye peeking out.
“Why’re you just standing there like that?”
Cao Zhiheng narrowed his eyes and hooked a finger at him. “Come out. We need to talk.”
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