When Xu Luoyang walked out of the hospital room, he headed to the lounge and sat down, staring blankly into space.
Zheng Dong came in from the cold outdoors, shook off the chill, took off his down jacket, and hung it up. Noticing that Xu Luoyang was still sitting in the same position, completely unresponsive, he frowned—had he gone dumb?
“Luoyang?” He called out twice before Xu Luoyang finally reacted and looked at him.
“Not in a good mood?” Zheng Dong sat down on the sofa beside him, pulled out a tablet, and opened a file. “The endorsement deal with that luxury brand has been finalized. Remember how that guy next door was competing with you for it? He lost. The news will be released this afternoon. Also, we got the invitation for the upcoming Fashion Week, and the first round of promotions for Mountains and Rivers Unchanging has started as well—”
“Zheng-ge.”
Zheng Dong was abruptly interrupted but didn’t get upset. He patiently asked, “What is it?”
Xu Luoyang put the now-cold coffee cup in his hand onto the table, feeling like he was holding onto a world-shattering secret. It was unbearable! But as a good friend and brother, he knew he had to keep it confidential. After much hesitation, he finally found a way to broach the subject.
“Zheng-ge, do you think Shanshan… is special in any way?” After asking, he looked at Zheng Dong with both anticipation and nervousness.
“Shanshan? Special?” Zheng Dong found the question strange but thought for a moment before answering seriously, “Especially good-looking, especially silly, especially smart.”
After some thought, he added, “And especially full of teachers.”
Xu Luoyang grew anxious. That’s not what he wanted to ask! Where was the key point? “What else?”
“What else?” Zheng Dong noticed how serious Xu Luoyang seemed, so he set the tablet aside and answered thoroughly, “His thinking is especially broad, he knows a lot, his skin is especially fair, his eyelashes are especially long, and his acting skills are especially good.”
“No, no, the most critical thing!”
“He’s especially rich!”
“…”
Xu Luoyang gave up. He picked up his coffee cup and suddenly felt a deep sense of loneliness—no one else had noticed Ye Shanshan’s peculiarities, let alone discovered Ye Shanshan’s true identity!
No wonder so many detectives and great figures throughout history ended up lonely.
Noticing Xu Luoyang’s dazed and odd behavior, Zheng Dong grew concerned. “Luoyang, did you jump into a lake and catch a cold? Are you running a fever?”
Xu Luoyang sighed heavily, shook his head, and decided not to discuss this with Zheng Dong any further. He had already made up his mind: Ye Shanshan was his friend and brother, and even if his true identity turned out to be a vampire who had put away his fangs, he would still be his friend and brother.
He had to keep the secret!
Touching the veins on his wrist, Xu Luoyang suddenly understood why Shanshan liked food so much—his eyes would light up even at a simple soup dumpling.
After drinking blood for so long, of course, he’d want to change things up. Compared to the metallic taste of blood, soup dumplings must taste amazing!
With this thought, Xu Luoyang looked hopeful. “Zheng-ge, let’s go get some soup dumplings later, okay?”
Zheng Dong agreed but couldn’t help looking at Xu Luoyang with growing concern—had soaking in water really made him dumb?
They drove out for soup dumplings, and Xu Luoyang even thoughtfully packed two boxes to bring back to Ye Shanshan.
Opening the door, Xu Luoyang glanced inside and saw that Gong Yue wasn’t there, so he walked in confidently.
Ye Shanshan was sitting on the bed in a daze. The moment Xu Luoyang entered, he sniffed the air and suddenly said, “Luoyang, don’t move!”
Instinctively freezing in place, Xu Luoyang was still trying to figure out what was going on when Ye Shanshan threw off the blanket, ran over in a few quick steps, and beamed so brightly he was almost bouncing in circles.
“Don’t say anything! Let me guess. You must have bought soup dumplings from that old shop in the south of the city!”
Xu Luoyang was astonished. “How did you know that?” There wasn’t any logo on the packaging, yet he could tell?
“My sense of smell is exceptional. I can even tell what the filling is just by the scent.”
Xu Luoyang tightened his grip on the bag—sure enough, like the online articles said, vampires had an exceptionally keen sense of smell. The lids on these soup dumpling boxes were sealed tightly, and a regular person wouldn’t have been able to smell anything, let alone identify the shop.
So with all these clues, how had he not noticed before?
Trailing behind Xu Luoyang, Ye Shanshan looked like an eager little foodie. “Luoyang, isn’t that shop super popular? And they only sell a limited quantity each day. How did you manage to get some at this hour?”
“The owner’s daughter is a fan of mine. I met her the last time I went there to eat,” Xu Luoyang explained as he opened the box. Steam wafted out, and he saw Ye Shanshan’s eyes light up.
Suddenly, a pang of pity arose. Poor Shanshan, he must have had a tough past.
Without minding the heat, Ye Shanshan grabbed a steaming soup dumpling and stuffed it into his mouth, swallowing it in a few bites. “So good,” he mumbled with his mouth full before reaching for another.
He didn’t notice the strange look in Xu Luoyang’s eyes as he watched him. Instead, Shanshan looked eager. “Luoyang, go and talk to that girl. See if she can become my fan too.”
“Why should she become your fan?” Xu Luoyang asked.
“If she becomes my fan, she’ll be one of my supporters! Then, just like you, I can get the best dumplings from the shop whenever I want!” Ye Shanshan replied earnestly after swallowing his food.
Xu Luoyang stared blankly for a moment. Ye Shanshan really didn’t aspire to much, did he? Conquering humanity, ruling the world—yeah, that wasn’t happening. If anything, his “rule” would likely involve fighting over soup dumplings.
Oh, and probably Gong Yue too.
Feeling his mood lighten, Xu Luoyang grabbed a dumpling himself, blowing on it to cool it down first.
“By the way, the prizes for the livestream giveaway have already been sent out,” Xu Luoyang said casually. “I didn’t even realize until later that after the livestream ended, Butler Hawk had already taken the winner list from Zheng-ge and shipped the items. He sent them out before I even could.”
“Butler Hawk is amazing,” Ye Shanshan replied, nodding. As a fan of the sweets Hawk made, his admiration knew no bounds.
Xu Luoyang nodded in agreement and opened Weibo on his phone to check out the feedback from the giveaway winners. Ye Shanshan, curious, leaned over to look too.
The most popular post in the thread caught their attention, and it was… quite something.
“#XuLuoyangLive##CabbageGiftPack# Let me share my story here—please finish reading before deciding if you want to hit me! Yesterday, I got a notification from the platform saying I was a lucky winner. Super excited! Today at noon, the security guard downstairs called to say a delivery was here for me. When the elevator opened, out walked a very handsome guy holding a wooden box that looked super high-end. I was already imagining him confessing his love—should I say yes?
But nope. He confirmed my name, handed me the box, and left! He was just delivering the gift!
I carefully placed the box on my desk. All my coworkers gathered around, full of envy and excitement. Then I opened it. [Picture attached.]
Yes, that’s right. Inside was a single, fresh, soil-covered, self-watering… cabbage. A lone cabbage. What could I do? I planted it!”
“——Hahahahaha! This is such a Shanshan move! I bet that box is expensive and collectible!”
“——Maybe eating that cabbage will turn you into a fairy princess instantly! Go for it! Though, lol, it’s just one cabbage…”
“——Something similar happened to me. Mine was delivered to my house. When the delivery guy arrived, my mom thought he was coming to propose. She even invited him in! Then, when we opened the fancy box around the table, there it was—a cabbage. You should’ve seen my mom’s face, someone who frequents the local market…”
“——[Picture] I planted the cabbage too! The box smells amazing, so I asked my grandpa, and he said it’s made of sandalwood! Like, the really expensive kind. I’m speechless…”
“——Shanshan, you’re so extravagant! Does your ‘Emperor’ know about this?”
The thread was flooded with variations of “Does your Emperor know you’re this extravagant?”
Xu Luoyang stared at Ye Shanshan in shock. “You seriously used sandalwood boxes for… cabbages? Just one each?”
“Yeah, it was a ‘Cabbage Gift Pack,’ after all. But I didn’t have enough cabbages to make it a true gift pack,” Shanshan admitted, a little embarrassed. “It was my first time sending gifts to fans, so I discussed it with Hawk. We decided on the sandalwood boxes in the end.”
Xu Luoyang felt like the quintessential “rich young master” had made a grand debut. “What were the other options you considered?” he asked, challenging his own mental resilience.
“Jade boxes with intricate carvings—they were beautiful but too heavy. We also considered large seashells, which were gorgeous but even heavier.”
Watching Ye Shanshan gesture animatedly, Xu Luoyang suddenly felt it was a loss he hadn’t rigged the drawing to win one himself. Then Shanshan added, “You know, ever since I started acting, there’s been a lot of negativity about me. But these fans, who don’t even know me personally, always defend me. I really wanted to show my gratitude.”
The reasoning was so genuine that Xu Luoyang couldn’t argue. Instead, he voiced his real question: “You’re this extravagant—does your Emperor know?”
Ye Shanshan’s face lit up as he glanced past Xu Luoyang toward the door, dimples deepening. “Emperor, do you know I’m this extravagant?”
Alarmed, Xu Luoyang turned around. Sure enough, Gong Yue was walking in.
“Yes, I know,” Gong Yue replied calmly, “as long as it makes you happy.”
Xu Luoyang felt like he’d just been hit by a million-point critical strike.
Unwilling to suffer alone, he lowered his voice and goaded Shanshan. “So many people are asking. Why not reply on Weibo?”
Caught up in his happiness, Ye Shanshan impulsively followed Xu Luoyang’s suggestion, breaking his usual composure. He posted on Weibo:
“Just asked my Emperor, and he said, ‘Yes, I know. As long as you’re happy.’”
The understated yet boastful tone was obvious.
Seeing the post go live, Xu Luoyang immediately reposted it. “I was there. Please, pity me.”
Afterward, he pocketed his phone, greeted Gong Yue seriously, waved to Shanshan, and quickly fled. Dating someone like Ye Shanshan? Scary.
Meanwhile, the two posts gained thousands of comments within minutes.
“——This dog food could bury me! Is this the domineering CEO trope? No, it’s mutual pampering between two CEOs! Goodbye unless you bring on even more dog food!”
“——My Emperor? OMG, I’m so jealous! This lovey-dovey energy is too much! But why am I weirdly comforted by it?”
“——Poor Luoyang, you can step aside now. It’s my turn! I need the cabbage gift pack! I need more posts! Or I’ll unleash my railgun!”
Ye Shanshan wasn’t paying attention to the comments, though. He offered Gong Yue a soup dumpling. “Luoyang brought these. They’re delicious. Try one?”
Gong Yue took a bite. “Mmm, they’re good.”
Seeing Gong Yue’s approval, Ye Shanshan was overjoyed. Knowing Gong Yue’s strict self-discipline, he quickly stuffed the rest of the dumpling, which Gong Yue had bitten, into his own mouth.
“Is everything arranged?” Shanshan asked while chewing.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Gong Yue said, pouring him water. After Shanshan drank, Gong Yue replied, “Everything’s set, but a thorough search will take time. It might flush Durant out if he’s near Miscius Island.”
He gently wiped the oil from Shanshan’s lips with a napkin. “Don’t worry, we’ll find him.”
Shanshan nodded. “If it comes to it, I’ll pretend to leak information. He won’t be able to stay hidden.”
“That would be dangerous,” Gong Yue warned, his hand ruffling Shanshan’s hair. “Does your head still hurt?”
“No,” Shanshan replied, instinctively nuzzling Gong Yue’s palm. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, “Do you think I’m strange? You know, being… like this?”
His eyes darted away nervously, avoiding Gong Yue’s gaze.
Ever since discovering there was a chip implanted in his body, Ye Shanshan couldn’t help but touch the top of his head repeatedly, feeling self-conscious.
Hearing the meaning behind Ye Shanshan’s words, Gong Yue asked, “Are you worried that because of the chip, I might mind?”
Ye Shanshan nodded, his thoughts exposed. “I feel strange about it myself. I’m clearly a human being, but there’s this chip in my body.”
He ruffled his messy hair. “It makes me feel like I’m some kind of artificial lifeform sent by aliens—like a humanoid weapon whose mission is to destroy Earth. All the ‘God-Making Plan’ stuff is just a cover.”
As he went on, Ye Shanshan became more and more enthusiastic, his earlier gloomy mood completely gone. He excitedly spun a convoluted story involving the cosmos and war.
“Ge, who knows? One day, beings from my home planet might come to forcibly take me away, preventing me from staying with you.”
After patiently listening to him, Gong Yue simply commented, “Your story lacks logic and is full of holes. And no one’s taking you away.”
Focusing on the first half of that response, Ye Shanshan felt wounded and pouted. “Time really is the sharpest blade. Even you think I’m not smart anymore.”
He wiped at the corners of his eyes as if trying to cry, but despite all his effort, not a single tear came out. Left with no choice, he stared unblinkingly at Gong Yue.
“…” What now? He was in too good a mood to cry!
Not exposing his act, Gong Yue gently smoothed out Ye Shanshan’s hair with his fingers. “When I visited Misius Island to see my mother in the past, she once mentioned the issue of brain-embedded chips. To better understand her work, I deliberately studied the topic. Implanting chips into the brain is a technology that can now be successfully executed, and you’re not like a robot reading data from it.”
Seeing Ye Shanshan’s wide-eyed stare of fascination, Gong Yue’s eyes softened with a smile. “The chip embedded in your brain was implanted from the moment you began developing, so your body has never shown signs of rejection.
“When the chip is activated by a homologous signal, it stimulates your brain regions and integrates the information it carries with your cognitive processing center. To you, it might feel like ‘reading’ information, but in reality, it’s similar to how you gain knowledge by reading books—only the method, pathway, and efficiency are different.”
When Gong Yue finished, he noticed Ye Shanshan looking at him with unabashed admiration, his voice brimming with excitement. “Ge, you’re amazing!”
Ye Shanshan felt like even giving Gong Yue his name wouldn’t be enough to express his emotions. So, he leaned over and kissed Gong Yue’s Adam’s apple. When he felt Gong Yue’s breathing become unsteady, he teasingly licked it a few times with the tip of his tongue.
Finally, he tried to make his voice sound seductive. “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to you.” He just barely swallowed down the phrase “little beauty”.
Gong Yue was already familiar with that particular look in Ye Shanshan’s eyes. He responded by gently holding Ye Shanshan’s tongue with his own, kissing him softly to calm him down. Lips still touching, he asked, “Shall we head back?”
“Back, back!” Ye Shanshan felt like the untamed energy inside him was about to burst forth again.
When they left the hospital, Ye Shanshan wore a mask and deliberately didn’t avoid the reporters. He even accepted a brief interview, explaining that he had slipped and fallen into the water while filming. Since the weather was cold and he was worried about getting sick, he stayed in the hospital overnight as a precaution.
With his official explanation, the media felt comfortable reporting the news. Meanwhile, the official account for the movie Mountains and Rivers Remain released Ye Shanshan’s character stills as Ji Lingyun. The buzz around the film quickly overshadowed the news of his fall, and the incident was soon forgotten.
[mfn]If you enjoy my translations, you can show your support by leaving a comment or donating to my Ko-fi. It will be much appreciated. Thank you! -TL: YSIAD[/mfn]
