“Little Spring misses you so much, misses you…”
When he received Jiang Nan’an’s message, Yan Jie was leisurely lying on the sofa, sipping tea and petting his dog. On the TV was “Land of Blood Silence,” which Teacher Jiang Nan’an had just released for online streaming. Ms. Qin Xueru sat nearby, knitting a sweater for her dog grandson with overflowing maternal love, occasionally glancing at the screen.
“Look at you, never doing anything productive, spending your days either playing games or running wild outside. Look at other people’s children, which one is like you… What are you watching? All this blood and killing, tsk tsk tsk…”
Qin Xueru was criticizing her son’s lifestyle as usual, and after finishing, she beckoned to Dunbu:
“Come here, Little Bu, let’s not hang out with him! There’s no future in hanging out with him!”
“Come on, if I don’t come home, you say I’m heartless and have forgotten my parents. If I come home to keep you company, you say I’m worthless and even dogs look down on me. Being your son is really difficult.” Yan Jie sighed dramatically:
“This home just can’t accommodate me-”
“When I asked you to come home, did I ask you to come alone? Have I not seen enough of you in the nearly thirty years I’ve known you?”
Once the topic was brought up, Qin Xueru couldn’t help but nag a bit:
“Where’s that partner of yours from Shanghai? I even lent you the dog, and I heard you bought a house there? I’ve heard the thunder but haven’t seen the rain. Where is the person? When are you going to bring them back for your dad and me to see?”
“They’re… busy.”
“Busy with what?”
“Busy with work.”
“They’re busy with work and you don’t accompany them? When someone is busy with their career, you should be providing even better support, don’t you know? Why are you idling around here instead of taking care of your partner??” Qin Xueru was truly exasperated.
“I want to, but their job is special, and they’re away for half a year. It’s not good for me to follow.”
“How special?” Qin Xueru was skeptical:
“Are they a United Nations representative? Is your cultural literacy not enough to provide close support? Don’t make excuses for your lack of attentiveness!”
“It’s not that extreme.” Yan Jie was truly amused by his dear mother:
“He’s joined a production to film. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to follow. There are many people and eyes in a production crew, and it would be troublesome if paparazzi took photos.”
“Join… you found someone in the entertainment industry?” Qin Xueru sat up straight in surprise:
“Didn’t you always dislike those entertainment people?”
“Well, people change.”
“Tsk, whether you change or not isn’t important. Tell me who it is. Is it that very popular one recently… what’s her name?”
“Do you think this actor looks good?”
Qin Xueru was still searching for female celebrities’ names in her brain when Yan Jie suddenly changed the subject. She was stunned for a moment, followed his gaze, and saw on the TV screen the male lead sitting alone on the rooftop of an abandoned building, squinting slightly at the rising sun on the horizon in the morning breeze.
She paused, then picked up the conversation:
“He looks good. Isn’t that what’s-his-name, Jiang Nan’an? That’s his name, right?”
Yan Jie was a bit surprised: “You know him?”
“Of course, am I some out-of-touch old lady from a bygone era?”
Qin Xueru rolled her eyes at him:
“You participated in that variety show before, and he was your teammate, right? The one who was always with you? Isn’t he quite popular too? I’ve watched his TV dramas before. He acts well.”
“Well…” Yan Jie couldn’t help but smile. Just as he was about to subtly probe a bit more, his phone suddenly lit up with a message from Jiang Nan’an.
Yan Jie immediately swiped open his screen, and when he saw what Jiang Nan’an had sent him, he coughed violently, nearly choking on his own saliva.
Nan Nan my baby [heart]: Do you want to sleep with me?
After sending a string of question marks, Yan Jie immediately flipped up from the sofa like a carp, put on his slippers and walked away.
Qin Xueru was startled by his sudden movement:
“Hey, where are you going? You still haven’t told me who your partner is!”
“It’s a guessing game with no prize, you figure it out yourself!” Yan Jie didn’t look back:
“My baby’s been possessed by a ghost, my dear mother…”
On the other end, Jiang Nan’an was still staring at the two strings of question marks Yan Jie had sent, not knowing exactly what these punctuation marks meant.
Soon after, the screen switched, and Yan Jie made a voice call. Jiang Nan’an casually accepted it and put the phone to his ear.
“Hello? Nan Nan, who hacked your WeChat account?”
“No one,” Jiang Nan’an curled up his legs.
“Then what did you mean by that question? Asking me so suddenly…” Yan Jie chuckled:
“Did someone say something to you?”
“Mm, I heard some new concepts.”
“What?”
“‘The ultimate purpose of dating is to sleep together,’ and ‘liking you actually means wanting to sleep with you.'”
“Tsk…” Yan Jie stood in his small garden wearing a coat, hands on his hips:
“The logic might be sound, but that’s putting it too crudely. Who said that?”
“Colleagues from the production,” Jiang Nan’an concluded:
“So, do you want to?”
“Of course I want to. Liking someone naturally includes having physical desire for them, that’s normal.”
Yan Jie admitted frankly.
“But you haven’t slept with me, nor have you mentioned it.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Why?”
“Let’s not ask why yet,” Yan Jie didn’t answer Jiang Nan’an’s question, but instead said:
“Baby, tell me first, how do you understand this? Why do you think I should sleep with you?”
Jiang Nan’an thought for a moment following his words, then answered:
“You like my face and body, you’re good to me, so I let you sleep with me. It’s reasonable.”
“And how do you understand this ‘reasonable’? Is sleeping with me your way of repaying my feelings?”
“Mm.”
“That’s not right.” Yan Jie pulled out a wicker chair in the garden and sat down:
“Sleeping together is something that happens naturally when two people’s feelings and atmosphere are right. If it’s used as an exchange, then the nature of it changes. So, when you no longer see it as an exchange or a way to repay me, that’s when we can take the next step.”
Jiang Nan’an thought about his words:
“But isn’t sleeping together the ultimate goal that someone hopes to achieve when pursuing someone? Don’t you usually want to get what you want immediately? Since you want to sleep with me, why are you telling me all this?”
“No, no, no.” Yan Jie gently corrected his slightly skewed understanding:
“What I want is you as a person, not just to sleep with you. My ultimate goal in pursuing you is to have a legitimate status to love you and be good to you, to live with you. If the purpose of pursuing someone is just to sleep with them, that’s not pursuit, that’s being a scumbag.”
Jiang Nan’an was silent for a moment, and it wasn’t clear if he understood, he only asked:
“So, compared to sleeping together, you still prefer that the value I provide to you is emotional?”
“Hmm…” Yan Jie felt that Jiang Nan’an’s concept of value exchange probably couldn’t be changed quickly, and explaining more would likely confuse him further, so he responded:
“More or less, you can understand it that way for now.”
“Okay.”
“Where did you hear these things, baby? I really should thank her for giving me such a big headache.”
But it was good that Jiang Nan’an had taken his previous words to heart and actively communicated his thoughts. Otherwise, Yan Jie couldn’t imagine how his image in his baby’s heart would have been tarnished.
“Just now I was having a late-night snack with Teacher Sheng and others, and it came up during our chat.”
Jiang Nan’an answered honestly.
Yan Jie felt that Jiang Nan’an had changed a lot since they first met. Now he had friends, and would eat late-night snacks and chat with them. This would have been unimaginable for the old Jiang Nan’an.
Yan Jie moved the phone away from his ear, exited WeChat, and looked at his newly changed phone wallpaper.
It was the latest photo from Jiang Nan’an’s fan site. In the photo, he was wearing Zhuge Wenyu’s costume, leaning against a small pavilion looking up at the peach blossom tree beside him, with long hair, white clothes, and eyes as gentle as water-every detail was captivating.
“Ah, I want to chat and have late-night snacks with you too.” Yan Jie sighed, clicking back to the call interface with Jiang Nan’an:
“Little Spring misses you so much, misses you until my heart is about to break.”
–
“When we fill in as mid-lane and see such an arrogant enemy mid-laner, what should we do? Let’s slowly stir-fry with green onions on high heat… Alright, I declare that from now on, his kills and blue buffs all belong to Spring.”
On the phone screen was Spring’s livestream, where he was playing ranked matches in the Blazing Holy Grail. Jiang Nan’an had logged in with a small account during his lunch break, watching it as entertainment during his meal.
“Knock, knock, knock-”
Someone knocked on the door. Xiao Sun, who had been playing with his phone and dozing off nearby, suddenly jumped up, stretching his neck to see who it was.
“Teacher Jiang-”
It was Jiang Shanshan bringing Sheng Yujia and A Qi along. Seeing that Jiang Nan’an was still eating, she was slightly surprised:
“Oh, you haven’t finished lunch yet?”
She walked over and placed a drink on Jiang Nan’an’s table:
“Here’s some lemon water for you.”
“Thank you.” Jiang Nan’an looked at them: “Is there something you need?”
“Yes, Teacher Sheng and I wanted to go over the lines for this afternoon’s scene with you in advance. If you haven’t finished eating, we can come back later, or we can wait for you.”
“Okay, please have a seat then.”
Jiang Shanshan and Sheng Yujia didn’t want to go back and forth, so they sat on the sofa waiting for him.
Jiang Nan’an’s RV was very spacious and comfortable, with excellent soundproofing. The noise from outside was barely audible, and in the quiet cabin, only Jiang Nan’an’s phone was making sounds.
“We agreed his blue buff belongs to Spring, who allowed him to touch Spring’s blue? Today, I, Spring, make this declaration, and tomorrow, a million strong troops will flatten the mid-lane tower for me, avenging my poor blue buff!”
“Oh? You’re watching Old Spring’s livestream?” Jiang Shanshan peeked over to look.
“Mm.” Jiang Nan’an took a bite of eel rice. He wasn’t really paying attention to Spring’s in-game operations; his gaze was fixed on the small camera view in the bottom right corner:
“It’s good for eating.”
“Haha, I also like watching Old Spring’s livestream while eating. His streams are so entertaining.” Jiang Shanshan laughed as she opened the script to review her lines again, but a second later she suddenly heard:
“How’s the enemy jungler playing? Ah, you know Little Spring never evaluates others, your question really puts me in a difficult position… They’re average, not as good as my partner.”
“What’s my partner like? Well, of course they’re breathtakingly beautiful, skin like jade, with a Buddha’s heart, sweet and lovely, gentle and considerate…”
“Snap-”
Jiang Nan’an abruptly turned off his phone. Because his movement was too forceful, the phone slid off its stand and landed face-down on the table with a conspicuous thud.
The RV suddenly became frighteningly quiet. Everyone probably had their own thoughts, until finally Sheng Yujia quietly broke the silence:
“…Not watching anymore?”
“No.” Jiang Nan’an pushed away his eel rice, which he had barely eaten half of, his expression unchanged:
“Which scene are we going over? Let’s begin.”
The film set wrapped up quite late today. By the time Jiang Nan’an had removed his makeup and returned to the hotel, the sky outside was completely dark.
Xiao Sun had been running around with him on set these past few days and had caught a slight cold. Seeing he wasn’t feeling well, Jiang Nan’an told him to go back to his room to rest instead of running around arranging dinner for him.
He had only eaten a small portion of his eel rice at lunch, then spent the entire afternoon on set with just a glass of lemon water. His stomach was now empty and uncomfortably hungry.
But Jiang Nan’an had never paid much attention to eating. If food was available, he ate; if not, he went hungry, never bothering to carefully tend to his stomach. Now thinking about it, he really didn’t know what to eat, but there was some leftover bread from the morning in his room that would do fine.
Jiang Nan’an didn’t like taking elevators. Since his room wasn’t on a high floor, he slowly walked up the stairwell toward his hotel room, taking out his phone as he walked and opening the Cat Paw app to check Spring’s page through his following list.
But Spring seemed to have ended his stream long ago.
After refreshing twice without seeing the live broadcast indicator on his avatar, Jiang Nan’an switched to his video column.
There was a new work there, and from the cover, it looked like a vlog of him camping with his mop-like dog, Dunbu.
Jiang Nan’an clicked on the video, and the background music played through his Bluetooth earphones.
He watched the video while walking, even tripping on a step because he wasn’t looking at the path. He ambled all the way to his room door, took out his card to unlock it, and pushed the door open to enter.
But just as he was about to close the door, a hand suddenly appeared at the edge, stopping it.
Jiang Nan’an froze, instinctively looking back to see the door being pushed open again from outside. Yan Jie stood at the doorway with one hand in his pocket, smiling at him.
The person who had just been in the livestream and vlog was now standing right in front of him, leaving Jiang Nan’an momentarily dazed.
In the next second, Yan Jie’s voice mixed with his own narration from the Bluetooth earphones:
“Don’t use your phone while walking. You need to watch where you’re going, you know?”
As he spoke, Yan Jie reached up and removed one of Jiang Nan’an’s earphones. His voice became clear in Jiang Nan’an’s world:
“Baby, you need to be more alert. This bad guy followed you all the way and you didn’t even notice. Even if the bad guy is as handsome as me, that’s not okay. You’ve reached your doorstep and you’re still in a daze?”
#
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
