Chasing the Light

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In the blink of an eye, it was the New Year. After more than two months of rest, Liang Xincheng has become accustomed to the lazy life of sleeping until he wakes up naturally every day. He also had something to look forward to for the New Year; for the first time in so many years, he didn’t have to spend the New Year alone, and every day was like being in a honey pot.

Xia Yuanhang’s assistant came two days before New Year’s Eve to help them fill the fridge, enough for them to spend for the whole New Year holiday. Xia Yuanhang began to prepare New Year’s Eve Dinner. All kinds of meat in the refrigerator were taken out and thawed, and they were marinated first in the afternoon.

He did not wake Liang Xincheng up. Last night, they did not hold back and did it several times. Liang Xincheng was tossed enough that he probably wouldn’t get up until noon.

Liang Xincheng woke up at almost twelve o’clock, when the house was full of the smell of food. He yawned as he went into the kitchen, hugging Xia Yuanhang, who was cutting vegetables from behind, rubbing against his shoulder as he muttered: “What are you doing? It smells so good.”

Xia Yuanhang smiled: “Of course the stewed chicken soup with mushrooms and cuttlefish in the casserole is delicious.”

In addition, he was also preparing steamed sea bass, braised hooves, shrimps with lily, fried diced chicken with chili sauce, cumin beef…and of course the must-have dumplings that they spent a day making by themselves yesterday.

Liang Xincheng was dumbfounded: “There are so many dishes, can the two of us finish them all?”

Xia Yuanhang’s hands were dirty, so he could only turn his head and rub his nose against his Liang Xincheng: ” It’s New Year’s Eve dinner, it should be more generous. I haven’t had a decent New Year’s Eve meal in years.”

“Me too…”

Xia Yuanhang kissed Liang Xincheng’s face again, feeling a little uncomfortable. At least his family was considered happy and harmonious before he went to university, but Liang Xincheng lost his parents since he was a child, and he has lived through many years of hard life.

Fortunately, the two of them were together now; it was not an exaggeration to say that they depended on each other for life.

Liang Xincheng was so happy that he rolled up his sleeves and started to cook for Xia Yuanhang, not forgetting to praise him: “You can do it ah. You have become a chef after only two months of practice.”

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“So-so, as long as you don’t dislike it.”

For lunch, Xia Yuanhang only made two bowls of simple scallion noodles. They came from the same place and almost every household in their hometown could make this noodle. Liang Xincheng ate it very deliciously. When he was very young, his mother often made scallion noodles for him to eat. It was a memory from many years ago, but he always remembered the taste.

“Eat more if you like it.” Xia Yuanhang gave him some more from his own bowl. Seeing Liang Xincheng eating deliciously, he was also happy. Liang Xincheng was actually very good at eating. Apart from his love of sweets, he was hardly picky when it came to eating.

After lunch, they simply cleaned up, and the two of them were about to take a nap again. Just as they were in bed, Xia Yuanhang received a call from Xiang Qiao, asking him to go to Weibo to check, saying that something had happened again.

Xia Yuanhang was on speakerphone. Hearing what Xiang Qiao said, Liang Xincheng who was beside him opened Weibo immediately. The first few hot searches were #Xie Qinfeng Ding Yao#, #Xia Yuanhang Ding Yao#, #Xie Qinfeng gay#, and #Ding Yao on two boats#. Liang Xincheng spent half a minute browsing quickly, and finally figured out the whole story.

The person who broke the news was a very influential marketing account, targeting Ding Yao, saying that he was suspected of being gay, and that he was in two boats; maintaining a close relationship with Xie Qinfeng and Xia Yuanhang at the same time. Among the two photos that were exposed, the first one was the picture of Xie Qinfeng kissing Ding Yao in the waiting room of the crew of ‘Wanted’ that Liang Xincheng took at the time, while the second one was of the three of them having a snack together the night Xia Yuanhang went to Hengdian to visit the crew. Xia Yuanhang and Ding Yao were captured talking together. Because of the angle, the posture of the two did look very close, but Liang Xincheng, who was at the scene, did not appear in this photo.

Xia Yuanhang frowned and told Xiang Qiao: “Ding Yao and I are just ordinary friends, Xincheng was also there that night. The three of us are just eating supper together. You wait for a while, I will ask Ding Yao and decide what to do.”

After hanging up the phone, he saw that Liang Xincheng’s expression was a bit ugly. Just as he wanted to comfort him, Liang Xincheng grabbed his finger hesitantly: “That…I took the photo of Teacher Xie and Ding Yao.”

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Xia Yuanhang froze for a moment: “You took the picture?”

Liang Xincheng briefly told what happened, and what he heard before about Xie Qinfeng’s trading materials with paparazzi: “I guess Liu Sheng picked up my phone, took a photo of it and sold it to the paparazzi. I didn’t expect it really to be the photo I took. It was suppressed by Mr. Xie before, but it was released by the marketing account again.”

“Are you sure no one else has touched your phone?”

“Except for the one time I left it in the bathroom, I even rarely give it to Xiao Qian. It can’t be Xiao Qian, it must be Liu Sheng. My phone password is my birthday date. Didn’t we have a game session that happened to mention our respective birthday when we recorded the program that day? Most people use birthdays as passwords. If he is curious and willing to give it a try, it should not be difficult to guess.”

Xia Yuanhang sighed: “What did you take this kind of photo for?”

“I just took it casually without thinking much…”

“If Liu Sheng really did it, Shengxing and Xie Qinfeng should be able to find out. When the time comes for him to talk, there’s no way for you to hide this.”

“I know,” Liang Xincheng shook his head, “Let me tell Ding Yao.”

Since he couldn’t hide it, he could only honestly admit and apologize. Liang Xincheng directly dialed Ding Yao’s phone, explaining the story before apologizing sincerely. Ding Yao didn’t have much reaction after hearing it, and comforted him instead: “Forget it, Xincheng-ge, you didn’t do it on purpose.”

“You believe I didn’t leak the photos on purpose?”

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“Believe it, ah. If you have the intention to leak, why use the blurry photo taken again from the phone screen…I just did not expect it to really be Liu Sheng-ge.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, it has been confirmed…”

With Du Shen and Xie Qinfeng coming forward, it was too easy to find out who was behind the marketing account. Liu Sheng had been signed to Shengxing for seven years and had been in an awkward position of being ‘half red but not red’. He gave the impression that he was always honest and wouldn’t cause trouble, and no one expected him to be a selfish and extremely petty kind of person.

The second male lead role in Ding Yao’s first big production, which he abruptly joined, was initially intended for Liu Sheng. Liu Sheng was hoping to move up the ladder with that role, but was kicked out because of Du Shen’s words, so he had been jealous of Ding Yao ever since. It seemed that he cared and loved Ding Yao, the prince, like the rest of Shengxing, but it was not the case at all. Especially after Ding Yao was highly praised by the company and all good resources were inclined to him, which made Liu Sheng jealous and hate him again.

After accidentally finding the photo of Xie Qinfeng kissing Ding Yao from Liang Xincheng’s mobile phone, he secretly took photos of it and sold them to the paparazzi. He thought he would be able to bring Ding Yao down, but the paparazzi didn’t expose it. Afraid that Xie Qinfeng already knew something, he didn’t do anything rashly. This time it was because his contract with Shengxing was about to expire and he found a new owner, plus he got the photos of Ding Yao and Xia Yuanhang from other people, so he decided to vent his anger before jumping ship.

This kind of shady trick was not uncommon in this circle; there were so many people with two faces, so it was not surprising. Liang Xincheng comforted Ding Yao, and the person on the other end of the phone changed to Xie Qinfeng: “Liu Sheng said that he got the photos from you. Originally, I didn’t plan to tell Yao Yao, but if you are willing to confess to him, it means he has read you right. Let’s forget about it, ba.”

“Thank you, Teacher Xie, for not pursuing it…”

Xie Qinfeng let out a laugh: “You kid still dare to say that I owe you guys once before. It turns out that the one who started it all is actually yourself.”

“…Sorry.”

“I’m too lazy to talk about this. In a moment, Shengxing’s official Weibo will issue a statement to clarify the matter between Yao Yao and Xia Yuanhang, and will attach the selfie you took that day. You and Xia Yuanhang help forward it to explain.”

“Okay.”

Liang Xincheng sensibly didn’t ask Xie Tanfeng how the photo of him and Ding Yao would be explained. After hanging up the phone, Xia Yuanhang reluctantly reminded him: “Next time, don’t do such things that may cause trouble. I thought you were always very cautious.”

“I didn’t expect to be so unlucky that I lost my phone. I deleted the photos a long time ago. This Liu Sheng is really good. He didn’t expose it early and didn’t expose it late. He chose to do this in the New Year, and let people have a good year.”

“There’s a lot of traffic during the holidays, Liu Sheng…I didn’t expect him to be like this.” Xia Yuanhang had a good friendship with Liu Sheng when he was in Shengxing and he really didn’t really see that he was such a person.

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Half an hour later, Sheng Xing’s official Weibo posted a clarification statement. The attached photo was a selfie of the three of them taken by Ding Yao on a whim when they were having supper in a small restaurant that day. Fortunately, they had this photo. Otherwise it would be hard to clear it even if they jumped into the Huanghe River.

Xia Yuanhang and Liang Xincheng forwarded them one after another. Liang Xincheng read that statement carefully and asked Xia Yuanhang: “There’s not a word about Ding Yao’s relationship with Teacher Xie. Are they going to…acquiesce it?”

“I’m afraid it’s not just acquiesce, maybe they want to come out of the closet.”

Because of Liang Xincheng’s help, Xie Qinfeng and Ding Yao were already together. Now that the intimate photo had been exposed, it was not hard to understand if they really wanted to take the opportunity to come out of the closet. Although the public’s acceptance of homosexuality was not high, but same-sex marriage had. been legal for several years. It was really nothing to come out of the closet, it was just a personal choice.

“Actually it’s not bad that they came out of the closet,” Xia Yuanhang smiled. “With Movie King Xie as a role model, the resistance for the two of us will be much smaller in the future. Let’s see how the public reacts and we can think of countermeasures first.”

Liang Xincheng smiled and fell into Xia Yuanhang’s arms: “You want to come out too?”

“Sooner or later, can you hide for a lifetime?”

Xia Yuanhang stuffed a candy into Liang Xincheng’s mouth, lowered his head and kissed him, murmuring against his lips, “We have decades to live.”