Chasing the Light

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A few days after the Lantern Festival, Xia Yuanhang participated in an interview-style indoor variety show. This show had been running for many years and the host was very famous and dared to ask questions. He liked to improvise outside the script, not afraid of offending people. He knew how to cater to the audience’s gossip mentality and specialized in digging out unknown private information about the guests on the show.

Before the recording, Xia Yuanhang had already prepared himself psychologically. Xiang Qiao helped him to review the script, but they both knew that it was useless; the host would improvise anytime on the spot, and Xia Yuanhang would offend people if he didn’t answer.

Sure enough, the host focused on his family affairs from the beginning and asked about the dispute between him and Xia Xiangzhou. Xia Yuanhang really didn’t want to talk about this topic, so he briefly told what happened. When asked if he would sever ties with his father, he calmly replied: “I will do my duty under the law, but I won’t fulfill any more of his unreasonable demands. There is nothing else to say, I have no grudge against him, just disappointment.”

“Everyone knows what happened that time. Thanks to Liang Xincheng who stood up and spoke for you, and released the monitoring, the truth of the matter was restored. Do you have anything to say about this?”

Mentioning Liang Xincheng, the slightly tense expression on Xia Yuanhang’s face obviously relaxed and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: “Yes, it is indeed thanks to him.”

“He seems to have helped you more than once? He was also the first one to come forward to help you in the fight on the film set, but that time, the cause of the incident was said to be you wanting to help him out?”

“Actually, there is nothing to say about this matter. Justice lies in the hearts of the people I guess. Maybe I did handle it a bit roughly, causing a bad impact on the public and bringing some trouble to the crew, but I’d still do it that way if I were to do it over again.”

The host smiled meaningfully, “After these two incidents, I think everyone should be very curious about the relationship between you and Liang Xincheng, ba. Previously, the chat records of you and your friend were exposed, and it seemed to have said that you were actually not even ordinary friends?”

Xia Yuanhang smiled helplessly, “There were indeed some misunderstandings between him and I in the past… The main reason is me; he is very nice. After getting in touch with him in depth you’ll realize how good he really is, he’s a very important person to me.”

“Very important?”

“Yes, he has helped me a lot, and changed me a lot. Some bad things have become less important to care about because of him, he is really important to me.”

Xia Yuanhang had already said this in a very ambiguous way, and the host saw fit to smile and change the topic to the next one.

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After that, they went on and on and on about a bunch of stuff, promoting their work in the meantime. The recording went on for more than two hours. Towards the end of the recording, the host took a turn and suddenly asked about the scandal between him and Yan Mingxin, to which Xia Yuanhang calmly replied: “I really have nothing to do with her. We are university classmates and have worked together in the filming and are a little more familiar, but there is no personal relationship. The studio has already issued a statement explaining this.”

“I’ve seen the statement, but it seems that many people don’t believe it. There are a lot of people on the internet who think that the two of you are a good match and they hope that you two’s relationship will turn real1假戏真做 basically means do something seriously after starting it as a joke or what was make-believe turns out to be reality.”

Xia Yuanhang shook his head helplessly: “That’s really impossible, I can only disappoint everyone.”

But, the host did not let him off the hook: “That doesn’t sound credible. To prove your innocence you need a little bit of sincerity, why don’t you take out your mobile phone and show everyone the call records. If there is no Yan Mingxin in any of the recent records, won’t this rumor go away?”

Xia Yuanhang smiled and sighed: “Does it have to be like this?”

“Is it inconvenient?”

“Alright, ba.”

Xia Yuanhang’s assistant brought his mobile phone up to the stage and the host reminded him with a smile: “It has to be your personal mobile phone. I know a lot of artists have two mobile phones to contact them for work and private use, you don’t want to fool everyone with your work number.”

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“No.” Xia Yuanhang unlocked his mobile phone, opened the call logs and handed them directly to the host, without any trace of guilt. The first three entries in his call log were from Liang Xincheng, and the next few entries were from friends who were wishing each other good luck during the Chinese New Year; there was nothing people couldn’t see.

The host held up his mobile phone and showed it to the camera to show it to the audience, laughing and asking Xia Yuanhang: “These first three calls are all to the same person, the note is a red heart, is it really not a girlfriend?”

“It really isn’t,” the curve of Xia Yuanhang’s mouth widened a little more, “It’s Liang Xincheng.”

The host let out a gasp: “So it seems like you guys are really close, but just to verify, is it okay if we make a phone call to him on the spot?”

Xia Yuanhang nodded readily.

The number was dialed quickly, and it was picked up after only one ring. Liang Xincheng’s lazy voice came: “The recording is over so soon? How long will it take to come back?”

Xia Yuanhang coughed lowly and reminded him, “Not yet, still recording.”

The host’s smiling voice continued: “Is it Xincheng? This is the recording site of ‘The Stars Up Close’, and now I am connecting with you live. Do you want to say hello to the audience in front of the screen?”

“Hi everyone, I’m Liang Xincheng…”

The voice on the other end of the phone immediately became much clearer. Liang Xincheng responded almost instantly; after saying hello and exchanging pleasantries with the host, the host laughed and asked him: “Just now I saw that you were in the top three call records in Yuanhang’s mobile phone, and the note for you was even a heart, do you know that?”

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Liang Xincheng let out a light laugh, “That’s because of my name, ba2Xin 心 means heart. That’s why it’s like that, I guess.”

“As soon as you connected the phone just now, you asked Yuanhang when he would be going back. Do you live together?”

“En, we are neighbors. “Liang Xincheng frankly admitted, not caring that the host’s words set him up.

“So that’s how it is…Earlier Yuanhang said that you are a very important person to him, what do you think?”

“I know, he’s the same for me.”

These kinds of words were already no less than confessing to each other, but they had said even more ambiguous and outrageous things in the past for the sake of CP business, so it really didn’t matter at all just how many people would take it seriously after the show was broadcasted.

The three-hour recording session finally came to an end, and after wrapping up the show, Xia Yuanhang got up and politely thanked the host, who smiled and asked him: “You and Liang Xincheng are really together, aren’t you? It’s good.”

Xia Yuanhang smiled, acquiescing it.

On the way back to the car, Xiang Qiao asked Xia Yuanhang with some concern: “Have you really thought about it? Are you going to come out too?”

Xia Yuanhang looked at the WeChat sent by Liang Xincheng in the screen of his mobile phone and the corner of his lips rose: “Qiao ge, there’s no need for you to ask about this matter anymore, haven’t you already agreed? Just do as you said, slowly lay the groundwork and let nature take its course.”

If it wasn’t for this he wouldn’t have agreed to take this schedule today, letting people dig into his privacy. Sooner or later, his relationship with Liang Xincheng would have to be made public. They couldn’t hide it for the rest of their lives. Liang Xincheng had already waited for him for ten years, and he didn’t want to make him wait any longer.

Liang Xincheng: “Why didn’t you tell me beforehand that there would be a phone call? I wasn’t prepared for it, it’s really annoying. Come back soon after you finish recording, we’ll have hotpot tonight.”

Xia Yuanhang: “Okay.”

1假戏真做 basically means do something seriously after starting it as a joke or what was make-believe turns out to be reality2Xin 心 means heart