AITFYMIBP Chapter 84

TL: Hua

“It’s not for a magazine; I took it for a friend.”

Lin Yanran, who already had a faint inkling of the answer, didn’t tell Gao Zitai that he had identified the wrong phone.

He glanced at the remaining phones in the bag and asked, “Teacher Gu hasn’t taken his phone yet either, right?”

Gao Zitai pointed to another phone. “Not yet, it’s right here. I’m bringing it to him next.”

Lin Yanran’s gaze fell upon the phone Gao Zitai had pointed to—the one supposedly belonging to Gu Siye.

That one was actually his.

“Alright.”

A faint smile played on the corners of Lin Yanran’s lips as he took the phone Gao Zitai handed him.

Then, he reached back into the bag Gao Zitai was holding and pulled out his own phone.

After a brief downward glance at it, he placed it into Gao Zitai’s hand. “Give this one to Teacher Gu.”

Gao Zitai saw that the phone was the one he had previously set aside and immediately remarked, “Oh, so you recognize Teacher Gu’s phone.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt like a total idiot.

Yanran and Teacher Gu are a couple—how could he not know which phone belongs to whom!

Clutching the phone Lin Yanran had handed him, he headed to Gu Siye’s dressing room. Just as he reached the door and prepared to knock, he ran into Gu Siye coming out.

“Teacher Gu, here! Yours is the last one!”

On his way over, he had run into Song Zixuan and already delivered his phone.

Gu Siye didn’t say anything, maintaining a calm expression as he slipped the phone into his pocket.

Lin Yanran might not have recognized Gu Siye’s phone, but Gu Siye certainly recognized Lin Yanran’s.

Gu Siye didn’t understand how the other man’s phone had ended up with him.

After thinking for a few seconds, he asked Gao Zitai, “Is mine the only one left? Did Yanran take his?”

“He did. I just gave it to him.”

Seeing Gao Zitai’s completely oblivious expression, Gu Siye turned to close the dressing room door and began walking out with him.

He then asked, seemingly casually, “Did he say anything to you when he took the phone?”

Gao Zitai looked at the man beside him suspiciously. Why ask that?

However, Gao Zitai wasn’t the type to overthink things. He took a moment to recall the interaction for Gu Siye.

“I don’t think he said much… He just took the phone and left.”

After Gao Zitai finished speaking, he suddenly stopped and looked at Gu Siye with an expression that said he didn’t want to be fed dog food anymore. “He also told me to give this phone to you.”

—

The six guests arrived at the hot pot restaurant in three separate groups.

By the time Gu Siye and Gao Zitai arrived, the other guests were already there.

The four of them were sitting together, complaining to one another about last night’s living quarters and the ridiculous tasks assigned to them this morning.

Hearing the door open, He Yawen, who was sitting facing the entrance, was the first to notice. She immediately waved to Gu Siye and the others. “Quick, come in! We were just waiting for you.”

Since they arrived late, they had to take whatever seats were left.

Gu Siye scanned the table; the only empty seats remaining were next to Lin Yanran and He Yawen.

He chatted with everyone with a smile as he walked toward the seat next to He Yawen.

But as he passed Lin Yanran, he saw the other pat the chair beside him. “Brother Gu, sit here.”

Gu Siye sat down with a smile.

Now that everyone was present, they began to order.

Gao Zitai stared at the soup base options and asked about everyone’s preferences.

“Can everyone handle spicy food?”

Everyone nodded, though Song Zixuan added, “Just don’t order the insanely spicy level.”

Gao Zitai checked the box for mild spicy. “Mild it is, then? The hot pot here is quite spicy; even mild has a good kick.”

Chu Shiyu, seeing such a unified taste among the guests for the first time, laughed. “Whenever I ate with film crews before, we always ordered a split pot. I thought it would be the same today…”

Lin Yanran smiled as he unwrapped his chopsticks. “If you eat hot pot with a split pot, doesn’t it lose its soul?”

Once the soup base was decided, the two ladies from the beauty team began ordering the dishes.

They were cautious; remembering Gu Siye mentioning Lin Yanran’s allergies during a game before, they checked again.

“Yanran, you can’t eat celery, right?”

Lin Yanran nodded apologetically. “Correct.”

As soon as he finished, Gu Siye, who was pouring water for him, added, “He also can’t eat dishes where celery is used as a garnish or seasoning.”

“Oh, oh, I see.” He Yawen went back to review the dishes they had just selected.

She often saw people allergic to mangoes or pollen, but this was the first time she had encountered Lin Yanran’s specific allergy.

After looking it over, He Yawen was still a bit worried and wanted Lin Yanran to check the list, but before she could speak, Gu Siye took the menu and looked through every single dish one by one.

Looking at Gu Siye beside him, Lin Yanran had a sudden trance-like feeling, as if he were eating with the Brother Ye from his memories.

In his memory, that person had been just like this—meticulously careful every time they ate, fearing that a single lapse would cause him to have an allergic reaction.

After ordering the dishes, the soup hadn’t come to a boil yet.

Taking advantage of the gap, He Yawen took out her phone and suggested, “How about we all add each other on WeChat and start a group? We’ll be filming together in the future, so it’ll be easier to stay in touch.”

Gao Zitai and Song Zixuan were the first to respond, immediately pulling out their phones to show their QR codes.

“Come on, add me, add me! Sister, the one named ‘Number One Handsome in the Rift’ is me.”

Gao Zitai told He Yawen his WeChat name.

Song Zixuan, who usually only looked at contact nicknames, heard Gao Zitai’s name and immediately retorted, “How did you end up with such a narcissistic WeChat name…”

Gao Zitai shot back, “The pot shouldn’t call the kettle black! I saw your lock screen, and it gave me goosebumps…”

The word “lock screen” mentioned by Gao Zitai acted like a megaphone, reminding Lin Yanran and Gu Siye that they were still holding each other’s phones.

The suggestion to add WeChat was outside of Lin Yanran’s expectations.

When he took Gu Siye’s phone, he was only thinking about his own things and forgot to consider the possibility of this happening.

At the time, since Gao Zitai had misunderstood, it was hard to clarify, so he had just gone along with it.

But now, with four guests adding each other on WeChat, if he didn’t swap phones back with Gu Siye, things would become even harder to manage.

Lin Yanran turned to exchange phones with Gu Siye, only to find that the other man had already looked at him.

Gu Siye’s peach blossom eyes curved slightly, a faint smile still lingering on his lips.

He pressed the button to light up the lock screen, revealing the fingerprint unlock interface.

“Teacher Yanran, could you unlock this for me?”

Before the other four finished adding each other, Lin Yanran successfully swapped phones back with Gu Siye. The two of them acted as if nothing had happened and joined the group.

After the group chat was created, Chu Shiyu suggested that everyone take some group photos so she could post them in a nine-grid format.

After taking photos with everyone, Lin Yanran remembered Yingying’s words and took a photo of the nine-grid hot pot.

He then posted this “nine-grid” to Weibo.

Yanran: Nine-grid~ [Image]¹Weibo posts often feature 9 photos in a 3×3 grid. A traditional spicy hot pot is often served in a “nine-grid pot.” LYR is playing on the term by posting a picture of the pot instead of 9 different photos.

Gao Zitai, who was constantly scrolling through Weibo, was the first to see Lin Yanran’s photo post.

“Yanran, this nine-photo grid of yours is a bit too half-hearted, don’t you think?”

Just as he finished speaking, his gaze inadvertently fell upon the phone in Lin Yanran’s hand.

His memory wasn’t the best, but he remembered things that had just happened quite clearly.

The phone in Yanran’s hand… isn’t that Teacher Gu’s?

Filled with doubt, Gao Zitai immediately turned to look at Gu Siye.

He discovered that Gu Siye, who had just returned from answering a call, was holding a phone whose lock screen was the very photo of Lin Yanran!

Holy crap…

So, when he handed the phones back earlier, he had mixed them up?

No wonder Teacher Gu had asked such a strange question when he delivered the phone!

Hiss…

So it turns out Teacher Gu is the type to use his own wife as his lock screen!!

Discovering this fact left Gao Zitai in a state of shock for several seconds.

He had originally thought that someone as cold and aloof as Teacher Gu would never engage in such flashy displays of affection…

But as it turns out…

Who would have thought!

Truly a man in love—he wants to show off his wife at every moment!

Once he figured it out, Gao Zitai hurriedly stuffed the beef tripe and duck intestines that Song Zixuan had cooked for him into his mouth all at once.

Compared to eating tons of dog food, this was much tastier!

Gao Zitai decided to act as if he knew nothing about the phone mix-up.

As for the two people involved, neither of them brought it up either.

Everyone finished their hotpot in a lively atmosphere and then headed back to their respective hotels.

Due to his schedule, Lin Yanran had to go directly to the airport, so he didn’t take Song Zixuan’s car.

After seeing the others off, he put on his mask and waited at the entrance for his car to arrive.

It was late at night; there were very few customers left in the shop and hardly any pedestrians on the street.

Lin Yanran stood under a streetlamp, head down, messaging Xiao Wang on WeChat.

The other party told him that the car had run into a problem on the way and was being repaired; it would likely be another half hour.

When Lin Yanran finished the message and looked up, he saw Gu Siye leaning casually against the wall beside him.

Because Gu Siye’s back was to the light, he couldn’t see his expression clearly.

However, a deep voice drifted through the cold air.

“Teacher Yanran, shall we talk?”

Lin Yanran put his phone away and did not refuse.

In his memory, Gu Siye had never spoken to him in such an atmosphere.

In the past, their treatment of each other had always stopped at the boundary of friendship.

But tonight, something felt different.

Looking at the two long shadows stretched out under the streetlamp, Lin Yanran suddenly felt like he didn’t know how to continue the conversation.

What was he supposed to talk to Gu Siye about?

Ask him why his lock screen was a photo of him?

When he took the wrong phone, he was perfectly clear-headed and acted very nonchalantly.

He even thought about how to joke with the other person and smooth things over.

But now that Gu Siye had actually come to find him, his mind was suddenly a mess.

Unaware of what Lin Yanran was thinking, Gu Siye saw that he remained silent and assumed that he did not want to talk to him, so he let out a helpless, low sigh.

He walked up to Lin Yanran and saw that his ears were red from the cold, so he gently wrapped the scarf he had specially brought around his neck.

“If you don’t want to talk to me right now, I promise I won’t say a single word.”

When Gu Siye spoke, his pace was much slower than usual, but every word uttered in that low, husky voice was laced with tenderness.

“I can wait until the day you are willing to listen.”

And if you don’t want to hear it, I can also keep this secret in my heart forever.

Lin Yanran didn’t respond for a long time after hearing Gu Siye’s words.

He tucked his head into Gu Siye’s scarf, eyes downcast as he pondered something.

Neither of them spoke, standing there in silence for quite a while.

The hotpot restaurant saw off its last batch of customers and closed for the night.

The pedestrians on the road were almost entirely gone, leaving only the two silhouettes in the corner stretched long by the streetlamp.

Lin Yanran’s legs were getting a bit numb from standing, and he couldn’t help but sneeze when the cold wind blew.

An unidentifiable emotion flashed in Gu Siye’s eyes, but in the end, he could only compromise. “I’ll take you to the airport.”

“Okay.”

Lin Yanran finally spoke.

The loneliness in Gu Siye’s eyes became even more apparent.

The two walked in silence toward the car Gu Siye had driven earlier.

After buckling his seatbelt, Lin Yanran called Xiao Wang, telling him that Teacher Gu was dropping him off and to wait for him directly at the airport.

After that, the car went silent, with only the sound of the vehicle driving on the road.

Lin Yanran didn’t put his phone away as he usually did after hanging up.

Instead, he opened WeChat and scrolled through his chat history with Gu Siye.

As he scrolled, he saw an exchange between them from a long time ago:

— Come out and look at the moon.

— Liar, there isn’t one.

— There is.

— In my heart.

After reading this, the famous Natsume Soseki translation came to Lin Yanran’s mind: “The moon is beautiful tonight, and the wind is gentle²The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” (Tsuki ga kirei desu ne) is a famous Japanese phrase meaning “I love you,” a poetic confession attributed to novelist Natsume Soseki..”

Lin Yanran took a soft breath.

“Teacher Gu, who is the moon in your heart?”

“Why did you take a photo of me?”

“Why is my photo on your phone’s lock screen?”

“Why were you willing to go on a show with me?”

Lin Yanran, who had been silent, suddenly asked four questions in a row, making it impossible for Gu Siye to focus on driving.

He pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned to look at the person beside him.

The scarf covered most of the other’s face, leaving only a pair of beautiful, clear eyes visible.

And at that moment, those eyes were looking at him, seriously asking one more question.

“Gu Siye, do you like me?”

• 1
  Weibo posts often feature 9 photos in a 3×3 grid. A traditional spicy hot pot is often served in a “nine-grid pot.” LYR is playing on the term by posting a picture of the pot instead of 9 different photos.
• 2
  The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” (Tsuki ga kirei desu ne) is a famous Japanese phrase meaning “I love you,” a poetic confession attributed to novelist Natsume Soseki.