TL: Hua

Chapter 125: Brother Ye

“Teacher Gu even gets jealous of netizens?”

Lin Yanran turned his head to look at Gu Siye with a half-smile. “Why didn’t I notice you’re this kind of person before?”

Lin Yanran was originally teasing Gu Siye, but to his surprise, the other man lightly bit his cheek and rubbed against his ear ambiguously. “Toward Teacher Yanran, I have always had a very strong desire for possession.”

His tone was half-ambiguous and half-serious.

Lin Yanran didn’t know how to respond, but his heart began to pound.

Can’t win, can’t win. Better not tease Teacher Gu next time.

After all, every time, he was the one who ended up being flustered.

Lin Yanran didn’t speak but leaned his head back comfortably, pressing his back closely against the other’s chest.

He really liked the way Gu Siye held him from behind, so he stayed in that position and started scrolling through his phone.

The box office for “Becoming An Older Brother Again” quickly broke 700 million. Since Lin Yanran had previously invested 10 million in the production, his share as one of the investors was looking very optimistic.

The director had specifically mentioned this during a promotional interview to thank him for his righteous help back then.

Consequently, everyone in both the fan circles and the industry knew he had made a huge profit!

On Weibo, fans were showering him with praise.

[The box office is at 700 million; how much will our Teacher Yanran get?]

[Don’t know how much he’ll get, but I know Teacher Yanran has both vision and guts.]

[Teacher Yanran, why are you handsome, rich, and so good at making money yourself?]

[Is genius business sense etched into his DNA?]

[I’m tired of saying it: Teacher Yanran is the GOAT.]

While fans were blowing rainbow farts on Weibo, many friends were sending him congratulations on WeChat.

Those closer to him had already started clamoring for him to send red envelopes to celebrate the box office success.

Having been busy dealing with various matters before, Lin Yanran hadn’t felt much of a personal impact.

Seeing everyone talk about it today, he finally realized in hindsight that his first investment was indeed a success.

Although he might ultimately earn less than the allowance his family gave him, it was still a very good income for him personally.

Immersed in this joy, Lin Yanran generously sent out big red envelopes to his friends, then turned to ask Gu Siye.

“Teacher Gu, should I send you a red envelope too?”

“Sure,” Gu Siye agreed with a smile, though he looked far from serious. He took Lin Yanran’s finger and placed it against his own collarbone. “Giving me a bite works too[1].”

This red envelope is not the same as that red envelope. Lin Yanran thought for a while and then understood what he was talking about after considering his actions.

“Teacher Gu, how is it that the older you get, the more improper you become?”

Suddenly being called out, Gu Siye froze, even going as far as to seriously contemplate his age.

Twenty-eight isn’t that old, is it?

Though compared to Lin Yanran, he was indeed quite a bit older. After a few seconds, Gu Siye’s expression recovered. His peach blossom eyes curved into a mischievous smile as he pressed the other man tightly into his arms, whispering teasingly, “Have you never heard of the saying ‘growing stronger with age’?”

Feeling that breath of hot air, Lin Yanran suddenly thought of Gu Siye’s high spirits last night when he himself was already exhausted to the point of being unable to lift a hand.

He was indeed “growing stronger with age”…

Seeing a faint pink flush appear on Lin Yanran’s face, clueless as to what he was thinking, Gu Siye stopped teasing him.

“Want to go on a date, Teacher Yanran?”

Lin Yanran snapped back to reality.

Between him and Gu Siye, they hadn’t really spoken explicitly about dating or things like that.

Everything seemed to happen naturally as they did things together.

Hearing Gu Siye mention a date so suddenly, he was curious to see what Gu Siye wanted to do.

He nodded. “Where do you want to go for a date tonight?”

Without much thought, Gu Siye blurted out, “How about watching a movie?”

Lin Yanran was a bit surprised, but that surprise was quickly replaced by anticipation.

He had never watched a movie with Gu Siye in public.

In fact, since becoming a celebrity, he had hardly stepped into a cinema at all.

After a long time, one still misses that feeling of meeting up with friends at the cinema, drinking cola, and eating popcorn.

Gu Siye’s suggestion made Lin Yanran’s heart flutter.

He swiped his phone to a ticket-selling website and handed it to Gu Siye. “Choose whatever movie you want, Teacher Gu.”

Gu Siye didn’t take the phone into his hand. Instead, following Lin Yanran’s movement, he swiped on the screen. His fingertip soon stopped on the promotional poster for “Becoming An Older Brother Again.” He raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

“This one. Everyone says it’s very good.”

The cinema wasn’t very far from home, but the two did not go together.

They set off one after the other. Lin Yanran went first to pick up the tickets, then found a corner in the lobby to sit down.

A few minutes later, Gu Siye, wearing a baseball cap and a mask, sat down beside him.

Lin Yanran glanced at him from the corner of his eye and quietly tucked the other ticket into his hand.

Then, he quickly got up and walked to the ticket gate.

The movie had already started; Lin Yanran had arrived late on purpose.

There was only him at the gate now. Two idle staff members were chatting; they checked his ticket casually without really looking at him and let him in.

After successfully groping his way through the dark to a seat at the very end of the last row, Lin Yanran pushed up his black-rimmed glasses above his mask and suddenly let out a sigh of relief.

For those few minutes, he felt like a thief.

Or more accurately, it felt like he was doing underground intelligence work with Gu Siye. He suddenly understood what Gu Siye meant previously when he said, “I really want to tell them that Teacher Yanran is already taken.”

It sounded like a joke, but Gu Siye was likely serious.

A few minutes later, Gu Siye sat down next to him, bringing popcorn and lemonade.

Lin Yanran took the lemonade, looked around to see everyone focused on the screen, and pulled down his mask to take a sip.

A cinema is not a place for chatting, so neither of them spoke.

Only occasionally, when reaching for popcorn, their fingertips would accidentally brush, and Gu Siye would intentionally grab his hand and not let go.

At such moments, the sense of taboo from dating secretly in a public place would be magnified countless times.

Lin Yanran knew the plot of the movie by heart, but he had never sat down to watch it in its entirety.

Watching his own movie in a cinema for the first time felt very strange. He couldn’t quite describe the experience. At first, seeing his own face made it hard to immerse himself, but as he watched, his brain seemed to hypnotize itself, and he began to follow the plot seriously.

The beginning of the movie was a bit absurd, but the style was bright and funny.

Although the screening Lin Yanran bought wasn’t during prime time, the attendance rate was very high; more than half the seats in the massive hall were filled.

Whenever a funny scene played, the whole theater would break into considerable laughter.

Lin Yanran could even hear a young man in front of him constantly calling out “Hubby” at the screen. Whenever Lin Yanran appeared, the man would excitedly shake his friend’s hand: “Ahhh, my hubby is so handsome,” “Ahhh, my hubby is so Alpha…”

Being called “Hubby” over and over made Lin Yanran feel extremely awkward.

With a red face, he instinctively looked at Gu Siye beside him, only to find the other man looking at him as well.

In the enclosed, dark space of the theater, the screen was the only light source.

Lin Yanran couldn’t see Gu Siye’s expression clearly.

However, just as the person in front was about to let out another “Hubby,” Gu Siye leaned into his ear first. His peach blossom eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke teasingly.

“Hubby?”

Lin Yanran, whose brain instantly exploded like fireworks: “…”

This movie is impossible to watch now!

The fanboy in the front seemed to sense his idol’s embarrassment and suddenly went quiet.

More than half the plot had passed; it moved from the laughter and bickering of high schoolers to the blood-pumping excitement of repeated counterattacks, gradually returning to the main theme of family.

On the giant screen, the older brother, Lu Lan, finally fulfilled his promise to his younger brother.

Holding the acceptance letter from A University, he was tossed high into the air by his friends.

Lu Lan, captured in the frame, wore a smile that was unbridled and radiant, brimming with high spirits.

He asked his friends to put him down, and clutching the admission notice tightly, he went to find his younger brother, who was swimming in the river.

He wanted to share this joy with his brother personally.

“Lu Yuan!!”

“Kid, come out quickly! I want to show you something~”

Hearing his brother’s voice, Lu Yuan immediately poked his head out from the water.

With more than half his body submerged, he waved violently at his brother, “Brother!!!”

The distance between the two brothers was a bit far, with a slope between them.

Lu Yuan jumped out of the water, his clothes soaking wet, and he ran toward his brother barefoot.

The setting sun shone on the older brother, who was striding toward him against the wind.

This is his older brother, Lu Lan, his dearest older brother, Lu Lan.

Lu Yuan’s face was filled with an expression of immense pride.

The director filmed this shot in a way that was both artistic and heartwarming.

But at this most tender moment, the expression on Lu Yuan’s face, which had been filled only with his brother, suddenly changed.

He stopped in his tracks, as if he had suddenly seen something.

The camera followed his line of sight and panned downward.

Lin Yanran’s face slowly overlapped with Gu Siye’s face.

Lu Yuan’s dearest brother has been transformed into someone else’s appearance.

The audience in the theater couldn’t help but let out a soft gasp.

Everyone looked at the people beside them, seemingly finding this scene unbelievable.

But in the next second, the director gave them the answer.

The scene shifted rapidly to the appearance of a middle-aged man.

In the doctor’s words, his name was Lu Yuan; he was now sixty years old and suffered from a mental illness.

His condition had recently become more severe; he constantly forgot who he was and took himself to be his deceased older brother, Lu Lan.

Everything that had happened previously in the movie was part of his own fantasy.

Including traveling back to the past—it was all his hallucination.

In reality, the brother who had pulled him out of the abyss, Lu Lan, had already died when he was eighteen years old.

All the things he did for his younger brother in his fantasy were actually things his brother had done for him back then.

However, his brother had hidden one thing from him: his immune system had failed, and he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Knowing his life would soon end, he couldn’t bear to let his helpless, orphaned brother continue to live in such a daze.

He hoped his brother could pull himself together and live a good life.

“The future is beautiful; you must go and see the world more on my behalf.”

It wasn’t until the moment the truth was revealed that Lu Yuan understood: behind every time his brother had smiled and offered easy-going encouragement, there was the hidden torment of endless pain from his illness.

Yet his brother had persevered, only willing to leave after the college entrance examination ended and the acceptance letter was successfully received.

Even before passing away, he had prepared the tuition and living expenses for the entire following year.

His brother’s departure was the thing Lu Yuan regretted most in his life.

“I had the greatest brother in the world, but I have lost him forever.”

So, as Lu Yuan grew older, he would frequently have this dream.

Dreaming that he was his brother, Lu Lan.

Returning to the past over and over again, wanting to take on everything and make up for it all.

The final shot of the film featured the older brother, Lu Lan, played by Gu Siye.

In the world of the movie, this was Lu Lan’s actual original appearance.

He lightly waved the acceptance letter in his hand and raised an eyebrow triumphantly at Lin Yanran, “Kid~”

Amidst the low sobbing of the audience, a dim, faint light fell upon Gu Siye’s face.

Lin Yanran looked at Gu Siye on the big screen wearing a school uniform, and just like the Lu Yuan in the film, countless fragments suddenly flashed through his mind…

He stared unblinkingly at Gu Siye’s face as memory and reality overlapped at this very moment.

Lin Yanran’s eyes widened instantly.

He turned his head sharply to look at the man beside him, his tightly clenched palms trembling slightly.

“Brother Ye.”

[1]  I’m guessing this is a wordplay on the word 红包 which means red envelope and can also mean a red bump on the skin.