Chapter 32
The director of The Rest of My Life Has You in It was named Zhou Ci. He and Ji Yuan were from the same school and major, just a few years apart, and Ji Yuan had first met him during a university study trip.
The two admired each other’s talent and ability very much, so they added each other as friends. Even after the study trip ended, they would still occasionally keep in touch on social media and share their latest professional work with one another.
The reason Xu Mu’an managed to get the role of second male lead in The Rest of My Life Has You in It was precisely because Ji Yuan had pulled strings for him and helped him secure the audition opportunity.
Xu Mu’an’s acting really was quite good. Otherwise, he would never have passed the final audition on his own merit, nor would he have managed to disguise himself for so many years without Ji Yuan noticing anything wrong.
By the time Ji Yuan and the others arrived deep in the woods, it was already late at night.
On the way there, Ji Yuan had already contacted Zhou Ci in advance.
But Ji Yuan had not told Zhou Ci that she was actually there to catch someone cheating.
Instead, she used the excuse that during the daytime video call, Xu Mu’an had said he wanted to see her, so after finishing work, she had taken the chance to come over.
Ji Yuan had especially instructed Zhou Ci not to tell Xu Mu’an in advance. She wanted to give him a surprise.
Since Zhou Ci knew about her relationship with Xu Mu’an, he did not suspect anything. He only teased her a little, saying things like how sweet young couples were.
Ji Yuan smiled and did not explain further.
With something not yet fully confirmed, the fewer people who knew, the better.
After Ji Ran parked the car, everyone inside immediately rushed toward the hotel entrance, barely able to wait.
Zhou Ci was sitting in the lobby on the first floor, waiting for Ji Yuan.
He spotted Ji Yuan from afar, but the moment he stood up, he froze, his eyes falling on the group of people following behind her, all looking fierce and menacing.
Zhou Ci almost wanted to take a step back.
He hesitated before asking, “Ji Yuan, th-this is…?”
“Oh, it’s fine, they’re all friends,” Ji Yuan said. “I came over as soon as I got off work, and they were worried that it’d be unsafe for me to come alone so late, so they just came with me.”
Zhou Ci: “…”
That still didn’t require this many people, did it?!
If people knew the truth, they would know Ji Yuan was here to surprise her boyfriend. But if they didn’t know, they might think she was here to catch a cheating man instead!
No, wait—even if she really were here to catch a cheater, who would bring this many men and women along?!
Zhou Ci could not help glancing at them again. This time, he clearly caught the hidden excitement in some of their eyes.
Their expressions all said the same thing:
Yes, I’m absolutely here to join the fun and eat gossip.
Zhou Ci fell silent.
His instincts told him that whatever was about to happen next would probably not be simple.
Ji Yuan lowered her voice and asked him, “Which room is Xu Mu’an in?”
“2808,” Zhou Ci said. “This is the spare room card for Xu Mu’an’s room. I already got it for you. Don’t worry, he should be in the room right now. The front desk said they haven’t seen him leave.”
When Zhou Ci booked the hotel rooms, he had done so in the name of the whole production crew, so with a reasonable excuse, it had been easy enough for him to get the spare room card from the front desk.
Ji Yuan nodded. “Okay, got it.”
She took the card and had only gone a couple of steps before stopping again to ask, “Do you have Zhang Ziqin’s room card too?”
“Huh? You need his as well?” Zhou Ci froze.
“Just in case, better to have it on hand first,” Ji Yuan said. Then, realizing that sounded a little odd, she added, “They’re friends, after all. It’s possible they’re hanging out together tonight, chatting or gaming. I’m worried Mu’an might not be in his own room right now.”
The front desk had only said Xu Mu’an had not left the hotel, not that he was definitely in his own room and had not gone visiting.
Zhou Ci thought that made sense.
But the strange feeling in his heart still kept rising uncontrollably.
Even so, Zhou Ci did not ask further. After borrowing Zhang Ziqin’s spare room card from the front desk, he led everyone into the elevator.
Lin Zhiqiao had been holding it in the whole way, and finally could not help rubbing his hands frantically in his heart.
[Ahhh, why is this elevator so slow! Why haven’t we reached the twenty-eighth floor yet, ahhh!]
[I hope the scumbag can last a little longer—don’t let them finish the battle before we even reach the battlefield! That would be way too boring. How is that any different from stripping naked only to be shown a cartoon?!]
Zhou Ci: ?!!
Pupil earthquake.jpg
What scumbag? What battlefield? What finish the battle? Why were all of these things he could not understand?!
No, no!
Forget the meaning of the content for now—where on earth was this voice coming from?!
Zhou Ci tried to open his mouth and ask, but failed.
He snapped his mouth shut again and let his gaze sweep over the elevator’s metal doors, catching the reflected expressions of the people behind him in the silver surface.
Bold and spirited, full of vigor—there really was a sense of urgent determination, like they were marching off to war.
Zhou Ci had no idea what exactly was happening.
But somehow, he seemed to be infected by that intense emotion too, and found himself becoming nervous and excited without being able to control it.
At the time, he did not yet know that this emotion was called “anticipation for gossip.”
With a ding, the doors opened, and Ji Yuan stepped past Zhou Ci, who had been standing at the front, and walked straight ahead.
“Hey, no, not that way!” Zhou Ci hurriedly stopped her, remembering to keep his voice low. “To the right, to the right—2808 is the fourth room on the right-hand side!”
It was already very late. Most of the actors in the production crew had already gone to rest, so the corridor was completely quiet, without even an extra shadow in sight.
Ji Yuan moved quickly, stopping like a gust of wind in front of room 2808. Under everyone’s secretly excited gaze, she lifted the room card and brought it forward—
With a beep, the door opened.
The room inside was completely empty. The pillows, blankets, and bed were all perfectly neat, and even the bathroom was dry and fresh, without the slightest trace of moisture.
There was not even a hint that anyone had been staying there.
Lin Zhiqiao let out a wow in his heart. [Good lord, even his luggage isn’t in his own room. Did Xu Mu’an just pack up his whole self and move straight into his underground boyfriend’s room?!]
Half of Ji Yuan’s heart turned cold in an instant.
Zhou Ci: !!!
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This time, he had finally caught the source of the voice.
Zhou Ci secretly glanced at the chestnut-haired young man shrinking behind the others, his presence extremely faint.
It seemed that he could hear his inner thoughts.
And not just him—it seemed that everyone present at the moment could hear those thoughts.
But compared to that, what shocked Zhou Ci even more was the content of that last line from the chestnut-haired youth—
Underground boyfriend? What underground boyfriend? Who was whose underground boyfriend?
Zhang Ziqin was Xu Mu’an’s underground boyfriend?!
But wasn’t Xu Mu’an Ji Yuan’s boyfriend?!
All the strange things he had noticed before were now suddenly strung together by an invisible thread!
Zhou Ci sucked in a breath of cold air!
Ji Yuan and the others really had come to catch a cheater!!!
Zhou Ci felt as if he had glimpsed one of the hidden secrets of the world, and a covert thrill rose from the bottom of his heart!
Before Ji Yuan could speak, Zhou Ci took the initiative first. “Come with me. Zhang Ziqin’s room is 2828.”
His voice already carried a trace of excitement and anticipation he could no longer hide.
The two rooms were far apart. Zhou Ci led them around a corridor and past several more doors before finally stopping.
He took the initiative to step back and gave the front position to Ji Yuan.
Ji Yuan held the room card in her hand, her expression grave.
With a dense black crowd following behind her, Ji Ran suddenly raised a hand and pressed it to her shoulder, lowering his voice. “Don’t be afraid. We’re all here.”
Ji Yuan’s heart steadied. Only then did she realize that her hand was trembling a little.
She frowned hard.
The problem wasn’t with her, so what was she afraid of!
Whether she advanced or retreated, it was all the same knife anyway. Might as well just do it!
So she nodded, took a deep breath, her eyes turning incomparably firm in that instant, and pressed the room card forward once again—
The door opened.
And at the same moment the beep of the card reader sounded, a voice from inside the room rang out in panic so severe it was almost terror—
“Who’s opening the door?!”
“Don’t come in!!!”
What followed was a chaotic scramble. There was the sound of something heavy falling, mixed with a muffled groan of pain.
Ji Yuan was only too familiar with one of those voices.
She shoved the door open and rushed straight for the bed. Behind her, one, two, three, four… a full eight people followed her in!
Like a swarm of locusts sweeping through, dark and dense, enough to inspire fear at a single glance!
“Who allowed you people to—”
Zhang Ziqin, wrapped tightly in the blanket on the bed, stopped mid-shout when he saw the many newcomers—especially the baby-faced girl at the front. The frozen expression on his face looked both ridiculous and laughable.
[Huh? How strange—why is Zhang Ziqin the only one here?] Lin Zhiqiao hid behind the crowd, craning his neck and peering around the room. [Where’s Xu Mu’an? One of the main characters is missing. Where did he hide?]
Ji Yuan also looked around for a moment. “Where’s Xu Mu’an?”
Zhang Ziqin did not have time to be shocked by where the mysterious voice had come from. He had already calmed himself down at lightning speed and even sorted out the expression on his face.
“He’s not here,” he said. “If you want to find him, go look in his room. Why are you here in mine?”
“I clearly just heard his voice. That line ‘don’t come in’ was him, wasn’t it?” Ji Yuan tried to argue with him. “I’d recognize his voice even if it turned to ashes, so where is he?”
Zhang Ziqin stubbornly insisted, “I already told you, he’s not here!”
At the back, Lin Zhiqiao craned his neck, trying to get a clearer look at the scene ahead.
Cheng Xia and Pei Ning, who were standing in front of him, noticed what he was doing and, with perfect tacit understanding, shifted to the side just enough to give him a narrow gap to peek through.
[Good lord—red rope, black cords, rainbow bow… these two lunatics are really playing fancy! Looks like when we arrived, they were right at the most exciting part!]
Zhang Ziqin: “…”
The hand hidden under the blanket twitched as he tried to pull the not-so-well-hidden “tools of the crime” farther under the covers.
But Ji Yuan moved even faster than he did, reaching out as though to grab the red rope and black cords. “What is this? Don’t think you can hide it!”
At the side, Pei Ning reacted quickly and stopped her. “Don’t touch it. It looks like it’s already been used. It’s filthy.”
That one sentence instantly halted Ji Yuan’s movement.
Zhang Ziqin’s face darkened.
[Wow wow wow! There are already three dead little safety umbrellas in the trash can! So the question is—was Xu Mu’an just too full of energy and going nonstop, or does he have poor endurance and can only make up for it with quantity?]
[Though it could also be Zhang Ziqin, of course. Hard to say who used them, after all.]
Several strange sounds escaped the room—someone was desperately trying to hold back laughter, but had not quite succeeded, and the laugh burst out in a bizarre frog-like croak.
Tang Zhou, standing beside Jiang Qianqian, was red in the face from holding back.
That had been close. The one who had almost croaked out loud had nearly been him.
Zhang Ziqin: “…………”
He was furious, but he knew that if he lost his composure now, it was over.
So he said calmly, “What, does this era not even allow someone to take care of their own physical needs anymore?”
He looked at Zhou Ci in the crowd. “Or should I say, Director Zhou, when exactly did you make a rule about this sort of thing?”
Zhou Ci was in the middle of eating gossip with great enthusiasm. Hearing that, he instinctively shook his head. “No. As long as it doesn’t affect daytime work performance, the production team does not interfere in private matters.”
Zhang Ziqin spread his hands toward everyone. “In that case, Ji Yuan, why don’t you first explain why you brought this many people and barged into my room?”
“If you can’t give a reasonable explanation, then you shouldn’t object to me protecting my own rights either, right?”
He was trying to turn the tables.
But he did not succeed.
That infuriating voice rang in his ears again—
[Oh my heavens, Xu Mu’an actually hid under the bed!]
Ji Yuan immediately lowered her head, and sure enough, she saw a little section of red rope under the bed.
A slight change flashed across Zhang Ziqin’s face.
He wanted to stop Ji Yuan, but right now he could barely protect himself, so it was clearly beyond him.
Ji Yuan had already bent down and in one motion yanked the bed skirt aside—
There was a wooden board running along the bottom of the bed, and the gap between the board and the floor was less than five centimeters, obviously too small for a grown man to hide in.
Zhang Ziqin gave a cold laugh. “Don’t tell me you think your dear boyfriend has some kind of superpower and can squeeze into a space that sm—”
Before he could finish, Ji Yuan had already spotted the trick. With a sharp shove, she pushed the entire wooden board to the side!
It was a whole movable panel!
She gave no one time to react. In the next second, the strong beam of a flashlight shone straight into the darkness under the bed—
The person hiding there let out a howl. “Fuck, my eyes!”
It seemed Xu Mu’an had been blinded by the holy light of justice.
Almost at the exact same moment, Ji Yuan shouted, “You dog scumbag! Let’s see if I don’t chop off your weapon of crime today and feed it to the dogs!”
Every male present felt a chill below at the same time.
[Little Auntie, calm down! That’s not good! It’s really not good—] Lin Zhiqiao screamed in horror. [What did the dogs ever do wrong! Dogs are so cute! You can’t feed dogs something that dirty! Whoever wants to eat it, feed it to them instead, ahhhh!!!]
Ji Yuan lifted her eyes and gave Zhang Ziqin on the bed a sinister smile.
In the next second, she grabbed the section of red rope on the floor. “Haah!!!”
With a ripping scrape, there came the sound of skin dragging across the floorboards, accompanied by a pained howl. Ji Yuan pulled with one fierce effort, and both the rope and Xu Mu’an under the bed were dragged all the way out!
Lin Zhiqiao: [Little Auntie has amazing arm strength!]
Then he craned his neck to look—
Unlike Zhang Ziqin, who was wrapped in the blanket, Xu Mu’an was stark naked from head to toe. Black cords and red rope crossed over his body, and below that was a huge rainbow bow, barely preserving the last shred of his dignity.
Everyone present widened their eyes almost at once.
Wow! Exciting!!!
[Ahhh, don’t look if propriety forbids it!] Lin Zhiqiao held his breath and raised a hand to cover his eyes, yet left two very wide gaps between his middle and ring fingers. [Woooow! They’re playing so fancy!! This is intense!!!]
Driven by professional instinct, Ji Yuan—despite being so furious she could explode, and disgusted enough to retch—still did not forget to whip out her phone and rapidly photograph every single piece of evidence!
Only after doing all that did she turn her head aside and dry-heave twice.
Xu Mu’an instinctively raised a hand as if trying to grab the blanket, but in his panic he accidentally caught the bedsheet instead, dragging both the sheet and the person on the bed down to the floor with him.
Another heavy thump sounded—this time it was Zhang Ziqin who hit the ground.
There was only one blanket, and both of them wanted to cover themselves, so an earth-shaking, ghost-weeping battle for blanket supremacy broke out right there on the floor!
Looking at the absurd scene on the ground, Ji Yuan was practically so angry she laughed.
Unable to help herself, she lifted her foot and kicked the blanket viciously twice.
No one knew which of the two she had kicked, but both of them cried out in pain from underneath.
Xu Mu’an anxiously tried to explain himself. “Baby, it’s not what it looks like!”
“Don’t you fucking call me baby ever again!” Ji Yuan spat twice. “It makes my stomach turn sour just hearing it!!”
Lin Zhiqiao clapped enthusiastically. [Good, good, good—classic scumbag line number one: It’s not what it looks like!]
Xu Mu’an choked for a second, then raised a hand and pointed at Zhang Ziqin beside him. “It was him! He set me up! He seduced me first!”
[Ohhh, here it comes! Classic scumbag technique number two: It’s not my fault! It’s all his fault!]
Ji Yuan was so disgusted by him that her pretty brows shot up and she was about to curse him out, but someone else was even more agitated than she was.
“I seduced you? Me? Seduced you?!” Zhang Ziqin pointed at himself. “Have you fucking gone crazy, Xu Mu’an? Do you even remember who it was, back in senior year, that practically got on his knees begging me to accept his confession and be with him?!”
Xu Mu’an’s face changed. “What nonsense are you talking about! Ji Yuan, don’t believe him—he’s a lunatic—”
At the critical moment, betrayed by his own boyfriend, Zhang Ziqin had finally reached the point where there was no need to endure any longer. He raised a fist and punched Xu Mu’an squarely across the bridge of the nose he was so proud of.
“You said you’d stay with me for the rest of your life! You said I was the most important person in your whole life! It was all fucking fake, wasn’t it?!”
Left punch, right punch—Zhang Ziqin rained blows down on him. Xu Mu’an was beaten into a rage, flipped over, and pinned him beneath him in one motion, instantly turning passive into active!
“In your fucking dreams! If I wasn’t scared other people would find out I actually like men, I would’ve replaced you ages ago!”
Lin Zhiqiao: [Ahhh! The best part is here! Classic scumbag civil war—dog biting dog! Two mad dogs tearing into each other—now we’ll see which one’s crazier!!!]
Ji Ran and Cheng Xia quickly dragged Ji Yuan back a step, pulling her away from the edge of the battlefield into a safe zone so she would not get caught in the crossfire of the two mad dogs.
The two men on the ground were fighting like there was no tomorrow, completely forgetting that they had just been caught in the act, and even more unaware that because they were making such a huge racket, they had already alarmed the rest of the floor.
By then, the doorway was packed tight with gossip-loving onlookers. Nearly everyone from the production crew had gathered over, poking their heads around, trying to see what was happening inside.
Lin Zhiqiao transformed into a boxing-match referee and kindly provided live commentary—
[Good! Contestant Zhang Ziqin lands a punch directly on Contestant Xu Mu’an’s upper jaw! Congratulations to Contestant Zhang Ziqin for earning 1 point!]
[Contestant Xu Mu’an is not backing down. One punch to Contestant Zhang Ziqin’s left cheek, followed by one slap that knocks his right cheek sideways!]
[Well done! Contestant Xu Mu’an scores two consecutive hits for 2 points! Contestant Zhang Ziqin isn’t doing too well—keep it up!]
[Excellent! Contestant Zhang Ziqin refuses to fall behind and raises his leg to kick—oh my heavens! He actually kicked—]
[No, no! Contestant Xu Mu’an’s rainbow bow has fallen off!] Lin Zhiqiao gasped sharply. [Somebody save him! Contestant Xu Mu’an has been hit in a critical point—his health bar is down to the bottom, ahhhh!]
This farce finally came to an end when Zhou Ci called an ambulance, and Xu Mu’an—who had fainted from pain—together with the bruised and battered Zhang Ziqin were loaded up and taken away.
One of the medical staff who came with the ambulance asked, “We need a family member to go along. Which one of you is family for this patient?”
They pointed at Xu Mu’an.
Everyone present, with remarkable tacit understanding, pointed at Zhang Ziqin instead.
The medical worker fell silent for a moment. “Preferably someone conscious. Someone who can actually make decisions.”
Lin Zhiqiao was itching to volunteer.
[Me me me! I want to go, I want to go! I can keep eating this melon!]
[I heard that after getting scared soft, there’s a chance of premature ejaculation or impotence! Xu Mu’an should’ve been right at the critical moment just now, right? Getting that badly frightened, and then receiving such a strong kick full of love from his boyfriend…]
Lin Zhiqiao sucked in a sharp breath. [Xu Mu’an… isn’t going to lose his manhood from now on, is he!!!]
Ji Yuan nearly burst out laughing on the spot.
In the end, Lin Zhiqiao’s hopes still fell through.
As the production crew’s director, Zhou Ci was forced to provide humanitarian assistance and boarded the ambulance to the hospital with tears in his eyes.
No one noticed that among the crowd, someone put away their phone, a thrilled and satisfied smile appearing on their face.
—Big news! Another hot search reservation!
The two main owners of the melon had already been carted off in the ambulance. The assistant director, who had been watching the fun at the doorway, still looked somewhat unsatisfied, but he nevertheless began urging everyone to go back to their rooms and stop gathering to watch.
Only after the crowd dispersed and things temporarily settled down did everyone suddenly notice that at some point, the room had become filled with the smell of barbecue.
Ji Ran lowered his head and looked at the late-night snack bag he was carrying—
In order to preserve the taste, the snack bag had not been tied shut. The wooden skewers with the barbecue meat on them were still sticking out.
Compared to when they had first gotten the snacks, the surviving barbecue skewers now numbered… fewer than five.
So everyone followed the smell, and in the end their eyes all focused on the chestnut-haired young man standing at the very back of the crowd.
Only then did Lin Zhiqiao belatedly lower the skewer in his hand. In his left hand hanging by his side, he was already clutching a whole bundle of empty sticks that carried nothing but a lingering meat fragrance.
When eating gossip, his mouth always wanted something to chew on. And Ji Ran had happened to be standing right in front of him, with the barbecue skewers within easy reach…
Lin Zhiqiao smiled awkwardly.
How exactly was he supposed to explain that he honestly had not meant to steal the late-night snacks on purpose?
With everyone’s gazes fixed on him like hungry tigers, Lin Zhiqiao shut his eyes, steeled his heart, and—
[Yes! That’s right! I stole the late-night snacks! I, Lin Zhiqiao, have no defense today! I accept whatever punishment comes!]
But instead of the criticism he had expected, what came was a flood of earnest concern.
Ji Ran looked worried. “Did you eat enough, Xiao Qiao? Was it enough?”
Cheng Xia comforted him gently. “It’s fine. It’s just one bag of barbecue. I’ll order another one delivered here.”
The others also took out their phones one after another and started browsing nearby food delivery options.
Only Ji Yuan still stood where she was, looking a bit dazed, as if the huge emotional explosion just now had drained every bit of strength from her body.
Lin Zhiqiao could almost see a little white ghost floating over her head.
Ji Ran turned around, noticed how Ji Yuan looked like her soul had gone missing, and poked her worriedly.
“Ji Xiaoyuan?”
Ji Yuan did not react.
Ji Ran tried again. “Little Auntie?”
Still no reaction.
He thought for a moment, drew a deep breath, and shouted, “Ji Xiaoyuan! Your bias has collapsed!!!”
Ji Yuan jolted violently, and her wandering soul instantly snapped back into her body!
Ji Ran relaxed a little. “Are you okay?”
“I-I… not very okay.” Ji Yuan sniffled, trying to hold it in, but failing. “No, I still can’t accept this…”
Ji Ran tried to comfort her. “It’s okay. I came through the same thing too. Slowly, you’ll—”
But before he could finish his consolation, Ji Yuan’s mouth crumpled and she burst into tears with a wail:
“Wuwuwu, how could my first love be this shameful?!!!”
