Chapter 90 – Because I Bit Him
Just as his consciousness began to blur, Chen Bai felt his other hand, hanging limply by his side, being gently lifted and placed on the back of Xu Sinian’s neck.
Disheveled strands of hair fell against his tear-dampened eyes, only to be softly brushed aside. The quiet room was filled with nothing but the sound of ragged breathing.
With a lack of oxygen, Chen Bai’s mind had completely shut down, leaving him to instinctively tighten his grip on Xu Sinian’s neck.
Sensing the slight pressure from Chen Bai’s hand, Xu Sinian lifted his gaze and looked into his pale gray eyes, now hazy but still focused on him.
After a moment, Xu Sinian pulled back from Chen Yibai’s flushed lips, now tinged with color. He allowed Chen Bai a few seconds to breathe, grabbed the phone from the table, and adjusted his grip on Chen Bai’s body. In a low voice, he said, “I’ll take you back to your room. Don’t worry, you won’t fall.”
The language processing system kept cutting out, and Chen Bai could hear the person above him talking, but he couldn’t make out the words. All he knew was that as soon as the voice stopped, his body was suddenly lifted off the ground. Instinctively, he tightened his grip and bit down on the person’s lower lip in front of him.
He hadn’t controlled his strength, and the faint taste of iron spread in his mouth.
Xu Sinian’s words had been in vain, after all.
Even though his mind was foggy, Chen Bai realized he had probably done something wrong. The moment he tasted blood, he recoiled, trying to pretend it never happened.
But there was no use—doing something wrong would always be noticed. The metallic taste of blood still lingered in his mouth, and the hand behind his head pushed him down again, the iron taste growing even stronger.
He had no idea how long it took to move from the living room to the bedroom, but by the time he was finally laid on the bed, he was completely spent, sinking straight into the pillows behind him.
Tears blurred his vision, and through the haze, he saw the figure at the bedside leave and return. When they came back, a cold yet slightly warm sensation touched his hand.
It was a cup of water, filled with warm water. He took it, his hands shaking so much it seemed like he wanted to spill all the water, but after holding it for a while, he hadn’t managed to drink a single drop.
Xu Sinian, who had been wiping the sweat from his forehead and the corners of his eyes, reached out to steady the cup and helped him drink slowly.
Warm water flowed down his throat. After he drank about half, the cup was taken from him, and with a soft click, it was placed on the nightstand next to the hairdryer, which had been brought over earlier.
A damp tissue wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, and his vision became clearer. Feeling safe from the possibility of being touched in the eye, he raised his head and opened his eyes, looking at Xu Sinian, who was carefully wiping his tears.
It hadn’t been an illusion—those eyes still held intense, unhidden emotions that Chen Bai couldn’t quite understand.
He couldn’t make sense of them, but it was clear these weren’t the eyes of someone simply looking at a friend.
Normally, Xu Sinian’s gaze was calm and gentle, but this was the first time Chen Bai had seen such a direct and genuine undercurrent, like turbulent waves hidden beneath the surface.
His fingers, which had turned red from gripping the fabric too tightly, twitched again. Chen Bai tried to get his brain back in gear and, without much meaning, gestured with his hands, saying, “No, this… friends, kissing…”
In his impression, friends didn’t behave like this in any sense of the word.
And it wasn’t just the first time.
His brain was overloaded, and his speech center wasn’t functioning properly either. When he opened his mouth, his voice was hoarse, and he could barely force out a complete sentence.
“Yeah, friends don’t do this.”
Even though his words were jumbled and incomplete, Xu Sinian understood him. He responded with a nod, one hand testing the dampness of Chen Bai’s soft hair. “Good friends don’t, either.”
He responded so straightforwardly that Chen Bai’s eyes widened even more. He pointed at himself and then at Xu Sinian, his movements slow and awkward.
So, what were they, then?
“Because I don’t just want to be friends.”
Chen Bai heard his best friend in the whole world say, “Being good friends isn’t enough.”
Looking up at Xu Sinian, even in this moment, Chen Bai couldn’t resist rasping out a reply, “…Then what do you want to be?”
His mind was still stuck in friend mode, searching within that scope. Aside from “good friends,” he couldn’t think of any closer relationship.
Maybe it was the water he had just drunk, but though his mind was still a little slow, he managed to complete a full sentence.
Meeting his gaze, Xu Sinian said softly, “Boyfriends.”
His pronunciation was clear, each word distinct, with no room for misunderstanding or mishearing.
He could have explained everything that happened tonight as preparation for tomorrow’s shoot, or found some other reason, and afterward, they could have gone back to being friends—the most special of friends.
But this time, he didn’t want to retreat. He didn’t want to be just that one special friend.
Chen Bai “…”
After realizing that Xu Sinian meant “boyfriend,” not just “male friend,” Chen Bai felt like his entire system crashed—his CPU and the whole computer.
Well, no need to dry his hair anymore. His brain was already overheating, maybe even enough to act as a portable hand warmer.
Nothing that had happened the entire night had the same impact as that one short sentence. It was a powerful statement that completely shut down Chen Bai’s mind, leaving him in a standby mode.
Chen Bai “…”
Vrrrrr—
The standby mode was finally broken by the sound of the hairdryer. As the warm wind blew over his head, he had a momentary thought that his brain was about to explode like a volcanic eruption.
Feeling Xu Sinian’s large hand running through his hair, Chen Bai raised his own hand, intending to grab Xu Sinian’s arm. But he was too weak, so he settled for clutching the hem of his shirt, muttering, “Old… Xu Sinian.”
He had initially wanted to call him “Comrade Old Xu” out of habit, but after a brief consideration, he decided that in this moment, calling him by his name seemed more appropriate. So he forced himself to change the address.
“You don’t have to answer me now.”
After testing that his hair was dry, Xu Sinian set the hairdryer down, and the room returned to silence. Gently brushing back Chen Bai’s loose strands of hair, he said, “I can wait. We have plenty of time. You can take your time to think about it, and when you’ve figured it out, tell me.”
He smiled slightly, the sound of his laughter low as he added, “What I want to say can also wait until then.”
With that, Chen Bai released his grip on Xu Sinian’s shirt.
Xu Sinian bent down to put away the hairdryer and placed the phone he had picked up from the table back on the nightstand, next to the water cup. After checking the temperature of the water, he said, “It’s still warm. Drink it if you get thirsty.”
Chen Bai, his system still running slowly, could only look at him and nod.
It was getting late. After helping to cover him with the blanket and returning the space to the person in bed, Xu Sinian straightened up, ready to leave.
Click.
“Comrade Old Xu.”
Just as his hand touched the doorknob, about to leave, the sound of the door and a voice came from behind him. Xu Sinian turned around, immediately meeting the gaze of the person in bed.
Chen Bai wasn’t really hurt. He just remembered something he had done while his mind was unclear and touched his lips.
He brushed against the small wound on his lower lip, and Xu Sinian chuckled softly, saying, “It’s nothing.”
“There won’t be any problem with tomorrow’s shoot,” he said. “We have to wake up early tomorrow, so get some rest tonight.”
Chen Bai gave a slight nod.
This time, Xu Sinian truly left. The sound of the hairdryer being put away came from outside the room, followed by footsteps gradually fading into the distance, and finally, the soft click of the door closing.
Once the door shut, after a brief moment of silence, Chen Bai flopped down on the bed… but sleep? That was impossible.
He quickly rolled over, burying himself in the covers, and grabbed his phone from the nightstand with trembling hands. He opened a search engine and typed:
[Is it serious if you bite someone’s lip while kissing?]
Even though Xu Sinian had said it was nothing, Chen Bai couldn’t shake his unease. According to experts, it was fine, but they advised caution and restraint during future kisses.
Chen Bai “…”
Seeing the words “caution and restraint,” Chen Bai couldn’t believe he’d ever need to apply that advice. His mind momentarily blanked out.
His hands still felt weak, so he flipped over onto his stomach and searched for another query.
[What to do if a good friend wants to be your boyfriend]
[How to make three hundred million in a year]
[Can friends still be friends after kissing?]
[Is weakness during a kiss a sign of illness?]
…
While Chen Bai was passionately browsing, outside the room, the door had closed, but the person who had left didn’t walk away immediately. Xu Sinian leaned slowly against the hallway wall.
Casually rolling up his sleeve, Xu Sinian lowered his head, raising his hand to touch the small wound on his lip.
Xu Sinian “…”
In the quiet corridor, a soft chuckle echoed faintly, blending into the deep night.
—
Staying up all night browsing the search engine meant Chen Yi Bai, who was supposed to go to bed early, ended up pulling an all-nighter. The next morning, he was personally dragged out of bed by his agent.
With a cup of soy milk in one hand and black coffee in the other, he was half-asleep as he was dressed and shoved into the makeup chair. After sleepwalking through his outfit change, he sat there as the makeup artist and stylist worked on him.
Even a cup of black coffee couldn’t save someone who had stayed up all night. After drinking it, Chen Yi Bai still looked dazed in his chair, his eyes lifeless.
The agent quickly sensed something was wrong and asked, “What time did you go to sleep last night?”
Since midnight counted as “today,” she assumed he had stayed up until at least the early hours.
Chen Bai softly mumbled a number and said, “I had a bit of insomnia.”
Gao Qian “?”
His agent was shocked. She had never imagined this person could experience insomnia; She glanced at him a few more times and remembered that there was something he had mentioned last night but hadn’t elaborated on. She asked, “Is it because of what you were thinking about yesterday?”
Even the assistant leaned in, curious about what could have possibly caused the usually unshakable Chen Bai to suffer from insomnia.
Chen Bai waved his hand, saying it wasn’t that, and recalled aloud, “For various reasons, I consulted the internet last night, and according to an expert, I’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness.”
He had spent half the night going back and forth over it, and just as he was about to pay a ten-yuan consultation fee, the expert was banned for fraud.
Agent: “…”
Her interest instantly turned to exasperation, and she curtly said, “Stop going online.”
Online consultations always start with a terminal illness.
Assistant Xiao Meng asked with concern, “So where are you feeling unwell, brother Yi Bai?”
Chen Bai silently lowered his head, speaking deeply, “It’s nothing now.”
After consulting the expert, all-knowing internet users told him that the weakness and shortness of breath during a kiss were purely because he was out of shape and lacked lung capacity.
To put it more politely, it wasn’t that he was incapable—it was just that in this area, he fell a bit short compared to his “good neighbor.”
Remembering the keywords, Chen Bai finally recalled some of what had happened the night before. He closed his eyes, then opened them again, taking a deep gulp of his soy milk.
After finishing the soy milk, they set off for the shooting location.
It was the same familiar set, a familiar apartment building.
Today, for some reason, everyone else had arrived quite early, and by the scheduled start time, almost everyone was already there.
Before he could look around too much, the director approached Chen Yi Bai as soon as he got out of the car, looking around like he was up to something shady. In a low voice, he asked, “How’s the preparation for yesterday’s scene?”
Chen Yi Bai didn’t give a definitive answer right away, only saying, “Let’s try it first.”
Not getting much from him, the director nodded and went over to talk to the producer. The two stood there chatting nervously, glancing around like they were planning something.
Chen Yi Bai later spotted Lin Wanyu, who was still sitting under a tree reading the script. He looked more nervous than the director and producer, chugging several large gulps of water in a few minutes.
Chen Bai could guess that the poor guy was mentally preparing himself for the kiss scene, so he patted him on the shoulder and said, “I’ll do my best to make sure we don’t have to shoot the revised version.”
Lin Wanyu glanced at the hand on his shoulder before lowering his eyes and responding softly. Then, he asked, “Did something happen to you last night?”
Chen Bai’s heart skipped a beat, and he cautiously replied, “Hm?”
Lin Wan Yu explained, “I sent you a message last night. I wanted to see if you had time to rehearse in the evening.”
Chen Bai had no memory of that. He pulled out his phone on the spot and opened his chat app, only then noticing the unread notification. After reading the message, he apologized, “Sorry, something came up last night, so I didn’t check my messages.”
Lin Wanyu smiled, waving it off and saying it was no big deal.
There was still some time before they needed to start. After looking around for a moment, Chen Bai decided to stay put, grabbed a stool, and sat down nearby. He flipped through the script one last time, while his agent and assistant pulled up stools to sit with him.
Today, his “good neighbor” was unusually late, arriving just as the shoot was about to start. As soon as he arrived, they immediately jumped into the first scene.
The agent learned about the script change just before the shoot. As Chen Bai took off his jacket and accepted a cigarette from his assistant, he unconsciously glanced at the man standing a short distance away, talking to the producer. Patting him on the shoulder, the agent said, “Good luck.”
With the limited time for the crew, they couldn’t afford multiple takes for the scene; there was only one chance. Chen Bai acknowledged this.
Everyone gathered once more—back on the familiar second floor and at the familiar entryway of the room.
Standing at the entrance, before the door closed, Chen Yi Bai’s gaze met his good neighbor’s lowered eyes from outside.
Their eyes met, and the door closed.
At six or seven in the morning, the sky was still barely lit. With the door shut, the entryway remained as dark as it had been the night before. In the dimness, only the smell of smoke gradually filled the air, accompanied by an oddly noticeable heartbeat.
Knowing that Lin Wanyu was worried about failing the scene, Chen Yi Bai didn’t say much. He exhaled, closed his eyes, and in the darkness, the director’s voice rang out.
When Chen Yi Bai opened his eyes again, he bent down and opened the door.
The old iron door creaked open, and people gathered in the hallway leaned in to watch.
The man who stepped out of the room had disheveled hair, looking exhausted as he leaned against the doorframe, resting his head on the cold metal. Casually, he pushed the tall, tattooed man behind him backward. His eyes lifted slightly as he asked, “Who are you?”
His movements were sluggish, as if he had no energy. Even though his push was light, the fierce-looking tattooed thug took a step back willingly, though his eyes remained locked on the man at the door.
Chen Yi Bai’s gaze, much like the rest of him, was lazy, but his tightly pressed lips revealed his irritation and frustration, as if he was about to lose his temper. His slightly red lips glistened with traces of water from what he had just drunk before the take.
The camera zoomed in on his clear, slightly misty pale-colored eyes, his reddened eye corners blending perfectly with his slightly damp, overly long lashes.
It was a completely different feeling from before. The sight of him made some viewers swallow nervously.
Behind the camera, the director jumped up, stepping onto his small footstool and silently mouthing “good, good, good” several times. His face was beaming with excitement.
The man standing alone at the doorway lowered his head and introduced himself as the new tenant who had moved into the upstairs apartment, asking if this was the landlord’s place.
“No.”
With a cigarette loosely held between his lips, Chen Yi Bai finally straightened up a bit, running a hand through his messy hair. Taking the cigarette from his lips, he exhaled a puff of smoke while looking up.
The white smoke spread through the air, drifting directly toward the face of the man standing at the door. Through the haze of smoke, Chen Yi Bai chuckled softly and said, “Get lost.”
After his line dropped, there was a silent three-second pause. The clapperboard snapped, and the director shouted, “Cut!”
The moment the word was called, the man who had been looking so cool and collected while holding a cigarette immediately doubled over, clutching his chest as he started coughing uncontrollably.
Chen Bai, who didn’t smoke, clearly wasn’t used to it. As soon as the smoke hit his throat, he felt terrible. He barely managed to squeeze out that last “get lost” out of sheer professionalism, but after that, he could only hold out for about three seconds.
He coughed violently, one after another. Lin Wanyu, who was standing nearby, was the closest and instinctively wanted to help pat his back. However, before he could, a pair of large hands had already wrapped around Chen Bai’s back, helping him catch his breath with practiced ease.
Seeing this, Lin Wanyu lowered his own hand.
Chen Bai, who was coughing so hard that he could hardly breathe, drew the attention of his agent and assistant, who came over to check on him, along with the director, who looked on with curiosity.
It wasn’t a serious issue. He just choked on the smoke, causing a coughing fit, but after a few pats on the back and a couple of deep breaths, he was fine.
Earlier, he had been acting as though he was weak; now, the coughing had left him genuinely dizzy. Once he stood up straight again, he instinctively leaned back, resting against his “good neighbor” and letting out a contented sigh.
Chen Bai “…”
Something felt off.
It was only after leaning back that he realized something was wrong. He glanced up at his good neighbor.
His good neighbor looked down at him with his usual deep, dark eyes and asked, “Isn’t it comfortable to lean like this?”
The familiar gaze and tone reassured Chen Bai, so he continued to rest against him, even adjusting himself to find a more comfortable position.
Seeing that he seemed fine, the director didn’t say much, giving him a thumbs-up and praising, “What did you learn overnight? You suddenly nailed it!”
Although they had given him one more chance, to be honest, based on how things had gone the day before, the director had assumed the script would need to be rewritten. He and the producer had even discussed for a while how to break the news as gently as possible, thinking they had offended Xu Sinian.
Receiving praise, Chen Bai skipped the details and simply said, “I have a unique learning method.”
On-site learning, hands-on experience, guaranteed results.
Remembering something, Chen Bai turned to look at Lin Wanyu, who was still standing by the door, and smiled. “Good thing I didn’t drag you down with me.”
This take was clearly good enough to meet the passing standard, meaning they wouldn’t need to shoot the revised script. Lin Wanyu smiled in response, but it was a small smile, his lowered eyelids hiding his emotions.
His smile seemed a bit forced, but Chen Bai didn’t notice.
“Teacher Xu, did you get hurt?”
Just as the crew was about to disperse and move on to the next scene, a staff member spoke up, and everyone turned their heads back.
Following the staff member’s gaze, they squinted a little harder, and after a closer look, they finally noticed a small cut near the corner of Xu Sinian’s lower lip.
It wasn’t obvious unless you looked closely, and it hadn’t been noticeable on camera, but once seen, it was hard to ignore.
“…”
Caught off guard, Chen Bai, who had been comfortably leaning against Xu Sinian, froze.
He stayed silent, trying to keep a low profile, as he heard his good neighbor laugh softly and say, “I accidentally bumped it last night.”
Since he was still leaning against Xu Sinian, Chen Bai could even feel the subtle vibrations as his good neighbor spoke, causing his conscience to tremble slightly as well.
Unconsciously raising a hand to cover his own mouth, Chen Bai’s eyes drifted, pretending to be busy looking elsewhere.
As the surrounding people murmured about how careless Xu Sinian was, Chen Bai’s gaze accidentally met the eyes of his agent across the crowd.
Seeing his money-making partner felt like seeing a lifeline. He quickly straightened up, patted his good neighbor on the arm to signal that he needed to leave for a moment, and as he walked away from the place that was torturing his conscience, he asked, “What does sister Qian need me for?”
Gao Qian “?”
Sister Qian was just joining the fun and hadn’t intended to call him over.
But seeing how eager he was to leave as if staying there any longer would break him, she glanced at the fragile Chen Bai and then at the actor Xu Sinian, who was still standing in place. She kindly took him away, saying, “There’s something we need to talk about, let’s discuss it downstairs.”
She waved to Xu Sinian and the director, saying, “I’ll borrow him for a moment.”
Thanks to Sister Qian’s mercy, Chen Bai finally breathed the fresh air downstairs.
He sat down on a small bench in the shade, took a thermos of water from his assistant, and after taking a sip, he was back to his usual lively self.
His agent pulled up a stool beside him and asked, “Why did staying there seem like it was killing you?”
“There’s a reason, and it’s a long story.”
Anticipating what his agent might say, Chen Bai quickly added, “This one can’t be shortened.”
Agent: “Oh.”
Since it couldn’t be summarized, she let it go for the moment. Instead, she looked toward the crowd in the corridor and asked, “Do you know how your friend hurt his lip?”
Looking at his friend, it didn’t seem like the kind of accident that could just happen, especially given the specific location of the injury. She couldn’t imagine how anyone could manage to hurt themselves there.
Two assistants leaned in, curious.
Unable to come up with an explanation, Chen Bai quietly took another sip of water, his eyes drifting as he mumbled, “I bit him.”
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