RALP Chapter 44

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After Christmas comes the usual workday.

Qin Ge isn’t at work today. As an intern, his university classes mean he’ll be at work three to four days a week only.

Assistant Xiao is quite happy and feels fulfilled to be serving under CEO Du alone.

Though she could kind of feel that something is bugging him these days.

Like right now – she is on the passenger’s seat while CEO Du is looking up, daydreaming in the back. Normally, if he doesn’t have anything to do, he would always be sleeping or looking at his phone.

She can’t help but ask, “Mr. Du, has something happened?”

Du You turns to her, but does not reply.

“I feel like you seem to be troubled. If you don’t mind, I can be a listener.”

Du You falls into thought for a while, and begins, “someone…”

Seeing her boss willing to open up, the assistant quickly takes out her notebook, ready to record anything of note.

“… said he was going to come play on Christmas Eve.”

Assistant Xiao notes the words ‘Christmas Eve’ as her glasses flash. This is a special day – then the person requesting must also be special.

“Yet when the day came, two other people came.”

Assistant Xiao’s pen pauses as she records the number ‘2.’

“At night, the four of us ate dinner and played games together. It was merry.”

The assistant questions his use of the adjective, really.

“But the next day, that original person seemed down. He said he thought we would be alone, before leaving,” says Du You, “I’m thinking about why he is angry.”

Assistant Xiao closes her notebook, “Mr. Du, have you come to a conclusion yet?”

“Do you want to hear it?”

“If you would like to tell.”

“The night was happy, so he was probably not angry at the other two people…”

Assistant Xiao nods; her boss did seem to have seriously thought about this.

“Bad temper from waking up?”

An immediate jump to conclusion?!

Since Du You seems to have skipped everything, assistant Xiao had him retell everything from the beginning.

Her face turns rather ominous by the end, “Mr. Du, please listen to me.”

Du You nods, seemingly taken aback by the seriousness in her voice.

The car continues along the road as the scenery outside blends together horizontally.

Meanwhile, in Xiao Tiantian’s apartment.

He’s humming a tune while putting on a new flowery set of clothes.

In the living room, the werebeast is curled up in the corner. His head is resting on his arms, deep asleep.

As he doesn’t like wearing clothes, he’s still naked from torso upwards. His shoulder blades extend quite prominently outwards, its contours pleasing to the eye.

Xiao Tiantian can’t help but smile in satisfaction seeing such a heartwarming scene.

His plan is going well.

He brought the man back without accident.

Ryan, from the werebeast world was alert at everything unfamiliar having just apparated in this world, and he is his only source of comfort.

This confirms his suspicion that whatever is obstructing his plotline is definitely in this world.

So that this last Top doesn’t go haywire, Xiao Tiantian has locked him up in the house, and told him not to leave.

Of course, he wouldn’t mind. Again, he’s his only source of comfort.

This afternoon he has classes so Xiao Tiantian does not wake Ryan up. He just rubs his head slightly then leaves the house reluctantly.

The university is about 30 minutes from the place he is renting.

The first class is public; as soon as he walks in, he can feel something is different.

It’s still more than 10 minutes before the start of the class but the room is already full of people. Both men and women appeared unusually excited.

Xiao Tiantian quickly discovers that Qin Ge is here too. He’s sit by the window at the most inconspicuous last row.

Even that faraway seat does nothing to stop people from noticing his presence the moment they enter.

It’s been over a month since their parting at the airport.

Seeing that handsome side view of his face makes Xiao Tiantian somewhat dazed. Then, he bites his lips and takes a seat opposite the crowd at the first row, purposefully distancing himself from Qin Ge.

Normally, Qin Ge was coming back only for him and applied to Suikou Uni. for him.

In his plot, he and Qin Ge would have become that enviable couple at school, coming and leaving together, with lots of CP fans of theirs posting on the school forums.

But now, after that incident at the airport, he doesn’t dare approach Qin Ge at all.

Seeing him again just reminds him of that insulting incident.

Xiao Tiantian embraces himself, trembling, not wanting to recall it at all.

Qin Ge would not know how hurtful he was to him at the airport; not just physically, but psychologically as well.

In fact, he acts as if he doesn’t even remember it at all. He has not contacted him ever since.

Xiao Tiantian has no idea how he managed to last through the entire lecture.

When the bell rang, he felt someone poking at him from the back, “hey, hey?”

Xiao Tiantian sees a student who’s rather unappealing in appearance.

Despite the student’s disappointing appearance, the honest-to-earth good Xiao Tiantian still shows him a brilliant smile, “what?”

“You were trembling for the whole class. I think you shouldn’t hold it in if you really need to go, you know” the kind male student suggests to him.

Xiao Tiantian “…”

Going back home was more exhausting than ever. He drags his heavy body to the sofa, and curls his petite body up into a ball at the end of the sofa.

A while later, someone was patting him on the head.

He sees Ryan kneeling in front of the sofa, his tail lightly waggling, his dark green eyes filled with worry.

Xiao Tiantian is touched.

Thank the Heavens there was still one person there for him.

He squeezes a smile out, “I’m fine…” Though he doesn’t realise that he practically sounds like he’s crying from the tone.

Perhaps, no matter how tough one tries to appear, when in front of someone who truly cares for you, you would be unable to resist shedding your jagged and toughened carapace.

He can’t help but start divulging in him his bitterness and sadness he endured all this time.

“… You’re the only one left. So promise me, do not betray me, ok?”

Ryan didn’t exactly manage to grasp everything in this long-winded speech, but he does understand the central idea.

His darling was bullied; he had a duty to ensure his darling is not bullied.

The tearful Xiao Tiantian is there waiting for Ryan to hug him and soothe him, only to see Ryan stand up and heading for the window.

“I will take revenge for you,” Ryan’s lean form starts to grow, “when I’m back, we’ll go back to the tribe.”

A gargantuan, imposing beast has appeared in Xiao Tiantian’s home. Its fur smooth, gleaming. Compared to the actual wild wolves in this world, he’s almost twice their size.

Xiao Tiantian tries to stop him when he sees him about to jump out, “wait——”

But right off the sofa and he manages to twist his delicate little ankle, falling to the ground.

The white wolf has already leapt outside, without opening the windows.

So, a ‘crack,’ and the glass window is already shattered, the fragments flying all over the place. The white shadow has disappeared, leaving behind a mess.

Xiao Tiantian couldn’t even activate ‘plot correction’ in time as he watched his Top leave. He grits his teeth.

If it were before, he might have encouraged him taking action for his sake.

But, since the perpetrator has not been found yet, if he left like this, he’s afraid Ryan will end up like the other members of the Top, swayed by the mysterious white lotus, never to return to his side again.

The snow has stopped, though the weather is still as cold as ever. The sky looks as if even the clouds have been frozen over into ice.

Despite the Chinese New Year approaching, the people in the movie set are still busy like bees; they must finish shooting the scenes by March.

“Cut!”

You Haoyu lets the person in his hand go.

This scene is a standoff between he and the male protagonist, since he was suspecting him to be a spy, so he was trying to suss him out with trap-laden chatter.

The male protagonist was clever and meticulous however, and through their conversation, he’s in fact managed to clear his name in the antagonist’s eyes.

Yet, the same scene has been NG’ed dozens of times now, with countless tape going to waste, and still the director hasn’t got the effect he wanted.

Director Wang slaps his chair to rush over in anger. Before the male protagonist can say anything, he was scolded hard, “why are you getting dominated in aura again! This is supposed to be your highlight! With that kind of acting not even you could believe you aren’t actually the spy! How could the audience feel that you’re smart!”

The actor, a newcomer to the film industry himself, has his head lowered, accepting the scolding as they came.

Everyone is used to director Wang’s temper really. Good acting gets you a nod of acknowledgement; bad ones gets you the scolding of a lifetime.

After the protagonist, he turns to You Haoyu, “take a rest. I’ll talk about the scenes to him.”

You Haoyu turns to walk outside without saying anything else. As soon as he was out of the set, his agent heads over.

“Mr. Du has come to visit.”

You Haoyu is stunned.

“He’s the stockholder at the very top,” this agent is hired by Xinwen Entertainment’s executive who only ever saw this true boss behind-the-scenes once, so he does not know about the relationship between the two of them. While he doesn’t know why the top boss is here to visit a small celebrity, he still has to do his job, and reminds him, “be a bit more polite; Mr. Du never smiles, so he might not have a good temper either. So you…”

Before he can finish, You Haoyu has walked past him, heading quickly towards the staff room.

Agent “…”

He, he’ll have to stay strong; it’s not the first time he’s ignored anyway.

You Haoyu can hear chitchat coming from inside the room before he opens the door.

“——really amazing! If it were his part, we can get off work early that day! Director Wang might always look like that but the last time when he was drunk he was praising You Haoyu nonstop.”

This female voice sounds familiar.

You Haoyu opens the door to see that it’s a female staffer who coordinated the setpieces. He recognises her but they haven’t talked much.

Du You is right there next to her.

He is looking at her quietly without saying anything, but it is clear he is paying serious attention to what she is saying.

As she continues her praises, he occasionally nods as well.

The praises are getting embarrassing for You Haoyu to listen to. When he is about to intervene, someone speaks up behind him.

“What are you doing her?”

You Haoyu turns around to find a woman with glasses behind her. She looks familiar – Du You’s assistant who often comes along with him, isn’t she?

Though he knits his brows trying to recall her name.

Assistant Xiao pushes her glasses, “my surname is Xiao.”

Then, she passes the man by and walks into the room, “Mr. Du, your bubble tea.”

So the two people inside naturally sees You Haoyu next to the lady who spoke.

You Haoyu clears his throat in his awkwardness as he walks inside, “why are you here.”

“To visit.”

You Haoyu looks at Du You with a complicated expression, looking hesitant but wanting to speak.

Assistant Xiao sees that the two seem to want to talk alone and gestures to the staffer, “can you help me distribute these bubble tea?”

“Sure,” she nods, as expected.

Though she can’t help but tilt her head sideways to look at the two when she was leaving. Her many years of experience in this field tells her that something is off about the two of them.

As she was unaware of how much of a bigshot Du You truly was and assumed he was just the boss of the small entertainment/management company, she heaped praises nonstop onto You Haoyu just now trying to appeal to him for him.

Though it would appear it may have been unnecessary?

You Haoyu’s character meant that he is dressed quite maturely in the movie. His hair has been tidily brushed back. A dark grey vest over a white shirt, with a grey overcoat covering it all.

A pocket square in the coat and a gold-trimmed pair of glasses on his nose, softening the usual aggressiveness in his looks.

Du You is quite curious seeing him wear glasses for the first time.

You Haoyu seems somewhat flustered, “wh-, what.”

“The glasses.”

You Haoyu realises what he was talking about and takes it off, “was it weird?”

It is not an actor’s job to question the fashion design which is used to build up the character.

Though he is feeling more embarrassed in front of Du You.

Du You gives him an honest assessment, “it looks good on you.”

You Haoyu doesn’t know what to say to that and instead just looks out onto the scenery, his earlobes starting to redden.

Du You then tells him, “I saw you acting just now.”

You Haoyu’s head snaps right back hearing that. Wait, did he actually see the dozens of NGs just now?

He feels ashamed even though it’s not his fault, “… when did you come.”

“Twenty minutes ago.”

“…”

Yup, he saw everything.

He wouldn’t care about anyone else, but at least, in front of Du You, he wants to show him his most perfect side.

Since, really, he only just had his acting skills going for him and nothing else (TL: Eh, don’t sell yourself short. I would kill to have your looks you know, especially that silver hair coupled with slit brows, so cool~).

You Haoyu goes quiet for a short while, then asks, “did you come visit because you needed something?”

“Was it too sudden?”

He really did do it on a whim. Since he had nothing arranged for the morning, so he had assistant Xiao contact his agent and arrange for a time.

On the one hand, he is interested in seeing You Haoyu act; on the other…

“I’ve come to apologise.”

You Haoyu raises his brows in surprise.

“For Christmas Eve. I’ve reflected…”

And also asked assistant Xiao for reference.

“… that I’ve already made plans with you, but two people you didn’t even know showed up. So you were angry,” Du You looks at him frankly, “I did not think about that. I’m sorry.”

You Haoyu “…”

Du You asks, seeing him not replying, “are you still angry?”

You Haoyu turns his head away, covering his face with his hand, “no.”

“Why are you not looking at me?” Du You walks around him, chasing after his gaze.

The more he walks, the more You Haoyu turns, trying to avoid looking at him no matter what.

So a sudden reverse in motion by Du You finally lands him right in You Haoyu’s sight.

While his hand has covered up his face, it is obvious how red his cheeks are.

And in fact he can see that his eyes which usually appear quite domineering getting drenched in tears. The next moment he lowers his head and digs his face into both his hands.

“Damn it, stop looking——!”

His face is boiling right now.

Du You sounds disappointed, “were you this angry at me…”

“I’m not!”

Afraid that Du You would misunderstand even more, You Haoyu looks back up at him. Then, he hesitantly moves his hands away.

But just looking at Du You like that made his throat parch, so he turns away again.

“Dummy. You didn’t need to apologise for some trivial thing like that. I was just…”

Just getting all jealous and unreasonably angry on my own.

He closes his eyes to calm down. Then, he looks back at Du You, “I was not angry at you, so you don’t have to think about it anymore.”

Du You extends his hand to him, “then, we’ve made up.”

You Haoyu looks down at that palm.

“We didn’t even fight in the first place…” So he says, as he still takes the palm in his. The temperature from his palm feels as if it’s warming the whole room up.

Perhaps the atmosphere has given him courage, and You Haoyu suddenly looks straight at him, looking like he has something to say.

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TL’s notes: Just in case you might be so utterly disappointed tomorrow, here’s a minor spoiler alert. Cockblockers would appear. Don’t kill me though, blame the author. 😛