3.3 Finding hopelessness in hope

Then who, if not the 3 families? From all the protagonist only he could be the murderer. The answer became obvious to Shu XinYi. He now only needed evidence against him. Shu XinYi looked at Xiang Li who was standing near the trial stand. Xiang Li was either or not, coincidentally looking at Lan Xiao at this moment. The second their eyes met both Shu XinYi and Xiang Li's faces flushed a little. Shu XinYi politely smiled to Xiang Li and waved his hand.

XiangLi just nodded and looked away, at this moment he heard an androgynous voice say near his ear "That detective obviously likes you. He hasn't realized it yet but I can tell."

Shu XinYi turned his face to look at beautiful blue eyes with a matching beautiful face. Shu XinYi asked "How do you know?"

They replied "Hmm? Intuition. I have a really strong Intuition so I can tell. Just like I can tell that, you may know who the real murderer is and that man on trial is not the murderer."

Shu XinYi smiled and asked "Do you think that man on trial is the murderer?"

They replied "No, you may think that he is my father so I want to protect him but really I can tell that he is not the murderer. My father never executes by himself. He has people to do that job so he wouldn't put effort for someone like Bai Jiao."

That's right, this person was Xue Fan's second child, Xue Yao. A non-binary person. Xue Fan, their father, had neither been appreciative nor denied their existence. Xue Fan just wanted him to "act more like his son" but Xue Yao just did what they wanted to. Their father and mother were keen on "Hiding" them so they were rarely seen outside. Today was maybe a special occasion or a rebellious one.

Although Xue Yao's parents were only low key about all this. Their sister, Xue An, was not. Ever since Xue Yao realized who they were and started to present themselves the way they wanted, Xue An had been disgusted by them. For her it was disgusting If a man didn't "act" manly. Hypocritical of her was the fact that, being a women herself, she rarely behaved like a "women".

It was a toxic relationship, that Xue Yao had with their folks and sister but Xue Yao was unbothered by all this. They just lived their life doing what they liked and loving what they loved.

"You seem to have opinion about everyone, then.. What is your opinion about my brother?" Shu XinYi, the wing man, said.

Xue Yao smiled saying "In my opinion... he should play violin more often. I like the way he plays."

If Xue Yao had seen Lan Cheng play violin, then they are definitely close. The intensity of their love didn't matter to Shu XinYi, as long as they work it out themselves.

After the trial was over and the judge announced the next trial date for the week after the next, Shu XinYi went back to his home. Lan Xiao didn't have to worry about money, since his mother made sure to baby him but Shu XinYi had to think of every possibility. Personally too, he didn't like to depend on other people so he wanted to have his own earnings.

With Lan Xiao's personality, he didn't want to make profit off of his art. Maybe because his art pieces valued much more than money to him but he did have to sell many of his works before since he was trying to stand up on his own. Later his mother pleased with him to let her financially support him so Lan Xiao had to agree.

Shu XinYi had up to now, made sure that his social media presence was well maintained. He never showed his full works in his posts but only small details for his major projects and full works for his minor projects. Lan Xiao's social media image was only improving all this time. Those who knew about his involvement in the murder case, showed only sympathy for him.

Shu XinYi decided to make his own channel to upload videos of him and his working process. For the next week since he had nothing to do, Shu XinYi worked on maintaining it. After everything in the channel was set and he had promoted his channel to his social media pages, he already got a lot of subscribers even though he hadn't started uploading.

Shu XinYi had already put up a request for an experienced cameramen. Although he could just ask his mom and she would arrange an experienced camera man but Shu XinYi wanted to experience this life on his own. There was only one person that he would allow himself to depend on.

It wasn't difficult to chose a good cameramen. The person he finalized in the end was an interesting person. Even though he didn't have a lot of feild experience, almost all of his works were really amazing. If he proved to be good then Shu XinYi could keep him.

The person also said that he works only at night and early morning, basically he was a part timer at this and had a full time day job. Maybe he just needed money but Shu XinYi knew it wasn't that simple. There was also an other reason Shu XinYi chose this person, Although he was surprised at first but later he was just happy. He arranged a meeting with the person to discuss the terms and conditions of assigning him for the job.

Shu XinYi wore a dark grey V-neck shirt and fitted black sweat pants. Usually Lan Xiao would keep his neck length hair pushed back with clips, today Shu XinYi let his bangs flow free. It looked like a relatively casual look but those who knew Lan Xiao, would know that today was a special occasion. Shu XinYi had arranged a dinner meeting at not a very fancy restaurant.

Shu XinYi arrived a little early so he found the table he had booked and looked at the menu deciding what to order. He ordered some chicken manchurian and regular pineapple cocktail for two. Once the waiter left with his order Shu XinYi spotted the person he had been waiting for, enter the restaurant. There was no questioning how he recognized him. Once he was near the table Shu XinYi stood up to greet "Oh I didn't expect to meet you today Xiang Li, even so, nice to meet you."

Yes it was Xiang Li the detective, Shu XinYi didn't need to ask Snow when he was talking to the man online. Although he had no profile picture, his identity was named Xiang Yu. Later on he did confirm with snow that it was really Xiang Li. Xiang Li had started this line of work only this year. Maybe he had reasons but Shu XinYi didn't want to pry. Obviously he wanted to know but he will wait for Xiang Li to tell him, himself.

Xiang Li was also dressed in a casual attire wearing a plain navy blue button up shirt and blue jeans. Although Shu XinYi said that he didn't expect to see Xiang Li here, his face clearly stated that he was expecting nothing else. Xiang Li obviously noticed this little pretense but he let it be and said "Nice to meet you too."

Shu XinYi motioned for him to sit down and asked "Do you want alcohol in your drinks? I have to work when I go back so I didn't order any for us."

Xiang Li shook his head indicating it was alright, instead he continued professional talk "I will require equipment like lights and stands. The camera will be mine. Also I will need you to co operate well with me while I am shooting. If the subject remains disturbed then I don't like capturing it. About the pay, It will be hourly pay. If I work even one minute into the next hour, the next hour counts as well. You can decide the amount."

Shu XinYi smiled looking at Xiang Li saying "Okay, I will arrange for everything. You should understand that for me my art is everything. So I want you to capture it well otherwise our partnership may not last long. Every stroke I make, Every line I carve is full of emotion. I want it to be seen that way too. Are you sure you can do that Xia-"

Xiang Li had missed a lot of what Lan Xiao had said and was trying to control the emotions inside him surging up when he saw the boy smile. The boy's eyes were full of emotions like he really loved talking about, what he was talking about. His little hand movement as he painted in the air, his bangs irritating his eyes. Xiang Li's hand moved without thinking as he reached to move his bangs behind his ear.

Shu XinYi was caught off guard. He looked as Xiang Li took his hand back naturally like what he had done just now was normal. Shu XinYi gawked at him for 3 seconds when finally, Xiang Li's whole face turned red. Only now did Xiang Li realised how inappropriate his actions were and he also did them naturally, too naturally. Xiang Li was struggling, Shu XinYi obviously knew but as Lan Xiao he couldn't just let the incident go so he just said "Seems like you are very meticulous and orderly about your surroundings but I don't mind my hair falling on my face so you don't have to worry."

Xiang Li was still struggling saying "That, I am sorry for" with his head low.

Shu XinYi said "Nevermind that, About the lights and other equipment you might need, Can you messege me the details. I want to start working on my new project soon. So it will be good if we can make a video out of that. Can I have your contact information?"

Xiang Li nodded and they exchanged numbers. Shu XinYi didn't talk much after that as the food had arrived and just ate his fill.

Shu XinYi asked after eating "Do you want to come to my studio right now? So you know what equipment you need according to the space."

Xiang Li agreed. So after having dinner Shu XinYi and Xiang Li went to his home in their respective cars. Shu XinYi took Xiang Li to his workspace. It was really messy since only Xiao ever came in and he rarely cleaned up. Shu XinYi started to clean up a little and allowed Xiang Li to have a walk around.

Xiang Li looked at the space available and evaluated in his mind how he can make videos better and different shooting styles he could experiment with in this space. The room was relatively large with a lot of extra space but since Lan Xiao was not very good at maintaining stuff, it looked a little stuffed.

"Don't worry, I will clean it up today." Shu XinYi was a bit embarrassed.

"I can help." Xiang Li said as he picked up random defected articles from the ground and continued "The ones that are defected or the ones that you don't want to continue on, why don't you put them in a storage cupboard?"

Shu XinYi nodded as if he was being scolded "I know, I know stop nagging. There are 4 shelves there, 2 for the ones I have discarded and 2 for the incomplete ones that I want to continue working on."

Xiang Li smiled and got to work. They cleaned the whole room and cleared the dust from the place.

Xiang Li suggested after evaluating everything in the room "These little sculptures are not your major projects right? So we can make a set with them. Like they will be in the background shelves then your working table will be in the front. We can segregate a small area from the rest of the room to make the set. What do you think?"

Shu XinYi visualized the idea and said "That's a good idea, umm but won't we need to do a little construction work for that? Like we need to install lighting and walls."

"I'll mange the lightings, just that, you will buy them. Also it is not necessary to install walls. Panels or screens would work just well." Xiang Li said.

"You're a man of many talents Xiang Li. You seem more Intresting to me everyday." Shu XinYi hobestly said, knowing the weight of his words.

Xiang Li didn't reply as he was observing something intently. Xiang Li said without looking back "The unknown man's hand in this sculpture looks more finely made then the body of the masked person. It seems like you love the owner of this hand is a lot more than this masked person."

Shu XinYi walked towards the sculpture and traced the other hand saying "I don't do favoritism, it's just my hands that worked on their own to create the hand this way. Then maybe what you say is right."

Xiang Li had been feeling this distinct painful feeling in his heart since the day he met Lan Xiao for the first time. It was difficult to understand for Xiang Li why he felt this way, but he wanted to figure it out. Why is it that everytime he is near the boy or looks at the boy, his heart beat starts to race and his emotions become unstable. Right now too he was feeling this way. Until he figured out what the feelings in his heart were, he decided to focus on his work.

"Let's end today's session. I have to head back home. I will text you all the details about the equipment I will need. Arrange it as soon as possible so we can make the set and start shooting."

Shu XinYi's previous words were ignored by Xiang Li but Shu XinYi let it pass. He walked Xiang Li to the door and let him go. In the next week both of them met up almost every night to work. Shu XinYi had already arranged all the stuff Xiang Li had asked for and together they worked to make a separate area for the set in the studio.

Xiang Li didn't get personal after the first night nor did he talk any more than the professional borderline. Although instinctively Shu XinYi was sure that Xiang Li was the unidentifiable being but right now his thoughts were unstable. What if it is just my hope that tells me that he is in this world with me? Leo did tell Shu XinYi that he would find him but maybe it wasn't this world that he would find him in.

Shu XinYi was working on a clay sculpture of an eagle and a snake tearing each other apart. Xiang Li had already started recording the process and suggested different types of video ideas. Shu XinYi first gave an introduction of himself in the video opening, he was very confident and had a natural smile on his face. Then he introduced what he would be working on today and why he was working on it.

He then began to work on shaping and cutting the clay. He also talked about how he usually does clay work and things that he makes note of before hand. He started by making the body of the eagle first then her wings. Doing only this took 2 full days of work. Obviously Xiang Li wasn't shooting the whole process and just the necessary parts in 2x speed. During the day Shu XinYi worked on things that didn't need to be recorded like shaping several feathers or coloring his clay.

After 5 full days of working Shu XinYi had made the complete structure. Although the oven, was not part of the set but he had an oven in the studio room. The last thing that was left was to glaze the sculpture to polish it, after it was done baking. Once the project and the recording process was fully completed, Shu XinYi left the editing work to Xiang Li.

Shu XinYi too decided not to pry into Xiang Li's life anymore. Although he did have hope, he wasn't just going to fall for anyone who only had the possibility of being his unknown lover. Although it was painful for him, he just decided to do in this world what he came to do and pass this trial level. Maybe then he could meet him but Shu XinYi didn't want to give himself any false hope.