My Costar has weird fans

As expected, Xin Hulei has no reaction to hearing the challenge, while Yao Shen freezes like a rabbit cought in a snare.

He lets out a strained laugh. "Well, that's my cue to leave, this game is officially too much for me," he says, trying to keep his tone light and good-natured.

Just as Yao Shen is making his way out of their little circle, slender fingers close around his wrist. "You didn't finish your turn," Xin Hulei says, looking at him steadily.

Yao Shen shakes him off with a curl of his upper lip.

This guy doesn't know when to give up.

"I'm done playing," he says, letting coldness seep into his words.

By now both Gao Wu and Ye Fang are giving them confused looks, unable to make sense of the charged tension between them.

Xin Hulei unfolds himself from the chair, stretching his long legs. Yao Shen looks up at him in apprehension, unsure of what's going to happen next.

He feels a smooth, dry palm cup his nape, and before he can react to the sudden touch, a pair of supple lips is descending down on his in a barely-there, fleeting peck.

His mind is still reeling by the time Xin Hulei pulls away, his red tongue running over his bottom lip almost distractedly.

"There, all done," Xin Hulei says, unruffled, as if he can't see what the big deal is.

It isn't a big deal. If Yao Shen had to kiss either Ye Fang or Gao Wu he would do it in a heartbeat, but this feels like yet another instance in which he has lost to Xin Hulei.

"I'm going back to the hotel, does anyone want a ride? I have room for one in my bike," Xin Hulei says, running his hands through his hair carelessly, his eyes drifting right over Yao Shen.

It's not like Yao Shen wanted to catch a ride with him anyway, but the dismissal feels pointed, considering they came to the party together.

Ye Fang is quick to volunteer herself. "Can I go, Xin laoshi? I've always wanted to ride a bike."

He nods, and starts walking towards the exit, throwing a careless wave over his shoulder in goodbye to Yao Shen and Gao Wu.

Ye Fang suppresses a squeal of delight and rushes after him, blowing kisses to the two of them on her way.

"Then, should we catch a ride together, gege?" Gao Wu asks, smiling kindly.

Yao Shen nods, distracted. His eyes are still fixed on Xin Hulei's tall frame, growing smaller in the distance until darkness swallows him up.

---

The didi ride back to the hotel is unremarkable, both him and Gao Wu too tired to talk about much of anything.

They say goodbye at the elevators and each go to their respective rooms.

Yao Shen takes only a quick shower before plopping down into his soft bed in a careless sprawl. He's out in minutes.

He wakes up the next day feeling surprisingly rested, considering he went to bed late and woke up well before his alarm.

Probably the result of the sleep upgrade. He's glad to see it works much better than the supposed removal of his bad luck debuff. Yao Shen thinks his luck has steadily plummeted since he unlocked that system reward.

Speaking of which, he's curious to know which one he'll be getting, maybe it will give him the energy he needs to face Xin Hulei on set.

[Answering Host: the next reward will be Night Vision.]

Yao Shen falls back on his nest of pillows with a groan. Night Vision...like a cat? What does he need that for?

"These rewards are really shitty, terrible encouragement for me to catch Xin Hulei, just so you know," Yao Shen says, rolling around in the soft pillows.

He doesn't get any answer from the system, probably too offended to say anything.

One thing Yao Shen will say about the Sleep Reward -- he does feel extraordinarily well-rested, even though he slept less than usual.

What is he going to do with his extra free time?

He's almost giddy as he flops down around in the bed with his mobile in hand.

His giddiness evaporates as soon as he opens up weibo and sees the trending topics.

[Xin Hulei rekindling romance with former costar, Tan Liansi?]

And right under that clickbaity title, there's a slew of pictures of Ye Fang riding with Xin Hulei in his bike, and another clickbait title and yet more speculation. [Xin Hulei growing closer with costar Ye Fang?]

It seems that whatever Xin Hulei does, he's unable to stay out of the trending topics.

Yao Shen should be glad he's no longer being speculated about with him, but a cursory search through all those trending topics reveals that his name still pops up often.

[Desert Rose: This proves that that social climber Yao Shen orchestrated everything to make it look like he and LeiLei were involved.]

[Little Black Raven: Ah, take that shameless white faced Yao Shen! Our LeiLei prefers the ladies doge.jpg]

[Just a passerby: I feel like the obvious conclusion is that Xin Hulei is some sort of player who is leading all these people on.]

Once again, Yao Shen resents the fact that the only people with two neurons to rub together, are always passersby who will make no real effort to defend their (very reasonable) point of view, before dropping off the conversation forever.

It annoys Yao Shen how quickly these people online dismiss him, as if he's so beneath Xin Hulei that it's obvious that their pictures together were all orchestrated by him in a bid to generate clicks.

The only thing he wants is to be a respected actor, but he keeps being dragged into this kind of online nonsense.

And yet, against his best interests, Yao Shen keeps reading.

[The cultured florist: You people have CP brainrot, if you ask me. Of course there was never anything between Xin Hulei and Yao Shen. What do they have in common besides acting in the same drama? They're like night and day. There's probably nothing between Xin Hulei and the two girls either, he's too mature to get himself embroiled in this type of messy coworker relationship.]

Arrogant people like 'The cultured florist', annoy him the most, how can they speak with such propriety about issues and people they know nothing about?

Xin Hulei wasn't too mature to kiss Yao Shen twice now, and sleep with him once.

What does this arrogant 'florist' know?

Moved by some impulsive instinct he can't really explain, Yao Shen logs into one of his dummy weibo accounts, and leaves a reply.

[Small Monster: @the cultured florist, actually Xin Hulei was seen kissing Yao Shen on the day of the party. He initiated the kiss. He's the one who has been pursuing Yao Shen, not the other way around.]

The small swell of vindication he felt when posting disappears as soon as the questioning replies start popping up under his comment.

He closes weibo and decides to get ready for the day. He curses himself for his impulsiveness as he brushes his teeth violently in front of the bathroom mirror.

One day he'll learn to reel in his temper before it gets him into trouble.

He'll start working on that tomorrow.

At least there's no way for anyone to confirm his claim, and the dummy account he used is almost empty, no one will think there's anything more to it than a bored netizen trying to stir up trouble.

When he gets back to the bedroom his phone is vibrating like mad with incoming notifications, on top of the nightstand.

People can't really be so interested in some rando's bit of gossip, right?

He thumbs open his phone, and is immediately redirected to weibo, where the first notification he sees almost makes him keel over.

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