After Our Divorce, I Still Wore Your Jacket

Chapter 56

Now that they were peacefully together, each day was full of tenderness. There was no conflict and no debate. The wonder resulting from all this calm could slowly heal their past regrets and wounds.

Fang Shaoyi had been resting since wrapping up filming and returning in April. Now, almost an entire year had passed. Aside from attending some promotional events and film festivals, he hadn’t participated in any work this year. His pace of life had suddenly become very slow; it could even be said that his pace of life had almost completely come to a standstill. He had to admit, though, that in this year, his and Yuan Ye’s relationship had become a lot better, and very quickly too. After all, there hadn’t really been any irreconcilable differences between the two of them. If the outer world didn’t start any fires, they themselves would be fine. However, as soon as a fire started outside, it was hard to tell if the same thing would happen last time, where the fire directly blew up their relationship.

Prior to the new year, Fang Shaoyi had participated in a few promotional events and activities. Jiang Linchuan’s movie managed to squeeze into the celebratory listings. It became extremely popular. In the second half of last year, Fang Shaoyi had filmed two different movies consecutively. They were practically released one after the other. These two movies were of two completely different styles, but he had acted well in both of them. Netizens praised his acting skills to the heavens. Film critics gave mixed reviews about these movies, but were kind when critiquing Fang Shaoyi. This was also because there was honestly nothing to complain about. For an actor, everything relied on their acting skills. If the movie was bad, that was the director or screenwriter’s fault. As long as actors’ acting skills met expectations, they wouldn’t be critiqued too harshly. Additionally, in respect to being a celebrity, prior to his divorce scandal, Fang Shaoyi had never really had any negative points. He had always been a virtuous artist.

Last year, Fang Shaoyi had attended a variety show and released two movies. They had all been very popular. If this were anyone else, they would definitely be trying to improve their popularity following all this attention. This was the time when they would be able to get double the results for half the effort. But Fang Shaoyi surprisingly paused. Aside from previous contractual work, he rejected all other invites.

Geng Jinwei wouldn’t have too strong of an opinion about these things. After all, Fang Shaoyi was already mature enough. Besides, given their relationship, Geng Jinwei was even less likely to say something – especially in matters regarding earning money. If Fang Shaoyi didn’t want to take new job offers and earn more money, Geng Jinwei overly convincing him to do so would make it seem like he had other intentions. It was enough for him to simply give the other a reminder. Even after so many years of collaboration, they had never had any conflicts. They had always been very compatible and in tune with one another. This was also related to the fact that both of them had very clear minds. In any given situation, they could always think of all the possible pros and cons for the other. Geng Jinwei never forced Fang Shaoyi to earn money, never made him accept work. From start to finish, he maintained his respect of Fang Shaoyi’s own desires. On the other hand, Fang Shaoyi also did his best to cooperate. Normally, if Geng Jinwei told him to help a newbie along, he would do it to the best of his abilities. All relationships were based on interaction. It was always the least stressful working with sensible people.

At the beginning of the year, Geng Jinwei created a work plan for Fang Shaoyi, as usual. Fang Shaoyi accepted it. Geng Jinwei said, “Give it to me straight. When do you plan on resting until? This way, I’ll be able to make better plans. You need to at least give me all the facts.”

Fang Shaoyi chuckled. He said, “I really don’t know. Don’t schedule any work for me this year. In the past, I lived my life in between work. Now, I want to live more than work.”

“Retiring from the big screen?” Geng Jinwei’s dark eyebrows shot up. He observed Fang Shaoyi. “You’re able to let everything go?”

Fang Shaoyi looked down and thought about it. Following a short pause, he seemed to laugh. He calmly said, “Probably.”

Geng Jinwei was always really busy at the beginning of the year. He often needed to take business trips. When he had the time, Fang Shaoyi would go work at the company to help him with some of the workload. However, Geng Jinwei ultimately didn’t manage to ease up. The busier one was, the more likely it was for trouble to occur.

However, the person who had caused trouble wasn’t Fang Shaoyi. Instead, it was Yuan Ye.

Ji Xiaotao shot downstairs looking for Fang Shaoyi. He showed the other a Weibo post. At first, Fang Shaoyi had thought that it wasn’t a big deal. After reading the post, though, his expression became a bit dark. He first called Yuan Ye, saying that he would go pick the other up later. Yuan Ye probably hadn’t seen the post yet. His tone was still quite cheery. He asked Fang Shaoyi what he wanted to eat for dinner.

Fang Shaoyi softly said to him, “You decide. I’m fine with anything.”

“Churn the waters first.” Fang Shaoyi furrowed his brows. “They’re trying to lead the argument. Churn the waters now to stabilize the situation, then tell PR to take care of it.”

While Fang Shaoyi had been speaking, Geng Jinwei had called. Ji Xiaotao answered while replying to Fang Shaoyi, “Got it, ge.”

The Weibo post just now had been made by He Sai. He had directly tagged Yuan Ye, pointing straight at him: Yuan Ye. Teacher Yuan. No wonder why you said those things back then. I finally understand what they mean now. You said that I was a dog with a master. But where is the master I use to bully people? I find it comical just thinking about all the hard work and effort! Now, you can finally beat a drowned dog.

The accompanying picture was one that had been taken while he had still been filming on set. Additionally, there was a screenshot of a previous Weibo post where He Sai had hinted at the movie having double male leads.

His manager reposted this post and added: “Dog with a master” and “drowned dog” were all spoken from Teacher Yuan’s mouth. They were extremely humiliating, but in order to avoid affecting filming for this movie, He Sai didn’t say anything. But his pain didn’t result in any equivalent gain. I’m speechless. I hope the Heavens will be kind to hardworking and determined people!

Under this, fans’ comments had already taken over the high ground. They felt sorry that He Sai had been duped by the film crew, that he had still had to suffer through bullying and exclusion even on set. Yuan Ye’s words had been a bit too ill-intentioned.

After clicking into the trending topic, all the posts were basically also sharing how He Sai had worked so hard for many years, but had never gotten popular. They included shots from his idol drama days to bring out nostalgia from the young female population. These were all tagged with #The Teenage Dreams He Sai Gave Us in Those Years#. Some also used the word “apparently.” Apparently, Yuan Ye had always been very domineering on set. Fang Shaoyi abused his celebrity status too. These two often bullied rookies and had once even yelled at a young actor until he cried.

The comments under these posts were already too brazen to look at. In a little over ten minutes, the topic had already rapidly risen up the trending list. This had all been prepared ahead of time. Baseless criticisms were consecutively getting thrown at Yuan Ye. With the fact that he had attended the variety show while divorced as a basis, people had already come up with the concept that Yuan Ye’s moral character was bad. With this in place, all other critiques could be “explained.”

Fans didn’t know what was actually going on. At first, they didn’t really dare to say anything because they couldn’t tell who was right and who was wrong either. They feared that if they said the wrong thing, they would get mocked. This made it very difficult to argue back. As such, their firepower was greatly reduced.

There were a lot of people waiting to watch the drama unfold under Fang Shaoyi and Yuan Ye’s Weibos. They urged them to reply in the comments. Neither parties said anything. Instead, Fang Shaoyi’s assistant made a statement using his own account. He posted a picture – the order of actors on the original script. This order had been decided based on screen time. Fang Shaoyi was first, He Sai was fifth. His caption was: [Smile] According to the order, he’s at most the fourth male lead. Where did this “double male leads” come from?

He had already spoken up. Fang Shaoyi and Yuan Ye’s fans dared to speak now too. They instantly mocked the other back, specifically choosing to rub salt into He Sai’s wounds. They mocked his poor acting skills, asking how he dared to be double male leads with Fang Shaoyi with those acting skills. Wasn’t he scared of being beaten into the ground? They also started looking into all the immoral things He Sai had done these past few years. He had been with this producer and that director. Your Saisai has truly been very “hardworking.” You’ve worked hard, Saisai!

He Sai had truly been tricked by the film crew. He had added all those scenes for nothing. They hadn’t made the final cut at all. No matter what, he couldn’t act like this hadn’t ever happened. However, the director and even the entire film crew added together weren’t as popular as Fang Shaoyi and Yuan Ye. Even if he wanted to start a fight, he needed to start with these two. This seemed like a win-win situation.

There were always certain people in this industry who were willing to throw all their shame away to gain popularity and attention.

Geng Jinwei called Fang Shaoyi. He said, “I’m returning tonight. Don’t say anything. Both of you.”

“Do what you need to,” Fang Shaoyi lowly replied. “You don’t need to come back. It’s not really a big deal. I’ll go talk about it with PR myself.”

“Forget it,” Geng Jinwei scoffed. “You’re incapable of remaining calm when things are related to Yuan Ye. I’ll take care of it.”

Geng Jinwei asked again, “Did Yuan Ye say those things?”

Fang Shaoyi furrowed his brows. “Yes. They practically forced him to say it, with the way they were talking. Even if he hadn’t, I would’ve.”

“You’d never.” Geng Jinwei chuckled first before saying, “Some people deserve to get cussed out. When this dumbass crawls off his sugar daddy’s bed......”

He didn’t finish the sentence. After he crawled off, Geng Jinwei would be waiting. He had allowed the other to do as he wished for so long only out of respect for his current sugar daddy. Geng Jinwei didn’t really want to burn bridges with the other’s sugar daddy. Fang Shaoyi had a good temper, but that didn’t mean his company had a good temper too. All these years, anything that Fang Shaoyi needed to say that was negative had all been said through his company. Geng Jinwei knew that he didn’t have as great of self restraint as Fang Shaoyi.

Fang Shaoyi told him, “I’m not even sure if I’m going to keep acting in the future. I’m not scared of being cussed out. I don’t care.”

The meaning of this was that they needed to do their best to remove Yuan Ye from this matter, to lessen the negative impact on Yuan Ye. Geng Jinwei instantly understood after hearing this. He sighed and said, “You don’t want Yuan Ye to get cussed out, but I don’t fucking want you to get cussed out either. I’m bound to teach this fucking piece of shit a lesson sooner or later. How annoying. What’s he doing, jumping around in my line of sight?”

He hung up only after cussing a few times.

After putting down his phone, Fang Shaoyi squeezed the spot between his eyebrows. He really felt annoyed. Fang Shaoyi couldn’t accept other people yelling at Yuan Ye. Those words burned his eyes when he read them.

Yuan Ye was one of the few “good people” in this industry. He really was a good person, for all intents and purposes. Fang Shaoyi’s understanding of himself, on the other hand, was that he was only “not bad.” He couldn’t be considered “good.” All the money Yuan Ye had spent these past few years on free book rooms, libraries donated to schools in underdeveloped areas, and charity medical funds took up about seventy percent of his entire income. Fang Shaoyi had always believed that there was the big love of littérateurs present in him. Watching him being baselessly criticized was very painful for Fang Shaoyi.

When Fang Shaoyi picked Yuan Ye up, the other clearly hadn’t heard about this incident yet. His expression was still cheery. He huddled in on himself and burrowed into the car, then said, “It’s way too cold today.”

“You’re wearing too little,” Fang Shaoyi responded with a smile as well. “I told you to wear more this morning, but you didn’t listen.”

“I thought that since you were going to pick me up either way, why does it matter what I’m wearing?” Yuan Ye used the back of his hand to touch Fang Shaoyi’s cheek. “But I forgot how far the distance from the main door to the car is. Froze my ass off. Is my hand cold?”

Fang Shaoyi touched his hand and softly laughed while saying, “No.”

Yuan Ye gazed at him. A while later, he suddenly asked, “What’s wrong? I feel like you’re not too happy today?”

Fang Shaoyi had originally wanted to say, “I’m fine.” According to his usual way of doing things, he would definitely have told Yuan Ye, “Nothing’s wrong.” But when these words were at the tip of his tongue, he changed his mind and didn’t manage to get them out. Instead, he waited until they reached red lights. He stepped on the brakes; when the car stopped, he asked Yuan Ye, “If I never act in movies again, would Teacher Yuan pay for my living expenses?”

Yuan Ye very diligently listened as he spoke. In the end, though, he got such a question. Yuan Ye burst into laughter. Without even thinking about it, he said, “Absolutely.” Only after did he ask, “Why aren’t you acting in movies again?”

This time, Fang Shaoyi surprisingly didn’t hide anything. Voice low and deep, he told the truth. “He Sai made a Weibo post and complained about how you said he was a dog with a master. You’re getting cussed out again.”

Yuan Ye blinked and gazed at Fang Shaoyi. The amusement on his face hadn’t completely faded yet. He rubbed his head and softly asked Fang Shaoyi, “I’ve caused trouble for you again, right?”

Fang Shaoyi shook his head. He said, “I’ve just suddenly started feeling disgusted by all this too......like never before.”