Chapter 96: Zhou Yili, why are you always so quick to anger?

Shen Jixing was the first to arrive on set.

He gave the script a rough once-over and figured the shoot could probably be wrapped in two days.

...

He regretted the flag he had raised last night, and still could not quite understand how, when Zhou Yili was seventeen, that thing could continue growing with age...

“Bro, do you have a headache?” Xiongxiong asked, coming over with breakfast in hand.

Shen Jixing said lightly, “A little.”

Xiongxiong immediately volunteered, “I can rub it for you. I know a bit of massage.”

Shen Jixing had slept terribly little the night before. After a brief silence, he gave a slight nod.

“Thank you.”

Xiongxiong wiped his hands with a wet tissue, just about to touch Shen Jixing’s forehead.

“Try touching him and see what happens?”

A careless, cool voice drifted in from the doorway, and Xiongxiong nearly dug a hole in the ground to bury himself on the spot.

Shen Jixing had just inserted a straw and was about to drink his milk when a hand abruptly pulled it from his mouth.

“Drink mine.”

With an expression like frost, Zhou Yili set down a whole tableful of breakfast in the makeup room.

Xiongxiong stared in disbelief. “My god, it’s a banquet.”

Shen Jixing took the milk Zhou Yili handed him; it was a little warmer and sweeter than Xiongxiong’s.

“Why did you buy so much?”

“Because I wanted to.”

Shen Jixing glanced up at him. Zhou Yili was opening the containers one by one.

Usually the young master needed others to wait on him, but at this moment he carefully unpacked the breakfast and placed the things Shen Jixing liked within easier reach.

“Are you angry?”

Shen Jixing did not know which part had upset him.

Was it that he had left early and not waited for Zhou Yili, or that he had let Xiongxiong massage his forehead?

To Shen Jixing, these were all small matters.

But Zhou Yili, with a cold face, pinched a crystal shrimp dumpling and held it out to him. “You forgot your chopsticks.”

Xiongxiong thought, There’s no way my bro’s going to eat that. He’s got a super severe case of cleanliness obsession.

Shen Jixing opened his mouth and bit it from his fingers, his tongue brushing lightly over Zhou Yili’s fingertip. His tone remained as calm and unruffled as ever.

“Zhou Yili, why are you always getting so angry?”

Xiongxiong clutched his head. He was losing it.

Zhou Yili froze in place.

A moment later he withdrew his hand, casually took a shrimp dumpling for himself, and ate it with a look that was part innocent, part dismissive as he averted his gaze.

“Who’s angry?”

Shen Jixing said no more and quietly went on eating breakfast.

Suddenly, a narrow waist was wrapped up in an arm. Before he could react, he was pulled—not gently—into Zhou Yili’s embrace, ending up seated astride his long legs.

Zhou Yili wiped his hands and touched the exquisite, pale corner of Shen Jixing’s forehead.

“Where does it hurt? I’ll rub it.”

...

The progress of Cycle had reached the Northern Frontier.

Outside the town stretched a frozen northern wilderness, the battlefield of the final showdown.

“Today we’re filming an jealousy scene,” Sikong Xiu said to Shen Jixing. “It’s acting jealousy, so don’t actually get jealous, all right?”

If those words had been spoken in the past, they would have sounded like a fairy tale. How could Shen Jixing possibly get jealous over anyone?

But today, the man who was always punctual and meticulous had actually been late.

Sikong Xiu felt his feelings were no less intense than those of the seemingly fiery little lion.

Shen Jixing simply did not like to show them.

For instance, right now his brows and eyes were cold as frost. “You’re overthinking it.”

Sikong Xiu laughed and teased Zhou Yili, “Looks like your charm is only so-so.”

They were used to trading barbs whenever they opened their mouths, but Sikong Xiu noticed Zhou Yili did not fire back.

“Hey, I was joking. Our beautiful Mr. Shen is crazy about you.”

Zhou Yili gave him a sidelong glance. “Reward.”

Xiongxiong had already been conquered by Zhou Yili’s food and immediately handed the two steamed buns he had not finished to Sikong Xiu.

“Yessir.”

Sikong Xiu held the two buns and stuffed them into the mouths of the master-and-servant duo.

Shen Jixing: “...”

Since when had his people become Zhou Yili’s?

Zhou Yili seemed to see through what he was thinking. As he strolled past him carelessly, he said, “You’re all mine. Of course your people listen to me.”

At the instant they brushed shoulders, a long wind lifted Shen Jixing’s white hair.

The little rose bloomed under an absent-minded tease.

Shen Jixing saw the smug, roguish smile at the corner of his mouth and wanted to shove the sensor into it.

Sikong Xiu bit down on a bun and aimed the camera at Zhou Yili.

“Action.”

On the road to the Northern Frontier, they would also encounter other teams vying for energy.

Zhou Yili happened to run into someone he knew.

“Hey, sweetheart.”

The easygoing team captain was rakish and charming, and he took the initiative to walk over to the young man. Lowering his gaze, he inhaled lightly at the side of the other’s neck. “Today’s fragrance doesn’t suit you.”

Shen Jixing stood where he was, watching with calm detachment.

Zhou Yili glanced at him, showing no obvious reaction.

The young man was itching for energy, but unable to read the other side’s depth, he pleaded pitifully, “Brother, for the sake of our old affair, could you let me have it?”

Shen Jixing lowered his eyes to the dark markings on his arm.

He needed energy; he could not give it away, or he would die even faster.

But he did not know whether Zhou Yili would be willing...

“Sorry, sweetheart,” Zhou Yili said with lazy amusement, leaning close to the young man in a suggestive manner. “If I gave it to you, then the spellcaster on my team would have to...”

Before he could finish, the young man was blasted away by a streak of red light and sent tumbling like a cartoon wolf to the other side of the mountain.

Zhou Yili remained bent at the waist, frowning with his head tilted. “?”

“I wasn’t even done talking.”

Shen Jixing walked past without glancing aside, picked up the energy spirit stone, and slowly chewed on it with it between his teeth.

Zhou Yili gave a soft scoff. “You sure move fast.”

Shen Jixing shot him a cold look, then finally took out the biggest piece from his chest and gave it to him.

It was not that he favored him especially. This was simply the condition Zhou Yili had set.

He wanted the best.

Zhou Yili did not take it. Twirling a short blade, he said, “Eat it yourself. You’re as weak as a chick.”

The little chick, chewing on broken crystal, asked, “Who was that?”

Zhou Yili was surveying the nearby energy fields. His tall, lean figure looked especially pleasing against the ice and snow. He blew away the drifting flakes on his forehead.

“An old flame.”

Shen Jixing hugged the energy crystal as if it were a snack and turned his head away, ignoring him.

“You don’t have one?” Zhou Yili asked, glancing sideways.

“I do.”

The so-called energy crystal was actually little shards of ice. Shen Jixing’s lips had turned a pale red from eating them, and even his breath came out cold.

“But I only have one old flame, and that’s you.”

At that, Zhou Yili collapsed messily into the snow.

“You still dare bring that up?”

Whether he had been flustered or angered, even he could not tell. Rising to his feet, he fixed the pale beauty with a fierce stare.

“One moment you’re in bed with me, and the next you want half my life. You really are kind to your lovers, aren’t you?”

Shen Jixing listened to the unseemly choice of words.

He thought that if Zhou Yili kept mangling expressions like this, the music video might not even make it out the door.

But he could see seriousness in Zhou Yili’s eyes.

There was, in fact, a subtle difference in Zhou Yili’s mood today. Though he was doing his best to hide it, Shen Jixing had still vaguely sensed it.

“Why do you want to kill me?”

Zhou Yili came over and asked him, “Do you hate me that much?”

As if spanning screen and reality at once, those words had once sounded almost the same at his ear.

“Was there really any need?”

“Do you hate me that much?”

Shen Jixing looked at him calmly and answered according to the script’s progression.

“Yes.”

He saw Zhou Yili’s lashes tremble. Tiny snowflakes melted on them, turning into droplets that rolled down.

“Then what are you doing now?”

Cradling the energy in his arms as though it were life itself, Shen Jixing said, “Using you, entering the realm to obtain energy bodies, and staying alive.”

“Fine. Very good.”

“I’ve been feeding you phoenix fire every day, and it’s not even as good as a bit of broken crystal.”

Zhou Yili’s gaze swept over the translucent ice blocks he held in his arms, as though he very much wanted to shatter them with one blow. In the end, he merely clenched his hands and left without looking back.

Shen Jixing stood in silence for a long time. Then he turned and distributed the energy bodies to the onlookers among his teammates.

“You can eat them.”

His teammates froze. “Huh? Didn’t you need them to sustain your life...?”

Shen Jixing shook his head, the faintest of smiles brushing his lips. His voice drifted apart in the wind over the snow.

“Actually, I don’t need them that much.”

“My life stopped moving forward long ago...”