Huayu 2014: From Traffic Stars to Superstars

Chapter 86 Invitation

In Bangkok in July, the heat is so intense it feels like being stuffed into a pot that never boils.

Air is sticky and clings to the skin, so you can't shake it off.

The barbed wire surrounding the film set was scorching hot. As Gao Huan walked back from behind the monitor to under the sunshade, the T-shirt on his back...

The T-shirt was soaked through.

He unscrewed a bottle of ice water and took a few gulps. The water dripped down the corners of his mouth, slid down his jawline to his Adam's apple, and was stopped by his collar.

Dante Lam finished work early today, saying, "The sun was too strong, and the actors got heatstroke and can't film tomorrow."

When Gao Huan returned to the hotel, it was just past 5:30. The curtains were half drawn, and the setting sun squeezed in through the gaps, drawing an orange-red band of light on the floor.

He took a shower, changed into a clean black T-shirt, and sat on the sofa to look at his phone.

I have accumulated a lot of unread messages on WeChat.

He first clicked on Chen Duling's profile picture.

The most recent message, posted three hours ago, is a photo of phoenix flowers in full bloom outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of Xiamen University Library, their red petals appearing as if they were on fire in the sunset.

"I'm on vacation! I want to go to Thailand! [Smiling face]"

Gao Huan's lips curled slightly, and he typed back: "Go if you want to."

The reply came instantly: "Have you finished filming, Teacher Gao Huan? [Surprised]"

"No, it's only been a little over two months since it was turned on."

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"That means they can come whenever they want. [Stunned]"

"Come whenever you want."

Chen Duling sent an eye-rolling emoji, then added another comment: "Will we run into paparazzi? [Grinning face]"

Gao Huan leaned back on the sofa and typed with one hand: "Paparazzi came looking for us for the first two weeks after we started filming, but they should have left by now."

"Didn't manage to catch your best friend. [Picking nose]"

"Um."

"Then your best friend came to find you. [picking nose]"

Gao Huan looked at the words and recalled Meng Ziyi's feat of hiding in the gift box last time. The corners of his mouth widened slightly: "Yes."

A moment later, Chen Duling posted another message: "Teacher Gao Huan, I've been thinking about Xu Yi a lot lately. I'm wondering why he fell into depravity and gave up on himself."

Gao Huan thought for a moment and typed back: "Didn't you realize that Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai are clearly someone else's fiancée and that blond-haired punk story??"

"No! What kind of nonsense is that?"

"Is what I said right or wrong?"

A few more moments passed.

Chen Duling sent a message: "I don't understand them, my good friends."

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"Then you understand me, but you don't need to understand them either; they're all out of their minds."

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"But I feel like my brain fluid content has increased a lot too, what should I do, Teacher Gao Huan? [Pity]"

Gao Huan looked at the message, chuckled, and typed: "Hopeless, give up on treatment."

"[Crying loudly][Crying loudly][Crying loudly]"

"The water content should decrease significantly after crying."

[Laughing and crying emojis][ ...]

Gao Huan replied, "I need to prepare for tomorrow's performance."

Chen Duling typed "OK" and then added, "Teacher Gao Huan, I've decided that I'll definitely go to Thailand before the start of the semester."

"Come whenever you want."

Do you want to?

Gao Huan's finger paused on the screen for a moment.

He remembered the last time in Paris, she stood by the Seine, her eyes red, and said, "I don't care anymore."

What she said back then wasn't "I want to go to Thailand," but "I miss you."

"You can think about it."

The other side didn't send any more messages.

Gao Huan placed his phone on his lap. Before the screen even went dark, a message from Meng Ziyi popped up.

Meng Ziyi's profile picture is a cartoon cat, and the message is a voice message.

He opened the app, his voice languid, as if he had just woken up: "Brother Huan, I'm on summer vacation! I'm so bored at home all by myself. Sister Qian keeps scolding me every day."

How's filming going in Bangkok? Can I come visit you?

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Gao Huan typed back: "Come on."

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The other end replied instantly: "Really? Aren't you afraid I'll cause you trouble?"

"Afraid.

"Then I'm definitely coming. [Smirking]"

Gao Huan looked at the line of text, thought for a moment, and then typed another line: "When do you plan to come?"

"Just these past few days, I just finished my driving test and I'm completely exhausted. I just want to find a place to collapse, and Bangkok sounds like the perfect place to collapse."

"It's very hot in Bangkok."

"It's good that it's hot, then I won't have to wear so many clothes. [Grinning face]"

Gao Huan didn't respond to that question, but instead asked directly, "Are you sure you want to come?"

"Yes, yes, yes! I'll check the flights right now! By the way, Huan-ge, which hotel are you staying at? I want to book the room next to yours! Is that okay?"

"No need to book, I'll arrange it for you, you know what I mean~"

Wow, that's great! [heart emoji]

Gao Huan replied, "But come a few days later. I'm busy filming action scenes these days, so I won't have time to spend with you."

"Is a few days later really a few days later?"

"After next Monday."

"Okay! I'll book my flight for Tuesday! Huan-ge, wait for me! [kissing emoji]"

Gao Huan looked at the hearts and kisses on the screen, exited the chat window, switched back to Chen Duling's chat window, and glanced at it again.

She didn't send any new messages.

Both of them wanted to come, but their schedules didn't align.

He thought for less than three seconds and then arranged the order: Chen Duling would come first and leave after three days; Meng Ziyi would arrive later, taking over from Chen Duling.

When he told Chen Duling about this arrangement, she only replied with "okay," and after a while, she added, "I'll only stay for three days, I won't bother you too much while you're filming."

Gao Huan replied with three words: "I won't bother you."

Chen Duling did not reply.

He put his phone on the coffee table, leaned back on the sofa, and closed his eyes.

Then his WeChat notification rang, and when he saw it was Nazha calling, he answered it.

After the call connected, Nazha remained silent, so he didn't bother to speak either, only looking at the little girl with slightly red eyes.

It was evening in Bangkok. The sky outside the window changed from orange-red to deep purple, and then from deep purple to gray-blue. The sound of the air conditioner was soft and even.

There was a first-aid kit on the coffee table, the lid open, revealing gauze, alcohol swabs, and iodine inside.

Gao Huan opened his eyes and looked down at the inside of his thigh—he had scraped his skin during training; it wasn't deep, but the location was tricky, and his trouser leg would rub against it and cause a dull ache when he walked.

He himself didn't care much, but Liu Shishi did.

She arrived this afternoon.

They flew in from Beijing, saying there was a brand event in Bangkok, so they came a day early.

Gao Huan knew that was an excuse, because she had told him the date of the brand event on WeChat a week in advance, saying, "I'm on my way, so I'll come and see you."

He didn't expose him, and simply replied with a "okay".

At that moment, she was squatting next to the sofa, head down, holding a cotton pad soaked in alcohol in her hand.

She gently lifted his leg and placed it on her knee, her movements light and careful. His hair fell loose, framing his face, and the curve of his nose cast a clean shadow in the afterglow of the setting sun.

"Don't move," she said, her voice not loud, but with an unyielding seriousness.

Gao Huan put his leg back down and looked at her face.

Her eyelashes were long, casting a small fan-shaped shadow under her eyelids. Her lips were slightly pursed, a natural pink color, without any lipstick, clean and simple, just like her.

Her hands were very steady; there wasn't a single extra tremor when she applied the alcohol swab.

The wound was wiped with disinfectant, and the stinging sensation was very slight, like being gently pricked by a thin needle.

She looked up at him, as if to check if he was in pain.

He didn't speak, and she didn't ask either, lowering her head to continue processing.

The gauze was cut to the appropriate size, applied to the wound, and secured with medical tape.

After she finished doing all this, she didn't stop immediately. Instead, she placed her palm on the gauze and pressed it gently.

The pressure was very light, as if afraid of hurting him, or as if checking whether the small bandage was secure enough.

"Could you be a little more careful when you train?"

She said this with her head down and her voice not loud, but every word was very clear.

"Last time it was the knee, this time it's the inner thigh. What will it be next time?"

"Next time it might be on my back," Gao Huan said.

She looked up at him, her expression a mix of anger and helplessness, her lips twitching slightly as if she wanted to say something but swallowed it back.

She withdrew her hand and began packing the first-aid kit, her movements swift and quiet.

Naza finally shed tears, smiled at Gao Huan, and then hung up the phone.

Then, my phone vibrated again.

He picked it up and saw it was a screenshot of a plane ticket sent by Meng Ziyi, arriving in Bangkok on Tuesday morning. Below it was a message: "Huan-ge, I've booked it! Don't forget to have Yangyang pick me up! [kissing emoji]"

Gao Huan replied with a single word: "Okay."

The other end replied instantly with "Happy!" followed by a string of exclamation marks.

He locked the screen, put the phone back on the coffee table, and it made a very soft sound.

Liu Shishi was tightening the cap on the iodine solution, without looking up: "Who is it?"

"Mencius's meaning."

Her fingers paused for a moment, then she put the iodine bottle back into the first-aid kit, her movements still very steady.

"Is she coming to Bangkok too?"

"Yes. Next week."

"So she'll come after I leave?"

"Um."

Liu Shishi closed the lid of the first-aid kit, stood up, and sat down next to the sofa.

She didn't lean on him, nor did she deliberately keep her distance. She sat about half a foot away from him, with a distance that was neither too long nor too short between them.

She turned her head to look at him, her expression devoid of jealousy or accusation, only a faint, knowing acceptance, as if she had already grown accustomed to it.

"Gao Huan."

"Um.

"You scumbag."

Gao Huan looked at her, a slight smile playing on his lips: "I know."

Liu Shishi did not say another word.

She reached out and gently touched the newly applied gauze on the inside of his thigh with her fingertips, the touch very light, as if to confirm that it was still there.

Then she withdrew her hand, stood up, walked to the bathroom door, and glanced back at him.

"I'm going to drain the water."

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Gao Huan stood up and walked up to her. He was much taller than her; she had to look up to see his eyes.

He didn't speak, but reached out and tucked a strand of her hair that was hanging down beside her face behind her ear.

The movement was very light; his fingertips brushed against her earlobe, and her ear turned slightly red.

She turned and went into the bathroom, and he followed behind.

The bathroom lights were a warm yellow, and steam rose from the bathtub, gathering into a white mist in the air.

The mirror was fogged up with water vapor, reflecting two blurry outlines that overlapped together.

Liu Shishi changed into her clothes after arriving in Bangkok today. She wore a light-colored spaghetti strap dress with thin straps, revealing her collarbone, which shimmered softly under the warm yellow light.

With her back to him, she raised her hand to gather her hair to one side, revealing the line of the back of her neck.

The neck was very thin, and the curve of the spine protruded slightly under the light, like a piece of carefully polished porcelain.

She glanced back at him, a faint smile playing on her lips, like an invitation she wasn't trying to hide.

She reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling him slightly towards her.

His fingers rested on her lower back, his palm pressed against her skin, and he could feel her body heat coming through the thin fabric.

She leaned forward slightly, her hands resting on the edge of the sink, her back slightly arched, the outline of her shoulder blades faintly visible beneath the thin fabric.

The moisture condensed into a string of fine droplets on her skin, trickling down the grooves of her spine and disappearing at the waist of her skirt.

His fingers slid up her back, stopping at her shoulder blade, and pressed gently.

Her body trembled slightly, like ripples spreading across water after a pebble has been thrown in.

She didn't speak, but turned her face to the side and kissed the inside of his wrist. The kiss was very light, as if she were taking his pulse with her lips.

Bangkok outside the window had completely darkened. In the distance, motorcycles roared through the streets, their sounds becoming muffled and distant after being filtered through the hotel's soundproof glass.

The steam in the bathroom grew thicker and thicker, and the silhouettes of the two people in the mirror became increasingly blurred, like a watercolor painting that hadn't yet dried.

She turned around very slowly, as if she wanted to stretch out each frame.

She reached out and touched the thin layer of newly grown stubble on his chin; the touch of her fingertips was slightly rough.

She smiled, a small but genuine smile, like the relaxed, effortless smile that comes when a long day finally ends.

"You've lost weight," she said.

"no."

"You've just lost weight."

She pulled him a step toward the bathtub.

Water gushed from the tap, the sound soft and continuous, like an endless rain.

Steam filled the space between the two people, rising and swirling, turning the entire bathroom into a sealed, damp, and isolated little world.

She stepped into the bathtub first.

The water rose over her ankles, calves, and knees, reaching her waist. She stopped, squatted down, and looked up at him.

Water droplets clung to her eyelashes, glistening under the light.

She stretched out one hand, palm up, as if waiting for him to hand her something, or perhaps waiting for him to hand her over.

When Gao Huan stepped into the bathtub, the water surface swayed violently, and some water overflowed, spreading across the floor tiles.

In mid-August, the rainy season in Bangkok was still ongoing.

The final scene was filmed at an abandoned dock, where Gao Huan's character escapes from a group of armed men, jumps into the Mekong River, swims nearly 200 meters, and is then pulled ashore by his accomplices.

Dante Lam did not use a stunt double. He jumped three times. When he swam to shore the third time, he looked like a piece of iron pulled out of the water. His skin was white from being soaked, and his lips were purple, but his eyes were bright.

Dante Lam watched the playback from behind the monitor, remained silent for a few seconds, then stood up and shouted in Gao Huan's direction, "That's a pass."

No extra words, no applause, just two words.

But everyone in the crew knew that this was the highest praise Dante Lam could give to an actor.

He never wastes his emotions; he only uses the word "passed" when he is truly satisfied.

Gao Huan sat on the steps by the dock, wrapped in a bath towel. The river breeze blew water vapor onto his face, carrying the unique smell of mud and diesel fuel from the Mekong River.

He glanced down at his body and saw a new abrasion on one knee and several thin cuts on his calf from underwater rocks. They weren't deep, but they were oozing blood and had turned white from being soaked in the river water.

He couldn't be bothered to treat the marks left by these injuries from filming the final scene. He'd deal with them when he got back to Beijing tomorrow.

Yangyang Jin ran over from the film set, carrying his bag and phone.

"Brother Huan, everything's packed. The car's at the door; we'll head straight to the airport."

Gao Huan stood up, draped a towel over his shoulder, and bent down to pick up his coat from the floor.

He took out his phone and glanced at it; there were several unread messages on the screen.

Chen Duling sent me a photo of a beach in Xiamen, with the caption "Let's meet up again when you get back to Beijing".

Meng Ziyi sent a voice message, which he then converted to text. It contained only one sentence: "I'm in Beijing now, waiting for you to come back."

Liu Shishi's chat window was quiet; the last message was from three days ago, when she said she had gone to Hengdian to join a film crew.

Gao Huan locked the screen, put the phone in his pocket, and followed Yangyang Jin outside.

As dusk settled in Bangkok, the clouds on the horizon were burned a deep orange-red by the setting sun, as if someone had spilled a can of paint in the sky.

My flight back to Beijing is at around 7 p.m.

Gao Huan took a nap in the car, and when he woke up, the car was parked at the airport departure level.

He walked in wearing a mask and a baseball cap. Yangyang Jin went to check in, while he found a corner seat, closed his eyes, and rested.

It takes more than five hours to fly from Bangkok to BJ.

Yangyang Jin sat next to him, wearing a mask and holding a magazine. She flipped through a few pages and then closed it.

"Huan-ge," she turned her head to look at him, "the news that you're going back to Beijing has been leaked. Someone posted your flight information on Weibo."

Gao Huan opened his eyes and looked at her.

"I understand," he said.

Yangyang Jin remained silent for a few seconds, then said nothing more.

The plane landed at Beijing Capital International Airport just after 10 p.m. Beijing time.

In mid-August, the nights in Beijing carried the lingering heat of the day, and the air was dry and stuffy.

When Gao Huan came out of the cabin, there was no connecting bridge; he took the passenger boarding stairs instead. He later learned that the connecting bridge was a temporary arrangement by the airport to divert the flow of people.

The passenger boarding bridge was parked on the tarmac, and a safety barrier had been set up below the steps.

Behind the cordon, a dense mass of people stretched from the edge of the tarmac to the horizon, their lights flickering in the twilight, forming a sea of ​​blue and white.

Gao Huan stood on the top step of the passenger elevator and looked down.

He couldn't see the faces clearly, but he could see the arms holding up the light boards and the eyes that moved back and forth with his steps.

A wave of sound erupted from the crowd, overwhelming him. Then he bowed his head to the blue sea.

Ninety degrees.

He bent down, paused for two seconds, and then straightened up.

When he straightened up, the voices in the crowd paused for a moment, then grew louder.

Someone cried. He heard a girl's sobs coming from the crowd, high-pitched, carrying a release of emotions that had been suppressed for a long time and had finally found an outlet.

He didn't linger. He turned around, stepped off the passenger boarding bridge, and strode towards a black minivan parked next to him.

When the car door opened, he could feel the gazes on his back, like thousands of lights shining at once.

He bent down and crawled inside, closing the car door to shut out the noise.

The car started and slowly drove away from the helipad. Gao Huan leaned back in his seat, watching the signs outside the window grow smaller and smaller until they became a blurry dot of light.

He took out his phone, opened Weibo, and glanced at his number of followers.

He couldn't count them all, but he knew there were quite a few people inside, guarding this place today.

Yangyang Jin, sitting in the passenger seat, glanced back at him. "Brother Huan, someone on Weibo has already posted about the time you bowed just now."

"Um.

ff

"Take a rest, you'll be home in forty minutes."

Gao Huan put down his phone and closed his eyes.

As the car drove out of the airport and onto the highway, the streetlights of Beijing swept overhead one after another, casting a flowing shadow on the windshield.

He could hear his own heartbeat, neither fast nor slow, like a machine that had just completed a long journey, slowly cooling down little by little.

He remembered the message Gao Beibei sent him: "Let me know when you arrive. There's porridge heating up in the pot."

He recalled many things from the past, the waters of the Mekong River, Liu Shishi's downcast eyes as she knelt by the sofa to bandage his wounds, Chen Duling's tears when she was sung to tears in Concord Square, and Meng Ziyi's stubbornness in hiding in the gift box to wait for him.

He recalled the three days he had Chen Duling come to Bangkok, and the two days that were different from the two days Meng Ziyi came to. They might have known, or they might not have known.

He was very gentle with them, and they were all very kind to him.

This is enough.

That's enough for now, at least.

PS: The protagonist was not injured in the previous scenes where he was alone.