QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

Chapter 24: Don't have shitty taste in men

Han Yu is shocked still for a moment, his pupils blown wide.

Xi Zirui panics, thinks that he has overstepped and starts pulling away, but Han Yu's arms drop around his waist, pulling him tightly against his chest.

He returns the kiss with a strangled moan, his tongue stealing into Xi Zirui's mouth and making his head spin with the intensity of his passion.

Han Yu kisses Xi Zirui like a starving man. Nipping at Xi Zirui's full bottom lip with soft passes of his teeth, making sharp little moans every time Xi Zirui meets his desperation with his own.

He's sweet, so sweet. Xi Zirui feels like he's melting.

In a distant part of his mind, he thinks that perhaps his previous boyfriends wouldn't have had reason to call him cold and uncaring if they had only kissed him like this.

A single kiss from Han Yu is enough to make him grow hot.

He slides his hands up Han Yu's chest, around his neck, and tangles them in the soft hair of his wig, he wishes it wasn't in the way, he wishes he could score his fingernails over Han Yu's scalp and feel him hiss into his mouth.

Han Yu is the first to break the kiss, pushing Xi Zirui away with a gentle hand on his chest. Still inflamed by his own desire Xi Zirui chases after his lips, following the thin string of saliva still connecting them.

"Didi, we can't...our makeup," Han Yu says, his breathing laboured.

Some sense returns to Xi Zirui and he lowers his lashes in embarrassment.

What the hell was that? He practically mauled Han Yu.

Han Yu must notice the conflicting emotions on his face, because he pushes two fingers under Xi Zirui's chin, lifting it until he's looking Han Yu in the eye. "Didi has no idea of the things I want to do with him..."

Xi Zirui sucks on a shuddering breath and takes hold of Han Yu's fingers, bringing them towards his lips so he can run his tongue along the soft pads. "It's gege who has no idea..." he supports himself on Han Yu's neck to bridge the height difference between them and whisper against his ear, "Of the things I'd let him do to me."

Han Yu lets out a groan and bumps his forehead against the top of Xi Zirui's head. "Don't do this to me didi, I can't take it."

Xi Zirui feels possessed with a recklessness he hasn't felt in a long time. He wants to throw caution to the wind, ignore that they're expected back in the set and stay locked up inside this cramped trailer with Han Yu. Make a nest out of their stupid fake wedding robes and fuck on the floor until the sky turns dark outside the fogged up windows.

He wants so much that his hunger threatens to swallow him whole.

An annoyingly familiar metallic chime brings him out of the lust-tinted haze of his own thoughts. "Host, you can't ignore filming! Host is almost certainly headed for a bad ending, but if he doesn't finish filming the drama the free trial will be terminated!"

Xi Zirui doesn't appreciate being reminded of Ni Ni's presence, and of the ridiculous situation that brought him and Han Yu together. More than anything, he wishes they could have met as regular people without any of these constraints in their way.

But Ni Ni's shrill warning also reminds him of the actual reason he wanted to talk with Han Yu.

He takes a deep breath and puts some distance between himself and Han Yu, to better gather his thoughts.

"Listen, there's something I need to tell you-"

Han Yu grows a few shades paler under his makeup. Anticipating Xi Zirui telling him all the reasons why they can't be together.

Xi Zirui takes hold of his hand and rushes to clarify, "No, no, it's not like that. I found out that my bodyguard, Su Xueyi, is Bai Mi's cousin. I think he might be the one leaking stuff about us online, and working together with Bai Mi to time it with online speculations about you and her."

Han Yu's sharp brows knit in confusion above his eyes. "I understand why he would want to help his cousin take me down, but isn't this hurting you too? He works for your company, what does he gain from harming your reputation?"

He rubs the back of his neck with a long-suffering sigh, and prepares to tell Han Yu the 80's drama that is Su Xueyi's schoolyard crush on the school's hottest guy. "We might have gone to school together, and he might have had a crush on me, and I might have been an asshole about it."

The corner of Han Yu's lip ticks up. "Might didi also have forgotten who he was?"

He doesn't necessarily enjoy having to pretend to share the original Xi Zirui's terrible personality, but needs must. He sighs and nods.

Han Yu's smile widens. "I bet didi broke a lot of hearts in school. I bet he made all the boys cry."

Xi Zirui rolls his eyes, but doesn't fight it when Han Yu pulls him close by their locked fingers. He lets his head rest against Han Yu's warm chest and decides it's as good as opportunity as any to pepper in some of the truth. "Not really, I was shy actually, had really bad social anxiety, but I hid it all under an aloof exterior."

Han Yu hums, Xi Zirui can feel the vibrations through his chest. "A cold, distant beauty. That would drive anyone insane."

Xi Zirui snorts at the exaggeration, but maybe it isn't too far off from the truth. When he stopped being painfully awkward and nerdy, he did get his share of admirers.

His first ever boyfriend said what had attracted him most about Xi Zirui were his icy gaze and indifferent aura, as if everything around him was beneath his notice.

Xi Zirui didn't have the heart to tell him that what he thought was indifference and an attractive haughtiness was actually a deep sense of boredom. Xi Zirui has been deeply bored for as long as he can remember.

One thing his first boyfriend, and all the others that came after, weren't prepared for was the realization that Xi Zirui wouldn't melt under their attentions and reveal a secret side of himself only they would be privy to.

He's certain that all of them fantasized about it, but none of them ever got it.

And then the accusations came, that he was cold-hearted, uncaring, unloving, and the relationship would end soon after. Always the same pattern.

None of them ever realized how bored Xi Zirui felt with them. He wasn't cold, he was just uninterested.

It was his boredom and extreme complacence with every aspect of his life, his unwillingness to take charge and try to fix whatever wasn't working, that led him to the Transmigrator 4000 and the quick fix it promised.

And to Han Yu.

And for the first time in his life, Xi Zirui wasn't bored.

Han Yu is a lot of things; he's shameless, he's an asshole, he's a louche, he's an incorrigible flirt, he's attention-seeking, he has the world's most painful "didi/gege" kink, but he isn't boring.

Xi Zirui burrows his face against Han Yu's chest and inhales the crisp, clean scent of him.

He likes Han Yu so much.

Xi Zirui has terrible taste in men.

Maybe that's where he went wrong with all his previous boyfriends, they were all perfectly nice people.

Apparently he likes them absolutely disreputable.

But that's okay, Xi Zirui isn't so nice himself.

Speaking of which....He draws his fingernail down the gold embroidery over Han Yu's chest. "About Bai Mi, and Su Xueyi, I have an idea about how we can deal with them."

---

They leave Xi Zirui's trailer after putting themselves together as much as possible under the circumstances. The makeup around their mouths has been rubbed clean off, leaving a very obvious gap of bare skin around their lips.

There's nothing they can do about it now, but Xi Zirui grabs them both water bottles from the minibar in his trailer so they'll have at least a semblance of plausible deniability.

Han Yu isn't exactly thrilled about Xi Zirui's plan, and what it entails, but he agrees it's their only hope of leaving this mess behind with their careers intact.

Well, Han Yu's career, at least. Xi Zirui couldn't care less about his, considering he's not really an actor, but he doesn't tell Han Yu that.

Xi Zirui's main goal is to make Su Xueyi and Bai Mi pay for thinking they could fuck with him, everything else is just an added bonus.

They try to slip back inside the Heaven and Earth pavilion discreetly, but Liao Min catches them at it.

"What took the two of you so long?" she asks, eyeing them suspiciously.

Xi Zirui already has an excuse planed. "We couldn't find the bandages," he says flashing her his wrists.

She narrows her sharp eyes at them and calls. "Make up! Fix them up, then go back to your marks."

The makeup artists descend on them and fix the damage they did with their hungry kisses.

Han Yu catches Xi Zirui's eye over the flurry of brushes and sponges and winks at him.

They go back to their marks in the steps in front of the altar and Han Yu takes his hand. This time the shivers his touch sends down Xi Zirui's spine are entirely welcome.

From the corner of his eye he can see Su Xueyi leaning against a pillar outside of the camera's view, watching them attentively.

He smiles a little to himself. Good, let him watch.

This time filming goes much more smoothly, the restlessness Xi Zirui was feeling has completely left him.

Instead, now Liao Min admonishes him for, "Stop smiling Xi laoshi! Hai Yaomei is nervous and apprehensive! Nervous!"

Somehow, he manages to shoot every scene in the pavilion without incurring her wrath again.

He chalks it up as a win, but he knows his most important performance is yet to come.

---

Han Yu makes it a point of loudly inviting him to lunch, so that not only Su Xueyi hears him, but a few of the cast and crew do to.

Xi Zirui accepts with a shy smile, and follows after him, Su Xueyi trailing in his wake.

Once they reach the dining hall, Han Yu politely offers to fetch food for both of them.

Su Xueyi sits at a nearby table and keeps tabs on them.

Xi Zirui takes the opportunity to fire a quick text message, confirming the plans he had already made in the trailer. Somewhere nearby a phone vibrates, just another one in a sea of people with their faces glued to their screens.

Han Yu comes back and places both trays on the table.

Xi Zirui smiles up at him, besotted and foolish.

They eat their food, chatting about this and that, until Han Yu's own phone pings with an incoming WeChat message.

With a mischievous smile Xi Zirui reaches over to grab it before Han Yu can get to it.

The easy smile falls off Han Yu's lips and he makes a desperate bid for the phone in Xi Zirui's hands. Xi Zirui bats his hands away with a giggle, making a game out of it.

He unlocks Han Yu's phone and reads the message. As he reads his sunny smile fades from his face, replaced with pure outrage.

He levels a glare at Han Yu, who tries to mollify him, "Didi it's not what you're thinking."

Xi Zirui slaps the hand he tries to touch him with. "Don't fucking touch me! I don't even want to see your face."

He gets up from the table, making his chair skid loudly against the smooth floor.

All eyes are on them, somewhere, a person is recording everything.

Xi Zirui leaves the dining hall in a flurry of red robes and indignation, Su Xueyi follows after him like a dutiful dog.