Release that Man

Ye Shuang’s instinct was right. Eva was not interested in little boys; the real person she was trying to approach Ye Feng was Brother Shuang. The confession that Little Brother Ye was worried about was not real, or rather, it was not completely real. In reality, Wang San did have a good impression of Little Brother Ye, but it was not enough to cause Wang San to drop her feminine reserve to chase after guys. The reason she had invited Little Brother Ye that night was because her sister had asked her to.

As the saying goes, a wild goose leaves behind a voice; a man leaves behind a name.

One’s appearance could not be without a trace. Even though Ye Shuang did not have any more interactions with the entertainment industry after her advertisement, despite her intention to keep herself away from the fame and fortune, she would inadvertently leave behind clues for others to find her via the people she had interacted with.

Mingxin’s latest movie was a big deal. The movie, which had already started production, had suddenly announced that they wanted to find a newbie to swap out a character. Even though the character was not the main character, it was important enough, and the role of this side character was quite interesting. The plot was a mix of a crime drama and romance, and an interesting feature was the relationship between the main character and the side character.

The main character would definitely be played by Mingxin; the movie started with him being handsome, powerful, and brilliant. However, in the flashbacks, several years ago, he was just an unimportant second-generation young master.

Then, the main character had a big brother that outshone him. He was raised by the family to take over the business, and he was better than the main character in terms of business acumen and looks. He supported the family business on his own and pampered his only little brother to the moon as back.

With such a protective big brother, the main character led a life of ease and contentment. Unfortunately, tragedy struck, and the big brother was assassinated. After that, the main character was forced to grow up and eventually come into his own. He later joined forces with an expert female cop to investigate the murder that claimed his big brother’s life years ago.

The character of big brother would only appear in several flashbacks, but the influence he had on the main character was humongous. As the idol that the main character had looked up to from a young age, he would appear a few times in the main character’s memory, to give him the necessary push when he was feeling down.

Such a character was hard to master. According to the script, the big brother was the main character’s idol and the person that he looked up to; therefore, he would be so devastated after the tragedy happened to him. The script needed that unwillingness and sense of regret!

But in reality, Celebrity Luo Mingxin, be it in terms of looks or position in the entertainment industry, had already reached its peak. Would some random extra be capable of playing his brother and making the audience feel sad when the brother died‽

A normal actor could not even rival Luo Mingxin in his presence. With his first appearance, the audience would start to curse him. This dummy is so annoying! Why won’t he die soon enough‽ Our Mingxin is so much more handsome than he is!

The director was an experienced director, and he had even won an Oscar before. Originally, he planned to use a famous model to play Mingxin’s brother. He planned to only shoot the character’s back. Yes, it was a regret that the big brother would never show his face, but at least the ‘impressive’ big brother would not be outshone by the ‘innocent’ little brother from the first scene.

However, half way through the shooting, the movie’s sponsor accidentally came across Fang Mo’s company’s advert. When the director saw the advert, he was excited, too. He had announced that the character of the big brother had to be played by the man inside the advert. With this announcement, the entertainment world started to quake. This newbie was destined for great things!

Even though Ye Shuang suspected that Eva was looking for her male self, she did not know that the whole entertainment world was also looking for her, so naturally, she did not put one and one together. Therefore, Ye Shuang tossed this thing out of her mind. Since she had no work the next day, she sent Little Brother Ye back to school, and after that, she returned to Little Brother Ye’s dormitory bedroom to pack up some of his things and bring them back with her to her place.

This was not the first time the boy had tried to sneak his way into Ye Shuang’s apartment. Even without the incident with Wang San, he would continue to stay for another few days. Standing before Little Brother Ye’s bedroom, she first tried the door. There was no answer. Ye Shuang knocked again and yelled, “I’m coming in. Those without clothing put them on, and those who can’t move fast enough hide under the covers.”

Then she opened the door with the key. As expected, the moment the door was opened, screams erupted inside the room. The boys had thought that it was the dormitory manager checking the room, so they did not answer. It was their fault for not realizing it could be a family member who would come in whether there were people inside or not.

Only two skipping class? Looks like the school has gotten more serious with the attendance.

Ye Shuang glanced at the two beds with people in it. She ignored them and walked to the table to put down packs of food. Then she walked to Little Brother Ye’s cupboard. Similarly, she opened it with her own key, grabbed a few clothes, and shoved them into the small bag that she had brought with her.

When she was halfway through her work, the boys in bed put on their clothes and stuck their heads out from underneath the cover.

“Sister Shuang?”

No one else would be cleaning up Little Brother Ye’s belongings, but this woman looked prettier than the Sister Shuang that they knew.

Ye Shuang turned to look at them and pointed at the packs of food on the table. “Those are for you. Xiao Feng will be staying with me for the next few days and will only come back when the classes are full. Do you two not have classes today‽”

The question was small talk. Of course, they did not have classes, why else would they be home? However, for social situations, small talk was incredibly important. If everything someone talked about was serious business, who would be able to stand being their friend?

The mention of food brought the boys out of their beds. They cheered as they rushed for the food, completely forgetting the changes that they had noticed in Ye Shuang. The food was rice packs with either braised meat, ribs cooked with soy school, or spicy chicken. They were all dishes Ye Shuang that was experimenting with, but they had the standard of a five-star restaurant. The two boys took out a pack of rice each and started to stuff their faces with food. With food in their mouth, they explained, “We are down with fevers, so we skipped classes today. We have a doctor’s note… from a reputable clinic.”

“Stop feeding me nonsense. You cannot even envision the means I used to apply for doctor’s notes when I was your age.” Ye Shuang rolled her eyes. After she packed the clothes, she scanned Little Brother Ye’s bed. She turned to the boys with a wicked smile. “Alright, boys, it’s report time. Where does my brother hide the illegal stuff?”

“Does a home-cooker count‽” The two boys played dumb. “We sometimes use it to cook instant noodles.”

“I’m not playing this game with you. Nowadays, kids are getting sneakier.” Ye Shuang shook her head. “In any case, if I am satisfied with your report, each report can be traded for fifty canteen point cards.”

The two stood up instantly, tossing the camaraderie between brothers aside. “Sister Shuang, pick me, pick me!”

Then Ye Shuang successfully found two packs of cigarettes and a dirty book from Little Brother Ye’s shoe box and under his mattress.

“He has taken up smoking‽” Ye Shuang grinned viciously. Just a few point cards, and she managed to get all the updates she wanted on Little Brother Ye.

The years of university for many students were the first time they were away from their parent’s prying eyes. They could do many things without worry; it was an age for curiosity and exploration. For example, some were not allowed to have a relationship before going to university, some had nightly curfew, some were forbidden alcohol… They were exposed to many things during university, and this period would usually affect one’s life deeply. In fact, many firsts happened during the university years; the short four years was enough to mark a person for life.

Ye Shuang had just graduated from university, so she understood how important this period was for character building. As long as Little Brother Ye did not do anything illegal by law, she would choose to close one eye to the many things that he did.

For example, the cigarettes—in any case, Little Brother Ye would not be able to dangle a cigarette on his lips to pretend to be some gangster, but if this was outside, Ye Shuang would choose to ignore it. Furthermore, it was because this was Ye Shuang that the boys were willing to expose these things; exposing each other was a way to bridge relationships between boys as well. Things would be a lot different if they were dealing with Mother Ye or Father Ye.

Ye Shuang thought about replacing the cigarette and magazine, but she decided otherwise. She tossed them to the two boys saying, “Share these among yourselves, Sister Shuang’s treat.”

The two accepted them with wicked grins. Ye Shuang clapped her hands together, picked up the bag, and prepared to leave. “Then I’m leaving. If Xiao Feng needs anything else, tell him to bring it with him tonight. If you’re free, ask Xiao Feng to bring you to Sister Shuang’s place for dinner.”

The two boys finished the food. One of them went to clean the utensils while the other went to the computer. They were waving goodbye at Ye Shuang when the boy at the computer suddenly asked, “By the way, Sister Shuang, do you know the Brother Ye that Xiao Feng is familiar with?”

“Hmm?” Ye Shuang turned back into the room. “I do, what’s up?”

The boy heard her and exclaimed excitedly, “It was Brother Ye who shot that real estate advertisement, right? He has gone viral on the internet! How long has Sister Shuang’s family known such an impressive person?”

Gone viral‽ Ye Shuang scratched her chin and pushed the boy’s head aside to look at the website that he was surfing. Brother Shuang’s picture had been spread throughout the internet. It was just a five minutes ad, but every single shot had been pulled. Other than pictures, there were fluff news ‘exposing’ the man’s information.

The most eye-grabbing news was definitely that the director who was famous nationwide and the celebrity Luo Mingxin had declared openly online that they were hoping the mystery main character would reach out to them.