At that time, Liang Xincheng had only just signed into the company and was still a complete newcomer. When he got the script, he didn’t think much of it, he had to play both the good and the bad. He could only have a few lines in the drama before, but now the company had put him in the lead role, so what else could he not be satisfied with?

Only later did he learn that the other male lead in the drama was Xia Yuanhang.

From the very beginning, he had tried hard to squeeze into this circle in order to be closer to Xia Yuanhang. Now that the opportunity was right in front of him, he was a little bit shy, looking forward to it and at the same time scared of it. These mixed emotions reached their peak on the day he met Xia Yuanhang on the filming set. Xia Yuanhang was very polite to him, the same kind of politeness that he was to all his co-stars. It was in front of people, and when everyone else in the lounge left and they were alone, he tried to find something to say to Xia Yuanhang, only to be met with his cold, expressionless face.

In the following months, Liang Xincheng kept trying to recall how he had offended Xia Yuanhang, but he couldn’t figure it out.

That time he was picked up by Yu Mingxiu to attend a cocktail party and stayed out too late before returning to the crew’s hotel early the next morning. When he entered the lift, he ran into Xia Yuanhang, who was coming out of the lift, and the look in his eyes made Liang Xincheng understand in an instant what Xia Yuanhang really thought of him.

He had offended some people before because of his stubbornness, and now he was in the same drama crew. Liang Xincheng originally didn’t care what people were saying behind his back, but he didn’t expect Xia Yuanhang to listen to them.

It was not that he did not want to explain to him, but he just didn’t have a position to do so, not to mention the fact that an assistant director had been fired because of him when he first joined the crew. His relationship with Yu Mingxiu was ambiguous in the eyes of outsiders, and when it came to his boss’s privacy, he couldn’t explain it clearly.

During that time, Liang Xincheng’s life was not easy. Even though he faced Xia Yuanhang day and night every day and it was not as far away as before, at least he had a thought before, but now he didn’t even dare to think about it.

On the day when the drama was finished, the drunken director pulled him and Xia Yuanhang with tears in his eyes to wish them a prosperous future and great success. The two men’s hands were forcibly pulled together by the director. Liang Xincheng felt the cool temperature of Xia Yuanhang’s hand, and he seemed to be drunk. With a silly smile, he asked Xia Yuanhang: “Will we still have the chance to work together in the future?”

Xia Yuanhang avoided his overly hot gaze: “Let’s leave it to fate.”

Leave it to fate, leave it to fate… The fate between him and Xia Yuanhang always seemed to be a little bit off. In fact, this was not the first time he had worked with Xia Yuanhang. Two years ago, he participated in a drama starring Xia Yuanhang. In it, he played a passerby with only two lines, with Xia Yuanhang as the male lead N. He was only on set for one day, waiting for a glimpse of Xia Yuanhang, but on that day Xia Yuanhang asked for leave and left the crew. From the beginning to the end, Xia Yuanhang didn’t even know that they had already appeared in the same drama.

And there was no point in talking to Xia Yuanhang about it.

They both became popular after the drama aired, but since then their relationship had become increasingly awkward. The excessive marketing and hype made Xia Yuanhang become extremely intolerant, to the point where he didn’t even bother to give him superficial courtesy, and then later, that WeChat voice chat was exposed.

There was a moment when Liang Xincheng even felt that he might be a complete joke. The obsession he had held on to for nearly ten years was actually worthless in the eyes of others. If he could go back to ten years ago and no one had appeared outside that dark alley to save him, would he still be able to live happily now?

But there was no such thing as if. Xia Yuanhang had appeared and there was no way to erase the traces from his heart.

On the day he came back from Macau, he had a high fever and was lying on the hospital bed with an infusion on his hand. In a daze, he really thought about breaking the jar and calling Xia Yuanhang to ask him if he intended to eat and run away without taking responsibility. Even if he was disgusted, he still wanted to use it to pester him, but he was only thinking about it. He had already lowered himself into the dust so he could not give up his last bit of self-respect.

****

Liang Xincheng had a fever again. Last night, he took a cold shower and took a few sips of cold water, and the air conditioner was set to the lowest temperature. When he woke up in the morning, he found that he had a terrible headache and a sore throat to the point he could barely open his mouth.

When he reached out to touch his forehead, it was so hot that he didn’t need a thermometer to know that he was burning up.

As he laid helplessly back on the bedding, he remembered that the last time he had a fever was when he was on a filming set and the person who accompanied him to the hospital was Wei Xishuang. The last time he came back from Macau, he only had an assistant with him, and this time it was even worse; his house was empty and no one was there.

Liang Xincheng suddenly felt aggrieved, why was he so unlucky.

When Xia Yuanhang’s WeChat came through, Liang Xincheng was still thinking about this and getting more and more depressed that even his eyes were red. He tapped his phone screen with some resentment and replied: “I’m going to die, remember to burn paper for me when you come back.”

“Don’t be silly, what’s wrong?”

“I have a fever.” Liang Xincheng replied with a crying expression. He threw his phone aside, buried his head under the quilt, and fell asleep again.

When he woke up again, Xia Yuanhang was sitting beside him, with one hand on his waist, looking at him with a worried face. Liang Xincheng thought he was hallucinating: “You…came back?”

“En.”

“Aren’t you filming in Hengdian?”

“You had a fever and I was worried about you so I took time off work to come back. Are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Liang Xincheng looked up at the electronic clock on the bedside table; it was almost two o’clock in the afternoon. Xia Yuanhang probably ran to the airport to buy a ticket right away and rushed back after texting him on WeChat. He suddenly felt a sourness in his heart. When he was sick, he became emotional, and his eyes were red again.

“Why are you about to cry?” Xia Yuanhang lowered his head and tenderly rubbed his dry lips, murmuring softly, “Let’s go to the hospital, okay?”

“Don’t want to go,” Liang Xincheng sniffled, “I want to take some medicine, but I can’t seem to find it.”

Xia Yuanhang sighed, and quickly brought out the medicine for him. When he was not at home, what kind of life did Liang Xincheng live alone? He didn’t even know where the medicines were kept when he was sick.

After pouring hot water for Liang Xincheng and bringing the medicine to his mouth, Xia Yuanhang asked him helplessly, “Who took care of you when there was no me?”

“I took care of myself, I’m not that squeamish.”

“You are quite squeamish now.” Xia Yuanhang knew it well in his heart that this was probably his habit: “I told you not to take cold showers, not to drink cold water, and not to turn on the air conditioner too low, but you didn’t listen to a word of it, did you?”

“You’re so annoying, I’m sick so don’t educate me anymore, I’m wrong, can I correct myself next time?”

Liang Xincheng turned over and lay down in Xia Yuanhang’s arms, pulling his hand and squeezing his fingers to play, “Can you stay with me for a few more days?”

“As if. The director is already rolling his eyes at me taking time off without a reason, and you want me to stay with you for a few more days?”

“Then forget it, you get lost.”

Xia Yuanhang pressed him and slapped him on the buttocks. Liang Xincheng’s eye widened. The eyes were watery, sickly and weak, as if he was a poor little man being bullied: “Why are you hitting me?”

“I’ll spank you again if you don’t listen to me next time,” Yuanhang said and lowered his head to kiss him tenderly, softening his voice, “Baby, be good. I’m really worried about you, I’m always thinking about you when I’m filming outside. Would you mind stopping to distract me?”

“I’m sorry…” The same three words, but this time Liang Xincheng said it with sincerity. Xia Yuanhang had been working very hard during this period of time, so he really felt bad for making him go back and forth so much.

Xia Yuanhang was not angry at first place, and after hearing Liang Xincheng’s sticky coquetry, he was completely soft-hearted, kissing the corner of his mouth again: “It’s okay, you can sleep a little longer, I’ll cook some porridge for you.”

Twenty minutes later Xia Yuanhang brought the cooked porridge into the room. Liang Xincheng leaned against the bed and didn’t even bother to lift his hand, motioning for Xia Yuanhang to feed him. Xia Yuanhang smiled helplessly and picked up the spoon.

Looking at Xia Yuanhang carefully blowing the porridge to his mouth, Liang Xincheng suddenly felt that his illness was worth it: “I also had a fever the day I came back from Macau, do you remember? I was lying alone in a hospital bed that day, and I was thinking of catching you and making you take responsibility for me. What do you think you would have done if I had done that?”

“I would have been responsible,” Xia Yuanhang said as he brought the cooled porridge into Liang Xincheng’s chattering mouth. “I would have been responsible if you had told me you wanted me to be responsible at that time.”

“Tsk, I don’t believe it. it’s not like I didn’t say it later, but you ended up saying sorry back to me. I haven’t asked you yet, what exactly was that sorry you were sorry for at that time?

Liang Xincheng, who was sick, seemed to be particularly unreasonable, and even brought up old accounts. So, Xia Yuanhang patiently explained: “You left too quickly that day, I’m sorry for making that kind of joke with you and making you sad, if you hadn’t left I would have promised you.”

“Then that’s my fault, but I bet only ghosts believe you.”1chinese slang meaning something unbelievable, something you don’t really believe it

Xia Yuanhang laughed and leaned closer to lick the porridge from the corner of his mouth with his tongue: “I didn’t lie to you. Otherwise I wouldn’t have waited for you to come out of the shower that morning in Macau.”

In fact, at that time, he had already thought about taking responsibility. If Liang Xincheng had said he wanted to be with him, he would have felt awkward but after all, he had done the bullying; even if he did not want to, he would have reluctantly agreed to it. It was Liang Xincheng’s hesitation that gave him the excuse to go down the slope.

“So it’s still my fault for being too reserved at the time?”

“Blame me.”

Liang Xincheng hummed and laughed softly, raising his hand to hook Xia Yuanhang’s neck: “Let’s go to Macau to play after you finish filming this drama, ba. Just book that room in the same hotel you stayed in at that time. That…”

“Revisiting old dreams?”

Liang Xincheng narrowed his eyes and licked his lips: “Is it okay?”

“Okay, but you have to take care of your body first. Don’t get sick any more.”

“You’re so wordy.”

T/N: The title is from this song 暗恋这件小事 I guess? The lyrics really fit this whole storyline, you can find the translation to it here.

Anyway, it’s finally over! Thank you for reading this and as usual, I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did! I actually really love it because it’s very light and easy-reading, my go-to when I’m feeling a bit down and need something good with a little angst (does this even have angst?? ahahha). Anyway, thank you for reading everyone!