Aki Apricot Juvenile - Chapter 11
On May 6th, Jiang Ji received a filming offer in an old historic town. The shoot would last about two months, and he was cast as a refined Taoist priest from Mount Shu. They say newly reunited lovers are reluctant to part Jiang Ji and Qiu Xingyou had only just gotten back together, so of course he couldn’t bear to leave her alone for so long. Naturally, Qiu Xingyou ended up becoming Jiang Ji’s “new assistant.”
The ancient city wasn’t exactly comfortable, but since it was spring, at least the air wasn’t stifling. The film crew was busy every day, everyone hurrying about under the soft sunlight. Yet for Jiang Ji and Qiu Xingyou, even the exhaustion had a kind of sweetness to it.
In the xianxia series, Jiang Ji didn’t play the main character, but his role was deeply tied to the protagonist something like the “White Tofu” figure from Chinese Paladin 3.
Because Qiu Xingyou was Jiang Ji’s assistant, and since there was always work to be done on set, he was constantly on the move. By the end of the day, he would be drenched in sweat. Jiang Ji often felt bad seeing him like that, so he’d try to pass off the simpler tasks to him. But Qiu Xingyou wasn’t the type to idle around whenever Jiang Ji wasn’t filming, the two of them were practically inseparable.
Before, when Qiu Xingyou was in Japan, he had built a small reputation for himself, but very few people in their home country knew about his relationship with Jiang Ji. Still, when fans posted candid shots from the set, they noticed the “mystery assistant” beside Jiang Ji and to everyone’s surprise, that assistant turned out to be Qiu Xingyou.
People were stunned. “So Qiu Xingyou came back to China and became Jiang Ji’s assistant?”
Soon, online sleuths discovered they had attended the same school, even shared the same dorm room. With their looks and chemistry, they quickly became the internet’s new favorite CP.
At lunchtime, the crew distributed boxed meals. Jiang Ji and Qiu Xingyou sat together at a small table, a phone propped up between them playing one of Qiu Xingyou’s old performance videos. He was stuffing rice into his mouth without a care in the world when Jiang Ji suddenly put his chopsticks down, reached over, and plucked a single grain of rice from the corner of Qiu Xingyou’s lips.
With a teasing smile, Jiang Ji said, “Your lips look so nice they’re made for kissing and saying ‘I love you.’”
Qiu Xingyou pretended not to hear him, gave him a firm slap on the back, and said, “Eat your food.” Then he lowered his head again, his ears faintly red. Jiang Ji just grinned, looking smug and thoroughly pleased with himself.
Even on days when Jiang Ji had no scenes to film, the director insisted he stay at the set for standby. By the time they returned to the hotel at night, both were exhausted. One evening, as the crew wrapped up, Qiu Xingyou hurried over to lead him out only for Jiang Ji to start goofing around.
He stepped closer, closing the distance between them, and with one smooth motion, pressed Qiu Xingyou’s head against his chest. Then, with mock seriousness, he said, “Are you blind? You’ve crashed right into my heart. Well, now that you’re there, you have to take responsibility.”
Once, Meng Li had asked Qiu Xingyou why he left in the first place.
Qiu Xingyou replied, “I wanted to find a quiet place. I wanted time to think about my relationship with Jiang Ji and about my future.”
Meng Li had then asked, “Five years have passed. Did time give you an answer?”
The answer was no.
Qiu Xingyou felt that the more time went by, the more confused he became.
Time slipped by unnoticed. Two months passed in the blink of an eye, and when Jiang Ji and Qiu Xingyou finally returned to Luozhou City, summer had already settled in the sun blazing, the air thick with heat.
July 1st happened to coincide with the nation’s 95th anniversary celebration. The whole country was immersed in festivity. Around the same time, another major event made world news.
June 23rd, Britain voted to leave the EU. Both were historic moments, though only one would eventually make its way into textbooks.
But really, those grand things were far away from them. What mattered most, perhaps, was learning how to walk one’s own path first and then thinking about the rest later.
Everyone in this world moves through the crowds for different reasons: for love, for fame, for money… or sometimes, just lost in confusion, standing still because they’ve forgotten how to move forward.
After July, Jiang Ji and Qiu Xingyou’s life slowly grew quieter. Meng Li hadn’t appeared again, which should have been a relief but somehow, it wasn’t.
Qiu Xingyou had long grown used to solitude, to living independently, to needing no one. Yet now, even with loneliness as his lifelong creed, he found himself unable to resist the warmth that Jiang Ji brought him.
Maybe that was what made them lose in the end.
No matter how it ended, the warmth they shared the steps they took together would always carry a quiet trace of melancholy.