Exclusive Model for the Top Painter Chapter 88

The Sincerity of Fulfilling a Long-Cherished Wish

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Before 5 p.m., Ruan Jun couldn't wait any longer and drove from his home to pick up Yu Shan from the set.

On New Year's Eve, there was always more traffic than usual, with people rushing home for reunions. Ruan Jun saw that the owner of the car next to him looked familiar when he was stuck in a busy road.

In just a second, he immediately realised that this person was Tan Zimo, the guy who framed Brother Yu!

He glanced at the time, there were still more than two hours before the seven o'clock appointment with Yu Shan, there was still plenty of time.

So he turned around and quietly followed behind Tan Zimo's car.

Tan Zimo was completely unaware of it and drove towards his destination. When driving onto a remote road, Ruan Jun deliberately swerved to that side, stopping his car on the side of the road.

Tan Zimo was naturally furious and got out of the car, knocking on Ruan Jun's car window: "Hey! Do you know how to drive? Don't you have eyes?"

Ruan Jun opened the car door calmly, and his tall figure immediately formed an overwhelming sense of threat to Tan Zimo, whose anger immediately subsided and he unconsciously took a few steps back.

Ruan Jun said, "Sorry, I did it on purpose."

Tan Zimo frowned, "Are you sick?"

"Tan Zimo, right?"

"What? Are you a fan of mine? Chasing a star in this way?"

Ruan Jun snorted, "You really think highly of yourself, a fan? Are you worthy?"

Tan Zimo suddenly remembered something, "You are, that new love of Yu Shan's?"

Ruan Jun unhappily grabbed him by the collar, as if lifting a small chicken, "Tan Zimo, I'm not the same as you, watch what you say. Brother Yu is my lover, we are a couple. And, I came here specifically to beat you up."

"... Let go of me!!! I'm going to call the police!!!"

"Before you call the police, I want to remind you. Regarding the legal issues associated with your fabrication of rumours that wantonly slandered Mr. Yu Shan, a lawsuit has already been filed on my side. The next step will be to fight back against your personal issues, so if you still want to continue to hang around in the entertainment industry, you should honestly take a beating. Do I make myself clear?"

After the beating, Ruan Jun was in an extremely happy mood.

Arriving at the film set just in time for Yu Shan to get off work, Ruan Jun immediately greeted him and held his hand, tucking it into his pocket.

Yu Shan asked, "You're particularly happy today?"

Ruan Jun smiled a sweet, harmless smile, "Seeing Brother Yu makes me happy. Brother Yu, your hands are so icy, are you cold?"

"It's okay, I'm like this in winter."

"No, I want to take Brother Yu to see a Chinese medicine practitioner."

"There's no time, I won't go."

"Brother Yu, please." Ruan Jun stared at Yu Shan with a pitiful gaze, "Your career is important, but nothing compares to your body. If something like what happened last time happens again, I'll really break down."

"What kind of thing?"

"I don't want to mention it."

"Oh, you mean vomiting blood."

"Brother Yu!" Ruan Jun was a little angry and full of heartache, "Don't mention this matter again!"

"What? I can't even mention it?" Yu Shan deliberately teased him, "Then when you think back, do you still have nightmares? Do you secretly hide under the quilt and cry in the middle of the night?"

"No."

"You really don't?"

Ruan Jun was embarrassed as if he had been caught in some lie: "No!"

Yu Shan stopped and pressed Ruan Jun against the car door, "No way, I just said it casually, you don't really cry in secret, do you?"

Ruan Jun suddenly hugged him hard, "Mhmm! That's right! Don't laugh at me!"

Yu Shan's heart was both warm and loving as he stroked his back, "How could I laugh at you. Mhmm, I'll listen to you, after the Spring Festival, I'll go to see a Chinese medicine practitioner, okay?"

Back at the villa, after dinner.

Ruan Jun excitedly brought Yu Shan to his bedroom and showed him his collection.

Yu Shan looked at each piece with interest, commenting from time to time, "You actually have this poster? I think this is the peak of my face value."

"Brother Yu looks good no matter what."

Yu Shan took two posters with very different styles and placed them together, asking, "These two, which one do you like better?"

Ruan Jun looked left and right and had a hard time deciding, "Both are Brother Yu, I like them both."

"If you have to choose one?" Yu Shan lowered his voice and said, "If one of them will make love with you tonight, who will you choose?"

Ruan Jun's face instantly reddened and he stammered, "Brother Yu, don't ask this kind of question..."

"Why can't I ask? Are you shy?"

Ruan Jun couldn't help but kiss Yu Shan on the cheek, "I choose the Yu Brother in front of me. Only now, the you in front of me is the most real Brother Yu, and the Brother Yu I cherish the most."

"Let me ask you another question," Yu Shan hooked his neck, "from puberty to adulthood, it seems like you only like me. So, who was the object of your fantasy in your first erotic thoughts?"

Ruan Jun's ears flushed red, "It's... Brother Yu."

"How old were you then?"

"Four... fourteen years old."

"That's really interesting," Yu Shan reminisced for a while, "I had only just made my debut at that time. Ruan Jun, have you ever thought that one day, you could really embrace me?"

"I've thought about it!" Ruan Jun's eyes erupted with an unusual light, "I fantasised about it many, many times, even though I thought it was impossible, but... but I took that as the direction of everything I was striving for. Then I really met Brother Yu, and I had many, many things I wanted to say to you, but I was afraid that you would be scared by my fervour and loathe me. Even though there was a time when you did loathe me, but..."

"Fool, what's this nonsense?" Yu Shan interrupted him, "I have never loathed you."

Ruan Jun's breathing stopped for a moment, and the hands holding Yu Shan trembled slightly.

Yu Shan whispered in his ear, "I love you."

Tears welled up at the bottom of Ruan Jun's eyes, "Brother Yu, am I dreaming?"

"No." Yu Shan bit his lips, "Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt." Ruan Jun carefully said, "Brother Yu, what you just said, can you say it again? I want to hear it again."

"I love you."

"Brother Yu! Me too! I'm rather stupid, I don't know how to express it, and I don't know how to make Brother Yu happy. But the love I have for Brother Yu is definitely much, much more than Brother Yu has for me, it's more than the water in the ocean..."

The rest of his words were swallowed by a deep kiss full of skill. Yu Shan guided him to wrap his arms around him and compelled, "Then, prove to me how much you really love me, hmm?"

The lights went out and the night was long. Intense entanglement and collision, in this small space where a teenager was once lonely and yearning, fantasy finally overlapped with reality; long-cherished wishes and expectations finally met the current year.

The day after New Year's Eve, the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Because of last night's tossing and turning, in order to adjust his condition, Yu Shan had to rest for a whole day.

Early in the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, he went out to shoot a film again.

Naturally, Ruan Jun had urged him, but Yu Shan insisted on working. As an idol who had fallen from the altar, the desire to regain his former glory was more pressing than anyone else.

Due to his excellent professionalism and top-notch acting skills in the industry, coupled with his desperate work ethic and change in personality, Yu Shan quickly established a good reputation in the industry, and his career gradually improved.

Under the arrangement of Ruan Jun, Tan Zimo's true colours were revealed one by one by insiders.

The masses were shocked to realise that the real scum of the earth was the one who started it all, Tan Zimo! He was the one who approached Yu Shan at the beginning, then cheated on him, and finally hit him with a rake.

The whole network turned to sympathise with Yu Shan overnight.

Yu Shan's studio took the opportunity to clarify and explain the events of the past again, which really brought a wave of goodwill. Many of Yu Shan's old fans came back crying, and Yu Shan's popularity began to slowly rebound.

Because of this, his work became busier and busier.

On this day, while filming an endorsement advertisement at a film company, Yu Shan actually bumped into Liang Jin.

The two of them bumped into each other, and Liang Jin said, "Emperor Yu, it's Chinese New Year, why are you still filming advertisements? It's not been easy!"

Yu Shan shrugged, "Do you have the nerve to criticise me? Aren't you working part-time yourself?"

Liang Jin said helplessly, "Isn't it because Tian Han encountered a crisis before? In order to support my family, I can only take offers all over the place. I signed this contract, so I can't not come, right?"

Facing his friend, Yu Shan's beaten up way of speaking remained the same as always, "Still supporting your family, talking as if you are the one."

Liang Jin clenched his fists in anger: "You have the nerve to talk about me? Are you the one yourself?"

Yu Shan remembered Ruan Jun crying with that pearly look and smiled, "Of course I am."

Liang Jin remembered that Ji Shen had acquiesced to him being his husband, and said unconvincingly, "Then I am as well."

The two looked at each other, their eyes filled with suspicion towards each other, and they said in unison, "You're lying, aren't you???"

———

In March, Ji Xiuyuan received an invitation to a painting exhibition from Fujiwara Miki.

At the end of last year, Fujiwara Miki invited Ji Xiuyuan to create a series of paintings entitled [Paintings of Classical Chinese Beautiful Male Figures]. Now, the Tokyo Art Gallery tour exhibition was being held. As promised, she invited the two to come to Tokyo.

It was early in the cherry blossom season, and the pale pink petals bloomed slightly, adding a dreamy and romantic atmosphere to the city.

Ji Xiuyuan's paintings caused a sensation in Tokyo, and for a while there was a fashionable trend of savouring and imitating the paintings of classical Chinese figures.

Their residence in Tokyo was an antique wooden building with a courtyard.

There were several cherry blossom trees in the courtyard, and they were a perfect complement to the landscape-style garden.

At night, while sitting on a futon, you could watch the flowers and plants in the courtyard and the night butterflies fluttering around.

One is reminded of a Japanese poem written by the Japanese poetess Izumi Shikibu: With a heart that misses people, when I saw the fireflies on the marsh, I suspected that I was a sleepwalking spirit from my own body.

A night butterfly flew into the house, as if a cherry blossom petal blew into the eaves with the wind.

"Ji... Shen, a butterfly flew in."

"Mhmm."

"Ji Shen, was that a cherry blossom, or a butterfly?"

"Xiao Jin," Ji Xiuyuan bit his earlobe, "butterfly or cherry blossom, which would excite you more?"

Among the flickering lights, it was a room full of spring radiance that couldn't be covered.

It was even more colourful than the cherry blossoms in the courtyard.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: November 7, 2023