Chapter 40: How Can You Call a Friend a Pervert?

"Ji Yu, are you an only child?"

"Yeah, I'm the only one in my family."

"Your mother must be very beautiful, and your father must have been quite talented, too."

"I wouldn't know. There's only me in my family."

"I know, an only child, right?"

"There's only me on the household registration record. I've even forgotten what they look like."

"..."

In the small hotel room, three people lay on the bed, fully clothed and tucked under the covers, chatting. Le Jiatong and Fan Bingbing fell silent; they hadn't expected that a casual conversation would reopen Ji Yu's old wounds.

Staring at the ceiling, Ji Yu said with feigned indifference, "My mother went abroad when I was eight with a wealthy overseas Chinese businessman. She writes letters every year, but I've never read a single one. I don't know if she's pretty or not. My father passed away when I was ten. I don't know if he had any talent either."

Le Jiatong and Fan Bingbing, lying on his left and right, silently reached out to hold his hands. *Poor kid, come cry in my arms.*

Ji Yu looked left and right, then secretly slid his hands into their arms under the covers. This side had a soft belly; that side seemed to have toned abs.

*So comfortable.*

All three of them had the same thought at once. Ji Yu's hands were warm, and in the biting cold of winter, having someone help warm their bellies was naturally a delight. Ji Yu hummed a tune to himself, feeling incredibly satisfied. *If you can't have the mutton, you can at least have a side dish.* He truly wasn't a good person, he thought.

Chatting away, the three of them slowly drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, Ji Yu sat up and stretched, only to find that the two girls were gone. He rubbed his eyes, feeling a sticky sensation in his pants, and memories of a hazy, dream-filled night flooded back. *Heh, sooner or later, I'll turn that dream into reality.*

Ji Yu ran to the bathroom to shower and change. After washing up, he headed to the hotel lobby, where the crew was handing out breakfast—three steamed buns, an egg, and soy milk. However, he didn't see Le Jiatong or Fan Bingbing.

*That's odd.*

Puzzled, Ji Yu grabbed three portions of breakfast and ran upstairs to look for them. At Le Jiatong's door, she saw the breakfast in his hands and took it with a light laugh.

"Why didn't you call me when you left? I almost overslept."

"Why would I call you? You were sleeping so soundly, having such sweet dreams."

"Did I talk in my sleep?!" Ji Yu broke into a cold sweat.

"You did. Why are you so nervous?" Le Jiatong looked at him with a teasing smile.

Ji Yu coughed lightly. "What's there to be nervous about? I'm perfectly fine."

"Aren't you curious about what you said in your sleep?"

"Dreams are all fake. Not curious, not curious at all." Ji Yu waved his hands repeatedly, feeling like he wanted to crawl into a hole.

Le Jiatong rolled her eyes and cleared her throat, mimicking him: "Jiatong~~ You're so sexy~~"

Fan Bingbing poked her head out from behind, pitching her voice up to imitate him: "Bingbing, you're so fair, let me kiss you~~"

Le Jiatong scoffed, "You're quite the flirt, aren't you? Dreaming of such things! You shameless little pervert."

Ji Yu's face turned beet red, the veins on his forehead bulging as he argued, "Dreaming doesn't make me a pervert... It was just dream talk! ...Can things said between friends be considered perverted?"

He followed this with a stream of incomprehensible jargon about "fair ladies" and "gentlemen," which sent Le Jiatong and Fan Bingbing into fits of laughter. The room was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Ji Yu felt he had no face left to show anyone.

The two women were laughing heartily. Le Jiatong pinched his cheek and said, "So you do know how to blush."

Ji Yu hummed dismissively to hide his guilt.

"Go start the car. Bingbing and I will change and be down in a moment."

"Oh."

Ji Yu scurried away. Le Jiatong and Fan Bingbing watched his back, laughing until they were doubled over. Dreaming was normal; it would be strange if he *didn't* have thoughts about two beautiful women lying right next to him. Besides, Ji Yu's behavior showed he was a decent person—despite his thoughts, he hadn't done anything inappropriate. He hadn't even thought about getting them drunk to take advantage of them. A boy’s attraction to beauty was perfectly natural.

Ji Yu waited in the parking lot for a while, finally calming down. Talking in his sleep really wasn't a big deal. He just wondered if he had been handsy while dreaming.

Two minutes later, Le Jiatong and Fan Bingbing came down. They sat in the back seat together, acting as if they held leverage over him, and said loftily, "Drive, our perverted friend."

Ji Yu drove toward the set, feeling guilty. *Life, it’s just so damn absurd!*

Upon arriving at the set, Ji Yu ran off to get his makeup done—he wasn't going to play with those two women today! The filming schedule wasn't too heavy, but because of the good weather, they had moved a later scene to today. This was likely the final scene of *Rescuing the Courtesan*. An Xiushi and Song Yinzhang were getting married, and Zhao Pan'er was organizing the wedding for them; the three of them were dancing together, looking as if they were all getting married.

Dressed as the groom, Ji Yu still had the morning's events on his mind. Fan Bingbing was also dressed as the bride, looking even more beautiful, though the fake scar on her face—added for the plot, where Song Yinzhang cuts her own face to escape the control of a jerk—made it look a bit jarring.

The scene began. Ji Yu and Fan Bingbing held the red silk ribbon tied to a hydrangea. Le Jiatong stood between them, dancing and playing a waist drum to celebrate. Her dance was graceful and beautiful. Soon, she tossed the drum aside, grabbed the red ribbon held by Ji Yu and Fan Bingbing, and pulled them together.

Ji Yu and Fan Bingbing stood face-to-face, blushing, and Le Jiatong squeezed in between them. The three of them held the red ribbon, forming a triangle. To the music, they danced and spun around together.

Ji Yu felt this shot was the director's way of hinting that the three of them would end up together! *The joy of having both!*

His imagination ran wild, and his dancing became lively; he was having a great time with a girl on each side. The red ribbon was pulled back and forth in Le Jiatong's hands, and the three of them squeezed together from time to time, their faces almost touching.

*The three of us could actually be very happy together,* Ji Yu thought. He wondered if Le Jiatong and Fan Bingbing were having similar thoughts. *Should I ask them out for a drink tonight?* He reconsidered and decided to wait until the wrap party. With the sadness of parting, he could finish singing "Anhe Bridge," which would surely leave them in tears.

With a plan in mind, Ji Yu acted even harder. *Film well! Strive to wrap up early and get the reward!*

When they finished for the evening, Ji Yu didn't suggest a late-night snack, and the two women were too shy to ask. But Ji Yu wasn't idle; he went to buy fruit, intending to deliver it to them one by one. He could even sneak a listening device into their rooms while he was at it. *What if they start gossiping about me behind my back? I must monitor them at all times! To know yourself and your enemy is to win every battle!*

When Ji Yu arrived at Le Jiatong's room with the fruit, he glanced at the bathroom and a wicked thought crossed his mind. *If only I had a hidden camera. Too bad the store hasn't refreshed! Useless system!*