Professional Body Double

Zhou Xiang rested at home for two days. When he had work, he would be busy until the middle of the night; when he didn't have work, he didn't need to leave his house for a week. The past two days, he sent Yan Mingxiu two texts one after another. However, like stones sunk into the sea, he received no reply. Zhou Xiang was a bit disappointed. He guessed that even if he took the initiative to invite Yan Mingxiu, Yan Mingxiu still wouldn't come.

To his surprise, one afternoon, Yan Mingxiu actually rang him on his accord. Thrilled to bits, Zhou Xiang hurriedly answered the call. “Hello?”

“Hi, where are you?”

“I'm at home.”

“Come out for a meal with me.”

“Sure, where do wanna go? Should I go pick you up?”

“No need. . I'll send you the address, just come straight over.” Yan Mingxiu hung up the phone as soon as he finished speaking.

Zhou Xiang quickly leapt from the sofa. He had a shower and shaved his beard in the fastest possible speed, tidying himself up. After that, he impatiently drove to Gongti.

When Zhou Xiang arrived at the Thai restaurant and entered the private room Yan Mingxiu had reserved, he saw that Yan Mingxiu was already sitting on the sofa. His legs were crossed, and his head was lowered, looking at the menu. His imposing manner was like he was reading a several hundred million yuan contract. The female waitress stood reverently and respectfully at his side, secretly sizing up his face, eyes filled with admiration.

As soon as Zhou Xiang came in, the two looked over. Zhou Xiang happily greeted Yan Mingxiu, “Sorry I’m late.”

“No problem, I just arrived too.” Yan Mingxiu closed the menu. “We'll have these first.”

Zhou Xiang hastily said, “Don't order too much, I ate a little before I came.”

“You've eaten already?”

“I ate some snacks at home, so I'm not really hungry.”

“I haven't ordered that much.” Yan Mingxiu passed the menu to the waitress.

The waitress left, leaving the two of them alone in the large private room. Zhou Xiang asked, “Judging from what I saw out there, this restaurant seems to have really good business, why are we using such a big room?” Even the cheapest room probably wouldn't be cheap.

Yan Mingxiu wasn't paying any attention to what Zhou Xiang was saying at all, and was instead staring at Zhou Xiang's lips with an odd expression in his eyes.

Zhou Xiang spoke a bit more and noticed that Yan Mingxiu had been staring at him the entire time. Sensing that the atmosphere in the room had changed, he cleared his throat, and said with a soft and silky voice, “How did you find the time to invite me out today? You didn't reply to any of the texts I sent you, I thought that you had already forgotten me.”

Yan Mingxiu said indifferently, “Too lazy to reply.” Yan Mingxiu’s sort of arrogant and egoistic personality was actually really annoying——if that personality belonged to just an ordinary person that is. However, when it was Yan Mingxiu acting this way, Zhou Xiang felt that his every expression was exceptionally enchanting, even that languid and apathetic attitude made his heart tickle.

Yan Mingxiu cast glance at him. Zhou Xiang wasn't concealing his fondness and thirst for him at all; though it was true that there was no reason to hide it. Among men, it was better to be more direct, just each taking what they need.

Zhou Xiang inched closer and asked quietly, “So, did you forget me or not?”

Pinching Zhou Xiang's chin, Yan Mingxiu lightly caressed Zhou Xiang's lips. “I might have just remembered you.”

A laugh escaped from Zhou Xiang's lips. “What perfect timing.” Zhou Xiang nipped and softly tugged at his lips. "I thought about you every day."

Yan Mingxiu murmured, “”

“I was actually thinking about topping you but, if you're not willing, ”

“You really haven't been a 0 before?”

Zhou Xiang said jokingly, “Nope, I wanted to be when I was young, but they snubbed me, didn't like that I looked too mature. It got even more impossible when I grew up, in the gay community, it goes without saying that there are lots of 0s and very few 1s, so much fresh meat waiting for me, why should I bother finding someone to top me?"

Yan Mingxiu softly slipped his hand into Zhou Xiang's clothes, kneading his firm waist and hoarsely said, “So that means, if you do it with me, it'll be your first time.”

Zhou Xiang chuckled. “Exactly! Are you gonna take responsibility?”

“I haven't even topped you, take what responsibility? An IOU?”

“Then why don't you top me?” Zhou Xiang sealed his lips with his own, slipping his tongue inside, and mumbled during the intervals of their passionate kiss, “Or else, why'd you call me out for a meal?”

Yan Mingxiu didn’t beat around the bush. The two were adults; there was no point in playing coy. He aggressively returned Zhou Xiang’s kiss. He imagined how it'll feel to press this man down onto the bed and violently f**k him. It was going to feel good for sure.

He will take this person from the back, grab his hair and force him to move his butt up towards him on his own. Those even muscles and graceful figure will definitely be able to exhilarate him, because they looked so much like Wang Yudong's.

Even in his dreams, he dreamed about topping Wang Yudong.

While they were immersed in their fervent kiss, there was a knock on the door, and right after, several girls walked in carrying trays of food.

Zhou Xiang wanted to push Yan Mingxiu away. He wasn’t trying to keep his sexuality a secret, but he didn't want to scare those teenage girls either.

However, Yan Mingxiu tightly held his waist in place and pressed him down harder against the sofa, his tongue caressing and licking Zhou Xiang's teeth. A clear fluid trickled out from the corner of Zhou Xiang's mouth which he had no way of closing.

Those girls were scared silly, temporarily not knowing whether they should enter or retreat, directly freezing on the spot.

After Yan Mingxiu kissed his fill, he licked his own lips and finally turned his head to coldly glance at those girls. “Serve the dishes, what you all standing there for?”

Zhou Xiang wiped the corner of his mouth and then smiled warmly at the girls, wanting to pacify their frightened state of mind.

Yan Mingxiu looked at Zhou Xiang's smile with narrowed eyes. It was then that he seemed to realise that Zhou Xiang was not all smiles only in front of him; he was like that to everyone.

This fact made Yan Mingxiu feel very uncomfortable.

The girls forced themselves to act calm as they placed the dishes on the table. Seeing the awkward expressions on their faces, Zhou Xiang felt a bit apologetic. “You guys can leave after putting down the dishes. We don't need you to serve us.”

The girls snuck a glance at him, and then looked at Yan Mingxiu. They then all ran away with red faces.

Zhou Xiang nudged Yan Mingxiu's shoulder and laughed, “Never would have guessed that you had such big guts.”

Yan Mingxiu didn't respond to his words. "Let's eat."

This restaurant room was originally meant to seat eight to ten people. For Yan Mingxiu, they had specially switched out the large table for a long six seater table. They sat facing each other, tasting the exquisitely presented Thai dishes.

Zhou Xiang exclaimed, “It’s so delicious. I've passed by this restaurant many times before but never once went in.”

Yan Mingxiu didn't say much, casually responding with a few words, and then asked Zhou Xiang. “How old are you?”

Zhou Xiang winked, “, actually I'm twenty nine years old.”

“You're a body double?”

“Yup, martial arts body double.”

“Then your job is very dangerous, right?”

“It's actually rarely ever dangerous. It's just that there are lots of movements that actors can't perform, so in order to get the desired effect, they have to use martial arts stunt doubles.”

“How many years have you worked as one?”

"Let me calculate. I graduated from sports college when I was nineteen, I was a sales representative for over a year, afterwards, I entered the entertainment circle to do odd jobs, I should have been twenty three when I properly started doing stunt doubling work, so almost seven years."

Yan Mingxiu lightly frowned. “An average person, if they've been in the business for so long, they would already be able to play some supporting character roles. You're really not doing that well.”

Zhou Xiang laughed, not offended in the least. “If I had your looks, I’ll definitely be offered lots of roles. A person with my looks is suited to act the villain who's defeated by a noble warrior or a policeman. The range of characters that I can play is too limited. I'll be happy too if I had the chance to earn more money. Even if I don’t get offered any roles, I'm still very content being a martial arts double.”

Yan Mingxiu said, “But you can't be a stunt double for the rest of your life, right? What're you going to do a few years from now when your body can't handle it anymore?"

Zhou Xiang replied breezily, "When that time comes, I'll change profession and become an agent. After all, I'm familiar with that sort of work too. What's the point of thinking so far ahead?"

He was someone who lived a carefree life. He had no family and no cares. Once he’s full, no one in his family is hungry. He didn't need to think about providing for the elderly, or marrying a wife or having kids, because he would never have any. He only needed to save enough money to provide for himself when he got old.

He thought, in the eyes of a youngster like Yan Mingxiu, who had just turned twenty and had great future prospects and great hopes for the future, a life without a plan was probably impossible to imagine. Zhou Xiang also didn't plan on making Yan Mingxiu understand.

Yan Mingxiu glanced at him and noticed that he truly was happy with the status quo. He thought inwardly, this person really is a good for nothing just like his outer appearance. Yan Mingxiu didn't know why he didn't feel too happy. Perhaps it was because he was always trying to find traces of Wang Yudong in Zhou Xiang, but besides his back view, Zhou Xiang didn't have anything that could be mentioned in the same breath as Wang Yudong.

Translators Note:

I said in the beginning that I'm translating from the old version and crosschecking with the new version. So far, it’s worked out fine because it’s just been minor changes that help improve the wording and flow of the text (so you could say that I’m actually translating from the improved new version).

In this chapter, the author cuts out a whole section and some other lines (around 700 words) from the original. It’s understandable because those parts aren’t really necessary to the story.

But, if anyone wants to read the original version, it can be found here:

The cut or modified lines are in this purple colour. The lines that are the same are in black.

For future chapters, if I feel that a changed line has been “censored” rather than “improved”, I will use the original version and put the new version of the sentence in the footnotes.