SM Chapter 22
by VolareChapter 22: I Still Remember How You Confessed Your Love to Me
Li Tianfeng was badly injured. His nasal bone was fractured, six teeth were knocked out, his left cornea was prolapsed, and he had multiple fractures all over his body. He was still howling on the hospital bed, insisting on holding Ye Lai responsible.
Even with Sun Yuhao’s testimony, Ye Lai still ended up in the police station.
Everyone in the cast and crew knew what had actually happened, but when something went wrong, they were all eager to avoid getting involved. No one spoke up for them. The director was especially timid and afraid of trouble, fearing that the investors would withdraw their funding and affect the filming.
Two crew members testified that they saw Sun Yuhao voluntarily following Li Tianfeng to the cabin, chatting and laughing along the way.
Sun Yuhao said that after buying medicine for Ye Lai, he ran into Li Tianfeng on the way back, who said he needed help with something. He didn’t think much about it and followed him. He hesitated in front of the dark cabin, but still went inside. Sun Yuhao’s one-sided statement was difficult to verify. He couldn’t file a counter-suit.
Zhang Yihao drove into the mountains overnight after hearing the news. Sheng Mingqian arrived a few hours later, bringing a top-notch criminal lawyer with him.
The two met in the lobby of the police station. Sheng Mingqian went straight to Zhang Yihao.
Zhang Yihao thought he had mistaken him. He blinked hard. Sheng Mingqian got closer and closer until he stopped in front of him. Only then did he confirm that he was not mistaken. The person who came was indeed Sheng Mingqian.
“Director Sheng? What are you doing here?” Without any pleasantries or explanations, Sheng Mingqian asked directly about Ye Lai.
Zhang Yihao was still wondering how it could be such a coincidence. When Sheng Mingqian said Ye Lai’s name, something exploded in his mind and then formed a complete line.
The villa Ye Lai went to in the middle of the night, the familiar voice he heard on the phone that morning, the person Ye Lai had been hiding and refusing to reveal, was actually Sheng Mingqian.
He never expected that the person would be the Great director Sheng Mingqian.
“Where is Ye Lai? How is he?” Sheng Mingqian asked again, seeing that he was not saying anything.
Zhang Yihao suppressed the shock in his heart: “He’s still being held inside. Visitation is not allowed.”
Sheng Mingqian didn’t waste any words: “I brought a lawyer.”
Zhang Yihao didn’t know exactly what Sheng Mingqian did, but Li Tianfeng, who was still lying in the hospital, suddenly said that he would not sue and changed his statement, saying that his injuries were all from falling down himself while drunk, not from being beaten by someone else.
Ye Lai was released from the detention room that night, still wearing the clothes that had been soaked in the rain that day. His pants were torn, revealing large, red scrapes on his knees. His clothes were covered in bloodstains, and his pale face was also stained with blood that hadn’t been wiped clean. His lips were chapped and peeling.
The lawyer said that Ye Lai hadn’t said a word during the two days he was detained. Only when Ye Lai saw Sheng Mingqian and Zhang Yihao did his dull eyes move slightly.
“Ye Lai, are you okay?” Zhang Yihao was frightened by his appearance. He went up to check him carefully from head to toe, confirming that except for the injury on his knee, the other blood was not Ye Lai’s. “I was scared to death when I heard the news.”
“Brother Hao, I’m fine.”
Ye Lai was speaking to Zhang Yihao, but his eyes glanced at Sheng Mingqian next to him. He looked down at his own mess and raised his hand to try to wipe the dirt off his face, but his hand was dirtier than his face, making it even more smudged.
“Don’t wipe it,” Zhang Yihao took out a wet wipe to clean the mud and bloodstains from his face, cursing under his breath as he wiped. “Damn it, we’re not filming this show anymore. We’re not filming it anymore, we’re going home.”
Sheng Mingqian took off his coat, and Ye Lai numbly took it and put it on, bowing his head to button it up one by one. Sheng Mingqian’s warmth quickly spread through his body, and his body became warm again.
Sun Yuhao was still being questioned. After coming out, he was completely relieved when he saw Ye Lai. He was worried that Ye Lai would go to jail.
Besides Ye Lai, he noticed that there were many people in the lobby, and he also recognized Sheng Mingqian. He was only familiar with Ye Lai here. When he was desperate, Ye Lai appeared, and now he was even more grateful. He moved his steps and automatically stood next to Ye Lai.
“Brother Lai, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“It’s good that you’re okay. I was so scared.”
“Let’s go.” Sheng Mingqian suddenly interrupted the two, “The confiscated mobile phone has been retrieved. Is there anything important in the crew that needs to be taken?”
Ye Lai and Sun Yuhao both shook their heads. There was nothing important that they had to take away. They just wanted to leave here as soon as possible.
After leaving the police station, Sheng Mingqian first went to the pharmacy to buy some disinfecting iodine and anti-inflammatory drugs, and then found a set of his usual change of clothes from the trunk.
Sheng Mingqian and Zhang Yihao both drove cars. In the end, Zhang Yihao took Sun Yuhao and the lawyer in his car, while Sheng Mingqian took Ye Lai.
Sun Yuhao was traumatized by strangers, but after hearing that Zhang Yihao was Ye Lai’s agent, he lowered his guard. He also trusted Ye Lai even more, and he could also see that Sheng Mingqian and Ye Lai might need some time alone.
Zhang Yihao’s car left first, and the SUV behind was still parked in the night.
There was still a faint smell of smoke in the car. The overhead light shone on Ye Lai’s sticky hair, making him look particularly haggard.
Sheng Mingqian felt around in the storage compartment, but couldn’t find the cigarette case and felt a little irritable, gripping the steering wheel tightly.
Ye Lai finished taking the anti-inflammatory medicine, took off his tattered pants, and sat on the passenger seat with his legs bare. His injured leg was curled up, one hand supporting his calf, and the other hand holding an iodine-soaked cotton ball to wipe his knee.
It stung at the slightest touch. Ye Lai’s hand trembled, and the cotton ball held by the tweezers fell.
Sheng Mingqian saw that he was clumsy and took the medicine bottle from his hand. The tweezers then clamped a new cotton ball. His action of applying the medicine was not much more neat than Ye Lai’s.
Sheng Mingqian’s movements were sometimes light and sometimes heavy. Ye Lai endured the pain without saying a word. Sheng Mingqian was half-leaning over in this posture. Ye Lai looked down at his tightly furrowed brows and the dense stubble on one side of his chin.
Sheng Mingqian was not a sloppy person. He shaved regularly even during the days when his eyes were injured.
Ye Lai thought, and raised his hand to touch his chin. It was as prickly as he imagined.
The cotton ball on the clip in Sheng Mingqian’s hand also fell the moment Ye Lai touched his face. He raised his head and glared at Ye Lai: “Don’t move.”
Ye Lai hooked the corners of his chapped lips, smiling weakly: “Mingqian, many people saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“Saw you and me together. Brother Hao, Sun Yuhao, the lawyer, and many other people.”
“So what if they saw it.”
Sheng Mingqian re-clamped a cotton ball to apply the medicine to him, and then pulled the blanket from the back seat and covered Ye Lai’s legs. “Don’t put on your pants yet, just cover yourself.”
Ye Lai straightened the blanket, revealing his knees and calves. The seat was a little cold. He raised his waist to press the blanket under his butt as a cushion and sat down again. He said, “Brother Hao won’t talk nonsense everywhere. The lawyer said you brought him. Sun Yuhao probably won’t talk nonsense either.”
Sheng Mingqian turned on the car lights, and the rain lines in the light beam were clearly visible, with fog all around. He ignited the car and started it, turning the steering wheel. “How long have you known him, to understand him so well? Did you beat someone for him?”
“I couldn’t just watch and do nothing. He’s only eighteen years old, just a kid. That Li bastard is a beast. I didn’t beat him to death…”
“You can help Sun Yuhao, but if you had beaten Li Tianfeng to death, you should have been transferred to the detention center by now. The large bunk in the detention center would be crowded with a dozen or twenty men. Even if it’s not a death sentence, it would be a suspended death sentence to life imprisonment, living in darkness for decades. If you perform well in prison, life imprisonment may be commuted to a fixed term of 25 years. You are 29 years old this year. If you are lucky enough to live 25 years in prison, you will be 54 years old when you come out. Even if it is the best outcome, without disability, without pain, without illness, you will be 54 years old…”
Sheng Mingqian stated the facts to him in the calmest language. Ye Lai was filled with fear, and cold sweat broke out on his back. He wrapped the blanket around himself a little tighter.
“Ye Lai, did you really want to beat him to death at that time?”
Sheng Mingqian didn’t just stop there, but asked to the bottom of this matter, turning his head slightly to look at Ye Lai.
Ye Lai didn’t move, recalling the coldness of the stool leg remaining in his palm, and the heat of the blood on it: “I lost control when I saw Sun Yuhao’s appearance.”
Sheng Mingqian didn’t ask any more questions. He could see that Ye Lai didn’t want to remember, and quickly changed the subject.
“Don’t film the later scenes of this drama. That director is Li Tianfeng’s lackey. He will target Sun Yuhao. The director has put in a lot of effort behind the scenes.”
Ye Lai nodded dumbly: “I won’t film it.”
The mountain road was winding and it was still raining. Sheng Mingqian drove very slowly, but at the sharp turns, Ye Lai’s body still leaned towards Sheng Mingqian’s side due to inertia.
Outside the car window were the undulating dark mountain shadows, responding to the endless rain with silence.
Ye Lai looked out the window and remembered something, suddenly opening his mouth: “That year we were also shooting in the mountains, and I got lost. In the end, you found me. Mingqian, do you remember?”
The car had already driven down the mountain and onto the smooth, wide road, but Sheng Mingqian suddenly stepped on the brakes, parked the car on the side of the road, and turned on the hazard lights.
A pair of deep, dark eyes scanned Ye Lai’s face: “Ye Lai, I not only remember this, I also remember how you confessed your love to me.”
Sheng Mingqian’s words were like a bomb, exploding in Ye Lai’s mind with a bang. Rolling thick smoke blocked his vision, and his hearing weakened in an instant.
“I…I don’t remember. I confessed to you, didn’t I?”
Sheng Mingqian grabbed the steering wheel with both hands, the veins on the back of his hands bulging: “Ye Lai, is your confession so casual and perfunctory to everyone? You just say it and forget it, or have you confessed to so many people that you forgot about it in the end?”
“I didn’t…” Ye Lai wanted to say that he hadn’t confessed to anyone else, but he couldn’t think straight at the moment.
Had he confessed to Sheng Mingqian? He had actually forgotten everything. How could he forget such an important thing?
Ye Lai remembered that he was injured that night, and Sheng Mingqian carried him down the mountain. He lay on Sheng Mingqian’s back and said a lot of things, mostly incoherent. Compared to what he said, Sheng Mingqian’s warm and broad back was the last impression, deeply engraved in his bones.
When the black smoke in front of him dissipated, Sheng Mingqian’s words were like a needle, re-stitching and repairing the broken part of his memory. Although it was still largely blurred, Ye Lai still remembered the small blank space that he had accidentally forgotten.
Five years ago, when filming, he had confessed to Sheng Mingqian.