The movie was about to start.
Ye Ran held a bucket of popcorn, still wearing his mask, following behind Shen Shi into the theater.
They were watching a film in Hall 6. It was Christmas Day, and the place was packed. There was a short line at the entrance, shoulder-to-shoulder with people, and a ticket attendant checking tickets.
“Your ticket?” the staff member asked Ye Ran.
He froze for a moment, dazed, then realized he was already holding it out. “Uh—here.”
“Thank you.” The attendant, a woman with her hair coiled up, blushed slightly as she tore off half of the ticket stub.
Another figure stepped forward. She looked up and even though the man was wearing a mask, his handsome features couldn’t be hidden.
“Hello,” she greeted again, her face turning redder. “Your—”
“Here.” He cut her off coolly before she could finish.
“Thank you.” She kept her polite smile, swiftly tearing the ticket.
A few people later, another good-looking guy approached, and her flustered expression returned. She asked softly, “Hi, could I see your ticket—”
By the time Ye Ran entered the screening hall, there were ten minutes left before the movie started. The lights were still bright, people were finding their seats everywhere.
He and Shen Shi had bought seats in the seventh row, near the aisle. Not dead center, but roomy enough with a clear view.
After they sat down, couples continued to trickle in hand-in-hand. Many carried popcorn or milk tea, and some had brought small cakes or chips to snack on.
Before long, the lights dimmed, and the screen began showing the usual fire-safety animation.
Following Shen Shi’s suggestion, Ye Ran took the seat by the aisle. The seat was spacious. He removed his mask, his cheeks flushed from the stuffy heat. Under his baseball cap, black hair clung to his temples, a fine sheen of sweat glinting there.
Shen Shi handed him a cup of cola. “Hot?”
His voice naturally carried a cool tone, distant, hard to approach at first, but Ye Ran had long gotten used to it. He took the cola, sipped, and shook his head. “I’m fine.”
He tended to overheat easily. In summer, he’d sweat a lot, and it would quickly show on his face. Back in high school, a boy once teased him, asking if he was blushing because he liked him.
The cold cola touched his lips—his mouth, bitten red by Shen Shi earlier, had finally returned to normal. His lips looked soft and rosy again.
In the dim flickering light of the theater, Shen Shi stared at him and suddenly said, “Let me have a sip too.”
“Huh?” Ye Ran hesitated, awkwardly searching for tissues to wipe the straw. Shen Shi had only bought one drink; he usually didn’t touch soda, but the air inside was stuffy, so maybe even he couldn’t stand it. “Wait a second.”
Ye Ran was reaching into his pocket for tissues when Shen Shi leaned down suddenly, caught the straw between his lips, and took a sip of the icy cola.
Ye Ran froze on the spot, holding the cup stiffly, not daring to move.
The safety animation ended, replaced by noisy real-estate ads blaring from the screen.
The lights flickered. Shen Shi tilted his sharply outlined face slightly upward; under the faint light, his features came into focus—deep eyes, thin lips. He released the straw and said casually, “Mm. Pretty sweet.”
Ye Ran slowly relaxed, glancing at him helplessly. In a small voice, he asked, “Want more?”
He lifted the cup toward Shen Shi’s lips again. Shen Shi lowered his gaze, seemed to smile faintly, and was just about to speak when a stranger’s voice piped up—
“Hi there, handsome!”
The voice came from behind Ye Ran. He blinked, uncertain, and turned around.
Behind them sat two girls, probably friends, leaning forward together toward his and Shen Shi’s seats.
The one who spoke wore delicate makeup, glitter dusting her eyes—cute and lively. She winked playfully at Ye Ran. “You two spending Christmas together?”
Ye Ran sensed the implication, hesitated, and nodded. “Yes.”
“Then how about the four of us hang out after?” she said cheerfully, perfectly at ease. “There’s a murder-mystery place downstairs, want to play together?”
Ye Ran’s gaze flicked instinctively toward Shen Shi.
Shen Shi, perfectly composed, propped his chin on his hand and looked at him.
That look…
A chill ran down Ye Ran’s back. He quickly reached out, caught Shen Shi’s hand under that faintly amused gaze, and lifted their joined hands slightly, saying to the surprised girl, “Uh… we’re together.”
That word “together” carried a different meaning entirely.
The girl blinked, then laughed. “Fair enough.”
She shrugged lightly. “Handsome guys do belong with handsome guys. Have a fun date.”
She leaned back into her seat, chatting and laughing with her friend again.
Ye Ran finally exhaled in relief. The movie’s opening theme had started; the theater was noisy, latecomer couples rushing in with phone flashlights to find their seats.
Ye Ran stood to let two people pass, then sat back down, only to hear Shen Shi’s calm, low voice beside his ear: “First the ticket girl, now a ‘handsome guy’—baby, who’s next?”
Ye Ran coughed lightly. His fingertips were caught in Shen Shi’s teasing grasp; resisting the ticklish sensation, he turned his hand over and gently squeezed Shen Shi’s fingers in return.
“I didn’t.”
“Really none at all?” Shen Shi asked him.
Ye Ran only wanted to move past the topic quickly and watch the movie, so he nodded firmly. “Yes, none at all.”
Shen Shi didn’t speak again.
On the big screen, the opening theme finished, and the first scene began.
——
The movie told the story of a pair of siblings who had depended on each other since childhood but were separated in an accident. Over ten years later, the sister, now in her thirties, worn down by life and stripped of all ambition, accidentally learns news of her brother and sets out on a journey to find him. Along the way, she’s kidnapped by a group of inexperienced bandits.
It was a lighthearted comedy mixed with crime elements.
Yes, on Christmas, they were watching a crime film.
The plot was engaging, and the main characters were vivid. After being kidnapped, the sister simply gave up. When the bandits repeatedly ordered her to do this or that, she finally lay down on the ground and said, “Go ahead and kill me then.”
The theater erupted in laughter.
The group of bumbling bandits didn’t even know how to threaten a hostage. After a moment of confusion, they dragged the heroine up and kept fleeing.
As the story unfolded, the truth behind their flight turned out to be both absurd and tragic.
Each of the men had family: old parents, young children. They were migrant workers who had gone out to earn a living together.
When they returned home for the New Year, they discovered their children had all fallen mysteriously ill, weak, pale, lacking vitality. The hospital said they were poisoned and needed to be hospitalized.
The families panicked and were completely at a loss. How could healthy kids be poisoned? Illiterate and desperate, the group began secretly investigating in their village, and eventually discovered it was the village doctor’s doing.
The doctor had grown irritated with the children running around noisily every day. Twisted by his own malice, he decided to go all the way—waiting for the kids after school and feeding them candy laced with poison.
In the countryside, everyone knows everyone else’s background. No one would have imagined the kindly village doctor hiding such evil beneath his smile.
When the truth came out, the migrant workers didn’t call the police right away. They wanted to confront the doctor first, to ask why he did it and to vent their rage.
They never expected that behind the doctor stood a large-scale drug manufacturing ring. That night, the cartel killed the doctor to silence him and framed the migrant workers for the murder. In their panic, egged on by someone’s suggestion, the workers grabbed their bags and fled into the night.
The heroine, an educated modern woman, finally lost her temper after hearing their story. She got up, scolding them for being ignorant of the law, and demanded that they go to the police right away so justice could be done.
The workers were moved to tears, saying she was the only person who had ever believed them. They decided to report it, but on the way, they were attacked by members of the drug ring.
The plot didn’t stand up well to logic but the process was wildly dramatic and funny.
Among the workers was the youngest—a tall, lean, dark-skinned young man. He hadn’t done anything wrong at all; he’d just happened to be outside catching crickets the night the doctor died and got caught up in the mess.
Wronged and helpless, he was dragged into the van by his older companions, who said, “Come on, we’re all fugitives now, if we don’t run, we’re dead.”
Ye Ran couldn’t stop laughing. Without realizing it, he’d finished all the popcorn. A cup of cola was held to his lips; he turned his head slightly and took the straw between his lips.
When he came back to his senses, Shen Shi had already taken a sip from the same straw, in the dim, flickering light.
Cool and restrained by nature, his shirt collar was open two buttons beneath the down jacket, pale skin exposed. His lashes lifted lazily toward the screen, no one would have thought he’d do something like that.
Ye Ran looked away awkwardly and rubbed his ear.
——
The second half of the movie grew darker in tone.
Tensions rose—
The heroine’s goal to find her brother clashed with the workers’ quest for justice. One night, while driving down a highway, they were found by the cartel’s henchmen.
A violent chase and shootout followed. The old van, surprisingly sturdy, roared on as gunfire and crashes overlapped in a deafening chaos.
Finally, the van’s door was torn loose in a collision, a gun aimed straight at the heroine in the back seat.
Bang!
A thin, dark figure lunged forward and took the bullet for her.
At the end of the road came the belated police—sirens blaring, their cars chasing down the fleeing cartel members until they were forced to a stop.
The old van, surrounded, screeched to a halt.
Covered in dust, the workers climbed out, hands raised, weeping and begging the police to save their friend.
The young man in the heroine’s arms was fading fast. Blood bubbled at his lips as he looked up at her with restrained longing and whispered, weakly, “…I wish I had a sister too.”
A sister who would risk everything, again and again, just to find a glimmer of hope.
As expected, the story ended warmly—
The young man survived thanks to timely treatment; the workers, for their contribution, were shown leniency; and the heroine resumed her search, finally finding her brother in a loving home.
Later, she returned to the city and wired money to the young man so he could take the adult college entrance exam.
It should’ve been a heartwarming ending, yet somehow it brimmed with regret.
The brother, already living his own happy life.
The sick children, lying in hospital beds, surviving only on medicine.
The migrant workers, with ruined families and criminal records.
The young man—unlucky, wounded, now forced back to school for “re-education.”
Everyone got a “good” ending.
But none of it was perfect.
…
There were faint sounds of crying in the theater.
Some emotional girls had been sniffling since the chase scene began, burying their faces in their boyfriends’ chests and quietly wiping at their tears.
Zhai Sisi tried desperately to hold hers back. She’d always thought crying during a movie was embarrassing, especially when her best friend beside her looked calm and untouched. If she pulled out a tissue right now, it’d only double the awkwardness, and she’d be teased about it for the next three days.
…But it was just so touching, wuwuwu!
She could only pretend to be sleepy, pressing her forehead against her hand while letting her tears flow freely, secretly grateful she hadn’t worn eyeliner today.
The theater was so dark, almost nothing could be seen clearly.
On the screen, the heroine sat alone outside the ICU, head bowed, silently falling apart.
Zhai Sisi noticed some movement from the two handsome guys in front of her. The one without the hat or mask turned his head slightly, just that side profile was unreasonably good-looking.
His hand rested on the armrest; his pale, slender fingers were clearly defined. He leaned forward deeply, his posture outlining a lean, taut frame that exuded a subtle tension, as though he were speaking to the other man.
The other man didn’t move. After a short moment, the incredibly handsome one returned to his seat.
Zhai Sisi swallowed hard and felt her cheeks heating up.
It was that uncontrollable kind of blush one gets when scrolling through CP videos online.
Oh my god… All her sadness evaporated, she could only try to suppress her racing thoughts. What was that? What were they doing? What the h*ll was that??
Unable to resist, she shifted in her seat and lowered her hand.
Her best friend, sharp as a wolf catching the scent of meat, turned immediately and asked in a low voice, “You cried?”
Zhai Sisi jolted, looked over and noticed tear streaks still glistening on her friend’s face. “…Huh? You’re the one who cried.”
Her friend leaned closer, scrutinizing her face like a microscope hunting for clues. After a few seconds, she suddenly gasped, horrified— “What the h*ll!”
Then came a soul-deep question: “You’re seriously blushing… during a crime movie?”
How messed up could you get?
On the screen, the dark, skinny young man was being wheeled out of the ICU, bandages wrapped across his chest, abs faintly visible.
Her friend: “…”
Her friend: “…………”
Her friend hesitated, then muttered, “Your tastes are way too heavy.”
——
Ye Ran, too, was moved by the final scenes.
With ten minutes left in the film, many people began leaving early. The theater slowly thinned out. Shen Shi had just asked if he wanted a tissue. Ye Ran had managed to hold back his tears, though his eyes were red, his pupils glistening as if rinsed with water.
Amid the noise, his hand was suddenly taken. Shen Shi’s low voice came close, only a vague silhouette visible in the dark. “Go?”
Ye Ran still wanted to see the ending, but the last part was just about the heroine’s life afterward, no longer tied to the main story.
“Not watching the rest?” he asked.
Shen Shi seemed oddly tense. He gently pinched Ye Ran’s fingertips. “Mm, let’s go.”
Ye Ran nodded obediently, putting on his mask and cap. Before he could zip his jacket, Shen Shi was already pulling him up. They bent slightly, walking down the steps toward the exit.
Just before leaving, the movie screen suddenly brightened, and Ye Ran caught a glimpse of Shen Shi’s tight, cold side profile.
Hm?
He blinked, a little puzzled. Why did Shen Shi look so serious?
Most of the other theaters were still running; the hallway outside was nearly empty.
They exited into the lobby, where people were still waiting for other screenings. Conversations hushed, eyes turning toward them as murmurs rippled through the crowd.
All the way out, Ye Ran’s thoughts lingered on the movie; the poor dark-skinned youth seemed more and more pitiful the more he thought about him.
At first, he’d thought that boy was the heroine’s brother but he wasn’t. The boy had truly been just a stray child, a drifter raised by the kindness of others.
By the time Ye Ran came back to himself, they were at the emergency exit.
He blinked in confusion then found himself being pulled inside.
The stairwell was dark. Dim light spilled through two narrow windows, reflecting the green glow of the EXIT sign on the metal railing. In that quiet, sealed space, Ye Ran could only hear Shen Shi’s low, steady breathing.
“Cried?”
His mask was tugged off. His reddened eyes and flushed cheeks were now fully exposed.
Shen Shi bent down, leaning in close. His cold, handsome features were half lit, half shadowed, his dark eyes glinting with an emotion Ye Ran couldn’t read.
Ye Ran’s gaze flickered uneasily. His lashes, damp with moisture, clung together in soft clumps.
He took a step back but Shen Shi’s arm slipped around his waist, drawing him in. Surrounded by Shen Shi’s scent, Ye Ran whispered weakly, “…A little.”
“Your eyes are all red,” Shen Shi said, amusement glinting in his voice as he gently rubbed Ye Ran’s fingertips. “Want a tissue?”
Ye Ran mumbled, “No.”
Shen Shi hummed softly. His voice grew lighter. “Then do you want your boyfriend’s comfort?”
Ye Ran froze, his thin eyelids lifting slightly—his gaze pure and restrained, filled with quiet anticipation. “What kind of comfort?”
——
There were faint wet sounds in the still stairwell.
Ye Ran was crouched in the corner, baseball cap still on, head tilted back slightly, his cheeks flushed and damp with sweat. His unzipped shirt clung to his body, pressing against another’s, warm, firm, and unyielding.
The gentle pecks from moments ago had turned into unrestrained, greedy kisses.
Ye Ran was out of breath. Bracing a weak hand against Shen Shi’s chest, he pushed faintly. Finally catching a sliver of air, eyes rimmed red, he said, “…Enough.”
Shen Shi stopped at once, obediently. His face was close, brushing Ye Ran’s cheek with soft kisses.
“Uncomfortable?” he murmured.
Ye Ran’s body was still trembling slightly, his gaze unfocused. It took him a while to process what Shen Shi had said before he dazedly murmured, “Hm?”
Shen Shi repeated patiently, “Did my kissing make you uncomfortable?”
Only then did Ye Ran recall the conversation they’d had before the movie started. Afraid that Shen Shi would continue, he nodded a little, “…Mm.”
“Where do you feel uncomfortable?” Shen Shi’s tone was patient, almost gentle. “I’ll fix it.”
Ye Ran’s eyes were moist, his lashes misted with dampness. Black hair, pale skin, lips soft and red from being kissed, he was crouched in the corner of the stairwell, looking utterly serious despite his appearance. So well-behaved that Shen Shi’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“I think,” Ye Ran said, “we should cool down for a while.”
Shen Shi stared at him lazily, gaze heavy, falling on his lips. Through those slightly parted lips, he could see the moist, soft red of his tongue. “Hm? What did you say?”
Ye Ran explained earnestly, “We’ve been kissing too often lately… You’ve already kissed me twice today!”
Shen Shi’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
The tip of his tongue slid briefly past his teeth before retreating, just the tiniest bit of red and swollen softness showing. The sight made his breath quicken; he wanted, so badly, to lean in again but he forced himself to focus on Ye Ran’s words. “Mm, is that so.”
Thinking Shen Shi was reflecting seriously, Ye Ran brightened a little, his pupils trembling slightly. He said softly, “…Then how about we do one little kiss every two days, and one big kiss every three days?”
He had carefully considered Shen Shi’s needs and made what he thought was a huge concession.
Shen Shi bent down lower, his breath hot, leaning closer and closer. His gaze was dark and deep, fixed on the little movement of Ye Ran’s tongue as he unconsciously licked his lips. That tiny, soft tip magnified endlessly in his mind, he could almost taste how soft, how wet, how sweet it must be.
He finally couldn’t hold back anymore. Closing his eyes briefly, he rasped out in a low voice, “Mm. Whatever you say.”
“You agree?” Ye Ran’s eyes lit up, his tone unexpectedly happy.
Shen Shi’s thoughts, mired in heat, snapped slightly back to awareness. He sensed something off, lifted his eyes, straightened a little, and asked, “Agree to what?”
Ye Ran blinked at him, a little confused, but repeated carefully, “One small kiss every two days, one big kiss every three days.”
Worried that Shen Shi might find a loophole, he added seriously, “That means—you can kiss my cheek every two days, and every three days you can… um, kiss on the lips.”
He looked at Shen Shi. In the dim light, Shen Shi’s features seemed oddly indistinct. His expression was faint, eyes lifting lazily—those pure black irises indifferent and quiet, as if he were about to say something.
Before he could, Ye Ran suddenly leaned forward and hugged him. The long, delicate corners of his eyes were tinged red; shy but determined, he brushed a soft kiss at the corner of Shen Shi’s lips. His gaze was clear and gentle as he whispered, “Shen Shi, is that okay?”
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![The No. 1 Hunfen King in the Entire Server [Interstellar]](https://i1.wp.com/lazygirltranslations.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/unnamed-5.jpg?resize=151,215 "The No. 1 Hunfen King in the Entire Server [Interstellar]")
