Anchor Effect - Chapter 9.2: I'll Be Embarrassed

"It's nothing," Ye Yuchen picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. "I had an interview that didn't go well."

"Interview?" Yu Xiu was a bit unfamiliar with the term. "Or an audition?"

"Not an audition," Ye Yuchen looked at the TV screen, idly flipping through movies. "It was an interview for the dance troupe."

Yu Xiu didn't inquire further and just said, "I've had many auditions I didn't pass. Later, I realized luck plays a significant role in these things, so I don't worry too much about it."

Ye Yuchen stopped pressing the remote control and turned to look at Yu Xiu. "Are you trying to comfort me?"

Yu Xiu had only drunk half a can of beer, but his neck and ears were already a bit flushed. The clearness in his eyes was veiled by a misty haze, and his once youthful face seemed to have matured overnight, exuding an inexplicable sexiness.

"Hmm," Yu Xiu nodded earnestly. "Did I manage to comfort you?"

Ye Yuchen found Yu Xiu quite interesting.

Even though Yu Xiu had taken away his position as the student representative and competed with him for the most popular guy on campus, Ye Yuchen couldn't bring himself to dislike him. He even felt comfortable sharing things he didn't want to discuss with Du Rui and Gong Hao.

Perhaps this was what they call, sincerity is always the ultimate weapon.

"Don't come and comfort me, Best Newcomer," Ye Yuchen continued scrolling through movie options. "What should we watch? Father Loves Me Again?"

Even though he said that, the first letters he entered on the TV remote were still "Father Don’t Leave Me."

"Not this one," Yu Xiu snatched the remote control from Ye Yuchen's hand and exited the search interface.

"Why not? It's your breakthrough performance," Ye Yuchen reached for the remote control, but Yu Xiu instinctively moved away. In the process, he accidentally shook the beer can in his other hand, causing some beer to spill onto his clothes.

His clothes were black military training attire, and the stains were not visible, but after a day of military training, they were already quite uncomfortable to wear. Now, with the addition of spilled beer, it made matters worse.

"Let's not watch this movie," Yu Xiu took some tissues and began wiping off the beer from his clothes. "I'd feel embarrassed."

"You know the feeling of embarrassment?" Ye Yuchen couldn't stop laughing. Didn't they say actors couldn't get embarrassed?

Seeing that Yu Xiu's clothes were indeed quite wet, Ye Yuchen got up and fetched a white T-shirt from the bedroom, tossing it to Yu Xiu. "Put this on first."

Yu Xiu held the T-shirt but hesitated. "I sweat a lot."

"It's a gift, no need to return it," Ye Yuchen said.

Wearing the military training attire was indeed uncomfortable, so Yu Xiu took off the black short-sleeved shirt, revealing his lean upper body.

His muscles had a smooth and youthful appearance, and he had well-defined abs, especially the eight-pack.

"Not bad, young man," Ye Yuchen sipped his beer and couldn't help but glance at Yu Xiu's body. "Do you work out regularly?"

"Yeah, my mom, despite being annoying at times, had foresight. She started making me manage my physique early on," Yu Xiu said as he slowly put on the white T-shirt. "When I was a kid, she used to force me to drink milk every day to help me grow taller."

"Is that so?" A playful smile appeared at the corner of Ye Yuchen's mouth. He went to the dining table, picked up a carton of milk, and handed it to Yu Xiu. "Take this back with you, remember to drink it tomorrow morning."

His appearance of caring for children was clearly teasing Yu Xiu. Yu Xiu frowned at the milk in his hand and asked abruptly, "Do you have any?"

"Milk? It's from the school. You can take it all if you want—"

"I mean, do you have abs?" Yu Xiu interrupted Ye Yuchen.

Rarely did Ye Yuchen sense provocation from Yu Xiu. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "Who are you looking down on?"

With that, Ye Yuchen placed his left hand behind him and used his right hand to lift the hem of his shirt to his chin. "I've been dancing for so long, how could I not have abs?"

After a summer of sun exposure, Ye Yuchen's arms had darkened considerably, but the skin under his clothes was as smooth as silk, making Yu Xiu inexplicably think of milk... and cherries.

Yu Xiu averted his gaze, his mind momentarily distracted. He inserted a straw and started drinking the milk. The unpleasant taste of milk assaulted his senses, causing him to furrow his brows. He went to the refrigerator and grabbed another can of beer.

"You can still drink?" Ye Yuchen asked.

In fact, Yu Xiu was already feeling a bit tipsy, but he couldn't tell if it was from the beer or from looking at the abs.

He silently opened the can, tilted his head back, and drank half of it, silently expressing that he could still handle it.

"Okay, I'll drink with you," Ye Yuchen finished his own can of beer and was about to get more from the fridge. However, he heard Yu Xiu suddenly say, "Do you not remember me?"

As he spoke, Yu Xiu's eyes were half-lidded, and he sounded as if he were drunkenly babbling. However, his tone was calm, as if he were objectively stating a fact.

"What do you mean, 'not remember'?" Ye Yuchen looked puzzled.

"When we were kids, we did a magazine cover shoot," Yu Xiu said, taking out his phone and opening the picture of the cover. He handed the phone to Ye Yuchen. "I was the one standing beside you."

Unimportant memories rushed back like waves, and an image of an excited child trailing behind him flashed through Ye Yuchen's mind. He looked at the magazine cover, then at Yu Xiu, and said in disbelief, "Is it really you?"

That would have been when Ye Yuchen was twelve years old. He had won a prize in a children's dance competition and had been clamoring for a reward, so his mother had arranged for the magazine photoshoot.

Honestly, Ye Yuchen had always considered himself the main character, with everyone else playing supporting roles, so he hadn't paid much attention to the child who had been in the magazine shoot with him.

"It was me," Yu Xiu's cheeks were turning red, a clear sign of being tipsy, yet he was quieter than usual. He bit the edge of the beer can in silence, neither noisy nor disruptive.

Ye Yuchen gradually recalled some details from back then and couldn't resist teasing Yu Xiu. "Do you remember what you used to call me back then?"

In the past, Yu Xiu used to call Ye Yuchen "Gege" (big brother). Now that they were both grown up, Ye Yuchen assumed Yu Xiu wouldn't want to use that term anymore.

After all, when he had invited Yu Xiu to dinner earlier, he had only referred to himself as "Gege" once, and Yu Xiu had questioned it.

However, what surprised Ye Yuchen was that the slightly intoxicated Yu Xiu was unusually compliant.

Yu Xiu nodded towards Ye Yuchen and said, "I remember."

Then, he called out, "Pretty big brother."

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