As Fang Shaoyi returned to his room from the director's office, Yuan Ye was packing his suitcase. He had a flight the next afternoon. Ji Xiaotao was helping him, and handed him a roll of underwear. Yuan Ye said, "This one is your brother's."

"Oh," Ji Xiaotao took it back and handed him another roll, "How about this one?"

Yuan Ye looked at it and said, "That's also your brother's. That's enough, don't worry about the underwear."

There's no need for men to fuss over such trivial matters. Ji Xiaotao and their relationship were not affected by a pair of underwear. He folded one of Yuan Ye's shirts and handed it to him, smiling, "It's been a while since I've followed him. Now I can't even recognize my brother's underwear."

"If anyone hears you saying that, won't they think that this assistant is trying to enter the palace harem?" Yuan Ye teased.

"What palace are you trying to force your way into?" Fang Shaoyi walked in just as they were discussing this.

"I, Xiaotao-zi, am trying to take over the Wild Concubine. When he abdicates, I'll be Tao Concubine," Ji Xiaotao said.

"What nonsense," Fang Shaoyi didn't really want to engage with that, so he asked Yuan Ye, "Is everything packed?"

"Almost done. I didn't have much to begin with," Yuan Ye replied before turning to Ji Xiaotao and saying, "Look at you, trying to be a concubine. You think you look like a concubine?"

Ji Xiaotao giggled and replied, "I don't want to be one! You can be the concubine! You look the part!"

Fang Shaoyi had returned already and, being self-aware, he said his piece and left.

Fang Shaoyi said to Yuan Ye, "What nonsense do you guys talk about every day."

"All sorts of nonsense," Yuan Ye pulled a box and dragged it to the corner, then turned back and smiled at him. "Come here, give me a hug."

Fang Shaoyi walked over and hugged him, kissed him on the face, and said, "I'm going to start shooting tomorrow morning. Don't come and look for me, just leave director. Don't let me see you."

This was obviously a spoiled remark, and Yuan Ye shrugged and laughed, raising his hand to ruffle Fang Shaoyi's hair. "Okay, then I won't go to the set to see you."

"Okay," Fang Shaoyi said, "Just go."

This conversation was like two kids in love, giving people a headache just listening to them. But before leaving, Yuan Ye really didn't go to see Fang Shaoyi. Fang Shaoyi was filming in the village, and these days he was filming indoor scenes. Yuan Ye didn't want anyone to see him, so he dragged his suitcase to the tree and, when no one was looking, crouched down and ran over, taking a few steps and jumping up.

Before he came, he stole a red cloth from the props department. In the play, the two of them often hung red cloth strips on the tree after they fell in love. Before leaving, Yuan Ye had to do the same thing and use the cloth to convey his feelings to someone, being all flirty.

When Fang Shaoyi came over to "date" the tree, he would see a small cloth strip fluttering in the wind whenever he looked up. Wouldn't that be nice?

On set, Fang Shaoyi had just finished filming a scene, and the director was giving instructions to the male actor who was about to film next. Fang Shaoyi checked the time and turned to ask Ji Xiaotao, "Has your Brother Ye left yet?"

Ji Xiaotao glanced at his phone and replied, "He should have left by now. Shall I ask him?"

Fang Shaoyi nodded. The director had just finished giving instructions to the actor, who was about to start shooting his scene. Ji Xiaotao called Yuan Ye but he didn't answer, probably on his way to the airport. So he sent a WeChat message to Yuan Ye: "Brother Ye, let me know when you arrive at the airport, okay?"

Although Yuan Ye didn't reply to the message, this often happened, so Ji Xiaotao was already numb.

However, just as Fang Shaoyi's scene was not yet finished, the director called for a stop. The actors looked over, and Ji Xiaotao's eyebrows were tightly furrowed as he gestured for Fang Shaoyi to come over. Fang Shaoyi walked over, and the director said to him, "Your scenes end here for today. Go take a look quickly."

"What am I supposed to look at?" Fang Shaoyi asked.

A nearby assistant from some unknown department spoke up, his voice shaking as he said to Fang Shaoyi, "Fang-laoshi, please go check on Yuan-laoshi quickly. He fell..."

"Who fell? Yuan-laoshi?" Fang Shaoyi raised an eyebrow. "Yuan Ye?"

The assistant nodded and said, "Yes, Yuan Ye-laoshi."

Fang Shaoyi furrowed his brow and said, "That's impossible."

Fang Shaoyi's first thought was that it was impossible, so he didn't believe it. Firstly, the time that Yuan Ye should have left had already passed, and he wouldn't be able to catch up to the plane by now. Besides, even if someone did fall, it wouldn't be Yuan Ye, he would just get up immediately and start running. Why would they go to such lengths to find him?

"What do you mean it's impossible?!" Ji Xiaotao was exasperated and wanted to shake Fang Shaoyi's head to see what he was thinking. "Brother, it's true! Brother Ye fell from a tree!"

Fang Shaoyi's face changed and he immediately ran out. He remembered that Yuan Ye often napped on trees, and if he had fallen asleep and wasn't careful, it wasn't impossible for him to fall. Fang Shaoyi's face turned black. Yuan Ye had never fallen before, and Fang Shaoyi had never worried about it.

When he arrived, Yuan Ye was sitting under a tree wearing a hooded sweatshirt and black jeans, with a backpack on his back. One leg was bent, with his arm resting on his knee and his face buried in his arm, looking at the world with a speechless expression. Someone bent down to talk to him, but Yuan Ye covered half of his face and said, "Don't worry about me, let's wait for Fang-laoshi to come."

He waved his hand and shooed them away, saying, "Go, do whatever you need to do, don't stay here and watch me. Old Yuan-laoshi's self-esteem has already collapsed, don't trample on it anymore, brothers, go."

There weren't many people around him, probably because Yuan Ye had chased them away.

Someone spotted Fang Shaoyi and exclaimed, "Fang-laoshi is here!"

As Yuan Ye looked up, he wore a wry smile on his face. Seeing his condition, Fang Shaoyi knew it wasn't too serious, and his complexion was still good, so there was no need to worry. Fang Shaoyi breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to squat beside Yuan Ye, asking him, "Where did you fall?"

Yuan Ye pointed to the foot he was stretching out.

Fang Shaoyi untied his shoelaces and took off his shoe with gentle movements, but Yuan Ye still frowned slightly. He sighed and said, "It's not broken, don't bother looking."

Fang Shaoyi touched his ankle and asked, "Does it hurt?"

"I can bear it, it doesn't hurt when you touch it like that." Yuan Ye sighed heavily and said, "I told you it's not broken, just sprained. I haven't sprained my ankle...in thirty years..."

Fang Shaoyi asked him, "How did you fall?"

Yuan Ye's face rested weakly on his arm as he said, "I don't know, that's an unknown type of movement for me. I don't want to remember, so don't ask."

In reality, Fang Shaoyi was quite worried, but seeing that he was okay, he suddenly felt like laughing. However, he had to consider Yuan Ye's dignity, so he held back his laughter. Yuan Ye took off his other shoe, tied the laces of both shoes together, and held them in the middle. He then said to Fang Shaoyi, "Carry me back, otherwise they'll keep staring at me."

As soon as the people around heard this, they scattered and quickly left.

Fang Shaoyi first helped him stand up, then bent down and lifted him up. Yuan Ye lay on his ear and said, "I'm old, but I can't accept it, is that so bad?"

His tone was somewhat sad, and Fang Shaoyi was unable to resist a light chuckle. "Does this mean you can't climb trees anymore?"

Yuan Ye remained silent, as if a dark cloud had descended upon him.

But it wasn't necessarily because he was too old to climb. It was just a momentary lapse in concentration when he was coming down from the tree, and he missed his footing. In the past, this wouldn't have been a problem - he could have grabbed onto a branch or landed more gracefully. But this time, he didn't anticipate the misstep and ended up stumbling a bit awkwardly.

Walking was definitely out of the question, and the planes had all flown. Fang Shaoyi took him to the hospital for an X-ray, which showed that he hadn't broken any bones, but had injured his tendons and ligaments. It wasn't so serious that he couldn't walk, but he should still rest for the first few days. His foot began to swell at an alarming rate, which was quite scary to look at.

Yuan Ye never imagined that he would need to rest his feet one day. This was a bit too much for the wild monkey to handle, and he didn't even dare to be called by that nickname anymore.

Fang Shaoyi was still wearing his costume, a white shirt and blue pants, with an old pair of leather shoes. He didn't even bother changing his clothes when they went to the hospital, and didn't notice if anyone took pictures. Ji Xiaotao followed behind them and didn't care about these things either. He didn't even wear a hat or a mask, so if someone wanted to take a picture, they could go ahead and do it.

When they got back that night, Fang Shaoyi made an ice pack for him, wrapping ice cubes in a towel and applying it to his feet. Yuan Ye lay there playing on his phone. Fang Shaoyi told him, "Don't lie down and look at your phone, it's bad for your eyes."

"I'm just replying to a message," Yuan Ye said. "I have to let Feng Leizi and the others know, I stood them up."

"Okay," Fang Shaoyi asked him softly, "Is your foot still hurting?"

"It's not hurting," Yuan Ye shook his head indifferently. "It's numb."

"In a couple of days, it will start to hurt again," Fang Shaoyi looked at him and said, "Take good care of yourself, if you don't recover well, you'll keep spraining it."

"I won't," Yuan Ye said.

Fang Shaoyi was often injured, and there were many times when he had to rest and recover. In the past, Yuan Ye had always taken care of him, but this was the first time Fang Shaoyi taken care of Yuan Ye. The crew came to visit him, bringing red envelopes and fruit baskets, treating him like a patient. Yuan Ye chased them all away, even the ones with the fruit baskets. It was driving him crazy and Yuan Ye was extremely embarrassed.

Any normal person would think, "Do you have nothing better to do than to climb trees? Are you crazy?"

If he hadn't fallen, it would have been fine, but falling was definitely a sign of illness.

There was no bathtub in the bathroom, so Yuan Ye had to wash with one foot on the ground. Fang Shaoyi gave him a stool to sit on and washed him himself. Yuan Ye smiled and said, "I can wash myself, you don't have to do this."

Fang Shaoyi rubbed foam on his head and said, "I just want to wash your hair for you."

"Well, I don't really need to wash my hair," Yuan Ye laughed. "I don't have much hair anyway. I just wash it along when I wash my face."

Fang Shaoyi clicked his tongue and shook Yuan Ye's head, asking him, "Why do you talk so much?"

Yuan Ye laughed and let Fang Shaoyi use a spray nozzle to give him a bath. It felt wonderful, and he even started to think about certain things. But with his feet like this, it wasn't very convenient. Turning and twisting his feet was awkward, so he couldn't really do anything.

Fang Shaoyi asked him, "What are you thinking about?"

Yuan Ye closed his eyes and laughed freely, "Can't you see?"

Fang Shaoyi flicked his head and said, "Your brain never gives it a rest."

It was inevitable that something had happened in the bathroom, and after lying back down, Yuan Ye slept soundly while Fang Shaoyi went back to take a shower.

Although Yuan Ye didn't say anything, there was a hint of sadness in his heart, which Fang Shaoyi understood. For Yuan Ye, falling off a tree and spraining his foot was like a fisherman's son choking on water while living by the sea. The first reaction was laughter, but the second reaction was actually a bit bewildered.

It seemed like he had inexplicably grown old, no matter how much he stumbled or how much was accidental, it probably wouldn't have happened in the past.

When Yuan Ye looked at his own foot and laughed, Fang Shaoyi felt a little heartbroken.

When he came out of the shower, Yuan Ye was sound asleep. Fang Shaoyi turned off the light and lay down next to him. Yuan Ye had already propped up his feet and they were neatly arranged, looking quite obedient.

Fang Shaoyi whispered, "Are you asleep?"

To his surprise, Yuan Ye replied, "No, haha."

"If you're not asleep, why pretend?" Fang Shaoyi reached over and gently tugged on his ear.

Yuan Ye said, "I'm savoring the moment just now."

Fang Shaoyi laughed and teased him, "People who don't know might think I starve you and don't let you eat your fill."

"I ate today?" Yuan Ye turned over and asked, "What did I eat?"

Fang Shaoyi had no answer and just smiled, "Shut up and go to sleep."

Yuan Ye let out a soft "heh" and closed his eyes in the darkness. A faint smile appeared on his lips as he reached out and gently scratched Fang Shaoyi's scalp.