Banned Love

Wen Xiulan wasn't keen to participate in the drama he was offered. The plot wasn't anything special and the script was fairly basic. It was meant to be at most a B-rank romantic drama, watched mainly by lonely and single females.

As he later discovered, it was first supposed to be a BL drama but the Chinese ban did its job. Playing a gay character would be a bit of a change for Xiulan, but his role was to play a boyfriend of a sister of his 'real' love interest.

This made the role even less appealing. He was going to play a lovely dovely relationship with a girl while being in love with her brother. This all had to be acted very carefully because the higher-ups wouldn't approve of a drama with too many homosexual hints.

"I won't take the job," Xiulan announced to his manager as soon as he entered her office. The pile of papers he was holding were gently thrown in front of a frustrated woman in her thirties.

"That is not up to you to decide. I already nodded to the offer. You will sign the contract tomorrow." Bao An Ni shrugged him off. She has been Xiulan's manager ever since he entered the acting and entertainment industry, thus almost 5 years.

"So it's up to you now which projects I will participate in." He muttered and sat down, feeling the level of annoyance rise up. "I have never heard of that director and the cast are all newbies. It's only going to ruin my name as an actor." Xiulan frowned, still determined to turn the whole disaster down.

"You seem to be forgetting something, let me refresh your short memory." An Ni pierced him with her bloodshot eyes while handing him the script back. "Last time you got an offer for a new drama was 4 months ago, and you turned it down. You refuse to go on castings nor engage yourself in shows. Your fans are slowly forgetting who Wen Xiulan is." She sighed tiredly.

"You don't have to be so harsh." He backed down almost immediately since An Ni has seldom lost her temper. "I don't think I must go on something like casting anymore. I've proved my qualities in 10 main roles of a successful B or A dramas, why do I still have to be treated like a newbie?" Xiulan complained while hating to be scolded.

"Tsk... Forget it, I'll do it, okay? I'll take the role." He agreed after a short pause during which An Ni's sight was piercing him.

"Thank-you." His manager finally felt at ease and could rest. "I'm going home for today, I've been up all night and went through the contract. You're going to be paid fairly well and the other conditions will be negotiated tomorrow. BTW, check the paper I left on the desk." She waved him off and disappeared in the private elevator which was in the office.

"Tsk, my gut is still telling me not to take this offer," Xiulan muttered to himself while impatiently scanning through his schedule An Ni mentioned. It only had two bullet points:

• 11 𝘢𝘮: 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦

• 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩 (𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘺)

"What a pain..." he sighed while looking at the clock and realizing he's got only something over an hour before the photoshoot.

***

Xiulan opted to skip the second point on his planner. He wasn't feeling like eating after the shoot anyway. Since he was free for the rest of the day, he simply headed home. His mood was completely ruined for an unstated period of time, at least until the drama was finished.

"Damn it." He cursed while struggling to unlock his front door. "Nothing goes right today," Xiulan muttered to himself while slowly sinking to self-pity.

He knew An Ni was right about everything she said earlier. He knew better than anyone how he ditched and rejected all the offers which had been coming for the last 6 months.

Xiulan was scared. He hated critique, false rumors and too much attention. He'd never involved himself in any scandal and avoided bonding on other than a professional level. Thanks to that, he has been single all his life.

A 27-year-old virgin is not something you want to have on your resume, yet Xiulan didn't care. He had other goals than satisfying his sexual needs and that was all that mattered. People were going to judge him only if he was actively engaging with other girls. Nobody could talk when there was nothing to talk about, that was the logic Xiulan had used from the very beginning.

After he managed to unlock his door and got inside the nice and cold apartment, he felt exhausted. His brand new shoes were lazily kicked off to the corner of the hallway.

"The weather is yet again crazy..." He sighed under his breath while feeling his shirt sticking to his wet skin. 𝘈𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘢𝘹. That thought made an ironic smirk appear on his face.

Xiulan decided to head straight to the bathroom while taking off his clothes midway. He only stopped for a moment to look at his reflection in the mirror. He was still as pale as when he left the apartment that morning. No signs of darkening or sunburnt skin could be spotted, thus he was satisfied.

Only his brown hair falling into his eyes made him unhappy. No matter how he styled them, they would still end up sticking to his forehead. Thanks to the sweat, it almost looked as if he had already taken the shower.

"Tsk." With that, Xiulan hopped into the tub and let the cold water do its job.

***

With only a bathing robe messily tied around his torso, Xiulan let his body fall on a soft bed. Then he lifted the wrinkled script to his face and lazily stared at it.

He frowned after a while of scanning the pages to find something that would catch his eye. There were a few scenes that seemed interesting to act out, like when he was supposed to express his frustration by going berserk and hitting everything around him. Or when Li Haoran (brother of his drama girlfriend) fell down the stairs and Chao Zhen (Xiulan's character name in the drama) had to carry him to the nearest hospital.

The gay hints were there and they were surprisingly suggesting, yet the whole thing depended on the acting and actor's skills.

"Damn, that brat has way more interesting scenes." Xiulan cursed under his breath to himself while reading some of the lines that weren't his.

Li Haoran: *walks around the room nervously upon realizing Chao Zhen is coming over. Once he fixes his hair for the nth time, the bell finally rings.* "Coming!" *he opens the door excitedly, expecting Zhen to be alone.* "I'm sorry, my sister is not here ye- oh." *Li Feng (his younger sister), is already hanging around her boyfriend's neck.*

Li Feng: "Who says I'm not here? I met my sweetie on my way here.

Li Haoran: *makes eye-contact with Chao Zhen and storms outside without saying another word*

Li Feng: "How rude! Don't mind him, darling, he's been like this for a while now. I can't understand him at all..."

Chao Zhen: *nods slowly and follows his girlfriend inside.*

"Fuck, I don't even have a line in this scene! I'm going to stare around the whole time while that newbie will steal all the spotlight. They will all just feed on my fame." Xiulan frowned while shaking his head in disbelief.

𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸, 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵, 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴, 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢.

----------------------------

𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬:

(Name = drama name, role)

Wen Xiulan = Chao Zhen (boyfriend of Li Haoran's sister)

= Li Haoran (in love with Chao Zhen)

(Bao) An Ni = manager of Wen Xiulan