Scumbag Actor Screwup System

Chapter 21 - Conspiracy theories

A/N - If you ever see a part is missing (i.e. goes from 15 to 17) let me know and/or check AO3 where I'm also publishing this!

If Shen Yuan was good at something, it was interpretation. He could tease out the tangles of a plot to make sense, read between the lines and between the lines' lines and conjure up masterful theories that sometimes even surpassed the actual plot.

That is why he had no problem figuring out what had happened to him when shooting the wall scene.

You see, he as a character might seem like he was in love or in lust, but the truth was more complex. He'd never been touched by anyone, never felt a body against his own other than the couple of times he'd fallen asleep with his fellow actors in bed and that hardly counted. In this state even a man was good enough to wake his libido. If he found a woman he liked, he knew, he'd react much more. He'd get the heart racing he'd read in books, he'd know he was in love for sure. After all, everyone says "you just know" and he did not know. Or rather, he knew he couldn't like either of these troublesome boys.

That's why he showed up the next day with full confidence and actually smiled at Xu Tengfei when he saw him. The young man lowered his head politely as a greeting.

"Good day, Shizun," he said, not quite looking the other man in the face.

" I know what you're thinking and stop it, I'm not," he said with a deep frown.

"I- well- okay?" The kid had the audacity to pretend to be confused. Shen Yuan was about to give him a little lecture but Airplane arrived, nosy and opportune as ever and grabbed him by the wrist.

"We HAVE to talk, come on, let's get you dressed," he said, dragging him off. His friend looked very stern and worried, something was up.

"Why do we have to talk- ow stop it," Shen Yuan pulled his arm away and walked to his own trailer, letting Qinghua enter first.

"I found that profile you saw on AO3, there's someone spying on us. They wrote a ship about me and you!" he said, very visibly indignant. It was sort of funny to figure out the dude actually had standards. Wait - he was indignant? Shen Yuan should be!

"You should be honored to be shipped with me," he said, hitting him on the head with a fan.

"Ow now you're acting gay again? You're not my type you know," he said, rubbing the sore spot with a hand a bit dramatically.

"Neither are you, but still."

"Why am I not your type, am I not underage enough?"

"Both Xu cousins are over 18!" he said with another abusive blow to the poor little plane.

"Ow stop it! So now you admit you like them? Are you going to have a cute threesome?"

"Quit reading gay porn already, I don't like them."

"Well, whatever," Qinghua scoffed, "anyway, we should go out tonight and read some of the fanfics and try to figure out who is spreading this crap."

"You have a good idea for once," said Shen Yuan, starting to undress. He really had to get changed already.

"See, I'm brilliant. Let's go to a bar together and write some suspects, it'll be fun."

"Sure, I'm in. Now go out, I need to change my pants."

"Going," replied Qinghua and headed to the door, "by the way, I found that BL drama, wanna listen?"

"Absolutely not. Now go away," replied Angry Cucumber shutting the door. Shameless.