Someone In The Crowd

Chapter - 16

On the second Saturday of September, the final script of the drama was submitted to Wangji and Wuxian. After much toiling was this done, and so, being the mentors, they also wanted to check and finalize the script as soon as possible. But before the two could set up a time to meet each other the student playing the young Feste called away Wangji to ask something. Wuxian too, noticing that the younger was busy, went away to complete another task.

When the latter was getting back, he saw Wangji finishing up his work of guiding the students and was ready to leave the room where they were practicing. He decided to wait at the door for the other to come out. He planned to invite him out on a meal and discuss the script at one of their places later. But fate had something else planned out for them. As Wangji was just one step away from the door one of the students from his department caught up to him,

"Wait, Professor Lan!"

"Yes, Lucas, what is it?"

"I was wondering about something, Professor, can you please elaborate on what you said earlier?"

"Exactly to what are you alluding?"

"Oh! I mean when you told me not to trust anyone but myself and not to take others as my well-wishers. Well, you meant someone, did you not?"

"No, I did not mean anyone specifically. Why would you think that?"

"Ohh... then why did you say so? Do you not trust anyone?"

"No, I do not. And I advised you not to as well because trusting only ends up in betrayal most of the time. And its better to not take such risks, don't you think so?"

"Well... what about Professor Wei?"

Wuxian did not wait to hear the answer. He felt that he could not bear to know the truth, so he turned his back on it and silently walked out from the university premises. He slowly took out his phone and called the person with whom he had a one-night stand some time ago, and who has called him after that to meet up for another night. He decided that he was tired and somewhat scattered with all the things happening, and what was better than unattached sex for a night? It was not like he was underage or committed to someone.

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"Well...  what about Professor Wei?"

There was a pause. Wangji was silent for a few moments before looking up at Matthew Lucas,

"What about him? He is a professor for all I know."

"Yes, and he is from the other department, so should I trust him?"

"Of course. He is out of the question here. I think you misunderstood what I told you. I told you not to trust anyone with your dreams, especially those which are not depended on others and solely on your academics so that in future you dont have to regret thinking that 'Ohh, why did I tell him that?' or like 'I should not have trusted him with so much'. So not trusting anyone with anything at all, or not trusting a professor is definitely out of the question. Don't you think so as well Mr. Lucas?"

"Yes, I got it, Mr. Lan. I misunderstood you big time it seems. Well, then..."

"Yes, Goodbye for today. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye, Professor."

Wangji saw that the student was quite embarrassed for misinterpreting his words. He smiled to himself thinking about his days back when, he too was quite awkward with the professors. Walking out, he decided to meet Wuxian at his place. To tell the truth, he liked the elders place very much and was looking forward to another chance to visit. He took out his phone and dialed the others no. but there was no answer. He just texted then to inform the elder that he was coming late that night and proceeded to the parking.

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It was nearly 7 in the evening when Wangji rang the doorbell of Wuxians home. He thought that probably the elder would call him back at some point, but the call never came. The text was also left unread. Wangji tried calling him more than once while coming to his place, but he did not pick up once. Wangji was feeling quite uneasy to show up like that, completely uninvited, but in his excitement to work on the script with the elder, he decided not to pay any attention to his uneasiness after quite a long time. But he thought that he should not have ignored his gut feelings as soon as the door opened. A big shock was waiting for him, because the person who opened the door was not Wei Wuxian, but someone else clad in the others bath-robs.

"May I know, who this is?"

Wangji was astonished to find someone like that in Wuxians home, but he curbed his curiousness and the slightly uncomfortable feelings,

"I'm his colleague. Mr. Wei knows that I'll be coming. Please inform him if you can."

"Well... I am sorry to say this, but he probably was not expecting anyone like you, or else he wouldnt have called on me. His one-night stand."

Wangji was shocked to hear that. Even though he did not judge either Wuxian or the person standing in front of him for anything, because it was quite absurd to even think that a 30 year old man will live like a hermit. Still, hearing it uttered with a tone of pride confused him. 'How can one be proud to become someones one-night stand?' – He asked himself but could not find the answer.

"Well, now if you won't mind, can you please leave? It is evident that you are lying, and unless you want me to call the police here, please leave while I'm still being nice."

Insulted thus, Wangji saw no reason to stall his return. He was hurt by this incident very much though. He called again. The call rang on and on,

"The person you are trying to call is not answering your call, please try again sometime later."

-came the operators voice. Wangji cut the call and left the house silently. He came back to his house, went through the whole script, made the suggestions he thought were needed to make, and went to sleep. He decided to hand over the revised script to the elder the next day and not to mention his visit at all. 'Wei Wuxian did not need to know about it', was what he thought. And he did not see any reason why the elder should know about it as well, he was just disappointed that he did not get to taste any home-made food this night as well.