After one Kiss! [YiZhan FF]✔️

35.

35. POV Yibo

It's scary how time flies around me and three years have already passed since I set up my first foot in the entertainment industry. It all started with a movie in which I had the leading role.

Then a song for the film. Then came a series in which I also had the leading role. And again a song, just this time for the series. I got invited to shows, and I published more songs.

Suddenly I was called an Idol and more requests for movies, series and shows came. I'd been so busy over the past three years that when it comes up, I might have been home less than a month in total.

But there were also things like, donation galas, award ceremonies, vernissages and exhibitions. My manager was always looking for the best of it and I had to go there and pretend to be interested in all of that.

But like everything in life, there are good and bad sides. In my case, it meant that the more I became known, the more my life became limited. Just go to the supermarket and buy a bottle of water? I can't.

Then the next morning it says in the internet "Wang Yibo went to the supermarket and bought a bottle of water of the brand XYZ. He was wearing this and that." And of course the article is then embellished with things like, "He was not alone. A woman accompanied him."

People like to give me a love life I never had. I, for one, don't remember ever having anything with a woman. And it's been three years since my last relationship. After that, I didn't feel like seeing anyone else.

My life has become more chaotic. I can hardly go anywhere without a costume and personal bodyguards. Screaming fans everywhere, they often block my way, try to touch me. Sometimes it's really scary.

The fact that I am constantly on the road has not changed. I am now just two days at home and have to leave tomorrow. This time my manager has made an appointment for me to visit an art exhibition of a well-known art dealer in Hongkong.

I will then be in Hongkong for a few more days, because I have been booked for a shoot there. An advertisement for a cosmetic product. Afterwards a shooting for a fashion magazine in a museum and a shooting on a golf court.

But after that I have a long break. I told my manager that I finally need a holiday and that I need to relax. That I already don't know where my head is anymore.

***

In Honkong...

I've just been in Hongkong for two hours and I'm already dressed up to go to the art exhibition in an hour. My bodyguards will not be accompanying me. For one thing, they want it to look like I'm there as a private person. And for another, the exhibition is exclusive and only for invited guests.

There is a catalogue with the pictures that will be exhibited. But two of the pictures are still a secret. However, it is planned to announce the name of the artist only at the exhibition itself.

Probably it is such an extroverted artist, whose art, not even he himself understands. In any case, it wouldn't be the first time that I participated in such an exhibition and then realized that the artist himself had no idea what he was doing.

With a rental car I drive to the given address. When I get there, they have extra staff to park the car. At the door are two bouncers and in the middle of them is a young woman checking the invitations.

I showed her my invitation, she bowed politely and then let me in. Fifteen paintings by the artist are in the exhibition today. Thirteen can be seen, the other two are still covered.

Slowly and with a glass of champagne I walk through the large exhibition room and look at the paintings. Unfortunately I cannot read the artist name from his paintings. Because they are really very nice paintings.

I hear a woman say that the artist is just around the corner. He looks good and is very friendly. She also estimates him to be in his mid or late twenties. She also said that she definitely wants to buy one of the paintings. Alone because she likes the artist so much.

I put down my empty glass and slowly walk on. I look at one of the paintings, which looks like a dream image. Two people communicating with each other. They are standing on a place, there is nobody else around them. And the female person has something like angel wings. Probably as a hint that this person has already died and the other person, who is still alive, saw the deceased in his dream and talked to her.

Still impressed by the dream image, I turn around the corner and stop immediately. I am glad that I have already put down my empty glass earlier, because otherwise it would probably have fallen down now.

I cannot believe what I see. I rub my eyes, but the image hasn't changed. Still sitting there on a red bench, is Xiao Zhan. Next to him is a handsome man, about in his late thirties or early forties. He has one arm around Zhan and both of them are smiling all the time.

Can it really be true? Is Zhan the artist? And this man, is he perhaps Zhan's boyfriend?

This suddenly reminds me of a conversation I had with my mother, when she said to me that she didn't think Zhan was just leaving because of my lack of time and attention. She figured there must be another big reason.

Could this man be the reason? Did Zhan meet him then and leave me for him? Is that why he didn't care if I knew the reason or not? Did he not care how I felt, if he just disappeared like that? Who the hell is this man?

I'm hiding behind a wall, watching those two from there. They seem very familiar with each other. A woman walks up to them, talks to them and then announces that the two hidden paintings will now be revealed. They are called heaven and hell.

Carefully I follow the two of them until the hidden paintings are revealed. The man next to Zhan, walks towards the paintings and pulls off the covers with a broad smile. Which opens the view of the two paintings. The paintings themselves are constructed like an analogy narrative.

The picture Heaven shows a man standing all alone in the dark. Further away from him, a few people can be seen. The man continues to move forward directly towards a light which magically attracts him. And the closer he gets to the light, the brighter it gets around him. And the light became a heart. The man reaches the heart and holds it in his hands. He looks happy and the darkness has completely disappeared. There are many people around him.

The image of hell is rather the other way around. The heart detaches itself from the hands of the man and slowly begins to move away. And the farther it moves away, the darker it becomes again. The man tries to catch the heart again, but he cannot reach it. Sadly he looks at the heart, tears in his eyes and his arms stretched forward. But the heart does not return to his arms, it moves further and further away. The darkness catches up with the man, there is only a tear left of him and the heart is nothing more than a distant bright spot, which then disappears completely.

I look around me and just like me, many seem to be very touched by these paintings. They seem simple, but they radiate so much. Loneliness, love, hope, loss, sadness and again loneliness.

Did Zhan really paint these pictures?

It's been three years, but when I see Zhan, together with this man, my heart aches as if the separation was only an hour ago. I know I should take myself back and do nothing, but I want to find out who this man is and how Zhan feels about him. And if I have to become Bob one more time for that.