Archive of Our Own

"So," the man in front of him forced that word to come out louder, "what makes The Hand of Jade, Lan WangJi, the one who made the infamous Dancing Peony, the one who just snatched an Academy Award, comeback from Hollywood to China after 5 years?"

Lan WangJi lifted his head faintly.

"Wait! Don't answer that yet!" The man, the MC who's been chatting continuously in front of him, cut him of, even before he got to say anything. "We don't want just an answer, especially me, Lin Yi, we want something... Juicy! Riiiight?"

He gave a mischievous smile towards the audience then looked back to Lan WangJi with a gleam of hopefulness in his eyes. The crowds cheered with him and some applauses were heard. Seven years, Lan WangJi had been in the industry for almost a decade, yet the public never seen him with anyone that they could assume would be his girlfriend. It was completely unrelated to the success he had accomplished, but as always, people want to know more. People want to know what's actually going in celebrities life, even though it brought nothing valuable to their own life.

"Nothing."

With that one word, the crowds were silenced.

Lin Yi smoothed down his sparkly green suit and smiled nervously, he knew that Lan WangJi wasn't a humorous, or even friendly at that, but he thought he would be at least behaved more commercially when there were cameras and audiences' presences.

"Sorry? I thought you said nothing?" Lin Yi said wryly, tried to convince himself that it wasn't his hearing that went bad suddenly.

Lan WangJi crossed one of his leg on top of another, refusing to utter any other word.

The green suited man was just hit by a sudden realization, he should have at least took into consideration of what his friends had told him about the infamous Lan WangJi. Maybe that's where The Hand of Jade, the name that his fans, or rather, the public gave him. Because he was just too perfect, too polished, but rigid and cold to the touch. He thought Lan WangJi would just ease himself to the jokes he made, but it seemed that it wasn't the case at all.

"Well... That was a really nice answer right? Of course you can comeback to your motherland anytime without any particular reason. Right?" He tried to boost his morale by interacting with the audience.

Getting just the boost he needed, he managed to ask another question to the man who barely said a word ever since he sat in front of him, which has been an hour or so. "I suppose you're not here to give us any sparkling juice, whatsoever?"

"I'm here for my newest movie promotion," he said calmly, "though I might be wrong."

His words wasn't exactly menacing or intimidating, but the calmness of his voice and the fact that his face didn't give any emotion was enough for the MC to be intimidated.

"O- of course..." For the first time in his career, he stuttered.

Fifteen minutes went by as they actually talked about his recent movie. The MC could swear he heard a glimpse of enthusiasm in Lan WangJi's voice, but that could be just his imagination. Well, he couldn't be just defeated like that, he was the master of ceremony, he had to be the one who steered the conversation, not otherwise. So, mustering up his courage, he asked something completely unrelated to the movie.

"Wei WuXian," Lin Yi paused intentionally, wanting to read how Lan WangJi would react to that name. He could swear he saw his eyebrow twitched, so he continued, "The hottest new actor, do you know that he might, at least not explicitly, dislike your works?"

Lan WangJi stiffened. He hadn't actually heard that name so close to him for all this years. That name, that particular name, was maybe the answer of the question asked to him few minutes back. But he didn't expect that the word 'dislike' would be associated with his name. Hence why he was a bit taken aback by the question.

"How so?" His voice still flow eloquently though maybe, the person with the sharpest hearing in the universe, would hear how his voice was trembling ever so slightly.

By now, Lin Yi smirked. He didn't even realize that his impromptu question would be the one to make Lan WangJi raised a question back at him. He could even see the audience grew satisfied by the slight reaction Lan WangJi made.

"Oh, it's not actually a big deal," he eased to the answer. "He was just too open to what he likes and dislikes, and I believe he once answered a question about what kind of movies he dislikes and yours was on the list."

"No big deal right?"

It was. At least for Lan WangJi. His luscious fingers tightened on the seat, vaguely.

Lin Yi tried so hard to hide his laughter, he won. He didn't know what he actually won for, but, he accomplished something that would fill his ego for a while.

"Aaaaand, I'm sad to announce that our... EXCITING... time with The Hand of Jade, Lan WangJi, will have to end now as we don't want to waste any more of his precious time chit chatting with us, am I right?"

He smirked to the cold beauty of a man in front of him. He knew his words were full of sarcasms, he wanted a reaction. But much to his disappointment, Lan WangJi had already composed himself to his usual demeanor, calm and poised, face as still as the water in a pond. Lin Yi grabbed his mic tightly.

"To end this night on a wonderful tone... tell me a name of an actor you wanted to be in your upcoming movie!"

Lan WangJi stared at him but only for him to be greeted with utter silence.

Wei Ying...

_______oOo________

WEI WUXIAAAN!!!

OH MY GOD!!!!! THAT'S WEI WUXIAN!!!

Squealing sounds filled the neighborhood area. People were swarming the place where Wei WuXian was spotted. That day he had to shoot his last scene in the middle of a quite crowded suburban. The securities were trying their best to hold the huge mass that were gathering like moths to a light.

As soon as they wrapped up the shoot, a woman approached the tall man, wearing black with his hair slicked back, his face sported a menacing and mysterious expression.

"Wei WuXian, you'll have an interview with NihaoFeeds in five minutes," she handed him a bottle of water.

Wei WuXian drank it in one gulp, "How come I never heard about it, Wen Qing? Did you arrange a last minute interview for me again? I thought we've agreed that I don't do surprise interview."

Wen Qing knitted her brows and scowled. "First, you've heard about it, last week, two days ago, and last night."

"Really?" he raised one of his eyebrow, looking somewhere between sincerely confused or purely trying to aggravate his manager more.

"Shut it, Wei WuXian, if only you care more about your career and not your stupid parties and girls, you'd never say that," she rolled her eyes and continued, "second, I never gave you last minute interviews appointments. Third, just, please... don't say anything reckless or stupid."

He shoved the bottle to her hand, lightly. "Well, I can't promise anything. I love being reckless, am I not?"

Wen Qing rubbed her temple as she watched Wei WuXian walked to his waiting chair. In a flash, a young girl, maybe in her twenties, approached him, running wobbly with trembling hands. Must be new to her job, Wen Qing thought to herself. Even from afar, he could see Wei WuXian was grinning wide towards the poor girl. Feeling nauseated, Wen Qing left and collected Wei WuXian's things from the set.

"H- hello," the young girl, followed by another rather young man already stood beside him.

Wei WuXian tilted his head towards the girl, flashing his great set of teeth. "To what do I owe the honor of having a beautiful girl's presence?"

The young girl's face was boiling red by that remarks, but then she took a deep breath with a new set of determination and faced him, "Hello, my name is A Qing and I'm here to interview you."

"Well, I surely don't want to waste your valuable time then," he winked, "go ahead."

"O- okay..." A Qing fumbled with her list of question in her hand and briefed Wei WuXian how the interview will be held. Then she looked to her colleague who stood beside her, holding a camera. "XueYang, ready?"

"Hi, we're back with me, A Qing, your friend for 5 Things Everybody Wants to Know. Today, I have the greatest luck of meeting Wei WuXian on set. So now, let's ask him the things we're all curious about!"

Wei WuXian smirked at how the meek girl changed to a completely different persona in front of camera. She was now a fun and bubbly girl, compared to how she was before few minutes ago. But then, he was just like that. The only difference was, he didn't even know which one was truly him.

He watched the girl solemnly, when all of a sudden the camera panned to him.

"Hi everyone, this is your national boyfriend, Wei WuXian," he greeted with a smile as bright as the sunshine.

A Qing jabbed at him with the first question, much to his surprise, "What do you like the most about yourself?"

"Everything. But if I can choose, my face, my height, my brain. Well, basically everything about me is perfect, don't you think so?" Wei WuXian smirked.

The girl cringed faintly, she didn't expect Wei WuXian to be that confident. "Okay... second. Do you plan to get married someday?"

That question got him thinking for a minute. "Nope, why would I tie myself to someone when I can be everybody's boyfriend?" Again, he smirked, and winked to the camera.

"Third, what do you think about your fans?" A Qing was resolved to not wanting to prolong the interview, it was way too many doses of confidence thrown in her face.

"My fans? They're my precious angels, I would be nothing without them," his playful smile was gone, replaced with sincerity.

A smile formed in the corner of A Qing's mouth, "Fourth, can you name four colors you like the most?"

"That's easy! Black, red....." he paused. "White and blue."

"Fifth, it's a long question," A Qing seemed hesitant for the final question. "Despite just starting your acting career, you're no doubt the most popular actor in this industry right now after your first movie got really popular in America, even worldwide... And... Lan Wangji-"

Wei WuXian gritted his teeth at that name but he didn't lose any of his composure in front of the camera.

A Qing continued, "-had just came back to China after five years. People are really curious is it possible for the two of you to work on a project together in the future since people think that you guys are an inspiration with the success you two have in Hollywood and in such young ages. What do you think about that?"

"No, it's impossible."

He shot a sharp look at the camera, still maintaining his smile, "Stop asking me questions about him and I won't work with him. You can ask me countless questions about it but my answer will be the same. Thank you."

Wei WuXian tore his gaze from the camera, slight bitterness grazed his expression.

_______oOo________