This extra's date with the protagonist

It wasn't exactly a waste, Yu-Zhen told himself. Maybe Ren Lei would even tell Shao Xiu how he was saved by a knight in shining armor, a hero that came to his rescue for the very first time.

Yu-Zhen, pleased with himself lay on the wooden, cold bed in his small space at night. He was used to resting on top of snug beds with bedsheets so soft and silky that one would never want to wake up from their slumber, thus, when he lay on the hard wooden bed (if it could even be called a bed), his back ached without a break.

It was late at night, yet since he couldn't sleep, Yu-Zhen decided to read through some books kept on a small shelf built on the wall.

And then he closed them almost instantly.

Holy cow, what the heck is this?

Miniscule writings, covering the entire page to the brim, not even leaving the space for the borders stared back at him. Some of the words were written in bold writing, Yu-Zhen couldn't even try to understand them, let alone read them. This is truly too much for an actor to even comprehend, how the heck is he supposed to lecture his disciples the next morning? Should he flee out the window, pretend he never existed, and make his name somewhere else? No, that's what cowards do! But he indeed was a coward...

Welp, I guess he'd have to act sick again.

.

Morning eventually arrived at his doorstep with Ma Wei loudly knocking on his doors, waking him up in the process.

"Master Yu, have you not woken up yet?"

"Leave me alone..." Yu-Zhen muttered, hit by a morning daze.

"This servant apologizes beforehand for entering the room without permission since Master isn't responding, this servant is just worried about Master Yu." Ma Wei barged in and almost fell to his knees. The sight that met him would surely make anyone at Yu An Peak drop down instantly as well. 

Prestigious Elder Yu-Zhen slept soundly, curled up in a little ball, half his blankets were on the ground, and the other half barely covering his face in a desperate attempt to block the sunlight coming from the window from attacking his face. He looked like a messy child if the child was older and respectable. Even the servants didn't sleep that way, thus Ma Wei was stunned. Master Yu-Zhen hadn't slept like that before, hence the only possible explanation he could figure out was that Yu-Zhen was gravely sick, possibly on his deathbed.

"Master Yu!!!" Ma Wei screamed so thunderously that Yu-Zhen almost fell off his bed. Going from waking up with greetings full of honey from young, stunning women laying beside him, to waking up getting screamed at by a grown man wasn't such a development after all.

After the whole 'thinking Yu-Zhen was dead' situation, Yu-Zhen traversed the long corridors toward the common feasting hall. Since he explored almost the entire Yu-An peak for Shao Xiu a day before, he had gained some knowledge of the entire place. There were two feasting halls, one for all the big shot elders, the peak lords and the sect leader, and on some occasions, the well-known disciples, and the other for all the non-important elders like himself and all the disciples. Of course, the big shot feasting hall wasn't exclusively marketed for all the important figures, rather the lesser renowned elders had just silently accepted their fates and ate together with their disciples.

Yu-Zhen showed up at the packed place, filled with countless chairs and tables filled with various disciples wearing their uniforms of different colors under different elders. It looked like a rainbow of sorts. Yu-Zhen made himself a place of rice, meat, and vegetables and roamed around, trying to find an empty seat. Some of his own disciples from yesterday called to him from their tables, inviting him to eat with them.

Hmph! I'm not some kind of loner after all!

Yu-Zhen began walking towards his beloved disciples when from the corner of his eye, he noticed a table completely empty. An entire table being unoccupied sure was weird since the whole place was packed, but then, he spotted that the table wasn't completely vacant at all. Two teens sat closely with their chairs joined together. One of them gave off the glow of a golden retriever, carefully placing meat with chopsticks onto the other teen's plate, who had had a strong aura similar to that of a black cat. 

Of course, who else would those two teens be other than the glorious protagonist Shao Xiu, and his sunshine sidekick, Ren Lei?

The engines of Yu-Zhen's brain started turning and twisting watching the two main characters. He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and changed his direction towards the table with Shao Xiu and Ren Lei. He placed his plate onto the table, his eyes never once leaving the food on his place, and sat across the two teens, who watched him with wary eyes.

Yu-Zhen finally looked up towards the boys and was almost stunned by the lethal face card of Shao Xiu. The boy watched him with suspicious eyes and was visibly trying to hide his frown, possibly due to the fear of being beaten up again. He had faint marks of bruises on his hands clasping the chopsticks, but none on his face. And oh good lord, his face. Where should Yu-Zhen even begin? Black velvety eyes stared back at him, eyes that were muted yet could fill the pages of poets and scholars writing about them. His face was fair with no visible spots, except for a beauty mark just beneath his left eye. His nose had a high bridge, while his lips were just the right amount of plump. His sleek black hair was tied up in a high ponytail, making his appearance sharp and just enough manly. Yu-Zhen immediately understood that he was an unbeatable protagonist, in fact, if anyone looked at him, they would blame the heavens for skimping out on their features.

Ren Lei and Shao Xiu exchanged a glance, got up, and bowed their respects to Yu-Zhen in sync.

"Sit down, sit down, please." Yu-Zhen waved his hands casually, trying to not make things awkward with the boys who were standing as stiff as a board. Both of them exchanged a glance once again and sat down, though they failed to hide their visible uncomfortableness with Yu-Zhen's presence. Yu-Zhen noticed that while Shao Xiu stared intently at him, Ren Lei looked at him with an almost soft-ish gaze. He was finally able to get a good view of a Ren Lei that wasn't all bruised up and covered in dirt as yesterday.

Ren Lei had light brown hair tied up in a messy half ponytail, locks of hair framed his face while some of it that fell on his shoulders were braided. He had a very soft look, with big round eyes that curved up naturally and plump, full lips. He could totally cross-dress as a woman, Yu-Zhen thought to himself. He was brutally beaten up just a day before, yet his face bore no bruises. Such was the advantage of being a main character, no matter how much you were beaten up or tortured, unless absolutely necessary, you didn't bore many injuries, especially on the face. Shao Xiu and Ren Lei looked completely opposite yet complemented each other, like two peas in a pod.

"Why are you eating so little?" Yu-Zhen mentally face-palmed himself. What sort of question is that? Isn't it obvious that they've been bullied into eating less too at this point?

"Elder Yu, we didn't have that much of an appetite, hence we took less food than usual." Ren Lei replied calmly. 

That was an obvious lie. That tiny amount of food WAS their usual, if they took any more, the other disciples would surely bully them into throwing up the food or something.

"That's not right." Yu-Zhen shook his head in a disapproving manner. "You kids are still growing, your body requires nutrition, or else you won't become strong." He picked up meat and vegetables from his own plate and placed them on Shao Xiu's and Ren Lei's plates.

Ren Lei expressed his thanks with a subtle smile, while Shao Xiu didn't even bother to spare a glance at his caring elder. Ren Lei was more focused on devouring his food, now that he got a taste of the delicious and savory meat that he hardly enjoyed by himself. He was so eager to demolish his food in fact, that he ended up choking on his food, coughing vigorously.

Yu-Zhen immediately passed a glass of water towards him, reaching out to pat his back, while Shao Xiu continued feasting as if a literal child wasn't almost dying from coughing beside him.

Woah, how nonchalant is this kid gonna be? Help your friend young child!  Yu-Zhen mentally side-eyed him.

What he didn't see, was Shao Xiu quietly pushing his own handkerchief towards Ren Lei to clean himself off.

.

From across the table, Shao Xiu kept glancing suspiciously at Yu-Zhen even when his head was. He had a right to, of course. Yu-Zhen, who never bothered with him or Ren Lei, was now eating together with them, comforting Ren Lei and playfully scolding them. Not just that, apparently he saved Ren Lei from getting beaten up yesterday as well. 

Huh, did he think he could do whatever he wanted to, just because of his slightly higher position?

Ignoring them yet coming up to them with such a caring attitude, like nothing ever happened? Well, nothing actually happened between them and Yu-Zhen, but still, Yu-Zhen never gave a fuck about them, thus he was also silently siding with the abusive elders and disciple. 

People like him surely are the worst kind, Shao Xiu thought to himself.