CH 2

Alex arrived at the capital and found his classmate’s cousin. In the beginning, he followed him working as a background actor, earning around 80 to 100 per day, which was just enough to feed himself.

His face was handsome, he had a sweet mouth, and was willing to bow his head. He also got along with people.

Because of that, someone said to him: “Your acting isn’t up to par, and you also haven’t been trained. Continuing this road won’t do you any good. Since your body figure isn’t bad, why don’t you try being a model?” He was given a manager’s phone number, which he called, and was briefly interviewed. There wasn’t any proper contract, just a hasty agreement which symbolized he had a manager.

That manager wasn’t reliable either. The jobs he received were sporadic, and he just went through the days, barely surviving.

In fact, his outer appearance was great, and he lived a better life than Da Wei. Da We had a good figure, but his face wasn’t handsome enough.

Once during spring, he and Da Wei walked on fashion shows together. The capital’s spring was cold, and whenever a cold wave blew over people had to rush to put on a coat over recently changed clothes. That time, they were modelling for an outdoors underwear fashion show. In the cold weather, a group of handsome fit men walked on the runway with just a little piece of fabric on their bodies, and when they got off the stage, their noses were already runny.

They hurried to the backstage to wrap their coats around themselves, but Da Wei was very unlucky, as someone had taken away his coat, leaving him freezing in the cold. Alex had opened his coat and told him: “Come here.”

Da Wei did not refuse, and just like that, two half-naked boys snuggling under a single coat had waited for their next turn to go on stage.

And thus, a strong friendship was formed.

Back then, Alex still lived pretty good. He had extra money on his hands and even lived in a rented three-bedroom house with other people.

The turning point came when, after being in the capital for a little more than a year, he returned to his home two times. After just two trips, he fell to his current situation, where he lived in an underground room with Da Wei.

All his money was left back at home.

Alex closed his eyes.

Da Wei couldn’t understand him because he had a home to return to.

On the other hand, his dad and that woman allowed him to enter the house and live in it solely because of the bags of things that he bought from the capital for them and because of the money he left back at home. After so many years, it was the first time that woman had praised him with a smile, saying he was promising.

The price of ‘promising’ was that, after his dad appeared in front of him, practically all the money in his hands would be taken away.

They did not care about his well being after going back to the capital. They believed that it was a matter of fact that he would be able to earn more.

He was not able to continue affording the rent of the shared three-bedroom apartment, and after remembering that Da Wei, whom he had met in spring, lived in an underground bedroom that was said to be very cheap, he gave him a call. Coincidentally, there was an empty bed, and just like that, he moved in with a bag of his belongings. In the whole of the underground floor, there was only one toilet and shower room. To shower, everybody had to line up. Instead of standing in the line, people would place their washing basins on the floor as a replacement. People often secretly changed the places of the basins, which made fights and quarrels a common sight.

It was cool and damp. The only benefit was that it was cheap.

Da Wei had asked him about the reason why he was reduced to such a state. He told him about his family affairs, and Da Wei flew into a rage while pointing at him.

“It’s like that and you still go back?” He berated him for not standing up for himself.

Alex would silently smoke.

Da Wei could not understand because he had a place to return.

On the other hand, if he did not give money, they would not even open the door for him. He would not even have a place to go back to.

When people worked away from their homes, they would panic if they did not have a place to return.

At night, Da Wei woke up to go to the bathroom. When he came back and saw that Alex was sleeping shirtless, he woke him up.

“Wake up! Wake up! Put on a shirt! How many times have I told you before? You cannot sleep shirtless in an underground room! After some months, your shoulders and waist will hurt!” Da Wei nagged. “You don’t know what’s harmful to you!”

Alex dazedly got up, put on a T-shirt, and then laid back, but he could not fall asleep again. It was the same for Da Wei.

They started talking.

“Have a job for tomorrow?”

“Yep.”

“Which company’s?”

“K company again.”

“Liu Chan Yue again?”

“No, another editor. You may have seen her before, the one that looks like a tomboy. What was her last name? Gu? Or Gong?”

Da Wei pondered about it: “Is it Guo Zhi?”

“Oh, Guo! Yes, I think it was Guo Zhi.” Alex said. “What is she like? Scary or not?”

“Scary or not scary huh… how do I describe it…” Da Wei said, “There won’t be any problem if you work properly. She is just especially serious when working. Don’t be lazy or be late and arrive early tomorrow. She really hates people who are not punctual. If you dare to be late, she will scold you, and when she scolds people, she’s very scary! Last time, Michael was slacking off, and she cursed at him while pointing at him.”

“That scary?” Alex was a little bit worried. Michael was a photographer that had some fame in the industry and had deep roots.

“Don’t worry. You just need to work seriously, and it will be okay. She’s much better than Liu Chan Yue. She never drags on the payments. If it gets approval, she signs the bill, and you’ll immediately be able to get your pay from the financial department. She never drags it on.”

“Then that’s okay.”

“Never try to curry up to her while working, remember that. It’s fine if you do it during resting period. Whenever she says, ‘let’s start’, you better get into working mode immediately. If you work well, everything will be fine, but if you don’t work properly, expect to suffer.”

“Oh…” Alex said in the darkness, “understood…”

Alex, aside from being tall, having long legs and a handsome face, had a big, good characteristic. He was good at listening to other people.

Da Wei told him to not be late, so he woke up very early and got there early. When he arrived at the photo studio, he noticed that he was not the first to arrive. Guo Zhi was already there.

She had short hair that was tied to the back of her head and was wearing a three-quarter sleeve top, with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. She looked like a handsome boy. Her skin looked very smooth, and her age couldn’t be guessed through it. However, being able to become senior editor meant that she wasn’t very young.

Alex was very polite and greeted her like a little student: “Sister Guo, good morning.”

Guo Zhi lifted her head and was slightly stunned.

The boy grew up very good looking, with defined face features and thick eyebrows that did not make him look coarse, and instead revealed a hint of delicateness. He had a very tall constitution, and the lines of his muscles could be seen through his tight fitted T-shirt, yet despite that, he still didn’t lose the air of boyishness around him.

Unfortunately, he had a quality of decadence on him that did not make him shine. It seemed like there was a special vibe though.

“Morning!” Guo Zhi replied in good spirits. She lowered her head while flipping through the information in her hands and verified, saying: “You’re Alex, right? You’re very early!”

“Have you eaten breakfast? There is some food there!” She pointed out.

Alex had not eaten eat breakfast. He feared being late and being scolded. Currently, he carried a debt on his shoulders and needed money, which was why he had to work hard.

He looked in the direction pointed by her hand. There was a big plastic bag over the table, around ten cups of sealed porridge, a bunch of eggs, and other stuff. At this time, there was almost no one on set, which meant that it was bought by Guo Zhi. It proved that she was just like Da Wei had described her, a person with a good heart.

He said a word of thanks and sat in a corner to eat.

Guo Zhi flipped through the papers and once again looked at the boy that was eating breakfast without a sound.

What a trashy manager, how could he put such a photo on the curriculum vitae? Had she seen him personally before, she surely would not have selected him as a background model. This time, they needed to take a group photo with the main characters being a man and a woman and a group of men as background. Alex was supposed to be one of the many people in the background.

The main characters were chosen personally by Guo Zhi through interview. The people for the background were chosen through their photos. Who would have thought that there would be someone with such a high score in looks department? Guo Zhi was a little bit worried that, in a moment, this boy would steal the focus of the photo.

At the same time, she also thought that the manager was useless. Others manager would all pick their model’s best photos to show to others, but this manager had just randomly picked a photo. Was it even professionally taken? Was it done by an amateur?

She did not have a lot of time to ponder about it since the project team was slowly arriving. Almost all the models were ones that they had worked with before, and they knew about Guo Zhi’s temper, so no one arrived late. The one who arrived the latest came just on time to the photo studio, and even secretly wiped away a layer of cold sweat.

Just like that, work started.

Makeup, changing clothes, arranging lights, everybody entered their work modes. The photographer took some photos, looked at them, and hooked fingers at Guo Zhi. Guo Zhi walked to him, and he gave her the camera to let her see. Sure enough, just like Guo Zhi worried, Alex had taken the spotlight.

If it was an individual photo, it would not be obvious, but in group photos, when he stood with the other background behind the main characters, his good looks stood out. The whole scenery lost the sense of balance.

Guo Zhi and the photographer discussed in a low voice. In this moment, everybody was sensible enough to not make a sound. They could only hear their mumbling and could not hear what they were saying clearly.

The two exchanged some words, raised their heads to look at Alex, and once again lowered their heads to discuss.

Alex was feeling nervous in his heart. He was worried that he had not posed properly just now and that the boss was not satisfied. He was carrying a debt, and the deadline to pay the rent was very close, so he could not allow any problems to crop up in his job.

The two finally finished discussing. Guo Zhi lifted her head: “Alex, come here.”

Alex walked over nervously; his face tight without any expression.

Guo Zhi also called the stylist: “Take him to change his clothes.” She explained the problem.

Alex dazedly followed the stylist to change his clothes, and when he came back, Guo Zhi changed his position to the front. The combination of one man and one woman as main characters was changed to two men and one woman. Alex did not ask too much. He obediently did what the photographer told him to do.

Guo Zhi especially liked this type of kid who could listen obediently.

After taking a few shots, the photographer was very satisfied and showed them to Guo Zhi.

In the photo, the background was still full of handsome men, but the most prominent men were placed on the left and right of the woman. The girl model was confidently smiling at the camera, with her chin placed on her fist. The product around her slender wrist stood out notably. The result was much better than what was expected.

All is fine if there is no problem, Alex let out a deep breath.

They were busy all morning and planned to shoot another set in the afternoon. There was also another outdoor set planned for tomorrow. At noon, they ate food bought through delivery in the photo studio.

Alex finished eating, chewed on mint gum, inquired around, and hurriedly went to another photo studio to block Liu Chan Yue.

He had called the financial department of K company and asked to know when he could get that payment. They briefly did a search and impatiently said: “Find your editor, the bill hasn’t even been brought in, so how can we pay you?” Da Wei had not been wrong, the problem had certainly happened at Liu Chan Yue.